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 26 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 17 16
Rank change year-on-year -5 -1 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL 586 356 385
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 8.05% 9.07% 8.84%
As % of the Programming Languages category 30.97% 33.65% 35.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 263 281
10th Percentile £314 £313 £338
25th Percentile £405 £382 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -1.05% -5.00%
75th Percentile £550 £541 £550
90th Percentile £617 £620 £610
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 3 5
10th Percentile £23.68 £24.60 £33.15
25th Percentile £29.96 £27.29 £36.00
Median hourly rate £44.90 £33.11 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.61% -17.23% -1.45%
75th Percentile £69.86 £53.48 £42.50
90th Percentile £77.80 £64.89 £43.25
England median hourly rate £46.80 £39.00 £42.00
% change year-on-year +20.00% -7.14% -8.46%

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 1,892 1,058 1,086
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 26.00% 26.95% 24.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,193 761 771
10th Percentile £350 £315 £323
25th Percentile £413 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% -7.22% -5.37%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £575
90th Percentile £650 £600 £638
England median daily rate £521 £515 £550
% change year-on-year +1.07% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 10 34
10th Percentile £29.96 £29.28 £37.50
25th Percentile £52.50 £36.82 £42.41
Median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year - +30.23% +16.39%
75th Percentile £76.00 £87.69 £71.78
90th Percentile £86.00 £95.36 £81.85
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +13.04% -11.54% +4.00%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 26 July 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 -4 311 £475 +1.71% 176
Yorkshire -7 236 £465 -2.11% 94
North East -18 52 £425 -8.11% 67
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 40 (6.83%) Confluence
2 32 (5.46%) Apache Spark
3 27 (4.61%) Apache
4 23 (3.92%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (1.54%) Jupyter
5 9 (1.54%) SharePoint
6 8 (1.37%) SAS
6 8 (1.37%) WebSphere
7 7 (1.19%) Apache Geronimo
7 7 (1.19%) Apache ServiceMix
7 7 (1.19%) Red Hat Fuse
7 7 (1.19%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.85%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.34%) CMS
9 2 (0.34%) IIS
9 2 (0.34%) Mule
9 2 (0.34%) Mule ESB
9 2 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.34%) WordPress
10 1 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 38 (6.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.51%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (1.88%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.85%) Infor LN
4 4 (0.68%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.51%) Elite 3E
5 3 (0.51%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.17%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 159 (27.13%) Azure
2 127 (21.67%) AWS
3 100 (17.06%) Power Platform
4 52 (8.87%) GCP
5 43 (7.34%) GitHub
6 37 (6.31%) Serverless
7 30 (5.12%) Azure Data Factory
8 28 (4.78%) Azure DevOps
9 23 (3.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 22 (3.75%) dbt
10 22 (3.75%) Snowflake
11 18 (3.07%) Amazon S3
11 18 (3.07%) AWS Lambda
12 16 (2.73%) GitHub Actions
12 16 (2.73%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 16 (2.73%) SaaS
13 15 (2.56%) OpenShift
14 14 (2.39%) Power Automate
14 14 (2.39%) PowerApps
15 13 (2.22%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.39%) SSL
2 11 (1.88%) DNS
3 7 (1.19%) Kerberos
4 6 (1.02%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.02%) Firewall
4 6 (1.02%) Network Security
4 6 (1.02%) RTP
4 6 (1.02%) Wireshark
5 4 (0.68%) BGP
5 4 (0.68%) DHCP
5 4 (0.68%) HTTP
5 4 (0.68%) IPsec
5 4 (0.68%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (0.51%) LAN
6 3 (0.51%) VPN
7 2 (0.34%) Internet
7 2 (0.34%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.34%) WAN
7 2 (0.34%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 134 (22.87%) SQL Server
2 91 (15.53%) Power BI
3 84 (14.33%) Data Warehouse
4 43 (7.34%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (6.66%) NoSQL
5 39 (6.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 36 (6.14%) Tableau
7 32 (5.46%) Relational Database
8 28 (4.78%) Metadata
9 27 (4.61%) Oracle Database
10 26 (4.44%) Data Lake
11 25 (4.27%) MySQL
12 22 (3.75%) MongoDB
13 20 (3.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 17 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
14 17 (2.90%) Looker
15 15 (2.56%) Hadoop
16 14 (2.39%) BigQuery
17 13 (2.22%) Amazon Athena
17 13 (2.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 68 (11.60%) Git
2 47 (8.02%) Jenkins
3 42 (7.17%) JIRA
4 30 (5.12%) GitLab
5 10 (1.71%) Gradle
6 9 (1.54%) Bitbucket
7 8 (1.37%) Flyway
7 8 (1.37%) Selenium
8 7 (1.19%) Cucumber
8 7 (1.19%) JUnit
8 7 (1.19%) Postman
8 7 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
9 6 (1.02%) Liquibase
9 6 (1.02%) Oracle Forms
9 6 (1.02%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (1.02%) TeamCity
10 5 (0.85%) Claude Code
10 5 (0.85%) Maven
10 5 (0.85%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.68%) Mockito
General
1 160 (27.30%) Social Skills
2 108 (18.43%) Finance
3 103 (17.58%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (10.75%) Public Sector
5 44 (7.51%) Banking
6 16 (2.73%) Manufacturing
7 15 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 11 (1.88%) Retail
9 8 (1.37%) Legal
9 8 (1.37%) Marketing
10 7 (1.19%) Games
10 7 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
10 7 (1.19%) Law
10 7 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (0.85%) Aviation
12 5 (0.85%) Fire and Rescue
12 5 (0.85%) Military
12 5 (0.85%) Police
Job Titles
1 123 (20.99%) Developer
2 86 (14.68%) Analyst
3 74 (12.63%) Data Engineer
4 66 (11.26%) Senior
5 63 (10.75%) DBA
6 51 (8.70%) Lead
7 40 (6.83%) SQL DBA
8 35 (5.97%) Data Analyst
9 29 (4.95%) Consultant
10 27 (4.61%) Architect
11 25 (4.27%) Software Engineer
12 24 (4.10%) Java Developer
13 23 (3.92%) Senior Developer
14 22 (3.75%) Administrator
14 22 (3.75%) Oracle DBA
15 19 (3.24%) SQL Developer
16 18 (3.07%) Senior Data Engineer
16 18 (3.07%) Software Developer
17 15 (2.56%) Performance Analyst
18 13 (2.22%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (7.34%) Kafka
1 43 (7.34%) REST
2 41 (7.00%) PySpark
3 38 (6.48%) .NET
4 36 (6.14%) Spring Boot
5 35 (5.97%) Spring
6 26 (4.44%) RESTful
6 26 (4.44%) XML
7 19 (3.24%) JSON
7 19 (3.24%) React
8 18 (3.07%) HTML
9 17 (2.90%) Web Services
10 15 (2.56%) Middleware
11 13 (2.22%) CSS
11 13 (2.22%) OAuth
12 12 (2.05%) .NET Core
12 12 (2.05%) AngularJS
12 12 (2.05%) OAuth2
13 11 (1.88%) Pandas
14 9 (1.54%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 41 (7.00%) Cloud Native
2 36 (6.14%) Data Structures
3 30 (5.12%) Product Ownership
4 26 (4.44%) Replication
5 23 (3.92%) Data Protection Act
6 22 (3.75%) Clustering
7 17 (2.90%) Enterprise Software
7 17 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
8 16 (2.73%) Distributed Systems
8 16 (2.73%) NHS
9 12 (2.05%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (1.54%) Onboarding
11 8 (1.37%) AI Agents
11 8 (1.37%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 7 (1.19%) Algorithms
12 7 (1.19%) Low-Code
12 7 (1.19%) Management Information System
12 7 (1.19%) Robotics
12 7 (1.19%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 49 (8.36%) Linux
2 30 (5.12%) Windows
3 21 (3.58%) Unix
3 21 (3.58%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.37%) AIX
5 6 (1.02%) Solaris
6 5 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.51%) Oracle Linux
7 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.34%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.17%) VMS
9 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 158 (26.96%) CI/CD
2 151 (25.77%) Agile
3 139 (23.72%) Analytics
4 129 (22.01%) Data Modelling
5 123 (20.99%) Business Intelligence
6 120 (20.48%) ETL
7 112 (19.11%) DevOps
8 106 (18.09%) Problem-Solving
9 102 (17.41%) Data Pipeline
10 86 (14.68%) Migration
11 78 (13.31%) Performance Tuning
12 72 (12.29%) Validation
13 71 (12.12%) AI
14 68 (11.60%) Data Engineering
15 63 (10.75%) Microservices
15 63 (10.75%) Test Automation
16 62 (10.58%) Data Analysis
17 58 (9.90%) Stakeholder Management
18 53 (9.04%) Data Governance
19 52 (8.87%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 166 (28.33%) Python
2 80 (13.65%) Java
3 50 (8.53%) PowerShell
4 42 (7.17%) T-SQL
5 40 (6.83%) C#
6 34 (5.80%) PL/SQL
7 27 (4.61%) JavaScript
8 23 (3.92%) Bash
9 16 (2.73%) TypeScript
10 13 (2.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (2.05%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.88%) R
13 9 (1.54%) Kotlin
14 8 (1.37%) Scala
15 4 (0.68%) Bicep
15 4 (0.68%) VB
16 3 (0.51%) VB6
17 2 (0.34%) Perl
17 2 (0.34%) PHP
17 2 (0.34%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 93 (15.87%) Security Cleared
2 80 (13.65%) SC Cleared
3 47 (8.02%) Degree
4 20 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (1.88%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (1.19%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.19%) DV Cleared
8 4 (0.68%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (0.51%) CISSP
9 3 (0.51%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.51%) Oracle Certification
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (0.34%) OCP
11 1 (0.17%) CISM
11 1 (0.17%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (19.80%) Data Quality
2 32 (5.46%) QA
3 23 (3.92%) GDPR
4 6 (1.02%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 6 (1.02%) GRC
4 6 (1.02%) HIPAA
5 5 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (0.68%) SLA
7 3 (0.51%) ISO 20022
7 3 (0.51%) NIST
7 3 (0.51%) PMO
7 3 (0.51%) Solvency II
8 2 (0.34%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.34%) WCAG
9 1 (0.17%) MiFID
9 1 (0.17%) PSD2
9 1 (0.17%) SEPA
System Software
1 75 (12.80%) Docker
2 17 (2.90%) Active Directory
3 15 (2.56%) Oracle RAC
4 12 (2.05%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (1.71%) Hyper-V
5 10 (1.71%) KVM
6 4 (0.68%) RACF
6 4 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 53 (9.04%) Kubernetes
2 52 (8.87%) Terraform
3 30 (5.12%) Ansible
4 15 (2.56%) Data Guard
4 15 (2.56%) Grafana
4 15 (2.56%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (2.39%) Prometheus
6 10 (1.71%) Control-M
7 6 (1.02%) IBM BigFix
7 6 (1.02%) SCOM
7 6 (1.02%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.68%) Argo
10 3 (0.51%) Foglight
11 2 (0.34%) Consul
11 2 (0.34%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.34%) Nagios
11 2 (0.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 2 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 108 (18.43%) Microsoft
2 88 (15.02%) Oracle
3 54 (9.22%) Databricks
4 32 (5.46%) Google
5 24 (4.10%) SAP
6 23 (3.92%) ServiceNow
7 22 (3.75%) Splunk
8 12 (2.05%) IBM
9 11 (1.88%) Alteryx
10 9 (1.54%) Salesforce
11 7 (1.19%) CyberArk
11 7 (1.19%) Informatica
11 7 (1.19%) SolarWinds
11 7 (1.19%) TIBCO
12 6 (1.02%) OpenAI
12 6 (1.02%) RedGate
12 6 (1.02%) Sybase
12 6 (1.02%) Teradata
12 6 (1.02%) Varonis
13 5 (0.85%) Adobe