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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 20 22
Rank change year-on-year -6 +2 -9
Contract jobs citing SQL 341 270 309
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.20% 7.88% 6.61%
As % of the Programming Languages category 24.34% 31.18% 26.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 176 224
10th Percentile £314 £333 £309
25th Percentile £364 £400 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £439 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.58% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £500 £567 £588
90th Percentile £606 £638 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 5 8
10th Percentile £28.09 - £18.21
25th Percentile £36.00 £26.25 £24.95
Median hourly rate £64.50 £40.00 £41.41
Median % change year-on-year +61.25% -3.41% -7.31%
75th Percentile £74.26 £65.00 £45.88
90th Percentile £78.60 - -
England median hourly rate £49.36 £52.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -5.98% +16.67% -1.10%

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 1,401 866 1,177
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 29.59% 25.28% 25.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 970 564 873
10th Percentile £325 £347 £325
25th Percentile £393 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £556 £575
90th Percentile £625 £650 £650
England median daily rate £513 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -4.65% -2.27% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 21 51
10th Percentile £41.94 £37.50 £38.39
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.18 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +40.75% +2.99%
75th Percentile £70.00 £86.00 £56.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £96.64 £68.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.59% +0.40% -3.85%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -2 196 £415 -8.29% 281
Yorkshire -22 129 £465 -7.00% 244
North East -12 18 £488 +2.63% 62
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 28 (8.21%) Apache Airflow
2 11 (3.23%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.93%) Apache Spark
3 10 (2.93%) Confluence
4 9 (2.64%) Apache
5 6 (1.76%) SAS
6 5 (1.47%) Apache Pig
7 3 (0.88%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.59%) Mule
8 2 (0.59%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.29%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.29%) CICS
9 1 (0.29%) IIS
9 1 (0.29%) JBoss
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.29%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.29%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.29%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 29 (8.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (2.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.47%) Chatbot
3 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.17%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.59%) SPSS
6 1 (0.29%) Stata
Business Applications
1 9 (2.64%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.59%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.29%) Finacle
3 1 (0.29%) Magento
3 1 (0.29%) Maximo
3 1 (0.29%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 119 (34.90%) AWS
2 117 (34.31%) Azure
3 76 (22.29%) Power Platform
4 47 (13.78%) GCP
5 31 (9.09%) Serverless
6 28 (8.21%) GitHub
7 20 (5.87%) Snowflake
8 19 (5.57%) dbt
9 17 (4.99%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (4.69%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (4.40%) AWS Lambda
11 15 (4.40%) Azure Data Factory
12 14 (4.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 9 (2.64%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (2.64%) Amazon S3
13 9 (2.64%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (2.35%) Prefect
14 8 (2.35%) SaaS
15 7 (2.05%) Amazon ECS
15 7 (2.05%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.40%) Firewall
2 7 (2.05%) TCP/IP
3 6 (1.76%) DNS
4 3 (0.88%) HTTP
4 3 (0.88%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.59%) SSL
6 1 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.29%) FCoE
6 1 (0.29%) Fibre Channel
6 1 (0.29%) Internet
6 1 (0.29%) IP Telephony
6 1 (0.29%) IPsec
6 1 (0.29%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.29%) LAN
6 1 (0.29%) Multicast
6 1 (0.29%) NAS
6 1 (0.29%) SAN
6 1 (0.29%) VoIP
6 1 (0.29%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (21.99%) Power BI
2 43 (12.61%) SQL Server
3 42 (12.32%) NoSQL
4 30 (8.80%) PostgreSQL
5 28 (8.21%) Data Warehouse
5 28 (8.21%) Relational Database
6 23 (6.74%) MySQL
7 22 (6.45%) Data Lake
8 18 (5.28%) MongoDB
8 18 (5.28%) Power Query
8 18 (5.28%) Tableau
9 14 (4.11%) Azure SQL Database
9 14 (4.11%) BigQuery
9 14 (4.11%) Snowflake Schema
9 14 (4.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (3.23%) DB2
11 10 (2.93%) Redis
12 9 (2.64%) Delta Lake
12 9 (2.64%) Hadoop
13 8 (2.35%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 43 (12.61%) Git
2 41 (12.02%) JIRA
3 36 (10.56%) GitLab
4 33 (9.68%) Jenkins
5 11 (3.23%) Cucumber
6 10 (2.93%) Postman
6 10 (2.93%) REST Assured
6 10 (2.93%) Selenium
7 6 (1.76%) Mocha
7 6 (1.76%) TestRail
8 5 (1.47%) Jaeger
8 5 (1.47%) Mockito
9 4 (1.17%) Liquibase
10 3 (0.88%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.88%) JUnit
11 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.59%) Gradle
11 2 (0.59%) Oracle Forms
11 2 (0.59%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 110 (32.26%) Social Skills
2 98 (28.74%) Finance
3 68 (19.94%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (16.72%) Banking
5 34 (9.97%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (3.23%) Presentation Skills
8 10 (2.93%) Financial Institution
9 7 (2.05%) Local Government
10 6 (1.76%) Law
10 6 (1.76%) Marketing
10 6 (1.76%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.76%) Retail
11 5 (1.47%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.17%) Billing
12 4 (1.17%) Wholesale Banking
13 3 (0.88%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.88%) Legal
13 3 (0.88%) Military
14 2 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (28.74%) Developer
2 65 (19.06%) Analyst
3 54 (15.84%) Data Engineer
4 47 (13.78%) Senior
5 33 (9.68%) Data Analyst
6 23 (6.74%) Lead
7 20 (5.87%) Java Developer
7 20 (5.87%) Software Engineer
8 16 (4.69%) Business Analyst
9 14 (4.11%) Senior Developer
10 13 (3.81%) AWS Engineer
10 13 (3.81%) Data Scientist
11 11 (3.23%) DevOps Engineer
11 11 (3.23%) Test Engineer
12 10 (2.93%) Azure Engineer
12 10 (2.93%) Business Intelligence Developer
13 9 (2.64%) DBA
13 9 (2.64%) Test Automation Engineer
14 8 (2.35%) Architect
14 8 (2.35%) Strategy Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (12.90%) REST
2 41 (12.02%) .NET
3 31 (9.09%) Spring Boot
4 29 (8.50%) Spring
5 28 (8.21%) Kafka
6 19 (5.57%) React
7 17 (4.99%) HTML
8 16 (4.69%) CSS
8 16 (4.69%) RESTful
9 15 (4.40%) PySpark
9 15 (4.40%) XML
10 14 (4.11%) Node.js
11 13 (3.81%) JSON
12 12 (3.52%) JMS
12 12 (3.52%) OAuth
13 11 (3.23%) Middleware
14 9 (2.64%) AngularJS
14 9 (2.64%) LDAP
14 9 (2.64%) OpenID
15 8 (2.35%) Express.js
Miscellaneous
1 31 (9.09%) Cloud Native
2 16 (4.69%) Data Protection Act
3 13 (3.81%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (3.52%) Clustering
5 11 (3.23%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.23%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 10 (2.93%) Data Structures
7 9 (2.64%) Algorithms
8 8 (2.35%) Onboarding
8 8 (2.35%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.35%) Virtual Team
9 7 (2.05%) Distributed Computing
9 7 (2.05%) Mainframe
9 7 (2.05%) Management Information System
9 7 (2.05%) NHS
10 6 (1.76%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
11 5 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (1.17%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.62%) Linux
2 13 (3.81%) Windows
3 7 (2.05%) Unix
4 4 (1.17%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.29%) MVS
7 1 (0.29%) Solaris
7 1 (0.29%) VMS
7 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (29.91%) CI/CD
2 98 (28.74%) Agile
3 89 (26.10%) DevOps
4 82 (24.05%) Business Intelligence
5 77 (22.58%) Problem-Solving
6 74 (21.70%) Analytics
7 71 (20.82%) Data Modelling
8 50 (14.66%) ETL
8 50 (14.66%) Microservices
9 45 (13.20%) Visualisation
10 43 (12.61%) Data Pipeline
11 41 (12.02%) Data Governance
12 40 (11.73%) Containerisation
12 40 (11.73%) Data Analysis
13 39 (11.44%) Data Engineering
13 39 (11.44%) Stakeholder Management
14 38 (11.14%) Actionable Insight
15 34 (9.97%) Data Science
15 34 (9.97%) Test Automation
16 33 (9.68%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 115 (33.72%) Python
2 77 (22.58%) Java
3 27 (7.92%) JavaScript
4 25 (7.33%) C#
5 19 (5.57%) PL/SQL
6 13 (3.81%) PHP
7 12 (3.52%) TypeScript
7 12 (3.52%) VBA
8 10 (2.93%) T-SQL
9 8 (2.35%) Bash
9 8 (2.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (2.35%) Go
9 8 (2.35%) Scala
10 6 (1.76%) Bicep
10 6 (1.76%) R
10 6 (1.76%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.47%) Rust
12 4 (1.17%) PowerShell
13 3 (0.88%) Delphi
13 3 (0.88%) ProC
Qualifications
1 48 (14.08%) Degree
2 27 (7.92%) Security Cleared
3 20 (5.87%) Computer Science Degree
4 13 (3.81%) SC Cleared
5 12 (3.52%) Master's Degree
6 9 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (1.76%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.47%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.17%) MBA
10 3 (0.88%) CEH
10 3 (0.88%) GIAC
10 3 (0.88%) GWAPT
10 3 (0.88%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.59%) AWS Certified Developer
11 2 (0.59%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.59%) MCP
11 2 (0.59%) Postgraduate
12 1 (0.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.29%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (12.90%) Data Quality
2 27 (7.92%) QA
3 11 (3.23%) Accessibility
3 11 (3.23%) ISO 20022
3 11 (3.23%) PSD2
3 11 (3.23%) SEPA
4 7 (2.05%) WCAG
5 6 (1.76%) SLA
6 5 (1.47%) PMO
7 4 (1.17%) GDPR
8 3 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.29%) HL7
9 1 (0.29%) PERC
9 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 64 (18.77%) Docker
2 4 (1.17%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) KVM
4 1 (0.29%) NFS
4 1 (0.29%) RACF
4 1 (0.29%) SRDF
4 1 (0.29%) Veritas Cluster Server
4 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) vSphere
4 1 (0.29%) Xen
Systems Management
1 53 (15.54%) Kubernetes
2 36 (10.56%) Terraform
3 18 (5.28%) Grafana
4 16 (4.69%) Prometheus
5 14 (4.11%) Ansible
6 5 (1.47%) Kiali
6 5 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.17%) SCCM
8 2 (0.59%) Control-M
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.29%) Oracle Identity Manager
9 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.29%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 61 (17.89%) Microsoft
2 41 (12.02%) Oracle
3 26 (7.62%) Databricks
3 26 (7.62%) Splunk
4 19 (5.57%) Google
5 17 (4.99%) ServiceNow
6 9 (2.64%) Advent
7 7 (2.05%) MuleSoft
8 6 (1.76%) AppDynamics
8 6 (1.76%) Dynatrace
9 5 (1.47%) IBM
9 5 (1.47%) Salesforce
10 4 (1.17%) Cognos
10 4 (1.17%) F5
10 4 (1.17%) SAP
11 3 (0.88%) Citrix
11 3 (0.88%) Imperva
11 3 (0.88%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.88%) VMware
12 2 (0.59%) Brio