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 28 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 22 17
Rank change year-on-year -1 -5 0
Contract jobs citing SQL 587 309 354
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.77% 7.75% 8.55%
As % of the Programming Languages category 31.42% 26.28% 34.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 351 223 234
10th Percentile £315 £313 £350
25th Percentile £406 £363 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% -3.00%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £550
90th Percentile £604 £610 £606
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 2 7
10th Percentile £23.23 £24.13 £29.25
25th Percentile £28.50 £26.11 £33.63
Median hourly rate £39.50 £30.31 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.32% -24.23% +33.33%
75th Percentile £58.75 £33.61 £53.75
90th Percentile £76.00 £35.04 £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% -11.11%

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 1,868 1,176 1,037
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 24.73% 29.49% 25.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,195 832 688
10th Percentile £350 £313 £336
25th Percentile £413 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £452 £488
Median % change year-on-year +8.97% -7.38% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £575
90th Percentile £650 £625 £627
England median daily rate £525 £515 £545
% change year-on-year +1.94% -5.50% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 12 29
10th Percentile £28.50 £30.60 £35.93
25th Percentile £46.80 £40.46 £37.55
Median hourly rate £69.50 £59.25 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +17.30% +28.30% -
75th Percentile £73.00 £73.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £93.95 £80.84
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +13.04% -11.54% +3.17%

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 28 September 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 28 September 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 28 September 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 +1 290 £500 +14.03% 424
Yorkshire +6 245 £458 -3.68% 220
North East -4 58 £400 -15.79% 84
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 47 (8.01%) Confluence
2 23 (3.92%) Apache Airflow
3 21 (3.58%) Apache Spark
4 20 (3.41%) Apache
5 11 (1.87%) SharePoint
6 10 (1.70%) SAS
7 9 (1.53%) Jupyter
8 7 (1.19%) Palantir Foundry
9 5 (0.85%) Camunda
10 4 (0.68%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.68%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.51%) CMS
12 2 (0.34%) nginx
12 2 (0.34%) WordPress
13 1 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 1 (0.17%) IIS
13 1 (0.17%) JBoss
13 1 (0.17%) Mule
13 1 (0.17%) Mule ESB
13 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 29 (4.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.68%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.19%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.19%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.85%) Infor LN
4 3 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.34%) Elite 3E
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
5 2 (0.34%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 161 (27.43%) Azure
2 126 (21.47%) AWS
3 118 (20.10%) Power Platform
4 61 (10.39%) GCP
5 51 (8.69%) GitHub
6 43 (7.33%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (6.64%) Serverless
8 26 (4.43%) Azure Data Factory
9 24 (4.09%) Snowflake
10 23 (3.92%) Amazon S3
11 22 (3.75%) AWS Lambda
11 22 (3.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 17 (2.90%) Azure Monitor
12 17 (2.90%) dbt
12 17 (2.90%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (2.90%) Google Analytics
12 17 (2.90%) SaaS
13 15 (2.56%) Amazon EMR
13 15 (2.56%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 15 (2.56%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.56%) SSL
2 11 (1.87%) DNS
2 11 (1.87%) Network Security
3 8 (1.36%) Firewall
4 6 (1.02%) 3GPP
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%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (0.51%) Internet
6 3 (0.51%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.51%) LAN
7 2 (0.34%) PABX
7 2 (0.34%) VLAN
7 2 (0.34%) VoIP
7 2 (0.34%) VPN
8 1 (0.17%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 1 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (23.34%) SQL Server
2 108 (18.40%) Power BI
3 85 (14.48%) Data Warehouse
4 45 (7.67%) PostgreSQL
5 42 (7.16%) Metadata
6 35 (5.96%) MySQL
6 35 (5.96%) Relational Database
7 31 (5.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 31 (5.28%) Tableau
8 28 (4.77%) NoSQL
9 27 (4.60%) BigQuery
10 26 (4.43%) Data Lake
11 22 (3.75%) Oracle Database
12 21 (3.58%) Amazon Redshift
13 18 (3.07%) Looker
13 18 (3.07%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 17 (2.90%) Amazon Athena
15 16 (2.73%) MongoDB
16 14 (2.39%) Azure SQL Database
16 14 (2.39%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 71 (12.10%) Git
2 52 (8.86%) Jenkins
3 51 (8.69%) JIRA
4 38 (6.47%) GitLab
5 16 (2.73%) Gradle
6 12 (2.04%) Bitbucket
6 12 (2.04%) JUnit
6 12 (2.04%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (1.87%) Maven
8 10 (1.70%) Mockito
9 8 (1.36%) Postman
9 8 (1.36%) REST Assured
9 8 (1.36%) Team Foundation Server
10 7 (1.19%) Selenium
11 6 (1.02%) Claude Code
11 6 (1.02%) Cucumber
11 6 (1.02%) TeamCity
12 5 (0.85%) SonarQube
12 5 (0.85%) Toad
13 4 (0.68%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 190 (32.37%) Social Skills
2 119 (20.27%) Finance
3 102 (17.38%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (11.93%) Public Sector
5 57 (9.71%) Banking
6 20 (3.41%) Manufacturing
7 15 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (2.56%) Retail
8 11 (1.87%) Law
9 10 (1.70%) Marketing
10 7 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.02%) Games
11 6 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.02%) Publishing
12 5 (0.85%) Aviation
12 5 (0.85%) Fire and Rescue
12 5 (0.85%) Military
12 5 (0.85%) Police
13 4 (0.68%) Legal
Job Titles
1 131 (22.32%) Developer
2 85 (14.48%) Data Engineer
3 80 (13.63%) Analyst
4 78 (13.29%) Senior
5 70 (11.93%) DBA
6 51 (8.69%) Lead
7 45 (7.67%) SQL DBA
8 32 (5.45%) Data Analyst
9 31 (5.28%) Administrator
10 27 (4.60%) Senior Data Engineer
11 26 (4.43%) Software Engineer
12 25 (4.26%) Senior Developer
13 24 (4.09%) SQL Developer
14 23 (3.92%) Java Developer
15 19 (3.24%) Consultant
15 19 (3.24%) Oracle DBA
16 18 (3.07%) Performance Analyst
17 17 (2.90%) Architect
18 14 (2.39%) Business Analyst
18 14 (2.39%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (10.39%) Terraform
2 53 (9.03%) REST
3 51 (8.69%) Kafka
4 43 (7.33%) PySpark
5 38 (6.47%) Spring Boot
6 36 (6.13%) .NET
7 33 (5.62%) Spring
8 28 (4.77%) HTML
9 24 (4.09%) React
10 20 (3.41%) JSON
11 19 (3.24%) CSS
11 19 (3.24%) Web Services
12 16 (2.73%) RESTful
13 14 (2.39%) .NET Core
13 14 (2.39%) Hibernate
14 13 (2.21%) AngularJS
14 13 (2.21%) JPA
14 13 (2.21%) Redux
14 13 (2.21%) XML
15 10 (1.70%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 52 (8.86%) Data Structures
2 40 (6.81%) Cloud Native
3 26 (4.43%) Data Protection Act
4 25 (4.26%) Product Ownership
5 22 (3.75%) Replication
6 19 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (3.07%) NHS
8 17 (2.90%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (2.73%) AI Agents
9 16 (2.73%) Clustering
10 15 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (2.39%) Onboarding
12 7 (1.19%) Algorithms
12 7 (1.19%) Robotics
13 6 (1.02%) Virtual Team
14 5 (0.85%) Low-Code
15 4 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
15 4 (0.68%) Data Fabric
15 4 (0.68%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 41 (6.98%) Linux
2 29 (4.94%) Windows
3 25 (4.26%) Unix
4 21 (3.58%) Windows Server
5 17 (2.90%) Solaris
6 4 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.34%) AIX
7 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.17%) CentOS
8 1 (0.17%) VMS
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 159 (27.09%) Analytics
2 158 (26.92%) CI/CD
3 155 (26.41%) Agile
4 149 (25.38%) Data Modelling
5 130 (22.15%) Business Intelligence
6 122 (20.78%) ETL
7 116 (19.76%) Data Pipeline
8 112 (19.08%) DevOps
9 101 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
10 94 (16.01%) AI
11 89 (15.16%) Data Engineering
11 89 (15.16%) Validation
12 86 (14.65%) Migration
13 79 (13.46%) Stakeholder Management
14 75 (12.78%) Performance Tuning
15 67 (11.41%) Test Automation
16 66 (11.24%) Infrastructure as Code
17 65 (11.07%) Data Analysis
17 65 (11.07%) Data Governance
18 59 (10.05%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 181 (30.83%) Python
2 85 (14.48%) Java
3 56 (9.54%) PowerShell
4 43 (7.33%) T-SQL
5 41 (6.98%) C#
6 40 (6.81%) JavaScript
7 26 (4.43%) PL/SQL
8 21 (3.58%) Bash
9 17 (2.90%) TypeScript
10 15 (2.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (2.21%) Kotlin
11 13 (2.21%) Shell Script
12 9 (1.53%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (1.19%) Scala
14 6 (1.02%) R
15 5 (0.85%) Search Processing Language
15 5 (0.85%) VB
16 4 (0.68%) Bicep
16 4 (0.68%) PHP
16 4 (0.68%) VB6
Qualifications
1 108 (18.40%) Security Cleared
2 97 (16.52%) SC Cleared
3 49 (8.35%) Degree
4 26 (4.43%) BPSS Clearance
4 26 (4.43%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (2.04%) Azure Certification
7 9 (1.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 7 (1.19%) CISSP
8 7 (1.19%) DV Cleared
9 6 (1.02%) Oracle Certification
10 5 (0.85%) GCFA
10 5 (0.85%) GCIH
10 5 (0.85%) OCP
11 2 (0.34%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.17%) CRISC
12 1 (0.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 1 (0.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 1 (0.17%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 136 (23.17%) Data Quality
2 30 (5.11%) QA
3 18 (3.07%) GDPR
4 6 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (0.85%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.68%) Accessibility
6 4 (0.68%) GRC
7 3 (0.51%) NIST
7 3 (0.51%) SLA
8 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.34%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.34%) MiFID
8 2 (0.34%) PMO
8 2 (0.34%) SEPA
9 1 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.17%) COBIT
9 1 (0.17%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.17%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (11.41%) Docker
2 22 (3.75%) Active Directory
3 15 (2.56%) Oracle RAC
4 11 (1.87%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.68%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.68%) KVM
5 4 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.17%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 49 (8.35%) Kubernetes
2 35 (5.96%) Ansible
3 16 (2.73%) Grafana
3 16 (2.73%) Prometheus
4 13 (2.21%) Data Guard
5 11 (1.87%) Control-M
5 11 (1.87%) SCOM
6 6 (1.02%) Oracle RMAN
6 6 (1.02%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.85%) Argo
7 5 (0.85%) CASB
8 2 (0.34%) Consul
8 2 (0.34%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
8 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.34%) Kibana
8 2 (0.34%) Nagios
8 2 (0.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 2 (0.34%) Zipkin
9 1 (0.17%) Forefront Identity Manager
9 1 (0.17%) SCCM
Vendors
1 129 (21.98%) Microsoft
2 84 (14.31%) Oracle
3 59 (10.05%) Databricks
4 38 (6.47%) Google
5 26 (4.43%) Splunk
6 24 (4.09%) SAP
7 20 (3.41%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.04%) IBM
9 11 (1.87%) Alteryx
9 11 (1.87%) Teradata
10 8 (1.36%) Adobe
10 8 (1.36%) Foundry
10 8 (1.36%) Informatica
10 8 (1.36%) OpenAI
10 8 (1.36%) Palantir
10 8 (1.36%) Salesforce
10 8 (1.36%) UiPath
11 7 (1.19%) CyberArk
12 6 (1.02%) Centrify
13 5 (0.85%) Cribl.io