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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 16 16
Rank change year-on-year -8 0 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL 486 307 404
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.51% 9.35% 8.68%
As % of the Programming Languages category 28.14% 33.37% 33.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 222 275
10th Percentile £313 £350 £303
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.16% - -2.06%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £566
90th Percentile £630 £625 £615
England median daily rate £500 £503 £550
% change year-on-year -0.50% -8.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 3 10
10th Percentile £28.50 £31.53 £37.63
25th Percentile £36.50 £31.62 £41.25
Median hourly rate £47.50 £33.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +43.46% -22.09% +4.71%
75th Percentile £69.44 £53.48 £45.57
90th Percentile £85.00 £64.89 £46.18
England median hourly rate £47.50 £40.50 £43.75
% change year-on-year +17.28% -7.43% -12.12%

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 1,727 920 1,201
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 26.70% 28.03% 25.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,136 677 845
10th Percentile £350 £350 £325
25th Percentile £410 £400 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -9.52%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £575
90th Percentile £625 £612 £625
England median daily rate £513 £525 £549
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.37% -2.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 9 52
10th Percentile £37.10 £31.70 £37.56
25th Percentile £52.50 £52.00 £41.25
Median hourly rate £63.14 £79.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.08% +66.32% -3.06%
75th Percentile £74.26 £88.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £81.80 £95.71 £74.30
England median hourly rate £65.00 £61.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.20% -

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 26 May 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 May 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 May 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 -2 257 £460 -3.16% 254
Yorkshire -13 200 £475 -2.56% 127
North East -8 41 £450 -2.44% 59
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 25 (5.14%) Apache Spark
2 23 (4.73%) Confluence
3 21 (4.32%) Apache
4 17 (3.50%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.65%) SharePoint
5 8 (1.65%) WebSphere
6 7 (1.44%) Apache Geronimo
6 7 (1.44%) Apache ServiceMix
6 7 (1.44%) Red Hat Fuse
6 7 (1.44%) Tomcat
7 5 (1.03%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.82%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.82%) SAS
9 3 (0.62%) IIS
10 2 (0.41%) Mule
10 2 (0.41%) Mule ESB
10 2 (0.41%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.21%) JBoss
11 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 33 (6.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.82%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (2.26%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (1.03%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.62%) Elite 3E
3 3 (0.62%) Oracle Applications
3 3 (0.62%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.41%) Infor LN
4 2 (0.41%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.41%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.41%) Oracle Cash Management
4 2 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.41%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.41%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.21%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 156 (32.10%) Azure
2 127 (26.13%) AWS
3 80 (16.46%) Power Platform
4 55 (11.32%) GCP
5 37 (7.61%) Azure Data Factory
6 35 (7.20%) GitHub
7 26 (5.35%) Serverless
8 23 (4.73%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 22 (4.53%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (3.50%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (3.09%) dbt
12 13 (2.67%) SaaS
12 13 (2.67%) Snowflake
13 11 (2.26%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 11 (2.26%) IaaS
14 10 (2.06%) AWS Lambda
14 10 (2.06%) PaaS
15 9 (1.85%) Amazon S3
15 9 (1.85%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (1.65%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.50%) Firewall
2 13 (2.67%) DNS
3 8 (1.65%) TCP/IP
4 7 (1.44%) SSL
5 5 (1.03%) 3GPP
5 5 (1.03%) IPsec
5 5 (1.03%) Kerberos
5 5 (1.03%) RTP
5 5 (1.03%) Wireshark
6 3 (0.62%) DHCP
7 2 (0.41%) Internet
7 2 (0.41%) LAN
7 2 (0.41%) VPN
7 2 (0.41%) WAN
7 2 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.21%) BGP
8 1 (0.21%) BIG-IP
8 1 (0.21%) HTTP
8 1 (0.21%) Network Security
8 1 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (16.87%) SQL Server
2 73 (15.02%) Power BI
3 64 (13.17%) Data Warehouse
4 43 (8.85%) NoSQL
5 36 (7.41%) PostgreSQL
6 32 (6.58%) Tableau
7 25 (5.14%) Data Lake
8 24 (4.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 23 (4.73%) Relational Database
10 22 (4.53%) Metadata
11 21 (4.32%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (4.12%) MongoDB
13 19 (3.91%) Oracle Database
14 17 (3.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 16 (3.29%) Hadoop
15 16 (3.29%) MySQL
16 15 (3.09%) Delta Lake
17 12 (2.47%) Snowflake Schema
18 11 (2.26%) BigQuery
18 11 (2.26%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 57 (11.73%) Git
2 50 (10.29%) JIRA
3 37 (7.61%) Jenkins
4 36 (7.41%) GitLab
5 18 (3.70%) Cucumber
6 15 (3.09%) REST Assured
6 15 (3.09%) Selenium
7 10 (2.06%) Postman
8 9 (1.85%) Jaeger
9 8 (1.65%) Flyway
10 6 (1.23%) Bitbucket
10 6 (1.23%) Gradle
10 6 (1.23%) Liquibase
10 6 (1.23%) Oracle Forms
10 6 (1.23%) TestRail
11 5 (1.03%) JUnit
11 5 (1.03%) Maven
11 5 (1.03%) TeamCity
12 4 (0.82%) ERwin
12 4 (0.82%) Snyk
General
1 133 (27.37%) Social Skills
2 107 (22.02%) Finance
3 90 (18.52%) Analytical Skills
4 47 (9.67%) Banking
4 47 (9.67%) Public Sector
5 13 (2.67%) Law
6 12 (2.47%) Legal
7 11 (2.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (2.06%) Retail
9 8 (1.65%) Financial Institution
10 7 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.44%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.44%) Marketing
10 7 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.82%) Aviation
11 4 (0.82%) Fire and Rescue
11 4 (0.82%) Local Government
11 4 (0.82%) Military
11 4 (0.82%) Police
12 3 (0.62%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 99 (20.37%) Developer
2 85 (17.49%) Analyst
3 72 (14.81%) Data Engineer
4 59 (12.14%) Senior
5 49 (10.08%) Lead
6 29 (5.97%) Java Developer
7 26 (5.35%) Data Analyst
8 25 (5.14%) DBA
9 24 (4.94%) Consultant
10 20 (4.12%) Architect
11 18 (3.70%) Senior Developer
12 16 (3.29%) Test Engineer
13 15 (3.09%) Senior Data Engineer
13 15 (3.09%) SQL DBA
14 14 (2.88%) Business Analyst
15 13 (2.67%) Software Engineer
16 12 (2.47%) Performance Analyst
16 12 (2.47%) Software Developer
16 12 (2.47%) Technical Analyst
16 12 (2.47%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (8.23%) REST
2 37 (7.61%) Spring Boot
3 34 (7.00%) .NET
4 31 (6.38%) Kafka
4 31 (6.38%) PySpark
4 31 (6.38%) Spring
5 30 (6.17%) XML
6 25 (5.14%) RESTful
7 21 (4.32%) Middleware
8 18 (3.70%) HTML
9 17 (3.50%) OpenID
10 16 (3.29%) JSON
11 15 (3.09%) OAuth
11 15 (3.09%) OpenTelemetry
12 14 (2.88%) React
13 12 (2.47%) SOAP
13 12 (2.47%) Web Services
14 11 (2.26%) LDAP
14 11 (2.26%) OAuth2
14 11 (2.26%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 32 (6.58%) Product Ownership
2 31 (6.38%) Cloud Native
3 19 (3.91%) Data Protection Act
4 17 (3.50%) Data Structures
5 16 (3.29%) Clustering
5 16 (3.29%) Distributed Systems
6 15 (3.09%) NHS
7 14 (2.88%) Management Information System
8 13 (2.67%) Replication
9 12 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (2.47%) Linux Command Line
10 8 (1.65%) Onboarding
11 7 (1.44%) AI Agents
11 7 (1.44%) Security Posture
12 6 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (1.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 6 (1.23%) Robotics
13 5 (1.03%) Cloud Security Posture
13 5 (1.03%) Reinsurance
13 5 (1.03%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 50 (10.29%) Linux
2 28 (5.76%) Windows
3 16 (3.29%) Unix
3 16 (3.29%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.65%) AIX
5 3 (0.62%) Oracle Linux
5 3 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (0.41%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.41%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.21%) VMS
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (30.86%) CI/CD
2 127 (26.13%) Agile
3 111 (22.84%) DevOps
4 104 (21.40%) Analytics
4 104 (21.40%) ETL
5 99 (20.37%) Problem-Solving
6 96 (19.75%) Data Modelling
7 92 (18.93%) Business Intelligence
8 80 (16.46%) Data Pipeline
9 62 (12.76%) Microservices
10 58 (11.93%) Performance Tuning
11 57 (11.73%) Test Automation
12 56 (11.52%) Data Engineering
12 56 (11.52%) Migration
13 51 (10.49%) Validation
14 48 (9.88%) AI
15 44 (9.05%) Data Analysis
15 44 (9.05%) Data Governance
16 39 (8.02%) Infrastructure as Code
17 38 (7.82%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 146 (30.04%) Python
2 90 (18.52%) Java
3 33 (6.79%) C#
4 32 (6.58%) PowerShell
5 31 (6.38%) JavaScript
6 28 (5.76%) PL/SQL
7 26 (5.35%) T-SQL
8 18 (3.70%) Bash
9 15 (3.09%) TypeScript
10 13 (2.67%) Shell Script
11 12 (2.47%) R
12 9 (1.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 9 (1.85%) PHP
13 8 (1.65%) Rust
14 6 (1.23%) Go
14 6 (1.23%) Kotlin
15 5 (1.03%) Scala
15 5 (1.03%) VBA
16 4 (0.82%) ProC
17 3 (0.62%) VB
Qualifications
1 57 (11.73%) Security Cleared
2 55 (11.32%) Degree
3 46 (9.47%) SC Cleared
4 18 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (3.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (2.06%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.82%) Azure Certification
7 4 (0.82%) MBA
8 3 (0.62%) CISSP
9 2 (0.41%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.41%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.21%) CISM
10 1 (0.21%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.21%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.21%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (16.87%) Data Quality
2 33 (6.79%) QA
3 22 (4.53%) GDPR
4 10 (2.06%) SLA
5 8 (1.65%) HIPAA
6 7 (1.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 6 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (1.03%) GRC
8 5 (1.03%) ISO 20022
8 5 (1.03%) PMO
9 4 (0.82%) PSD2
9 4 (0.82%) SEPA
10 3 (0.62%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.62%) NIST
10 3 (0.62%) Solvency II
11 2 (0.41%) WCAG
12 1 (0.21%) HL7
12 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 1 (0.21%) PERC
System Software
1 67 (13.79%) Docker
2 10 (2.06%) Hyper-V
2 10 (2.06%) KVM
3 9 (1.85%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (1.03%) RACF
5 4 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.21%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 58 (11.93%) Kubernetes
2 36 (7.41%) Terraform
3 23 (4.73%) Grafana
4 20 (4.12%) Prometheus
5 15 (3.09%) Ansible
6 11 (2.26%) Oracle RMAN
7 9 (1.85%) Kiali
8 6 (1.23%) IBM BigFix
8 6 (1.23%) SCCM
8 6 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (1.23%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.82%) Argo
10 3 (0.62%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.62%) Foglight
11 2 (0.41%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.41%) Consul
11 2 (0.41%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.21%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.21%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 68 (13.99%) Oracle
2 67 (13.79%) Microsoft
3 45 (9.26%) Databricks
4 32 (6.58%) Splunk
5 29 (5.97%) ServiceNow
6 22 (4.53%) Google
7 13 (2.67%) SAP
8 10 (2.06%) IBM
9 7 (1.44%) SolarWinds
9 7 (1.44%) TIBCO
10 6 (1.23%) RedGate
10 6 (1.23%) Varonis
11 5 (1.03%) Teradata
11 5 (1.03%) VMware
12 4 (0.82%) Adobe
12 4 (0.82%) AppDynamics
12 4 (0.82%) MuleSoft
12 4 (0.82%) OpenAI
12 4 (0.82%) Salesforce
12 4 (0.82%) SYSPRO