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 11 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 72 75
Rank change year-on-year -52 +3 +14
Contract jobs citing SLA 51 56 37
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.44% 2.97% 1.96%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 7.46% 17.02% 12.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 41 20
10th Percentile - £163 £153
25th Percentile £213 £235 £194
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £250 £390 £333
Median % change year-on-year -35.90% +17.29% -20.36%
75th Percentile £338 £450 £438
90th Percentile £535 £503 £445
England median daily rate £425 £370 £300
% change year-on-year +14.86% +23.33% -25.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 4 4
10th Percentile £12.90 £16.03 -
25th Percentile £14.73 £16.08 -
Median hourly rate £19.48 £16.12 £14.70
Median % change year-on-year +20.88% +9.63% -36.69%
75th Percentile £20.92 £16.13 £15.32
90th Percentile £23.18 - £16.42
England median hourly rate £19.33 £22.03 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.26% +10.15% +14.29%

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 684 329 301
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 19.28% 17.46% 15.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 450 221 187
10th Percentile £317 £308 £211
25th Percentile £400 £400 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.46% -2.40%
75th Percentile £538 £588 £591
90th Percentile £651 £705 £743
England median daily rate £513 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 14 15
10th Percentile £12.90 £16.03 £12.00
25th Percentile £16.79 £16.13 £14.70
Median hourly rate £20.62 £27.50 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.04% +30.95% -23.64%
75th Percentile £29.60 £34.71 £41.34
90th Percentile £67.84 £40.46 £51.50
England median hourly rate £32.40 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -0.32% -7.14% -2.78%

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 11 October 2026.

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 11 October 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Birmingham +6 13 £319 -28.37% 19
Coventry -19 10 £225 -29.25% 9
Worcestershire - 8 - - 1
Warwickshire -35 7 £220 -45.00% 1
Shropshire -46 4 £369 +113.91% 2
Herefordshire +5 3 - -
Wolverhampton -3 1 £250 -41.18% 1
Staffordshire - 1 - - 1
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 4 (7.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (5.88%) SharePoint
3 2 (3.92%) Confluence
3 2 (3.92%) SAS
Applications
1 10 (19.61%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (13.73%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 8 (15.69%) ContrOCC
2 5 (9.80%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (1.96%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 18 (35.29%) Microsoft 365
2 11 (21.57%) OneDrive
3 10 (19.61%) Azure
4 9 (17.65%) Entra ID
5 5 (9.80%) AWS
6 3 (5.88%) SaaS
7 2 (3.92%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (1.96%) AWS Data Pipeline
8 1 (1.96%) IaaS
8 1 (1.96%) PaaS
8 1 (1.96%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 12 (23.53%) VPN
2 6 (11.76%) Cisco IOS
3 4 (7.84%) TCP/IP
4 3 (5.88%) DHCP
4 3 (5.88%) DNS
4 3 (5.88%) Internet
4 3 (5.88%) LAN
5 2 (3.92%) Unified Communications
5 2 (3.92%) VLAN
5 2 (3.92%) VoIP
5 2 (3.92%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (1.96%) Cisco Wireless
6 1 (1.96%) NaaS
6 1 (1.96%) Network Security
6 1 (1.96%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (1.96%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.92%) Pentaho
2 1 (1.96%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (1.96%) Power BI
2 1 (1.96%) Semantic Layer
2 1 (1.96%) Spark SQL
2 1 (1.96%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (7.84%) JIRA
2 2 (3.92%) Artifactory
2 2 (3.92%) GitLab
General
1 23 (45.10%) Social Skills
2 11 (21.57%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (21.57%) Public Sector
3 8 (15.69%) Local Government
4 5 (9.80%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (7.84%) Back Office
5 4 (7.84%) Billing
6 3 (5.88%) Legal
7 1 (1.96%) Finance
7 1 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (15.69%) Applications Support
1 8 (15.69%) Support Officer
2 7 (13.73%) Support Technician
3 6 (11.76%) Help Desk Support
3 6 (11.76%) Help Desk Support Technician
3 6 (11.76%) Help Desk Technician
4 5 (9.80%) Data Engineer
4 5 (9.80%) Desktop Support
4 5 (9.80%) Support Engineer
5 4 (7.84%) 1st Line Support
5 4 (7.84%) Analyst
5 4 (7.84%) Desktop Engineer
5 4 (7.84%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 4 (7.84%) IT Support
5 4 (7.84%) Service Desk Agent
5 4 (7.84%) Service Desk Support
6 3 (5.88%) Consultant
7 2 (3.92%) Customer Engineer
7 2 (3.92%) Management Consultant
7 2 (3.92%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.96%) PySpark
1 1 (1.96%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 12 (23.53%) Onboarding
2 10 (19.61%) Smartphone
3 3 (5.88%) Driving Licence
3 3 (5.88%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (5.88%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.92%) Acoustics
4 2 (3.92%) BYOD
4 2 (3.92%) Video Conferencing
4 2 (3.92%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.96%) CMDB
5 1 (1.96%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.96%) Digital Signage
5 1 (1.96%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.96%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.96%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 18 (35.29%) Windows
2 11 (21.57%) Android
3 5 (9.80%) Windows 10
4 3 (5.88%) Apple iOS
4 3 (5.88%) Windows Server
5 2 (3.92%) Unix
6 1 (1.96%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (50.98%) Customer Service
2 17 (33.33%) ITIL
3 15 (29.41%) Agile
3 15 (29.41%) ITSM
3 15 (29.41%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (23.53%) Service Management
5 10 (19.61%) Service Delivery
6 8 (15.69%) Case Management
6 8 (15.69%) Enterprise Architecture
6 8 (15.69%) Problem Management
6 8 (15.69%) TOGAF
7 7 (13.73%) Asset Management
8 6 (11.76%) Change Management
8 6 (11.76%) Customer Experience
8 6 (11.76%) Data Protection
9 5 (9.80%) Business Case
9 5 (9.80%) Commercial Awareness
9 5 (9.80%) Decision-Making
9 5 (9.80%) Proactive Monitoring
9 5 (9.80%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 5 (9.80%) SQL
2 2 (3.92%) Bash
2 2 (3.92%) PL/SQL
2 2 (3.92%) Python
Qualifications
1 14 (27.45%) Security Cleared
2 11 (21.57%) SC Cleared
3 5 (9.80%) BPSS Clearance
3 5 (9.80%) Microsoft Certification
4 3 (5.88%) A+ Certification
4 3 (5.88%) Degree
5 2 (3.92%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (3.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (3.92%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 1 (1.96%) CCIE
6 1 (1.96%) CCIE Wireless
6 1 (1.96%) CCNA
6 1 (1.96%) CCNP
6 1 (1.96%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.96%) CIW
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.88%) Data Quality
2 2 (3.92%) NCSC
2 2 (3.92%) NIST
2 2 (3.92%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (23.53%) Active Directory
2 3 (5.88%) Firmware
3 1 (1.96%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (17.65%) Microsoft Intune
1 9 (17.65%) SCCM
Vendors
1 19 (37.25%) Microsoft
2 8 (15.69%) Liquidlogic
3 7 (13.73%) Cisco
3 7 (13.73%) ServiceNow
4 6 (11.76%) Canon
5 5 (9.80%) SAP
6 4 (7.84%) JD Edwards
6 4 (7.84%) Oracle
6 4 (7.84%) Talend
7 2 (3.92%) Cloudera
7 2 (3.92%) Dell
7 2 (3.92%) Denodo
7 2 (3.92%) HP
7 2 (3.92%) Informatica
7 2 (3.92%) Nexthink
8 1 (1.96%) Ariba
8 1 (1.96%) Databricks
8 1 (1.96%) Logi
8 1 (1.96%) Logitech
8 1 (1.96%) Remedy