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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 22 16
Rank change year-on-year -1 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing SQL 601 314 346
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.86% 7.81% 8.44%
As % of the Programming Languages category 31.61% 26.36% 33.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 364 228 227
10th Percentile £321 £313 £350
25th Percentile £406 £363 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% -3.00%
75th Percentile £538 £537 £550
90th Percentile £603 £615 £615
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 2 7
10th Percentile £23.23 £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 £58.75 £33.61 £53.75
90th Percentile £76.00 £35.04 £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% -11.11%

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 1,901 1,191 1,029
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 24.86% 29.60% 25.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,211 844 681
10th Percentile £350 £315 £331
25th Percentile £413 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £457 £488
Median % change year-on-year +7.66% -6.26% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £573
90th Percentile £650 £626 £630
England median daily rate £525 £515 £545
% change year-on-year +1.94% -5.50% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 12 29
10th Percentile £28.50 £30.60 £35.93
25th Percentile £46.80 £40.46 £37.55
Median hourly rate £70.00 £59.25 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +18.14% +28.30% -
75th Percentile £73.00 £73.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £93.95 £80.84
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £65.00
% change year-on-year +15.56% -13.46% +1.56%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +2 300 £500 +12.36% 562
Yorkshire +5 247 £460 -3.16% 266
North East -1 64 £406 -14.47% 126
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 (7.99%) Confluence
2 23 (3.83%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (3.66%) Apache
3 22 (3.66%) Apache Spark
4 11 (1.83%) SharePoint
5 10 (1.66%) SAS
6 9 (1.50%) Jupyter
7 7 (1.16%) Palantir Foundry
8 5 (0.83%) Camunda
9 4 (0.67%) WebSphere
10 3 (0.50%) CMS
11 2 (0.33%) nginx
11 2 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.33%) WordPress
12 1 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.17%) Apache Pulsar
12 1 (0.17%) IIS
12 1 (0.17%) Mule
12 1 (0.17%) Mule ESB
12 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 12 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.16%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.83%) Infor LN
3 5 (0.83%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.50%) Salesforce 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%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 167 (27.79%) Azure
2 132 (21.96%) AWS
3 121 (20.13%) Power Platform
4 63 (10.48%) GCP
5 54 (8.99%) GitHub
6 43 (7.15%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (6.49%) Serverless
8 27 (4.49%) Azure Data Factory
9 26 (4.33%) Snowflake
10 24 (3.99%) Amazon S3
11 23 (3.83%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 22 (3.66%) AWS Lambda
13 19 (3.16%) Azure Monitor
13 19 (3.16%) Google Analytics
14 18 (3.00%) dbt
14 18 (3.00%) GitHub Actions
15 17 (2.83%) SaaS
16 15 (2.50%) Amazon EMR
16 15 (2.50%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 15 (2.50%) OpenShift
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%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 1 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (23.46%) SQL Server
2 110 (18.30%) Power BI
3 83 (13.81%) Data Warehouse
4 46 (7.65%) PostgreSQL
5 43 (7.15%) Metadata
6 36 (5.99%) MySQL
7 35 (5.82%) Relational Database
8 32 (5.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 31 (5.16%) Tableau
10 28 (4.66%) NoSQL
11 27 (4.49%) BigQuery
12 26 (4.33%) Data Lake
13 22 (3.66%) Oracle Database
14 21 (3.49%) Amazon Redshift
15 20 (3.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 18 (3.00%) Looker
17 17 (2.83%) Amazon Athena
18 16 (2.66%) Azure SQL Database
18 16 (2.66%) MongoDB
19 14 (2.33%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 72 (11.98%) Git
2 52 (8.65%) Jenkins
2 52 (8.65%) JIRA
3 39 (6.49%) GitLab
4 16 (2.66%) Gradle
5 14 (2.33%) Bitbucket
6 12 (2.00%) JUnit
6 12 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (1.83%) Maven
8 10 (1.66%) Mockito
9 8 (1.33%) Postman
9 8 (1.33%) REST Assured
9 8 (1.33%) Team Foundation Server
10 7 (1.16%) Selenium
10 7 (1.16%) TeamCity
11 6 (1.00%) Claude Code
11 6 (1.00%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.83%) SonarQube
12 5 (0.83%) Toad
13 4 (0.67%) ClearCase
General
1 195 (32.45%) Social Skills
2 118 (19.63%) Finance
3 105 (17.47%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (12.65%) Public Sector
5 57 (9.48%) Banking
6 20 (3.33%) Manufacturing
7 16 (2.66%) Retail
8 15 (2.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.83%) Law
10 10 (1.66%) Marketing
11 7 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Games
12 6 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Military
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%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 131 (21.80%) Developer
2 88 (14.64%) Data Engineer
3 82 (13.64%) Analyst
3 82 (13.64%) Senior
4 72 (11.98%) DBA
5 52 (8.65%) Lead
6 46 (7.65%) SQL DBA
7 34 (5.66%) Data Analyst
8 32 (5.32%) Administrator
9 28 (4.66%) Senior Data Engineer
10 26 (4.33%) Software Engineer
11 25 (4.16%) Senior Developer
12 23 (3.83%) Java Developer
13 22 (3.66%) SQL Developer
14 20 (3.33%) Performance Analyst
15 19 (3.16%) Oracle DBA
16 18 (3.00%) Consultant
17 17 (2.83%) Architect
18 14 (2.33%) Business Analyst
18 14 (2.33%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (10.65%) Terraform
2 54 (8.99%) REST
3 53 (8.82%) Kafka
4 44 (7.32%) PySpark
5 38 (6.32%) Spring Boot
6 37 (6.16%) .NET
7 33 (5.49%) Spring
8 30 (4.99%) HTML
9 24 (3.99%) React
10 20 (3.33%) JSON
11 19 (3.16%) CSS
11 19 (3.16%) Web Services
12 16 (2.66%) RESTful
13 14 (2.33%) .NET Core
13 14 (2.33%) Hibernate
14 13 (2.16%) AngularJS
14 13 (2.16%) JPA
14 13 (2.16%) Redux
15 12 (2.00%) XML
16 10 (1.66%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 51 (8.49%) Data Structures
2 40 (6.66%) Cloud Native
3 27 (4.49%) Product Ownership
4 26 (4.33%) Data Protection Act
5 23 (3.83%) Replication
6 20 (3.33%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (3.00%) NHS
8 17 (2.83%) Clustering
8 17 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (2.66%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (2.50%) AI Agents
10 15 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (2.33%) Onboarding
12 8 (1.33%) Algorithms
13 7 (1.16%) Robotics
14 6 (1.00%) Data Centre
14 6 (1.00%) Virtual Team
15 5 (0.83%) Low-Code
16 4 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
16 4 (0.67%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 42 (6.99%) Linux
2 33 (5.49%) Windows
3 25 (4.16%) Unix
4 24 (3.99%) 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
7 2 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.17%) CentOS
8 1 (0.17%) VMS
8 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (27.62%) Analytics
2 163 (27.12%) Agile
3 161 (26.79%) CI/CD
4 151 (25.12%) Data Modelling
5 133 (22.13%) Business Intelligence
6 124 (20.63%) ETL
7 119 (19.80%) Data Pipeline
8 113 (18.80%) DevOps
9 101 (16.81%) Problem-Solving
10 96 (15.97%) AI
11 95 (15.81%) Validation
12 92 (15.31%) Data Engineering
13 87 (14.48%) Migration
14 85 (14.14%) Stakeholder Management
15 77 (12.81%) Performance Tuning
16 72 (11.98%) Test Automation
17 69 (11.48%) Infrastructure as Code
18 65 (10.82%) Data Analysis
18 65 (10.82%) Data Governance
19 61 (10.15%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 183 (30.45%) Python
2 88 (14.64%) Java
3 59 (9.82%) PowerShell
4 44 (7.32%) T-SQL
5 42 (6.99%) C#
5 42 (6.99%) JavaScript
6 24 (3.99%) PL/SQL
7 21 (3.49%) Bash
8 17 (2.83%) TypeScript
9 15 (2.50%) Kotlin
10 14 (2.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (2.16%) Shell Script
12 9 (1.50%) Kusto Query Language
13 8 (1.33%) Scala
14 6 (1.00%) R
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
1 114 (18.97%) Security Cleared
2 102 (16.97%) SC Cleared
3 50 (8.32%) Degree
4 27 (4.49%) 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 (1.16%) 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%) CISM
14 1 (0.17%) CRISC
14 1 (0.17%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 137 (22.80%) Data Quality
2 30 (4.99%) QA
3 18 (3.00%) GDPR
4 6 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (0.83%) Accessibility
5 5 (0.83%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.50%) GRC
6 3 (0.50%) NIST
6 3 (0.50%) SLA
7 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.33%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.33%) MiFID
7 2 (0.33%) SEPA
8 1 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.17%) COBIT
8 1 (0.17%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.17%) PMO
8 1 (0.17%) Solvency II
8 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 68 (11.31%) Docker
2 25 (4.16%) 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 (8.32%) Kubernetes
2 36 (5.99%) Ansible
3 16 (2.66%) Grafana
3 16 (2.66%) Prometheus
4 13 (2.16%) Data Guard
5 11 (1.83%) Control-M
5 11 (1.83%) SCOM
6 6 (1.00%) Oracle RMAN
6 6 (1.00%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.83%) Argo
7 5 (0.83%) CASB
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%) SCCM
Vendors
1 133 (22.13%) Microsoft
2 87 (14.48%) Oracle
3 61 (10.15%) Databricks
4 40 (6.66%) Google
5 27 (4.49%) Splunk
6 25 (4.16%) SAP
7 19 (3.16%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.00%) IBM
8 12 (2.00%) Informatica
9 11 (1.83%) Teradata
10 10 (1.66%) Alteryx
11 9 (1.50%) Adobe
12 8 (1.33%) Foundry
12 8 (1.33%) OpenAI
12 8 (1.33%) Palantir
12 8 (1.33%) Salesforce
12 8 (1.33%) UiPath
13 7 (1.16%) CyberArk
14 6 (1.00%) Centrify
15 5 (0.83%) Cribl.io