User Stories Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

User Story
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring User Stories skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 102 87
Rank change year-on-year 0 -15 +23
Contract jobs citing User Stories 39 9 23
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.68% 0.55% 1.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.95% 0.63% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 6 15
10th Percentile £403 £350 £388
25th Percentile £450 £415 £397
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £468 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.24% -1.58% +11.76%
75th Percentile £550 £525 £550
90th Percentile £615 £588 £573
England median daily rate £488 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -7.14% - -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £30.00 - -
England median hourly rate £60.61 - £52.50
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,005 1,425 1,522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 86.42% 86.31% 84.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,265 888 1,022
10th Percentile £263 £221 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% +3.90% -
75th Percentile £584 £612 £600
90th Percentile £675 £713 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 47 52
10th Percentile £13.51 £14.70 £14.57
25th Percentile £16.13 £16.51 £17.67
Median hourly rate £18.87 £21.59 £24.80
Median % change year-on-year -12.60% -12.94% +46.44%
75th Percentile £27.21 £34.38 £58.13
90th Percentile £35.76 £52.50 £68.63
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +26.76%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Stories relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

User Stories job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

User Stories
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing User Stories.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing User Stories

User Stories
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Stories in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Stories in the West Midlands

User Stories
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing User Stories.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing User Stories

User Stories
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

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 West Midlands region over the 6 months to 1 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
Shropshire - 16 £492 - 6
Warwickshire -1 12 £495 +4.21% 5
Birmingham -8 4 £438 +6.06% 9
Coventry - 4 - - 4
Worcestershire - 1 £605 - 1
User Stories
England

User Stories
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 11 (28.21%) Confluence
2 6 (15.38%) SAS
3 2 (5.13%) Anypoint
4 1 (2.56%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (5.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (10.26%) SAP HR
1 4 (10.26%) SAP PM
2 1 (2.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (2.56%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 8 (20.51%) AWS
2 3 (7.69%) Power Platform
2 3 (7.69%) Salesforce Service Cloud
3 2 (5.13%) Azure
4 1 (2.56%) Amazon EventBridge
4 1 (2.56%) Amazon SQS
4 1 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
4 1 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (2.56%) Figma
4 1 (2.56%) GitHub
4 1 (2.56%) iPaaS
4 1 (2.56%) Serverless
4 1 (2.56%) SuccessFactors
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 2 (5.13%) Power BI
3 1 (2.56%) Relational Database
3 1 (2.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 17 (43.59%) JIRA
2 1 (2.56%) Cucumber
2 1 (2.56%) REST Assured
2 1 (2.56%) Selenium
General
1 27 (69.23%) Social Skills
2 16 (41.03%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (17.95%) Documentation Skills
3 7 (17.95%) Public Sector
4 3 (7.69%) Finance
5 2 (5.13%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (5.13%) Legal
5 2 (5.13%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (5.13%) Retail
6 1 (2.56%) Digital Healthcare
6 1 (2.56%) Law
6 1 (2.56%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 19 (48.72%) Analyst
2 18 (46.15%) Business Analyst
3 7 (17.95%) Architect
4 6 (15.38%) Technical Architect
5 4 (10.26%) Migration Analyst
5 4 (10.26%) Salesforce Architect
5 4 (10.26%) Salesforce Technical Architect
5 4 (10.26%) SAS Analyst
5 4 (10.26%) SAS Business Analyst
6 3 (7.69%) Pega Business Analyst
6 3 (7.69%) Product Owner
6 3 (7.69%) Scala Engineer
7 2 (5.13%) Developer
7 2 (5.13%) Digital Analyst
7 2 (5.13%) Digital Business Analyst
7 2 (5.13%) MuleSoft Architect
7 2 (5.13%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
8 1 (2.56%) Oracle Analyst
8 1 (2.56%) Software Developer
8 1 (2.56%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (10.26%) GraphQL
1 4 (10.26%) Lightning Web Components
1 4 (10.26%) SAP PI
1 4 (10.26%) Visualforce
2 3 (7.69%) Play Framework
3 2 (5.13%) RESTful
4 1 (2.56%) Gherkin
4 1 (2.56%) HTML
4 1 (2.56%) Java EE
4 1 (2.56%) JSON
4 1 (2.56%) Middleware
4 1 (2.56%) MUnit
4 1 (2.56%) OAuth
4 1 (2.56%) OAuth2
4 1 (2.56%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (2.56%) RAML
4 1 (2.56%) REST
4 1 (2.56%) SOAP
4 1 (2.56%) Web Services
4 1 (2.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (25.64%) Product Ownership
2 3 (7.69%) Algorithms
2 3 (7.69%) PKI
3 2 (5.13%) Legacy Systems
3 2 (5.13%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.56%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (2.56%) Client/Server
4 1 (2.56%) Cloud Native
4 1 (2.56%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (2.56%) Data Structures
4 1 (2.56%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (2.56%) FMCG
4 1 (2.56%) Management Information System
4 1 (2.56%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.56%) Linux
1 1 (2.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1 1 (2.56%) Windows
1 1 (2.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (79.49%) Agile
2 14 (35.90%) Stakeholder Management
3 13 (33.33%) Migration
3 13 (33.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 12 (30.77%) Acceptance Criteria
4 12 (30.77%) Business Analysis
4 12 (30.77%) User Acceptance Testing
5 11 (28.21%) DevOps
5 11 (28.21%) Requirements Gathering
6 10 (25.64%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (25.64%) Problem-Solving
7 9 (23.08%) Analytics
7 9 (23.08%) Impact Assessments
8 8 (20.51%) Roadmaps
8 8 (20.51%) Workshop Facilitation
9 7 (17.95%) Data Migration
9 7 (17.95%) Use Case
9 7 (17.95%) User Experience
10 6 (15.38%) Data Governance
10 6 (15.38%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.26%) Apex Code
1 4 (10.26%) Scala
2 3 (7.69%) SQL
3 2 (5.13%) Java
3 2 (5.13%) PL/SQL
4 1 (2.56%) Groovy
4 1 (2.56%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (20.51%) Security Cleared
2 7 (17.95%) IIBA
3 5 (12.82%) Degree
3 5 (12.82%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (2.56%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (25.64%) GDPR
2 5 (12.82%) QA
3 4 (10.26%) FIPS 140-2
3 4 (10.26%) PCI DSS
4 3 (7.69%) Accessibility
5 1 (2.56%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 1 (2.56%) Docker
Vendors
1 7 (17.95%) SAP
2 4 (10.26%) Pega
2 4 (10.26%) Salesforce
3 2 (5.13%) Microsoft
3 2 (5.13%) MuleSoft
4 1 (2.56%) Autodesk
4 1 (2.56%) Oracle
4 1 (2.56%) Red Hat
4 1 (2.56%) Workday