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 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
2 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 135 79 62
Rank change year-on-year -56 -17 -16
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 652 888 1,378
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.13% 2.93% 3.57%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.26% 16.17% 21.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 470 632 987
10th Percentile £325 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -7.41% -1.82%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £738
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 7 20
10th Percentile £27.98 £27.71 £20.17
25th Percentile £38.83 £38.75 £45.13
Median hourly rate £58.36 £60.50 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.54% +12.56% +34.38%
75th Percentile £71.88 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.25 £79.00 £64.96
UK median hourly rate £58.36 £32.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year +79.57% -38.10% +38.16%

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 5,317 5,490 6,446
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.34% 18.09% 16.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,704 3,674 4,592
10th Percentile £326 £350 £356
25th Percentile £410 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -
75th Percentile £625 £663 £650
90th Percentile £725 £788 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £530 £535
% change year-on-year -5.66% -0.93% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 76 131
10th Percentile £21.03 £18.25 £18.57
25th Percentile £29.72 £24.69 £22.87
Median hourly rate £47.61 £39.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.08% -15.55% -7.64%
75th Percentile £66.06 £61.69 £64.77
90th Percentile £84.65 £66.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £33.75 £46.18
% change year-on-year +44.36% -26.92% -7.44%

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 2 December 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 2 December 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 2 December 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 -32 378 £523 -5.00% 136
North of England -28 85 £425 -10.53% 133
South East -31 78 £450 -10.00% 158
North West -16 47 £415 -7.37% 84
Yorkshire -17 38 £425 -24.31% 39
East of England -9 27 £500 +29.03% 26
South West -27 26 £520 -0.95% 45
Midlands -85 24 £375 -16.67% 78
West Midlands -62 14 £450 -20.63% 46
East Midlands -41 9 £333 -10.14% 31
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 28 (4.29%) Confluence
1 28 (4.29%) IIS
2 25 (3.83%) SharePoint
3 14 (2.15%) Microsoft Exchange
4 13 (1.99%) Apache
4 13 (1.99%) WebSphere
5 10 (1.53%) Apache Spark
6 9 (1.38%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 9 (1.38%) WebLogic
7 5 (0.77%) JBoss
8 4 (0.61%) SharePoint Server
9 3 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.46%) CICS
9 3 (0.46%) CMS
9 3 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.46%) Skype for Business
9 3 (0.46%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.31%) HCL Notes
10 2 (0.31%) SAS
10 2 (0.31%) WildFly
Applications
1 52 (7.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.07%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (1.07%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.31%) Trello
5 2 (0.31%) Windchill
6 1 (0.15%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 9 (1.38%) Advent Geneva
2 7 (1.07%) Fidessa
2 7 (1.07%) Oracle BPM
3 6 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.92%) Maximo
3 6 (0.92%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.77%) BusinessWorks
5 4 (0.61%) Aladdin
5 4 (0.61%) Endur
5 4 (0.61%) OpenText MBPM
5 4 (0.61%) thinkFolio
6 3 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
7 2 (0.31%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.31%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.31%) RMDS
7 2 (0.31%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.31%) Temenos T24
8 1 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 257 (39.42%) Azure
2 121 (18.56%) AWS
3 90 (13.80%) Power Platform
4 54 (8.28%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (6.13%) GCP
6 38 (5.83%) GitHub
7 26 (3.99%) Azure Data Factory
7 26 (3.99%) Microsoft 365
8 22 (3.37%) SaaS
8 22 (3.37%) Serverless
9 21 (3.22%) GitHub Actions
10 20 (3.07%) Amazon S3
10 20 (3.07%) Snowflake
11 18 (2.76%) Azure Service Bus
11 18 (2.76%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 17 (2.61%) Dynamics 365
13 16 (2.45%) Azure Logic Apps
14 14 (2.15%) Amazon EC2
15 13 (1.99%) IaaS
15 13 (1.99%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 32 (4.91%) Firewall
2 19 (2.91%) DNS
2 19 (2.91%) TCP/IP
3 12 (1.84%) Internet
4 10 (1.53%) HTTP
4 10 (1.53%) LAN
5 9 (1.38%) DHCP
6 7 (1.07%) SSL
7 5 (0.77%) NAS
7 5 (0.77%) Skype
8 4 (0.61%) NetScaler
8 4 (0.61%) SAN
8 4 (0.61%) VoIP
9 3 (0.46%) VLAN
9 3 (0.46%) VPN
9 3 (0.46%) VSAN
9 3 (0.46%) WAN
9 3 (0.46%) Wireshark
10 2 (0.31%) SMTP
10 2 (0.31%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (13.04%) PostgreSQL
2 79 (12.12%) Relational Database
3 77 (11.81%) Power BI
4 67 (10.28%) Oracle Database
5 59 (9.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 57 (8.74%) Data Warehouse
7 49 (7.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 44 (6.75%) Azure SQL Database
9 43 (6.60%) MongoDB
10 39 (5.98%) MySQL
11 33 (5.06%) NoSQL
12 27 (4.14%) DB2
13 26 (3.99%) Amazon RDS
14 20 (3.07%) Big Data
15 18 (2.76%) RDBMS
15 18 (2.76%) Redis
16 17 (2.61%) Data Lake
17 15 (2.30%) Power Query
18 13 (1.99%) Metadata
18 13 (1.99%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 61 (9.36%) Git
2 41 (6.29%) JIRA
3 28 (4.29%) Jenkins
4 19 (2.91%) GitLab
5 17 (2.61%) Maven
6 15 (2.30%) Bitbucket
7 14 (2.15%) JUnit
7 14 (2.15%) SpecFlow
7 14 (2.15%) Visual Studio
8 13 (1.99%) Selenium
9 12 (1.84%) Cucumber
10 11 (1.69%) Mockito
11 10 (1.53%) Octopus Deploy
11 10 (1.53%) Sonatype Nexus
12 9 (1.38%) TeamCity
13 8 (1.23%) Postman
14 7 (1.07%) SonarQube
14 7 (1.07%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
14 7 (1.07%) webpack
15 6 (0.92%) Eclipse
General
1 225 (34.51%) Social Skills
2 196 (30.06%) Finance
3 93 (14.26%) Banking
4 89 (13.65%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (5.67%) Public Sector
6 32 (4.91%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (4.45%) Investment Banking
8 20 (3.07%) Front Office
9 17 (2.61%) Financial Institution
10 12 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.69%) Retail
12 10 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (1.23%) Legal
14 7 (1.07%) Back Office
14 7 (1.07%) Local Government
14 7 (1.07%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
17 4 (0.61%) Law
18 3 (0.46%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 247 (37.88%) Developer
2 72 (11.04%) Senior
3 61 (9.36%) C# Developer
4 53 (8.13%) Analyst
5 51 (7.82%) Data Engineer
6 50 (7.67%) .NET Developer
7 44 (6.75%) Architect
8 36 (5.52%) Senior Developer
9 35 (5.37%) DBA
10 32 (4.91%) Consultant
11 24 (3.68%) Angular Developer
11 24 (3.68%) Lead
11 24 (3.68%) SQL Developer
12 21 (3.22%) Java Developer
13 20 (3.07%) C# .NET Developer
13 20 (3.07%) Software Engineer
14 19 (2.91%) Applications Support
14 19 (2.91%) Data Analyst
14 19 (2.91%) Full-Stack Developer
15 17 (2.61%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (26.99%) .NET
2 81 (12.42%) .NET Framework
3 56 (8.59%) HTML
4 52 (7.98%) REST
5 51 (7.82%) CSS
6 50 (7.67%) AngularJS
7 45 (6.90%) React
8 42 (6.44%) XML
9 39 (5.98%) Entity Framework
9 39 (5.98%) Kafka
10 38 (5.83%) .NET Core
10 38 (5.83%) RESTful
11 30 (4.60%) SOAP
12 29 (4.45%) Web Services
13 23 (3.53%) ASP.NET
14 22 (3.37%) JSON
14 22 (3.37%) WPF
15 21 (3.22%) NHibernate
16 18 (2.76%) Middleware
16 18 (2.76%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.14%) Legacy Systems
2 26 (3.99%) Cloud Native
3 22 (3.37%) Derivative
4 20 (3.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 20 (3.07%) Product Ownership
5 19 (2.91%) Management Information System
6 18 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
6 18 (2.76%) Enterprise Software
7 15 (2.30%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.30%) PKI
8 14 (2.15%) Credit Risk
8 14 (2.15%) Replication
9 12 (1.84%) Data Structures
9 12 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
9 12 (1.84%) Fixed Income
10 11 (1.69%) Clustering
10 11 (1.69%) Hedge funds
10 11 (1.69%) Reinsurance
11 10 (1.53%) NHS
12 9 (1.38%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 114 (17.48%) Windows
2 83 (12.73%) Linux
3 58 (8.90%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.53%) Unix
4 10 (1.53%) Windows 10
5 8 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.07%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.61%) VMS
9 2 (0.31%) Solaris
9 2 (0.31%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.15%) Android
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.15%) MVS
10 1 (0.15%) SUSE
10 1 (0.15%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (25.31%) Agile
2 148 (22.70%) Problem-Solving
3 131 (20.09%) DevOps
4 128 (19.63%) CI/CD
5 105 (16.10%) Migration
6 98 (15.03%) Business Intelligence
7 92 (14.11%) ETL
8 83 (12.73%) Microservices
9 66 (10.12%) Data Modelling
10 56 (8.59%) Performance Tuning
11 55 (8.44%) Data Analysis
11 55 (8.44%) Data Migration
12 54 (8.28%) Test Automation
13 51 (7.82%) Full-Stack Development
14 50 (7.67%) Analytics
15 48 (7.36%) Software Engineering
16 44 (6.75%) Scrum
17 43 (6.60%) Containerisation
17 43 (6.60%) Data Governance
18 41 (6.29%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 358 (54.91%) SQL
2 172 (26.38%) C#
3 124 (19.02%) Python
4 79 (12.12%) T-SQL
5 78 (11.96%) JavaScript
6 61 (9.36%) Java
7 48 (7.36%) PowerShell
8 43 (6.60%) PL/SQL
9 34 (5.21%) Bash
10 23 (3.53%) VBA
11 19 (2.91%) TypeScript
11 19 (2.91%) VB
12 18 (2.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 15 (2.30%) Shell Script
14 9 (1.38%) PHP
15 6 (0.92%) COBOL
15 6 (0.92%) Scala
15 6 (0.92%) X++
16 5 (0.77%) Bicep
16 5 (0.77%) XPath
Qualifications
1 77 (11.81%) Security Cleared
2 65 (9.97%) Degree
3 57 (8.74%) SC Cleared
4 27 (4.14%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (2.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (1.84%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.07%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.07%) MCSE
8 6 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.92%) HNC
8 6 (0.92%) HND
8 6 (0.92%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.92%) MCP
9 5 (0.77%) AWS Certification
9 5 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (0.46%) CCNP
10 3 (0.46%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.31%) CCIE
11 2 (0.31%) ISEB
11 2 (0.31%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (9.05%) QA
2 50 (7.67%) Data Quality
3 13 (1.99%) GDPR
4 12 (1.84%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.53%) SLA
6 9 (1.38%) MiFID
7 5 (0.77%) EMIR
8 4 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.46%) WCAG
10 2 (0.31%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.31%) PMO
10 2 (0.31%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.15%) IFRS
11 1 (0.15%) IFRS 17
11 1 (0.15%) NCSC
11 1 (0.15%) NIST
11 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 61 (9.36%) Docker
2 48 (7.36%) Active Directory
3 30 (4.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.99%) Oracle RAC
5 11 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.53%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.23%) VMware NSX
7 8 (1.23%) zsh
8 6 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.61%) vSphere
10 3 (0.46%) NFS
10 3 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.31%) GPFS
11 2 (0.31%) GridGain
11 2 (0.31%) NDS
11 2 (0.31%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.15%) KVM
12 1 (0.15%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
12 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 42 (6.44%) Kubernetes
2 28 (4.29%) Ansible
3 26 (3.99%) Terraform
4 14 (2.15%) Data Guard
4 14 (2.15%) Grafana
5 13 (1.99%) Oracle RMAN
5 13 (1.99%) Puppet
5 13 (1.99%) vCenter Server
6 11 (1.69%) NetBackup
7 10 (1.53%) yum
8 9 (1.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 9 (1.38%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (1.23%) SCCM
10 7 (1.07%) SCOM
11 6 (0.92%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 5 (0.77%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.77%) TIBCO Hawk
13 4 (0.61%) Control-M
13 4 (0.61%) WSUS
Vendors
1 208 (31.90%) Microsoft
2 206 (31.60%) Oracle
3 44 (6.75%) VMware
4 36 (5.52%) Citrix
5 30 (4.60%) Databricks
6 22 (3.37%) Google
7 19 (2.91%) IBM
7 19 (2.91%) SAP
8 15 (2.30%) Salesforce
9 14 (2.15%) CyberArk
10 12 (1.84%) Cisco
11 11 (1.69%) Informatica
11 11 (1.69%) Veritas
12 9 (1.38%) Advent
13 8 (1.23%) Atlassian
13 8 (1.23%) ServiceNow
13 8 (1.23%) Sybase
14 7 (1.07%) PagerDuty
14 7 (1.07%) Veeam
15 6 (0.92%) SolarWinds
502 SQL Server jobs in England