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 22 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 16 14
Rank change year-on-year -6 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL 547 332 447
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.94% 9.53% 9.09%
As % of the Programming Languages category 29.11% 33.40% 35.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 340 245 293
10th Percentile £313 £329 £314
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.16% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £550
90th Percentile £625 £625 £613
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 3 10
10th Percentile £23.60 £31.53 £37.46
25th Percentile £29.96 £31.62 £38.53
Median hourly rate £45.00 £33.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.91% -22.09% +4.71%
75th Percentile £69.44 £53.48 £45.57
90th Percentile £77.80 £64.89 £46.18
England median hourly rate £47.50 £40.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year +17.28% -4.71% -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 1,879 994 1,251
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 27.28% 28.53% 25.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,222 736 853
10th Percentile £350 £328 £316
25th Percentile £413 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.05% -2.63% -9.52%
75th Percentile £570 £538 £575
90th Percentile £638 £604 £627
England median daily rate £515 £520 £538
% change year-on-year -0.96% -3.35% -3.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 96 9 57
10th Percentile £29.96 £31.70 £37.55
25th Percentile £46.66 £52.00 £45.88
Median hourly rate £66.25 £70.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.36% +45.83% +2.48%
75th Percentile £74.70 £88.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £83.00 £95.71 £76.37
England median hourly rate £65.00 £55.88 £62.50
% change year-on-year +16.33% -10.60% -

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 22 June 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 22 June 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 22 June 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 -3 291 £463 -2.63% 216
Yorkshire -12 216 £475 - 91
North East -12 52 £425 -8.36% 50
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 32 (5.85%) Apache Spark
2 31 (5.67%) Confluence
3 27 (4.94%) Apache
4 25 (4.57%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (2.01%) SharePoint
6 9 (1.65%) Jupyter
7 8 (1.46%) WebSphere
8 7 (1.28%) Apache Geronimo
8 7 (1.28%) Apache ServiceMix
8 7 (1.28%) Red Hat Fuse
8 7 (1.28%) Tomcat
9 6 (1.10%) SAS
10 5 (0.91%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.37%) IIS
11 2 (0.37%) Mule
11 2 (0.37%) Mule ESB
11 2 (0.37%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.18%) Camunda
12 1 (0.18%) JBoss
Applications
1 37 (6.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.73%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (2.01%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.28%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.91%) Infor LN
4 4 (0.73%) Elite 3E
4 4 (0.73%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.55%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.55%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.37%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.18%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.18%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.18%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 157 (28.70%) Azure
2 120 (21.94%) AWS
3 98 (17.92%) Power Platform
4 50 (9.14%) GCP
5 34 (6.22%) GitHub
6 33 (6.03%) Azure Data Factory
7 31 (5.67%) Serverless
8 23 (4.20%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (4.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 23 (4.20%) dbt
9 18 (3.29%) Snowflake
10 16 (2.93%) SaaS
11 15 (2.74%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 14 (2.56%) Amazon S3
12 14 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (2.38%) Power Automate
13 13 (2.38%) PowerApps
14 12 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
14 12 (2.19%) OpenShift
15 11 (2.01%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.19%) DNS
2 11 (2.01%) Firewall
3 9 (1.65%) SSL
4 6 (1.10%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.10%) RTP
4 6 (1.10%) Wireshark
5 5 (0.91%) IPsec
5 5 (0.91%) Kerberos
6 4 (0.73%) BGP
6 4 (0.73%) HTTP
6 4 (0.73%) Network Security
6 4 (0.73%) Reverse Proxy
6 4 (0.73%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.55%) DHCP
8 2 (0.37%) Internet
8 2 (0.37%) LAN
8 2 (0.37%) VPN
8 2 (0.37%) WAN
8 2 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.18%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 93 (17.00%) SQL Server
2 88 (16.09%) Power BI
3 73 (13.35%) Data Warehouse
4 41 (7.50%) NoSQL
5 40 (7.31%) PostgreSQL
6 33 (6.03%) Tableau
7 29 (5.30%) Relational Database
7 29 (5.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 24 (4.39%) Data Lake
8 24 (4.39%) Metadata
9 21 (3.84%) Azure SQL Database
10 20 (3.66%) MongoDB
11 19 (3.47%) Oracle Database
12 18 (3.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 16 (2.93%) Hadoop
14 15 (2.74%) Delta Lake
15 14 (2.56%) Big Data
15 14 (2.56%) MySQL
15 14 (2.56%) Snowflake Schema
16 13 (2.38%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 66 (12.07%) Git
2 44 (8.04%) JIRA
3 36 (6.58%) Jenkins
4 34 (6.22%) GitLab
5 10 (1.83%) Cucumber
5 10 (1.83%) Selenium
6 8 (1.46%) Flyway
6 8 (1.46%) REST Assured
7 7 (1.28%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.28%) Gradle
7 7 (1.28%) Postman
8 6 (1.10%) Jaeger
8 6 (1.10%) Liquibase
8 6 (1.10%) Oracle Forms
8 6 (1.10%) TeamCity
9 5 (0.91%) Claude Code
9 5 (0.91%) JUnit
9 5 (0.91%) Maven
10 4 (0.73%) ERwin
10 4 (0.73%) Snyk
General
1 156 (28.52%) Social Skills
2 123 (22.49%) Finance
3 98 (17.92%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (9.69%) Public Sector
5 51 (9.32%) Banking
6 13 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (2.38%) Manufacturing
7 11 (2.01%) Legal
7 11 (2.01%) Retail
8 9 (1.65%) Marketing
9 8 (1.46%) Law
10 7 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (0.91%) Aviation
12 5 (0.91%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.91%) Fire and Rescue
12 5 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.91%) Police
13 4 (0.73%) Games
13 4 (0.73%) Military
Job Titles
1 107 (19.56%) Developer
2 96 (17.55%) Analyst
3 74 (13.53%) Data Engineer
4 67 (12.25%) Senior
5 44 (8.04%) Lead
6 37 (6.76%) DBA
7 35 (6.40%) Data Analyst
8 29 (5.30%) Java Developer
9 27 (4.94%) Architect
9 27 (4.94%) Consultant
10 21 (3.84%) Senior Developer
11 20 (3.66%) Software Engineer
11 20 (3.66%) SQL DBA
12 17 (3.11%) Senior Data Engineer
13 16 (2.93%) Business Analyst
14 15 (2.74%) Software Developer
15 14 (2.56%) Technical Analyst
16 13 (2.38%) Performance Analyst
16 13 (2.38%) Test Engineer
17 12 (2.19%) SQL Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (7.13%) PySpark
1 39 (7.13%) Spring Boot
2 37 (6.76%) REST
3 34 (6.22%) Kafka
4 32 (5.85%) Spring
5 29 (5.30%) .NET
5 29 (5.30%) XML
6 28 (5.12%) RESTful
7 20 (3.66%) Middleware
8 19 (3.47%) JSON
9 16 (2.93%) React
10 15 (2.74%) HTML
10 15 (2.74%) OAuth
11 12 (2.19%) OpenTelemetry
11 12 (2.19%) SOAP
11 12 (2.19%) Web Services
12 11 (2.01%) CSS
12 11 (2.01%) OAuth2
12 11 (2.01%) Pandas
13 10 (1.83%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 39 (7.13%) Cloud Native
2 34 (6.22%) Product Ownership
3 26 (4.75%) Data Structures
4 20 (3.66%) Data Protection Act
5 19 (3.47%) Clustering
6 17 (3.11%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (3.11%) Replication
7 16 (2.93%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (2.56%) NHS
9 12 (2.19%) Linux Command Line
10 11 (2.01%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.65%) AI Agents
11 9 (1.65%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 9 (1.65%) Onboarding
12 8 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
13 7 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (1.28%) Robotics
13 7 (1.28%) Security Posture
14 6 (1.10%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 51 (9.32%) Linux
2 26 (4.75%) Windows
3 20 (3.66%) Unix
4 15 (2.74%) Windows Server
5 8 (1.46%) AIX
6 6 (1.10%) Solaris
7 3 (0.55%) Oracle Linux
7 3 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.37%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.37%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.18%) VMS
9 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (29.62%) CI/CD
2 144 (26.33%) Agile
3 129 (23.58%) Analytics
4 117 (21.39%) DevOps
5 114 (20.84%) Data Modelling
6 111 (20.29%) Business Intelligence
7 106 (19.38%) ETL
8 99 (18.10%) Problem-Solving
9 91 (16.64%) Data Pipeline
10 73 (13.35%) Validation
11 72 (13.16%) Migration
12 66 (12.07%) Microservices
12 66 (12.07%) Performance Tuning
13 64 (11.70%) AI
14 63 (11.52%) Data Engineering
15 61 (11.15%) Data Analysis
16 60 (10.97%) Test Automation
17 53 (9.69%) Stakeholder Management
18 47 (8.59%) Data Governance
19 45 (8.23%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 159 (29.07%) Python
2 83 (15.17%) Java
3 41 (7.50%) PowerShell
4 37 (6.76%) C#
5 31 (5.67%) T-SQL
6 30 (5.48%) PL/SQL
7 24 (4.39%) JavaScript
8 22 (4.02%) Bash
9 12 (2.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 12 (2.19%) R
9 12 (2.19%) TypeScript
10 10 (1.83%) Shell Script
11 7 (1.28%) Kotlin
12 5 (0.91%) Rust
12 5 (0.91%) Scala
12 5 (0.91%) VBA
13 4 (0.73%) VB
14 3 (0.55%) VB6
15 2 (0.37%) Go
15 2 (0.37%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 67 (12.25%) Security Cleared
2 57 (10.42%) SC Cleared
3 55 (10.05%) Degree
4 22 (4.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.83%) Master's Degree
7 7 (1.28%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (0.73%) Azure Certification
8 4 (0.73%) MBA
9 3 (0.55%) CISSP
9 3 (0.55%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.37%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.37%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.18%) CISM
11 1 (0.18%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.18%) Numerate Degree
11 1 (0.18%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.18%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (18.28%) Data Quality
2 29 (5.30%) QA
3 22 (4.02%) GDPR
4 7 (1.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 7 (1.28%) HIPAA
5 6 (1.10%) GRC
5 6 (1.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.10%) SLA
6 5 (0.91%) ISO 20022
6 5 (0.91%) PMO
7 3 (0.55%) NIST
7 3 (0.55%) PSD2
7 3 (0.55%) SEPA
7 3 (0.55%) Solvency II
8 2 (0.37%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.37%) WCAG
9 1 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 74 (13.53%) Docker
2 10 (1.83%) Hyper-V
2 10 (1.83%) KVM
3 9 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (1.46%) Active Directory
5 5 (0.91%) RACF
6 4 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
7 3 (0.55%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 59 (10.79%) Kubernetes
2 42 (7.68%) Terraform
3 22 (4.02%) Ansible
4 20 (3.66%) Grafana
5 17 (3.11%) Prometheus
6 11 (2.01%) Oracle RMAN
7 6 (1.10%) Control-M
7 6 (1.10%) IBM BigFix
7 6 (1.10%) Kiali
7 6 (1.10%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.73%) Argo
10 3 (0.55%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.55%) Foglight
11 2 (0.37%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.37%) Consul
11 2 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.37%) SCCM
11 2 (0.37%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.18%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 88 (16.09%) Microsoft
2 70 (12.80%) Oracle
3 52 (9.51%) Databricks
4 28 (5.12%) Splunk
5 27 (4.94%) Google
6 18 (3.29%) ServiceNow
7 17 (3.11%) SAP
8 11 (2.01%) IBM
9 8 (1.46%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.28%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.28%) TIBCO
11 6 (1.10%) RedGate
11 6 (1.10%) Teradata
11 6 (1.10%) Varonis
12 5 (0.91%) Adobe
12 5 (0.91%) Alteryx
12 5 (0.91%) Infor
12 5 (0.91%) MuleSoft
12 5 (0.91%) OpenAI
12 5 (0.91%) SYSPRO