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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 22 17
Rank change year-on-year -1 -5 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL 589 310 347
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.76% 7.83% 8.50%
As % of the Programming Languages category 31.46% 26.63% 34.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 354 224 231
10th Percentile £321 £313 £350
25th Percentile £406 £363 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £480
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -6.25% -4.00%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £552
90th Percentile £604 £600 £622
England median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 2 6
10th Percentile £23.15 £24.13 £28.75
25th Percentile £28.50 £26.11 £32.44
Median hourly rate £39.50 £30.31 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.32% -20.24% +26.67%
75th Percentile £62.50 £33.61 £42.50
90th Percentile £76.00 £35.04 £53.75
England median hourly rate £41.00 £50.00 £40.58
% change year-on-year -18.00% +23.22% -11.56%

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 1,872 1,164 1,010
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 24.68% 29.40% 24.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,196 823 677
10th Percentile £350 £315 £335
25th Percentile £413 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £453 £488
Median % change year-on-year +8.61% -7.08% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £575
90th Percentile £650 £620 £638
England median daily rate £525 £514 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -6.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 12 28
10th Percentile £28.50 £30.60 £35.89
25th Percentile £47.33 £40.46 £37.55
Median hourly rate £69.75 £66.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +4.89% +44.00% -
75th Percentile £72.75 £85.56 £64.06
90th Percentile £77.00 £94.38 £81.67
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +16.07% -13.85% -

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 22 September 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 22 September 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 22 September 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 -1 288 £500 +13.64% 470
Yorkshire +7 252 £459 -3.42% 249
North East -6 56 £406 -12.63% 93
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 47 (7.98%) Confluence
2 21 (3.57%) Apache Airflow
2 21 (3.57%) Apache Spark
3 19 (3.23%) Apache
4 11 (1.87%) SharePoint
5 10 (1.70%) SAS
6 9 (1.53%) Jupyter
7 7 (1.19%) Palantir Foundry
8 4 (0.68%) Camunda
8 4 (0.68%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.68%) WebSphere
9 3 (0.51%) CMS
10 2 (0.34%) nginx
10 2 (0.34%) WordPress
11 1 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
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 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.68%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.36%) Oracle EBS
3 7 (1.19%) Oracle Payables
4 5 (0.85%) Infor LN
5 3 (0.51%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.34%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.17%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 158 (26.83%) Azure
2 125 (21.22%) AWS
3 121 (20.54%) Power Platform
4 58 (9.85%) GCP
5 52 (8.83%) GitHub
6 41 (6.96%) Azure DevOps
7 40 (6.79%) Serverless
8 28 (4.75%) Azure Data Factory
9 23 (3.90%) Amazon S3
9 23 (3.90%) AWS Lambda
9 23 (3.90%) Snowflake
10 22 (3.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 18 (3.06%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (2.89%) Azure Monitor
12 17 (2.89%) SaaS
13 16 (2.72%) dbt
13 16 (2.72%) Google Analytics
14 15 (2.55%) Amazon EMR
15 14 (2.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 14 (2.38%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.55%) SSL
2 11 (1.87%) DNS
2 11 (1.87%) Network Security
3 8 (1.36%) Firewall
4 6 (1.02%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.02%) RTP
4 6 (1.02%) Wireshark
5 4 (0.68%) BGP
5 4 (0.68%) DHCP
5 4 (0.68%) HTTP
5 4 (0.68%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (0.51%) Internet
6 3 (0.51%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.51%) LAN
7 2 (0.34%) PABX
7 2 (0.34%) VLAN
7 2 (0.34%) VoIP
7 2 (0.34%) VPN
8 1 (0.17%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 1 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (23.09%) SQL Server
2 112 (19.02%) Power BI
3 89 (15.11%) Data Warehouse
4 45 (7.64%) PostgreSQL
5 41 (6.96%) Metadata
6 36 (6.11%) MySQL
7 34 (5.77%) Relational Database
8 32 (5.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 32 (5.43%) Tableau
9 29 (4.92%) NoSQL
10 28 (4.75%) Data Lake
11 24 (4.07%) BigQuery
11 24 (4.07%) Oracle Database
12 21 (3.57%) Amazon Redshift
13 19 (3.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 18 (3.06%) Looker
15 17 (2.89%) Amazon Athena
16 16 (2.72%) Azure SQL Database
16 16 (2.72%) MongoDB
17 15 (2.55%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 71 (12.05%) Git
2 51 (8.66%) Jenkins
2 51 (8.66%) JIRA
3 36 (6.11%) GitLab
4 15 (2.55%) Gradle
5 12 (2.04%) Bitbucket
6 11 (1.87%) JUnit
6 11 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
7 10 (1.70%) Maven
8 9 (1.53%) Mockito
9 8 (1.36%) Postman
10 7 (1.19%) REST Assured
10 7 (1.19%) Selenium
10 7 (1.19%) Team Foundation Server
11 6 (1.02%) Claude Code
11 6 (1.02%) Cucumber
11 6 (1.02%) TeamCity
12 5 (0.85%) Toad
13 4 (0.68%) Oracle Forms
13 4 (0.68%) SonarQube
General
1 190 (32.26%) Social Skills
2 116 (19.69%) Finance
3 103 (17.49%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (11.71%) Public Sector
5 54 (9.17%) Banking
6 20 (3.40%) Manufacturing
7 15 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (2.55%) Retail
8 10 (1.70%) Law
8 10 (1.70%) Marketing
9 7 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.02%) Games
10 6 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.02%) Publishing
11 5 (0.85%) Aviation
11 5 (0.85%) Fire and Rescue
11 5 (0.85%) Military
11 5 (0.85%) Police
12 4 (0.68%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 131 (22.24%) Developer
2 84 (14.26%) Analyst
2 84 (14.26%) Data Engineer
3 77 (13.07%) Senior
4 73 (12.39%) DBA
5 49 (8.32%) Lead
6 46 (7.81%) SQL DBA
7 34 (5.77%) Data Analyst
8 31 (5.26%) Administrator
9 27 (4.58%) Senior Data Engineer
10 26 (4.41%) Software Engineer
11 25 (4.24%) Senior Developer
11 25 (4.24%) SQL Developer
12 24 (4.07%) Java Developer
13 22 (3.74%) Oracle DBA
14 20 (3.40%) Consultant
15 18 (3.06%) Architect
16 17 (2.89%) Performance Analyst
17 14 (2.38%) Business Analyst
18 13 (2.21%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (10.02%) Terraform
2 51 (8.66%) REST
3 49 (8.32%) Kafka
4 42 (7.13%) PySpark
5 38 (6.45%) Spring Boot
6 36 (6.11%) .NET
7 34 (5.77%) Spring
8 28 (4.75%) HTML
9 24 (4.07%) React
10 19 (3.23%) CSS
10 19 (3.23%) JSON
10 19 (3.23%) Web Services
11 17 (2.89%) RESTful
12 14 (2.38%) .NET Core
12 14 (2.38%) AngularJS
13 13 (2.21%) Hibernate
14 12 (2.04%) JPA
14 12 (2.04%) Redux
14 12 (2.04%) XML
15 10 (1.70%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 53 (9.00%) Data Structures
2 40 (6.79%) Cloud Native
3 26 (4.41%) Data Protection Act
3 26 (4.41%) Product Ownership
4 22 (3.74%) Replication
5 19 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
6 18 (3.06%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (3.06%) NHS
7 16 (2.72%) AI Agents
7 16 (2.72%) Clustering
7 16 (2.72%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
9 11 (1.87%) Onboarding
10 7 (1.19%) Algorithms
10 7 (1.19%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.19%) Robotics
10 7 (1.19%) Virtual Team
11 5 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.68%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 4 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 41 (6.96%) Linux
2 30 (5.09%) Windows
3 24 (4.07%) Unix
4 22 (3.74%) Windows Server
5 17 (2.89%) Solaris
6 4 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.34%) AIX
7 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle Linux
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
1 159 (26.99%) Analytics
2 156 (26.49%) CI/CD
3 152 (25.81%) Agile
4 150 (25.47%) Data Modelling
5 136 (23.09%) Business Intelligence
6 122 (20.71%) ETL
7 118 (20.03%) Data Pipeline
8 107 (18.17%) DevOps
9 104 (17.66%) Problem-Solving
10 97 (16.47%) AI
11 89 (15.11%) Migration
11 89 (15.11%) Validation
12 87 (14.77%) Data Engineering
13 77 (13.07%) Performance Tuning
14 75 (12.73%) Stakeholder Management
15 65 (11.04%) Data Analysis
16 64 (10.87%) Data Governance
16 64 (10.87%) Infrastructure as Code
16 64 (10.87%) Test Automation
17 59 (10.02%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 180 (30.56%) Python
2 85 (14.43%) Java
3 56 (9.51%) PowerShell
4 44 (7.47%) T-SQL
5 41 (6.96%) C#
6 39 (6.62%) JavaScript
7 27 (4.58%) PL/SQL
8 20 (3.40%) Bash
9 16 (2.72%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 16 (2.72%) TypeScript
10 13 (2.21%) Kotlin
10 13 (2.21%) Shell Script
11 9 (1.53%) Kusto Query Language
12 8 (1.36%) R
13 7 (1.19%) Scala
14 5 (0.85%) Search Processing Language
15 4 (0.68%) Bicep
15 4 (0.68%) VB
16 3 (0.51%) PHP
16 3 (0.51%) VB6
Qualifications
1 108 (18.34%) Security Cleared
2 97 (16.47%) SC Cleared
3 48 (8.15%) Degree
4 26 (4.41%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (2.04%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (1.19%) DV Cleared
10 6 (1.02%) CISSP
10 6 (1.02%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (0.85%) GCFA
11 5 (0.85%) GCIH
11 5 (0.85%) OCP
12 2 (0.34%) AWS Certification
13 1 (0.17%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 1 (0.17%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.17%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (22.58%) Data Quality
2 31 (5.26%) QA
3 18 (3.06%) GDPR
4 6 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (0.85%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.68%) Accessibility
6 4 (0.68%) GRC
7 3 (0.51%) PMO
7 3 (0.51%) SLA
8 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.34%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.34%) MiFID
8 2 (0.34%) NIST
9 1 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.17%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.17%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (11.38%) Docker
2 22 (3.74%) Active Directory
3 14 (2.38%) Oracle RAC
4 11 (1.87%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.68%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.68%) KVM
5 4 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.17%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 48 (8.15%) Kubernetes
2 34 (5.77%) Ansible
3 15 (2.55%) Grafana
4 14 (2.38%) Data Guard
4 14 (2.38%) Prometheus
5 11 (1.87%) Control-M
5 11 (1.87%) SCOM
6 9 (1.53%) Oracle RMAN
7 6 (1.02%) Progress Chef
8 5 (0.85%) Argo
8 5 (0.85%) CASB
9 2 (0.34%) Consul
9 2 (0.34%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
9 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
9 2 (0.34%) Nagios
9 2 (0.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 2 (0.34%) Zipkin
10 1 (0.17%) Forefront Identity Manager
10 1 (0.17%) Kibana
10 1 (0.17%) SCCM
Vendors
1 131 (22.24%) Microsoft
2 85 (14.43%) Oracle
3 60 (10.19%) Databricks
4 36 (6.11%) Google
5 25 (4.24%) SAP
5 25 (4.24%) Splunk
6 21 (3.57%) ServiceNow
7 11 (1.87%) Alteryx
7 11 (1.87%) IBM
7 11 (1.87%) Teradata
8 8 (1.36%) Foundry
8 8 (1.36%) Informatica
8 8 (1.36%) OpenAI
8 8 (1.36%) Palantir
8 8 (1.36%) Salesforce
8 8 (1.36%) UiPath
9 7 (1.19%) Adobe
9 7 (1.19%) CyberArk
10 6 (1.02%) Centrify
11 5 (0.85%) Cribl.io