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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 9 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing SQL 2,265 1,818 2,340
As % of all contract jobs in London 13.45% 14.40% 12.95%
As % of the Programming Languages category 39.83% 36.75% 36.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,522 1,294 1,779
10th Percentile £363 £363 £400
25th Percentile £415 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £538 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.65% -6.52% -
75th Percentile £630 £675 £688
90th Percentile £738 £799 £788
England median daily rate £500 £513 £550
% change year-on-year -2.44% -6.82% +0.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 22 19
10th Percentile £18.25 £29.07 £34.18
25th Percentile £35.25 £38.69 £41.25
Median hourly rate £43.75 £47.00 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.91% -3.09% -25.38%
75th Percentile £51.44 £60.25 £53.75
90th Percentile £60.60 £67.25 £62.31
England median hourly rate £45.50 £50.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -9.00% +17.65% -15.00%

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 5,686 4,947 6,346
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 33.75% 39.17% 35.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,849 3,452 4,816
10th Percentile £363 £375 £385
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £825 £815
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 31 60
10th Percentile £26.43 £29.07 £24.93
25th Percentile £39.25 £38.18 £37.02
Median hourly rate £54.75 £45.00 £51.13
Median % change year-on-year +21.67% -11.98% -11.09%
75th Percentile £66.50 £59.75 £60.44
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £70.25
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +3.59% +4.58% -4.00%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -2 295 £550 - 268
West London +11 55 £601 +20.25% 34
South London +4 41 £500 +1.01% 13
East London 0 21 £450 +2.86% 31
North London - 1 £495 - 3
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
1 150 (6.62%) Apache Spark
2 113 (4.99%) Apache Airflow
3 81 (3.58%) Apache
4 66 (2.91%) Confluence
5 40 (1.77%) SharePoint
6 21 (0.93%) IIS
7 17 (0.75%) SAS
8 15 (0.66%) Palantir Foundry
9 14 (0.62%) Jupyter
10 12 (0.53%) HCL Notes
10 12 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
11 11 (0.49%) nginx
12 10 (0.44%) Mendix
13 9 (0.40%) Appian
13 9 (0.40%) Tomcat
14 6 (0.26%) Camunda
14 6 (0.26%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 5 (0.22%) WebLogic
16 4 (0.18%) ArcGIS
16 4 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 161 (7.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (1.68%) MS Visio
3 33 (1.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 32 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
5 15 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.13%) Notion
8 3 (0.13%) Trello
9 1 (0.044%) Mingle
9 1 (0.044%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 26 (1.15%) Aladdin
2 16 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.62%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.57%) NetSuite
5 12 (0.53%) Oracle Payables
6 11 (0.49%) Oracle Receivables
7 9 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
8 8 (0.35%) Endur
8 8 (0.35%) Findur
8 8 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
8 8 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
9 7 (0.31%) Fidessa
9 7 (0.31%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 6 (0.26%) BASE24
10 6 (0.26%) Oracle Assets
10 6 (0.26%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 5 (0.22%) Actimize
11 5 (0.22%) Oracle Cash Management
11 5 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
11 5 (0.22%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 852 (37.62%) Azure
2 582 (25.70%) AWS
3 456 (20.13%) Power Platform
4 265 (11.70%) Azure DevOps
5 225 (9.93%) GitHub
6 207 (9.14%) Azure Data Factory
7 187 (8.26%) GCP
7 187 (8.26%) Snowflake
8 185 (8.17%) Serverless
9 149 (6.58%) Amazon S3
9 149 (6.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 112 (4.94%) dbt
11 108 (4.77%) AWS Lambda
11 108 (4.77%) GitHub Actions
12 56 (2.47%) AWS CloudFormation
12 56 (2.47%) Azure Functions
13 53 (2.34%) SaaS
14 48 (2.12%) Entra ID
15 47 (2.08%) Collibra
15 47 (2.08%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 20 (0.88%) Firewall
2 16 (0.71%) DNS
2 16 (0.71%) Network Security
3 14 (0.62%) HTTP
4 12 (0.53%) Internet
5 7 (0.31%) VPN
6 6 (0.26%) Multicast
6 6 (0.26%) SMS
6 6 (0.26%) WAN
7 5 (0.22%) 4G
7 5 (0.22%) 5G
7 5 (0.22%) NetScaler
8 4 (0.18%) 2G
8 4 (0.18%) FIX Connectivity
8 4 (0.18%) LAN
8 4 (0.18%) Radio Access Network
9 3 (0.13%) FTP
9 3 (0.13%) SAN
9 3 (0.13%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.13%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 416 (18.37%) Power BI
2 311 (13.73%) Data Warehouse
3 297 (13.11%) SQL Server
4 177 (7.81%) Data Lake
5 174 (7.68%) Tableau
6 156 (6.89%) NoSQL
7 153 (6.75%) Relational Database
8 151 (6.67%) PostgreSQL
9 140 (6.18%) Metadata
10 129 (5.70%) Azure SQL Database
11 89 (3.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 81 (3.58%) Oracle Database
13 78 (3.44%) BigQuery
14 76 (3.36%) Amazon Redshift
15 74 (3.27%) Delta Lake
16 66 (2.91%) Big Data
17 58 (2.56%) Amazon Athena
18 55 (2.43%) Snowflake Schema
19 45 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
20 42 (1.85%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 240 (10.60%) Git
2 162 (7.15%) JIRA
3 91 (4.02%) Jenkins
4 78 (3.44%) GitLab
5 37 (1.63%) JUnit
6 32 (1.41%) MLflow
7 26 (1.15%) Selenium
8 22 (0.97%) SpecFlow
9 19 (0.84%) Mockito
10 18 (0.79%) Cucumber
11 17 (0.75%) Cypress.io
12 16 (0.71%) ERwin
12 16 (0.71%) Maven
13 15 (0.66%) Bitbucket
14 14 (0.62%) Team Foundation Server
14 14 (0.62%) TeamCity
15 13 (0.57%) Postman
15 13 (0.57%) Visual Studio
16 12 (0.53%) REST Assured
16 12 (0.53%) SonarQube
General
1 779 (34.39%) Finance
2 635 (28.04%) Social Skills
3 445 (19.65%) Analytical Skills
4 313 (13.82%) Banking
5 142 (6.27%) Public Sector
6 102 (4.50%) Front Office
6 102 (4.50%) Investment Banking
7 64 (2.83%) Marketing
8 57 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
9 46 (2.03%) Financial Institution
9 46 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 39 (1.72%) Retail
11 28 (1.24%) Legal
11 28 (1.24%) Publishing
12 26 (1.15%) Telecoms
13 23 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
14 20 (0.88%) Back Office
15 18 (0.79%) General Ledger
16 16 (0.71%) Law
16 16 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 496 (21.90%) Developer
2 444 (19.60%) Data Engineer
3 367 (16.20%) Analyst
4 302 (13.33%) Senior
5 167 (7.37%) Business Analyst
6 158 (6.98%) Lead
7 151 (6.67%) Data Analyst
8 130 (5.74%) Architect
9 83 (3.66%) C# Developer
10 82 (3.62%) Consultant
11 79 (3.49%) Senior Developer
12 71 (3.13%) Azure Engineer
13 70 (3.09%) Senior Data Engineer
14 69 (3.05%) Python Developer
15 68 (3.00%) Java Developer
16 63 (2.78%) Software Engineer
17 56 (2.47%) Data Architect
18 55 (2.43%) Data Scientist
19 49 (2.16%) DBA
20 48 (2.12%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 221 (9.76%) .NET
2 191 (8.43%) Kafka
3 167 (7.37%) PySpark
4 154 (6.80%) REST
5 119 (5.25%) React
6 104 (4.59%) RESTful
7 93 (4.11%) Pandas
8 83 (3.66%) HTML
9 74 (3.27%) AngularJS
10 69 (3.05%) Spring
11 67 (2.96%) JSON
12 66 (2.91%) CSS
13 61 (2.69%) XML
14 60 (2.65%) NumPy
15 56 (2.47%) scikit-learn
15 56 (2.47%) Spring Boot
16 53 (2.34%) .NET Framework
17 51 (2.25%) Middleware
18 50 (2.21%) YAML
19 49 (2.16%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 170 (7.51%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.62%) Data Structures
3 80 (3.53%) Legacy Systems
4 72 (3.18%) Derivative
5 64 (2.83%) Product Ownership
6 59 (2.60%) Equities
7 58 (2.56%) Fixed Income
8 56 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
9 46 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
10 43 (1.90%) Algorithms
10 43 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
11 41 (1.81%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 41 (1.81%) Management Information System
11 41 (1.81%) Onboarding
12 36 (1.59%) Market Risk
12 36 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
13 28 (1.24%) Credit Risk
14 27 (1.19%) Hedge funds
15 22 (0.97%) AI Agents
15 22 (0.97%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 156 (6.89%) Linux
2 121 (5.34%) Windows
3 100 (4.42%) Unix
4 37 (1.63%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (0.26%) Android
7 6 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.26%) Solaris
7 6 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
7 6 (0.26%) zOS
8 5 (0.22%) AIX
8 5 (0.22%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.18%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.088%) VMS
11 1 (0.044%) Alpine Linux
11 1 (0.044%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 643 (28.39%) Analytics
2 602 (26.58%) Agile
3 601 (26.53%) CI/CD
4 598 (26.40%) Data Modelling
5 536 (23.66%) ETL
6 530 (23.40%) Business Intelligence
7 519 (22.91%) DevOps
8 461 (20.35%) Problem-Solving
9 422 (18.63%) Data Pipeline
10 421 (18.59%) Data Engineering
11 364 (16.07%) AI
12 318 (14.04%) Data Governance
13 274 (12.10%) Migration
14 267 (11.79%) Validation
15 246 (10.86%) Data Analysis
16 237 (10.46%) Data Science
17 236 (10.42%) Machine Learning
18 226 (9.98%) Decision-Making
19 223 (9.85%) Visualisation
20 203 (8.96%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 992 (43.80%) Python
2 305 (13.47%) C#
3 273 (12.05%) Java
4 162 (7.15%) JavaScript
5 132 (5.83%) PL/SQL
6 102 (4.50%) TypeScript
7 90 (3.97%) T-SQL
8 77 (3.40%) PowerShell
9 74 (3.27%) Scala
10 70 (3.09%) R
11 66 (2.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 61 (2.69%) Shell Script
13 49 (2.16%) C++
14 38 (1.68%) VBA
15 29 (1.28%) Bash
15 29 (1.28%) Bicep
16 22 (0.97%) VB
17 20 (0.88%) Perl
18 16 (0.71%) C
19 14 (0.62%) Korn
Qualifications
1 353 (15.58%) Security Cleared
2 287 (12.67%) SC Cleared
3 177 (7.81%) Degree
4 66 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
5 47 (2.08%) Azure Certification
6 42 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (1.37%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.10%) ISTQB
9 23 (1.02%) AWS Certification
10 22 (0.97%) Microsoft Certification
11 14 (0.62%) CBAP
12 13 (0.57%) DV Cleared
13 11 (0.49%) PhD
14 10 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 9 (0.40%) PMI Certification
15 9 (0.40%) PMP
16 8 (0.35%) CFA
17 6 (0.26%) SnowPro
18 5 (0.22%) CSPO
18 5 (0.22%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 438 (19.34%) Data Quality
2 188 (8.30%) QA
3 112 (4.94%) GDPR
4 34 (1.50%) Accessibility
5 20 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 19 (0.84%) MiFID
7 18 (0.79%) PMO
8 13 (0.57%) IFRS
8 13 (0.57%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 11 (0.49%) EMIR
9 11 (0.49%) NIST
9 11 (0.49%) SLA
10 10 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 8 (0.35%) ISO 8583
11 8 (0.35%) Solvency II
12 7 (0.31%) GAAP
12 7 (0.31%) HIPAA
13 6 (0.26%) Basel III
13 6 (0.26%) NCSC
System Software
1 238 (10.51%) Docker
2 53 (2.34%) Active Directory
3 17 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
5 5 (0.22%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.22%) XenApp
5 5 (0.22%) XenDesktop
6 4 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.13%) HDFS
7 3 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.088%) GridGain
9 1 (0.044%) Postfix
9 1 (0.044%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 216 (9.54%) Terraform
2 198 (8.74%) Kubernetes
3 28 (1.24%) Grafana
4 18 (0.79%) Ansible
5 14 (0.62%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.49%) Control-M
7 10 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.31%) SCCM
9 6 (0.26%) ITRS Geneos
9 6 (0.26%) Kubeflow
9 6 (0.26%) Oracle RMAN
10 5 (0.22%) Kibana
10 5 (0.22%) SCVMM
10 5 (0.22%) Thomson Reuters DACS
11 3 (0.13%) HP ALM
11 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.13%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.088%) Puppet
Vendors
1 350 (15.45%) Microsoft
2 312 (13.77%) Databricks
3 311 (13.73%) Oracle
4 87 (3.84%) Google
5 57 (2.52%) Informatica
5 57 (2.52%) SAP
6 49 (2.16%) ServiceNow
7 42 (1.85%) Citrix
7 42 (1.85%) Salesforce
8 38 (1.68%) IBM
9 33 (1.46%) Bloomberg
9 33 (1.46%) OpenAI
10 27 (1.19%) MuleSoft
11 25 (1.10%) Murex
12 19 (0.84%) Sybase
13 17 (0.75%) Charles River
13 17 (0.75%) Palantir
14 16 (0.71%) Splunk
14 16 (0.71%) UiPath
15 15 (0.66%) Foundry