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

6 months to
1 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 13 12
Rank change year-on-year -5 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL 4,465 3,332 3,513
As % of all contract jobs in England 9.63% 11.42% 11.28%
As % of the Programming Languages category 36.45% 35.16% 34.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,010 2,283 2,410
10th Percentile £358 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £605 £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 94 77 49
10th Percentile £21.25 £23.19 £25.26
25th Percentile £28.13 £32.50 £31.25
Median hourly rate £48.00 £50.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +20.48% -7.78%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £63.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £45.10 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -9.80% +25.00% -11.11%

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
1 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing coding skills 12,248 9,476 10,074
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 26.43% 32.49% 32.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,950 6,300 6,597
10th Percentile £363 £340 £353
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.74% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK median daily rate £525 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 554 281 258
10th Percentile £20.85 £30.96 £30.00
25th Percentile £45.00 £43.75 £46.20
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £71.86 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £60.61 £62.50
% change year-on-year +7.24% -3.02% -

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -6 2,550 £525 - 1,768
North of England +3 613 £475 +5.91% 480
Midlands -2 433 £470 -4.47% 269
South East -11 422 £490 +2.62% 612
West Midlands -1 351 £470 -8.74% 166
North West +3 311 £483 +12.33% 281
Yorkshire +14 254 £475 - 122
South West -3 244 £550 +15.79% 176
East of England -10 108 £525 +4.48% 152
East Midlands -12 80 £450 +4.65% 102
North East -2 57 £413 -17.50% 83
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
1Python36.8%1,642
2Java12.6%561
3C#8.7%389
3JavaScript8.7%389
5PL/SQL6.8%303
6PowerShell5.1%228
7TypeScript4.6%207
8T-SQL4.4%198
9Shell Script3.2%142
10Data Analysis Expressions3.0%136
11Bash2.6%114
12R1.4%62
12Scala1.4%62
14C++0.9%42
15Bicep0.9%39
16Go0.8%36
17Kotlin0.7%33
18VBA0.7%32
19C0.7%31
20VB0.5%22