SQL Contract Job Trends in the City of London

SQL (Structured Query Language)
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 7 8
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL 236 271 324
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 12.51% 14.56% 13.56%
As % of the Programming Languages category 41.40% 38.94% 41.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 172 215
10th Percentile £327 £400 £413
25th Percentile £420 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.30% - -
75th Percentile £675 £688 £678
90th Percentile £788 £799 £775
Central London median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £27.70 - -
25th Percentile £29.50 - £46.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 - £48.50
75th Percentile £41.50 - £50.25
90th Percentile £45.10 - -
Central London median hourly rate £34.00 £41.50 £48.50
% change year-on-year -18.07% -14.43% +148.72%

All Programming Languages
City of London

SQL falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 570 696 787
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 30.21% 37.40% 32.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 421 431 578
10th Percentile £355 £413 £413
25th Percentile £425 £480 £466
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £700
90th Percentile £788 £763 £825
Central London median daily rate £534 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -7.17% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 2
10th Percentile £27.70 £51.80 £46.30
25th Percentile £29.50 £74.38 £46.38
Median hourly rate £34.00 £112.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.64% +133.33% +11.63%
75th Percentile £41.50 - £49.88
90th Percentile £45.10 - £50.10
Central London median hourly rate £34.00 £76.75 £48.00
% change year-on-year -55.70% +59.90% +11.63%

SQL
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

SQL job vacancy trend in the City of London

SQL
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing SQL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing SQL

SQL
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL in the City of London over the 6 months to 6 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL in the City of London

SQL
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing SQL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing SQL

SQL
Hourly Rate Histogram in the City of London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL in the City of London over the 6 months to 6 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL in the City of London

SQL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 15 (6.36%) Apache Airflow
2 14 (5.93%) Apache Spark
3 7 (2.97%) Apache
4 4 (1.69%) Confluence
4 4 (1.69%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.85%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.42%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.42%) Mule
6 1 (0.42%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (7.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.69%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (2.12%) Endur
2 3 (1.27%) Aladdin
2 3 (1.27%) Oracle General Ledger
2 3 (1.27%) Oracle Payables
2 3 (1.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.85%) Algo Collateral
3 2 (0.85%) BASE24
3 2 (0.85%) Bloomberg AIM
3 2 (0.85%) Fidessa
3 2 (0.85%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.85%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 2 (0.85%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.85%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle E-Business Tax
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle Financials
4 1 (0.42%) Unit4 Business World
4 1 (0.42%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 70 (29.66%) Azure
2 68 (28.81%) AWS
3 43 (18.22%) Power Platform
4 26 (11.02%) GCP
5 24 (10.17%) Snowflake
6 19 (8.05%) Serverless
7 17 (7.20%) Amazon S3
7 17 (7.20%) GitHub
8 15 (6.36%) Azure DevOps
9 14 (5.93%) dbt
10 13 (5.51%) AWS Lambda
10 13 (5.51%) Azure Data Factory
11 10 (4.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 8 (3.39%) SaaS
13 7 (2.97%) Amazon EKS
13 7 (2.97%) Azure Functions
14 6 (2.54%) Amazon SageMaker
14 6 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (2.54%) Microsoft Purview
15 4 (1.69%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.42%) 2G
1 1 (0.42%) 4G
1 1 (0.42%) 5G
1 1 (0.42%) DNS
1 1 (0.42%) HTTP
1 1 (0.42%) LAN
1 1 (0.42%) Radio Access Network
1 1 (0.42%) SD-WAN
1 1 (0.42%) SNMP
1 1 (0.42%) SSH
1 1 (0.42%) WAN
1 1 (0.42%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (17.80%) Power BI
2 32 (13.56%) Data Warehouse
3 28 (11.86%) Tableau
4 19 (8.05%) SQL Server
5 18 (7.63%) Relational Database
6 16 (6.78%) Metadata
7 13 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (3.81%) Data Lake
9 8 (3.39%) NoSQL
10 6 (2.54%) Amazon Redshift
10 6 (2.54%) Big Data
10 6 (2.54%) MySQL
10 6 (2.54%) Snowflake Schema
11 5 (2.12%) Delta Lake
11 5 (2.12%) Looker
11 5 (2.12%) Oracle Database
12 4 (1.69%) Oracle Reports
12 4 (1.69%) Power Query
12 4 (1.69%) RDBMS
12 4 (1.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 21 (8.90%) Git
2 11 (4.66%) Jenkins
3 9 (3.81%) JIRA
4 4 (1.69%) Cucumber
5 3 (1.27%) ERwin
5 3 (1.27%) GitLab
5 3 (1.27%) SonarQube
5 3 (1.27%) Visual Website Optimizer
6 2 (0.85%) ER Studio
6 2 (0.85%) Gatling
6 2 (0.85%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.85%) Postman
6 2 (0.85%) SpecFlow
6 2 (0.85%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.85%) Toad
7 1 (0.42%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.42%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.42%) MSTest
7 1 (0.42%) Selenium
7 1 (0.42%) TeamCity
General
1 86 (36.44%) Finance
2 65 (27.54%) Social Skills
3 54 (22.88%) Analytical Skills
4 44 (18.64%) Banking
5 18 (7.63%) Front Office
6 15 (6.36%) Investment Banking
7 11 (4.66%) Public Sector
8 10 (4.24%) Legal
9 6 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (2.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.54%) Marketing
10 5 (2.12%) Law
10 5 (2.12%) Retail
11 4 (1.69%) Back Office
11 4 (1.69%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.69%) General Ledger
12 3 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 54 (22.88%) Developer
2 44 (18.64%) Analyst
3 36 (15.25%) Data Engineer
4 26 (11.02%) Senior
5 22 (9.32%) Lead
6 16 (6.78%) Data Analyst
7 15 (6.36%) Business Analyst
8 14 (5.93%) Consultant
9 8 (3.39%) Architect
9 8 (3.39%) Java Developer
9 8 (3.39%) Senior Analyst
10 6 (2.54%) Oracle Developer
10 6 (2.54%) Python Developer
10 6 (2.54%) Senior Data Engineer
10 6 (2.54%) Senior Developer
10 6 (2.54%) Snowflake Data Engineer
10 6 (2.54%) Snowflake Engineer
11 5 (2.12%) Banking Analyst
11 5 (2.12%) Business Intelligence Developer
11 5 (2.12%) Data Modeller
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (10.59%) .NET
2 16 (6.78%) Kafka
3 14 (5.93%) XML
4 13 (5.51%) PySpark
4 13 (5.51%) REST
5 10 (4.24%) HTML
6 9 (3.81%) JSON
6 9 (3.81%) React
7 7 (2.97%) CSS
7 7 (2.97%) Node.js
7 7 (2.97%) scikit-learn
7 7 (2.97%) Web Services
8 6 (2.54%) Middleware
8 6 (2.54%) NumPy
8 6 (2.54%) Pandas
8 6 (2.54%) PyTorch
9 5 (2.12%) AngularJS
9 5 (2.12%) Oracle Fusion
9 5 (2.12%) RESTful
9 5 (2.12%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.47%) Cloud Native
2 15 (6.36%) Derivative
3 11 (4.66%) Algorithms
4 10 (4.24%) Data Structures
4 10 (4.24%) Fixed Income
4 10 (4.24%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 9 (3.81%) Analytical Mindset
5 9 (3.81%) Equities
6 5 (2.12%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.12%) Reference Data
7 4 (1.69%) AI Agents
7 4 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
7 4 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (1.27%) Market Risk
8 3 (1.27%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.27%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.27%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (5.08%) Linux
2 9 (3.81%) Unix
2 9 (3.81%) Windows
3 3 (1.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (26.69%) Analytics
2 54 (22.88%) Data Modelling
3 53 (22.46%) ETL
3 53 (22.46%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (20.76%) Business Intelligence
5 47 (19.92%) Agile
6 42 (17.80%) Data Pipeline
7 35 (14.83%) Migration
8 33 (13.98%) CI/CD
9 32 (13.56%) DevOps
10 31 (13.14%) Validation
11 30 (12.71%) Data Governance
11 30 (12.71%) Visualisation
12 29 (12.29%) Data Engineering
13 28 (11.86%) Data Analysis
13 28 (11.86%) Performance Tuning
14 27 (11.44%) AI
15 24 (10.17%) Test Automation
16 23 (9.75%) Machine Learning
17 21 (8.90%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 112 (47.46%) Python
2 38 (16.10%) Java
3 23 (9.75%) JavaScript
4 20 (8.47%) C#
5 13 (5.51%) PL/SQL
6 7 (2.97%) TypeScript
7 6 (2.54%) C++
7 6 (2.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 6 (2.54%) PowerShell
8 5 (2.12%) Scala
8 5 (2.12%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.69%) Perl
9 4 (1.69%) PHP
10 3 (1.27%) C
10 3 (1.27%) Korn
10 3 (1.27%) ProC
10 3 (1.27%) VBA
11 2 (0.85%) Bash
11 2 (0.85%) Go
11 2 (0.85%) R
Qualifications
1 19 (8.05%) Degree
2 17 (7.20%) Security Cleared
3 13 (5.51%) SC Cleared
4 9 (3.81%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (1.69%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.27%) ISTQB
6 3 (1.27%) Master's Degree
6 3 (1.27%) PMP
7 2 (0.85%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
7 2 (0.85%) CBAP
7 2 (0.85%) CFA
7 2 (0.85%) ISEB
7 2 (0.85%) PMI Certification
7 2 (0.85%) SnowPro
8 1 (0.42%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.42%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 1 (0.42%) OCP
8 1 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.42%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (18.22%) Data Quality
2 18 (7.63%) QA
3 10 (4.24%) GDPR
4 4 (1.69%) ISO 8583
5 3 (1.27%) Basel III
5 3 (1.27%) GAAP
5 3 (1.27%) IFRS
5 3 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.85%) EMIR
6 2 (0.85%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.85%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.85%) PMO
6 2 (0.85%) PSD2
6 2 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.85%) SEPA
7 1 (0.42%) DICOM
7 1 (0.42%) Dodd-Frank
7 1 (0.42%) HL7
7 1 (0.42%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (7.20%) Docker
2 2 (0.85%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.42%) HDFS
3 1 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 17 (7.20%) Terraform
2 12 (5.08%) Kubernetes
3 11 (4.66%) Ansible
4 5 (2.12%) Grafana
5 4 (1.69%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.27%) ITRS Geneos
7 2 (0.85%) Argo
7 2 (0.85%) Kibana
8 1 (0.42%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.42%) Istio
8 1 (0.42%) logstash
8 1 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 1 (0.42%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.42%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 43 (18.22%) Microsoft
2 37 (15.68%) Oracle
3 30 (12.71%) Databricks
4 15 (6.36%) Google
5 9 (3.81%) SAP
6 6 (2.54%) Informatica
7 5 (2.12%) AppDynamics
7 5 (2.12%) IBM
7 5 (2.12%) Splunk
7 5 (2.12%) Workday
8 4 (1.69%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.27%) Amplitude
9 3 (1.27%) Charles River
9 3 (1.27%) Cognos
9 3 (1.27%) Confluent
9 3 (1.27%) Hotjar
9 3 (1.27%) Optimizely
9 3 (1.27%) OutSystems
9 3 (1.27%) Sage
10 2 (0.85%) Sparx