Reference Data Contract Job Trends in England

Reference Data
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Reference Data in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Reference Data over the 6 months leading up to 3 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 536 458 477
Rank change year-on-year -78 +19 +32
Contract jobs citing Reference Data 108 61 47
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.23% 0.22% 0.14%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.68% 0.60% 0.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 41 32
10th Percentile £407 £456 £319
25th Percentile £447 £510 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £574 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -4.38% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £694 £700 £806
90th Percentile £775 £800 £924
UK median daily rate £574 £595 £600
% change year-on-year -3.47% -0.83% +0.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
Median hourly rate £70.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £70.00 - -

All Generic Skills
England

Reference Data falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,979 10,178 10,066
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.35% 36.32% 31.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,607 6,378 6,094
10th Percentile £325 £300 £294
25th Percentile £425 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £645 £649 £675
90th Percentile £750 £771 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £531
% change year-on-year +0.96% -1.98% -3.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,157 523 375
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.15 £15.62
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.87 £24.18
Median hourly rate £35.00 £30.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -47.69% +24.19%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £73.75 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £28.00 £49.75
% change year-on-year +33.93% -43.72% +10.56%

Reference Data
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Reference Data relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Reference Data job vacancy trend in England

Reference Data
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Reference Data.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Reference Data

Reference Data
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Reference Data in England over the 6 months to 3 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Reference Data in England

Reference Data
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Reference Data.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Reference Data

Reference Data
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Reference Data within the England region over the 6 months to 3 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
London -47 73 £623 -0.30% 132
Midlands -42 10 £434 -15.41% 10
East of England -16 9 £625 - 10
North of England -72 8 £411 -21.81% 18
West Midlands -35 6 £535 +12.63% 4
North West - 6 £418 - 10
East Midlands -15 4 £425 -22.82% 6
South East -60 4 £488 -2.50% 11
Yorkshire -41 2 £405 -22.86% 5
South West - 2 £575 - 26
Reference Data
UK

Reference Data
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 (4.63%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (1.85%) Apache
2 2 (1.85%) Apache Spark
2 2 (1.85%) CMS
2 2 (1.85%) Confluence
3 1 (0.93%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.93%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.93%) MTS
3 1 (0.93%) PowerExchange
3 1 (0.93%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (14.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.78%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (7.41%) Aladdin
2 4 (3.70%) ResourceLink
3 3 (2.78%) Endur
4 2 (1.85%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (1.85%) SAP MDG
4 2 (1.85%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (1.85%) SimCorp Dimension
4 2 (1.85%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.93%) Actimize
5 1 (0.93%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.93%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.93%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.93%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.93%) Oracle SCM
5 1 (0.93%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 35 (32.41%) Azure
2 20 (18.52%) AWS
3 14 (12.96%) GCP
4 13 (12.04%) Power Platform
5 11 (10.19%) Azure Data Factory
6 8 (7.41%) Snowflake
7 7 (6.48%) AWS Lambda
7 7 (6.48%) Azure Databricks
7 7 (6.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 7 (6.48%) Serverless
8 6 (5.56%) Amazon S3
8 6 (5.56%) dbt
8 6 (5.56%) Microsoft Purview
9 4 (3.70%) Collibra
10 3 (2.78%) Alation
10 3 (2.78%) Azure AI
10 3 (2.78%) Datadog
10 3 (2.78%) SaaS
11 2 (1.85%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (1.85%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.93%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (37.04%) Metadata
2 13 (12.04%) Data Lake
2 13 (12.04%) Data Warehouse
2 13 (12.04%) Power BI
3 9 (8.33%) Data Mining
3 9 (8.33%) Relational Database
4 7 (6.48%) Delta Lake
5 6 (5.56%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (5.56%) SQL Server
6 5 (4.63%) Amazon Aurora
6 5 (4.63%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (4.63%) Amazon Redshift
7 4 (3.70%) BigQuery
7 4 (3.70%) Data Vault
7 4 (3.70%) DynamoDB
7 4 (3.70%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 4 (3.70%) Power Query
8 3 (2.78%) Neo4j
8 3 (2.78%) NoSQL
8 3 (2.78%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 15 (13.89%) ERwin
2 13 (12.04%) ER Studio
3 11 (10.19%) JIRA
4 5 (4.63%) PowerDesigner
5 4 (3.70%) Git
6 2 (1.85%) GitLab
6 2 (1.85%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.93%) Deequ
7 1 (0.93%) Gradle
7 1 (0.93%) Maven
7 1 (0.93%) MLflow
7 1 (0.93%) Postman
7 1 (0.93%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.93%) SonarQube
General
1 47 (43.52%) Finance
2 35 (32.41%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (22.22%) Social Skills
4 23 (21.30%) Banking
5 14 (12.96%) Investment Banking
6 11 (10.19%) Legal
7 10 (9.26%) Front Office
8 6 (5.56%) Financial Institution
8 6 (5.56%) Publishing
9 5 (4.63%) Back Office
10 4 (3.70%) Billing
11 3 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (2.78%) Marketing
11 3 (2.78%) Public Sector
11 3 (2.78%) Retail
12 2 (1.85%) General Ledger
12 2 (1.85%) Military
12 2 (1.85%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.93%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 27 (25.00%) Analyst
2 24 (22.22%) Business Analyst
3 21 (19.44%) Architect
4 19 (17.59%) Data Architect
5 16 (14.81%) Senior
6 15 (13.89%) Data Engineer
7 10 (9.26%) Data Business Analyst
7 10 (9.26%) Data Modeller
8 7 (6.48%) Developer
8 7 (6.48%) Senior Analyst
9 6 (5.56%) Consultant
9 6 (5.56%) Lead
9 6 (5.56%) Senior Business Analyst
10 4 (3.70%) Data Analyst
10 4 (3.70%) Data Management Specialist
10 4 (3.70%) Python Engineer
10 4 (3.70%) Senior Data Engineer
10 4 (3.70%) Transformation Analyst
11 3 (2.78%) Azure Developer
11 3 (2.78%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.26%) PySpark
2 7 (6.48%) REST
3 5 (4.63%) Oracle Fusion
3 5 (4.63%) RESTful
3 5 (4.63%) SOAP
4 4 (3.70%) JSON
4 4 (3.70%) Kafka
4 4 (3.70%) Terraform
5 3 (2.78%) XML
6 2 (1.85%) Great Expectations
6 2 (1.85%) Middleware
6 2 (1.85%) Spring
6 2 (1.85%) Spring Boot
7 1 (0.93%) AngularJS
7 1 (0.93%) AWS CDK
7 1 (0.93%) Bootstrap
7 1 (0.93%) Hugging Face
7 1 (0.93%) Pandas
7 1 (0.93%) pytest
7 1 (0.93%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 18 (16.67%) Data Structures
2 12 (11.11%) Legacy Systems
3 11 (10.19%) Fixed Income
3 11 (10.19%) Onboarding
3 11 (10.19%) Product Ownership
4 10 (9.26%) Management Information System
5 9 (8.33%) Cloud Native
5 9 (8.33%) Equities
6 8 (7.41%) Derivative
7 7 (6.48%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (5.56%) Pricing Data
9 4 (3.70%) Algorithms
10 3 (2.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 3 (2.78%) Reinsurance
11 2 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (1.85%) FMCG
11 2 (1.85%) Replication
12 1 (0.93%) Eurex
12 1 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 3 (2.78%) Windows
2 1 (0.93%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (59.26%) Data Modelling
2 51 (47.22%) Data Governance
3 35 (32.41%) Data Management
4 33 (30.56%) Logical Data Model
5 31 (28.70%) Data Architecture
6 30 (27.78%) Migration
7 27 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
7 27 (25.00%) Validation
8 25 (23.15%) Metadata Management
9 24 (22.22%) ETL
9 24 (22.22%) Physical Data Model
10 23 (21.30%) Analytics
10 23 (21.30%) Integration Patterns
11 22 (20.37%) Data Migration
12 21 (19.44%) Data Integration
12 21 (19.44%) Reference Data Management
13 20 (18.52%) Business Intelligence
13 20 (18.52%) Problem-Solving
14 18 (16.67%) Lakehouse
15 17 (15.74%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 59 (54.63%) SQL
2 15 (13.89%) Python
3 5 (4.63%) PL/SQL
4 4 (3.70%) Java
5 3 (2.78%) SPARQL
6 1 (0.93%) C#
6 1 (0.93%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.93%) Scala
6 1 (0.93%) Tcl
6 1 (0.93%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.93%) VBA
Qualifications
1 10 (9.26%) Security Cleared
2 9 (8.33%) SC Cleared
3 6 (5.56%) Degree
4 5 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.85%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.93%) CFA
6 1 (0.93%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.93%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (40.74%) Data Quality
2 5 (4.63%) GDPR
2 5 (4.63%) MiFID
3 4 (3.70%) QA
4 1 (0.93%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.93%) AIFMD
4 1 (0.93%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 1 (0.93%) EMIR
4 1 (0.93%) GRC
4 1 (0.93%) ISO 9001
4 1 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 2 (1.85%) Docker
2 1 (0.93%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (1.85%) Grafana
1 2 (1.85%) Prometheus
1 2 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.93%) Kibana
2 1 (0.93%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 29 (26.85%) Databricks
2 24 (22.22%) Microsoft
3 9 (8.33%) Informatica
4 8 (7.41%) Oracle
5 6 (5.56%) Bloomberg
6 5 (4.63%) Google
7 3 (2.78%) GoldenSource
7 3 (2.78%) Salesforce
7 3 (2.78%) SAP
7 3 (2.78%) SimCorp
7 3 (2.78%) Talend
8 2 (1.85%) Murex
8 2 (1.85%) Sparx
9 1 (0.93%) BEA
9 1 (0.93%) Charles River
9 1 (0.93%) ION Trading
9 1 (0.93%) MarketAxess
9 1 (0.93%) OpenLink
9 1 (0.93%) Sybase
9 1 (0.93%) Tradeweb