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 4 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 208 150 174
Rank change year-on-year -58 +24 -8
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 766 617 545
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.40% 1.86% 1.43%
As % of the General category 2.50% 2.94% 2.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 395 242 323
10th Percentile £306 £183 £419
25th Percentile £363 £356 £505
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £469 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -21.88% -
75th Percentile £572 £625 £675
90th Percentile £650 £662 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £408 £503
% change year-on-year +4.29% -18.91% +3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 14 2
10th Percentile £12.34 £17.48 £24.15
25th Percentile £14.05 £18.64 £28.88
Median hourly rate £14.85 £22.14 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% -41.74% -40.16%
75th Percentile £24.38 £22.41 £48.38
90th Percentile £44.64 £67.50 £53.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £14.05 £22.14 -
% change year-on-year -36.54% - -

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 30,700 21,001 22,220
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.19% 63.28% 58.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,860 13,046 13,160
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
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 £744 £738 £770
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,691 1,238 993
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.51 £14.78
25th Percentile £16.21 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £25.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.67% -28.36% +27.27%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £21.39 £33.00
% change year-on-year +31.32% -35.18% +23.23%

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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 -57 647 £450 -7.69% 5,600
UK excluding London -17 366 £425 +4.29% 3,799
London -82 314 £510 -7.27% 2,972
Work from Home -40 267 £480 -1.54% 3,341
Midlands -11 114 £425 +2.41% 422
South East -3 93 £425 -4.23% 628
North of England -42 80 £425 +21.43% 826
West Midlands -16 78 £425 +2.41% 283
North East +8 53 £425 +6.25% 148
East Midlands +2 36 £163 -63.59% 139
South West -18 28 £475 -20.83% 454
Scotland -31 27 £210 -30.00% 777
Yorkshire -64 15 £425 +112.50% 217
East of England -25 13 £425 +30.77% 298
North West -47 12 £518 +29.38% 467
Wales -9 8 £413 +24.56% 203
Northern Ireland +4 3 - - 229

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 37 (4.83%) SharePoint
2 17 (2.22%) Confluence
3 13 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
4 11 (1.44%) CMS
5 10 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
6 9 (1.17%) WordPress
7 8 (1.04%) Apache Spark
8 7 (0.91%) Apache
9 4 (0.52%) Jupyter
9 4 (0.52%) Kentico
10 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
11 1 (0.13%) Drupal
11 1 (0.13%) JBoss
11 1 (0.13%) nginx
11 1 (0.13%) SAS
Applications
1 28 (3.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.39%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.39%) Trello
6 2 (0.26%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.26%) MS Visio
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 (2.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (2.22%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.65%) Sage X3
3 5 (0.65%) Salesforce CRM
3 5 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.52%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
4 4 (0.52%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.13%) Hyperion Planning
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
5 1 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.13%) SAP FS
5 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 219 (28.59%) Azure
2 140 (18.28%) AWS
3 85 (11.10%) Azure DevOps
4 83 (10.84%) Power Platform
5 68 (8.88%) Microsoft 365
6 57 (7.44%) GCP
7 50 (6.53%) GitHub
8 47 (6.14%) Serverless
9 46 (6.01%) Dynamics 365
10 38 (4.96%) GitHub Actions
10 38 (4.96%) Power Automate
11 30 (3.92%) Amazon EKS
12 29 (3.79%) Entra ID
13 27 (3.52%) AWS Lambda
14 24 (3.13%) Snowflake
15 21 (2.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 21 (2.74%) Azure Data Factory
16 19 (2.48%) Amazon S3
17 18 (2.35%) Azure Functions
17 18 (2.35%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.09%) VPN
2 14 (1.83%) Firewall
2 14 (1.83%) Network Security
3 13 (1.70%) DNS
4 11 (1.44%) VLAN
5 10 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (1.17%) DHCP
6 9 (1.17%) TCP/IP
6 9 (1.17%) Wireless
7 6 (0.78%) Structured Cabling
7 6 (0.78%) WAN
8 5 (0.65%) 3GPP
8 5 (0.65%) 5G
8 5 (0.65%) HTTP
8 5 (0.65%) NGN
8 5 (0.65%) OSPF
8 5 (0.65%) Radio Access Network
8 5 (0.65%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.65%) tcpdump
8 5 (0.65%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (6.92%) Power BI
2 37 (4.83%) PostgreSQL
3 31 (4.05%) SQL Server
4 24 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
5 23 (3.00%) MongoDB
6 22 (2.87%) Metadata
7 15 (1.96%) Power Query
8 11 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
9 10 (1.31%) Data Lake
9 10 (1.31%) Looker
9 10 (1.31%) NoSQL
10 9 (1.17%) Redis
11 8 (1.04%) Big Data
11 8 (1.04%) Relational Database
11 8 (1.04%) Tableau
12 7 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.91%) DocumentDB
12 7 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
12 7 (0.91%) Snowflake Schema
13 5 (0.65%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 49 (6.40%) Git
2 47 (6.14%) JIRA
3 34 (4.44%) GitLab
4 31 (4.05%) Jenkins
5 13 (1.70%) Cucumber
5 13 (1.70%) Cypress.io
6 12 (1.57%) Postman
6 12 (1.57%) Selenium
7 11 (1.44%) WebDriver
8 8 (1.04%) fastlane
8 8 (1.04%) JUnit
8 8 (1.04%) Mockito
9 7 (0.91%) Gradle
10 6 (0.78%) JMeter
10 6 (0.78%) Vite
11 5 (0.65%) Gatling
11 5 (0.65%) LoadRunner
11 5 (0.65%) Visual Studio
12 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
12 4 (0.52%) Crashlytics
General
1 325 (42.43%) Social Skills
2 239 (31.20%) Public Sector
3 196 (25.59%) Finance
4 121 (15.80%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (4.96%) Organisational Skills
6 28 (3.66%) Manufacturing
7 27 (3.52%) Local Government
8 25 (3.26%) Banking
9 21 (2.74%) Documentation Skills
9 21 (2.74%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (2.22%) Law
10 17 (2.22%) Retail
11 15 (1.96%) Marketing
12 14 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.70%) Legal
14 10 (1.31%) Back Office
15 8 (1.04%) Japanese Language
15 8 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.91%) Military
16 7 (0.91%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 126 (16.45%) Developer
2 110 (14.36%) Analyst
3 104 (13.58%) Senior
4 81 (10.57%) Lead
5 60 (7.83%) Architect
6 38 (4.96%) Consultant
7 33 (4.31%) Senior Developer
8 29 (3.79%) Business Analyst
9 28 (3.66%) Data Engineer
10 27 (3.52%) Administrator
11 26 (3.39%) DevOps Engineer
12 25 (3.26%) Data Analyst
13 24 (3.13%) Software Developer
14 22 (2.87%) Dynamics 365 Developer
15 21 (2.74%) Support Engineer
16 19 (2.48%) Coordinator
17 18 (2.35%) IT Engineer
17 18 (2.35%) Project Manager
18 17 (2.22%) Senior Analyst
19 16 (2.09%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (10.97%) Terraform
2 50 (6.53%) RESTful
3 31 (4.05%) .NET
3 31 (4.05%) React
4 30 (3.92%) Node.js
5 28 (3.66%) HTML
6 27 (3.52%) CSS
6 27 (3.52%) Kafka
7 26 (3.39%) GraphQL
7 26 (3.39%) JSON
8 25 (3.26%) REST
9 19 (2.48%) Spring
9 19 (2.48%) Spring Boot
10 17 (2.22%) Django
11 15 (1.96%) PySpark
11 15 (1.96%) XML
12 14 (1.83%) XSLT
13 13 (1.70%) Gherkin
13 13 (1.70%) OAuth
14 12 (1.57%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 75 (9.79%) Onboarding
2 49 (6.40%) Product Ownership
3 42 (5.48%) Cloud Native
4 28 (3.66%) Management Information System
5 22 (2.87%) Distributed Systems
6 20 (2.61%) Data Structures
6 20 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (1.96%) AI Agents
8 13 (1.70%) Data Centre
9 12 (1.57%) Taxonomies
10 11 (1.44%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
12 9 (1.17%) Driving Licence
12 9 (1.17%) Mobile App
12 9 (1.17%) NHS
13 8 (1.04%) Blog
13 8 (1.04%) Replication
14 7 (0.91%) Security Posture
15 6 (0.78%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 80 (10.44%) Windows
2 22 (2.87%) Linux
3 18 (2.35%) Windows 10
3 18 (2.35%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.70%) Apple iOS
5 12 (1.57%) Android
6 9 (1.17%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.65%) Unix
8 4 (0.52%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.26%) AIX
10 2 (0.26%) VMS
10 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (35.77%) Agile
2 180 (23.50%) Problem-Solving
3 168 (21.93%) DevOps
4 165 (21.54%) CI/CD
5 162 (21.15%) Stakeholder Management
6 136 (17.75%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 135 (17.62%) Continuous Improvement
8 125 (16.32%) AI
9 122 (15.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 104 (13.58%) Decision-Making
11 99 (12.92%) Analytics
12 84 (10.97%) Mentoring
13 79 (10.31%) Test Automation
14 74 (9.66%) Technical Leadership
14 74 (9.66%) Validation
15 72 (9.40%) Migration
16 71 (9.27%) Data Modelling
17 70 (9.14%) Infrastructure as Code
18 67 (8.75%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 66 (8.62%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 112 (14.62%) Python
2 104 (13.58%) SQL
3 81 (10.57%) JavaScript
4 54 (7.05%) C#
5 43 (5.61%) Java
6 34 (4.44%) TypeScript
7 15 (1.96%) Kotlin
7 15 (1.96%) Scala
8 14 (1.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 12 (1.57%) Bash
9 12 (1.57%) PowerShell
10 10 (1.31%) Go
11 9 (1.17%) Ruby
11 9 (1.17%) Swift
12 8 (1.04%) Bicep
13 6 (0.78%) Groovy
13 6 (0.78%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.65%) PHP
15 4 (0.52%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.52%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 175 (22.85%) Security Cleared
2 165 (21.54%) SC Cleared
3 68 (8.88%) Degree
4 37 (4.83%) Microsoft Certification
5 31 (4.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (3.66%) Azure Certification
6 28 (3.66%) DBS Check
7 26 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
8 15 (1.96%) Master's Degree
9 13 (1.70%) ISTQB
10 7 (0.91%) AWS Certification
10 7 (0.91%) CISSP
11 6 (0.78%) ACCA
11 6 (0.78%) CIMA
11 6 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.65%) CISM
12 5 (0.65%) PhD
12 5 (0.65%) PMP
13 4 (0.52%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (14.23%) Accessibility
2 57 (7.44%) QA
3 52 (6.79%) WCAG
4 49 (6.40%) GDPR
5 45 (5.87%) Data Quality
6 21 (2.74%) SLA
7 19 (2.48%) NCSC
8 17 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 11 (1.44%) PMO
10 9 (1.17%) NIST
11 6 (0.78%) GRC
12 5 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
12 5 (0.65%) COBIT
13 4 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
14 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
15 2 (0.26%) Def Stans
15 2 (0.26%) DICOM
15 2 (0.26%) HL7
16 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
System Software
1 65 (8.49%) Docker
2 43 (5.61%) Active Directory
3 12 (1.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.31%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.78%) 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 70 (9.14%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.96%) Grafana
3 28 (3.66%) Prometheus
4 20 (2.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (2.22%) Ansible
6 14 (1.83%) SCCM
7 7 (0.91%) Kibana
7 7 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.65%) Consul
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%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.26%) ZABBIX
11 2 (0.26%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.13%) McAfee ePO
12 1 (0.13%) Nessus
12 1 (0.13%) SCOM
Vendors
1 186 (24.28%) Microsoft
2 32 (4.18%) Google
3 29 (3.79%) Dynatrace
4 24 (3.13%) Databricks
5 23 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 21 (2.74%) Oracle
7 19 (2.48%) Salesforce
8 14 (1.83%) SAP
8 14 (1.83%) Splunk
8 14 (1.83%) VMware
9 11 (1.44%) Apple
9 11 (1.44%) CyberArk
9 11 (1.44%) OpenAI
9 11 (1.44%) Sage
10 9 (1.17%) Cisco
10 9 (1.17%) PagerDuty
11 8 (1.04%) Qualys
11 8 (1.04%) UiPath
12 7 (0.91%) Confluent
12 7 (0.91%) Signiant