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 7 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 154 168
Rank change year-on-year -45 +14 +78
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 518 534 631
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.40% 1.66% 1.48%
As % of the General category 2.32% 2.69% 2.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 287 452
10th Percentile £173 £400 £400
25th Percentile £335 £469 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% - +3.45%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £675 £775 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -23.81% +10.53% -18.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 4
10th Percentile £15.26 - £46.53
25th Percentile £16.57 - £56.31
Median hourly rate £18.73 - £63.29
75th Percentile £20.61 - £63.78
90th Percentile £75.75 - £64.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.73 - £63.29
% change year-on-year - - +356.14%

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 general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 22,351 19,822 25,209
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.38% 61.46% 59.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,048 11,816 16,581
10th Percentile £284 £285 £275
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £543
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -3.31% -1.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £728 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,377 671 1,122
10th Percentile £13.82 £15.48 £14.16
25th Percentile £16.50 £19.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £23.58 £27.50 £32.41
Median % change year-on-year -14.27% -15.15% +29.64%
75th Percentile £46.00 £53.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £70.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £26.42 £30.03
% change year-on-year -16.72% -12.01% +33.44%

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 7 January 2026.

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 7 January 2026.

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 7 January 2026. 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 -39 469 £475 -20.83% 775
London -3 280 £550 -10.39% 299
Work from Home -23 216 £450 -25.00% 414
UK excluding London -68 194 £400 -23.81% 655
Midlands -56 60 £195 -66.09% 96
North of England -47 42 £325 -27.78% 102
South East -19 38 £394 -17.11% 285
West Midlands -62 35 £304 -47.17% 63
East Midlands -9 25 £180 -74.29% 32
North West -24 25 £425 -5.56% 44
South West -10 21 £600 +23.08% 63
Scotland -2 17 £238 -47.22% 47
East of England -17 17 £353 -32.86% 58
Yorkshire -42 14 £200 -62.35% 32
North East -18 3 £400 -11.11% 26
Wales -1 1 £331 -37.52% 14
Northern Ireland -12 1 £625 +8.70% 5

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 13 (2.51%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.74%) Confluence
4 8 (1.54%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.16%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.97%) CMS
7 4 (0.77%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 4 (0.77%) HCL Notes
7 4 (0.77%) WordPress
8 2 (0.39%) Apache
8 2 (0.39%) Camunda
8 2 (0.39%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.19%) Appian
9 1 (0.19%) IIS
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 19 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.97%) Adobe Captivate
3 5 (0.97%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 5 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.58%) Trello
6 2 (0.39%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.39%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.39%) InVision
6 2 (0.39%) Sketch
7 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.19%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 8 (1.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.58%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.39%) CODA-Financials
4 2 (0.39%) FLEXCUBE
4 2 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.19%) Bloomberg AIM
5 1 (0.19%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.19%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.19%) iTrent
5 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.19%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.19%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.19%) SAP PS
5 1 (0.19%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 118 (22.78%) Azure
2 71 (13.71%) AWS
3 35 (6.76%) Power Platform
4 29 (5.60%) Microsoft 365
5 26 (5.02%) Azure DevOps
5 26 (5.02%) GitHub
6 24 (4.63%) GCP
6 24 (4.63%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (3.28%) Entra ID
8 15 (2.90%) SaaS
9 13 (2.51%) Microsoft Purview
10 12 (2.32%) dbt
11 11 (2.12%) Snowflake
12 10 (1.93%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (1.93%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.93%) Serverless
13 9 (1.74%) Amazon EKS
14 8 (1.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 8 (1.54%) Figma
15 7 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.51%) Network Security
2 11 (2.12%) Firewall
3 9 (1.74%) VPN
4 5 (0.97%) LAN
4 5 (0.97%) WAN
5 4 (0.77%) DNS
5 4 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.58%) AMQP
6 3 (0.58%) DHCP
6 3 (0.58%) VLAN
6 3 (0.58%) VSAN
7 2 (0.39%) Intranet
7 2 (0.39%) SAN
7 2 (0.39%) SMS
8 1 (0.19%) BGP
8 1 (0.19%) EIGRP
8 1 (0.19%) IPsec
8 1 (0.19%) MPLS
8 1 (0.19%) OSPF
8 1 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
1 21 (4.05%) Power BI
2 15 (2.90%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.51%) SQL Server
4 11 (2.12%) Metadata
5 10 (1.93%) NoSQL
6 7 (1.35%) MongoDB
6 7 (1.35%) Relational Database
6 7 (1.35%) Spark SQL
7 6 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.16%) Snowflake Schema
7 6 (1.16%) Tableau
8 4 (0.77%) Big Data
8 4 (0.77%) BigQuery
8 4 (0.77%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.58%) Apache Cassandra
9 3 (0.58%) InfluxDB
9 3 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.58%) SSDT
9 3 (0.58%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 22 (4.25%) Git
2 16 (3.09%) JIRA
3 9 (1.74%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.35%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.97%) Maven
6 4 (0.77%) GitLab
6 4 (0.77%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.58%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.58%) JUnit
7 3 (0.58%) Selenium
7 3 (0.58%) Team Foundation Server
7 3 (0.58%) Vite
8 2 (0.39%) Axure RP
8 2 (0.39%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.39%) JMeter
8 2 (0.39%) Mockito
8 2 (0.39%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.19%) SpecFlow
9 1 (0.19%) TestNG
General
1 173 (33.40%) Social Skills
2 125 (24.13%) Finance
3 50 (9.65%) Analytical Skills
4 49 (9.46%) Public Sector
5 26 (5.02%) Banking
6 20 (3.86%) Marketing
7 18 (3.47%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (2.70%) Legal
9 11 (2.12%) Local Government
10 10 (1.93%) Fire and Rescue
10 10 (1.93%) Retail
11 9 (1.74%) Manufacturing
12 8 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
13 7 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.97%) Military
14 5 (0.97%) Publishing
15 4 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.77%) Investment Banking
15 4 (0.77%) Law
15 4 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 83 (16.02%) Analyst
2 45 (8.69%) Architect
3 42 (8.11%) Lead
4 38 (7.34%) Developer
5 37 (7.14%) Senior
6 29 (5.60%) Project Manager
7 27 (5.21%) Data Engineer
8 25 (4.83%) Business Analyst
8 25 (4.83%) Support Engineer
9 21 (4.05%) Consultant
10 19 (3.67%) Cloud Engineer
11 17 (3.28%) IT Analyst
12 16 (3.09%) IT Support
13 15 (2.90%) IT Engineer
13 15 (2.90%) Service Analyst
13 15 (2.90%) Solutions Architect
14 13 (2.51%) Designer
14 13 (2.51%) DevOps Engineer
14 13 (2.51%) PMO Lead
14 13 (2.51%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.09%) EDI
2 14 (2.70%) React
2 14 (2.70%) Spring
3 13 (2.51%) Spring Boot
4 12 (2.32%) .NET
5 10 (1.93%) REST
6 9 (1.74%) AngularJS
6 9 (1.74%) HTML
6 9 (1.74%) PySpark
7 8 (1.54%) YAML
8 7 (1.35%) Middleware
9 6 (1.16%) CSS
9 6 (1.16%) Kafka
9 6 (1.16%) SOAP
10 5 (0.97%) RESTful
10 5 (0.97%) XML
11 4 (0.77%) .NET Framework
11 4 (0.77%) Hibernate
11 4 (0.77%) JPA
11 4 (0.77%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 25 (4.83%) Onboarding
2 20 (3.86%) Cloud Native
2 20 (3.86%) Management Information System
3 18 (3.47%) Data Centre
4 10 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (1.74%) Product Ownership
6 8 (1.54%) Public Cloud
6 8 (1.54%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.35%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.16%) Mobile App
9 5 (0.97%) e-Learning
9 5 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.97%) Reinsurance
9 5 (0.97%) Replication
10 4 (0.77%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (0.77%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.77%) Driving Licence
10 4 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (0.77%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 41 (7.92%) Windows
2 11 (2.12%) Windows Server
3 9 (1.74%) Linux
4 8 (1.54%) Windows 10
5 4 (0.77%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.39%) Android
6 2 (0.39%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.19%) CentOS
7 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (25.68%) Problem-Solving
2 83 (16.02%) Agile
3 69 (13.32%) CI/CD
3 69 (13.32%) DevOps
4 58 (11.20%) Stakeholder Management
5 46 (8.88%) Continuous Improvement
6 41 (7.92%) Migration
7 39 (7.53%) Analytics
8 38 (7.34%) Infrastructure as Code
9 36 (6.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 35 (6.76%) Data Modelling
10 35 (6.76%) Decision-Making
10 35 (6.76%) Project Management
11 33 (6.37%) Test Automation
12 29 (5.60%) Data Governance
12 29 (5.60%) Mentoring
13 27 (5.21%) Business Analysis
13 27 (5.21%) Business Intelligence
13 27 (5.21%) Containerisation
14 26 (5.02%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 56 (10.81%) Python
2 55 (10.62%) SQL
3 35 (6.76%) Java
4 22 (4.25%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.51%) C#
6 11 (2.12%) PowerShell
7 8 (1.54%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.97%) Bash
8 5 (0.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 5 (0.97%) Go
8 5 (0.97%) Scala
9 4 (0.77%) Rust
10 3 (0.58%) C++
10 3 (0.58%) R
11 2 (0.39%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.39%) Bicep
11 2 (0.39%) C
11 2 (0.39%) Perl
11 2 (0.39%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.39%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 61 (11.78%) Security Cleared
2 51 (9.85%) SC Cleared
3 33 (6.37%) Degree
4 16 (3.09%) AWS Certification
5 14 (2.70%) DBS Check
6 9 (1.74%) Azure Certification
6 9 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.54%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.16%) CISSP
9 4 (0.77%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 4 (0.77%) CTC Cleared
9 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.77%) Oracle Certification
9 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
9 4 (0.77%) PMP
10 3 (0.58%) ACCA
10 3 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.58%) CompTIA CySA+
10 3 (0.58%) OCP
10 3 (0.58%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.44%) Accessibility
2 20 (3.86%) Data Quality
2 20 (3.86%) QA
3 16 (3.09%) GDPR
4 14 (2.70%) PMO
5 11 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.35%) SLA
7 5 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
7 5 (0.97%) GRC
7 5 (0.97%) NIST
8 4 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.58%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.58%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.58%) WCAG
10 2 (0.39%) GMP
10 2 (0.39%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.39%) PSD2
10 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 30 (5.79%) Active Directory
2 24 (4.63%) Docker
3 7 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.97%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (0.58%) VMware NSX
5 3 (0.58%) vSphere
6 2 (0.39%) Firmware
7 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 39 (7.53%) Terraform
2 29 (5.60%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.51%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (2.32%) Grafana
5 9 (1.74%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.16%) Ansible
7 5 (0.97%) SCCM
8 4 (0.77%) Argo
8 4 (0.77%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.77%) Kibana
9 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.19%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.19%) Nessus
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 1 (0.19%) RSA Archer
9 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 82 (15.83%) Microsoft
2 22 (4.25%) ServiceNow
3 19 (3.67%) Oracle
4 17 (3.28%) Google
5 15 (2.90%) Cisco
5 15 (2.90%) Databricks
6 13 (2.51%) VMware
7 12 (2.32%) Salesforce
8 11 (2.12%) Adobe
9 6 (1.16%) Dynatrace
9 6 (1.16%) SAP
10 5 (0.97%) Citrix
11 4 (0.77%) Apple
11 4 (0.77%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.77%) Commvault
11 4 (0.77%) Lotus
11 4 (0.77%) Netskope
12 3 (0.58%) CODA
12 3 (0.58%) Meraki
12 3 (0.58%) Talend