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 1 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
1 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 82 68
Rank change year-on-year -49 -14 -20
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 665 767 1,180
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.02% 2.90% 3.09%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.34% 15.63% 19.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 457 536 862
10th Percentile £350 £339 £341
25th Percentile £404 £400 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £725
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -2.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 31
10th Percentile - £42.63 £20.25
25th Percentile £12.95 £60.66 £38.81
Median hourly rate £20.75 £63.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -67.45% +58.37% -3.59%
75th Percentile £38.42 £65.46 £57.37
90th Percentile £59.55 £65.62 £63.00
UK median hourly rate £23.50 £60.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year -61.16% +50.31% -7.61%

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 5,387 4,907 6,176
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.38% 18.52% 16.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,765 3,239 4,444
10th Percentile £329 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £545 £540
Median % change year-on-year -8.26% +0.93% -1.82%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £650
90th Percentile £702 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 100 81 172
10th Percentile £18.23 £22.27 £15.62
25th Percentile £27.00 £25.00 £21.64
Median hourly rate £45.75 £38.50 £42.35
Median % change year-on-year +18.83% -9.08% -27.53%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.73 £61.56
90th Percentile £85.10 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £49.36 £35.00 £42.35
% change year-on-year +41.03% -17.35% -25.53%

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 1 February 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 1 February 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 1 February 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 -25 411 £500 -9.09% 130
North of England -39 79 £435 -8.42% 98
South East -45 75 £485 -3.10% 135
North West -25 42 £450 +9.09% 65
Yorkshire -33 36 £400 -20.00% 22
South West -43 28 £550 - 42
Midlands -97 24 £446 -6.16% 71
East of England -20 21 £488 +21.88% 41
West Midlands -68 17 £450 -20.63% 33
East Midlands -44 6 £325 -15.14% 38
North East -14 2 £475 +28.38% 12
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 31 (4.66%) SharePoint
2 23 (3.46%) IIS
3 20 (3.01%) Microsoft Exchange
4 17 (2.56%) Confluence
5 14 (2.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 11 (1.65%) WebSphere
7 9 (1.35%) Apache
8 8 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
8 8 (1.20%) Apache Spark
9 7 (1.05%) Appian
9 7 (1.05%) CMS
9 7 (1.05%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
10 4 (0.60%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.30%) JBoss
12 1 (0.15%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.15%) ColdFusion
12 1 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.15%) SAS
12 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (6.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.95%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.30%) Trello
5 2 (0.30%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 9 (1.35%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (1.05%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.90%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.45%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 3 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
6 2 (0.30%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 1 (0.15%) Loan IQ
7 1 (0.15%) RMDS
7 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.15%) SAP R/3
7 1 (0.15%) thinkFolio
7 1 (0.15%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 293 (44.06%) Azure
2 136 (20.45%) AWS
3 120 (18.05%) Power Platform
4 84 (12.63%) Azure DevOps
5 55 (8.27%) Azure Data Factory
6 54 (8.12%) GCP
7 53 (7.97%) GitHub
8 32 (4.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 30 (4.51%) Microsoft 365
9 30 (4.51%) SaaS
10 21 (3.16%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (2.86%) Amazon S3
11 19 (2.86%) Power Automate
12 18 (2.71%) Dynamics 365
12 18 (2.71%) Snowflake
13 17 (2.56%) Azure Service Bus
14 16 (2.41%) IaaS
15 14 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
15 14 (2.11%) PaaS
16 13 (1.95%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.06%) Firewall
2 20 (3.01%) DNS
3 14 (2.11%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.80%) Internet
5 11 (1.65%) DHCP
6 10 (1.50%) HTTP
7 5 (0.75%) LAN
7 5 (0.75%) NetScaler
7 5 (0.75%) Skype
7 5 (0.75%) VPN
8 4 (0.60%) SSL
8 4 (0.60%) VoIP
9 3 (0.45%) NAS
9 3 (0.45%) RS-232
9 3 (0.45%) SAN
9 3 (0.45%) X.400
10 2 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (0.30%) WAN
10 2 (0.30%) WebEx
10 2 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (15.49%) Power BI
2 91 (13.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 86 (12.93%) PostgreSQL
4 81 (12.18%) Relational Database
5 73 (10.98%) Data Warehouse
6 57 (8.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 49 (7.37%) Oracle Database
8 45 (6.77%) Azure SQL Database
8 45 (6.77%) MySQL
9 40 (6.02%) Data Lake
10 36 (5.41%) MongoDB
11 34 (5.11%) NoSQL
12 24 (3.61%) DB2
13 23 (3.46%) RDBMS
14 21 (3.16%) Amazon RDS
14 21 (3.16%) Tableau
15 20 (3.01%) Delta Lake
16 19 (2.86%) SQL Server Analysis Services
17 18 (2.71%) Big Data
18 14 (2.11%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 57 (8.57%) Git
2 48 (7.22%) JIRA
3 31 (4.66%) Jenkins
4 24 (3.61%) Visual Studio
5 18 (2.71%) GitLab
6 14 (2.11%) Postman
7 12 (1.80%) SpecFlow
7 12 (1.80%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 10 (1.50%) Selenium
9 9 (1.35%) Cucumber
9 9 (1.35%) ERwin
9 9 (1.35%) Maven
10 8 (1.20%) Octopus Deploy
10 8 (1.20%) Team Foundation Server
10 8 (1.20%) TeamCity
11 7 (1.05%) JUnit
12 6 (0.90%) Bitbucket
12 6 (0.90%) MLflow
12 6 (0.90%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.90%) TestRail
General
1 207 (31.13%) Social Skills
2 176 (26.47%) Finance
3 91 (13.68%) Analytical Skills
4 87 (13.08%) Banking
5 41 (6.17%) Public Sector
6 36 (5.41%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.31%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (2.41%) Front Office
10 15 (2.26%) Retail
11 14 (2.11%) Financial Institution
12 8 (1.20%) Legal
12 8 (1.20%) Local Government
13 6 (0.90%) Law
13 6 (0.90%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.60%) Military
15 4 (0.60%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 241 (36.24%) Developer
2 95 (14.29%) Senior
3 91 (13.68%) Data Engineer
4 70 (10.53%) C# Developer
5 52 (7.82%) Architect
6 51 (7.67%) .NET Developer
7 45 (6.77%) Analyst
8 39 (5.86%) Senior Developer
9 31 (4.66%) Lead
9 31 (4.66%) Senior Data Engineer
10 30 (4.51%) DBA
11 28 (4.21%) Full-Stack Developer
12 23 (3.46%) Software Engineer
13 22 (3.31%) C# .NET Developer
13 22 (3.31%) Consultant
13 22 (3.31%) SQL DBA
14 20 (3.01%) SQL Developer
15 17 (2.56%) Angular Developer
15 17 (2.56%) Data Architect
16 16 (2.41%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 196 (29.47%) .NET
2 84 (12.63%) .NET Framework
3 69 (10.38%) REST
4 49 (7.37%) AngularJS
5 47 (7.07%) React
6 45 (6.77%) HTML
7 42 (6.32%) .NET Core
8 41 (6.17%) RESTful
9 37 (5.56%) CSS
10 35 (5.26%) Kafka
10 35 (5.26%) XML
11 32 (4.81%) ASP.NET
12 30 (4.51%) Entity Framework
12 30 (4.51%) Web Services
13 29 (4.36%) SOAP
14 23 (3.46%) WPF
15 21 (3.16%) Middleware
16 18 (2.71%) OAuth
17 17 (2.56%) Node.js
17 17 (2.56%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 36 (5.41%) Legacy Systems
2 29 (4.36%) Cloud Native
3 22 (3.31%) Enterprise Software
4 17 (2.56%) Management Information System
5 16 (2.41%) Onboarding
5 16 (2.41%) Product Ownership
6 15 (2.26%) Derivative
7 14 (2.11%) Data Structures
7 14 (2.11%) Replication
8 13 (1.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 12 (1.80%) Credit Risk
9 12 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (1.65%) PKI
10 11 (1.65%) Reinsurance
11 10 (1.50%) Greenfield Project
12 9 (1.35%) Clustering
12 9 (1.35%) Linux Command Line
13 8 (1.20%) NHS
13 8 (1.20%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 112 (16.84%) Windows
2 78 (11.73%) Linux
3 58 (8.72%) Windows Server
4 14 (2.11%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.95%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (1.65%) Unix
7 8 (1.20%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.60%) AIX
9 4 (0.60%) Android
9 4 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.30%) VMS
10 2 (0.30%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.15%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.15%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (23.61%) CI/CD
2 154 (23.16%) Agile
3 143 (21.50%) DevOps
4 139 (20.90%) Problem-Solving
5 126 (18.95%) ETL
6 125 (18.80%) Business Intelligence
7 106 (15.94%) Data Modelling
8 101 (15.19%) Migration
9 72 (10.83%) Analytics
10 66 (9.92%) Microservices
11 58 (8.72%) Performance Tuning
11 58 (8.72%) Test Automation
12 57 (8.57%) Full-Stack Development
13 56 (8.42%) Containerisation
13 56 (8.42%) Data Analysis
14 55 (8.27%) Data Engineering
15 54 (8.12%) Data Pipeline
16 52 (7.82%) Scrum
17 51 (7.67%) Data Migration
17 51 (7.67%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 389 (58.50%) SQL
2 175 (26.32%) C#
3 150 (22.56%) Python
4 78 (11.73%) T-SQL
5 65 (9.77%) Java
5 65 (9.77%) JavaScript
6 57 (8.57%) PowerShell
7 56 (8.42%) PL/SQL
8 35 (5.26%) Bash
9 28 (4.21%) TypeScript
10 18 (2.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 17 (2.56%) VB
12 14 (2.11%) PHP
12 14 (2.11%) VBA
13 10 (1.50%) Bicep
14 7 (1.05%) XPath
15 5 (0.75%) R
15 5 (0.75%) Shell Script
15 5 (0.75%) X++
16 4 (0.60%) Scala
Qualifications
1 89 (13.38%) Security Cleared
2 76 (11.43%) Degree
3 61 (9.17%) SC Cleared
4 29 (4.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (2.86%) Azure Certification
5 19 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
6 18 (2.71%) DV Cleared
7 11 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.20%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.90%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.60%) CCA
10 4 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.60%) Citrix Certification
10 4 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.45%) CCNP
11 3 (0.45%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.45%) PMP
12 2 (0.30%) CCIE
12 2 (0.30%) OCP
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (10.83%) Data Quality
2 65 (9.77%) QA
3 16 (2.41%) GDPR
4 7 (1.05%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.05%) SLA
5 6 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.75%) WCAG
7 4 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.45%) IFRS
8 3 (0.45%) IFRS 17
8 3 (0.45%) MiFID
9 2 (0.30%) Basel III
9 2 (0.30%) EMIR
9 2 (0.30%) GAAP
9 2 (0.30%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.30%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 83 (12.48%) Docker
2 46 (6.92%) Active Directory
3 26 (3.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.41%) Hyper-V
5 10 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.05%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.90%) zsh
8 4 (0.60%) XenApp
8 4 (0.60%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.45%) KVM
9 3 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.45%) vSphere
10 2 (0.30%) GridGain
10 2 (0.30%) NDS
10 2 (0.30%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 59 (8.87%) Kubernetes
2 38 (5.71%) Terraform
3 19 (2.86%) Ansible
4 13 (1.95%) Grafana
5 12 (1.80%) SCCM
6 11 (1.65%) Puppet
7 10 (1.50%) vCenter Server
8 8 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (1.20%) NetBackup
9 7 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (1.05%) TIBCO Hawk
10 6 (0.90%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.75%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (0.60%) SCOM
12 4 (0.60%) SCVMM
12 4 (0.60%) WSUS
13 3 (0.45%) Control-M
13 3 (0.45%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 209 (31.43%) Microsoft
2 196 (29.47%) Oracle
3 56 (8.42%) Databricks
4 41 (6.17%) Citrix
5 39 (5.86%) VMware
6 26 (3.91%) Google
6 26 (3.91%) Informatica
7 23 (3.46%) ServiceNow
8 20 (3.01%) SAP
9 19 (2.86%) IBM
10 13 (1.95%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.65%) CyberArk
11 11 (1.65%) UiPath
12 10 (1.50%) Cisco
12 10 (1.50%) Veritas
13 9 (1.35%) Advent
13 9 (1.35%) SolarWinds
14 8 (1.20%) PagerDuty
15 7 (1.05%) BEA
15 7 (1.05%) Splunk
474 SQL Server jobs in England