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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 108 58 57
Rank change year-on-year -50 -1 -7
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 699 1,174 1,599
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 2.52% 3.56% 3.81%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.90% 19.56% 22.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 510 846 1,194
10th Percentile £313 £330 £375
25th Percentile £384 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.88% -4.65% +2.38%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £661
90th Percentile £750 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £496 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -0.80% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 13
10th Percentile £20.86 £26.83 £34.12
25th Percentile £21.02 £32.63 £42.50
Median hourly rate £21.27 £43.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -50.53% -18.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £77.50 £60.94 £55.00
90th Percentile £84.25 £82.50 £64.02
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £38.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +88.31% -16.63% -16.04%

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 5,029 6,003 7,022
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 18.10% 18.23% 16.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,465 4,163 4,959
10th Percentile £335 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% - -
75th Percentile £638 £675 £666
90th Percentile £750 £825 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £533 £545
% change year-on-year -6.19% -2.20% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 81 140
10th Percentile £21.23 £17.50 £21.00
25th Percentile £29.33 £21.25 £32.32
Median hourly rate £45.00 £37.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -31.82% +22.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.60 £75.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £78.75
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +24.29% -36.36% +22.22%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing SQL Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for SQL Server 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 -47 392 £554 +3.55% 183
North of England -14 93 £425 -10.53% 127
South East -12 71 £328 -34.40% 187
North West -16 52 £430 -3.37% 76
Midlands -59 46 £385 -14.35% 105
Yorkshire -11 37 £413 -25.78% 27
East of England +7 30 £500 +25.00% 53
South West -15 29 £463 -15.91% 54
West Midlands -26 28 £513 -9.61% 61
East Midlands -34 17 £327 -20.56% 43
North East -3 4 £450 -5.26% 24
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 33 (4.72%) IIS
2 29 (4.15%) Apache
2 29 (4.15%) Confluence
3 19 (2.72%) SharePoint
4 17 (2.43%) Apache Spark
5 11 (1.57%) WebSphere
6 10 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
7 7 (1.00%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 7 (1.00%) Oracle Workflow
7 7 (1.00%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.72%) nginx
8 5 (0.72%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.72%) WebLogic
9 4 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.57%) CICS
9 4 (0.57%) JBoss
9 4 (0.57%) Jupyter
9 4 (0.57%) SAS
10 3 (0.43%) BizTalk Server
10 3 (0.43%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 61 (8.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.00%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.43%) Trello
6 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.29%) Windchill
7 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 10 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.29%) Maximo
2 9 (1.29%) Oracle BPM
3 7 (1.00%) Fidessa
3 7 (1.00%) OpenText MBPM
4 6 (0.86%) Endur
4 6 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.57%) Aladdin
5 4 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.57%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.57%) thinkFolio
6 3 (0.43%) Kondor
6 3 (0.43%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.29%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.29%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
8 1 (0.14%) ION Anvil
Cloud Services
1 283 (40.49%) Azure
2 108 (15.45%) AWS
3 104 (14.88%) Power Platform
4 52 (7.44%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (5.72%) Azure Data Factory
6 36 (5.15%) GitHub
7 34 (4.86%) GCP
8 29 (4.15%) Azure Service Bus
9 28 (4.01%) Serverless
10 26 (3.72%) Microsoft 365
11 25 (3.58%) Azure Logic Apps
12 24 (3.43%) Entra ID
13 22 (3.15%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 22 (3.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 21 (3.00%) Power Automate
15 20 (2.86%) PowerApps
15 20 (2.86%) SaaS
16 18 (2.58%) Azure Functions
17 17 (2.43%) Dynamics 365
17 17 (2.43%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.15%) Firewall
2 18 (2.58%) DNS
3 13 (1.86%) TCP/IP
4 11 (1.57%) Internet
5 9 (1.29%) LAN
6 6 (0.86%) DHCP
6 6 (0.86%) HTTP
6 6 (0.86%) NAS
6 6 (0.86%) SSL
7 5 (0.72%) SAN
7 5 (0.72%) Skype
8 4 (0.57%) Intrusion Detection
8 4 (0.57%) SSH
8 4 (0.57%) VoIP
9 3 (0.43%) VLAN
9 3 (0.43%) WAN
10 2 (0.29%) iSCSI
10 2 (0.29%) NetScaler
10 2 (0.29%) SMTP
10 2 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (13.02%) Power BI
2 72 (10.30%) PostgreSQL
3 67 (9.59%) Oracle Database
4 64 (9.16%) Relational Database
5 59 (8.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 55 (7.87%) Data Warehouse
7 46 (6.58%) Azure SQL Database
8 44 (6.29%) MongoDB
8 44 (6.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 41 (5.87%) NoSQL
10 39 (5.58%) MySQL
11 22 (3.15%) DB2
12 21 (3.00%) Redis
12 21 (3.00%) Tableau
13 19 (2.72%) Amazon RDS
13 19 (2.72%) Data Lake
14 16 (2.29%) Big Data
14 16 (2.29%) Power Query
15 14 (2.00%) Delta Lake
16 12 (1.72%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 68 (9.73%) Git
2 59 (8.44%) JIRA
3 24 (3.43%) Jenkins
4 23 (3.29%) Bitbucket
4 23 (3.29%) GitLab
5 18 (2.58%) Selenium
6 16 (2.29%) Cucumber
7 15 (2.15%) Maven
7 15 (2.15%) Visual Studio
8 14 (2.00%) SpecFlow
9 13 (1.86%) JUnit
9 13 (1.86%) Sonatype Nexus
10 11 (1.57%) TeamCity
11 10 (1.43%) Mockito
11 10 (1.43%) Octopus Deploy
11 10 (1.43%) SonarQube
12 8 (1.14%) Postman
12 8 (1.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 7 (1.00%) Eclipse
13 7 (1.00%) webpack
General
1 223 (31.90%) Social Skills
2 217 (31.04%) Finance
3 98 (14.02%) Banking
4 93 (13.30%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (5.29%) Public Sector
6 31 (4.43%) Front Office
6 31 (4.43%) Investment Banking
7 21 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.72%) Financial Institution
9 12 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
10 11 (1.57%) Back Office
10 11 (1.57%) Legal
11 10 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.00%) Retail
12 7 (1.00%) Telecoms
13 6 (0.86%) Law
14 5 (0.72%) Local Government
14 5 (0.72%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.57%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 265 (37.91%) Developer
2 75 (10.73%) C# Developer
3 74 (10.59%) Senior
4 60 (8.58%) Analyst
5 58 (8.30%) Data Engineer
6 55 (7.87%) Architect
7 51 (7.30%) .NET Developer
8 44 (6.29%) DBA
8 44 (6.29%) Senior Developer
9 35 (5.01%) SQL Developer
10 33 (4.72%) Consultant
11 28 (4.01%) SQL DBA
12 27 (3.86%) Angular Developer
13 26 (3.72%) C# .NET Developer
14 24 (3.43%) Full-Stack Developer
15 23 (3.29%) Solutions Architect
16 22 (3.15%) Applications Support
16 22 (3.15%) Data Analyst
16 22 (3.15%) Lead
17 19 (2.72%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 191 (27.32%) .NET
2 79 (11.30%) HTML
3 76 (10.87%) .NET Framework
4 71 (10.16%) CSS
5 53 (7.58%) React
6 51 (7.30%) REST
7 48 (6.87%) AngularJS
7 48 (6.87%) XML
8 44 (6.29%) .NET Core
9 41 (5.87%) RESTful
10 40 (5.72%) ASP.NET
10 40 (5.72%) Entity Framework
11 37 (5.29%) Web Services
12 35 (5.01%) Kafka
13 31 (4.43%) SOAP
14 29 (4.15%) JSON
15 21 (3.00%) NHibernate
16 20 (2.86%) Middleware
16 20 (2.86%) Node.js
17 18 (2.58%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 33 (4.72%) Derivative
2 23 (3.29%) Legacy Systems
3 21 (3.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 19 (2.72%) Product Ownership
5 18 (2.58%) Distributed Systems
5 18 (2.58%) Management Information System
6 17 (2.43%) Cloud Native
6 17 (2.43%) Replication
7 16 (2.29%) Linux Command Line
8 15 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (2.00%) Fixed Income
10 13 (1.86%) PKI
10 13 (1.86%) Reinsurance
11 12 (1.72%) Clustering
11 12 (1.72%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.43%) Hedge funds
14 9 (1.29%) Data Centre
14 9 (1.29%) Mobile App
14 9 (1.29%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 118 (16.88%) Windows
2 91 (13.02%) Linux
3 54 (7.73%) Windows Server
4 16 (2.29%) Unix
5 14 (2.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (2.00%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.86%) Android
7 5 (0.72%) VMS
8 4 (0.57%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.43%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.29%) CentOS
10 2 (0.29%) Solaris
11 1 (0.14%) AIX
11 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.14%) MVS
11 1 (0.14%) SUSE
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.14%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (27.47%) Agile
2 180 (25.75%) Problem-Solving
3 156 (22.32%) DevOps
4 124 (17.74%) CI/CD
5 105 (15.02%) ETL
6 100 (14.31%) Migration
7 99 (14.16%) Business Intelligence
8 84 (12.02%) Microservices
9 71 (10.16%) Test Automation
10 62 (8.87%) Performance Tuning
11 60 (8.58%) Scrum
12 58 (8.30%) Data Modelling
13 57 (8.15%) Data Analysis
14 55 (7.87%) Analytics
15 52 (7.44%) Disaster Recovery
15 52 (7.44%) Full-Stack Development
16 48 (6.87%) Data Migration
16 48 (6.87%) Data Pipeline
17 45 (6.44%) SDLC
17 45 (6.44%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 395 (56.51%) SQL
2 212 (30.33%) C#
3 146 (20.89%) Python
4 105 (15.02%) JavaScript
5 72 (10.30%) Java
6 71 (10.16%) T-SQL
7 66 (9.44%) PowerShell
8 37 (5.29%) Bash
9 36 (5.15%) PL/SQL
10 30 (4.29%) VBA
11 27 (3.86%) VB
12 23 (3.29%) TypeScript
13 17 (2.43%) Shell Script
14 15 (2.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 14 (2.00%) Scala
16 9 (1.29%) COBOL
17 8 (1.14%) Bicep
17 8 (1.14%) VB.NET
18 5 (0.72%) PHP
18 5 (0.72%) X++
Qualifications
1 82 (11.73%) Degree
2 76 (10.87%) Security Cleared
3 54 (7.73%) SC Cleared
4 32 (4.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (3.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (2.15%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.86%) DV Cleared
8 8 (1.14%) Master's Degree
8 8 (1.14%) MCSE
9 7 (1.00%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (0.86%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.86%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (0.72%) HNC
11 5 (0.72%) HND
11 5 (0.72%) MCP
12 4 (0.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 4 (0.57%) PMP
13 3 (0.43%) SAP Certification
14 2 (0.29%) ISEB
14 2 (0.29%) MCSD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (8.58%) QA
2 48 (6.87%) Data Quality
3 17 (2.43%) GDPR
4 15 (2.15%) Accessibility
5 13 (1.86%) SLA
6 12 (1.72%) MiFID
7 10 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.72%) EMIR
10 4 (0.57%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.43%) Basel III
11 3 (0.43%) GAAP
11 3 (0.43%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.29%) HL7
12 2 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 2 (0.29%) ISO 15022
12 2 (0.29%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.29%) PMO
12 2 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 51 (7.30%) Active Directory
2 44 (6.29%) Docker
3 33 (4.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (1.72%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.43%) Hyper-V
7 9 (1.29%) zsh
8 8 (1.14%) vSphere
9 4 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.57%) VMware NSX
10 3 (0.43%) KVM
10 3 (0.43%) NFS
10 3 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.29%) GPFS
11 2 (0.29%) GridGain
11 2 (0.29%) NDS
11 2 (0.29%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 2 (0.29%) vCloud
11 2 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.14%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 49 (7.01%) Kubernetes
2 25 (3.58%) Terraform
3 23 (3.29%) Ansible
4 14 (2.00%) Data Guard
5 13 (1.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (1.86%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.43%) SCCM
6 10 (1.43%) yum
7 9 (1.29%) NetBackup
7 9 (1.29%) vCenter Server
8 8 (1.14%) Grafana
8 8 (1.14%) SCOM
9 7 (1.00%) Kibana
10 6 (0.86%) Control-M
10 6 (0.86%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 6 (0.86%) Progress Chef
11 5 (0.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.72%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.57%) WMI
Vendors
1 226 (32.33%) Microsoft
2 209 (29.90%) Oracle
3 44 (6.29%) VMware
4 39 (5.58%) Databricks
5 28 (4.01%) IBM
6 22 (3.15%) Citrix
7 21 (3.00%) SAP
8 20 (2.86%) Google
9 15 (2.15%) Cisco
10 14 (2.00%) Sybase
11 12 (1.72%) CyberArk
11 12 (1.72%) Informatica
12 11 (1.57%) Salesforce
12 11 (1.57%) ServiceNow
13 10 (1.43%) Talend
13 10 (1.43%) Veritas
14 8 (1.14%) HP
14 8 (1.14%) Veracode
15 7 (1.00%) Cognos
15 7 (1.00%) EMC