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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 16 14
Rank change year-on-year -6 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL 529 325 447
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.75% 9.42% 9.20%
As % of the Programming Languages category 28.67% 33.10% 35.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 329 238 297
10th Percentile £313 £325 £319
25th Percentile £400 £394 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year -3.16% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £554
90th Percentile £625 £625 £615
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 3 10
10th Percentile £23.45 £31.53 £37.63
25th Percentile £32.48 £31.62 £41.25
Median hourly rate £46.80 £33.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.35% -22.09% +4.71%
75th Percentile £69.72 £53.48 £45.57
90th Percentile £79.60 £64.89 £46.18
England median hourly rate £47.50 £42.82 £42.50
% change year-on-year +10.94% +0.74% -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 1,845 982 1,250
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 27.02% 28.47% 25.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,200 724 854
10th Percentile £350 £329 £316
25th Percentile £413 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.24% -2.63% -9.52%
75th Percentile £563 £538 £575
90th Percentile £638 £609 £625
England median daily rate £513 £520 £538
% change year-on-year -1.30% -3.30% -4.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 9 55
10th Percentile £30.10 £31.70 £37.55
25th Percentile £47.50 £52.00 £43.57
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +45.83% +1.05%
75th Percentile £74.26 £88.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £80.30 £95.71 £77.30
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.54% -9.20% -

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 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 16 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 16 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 -1 276 £463 -2.63% 433
Yorkshire -11 212 £475 - 266
North East -11 53 £425 -8.36% 146
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 (6.05%) Apache Spark
2 26 (4.91%) Apache
2 26 (4.91%) Confluence
3 24 (4.54%) Apache Airflow
4 10 (1.89%) SharePoint
5 8 (1.51%) Jupyter
5 8 (1.51%) WebSphere
6 7 (1.32%) Apache Geronimo
6 7 (1.32%) Apache ServiceMix
6 7 (1.32%) Red Hat Fuse
6 7 (1.32%) Tomcat
7 6 (1.13%) SAS
8 5 (0.95%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.38%) IIS
9 2 (0.38%) Mule
9 2 (0.38%) Mule ESB
9 2 (0.38%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.19%) Camunda
10 1 (0.19%) JBoss
Applications
1 36 (6.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.76%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (2.08%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.76%) Elite 3E
3 4 (0.76%) Infor LN
4 3 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.57%) Oracle Applications
4 3 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.57%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.19%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.19%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 158 (29.87%) Azure
2 123 (23.25%) AWS
3 94 (17.77%) Power Platform
4 51 (9.64%) GCP
5 35 (6.62%) Azure Data Factory
5 35 (6.62%) GitHub
6 33 (6.24%) Serverless
7 24 (4.54%) Azure DevOps
7 24 (4.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 22 (4.16%) dbt
9 17 (3.21%) Snowflake
10 15 (2.84%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 14 (2.65%) Amazon S3
11 14 (2.65%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.65%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (2.65%) SaaS
12 11 (2.08%) IaaS
12 11 (2.08%) OpenShift
13 10 (1.89%) PaaS
13 10 (1.89%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.46%) DNS
1 13 (2.46%) Firewall
2 9 (1.70%) SSL
3 6 (1.13%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.13%) RTP
3 6 (1.13%) Wireshark
4 5 (0.95%) IPsec
4 5 (0.95%) Kerberos
4 5 (0.95%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.76%) BGP
5 4 (0.76%) HTTP
5 4 (0.76%) Network Security
5 4 (0.76%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (0.57%) DHCP
7 2 (0.38%) Internet
7 2 (0.38%) LAN
7 2 (0.38%) VPN
7 2 (0.38%) WAN
7 2 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.19%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (16.26%) Power BI
2 85 (16.07%) SQL Server
3 73 (13.80%) Data Warehouse
4 41 (7.75%) NoSQL
5 36 (6.81%) PostgreSQL
6 33 (6.24%) Tableau
7 29 (5.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 26 (4.91%) Data Lake
9 25 (4.73%) Metadata
9 25 (4.73%) Relational Database
10 22 (4.16%) Azure SQL Database
11 19 (3.59%) Oracle Database
12 18 (3.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 17 (3.21%) MongoDB
14 16 (3.02%) Delta Lake
14 16 (3.02%) Hadoop
15 13 (2.46%) Big Data
15 13 (2.46%) Snowflake Schema
16 12 (2.27%) Amazon Athena
17 11 (2.08%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 61 (11.53%) Git
2 44 (8.32%) JIRA
3 32 (6.05%) GitLab
3 32 (6.05%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.89%) Cucumber
5 9 (1.70%) Selenium
6 8 (1.51%) Flyway
6 8 (1.51%) REST Assured
7 7 (1.32%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.32%) Jaeger
7 7 (1.32%) Postman
8 6 (1.13%) Gradle
8 6 (1.13%) Liquibase
8 6 (1.13%) Oracle Forms
8 6 (1.13%) TeamCity
9 5 (0.95%) JUnit
9 5 (0.95%) Maven
10 4 (0.76%) ERwin
10 4 (0.76%) Snyk
11 3 (0.57%) ClearCase
General
1 147 (27.79%) Social Skills
2 120 (22.68%) Finance
3 96 (18.15%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 49 (9.26%) Banking
6 13 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (2.08%) Legal
7 11 (2.08%) Manufacturing
7 11 (2.08%) Retail
8 9 (1.70%) Law
8 9 (1.70%) Marketing
9 7 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.13%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.95%) Aviation
11 5 (0.95%) Fire and Rescue
11 5 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.95%) Police
12 4 (0.76%) Games
12 4 (0.76%) Military
Job Titles
1 104 (19.66%) Developer
2 93 (17.58%) Analyst
3 74 (13.99%) Data Engineer
4 63 (11.91%) Senior
5 44 (8.32%) Lead
6 34 (6.43%) Data Analyst
7 31 (5.86%) DBA
8 28 (5.29%) Java Developer
9 27 (5.10%) Consultant
10 25 (4.73%) Architect
11 20 (3.78%) Senior Developer
12 19 (3.59%) Software Engineer
13 18 (3.40%) SQL DBA
14 16 (3.02%) Senior Data Engineer
14 16 (3.02%) Software Developer
15 14 (2.65%) Business Analyst
16 13 (2.46%) Performance Analyst
17 12 (2.27%) SQL Analyst
17 12 (2.27%) Technical Analyst
17 12 (2.27%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (7.37%) PySpark
2 38 (7.18%) Spring Boot
3 36 (6.81%) REST
4 31 (5.86%) Kafka
5 30 (5.67%) Spring
6 29 (5.48%) .NET
7 28 (5.29%) XML
8 27 (5.10%) RESTful
9 19 (3.59%) Middleware
10 16 (3.02%) HTML
11 15 (2.84%) JSON
11 15 (2.84%) OAuth
11 15 (2.84%) React
12 13 (2.46%) OpenTelemetry
13 12 (2.27%) CSS
13 12 (2.27%) SOAP
13 12 (2.27%) Web Services
14 11 (2.08%) OAuth2
14 11 (2.08%) Pandas
15 10 (1.89%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 38 (7.18%) Cloud Native
2 33 (6.24%) Product Ownership
3 22 (4.16%) Data Structures
4 20 (3.78%) Data Protection Act
5 19 (3.59%) Clustering
6 16 (3.02%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.02%) Replication
7 14 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (2.65%) NHS
8 12 (2.27%) Linux Command Line
8 12 (2.27%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.89%) Onboarding
10 9 (1.70%) AI Agents
10 9 (1.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 7 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (1.32%) Robotics
11 7 (1.32%) Security Posture
11 7 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (0.95%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 52 (9.83%) Linux
2 27 (5.10%) Windows
3 20 (3.78%) Unix
4 15 (2.84%) Windows Server
5 8 (1.51%) AIX
6 3 (0.57%) Oracle Linux
6 3 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (0.38%) Solaris
7 2 (0.38%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.38%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.19%) VMS
8 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (30.43%) CI/CD
2 136 (25.71%) Agile
3 124 (23.44%) Analytics
4 115 (21.74%) DevOps
5 112 (21.17%) Data Modelling
6 108 (20.42%) Business Intelligence
7 107 (20.23%) ETL
8 96 (18.15%) Problem-Solving
9 91 (17.20%) Data Pipeline
10 70 (13.23%) Validation
11 68 (12.85%) Migration
12 65 (12.29%) Microservices
12 65 (12.29%) Performance Tuning
13 62 (11.72%) Data Engineering
14 58 (10.96%) AI
14 58 (10.96%) Data Analysis
15 56 (10.59%) Test Automation
16 48 (9.07%) Data Governance
17 47 (8.88%) Infrastructure as Code
18 46 (8.70%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 157 (29.68%) Python
2 82 (15.50%) Java
3 38 (7.18%) PowerShell
4 33 (6.24%) C#
5 31 (5.86%) T-SQL
6 30 (5.67%) PL/SQL
7 25 (4.73%) JavaScript
8 22 (4.16%) Bash
9 13 (2.46%) Shell Script
9 13 (2.46%) TypeScript
10 12 (2.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 12 (2.27%) R
11 6 (1.13%) Kotlin
11 6 (1.13%) Rust
12 5 (0.95%) Scala
12 5 (0.95%) VBA
13 4 (0.76%) VB
14 3 (0.57%) Go
14 3 (0.57%) ProC
14 3 (0.57%) VB6
Qualifications
1 60 (11.34%) Security Cleared
2 54 (10.21%) Degree
3 50 (9.45%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (3.59%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.89%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.76%) Azure Certification
7 4 (0.76%) MBA
8 3 (0.57%) CISSP
8 3 (0.57%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.38%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.19%) CISM
10 1 (0.19%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.19%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (18.71%) Data Quality
2 29 (5.48%) QA
3 22 (4.16%) GDPR
4 7 (1.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 7 (1.32%) HIPAA
4 7 (1.32%) SLA
5 6 (1.13%) GRC
5 6 (1.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.95%) PMO
7 4 (0.76%) ISO 20022
8 3 (0.57%) NIST
8 3 (0.57%) PSD2
8 3 (0.57%) SEPA
8 3 (0.57%) Solvency II
9 2 (0.38%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.38%) WCAG
10 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 73 (13.80%) Docker
2 10 (1.89%) Hyper-V
2 10 (1.89%) KVM
3 9 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (1.51%) Active Directory
5 5 (0.95%) RACF
6 4 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
7 3 (0.57%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 59 (11.15%) Kubernetes
2 44 (8.32%) Terraform
3 22 (4.16%) Grafana
4 20 (3.78%) Prometheus
5 18 (3.40%) Ansible
6 11 (2.08%) Oracle RMAN
7 7 (1.32%) Kiali
8 6 (1.13%) IBM BigFix
8 6 (1.13%) vCenter Server
9 5 (0.95%) Control-M
9 5 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.76%) Argo
11 3 (0.57%) Data Guard
11 3 (0.57%) Foglight
12 2 (0.38%) AirWatch
12 2 (0.38%) Consul
12 2 (0.38%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.38%) SCCM
12 2 (0.38%) Zipkin
13 1 (0.19%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 79 (14.93%) Microsoft
2 67 (12.67%) Oracle
3 52 (9.83%) Databricks
4 30 (5.67%) Splunk
5 26 (4.91%) Google
6 19 (3.59%) ServiceNow
7 16 (3.02%) SAP
8 11 (2.08%) IBM
9 7 (1.32%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.32%) SolarWinds
9 7 (1.32%) TIBCO
10 6 (1.13%) RedGate
10 6 (1.13%) Teradata
10 6 (1.13%) Varonis
11 5 (0.95%) MuleSoft
11 5 (0.95%) OpenAI
11 5 (0.95%) SYSPRO
12 4 (0.76%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.76%) Infor
12 4 (0.76%) VMware