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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 23 17
Rank change year-on-year -3 -6 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL 350 256 386
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.01% 7.66% 7.66%
As % of the Programming Languages category 23.54% 29.02% 29.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 253 163 263
10th Percentile £313 £331 £285
25th Percentile £369 £391 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £477
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -0.42% -4.60%
75th Percentile £514 £567 £575
90th Percentile £638 £638 £625
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 5 13
10th Percentile £39.60 - £20.91
25th Percentile £45.00 £26.25 £37.63
Median hourly rate £64.50 £32.81 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +96.59% -22.80% -35.61%
75th Percentile £74.26 £65.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £78.60 - £46.18
England median hourly rate £50.00 £52.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -4.76% +23.53% -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 1,487 882 1,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 29.77% 26.38% 25.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,032 572 937
10th Percentile £330 £341 £325
25th Percentile £400 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £563 £569
90th Percentile £625 £638 £628
England median daily rate £513 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -4.21% -2.73% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 19 63
10th Percentile £41.94 £30.43 £37.63
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.18 £43.57
Median hourly rate £60.00 £65.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +40.75% -2.78%
75th Percentile £74.26 £86.00 £50.75
90th Percentile £79.60 £97.71 £71.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +3.17% +5.00% -7.69%

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 2 February 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 2 February 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 2 February 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 +4 197 £423 -7.90% 208
Yorkshire -25 134 £475 -5.94% 118
North East -7 23 £475 -9.52% 47
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 29 (8.29%) Apache Airflow
2 12 (3.43%) Apache Spark
3 10 (2.86%) Apache
4 9 (2.57%) Confluence
4 9 (2.57%) SharePoint
5 8 (2.29%) SAS
6 5 (1.43%) Apache Pig
7 2 (0.57%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.29%) Apache Geronimo
8 1 (0.29%) Apache ServiceMix
8 1 (0.29%) IIS
8 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.29%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Fuse
8 1 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 23 (6.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.71%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.14%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.86%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.29%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 9 (2.57%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.57%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.57%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.29%) Finacle
3 1 (0.29%) Magento
3 1 (0.29%) Maximo
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 120 (34.29%) AWS
2 119 (34.00%) Azure
3 77 (22.00%) Power Platform
4 44 (12.57%) GCP
5 27 (7.71%) Serverless
6 26 (7.43%) GitHub
7 20 (5.71%) Azure Data Factory
8 19 (5.43%) Snowflake
9 18 (5.14%) dbt
10 16 (4.57%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (4.57%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 15 (4.29%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (3.71%) AWS Lambda
13 9 (2.57%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (2.57%) SaaS
14 8 (2.29%) Prefect
15 7 (2.00%) Amazon ECS
15 7 (2.00%) Amazon S3
15 7 (2.00%) AWS CloudFormation
15 7 (2.00%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.86%) Firewall
2 7 (2.00%) TCP/IP
3 6 (1.71%) DNS
4 3 (0.86%) HTTP
4 3 (0.86%) HTTPS
4 3 (0.86%) SSL
5 2 (0.57%) IPsec
5 2 (0.57%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.29%) Internet
6 1 (0.29%) IP Telephony
6 1 (0.29%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (21.14%) Power BI
2 49 (14.00%) SQL Server
3 43 (12.29%) NoSQL
4 35 (10.00%) Data Warehouse
5 29 (8.29%) Relational Database
6 27 (7.71%) PostgreSQL
7 24 (6.86%) Data Lake
8 23 (6.57%) MySQL
9 20 (5.71%) Tableau
10 15 (4.29%) Azure SQL Database
10 15 (4.29%) MongoDB
10 15 (4.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 14 (4.00%) DB2
11 14 (4.00%) Power Query
12 13 (3.71%) Snowflake Schema
13 12 (3.43%) BigQuery
13 12 (3.43%) Delta Lake
14 10 (2.86%) Redis
15 9 (2.57%) Metadata
16 8 (2.29%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 47 (13.43%) Git
1 47 (13.43%) JIRA
2 37 (10.57%) GitLab
3 31 (8.86%) Jenkins
4 13 (3.71%) Cucumber
4 13 (3.71%) REST Assured
4 13 (3.71%) Selenium
5 10 (2.86%) Postman
6 8 (2.29%) Jaeger
7 6 (1.71%) Mocha
7 6 (1.71%) TestRail
8 4 (1.14%) Liquibase
8 4 (1.14%) Mockito
9 3 (0.86%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.57%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.57%) PyCharm
10 2 (0.57%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.29%) Gradle
11 1 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
11 1 (0.29%) SoapUI
General
1 113 (32.29%) Social Skills
2 100 (28.57%) Finance
3 62 (17.71%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (17.14%) Banking
5 32 (9.14%) Public Sector
6 14 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (3.71%) Financial Institution
8 9 (2.57%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.00%) Law
10 6 (1.71%) Local Government
10 6 (1.71%) Marketing
10 6 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.43%) Retail
12 4 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.14%) Legal
12 4 (1.14%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.14%) Wholesale Banking
13 3 (0.86%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.86%) Retail Banking
14 2 (0.57%) Military
Job Titles
1 102 (29.14%) Developer
2 64 (18.29%) Analyst
3 53 (15.14%) Data Engineer
4 50 (14.29%) Senior
5 24 (6.86%) Lead
6 23 (6.57%) Data Analyst
7 22 (6.29%) Java Developer
8 19 (5.43%) Business Analyst
9 16 (4.57%) Software Engineer
10 15 (4.29%) Senior Developer
11 12 (3.43%) Test Engineer
12 11 (3.14%) AWS Engineer
12 11 (3.14%) Business Intelligence Developer
13 10 (2.86%) Architect
13 10 (2.86%) Azure Engineer
13 10 (2.86%) DevOps Engineer
13 10 (2.86%) Test Automation Engineer
14 9 (2.57%) DBA
14 9 (2.57%) Power BI Developer
15 8 (2.29%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (14.00%) REST
2 40 (11.43%) .NET
3 37 (10.57%) Spring Boot
4 31 (8.86%) Kafka
4 31 (8.86%) Spring
5 19 (5.43%) RESTful
6 18 (5.14%) React
7 15 (4.29%) HTML
7 15 (4.29%) JMS
8 14 (4.00%) Middleware
8 14 (4.00%) PySpark
8 14 (4.00%) XML
9 13 (3.71%) CSS
9 13 (3.71%) OAuth
9 13 (3.71%) OpenID
10 12 (3.43%) JSON
10 12 (3.43%) Node.js
11 11 (3.14%) LDAP
11 11 (3.14%) SailPoint
12 8 (2.29%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 33 (9.43%) Cloud Native
2 17 (4.86%) Distributed Systems
3 14 (4.00%) Clustering
3 14 (4.00%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 12 (3.43%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (3.43%) Product Ownership
5 11 (3.14%) Data Structures
6 9 (2.57%) Algorithms
6 9 (2.57%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.29%) Onboarding
7 8 (2.29%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.00%) Distributed Computing
9 6 (1.71%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.71%) NHS
9 6 (1.71%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.43%) Credit Risk
10 5 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (1.14%) Legacy Code
11 4 (1.14%) Replication
12 3 (0.86%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 31 (8.86%) Linux
2 16 (4.57%) Windows
3 11 (3.14%) Unix
4 7 (2.00%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.86%) AIX
5 3 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (32.29%) CI/CD
2 106 (30.29%) Agile
3 97 (27.71%) DevOps
4 82 (23.43%) Problem-Solving
5 79 (22.57%) Business Intelligence
6 78 (22.29%) Data Modelling
7 69 (19.71%) Analytics
8 59 (16.86%) ETL
9 54 (15.43%) Microservices
10 50 (14.29%) Data Pipeline
11 45 (12.86%) Test Automation
12 43 (12.29%) Data Governance
13 42 (12.00%) Visualisation
14 41 (11.71%) Data Engineering
15 40 (11.43%) Stakeholder Management
16 39 (11.14%) Data Analysis
17 38 (10.86%) Containerisation
18 35 (10.00%) Performance Tuning
19 34 (9.71%) Actionable Insight
20 33 (9.43%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 105 (30.00%) Python
2 83 (23.71%) Java
3 27 (7.71%) JavaScript
4 25 (7.14%) C#
5 17 (4.86%) PL/SQL
6 13 (3.71%) PHP
7 11 (3.14%) Bash
7 11 (3.14%) PowerShell
7 11 (3.14%) VBA
8 10 (2.86%) TypeScript
9 9 (2.57%) Scala
10 8 (2.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (2.29%) Go
10 8 (2.29%) Rust
10 8 (2.29%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.71%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.14%) ProC
13 3 (0.86%) Bicep
13 3 (0.86%) Delphi
14 2 (0.57%) R
Qualifications
1 51 (14.57%) Degree
2 34 (9.71%) Security Cleared
3 23 (6.57%) Computer Science Degree
4 21 (6.00%) SC Cleared
5 15 (4.29%) Master's Degree
6 13 (3.71%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (2.00%) Azure Certification
8 6 (1.71%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.14%) MBA
10 3 (0.86%) CEH
10 3 (0.86%) GIAC
10 3 (0.86%) GWAPT
10 3 (0.86%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.57%) AWS Certified Developer
11 2 (0.57%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.57%) Tableau Certification
12 1 (0.29%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (11.71%) Data Quality
2 31 (8.86%) QA
3 14 (4.00%) ISO 20022
3 14 (4.00%) PSD2
3 14 (4.00%) SEPA
4 11 (3.14%) Accessibility
5 7 (2.00%) WCAG
6 6 (1.71%) SLA
7 5 (1.43%) GDPR
8 4 (1.14%) PMO
9 2 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.57%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.29%) HL7
10 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.29%) PERC
System Software
1 66 (18.86%) Docker
2 6 (1.71%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (1.14%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.86%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.86%) KVM
5 2 (0.57%) RACF
6 1 (0.29%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 56 (16.00%) Kubernetes
2 27 (7.71%) Terraform
3 21 (6.00%) Grafana
4 18 (5.14%) Prometheus
5 13 (3.71%) Ansible
6 8 (2.29%) Kiali
7 6 (1.71%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.14%) SCCM
9 3 (0.86%) IBM BigFix
9 3 (0.86%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.57%) Control-M
11 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
11 1 (0.29%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 61 (17.43%) Microsoft
2 42 (12.00%) Oracle
3 28 (8.00%) Splunk
4 27 (7.71%) Databricks
5 20 (5.71%) ServiceNow
6 15 (4.29%) Google
7 9 (2.57%) Advent
8 7 (2.00%) IBM
9 6 (1.71%) MuleSoft
10 5 (1.43%) Salesforce
11 4 (1.14%) AppDynamics
11 4 (1.14%) Cognos
11 4 (1.14%) Dynatrace
11 4 (1.14%) SAP
11 4 (1.14%) SolarWinds
12 3 (0.86%) Citrix
12 3 (0.86%) F5
12 3 (0.86%) Imperva
12 3 (0.86%) Red Hat
12 3 (0.86%) RedGate