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 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 21 19
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL 390 263 373
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.37% 7.93% 7.57%
As % of the Programming Languages category 24.78% 29.99% 28.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 277 177 258
10th Percentile £314 £328 £279
25th Percentile £369 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -0.99% -4.05%
75th Percentile £538 £567 £575
90th Percentile £650 £638 £615
England median daily rate £500 £520 £550
% change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 5 12
10th Percentile £41.60 - £27.86
25th Percentile £52.38 £26.25 £37.63
Median hourly rate £69.44 £32.81 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +111.64% -22.80% -23.20%
75th Percentile £77.88 £65.00 £44.36
90th Percentile £84.90 - £46.18
England median hourly rate £50.00 £55.25 £42.50
% change year-on-year -9.50% +30.00% -15.00%

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 1,574 877 1,302
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 29.75% 26.45% 26.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,073 593 930
10th Percentile £344 £335 £313
25th Percentile £400 £390 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £560
90th Percentile £625 £638 £625
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 17 61
10th Percentile £41.94 £29.38 £37.63
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.18 £45.88
Median hourly rate £64.50 £65.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.53% +37.89% -
75th Percentile £74.26 £86.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £98.79 £72.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £60.14
% change year-on-year +3.17% +4.76% -7.48%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 20 February 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 +3 222 £424 -7.49% 270
Yorkshire -23 147 £500 - 154
North East -8 26 £475 -1.04% 56
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 30 (7.69%) Apache Airflow
2 15 (3.85%) Apache Spark
3 13 (3.33%) Apache
4 11 (2.82%) Confluence
5 8 (2.05%) SAS
6 6 (1.54%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.03%) Apache Pig
8 3 (0.77%) Apache Geronimo
8 3 (0.77%) Apache ServiceMix
8 3 (0.77%) Red Hat Fuse
8 3 (0.77%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.77%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.26%) IIS
9 1 (0.26%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.26%) Mule
9 1 (0.26%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 20 (5.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.03%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.77%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.26%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 9 (2.31%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.51%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.51%) Oracle Applications
2 2 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.26%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.26%) Maximo
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 130 (33.33%) Azure
2 125 (32.05%) AWS
3 75 (19.23%) Power Platform
4 53 (13.59%) GCP
5 32 (8.21%) Serverless
6 26 (6.67%) GitHub
7 22 (5.64%) Azure Data Factory
7 22 (5.64%) dbt
8 18 (4.62%) Snowflake
9 17 (4.36%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (4.10%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 16 (4.10%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (3.59%) AWS Lambda
12 11 (2.82%) IaaS
12 11 (2.82%) SaaS
13 10 (2.56%) PaaS
14 9 (2.31%) Amazon EKS
14 9 (2.31%) Prefect
15 8 (2.05%) Amazon S3
16 7 (1.79%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (4.62%) Firewall
2 8 (2.05%) DNS
3 6 (1.54%) SSL
3 6 (1.54%) TCP/IP
4 5 (1.28%) IPsec
4 5 (1.28%) Kerberos
5 3 (0.77%) HTTP
5 3 (0.77%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.26%) Internet
6 1 (0.26%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (17.69%) Power BI
2 56 (14.36%) SQL Server
3 47 (12.05%) Data Warehouse
4 43 (11.03%) NoSQL
5 32 (8.21%) PostgreSQL
6 30 (7.69%) Relational Database
7 25 (6.41%) MySQL
8 23 (5.90%) Data Lake
9 21 (5.38%) Tableau
10 17 (4.36%) DB2
11 16 (4.10%) MongoDB
11 16 (4.10%) Snowflake Schema
12 15 (3.85%) Metadata
12 15 (3.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 13 (3.33%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (3.33%) Delta Lake
14 12 (3.08%) BigQuery
14 12 (3.08%) Hadoop
14 12 (3.08%) Power Query
15 9 (2.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 47 (12.05%) Git
2 44 (11.28%) JIRA
3 38 (9.74%) GitLab
4 35 (8.97%) Jenkins
5 15 (3.85%) Cucumber
5 15 (3.85%) REST Assured
5 15 (3.85%) Selenium
6 12 (3.08%) Postman
7 8 (2.05%) Jaeger
8 6 (1.54%) Liquibase
8 6 (1.54%) Mocha
8 6 (1.54%) TestRail
9 4 (1.03%) Mockito
10 3 (0.77%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.77%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.77%) SoapUI
11 2 (0.51%) JUnit
11 2 (0.51%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.51%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio
General
1 125 (32.05%) Social Skills
2 106 (27.18%) Finance
3 73 (18.72%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (14.87%) Banking
5 38 (9.74%) Public Sector
6 16 (4.10%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (3.33%) Financial Institution
8 11 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.05%) Law
10 7 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.54%) Marketing
11 6 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.54%) Retail
12 4 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.03%) Legal
12 4 (1.03%) Local Government
12 4 (1.03%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.03%) Military
13 3 (0.77%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.77%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 100 (25.64%) Developer
2 72 (18.46%) Analyst
3 60 (15.38%) Data Engineer
4 57 (14.62%) Senior
5 32 (8.21%) Lead
6 28 (7.18%) Data Analyst
7 20 (5.13%) Business Analyst
8 19 (4.87%) Software Engineer
9 18 (4.62%) Java Developer
10 16 (4.10%) Architect
10 16 (4.10%) Senior Developer
11 13 (3.33%) Test Engineer
12 12 (3.08%) DBA
13 11 (2.82%) DevOps Engineer
14 10 (2.56%) AWS Engineer
14 10 (2.56%) Senior Software Engineer
14 10 (2.56%) Test Automation Engineer
15 9 (2.31%) .NET Developer
15 9 (2.31%) Azure Engineer
15 9 (2.31%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (12.31%) REST
2 46 (11.79%) .NET
3 34 (8.72%) Kafka
4 31 (7.95%) Spring Boot
5 25 (6.41%) Spring
6 22 (5.64%) RESTful
7 20 (5.13%) React
8 17 (4.36%) OpenID
8 17 (4.36%) XML
9 16 (4.10%) HTML
9 16 (4.10%) Middleware
9 16 (4.10%) OAuth
9 16 (4.10%) PySpark
10 14 (3.59%) JSON
11 13 (3.33%) CSS
12 12 (3.08%) LDAP
12 12 (3.08%) SailPoint
13 11 (2.82%) Node.js
14 10 (2.56%) SOAP
15 9 (2.31%) JMS
Miscellaneous
1 33 (8.46%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.13%) Clustering
3 16 (4.10%) Distributed Systems
3 16 (4.10%) Product Ownership
4 15 (3.85%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (3.08%) Data Structures
5 12 (3.08%) Management Information System
6 8 (2.05%) Algorithms
6 8 (2.05%) Linux Command Line
6 8 (2.05%) Public Cloud
6 8 (2.05%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 8 (2.05%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.79%) Onboarding
7 7 (1.79%) Replication
8 6 (1.54%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.54%) Distributed Computing
8 6 (1.54%) NHS
9 5 (1.28%) Credit Risk
9 5 (1.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 5 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 37 (9.49%) Linux
2 18 (4.62%) Windows
3 13 (3.33%) Unix
4 9 (2.31%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.54%) AIX
6 3 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.26%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (32.31%) CI/CD
2 111 (28.46%) Agile
3 103 (26.41%) DevOps
4 90 (23.08%) Data Modelling
5 88 (22.56%) Problem-Solving
6 82 (21.03%) Analytics
7 76 (19.49%) Business Intelligence
8 67 (17.18%) ETL
9 62 (15.90%) Microservices
10 53 (13.59%) Data Pipeline
11 49 (12.56%) Data Engineering
12 47 (12.05%) Data Governance
13 46 (11.79%) Data Analysis
14 44 (11.28%) Test Automation
15 43 (11.03%) Performance Tuning
15 43 (11.03%) Stakeholder Management
15 43 (11.03%) Visualisation
16 36 (9.23%) Containerisation
17 35 (8.97%) Actionable Insight
17 35 (8.97%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 123 (31.54%) Python
2 81 (20.77%) Java
3 32 (8.21%) C#
4 29 (7.44%) JavaScript
5 20 (5.13%) PL/SQL
6 18 (4.62%) PowerShell
7 14 (3.59%) Bash
8 12 (3.08%) PHP
9 11 (2.82%) TypeScript
9 11 (2.82%) VBA
10 10 (2.56%) Go
11 8 (2.05%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 8 (2.05%) Rust
11 8 (2.05%) T-SQL
12 6 (1.54%) Scala
12 6 (1.54%) Shell Script
13 4 (1.03%) ProC
13 4 (1.03%) R
14 3 (0.77%) C++
14 3 (0.77%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 54 (13.85%) Degree
2 44 (11.28%) Security Cleared
3 29 (7.44%) SC Cleared
4 22 (5.64%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (4.36%) Master's Degree
6 15 (3.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.79%) AWS Certification
8 6 (1.54%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.03%) MBA
10 3 (0.77%) CEH
10 3 (0.77%) GIAC
10 3 (0.77%) GWAPT
10 3 (0.77%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.51%) AWS Certified Developer
11 2 (0.51%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.26%) CBAP
12 1 (0.26%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (13.85%) Data Quality
2 27 (6.92%) QA
3 11 (2.82%) Accessibility
4 10 (2.56%) GDPR
5 8 (2.05%) ISO 20022
5 8 (2.05%) PSD2
5 8 (2.05%) SEPA
6 7 (1.79%) WCAG
7 6 (1.54%) SLA
8 4 (1.03%) HIPAA
8 4 (1.03%) PMO
9 3 (0.77%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.26%) HL7
11 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.26%) PERC
System Software
1 66 (16.92%) Docker
2 9 (2.31%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (1.54%) Hyper-V
3 6 (1.54%) KVM
4 5 (1.28%) Active Directory
4 5 (1.28%) RACF
5 1 (0.26%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 55 (14.10%) Kubernetes
2 31 (7.95%) Terraform
3 23 (5.90%) Grafana
4 20 (5.13%) Prometheus
5 15 (3.85%) Ansible
6 9 (2.31%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.05%) Kiali
8 6 (1.54%) IBM BigFix
8 6 (1.54%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.03%) SCCM
10 2 (0.51%) Control-M
11 1 (0.26%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
11 1 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 1 (0.26%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 60 (15.38%) Microsoft
2 43 (11.03%) Oracle
3 33 (8.46%) Databricks
4 27 (6.92%) Splunk
5 21 (5.38%) ServiceNow
6 20 (5.13%) Google
7 10 (2.56%) IBM
8 9 (2.31%) Advent
9 8 (2.05%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.79%) SolarWinds
11 6 (1.54%) MuleSoft
11 6 (1.54%) RedGate
12 5 (1.28%) SAP
13 4 (1.03%) Cognos
14 3 (0.77%) Citrix
14 3 (0.77%) F5
14 3 (0.77%) Imperva
14 3 (0.77%) Informatica
14 3 (0.77%) Red Hat
14 3 (0.77%) TIBCO