Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 25 July 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for SLA skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited SLA over the 6 months to 25 July 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
UK
6 months to
25 Jul 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 199 185 195
Rank change year-on-year -14 +10 +3
Contract jobs citing SLA 934 542 1,322
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.32% 1.44% 1.44%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 10.70% 12.62% 12.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 284 749
10th Percentile £133 £135 £113
25th Percentile £180 £236 £155
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £400 £305
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +31.15% +1.67%
75th Percentile £488 £496 £450
90th Percentile £573 £588 £538
UK excluding London median daily rate £275 £345 £275
% change year-on-year -20.29% +25.45% +0.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 50 158
10th Percentile £10.50 £9.52 £10.50
25th Percentile £11.83 £11.51 £11.24
Median hourly rate £14.00 £16.50 £15.20
Median % change year-on-year -15.15% +8.55% +1.50%
75th Percentile £17.89 £20.00 £18.19
90th Percentile £31.45 £35.78 £23.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.00 £15.23 £14.75
% change year-on-year -14.61% +3.22% +2.08%

SLA is in the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills.

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK
Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 8,729 4,294 10,342
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.33% 11.44% 11.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,805 2,713 6,572
10th Percentile £263 £263 £250
25th Percentile £375 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -
75th Percentile £588 £573 £550
90th Percentile £675 £645 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £438 £425
% change year-on-year -2.86% +2.94% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 189 403
10th Percentile £11.36 £12.60 £10.76
25th Percentile £14.00 £17.27 £14.20
Median hourly rate £21.00 £22.61 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.12% +2.77% +4.76%
75th Percentile £40.72 £43.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £61.59 £53.75 £52.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 £21.50 £22.36
% change year-on-year -11.63% -3.84% +11.79%

SLA
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SLA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SLA in the UK

SLA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SLA.

Daily rate trend for SLA in the UK

SLA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SLA over the 6 months to 25 July 2021.

Daily rate histogram for SLA in the UK

SLA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SLA.

Hourly rate trend for SLA in the UK

SLA
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SLA over the 6 months to 25 July 2021.

Hourly rate histogram for SLA in the UK

SLA
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SLA within the UK over the 6 months to 25 July 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
England -7 824 £350 -12.50% 474
UK excluding London +2 566 £275 -20.29% 428
London -39 266 £450 -5.26% 80
Work from Home -127 173 £400 +14.29% 59
South East -15 150 £300 -24.05% 97
North of England +7 142 £225 -33.09% 129
East of England +33 90 £229 -31.72% 39
Midlands -18 80 £210 -40.43% 93
North West -23 73 £175 -48.53% 79
South West +19 60 £414 +18.21% 34
Yorkshire +8 50 £320 -5.19% 33
East Midlands +4 40 £140 +60.18% 46
West Midlands -28 40 £378 -23.35% 46
Scotland -48 31 £400 +3.23% 17
North East +14 19 £265 -3.64% 17
Wales -6 10 £110 -66.28% 17
Northern Ireland -3 3 £100 -65.22% 2

For the 6 months to 25 July 2021, IT contractor jobs citing SLA also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads with a requirement for SLA.

1 305 (32.66%) ITIL
2 293 (31.37%) Windows
3 274 (29.34%) Microsoft
4 225 (24.09%) Social Skills
5 201 (21.52%) Active Directory
6 163 (17.45%) Microsoft 365
7 139 (14.88%) Problem-Solving
8 131 (14.03%) Windows 10
9 126 (13.49%) Microsoft Office
10 125 (13.38%) Service Management
11 124 (13.28%) Service Delivery
12 122 (13.06%) Finance
13 112 (11.99%) Cisco
14 108 (11.56%) Security Cleared
15 102 (10.92%) Azure
16 90 (9.64%) Analytical Skills
16 90 (9.64%) Agile Software Development
17 83 (8.89%) ITSM
18 81 (8.67%) Migration
19 80 (8.57%) VMware
20 79 (8.46%) SC Cleared
21 69 (7.39%) Telecoms
22 66 (7.07%) DevOps
23 65 (6.96%) Windows 7
23 65 (6.96%) Change Management
24 64 (6.85%) ServiceNow
25 63 (6.75%) AWS
26 62 (6.64%) VMware Infrastructure
26 62 (6.64%) Windows Server
27 61 (6.53%) Linux

SLA
Co-occurring IT Skills by Category

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

Application Platforms
1 61 (6.53%) SharePoint
2 28 (3.00%) MS Exchange
3 19 (2.03%) Confluence
4 12 (1.28%) IIS
5 10 (1.07%) SharePoint 2010
6 8 (0.86%) SharePoint 2013
6 8 (0.86%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.54%) Exchange Server 2010
8 4 (0.43%) Apache
8 4 (0.43%) CMS
9 3 (0.32%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.32%) Appian
9 3 (0.32%) Camunda
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.32%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.32%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.21%) JBoss
10 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.21%) SharePoint Server
10 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
Applications
1 126 (13.49%) Microsoft Office
2 60 (6.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.71%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.54%) InfoPath
7 2 (0.21%) NUKE
8 1 (0.11%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.11%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.39%) Oracle Payables
1 13 (1.39%) Oracle Receivables
2 11 (1.18%) Oracle FAH
2 11 (1.18%) Oracle General Ledger
2 11 (1.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 9 (0.96%) Oracle Assets
3 9 (0.96%) Oracle Financials
4 8 (0.86%) Oracle Internet Expenses
4 8 (0.86%) Oracle iProcurement
5 7 (0.75%) Oracle EBS
5 7 (0.75%) Oracle E-Business Tax
6 6 (0.64%) Remedy ITSM
7 5 (0.54%) SAP S/4HANA
8 4 (0.43%) Oracle EBS R12
9 3 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
9 3 (0.32%) Endur
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle Cash Management
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
10 2 (0.21%) SAP Retail
Cloud Services
1 163 (17.45%) Microsoft 365
2 102 (10.92%) Azure
3 63 (6.75%) AWS
4 23 (2.46%) Power Platform
5 14 (1.50%) Azure Active Directory
5 14 (1.50%) OpenShift
6 13 (1.39%) IaaS
7 10 (1.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 9 (0.96%) PaaS
9 8 (0.86%) GCP
10 7 (0.75%) SaaS
11 6 (0.64%) Adobe Creative Cloud
11 6 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (0.64%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.64%) OneDrive
12 5 (0.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 4 (0.43%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (0.43%) GitHub
13 4 (0.43%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.43%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (6.42%) VPN
2 56 (6.00%) Firewall
3 41 (4.39%) LAN
4 35 (3.75%) DNS
4 35 (3.75%) WAN
5 33 (3.53%) DHCP
6 32 (3.43%) TCP/IP
7 31 (3.32%) Internet
8 24 (2.57%) SAN
9 20 (2.14%) OSPF
10 19 (2.03%) BGP
10 19 (2.03%) SSL
11 18 (1.93%) Network Security
11 18 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
12 17 (1.82%) Wireless
13 16 (1.71%) Cisco Nexus
13 16 (1.71%) EIGRP
14 15 (1.61%) MPLS
15 13 (1.39%) VLAN
15 13 (1.39%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (1.93%) Power BI
2 13 (1.39%) Hadoop
3 11 (1.18%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.18%) Tableau
4 10 (1.07%) Big Data
5 9 (0.96%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (0.75%) Oracle BI EE
7 5 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (0.54%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.43%) Apache Hive
8 4 (0.43%) MySQL
9 3 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.32%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.32%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.32%) GIS
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.32%) SAP BW
9 3 (0.32%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.21%) SQL Server 2016
Development Applications
1 35 (3.75%) JIRA
2 15 (1.61%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.64%) Git (software)
3 6 (0.64%) GitLab
4 4 (0.43%) VSS/SourceSafe
5 3 (0.32%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.32%) JMeter
5 3 (0.32%) LoadRunner
5 3 (0.32%) NeoLoad
5 3 (0.32%) SilkPerformer
5 3 (0.32%) WebLOAD
6 2 (0.21%) MSI
6 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.11%) GCC
7 1 (0.11%) GDB
7 1 (0.11%) Hudson
7 1 (0.11%) Maven
7 1 (0.11%) Rational Rose
7 1 (0.11%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 225 (24.09%) Social Skills
2 122 (13.06%) Finance
3 90 (9.64%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (7.39%) Telecoms
5 35 (3.75%) Banking
6 34 (3.64%) Legal
6 34 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
7 32 (3.43%) Retail
8 30 (3.21%) Public Sector
9 18 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
10 14 (1.50%) Billing
11 10 (1.07%) Financial Institution
11 10 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
12 9 (0.96%) Digital Economy
12 9 (0.96%) Investment Banking
12 9 (0.96%) Marketing
13 8 (0.86%) Law
14 7 (0.75%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.64%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 204 (21.84%) Analyst
2 88 (9.42%) Service Analyst
3 77 (8.24%) Service Desk Analyst
4 73 (7.82%) Support Engineer
5 58 (6.21%) 1st Line Support
6 57 (6.10%) Service Manager
7 46 (4.93%) Network Engineer
8 45 (4.82%) Consultant
9 42 (4.50%) Support Analyst
10 40 (4.28%) IT Support
11 39 (4.18%) Administrator
12 33 (3.53%) 2nd Line Support
13 32 (3.43%) Desktop Support
14 30 (3.21%) Service Desk Support
15 29 (3.10%) IT Engineer
16 28 (3.00%) Delivery Manager
17 24 (2.57%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 24 (2.57%) Architect
17 24 (2.57%) IT Analyst
17 24 (2.57%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.39%) XMPP
2 11 (1.18%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.18%) CSS
3 10 (1.07%) .NET
3 10 (1.07%) HTML
3 10 (1.07%) Kafka
4 9 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
4 9 (0.96%) Web Services
5 7 (0.75%) COM
6 5 (0.54%) Express
6 5 (0.54%) Node.js
6 5 (0.54%) XML
7 4 (0.43%) React
8 3 (0.32%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.32%) J2EE
8 3 (0.32%) jQuery
8 3 (0.32%) Oracle Fusion
8 3 (0.32%) REST
8 3 (0.32%) Software Packaging
8 3 (0.32%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 51 (5.46%) Self-Motivation
2 43 (4.60%) Data Centre
3 42 (4.50%) Management Information System
4 20 (2.14%) NHS
5 17 (1.82%) Video Conferencing
6 16 (1.71%) iPhone
7 15 (1.61%) Virtual Team
8 13 (1.39%) BYOD
9 11 (1.18%) Replication
10 10 (1.07%) Digital Signage
10 10 (1.07%) Hedge funds
10 10 (1.07%) iPad
11 9 (0.96%) Blackberry
11 9 (0.96%) CMDB
11 9 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (0.96%) PKI
12 7 (0.75%) Fixed Income
12 7 (0.75%) Public Cloud
13 6 (0.64%) Clustering
13 6 (0.64%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 293 (31.37%) Windows
2 131 (14.03%) Windows 10
3 65 (6.96%) Windows 7
4 62 (6.64%) Windows Server
5 61 (6.53%) Linux
6 38 (4.07%) Apple iOS
7 29 (3.10%) Unix
8 18 (1.93%) Windows Server 2012
9 17 (1.82%) Windows Server 2008
10 15 (1.61%) Windows Server 2016
11 14 (1.50%) Android
11 14 (1.50%) Mac OS X
12 11 (1.18%) Mac OS
13 9 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
14 7 (0.75%) Windows 8
15 6 (0.64%) Windows XP
16 5 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 5 (0.54%) Windows Server 2003
17 4 (0.43%) AIX
17 4 (0.43%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 305 (32.66%) ITIL
2 139 (14.88%) Problem-Solving
3 125 (13.38%) Service Management
4 124 (13.28%) Service Delivery
5 90 (9.64%) Agile Software Development
6 83 (8.89%) ITSM
7 81 (8.67%) Migration
8 66 (7.07%) DevOps
9 65 (6.96%) Change Management
10 55 (5.89%) Problem Management
11 53 (5.67%) Incident Management
12 52 (5.57%) Stakeholder Management
13 50 (5.35%) Time Management
14 46 (4.93%) Project Management
15 43 (4.60%) Project Delivery
16 38 (4.07%) Disaster Recovery
17 37 (3.96%) Service Design
18 36 (3.85%) Scrum
19 35 (3.75%) Continuous Improvement
20 29 (3.10%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 59 (6.32%) PowerShell
1 59 (6.32%) SQL
2 38 (4.07%) Python
3 33 (3.53%) Java
4 16 (1.71%) VB
5 13 (1.39%) JavaScript
6 12 (1.28%) Bash Shell
7 11 (1.18%) C
8 9 (0.96%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.86%) C#
10 6 (0.64%) C++
10 6 (0.64%) Go
10 6 (0.64%) Ruby
11 4 (0.43%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.43%) VBA
12 3 (0.32%) PHP
13 2 (0.21%) Rust
13 2 (0.21%) Scala
13 2 (0.21%) VBScript
14 1 (0.11%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 108 (11.56%) Security Cleared
2 79 (8.46%) SC Cleared
3 51 (5.46%) Degree
4 45 (4.82%) Cisco Certification
5 41 (4.39%) Microsoft Certification
6 33 (3.53%) ITIL Certification
7 29 (3.10%) CCNA
8 27 (2.89%) CCNP
9 25 (2.68%) MCP
10 17 (1.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 17 (1.82%) MCSE
11 16 (1.71%) DV Cleared
12 10 (1.07%) DBS Check
13 9 (0.96%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (0.75%) Citrix Certification
15 6 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (0.64%) MCITP
15 6 (0.64%) MCSA
16 5 (0.54%) CCIE
17 4 (0.43%) CCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.36%) GDPR
2 21 (2.25%) QA
3 17 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.07%) Data Quality
5 8 (0.86%) PMO
6 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 3 (0.32%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.21%) COBIT
7 2 (0.21%) EMIR
7 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.21%) MiFID
8 1 (0.11%) BS25999
8 1 (0.11%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.11%) GRC
8 1 (0.11%) GxP
8 1 (0.11%) HL7
8 1 (0.11%) PMBOK
System Software
1 201 (21.52%) Active Directory
2 62 (6.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.25%) Docker
3 21 (2.25%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.28%) vSphere
5 10 (1.07%) Firmware
5 10 (1.07%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.75%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 7 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.75%) Virtual Servers
7 6 (0.64%) Microsoft App-V
7 6 (0.64%) Terminal Services
7 6 (0.64%) XenApp
7 6 (0.64%) XenDesktop
8 5 (0.54%) VMware Server
9 4 (0.43%) Oracle RAC
9 4 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.43%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.21%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.21%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 43 (4.60%) SCCM
2 26 (2.78%) Ansible
3 18 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (1.71%) Prometheus
4 16 (1.71%) Terraform
5 15 (1.61%) Grafana
5 15 (1.61%) Kubernetes
6 11 (1.18%) Nagios
7 10 (1.07%) SCOM
8 8 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 8 (0.86%) Cisco CUCM
9 7 (0.75%) Puppet
10 6 (0.64%) WSUS
11 5 (0.54%) AirWatch
11 5 (0.54%) HP NNM
12 4 (0.43%) HP ALM
12 4 (0.43%) McAfee ePO
12 4 (0.43%) Opscode Chef
13 3 (0.32%) Nessus
13 3 (0.32%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 274 (29.34%) Microsoft
2 112 (11.99%) Cisco
3 80 (8.57%) VMware
4 64 (6.85%) ServiceNow
5 44 (4.71%) Citrix
6 42 (4.50%) Oracle
7 38 (4.07%) HP
8 29 (3.10%) F5
9 24 (2.57%) Apple
10 23 (2.46%) SAP
11 20 (2.14%) Remedy
12 19 (2.03%) CheckPoint
12 19 (2.03%) Dell
13 16 (1.71%) Fortinet
14 15 (1.61%) Juniper
15 13 (1.39%) Palo Alto
15 13 (1.39%) SolarWinds
16 12 (1.28%) Google
16 12 (1.28%) IBM
16 12 (1.28%) McAfee
518 SLA job vacancies Nationwide