SLA Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring SLA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 72 85
Rank change year-on-year -25 +13 +14
Contract jobs citing SLA 39 38 26
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.70% 2.27% 1.43%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 10.89% 13.72% 9.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 18 14
10th Percentile £163 £158 £226
25th Percentile £169 £195 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £219 £418
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -47.60% +51.82%
75th Percentile £401 £315 £513
90th Percentile £508 £376 £538
England median daily rate £375 £261 £400
% change year-on-year +43.95% -34.88% +29.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 9 3
10th Percentile - - £12.20
25th Percentile £16.00 - £12.50
Median hourly rate £16.10 £14.70 £13.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% +13.08% -35.00%
75th Percentile £16.13 £17.16 £13.38
90th Percentile - £29.95 £13.60
England median hourly rate £18.80 £23.15 £18.90
% change year-on-year -18.79% +22.50% +5.81%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
West Midlands

SLA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 358 277 276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 15.63% 16.58% 15.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 177 201
10th Percentile £292 £204 £363
25th Percentile £406 £350 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -5.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £594
90th Percentile £700 £638 £700
England median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 17 13
10th Percentile £12.63 £13.62 £13.05
25th Percentile £13.06 £14.70 £14.54
Median hourly rate £16.12 £16.19 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.46% -7.49% -12.50%
75th Percentile £26.25 £33.75 £34.50
90th Percentile £35.23 £51.00 £73.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.67 £34.50
% change year-on-year -17.98% -11.12% +51.65%

SLA
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SLA relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

SLA job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

SLA
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SLA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SLA

SLA
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SLA in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 28 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SLA in the West Midlands

SLA
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SLA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SLA

SLA
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SLA within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 28 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
Warwickshire -12 18 £195 -28.44% 4
Birmingham -14 11 £365 +76.97% 9
Coventry -9 4 £350 +150.00% 3
Shropshire -37 3 £164 -48.00% 11
Wolverhampton +3 1 £425 +46.30% 3
SLA
England

SLA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 6 (15.38%) Microsoft Exchange
1 6 (15.38%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (15.38%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 9 (23.08%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (5.13%) Azure
2 2 (5.13%) Power Platform
2 2 (5.13%) SuccessFactors
3 1 (2.56%) AWS
3 1 (2.56%) OneDrive
3 1 (2.56%) Power Automate
3 1 (2.56%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (12.82%) Structured Cabling
2 3 (7.69%) DHCP
2 3 (7.69%) DNS
3 2 (5.13%) Firewall
3 2 (5.13%) Radio Access Network
3 2 (5.13%) SD-WAN
3 2 (5.13%) VPN
3 2 (5.13%) WAN
4 1 (2.56%) LAN
4 1 (2.56%) TCP/IP
4 1 (2.56%) VLAN
4 1 (2.56%) VoIP
4 1 (2.56%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (2.56%) Wireless
4 1 (2.56%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (7.69%) MySQL
1 3 (7.69%) Oracle Database
2 1 (2.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (2.56%) Git
1 1 (2.56%) Jenkins
1 1 (2.56%) Selenium
1 1 (2.56%) TestDirector
General
1 14 (35.90%) Social Skills
2 10 (25.64%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (23.08%) Finance
4 4 (10.26%) Telecoms
5 3 (7.69%) Legal
6 2 (5.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (5.13%) Law
6 2 (5.13%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.56%) Billing
7 1 (2.56%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 6 (15.38%) Desktop Engineer
2 5 (12.82%) Desktop Support
2 5 (12.82%) Desktop Support Engineer
2 5 (12.82%) Support Engineer
3 4 (10.26%) Data Steward
3 4 (10.26%) Lead
4 3 (7.69%) DBA
4 3 (7.69%) Oracle DBA
5 2 (5.13%) Analyst
5 2 (5.13%) Consultant
5 2 (5.13%) Developer
5 2 (5.13%) IT Manager
5 2 (5.13%) IT Procurement Manager
5 2 (5.13%) Procurement Manager
5 2 (5.13%) SAP Manager
5 2 (5.13%) Service Desk Engineer
5 2 (5.13%) Workday Manager
6 1 (2.56%) Field Telecoms Engineer
6 1 (2.56%) IT Engineer
6 1 (2.56%) ServiceNow Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.56%) CSS
1 1 (2.56%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (7.69%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (2.56%) CMDB
2 1 (2.56%) Driving Licence
2 1 (2.56%) Industrial Internet of Things
2 1 (2.56%) IoT
2 1 (2.56%) Management Information System
2 1 (2.56%) NHS
2 1 (2.56%) Onboarding
2 1 (2.56%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 8 (20.51%) Windows
1 8 (20.51%) Windows 10
2 5 (12.82%) Android
2 5 (12.82%) Apple iOS
3 4 (10.26%) Unix
4 1 (2.56%) Linux
4 1 (2.56%) Mac OS
4 1 (2.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (20.51%) ITIL
2 7 (17.95%) Service Management
3 6 (15.38%) Customer Service
3 6 (15.38%) Ticket Management
4 5 (12.82%) Agile
4 5 (12.82%) Change Management
4 5 (12.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 5 (12.82%) Roadmaps
5 4 (10.26%) Capacity Planning
5 4 (10.26%) Cybersecurity
5 4 (10.26%) Root Cause Analysis
6 3 (7.69%) ITSM
6 3 (7.69%) Line Management
6 3 (7.69%) Mentoring
6 3 (7.69%) Process Improvement
6 3 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (7.69%) Systems Engineering
6 3 (7.69%) Technology Roadmap
6 3 (7.69%) Trend Analysis
7 2 (5.13%) Data Security
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.26%) Shell Script
2 3 (7.69%) Python
3 2 (5.13%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (5.13%) Degree
1 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Certification
1 2 (5.13%) Security Cleared
2 1 (2.56%) CCIE
2 1 (2.56%) CCNP
2 1 (2.56%) CEH
2 1 (2.56%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (2.56%) CISM
2 1 (2.56%) CISSP
2 1 (2.56%) CSSLP
2 1 (2.56%) DBS Check
2 1 (2.56%) ITIL Certification
2 1 (2.56%) MCSE
2 1 (2.56%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (7.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
2 2 (5.13%) Data Quality
2 2 (5.13%) GDPR
3 1 (2.56%) GRC
3 1 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (2.56%) NIST
3 1 (2.56%) PMO
3 1 (2.56%) QA
System Software
1 8 (20.51%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.56%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (2.56%) SCCM
Vendors
1 4 (10.26%) Microsoft
2 3 (7.69%) Cisco
2 3 (7.69%) Oracle
3 2 (5.13%) Ericsson
3 2 (5.13%) Huawei
3 2 (5.13%) Nokia
3 2 (5.13%) SAP
3 2 (5.13%) ServiceNow
3 2 (5.13%) Workday
4 1 (2.56%) Apple
4 1 (2.56%) Atlassian
4 1 (2.56%) Citrix
4 1 (2.56%) Dell
4 1 (2.56%) F5
4 1 (2.56%) Fortinet
4 1 (2.56%) HP
4 1 (2.56%) SolarWinds
4 1 (2.56%) VMware