SQL Server Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring SQL Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 124 103 74
Rank change year-on-year -21 -29 -20
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 84 62 123
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 1.80% 1.62% 2.63%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 11.04% 11.57% 18.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 41 76
10th Percentile £313 £356 £305
25th Percentile £358 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £480 £567 £538
90th Percentile £550 £575 £622
England median daily rate £480 £503 £540
% change year-on-year -4.48% -6.94% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 6
10th Percentile - £35.75 £17.38
25th Percentile - £42.50 £27.39
Median hourly rate - £56.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year - +7.14% +50.00%
75th Percentile - £65.00 £54.69
90th Percentile - - £55.00
England median hourly rate £58.36 £60.50 £53.75
% change year-on-year -3.54% +12.56% +28.74%

All Database and Business Intelligence Skills
North of 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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 761 536 668
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 16.34% 14.01% 14.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 545 324 482
10th Percentile £315 £327 £300
25th Percentile £369 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.44% -1.70% -4.76%
75th Percentile £540 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £700 £657
England median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 12 17
10th Percentile £38.80 £22.07 £20.56
25th Percentile £54.81 £23.87 £21.36
Median hourly rate £69.38 £27.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +152.29% -40.45% -18.98%
75th Percentile £82.38 £52.81 £53.75
90th Percentile £85.30 £65.00 £59.00
England median hourly rate £46.50 £38.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +22.37% -17.71% -9.45%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

SQL Server job vacancy trend in the North of England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

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

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

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in the North of England over the 6 months to 5 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in the North of England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

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

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

SQL Server
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 SQL Server within the North of England region over the 6 months to 5 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
North West -13 47 £415 -7.37% 99
Yorkshire -14 37 £425 -24.31% 62
SQL Server
England

SQL Server
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 5 (5.95%) Apache
1 5 (5.95%) Confluence
2 4 (4.76%) JBoss
3 3 (3.57%) SharePoint
4 2 (2.38%) CICS
4 2 (2.38%) IIS
4 2 (2.38%) WebSphere
5 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (1.19%) Tomcat
5 1 (1.19%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 9 (10.71%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (2.38%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (1.19%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (1.19%) Magento
3 1 (1.19%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 25 (29.76%) Azure
2 18 (21.43%) AWS
3 10 (11.90%) GCP
3 10 (11.90%) Power Platform
4 5 (5.95%) Serverless
5 4 (4.76%) Azure Data Factory
5 4 (4.76%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (3.57%) Amazon S3
6 3 (3.57%) Azure Functions
6 3 (3.57%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (2.38%) Azure Event Grid
7 2 (2.38%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (2.38%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (2.38%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 2 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (2.38%) GitHub
7 2 (2.38%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (2.38%) Nutanix
8 1 (1.19%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 1 (1.19%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 13 (15.48%) Firewall
2 4 (4.76%) SSL
3 1 (1.19%) Cisco Nexus
3 1 (1.19%) FCoE
3 1 (1.19%) Fibre Channel
3 1 (1.19%) iSCSI
3 1 (1.19%) LAN
3 1 (1.19%) Multicast
3 1 (1.19%) NAS
3 1 (1.19%) SAN
3 1 (1.19%) TCP/IP
3 1 (1.19%) VLAN
3 1 (1.19%) VoIP
3 1 (1.19%) WAN
3 1 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (20.24%) Relational Database
2 13 (15.48%) MySQL
3 11 (13.10%) DB2
3 11 (13.10%) Oracle Database
3 11 (13.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 9 (10.71%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (10.71%) Power BI
5 8 (9.52%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (7.14%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (3.57%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (3.57%) Metadata
7 3 (3.57%) Power Query
7 3 (3.57%) Star Schema
7 3 (3.57%) Tableau
7 3 (3.57%) WebFOCUS
8 2 (2.38%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (2.38%) NoSQL
8 2 (2.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (1.19%) BigQuery
9 1 (1.19%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 14 (16.67%) Git
2 5 (5.95%) JIRA
2 5 (5.95%) Selenium
3 4 (4.76%) Cucumber
3 4 (4.76%) Maven
3 4 (4.76%) Sonatype Nexus
4 3 (3.57%) Bitbucket
4 3 (3.57%) GitLab
4 3 (3.57%) Jenkins
4 3 (3.57%) JUnit
4 3 (3.57%) Mockito
4 3 (3.57%) SonarQube
5 1 (1.19%) Eclipse
5 1 (1.19%) IntelliJ
5 1 (1.19%) Octopus Deploy
5 1 (1.19%) Postman
5 1 (1.19%) REST Assured
5 1 (1.19%) SoapUI
5 1 (1.19%) Visual Studio
5 1 (1.19%) Zephyr
General
1 31 (36.90%) Social Skills
2 9 (10.71%) Banking
3 8 (9.52%) Finance
4 7 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (8.33%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (5.95%) Public Sector
6 4 (4.76%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.38%) Local Government
8 1 (1.19%) Law
8 1 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.19%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (1.19%) Retail
Job Titles
1 27 (32.14%) Developer
2 13 (15.48%) DBA
3 7 (8.33%) Administrator
3 7 (8.33%) Automation Engineer
3 7 (8.33%) NetBackup Engineer
4 6 (7.14%) Software Engineer
5 5 (5.95%) Business Intelligence Developer
5 5 (5.95%) Senior
6 4 (4.76%) Analyst
6 4 (4.76%) Consultant
6 4 (4.76%) Data Engineer
6 4 (4.76%) Power BI Developer
6 4 (4.76%) SQL Developer
7 3 (3.57%) Architect
7 3 (3.57%) Business Analyst
7 3 (3.57%) Data Business Analyst
7 3 (3.57%) Java Developer
7 3 (3.57%) SQL DBA
8 2 (2.38%) Cloud Engineer
8 2 (2.38%) Delphi Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (20.24%) .NET
2 10 (11.90%) FastAPI
3 6 (7.14%) React
4 5 (5.95%) Kafka
5 4 (4.76%) CSS
5 4 (4.76%) HTML
6 3 (3.57%) .NET Framework
6 3 (3.57%) ARM Templates
6 3 (3.57%) Entity Framework
6 3 (3.57%) Hibernate
6 3 (3.57%) Jest
6 3 (3.57%) JPA
6 3 (3.57%) Middleware
6 3 (3.57%) Node.js
6 3 (3.57%) Redux
6 3 (3.57%) Spring Boot
6 3 (3.57%) WebSockets
7 2 (2.38%) OAuth
7 2 (2.38%) RESTful
7 2 (2.38%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (9.52%) Virtual Team
2 6 (7.14%) Cloud Native
3 4 (4.76%) Data Structures
3 4 (4.76%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (4.76%) PKI
3 4 (4.76%) Product Ownership
4 3 (3.57%) Replication
5 2 (2.38%) Clustering
5 2 (2.38%) Data Centre
5 2 (2.38%) Mainframe
5 2 (2.38%) NHS
6 1 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.19%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (1.19%) FMCG
6 1 (1.19%) IBM Mainframe
6 1 (1.19%) IBM XIV
6 1 (1.19%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (1.19%) Legacy Code
6 1 (1.19%) PDA
6 1 (1.19%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 25 (29.76%) Linux
2 10 (11.90%) Windows
3 2 (2.38%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.19%) MVS
4 1 (1.19%) Solaris
4 1 (1.19%) VMS
4 1 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (1.19%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (1.19%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (28.57%) DevOps
2 21 (25.00%) Agile
3 19 (22.62%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (20.24%) Task Automation
5 14 (16.67%) CI/CD
6 13 (15.48%) Business Intelligence
7 12 (14.29%) Performance Tuning
8 11 (13.10%) Disaster Recovery
8 11 (13.10%) Performance Optimisation
9 10 (11.90%) API Integration
10 9 (10.71%) Data Modelling
10 9 (10.71%) High Availability
11 8 (9.52%) Containerisation
11 8 (9.52%) Data Protection
11 8 (9.52%) ETL
11 8 (9.52%) Fund Accounting
12 7 (8.33%) Business Strategy
12 7 (8.33%) Migration
12 7 (8.33%) RBAC
12 7 (8.33%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 41 (48.81%) SQL
2 19 (22.62%) Python
3 11 (13.10%) T-SQL
4 10 (11.90%) Shell Script
5 8 (9.52%) Bash
5 8 (9.52%) C#
6 7 (8.33%) PowerShell
7 6 (7.14%) Java
8 4 (4.76%) JavaScript
8 4 (4.76%) PHP
9 3 (3.57%) Bicep
9 3 (3.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (3.57%) Delphi
10 2 (2.38%) X++
11 1 (1.19%) COBOL
11 1 (1.19%) JCL
11 1 (1.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 7 (8.33%) Security Cleared
2 3 (3.57%) Degree
2 3 (3.57%) DV Cleared
2 3 (3.57%) Microsoft Certification
2 3 (3.57%) SC Cleared
3 2 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.38%) QA
2 1 (1.19%) Accessibility
2 1 (1.19%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (1.19%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.19%) GDPR
2 1 (1.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (14.29%) Docker
2 10 (11.90%) Oracle RAC
3 9 (10.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (3.57%) Active Directory
5 1 (1.19%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.19%) KVM
5 1 (1.19%) NFS
5 1 (1.19%) SRDF
5 1 (1.19%) Veritas Cluster Server
5 1 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (1.19%) vSphere
5 1 (1.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 16 (19.05%) Ansible
2 10 (11.90%) Data Guard
2 10 (11.90%) yum
3 7 (8.33%) NetBackup
3 7 (8.33%) Oracle RMAN
4 5 (5.95%) Terraform
5 3 (3.57%) Kubernetes
6 2 (2.38%) Progress Chef
6 2 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.19%) Puppet
7 1 (1.19%) SCCM
Vendors
1 31 (36.90%) Microsoft
2 27 (32.14%) Oracle
3 10 (11.90%) VMware
4 9 (10.71%) Advent
4 9 (10.71%) Google
5 7 (8.33%) CyberArk
5 7 (8.33%) IBM
5 7 (8.33%) Veritas
6 3 (3.57%) Veracode
7 2 (2.38%) Capita
7 2 (2.38%) Cisco
7 2 (2.38%) Databricks
7 2 (2.38%) ServiceNow
8 1 (1.19%) Citrix
8 1 (1.19%) EMC
8 1 (1.19%) F5
8 1 (1.19%) NetApp
8 1 (1.19%) Sage
8 1 (1.19%) SAP
8 1 (1.19%) Sybase