User Stories Contracts

User Story
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for User Stories skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited User Stories over the 6 months to 10 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
10 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 142 118 87
Rank change year-on-year -24 -31 +17
Contract jobs citing User Stories 709 1,279 2,527
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.65% 2.21% 2.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.91% 2.46% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 490 892 1,770
10th Percentile £357 £400 £397
25th Percentile £425 £440 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £505
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% +2.23% +6.32%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.00% +5.26% +7.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 8 12
10th Percentile £31.71 £46.23 £35.70
25th Percentile £32.03 £60.25 £42.00
Median hourly rate £42.75 £64.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -33.72% +51.76% -15.00%
75th Percentile £62.94 £67.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £69.25 £73.00 £84.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £26.50 £42.00
% change year-on-year +164.15% -36.90% +9.80%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

User Stories is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,090 51,996 79,100
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.26% 89.82% 90.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,884 36,030 55,497
10th Percentile £300 £325 £343
25th Percentile £413 £438 £427
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +3.77% +8.72%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,438 1,721 1,893
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.13 £15.50
Median hourly rate £36.50 £36.25 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +0.69% +41.16% +4.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £49.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.06 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.74% +75.00% -6.98%

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 10 May 2024.

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 10 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Top 15 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 10 May 2024. 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 -37 576 £538 +2.38% 271
London -5 353 £550 +4.76% 119
Work from Home +4 327 £511 -0.78% 123
UK excluding London -48 276 £490 -2.00% 161
North of England -19 70 £490 -8.84% 33
South East -34 69 £475 -1.81% 36
Scotland +9 68 £500 +14.94% 10
Yorkshire +17 44 £490 -10.91% 14
Midlands -13 37 £505 +6.32% 37
West Midlands -16 25 £505 +6.32% 29
North West -26 24 £525 - 15
South West -35 24 £595 +8.14% 32
East Midlands +11 9 £425 -12.82% 8
East of England -6 9 £425 -5.56% 8
North East +1 2 - - 4

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 65 (9.17%) Confluence
2 30 (4.23%) SharePoint
3 16 (2.26%) CMS
4 7 (0.99%) Drupal
5 5 (0.71%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 5 (0.71%) Oracle Workflow
6 4 (0.56%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.42%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.28%) SAS
9 1 (0.14%) Apache
9 1 (0.14%) Appian
9 1 (0.14%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.14%) Camunda
9 1 (0.14%) Joomla!
9 1 (0.14%) Moodle
9 1 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 23 (3.24%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (2.82%) MS Visio
3 16 (2.26%) Sketch
4 15 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
5 9 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.71%) Adobe XD
6 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.56%) InVision
7 4 (0.56%) Trello
8 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.28%) Zeplin
9 1 (0.14%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 22 (3.10%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (1.97%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.99%) SAP PM
4 6 (0.85%) Shopify
5 5 (0.71%) SAP Hybris
5 5 (0.71%) SimCorp Dimension
6 4 (0.56%) SAP QM
7 3 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.28%) Magento
8 2 (0.28%) Primavera
8 2 (0.28%) VisionPLUS
9 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.14%) Endur
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.14%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.14%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
9 1 (0.14%) SAP LE
9 1 (0.14%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 143 (20.17%) Azure
2 61 (8.60%) Power Platform
3 58 (8.18%) Azure DevOps
4 48 (6.77%) Dynamics 365
5 32 (4.51%) AWS
6 20 (2.82%) Figma
7 19 (2.68%) Power Automate
7 19 (2.68%) SaaS
8 14 (1.97%) Microsoft 365
9 11 (1.55%) Azure Service Bus
10 9 (1.27%) Miro
11 8 (1.13%) PowerApps
11 8 (1.13%) Serverless
12 7 (0.99%) Azure Data Factory
12 7 (0.99%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 6 (0.85%) PaaS
13 6 (0.85%) Snowflake
14 5 (0.71%) BigCommerce
14 5 (0.71%) Lucidchart
14 5 (0.71%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.99%) Radio Access Network
2 6 (0.85%) DNS
3 5 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
4 4 (0.56%) DHCP
4 4 (0.56%) Firewall
5 3 (0.42%) Internet
5 3 (0.42%) SNA
6 2 (0.28%) PPP
6 2 (0.28%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.14%) 3GPP
7 1 (0.14%) 4G
7 1 (0.14%) 5G
7 1 (0.14%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.14%) Broadband
7 1 (0.14%) GSM
7 1 (0.14%) HTTP
7 1 (0.14%) LAN
7 1 (0.14%) SMS
7 1 (0.14%) VPN
7 1 (0.14%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (6.35%) Power BI
2 16 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
3 14 (1.97%) Data Lake
4 12 (1.69%) MongoDB
5 11 (1.55%) NoSQL
6 8 (1.13%) SQL Server
7 6 (0.85%) BusinessObjects
7 6 (0.85%) Oracle Database
7 6 (0.85%) Tableau
8 5 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (0.71%) SAP HANA
8 5 (0.71%) Siebel EIM
9 4 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.56%) GIS
10 3 (0.42%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.42%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.42%) Geospatial Data
10 3 (0.42%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 117 (16.50%) JIRA
2 19 (2.68%) Git
3 18 (2.54%) Selenium
3 18 (2.54%) SoapUI
4 17 (2.40%) Postman
5 15 (2.12%) Cucumber
6 13 (1.83%) JMeter
6 13 (1.83%) JUnit
7 11 (1.55%) REST Assured
8 9 (1.27%) Appium
8 9 (1.27%) eggPlant
8 9 (1.27%) SOAtest
8 9 (1.27%) TestNG
8 9 (1.27%) WebDriver
9 7 (0.99%) Eclipse
10 5 (0.71%) GitLab
11 2 (0.28%) Axure RP
11 2 (0.28%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.28%) SpecFlow
11 2 (0.28%) TestRail
General
1 224 (31.59%) Social Skills
2 158 (22.28%) Finance
3 91 (12.83%) Analytical Skills
3 91 (12.83%) Public Sector
4 34 (4.80%) Banking
5 33 (4.65%) Telecoms
6 32 (4.51%) Marketing
7 26 (3.67%) Retail
8 24 (3.39%) Back Office
9 23 (3.24%) Influencing Skills
10 21 (2.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (2.54%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.69%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (1.13%) Publishing
15 7 (0.99%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.85%) Billing
16 6 (0.85%) Corporate Banking
16 6 (0.85%) Games
16 6 (0.85%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 331 (46.69%) Analyst
2 283 (39.92%) Business Analyst
3 86 (12.13%) Senior
4 64 (9.03%) Product Owner
5 52 (7.33%) Technical Analyst
6 46 (6.49%) Developer
7 41 (5.78%) Consultant
7 41 (5.78%) Senior Analyst
8 36 (5.08%) Senior Business Analyst
9 35 (4.94%) Designer
9 35 (4.94%) Product Manager
9 35 (4.94%) Technical Business Analyst
10 27 (3.81%) Lead
11 24 (3.39%) Project Manager
12 23 (3.24%) Agile Business Analyst
13 22 (3.10%) Data Analyst
13 22 (3.10%) Financial Analyst
14 21 (2.96%) Data Business Analyst
15 20 (2.82%) Architect
16 19 (2.68%) Finance Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.53%) .NET
2 23 (3.24%) React
3 20 (2.82%) HTML
4 17 (2.40%) .NET Framework
4 17 (2.40%) CSS
5 16 (2.26%) REST
6 14 (1.97%) Web Services
7 12 (1.69%) SOAP
7 12 (1.69%) XML
8 9 (1.27%) ASP.NET
8 9 (1.27%) Gherkin
9 7 (0.99%) ADO
9 7 (0.99%) AngularJS
9 7 (0.99%) ASP.NET Core
9 7 (0.99%) Flask
9 7 (0.99%) JSON
9 7 (0.99%) LDAP
9 7 (0.99%) Node.js
10 6 (0.85%) RESTful
10 6 (0.85%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 188 (26.52%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.24%) Mobile App
3 15 (2.12%) Management Information System
4 10 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (1.13%) CMDB
5 8 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 6 (0.85%) Algorithms
6 6 (0.85%) Data Centre
6 6 (0.85%) Onboarding
6 6 (0.85%) Reinsurance
6 6 (0.85%) Smart Meter
7 5 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (0.71%) Cloud Native
7 5 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (0.71%) Data Structures
7 5 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
7 5 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (0.71%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (0.56%) Client/Server
8 4 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.69%) Apple iOS
2 11 (1.55%) Android
3 10 (1.41%) Linux
4 9 (1.27%) Windows
5 4 (0.56%) Unix
6 2 (0.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 429 (60.51%) Agile
2 217 (30.61%) Acceptance Criteria
3 183 (25.81%) Scrum
4 149 (21.02%) Business Analysis
5 134 (18.90%) Requirements Gathering
6 120 (16.93%) Problem-Solving
7 119 (16.78%) Epics
8 115 (16.22%) DevOps
9 93 (13.12%) User Acceptance Testing
10 92 (12.98%) Roadmaps
11 82 (11.57%) Product Backlog
11 82 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
12 75 (10.58%) Workshop Facilitation
13 72 (10.16%) Project Management
14 69 (9.73%) Test Automation
15 68 (9.59%) Migration
15 68 (9.59%) User Experience
16 65 (9.17%) User Research
17 63 (8.89%) Backlog Management
18 61 (8.60%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 62 (8.74%) SQL
2 37 (5.22%) Python
3 31 (4.37%) Java
4 24 (3.39%) C#
5 23 (3.24%) JavaScript
6 10 (1.41%) PowerShell
7 7 (0.99%) TypeScript
8 4 (0.56%) C
8 4 (0.56%) Go
9 3 (0.42%) T-SQL
9 3 (0.42%) VBA
10 2 (0.28%) Bicep
10 2 (0.28%) Ruby
11 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.14%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.14%) R
11 1 (0.14%) Swift
Qualifications
1 97 (13.68%) Security Cleared
2 86 (12.13%) SC Cleared
3 66 (9.31%) Degree
4 11 (1.55%) DV Cleared
4 11 (1.55%) Master's Degree
5 9 (1.27%) CBAP
6 8 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.13%) CSPO
7 7 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.99%) PMI Certification
8 6 (0.85%) PMP
9 5 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.71%) MBA
10 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.28%) APMP
11 2 (0.28%) IIBA
11 2 (0.28%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 2 (0.28%) SAP Certification
12 1 (0.14%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (12.41%) QA
2 33 (4.65%) Data Quality
3 30 (4.23%) Accessibility
4 18 (2.54%) PCI DSS
5 14 (1.97%) WCAG
6 10 (1.41%) GDPR
7 7 (0.99%) PMO
8 5 (0.71%) GxP
8 5 (0.71%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
9 4 (0.56%) SLA
10 3 (0.42%) IFRS
10 3 (0.42%) IFRS 17
10 3 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.42%) Solvency II
11 2 (0.28%) PSD2
11 2 (0.28%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.14%) Basel II
12 1 (0.14%) GRC
12 1 (0.14%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 4 (0.56%) Docker
2 1 (0.14%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (1.13%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (0.28%) HP Quality Center
3 2 (0.28%) Terraform
4 1 (0.14%) Matomo
Vendors
1 76 (10.72%) Microsoft
2 45 (6.35%) SAP
3 25 (3.53%) Salesforce
4 19 (2.68%) Oracle
5 18 (2.54%) ServiceNow
6 15 (2.12%) Adobe
7 9 (1.27%) Atlassian
8 8 (1.13%) Guidewire
9 6 (0.85%) CA Agile Central
9 6 (0.85%) Cadence
9 6 (0.85%) Sitecore
10 5 (0.71%) CyberSource
10 5 (0.71%) Databricks
10 5 (0.71%) Siebel
10 5 (0.71%) SimCorp
11 4 (0.56%) Dell
11 4 (0.56%) Hotjar
11 4 (0.56%) Intel
11 4 (0.56%) Optimizely
11 4 (0.56%) Screaming Frog