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 24 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 152 171
Rank change year-on-year -47 +19 +3
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 763 620 545
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.39% 1.88% 1.43%
As % of the General category 2.49% 2.97% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 242 324
10th Percentile £306 £183 £425
25th Percentile £363 £353 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% -22.92% -
75th Percentile £575 £614 £675
90th Percentile £650 £650 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £410 £500
% change year-on-year +3.66% -18.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 13 4
10th Percentile £13.31 £17.48 £27.45
25th Percentile £14.05 - £37.13
Median hourly rate £19.29 £22.14 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% -52.13% -27.17%
75th Percentile £30.28 £22.50 £50.94
90th Percentile £45.06 £72.50 £54.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.67 £22.14 -
% change year-on-year -24.71% - -

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 30,682 20,903 22,166
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.89% 63.41% 58.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,960 12,968 13,178
10th Percentile £313 £275 £282
25th Percentile £420 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,582 1,209 1,060
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.73
25th Percentile £16.25 £16.17 £17.21
Median hourly rate £29.50 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.30% -28.14% +27.27%
75th Percentile £54.48 £47.12 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.96 £21.30 £35.00
% change year-on-year +40.66% -39.14% +29.63%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 -54 647 £450 -5.26% 4,721
UK excluding London -24 351 £425 +3.66% 2,758
London -66 327 £510 -6.21% 2,685
Work from Home -37 273 £475 -2.56% 2,268
Midlands -11 112 £425 +2.41% 374
South East -17 83 £425 -5.56% 522
North of England -41 80 £425 +21.43% 636
West Midlands -11 79 £425 +2.41% 235
North East +5 53 £425 +6.25% 92
East Midlands -9 33 £163 -62.21% 139
South West -24 27 £475 -20.83% 387
Scotland -31 27 £210 -53.97% 440
North West -52 14 £518 +29.38% 388
Yorkshire -61 13 £425 +112.50% 157
East of England -36 12 £425 +9.68% 207
Wales -8 7 £394 +18.90% 66
Northern Ireland +3 3 - - 156

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 38 (4.98%) SharePoint
2 17 (2.23%) Confluence
3 13 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
4 11 (1.44%) CMS
5 9 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (1.18%) WordPress
6 8 (1.05%) Apache Spark
7 7 (0.92%) Apache
8 4 (0.52%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.52%) Kentico
9 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.13%) Drupal
10 1 (0.13%) JBoss
10 1 (0.13%) nginx
10 1 (0.13%) SAS
Applications
1 27 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.39%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.39%) Trello
6 2 (0.26%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.26%) Sketch
7 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.13%) InVision
Business Applications
1 21 (2.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (2.23%) NetSuite
3 8 (1.05%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.66%) Sage X3
4 5 (0.66%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.52%) Dynamics NAV
5 4 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.52%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.13%) Hyperion Planning
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.13%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 225 (29.49%) Azure
2 135 (17.69%) AWS
3 88 (11.53%) Azure DevOps
4 86 (11.27%) Power Platform
5 70 (9.17%) Microsoft 365
6 54 (7.08%) GCP
7 49 (6.42%) GitHub
8 46 (6.03%) Serverless
9 45 (5.90%) Dynamics 365
10 38 (4.98%) Power Automate
11 37 (4.85%) GitHub Actions
12 30 (3.93%) Amazon EKS
12 30 (3.93%) Entra ID
13 26 (3.41%) AWS Lambda
13 26 (3.41%) Snowflake
14 21 (2.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 21 (2.75%) Azure Data Factory
15 19 (2.49%) Amazon S3
16 18 (2.36%) Azure Functions
16 18 (2.36%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.97%) VPN
2 14 (1.83%) Firewall
2 14 (1.83%) Network Security
3 12 (1.57%) DNS
4 11 (1.44%) VLAN
5 9 (1.18%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (1.18%) Wireless
6 8 (1.05%) DHCP
6 8 (1.05%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
7 6 (0.79%) WAN
8 5 (0.66%) 3GPP
8 5 (0.66%) 5G
8 5 (0.66%) BGP
8 5 (0.66%) NGN
8 5 (0.66%) OSPF
8 5 (0.66%) Radio Access Network
8 5 (0.66%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.66%) tcpdump
8 5 (0.66%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (7.34%) Power BI
2 39 (5.11%) PostgreSQL
3 30 (3.93%) SQL Server
4 26 (3.41%) Data Warehouse
5 23 (3.01%) MongoDB
6 22 (2.88%) Metadata
7 15 (1.97%) Power Query
8 11 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
8 11 (1.44%) Data Lake
8 11 (1.44%) NoSQL
9 10 (1.31%) Looker
10 9 (1.18%) Redis
10 9 (1.18%) Relational Database
11 8 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
11 8 (1.05%) Big Data
11 8 (1.05%) Tableau
12 7 (0.92%) DocumentDB
12 7 (0.92%) Snowflake Schema
13 5 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
13 5 (0.66%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 49 (6.42%) Git
2 46 (6.03%) JIRA
3 34 (4.46%) GitLab
4 30 (3.93%) Jenkins
5 13 (1.70%) Cucumber
6 12 (1.57%) Cypress.io
6 12 (1.57%) Postman
6 12 (1.57%) Selenium
7 11 (1.44%) WebDriver
8 8 (1.05%) fastlane
8 8 (1.05%) JUnit
8 8 (1.05%) Mockito
9 7 (0.92%) Gradle
10 6 (0.79%) Vite
11 5 (0.66%) Visual Studio
12 4 (0.52%) Android Studio
12 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
12 4 (0.52%) Crashlytics
12 4 (0.52%) SonarQube
12 4 (0.52%) Xcode
General
1 319 (41.81%) Social Skills
2 232 (30.41%) Public Sector
3 196 (25.69%) Finance
4 121 (15.86%) Analytical Skills
5 35 (4.59%) Organisational Skills
6 26 (3.41%) Manufacturing
7 25 (3.28%) Banking
7 25 (3.28%) Local Government
8 22 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
9 21 (2.75%) Documentation Skills
10 17 (2.23%) Law
10 17 (2.23%) Retail
11 15 (1.97%) Marketing
12 14 (1.83%) Legal
12 14 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.05%) Back Office
14 7 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
14 7 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.92%) Publishing
15 6 (0.79%) Military
Job Titles
1 125 (16.38%) Developer
2 112 (14.68%) Analyst
3 97 (12.71%) Senior
4 77 (10.09%) Lead
5 62 (8.13%) Architect
6 38 (4.98%) Consultant
7 31 (4.06%) Senior Developer
8 29 (3.80%) Data Engineer
8 29 (3.80%) DevOps Engineer
9 28 (3.67%) Data Analyst
10 27 (3.54%) Business Analyst
11 24 (3.15%) Software Developer
12 23 (3.01%) Support Engineer
13 22 (2.88%) Dynamics 365 Developer
14 21 (2.75%) Administrator
15 19 (2.49%) Coordinator
15 19 (2.49%) IT Engineer
15 19 (2.49%) Project Manager
16 17 (2.23%) Senior Analyst
17 16 (2.10%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (11.53%) Terraform
2 49 (6.42%) RESTful
3 30 (3.93%) .NET
3 30 (3.93%) Node.js
3 30 (3.93%) React
4 28 (3.67%) HTML
5 27 (3.54%) CSS
5 27 (3.54%) JSON
5 27 (3.54%) Kafka
6 26 (3.41%) GraphQL
7 25 (3.28%) REST
8 18 (2.36%) Spring
8 18 (2.36%) Spring Boot
9 17 (2.23%) Django
10 15 (1.97%) PySpark
10 15 (1.97%) XML
11 14 (1.83%) XSLT
12 13 (1.70%) Gherkin
12 13 (1.70%) OAuth
13 12 (1.57%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.70%) Onboarding
2 47 (6.16%) Product Ownership
3 42 (5.50%) Cloud Native
4 27 (3.54%) Management Information System
5 21 (2.75%) Legacy Systems
6 19 (2.49%) Data Structures
6 19 (2.49%) Distributed Systems
7 14 (1.83%) Data Centre
8 11 (1.44%) AI Agents
8 11 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (1.44%) Taxonomies
8 11 (1.44%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.18%) Mobile App
10 8 (1.05%) Blog
10 8 (1.05%) Driving Licence
10 8 (1.05%) Replication
10 8 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (0.92%) Security Posture
12 6 (0.79%) EPoS
12 6 (0.79%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 79 (10.35%) Windows
2 22 (2.88%) Linux
3 18 (2.36%) Windows 10
4 17 (2.23%) Windows Server
5 13 (1.70%) Apple iOS
6 12 (1.57%) Android
7 8 (1.05%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.66%) Unix
9 4 (0.52%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.26%) VMS
11 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.13%) AIX
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 269 (35.26%) Agile
2 182 (23.85%) Problem-Solving
3 172 (22.54%) DevOps
4 165 (21.63%) CI/CD
5 157 (20.58%) Stakeholder Management
6 136 (17.82%) Continuous Improvement
7 131 (17.17%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 121 (15.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 120 (15.73%) AI
10 105 (13.76%) Decision-Making
11 101 (13.24%) Analytics
12 81 (10.62%) Mentoring
13 79 (10.35%) Test Automation
14 78 (10.22%) Migration
15 73 (9.57%) Infrastructure as Code
16 72 (9.44%) Data Modelling
17 71 (9.31%) Technical Leadership
18 70 (9.17%) Validation
19 67 (8.78%) Digital Transformation Programme
20 63 (8.26%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 113 (14.81%) Python
2 108 (14.15%) SQL
3 80 (10.48%) JavaScript
4 53 (6.95%) C#
5 42 (5.50%) Java
6 33 (4.33%) TypeScript
7 15 (1.97%) Kotlin
7 15 (1.97%) Scala
8 14 (1.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (1.70%) PowerShell
10 12 (1.57%) Bash
11 10 (1.31%) Go
12 9 (1.18%) Swift
13 8 (1.05%) Bicep
13 8 (1.05%) Ruby
14 6 (0.79%) Groovy
14 6 (0.79%) PL/SQL
15 5 (0.66%) PHP
16 4 (0.52%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.52%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 172 (22.54%) Security Cleared
2 162 (21.23%) SC Cleared
3 65 (8.52%) Degree
4 37 (4.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 31 (4.06%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (3.93%) DBS Check
7 28 (3.67%) Azure Certification
8 26 (3.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.97%) Master's Degree
10 12 (1.57%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.92%) CISSP
12 6 (0.79%) ACCA
12 6 (0.79%) AWS Certification
12 6 (0.79%) CIMA
12 6 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (0.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.66%) CISM
13 5 (0.66%) PhD
13 5 (0.66%) PMP
14 4 (0.52%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (14.15%) Accessibility
2 55 (7.21%) QA
3 51 (6.68%) WCAG
4 48 (6.29%) GDPR
5 46 (6.03%) Data Quality
6 22 (2.88%) SLA
7 18 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 17 (2.23%) NCSC
9 9 (1.18%) NIST
9 9 (1.18%) PMO
10 6 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.79%) GRC
11 5 (0.66%) COBIT
11 5 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.26%) Def Stans
13 2 (0.26%) DICOM
13 2 (0.26%) HL7
14 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
System Software
1 66 (8.65%) Docker
2 45 (5.90%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.05%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.39%) Firmware
8 2 (0.26%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 2 (0.26%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.26%) vSphere
9 1 (0.13%) KVM
9 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 72 (9.44%) Kubernetes
2 36 (4.72%) Grafana
3 28 (3.67%) Prometheus
4 21 (2.75%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (2.23%) Ansible
6 14 (1.83%) SCCM
7 7 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.66%) Consul
8 5 (0.66%) Kibana
9 4 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.52%) Rancher
10 3 (0.39%) Packer
11 2 (0.26%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.26%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.26%) ITRS Geneos
11 2 (0.26%) ZABBIX
11 2 (0.26%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 1 (0.13%) Kustomize
12 1 (0.13%) VxRail
Vendors
1 187 (24.51%) Microsoft
2 32 (4.19%) Google
3 26 (3.41%) Dynatrace
3 26 (3.41%) ServiceNow
4 24 (3.15%) Databricks
5 21 (2.75%) Salesforce
6 19 (2.49%) Oracle
7 18 (2.36%) SAP
8 14 (1.83%) Splunk
9 12 (1.57%) Sage
9 12 (1.57%) VMware
10 11 (1.44%) Apple
10 11 (1.44%) Cisco
10 11 (1.44%) CyberArk
10 11 (1.44%) OpenAI
11 9 (1.18%) PagerDuty
12 8 (1.05%) Qualys
12 8 (1.05%) UiPath
13 7 (0.92%) CA Agile Central
13 7 (0.92%) Confluent