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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 23 17
Rank change year-on-year 0 -6 0
Contract jobs citing SQL 600 300 349
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.87% 7.35% 8.44%
As % of the Programming Languages category 31.75% 25.10% 33.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 364 219 226
10th Percentile £321 £313 £348
25th Percentile £406 £363 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% -3.00%
75th Percentile £538 £537 £549
90th Percentile £601 £614 £608
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 2 7
10th Percentile £23.30 £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% +39.86%
75th Percentile £55.00 £33.61 £53.75
90th Percentile £74.66 £35.04 £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% -11.97%

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 1,890 1,195 1,041
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 24.79% 29.26% 25.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,204 843 683
10th Percentile £350 £315 £338
25th Percentile £413 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £453 £488
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -7.08% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £571
90th Percentile £650 £626 £625
England median daily rate £525 £515 £543
% change year-on-year +1.94% -5.07% -1.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 13 29
10th Percentile £28.50 £31.20 £35.93
25th Percentile £53.13 £41.94 £37.55
Median hourly rate £70.00 £66.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +44.00% -
75th Percentile £73.50 £84.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £93.20 £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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 +5 297 £500 +12.99% 626
Yorkshire +11 248 £474 -0.21% 365
North East -2 65 £406 -9.72% 213
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 48 (8.00%) Confluence
2 22 (3.67%) Apache
2 22 (3.67%) Apache Airflow
2 22 (3.67%) Apache Spark
3 12 (2.00%) SAS
4 11 (1.83%) SharePoint
5 9 (1.50%) Jupyter
6 7 (1.17%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.83%) Camunda
8 4 (0.67%) WebSphere
9 3 (0.50%) CMS
10 2 (0.33%) nginx
10 2 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.33%) WordPress
11 1 (0.17%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.17%) IIS
11 1 (0.17%) JBoss
11 1 (0.17%) Mule
11 1 (0.17%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 29 (4.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.67%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.17%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.83%) Infor LN
3 5 (0.83%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.33%) Elite 3E
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.17%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 165 (27.50%) Azure
2 132 (22.00%) AWS
3 124 (20.67%) Power Platform
4 66 (11.00%) GCP
5 56 (9.33%) GitHub
6 45 (7.50%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (6.33%) Serverless
8 26 (4.33%) Snowflake
9 24 (4.00%) Amazon S3
9 24 (4.00%) Azure Data Factory
10 21 (3.50%) AWS Lambda
11 20 (3.33%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 19 (3.17%) Azure Monitor
12 19 (3.17%) GitHub Actions
12 19 (3.17%) Google Analytics
13 18 (3.00%) dbt
14 17 (2.83%) SaaS
15 15 (2.50%) Amazon EMR
15 15 (2.50%) OpenShift
15 15 (2.50%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.50%) SSL
2 12 (2.00%) DNS
3 11 (1.83%) Network Security
4 8 (1.33%) Firewall
5 6 (1.00%) 3GPP
5 6 (1.00%) RTP
5 6 (1.00%) Wireshark
6 5 (0.83%) DHCP
7 4 (0.67%) BGP
7 4 (0.67%) HTTP
7 4 (0.67%) Reverse Proxy
8 3 (0.50%) Internet
8 3 (0.50%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.50%) LAN
9 2 (0.33%) PABX
9 2 (0.33%) VLAN
9 2 (0.33%) VoIP
9 2 (0.33%) VPN
10 1 (0.17%) BIG-IP
10 1 (0.17%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (23.33%) SQL Server
2 112 (18.67%) Power BI
3 86 (14.33%) Data Warehouse
4 45 (7.50%) PostgreSQL
5 44 (7.33%) Metadata
6 36 (6.00%) MySQL
7 35 (5.83%) Relational Database
8 33 (5.50%) Tableau
9 31 (5.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 29 (4.83%) BigQuery
11 28 (4.67%) NoSQL
12 27 (4.50%) Data Lake
13 22 (3.67%) Oracle Database
14 21 (3.50%) Amazon Redshift
15 18 (3.00%) Looker
16 17 (2.83%) Amazon Athena
16 17 (2.83%) Azure SQL Database
16 17 (2.83%) MongoDB
16 17 (2.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 13 (2.17%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 72 (12.00%) Git
2 53 (8.83%) JIRA
3 51 (8.50%) Jenkins
4 38 (6.33%) GitLab
5 15 (2.50%) Gradle
6 14 (2.33%) Bitbucket
7 12 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (1.83%) JUnit
9 10 (1.67%) Maven
9 10 (1.67%) Mockito
10 8 (1.33%) Postman
10 8 (1.33%) REST Assured
10 8 (1.33%) Team Foundation Server
11 7 (1.17%) Claude Code
11 7 (1.17%) TeamCity
12 6 (1.00%) Cucumber
12 6 (1.00%) Selenium
13 5 (0.83%) SonarQube
13 5 (0.83%) Toad
14 4 (0.67%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 193 (32.17%) Social Skills
2 118 (19.67%) Finance
3 107 (17.83%) Analytical Skills
4 77 (12.83%) Public Sector
5 57 (9.50%) Banking
6 20 (3.33%) Manufacturing
7 16 (2.67%) Retail
8 15 (2.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (1.67%) Law
9 10 (1.67%) Marketing
10 8 (1.33%) Military
11 7 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Games
12 6 (1.00%) Publishing
13 5 (0.83%) Aviation
13 5 (0.83%) Fire and Rescue
13 5 (0.83%) Police
14 4 (0.67%) Legal
Job Titles
1 131 (21.83%) Developer
2 86 (14.33%) Data Engineer
3 83 (13.83%) Analyst
4 81 (13.50%) Senior
5 70 (11.67%) DBA
6 53 (8.83%) Lead
7 45 (7.50%) SQL DBA
8 35 (5.83%) Data Analyst
9 32 (5.33%) Administrator
10 27 (4.50%) Senior Data Engineer
10 27 (4.50%) Software Engineer
11 26 (4.33%) Senior Developer
12 22 (3.67%) Java Developer
12 22 (3.67%) SQL Developer
13 20 (3.33%) Performance Analyst
14 19 (3.17%) Architect
15 18 (3.00%) Consultant
15 18 (3.00%) Oracle DBA
16 15 (2.50%) Data Manager
16 15 (2.50%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (10.33%) Terraform
2 53 (8.83%) REST
3 52 (8.67%) Kafka
4 44 (7.33%) PySpark
5 37 (6.17%) Spring Boot
6 36 (6.00%) .NET
7 32 (5.33%) Spring
8 29 (4.83%) HTML
9 24 (4.00%) React
10 20 (3.33%) JSON
11 19 (3.17%) Web Services
12 18 (3.00%) CSS
13 15 (2.50%) RESTful
14 14 (2.33%) .NET Core
14 14 (2.33%) Hibernate
15 13 (2.17%) JPA
15 13 (2.17%) Redux
16 12 (2.00%) AngularJS
16 12 (2.00%) XML
17 10 (1.67%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 50 (8.33%) Data Structures
2 41 (6.83%) Cloud Native
3 26 (4.33%) Data Protection Act
4 25 (4.17%) Product Ownership
5 23 (3.83%) Replication
6 20 (3.33%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (3.00%) AI Agents
8 16 (2.67%) Clustering
8 16 (2.67%) Distributed Systems
8 16 (2.67%) NHS
9 15 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
10 14 (2.33%) Onboarding
11 8 (1.33%) Algorithms
12 7 (1.17%) Robotics
13 6 (1.00%) Data Centre
13 6 (1.00%) Virtual Team
14 5 (0.83%) Low-Code
15 4 (0.67%) Data Fabric
15 4 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 41 (6.83%) Linux
2 32 (5.33%) Windows
3 25 (4.17%) Unix
4 24 (4.00%) Windows Server
5 18 (3.00%) Solaris
6 4 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.33%) AIX
7 2 (0.33%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.17%) CentOS
8 1 (0.17%) VMS
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (27.67%) Agile
2 165 (27.50%) Analytics
3 164 (27.33%) CI/CD
4 153 (25.50%) Data Modelling
5 134 (22.33%) Business Intelligence
6 130 (21.67%) ETL
7 120 (20.00%) Data Pipeline
8 117 (19.50%) DevOps
9 101 (16.83%) AI
9 101 (16.83%) Problem-Solving
10 97 (16.17%) Data Engineering
10 97 (16.17%) Validation
11 86 (14.33%) Migration
12 84 (14.00%) Stakeholder Management
13 75 (12.50%) Performance Tuning
14 74 (12.33%) Test Automation
15 70 (11.67%) Infrastructure as Code
16 69 (11.50%) Data Analysis
17 67 (11.17%) Data Governance
18 62 (10.33%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 188 (31.33%) Python
2 87 (14.50%) Java
3 57 (9.50%) PowerShell
4 44 (7.33%) JavaScript
5 43 (7.17%) C#
6 40 (6.67%) T-SQL
7 24 (4.00%) PL/SQL
8 21 (3.50%) Bash
9 20 (3.33%) TypeScript
10 15 (2.50%) Kotlin
11 14 (2.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 13 (2.17%) Shell Script
13 9 (1.50%) Kusto Query Language
14 8 (1.33%) R
14 8 (1.33%) Scala
15 5 (0.83%) Search Processing Language
15 5 (0.83%) VB
16 4 (0.67%) Bicep
16 4 (0.67%) PHP
16 4 (0.67%) VB6
Qualifications
1 117 (19.50%) Security Cleared
2 103 (17.17%) SC Cleared
3 48 (8.00%) Degree
4 27 (4.50%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (4.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (2.00%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (1.33%) DV Cleared
10 7 (1.17%) CISSP
11 6 (1.00%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (0.83%) GCFA
12 5 (0.83%) GCIH
12 5 (0.83%) OCP
13 2 (0.33%) AWS Certification
14 1 (0.17%) CISA
14 1 (0.17%) CRISC
14 1 (0.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 1 (0.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 136 (22.67%) Data Quality
2 29 (4.83%) QA
3 18 (3.00%) GDPR
4 7 (1.17%) Accessibility
5 6 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.83%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.50%) GRC
7 3 (0.50%) NIST
7 3 (0.50%) SLA
8 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.33%) MiFID
8 2 (0.33%) SEPA
9 1 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.17%) COBIT
9 1 (0.17%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.17%) PMO
9 1 (0.17%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (11.17%) Docker
2 25 (4.17%) Active Directory
3 15 (2.50%) Oracle RAC
4 11 (1.83%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.67%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.67%) KVM
5 4 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.17%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 50 (8.33%) Kubernetes
2 36 (6.00%) Ansible
3 16 (2.67%) Grafana
3 16 (2.67%) Prometheus
4 13 (2.17%) Data Guard
5 11 (1.83%) Control-M
5 11 (1.83%) SCOM
6 6 (1.00%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.83%) Argo
7 5 (0.83%) CASB
7 5 (0.83%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.33%) Consul
8 2 (0.33%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
8 2 (0.33%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.33%) Kibana
8 2 (0.33%) Nagios
8 2 (0.33%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 2 (0.33%) Zipkin
9 1 (0.17%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.17%) Forefront Identity Manager
Vendors
1 134 (22.33%) Microsoft
2 88 (14.67%) Oracle
3 61 (10.17%) Databricks
4 41 (6.83%) Google
5 26 (4.33%) Splunk
6 25 (4.17%) SAP
7 19 (3.17%) ServiceNow
8 14 (2.33%) Informatica
9 13 (2.17%) IBM
10 11 (1.83%) Teradata
11 10 (1.67%) Alteryx
12 9 (1.50%) Adobe
13 8 (1.33%) Foundry
13 8 (1.33%) OpenAI
13 8 (1.33%) Palantir
13 8 (1.33%) Salesforce
13 8 (1.33%) UiPath
14 7 (1.17%) CyberArk
15 6 (1.00%) Centrify
16 5 (0.83%) Veracode