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

 6 months to
8 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 79 61
Rank change year-on-year -53 -18 -15
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 650 885 1,359
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.10% 2.92% 3.53%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.15% 16.09% 21.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 463 626 975
10th Percentile £325 £325 £363
25th Percentile £401 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £503 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.48% -6.94% -1.82%
75th Percentile £600 £624 £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 6 20
10th Percentile £27.98 £26.83 £20.17
25th Percentile £38.83 £38.50 £45.13
Median hourly rate £58.36 £62.75 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -7.00% +16.74% +28.74%
75th Percentile £71.88 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.25 £82.50 £64.96
UK median hourly rate £58.36 £29.93 £52.50
% change year-on-year +95.02% -43.00% +25.75%

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 5,348 5,501 6,437
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.27% 18.14% 16.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,726 3,681 4,586
10th Percentile £325 £350 £358
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 £527 £535
% change year-on-year -5.12% -1.50% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 76 131
10th Percentile £20.69 £18.25 £18.57
25th Percentile £29.06 £24.44 £22.87
Median hourly rate £45.00 £38.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +18.42% -17.71% -7.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.69 £64.52
90th Percentile £83.95 £66.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £31.55 £46.18
% change year-on-year +37.90% -31.69% -7.64%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -37 377 £520 -5.45% 130
North of England -21 83 £425 -10.53% 221
South East -40 76 £450 -5.26% 225
North West -9 46 £415 -6.74% 113
Yorkshire -24 37 £425 -24.31% 90
East of England -10 27 £500 +25.00% 74
South West -37 26 £535 +4.39% 74
Midlands -87 26 £389 -15.95% 124
West Midlands -59 17 £425 -25.04% 66
East Midlands -42 8 £325 -12.16% 54
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 (4.31%) Confluence
1 28 (4.31%) IIS
2 25 (3.85%) SharePoint
3 14 (2.15%) Microsoft Exchange
4 13 (2.00%) Apache
4 13 (2.00%) WebSphere
5 9 (1.38%) Apache Spark
5 9 (1.38%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 9 (1.38%) WebLogic
6 5 (0.77%) JBoss
7 4 (0.62%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.62%) SharePoint Server
8 3 (0.46%) CMS
8 3 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.46%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.46%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.31%) CICS
9 2 (0.31%) HCL Notes
9 2 (0.31%) SAS
9 2 (0.31%) WildFly
Applications
1 52 (8.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.08%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (1.08%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.62%) 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 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.08%) Fidessa
2 7 (1.08%) Oracle BPM
3 6 (0.92%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.77%) BusinessWorks
4 5 (0.77%) Maximo
5 4 (0.62%) Aladdin
5 4 (0.62%) Endur
5 4 (0.62%) OpenText MBPM
5 4 (0.62%) 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%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.31%) Temenos T24
8 1 (0.15%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
8 1 (0.15%) RMDS
8 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 252 (38.77%) Azure
2 120 (18.46%) AWS
3 93 (14.31%) Power Platform
4 55 (8.46%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (6.15%) GCP
6 38 (5.85%) GitHub
7 27 (4.15%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (4.00%) Azure Data Factory
9 23 (3.54%) SaaS
10 22 (3.38%) Serverless
11 21 (3.23%) Amazon S3
11 21 (3.23%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (3.08%) Snowflake
13 18 (2.77%) Azure Service Bus
13 18 (2.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 16 (2.46%) Azure Logic Apps
14 16 (2.46%) Dynamics 365
14 16 (2.46%) PowerApps
15 15 (2.31%) Amazon EC2
15 15 (2.31%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 32 (4.92%) Firewall
2 19 (2.92%) DNS
2 19 (2.92%) TCP/IP
3 12 (1.85%) Internet
4 10 (1.54%) HTTP
4 10 (1.54%) LAN
5 9 (1.38%) DHCP
6 7 (1.08%) SSL
7 5 (0.77%) NAS
7 5 (0.77%) Skype
8 4 (0.62%) NetScaler
8 4 (0.62%) SAN
8 4 (0.62%) 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%) RS-232
10 2 (0.31%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (13.38%) PostgreSQL
2 82 (12.62%) Power BI
3 78 (12.00%) Relational Database
4 68 (10.46%) Oracle Database
5 63 (9.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 59 (9.08%) Data Warehouse
7 53 (8.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 42 (6.46%) MongoDB
9 41 (6.31%) Azure SQL Database
10 40 (6.15%) MySQL
11 33 (5.08%) NoSQL
12 27 (4.15%) Amazon RDS
13 26 (4.00%) DB2
14 20 (3.08%) Big Data
15 18 (2.77%) RDBMS
15 18 (2.77%) Redis
16 17 (2.62%) Data Lake
17 15 (2.31%) Power Query
17 15 (2.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
18 13 (2.00%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 61 (9.38%) Git
2 40 (6.15%) JIRA
3 28 (4.31%) Jenkins
4 19 (2.92%) GitLab
5 16 (2.46%) Maven
6 15 (2.31%) Bitbucket
7 14 (2.15%) JUnit
7 14 (2.15%) SpecFlow
7 14 (2.15%) Visual Studio
8 12 (1.85%) Selenium
9 11 (1.69%) Cucumber
9 11 (1.69%) Mockito
10 10 (1.54%) Octopus Deploy
10 10 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (1.38%) TeamCity
12 8 (1.23%) Postman
12 8 (1.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 7 (1.08%) SonarQube
13 7 (1.08%) webpack
14 5 (0.77%) SoapUI
General
1 222 (34.15%) Social Skills
2 196 (30.15%) Finance
3 94 (14.46%) Banking
4 92 (14.15%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (5.85%) Public Sector
6 32 (4.92%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (4.46%) Investment Banking
8 20 (3.08%) Front Office
9 18 (2.77%) Financial Institution
10 13 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.69%) Retail
12 10 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.08%) Back Office
13 7 (1.08%) Local Government
13 7 (1.08%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.77%) Legal
16 4 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
16 4 (0.62%) Law
17 3 (0.46%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 245 (37.69%) Developer
2 71 (10.92%) Senior
3 61 (9.38%) C# Developer
4 53 (8.15%) Data Engineer
5 52 (8.00%) Analyst
6 49 (7.54%) .NET Developer
7 43 (6.62%) Architect
8 37 (5.69%) DBA
9 35 (5.38%) Senior Developer
10 32 (4.92%) Consultant
11 24 (3.69%) Angular Developer
11 24 (3.69%) Lead
12 21 (3.23%) Java Developer
12 21 (3.23%) Software Engineer
12 21 (3.23%) SQL Developer
13 20 (3.08%) C# .NET Developer
14 19 (2.92%) Applications Support
14 19 (2.92%) Data Analyst
14 19 (2.92%) Full-Stack Developer
14 19 (2.92%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (26.00%) .NET
2 77 (11.85%) .NET Framework
3 53 (8.15%) HTML
4 48 (7.38%) REST
5 47 (7.23%) CSS
6 46 (7.08%) AngularJS
7 42 (6.46%) XML
8 41 (6.31%) React
9 39 (6.00%) Kafka
10 37 (5.69%) RESTful
11 35 (5.38%) .NET Core
11 35 (5.38%) Entity Framework
12 30 (4.62%) SOAP
13 28 (4.31%) Web Services
14 22 (3.38%) ASP.NET
14 22 (3.38%) JSON
15 21 (3.23%) NHibernate
15 21 (3.23%) WPF
16 18 (2.77%) Node.js
16 18 (2.77%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.15%) Cloud Native
1 27 (4.15%) Legacy Systems
2 22 (3.38%) Derivative
3 21 (3.23%) Product Ownership
4 20 (3.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 19 (2.92%) Management Information System
6 18 (2.77%) Enterprise Software
7 17 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (2.31%) PKI
9 14 (2.15%) Credit Risk
9 14 (2.15%) Onboarding
9 14 (2.15%) Replication
10 13 (2.00%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
11 12 (1.85%) Fixed Income
12 11 (1.69%) Clustering
12 11 (1.69%) Hedge funds
13 10 (1.54%) NHS
13 10 (1.54%) Reinsurance
14 9 (1.38%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 115 (17.69%) Windows
2 86 (13.23%) Linux
3 60 (9.23%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.54%) Unix
4 10 (1.54%) Windows 10
5 8 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.62%) 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%) 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
1 163 (25.08%) Agile
2 149 (22.92%) Problem-Solving
3 129 (19.85%) CI/CD
4 128 (19.69%) DevOps
5 104 (16.00%) Migration
6 103 (15.85%) Business Intelligence
7 94 (14.46%) ETL
8 82 (12.62%) Microservices
9 69 (10.62%) Data Modelling
10 58 (8.92%) Performance Tuning
11 54 (8.31%) Data Analysis
11 54 (8.31%) Data Migration
12 51 (7.85%) Test Automation
13 50 (7.69%) Analytics
13 50 (7.69%) Full-Stack Development
14 49 (7.54%) Software Engineering
15 45 (6.92%) Data Governance
16 44 (6.77%) Containerisation
17 42 (6.46%) Disaster Recovery
17 42 (6.46%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 357 (54.92%) SQL
2 167 (25.69%) C#
3 126 (19.38%) Python
4 78 (12.00%) T-SQL
5 75 (11.54%) JavaScript
6 60 (9.23%) Java
7 48 (7.38%) PowerShell
8 45 (6.92%) PL/SQL
9 36 (5.54%) Bash
10 22 (3.38%) VBA
11 20 (3.08%) TypeScript
12 19 (2.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (2.77%) VB
14 15 (2.31%) Shell Script
15 9 (1.38%) PHP
16 6 (0.92%) Scala
17 5 (0.77%) Bicep
17 5 (0.77%) COBOL
17 5 (0.77%) X++
17 5 (0.77%) XPath
Qualifications
1 79 (12.15%) Security Cleared
2 67 (10.31%) Degree
3 57 (8.77%) SC Cleared
4 28 (4.31%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.15%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.08%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.08%) MCSE
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 4 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.46%) CCNP
12 2 (0.31%) CCIE
12 2 (0.31%) ISEB
12 2 (0.31%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (9.08%) QA
2 51 (7.85%) Data Quality
3 13 (2.00%) Accessibility
3 13 (2.00%) GDPR
4 10 (1.54%) SLA
5 9 (1.38%) MiFID
6 5 (0.77%) EMIR
7 4 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.46%) WCAG
9 2 (0.31%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.31%) PMO
9 2 (0.31%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.15%) IFRS
10 1 (0.15%) IFRS 17
10 1 (0.15%) NCSC
10 1 (0.15%) NIST
10 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 62 (9.54%) Docker
2 47 (7.23%) Active Directory
3 30 (4.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (2.00%) Oracle RAC
5 11 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.54%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.23%) VMware NSX
7 8 (1.23%) zsh
8 6 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.62%) 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%) Xen
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
12 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 42 (6.46%) Kubernetes
2 29 (4.46%) Ansible
3 27 (4.15%) Terraform
4 15 (2.31%) Grafana
5 14 (2.15%) Data Guard
5 14 (2.15%) Puppet
6 13 (2.00%) Oracle RMAN
6 13 (2.00%) vCenter Server
7 11 (1.69%) NetBackup
8 10 (1.54%) yum
9 9 (1.38%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (1.23%) SCCM
11 7 (1.08%) SCOM
12 6 (0.92%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 5 (0.77%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
13 5 (0.77%) TIBCO Hawk
14 4 (0.62%) Progress Chef
14 4 (0.62%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 210 (32.31%) Microsoft
2 207 (31.85%) Oracle
3 44 (6.77%) VMware
4 38 (5.85%) Citrix
5 30 (4.62%) Databricks
6 22 (3.38%) Google
7 19 (2.92%) IBM
7 19 (2.92%) SAP
8 15 (2.31%) Salesforce
9 14 (2.15%) CyberArk
10 13 (2.00%) 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%) PagerDuty
13 8 (1.23%) ServiceNow
13 8 (1.23%) Sybase
14 7 (1.08%) Veeam
15 6 (0.92%) SolarWinds
799 SQL Server jobs in England