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 7 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
7 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 139 118 87
Rank change year-on-year -21 -31 +13
Contract jobs citing User Stories 732 1,212 2,543
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.68% 2.17% 2.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.97% 2.42% 3.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 500 853 1,791
10th Percentile £363 £400 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year - +3.96% +6.32%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 9 9
10th Percentile £31.71 £40.55 £38.70
25th Percentile £32.03 £51.50 -
Median hourly rate £33.04 £64.00 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year -48.38% +52.38% -16.00%
75th Percentile £57.77 £68.75 £53.00
90th Percentile £69.25 £72.00 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £37.50 £42.00
% change year-on-year +86.67% -10.71% +6.53%

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 37,078 50,015 79,966
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.30% 89.70% 90.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,703 34,589 56,207
10th Percentile £300 £325 £349
25th Percentile £413 £438 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £646
90th Percentile £750 £750 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,565 1,687 1,878
10th Percentile £12.75 £10.70 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.50 £15.63
Median hourly rate £36.50 £35.80 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% +39.41% +10.45%
75th Percentile £61.25 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.12 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.91% +75.00% -4.76%

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 7 June 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 7 June 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for User Stories in the UK

User Stories
Top 16 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 7 June 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 -25 598 £538 +2.38% 228
London -4 369 £550 +4.76% 113
Work from Home -1 318 £511 -1.83% 132
UK excluding London -34 284 £490 -2.00% 136
Scotland +32 71 £500 +13.64% 13
South East -39 70 £475 - 26
North of England -27 67 £500 -5.88% 36
Yorkshire +14 41 £495 -10.00% 10
Midlands -9 38 £475 -5.00% 22
West Midlands -14 27 £488 -9.30% 21
South West -29 26 £583 +5.91% 22
North West -29 22 £538 +3.37% 19
East of England -12 11 £400 -11.11% 4
East Midlands 0 8 £425 -15.00% 1
North East -3 4 £440 -11.56% 7
Northern Ireland -1 1 - - 5

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 73 (9.97%) Confluence
2 28 (3.83%) SharePoint
3 20 (2.73%) CMS
4 8 (1.09%) Drupal
5 6 (0.82%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.68%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (0.55%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.27%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.27%) SAS
10 1 (0.14%) Alfresco
10 1 (0.14%) Apache
10 1 (0.14%) Appian
10 1 (0.14%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.14%) Camunda
10 1 (0.14%) Joomla!
10 1 (0.14%) LiveLink
10 1 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
1 17 (2.32%) MS Visio
2 16 (2.19%) Sketch
3 12 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.96%) Trello
6 4 (0.55%) InVision
6 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.41%) Adobe XD
7 3 (0.41%) OmniGraffle
8 2 (0.27%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.27%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 28 (3.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (1.91%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.82%) SAP PM
3 6 (0.82%) Shopify
4 5 (0.68%) SAP Hybris
4 5 (0.68%) SimCorp Dimension
5 3 (0.41%) SAP QM
6 2 (0.27%) SAP IS-U
6 2 (0.27%) VisionPLUS
7 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.14%) Endur
7 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
7 1 (0.14%) Magento
7 1 (0.14%) Maximo
7 1 (0.14%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.14%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.14%) SAP LE
7 1 (0.14%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 162 (22.13%) Azure
2 73 (9.97%) Azure DevOps
3 67 (9.15%) Power Platform
4 55 (7.51%) Dynamics 365
5 36 (4.92%) AWS
6 22 (3.01%) SaaS
7 19 (2.60%) Power Automate
8 18 (2.46%) Figma
9 15 (2.05%) Microsoft 365
10 12 (1.64%) Azure Service Bus
10 12 (1.64%) PowerApps
11 9 (1.23%) Miro
11 9 (1.23%) Serverless
12 7 (0.96%) GCP
12 7 (0.96%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 6 (0.82%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (0.82%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 6 (0.82%) PaaS
13 6 (0.82%) Snowflake
14 5 (0.68%) BigCommerce
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.96%) Radio Access Network
2 6 (0.82%) Firewall
3 5 (0.68%) DNS
4 4 (0.55%) DHCP
4 4 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (0.41%) Internet
5 3 (0.41%) Network Security
5 3 (0.41%) VPN
6 2 (0.27%) BGP
6 2 (0.27%) Cisco ASA
6 2 (0.27%) DMVPN
6 2 (0.27%) EIGRP
6 2 (0.27%) IPsec
6 2 (0.27%) MPLS
6 2 (0.27%) OSPF
6 2 (0.27%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (0.27%) SNA
6 2 (0.27%) Sourcefire
6 2 (0.27%) Unified Communications
6 2 (0.27%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (6.83%) Power BI
2 18 (2.46%) SQL Server
3 17 (2.32%) NoSQL
4 15 (2.05%) Data Warehouse
5 13 (1.78%) BusinessObjects
5 13 (1.78%) MongoDB
6 11 (1.50%) Data Lake
7 9 (1.23%) Tableau
8 8 (1.09%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.82%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 6 (0.82%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.82%) Snowflake Schema
9 6 (0.82%) Tableau Server
10 5 (0.68%) BigQuery
10 5 (0.68%) GIS
10 5 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.68%) SAP HANA
10 5 (0.68%) Siebel EIM
11 4 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 125 (17.08%) JIRA
2 23 (3.14%) Git
3 19 (2.60%) SoapUI
4 18 (2.46%) Postman
5 16 (2.19%) Selenium
6 15 (2.05%) Cucumber
6 15 (2.05%) JUnit
7 11 (1.50%) JMeter
7 11 (1.50%) REST Assured
8 10 (1.37%) Visual Studio
9 9 (1.23%) Appium
9 9 (1.23%) eggPlant
9 9 (1.23%) SOAtest
9 9 (1.23%) TestNG
9 9 (1.23%) WebDriver
10 8 (1.09%) Visual Studio Team System
11 7 (0.96%) Eclipse
12 6 (0.82%) GitLab
13 3 (0.41%) Balsamiq
14 2 (0.27%) Axure RP
General
1 229 (31.28%) Social Skills
2 161 (21.99%) Finance
3 94 (12.84%) Public Sector
4 88 (12.02%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (5.05%) Banking
6 33 (4.51%) Telecoms
7 30 (4.10%) Marketing
8 26 (3.55%) Influencing Skills
9 25 (3.42%) Presentation Skills
10 24 (3.28%) Back Office
11 23 (3.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 19 (2.60%) Retail
13 15 (2.05%) Manufacturing
14 11 (1.50%) Publishing
15 9 (1.23%) Local Government
16 8 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
17 7 (0.96%) Billing
17 7 (0.96%) Games
17 7 (0.96%) Legal
18 6 (0.82%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 335 (45.77%) Analyst
2 279 (38.11%) Business Analyst
3 100 (13.66%) Senior
4 66 (9.02%) Product Owner
5 54 (7.38%) Developer
6 50 (6.83%) Technical Analyst
7 46 (6.28%) Senior Analyst
8 45 (6.15%) Consultant
9 39 (5.33%) Designer
9 39 (5.33%) Product Manager
10 35 (4.78%) Senior Business Analyst
11 33 (4.51%) Technical Business Analyst
12 29 (3.96%) Lead
13 23 (3.14%) Financial Analyst
14 22 (3.01%) Agile Business Analyst
14 22 (3.01%) Architect
15 20 (2.73%) Finance Business Analyst
15 20 (2.73%) Project Manager
16 19 (2.60%) Insurance Business Analyst
17 18 (2.46%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (4.64%) .NET
2 29 (3.96%) HTML
3 25 (3.42%) .NET Framework
4 22 (3.01%) React
5 17 (2.32%) ASP.NET
5 17 (2.32%) CSS
6 15 (2.05%) REST
7 14 (1.91%) Web Services
7 14 (1.91%) XML
8 13 (1.78%) SOAP
9 11 (1.50%) Gherkin
10 8 (1.09%) ADO
10 8 (1.09%) Node.js
11 7 (0.96%) AngularJS
11 7 (0.96%) ASP.NET Core
11 7 (0.96%) JSON
11 7 (0.96%) LDAP
12 6 (0.82%) Flask
12 6 (0.82%) Swagger
13 5 (0.68%) CSS3
Miscellaneous
1 188 (25.68%) Product Ownership
2 20 (2.73%) Mobile App
3 11 (1.50%) Management Information System
4 10 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (1.09%) CMDB
5 8 (1.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 7 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (0.82%) Algorithms
7 6 (0.82%) Cloud Native
7 6 (0.82%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (0.82%) Onboarding
7 6 (0.82%) Reinsurance
7 6 (0.82%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 5 (0.68%) Data Structures
8 5 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (0.68%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (0.68%) IoT
8 5 (0.68%) Smart Meter
9 4 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (0.55%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.64%) Android
2 11 (1.50%) Apple iOS
3 10 (1.37%) Windows
4 9 (1.23%) Linux
5 4 (0.55%) Unix
6 3 (0.41%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 440 (60.11%) Agile
2 221 (30.19%) Acceptance Criteria
3 190 (25.96%) Scrum
4 154 (21.04%) Business Analysis
5 136 (18.58%) DevOps
5 136 (18.58%) Requirements Gathering
6 120 (16.39%) Epics
7 119 (16.26%) Problem-Solving
8 104 (14.21%) User Acceptance Testing
9 93 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
10 92 (12.57%) Roadmaps
11 83 (11.34%) Product Backlog
12 79 (10.79%) Workshop Facilitation
13 75 (10.25%) Use Case
14 72 (9.84%) Project Management
15 69 (9.43%) Test Automation
16 68 (9.29%) Migration
17 67 (9.15%) User Research
18 66 (9.02%) User Experience
19 65 (8.88%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 73 (9.97%) SQL
2 35 (4.78%) Python
3 33 (4.51%) JavaScript
4 32 (4.37%) C#
4 32 (4.37%) Java
5 12 (1.64%) T-SQL
6 10 (1.37%) PowerShell
7 8 (1.09%) VB.NET
8 6 (0.82%) TypeScript
9 4 (0.55%) C
9 4 (0.55%) Go
10 3 (0.41%) VBA
11 2 (0.27%) Bicep
11 2 (0.27%) Ruby
12 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.14%) R
Qualifications
1 89 (12.16%) Security Cleared
2 78 (10.66%) SC Cleared
3 61 (8.33%) Degree
4 9 (1.23%) CBAP
5 8 (1.09%) DV Cleared
6 7 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (0.96%) Master's Degree
7 6 (0.82%) CSPO
7 6 (0.82%) PMI Certification
8 5 (0.68%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.68%) PMP
9 3 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.27%) CCNA
10 2 (0.27%) CCNP
10 2 (0.27%) CISSP
10 2 (0.27%) IIBA
10 2 (0.27%) MBA
10 2 (0.27%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (10.79%) QA
2 33 (4.51%) Data Quality
3 30 (4.10%) Accessibility
4 18 (2.46%) PCI DSS
5 10 (1.37%) WCAG
6 9 (1.23%) GDPR
7 8 (1.09%) PMO
8 5 (0.68%) GxP
8 5 (0.68%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
9 4 (0.55%) SLA
10 3 (0.41%) IFRS
10 3 (0.41%) IFRS 17
10 3 (0.41%) Solvency II
11 2 (0.27%) PSD2
11 2 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.27%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.14%) Basel II
12 1 (0.14%) Basel III
12 1 (0.14%) GRC
System Software
1 5 (0.68%) Docker
2 3 (0.41%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 9 (1.23%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (0.41%) Terraform
3 2 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
4 1 (0.14%) Ansible
4 1 (0.14%) Matomo
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.14%) SCCM
Vendors
1 82 (11.20%) Microsoft
2 51 (6.97%) SAP
3 26 (3.55%) Salesforce
4 18 (2.46%) Oracle
4 18 (2.46%) ServiceNow
5 14 (1.91%) Adobe
6 9 (1.23%) Atlassian
6 9 (1.23%) Guidewire
7 7 (0.96%) Cadence
8 6 (0.82%) CA Agile Central
8 6 (0.82%) Sitecore
9 5 (0.68%) CyberSource
9 5 (0.68%) Siebel
9 5 (0.68%) SimCorp
10 4 (0.55%) Ab Initio
10 4 (0.55%) Dell
10 4 (0.55%) Google
10 4 (0.55%) Hotjar
10 4 (0.55%) Intel
10 4 (0.55%) Optimizely