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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 7 8
Rank change year-on-year -5 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL 242 288 316
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 13.18% 14.76% 12.97%
As % of the Programming Languages category 41.09% 41.86% 38.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 189 210
10th Percentile £325 £400 £400
25th Percentile £414 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £585 £575
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +1.74% -
75th Percentile £681 £700 £697
90th Percentile £788 £788 £788
Central London median daily rate £525 £585 £600
% change year-on-year -10.26% -2.50% +4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile £27.70 - -
25th Percentile £29.50 - -
Median hourly rate £34.00 - -
75th Percentile £41.50 - -
90th Percentile £45.10 - -
Central London median hourly rate £34.00 £41.50 -
% change year-on-year -18.07% - -

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 589 688 815
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 32.08% 35.26% 33.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 440 434 595
10th Percentile £357 £405 £402
25th Percentile £425 £478 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £585 £590
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% -0.85% -1.67%
75th Percentile £675 £696 £713
90th Percentile £788 £796 £825
Central London median daily rate £550 £580 £595
% change year-on-year -5.17% -2.52% -0.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 1
10th Percentile £26.33 £51.80 -
25th Percentile £26.44 £74.38 £46.25
Median hourly rate £31.00 £112.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -72.32% +135.79% -17.39%
75th Percentile £38.50 - £48.75
90th Percentile £43.90 - -
Central London median hourly rate £31.00 £41.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -25.30% -12.63% -17.39%

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 January 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 January 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 14 (5.79%) Apache Airflow
1 14 (5.79%) Apache Spark
2 7 (2.89%) Apache
3 6 (2.48%) Confluence
4 4 (1.65%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.41%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.41%) CICS
5 1 (0.41%) Mule
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.41%) SAS
5 1 (0.41%) WordPress
Applications
1 19 (7.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.24%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.83%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.24%) Endur
1 3 (1.24%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (1.24%) Oracle General Ledger
1 3 (1.24%) Oracle Payables
2 2 (0.83%) Aladdin
2 2 (0.83%) Algo Collateral
2 2 (0.83%) BASE24
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Assets
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle E-Business Tax
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 2 (0.83%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.41%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 70 (28.93%) AWS
1 70 (28.93%) Azure
2 48 (19.83%) Power Platform
3 28 (11.57%) GCP
4 22 (9.09%) Snowflake
5 20 (8.26%) Amazon S3
6 17 (7.02%) GitHub
6 17 (7.02%) Serverless
7 16 (6.61%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (5.37%) AWS Lambda
9 12 (4.96%) Azure Data Factory
9 12 (4.96%) dbt
10 11 (4.55%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 8 (3.31%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (2.89%) Microsoft Purview
12 7 (2.89%) SaaS
13 6 (2.48%) Amazon EKS
14 5 (2.07%) Azure Functions
15 4 (1.65%) Azure Storage
16 3 (1.24%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.83%) DNS
2 1 (0.41%) 2G
2 1 (0.41%) 4G
2 1 (0.41%) 5G
2 1 (0.41%) Firewall
2 1 (0.41%) HTTP
2 1 (0.41%) LAN
2 1 (0.41%) Multicast
2 1 (0.41%) NAS
2 1 (0.41%) Radio Access Network
2 1 (0.41%) SD-WAN
2 1 (0.41%) SNMP
2 1 (0.41%) SSH
2 1 (0.41%) WAN
2 1 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (19.01%) Power BI
2 31 (12.81%) Data Warehouse
3 28 (11.57%) Tableau
4 27 (11.16%) Relational Database
5 21 (8.68%) SQL Server
6 14 (5.79%) PostgreSQL
7 13 (5.37%) Metadata
8 11 (4.55%) Data Lake
9 10 (4.13%) NoSQL
10 7 (2.89%) Amazon Redshift
10 7 (2.89%) Big Data
11 6 (2.48%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (2.48%) MySQL
11 6 (2.48%) Oracle Database
11 6 (2.48%) Power Query
12 5 (2.07%) Amazon QuickSight
12 5 (2.07%) Delta Lake
12 5 (2.07%) RDBMS
12 5 (2.07%) Snowflake Schema
13 4 (1.65%) Looker
Development Applications
1 23 (9.50%) Git
2 13 (5.37%) Jenkins
2 13 (5.37%) JIRA
3 4 (1.65%) Cucumber
4 3 (1.24%) GitLab
4 3 (1.24%) Oracle Forms
4 3 (1.24%) SonarQube
4 3 (1.24%) Visual Website Optimizer
5 2 (0.83%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.83%) ER Studio
5 2 (0.83%) ERwin
5 2 (0.83%) Gatling
5 2 (0.83%) JUnit
5 2 (0.83%) Postman
5 2 (0.83%) SpecFlow
5 2 (0.83%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (0.83%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.83%) Toad
6 1 (0.41%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 82 (33.88%) Finance
2 64 (26.45%) Social Skills
3 49 (20.25%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (16.53%) Banking
5 17 (7.02%) Front Office
6 16 (6.61%) Investment Banking
7 14 (5.79%) Public Sector
8 8 (3.31%) Legal
9 7 (2.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (2.48%) Marketing
11 5 (2.07%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.65%) Back Office
12 4 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.65%) General Ledger
12 4 (1.65%) Law
12 4 (1.65%) Retail
13 3 (1.24%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (1.24%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 58 (23.97%) Developer
2 48 (19.83%) Analyst
3 36 (14.88%) Data Engineer
4 30 (12.40%) Senior
5 23 (9.50%) Lead
6 18 (7.44%) Data Analyst
7 15 (6.20%) Business Analyst
8 13 (5.37%) Consultant
9 12 (4.96%) Java Developer
10 9 (3.72%) Senior Analyst
11 8 (3.31%) Architect
12 7 (2.89%) Oracle Developer
13 6 (2.48%) Business Intelligence Developer
13 6 (2.48%) Senior Data Engineer
13 6 (2.48%) Senior Developer
13 6 (2.48%) Software Engineer
14 5 (2.07%) Banking Analyst
14 5 (2.07%) Full-Stack Developer
14 5 (2.07%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 5 (2.07%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (9.92%) .NET
2 14 (5.79%) HTML
2 14 (5.79%) XML
3 11 (4.55%) CSS
3 11 (4.55%) Kafka
3 11 (4.55%) PySpark
3 11 (4.55%) REST
3 11 (4.55%) Spring
4 9 (3.72%) JSON
4 9 (3.72%) React
4 9 (3.72%) Spring Boot
5 8 (3.31%) AngularJS
5 8 (3.31%) Node.js
6 7 (2.89%) Pandas
6 7 (2.89%) Web Services
7 6 (2.48%) PyTorch
7 6 (2.48%) scikit-learn
8 5 (2.07%) HTML5
8 5 (2.07%) NumPy
8 5 (2.07%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.44%) Cloud Native
2 12 (4.96%) Derivative
3 10 (4.13%) Analytical Mindset
3 10 (4.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 8 (3.31%) Algorithms
4 8 (3.31%) Data Structures
5 7 (2.89%) Fixed Income
6 6 (2.48%) Greenfield Project
6 6 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.07%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.65%) AI Agents
8 4 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.65%) Equities
8 4 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.65%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.65%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.65%) Reference Data
8 4 (1.65%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.24%) Market Risk
9 3 (1.24%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.79%) Windows
2 13 (5.37%) Linux
2 13 (5.37%) Unix
3 3 (1.24%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.41%) AIX
4 1 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.41%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (24.38%) Analytics
2 56 (23.14%) Data Modelling
3 54 (22.31%) Business Intelligence
3 54 (22.31%) ETL
4 49 (20.25%) Agile
5 47 (19.42%) Problem-Solving
6 40 (16.53%) Data Pipeline
7 36 (14.88%) CI/CD
7 36 (14.88%) DevOps
8 34 (14.05%) Visualisation
9 31 (12.81%) Data Governance
9 31 (12.81%) Migration
10 26 (10.74%) Validation
11 25 (10.33%) Performance Tuning
12 24 (9.92%) Data Analysis
12 24 (9.92%) Test Automation
13 23 (9.50%) AI
13 23 (9.50%) Data Engineering
14 22 (9.09%) Machine Learning
15 21 (8.68%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 111 (45.87%) Python
2 44 (18.18%) Java
3 27 (11.16%) JavaScript
4 24 (9.92%) C#
5 13 (5.37%) PL/SQL
6 10 (4.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 9 (3.72%) TypeScript
8 8 (3.31%) C++
9 6 (2.48%) PHP
9 6 (2.48%) PowerShell
9 6 (2.48%) Shell Script
10 5 (2.07%) Scala
11 4 (1.65%) Perl
12 3 (1.24%) C
12 3 (1.24%) Korn
12 3 (1.24%) ProC
12 3 (1.24%) T-SQL
12 3 (1.24%) VBA
13 2 (0.83%) Bash
13 2 (0.83%) R
Qualifications
1 23 (9.50%) Security Cleared
2 17 (7.02%) SC Cleared
3 16 (6.61%) Degree
4 7 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (2.07%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.24%) ISTQB
6 3 (1.24%) Master's Degree
6 3 (1.24%) PMP
7 2 (0.83%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
7 2 (0.83%) CBAP
7 2 (0.83%) CFA
7 2 (0.83%) CISSP
7 2 (0.83%) ISEB
7 2 (0.83%) PMI Certification
7 2 (0.83%) SnowPro
8 1 (0.41%) CSSLP
8 1 (0.41%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.41%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 1 (0.41%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (17.36%) Data Quality
2 18 (7.44%) QA
3 9 (3.72%) GDPR
4 4 (1.65%) ISO 8583
5 3 (1.24%) Basel III
5 3 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.83%) EMIR
6 2 (0.83%) GAAP
6 2 (0.83%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.83%) NIST
6 2 (0.83%) PSD2
6 2 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.83%) SEPA
7 1 (0.41%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.41%) Dodd-Frank
7 1 (0.41%) HL7
7 1 (0.41%) IFRS
7 1 (0.41%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.41%) PMO
System Software
1 18 (7.44%) Docker
2 3 (1.24%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.41%) HDFS
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 19 (7.85%) Terraform
2 13 (5.37%) Ansible
2 13 (5.37%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.65%) ITRS Geneos
3 4 (1.65%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.24%) Grafana
5 2 (0.83%) Argo
5 2 (0.83%) Kibana
5 2 (0.83%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.83%) ZABBIX
6 1 (0.41%) Ambari
6 1 (0.41%) Data Guard
6 1 (0.41%) Istio
6 1 (0.41%) logstash
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle RMAN
6 1 (0.41%) Puppet
Vendors
1 40 (16.53%) Microsoft
2 39 (16.12%) Oracle
3 22 (9.09%) Databricks
4 14 (5.79%) Google
5 8 (3.31%) SAP
6 4 (1.65%) Bloomberg
6 4 (1.65%) IBM
6 4 (1.65%) Informatica
6 4 (1.65%) OutSystems
7 3 (1.24%) Amplitude
7 3 (1.24%) AppDynamics
7 3 (1.24%) Confluent
7 3 (1.24%) Hotjar
7 3 (1.24%) Optimizely
7 3 (1.24%) Salesforce
7 3 (1.24%) Splunk
7 3 (1.24%) Workday
8 2 (0.83%) Alteryx
8 2 (0.83%) Cloudera
8 2 (0.83%) Tradeweb