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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 11 11
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL 3,327 3,149 3,745
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.60% 11.63% 10.42%
As % of the Programming Languages category 34.57% 35.65% 34.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,291 2,117 2,721
10th Percentile £338 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £550
% change year-on-year -2.91% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 49 59
10th Percentile £21.19 £25.26 £21.64
25th Percentile £30.47 £35.00 £30.04
Median hourly rate £49.36 £52.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% +16.67% -2.17%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £54.34
90th Percentile £72.98 £77.00 £65.13
UK median hourly rate £45.25 £46.25 £45.44
% change year-on-year -2.16% +1.78% -1.22%

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 9,623 8,834 10,809
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 30.67% 32.62% 30.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,396 5,692 7,833
10th Percentile £350 £356 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.65% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £774 £768
UK median daily rate £503 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.29% -4.55% -2.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 209 392
10th Percentile £39.25 £25.26 £35.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £45.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.17% +0.80% -3.85%
75th Percentile £69.25 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £85.00 £78.68
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +0.81% -1.59%

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 9 January 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 9 January 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 9 January 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 -2 2,043 £500 -9.09% 658
North of England -6 338 £438 -7.79% 456
Midlands -4 317 £513 +10.44% 343
South East -11 293 £467 -8.43% 871
West Midlands 0 230 £515 +5.21% 162
North West -3 195 £415 -8.29% 203
South West -3 155 £475 -5.00% 269
Yorkshire -22 127 £465 -7.00% 180
East Midlands -6 87 £475 +23.38% 176
East of England -8 77 £550 +4.76% 339
North East -12 18 £488 +2.63% 78
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
1 154 (4.63%) Apache Spark
2 135 (4.06%) Apache Airflow
3 107 (3.22%) Confluence
4 94 (2.83%) SharePoint
5 90 (2.71%) Apache
6 61 (1.83%) SAS
7 45 (1.35%) WebLogic
8 22 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
9 19 (0.57%) IIS
9 19 (0.57%) nginx
9 19 (0.57%) Skype for Business
10 16 (0.48%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 15 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
12 13 (0.39%) Jupyter
12 13 (0.39%) Mattermost
13 12 (0.36%) CMS
13 12 (0.36%) HCL Notes
13 12 (0.36%) Tomcat
14 9 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 9 (0.27%) JBoss
Applications
1 226 (6.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (1.86%) Microsoft Office
3 39 (1.17%) MS Visio
4 35 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 10 (0.30%) Chatbot
6 10 (0.30%) Mozilla Thunderbird
7 6 (0.18%) Trello
8 5 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
9 3 (0.090%) Notion
10 2 (0.060%) Maya
10 2 (0.060%) NUKE
10 2 (0.060%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.060%) SPSS
11 1 (0.030%) Stata
11 1 (0.030%) Weka
Business Applications
1 32 (0.96%) Oracle EBS
2 30 (0.90%) Oracle General Ledger
2 30 (0.90%) Oracle Payables
3 22 (0.66%) Aladdin
4 21 (0.63%) Oracle Assets
4 21 (0.63%) Oracle EBS R12
5 20 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
5 20 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
6 17 (0.51%) Endur
6 17 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
7 16 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
8 14 (0.42%) NetSuite
8 14 (0.42%) Oracle Financials
9 12 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
9 12 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 10 (0.30%) NEC Housing
11 9 (0.27%) Advent Geneva
11 9 (0.27%) Maximo
11 9 (0.27%) Oracle Cash Management
11 9 (0.27%) Oracle E-Business Tax
Cloud Services
1 1,086 (32.64%) Azure
2 784 (23.56%) AWS
3 639 (19.21%) Power Platform
4 288 (8.66%) Azure DevOps
5 280 (8.42%) GCP
6 243 (7.30%) GitHub
7 225 (6.76%) Snowflake
8 224 (6.73%) Serverless
9 222 (6.67%) Azure Data Factory
10 171 (5.14%) Amazon S3
11 157 (4.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 121 (3.64%) dbt
12 121 (3.64%) GitHub Actions
13 106 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
14 83 (2.49%) SaaS
15 82 (2.46%) Azure Functions
16 78 (2.34%) Power Automate
17 72 (2.16%) PowerApps
18 57 (1.71%) Azure Logic Apps
19 56 (1.68%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 59 (1.77%) Firewall
2 43 (1.29%) DNS
3 39 (1.17%) HTTP
4 25 (0.75%) Skype
5 19 (0.57%) TCP/IP
6 17 (0.51%) Network Security
6 17 (0.51%) SSH
7 14 (0.42%) DHCP
7 14 (0.42%) Internet
8 12 (0.36%) Unified Communications
9 11 (0.33%) SMTP
9 11 (0.33%) VPN
10 10 (0.30%) FTP
10 10 (0.30%) IMAP
10 10 (0.30%) OpenLDAP
10 10 (0.30%) SSL
11 9 (0.27%) 2G
11 9 (0.27%) 5G
11 9 (0.27%) LAN
11 9 (0.27%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 580 (17.43%) Power BI
2 366 (11.00%) SQL Server
3 351 (10.55%) Data Warehouse
4 246 (7.39%) PostgreSQL
5 244 (7.33%) Relational Database
6 233 (7.00%) NoSQL
7 205 (6.16%) Tableau
8 192 (5.77%) Data Lake
9 168 (5.05%) Azure SQL Database
10 160 (4.81%) Oracle Database
11 122 (3.67%) Metadata
12 113 (3.40%) Big Data
13 98 (2.95%) BigQuery
13 98 (2.95%) MongoDB
13 98 (2.95%) MySQL
14 95 (2.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 80 (2.40%) Amazon RDS
16 76 (2.28%) Amazon Redshift
17 66 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
18 62 (1.86%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 374 (11.24%) Git
2 293 (8.81%) JIRA
3 182 (5.47%) Jenkins
4 118 (3.55%) GitLab
5 57 (1.71%) JUnit
6 55 (1.65%) Selenium
7 47 (1.41%) Oracle APEX
8 35 (1.05%) Bitbucket
8 35 (1.05%) Postman
9 32 (0.96%) Cucumber
10 22 (0.66%) Cypress.io
10 22 (0.66%) Maven
10 22 (0.66%) Oracle Forms
11 21 (0.63%) ERwin
11 21 (0.63%) Mockito
11 21 (0.63%) REST Assured
11 21 (0.63%) SpecFlow
12 20 (0.60%) MLflow
12 20 (0.60%) SonarQube
13 18 (0.54%) Visual Studio
General
1 1,048 (31.50%) Social Skills
2 959 (28.82%) Finance
3 582 (17.49%) Analytical Skills
4 378 (11.36%) Banking
5 267 (8.03%) Public Sector
6 114 (3.43%) Investment Banking
7 94 (2.83%) Front Office
8 85 (2.55%) Marketing
9 81 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
10 59 (1.77%) Retail
11 52 (1.56%) Financial Institution
12 50 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 45 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.11%) Legal
15 34 (1.02%) Manufacturing
16 29 (0.87%) Back Office
16 29 (0.87%) Local Government
16 29 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
17 27 (0.81%) General Ledger
17 27 (0.81%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 867 (26.06%) Developer
2 541 (16.26%) Analyst
3 475 (14.28%) Data Engineer
4 427 (12.83%) Senior
5 219 (6.58%) Data Analyst
6 201 (6.04%) Lead
7 188 (5.65%) Business Analyst
8 142 (4.27%) Architect
9 140 (4.21%) Senior Developer
10 126 (3.79%) Consultant
11 119 (3.58%) Java Developer
12 109 (3.28%) Software Engineer
13 96 (2.89%) Azure Engineer
14 81 (2.43%) Data Scientist
15 80 (2.40%) Full-Stack Developer
16 79 (2.37%) Python Developer
17 76 (2.28%) C# Developer
18 69 (2.07%) .NET Developer
18 69 (2.07%) Azure Data Engineer
18 69 (2.07%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 319 (9.59%) .NET
2 264 (7.94%) REST
3 205 (6.16%) Kafka
4 177 (5.32%) PySpark
5 155 (4.66%) React
6 140 (4.21%) RESTful
7 135 (4.06%) Spring
8 134 (4.03%) HTML
9 132 (3.97%) XML
10 116 (3.49%) CSS
11 109 (3.28%) Spring Boot
12 104 (3.13%) JSON
13 102 (3.07%) Node.js
14 96 (2.89%) AngularJS
15 76 (2.28%) Pandas
15 76 (2.28%) SOAP
16 72 (2.16%) .NET Framework
17 69 (2.07%) Middleware
18 56 (1.68%) NumPy
18 56 (1.68%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 188 (5.65%) Cloud Native
2 99 (2.98%) Data Structures
3 87 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
3 87 (2.61%) Product Ownership
4 79 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
5 72 (2.16%) Analytical Mindset
5 72 (2.16%) Management Information System
6 60 (1.80%) Algorithms
6 60 (1.80%) Derivative
7 53 (1.59%) Distributed Systems
7 53 (1.59%) Onboarding
8 52 (1.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 51 (1.53%) Equities
10 47 (1.41%) Fixed Income
11 43 (1.29%) Replication
12 39 (1.17%) Market Risk
13 36 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
13 36 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
14 34 (1.02%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 32 (0.96%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 313 (9.41%) Linux
2 237 (7.12%) Windows
3 190 (5.71%) Unix
4 61 (1.83%) Windows Server
5 18 (0.54%) VMS
6 16 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
7 14 (0.42%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.39%) Ubuntu
9 12 (0.36%) Android
9 12 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
10 10 (0.30%) Amazon Linux
11 7 (0.21%) Apple iOS
12 6 (0.18%) AIX
13 5 (0.15%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.12%) CentOS
14 4 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
15 2 (0.060%) Solaris
15 2 (0.060%) zOS
16 1 (0.030%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 933 (28.04%) Agile
2 768 (23.08%) Analytics
3 763 (22.93%) CI/CD
4 759 (22.81%) Business Intelligence
5 757 (22.75%) Problem-Solving
6 728 (21.88%) DevOps
7 693 (20.83%) Data Modelling
8 618 (18.58%) ETL
9 469 (14.10%) Data Pipeline
10 388 (11.66%) Data Engineering
11 359 (10.79%) Migration
12 348 (10.46%) Data Governance
13 331 (9.95%) Visualisation
14 327 (9.83%) Validation
15 315 (9.47%) AI
16 305 (9.17%) Data Analysis
17 289 (8.69%) Test Automation
18 287 (8.63%) Microservices
19 283 (8.51%) Data Science
20 270 (8.12%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 1,224 (36.79%) Python
2 512 (15.39%) Java
3 368 (11.06%) C#
4 311 (9.35%) JavaScript
5 263 (7.91%) PL/SQL
6 146 (4.39%) PowerShell
7 129 (3.88%) TypeScript
8 109 (3.28%) R
9 96 (2.89%) T-SQL
10 86 (2.58%) C++
10 86 (2.58%) Scala
11 83 (2.49%) Shell Script
12 77 (2.31%) VBA
13 70 (2.10%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 64 (1.92%) VB
15 58 (1.74%) Bash
16 46 (1.38%) Perl
17 42 (1.26%) Go
18 41 (1.23%) PHP
19 40 (1.20%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 547 (16.44%) Security Cleared
2 409 (12.29%) SC Cleared
3 317 (9.53%) Degree
4 115 (3.46%) Computer Science Degree
5 71 (2.13%) Azure Certification
6 60 (1.80%) DV Cleared
7 57 (1.71%) AWS Certification
8 53 (1.59%) Master's Degree
9 47 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
10 42 (1.26%) Microsoft Certification
11 35 (1.05%) ISTQB
12 24 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
13 23 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
14 19 (0.57%) CBAP
15 16 (0.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 14 (0.42%) MCSE
17 12 (0.36%) Cisco Certification
17 12 (0.36%) PMI Certification
18 11 (0.33%) OCA
18 11 (0.33%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 471 (14.16%) Data Quality
2 231 (6.94%) QA
3 124 (3.73%) GDPR
4 62 (1.86%) Accessibility
5 24 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 23 (0.69%) MiFID
7 20 (0.60%) SLA
8 18 (0.54%) SEPA
8 18 (0.54%) WCAG
9 17 (0.51%) EMIR
9 17 (0.51%) ISO 20022
10 15 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
11 14 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 13 (0.39%) HIPAA
12 13 (0.39%) PSD2
13 11 (0.33%) IFRS
13 11 (0.33%) PMO
14 9 (0.27%) NIST
15 8 (0.24%) PCI DSS
16 7 (0.21%) Basel III
System Software
1 386 (11.60%) Docker
2 94 (2.83%) Active Directory
3 30 (0.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (0.57%) Oracle RAC
5 17 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (0.30%) DFS Replication
6 10 (0.30%) Dovecot
6 10 (0.30%) Postfix
6 10 (0.30%) Squid
7 9 (0.27%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.24%) HDFS
8 8 (0.24%) zsh
9 7 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 6 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
11 5 (0.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 5 (0.15%) NFS
11 5 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
11 5 (0.15%) vSphere
12 4 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
12 4 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 354 (10.64%) Kubernetes
2 227 (6.82%) Terraform
3 70 (2.10%) Grafana
4 61 (1.83%) Ansible
5 56 (1.68%) Prometheus
6 24 (0.72%) SCCM
6 24 (0.72%) SCOM
7 21 (0.63%) HP SiteScope
8 20 (0.60%) Oracle RMAN
9 19 (0.57%) Data Guard
9 19 (0.57%) Puppet
10 17 (0.51%) Control-M
11 16 (0.48%) Kibana
12 15 (0.45%) Progress Chef
13 14 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 14 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
14 13 (0.39%) Proxmox
15 11 (0.33%) ITRS Geneos
15 11 (0.33%) WSUS
16 10 (0.30%) Nessus
Vendors
1 586 (17.61%) Oracle
2 556 (16.71%) Microsoft
3 341 (10.25%) Databricks
4 133 (4.00%) Google
5 103 (3.10%) Splunk
6 96 (2.89%) SAP
7 69 (2.07%) Salesforce
8 67 (2.01%) ServiceNow
9 53 (1.59%) Talend
10 46 (1.38%) Informatica
11 42 (1.26%) VMware
12 41 (1.23%) IBM
12 41 (1.23%) OpenAI
13 40 (1.20%) Citrix
13 40 (1.20%) Dynatrace
14 36 (1.08%) Denodo
15 34 (1.02%) MuleSoft
16 30 (0.90%) AppDynamics
17 29 (0.87%) Adobe
17 29 (0.87%) Cisco