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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 203 155 168
Rank change year-on-year -48 +13 +79
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 507 533 625
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.32% 1.70% 1.42%
As % of the General category 2.23% 2.75% 2.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 281 447
10th Percentile £173 £350 £375
25th Percentile £344 £469 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% - +3.45%
75th Percentile £625 £673 £675
90th Percentile £675 £800 £742
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £525 £503
% change year-on-year -28.57% +4.37% +0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 16
10th Percentile £14.61 - £11.45
25th Percentile £15.34 - £13.13
Median hourly rate £16.67 - £27.93
75th Percentile £62.94 - £58.70
90th Percentile £145.18 - £63.29
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.67 - £34.21
% change year-on-year - - +146.56%

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 22,786 19,403 25,945
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.36% 61.98% 58.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,327 11,564 16,839
10th Percentile £286 £282 £264
25th Percentile £400 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £481 £500
% change year-on-year -1.15% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,382 633 1,489
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £16.35 £20.00 £15.32
Median hourly rate £22.85 £27.50 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.91% +5.77% +4.00%
75th Percentile £47.38 £53.75 £55.47
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.71 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.28 £26.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -19.72% +6.00% +11.56%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -51 455 £475 -20.83% 709
London -7 273 £575 -6.12% 271
Work from Home -20 232 £444 -26.04% 399
UK excluding London -78 183 £375 -28.57% 705
Midlands -62 59 £195 -66.09% 74
South East -18 38 £381 -19.74% 308
North of England -62 38 £375 -16.67% 122
West Midlands -61 35 £195 -66.09% 46
East Midlands -19 24 £168 -64.76% 27
North West -29 24 £470 +4.47% 61
South West -34 18 £540 +10.77% 62
East of England -8 17 £155 -70.48% 45
Scotland +1 14 £175 -61.11% 84
Yorkshire -48 11 £288 -43.90% 43
North East -20 3 £400 -11.11% 18
Wales -4 1 £331 -37.52% 19
Northern Ireland -9 1 £625 +8.70% 7

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 14 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.17%) Confluence
2 11 (2.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.58%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (1.58%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.99%) CMS
5 4 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.79%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.79%) WordPress
6 2 (0.39%) Apache
6 2 (0.39%) Camunda
6 2 (0.39%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.20%) Appian
7 1 (0.20%) IIS
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 18 (3.55%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.79%) Adobe Captivate
4 4 (0.79%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 4 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.59%) 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 (0.20%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.20%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 7 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.39%) CODA-Financials
3 2 (0.39%) FLEXCUBE
3 2 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.20%) Bloomberg AIM
4 1 (0.20%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.20%) Fidessa
4 1 (0.20%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.20%) ResourceLink
4 1 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.20%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 116 (22.88%) Azure
2 73 (14.40%) AWS
3 36 (7.10%) Power Platform
4 30 (5.92%) GitHub
5 26 (5.13%) GitHub Actions
6 24 (4.73%) Microsoft 365
7 23 (4.54%) GCP
8 22 (4.34%) Azure DevOps
9 16 (3.16%) dbt
10 15 (2.96%) SaaS
11 13 (2.56%) Entra ID
12 11 (2.17%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (1.97%) Serverless
13 10 (1.97%) Snowflake
14 9 (1.78%) Amazon EKS
14 9 (1.78%) Microsoft Purview
15 8 (1.58%) Google Workspace
16 7 (1.38%) Figma
17 6 (1.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 6 (1.18%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.56%) Network Security
2 11 (2.17%) Firewall
3 9 (1.78%) VPN
4 7 (1.38%) WAN
5 5 (0.99%) DNS
5 5 (0.99%) LAN
5 5 (0.99%) VSAN
6 4 (0.79%) DHCP
6 4 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.59%) AMQP
7 3 (0.59%) Intranet
7 3 (0.59%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.59%) VLAN
8 2 (0.39%) MPLS
8 2 (0.39%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.39%) SMS
8 2 (0.39%) SMTP
9 1 (0.20%) BGP
9 1 (0.20%) OSPF
9 1 (0.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (5.13%) Power BI
2 20 (3.94%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (3.35%) SQL Server
4 14 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (2.17%) Metadata
6 7 (1.38%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (1.38%) NoSQL
6 7 (1.38%) Relational Database
6 7 (1.38%) Snowflake Schema
7 6 (1.18%) Big Data
8 5 (0.99%) Hadoop
8 5 (0.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.99%) Tableau
9 4 (0.79%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.79%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.79%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.79%) MongoDB
9 4 (0.79%) Spark SQL
10 3 (0.59%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.59%) Apache Iceberg
Development Applications
1 24 (4.73%) Git
2 18 (3.55%) JIRA
3 9 (1.78%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.38%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.99%) Maven
6 4 (0.79%) GitLab
6 4 (0.79%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.59%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.59%) Selenium
7 3 (0.59%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.39%) Axure RP
8 2 (0.39%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.39%) JMeter
8 2 (0.39%) JUnit
8 2 (0.39%) MLflow
8 2 (0.39%) Mockito
9 1 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.20%) Pa11y
9 1 (0.20%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.20%) Vite
General
1 177 (34.91%) Social Skills
2 126 (24.85%) Finance
3 60 (11.83%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (10.85%) Public Sector
5 25 (4.93%) Banking
6 22 (4.34%) Marketing
7 19 (3.75%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (2.76%) Legal
9 11 (2.17%) Local Government
10 10 (1.97%) Fire and Rescue
10 10 (1.97%) Retail
11 8 (1.58%) Manufacturing
12 7 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.99%) Investment Banking
13 5 (0.99%) Military
13 5 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.99%) Publishing
14 4 (0.79%) Law
Job Titles
1 84 (16.57%) Analyst
2 41 (8.09%) Architect
3 40 (7.89%) Lead
4 38 (7.50%) Senior
5 35 (6.90%) Data Engineer
6 34 (6.71%) Developer
7 28 (5.52%) Support Engineer
8 26 (5.13%) Project Manager
9 23 (4.54%) Business Analyst
10 22 (4.34%) Consultant
11 21 (4.14%) Cloud Engineer
12 18 (3.55%) IT Analyst
13 17 (3.35%) IT Support
14 15 (2.96%) IT Engineer
14 15 (2.96%) Service Analyst
15 14 (2.76%) DevOps Engineer
15 14 (2.76%) Solutions Architect
16 13 (2.56%) Data Analyst
17 12 (2.37%) Platform Engineer
17 12 (2.37%) PMO Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.55%) EDI
2 11 (2.17%) Spring
2 11 (2.17%) Spring Boot
2 11 (2.17%) YAML
3 10 (1.97%) AngularJS
3 10 (1.97%) React
3 10 (1.97%) REST
4 9 (1.78%) HTML
4 9 (1.78%) Middleware
5 7 (1.38%) .NET
6 6 (1.18%) PySpark
7 5 (0.99%) CSS
7 5 (0.99%) Kafka
7 5 (0.99%) RESTful
7 5 (0.99%) XML
8 4 (0.79%) Akka
8 4 (0.79%) Hibernate
8 4 (0.79%) JPA
8 4 (0.79%) scikit-learn
8 4 (0.79%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 23 (4.54%) Onboarding
2 21 (4.14%) Cloud Native
2 21 (4.14%) Management Information System
3 17 (3.35%) Data Centre
4 9 (1.78%) Product Ownership
4 9 (1.78%) Virtual Team
5 8 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.18%) e-Learning
6 6 (1.18%) Public Cloud
7 5 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
7 5 (0.99%) Reinsurance
7 5 (0.99%) Replication
8 4 (0.79%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (0.79%) Driving Licence
8 4 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (0.79%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (0.79%) Learning Management System
8 4 (0.79%) Low-Code
8 4 (0.79%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 42 (8.28%) Windows
2 12 (2.37%) Windows Server
3 11 (2.17%) Windows 10
4 9 (1.78%) Linux
5 4 (0.79%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.39%) Unix
7 1 (0.20%) AIX
7 1 (0.20%) Android
7 1 (0.20%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (25.64%) Problem-Solving
2 76 (14.99%) Agile
3 70 (13.81%) CI/CD
4 69 (13.61%) DevOps
5 60 (11.83%) Stakeholder Management
6 49 (9.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 47 (9.27%) Analytics
8 40 (7.89%) Infrastructure as Code
9 39 (7.69%) Migration
10 38 (7.50%) Decision-Making
11 37 (7.30%) Data Modelling
12 34 (6.71%) Project Management
13 33 (6.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 32 (6.31%) Test Automation
15 31 (6.11%) Mentoring
16 28 (5.52%) Business Intelligence
17 27 (5.33%) Containerisation
17 27 (5.33%) Data Governance
17 27 (5.33%) Data Pipeline
18 26 (5.13%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 64 (12.62%) SQL
2 61 (12.03%) Python
3 28 (5.52%) Java
4 22 (4.34%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.76%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.17%) C#
7 9 (1.78%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.18%) Bash
8 6 (1.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.18%) R
9 5 (0.99%) Go
10 4 (0.79%) Rust
10 4 (0.79%) Scala
11 3 (0.59%) C++
12 2 (0.39%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.39%) AWK
12 2 (0.39%) C
12 2 (0.39%) Perl
12 2 (0.39%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.39%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 68 (13.41%) Security Cleared
2 58 (11.44%) SC Cleared
3 32 (6.31%) Degree
4 18 (3.55%) AWS Certification
5 14 (2.76%) DBS Check
6 9 (1.78%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.58%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.18%) CISSP
9 5 (0.99%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 5 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.79%) ACCA
10 4 (0.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.79%) CIMA
10 4 (0.79%) CTC Cleared
10 4 (0.79%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (0.59%) ISTQB
11 3 (0.59%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (0.59%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.59%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.54%) Data Quality
1 23 (4.54%) QA
2 22 (4.34%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.76%) GDPR
4 13 (2.56%) PMO
5 10 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (1.18%) Actionable Recommendations
7 5 (0.99%) GRC
7 5 (0.99%) NIST
7 5 (0.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 4 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.79%) SLA
9 3 (0.59%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.59%) WCAG
10 2 (0.39%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.39%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.39%) PSD2
10 2 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
11 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 27 (5.33%) Active Directory
2 21 (4.14%) Docker
3 5 (0.99%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (0.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.99%) VMware NSX
3 5 (0.99%) vSphere
4 3 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.39%) Firmware
5 2 (0.39%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.20%) KVM
6 1 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (7.89%) Terraform
2 27 (5.33%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.56%) Grafana
4 12 (2.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (1.97%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.38%) Ansible
6 7 (1.38%) SCCM
7 4 (0.79%) Argo
7 4 (0.79%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (0.79%) Kibana
8 1 (0.20%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.20%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.20%) IBM BigFix
8 1 (0.20%) Nessus
8 1 (0.20%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 1 (0.20%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.20%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.20%) vRealize
8 1 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 75 (14.79%) Microsoft
2 21 (4.14%) ServiceNow
3 20 (3.94%) Oracle
4 19 (3.75%) Databricks
5 16 (3.16%) Google
6 14 (2.76%) VMware
7 12 (2.37%) Cisco
7 12 (2.37%) Salesforce
8 10 (1.97%) Adobe
9 7 (1.38%) Dynatrace
10 6 (1.18%) SAP
11 5 (0.99%) Citrix
12 4 (0.79%) Apple
12 4 (0.79%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.79%) Lotus
12 4 (0.79%) Netskope
13 3 (0.59%) Bloomberg
13 3 (0.59%) CODA
13 3 (0.59%) CyberArk
13 3 (0.59%) Meraki