England SMS Contracts

The table below looks at the demand for Short Message Service (SMS) skills within the England region with a comparison to our Communications & Networking category. Included is a guide to the contractor rates offered in IT jobs that have cited SMS over the 3 months to 21 November 2008 with a comparison to the same period last year.

Short Message Service (SMS)
Location Basingstoke Berkshire Bracknell Bristol Buckinghamshire Cambridge Cambridgeshire Cheshire Chester City of London Coventry Crawley Deeside Docklands, London Dorset East Midlands East of England Edinburgh England Essex Farnborough Flintshire Glasgow Gloucester Gloucestershire Hampshire Hertfordshire High Wycombe Huntingdon Leeds Leicester Leicestershire Lincolnshire Livingston London M4 Corridor Maidenhead Manchester Middlesex Milton Keynes Newbury Norfolk North East North Wales North West Northampton Northamptonshire Norwich Oxford Oxfordshire Peterborough Portsmouth Reading Rotherham Runcorn Scotland Sheffield Slough South East South Wales South West South Yorkshire Sunderland Surrey Swindon Tyne and Wear UK Wakefield Wales Walton-on-Thames West Lothian West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Yorkshire	3 months to 21 Nov 2008	Same period last year
Rank	332	357
Rank change on same period last year	+25
Matching contract IT job ads	200	298
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	0.315 %	0.319 %
As % of the category below	2.506 %	2.542 %
Daily rates quoted	68	109
Average minimum daily rate	£311	£288
Average daily rate	£328	£304
% change on same period last year	+7.82 %
Average maximum daily rate	£345	£320
UK excluding London average daily rate	£311	£254
% change on same period last year	+22.43 %
Hourly rates quoted	33	46
Average minimum hourly rate	£24.03	£23.47
Average hourly rate	£25.15	£25.16
% change on same period last year	-0.04 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£26.27	£26.85
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£25.90	£23.09
% change on same period last year	+12.19 %
Communications & Networking England
Matching contract IT job ads	7982	11724
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	12.57 %	12.56 %
Daily rates quoted	2116	3104
Average minimum daily rate	£340	£338
Average daily rate	£359	£355
% change on same period last year	+1.34 %
Average maximum daily rate	£378	£371
UK excluding London average daily rate	£347	£332
% change on same period last year	+4.47 %
Hourly rates quoted	1124	1670
Average minimum hourly rate	£25.77	£26.91
Average hourly rate	£27.45	£29.02
% change on same period last year	-5.38 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£29.13	£31.12
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£27.93	£29.11
% change on same period last year	-4.05 %
SMS UK

We calculate average IT contractor rates directly from the figures quoted and do not attempt to derive hourly rates from daily rates or vice versa.

SMS
Demand Trend

The chart provides a 3-month moving total beginning in 2004 of IT contractor jobs citing SMS across the England region as a proportion of the total demand within the Communications & Networking category.

SMS
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing SMS across the England region.

SMS
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing SMS across the England region over the 3 months to 21 November 2008.

SMS
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing SMS across the England region.

SMS
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing SMS across the England region over the 3 months to 21 November 2008.

SMS
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SMS within the England region over the 3 months to 21 November 2008. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year. A positive number indicates a relative increase in demand.

Location	Rank Change on Same Period Last Last	Matching Contract IT Job Ads	Average Daily Rate Last 3 Months	Average Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year
London	+64	92	£334	-6.91 %
South East	+24	45	£352	+10.87 %
South West	+24	19	£425	+75.51 %
East of England	+12	18	£227	+26.74 %
Yorkshire	+33	8	£230	-
North West	+5	8	£249	-20.52 %
East Midlands	+2	5	-	-
West Midlands	-3	3	£185	-54.98 %
North East	+7	2	-	-

SMS UK

SMS
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 21 November 2008, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing SMS also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited SMS.

1 189 (46.90 %) Windows 2 112 (27.79 %) Active Directory 3 90 (22.33 %) Windows XP 4 77 (19.11 %) Windows Server 2003 5 61 (15.14 %) VBScript 6 42 (10.42 %) Citrix 7 40 (9.926 %) MOM 7 40 (9.926 %) Banking 8 38 (9.429 %) IBM 9 37 (9.181 %) Telecoms 10 36 (8.933 %) Finance 10 36 (8.933 %) MSI 10 36 (8.933 %) TCP/IP 11 35 (8.685 %) Security Cleared 12 33 (8.189 %) Migration

13 32 (7.940 %) VMware 13 32 (7.940 %) SAN 14 31 (7.692 %) Microsoft Certification 14 31 (7.692 %) SCCM 15 29 (7.196 %) MS Exchange 15 29 (7.196 %) MCSE 16 28 (6.948 %) UNIX 16 28 (6.948 %) SQL Server 17 26 (6.452 %) Java 18 25 (6.203 %) ITIL 19 23 (5.707 %) Health 19 23 (5.707 %) HP 19 23 (5.707 %) Altiris 20 22 (5.459 %) VMware Infrastructure 20 22 (5.459 %) Exchange Server 2003

SMS
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 21 November 2008, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing SMS also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited SMS. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development 1 22 (5.459 %) Application Packaging 2 20 (4.963 %) .NET 3 18 (4.467 %) XML 4 11 (2.730 %) HTML 5 10 (2.481 %) J2ME 6 9 (2.233 %) J2EE 7 8 (1.985 %) ASP.NET 8 7 (1.737 %) XHTML 8 7 (1.737 %) WAP 9 6 (1.489 %) RSS 9 6 (1.489 %) ASP 10 4 (0.993 %) XSLT 11 3 (0.744 %) WebServices 11 3 (0.744 %) J2SE 11 3 (0.744 %) WML 11 3 (0.744 %) WMI 11 3 (0.744 %) ISPF 12 2 (0.496 %) WinForms 12 2 (0.496 %) JNDI 12 2 (0.496 %) WSH	Application Platforms 1 29 (7.196 %) MS Exchange 2 22 (5.459 %) Exchange Server 2003 3 12 (2.978 %) Lotus Notes 3 12 (2.978 %) IIS 4 4 (0.993 %) Lotus Domino 4 4 (0.993 %) Exchange Server 2000 4 4 (0.993 %) DotNetNuke 5 3 (0.744 %) CICS 5 3 (0.744 %) Apache 5 3 (0.744 %) SharePoint 6 2 (0.496 %) Tomcat 6 2 (0.496 %) Exchange Server 5.5 6 2 (0.496 %) Exchange Server 2007 7 1 (0.248 %) GroupWise 7 1 (0.248 %) CMS 7 1 (0.248 %) WebLogic 7 1 (0.248 %) JBoss 7 1 (0.248 %) Resin
Applications 1 7 (1.737 %) XMetaL 2 6 (1.489 %) Quicktime 3 5 (1.241 %) Fireworks 3 5 (1.241 %) Paint Shop Pro 3 5 (1.241 %) Photoshop 3 5 (1.241 %) Adobe Illustrator 4 1 (0.248 %) MS PowerPoint 4 1 (0.248 %) CA Clarity 4 1 (0.248 %) MS Office 4 1 (0.248 %) MS Visio	Business Applications 1 11 (2.730 %) SoftGrid 2 5 (1.241 %) Google Analytics 3 1 (0.248 %) Cerner Millennium 3 1 (0.248 %) assyst 3 1 (0.248 %) Oracle EBS
Communications & Networking 1 36 (8.933 %) TCP/IP 2 32 (7.940 %) SAN 3 22 (5.459 %) DNS 4 16 (3.970 %) LAN 5 14 (3.474 %) WAN 5 14 (3.474 %) 3G 6 13 (3.226 %) DHCP 7 10 (2.481 %) SMPP 8 9 (2.233 %) UMTS 9 8 (1.985 %) VoIP 9 8 (1.985 %) 3GPP 9 8 (1.985 %) GSM 9 8 (1.985 %) INAP 10 7 (1.737 %) LDAP 11 6 (1.489 %) GPRS 11 6 (1.489 %) HTTP 11 6 (1.489 %) Firewall 11 6 (1.489 %) Internet 12 4 (0.993 %) Cisco ASA 12 4 (0.993 %) Wireless	Database & Business Intelligence 1 28 (6.948 %) SQL Server 2 6 (1.489 %) SQL Server 2005 3 4 (0.993 %) DB2 4 3 (0.744 %) MySQL 5 1 (0.248 %) Oracle 11g 5 1 (0.248 %) Oracle 9i 5 1 (0.248 %) Datawarehouse 5 1 (0.248 %) Data Mining 5 1 (0.248 %) Oracle 10g 5 1 (0.248 %) SQL Server 2000
Development Applications 1 36 (8.933 %) MSI 2 19 (4.715 %) InstallShield 3 9 (2.233 %) Flash 4 8 (1.985 %) TestDirector 5 5 (1.241 %) Dreamweaver 6 3 (0.744 %) Eclipse 7 1 (0.248 %) Ant 7 1 (0.248 %) JUnit 7 1 (0.248 %) Visual Studio 7 1 (0.248 %) NUnit 7 1 (0.248 %) Subversion 7 1 (0.248 %) Carbide.c++ 7 1 (0.248 %) QuickTest Pro	General 1 40 (9.926 %) Banking 2 37 (9.181 %) Telecoms 3 36 (8.933 %) Finance 4 23 (5.707 %) Health 5 13 (3.226 %) Aerospace 5 13 (3.226 %) Government 6 12 (2.978 %) Retail 6 12 (2.978 %) Law 7 10 (2.481 %) Marketing 8 9 (2.233 %) Investment Banking 9 8 (1.985 %) Retail Banking 10 4 (0.993 %) Billing 10 4 (0.993 %) Games 11 3 (0.744 %) Multimedia 11 3 (0.744 %) Insurance 11 3 (0.744 %) Education 11 3 (0.744 %) Manufacturing 11 3 (0.744 %) Advertising 12 2 (0.496 %) 3D Graphics 12 2 (0.496 %) Mobile Games
Job Titles 1 57 (14.14 %) Analyst 2 30 (7.444 %) Test Engineer 3 26 (6.452 %) Applications Packager 4 24 (5.955 %) Support Engineer 5 22 (5.459 %) Desktop Analyst 6 21 (5.211 %) Developer 6 21 (5.211 %) Architect 7 20 (4.963 %) Systems Engineer 8 19 (4.715 %) Consultant 9 17 (4.218 %) Support Analyst 10 16 (3.970 %) 3rd Line Support 11 14 (3.474 %) Server Support 12 13 (3.226 %) Desktop Support 13 11 (2.730 %) Project Manager 13 11 (2.730 %) Technical Architect 14 10 (2.481 %) Software Engineer 14 10 (2.481 %) 2nd Line Support 14 10 (2.481 %) Administrator 14 10 (2.481 %) Server Engineer 15 9 (2.233 %) Migration Technician	Miscellaneous 1 21 (5.211 %) Mainframe 2 15 (3.722 %) IBM Mainframe 3 9 (2.233 %) Client/Server 4 8 (1.985 %) IVR 5 6 (1.489 %) Clustering 6 5 (1.241 %) Blackberry 6 5 (1.241 %) Blog 7 4 (0.993 %) Social Network 7 4 (0.993 %) NHS 8 3 (0.744 %) Flash Lite 9 2 (0.496 %) Management Information System 9 2 (0.496 %) Streaming Video 9 2 (0.496 %) VSAM 10 1 (0.248 %) IPTV 10 1 (0.248 %) Physics 10 1 (0.248 %) Ergonomics 10 1 (0.248 %) French Language 10 1 (0.248 %) German Language 10 1 (0.248 %) Italian Language 10 1 (0.248 %) Russian Language
Operating Systems 1 189 (46.90 %) Windows 2 90 (22.33 %) Windows XP 3 77 (19.11 %) Windows Server 2003 4 28 (6.948 %) UNIX 5 22 (5.459 %) Windows 2000 6 21 (5.211 %) Windows Vista 7 14 (3.474 %) Windows 2000 Server 8 13 (3.226 %) Linux 9 8 (1.985 %) zOS 10 5 (1.241 %) Mac OS X 11 4 (0.993 %) Solaris 12 3 (0.744 %) NetWare 12 3 (0.744 %) Windows Server 2008 13 2 (0.496 %) Windows Mobile 13 2 (0.496 %) Windows CE 13 2 (0.496 %) Windows NT 14 1 (0.248 %) OpenVMS 14 1 (0.248 %) AIX 14 1 (0.248 %) MVS	Processes & Methodologies 1 35 (8.685 %) Security Cleared 2 33 (8.189 %) Migration 3 25 (6.203 %) ITIL 4 14 (3.474 %) Change Management 5 13 (3.226 %) Data Migration 6 12 (2.978 %) Business Desktop Deployment 7 11 (2.730 %) SC Cleared 8 10 (2.481 %) Test Scripting 9 9 (2.233 %) Integration Testing 10 8 (1.985 %) Configuration Management 10 8 (1.985 %) CRM 11 7 (1.737 %) Asset Management 12 6 (1.489 %) Disaster Recovery 12 6 (1.489 %) Service Management 13 5 (1.241 %) PRINCE2 13 5 (1.241 %) Validation 14 4 (0.993 %) Network Design 14 4 (0.993 %) Project Management 14 4 (0.993 %) Unit Testing 14 4 (0.993 %) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages 1 61 (15.14 %) VBScript 2 26 (6.452 %) Java 3 21 (5.211 %) VB 4 19 (4.715 %) SQL 5 14 (3.474 %) C# 6 12 (2.978 %) C 7 11 (2.730 %) Perl 8 10 (2.481 %) JavaScript 9 7 (1.737 %) C++ 10 5 (1.241 %) Transact-SQL 10 5 (1.241 %) ActionScript 10 5 (1.241 %) Pascal 11 4 (0.993 %) VB.NET 12 3 (0.744 %) PHP 13 2 (0.496 %) VBA 13 2 (0.496 %) Shell Script 13 2 (0.496 %) JCL 13 2 (0.496 %) MUMPS 14 1 (0.248 %) REXX 14 1 (0.248 %) Tcl	Qualifications 1 31 (7.692 %) Microsoft Certification 2 29 (7.196 %) MCSE 3 9 (2.233 %) MCP 4 5 (1.241 %) CCNA 4 5 (1.241 %) Cisco Certification 5 3 (0.744 %) ISEB 6 2 (0.496 %) MCSA 6 2 (0.496 %) CNE 6 2 (0.496 %) Novell Certification 7 1 (0.248 %) ITIL Certification 7 1 (0.248 %) PMP 7 1 (0.248 %) PMI Certification 7 1 (0.248 %) Degree 7 1 (0.248 %) HNC 7 1 (0.248 %) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance 1 5 (1.241 %) PCI DSS 2 4 (0.993 %) QA	System Software 1 112 (27.79 %) Active Directory 2 22 (5.459 %) VMware Infrastructure 3 11 (2.730 %) Terminal Services 4 8 (1.985 %) VMware ESX 5 6 (1.489 %) NetBackup 6 5 (1.241 %) Citrix Presentation Server 6 5 (1.241 %) Terminal Server 7 4 (0.993 %) ISA Server 8 3 (0.744 %) Backup Exec 9 1 (0.248 %) VMware Server 9 1 (0.248 %) RACF
Systems Management 1 40 (9.926 %) MOM 2 31 (7.692 %) SCCM 3 19 (4.715 %) WSUS 4 11 (2.730 %) SCOM 5 7 (1.737 %) OpenView Configuration Management 5 7 (1.737 %) Tivoli 6 6 (1.489 %) Tivoli Storage Manager 7 5 (1.241 %) Norton AntiVirus 8 3 (0.744 %) OpenView 8 3 (0.744 %) ZENworks 9 2 (0.496 %) CiscoWorks 9 2 (0.496 %) NNM 9 2 (0.496 %) OVOW 10 1 (0.248 %) OMEGAMON 10 1 (0.248 %) Veritas Storage Foundation 10 1 (0.248 %) BMC Marimba 10 1 (0.248 %) OVPI 10 1 (0.248 %) Legato 10 1 (0.248 %) Netcool	Vendors 1 42 (10.42 %) Citrix 2 38 (9.429 %) IBM 3 32 (7.940 %) VMware 4 23 (5.707 %) HP 4 23 (5.707 %) Altiris 5 17 (4.218 %) Dell 6 16 (3.970 %) Cisco 7 14 (3.474 %) Remedy 8 12 (2.978 %) Lotus 9 10 (2.481 %) Brocade 10 9 (2.233 %) VERITAS 11 8 (1.985 %) EMC 11 8 (1.985 %) Adobe 12 7 (1.737 %) Macromedia 13 5 (1.241 %) Novell 13 5 (1.241 %) Nortel 13 5 (1.241 %) Google 13 5 (1.241 %) Symantec 14 4 (0.993 %) NetApp 14 4 (0.993 %) McAfee Security