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 10 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 234 156 169
Rank change year-on-year -78 +13 +57
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 483 527 653
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 1.78% 1.46%
As % of the General category 1.99% 2.85% 2.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 271 479
10th Percentile £173 £263 £373
25th Percentile £351 £440 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -20.83% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £617 £674 £675
90th Percentile £675 £769 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £394 £525 £511
% change year-on-year -25.00% +2.79% -7.97%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 7 20
10th Percentile £14.61 - £10.88
25th Percentile £15.34 - £12.06
Median hourly rate £16.67 £22.14 £20.22
Median % change year-on-year -24.71% +9.51% +45.71%
75th Percentile £17.44 - £35.66
90th Percentile £17.78 £36.28 £59.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £22.14 £27.93
% change year-on-year -25.47% -20.72% +101.26%

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 24,323 18,503 26,150
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 57.33% 62.59% 58.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,224 11,652 16,729
10th Percentile £300 £293 £263
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
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 £475 £490
% change year-on-year - -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,477 647 1,816
10th Percentile £13.57 £15.26 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £20.12 £15.37
Median hourly rate £24.03 £29.07 £25.75
Median % change year-on-year -17.34% +12.89% -20.77%
75th Percentile £55.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.81 £27.39 £25.00
% change year-on-year -16.71% +9.54% -7.41%

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 10 March 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
Top 16 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 10 March 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 -73 433 £488 -18.75% 792
London -52 224 £565 -8.87% 272
Work from Home -25 223 £530 -11.67% 499
UK excluding London -84 209 £394 -25.00% 721
Midlands -58 64 £375 -28.57% 83
South East -42 49 £363 -36.96% 275
West Midlands -63 39 £450 -18.18% 42
North of England -81 38 £375 -16.67% 134
East of England -15 29 £550 - 42
East Midlands -19 25 £168 -61.71% 41
North West -35 25 £425 -5.56% 59
South West -39 19 £540 +2.86% 82
Scotland +6 12 £175 -65.43% 79
Yorkshire -71 9 £375 -17.81% 47
North East -17 4 £425 -5.56% 29
Northern Ireland -8 1 £625 +8.70% 8

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 16 (3.31%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.69%) Apache Spark
2 13 (2.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.48%) Confluence
4 8 (1.66%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.24%) CMS
6 4 (0.83%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.83%) WordPress
7 2 (0.41%) Apache
7 2 (0.41%) Camunda
7 2 (0.41%) HCL Notes
7 2 (0.41%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.21%) Appian
8 1 (0.21%) IIS
8 1 (0.21%) nginx
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Application Server
8 1 (0.21%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 26 (5.38%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.83%) Adobe Captivate
3 4 (0.83%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 4 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.83%) Trello
4 3 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.41%) Adobe After Effects
5 2 (0.41%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.41%) InVision
5 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.41%) Sketch
6 1 (0.21%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.41%) CODA-Financials
3 2 (0.41%) FLEXCUBE
3 2 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.21%) Advent Geneva
4 1 (0.21%) Bloomberg AIM
4 1 (0.21%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.21%) Fidessa
4 1 (0.21%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.21%) ResourceLink
4 1 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.21%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 111 (22.98%) Azure
2 81 (16.77%) AWS
3 35 (7.25%) Power Platform
4 27 (5.59%) Microsoft 365
5 25 (5.18%) GitHub
6 22 (4.55%) GitHub Actions
7 20 (4.14%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (3.93%) GCP
9 16 (3.31%) dbt
9 16 (3.31%) SaaS
10 13 (2.69%) Azure Data Factory
11 12 (2.48%) Entra ID
12 10 (2.07%) Serverless
12 10 (2.07%) Snowflake
13 9 (1.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 9 (1.86%) Figma
14 8 (1.66%) Amazon EKS
14 8 (1.66%) Google Workspace
15 7 (1.45%) Power Automate
16 6 (1.24%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.73%) TCP/IP
2 15 (3.11%) Ethernet
3 11 (2.28%) Firewall
3 11 (2.28%) Network Security
4 8 (1.66%) VPN
4 8 (1.66%) WAN
5 6 (1.24%) LAN
6 5 (1.04%) HTTP
6 5 (1.04%) VSAN
7 4 (0.83%) VLAN
7 4 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.62%) AMQP
8 3 (0.62%) DHCP
8 3 (0.62%) DNS
8 3 (0.62%) Intranet
9 2 (0.41%) MPLS
9 2 (0.41%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.21%) Cisco ISE
10 1 (0.21%) Fibre Channel
10 1 (0.21%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (6.00%) Power BI
2 23 (4.76%) Data Warehouse
3 22 (4.55%) SQL Server
4 13 (2.69%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (2.28%) Big Data
6 10 (2.07%) Hadoop
7 8 (1.66%) Snowflake Schema
8 7 (1.45%) Metadata
8 7 (1.45%) NoSQL
9 6 (1.24%) DB2
9 6 (1.24%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 6 (1.24%) Relational Database
9 6 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (1.24%) Tableau
10 5 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.83%) Amazon Aurora
11 4 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (0.83%) Looker
11 4 (0.83%) Metadata Repository
11 4 (0.83%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 25 (5.18%) Git
2 19 (3.93%) JIRA
3 11 (2.28%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.45%) Cucumber
4 7 (1.45%) GitLab
4 7 (1.45%) JMeter
5 6 (1.24%) Gatling
6 5 (1.04%) LoadRunner
7 4 (0.83%) Maven
8 3 (0.62%) Selenium
8 3 (0.62%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.62%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.41%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.41%) Axure RP
9 2 (0.41%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.41%) JUnit
9 2 (0.41%) Mockito
10 1 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.21%) SpecFlow
10 1 (0.21%) TestNG
General
1 169 (34.99%) Social Skills
2 115 (23.81%) Finance
3 61 (12.63%) Public Sector
4 55 (11.39%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (4.35%) Banking
6 19 (3.93%) Presentation Skills
7 13 (2.69%) Local Government
7 13 (2.69%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.48%) Marketing
9 11 (2.28%) Retail
10 10 (2.07%) Fire and Rescue
11 8 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (1.66%) Legal
11 8 (1.66%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.83%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.83%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.83%) Publishing
12 4 (0.83%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.62%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.62%) Law
Job Titles
1 71 (14.70%) Analyst
2 40 (8.28%) Lead
3 38 (7.87%) Architect
3 38 (7.87%) Data Engineer
4 30 (6.21%) Developer
4 30 (6.21%) Senior
5 25 (5.18%) Support Engineer
6 19 (3.93%) Project Manager
7 18 (3.73%) IT Support
8 17 (3.52%) Data Analyst
8 17 (3.52%) Systems Engineer
9 16 (3.31%) Consultant
9 16 (3.31%) IT Engineer
10 15 (3.11%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.11%) Cloud Engineer
10 15 (3.11%) IT Analyst
10 15 (3.11%) Technical Engineer
11 14 (2.90%) DevOps Engineer
12 13 (2.69%) Designer
12 13 (2.69%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.52%) EDI
2 12 (2.48%) YAML
3 11 (2.28%) React
3 11 (2.28%) Spring
3 11 (2.28%) Spring Boot
4 10 (2.07%) AngularJS
4 10 (2.07%) Middleware
5 9 (1.86%) PySpark
6 8 (1.66%) HTML
6 8 (1.66%) REST
7 7 (1.45%) .NET
8 5 (1.04%) Kafka
9 4 (0.83%) CSS
9 4 (0.83%) Hibernate
9 4 (0.83%) JPA
9 4 (0.83%) RESTful
10 3 (0.62%) Oracle Fusion
10 3 (0.62%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.62%) Web Services
10 3 (0.62%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.35%) Cloud Native
1 21 (4.35%) Onboarding
2 19 (3.93%) Data Centre
2 19 (3.93%) Management Information System
3 15 (3.11%) Industry 4.0
3 15 (3.11%) Robotics
4 8 (1.66%) Distributed Systems
5 7 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (1.45%) Product Ownership
5 7 (1.45%) Virtual Team
6 6 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
6 6 (1.24%) Public Cloud
6 6 (1.24%) Replication
7 5 (1.04%) Algorithms
7 5 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.04%) Reinsurance
8 4 (0.83%) e-Learning
8 4 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (0.83%) Learning Management System
8 4 (0.83%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 35 (7.25%) Windows
2 13 (2.69%) Windows 10
3 11 (2.28%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.07%) Linux
5 6 (1.24%) AIX
5 6 (1.24%) Unix
6 3 (0.62%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.21%) Android
7 1 (0.21%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (27.54%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (14.70%) Agile
3 70 (14.49%) CI/CD
4 62 (12.84%) DevOps
5 59 (12.22%) Analytics
5 59 (12.22%) Decision-Making
6 47 (9.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 45 (9.32%) Continuous Improvement
8 42 (8.70%) Migration
9 38 (7.87%) Data Modelling
9 38 (7.87%) Infrastructure as Code
10 37 (7.66%) Customer Service
11 34 (7.04%) Data Pipeline
12 30 (6.21%) Business Intelligence
12 30 (6.21%) Mentoring
13 29 (6.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 28 (5.80%) Data Engineering
15 27 (5.59%) Data Governance
15 27 (5.59%) Project Management
15 27 (5.59%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 72 (14.91%) SQL
2 64 (13.25%) Python
3 24 (4.97%) Java
4 18 (3.73%) JavaScript
4 18 (3.73%) PowerShell
5 11 (2.28%) C#
6 10 (2.07%) Bash
6 10 (2.07%) R
7 8 (1.66%) TypeScript
8 7 (1.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.83%) VBA
10 3 (0.62%) Go
10 3 (0.62%) Scala
11 2 (0.41%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.41%) AWK
11 2 (0.41%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.41%) Ruby
11 2 (0.41%) Rust
12 1 (0.21%) Bicep
12 1 (0.21%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 71 (14.70%) Security Cleared
2 60 (12.42%) SC Cleared
3 46 (9.52%) Degree
4 16 (3.31%) DBS Check
5 15 (3.11%) AWS Certification
6 9 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (1.45%) Azure Certification
8 6 (1.24%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.83%) ACCA
9 4 (0.83%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 4 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (0.83%) CIMA
9 4 (0.83%) CISSP
9 4 (0.83%) CTC Cleared
10 3 (0.62%) CompTIA CySA+
10 3 (0.62%) Network+ Certification
10 3 (0.62%) Oracle Certification
10 3 (0.62%) SANS
11 2 (0.41%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.41%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (5.18%) Data Quality
2 22 (4.55%) Accessibility
3 20 (4.14%) QA
4 9 (1.86%) Actionable Recommendations
4 9 (1.86%) GDPR
4 9 (1.86%) PMO
5 5 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.62%) GRC
7 3 (0.62%) SLA
8 2 (0.41%) ISO 22301
8 2 (0.41%) NIST
8 2 (0.41%) PSD2
8 2 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.41%) WCAG
9 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.21%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.21%) GMP
9 1 (0.21%) NCSC
9 1 (0.21%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 28 (5.80%) Active Directory
2 21 (4.35%) Docker
3 9 (1.86%) Hyper-V
4 7 (1.45%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.24%) KVM
6 5 (1.04%) VMware NSX
6 5 (1.04%) vSphere
7 4 (0.83%) VMware Infrastructure
8 3 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) Firmware
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 37 (7.66%) Terraform
2 24 (4.97%) Kubernetes
3 16 (3.31%) Grafana
4 11 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (2.07%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.86%) Ansible
7 7 (1.45%) SCCM
8 6 (1.24%) IBM BigFix
8 6 (1.24%) Kibana
8 6 (1.24%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.62%) Argo
11 1 (0.21%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
11 1 (0.21%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 1 (0.21%) Rancher
11 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.21%) vRealize
11 1 (0.21%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 70 (14.49%) Microsoft
2 28 (5.80%) Databricks
3 21 (4.35%) Oracle
4 17 (3.52%) ServiceNow
5 15 (3.11%) Siemens
6 14 (2.90%) Google
6 14 (2.90%) Salesforce
7 12 (2.48%) VMware
8 11 (2.28%) Cisco
9 10 (2.07%) Adobe
9 10 (2.07%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.86%) SAP
11 6 (1.24%) Atlassian
11 6 (1.24%) IBM
12 5 (1.04%) Citrix
13 4 (0.83%) MuleSoft
13 4 (0.83%) Netskope
13 4 (0.83%) Talend
14 3 (0.62%) Commvault
14 3 (0.62%) Meraki