User Stories Contracts

User Story
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring User Stories skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited User Stories over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 158 147 118
Rank change year-on-year -11 -29 -30
Contract jobs citing User Stories 536 729 1,308
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.83% 1.67% 2.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.02% 1.94% 2.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 344 510 907
10th Percentile £350 £363 £400
25th Percentile £413 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £515
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +4.37% +2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £589 £600
90th Percentile £656 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £462 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -5.42% -2.25% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 8
10th Percentile £23.15 £31.71 £46.23
25th Percentile £28.50 £32.03 £60.25
Median hourly rate £53.50 £42.75 £64.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.15% -33.72% +51.76%
75th Percentile - £62.94 £67.00
90th Percentile £64.90 £69.25 £73.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.25 £70.00 £26.50
% change year-on-year -41.07% +164.15% -36.90%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

User Stories falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing User Stories as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing User Stories.

Daily rate trend for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Stories over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing User Stories.

Hourly rate trend for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Stories over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing User Stories within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 2025. 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 -7 415 £500 -6.98% 384
UK excluding London +22 235 £462 -5.42% 206
London -34 219 £525 -4.55% 205
Work from Home -31 185 £475 -9.52% 215
South East +32 60 £517 +8.84% 44
North of England +5 55 £450 -5.26% 50
Scotland +2 55 £432 -13.55% 15
Midlands +17 32 £460 -5.64% 39
North West +7 29 £500 +5.26% 34
West Midlands +14 23 £475 -5.00% 30
South West +40 20 £575 -2.54% 35
Yorkshire -11 17 £425 -8.11% 14
East of England +41 14 £375 -11.76% 9
East Midlands +9 9 £358 -18.17% 9
North East +6 9 £400 -11.89% 2
Wales +3 1 £600 -7.69% 7
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 9

User Stories
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 88 (16.42%) Confluence
2 6 (1.12%) CMS
2 6 (1.12%) Oracle Workflow
3 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.56%) Drupal
3 3 (0.56%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.37%) CICS
4 2 (0.37%) Jupyter
4 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle Self-Service HR
4 2 (0.37%) Sitecore CMS
4 2 (0.37%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.19%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.19%) Apache
5 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.19%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 34 (6.34%) MS Visio
2 20 (3.73%) Trello
3 17 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (2.80%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (2.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (1.12%) Sketch
6 2 (0.37%) InVision
6 2 (0.37%) UserZoom
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.19%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.19%) OmniGraffle
7 1 (0.19%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.19%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.19%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 19 (3.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (2.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.12%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.75%) Oracle ERP
4 4 (0.75%) Primavera
5 3 (0.56%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.56%) SAP HCM
5 3 (0.56%) Shopify
6 2 (0.37%) iTrent
6 2 (0.37%) Kondor
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.37%) SAP MM
6 2 (0.37%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.19%) SAP CRM
7 1 (0.19%) SAP MDM
Cloud Services
1 89 (16.60%) Azure
2 44 (8.21%) Power Platform
3 38 (7.09%) Azure DevOps
4 34 (6.34%) AWS
5 17 (3.17%) Dynamics 365
6 16 (2.99%) GCP
6 16 (2.99%) SaaS
7 11 (2.05%) Figma
8 9 (1.68%) GitHub
9 8 (1.49%) Miro
10 7 (1.31%) Snowflake
11 6 (1.12%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.12%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 6 (1.12%) Serverless
12 5 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
12 5 (0.93%) OCI
13 4 (0.75%) Azure Data Factory
13 4 (0.75%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 3 (0.56%) Azure Logic Apps
14 3 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.56%) Network Security
2 2 (0.37%) WebEx
3 1 (0.19%) Converged Networks
3 1 (0.19%) CTI
3 1 (0.19%) Firewall
3 1 (0.19%) HTTP
3 1 (0.19%) Intranet
3 1 (0.19%) MQTT
3 1 (0.19%) VPN
3 1 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (6.72%) Power BI
2 15 (2.80%) Data Warehouse
2 15 (2.80%) Tableau
3 8 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (1.31%) Relational Database
5 5 (0.93%) Big Data
5 5 (0.93%) NoSQL
5 5 (0.93%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
6 4 (0.75%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6 4 (0.75%) GIS
6 4 (0.75%) Metadata
6 4 (0.75%) Snowflake Schema
7 3 (0.56%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.56%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.56%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.37%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 136 (25.37%) JIRA
2 13 (2.43%) Git
3 11 (2.05%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.05%) Selenium
4 9 (1.68%) Postman
5 7 (1.31%) GitLab
5 7 (1.31%) JMeter
6 6 (1.12%) Axure RP
6 6 (1.12%) Cucumber
7 5 (0.93%) TestRail
8 3 (0.56%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.56%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.56%) Gatling
8 3 (0.56%) JUnit
8 3 (0.56%) Maven
8 3 (0.56%) MLflow
8 3 (0.56%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.56%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.56%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.37%) Toad
General
1 219 (40.86%) Social Skills
2 109 (20.34%) Finance
3 102 (19.03%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (15.67%) Public Sector
5 52 (9.70%) Banking
6 21 (3.92%) Retail
7 20 (3.73%) Presentation Skills
8 15 (2.80%) Marketing
8 15 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
9 14 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
10 11 (2.05%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.87%) Pharmaceutical
12 8 (1.49%) Back Office
12 8 (1.49%) Legal
13 6 (1.12%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.93%) Automotive
14 5 (0.93%) Investment Banking
15 4 (0.75%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 273 (50.93%) Analyst
2 239 (44.59%) Business Analyst
3 60 (11.19%) Senior
4 52 (9.70%) Product Owner
5 31 (5.78%) Developer
6 30 (5.60%) Consultant
6 30 (5.60%) Product Manager
6 30 (5.60%) Technical Analyst
7 28 (5.22%) Technical Business Analyst
8 27 (5.04%) Senior Analyst
9 24 (4.48%) Senior Business Analyst
10 22 (4.10%) Data Analyst
10 22 (4.10%) Data Business Analyst
11 19 (3.54%) Agile Business Analyst
11 19 (3.54%) Architect
12 16 (2.99%) Product Analyst
13 15 (2.80%) Designer
13 15 (2.80%) Lead
13 15 (2.80%) Tester
14 13 (2.43%) SAP Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.54%) CSS
2 17 (3.17%) HTML
3 12 (2.24%) AngularJS
4 11 (2.05%) ADO
5 10 (1.87%) .NET
5 10 (1.87%) REST
6 9 (1.68%) HTML5
7 8 (1.49%) JSON
7 8 (1.49%) XML
8 7 (1.31%) Node.js
8 7 (1.31%) React
8 7 (1.31%) SOAP
9 6 (1.12%) Middleware
9 6 (1.12%) PySpark
9 6 (1.12%) SAP TM
9 6 (1.12%) Web Services
10 5 (0.93%) Angular 2
10 5 (0.93%) Gherkin
11 4 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (0.75%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 143 (26.68%) Product Ownership
2 13 (2.43%) Onboarding
3 11 (2.05%) Management Information System
4 10 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
5 7 (1.31%) CMDB
6 6 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.12%) Life Science
6 6 (1.12%) Public Cloud
6 6 (1.12%) Virtual Team
7 5 (0.93%) Educational Technology
7 5 (0.93%) PMI
7 5 (0.93%) Renewable Energy
7 5 (0.93%) SCADA
8 4 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (0.75%) Data Structures
8 4 (0.75%) Mobile App
8 4 (0.75%) Reinsurance
9 3 (0.56%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.56%) IoT
9 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 4 (0.75%) Android
1 4 (0.75%) Apple iOS
1 4 (0.75%) Linux
2 3 (0.56%) Windows
3 2 (0.37%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 359 (66.98%) Agile
2 144 (26.87%) Acceptance Criteria
3 123 (22.95%) Scrum
4 116 (21.64%) Problem-Solving
5 110 (20.52%) Business Analysis
6 109 (20.34%) Stakeholder Management
7 106 (19.78%) Workshop Facilitation
8 96 (17.91%) Requirements Gathering
9 92 (17.16%) Roadmaps
9 92 (17.16%) User Experience
10 74 (13.81%) Product Backlog
11 66 (12.31%) Sprint Planning
12 65 (12.13%) Backlog Management
13 63 (11.75%) Continuous Improvement
14 59 (11.01%) DevOps
14 59 (11.01%) Epics
14 59 (11.01%) User Acceptance Testing
15 56 (10.45%) Analytics
15 56 (10.45%) Decision-Making
16 55 (10.26%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 50 (9.33%) SQL
2 32 (5.97%) Python
3 25 (4.66%) JavaScript
4 22 (4.10%) Java
5 13 (2.43%) C#
6 11 (2.05%) TypeScript
7 4 (0.75%) R
8 3 (0.56%) Assembly Language
8 3 (0.56%) Bash
8 3 (0.56%) C++
8 3 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (0.56%) PowerShell
8 3 (0.56%) Ruby
8 3 (0.56%) T-SQL
9 2 (0.37%) ABAP
9 2 (0.37%) COBOL
9 2 (0.37%) JCL
9 2 (0.37%) ProC
9 2 (0.37%) REXX
9 2 (0.37%) VBA
Qualifications
1 60 (11.19%) Security Cleared
2 59 (11.01%) Degree
3 45 (8.40%) SC Cleared
4 13 (2.43%) CBAP
5 9 (1.68%) IIBA
6 7 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (1.31%) DV Cleared
6 7 (1.31%) PMI Certification
7 6 (1.12%) CSPO
8 3 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (0.56%) CISA
8 3 (0.56%) CISSP
8 3 (0.56%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (0.56%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.56%) PMP
8 3 (0.56%) SAFe Agilist
9 2 (0.37%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.37%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.37%) SAP Certification
10 1 (0.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (14.18%) QA
2 20 (3.73%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.61%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.68%) GRC
5 7 (1.31%) GDPR
6 5 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (0.75%) NIST
8 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.56%) MiFID
8 3 (0.56%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.56%) Software Quality Assurance
9 2 (0.37%) COREP
9 2 (0.37%) FINREP
9 2 (0.37%) GxP
9 2 (0.37%) HL7
9 2 (0.37%) PMO
10 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.19%) EMIR
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 20022
10 1 (0.19%) UCITS
System Software
1 14 (2.61%) Docker
2 4 (0.75%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 11 (2.05%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.68%) Terraform
3 6 (1.12%) HP ALM
4 3 (0.56%) Ansible
4 3 (0.56%) Grafana
4 3 (0.56%) Progress Chef
4 3 (0.56%) Prometheus
4 3 (0.56%) Puppet
5 2 (0.37%) HP Data Protector
5 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.37%) NetBackup
5 2 (0.37%) Rancher
5 2 (0.37%) SCCM
6 1 (0.19%) Argo
6 1 (0.19%) CloudHub
6 1 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.19%) MIIS
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 58 (10.82%) Microsoft
2 46 (8.58%) SAP
3 39 (7.28%) Salesforce
4 30 (5.60%) Oracle
5 14 (2.61%) ServiceNow
6 12 (2.24%) Google
7 7 (1.31%) Ariba
7 7 (1.31%) Atlassian
7 7 (1.31%) MuleSoft
8 6 (1.12%) Adobe
8 6 (1.12%) HP
8 6 (1.12%) Virgin Media
9 5 (0.93%) Databricks
9 5 (0.93%) Palantir
9 5 (0.93%) Sitecore
9 5 (0.93%) Splunk
10 4 (0.75%) IBM
10 4 (0.75%) Siebel
10 4 (0.75%) Snow
10 4 (0.75%) Workday