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 1 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 215 150 158
Rank change year-on-year -65 +8 +26
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 682 636 623
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.28% 1.93% 1.58%
As % of the General category 2.32% 3.06% 2.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 350 247 424
10th Percentile £306 £178 £425
25th Percentile £365 £363 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £600
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -20.83% -
75th Percentile £580 £625 £688
90th Percentile £675 £661 £779
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £503
% change year-on-year - -10.45% +4.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 19 10
10th Percentile £16.43 £17.48 £10.88
25th Percentile £18.25 - £18.45
Median hourly rate £21.32 £22.14 £28.28
Median % change year-on-year -3.71% -21.70% -47.76%
75th Percentile £39.47 - £47.50
90th Percentile £96.00 £37.50 £49.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £94.75 £22.14 £14.66
% change year-on-year +327.96% +51.00% -79.31%

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 29,343 20,776 22,576
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.04% 63.17% 57.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,454 12,989 14,241
10th Percentile £313 £280 £286
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,143 1,108 1,460
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.25 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.92 £16.13 £16.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -32.93% +25.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £51.10 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.05 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +49.05% -41.92% +46.62%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -70 599 £475 -6.40% 1,619
UK excluding London -71 316 £450 - 1,006
London -62 304 £525 -4.55% 879
Work from Home -43 255 £525 -0.94% 778
Midlands -25 97 £525 +17.98% 125
South East -40 82 £438 -13.79% 277
West Midlands -29 76 £525 +22.09% 75
North of England -78 67 £425 +14.09% 226
North East - 37 £425 - 31
East of England -15 21 £473 +96.88% 59
East Midlands -17 21 £165 -63.33% 50
Scotland -24 21 £250 -45.95% 91
South West -44 21 £475 -20.83% 160
North West -58 15 £518 +29.38% 142
Yorkshire -76 15 £375 +87.50% 53
Wales -9 6 £375 +13.23% 32
Northern Ireland -2 1 - - 63

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 28 (4.11%) SharePoint
2 16 (2.35%) Confluence
3 12 (1.76%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.76%) CMS
4 11 (1.61%) Microsoft Exchange
5 10 (1.47%) Apache Spark
6 9 (1.32%) WordPress
7 6 (0.88%) Apache
8 4 (0.59%) Kentico
9 3 (0.44%) Jupyter
10 2 (0.29%) Skype for Business
11 1 (0.15%) Drupal
11 1 (0.15%) JBoss
11 1 (0.15%) SAS
11 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 23 (3.37%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.73%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.44%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.44%) Trello
6 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.29%) Sketch
7 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.15%) InVision
7 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 15 (2.20%) NetSuite
2 12 (1.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (1.32%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.73%) Sage X3
4 5 (0.73%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.73%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.59%) Dynamics NAV
5 4 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.29%) SAP Business One
7 1 (0.15%) Advent Geneva
7 1 (0.15%) Hyperion Planning
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.15%) SAP FS
7 1 (0.15%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 190 (27.86%) Azure
2 112 (16.42%) AWS
3 67 (9.82%) Azure DevOps
4 56 (8.21%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (8.21%) Power Platform
5 45 (6.60%) GCP
6 30 (4.40%) Dynamics 365
6 30 (4.40%) GitHub
7 27 (3.96%) Entra ID
8 26 (3.81%) Serverless
9 24 (3.52%) GitHub Actions
10 23 (3.37%) Power Automate
11 21 (3.08%) Snowflake
12 19 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
13 17 (2.49%) dbt
14 15 (2.20%) Amazon EKS
14 15 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
15 14 (2.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 13 (1.91%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 13 (1.91%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (2.79%) TCP/IP
2 15 (2.20%) Ethernet
3 12 (1.76%) Network Security
4 11 (1.61%) DNS
4 11 (1.61%) Firewall
4 11 (1.61%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (1.47%) VLAN
6 9 (1.32%) VPN
7 8 (1.17%) DHCP
7 8 (1.17%) Wireless
8 7 (1.03%) WAN
9 6 (0.88%) HTTP
9 6 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
10 5 (0.73%) SD-WAN
11 4 (0.59%) BGP
11 4 (0.59%) OSPF
12 3 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
12 3 (0.44%) LAN
12 3 (0.44%) MPLS
12 3 (0.44%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (6.45%) Power BI
2 30 (4.40%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (3.37%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (3.23%) SQL Server
5 11 (1.61%) Big Data
5 11 (1.61%) Metadata
6 8 (1.17%) MongoDB
6 8 (1.17%) NoSQL
6 8 (1.17%) Snowflake Schema
7 7 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (1.03%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 7 (1.03%) Hadoop
7 7 (1.03%) Looker
7 7 (1.03%) Power Query
7 7 (1.03%) Redis
8 6 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (0.88%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.88%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.88%) Tableau
9 5 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 39 (5.72%) JIRA
2 28 (4.11%) Jenkins
3 26 (3.81%) Git
4 22 (3.23%) GitLab
5 11 (1.61%) Selenium
6 10 (1.47%) Cypress.io
6 10 (1.47%) fastlane
6 10 (1.47%) Postman
7 9 (1.32%) WebDriver
8 8 (1.17%) Cucumber
9 6 (0.88%) JMeter
9 6 (0.88%) Vite
10 5 (0.73%) Android Studio
10 5 (0.73%) Gatling
10 5 (0.73%) Gradle
10 5 (0.73%) JUnit
10 5 (0.73%) LoadRunner
10 5 (0.73%) Mockito
10 5 (0.73%) SonarQube
10 5 (0.73%) Xcode
General
1 257 (37.68%) Social Skills
2 176 (25.81%) Finance
3 174 (25.51%) Public Sector
4 94 (13.78%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.81%) Organisational Skills
6 23 (3.37%) Banking
6 23 (3.37%) Presentation Skills
7 20 (2.93%) Influencing Skills
8 17 (2.49%) Law
8 17 (2.49%) Manufacturing
9 16 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
9 16 (2.35%) Legal
10 12 (1.76%) Marketing
11 10 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
12 9 (1.32%) Retail
13 8 (1.17%) Local Government
13 8 (1.17%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.73%) Billing
14 5 (0.73%) General Ledger
14 5 (0.73%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 93 (13.64%) Analyst
2 88 (12.90%) Developer
3 77 (11.29%) Lead
4 75 (11.00%) Senior
5 47 (6.89%) Architect
6 45 (6.60%) Consultant
7 33 (4.84%) Data Engineer
8 26 (3.81%) Business Analyst
8 26 (3.81%) Data Analyst
9 25 (3.67%) DevOps Engineer
10 23 (3.37%) IT Engineer
11 22 (3.23%) Senior Developer
12 21 (3.08%) Support Engineer
13 19 (2.79%) IT Support
14 18 (2.64%) Project Manager
15 17 (2.49%) Coordinator
16 15 (2.20%) Systems Engineer
16 15 (2.20%) Technical Engineer
17 14 (2.05%) Administrator
17 14 (2.05%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (4.84%) RESTful
2 27 (3.96%) React
3 23 (3.37%) .NET
3 23 (3.37%) GraphQL
4 20 (2.93%) HTML
5 19 (2.79%) CSS
6 18 (2.64%) Kafka
6 18 (2.64%) Node.js
7 17 (2.49%) PySpark
7 17 (2.49%) REST
8 15 (2.20%) JSON
9 12 (1.76%) Django
9 12 (1.76%) Spring
9 12 (1.76%) Spring Boot
10 11 (1.61%) Gherkin
11 8 (1.17%) HTML5
12 7 (1.03%) ARM Templates
12 7 (1.03%) CSS3
12 7 (1.03%) Next.js
12 7 (1.03%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 59 (8.65%) Onboarding
2 39 (5.72%) Cloud Native
3 37 (5.43%) Product Ownership
4 22 (3.23%) Legacy Systems
5 21 (3.08%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (2.49%) Data Centre
7 15 (2.20%) Data Structures
7 15 (2.20%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (2.20%) Robotics
8 10 (1.47%) Management Information System
8 10 (1.47%) Mobile App
9 9 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (1.32%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.03%) EPoS
10 7 (1.03%) Virtual Team
11 6 (0.88%) Algorithms
11 6 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
11 6 (0.88%) Replication
12 5 (0.73%) Reinsurance
12 5 (0.73%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 65 (9.53%) Windows
2 17 (2.49%) Windows 10
2 17 (2.49%) Windows Server
3 16 (2.35%) Linux
4 12 (1.76%) Android
4 12 (1.76%) Apple iOS
5 6 (0.88%) Unix
6 5 (0.73%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.59%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.44%) AIX
8 3 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.29%) VMS
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 212 (31.09%) Agile
2 180 (26.39%) Problem-Solving
3 138 (20.23%) DevOps
4 132 (19.35%) CI/CD
5 127 (18.62%) Stakeholder Management
6 113 (16.57%) Decision-Making
7 108 (15.84%) Continuous Improvement
8 102 (14.96%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 99 (14.52%) Analytics
10 94 (13.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 84 (12.32%) AI
12 82 (12.02%) Migration
13 67 (9.82%) Infrastructure as Code
14 65 (9.53%) Test Automation
15 64 (9.38%) Mentoring
16 60 (8.80%) Validation
17 53 (7.77%) Business Intelligence
17 53 (7.77%) Data Modelling
17 53 (7.77%) Roadmaps
18 52 (7.62%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 108 (15.84%) Python
2 86 (12.61%) SQL
3 53 (7.77%) JavaScript
4 41 (6.01%) Java
5 34 (4.99%) C#
6 26 (3.81%) TypeScript
7 15 (2.20%) PowerShell
8 13 (1.91%) Kotlin
9 12 (1.76%) Bash
10 10 (1.47%) Swift
11 9 (1.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 9 (1.32%) Go
12 8 (1.17%) Bicep
13 7 (1.03%) Ruby
14 6 (0.88%) R
15 5 (0.73%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.73%) PHP
15 5 (0.73%) PL/SQL
15 5 (0.73%) VBA
16 4 (0.59%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 118 (17.30%) Security Cleared
2 110 (16.13%) SC Cleared
3 61 (8.94%) Degree
4 27 (3.96%) DBS Check
5 21 (3.08%) Azure Certification
5 21 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (3.08%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.32%) ISTQB
8 7 (1.03%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.88%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.73%) ACCA
10 5 (0.73%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.73%) CIMA
10 5 (0.73%) PMP
11 4 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.44%) APMG
12 3 (0.44%) CIPD
12 3 (0.44%) CISM
12 3 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (12.32%) Accessibility
2 38 (5.57%) QA
3 36 (5.28%) Data Quality
3 36 (5.28%) WCAG
4 28 (4.11%) GDPR
5 19 (2.79%) SLA
6 14 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (1.32%) NCSC
7 9 (1.32%) PMO
8 8 (1.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.73%) COBIT
10 5 (0.73%) GRC
11 3 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.44%) NIST
12 2 (0.29%) Def Stans
13 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 31000
13 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
System Software
1 52 (7.62%) Docker
2 46 (6.74%) Active Directory
3 11 (1.61%) Hyper-V
4 7 (1.03%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.44%) KVM
8 2 (0.29%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 2 (0.29%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.29%) Firmware
9 1 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.15%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.15%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 74 (10.85%) Terraform
2 55 (8.06%) Kubernetes
3 23 (3.37%) Grafana
4 21 (3.08%) Prometheus
5 15 (2.20%) Ansible
6 14 (2.05%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.61%) SCCM
8 7 (1.03%) Kibana
9 4 (0.59%) Consul
9 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.44%) IBM BigFix
10 3 (0.44%) Rancher
10 3 (0.44%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.29%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.29%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.29%) ITRS Geneos
11 2 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.29%) Packer
11 2 (0.29%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 147 (21.55%) Microsoft
2 32 (4.69%) Google
3 28 (4.11%) Salesforce
4 26 (3.81%) Databricks
5 24 (3.52%) SAP
6 23 (3.37%) ServiceNow
7 22 (3.23%) Dynatrace
8 15 (2.20%) Siemens
9 12 (1.76%) Oracle
9 12 (1.76%) Sage
10 11 (1.61%) CyberArk
11 9 (1.32%) PagerDuty
12 7 (1.03%) Apple
12 7 (1.03%) Aspera
12 7 (1.03%) CA Agile Central
12 7 (1.03%) Cisco
12 7 (1.03%) Qualys
12 7 (1.03%) Signiant
12 7 (1.03%) VMware
12 7 (1.03%) Workday