SMS Contract Job Trends

Short Message Service (SMS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs citing SMS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 5 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	655	546	533
Rank change year-on-year	-109	-13	+83
Contract jobs citing SMS	42	28	18
As % of all contract jobs in the UK	0.077%	0.081%	0.049%
As % of the Communications & Networking category	0.84%	0.71%	0.41%
Number of daily rates quoted	22	18	11
10^th Percentile	£319	£260	£313
25^th Percentile	£400	£283	£346
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£525	£370	£475
Median % change year-on-year	+41.89%	-22.11%	-
75^th Percentile	£666	£400	£549
90^th Percentile	£709	£465	£610
UK excluding London median daily rate	£525	£450	£543
% change year-on-year	+16.67%	-17.05%	+13.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted	3	0	0
10^th Percentile	£13.82	-	-
25^th Percentile	£14.38	-	-
Median hourly rate	£17.02	-	-
75^th Percentile	£18.72	-	-
90^th Percentile	-	-	-
UK excluding London median hourly rate	£17.02	-	-

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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 citing communications or computer networking skills.

	6 months to 5 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing communications or computer networking skills	5,011	3,929	4,399
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK	9.14%	11.35%	12.04%
Number of daily rates quoted	2,873	2,548	2,532
10^th Percentile	£238	£213	£221
25^th Percentile	£400	£360	£369
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£500	£475	£500
Median % change year-on-year	+5.26%	-5.00%	-
75^th Percentile	£600	£588	£600
90^th Percentile	£680	£675	£681
UK excluding London median daily rate	£495	£452	£475
% change year-on-year	+9.63%	-4.95%	-
Number of hourly rates quoted	436	194	159
10^th Percentile	£14.10	£15.50	£17.95
25^th Percentile	£19.33	£20.00	£26.25
Median hourly rate	£36.38	£34.00	£47.50
Median % change year-on-year	+7.00%	-28.42%	-13.64%
75^th Percentile	£68.75	£65.00	£66.01
90^th Percentile	£96.00	£75.00	£75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate	£26.44	£42.50	£50.00
% change year-on-year	-37.80%	-15.00%	-11.49%

SMS Job Vacancy Trend

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

SMS Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SMS.

SMS Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SMS over the 6 months to 5 November 2026.

SMS Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SMS.

SMS Top 10 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SMS within the UK over the 6 months to 5 November 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
England	-125	35	£500	+32.01%	34
London	-82	24	£500	+72.41%	17
Work from Home	-60	12	£625	+58.73%	10
UK excluding London	-80	10	£525	+16.67%	19
Midlands	-	6	£500	-	8
West Midlands	-	3	£588	-	4
East Midlands	-	3	£220	-	4
North West	-48	2	£625	+31.58%
South East	-59	2	£350	-12.50%	7
North of England	-71	2	£625	+35.14%	2

SMS Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 November 2026, contractor job vacancies citing SMS also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads citing SMS.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	CRM	61.9%	26
2	Stakeholder Management	45.2%	19
3	Personalization	33.3%	14
4	Customer Experience	26.2%	11
4	Salesforce	26.2%	11
6	Customer Engagement	23.8%	10
7	Analytics	21.4%	9
7	Collaborative Working	21.4%	9
9	Bloomreach	19.0%	8
9	Customer Insight	19.0%	8
9	Data Privacy	19.0%	8
9	Salesforce Marketing Cloud	19.0%	8
9	Security Cleared	19.0%	8
14	AI	16.7%	7
14	Customer Retention	16.7%	7
14	E-Commerce	16.7%	7
14	Push Notifications	16.7%	7
18	A/B Testing	14.3%	6
18	Campaign Management	14.3%	6
18	Event-Driven	14.3%	6
18	GDPR	14.3%	6
18	Generative AI	14.3%	6
18	Marketing Strategy	14.3%	6
18	Roadmaps	14.3%	6
25	Agile	11.9%	5
25	Architectural Design	11.9%	5
25	Braze	11.9%	5
25	Machine Learning	11.9%	5
25	Marketing Automation	11.9%	5
25	Multichannel Marketing	11.9%	5

SMS Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Communications & Networking

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	VoLTE	9.5%	4
2	4G	4.8%	2
2	5G	4.8%	2
2	Broadband	4.8%	2
2	Intrusion Detection	4.8%	2
2	MVNO	4.8%	2
2	Radio Access Network	4.8%	2
2	SD-WAN	4.8%	2
2	VoWiFi	4.8%	2
2	WAN	4.8%	2
2	Wireless	4.8%	2
12	SMTP	2.4%	1