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 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
13 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 79 65
Rank change year-on-year -57 -14 -19
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 640 765 1,172
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.04% 2.88% 3.22%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.11% 15.68% 19.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 441 544 852
10th Percentile £350 £313 £358
25th Percentile £404 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £503 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% -8.50% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £730
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 6 18
10th Percentile £19.33 £61.06 £18.21
25th Percentile £28.90 £61.87 £21.30
Median hourly rate £48.72 £64.37 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -24.32% +22.61% +25.75%
75th Percentile £61.29 £65.62 £61.63
90th Percentile £66.52 £82.81 £63.42
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £63.75 £52.50
% change year-on-year -23.57% +21.42% +20.51%

All Database & BI 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 5,285 4,880 5,995
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.87% 18.36% 16.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,683 3,237 4,279
10th Percentile £325 £351 £356
25th Percentile £413 £425 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -
75th Percentile £613 £663 £660
90th Percentile £707 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 68 139
10th Percentile £18.93 £20.82 £18.18
25th Percentile £29.06 £24.25 £23.00
Median hourly rate £51.36 £42.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.29% -9.05% -16.04%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.79 £64.45
90th Percentile £84.70 £74.50 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +39.20% -24.21% -16.04%

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 13 January 2026.

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 13 January 2026.

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 13 January 2026. 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 -33 392 £520 -5.45% 100
North of England -29 80 £450 -6.49% 86
South East -32 78 £480 -3.08% 135
Yorkshire -19 41 £425 -24.31% 31
North West -22 37 £450 +5.88% 47
South West -41 24 £550 - 31
Midlands -93 21 £403 -15.26% 53
East of England -22 18 £494 +23.44% 37
West Midlands -66 15 £403 -29.01% 24
East Midlands -43 5 £373 -2.74% 29
North East -7 2 £475 +28.38% 10
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 30 (4.69%) SharePoint
2 24 (3.75%) IIS
3 19 (2.97%) Confluence
4 17 (2.66%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (2.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 14 (2.19%) WebSphere
7 9 (1.41%) WebLogic
8 8 (1.25%) Apache Spark
9 6 (0.94%) Apache
9 6 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.63%) Appian
10 4 (0.63%) SharePoint Server
10 4 (0.63%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.47%) CMS
12 2 (0.31%) HCL Notes
12 2 (0.31%) JBoss
12 2 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.31%) WildFly
13 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
13 1 (0.16%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 45 (7.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.72%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (1.41%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.31%) Trello
6 2 (0.31%) Windchill
7 1 (0.16%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 9 (1.41%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (1.09%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.94%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.63%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.47%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.47%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.47%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.31%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.31%) Endur
7 2 (0.31%) Fidessa
7 2 (0.31%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.31%) Oracle BPM
7 2 (0.31%) Oracle FAH
7 2 (0.31%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.31%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.16%) Orchestrade
8 1 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 276 (43.13%) Azure
2 124 (19.38%) AWS
3 119 (18.59%) Power Platform
4 72 (11.25%) Azure DevOps
5 51 (7.97%) GitHub
6 50 (7.81%) Azure Data Factory
7 49 (7.66%) GCP
8 33 (5.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 31 (4.84%) Microsoft 365
10 29 (4.53%) SaaS
11 23 (3.59%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (3.44%) Snowflake
13 18 (2.81%) Amazon S3
13 18 (2.81%) Power Automate
14 17 (2.66%) Dynamics 365
14 17 (2.66%) IaaS
14 17 (2.66%) Serverless
15 16 (2.50%) Azure Service Bus
16 15 (2.34%) PowerApps
17 14 (2.19%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.53%) Firewall
2 21 (3.28%) DNS
3 16 (2.50%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.88%) Internet
5 11 (1.72%) DHCP
6 10 (1.56%) HTTP
7 7 (1.09%) LAN
7 7 (1.09%) NetScaler
8 6 (0.94%) VPN
9 5 (0.78%) Skype
10 4 (0.63%) NAS
10 4 (0.63%) SAN
10 4 (0.63%) SSL
10 4 (0.63%) VoIP
11 3 (0.47%) WAN
12 2 (0.31%) FTP
12 2 (0.31%) SMTP
12 2 (0.31%) VLAN
12 2 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
12 2 (0.31%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (15.94%) Power BI
2 84 (13.13%) PostgreSQL
3 81 (12.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 79 (12.34%) Relational Database
5 64 (10.00%) Data Warehouse
6 61 (9.53%) Oracle Database
7 52 (8.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 45 (7.03%) Azure SQL Database
9 43 (6.72%) MySQL
10 42 (6.56%) MongoDB
11 39 (6.09%) Data Lake
12 34 (5.31%) NoSQL
13 24 (3.75%) DB2
14 21 (3.28%) Amazon RDS
15 20 (3.13%) RDBMS
16 19 (2.97%) Big Data
17 18 (2.81%) SQL Server Analysis Services
18 17 (2.66%) Tableau
19 15 (2.34%) Redis
20 14 (2.19%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 64 (10.00%) Git
2 40 (6.25%) JIRA
3 32 (5.00%) Jenkins
4 18 (2.81%) GitLab
5 17 (2.66%) Visual Studio
6 13 (2.03%) Postman
7 12 (1.88%) SpecFlow
7 12 (1.88%) TeamCity
8 11 (1.72%) Selenium
8 11 (1.72%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 10 (1.56%) Cucumber
10 9 (1.41%) Maven
10 9 (1.41%) Octopus Deploy
11 8 (1.25%) Bitbucket
11 8 (1.25%) JUnit
12 6 (0.94%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.94%) TestRail
13 5 (0.78%) ERwin
13 5 (0.78%) Mockito
13 5 (0.78%) webpack
General
1 207 (32.34%) Social Skills
2 175 (27.34%) Finance
3 89 (13.91%) Banking
4 85 (13.28%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (5.78%) Public Sector
6 35 (5.47%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.75%) Investment Banking
8 19 (2.97%) Front Office
9 16 (2.50%) Financial Institution
10 12 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.72%) Retail
12 10 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.09%) Local Government
14 6 (0.94%) Legal
14 6 (0.94%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.78%) Back Office
15 5 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.78%) Law
16 4 (0.63%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 230 (35.94%) Developer
2 89 (13.91%) Senior
3 76 (11.88%) Data Engineer
4 65 (10.16%) C# Developer
5 46 (7.19%) .NET Developer
6 45 (7.03%) Architect
7 44 (6.88%) Analyst
8 37 (5.78%) Senior Developer
9 33 (5.16%) DBA
10 28 (4.38%) Senior Data Engineer
11 25 (3.91%) Consultant
11 25 (3.91%) Lead
12 24 (3.75%) Full-Stack Developer
13 21 (3.28%) Software Engineer
14 20 (3.13%) C# .NET Developer
15 19 (2.97%) Angular Developer
15 19 (2.97%) SQL DBA
16 18 (2.81%) SQL Developer
17 17 (2.66%) Azure Engineer
18 16 (2.50%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 180 (28.13%) .NET
2 69 (10.78%) .NET Framework
3 57 (8.91%) REST
4 44 (6.88%) HTML
5 43 (6.72%) AngularJS
6 39 (6.09%) React
7 37 (5.78%) Kafka
7 37 (5.78%) RESTful
7 37 (5.78%) XML
8 33 (5.16%) .NET Core
8 33 (5.16%) CSS
9 27 (4.22%) Entity Framework
9 27 (4.22%) Web Services
10 26 (4.06%) SOAP
11 24 (3.75%) ASP.NET
12 23 (3.59%) Middleware
12 23 (3.59%) WPF
13 17 (2.66%) Playwright
13 17 (2.66%) WinForms
14 16 (2.50%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 31 (4.84%) Legacy Systems
2 26 (4.06%) Cloud Native
3 18 (2.81%) Enterprise Software
4 17 (2.66%) Derivative
4 17 (2.66%) Management Information System
5 16 (2.50%) Onboarding
6 14 (2.19%) Credit Risk
6 14 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
6 14 (2.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 14 (2.19%) Product Ownership
7 12 (1.88%) Data Structures
8 11 (1.72%) Distributed Systems
8 11 (1.72%) NHS
8 11 (1.72%) PKI
8 11 (1.72%) Replication
9 9 (1.41%) Virtual Team
10 8 (1.25%) Clustering
10 8 (1.25%) Linux Command Line
10 8 (1.25%) Low-Code
10 8 (1.25%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 110 (17.19%) Windows
2 82 (12.81%) Linux
3 57 (8.91%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.03%) Windows 10
4 13 (2.03%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (1.25%) Unix
5 8 (1.25%) Windows Server 2019
6 6 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.47%) VMS
7 3 (0.47%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.31%) Android
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.16%) MVS
9 1 (0.16%) Solaris
9 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (24.22%) Agile
2 140 (21.88%) CI/CD
3 137 (21.41%) DevOps
3 137 (21.41%) Problem-Solving
4 118 (18.44%) Business Intelligence
5 114 (17.81%) ETL
6 91 (14.22%) Data Modelling
6 91 (14.22%) Migration
7 70 (10.94%) Analytics
8 63 (9.84%) Microservices
9 57 (8.91%) Test Automation
10 54 (8.44%) Full-Stack Development
11 52 (8.13%) Software Engineering
12 51 (7.97%) Performance Tuning
13 50 (7.81%) Containerisation
14 47 (7.34%) Data Engineering
15 46 (7.19%) Data Analysis
15 46 (7.19%) Data Governance
16 45 (7.03%) Data Migration
17 44 (6.88%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 362 (56.56%) SQL
2 160 (25.00%) C#
3 138 (21.56%) Python
4 75 (11.72%) T-SQL
5 68 (10.63%) Java
6 67 (10.47%) JavaScript
7 54 (8.44%) PL/SQL
8 49 (7.66%) PowerShell
9 33 (5.16%) Bash
10 17 (2.66%) TypeScript
10 17 (2.66%) VB
11 16 (2.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 16 (2.50%) VBA
12 14 (2.19%) PHP
12 14 (2.19%) Shell Script
13 12 (1.88%) Bicep
14 7 (1.09%) XPath
15 5 (0.78%) Scala
15 5 (0.78%) X++
16 4 (0.63%) R
Qualifications
1 81 (12.66%) Security Cleared
2 75 (11.72%) Degree
3 56 (8.75%) SC Cleared
4 29 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
5 21 (3.28%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.50%) Azure Certification
7 14 (2.19%) DV Cleared
8 10 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (1.56%) Master's Degree
9 5 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (0.63%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.63%) CCA
10 4 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.63%) Citrix Certification
10 4 (0.63%) HNC
10 4 (0.63%) HND
10 4 (0.63%) MCP
10 4 (0.63%) MCSE
11 3 (0.47%) CCNP
11 3 (0.47%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (9.84%) Data Quality
2 58 (9.06%) QA
3 15 (2.34%) GDPR
4 12 (1.88%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.41%) SLA
6 6 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.78%) MiFID
8 4 (0.63%) EMIR
8 4 (0.63%) WCAG
9 3 (0.47%) IFRS
9 3 (0.47%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.31%) Basel III
10 2 (0.31%) GAAP
10 2 (0.31%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.31%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.16%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.16%) HL7
11 1 (0.16%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 77 (12.03%) Docker
2 48 (7.50%) Active Directory
3 27 (4.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (2.19%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.88%) Oracle RAC
6 8 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (1.25%) zsh
7 7 (1.09%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.63%) vSphere
9 4 (0.63%) XenApp
9 4 (0.63%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.31%) GridGain
11 2 (0.31%) NDS
11 2 (0.31%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.16%) KVM
12 1 (0.16%) NFS
12 1 (0.16%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.16%) Xen
Systems Management
1 57 (8.91%) Kubernetes
2 38 (5.94%) Terraform
3 26 (4.06%) Ansible
4 14 (2.19%) Grafana
5 13 (2.03%) Puppet
6 12 (1.88%) SCCM
7 11 (1.72%) Data Guard
8 10 (1.56%) yum
9 9 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (1.25%) NetBackup
10 8 (1.25%) vCenter Server
11 7 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 7 (1.09%) Oracle RMAN
11 7 (1.09%) TIBCO Hawk
12 5 (0.78%) SCOM
12 5 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
13 4 (0.63%) Control-M
13 4 (0.63%) SCVMM
13 4 (0.63%) WSUS
14 3 (0.47%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 202 (31.56%) Oracle
2 200 (31.25%) Microsoft
3 46 (7.19%) Databricks
4 42 (6.56%) Citrix
5 38 (5.94%) VMware
6 21 (3.28%) Google
6 21 (3.28%) ServiceNow
7 18 (2.81%) SAP
8 17 (2.66%) IBM
8 17 (2.66%) Informatica
9 13 (2.03%) Salesforce
10 11 (1.72%) Cisco
10 11 (1.72%) CyberArk
11 10 (1.56%) Veritas
12 9 (1.41%) Advent
12 9 (1.41%) UiPath
13 8 (1.25%) Atlassian
13 8 (1.25%) PagerDuty
14 7 (1.09%) BEA
14 7 (1.09%) TIBCO
408 SQL Server jobs in England