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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 15 18
Rank change year-on-year -11 +3 -5
Contract jobs citing SQL 458 312 371
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.66% 9.80% 7.75%
As % of the Programming Languages category 27.83% 35.21% 30.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 227 254
10th Percentile £330 £350 £282
25th Percentile £400 £400 £377
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £563 £550
90th Percentile £639 £647 £613
England median daily rate £500 £513 £550
% change year-on-year -2.44% -6.82% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 3 11
10th Percentile £38.20 £31.53 £37.63
25th Percentile £59.75 £31.62 £39.44
Median hourly rate £69.00 £33.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +108.40% -22.09% +4.71%
75th Percentile £81.50 £53.48 £44.97
90th Percentile £89.00 £64.89 £46.18
England median hourly rate £48.11 £52.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -8.36% +23.53% -13.26%

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 1,646 886 1,206
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 27.53% 27.83% 25.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,119 645 865
10th Percentile £346 £350 £313
25th Percentile £402 £400 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year - +2.70% -9.76%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £550
90th Percentile £621 £638 £625
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -4.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 14 52
10th Percentile £42.20 £34.68 £37.70
25th Percentile £52.50 £65.25 £44.72
Median hourly rate £65.00 £78.75 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.46% +65.79% +1.49%
75th Percentile £74.26 £94.67 £59.06
90th Percentile £84.65 £100.97 £72.44
England median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +3.17% +5.00% -4.00%

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 9 April 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 9 April 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 9 April 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 -1 257 £450 -5.26% 248
Yorkshire -21 181 £475 -5.00% 149
North East -9 32 £475 +3.26% 66
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 24 (5.24%) Apache Spark
2 20 (4.37%) Apache Airflow
2 20 (4.37%) Confluence
3 18 (3.93%) Apache
4 7 (1.53%) Apache Geronimo
4 7 (1.53%) Apache ServiceMix
4 7 (1.53%) Red Hat Fuse
4 7 (1.53%) Tomcat
4 7 (1.53%) WebSphere
5 6 (1.31%) SAS
5 6 (1.31%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.66%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.44%) IIS
8 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.22%) Mule
8 1 (0.22%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 28 (6.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.87%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.22%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.75%) Advent Geneva
2 6 (1.31%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.44%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.44%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.44%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.44%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.22%) Maximo
5 1 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.22%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 139 (30.35%) Azure
2 124 (27.07%) AWS
3 75 (16.38%) Power Platform
4 45 (9.83%) GCP
5 34 (7.42%) Azure Data Factory
6 23 (5.02%) GitHub
6 23 (5.02%) Serverless
7 20 (4.37%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 19 (4.15%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (4.15%) dbt
9 15 (3.28%) GitHub Actions
9 15 (3.28%) Snowflake
10 11 (2.40%) IaaS
11 10 (2.18%) PaaS
11 10 (2.18%) SaaS
12 9 (1.97%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (1.75%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
14 7 (1.53%) Azure Logic Apps
14 7 (1.53%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.71%) Firewall
2 10 (2.18%) DNS
3 7 (1.53%) TCP/IP
4 6 (1.31%) SSL
5 5 (1.09%) IPsec
5 5 (1.09%) Kerberos
6 2 (0.44%) VPN
7 1 (0.22%) 3GPP
7 1 (0.22%) DHCP
7 1 (0.22%) Internet
7 1 (0.22%) LAN
7 1 (0.22%) RTP
7 1 (0.22%) WAN
7 1 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.22%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (18.78%) SQL Server
2 68 (14.85%) Power BI
3 58 (12.66%) Data Warehouse
4 51 (11.14%) NoSQL
5 40 (8.73%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (5.68%) MySQL
7 25 (5.46%) Relational Database
8 23 (5.02%) Data Lake
9 22 (4.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 22 (4.80%) Tableau
10 21 (4.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 19 (4.15%) Azure SQL Database
11 19 (4.15%) Metadata
12 18 (3.93%) MongoDB
13 16 (3.49%) DB2
14 15 (3.28%) Hadoop
14 15 (3.28%) Oracle Database
14 15 (3.28%) Snowflake Schema
15 14 (3.06%) Delta Lake
15 14 (3.06%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 49 (10.70%) Git
2 48 (10.48%) JIRA
3 34 (7.42%) Jenkins
4 31 (6.77%) GitLab
5 15 (3.28%) Cucumber
5 15 (3.28%) REST Assured
5 15 (3.28%) Selenium
6 11 (2.40%) Postman
7 9 (1.97%) Jaeger
8 6 (1.31%) Mocha
8 6 (1.31%) TestRail
9 5 (1.09%) Flyway
9 5 (1.09%) Liquibase
9 5 (1.09%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (0.87%) ERwin
11 3 (0.66%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.66%) SoapUI
12 2 (0.44%) JUnit
12 2 (0.44%) PyCharm
13 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio
General
1 134 (29.26%) Social Skills
2 109 (23.80%) Finance
3 91 (19.87%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (11.79%) Banking
5 44 (9.61%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.18%) Law
7 10 (2.18%) Legal
8 9 (1.97%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (1.53%) Retail
10 6 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.31%) Local Government
11 4 (0.87%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (0.87%) Manufacturing
11 4 (0.87%) Marketing
11 4 (0.87%) Military
11 4 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.66%) Health Technology
12 3 (0.66%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 96 (20.96%) Developer
2 89 (19.43%) Analyst
3 68 (14.85%) Data Engineer
4 51 (11.14%) Senior
5 45 (9.83%) Lead
6 27 (5.90%) Data Analyst
7 25 (5.46%) DBA
8 20 (4.37%) Architect
9 19 (4.15%) Business Analyst
10 17 (3.71%) Consultant
11 15 (3.28%) Java Developer
12 14 (3.06%) Software Engineer
12 14 (3.06%) Test Engineer
13 13 (2.84%) Azure Engineer
13 13 (2.84%) SQL DBA
14 12 (2.62%) Senior Developer
14 12 (2.62%) Technical Analyst
15 11 (2.40%) .NET Developer
15 11 (2.40%) SQL Developer
15 11 (2.40%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (9.83%) REST
2 44 (9.61%) .NET
3 31 (6.77%) Spring Boot
4 29 (6.33%) XML
5 28 (6.11%) Kafka
6 24 (5.24%) RESTful
6 24 (5.24%) Spring
7 19 (4.15%) Middleware
8 17 (3.71%) HTML
8 17 (3.71%) OpenID
8 17 (3.71%) React
9 16 (3.49%) PySpark
10 15 (3.28%) JSON
10 15 (3.28%) OAuth
11 14 (3.06%) CSS
12 12 (2.62%) LDAP
12 12 (2.62%) SailPoint
12 12 (2.62%) SOAP
13 11 (2.40%) Pandas
14 10 (2.18%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 33 (7.21%) Cloud Native
2 27 (5.90%) Product Ownership
3 21 (4.59%) Clustering
4 18 (3.93%) Data Protection Act
5 17 (3.71%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.49%) Data Structures
7 14 (3.06%) Management Information System
7 14 (3.06%) NHS
8 13 (2.84%) Replication
9 11 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (2.40%) Linux Command Line
10 9 (1.97%) Virtual Team
11 8 (1.75%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 7 (1.53%) Onboarding
13 6 (1.31%) Security Posture
14 5 (1.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 5 (1.09%) Public Cloud
15 4 (0.87%) Data Centre
15 4 (0.87%) IoT
15 4 (0.87%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 40 (8.73%) Linux
2 23 (5.02%) Windows
3 13 (2.84%) Unix
4 12 (2.62%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.31%) AIX
6 3 (0.66%) Oracle Linux
6 3 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (30.57%) CI/CD
2 122 (26.64%) Agile
3 111 (24.24%) Problem-Solving
4 103 (22.49%) DevOps
5 102 (22.27%) Data Modelling
6 99 (21.62%) Analytics
7 96 (20.96%) ETL
8 87 (19.00%) Business Intelligence
9 67 (14.63%) Data Pipeline
10 59 (12.88%) Microservices
11 55 (12.01%) Performance Tuning
12 52 (11.35%) Data Engineering
13 50 (10.92%) Data Governance
14 48 (10.48%) Test Automation
15 47 (10.26%) Data Analysis
16 43 (9.39%) Migration
17 39 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
18 37 (8.08%) Actionable Insight
19 34 (7.42%) AI
19 34 (7.42%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 137 (29.91%) Python
2 75 (16.38%) Java
3 33 (7.21%) C#
4 29 (6.33%) JavaScript
5 26 (5.68%) PowerShell
6 24 (5.24%) T-SQL
7 23 (5.02%) PL/SQL
8 16 (3.49%) Bash
9 15 (3.28%) TypeScript
10 12 (2.62%) PHP
11 11 (2.40%) VBA
12 9 (1.97%) Shell Script
13 8 (1.75%) Rust
14 7 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (1.53%) Go
14 7 (1.53%) R
15 4 (0.87%) ProC
15 4 (0.87%) Scala
16 3 (0.66%) C++
16 3 (0.66%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 56 (12.23%) Degree
1 56 (12.23%) Security Cleared
2 40 (8.73%) SC Cleared
3 20 (4.37%) Computer Science Degree
4 14 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (2.62%) Master's Degree
6 4 (0.87%) Azure Certification
6 4 (0.87%) MBA
7 3 (0.66%) AWS Certification
7 3 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (0.44%) CISSP
8 2 (0.44%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.44%) ISTQB
8 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.22%) AWS Certified Developer
9 1 (0.22%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.22%) CISM
9 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.22%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (15.07%) Data Quality
2 35 (7.64%) QA
3 20 (4.37%) GDPR
4 8 (1.75%) ISO 20022
5 7 (1.53%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.53%) HIPAA
5 7 (1.53%) PMO
5 7 (1.53%) PSD2
5 7 (1.53%) SEPA
5 7 (1.53%) SLA
6 6 (1.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 6 (1.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 6 (1.31%) WCAG
7 4 (0.87%) GRC
8 2 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.44%) NIST
8 2 (0.44%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.22%) HL7
9 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.22%) PERC
System Software
1 66 (14.41%) Docker
2 9 (1.97%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (1.53%) Hyper-V
3 7 (1.53%) KVM
4 6 (1.31%) Active Directory
5 5 (1.09%) RACF
6 2 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.22%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 57 (12.45%) Kubernetes
2 28 (6.11%) Terraform
3 20 (4.37%) Grafana
4 17 (3.71%) Prometheus
5 13 (2.84%) Ansible
6 11 (2.40%) Oracle RMAN
7 9 (1.97%) Kiali
8 8 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.31%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (1.31%) vCenter Server
10 5 (1.09%) SCCM
11 3 (0.66%) Data Guard
11 3 (0.66%) Foglight
12 1 (0.22%) AirWatch
12 1 (0.22%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.22%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
12 1 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 73 (15.94%) Microsoft
2 63 (13.76%) Oracle
3 40 (8.73%) Databricks
4 33 (7.21%) Splunk
5 29 (6.33%) ServiceNow
6 19 (4.15%) Google
7 10 (2.18%) SAP
8 9 (1.97%) IBM
9 8 (1.75%) Advent
10 7 (1.53%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.53%) TIBCO
11 6 (1.31%) MuleSoft
11 6 (1.31%) RedGate
11 6 (1.31%) Salesforce
12 5 (1.09%) Varonis
13 4 (0.87%) Alteryx
13 4 (0.87%) AppDynamics
14 3 (0.66%) Atlassian
14 3 (0.66%) CyberArk
14 3 (0.66%) Dynatrace