Inclusion and Diversity Contract Job Trends

Inclusion and Diversity
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Inclusion and Diversity in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months leading up to 16 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 202 170 162
Rank change year-on-year -32 -8 +90
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 546 529 694
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.49% 1.55% 1.57%
As % of the General category 2.42% 2.54% 2.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 301 484
10th Percentile £173 £400 £400
25th Percentile £352 £470 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -20.83% - +3.45%
75th Percentile £625 £663 £675
90th Percentile £667 £775 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £401 £525 £480
% change year-on-year -23.62% +9.49% -20.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 5
10th Percentile £15.59 - £48.70
25th Percentile £17.00 - £61.75
Median hourly rate £18.73 £21.00 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -10.81% -66.82% +24.10%
75th Percentile £22.14 - £65.25
90th Percentile £40.25 - £66.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.73 - £63.29

All General Skills
UK

Inclusion and Diversity falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring common skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 22,538 20,835 26,359
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 61.39% 60.86% 59.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,113 12,431 17,395
10th Percentile £275 £290 £279
25th Percentile £400 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.66% -2.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,452 737 1,087
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.31 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.50 £18.13 £16.85
Median hourly rate £23.58 £27.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.27% -15.38% +30.00%
75th Percentile £45.46 £53.75 £59.27
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.65 £71.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £26.23 £30.00
% change year-on-year -16.13% -12.57% +39.53%

Inclusion and Diversity
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Inclusion and Diversity relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Inclusion and Diversity job vacancy trend in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 16 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 16 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity within the UK over the 6 months to 16 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -20 498 £475 -20.83% 777
London +10 318 £513 -16.33% 297
Work from Home -12 216 £475 -20.83% 466
UK excluding London -63 190 £401 -23.62% 699
Midlands -45 62 £266 -53.70% 133
North of England -41 40 £325 -27.78% 108
South East -15 36 £400 -26.61% 276
West Midlands -57 35 £413 -28.26% 99
East Midlands +4 27 £180 -74.29% 34
North West -29 24 £425 -5.56% 68
South West -9 19 £600 +23.08% 63
Scotland 0 17 £238 -50.00% 77
East of England -17 15 £353 -32.86% 44
Yorkshire -37 15 £200 -68.00% 23
Wales 0 2 £331 -5.08% 10
Northern Ireland -10 2 £450 -21.74% 2
North East -17 1 £400 -11.11% 17

Inclusion and Diversity
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 14 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
1 14 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 10 (1.83%) Confluence
3 8 (1.47%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.10%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.73%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.73%) CMS
5 4 (0.73%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.73%) WordPress
6 2 (0.37%) Apache
6 2 (0.37%) Camunda
6 2 (0.37%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.18%) Appian
7 1 (0.18%) IIS
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Application Server
7 1 (0.18%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 21 (3.85%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.10%) Adobe Captivate
3 6 (1.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 6 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.73%) Trello
5 3 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.37%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.37%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.37%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.37%) InVision
6 2 (0.37%) Sketch
7 1 (0.18%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 9 (1.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.73%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.37%) CODA-Financials
3 2 (0.37%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.18%) Bloomberg AIM
4 1 (0.18%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.18%) Fidessa
4 1 (0.18%) iTrent
4 1 (0.18%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.18%) ResourceLink
4 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.18%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.18%) SAP PS
4 1 (0.18%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 127 (23.26%) Azure
2 67 (12.27%) AWS
3 40 (7.33%) Microsoft 365
4 36 (6.59%) Power Platform
5 29 (5.31%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (4.58%) GCP
7 21 (3.85%) GitHub
8 19 (3.48%) Entra ID
8 19 (3.48%) GitHub Actions
9 14 (2.56%) Microsoft Purview
9 14 (2.56%) SaaS
10 11 (2.01%) dbt
10 11 (2.01%) Google Workspace
10 11 (2.01%) Snowflake
11 10 (1.83%) Azure Data Factory
11 10 (1.83%) Serverless
12 9 (1.65%) Figma
13 8 (1.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 8 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
14 7 (1.28%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.01%) Network Security
2 10 (1.83%) Firewall
3 9 (1.65%) VPN
4 8 (1.47%) DNS
5 7 (1.28%) LAN
5 7 (1.28%) WAN
6 5 (0.92%) DHCP
6 5 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.55%) SAN
7 3 (0.55%) SSL
7 3 (0.55%) VLAN
8 2 (0.37%) AMQP
8 2 (0.37%) Intranet
8 2 (0.37%) MPLS
8 2 (0.37%) SMS
8 2 (0.37%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.37%) WLAN
9 1 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (0.18%) Cisco Nexus
9 1 (0.18%) Fibre Channel
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.85%) Data Warehouse
2 20 (3.66%) Power BI
3 15 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
3 15 (2.75%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.83%) Metadata
5 9 (1.65%) NoSQL
6 8 (1.47%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (1.28%) MongoDB
7 7 (1.28%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.28%) Spark SQL
8 6 (1.10%) Snowflake Schema
8 6 (1.10%) Tableau
9 5 (0.92%) BigQuery
10 4 (0.73%) Big Data
10 4 (0.73%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.55%) Apache Cassandra
11 3 (0.55%) Apache Iceberg
11 3 (0.55%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.55%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 20 (3.66%) Git
2 17 (3.11%) JIRA
3 9 (1.65%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.10%) Cucumber
5 4 (0.73%) GitLab
5 4 (0.73%) Maven
6 3 (0.55%) JUnit
6 3 (0.55%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.55%) Team Foundation Server
6 3 (0.55%) Vite
7 2 (0.37%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.37%) Axure RP
7 2 (0.37%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.37%) JMeter
7 2 (0.37%) Mockito
7 2 (0.37%) Selenium
7 2 (0.37%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.18%) Appium
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.18%) SpecFlow
General
1 181 (33.15%) Social Skills
2 133 (24.36%) Finance
3 47 (8.61%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (8.42%) Public Sector
5 23 (4.21%) Banking
6 21 (3.85%) Marketing
7 20 (3.66%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (2.56%) Retail
9 11 (2.01%) Legal
9 11 (2.01%) Local Government
10 10 (1.83%) Fire and Rescue
10 10 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.28%) Law
12 7 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.92%) Military
13 5 (0.92%) Police
13 5 (0.92%) Publishing
14 4 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 91 (16.67%) Analyst
2 44 (8.06%) Lead
3 43 (7.88%) Developer
4 42 (7.69%) Architect
5 39 (7.14%) Senior
6 34 (6.23%) Project Manager
7 31 (5.68%) Business Analyst
8 28 (5.13%) Support Engineer
9 26 (4.76%) Data Engineer
10 22 (4.03%) Consultant
11 16 (2.93%) IT Analyst
11 16 (2.93%) IT Engineer
11 16 (2.93%) Service Analyst
12 15 (2.75%) Cloud Engineer
12 15 (2.75%) IT Support
12 15 (2.75%) Solutions Architect
12 15 (2.75%) Support Analyst
13 13 (2.38%) Designer
13 13 (2.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 13 (2.38%) PMO Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.30%) EDI
2 17 (3.11%) React
3 16 (2.93%) Spring
4 15 (2.75%) .NET
5 14 (2.56%) Spring Boot
6 11 (2.01%) REST
7 10 (1.83%) HTML
8 9 (1.65%) AngularJS
8 9 (1.65%) PySpark
8 9 (1.65%) SOAP
9 8 (1.47%) YAML
10 7 (1.28%) CSS
10 7 (1.28%) Kafka
10 7 (1.28%) Middleware
11 6 (1.10%) RESTful
12 5 (0.92%) .NET Framework
12 5 (0.92%) Oracle Fusion
12 5 (0.92%) XML
13 4 (0.73%) Entity Framework
13 4 (0.73%) JPA
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.04%) Onboarding
2 19 (3.48%) Cloud Native
2 19 (3.48%) Data Centre
3 18 (3.30%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.38%) Product Ownership
5 10 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (1.28%) Low-Code
6 7 (1.28%) Mobile App
6 7 (1.28%) Public Cloud
6 7 (1.28%) Virtual Team
7 6 (1.10%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.10%) Replication
8 5 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (0.92%) e-Learning
8 5 (0.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (0.92%) Reinsurance
9 4 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (0.73%) Learning Management System
9 4 (0.73%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 46 (8.42%) Windows
2 12 (2.20%) Windows Server
3 9 (1.65%) Linux
4 6 (1.10%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.37%) Android
5 2 (0.37%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.37%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.18%) CentOS
6 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.18%) Rocky
6 1 (0.18%) Unix
6 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (23.63%) Problem-Solving
2 93 (17.03%) Agile
3 71 (13.00%) DevOps
4 66 (12.09%) CI/CD
5 63 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
6 47 (8.61%) Migration
7 43 (7.88%) Continuous Improvement
8 39 (7.14%) Analytics
9 38 (6.96%) Project Management
10 37 (6.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 33 (6.04%) Infrastructure as Code
11 33 (6.04%) Test Automation
12 32 (5.86%) Data Modelling
12 32 (5.86%) Mentoring
13 31 (5.68%) Coaching
13 31 (5.68%) Data Governance
13 31 (5.68%) Decision-Making
14 27 (4.95%) Business Analysis
14 27 (4.95%) Business Intelligence
14 27 (4.95%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 59 (10.81%) SQL
2 56 (10.26%) Python
3 36 (6.59%) Java
4 24 (4.40%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.75%) C#
6 14 (2.56%) PowerShell
7 8 (1.47%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.73%) Bash
9 4 (0.73%) Go
9 4 (0.73%) Rust
10 3 (0.55%) C++
10 3 (0.55%) R
11 2 (0.37%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.37%) AWK
11 2 (0.37%) Bicep
11 2 (0.37%) Perl
11 2 (0.37%) Scala
11 2 (0.37%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.37%) VBA
Qualifications
1 54 (9.89%) Security Cleared
2 46 (8.42%) SC Cleared
3 35 (6.41%) Degree
4 15 (2.75%) DBS Check
5 12 (2.20%) AWS Certification
6 9 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.47%) Azure Certification
8 7 (1.28%) DV Cleared
9 6 (1.10%) CISSP
10 5 (0.92%) PMP
11 4 (0.73%) CTC Cleared
11 4 (0.73%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (0.73%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.55%) ACCA
12 3 (0.55%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 3 (0.55%) CIPD
12 3 (0.55%) CompTIA CySA+
12 3 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.55%) OCP
12 3 (0.55%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.58%) Accessibility
2 20 (3.66%) QA
3 18 (3.30%) Data Quality
4 15 (2.75%) PMO
5 14 (2.56%) GDPR
6 11 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (1.65%) SLA
8 4 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.73%) GRC
8 4 (0.73%) NIST
8 4 (0.73%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.55%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.55%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.55%) WCAG
10 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.37%) GMP
10 2 (0.37%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.37%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.18%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.18%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 39 (7.14%) Active Directory
2 25 (4.58%) Docker
3 10 (1.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.73%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (0.73%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.37%) Firmware
7 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 33 (6.04%) Terraform
2 28 (5.13%) Kubernetes
3 15 (2.75%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (1.83%) Grafana
5 9 (1.65%) SCCM
6 8 (1.47%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.55%) Ansible
8 3 (0.55%) Argo
8 3 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.37%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.18%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.18%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.18%) Demisto
10 1 (0.18%) Fluentd
10 1 (0.18%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.18%) Kibana
10 1 (0.18%) Nessus
10 1 (0.18%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.18%) VxRail
Vendors
1 96 (17.58%) Microsoft
2 21 (3.85%) ServiceNow
3 20 (3.66%) Google
3 20 (3.66%) Oracle
4 19 (3.48%) Cisco
5 18 (3.30%) Salesforce
6 15 (2.75%) Databricks
7 14 (2.56%) VMware
8 12 (2.20%) Adobe
9 7 (1.28%) Apple
10 6 (1.10%) Citrix
10 6 (1.10%) SAP
11 5 (0.92%) Dynatrace
12 4 (0.73%) Commvault
12 4 (0.73%) Lotus
12 4 (0.73%) Netskope
12 4 (0.73%) UiPath
13 3 (0.55%) CODA
13 3 (0.55%) Murex
13 3 (0.55%) Red Hat