SQL Contract Job Trends in the North of England

SQL (Structured Query Language)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 15 19
Rank change year-on-year -11 +4 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL 427 304 364
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.53% 9.42% 7.48%
As % of the Programming Languages category 26.67% 33.85% 29.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 298 217 245
10th Percentile £331 £350 £275
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £550
90th Percentile £638 £647 £610
England median daily rate £500 £515 £550
% change year-on-year -2.91% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 5 11
10th Percentile £37.35 £28.34 £37.63
25th Percentile £56.06 £31.47 £39.44
Median hourly rate £66.75 £33.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +101.60% -22.09% -19.79%
75th Percentile £76.07 £65.00 £44.97
90th Percentile £89.15 £69.50 £46.18
England median hourly rate £45.25 £46.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -2.69% +9.41% -15.42%

All Programming Languages
North of 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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 1,601 898 1,247
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 28.24% 27.83% 25.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,091 633 892
10th Percentile £344 £350 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year - +1.01% -10.43%
75th Percentile £544 £563 £550
90th Percentile £619 £638 £625
England median daily rate £505 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.42% -6.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 16 59
10th Percentile £41.94 £31.62 £38.24
25th Percentile £52.50 £59.13 £45.88
Median hourly rate £64.50 £72.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.03% +52.63% -1.55%
75th Percentile £74.26 £89.79 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £100.28 £72.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -4.76%

SQL
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

SQL job vacancy trend in the North of England

SQL
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SQL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SQL

SQL
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL in the North of England over the 6 months to 19 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL in the North of England

SQL
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SQL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SQL

SQL
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL in the North of England over the 6 months to 19 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL in the North of England

SQL
Contract Job Locations in the North of 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 North of England region over the 6 months to 19 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
North West 0 244 £447 -5.89% 224
Yorkshire -21 161 £488 -2.50% 143
North East +4 33 £475 +5.56% 71
SQL
England

SQL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of 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 25 (5.85%) Apache Airflow
1 25 (5.85%) Apache Spark
2 20 (4.68%) Apache
3 18 (4.22%) Confluence
4 7 (1.64%) Apache Geronimo
4 7 (1.64%) Apache ServiceMix
4 7 (1.64%) Red Hat Fuse
4 7 (1.64%) Tomcat
4 7 (1.64%) WebSphere
5 6 (1.41%) SAS
5 6 (1.41%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.47%) IIS
7 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.23%) Mule
7 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 30 (7.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.94%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.47%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.23%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.87%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.47%) Elite 3E
2 2 (0.47%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.47%) Oracle Applications
2 2 (0.47%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.23%) Maximo
3 1 (0.23%) SAP CRM
3 1 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 134 (31.38%) Azure
2 123 (28.81%) AWS
3 74 (17.33%) Power Platform
4 47 (11.01%) GCP
5 27 (6.32%) Azure Data Factory
5 27 (6.32%) Serverless
6 26 (6.09%) GitHub
7 21 (4.92%) dbt
8 18 (4.22%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (4.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 18 (4.22%) Snowflake
9 14 (3.28%) GitHub Actions
10 11 (2.58%) IaaS
10 11 (2.58%) SaaS
11 10 (2.34%) AWS Lambda
11 10 (2.34%) PaaS
12 9 (2.11%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.87%) Amazon S3
14 7 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
14 7 (1.64%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.98%) Firewall
2 10 (2.34%) DNS
3 7 (1.64%) TCP/IP
4 6 (1.41%) SSL
5 5 (1.17%) IPsec
5 5 (1.17%) Kerberos
6 2 (0.47%) VPN
7 1 (0.23%) DHCP
7 1 (0.23%) HTTP
7 1 (0.23%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.23%) Internet
7 1 (0.23%) LAN
7 1 (0.23%) WAN
7 1 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (16.86%) SQL Server
2 67 (15.69%) Power BI
3 48 (11.24%) NoSQL
4 47 (11.01%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (6.32%) Relational Database
7 24 (5.62%) Data Lake
8 23 (5.39%) MySQL
9 21 (4.92%) Tableau
10 19 (4.45%) MongoDB
11 18 (4.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 18 (4.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 17 (3.98%) Metadata
13 16 (3.75%) Azure SQL Database
13 16 (3.75%) DB2
13 16 (3.75%) Hadoop
14 15 (3.51%) Delta Lake
15 14 (3.28%) Snowflake Schema
16 13 (3.04%) Power Query
17 12 (2.81%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 47 (11.01%) Git
2 44 (10.30%) JIRA
3 39 (9.13%) GitLab
4 35 (8.20%) Jenkins
5 14 (3.28%) Cucumber
5 14 (3.28%) REST Assured
5 14 (3.28%) Selenium
6 10 (2.34%) Postman
7 8 (1.87%) Jaeger
8 6 (1.41%) Liquibase
8 6 (1.41%) Mocha
8 6 (1.41%) TestRail
9 5 (1.17%) Flyway
10 3 (0.70%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.70%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.70%) ERwin
11 2 (0.47%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.47%) SoapUI
11 2 (0.47%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 1 (0.23%) ER Studio
General
1 134 (31.38%) Social Skills
2 108 (25.29%) Finance
3 86 (20.14%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (12.65%) Banking
5 43 (10.07%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.58%) Financial Institution
8 10 (2.34%) Legal
9 9 (2.11%) Law
9 9 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.64%) Retail
11 4 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (0.94%) Local Government
11 4 (0.94%) Manufacturing
11 4 (0.94%) Marketing
11 4 (0.94%) Military
12 3 (0.70%) Health Technology
13 2 (0.47%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 92 (21.55%) Developer
2 80 (18.74%) Analyst
3 68 (15.93%) Data Engineer
4 48 (11.24%) Senior
5 47 (11.01%) Lead
6 28 (6.56%) Data Analyst
7 19 (4.45%) Architect
7 19 (4.45%) Business Analyst
7 19 (4.45%) DBA
8 17 (3.98%) Software Engineer
9 13 (3.04%) Test Engineer
10 12 (2.81%) Consultant
11 11 (2.58%) .NET Developer
11 11 (2.58%) Azure Engineer
11 11 (2.58%) Java Developer
11 11 (2.58%) Senior Developer
11 11 (2.58%) SQL DBA
12 10 (2.34%) DevOps Engineer
12 10 (2.34%) Test Automation Engineer
13 9 (2.11%) C# Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (10.77%) REST
2 45 (10.54%) .NET
3 30 (7.03%) Kafka
4 27 (6.32%) Spring Boot
4 27 (6.32%) XML
5 22 (5.15%) Spring
6 21 (4.92%) Middleware
6 21 (4.92%) RESTful
7 17 (3.98%) OpenID
8 16 (3.75%) PySpark
9 15 (3.51%) JSON
9 15 (3.51%) OAuth
9 15 (3.51%) React
10 14 (3.28%) HTML
11 13 (3.04%) Node.js
12 12 (2.81%) LDAP
12 12 (2.81%) SailPoint
13 11 (2.58%) CSS
13 11 (2.58%) SOAP
14 10 (2.34%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.20%) Cloud Native
2 21 (4.92%) Product Ownership
3 19 (4.45%) Clustering
4 15 (3.51%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (3.28%) Data Protection Act
5 14 (3.28%) Management Information System
6 11 (2.58%) Linux Command Line
7 10 (2.34%) Data Structures
7 10 (2.34%) Replication
8 9 (2.11%) Onboarding
9 8 (1.87%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.64%) NHS
10 7 (1.64%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.64%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 6 (1.41%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (1.41%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.17%) Credit Risk
12 5 (1.17%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 5 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 37 (8.67%) Linux
2 20 (4.68%) Windows
3 12 (2.81%) Unix
4 10 (2.34%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.41%) AIX
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.23%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (31.38%) CI/CD
2 119 (27.87%) Agile
3 103 (24.12%) DevOps
3 103 (24.12%) Problem-Solving
4 94 (22.01%) Data Modelling
5 93 (21.78%) Analytics
6 87 (20.37%) ETL
7 86 (20.14%) Business Intelligence
8 68 (15.93%) Data Pipeline
9 54 (12.65%) Data Engineering
9 54 (12.65%) Microservices
10 51 (11.94%) Data Analysis
11 48 (11.24%) Test Automation
12 47 (11.01%) Data Governance
12 47 (11.01%) Performance Tuning
13 40 (9.37%) Stakeholder Management
14 38 (8.90%) Visualisation
15 36 (8.43%) Actionable Insight
16 33 (7.73%) Computer Science
17 32 (7.49%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 132 (30.91%) Python
2 73 (17.10%) Java
3 31 (7.26%) C#
4 27 (6.32%) JavaScript
5 22 (5.15%) PowerShell
6 20 (4.68%) PL/SQL
7 19 (4.45%) T-SQL
8 16 (3.75%) Bash
8 16 (3.75%) TypeScript
9 12 (2.81%) PHP
10 11 (2.58%) VBA
11 8 (1.87%) Go
11 8 (1.87%) Rust
11 8 (1.87%) Shell Script
12 7 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 5 (1.17%) R
14 4 (0.94%) ProC
14 4 (0.94%) Scala
15 3 (0.70%) C++
15 3 (0.70%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 53 (12.41%) Degree
1 53 (12.41%) Security Cleared
2 34 (7.96%) SC Cleared
3 20 (4.68%) Computer Science Degree
4 14 (3.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (3.04%) Master's Degree
6 4 (0.94%) MBA
7 3 (0.70%) AWS Certification
7 3 (0.70%) Azure Certification
7 3 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (0.47%) CISSP
8 2 (0.47%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.23%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.23%) CEH
9 1 (0.23%) CISM
9 1 (0.23%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.23%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.23%) GIAC
9 1 (0.23%) GWAPT
9 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (13.58%) Data Quality
2 29 (6.79%) QA
3 18 (4.22%) GDPR
4 10 (2.34%) Accessibility
5 8 (1.87%) WCAG
6 7 (1.64%) HIPAA
6 7 (1.64%) ISO 20022
6 7 (1.64%) PSD2
6 7 (1.64%) SEPA
6 7 (1.64%) SLA
7 6 (1.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 5 (1.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.94%) PMO
10 2 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.47%) GRC
10 2 (0.47%) NIST
10 2 (0.47%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.23%) HL7
11 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.23%) PERC
System Software
1 64 (14.99%) Docker
2 9 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (1.64%) Active Directory
4 6 (1.41%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.41%) KVM
5 5 (1.17%) RACF
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 55 (12.88%) Kubernetes
2 29 (6.79%) Terraform
3 21 (4.92%) Grafana
4 18 (4.22%) Prometheus
5 15 (3.51%) Ansible
6 8 (1.87%) Kiali
6 8 (1.87%) Oracle RMAN
6 8 (1.87%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.41%) IBM BigFix
7 6 (1.41%) vCenter Server
8 5 (1.17%) SCCM
9 3 (0.70%) Foglight
10 2 (0.47%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.23%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.23%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
11 1 (0.23%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 64 (14.99%) Microsoft
2 55 (12.88%) Oracle
3 40 (9.37%) Databricks
4 28 (6.56%) Splunk
5 27 (6.32%) ServiceNow
6 20 (4.68%) Google
7 9 (2.11%) IBM
8 8 (1.87%) Advent
9 7 (1.64%) SolarWinds
9 7 (1.64%) TIBCO
10 6 (1.41%) MuleSoft
10 6 (1.41%) RedGate
10 6 (1.41%) Salesforce
10 6 (1.41%) SAP
11 5 (1.17%) Varonis
12 3 (0.70%) AppDynamics
12 3 (0.70%) Citrix
12 3 (0.70%) CyberArk
12 3 (0.70%) Dynatrace
12 3 (0.70%) Informatica