SQL Contract Job Trends in London

SQL (Structured Query Language)
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing SQL 2,096 2,059 2,453
As % of all contract jobs in London 14.54% 14.09% 13.48%
As % of the Programming Languages category 38.74% 36.87% 37.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,418 1,438 1,823
10th Percentile £358 £362 £385
25th Percentile £413 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% -4.35% -3.36%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £688
90th Percentile £738 £771 £775
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 22 25
10th Percentile £18.25 £36.00 £25.97
25th Percentile £27.62 £40.62 £35.63
Median hourly rate £40.50 £50.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.01% +11.11% -22.41%
75th Percentile £47.50 £60.25 £61.75
90th Percentile £64.25 £78.50 £66.20
England median hourly rate £50.00 £52.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -4.76% +14.43% -0.26%

All Programming Languages
London

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 London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 5,410 5,584 6,486
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 37.52% 38.20% 35.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,634 3,737 4,892
10th Percentile £363 £373 £391
25th Percentile £425 £460 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £563 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.53% -2.09% -4.17%
75th Percentile £670 £699 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £800
England median daily rate £513 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -4.65% -2.27% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 37 65
10th Percentile £25.93 £35.45 £26.24
25th Percentile £35.50 £40.06 £36.28
Median hourly rate £54.25 £52.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% +3.96% -12.17%
75th Percentile £66.19 £68.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.38 £97.50 £72.30
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.59% +0.40% -3.47%

SQL
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

SQL job vacancy trend in London

SQL
Daily Rate Trend in London

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL

SQL
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL in London over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL in London

SQL
Hourly Rate Trend in London

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL

SQL
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL in London over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL in London

SQL
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SQL within the London region over the 6 months to 1 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
Central London -1 288 £525 -10.26% 580
South London +19 47 £475 -5.00% 17
West London -7 30 £525 +5.00% 32
East London +2 21 £463 +15.63% 27
North London +4 1 - - 5
SQL
England

SQL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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
1 119 (5.68%) Apache Spark
2 93 (4.44%) Apache Airflow
3 76 (3.63%) Confluence
4 46 (2.19%) Apache
5 42 (2.00%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.86%) IIS
7 16 (0.76%) nginx
8 14 (0.67%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 14 (0.67%) Oracle Workflow
9 13 (0.62%) SAS
10 12 (0.57%) HCL Notes
10 12 (0.57%) Jupyter
11 8 (0.38%) MQSeries
12 7 (0.33%) Mendix
12 7 (0.33%) Skype for Business
13 6 (0.29%) Mattermost
13 6 (0.29%) Tomcat
14 5 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
15 4 (0.19%) Mule
15 4 (0.19%) WebSphere
Applications
1 144 (6.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (1.34%) MS Visio
4 24 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.48%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.19%) Trello
8 3 (0.14%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.14%) Notion
9 1 (0.048%) GNU Octave
9 1 (0.048%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 26 (1.24%) Oracle EBS
2 24 (1.15%) Aladdin
2 24 (1.15%) Oracle Payables
3 23 (1.10%) Oracle General Ledger
4 20 (0.95%) Endur
5 19 (0.91%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.76%) Oracle EBS R12
7 15 (0.72%) Oracle Receivables
8 14 (0.67%) NetSuite
8 14 (0.67%) Oracle Financials
9 12 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
10 9 (0.43%) Oracle E-Business Tax
10 9 (0.43%) Oracle ERP
10 9 (0.43%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 9 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
11 8 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
11 8 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
11 8 (0.38%) SAP HR
12 7 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
13 5 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 663 (31.63%) Azure
2 497 (23.71%) AWS
3 390 (18.61%) Power Platform
4 175 (8.35%) Snowflake
5 173 (8.25%) GitHub
6 171 (8.16%) Azure DevOps
7 155 (7.40%) GCP
8 151 (7.20%) Azure Data Factory
9 146 (6.97%) Serverless
10 132 (6.30%) Amazon S3
11 112 (5.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 84 (4.01%) dbt
13 83 (3.96%) GitHub Actions
14 76 (3.63%) AWS Lambda
15 60 (2.86%) Azure Functions
16 56 (2.67%) SaaS
17 43 (2.05%) Azure Logic Apps
18 41 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
18 41 (1.96%) Power Automate
19 40 (1.91%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.53%) Firewall
2 23 (1.10%) HTTP
3 22 (1.05%) DNS
4 14 (0.67%) SSH
5 12 (0.57%) Internet
6 11 (0.52%) SMTP
7 10 (0.48%) FTP
7 10 (0.48%) IMAP
7 10 (0.48%) Network Security
7 10 (0.48%) OpenLDAP
8 9 (0.43%) VPN
9 8 (0.38%) Multicast
9 8 (0.38%) SMS
10 7 (0.33%) Skype
11 6 (0.29%) Unified Communications
12 5 (0.24%) LAN
13 4 (0.19%) 2G
13 4 (0.19%) 4G
13 4 (0.19%) Radio Access Network
13 4 (0.19%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 359 (17.13%) Power BI
2 254 (12.12%) Data Warehouse
3 240 (11.45%) SQL Server
4 157 (7.49%) PostgreSQL
5 154 (7.35%) NoSQL
6 149 (7.11%) Relational Database
7 147 (7.01%) Tableau
8 131 (6.25%) Data Lake
9 102 (4.87%) Oracle Database
10 101 (4.82%) Azure SQL Database
11 95 (4.53%) Metadata
12 81 (3.86%) Big Data
13 75 (3.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 73 (3.48%) BigQuery
15 60 (2.86%) Amazon Redshift
16 51 (2.43%) MongoDB
17 44 (2.10%) Amazon RDS
18 43 (2.05%) Amazon Athena
19 41 (1.96%) Delta Lake
19 41 (1.96%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 219 (10.45%) Git
2 164 (7.82%) JIRA
3 88 (4.20%) Jenkins
4 65 (3.10%) GitLab
5 41 (1.96%) JUnit
6 30 (1.43%) Selenium
7 21 (1.00%) Postman
8 20 (0.95%) Bitbucket
8 20 (0.95%) SpecFlow
9 19 (0.91%) Cucumber
9 19 (0.91%) Cypress.io
9 19 (0.91%) ERwin
10 18 (0.86%) Maven
11 16 (0.76%) Mockito
11 16 (0.76%) Oracle Forms
12 14 (0.67%) MLflow
12 14 (0.67%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.67%) TeamCity
13 12 (0.57%) Visual Studio
14 11 (0.52%) SoapUI
General
1 715 (34.11%) Finance
2 641 (30.58%) Social Skills
3 373 (17.80%) Analytical Skills
4 288 (13.74%) Banking
5 136 (6.49%) Public Sector
6 118 (5.63%) Investment Banking
7 99 (4.72%) Front Office
8 59 (2.81%) Marketing
9 48 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
10 40 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 39 (1.86%) Financial Institution
12 35 (1.67%) Retail
13 31 (1.48%) Back Office
14 25 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
15 24 (1.15%) General Ledger
16 21 (1.00%) Legal
17 16 (0.76%) Law
17 16 (0.76%) Publishing
18 15 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
18 15 (0.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 542 (25.86%) Developer
2 383 (18.27%) Analyst
3 312 (14.89%) Data Engineer
4 282 (13.45%) Senior
5 158 (7.54%) Business Analyst
6 146 (6.97%) Data Analyst
7 136 (6.49%) Lead
8 99 (4.72%) Architect
9 85 (4.06%) Consultant
10 80 (3.82%) Java Developer
11 75 (3.58%) Senior Developer
12 68 (3.24%) Azure Engineer
13 62 (2.96%) C# Developer
14 61 (2.91%) Software Engineer
15 54 (2.58%) Python Developer
16 53 (2.53%) .NET Developer
17 51 (2.43%) Azure Data Engineer
18 48 (2.29%) Senior Analyst
18 48 (2.29%) Senior Data Engineer
18 48 (2.29%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 204 (9.73%) .NET
2 172 (8.21%) Kafka
3 141 (6.73%) REST
4 136 (6.49%) PySpark
5 91 (4.34%) RESTful
6 86 (4.10%) HTML
7 81 (3.86%) React
8 80 (3.82%) CSS
8 80 (3.82%) XML
9 72 (3.44%) Spring
10 71 (3.39%) Node.js
11 63 (3.01%) JSON
12 61 (2.91%) AngularJS
13 56 (2.67%) Pandas
14 51 (2.43%) .NET Framework
14 51 (2.43%) Spring Boot
15 44 (2.10%) SOAP
16 42 (2.00%) Middleware
17 39 (1.86%) NumPy
17 39 (1.86%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 112 (5.34%) Cloud Native
2 70 (3.34%) Data Structures
3 64 (3.05%) Derivative
4 56 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
4 56 (2.67%) Equities
5 55 (2.62%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 55 (2.62%) Product Ownership
6 52 (2.48%) Analytical Mindset
7 51 (2.43%) Fixed Income
7 51 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
8 49 (2.34%) Management Information System
9 40 (1.91%) Market Risk
10 38 (1.81%) Algorithms
11 37 (1.77%) Distributed Systems
12 35 (1.67%) Onboarding
13 29 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
14 27 (1.29%) Replication
15 26 (1.24%) Hedge funds
16 24 (1.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
17 22 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 194 (9.26%) Linux
2 130 (6.20%) Windows
3 126 (6.01%) Unix
4 29 (1.38%) Windows Server
5 15 (0.72%) VMS
6 12 (0.57%) Ubuntu
7 11 (0.52%) Android
8 10 (0.48%) Amazon Linux
9 9 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.29%) AIX
10 6 (0.29%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.24%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.048%) Alpine Linux
13 1 (0.048%) Solaris
13 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.048%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 584 (27.86%) Agile
2 499 (23.81%) Analytics
3 463 (22.09%) Business Intelligence
4 462 (22.04%) Data Modelling
5 453 (21.61%) Problem-Solving
6 436 (20.80%) CI/CD
7 415 (19.80%) ETL
8 398 (18.99%) DevOps
9 311 (14.84%) Data Pipeline
10 281 (13.41%) Data Engineering
11 258 (12.31%) Data Governance
12 247 (11.78%) Migration
13 221 (10.54%) Data Analysis
14 220 (10.50%) AI
15 200 (9.54%) Visualisation
16 198 (9.45%) Validation
17 195 (9.30%) Data Science
18 175 (8.35%) Decision-Making
19 172 (8.21%) Stakeholder Management
20 169 (8.06%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 854 (40.74%) Python
2 295 (14.07%) Java
3 275 (13.12%) C#
4 178 (8.49%) JavaScript
5 135 (6.44%) PL/SQL
6 93 (4.44%) PowerShell
7 92 (4.39%) TypeScript
8 72 (3.44%) C++
9 67 (3.20%) T-SQL
10 65 (3.10%) R
11 58 (2.77%) Scala
12 52 (2.48%) VBA
13 49 (2.34%) Shell Script
14 46 (2.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 44 (2.10%) VB
16 37 (1.77%) Bash
17 32 (1.53%) Bicep
18 23 (1.10%) Groovy
19 22 (1.05%) Perl
20 19 (0.91%) Korn
Qualifications
1 267 (12.74%) Security Cleared
2 207 (9.88%) SC Cleared
3 187 (8.92%) Degree
4 67 (3.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 46 (2.19%) Azure Certification
6 36 (1.72%) AWS Certification
7 33 (1.57%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.19%) ISTQB
9 20 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
10 18 (0.86%) CBAP
11 17 (0.81%) DV Cleared
12 16 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (0.57%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 11 (0.52%) CFA
14 11 (0.52%) PMI Certification
15 8 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.38%) PMP
16 6 (0.29%) CSPO
16 6 (0.29%) ISEB
16 6 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 324 (15.46%) Data Quality
2 158 (7.54%) QA
3 82 (3.91%) GDPR
4 38 (1.81%) Accessibility
5 25 (1.19%) MiFID
6 18 (0.86%) EMIR
7 17 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 11 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 11 (0.52%) SLA
9 10 (0.48%) HIPAA
9 10 (0.48%) IFRS
10 9 (0.43%) Basel III
10 9 (0.43%) NIST
11 8 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
12 7 (0.33%) IFRS 9
12 7 (0.33%) SEPA
13 6 (0.29%) ISO 20022
13 6 (0.29%) ISO 8583
13 6 (0.29%) PCI DSS
13 6 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 203 (9.69%) Docker
2 53 (2.53%) Active Directory
3 10 (0.48%) DFS Replication
3 10 (0.48%) Dovecot
3 10 (0.48%) Postfix
3 10 (0.48%) Squid
4 9 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.38%) HDFS
5 8 (0.38%) zsh
6 7 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
8 3 (0.14%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.14%) XenApp
8 3 (0.14%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.048%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.048%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.048%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 168 (8.02%) Kubernetes
2 162 (7.73%) Terraform
3 31 (1.48%) Grafana
4 24 (1.15%) Ansible
5 22 (1.05%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.67%) Control-M
6 14 (0.67%) HP SiteScope
6 14 (0.67%) SCOM
7 11 (0.52%) ITRS Geneos
7 11 (0.52%) SCCM
8 10 (0.48%) Kibana
8 10 (0.48%) Nessus
8 10 (0.48%) Proxmox
9 7 (0.33%) logstash
9 7 (0.33%) Puppet
9 7 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (0.29%) ZABBIX
11 5 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.24%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.24%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 310 (14.79%) Oracle
2 293 (13.98%) Microsoft
3 258 (12.31%) Databricks
4 74 (3.53%) Google
5 57 (2.72%) SAP
6 48 (2.29%) Salesforce
7 38 (1.81%) Splunk
8 36 (1.72%) ServiceNow
9 34 (1.62%) Citrix
10 30 (1.43%) OpenAI
11 29 (1.38%) IBM
12 27 (1.29%) Bloomberg
13 26 (1.24%) Informatica
14 23 (1.10%) MuleSoft
15 17 (0.81%) Adobe
16 16 (0.76%) Dynatrace
16 16 (0.76%) Sybase
17 15 (0.72%) Murex
17 15 (0.72%) VMware
18 14 (0.67%) Foundry