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 21 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 54 73
Rank change year-on-year -65 +19 0
Contract jobs citing SLA 34 46 41
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.27% 3.20% 2.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.17% 18.40% 12.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 28 19
10th Percentile £163 £158 £181
25th Percentile £179 £195 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £231 £313
Median % change year-on-year -2.39% -26.24% +13.64%
75th Percentile £438 £372 £488
90th Percentile £525 £488 £670
England median daily rate £425 £253 £371
% change year-on-year +68.32% -31.89% +24.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 8 7
10th Percentile - - £11.57
25th Percentile - - £12.50
Median hourly rate £16.00 £14.70 £13.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.84% +13.08% -21.21%
75th Percentile £16.05 £18.28 £13.47
90th Percentile £16.08 £30.43 £13.85
England median hourly rate £18.50 £22.27 £17.14
% change year-on-year -16.93% +29.93% -7.35%

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 416 250 317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 15.56% 17.37% 16.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 164 230
10th Percentile £311 £196 £260
25th Percentile £413 £318 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £580 £550 £600
90th Percentile £688 £638 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 13 25
10th Percentile £12.63 £12.54 £11.44
25th Percentile £13.06 - £13.18
Median hourly rate £13.20 £14.70 £14.54
Median % change year-on-year -10.20% +1.10% -11.88%
75th Percentile £17.20 £29.00 £55.00
90th Percentile £20.50 £33.35 £58.75
England median hourly rate £25.50 £31.76 £26.66
% change year-on-year -19.71% +19.13% -23.83%

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 21 February 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 21 February 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
Warwickshire -28 14 £195 -17.02% 4
Birmingham -17 11 £408 +103.75% 8
Shropshire -43 4 £227 - 3
Wolverhampton 0 1 £425 +46.30% 1
Coventry -20 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 5 (14.71%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (14.71%) SharePoint
2 1 (2.94%) LiveCycle
2 1 (2.94%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (20.59%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (14.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (2.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 8 (23.53%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (8.82%) Azure
3 2 (5.88%) AWS
3 2 (5.88%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (5.88%) Power Platform
3 2 (5.88%) SuccessFactors
4 1 (2.94%) OneDrive
4 1 (2.94%) Power Automate
4 1 (2.94%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 4 (11.76%) Structured Cabling
2 2 (5.88%) DHCP
2 2 (5.88%) DNS
2 2 (5.88%) Radio Access Network
2 2 (5.88%) VPN
3 1 (2.94%) Firewall
3 1 (2.94%) LAN
3 1 (2.94%) SD-WAN
3 1 (2.94%) TCP/IP
3 1 (2.94%) VLAN
3 1 (2.94%) VoIP
3 1 (2.94%) WAN
3 1 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (8.82%) MySQL
1 3 (8.82%) Oracle Database
2 2 (5.88%) Relational Database
3 1 (2.94%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 2 (5.88%) JMeter
2 1 (2.94%) Git
2 1 (2.94%) Jenkins
2 1 (2.94%) Selenium
General
1 11 (32.35%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (29.41%) Social Skills
3 8 (23.53%) Finance
4 4 (11.76%) Telecoms
5 3 (8.82%) Legal
6 2 (5.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (5.88%) Law
6 2 (5.88%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.94%) Billing
7 1 (2.94%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 6 (17.65%) Lead
2 5 (14.71%) Desktop Engineer
3 4 (11.76%) Data Steward
3 4 (11.76%) Desktop Support
3 4 (11.76%) Desktop Support Engineer
3 4 (11.76%) Support Engineer
4 3 (8.82%) DBA
4 3 (8.82%) Oracle DBA
5 2 (5.88%) Analyst
5 2 (5.88%) Developer
5 2 (5.88%) IT Manager
5 2 (5.88%) IT Procurement Manager
5 2 (5.88%) Procurement Manager
5 2 (5.88%) SAP Manager
5 2 (5.88%) Service Desk Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Technical Leader
5 2 (5.88%) Test Leader
5 2 (5.88%) Workday Manager
6 1 (2.94%) Data Engineer
6 1 (2.94%) Field Telecoms Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.88%) ADO
2 1 (2.94%) CSS
2 1 (2.94%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (8.82%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (2.94%) CMDB
2 1 (2.94%) Driving Licence
2 1 (2.94%) NHS
2 1 (2.94%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 7 (20.59%) Windows
1 7 (20.59%) Windows 10
2 4 (11.76%) Android
2 4 (11.76%) Apple iOS
3 3 (8.82%) Unix
4 1 (2.94%) Mac OS
4 1 (2.94%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (26.47%) Agile
2 7 (20.59%) Service Management
3 6 (17.65%) Continuous Improvement
3 6 (17.65%) ITIL
4 5 (14.71%) Change Management
5 4 (11.76%) Customer Service
5 4 (11.76%) DevOps
5 4 (11.76%) Roadmaps
5 4 (11.76%) Ticket Management
6 3 (8.82%) Incident Management
6 3 (8.82%) ITSM
6 3 (8.82%) Line Management
6 3 (8.82%) Mentoring
6 3 (8.82%) Process Improvement
6 3 (8.82%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (8.82%) Systems Engineering
6 3 (8.82%) Technology Roadmap
6 3 (8.82%) Test Strategy
7 2 (5.88%) Software Engineering
7 2 (5.88%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 4 (11.76%) Python
2 3 (8.82%) Shell Script
2 3 (8.82%) SQL
3 2 (5.88%) Java
3 2 (5.88%) PL/SQL
3 2 (5.88%) VB
4 1 (2.94%) Bash
4 1 (2.94%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.94%) Scala
Qualifications
1 3 (8.82%) Degree
2 2 (5.88%) ISTQB
2 2 (5.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 2 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
2 2 (5.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
3 1 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (2.94%) DBS Check
3 1 (2.94%) ITIL Certification
3 1 (2.94%) MCSE
3 1 (2.94%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (8.82%) Sarbanes-Oxley
2 2 (5.88%) Data Quality
2 2 (5.88%) GDPR
3 1 (2.94%) GRC
3 1 (2.94%) PMO
3 1 (2.94%) QA
System Software
1 7 (20.59%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.94%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (5.88%) HP ALM
1 2 (5.88%) HP Quality Center
2 1 (2.94%) SCCM
Vendors
1 6 (17.65%) Microsoft
1 6 (17.65%) Oracle
2 4 (11.76%) SAP
3 3 (8.82%) HP
4 2 (5.88%) Cisco
4 2 (5.88%) Ericsson
4 2 (5.88%) Huawei
4 2 (5.88%) Nokia
4 2 (5.88%) ServiceNow
4 2 (5.88%) Workday
5 1 (2.94%) Adobe
5 1 (2.94%) Apple
5 1 (2.94%) Atlassian
5 1 (2.94%) Citrix
5 1 (2.94%) Cloudera
5 1 (2.94%) Dell
5 1 (2.94%) Informatica
5 1 (2.94%) Talend
5 1 (2.94%) VMware