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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 19 16
Rank change year-on-year -3 -3 0
Contract jobs citing SQL 594 351 357
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.96% 8.75% 8.64%
As % of the Programming Languages category 31.78% 31.28% 35.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 353 258 250
10th Percentile £323 £313 £350
25th Percentile £406 £394 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £469 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.28% -1.26% -3.06%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £617 £623 £610
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -0.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 4 4
10th Percentile £23.53 £25.50 £32.68
25th Percentile £29.60 £29.52 £34.81
Median hourly rate £43.15 £34.56 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.87% -9.07% -5.77%
75th Percentile £70.38 £45.13 £42.50
90th Percentile £79.40 £61.55 -
England median hourly rate £45.00 £40.49 £42.00
% change year-on-year +11.14% -3.60% -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 1,869 1,122 1,019
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 25.05% 27.97% 24.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,190 803 717
10th Percentile £352 £315 £350
25th Percentile £413 £379 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £465 £488
Median % change year-on-year +6.18% -4.62% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £575
90th Percentile £650 £602 £638
England median daily rate £525 £515 £550
% change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 13 32
10th Percentile £28.65 £30.35 £37.50
25th Percentile £46.98 £36.00 £44.02
Median hourly rate £68.25 £66.50 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% +23.72% +16.39%
75th Percentile £70.00 £84.50 £71.59
90th Percentile £76.90 £93.75 £82.62
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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 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
North West -3 302 £500 +6.61% 251
Yorkshire +1 253 £474 -0.21% 124
North East -16 50 £413 -11.05% 85
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 44 (7.41%) Confluence
2 27 (4.55%) Apache Spark
3 24 (4.04%) Apache
4 20 (3.37%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (1.68%) SharePoint
6 9 (1.52%) Jupyter
7 8 (1.35%) SAS
8 7 (1.18%) WebSphere
9 5 (0.84%) Apache Geronimo
9 5 (0.84%) Apache ServiceMix
9 5 (0.84%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.84%) Red Hat Fuse
9 5 (0.84%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.34%) CMS
10 2 (0.34%) IIS
10 2 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.34%) WordPress
11 1 (0.17%) Mule
11 1 (0.17%) nginx
11 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 38 (6.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.67%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.85%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.18%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.84%) Infor LN
3 5 (0.84%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (0.51%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.17%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 166 (27.95%) Azure
2 129 (21.72%) AWS
3 110 (18.52%) Power Platform
4 52 (8.75%) GCP
5 49 (8.25%) GitHub
6 37 (6.23%) Serverless
7 36 (6.06%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (5.22%) Azure Data Factory
9 25 (4.21%) Snowflake
10 21 (3.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 19 (3.20%) AWS Lambda
11 19 (3.20%) dbt
12 18 (3.03%) Amazon S3
13 17 (2.86%) GitHub Actions
13 17 (2.86%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 17 (2.86%) SaaS
14 16 (2.69%) OpenShift
15 15 (2.53%) Google Analytics
15 15 (2.53%) Power Automate
16 14 (2.36%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.53%) DNS
2 11 (1.85%) Firewall
2 11 (1.85%) Network Security
2 11 (1.85%) SSL
3 6 (1.01%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.01%) RTP
3 6 (1.01%) Wireshark
4 5 (0.84%) DHCP
5 4 (0.67%) BGP
5 4 (0.67%) HTTP
5 4 (0.67%) LAN
5 4 (0.67%) Reverse Proxy
5 4 (0.67%) VPN
6 3 (0.51%) Internet
6 3 (0.51%) Kerberos
7 2 (0.34%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.34%) VLAN
7 2 (0.34%) VoIP
7 2 (0.34%) WAN
7 2 (0.34%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (22.90%) SQL Server
2 100 (16.84%) Power BI
3 85 (14.31%) Data Warehouse
4 45 (7.58%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (6.57%) NoSQL
6 35 (5.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 34 (5.72%) Relational Database
8 32 (5.39%) Metadata
9 31 (5.22%) Tableau
10 28 (4.71%) Oracle Database
11 27 (4.55%) Data Lake
11 27 (4.55%) MySQL
12 23 (3.87%) MongoDB
13 22 (3.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 19 (3.20%) Azure SQL Database
14 19 (3.20%) Looker
15 17 (2.86%) Amazon Redshift
15 17 (2.86%) BigQuery
16 13 (2.19%) Amazon Athena
16 13 (2.19%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 73 (12.29%) Git
2 55 (9.26%) Jenkins
3 42 (7.07%) JIRA
4 36 (6.06%) GitLab
5 12 (2.02%) Gradle
6 10 (1.68%) Bitbucket
7 8 (1.35%) Flyway
7 8 (1.35%) JUnit
7 8 (1.35%) Sonatype Nexus
8 7 (1.18%) Maven
8 7 (1.18%) Postman
8 7 (1.18%) Selenium
8 7 (1.18%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (1.01%) Claude Code
9 6 (1.01%) Mockito
9 6 (1.01%) Oracle Forms
9 6 (1.01%) TeamCity
10 5 (0.84%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.84%) Liquibase
10 5 (0.84%) Toad
General
1 170 (28.62%) Social Skills
2 110 (18.52%) Finance
3 109 (18.35%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (10.77%) Public Sector
5 42 (7.07%) Banking
6 20 (3.37%) Manufacturing
7 15 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 14 (2.36%) Retail
9 9 (1.52%) Legal
10 8 (1.35%) Marketing
10 8 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (1.18%) Games
11 7 (1.18%) Law
12 6 (1.01%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.84%) Aviation
13 5 (0.84%) Fire and Rescue
13 5 (0.84%) Police
14 4 (0.67%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 126 (21.21%) Developer
2 82 (13.80%) Analyst
3 75 (12.63%) Data Engineer
4 67 (11.28%) Senior
5 63 (10.61%) DBA
6 57 (9.60%) Lead
7 38 (6.40%) SQL DBA
8 32 (5.39%) Consultant
9 29 (4.88%) Data Analyst
10 26 (4.38%) Java Developer
11 25 (4.21%) Oracle DBA
11 25 (4.21%) Software Engineer
12 24 (4.04%) Senior Developer
13 23 (3.87%) Administrator
14 21 (3.54%) Architect
14 21 (3.54%) Senior Data Engineer
14 21 (3.54%) SQL Developer
15 18 (3.03%) Software Developer
16 16 (2.69%) Performance Analyst
17 14 (2.36%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (8.08%) Kafka
1 48 (8.08%) REST
2 39 (6.57%) Spring
2 39 (6.57%) Spring Boot
3 37 (6.23%) .NET
3 37 (6.23%) PySpark
4 27 (4.55%) RESTful
5 24 (4.04%) HTML
5 24 (4.04%) XML
6 21 (3.54%) JSON
6 21 (3.54%) React
7 17 (2.86%) CSS
8 15 (2.53%) Web Services
9 14 (2.36%) AngularJS
10 13 (2.19%) .NET Core
11 12 (2.02%) Middleware
12 10 (1.68%) Hibernate
12 10 (1.68%) OAuth
12 10 (1.68%) RabbitMQ
13 9 (1.52%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 41 (6.90%) Cloud Native
2 40 (6.73%) Data Structures
3 28 (4.71%) Product Ownership
4 24 (4.04%) Data Protection Act
5 22 (3.70%) Replication
6 16 (2.69%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
7 15 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (2.53%) NHS
8 14 (2.36%) Clustering
9 13 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (2.02%) AI Agents
11 11 (1.85%) Linux Command Line
12 9 (1.52%) Onboarding
13 8 (1.35%) Algorithms
14 7 (1.18%) Low-Code
14 7 (1.18%) Robotics
14 7 (1.18%) Security Posture
15 6 (1.01%) Distributed Computing
15 6 (1.01%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 47 (7.91%) Linux
2 28 (4.71%) Windows
3 20 (3.37%) Windows Server
4 18 (3.03%) Unix
5 8 (1.35%) Solaris
6 6 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.84%) AIX
8 3 (0.51%) Oracle Linux
8 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.34%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.17%) VMS
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (27.10%) CI/CD
2 154 (25.93%) Agile
3 149 (25.08%) Analytics
4 138 (23.23%) Data Modelling
5 134 (22.56%) Business Intelligence
6 124 (20.88%) ETL
7 110 (18.52%) DevOps
8 107 (18.01%) Data Pipeline
9 106 (17.85%) Problem-Solving
10 89 (14.98%) Migration
11 79 (13.30%) Validation
12 77 (12.96%) AI
12 77 (12.96%) Data Engineering
13 71 (11.95%) Performance Tuning
14 66 (11.11%) Data Analysis
15 64 (10.77%) Stakeholder Management
16 63 (10.61%) Infrastructure as Code
17 62 (10.44%) Test Automation
18 61 (10.27%) Microservices
19 58 (9.76%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 177 (29.80%) Python
2 84 (14.14%) Java
3 51 (8.59%) PowerShell
4 49 (8.25%) T-SQL
5 40 (6.73%) C#
6 32 (5.39%) JavaScript
7 30 (5.05%) PL/SQL
8 24 (4.04%) Bash
9 18 (3.03%) TypeScript
10 14 (2.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (2.02%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.85%) Kotlin
13 9 (1.52%) R
13 9 (1.52%) Scala
14 8 (1.35%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.84%) Search Processing Language
16 4 (0.67%) Bicep
16 4 (0.67%) VB
17 3 (0.51%) VB6
18 2 (0.34%) Perl
Qualifications
1 93 (15.66%) Security Cleared
2 81 (13.64%) SC Cleared
3 44 (7.41%) Degree
4 19 (3.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (2.36%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (1.35%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.35%) CISSP
8 7 (1.18%) DV Cleared
9 5 (0.84%) GCFA
9 5 (0.84%) GCIH
9 5 (0.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (0.67%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (0.51%) OCP
12 2 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.17%) AWS Certification
13 1 (0.17%) CISM
13 1 (0.17%) DBS Check
13 1 (0.17%) Master's Degree
13 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (20.37%) Data Quality
2 31 (5.22%) QA
3 28 (4.71%) GDPR
4 10 (1.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.01%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 6 (1.01%) GRC
5 6 (1.01%) HIPAA
6 5 (0.84%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.67%) NIST
7 4 (0.67%) SLA
8 3 (0.51%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 3 (0.51%) Solvency II
9 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.34%) ISO 20022
9 2 (0.34%) MiFID
9 2 (0.34%) WCAG
10 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 80 (13.47%) Docker
2 21 (3.54%) Active Directory
3 16 (2.69%) Oracle RAC
4 10 (1.68%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.18%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.18%) KVM
6 4 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 58 (9.76%) Terraform
2 57 (9.60%) Kubernetes
3 36 (6.06%) Ansible
4 16 (2.69%) Data Guard
4 16 (2.69%) Oracle RMAN
5 15 (2.53%) Grafana
6 14 (2.36%) Prometheus
7 11 (1.85%) Control-M
8 7 (1.18%) SCOM
9 5 (0.84%) Argo
9 5 (0.84%) CASB
9 5 (0.84%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.51%) Foglight
10 3 (0.51%) IBM BigFix
10 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.34%) Consul
11 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.34%) Nagios
11 2 (0.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 2 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 125 (21.04%) Microsoft
2 87 (14.65%) Oracle
3 59 (9.93%) Databricks
4 33 (5.56%) Google
5 25 (4.21%) Splunk
6 24 (4.04%) SAP
7 23 (3.87%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.02%) Alteryx
9 9 (1.52%) IBM
10 8 (1.35%) CyberArk
10 8 (1.35%) Teradata
11 7 (1.18%) OpenAI
11 7 (1.18%) UiPath
12 6 (1.01%) Informatica
12 6 (1.01%) Sybase
12 6 (1.01%) Varonis
13 5 (0.84%) Adobe
13 5 (0.84%) Remedy
13 5 (0.84%) Salesforce
13 5 (0.84%) TIBCO