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 citing SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 14 11
Rank change year-on-year -4 -3 0
Contract jobs citing SQL 4,566 3,337 3,439
As % of all contract jobs in England 9.70% 11.23% 11.22%
As % of the Programming Languages category 36.57% 34.68% 34.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,083 2,294 2,350
10th Percentile £357 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £610 £613 £638
90th Percentile £700 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £520
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 77 46
10th Percentile £21.25 £23.19 £25.26
25th Percentile £28.50 £32.50 £30.69
Median hourly rate £48.00 £50.00 £40.58
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +23.22% -9.83%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £53.56
90th Percentile £75.00 £63.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £50.00 £39.75
% change year-on-year -5.00% +25.79% -11.67%

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 citing coding skills in England.

6 months to
11 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing coding skills 12,485 9,623 9,912
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 26.51% 32.39% 32.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,112 6,420 6,468
10th Percentile £363 £346 £353
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.65% -2.27%
75th Percentile £632 £625 £650
90th Percentile £735 £738 £775
UK median daily rate £523 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +2.96% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 571 285 239
10th Percentile £21.08 £31.08 £27.00
25th Percentile £45.75 £46.00 £45.59
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +4.97%
75th Percentile £72.50 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £61.72
% change year-on-year +4.00% +1.27% +2.86%

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 11 November 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 for jobs citing SQL in England over the 6 months to 11 November 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 11 November 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -5 2,605 £525 - 2,633
North of England +5 632 £475 +5.91% 669
Midlands -1 440 £471 -5.90% 368
South East -10 421 £475 - 471
West Midlands +1 357 £473 -7.98% 255
North West +4 323 £481 +12.51% 371
Yorkshire +18 261 £475 - 212
South West -1 245 £550 +15.79% 177
East of England -8 115 £525 +4.48% 187
East Midlands -14 81 £450 +3.45% 113
North East +2 57 £413 -17.50% 88
SQL
UK

SQL Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Programming Languages

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Python37.2%1,699
2Java12.9%591
3JavaScript8.7%397
4C#8.6%394
5PL/SQL6.6%302
6PowerShell5.3%242
7TypeScript4.7%214
8T-SQL4.2%193
9Shell Script3.3%152
10Data Analysis Expressions2.9%133
11Bash2.6%117
12R1.5%67
13Scala1.4%64
14C++0.9%42
15Bicep0.9%39
16Go0.8%37
17Kotlin0.7%34
18VBA0.7%33
19C0.7%30
20VB0.5%22