SMS Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Short Message Service (SMS)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring SMS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 207 159 178
Rank change year-on-year -48 +19 +58
Contract jobs citing SMS 3 4 4
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.063% 0.11% 0.086%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.53% 0.72% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 2 1
10th Percentile - £588 -
25th Percentile - £591 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £598 £410
Median % change year-on-year -24.69% +45.73% -23.72%
75th Percentile - £604 £415
90th Percentile - £608 -
England median daily rate £290 £503 £550
% change year-on-year -42.29% -8.64% +1.85%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North of England

SMS falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 565 555 689
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.92% 15.51% 14.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 311 511
10th Percentile £170 £163 £255
25th Percentile £308 £250 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £450 £486
Median % change year-on-year +3.25% -7.41% +5.08%
75th Percentile £550 £553 £594
90th Percentile £675 £663 £672
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 12 22
10th Percentile - £12.59 £15.72
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.33 £15.89
Median hourly rate £22.50 £32.88 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -31.57% +85.55% -17.58%
75th Percentile £67.25 £51.23 £25.59
90th Percentile £74.26 £51.91 £46.88
England median hourly rate £34.00 £40.25 £56.49
% change year-on-year -15.53% -28.75% +25.53%

SMS
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SMS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

SMS job vacancy trend in the North of England

SMS
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SMS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SMS

SMS
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SMS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SMS

SMS
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SMS within the North of England region over the 6 months to 20 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
Yorkshire - 3 £450 - 2
SMS
England

SMS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of 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 2 (66.67%) Confluence
Communications & Networking
1 3 (100.00%) Firewall
1 3 (100.00%) NGFW
Development Applications
1 2 (66.67%) JIRA
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Firewall Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Network Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Network Security Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Security Engineer
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) High Availability
2 2 (66.67%) Migration
Qualifications
1 3 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 3 (100.00%) Security Cleared
Vendors
1 3 (100.00%) CheckPoint
2 2 (66.67%) Cisco