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 29 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 9 7
Rank change year-on-year -6 -2 +1
Contract jobs citing SQL 2,501 1,937 2,300
As % of all contract jobs in London 12.37% 14.39% 14.23%
As % of the Programming Languages category 39.31% 37.38% 35.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,740 1,378 1,756
10th Percentile £365 £363 £363
25th Percentile £425 £413 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £569
Median % change year-on-year - -7.73% -1.04%
75th Percentile £634 £675 £695
90th Percentile £738 £788 £775
England median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 29 16
10th Percentile £26.51 £26.21 £25.99
25th Percentile £26.52 £32.50 £40.71
Median hourly rate £40.00 £42.82 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.57% -4.86% +21.56%
75th Percentile £52.81 £57.50 £52.25
90th Percentile £53.75 £65.30 £53.75
England median hourly rate £45.00 £50.00 £42.00
% change year-on-year -10.00% +19.05% -1.55%

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 6,363 5,182 6,460
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 31.47% 38.48% 39.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,273 3,605 4,752
10th Percentile £381 £375 £375
25th Percentile £450 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £659 £688 £710
90th Percentile £775 £825 £850
England median daily rate £525 £514 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -6.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 62 40
10th Percentile £27.87 £26.43 £25.11
25th Percentile £36.25 £33.25 £38.31
Median hourly rate £52.50 £44.70 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +17.46% -5.90% -20.83%
75th Percentile £73.00 £63.06 £57.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £86.25 £75.13
England median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +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 29 August 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 29 August 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 29 August 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 -6 314 £550 -4.35% 146
West London +11 71 £520 +15.36% 91
South London -10 43 £535 -2.73% 17
East London +3 13 £450 -1.66% 21
North London +5 6 £550 - 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
1 166 (6.64%) Apache Airflow
2 136 (5.44%) Apache Spark
3 105 (4.20%) Apache
4 84 (3.36%) Confluence
5 51 (2.04%) SharePoint
6 24 (0.96%) IIS
6 24 (0.96%) SAS
7 15 (0.60%) nginx
7 15 (0.60%) Palantir Foundry
8 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
8 14 (0.56%) Oracle Workflow
9 13 (0.52%) Camunda
9 13 (0.52%) CMS
9 13 (0.52%) Jupyter
10 8 (0.32%) Tomcat
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 7 (0.28%) WebLogic
12 6 (0.24%) Appian
13 5 (0.20%) MTS
14 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
Applications
1 155 (6.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 16 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
6 7 (0.28%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.16%) Notion
7 4 (0.16%) Photoshop
8 3 (0.12%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.040%) Mingle
9 1 (0.040%) Mozilla Thunderbird
9 1 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 25 (1.00%) Aladdin
2 24 (0.96%) Oracle EBS
3 19 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
4 17 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
5 15 (0.60%) Oracle Payables
6 13 (0.52%) Oracle General Ledger
7 12 (0.48%) Oracle Receivables
8 11 (0.44%) SAP S/4HANA
9 10 (0.40%) Finacle
9 10 (0.40%) Oracle EBS R12
9 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
10 8 (0.32%) Findur
10 8 (0.32%) Summit
11 7 (0.28%) OpenText MBPM
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle BPM
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle FAH
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle Financials
11 7 (0.28%) Unit4 Business World
12 6 (0.24%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 830 (33.19%) Azure
2 601 (24.03%) AWS
3 467 (18.67%) Power Platform
4 274 (10.96%) Azure DevOps
5 261 (10.44%) GCP
6 241 (9.64%) Snowflake
7 232 (9.28%) GitHub
8 215 (8.60%) dbt
9 175 (7.00%) Azure Data Factory
10 166 (6.64%) Serverless
11 147 (5.88%) Amazon S3
12 125 (5.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 121 (4.84%) GitHub Actions
14 115 (4.60%) AWS Lambda
15 58 (2.32%) SaaS
16 50 (2.00%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 50 (2.00%) Entra ID
17 48 (1.92%) PowerApps
18 43 (1.72%) Power Automate
19 39 (1.56%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (0.68%) HTTP
2 16 (0.64%) DNS
2 16 (0.64%) Internet
3 15 (0.60%) Firewall
4 14 (0.56%) VPN
5 13 (0.52%) Network Security
6 9 (0.36%) Broadband
7 8 (0.32%) Multicast
7 8 (0.32%) TCP/IP
8 7 (0.28%) SSH
8 7 (0.28%) SSL
9 6 (0.24%) DHCP
9 6 (0.24%) SAN
10 5 (0.20%) HTTPS
11 4 (0.16%) IPv4
11 4 (0.16%) SMS
12 3 (0.12%) FTP
12 3 (0.12%) Intranet
12 3 (0.12%) WinSCP
12 3 (0.12%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 422 (16.87%) Power BI
2 373 (14.91%) Data Warehouse
3 302 (12.08%) SQL Server
4 181 (7.24%) Relational Database
5 167 (6.68%) Tableau
6 165 (6.60%) Data Lake
7 152 (6.08%) Metadata
8 135 (5.40%) PostgreSQL
9 128 (5.12%) NoSQL
10 127 (5.08%) BigQuery
11 105 (4.20%) Oracle Database
12 100 (4.00%) Azure SQL Database
13 96 (3.84%) Delta Lake
14 87 (3.48%) Amazon Redshift
15 64 (2.56%) Star Schema
16 63 (2.52%) Snowflake Schema
16 63 (2.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 59 (2.36%) Power Query
18 58 (2.32%) Amazon Athena
19 56 (2.24%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 279 (11.16%) Git
2 184 (7.36%) JIRA
3 131 (5.24%) Jenkins
4 85 (3.40%) GitLab
5 46 (1.84%) Selenium
6 42 (1.68%) Gradle
7 39 (1.56%) JUnit
8 28 (1.12%) Mockito
9 26 (1.04%) Maven
9 26 (1.04%) SonarQube
10 21 (0.84%) Bitbucket
10 21 (0.84%) Visual Studio
11 19 (0.76%) ERwin
12 18 (0.72%) Liquibase
12 18 (0.72%) MLflow
13 17 (0.68%) Cypress.io
14 16 (0.64%) JMeter
14 16 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
14 16 (0.64%) Postman
14 16 (0.64%) TeamCity
General
1 900 (35.99%) Finance
2 721 (28.83%) Social Skills
3 542 (21.67%) Analytical Skills
4 399 (15.95%) Banking
5 161 (6.44%) Public Sector
6 129 (5.16%) Front Office
7 112 (4.48%) Marketing
8 106 (4.24%) Investment Banking
9 72 (2.88%) Retail
10 61 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 50 (2.00%) Financial Institution
12 41 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
13 34 (1.36%) Back Office
14 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
15 26 (1.04%) Legal
16 24 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
16 24 (0.96%) Publishing
17 22 (0.88%) Local Government
17 22 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
18 20 (0.80%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 542 (21.67%) Developer
2 472 (18.87%) Data Engineer
3 424 (16.95%) Analyst
4 384 (15.35%) Senior
5 185 (7.40%) Lead
6 167 (6.68%) Data Analyst
7 151 (6.04%) Business Analyst
8 139 (5.56%) Architect
9 111 (4.44%) Senior Data Engineer
10 105 (4.20%) Consultant
11 94 (3.76%) Senior Developer
12 88 (3.52%) Java Developer
13 81 (3.24%) Software Engineer
14 77 (3.08%) Python Engineer
15 72 (2.88%) C# Developer
16 69 (2.76%) Python Developer
17 67 (2.68%) Azure Engineer
18 62 (2.48%) Snowflake Engineer
19 60 (2.40%) Data Architect
20 58 (2.32%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 265 (10.60%) .NET
2 246 (9.84%) Terraform
3 237 (9.48%) REST
4 203 (8.12%) PySpark
5 196 (7.84%) Kafka
6 142 (5.68%) React
7 129 (5.16%) Spring
8 109 (4.36%) Spring Boot
9 107 (4.28%) JSON
10 106 (4.24%) RESTful
11 101 (4.04%) HTML
12 90 (3.60%) CSS
13 85 (3.40%) XML
14 81 (3.24%) AngularJS
15 80 (3.20%) Pandas
16 64 (2.56%) Middleware
16 64 (2.56%) Web Services
17 63 (2.52%) SOAP
18 60 (2.40%) .NET Framework
19 52 (2.08%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 196 (7.84%) Cloud Native
2 126 (5.04%) Product Ownership
3 116 (4.64%) Data Structures
4 85 (3.40%) Distributed Systems
5 83 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
6 78 (3.12%) Derivative
7 71 (2.84%) Onboarding
8 59 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
9 53 (2.12%) Management Information System
10 50 (2.00%) Fixed Income
11 49 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
12 44 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
13 42 (1.68%) Reference Data
14 41 (1.64%) Equities
15 39 (1.56%) AI Agents
16 38 (1.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 36 (1.44%) Algorithms
18 32 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
19 30 (1.20%) Replication
20 29 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 167 (6.68%) Linux
2 143 (5.72%) Windows
3 104 (4.16%) Unix
4 37 (1.48%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
7 7 (0.28%) VMS
8 6 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.20%) zOS
10 4 (0.16%) Solaris
10 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.12%) Android
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.12%) OpenVMS
11 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.080%) Amazon Linux
12 2 (0.080%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.040%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 761 (30.43%) CI/CD
2 683 (27.31%) Analytics
3 666 (26.63%) Agile
4 665 (26.59%) Data Modelling
5 545 (21.79%) DevOps
6 516 (20.63%) ETL
7 511 (20.43%) Data Pipeline
8 510 (20.39%) Business Intelligence
9 490 (19.59%) Data Engineering
10 487 (19.47%) AI
11 471 (18.83%) Problem-Solving
12 372 (14.87%) Stakeholder Management
13 359 (14.35%) Validation
14 329 (13.15%) Migration
15 327 (13.07%) Data Governance
16 313 (12.51%) Data Analysis
17 275 (11.00%) Decision-Making
18 256 (10.24%) Continuous Improvement
19 255 (10.20%) Test Automation
20 237 (9.48%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 1,075 (42.98%) Python
2 344 (13.75%) Java
3 310 (12.40%) C#
4 211 (8.44%) JavaScript
5 179 (7.16%) PL/SQL
6 129 (5.16%) TypeScript
7 121 (4.84%) PowerShell
8 112 (4.48%) T-SQL
9 98 (3.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 82 (3.28%) Shell Script
11 55 (2.20%) R
12 48 (1.92%) Scala
13 39 (1.56%) C++
14 37 (1.48%) Bash
15 33 (1.32%) VBA
16 18 (0.72%) Go
16 18 (0.72%) VB.NET
17 15 (0.60%) Bicep
17 15 (0.60%) Groovy
18 12 (0.48%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 394 (15.75%) Security Cleared
2 336 (13.43%) SC Cleared
3 200 (8.00%) Degree
4 75 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 45 (1.80%) Azure Certification
6 42 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (1.24%) Master's Degree
8 30 (1.20%) AWS Certification
9 18 (0.72%) ISTQB
10 16 (0.64%) DV Cleared
11 15 (0.60%) Microsoft Certification
12 12 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 12 (0.48%) FFIEC
13 10 (0.40%) ISEB
14 9 (0.36%) DBS Check
15 8 (0.32%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 7 (0.28%) ACCA
16 7 (0.28%) CISM
16 7 (0.28%) PhD
16 7 (0.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 487 (19.47%) Data Quality
2 197 (7.88%) QA
3 88 (3.52%) GDPR
4 31 (1.24%) Accessibility
5 27 (1.08%) SLA
6 19 (0.76%) ISO 20022
7 17 (0.68%) NIST
8 15 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
8 15 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 14 (0.56%) IFRS
10 13 (0.52%) MiFID
11 11 (0.44%) COBIT
12 10 (0.40%) Solvency II
13 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 8 (0.32%) PMO
15 7 (0.28%) HIPAA
16 6 (0.24%) Basel III
16 6 (0.24%) EMIR
17 5 (0.20%) ISO 15022
17 5 (0.20%) SEPA
System Software
1 240 (9.60%) Docker
2 47 (1.88%) Active Directory
3 23 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
6 4 (0.16%) Postfix
6 4 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.12%) Apache ZooKeeper
7 3 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.080%) DFS Replication
8 2 (0.080%) Dovecot
8 2 (0.080%) GridGain
8 2 (0.080%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.080%) Squid
9 1 (0.040%) RACF
9 1 (0.040%) Varnish
9 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 217 (8.68%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.56%) Grafana
3 34 (1.36%) Ansible
4 29 (1.16%) Control-M
5 19 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Clustering
7 10 (0.40%) Kibana
7 10 (0.40%) Oracle RMAN
8 9 (0.36%) ITRS Geneos
9 8 (0.32%) SCOM
10 7 (0.28%) Data Guard
11 6 (0.24%) Packer
12 5 (0.20%) HP Fortify
12 5 (0.20%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 5 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
13 4 (0.16%) Argo
13 4 (0.16%) HP ALM
13 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
13 4 (0.16%) SCCM
Vendors
1 360 (14.39%) Microsoft
2 327 (13.07%) Oracle
3 313 (12.51%) Databricks
4 107 (4.28%) Google
5 64 (2.56%) Informatica
6 46 (1.84%) SAP
7 44 (1.76%) IBM
8 40 (1.60%) Bloomberg
9 35 (1.40%) Salesforce
10 34 (1.36%) Murex
10 34 (1.36%) ServiceNow
11 32 (1.28%) Citrix
12 25 (1.00%) VMware
13 22 (0.88%) Adobe
13 22 (0.88%) Foundry
13 22 (0.88%) Splunk
14 20 (0.80%) Sybase
15 19 (0.76%) Alteryx
15 19 (0.76%) Talend
16 18 (0.72%) UiPath