SQL Contract Job Trends in England

SQL (Structured Query Language)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 12 11
Rank change year-on-year -4 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL 3,801 3,006 3,803
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.43% 12.20% 10.00%
As % of the Programming Languages category 35.84% 36.02% 34.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,613 2,093 2,747
10th Percentile £350 £356 £355
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £588 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £503 £525
% change year-on-year -0.50% -4.29% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 57 62
10th Percentile £18.70 £21.30 £21.65
25th Percentile £34.01 £29.07 £25.91
Median hourly rate £45.00 £52.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +23.53% -19.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £53.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £79.21 £62.84
UK median hourly rate £48.11 £50.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -3.78% +17.65% -20.93%

All Programming Languages
England

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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 10,606 8,345 11,012
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 29.11% 33.86% 28.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,065 5,584 7,921
10th Percentile £351 £358 £350
25th Percentile £414 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% -6.09%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £656
90th Percentile £725 £775 £768
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 453 215 465
10th Percentile £41.94 £25.25 £35.00
25th Percentile £55.00 £40.25 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £77.40 £85.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -5.51%

SQL
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

SQL job vacancy trend in England

SQL
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL

SQL
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL in England over the 6 months to 12 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL in England

SQL
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL

SQL
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL in England over the 6 months to 12 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL in England

SQL
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 SQL within the England region over the 6 months to 12 March 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 0 2,250 £513 -6.82% 870
Midlands +4 467 £475 +3.26% 274
North of England -11 412 £450 -5.26% 420
West Midlands +6 371 £469 -3.30% 164
South East -18 287 £500 - 520
North West 0 239 £447 -5.89% 242
South West -1 202 £475 -9.52% 146
Yorkshire -21 152 £475 -5.94% 126
East Midlands -7 94 £537 +39.03% 110
East of England -24 76 £500 +6.95% 107
North East -3 30 £475 +5.56% 58
SQL
UK

SQL
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
1 213 (5.60%) Apache Spark
2 146 (3.84%) Apache Airflow
3 127 (3.34%) Apache
4 118 (3.10%) Confluence
5 79 (2.08%) SharePoint
6 75 (1.97%) SAS
7 52 (1.37%) WebLogic
8 28 (0.74%) IIS
9 24 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
10 21 (0.55%) Tomcat
11 18 (0.47%) Jupyter
12 17 (0.45%) CMS
13 16 (0.42%) Palantir Foundry
14 15 (0.39%) Tuxedo
15 13 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 13 (0.34%) WebSphere
16 12 (0.32%) Appian
16 12 (0.32%) HCL Notes
16 12 (0.32%) JBoss
17 11 (0.29%) Mendix
Applications
1 261 (6.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
3 50 (1.32%) MS Visio
4 36 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
6 12 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
7 7 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 4 (0.11%) Oracle Smart View
9 3 (0.079%) Notion
9 3 (0.079%) Trello
10 1 (0.026%) InDesign
10 1 (0.026%) Mingle
10 1 (0.026%) SPSS
10 1 (0.026%) Weka
Business Applications
1 29 (0.76%) Aladdin
2 24 (0.63%) Oracle EBS
2 24 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
3 21 (0.55%) Oracle Receivables
4 20 (0.53%) NEC Housing
5 19 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
5 19 (0.50%) Oracle General Ledger
6 17 (0.45%) Oracle EBS R12
7 15 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
8 14 (0.37%) Oracle Assets
8 14 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
9 13 (0.34%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 10 (0.26%) Oracle Cash Management
11 10 (0.26%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 9 (0.24%) Advent Geneva
12 9 (0.24%) Endur
13 8 (0.21%) Maximo
13 8 (0.21%) Oracle 11i
13 8 (0.21%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 1,323 (34.81%) Azure
2 930 (24.47%) AWS
3 732 (19.26%) Power Platform
4 389 (10.23%) Azure DevOps
5 317 (8.34%) GCP
6 312 (8.21%) Azure Data Factory
7 299 (7.87%) GitHub
8 269 (7.08%) Serverless
9 258 (6.79%) Snowflake
10 204 (5.37%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 201 (5.29%) Amazon S3
12 156 (4.10%) dbt
13 152 (4.00%) GitHub Actions
14 140 (3.68%) AWS Lambda
15 94 (2.47%) SaaS
16 85 (2.24%) Azure Functions
17 84 (2.21%) Power Automate
18 75 (1.97%) Entra ID
19 69 (1.82%) AWS CloudFormation
19 69 (1.82%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.32%) Firewall
2 42 (1.10%) DNS
3 22 (0.58%) Network Security
4 21 (0.55%) HTTP
5 20 (0.53%) TCP/IP
6 15 (0.39%) Internet
6 15 (0.39%) VPN
7 14 (0.37%) WAN
8 13 (0.34%) 5G
8 13 (0.34%) DHCP
8 13 (0.34%) SSL
9 12 (0.32%) LAN
10 10 (0.26%) 4G
11 9 (0.24%) 2G
11 9 (0.24%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.21%) SMS
13 7 (0.18%) Wi-Fi
14 6 (0.16%) Multicast
14 6 (0.16%) Skype
14 6 (0.16%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 667 (17.55%) Power BI
2 461 (12.13%) Data Warehouse
3 446 (11.73%) SQL Server
4 261 (6.87%) NoSQL
5 253 (6.66%) Relational Database
6 246 (6.47%) PostgreSQL
7 238 (6.26%) Tableau
8 234 (6.16%) Data Lake
9 197 (5.18%) Azure SQL Database
10 182 (4.79%) Metadata
11 141 (3.71%) Oracle Database
12 139 (3.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 118 (3.10%) BigQuery
14 117 (3.08%) Big Data
15 109 (2.87%) MySQL
16 101 (2.66%) Amazon Redshift
16 101 (2.66%) Delta Lake
17 99 (2.60%) MongoDB
18 95 (2.50%) Amazon RDS
19 80 (2.10%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 434 (11.42%) Git
2 303 (7.97%) JIRA
3 203 (5.34%) Jenkins
4 154 (4.05%) GitLab
5 62 (1.63%) JUnit
5 62 (1.63%) Selenium
6 46 (1.21%) Postman
7 43 (1.13%) Oracle APEX
8 38 (1.00%) Cucumber
9 32 (0.84%) Maven
9 32 (0.84%) MLflow
10 28 (0.74%) Bitbucket
10 28 (0.74%) REST Assured
11 25 (0.66%) Mockito
12 24 (0.63%) Cypress.io
12 24 (0.63%) Visual Studio
13 23 (0.61%) ERwin
14 22 (0.58%) SpecFlow
15 20 (0.53%) JMeter
16 19 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 1,109 (29.18%) Social Skills
2 1,044 (27.47%) Finance
3 680 (17.89%) Analytical Skills
4 394 (10.37%) Banking
5 335 (8.81%) Public Sector
6 103 (2.71%) Investment Banking
7 102 (2.68%) Front Office
8 97 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
9 80 (2.10%) Marketing
10 60 (1.58%) Retail
11 59 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 54 (1.42%) Financial Institution
13 53 (1.39%) Legal
14 38 (1.00%) Publishing
15 36 (0.95%) Telecoms
16 35 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
16 35 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
17 31 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
17 31 (0.82%) Law
18 30 (0.79%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 910 (23.94%) Developer
2 689 (18.13%) Data Engineer
3 547 (14.39%) Analyst
4 487 (12.81%) Senior
5 270 (7.10%) Lead
6 230 (6.05%) Data Analyst
7 204 (5.37%) Architect
8 199 (5.24%) Business Analyst
9 158 (4.16%) Consultant
10 144 (3.79%) Senior Developer
11 137 (3.60%) Java Developer
12 115 (3.03%) Azure Engineer
13 106 (2.79%) Software Engineer
14 102 (2.68%) Senior Data Engineer
15 99 (2.60%) C# Developer
16 90 (2.37%) DBA
17 89 (2.34%) Python Developer
18 87 (2.29%) Full-Stack Developer
19 84 (2.21%) Data Scientist
20 79 (2.08%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 337 (8.87%) .NET
2 304 (8.00%) REST
3 244 (6.42%) Kafka
4 231 (6.08%) PySpark
5 181 (4.76%) React
6 174 (4.58%) RESTful
7 161 (4.24%) Spring
8 150 (3.95%) XML
9 140 (3.68%) Spring Boot
10 138 (3.63%) HTML
11 113 (2.97%) CSS
12 111 (2.92%) AngularJS
12 111 (2.92%) Pandas
13 110 (2.89%) JSON
14 99 (2.60%) Node.js
15 84 (2.21%) .NET Framework
16 80 (2.10%) SOAP
17 79 (2.08%) Middleware
18 73 (1.92%) YAML
19 72 (1.89%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 253 (6.66%) Cloud Native
2 127 (3.34%) Data Structures
3 121 (3.18%) Legacy Systems
4 108 (2.84%) Product Ownership
5 82 (2.16%) Management Information System
6 76 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
7 73 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
7 73 (1.92%) Derivative
8 68 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
9 63 (1.66%) Equities
10 57 (1.50%) Algorithms
10 57 (1.50%) Fixed Income
11 53 (1.39%) Onboarding
12 48 (1.26%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 41 (1.08%) Clustering
13 41 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
14 37 (0.97%) Market Risk
14 37 (0.97%) Replication
15 36 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
16 29 (0.76%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 279 (7.34%) Linux
2 225 (5.92%) Windows
3 184 (4.84%) Unix
4 73 (1.92%) Windows Server
5 17 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (0.39%) AIX
7 14 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
8 13 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 12 (0.32%) Windows 10
10 6 (0.16%) Android
10 6 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.13%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.13%) VMS
11 5 (0.13%) zOS
12 4 (0.11%) Solaris
12 4 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.079%) CentOS
14 2 (0.053%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.053%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.026%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,021 (26.86%) Agile
2 1,012 (26.62%) CI/CD
3 990 (26.05%) Analytics
4 901 (23.70%) Data Modelling
5 882 (23.20%) DevOps
6 876 (23.05%) Business Intelligence
7 858 (22.57%) ETL
8 836 (21.99%) Problem-Solving
9 625 (16.44%) Data Pipeline
10 576 (15.15%) Data Engineering
11 459 (12.08%) Migration
12 448 (11.79%) Data Governance
13 444 (11.68%) AI
14 406 (10.68%) Validation
15 376 (9.89%) Data Analysis
16 359 (9.44%) Test Automation
17 341 (8.97%) Data Science
18 339 (8.92%) Visualisation
19 334 (8.79%) Decision-Making
20 324 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 1,424 (37.46%) Python
2 537 (14.13%) Java
3 409 (10.76%) C#
4 321 (8.45%) JavaScript
5 270 (7.10%) PL/SQL
6 158 (4.16%) T-SQL
7 150 (3.95%) PowerShell
8 144 (3.79%) TypeScript
9 105 (2.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 105 (2.76%) Shell Script
10 98 (2.58%) R
10 98 (2.58%) Scala
11 68 (1.79%) C++
12 67 (1.76%) Bash
13 63 (1.66%) VBA
14 48 (1.26%) Bicep
15 45 (1.18%) Perl
16 42 (1.10%) VB
17 38 (1.00%) Go
18 28 (0.74%) PHP
Qualifications
1 749 (19.71%) Security Cleared
2 593 (15.60%) SC Cleared
3 327 (8.60%) Degree
4 107 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
5 82 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
6 70 (1.84%) Azure Certification
7 55 (1.45%) Master's Degree
8 52 (1.37%) DV Cleared
9 51 (1.34%) ISTQB
10 45 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
11 42 (1.10%) AWS Certification
12 21 (0.55%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 17 (0.45%) Oracle Certification
14 16 (0.42%) CBAP
15 13 (0.34%) PhD
16 10 (0.26%) ISEB
16 10 (0.26%) PMP
17 9 (0.24%) PMI Certification
18 8 (0.21%) CFA
18 8 (0.21%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 651 (17.13%) Data Quality
2 279 (7.34%) QA
3 164 (4.31%) GDPR
4 61 (1.60%) Accessibility
5 28 (0.74%) SLA
6 27 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 25 (0.66%) PMO
8 22 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 20 (0.53%) MiFID
10 17 (0.45%) NIST
11 16 (0.42%) HIPAA
12 15 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 15 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 13 (0.34%) SEPA
13 13 (0.34%) WCAG
14 12 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 12 (0.32%) EMIR
14 12 (0.32%) IFRS
15 11 (0.29%) ISO 20022
16 10 (0.26%) PSD2
System Software
1 446 (11.73%) Docker
2 98 (2.58%) Active Directory
3 31 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
4 16 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (0.39%) Oracle RAC
6 12 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.21%) HDFS
7 8 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.16%) KVM
9 5 (0.13%) RACF
9 5 (0.13%) XenApp
9 5 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 4 (0.11%) Postfix
11 3 (0.079%) Oracle Clusterware
11 3 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.053%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.053%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.053%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.053%) vSphere
12 2 (0.053%) zsh
Systems Management
1 410 (10.79%) Kubernetes
2 300 (7.89%) Terraform
3 84 (2.21%) Grafana
4 62 (1.63%) Ansible
5 61 (1.60%) Prometheus
6 22 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
7 21 (0.55%) Oracle RMAN
8 19 (0.50%) SCCM
9 17 (0.45%) Progress Chef
10 14 (0.37%) Data Guard
10 14 (0.37%) Puppet
11 13 (0.34%) Control-M
11 13 (0.34%) Kibana
12 9 (0.24%) HP Quality Center
12 9 (0.24%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 8 (0.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 8 (0.21%) Kiali
13 8 (0.21%) Microsoft Intune
13 8 (0.21%) WSUS
14 7 (0.18%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 620 (16.31%) Microsoft
2 613 (16.13%) Oracle
3 461 (12.13%) Databricks
4 163 (4.29%) Google
5 102 (2.68%) Informatica
6 99 (2.60%) ServiceNow
7 97 (2.55%) SAP
8 95 (2.50%) Talend
9 67 (1.76%) Splunk
10 63 (1.66%) Salesforce
11 56 (1.47%) IBM
12 50 (1.32%) Citrix
13 47 (1.24%) OpenAI
14 41 (1.08%) MuleSoft
15 39 (1.03%) Denodo
16 36 (0.95%) Bloomberg
17 30 (0.79%) VMware
18 28 (0.74%) Foundry
19 25 (0.66%) Palantir
20 24 (0.63%) Sage