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 23 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 124 68 59
Rank change year-on-year -56 -9 -11
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 664 1,016 1,486
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.34% 3.21% 3.67%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.83% 17.87% 22.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 728 1,103
10th Percentile £313 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £503 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% -6.94% -
75th Percentile £619 £625 £663
90th Percentile £714 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £496 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -0.90% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 6 17
10th Percentile £20.83 £26.83 £32.70
25th Percentile £20.95 £35.00 £46.00
Median hourly rate £21.27 £56.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -62.19% +7.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £35.52 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £60.71 £82.50 £66.64
UK median hourly rate £21.27 £47.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -55.22% -9.52% -4.55%

All Database and Business Intelligence 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 5,174 5,686 6,748
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 18.20% 17.97% 16.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,566 3,850 4,795
10th Percentile £338 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% - -
75th Percentile £626 £663 £663
90th Percentile £750 £800 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 82 145
10th Percentile £18.97 £17.50 £18.84
25th Percentile £29.00 £22.10 £25.38
Median hourly rate £42.00 £34.47 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year +21.85% -31.75% +1.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £56.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £84.20 £69.28 £78.75
UK median hourly rate £40.25 £30.40 £50.00
% change year-on-year +32.38% -39.20% +0.11%

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 23 October 2025.

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 23 October 2025.

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 23 October 2025. 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 -50 366 £550 - 212
North of England -15 82 £440 -8.57% 154
South East -25 74 £425 -15.00% 245
North West -19 44 £445 - 92
Midlands -76 41 £375 -15.73% 95
Yorkshire -9 38 £425 -24.31% 43
South West 0 33 £450 - 37
East of England +1 32 £500 +33.33% 57
West Midlands -36 25 £468 -17.98% 55
East Midlands -38 15 £340 -15.00% 40
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 31 (4.67%) IIS
2 28 (4.22%) Confluence
3 24 (3.61%) SharePoint
4 15 (2.26%) Apache
4 15 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 10 (1.51%) Apache Spark
5 10 (1.51%) WebSphere
6 7 (1.05%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (0.75%) WebLogic
8 4 (0.60%) CICS
8 4 (0.60%) JBoss
8 4 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
9 3 (0.45%) CMS
9 3 (0.45%) SAS
9 3 (0.45%) Skype for Business
9 3 (0.45%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.30%) BizTalk Server
10 2 (0.30%) HCL Notes
10 2 (0.30%) WildFly
Applications
1 64 (9.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
3 5 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.75%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.30%) Trello
5 2 (0.30%) Windchill
6 1 (0.15%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 10 (1.51%) Oracle BPM
2 9 (1.36%) Maximo
3 7 (1.05%) Fidessa
3 7 (1.05%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (1.05%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.75%) Endur
5 4 (0.60%) Aladdin
5 4 (0.60%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.60%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.60%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.60%) thinkFolio
6 3 (0.45%) Advent Geneva
6 3 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.45%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.30%) Kondor
7 2 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.30%) RMDS
7 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.30%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 270 (40.66%) Azure
2 115 (17.32%) AWS
3 93 (14.01%) Power Platform
4 54 (8.13%) Azure DevOps
5 41 (6.17%) GitHub
6 39 (5.87%) GCP
7 36 (5.42%) Azure Data Factory
8 27 (4.07%) Serverless
9 26 (3.92%) Azure Service Bus
9 26 (3.92%) SaaS
10 25 (3.77%) Microsoft 365
11 23 (3.46%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 21 (3.16%) Azure Logic Apps
12 21 (3.16%) Snowflake
13 20 (3.01%) GitHub Actions
14 19 (2.86%) Power Automate
15 17 (2.56%) Azure Functions
15 17 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (2.41%) PaaS
17 15 (2.26%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.07%) Firewall
2 17 (2.56%) DNS
3 15 (2.26%) TCP/IP
4 11 (1.66%) HTTP
4 11 (1.66%) Internet
5 9 (1.36%) LAN
6 7 (1.05%) SSL
7 5 (0.75%) DHCP
7 5 (0.75%) NAS
7 5 (0.75%) Skype
8 4 (0.60%) SAN
9 3 (0.45%) Wireshark
10 2 (0.30%) RS-232
10 2 (0.30%) SMTP
10 2 (0.30%) VLAN
10 2 (0.30%) VoIP
10 2 (0.30%) VPN
10 2 (0.30%) WAN
10 2 (0.30%) WebEx
10 2 (0.30%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (12.65%) Power BI
2 71 (10.69%) Relational Database
3 69 (10.39%) PostgreSQL
4 67 (10.09%) Oracle Database
5 63 (9.49%) Data Warehouse
6 57 (8.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 49 (7.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 45 (6.78%) Azure SQL Database
9 40 (6.02%) MongoDB
10 38 (5.72%) MySQL
11 34 (5.12%) NoSQL
12 22 (3.31%) DB2
13 21 (3.16%) Amazon RDS
14 20 (3.01%) Big Data
14 20 (3.01%) Redis
15 17 (2.56%) Power Query
15 17 (2.56%) RDBMS
15 17 (2.56%) Tableau
16 15 (2.26%) Data Lake
17 12 (1.81%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 58 (8.73%) Git
2 44 (6.63%) JIRA
3 24 (3.61%) Jenkins
4 22 (3.31%) GitLab
5 18 (2.71%) SpecFlow
6 17 (2.56%) Bitbucket
6 17 (2.56%) Maven
7 16 (2.41%) Visual Studio
8 15 (2.26%) Selenium
9 13 (1.96%) Cucumber
10 12 (1.81%) JUnit
11 10 (1.51%) Sonatype Nexus
12 9 (1.36%) Mockito
12 9 (1.36%) Octopus Deploy
13 8 (1.20%) Postman
13 8 (1.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 8 (1.20%) TeamCity
14 7 (1.05%) Eclipse
14 7 (1.05%) SonarQube
14 7 (1.05%) webpack
General
1 217 (32.68%) Social Skills
2 204 (30.72%) Finance
3 93 (14.01%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (13.55%) Banking
5 40 (6.02%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.37%) Investment Banking
7 26 (3.92%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (3.16%) Front Office
9 16 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 14 (2.11%) Financial Institution
11 12 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.51%) Back Office
13 8 (1.20%) Legal
14 7 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.05%) Retail
15 6 (0.90%) Local Government
15 6 (0.90%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
17 4 (0.60%) General Ledger
17 4 (0.60%) Law
Job Titles
1 249 (37.50%) Developer
2 72 (10.84%) Senior
3 65 (9.79%) C# Developer
4 55 (8.28%) Data Engineer
5 54 (8.13%) Analyst
6 51 (7.68%) .NET Developer
7 44 (6.63%) Architect
7 44 (6.63%) Senior Developer
8 38 (5.72%) Consultant
8 38 (5.72%) DBA
9 28 (4.22%) Lead
10 27 (4.07%) Angular Developer
11 26 (3.92%) C# .NET Developer
12 24 (3.61%) Full-Stack Developer
12 24 (3.61%) SQL Developer
13 22 (3.31%) Applications Support
13 22 (3.31%) SQL DBA
14 21 (3.16%) Data Analyst
15 19 (2.86%) Java Developer
16 18 (2.71%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (26.51%) .NET
2 76 (11.45%) .NET Framework
3 73 (10.99%) HTML
4 66 (9.94%) CSS
5 51 (7.68%) AngularJS
6 47 (7.08%) React
6 47 (7.08%) REST
7 45 (6.78%) XML
8 44 (6.63%) Entity Framework
9 40 (6.02%) .NET Core
10 39 (5.87%) RESTful
11 34 (5.12%) ASP.NET
12 33 (4.97%) Kafka
13 31 (4.67%) Web Services
14 30 (4.52%) SOAP
15 27 (4.07%) JSON
16 25 (3.77%) NHibernate
17 21 (3.16%) Middleware
18 20 (3.01%) Playwright
19 19 (2.86%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 26 (3.92%) Derivative
2 24 (3.61%) Legacy Systems
3 20 (3.01%) Cloud Native
3 20 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
3 20 (3.01%) Replication
4 19 (2.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 19 (2.86%) Product Ownership
5 18 (2.71%) Management Information System
6 15 (2.26%) Distributed Systems
6 15 (2.26%) PKI
7 14 (2.11%) Clustering
7 14 (2.11%) Reinsurance
8 12 (1.81%) Fixed Income
9 11 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (1.66%) Hedge funds
9 11 (1.66%) Linux Command Line
9 11 (1.66%) Onboarding
10 10 (1.51%) NHS
11 9 (1.36%) Data Centre
11 9 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 111 (16.72%) Windows
2 83 (12.50%) Linux
3 54 (8.13%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.96%) Unix
4 13 (1.96%) Windows 10
5 8 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.90%) Android
6 6 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (0.60%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.45%) VMS
8 3 (0.45%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.30%) Solaris
9 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.30%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.15%) MVS
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (25.75%) Agile
2 170 (25.60%) Problem-Solving
3 142 (21.39%) DevOps
4 126 (18.98%) CI/CD
5 111 (16.72%) ETL
6 106 (15.96%) Migration
7 99 (14.91%) Business Intelligence
8 88 (13.25%) Microservices
9 64 (9.64%) Data Modelling
10 60 (9.04%) Performance Tuning
10 60 (9.04%) Test Automation
11 57 (8.58%) Analytics
12 54 (8.13%) Data Analysis
12 54 (8.13%) Full-Stack Development
12 54 (8.13%) Scrum
13 51 (7.68%) Data Migration
14 48 (7.23%) Data Governance
15 47 (7.08%) Clean Code
16 44 (6.63%) Disaster Recovery
17 43 (6.48%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 371 (55.87%) SQL
2 187 (28.16%) C#
3 132 (19.88%) Python
4 98 (14.76%) JavaScript
5 73 (10.99%) T-SQL
6 64 (9.64%) Java
7 60 (9.04%) PowerShell
8 37 (5.57%) PL/SQL
9 28 (4.22%) Bash
9 28 (4.22%) VBA
10 22 (3.31%) TypeScript
11 21 (3.16%) VB
12 19 (2.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 15 (2.26%) Shell Script
14 9 (1.36%) COBOL
15 8 (1.20%) Bicep
16 7 (1.05%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.90%) Scala
17 6 (0.90%) X++
18 5 (0.75%) PHP
Qualifications
1 87 (13.10%) Security Cleared
2 70 (10.54%) Degree
3 64 (9.64%) SC Cleared
4 29 (4.37%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (1.81%) DV Cleared
7 11 (1.66%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.36%) MCSE
9 7 (1.05%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (1.05%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.90%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.90%) HNC
10 6 (0.90%) HND
10 6 (0.90%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (0.90%) MCP
11 4 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (0.60%) PMP
12 3 (0.45%) CTC Cleared
12 3 (0.45%) SAP Certification
13 2 (0.30%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (8.73%) QA
2 57 (8.58%) Data Quality
3 15 (2.26%) Accessibility
4 12 (1.81%) SLA
5 11 (1.66%) MiFID
6 10 (1.51%) GDPR
7 5 (0.75%) EMIR
8 4 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.45%) GAAP
9 3 (0.45%) WCAG
10 2 (0.30%) Basel III
10 2 (0.30%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.30%) HL7
10 2 (0.30%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.30%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.30%) PMO
11 1 (0.15%) IFRS
11 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 50 (7.53%) Active Directory
2 48 (7.23%) Docker
3 27 (4.07%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (2.26%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (1.81%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.51%) zsh
7 9 (1.36%) Hyper-V
8 7 (1.05%) VMware NSX
9 4 (0.60%) vSphere
10 3 (0.45%) NFS
11 2 (0.30%) GPFS
11 2 (0.30%) GridGain
11 2 (0.30%) NDS
11 2 (0.30%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 2 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.15%) KVM
12 1 (0.15%) SRDF
12 1 (0.15%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.15%) Xen
Systems Management
1 43 (6.48%) Kubernetes
2 21 (3.16%) Ansible
3 20 (3.01%) Terraform
4 14 (2.11%) Data Guard
5 13 (1.96%) Oracle RMAN
6 12 (1.81%) vCenter Server
7 11 (1.66%) NetBackup
8 10 (1.51%) Grafana
8 10 (1.51%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (1.51%) yum
9 9 (1.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (1.20%) SCCM
11 7 (1.05%) SCOM
12 6 (0.90%) Control-M
12 6 (0.90%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 6 (0.90%) Prometheus
12 6 (0.90%) Puppet
13 5 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
14 4 (0.60%) ZABBIX
15 3 (0.45%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 212 (31.93%) Microsoft
2 208 (31.33%) Oracle
3 40 (6.02%) VMware
4 28 (4.22%) Databricks
5 24 (3.61%) IBM
6 23 (3.46%) Citrix
6 23 (3.46%) Google
7 21 (3.16%) SAP
8 15 (2.26%) Salesforce
9 14 (2.11%) CyberArk
10 13 (1.96%) Cisco
11 12 (1.81%) Informatica
12 11 (1.66%) Veritas
13 10 (1.51%) Sybase
13 10 (1.51%) Talend
14 7 (1.05%) Atlassian
14 7 (1.05%) Cognos
14 7 (1.05%) HP
14 7 (1.05%) ServiceNow
14 7 (1.05%) Veeam