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 21 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 12 11
Rank change year-on-year -6 -1 0
Contract jobs citing SQL 4,515 3,252 3,550
As % of all contract jobs in England 9.67% 11.45% 11.24%
As % of the Programming Languages category 36.80% 35.20% 34.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,055 2,241 2,457
10th Percentile £356 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £408 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £600 £621 £638
90th Percentile £700 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 73 46
10th Percentile £20.90 £23.91 £25.26
25th Percentile £26.51 £32.50 £30.13
Median hourly rate £46.80 £50.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.40% +25.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £75.00 - £60.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £50.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year -10.00% +26.58% -12.22%

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.

6 months to
21 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 12,268 9,238 10,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 26.27% 32.54% 32.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,953 6,149 6,765
10th Percentile £363 £345 £355
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £540
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -5.09% -1.82%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £778
UK median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 539 268 279
10th Percentile £21.25 £31.25 £29.55
25th Percentile £47.40 £43.44 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.25 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.42% -4.23% +4.00%
75th Percentile £71.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.32 £78.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £63.25
% change year-on-year +13.04% -9.09% +1.20%

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 21 October 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 21 October 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 21 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 -7 2,550 £525 - 367
North of England +3 620 £475 +5.56% 210
Midlands -2 442 £469 -4.67% 138
South East -13 442 £475 -1.04% 210
West Midlands -1 356 £470 -8.65% 95
North West +4 313 £481 +11.74% 101
Yorkshire +9 255 £475 - 62
South West +2 246 £550 +15.79% 104
East of England -6 112 £510 +1.90% 53
East Midlands -12 84 £450 +9.09% 43
North East -5 62 £406 -18.75% 50
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
1Python36.3%1,640
2Java12.7%573
3C#9.1%411
4JavaScript8.5%386
5PL/SQL6.9%313
6PowerShell5.1%232
7TypeScript4.5%202
8T-SQL4.5%201
9Shell Script3.2%144
10Data Analysis Expressions3.1%140
11Bash2.5%113
12R1.5%66
13Scala1.4%65
14Bicep0.9%39
15C++0.8%38
16Go0.8%35
16VBA0.8%35
18Kotlin0.8%34
19C0.6%27
20VB0.5%24