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 26 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 8 8
Rank change year-on-year -10 0 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL 257 284 311
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 10.61% 16.21% 14.49%
As % of the Programming Languages category 40.79% 40.51% 39.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 172 187 221
10th Percentile £368 £404 £413
25th Percentile £450 £472 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £588
Median % change year-on-year - -6.38% -2.08%
75th Percentile £668 £716 £675
90th Percentile £736 £775 £775
Central London median daily rate £550 £550 £575
% change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 1
10th Percentile £37.50 £25.45 -
25th Percentile £43.12 £38.88 £46.75
Median hourly rate £52.49 £62.50 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.02% +28.87% +49.23%
75th Percentile £56.11 £76.25 £50.25
90th Percentile £58.28 £83.75 -
Central London median hourly rate £52.49 £45.79 £48.50
% change year-on-year +14.64% -5.60% +49.23%

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 630 701 786
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 26.01% 40.01% 36.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 428 472 550
10th Percentile £363 £404 £412
25th Percentile £450 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £689
90th Percentile £763 £775 £800
Central London median daily rate £550 £575 £565
% change year-on-year -4.35% +1.77% -9.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 3 1
10th Percentile £26.32 £25.45 -
25th Percentile £32.39 £38.88 £46.75
Median hourly rate £37.50 £62.50 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +28.87% -7.62%
75th Percentile £56.11 £76.25 £50.25
90th Percentile £65.83 £83.75 -
Central London median hourly rate £52.49 £51.44 £48.50
% change year-on-year +2.04% +6.06% -7.62%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 21 (8.17%) Apache Airflow
2 11 (4.28%) Apache Spark
3 7 (2.72%) Apache
4 6 (2.33%) Confluence
5 4 (1.56%) CICS
5 4 (1.56%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.78%) IIS
6 2 (0.78%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.39%) nginx
Applications
1 10 (3.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.33%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.78%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (1.95%) BambooHR
1 5 (1.95%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (1.56%) Oracle EBS R12
2 4 (1.56%) Oracle General Ledger
2 4 (1.56%) Oracle Payables
3 3 (1.17%) Aladdin
3 3 (1.17%) Bloomberg AIM
3 3 (1.17%) Fidessa
3 3 (1.17%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.78%) Endur
4 2 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.78%) Oracle Financials
4 2 (0.78%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.39%) Magento
5 1 (0.39%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.39%) Oracle E-Business Tax
5 1 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.39%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.39%) Summit
5 1 (0.39%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 78 (30.35%) Azure
2 59 (22.96%) Power Platform
3 55 (21.40%) AWS
4 29 (11.28%) GCP
5 28 (10.89%) Snowflake
6 23 (8.95%) Azure Data Factory
7 22 (8.56%) dbt
8 21 (8.17%) Serverless
9 19 (7.39%) GitHub
10 15 (5.84%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (5.45%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (5.06%) Amazon S3
12 13 (5.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 9 (3.50%) Prefect
14 6 (2.33%) Dagster
14 6 (2.33%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (2.33%) SaaS
15 5 (1.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 5 (1.95%) Amazon SageMaker
15 5 (1.95%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.17%) Multicast
2 2 (0.78%) Internet
2 2 (0.78%) Intranet
3 1 (0.39%) DNS
3 1 (0.39%) Firewall
3 1 (0.39%) LAN
3 1 (0.39%) NetScaler
3 1 (0.39%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.39%) VPN
3 1 (0.39%) WAN
3 1 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.39%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (19.46%) Power BI
2 39 (15.18%) Data Warehouse
3 35 (13.62%) SQL Server
4 28 (10.89%) Tableau
5 20 (7.78%) Relational Database
6 15 (5.84%) Metadata
7 14 (5.45%) Amazon Redshift
8 13 (5.06%) BigQuery
8 13 (5.06%) NoSQL
8 13 (5.06%) Oracle Database
9 12 (4.67%) Looker
10 11 (4.28%) PostgreSQL
11 9 (3.50%) Data Lake
11 9 (3.50%) Db2
11 9 (3.50%) Snowflake Schema
12 8 (3.11%) MongoDB
12 8 (3.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 7 (2.72%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (2.72%) Big Data
13 7 (2.72%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 21 (8.17%) Git
2 13 (5.06%) Jenkins
3 10 (3.89%) JIRA
4 8 (3.11%) GitLab
5 5 (1.95%) JUnit
6 4 (1.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 3 (1.17%) Artifactory
7 3 (1.17%) Bitbucket
7 3 (1.17%) Eclipse
7 3 (1.17%) Gradle
7 3 (1.17%) Mockito
7 3 (1.17%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.78%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.78%) ERwin
8 2 (0.78%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.78%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.39%) Karma Test Runner
9 1 (0.39%) Maven
9 1 (0.39%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.39%) Zephyr
General
1 111 (43.19%) Finance
2 66 (25.68%) Social Skills
3 55 (21.40%) Banking
4 52 (20.23%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (5.45%) Front Office
6 11 (4.28%) Legal
7 10 (3.89%) Marketing
8 7 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (2.33%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.95%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.56%) Back Office
11 4 (1.56%) General Ledger
11 4 (1.56%) Public Sector
12 3 (1.17%) Financial Institution
12 3 (1.17%) Law
12 3 (1.17%) Publishing
12 3 (1.17%) Retail
13 2 (0.78%) Billing
13 2 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 53 (20.62%) Data Engineer
2 44 (17.12%) Analyst
3 42 (16.34%) Developer
4 28 (10.89%) Senior
5 24 (9.34%) Lead
6 21 (8.17%) Data Analyst
7 14 (5.45%) Snowflake Data Engineer
7 14 (5.45%) Snowflake Engineer
8 13 (5.06%) Consultant
9 12 (4.67%) Architect
10 11 (4.28%) Business Analyst
10 11 (4.28%) DBA
11 10 (3.89%) C# Developer
11 10 (3.89%) Java Developer
11 10 (3.89%) Software Engineer
12 8 (3.11%) Senior Developer
12 8 (3.11%) SQL DBA
13 7 (2.72%) Data Scientist
13 7 (2.72%) Oracle Consultant
14 6 (2.33%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (9.34%) .NET
2 22 (8.56%) Kafka
3 17 (6.61%) PySpark
4 16 (6.23%) REST
5 13 (5.06%) JSON
5 13 (5.06%) XML
6 11 (4.28%) AngularJS
6 11 (4.28%) React
6 11 (4.28%) Spring
6 11 (4.28%) Web Services
7 10 (3.89%) Middleware
7 10 (3.89%) RESTful
7 10 (3.89%) SOAP
8 9 (3.50%) Spring Boot
9 8 (3.11%) HTML
9 8 (3.11%) PyTorch
10 7 (2.72%) .NET Framework
10 7 (2.72%) scikit-learn
10 7 (2.72%) TensorFlow
11 6 (2.33%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 23 (8.95%) Cloud Native
2 12 (4.67%) Equities
3 11 (4.28%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 10 (3.89%) Derivative
4 10 (3.89%) Fixed Income
5 9 (3.50%) Data Structures
5 9 (3.50%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (3.11%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (2.72%) Onboarding
8 6 (2.33%) Clustering
9 5 (1.95%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.95%) Mainframe
9 5 (1.95%) Reinsurance
10 4 (1.56%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.56%) DataPower
10 4 (1.56%) Market Risk
10 4 (1.56%) Online Banking
10 4 (1.56%) Product Ownership
10 4 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (1.17%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 18 (7.00%) Linux
2 15 (5.84%) Unix
3 13 (5.06%) Windows
4 6 (2.33%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.56%) zOS
6 3 (1.17%) Android
6 3 (1.17%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.39%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (35.80%) Analytics
2 68 (26.46%) AI
3 66 (25.68%) Data Modelling
4 65 (25.29%) Data Engineering
5 56 (21.79%) CI/CD
6 55 (21.40%) Business Intelligence
6 55 (21.40%) ETL
7 50 (19.46%) DevOps
8 48 (18.68%) Agile
9 47 (18.29%) Data Pipeline
10 43 (16.73%) Problem-Solving
11 38 (14.79%) Migration
12 35 (13.62%) Validation
13 34 (13.23%) Data Governance
14 32 (12.45%) Decision-Making
15 31 (12.06%) Data Analysis
15 31 (12.06%) Machine Learning
15 31 (12.06%) Performance Tuning
16 27 (10.51%) Data Science
17 26 (10.12%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 132 (51.36%) Python
2 31 (12.06%) Java
3 28 (10.89%) C#
4 17 (6.61%) PL/SQL
5 13 (5.06%) JavaScript
6 12 (4.67%) T-SQL
7 9 (3.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 9 (3.50%) R
8 8 (3.11%) Shell Script
8 8 (3.11%) TypeScript
9 5 (1.95%) PowerShell
10 4 (1.56%) JCL
11 3 (1.17%) C++
11 3 (1.17%) Scala
12 2 (0.78%) Bicep
12 2 (0.78%) C
12 2 (0.78%) ProC
13 1 (0.39%) Korn
13 1 (0.39%) LookML
13 1 (0.39%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 24 (9.34%) Degree
2 19 (7.39%) Security Cleared
3 13 (5.06%) SC Cleared
4 8 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (1.95%) DBS Check
7 3 (1.17%) AWS Certification
7 3 (1.17%) PhD
8 2 (0.78%) CISM
8 2 (0.78%) CISSP
8 2 (0.78%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.78%) SnowPro
9 1 (0.39%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 1 (0.39%) AWS Certified Developer
9 1 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.39%) CBAP
9 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.39%) PMP
9 1 (0.39%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (18.29%) Data Quality
2 27 (10.51%) QA
3 18 (7.00%) GDPR
4 3 (1.17%) GAAP
4 3 (1.17%) IFRS
4 3 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.78%) EMIR
5 2 (0.78%) HIPAA
5 2 (0.78%) MiFID
5 2 (0.78%) NIST
5 2 (0.78%) SLA
6 1 (0.39%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.39%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.39%) PERC
6 1 (0.39%) PMO
6 1 (0.39%) PSD2
6 1 (0.39%) SEPA
System Software
1 20 (7.78%) Docker
2 3 (1.17%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.39%) GridGain
4 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.39%) Varnish
4 1 (0.39%) XenApp
4 1 (0.39%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 20 (7.78%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.06%) Terraform
3 5 (1.95%) Ansible
4 4 (1.56%) Grafana
5 2 (0.78%) ITRS Geneos
6 1 (0.39%) Argo
6 1 (0.39%) Control-M
6 1 (0.39%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.39%) SCCM
6 1 (0.39%) SCVMM
6 1 (0.39%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 49 (19.07%) Microsoft
2 39 (15.18%) Oracle
3 35 (13.62%) Databricks
4 13 (5.06%) Google
5 9 (3.50%) Informatica
5 9 (3.50%) Workday
6 7 (2.72%) Murex
6 7 (2.72%) SAP
7 6 (2.33%) Citrix
7 6 (2.33%) IBM
8 5 (1.95%) Amplitude
8 5 (1.95%) Salesforce
8 5 (1.95%) ServiceNow
8 5 (1.95%) Splunk
9 4 (1.56%) Bloomberg
9 4 (1.56%) Charles River
9 4 (1.56%) Foundry
9 4 (1.56%) Palantir
9 4 (1.56%) Sitecore
10 3 (1.17%) Adobe