SQL Server Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > England

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

 6 months to
1 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 104 54
Rank change year-on-year -11 -50 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,019 698 1,251
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.24% 2.53% 3.71%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.56% 13.94% 20.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 519 894
10th Percentile £358 £315 £328
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £513 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% - -4.21%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £712 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 6 9
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £29.48
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £36.75
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.80 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +99.79% -51.00% +6.73%
75th Percentile £65.17 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £76.15 £83.13 £84.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £48.03
% change year-on-year -32.09% +45.74% +6.73%

All Database & BI Skills
England

SQL Server falls under the Databases and Business Intelligence category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring database or business intelligence skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 7,001 5,007 6,161
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.38% 18.14% 18.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,679 3,467 4,416
10th Percentile £356 £350 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -4.19% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £675
90th Percentile £700 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £508 £525
% change year-on-year -1.48% -3.33% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 78 91
10th Percentile £16.00 £18.67 £13.69
25th Percentile £25.25 £23.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £34.82 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.58% -7.16% -31.82%
75th Percentile £62.00 £64.69 £60.78
90th Percentile £76.80 £77.86 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £36.25 £36.50
% change year-on-year +8.97% -0.68% -33.64%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL Server relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

SQL Server job vacancy trend in England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SQL Server within the England region over the 6 months to 1 August 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
London -29 490 £525 -5.23% 174
North of England +9 199 £455 +1.11% 91
South East -11 126 £468 +12.77% 96
North West -7 108 £477 +12.12% 49
Midlands -5 101 £473 +10.64% 60
Yorkshire +20 90 £450 -6.25% 31
West Midlands -34 57 £450 -14.29% 38
South West -10 50 £450 - 22
East Midlands +9 42 £525 +54.41% 22
East of England -9 31 £475 -5.00% 16
North East -43 1 - - 15
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 69 (6.77%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.61%) IIS
3 41 (4.02%) Confluence
4 23 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (2.16%) Apache Spark
6 21 (2.06%) Apache
7 19 (1.86%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (1.28%) Camunda
9 11 (1.08%) Oracle Workflow
10 9 (0.88%) Appian
11 8 (0.79%) CMS
12 6 (0.59%) NetWeaver
13 5 (0.49%) OpenEdge
13 5 (0.49%) Tuxedo
14 4 (0.39%) Tomcat
14 4 (0.39%) Umbraco
15 3 (0.29%) Apache Solr
15 3 (0.29%) Apache Superset
15 3 (0.29%) nginx
15 3 (0.29%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 50 (4.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (2.36%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.18%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.098%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.098%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.098%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 23 (2.26%) Remedy ITSM
2 18 (1.77%) Dynamics CRM
3 17 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.69%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.69%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
6 5 (0.49%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.39%) Aladdin
7 4 (0.39%) Elite 3E
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.20%) Endur
8 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.20%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.098%) Findur
9 1 (0.098%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.098%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.098%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 422 (41.41%) Azure
2 216 (21.20%) AWS
3 150 (14.72%) Power Platform
4 111 (10.89%) Azure DevOps
5 90 (8.83%) GitHub
6 65 (6.38%) Azure Data Factory
7 47 (4.61%) Entra ID
8 44 (4.32%) Serverless
9 41 (4.02%) Microsoft 365
10 40 (3.93%) Azure Monitor
10 40 (3.93%) Power Automate
11 38 (3.73%) GitHub Actions
11 38 (3.73%) Snowflake
12 35 (3.43%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 33 (3.24%) Dynamics 365
13 33 (3.24%) GCP
14 27 (2.65%) SaaS
15 26 (2.55%) dbt
16 24 (2.36%) Amazon S3
17 23 (2.26%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 49 (4.81%) DNS
2 40 (3.93%) DHCP
3 31 (3.04%) Firewall
4 21 (2.06%) SAN
5 20 (1.96%) VLAN
6 17 (1.67%) VPN
7 14 (1.37%) Internet
8 13 (1.28%) Network Security
8 13 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (1.18%) SSH
9 12 (1.18%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.98%) SSL
11 8 (0.79%) LAN
12 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
12 6 (0.59%) IPv4
12 6 (0.59%) IPv6
12 6 (0.59%) WAN
13 5 (0.49%) VoIP
14 4 (0.39%) Kerberos
15 3 (0.29%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (14.52%) PostgreSQL
2 126 (12.37%) Power BI
3 106 (10.40%) Relational Database
4 104 (10.21%) Data Warehouse
5 101 (9.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 73 (7.16%) Oracle Database
7 66 (6.48%) MySQL
8 60 (5.89%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 56 (5.50%) Azure SQL Database
10 44 (4.32%) MongoDB
11 41 (4.02%) Data Lake
12 33 (3.24%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 30 (2.94%) NoSQL
14 24 (2.36%) RDBMS
15 20 (1.96%) Tableau
16 16 (1.57%) Metadata
16 16 (1.57%) Redis
16 16 (1.57%) Star Schema
17 15 (1.47%) Big Data
18 13 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 94 (9.22%) Git
2 55 (5.40%) Jenkins
3 52 (5.10%) JIRA
4 28 (2.75%) GitLab
5 25 (2.45%) Visual Studio
6 20 (1.96%) TeamCity
7 18 (1.77%) Team Foundation Server
8 17 (1.67%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 15 (1.47%) Maven
10 14 (1.37%) Cucumber
11 13 (1.28%) Octopus Deploy
11 13 (1.28%) Postman
11 13 (1.28%) Sonatype Nexus
12 12 (1.18%) Selenium
13 10 (0.98%) Artifactory
13 10 (0.98%) Chocolatey
14 9 (0.88%) Cypress.io
14 9 (0.88%) Gatling
14 9 (0.88%) WebDriver
15 8 (0.79%) MSTest
General
1 298 (29.24%) Social Skills
2 259 (25.42%) Finance
3 189 (18.55%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (12.76%) Banking
5 79 (7.75%) Public Sector
6 46 (4.51%) Documentation Skills
7 40 (3.93%) Front Office
8 28 (2.75%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 16 (1.57%) Legal
10 16 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.37%) Financial Institution
11 14 (1.37%) Retail
12 9 (0.88%) Advertising
13 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
14 7 (0.69%) Back Office
15 6 (0.59%) Local Government
15 6 (0.59%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.49%) Law
16 5 (0.49%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 301 (29.54%) Developer
2 158 (15.51%) Senior
3 144 (14.13%) DBA
4 91 (8.93%) SQL DBA
5 87 (8.54%) C# Developer
5 87 (8.54%) Data Engineer
6 78 (7.65%) .NET Developer
7 73 (7.16%) Lead
8 58 (5.69%) Administrator
9 52 (5.10%) Architect
10 50 (4.91%) SQL Developer
11 49 (4.81%) Senior Developer
12 46 (4.51%) Analyst
13 44 (4.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 42 (4.12%) Oracle DBA
15 40 (3.93%) Software Engineer
16 38 (3.73%) Full-Stack Developer
17 35 (3.43%) Azure Engineer
18 33 (3.24%) C# .NET Developer
18 33 (3.24%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 257 (25.22%) .NET
2 128 (12.56%) REST
3 101 (9.91%) .NET Framework
4 78 (7.65%) React
5 59 (5.79%) ASP.NET
6 58 (5.69%) RESTful
7 57 (5.59%) AngularJS
8 56 (5.50%) CSS
9 53 (5.20%) Kafka
10 47 (4.61%) HTML
11 46 (4.51%) .NET Core
12 38 (3.73%) Web Services
13 37 (3.63%) JSON
14 36 (3.53%) XML
15 30 (2.94%) SOAP
16 28 (2.75%) Entity Framework
17 24 (2.36%) OAuth
17 24 (2.36%) Spring Boot
18 22 (2.16%) Spring
19 21 (2.06%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 58 (5.69%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.00%) Cloud Native
3 49 (4.81%) Data Structures
4 46 (4.51%) Clustering
4 46 (4.51%) Legacy Systems
5 43 (4.22%) Replication
6 40 (3.93%) Self-Motivation
7 37 (3.63%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (2.75%) Management Information System
9 22 (2.16%) Product Ownership
10 21 (2.06%) PKI
11 20 (1.96%) Data Centre
12 17 (1.67%) Derivative
12 17 (1.67%) Low-Code
13 15 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
14 14 (1.37%) NHS
15 13 (1.28%) Algorithms
15 13 (1.28%) Fixed Income
16 11 (1.08%) Legacy Code
17 10 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 263 (25.81%) Windows
2 151 (14.82%) Windows Server
3 99 (9.72%) Linux
4 55 (5.40%) Unix
5 13 (1.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.79%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.79%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (0.59%) AIX
7 6 (0.59%) Android
7 6 (0.59%) VMS
8 5 (0.49%) Solaris
8 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
8 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.29%) CentOS
9 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.098%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.098%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (25.22%) DevOps
2 232 (22.77%) Agile
3 224 (21.98%) CI/CD
4 212 (20.80%) Problem-Solving
5 185 (18.16%) Migration
6 159 (15.60%) ETL
7 149 (14.62%) Business Intelligence
8 136 (13.35%) Performance Tuning
9 135 (13.25%) Data Modelling
10 117 (11.48%) Disaster Recovery
11 116 (11.38%) AI
12 101 (9.91%) Analytics
13 94 (9.22%) Data Pipeline
14 88 (8.64%) High Availability
15 87 (8.54%) Continuous Improvement
16 86 (8.44%) Microservices
17 81 (7.95%) Test Automation
18 80 (7.85%) Software Engineering
19 78 (7.65%) Data Analysis
20 77 (7.56%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 572 (56.13%) SQL
2 266 (26.10%) C#
3 206 (20.22%) Python
4 184 (18.06%) PowerShell
5 169 (16.58%) T-SQL
6 116 (11.38%) JavaScript
7 79 (7.75%) Java
8 64 (6.28%) PL/SQL
9 51 (5.00%) TypeScript
10 35 (3.43%) Bash
11 26 (2.55%) Shell Script
12 25 (2.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (1.77%) Scala
13 18 (1.77%) VB
14 17 (1.67%) Korn
15 15 (1.47%) VBA
16 11 (1.08%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.59%) VB6
18 6 (0.59%) XPath
Qualifications
1 249 (24.44%) Security Cleared
2 189 (18.55%) SC Cleared
3 104 (10.21%) Degree
4 42 (4.12%) DV Cleared
5 41 (4.02%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (2.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 20 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.86%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.18%) ISTQB
9 12 (1.18%) Oracle Certification
10 11 (1.08%) OCP
11 9 (0.88%) DBS Check
12 8 (0.79%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.49%) CISSP
13 5 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (0.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 4 (0.39%) MCITP
14 4 (0.39%) MCTS
14 4 (0.39%) PhD
15 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.62%) QA
2 91 (8.93%) Data Quality
3 29 (2.85%) GDPR
4 27 (2.65%) NIST
5 25 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (2.36%) Accessibility
7 22 (2.16%) SLA
8 16 (1.57%) WCAG
9 6 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.49%) ISO 9000
11 4 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.29%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.20%) Basel III
13 2 (0.20%) COREP
13 2 (0.20%) FINREP
13 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.20%) GRC
13 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
14 1 (0.098%) IFRS
System Software
1 126 (12.37%) Active Directory
2 76 (7.46%) Docker
3 32 (3.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (2.94%) Oracle RAC
4 30 (2.94%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.98%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.29%) Dovecot
7 3 (0.29%) GridGain
7 3 (0.29%) KVM
7 3 (0.29%) Postfix
7 3 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.20%) vSphere
9 1 (0.098%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.098%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.098%) NFS
9 1 (0.098%) SRDF
9 1 (0.098%) XenApp
9 1 (0.098%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 102 (10.01%) Kubernetes
2 72 (7.07%) Terraform
3 38 (3.73%) Ansible
4 23 (2.26%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.06%) Oracle RMAN
6 17 (1.67%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.57%) SCCM
8 15 (1.47%) Data Guard
9 13 (1.28%) HAProxy
10 12 (1.18%) SCOM
11 10 (0.98%) WSUS
12 9 (0.88%) Grafana
13 7 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
13 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Clustering
13 7 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
14 4 (0.39%) ITRS Geneos
14 4 (0.39%) Prometheus
14 4 (0.39%) vCenter Server
15 3 (0.29%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
15 3 (0.29%) Foglight
Vendors
1 324 (31.80%) Microsoft
2 283 (27.77%) Oracle
3 59 (5.79%) Databricks
4 58 (5.69%) VMware
5 52 (5.10%) ServiceNow
6 49 (4.81%) Citrix
7 48 (4.71%) CyberArk
8 37 (3.63%) SAP
9 31 (3.04%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.26%) Remedy
11 22 (2.16%) BMC
11 22 (2.16%) Sybase
12 21 (2.06%) Dynatrace
12 21 (2.06%) Informatica
13 20 (1.96%) Cisco
14 17 (1.67%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.57%) IBM
16 15 (1.47%) Google
17 13 (1.28%) Alteryx
18 12 (1.18%) AppDynamics
434 SQL Server jobs in England