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

 6 months to
23 Nov 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 76 62
Rank change year-on-year -56 -14 -16
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 668 916 1,412
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.20% 2.91% 3.58%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.50% 16.36% 21.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 483 654 1,015
10th Percentile £321 £325 £363
25th Percentile £402 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £656
90th Percentile £700 £710 £750
UK median daily rate £484 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.20% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 7 20
10th Percentile £20.86 £27.71 £20.17
25th Percentile £21.02 £38.75 £45.13
Median hourly rate £21.27 £60.50 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -64.84% +12.56% +28.74%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £74.50 £79.00 £64.96
UK median hourly rate £21.27 £32.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -34.55% -38.10% +31.25%

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 5,344 5,598 6,540
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.58% 17.81% 16.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,715 3,742 4,649
10th Percentile £327 £350 £355
25th Percentile £411 £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 £534
% change year-on-year -5.66% -0.75% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 79 136
10th Percentile £20.91 £18.00 £18.91
25th Percentile £29.25 £24.88 £24.37
Median hourly rate £45.00 £35.00 £47.70
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% -26.62% -4.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.85 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.40 £65.20 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £44.25 £30.59 £47.50
% change year-on-year +44.66% -35.60% +5.56%

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 November 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 November 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 November 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 -33 389 £525 -4.55% 119
North of England -9 90 £440 -8.57% 108
South East -36 73 £441 -11.75% 142
North West -10 51 £448 - 67
Yorkshire -11 39 £425 -24.31% 35
East of England -9 28 £500 +29.03% 23
Midlands -81 28 £370 -17.59% 84
South West -31 27 £485 -3.00% 38
West Midlands -49 16 £438 -22.84% 53
East Midlands -37 11 £319 -13.78% 30
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 29 (4.34%) IIS
2 28 (4.19%) Confluence
3 26 (3.89%) SharePoint
4 13 (1.95%) Apache
4 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 13 (1.95%) WebSphere
5 10 (1.50%) Apache Spark
6 9 (1.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 9 (1.35%) WebLogic
7 5 (0.75%) JBoss
8 4 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
9 3 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.45%) CICS
9 3 (0.45%) CMS
9 3 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.45%) Skype for Business
9 3 (0.45%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.30%) HCL Notes
10 2 (0.30%) SAS
10 2 (0.30%) WildFly
Applications
1 62 (9.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (1.05%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.30%) Trello
5 2 (0.30%) Windchill
6 1 (0.15%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 9 (1.35%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.20%) Oracle BPM
3 7 (1.05%) Fidessa
4 6 (0.90%) Maximo
4 6 (0.90%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.75%) BusinessWorks
5 5 (0.75%) OpenText MBPM
6 4 (0.60%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.60%) Endur
6 4 (0.60%) thinkFolio
7 3 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
8 2 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.30%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.30%) RMDS
8 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.30%) Temenos T24
9 1 (0.15%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
9 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 255 (38.17%) Azure
2 120 (17.96%) AWS
3 99 (14.82%) Power Platform
4 54 (8.08%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (5.99%) GCP
6 39 (5.84%) GitHub
7 28 (4.19%) Azure Data Factory
8 24 (3.59%) Microsoft 365
9 23 (3.44%) Serverless
10 21 (3.14%) SaaS
11 20 (2.99%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 20 (2.99%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (2.99%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (2.69%) Amazon S3
12 18 (2.69%) Azure Service Bus
12 18 (2.69%) Snowflake
13 17 (2.54%) Azure Logic Apps
13 17 (2.54%) Power Automate
14 16 (2.40%) PowerApps
15 14 (2.10%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.34%) Firewall
2 17 (2.54%) DNS
2 17 (2.54%) TCP/IP
3 13 (1.95%) Internet
4 10 (1.50%) HTTP
5 9 (1.35%) LAN
6 7 (1.05%) DHCP
6 7 (1.05%) SSL
7 5 (0.75%) NAS
7 5 (0.75%) Skype
8 4 (0.60%) NetScaler
8 4 (0.60%) SAN
9 3 (0.45%) VSAN
9 3 (0.45%) Wireshark
10 2 (0.30%) iSCSI
10 2 (0.30%) RS-232
10 2 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (0.30%) VLAN
10 2 (0.30%) WebEx
10 2 (0.30%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (12.87%) Power BI
2 84 (12.57%) PostgreSQL
3 81 (12.13%) Relational Database
4 70 (10.48%) Oracle Database
5 59 (8.83%) Data Warehouse
6 57 (8.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 54 (8.08%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 43 (6.44%) MySQL
9 42 (6.29%) Azure SQL Database
9 42 (6.29%) MongoDB
10 33 (4.94%) NoSQL
11 29 (4.34%) DB2
12 25 (3.74%) Amazon RDS
13 20 (2.99%) Big Data
14 19 (2.84%) Data Lake
15 18 (2.69%) RDBMS
15 18 (2.69%) Redis
16 15 (2.25%) Power Query
17 14 (2.10%) Tableau
18 12 (1.80%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 64 (9.58%) Git
2 42 (6.29%) JIRA
3 26 (3.89%) Jenkins
4 21 (3.14%) GitLab
5 17 (2.54%) Bitbucket
5 17 (2.54%) Maven
6 15 (2.25%) Visual Studio
7 14 (2.10%) SpecFlow
8 13 (1.95%) JUnit
8 13 (1.95%) Selenium
9 12 (1.80%) Cucumber
10 10 (1.50%) Mockito
10 10 (1.50%) Octopus Deploy
10 10 (1.50%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (1.35%) TeamCity
12 8 (1.20%) Postman
13 7 (1.05%) SonarQube
13 7 (1.05%) webpack
14 6 (0.90%) ERwin
14 6 (0.90%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 230 (34.43%) Social Skills
2 211 (31.59%) Finance
3 100 (14.97%) Analytical Skills
4 94 (14.07%) Banking
5 36 (5.39%) Public Sector
6 35 (5.24%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (4.49%) Investment Banking
8 21 (3.14%) Front Office
9 17 (2.54%) Financial Institution
10 15 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.65%) Retail
12 10 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (1.35%) Back Office
14 8 (1.20%) Legal
15 7 (1.05%) Local Government
15 7 (1.05%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
17 4 (0.60%) Law
17 4 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
18 3 (0.45%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 258 (38.62%) Developer
2 70 (10.48%) Senior
3 64 (9.58%) C# Developer
4 59 (8.83%) Analyst
5 52 (7.78%) .NET Developer
6 50 (7.49%) Data Engineer
7 43 (6.44%) Architect
8 41 (6.14%) DBA
9 38 (5.69%) Senior Developer
10 33 (4.94%) Consultant
11 25 (3.74%) Angular Developer
12 23 (3.44%) Lead
12 23 (3.44%) SQL Developer
13 22 (3.29%) C# .NET Developer
13 22 (3.29%) Data Analyst
13 22 (3.29%) Full-Stack Developer
14 21 (3.14%) Applications Support
15 20 (2.99%) Java Developer
15 20 (2.99%) SQL DBA
16 19 (2.84%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 186 (27.84%) .NET
2 85 (12.72%) .NET Framework
3 65 (9.73%) HTML
4 60 (8.98%) CSS
5 55 (8.23%) REST
6 50 (7.49%) AngularJS
7 45 (6.74%) React
8 43 (6.44%) XML
9 41 (6.14%) Entity Framework
10 39 (5.84%) RESTful
11 37 (5.54%) .NET Core
12 35 (5.24%) Kafka
13 31 (4.64%) SOAP
13 31 (4.64%) Web Services
14 26 (3.89%) ASP.NET
14 26 (3.89%) WPF
15 23 (3.44%) JSON
16 22 (3.29%) NHibernate
17 18 (2.69%) Middleware
17 18 (2.69%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.04%) Cloud Native
1 27 (4.04%) Legacy Systems
2 23 (3.44%) Derivative
3 20 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
3 20 (2.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 20 (2.99%) Product Ownership
4 19 (2.84%) Management Information System
5 17 (2.54%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (2.40%) Replication
7 15 (2.25%) PKI
8 14 (2.10%) Credit Risk
8 14 (2.10%) Onboarding
9 12 (1.80%) Fixed Income
9 12 (1.80%) Reinsurance
10 11 (1.65%) Clustering
10 11 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.65%) Hedge funds
11 10 (1.50%) Data Structures
11 10 (1.50%) Linux Command Line
11 10 (1.50%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 115 (17.22%) Windows
2 84 (12.57%) Linux
3 54 (8.08%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.65%) Unix
5 10 (1.50%) Windows 10
6 7 (1.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.05%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.60%) VMS
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%) AIX
10 1 (0.15%) Android
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.15%) SUSE
10 1 (0.15%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (25.75%) Agile
2 158 (23.65%) Problem-Solving
3 136 (20.36%) DevOps
4 128 (19.16%) CI/CD
5 106 (15.87%) Migration
6 104 (15.57%) Business Intelligence
7 94 (14.07%) ETL
8 82 (12.28%) Microservices
9 70 (10.48%) Data Modelling
10 62 (9.28%) Data Analysis
11 59 (8.83%) Test Automation
12 56 (8.38%) Performance Tuning
13 55 (8.23%) Data Migration
14 54 (8.08%) Full-Stack Development
15 53 (7.93%) Analytics
16 47 (7.04%) Software Engineering
17 45 (6.74%) Data Governance
17 45 (6.74%) Disaster Recovery
18 44 (6.59%) Scrum
19 43 (6.44%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 373 (55.84%) SQL
2 188 (28.14%) C#
3 122 (18.26%) Python
4 89 (13.32%) JavaScript
5 82 (12.28%) T-SQL
6 60 (8.98%) Java
7 50 (7.49%) PowerShell
8 42 (6.29%) PL/SQL
9 33 (4.94%) Bash
10 28 (4.19%) VBA
11 21 (3.14%) VB
12 19 (2.84%) TypeScript
13 18 (2.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 15 (2.25%) Shell Script
15 8 (1.20%) PHP
16 6 (0.90%) COBOL
16 6 (0.90%) Scala
16 6 (0.90%) X++
17 5 (0.75%) VB.NET
17 5 (0.75%) XPath
Qualifications
1 75 (11.23%) Security Cleared
2 66 (9.88%) Degree
3 56 (8.38%) SC Cleared
4 27 (4.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (2.99%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (1.95%) DV Cleared
7 10 (1.50%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.35%) MCSE
9 6 (0.90%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (0.90%) HNC
9 6 (0.90%) HND
9 6 (0.90%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.90%) MCP
10 5 (0.75%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.45%) CCNP
11 3 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.45%) PMP
12 2 (0.30%) CCIE
12 2 (0.30%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (8.83%) QA
2 50 (7.49%) Data Quality
3 14 (2.10%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.10%) GDPR
4 10 (1.50%) MiFID
4 10 (1.50%) SLA
5 5 (0.75%) EMIR
6 4 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.45%) WCAG
8 2 (0.30%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.30%) PMO
8 2 (0.30%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.15%) Basel III
9 1 (0.15%) IFRS
9 1 (0.15%) IFRS 17
9 1 (0.15%) NCSC
9 1 (0.15%) NIST
9 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 58 (8.68%) Docker
2 42 (6.29%) Active Directory
3 27 (4.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (1.80%) Oracle RAC
5 11 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (1.35%) zsh
7 8 (1.20%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.20%) VMware NSX
8 4 (0.60%) vSphere
9 3 (0.45%) NFS
9 3 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.30%) GPFS
10 2 (0.30%) GridGain
10 2 (0.30%) NDS
10 2 (0.30%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 2 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.15%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.15%) Xen
11 1 (0.15%) XenApp
11 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 41 (6.14%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.04%) Ansible
3 23 (3.44%) Terraform
4 14 (2.10%) Data Guard
5 13 (1.95%) Grafana
5 13 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
5 13 (1.95%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.80%) Puppet
7 11 (1.65%) NetBackup
8 10 (1.50%) yum
9 9 (1.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
11 7 (1.05%) SCCM
12 6 (0.90%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 6 (0.90%) SCOM
12 6 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
13 5 (0.75%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.75%) TIBCO Hawk
14 4 (0.60%) Control-M
14 4 (0.60%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 215 (32.19%) Oracle
2 213 (31.89%) Microsoft
3 41 (6.14%) VMware
4 34 (5.09%) Citrix
5 28 (4.19%) Databricks
6 22 (3.29%) Google
7 21 (3.14%) IBM
8 19 (2.84%) SAP
9 15 (2.25%) Salesforce
10 13 (1.95%) CyberArk
11 11 (1.65%) Cisco
11 11 (1.65%) Veritas
12 10 (1.50%) Informatica
13 9 (1.35%) Advent
13 9 (1.35%) Sybase
14 8 (1.20%) Atlassian
14 8 (1.20%) ServiceNow
15 7 (1.05%) UiPath
15 7 (1.05%) Veeam
16 6 (0.90%) Talend
465 SQL Server jobs in England