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

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 22 19
Rank change year-on-year -4 -3 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL 373 259 378
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 7.20% 7.71% 7.69%
As % of the Programming Languages category 24.14% 29.20% 29.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 170 260
10th Percentile £314 £335 £281
25th Percentile £369 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £483 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.83% +1.68% -5.00%
75th Percentile £519 £572 £575
90th Percentile £650 £638 £615
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 5 13
10th Percentile £40.75 - £20.91
25th Percentile £48.69 £26.25 £37.63
Median hourly rate £66.97 £32.81 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +104.11% -22.80% -35.61%
75th Percentile £73.06 £65.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £77.88 - £46.18
England median hourly rate £55.00 £52.75 £42.50
% change year-on-year +4.27% +24.12% -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 1,545 887 1,302
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 29.84% 26.39% 26.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,064 592 936
10th Percentile £336 £338 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £566 £563
90th Percentile £625 £638 £625
England median daily rate £512 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.57% -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 18 63
10th Percentile £41.94 £29.90 £37.63
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.18 £43.57
Median hourly rate £63.50 £65.25 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -2.68% +41.29% -2.78%
75th Percentile £74.26 £86.00 £56.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £98.25 £72.37
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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +4 209 £424 -8.24% 211
Yorkshire -25 142 £500 -2.44% 105
North East -7 27 £475 -5.00% 42
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 31 (8.31%) Apache Airflow
2 14 (3.75%) Apache Spark
3 12 (3.22%) Apache
4 9 (2.41%) Confluence
5 8 (2.14%) SAS
6 7 (1.88%) SharePoint
7 5 (1.34%) Apache Pig
8 3 (0.80%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.54%) Apache Geronimo
9 2 (0.54%) Apache ServiceMix
9 2 (0.54%) Red Hat Fuse
9 2 (0.54%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.27%) IIS
10 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.27%) Mule
10 1 (0.27%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.27%) OpenStack
Applications
1 19 (5.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.07%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.80%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.27%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 9 (2.41%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.54%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.54%) Oracle Applications
2 2 (0.54%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.27%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.27%) Finacle
3 1 (0.27%) Maximo
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 126 (33.78%) Azure
2 123 (32.98%) AWS
3 75 (20.11%) Power Platform
4 48 (12.87%) GCP
5 31 (8.31%) Serverless
6 26 (6.97%) GitHub
7 22 (5.90%) Azure Data Factory
8 20 (5.36%) dbt
9 16 (4.29%) Azure DevOps
9 16 (4.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 16 (4.29%) Snowflake
10 15 (4.02%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (3.75%) AWS Lambda
12 11 (2.95%) SaaS
13 10 (2.68%) IaaS
14 9 (2.41%) Amazon EKS
14 9 (2.41%) PaaS
14 9 (2.41%) Prefect
15 8 (2.14%) Amazon S3
16 7 (1.88%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.56%) Firewall
2 7 (1.88%) TCP/IP
3 6 (1.61%) DNS
3 6 (1.61%) SSL
4 5 (1.34%) IPsec
4 5 (1.34%) Kerberos
5 3 (0.80%) HTTP
5 3 (0.80%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.27%) Internet
6 1 (0.27%) IP Telephony
6 1 (0.27%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (19.03%) Power BI
2 50 (13.40%) SQL Server
3 43 (11.53%) Data Warehouse
4 42 (11.26%) NoSQL
5 30 (8.04%) PostgreSQL
5 30 (8.04%) Relational Database
6 24 (6.43%) Data Lake
6 24 (6.43%) MySQL
7 22 (5.90%) Tableau
8 16 (4.29%) MongoDB
9 15 (4.02%) Snowflake Schema
9 15 (4.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 14 (3.75%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (3.75%) DB2
10 14 (3.75%) Power Query
11 13 (3.49%) Delta Lake
12 12 (3.22%) BigQuery
12 12 (3.22%) Hadoop
13 11 (2.95%) Metadata
14 10 (2.68%) Redis
Development Applications
1 47 (12.60%) Git
2 46 (12.33%) JIRA
3 39 (10.46%) GitLab
4 33 (8.85%) Jenkins
5 15 (4.02%) Cucumber
5 15 (4.02%) REST Assured
5 15 (4.02%) Selenium
6 10 (2.68%) Postman
7 8 (2.14%) Jaeger
8 6 (1.61%) Mocha
8 6 (1.61%) TestRail
9 5 (1.34%) Liquibase
10 4 (1.07%) Mockito
11 3 (0.80%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.80%) Cypress.io
12 2 (0.54%) JUnit
12 2 (0.54%) PyCharm
12 2 (0.54%) Visual Studio Code
13 1 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
13 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 122 (32.71%) Social Skills
2 104 (27.88%) Finance
3 69 (18.50%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (16.09%) Banking
5 35 (9.38%) Public Sector
6 15 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (3.49%) Financial Institution
8 10 (2.68%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.14%) Law
10 6 (1.61%) Marketing
11 5 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.34%) Retail
12 4 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.07%) Legal
12 4 (1.07%) Local Government
12 4 (1.07%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.07%) Wholesale Banking
13 3 (0.80%) Military
13 3 (0.80%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 99 (26.54%) Developer
2 71 (19.03%) Analyst
3 57 (15.28%) Data Engineer
4 53 (14.21%) Senior
5 29 (7.77%) Data Analyst
6 27 (7.24%) Lead
7 20 (5.36%) Business Analyst
8 19 (5.09%) Java Developer
9 17 (4.56%) Software Engineer
10 16 (4.29%) Architect
11 15 (4.02%) Senior Developer
12 13 (3.49%) Test Engineer
13 12 (3.22%) DBA
14 11 (2.95%) AWS Engineer
14 11 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
15 10 (2.68%) Test Automation Engineer
16 9 (2.41%) Business Intelligence Developer
16 9 (2.41%) Data Scientist
16 9 (2.41%) Senior Software Engineer
16 9 (2.41%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (13.14%) REST
2 41 (10.99%) .NET
3 35 (9.38%) Spring Boot
4 32 (8.58%) Kafka
5 29 (7.77%) Spring
6 20 (5.36%) RESTful
7 18 (4.83%) React
8 17 (4.56%) OpenID
9 16 (4.29%) OAuth
10 15 (4.02%) HTML
10 15 (4.02%) Middleware
10 15 (4.02%) PySpark
10 15 (4.02%) XML
11 13 (3.49%) CSS
11 13 (3.49%) JMS
11 13 (3.49%) JSON
12 12 (3.22%) LDAP
12 12 (3.22%) Node.js
12 12 (3.22%) SailPoint
13 8 (2.14%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.31%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.36%) Clustering
3 17 (4.56%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (4.02%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.22%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (3.22%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 11 (2.95%) Data Structures
7 10 (2.68%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.41%) Algorithms
9 8 (2.14%) Onboarding
9 8 (2.14%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.88%) Public Cloud
10 7 (1.88%) Replication
11 6 (1.61%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.61%) Distributed Computing
11 6 (1.61%) NHS
12 5 (1.34%) Credit Risk
12 5 (1.34%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 5 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 32 (8.58%) Linux
2 16 (4.29%) Windows
3 11 (2.95%) Unix
4 7 (1.88%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.80%) AIX
5 3 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.27%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.27%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (32.71%) CI/CD
2 113 (30.29%) Agile
3 102 (27.35%) DevOps
4 87 (23.32%) Problem-Solving
5 85 (22.79%) Data Modelling
6 78 (20.91%) Analytics
7 77 (20.64%) Business Intelligence
8 62 (16.62%) ETL
9 60 (16.09%) Microservices
10 49 (13.14%) Data Pipeline
11 46 (12.33%) Data Engineering
12 45 (12.06%) Data Governance
12 45 (12.06%) Test Automation
12 45 (12.06%) Visualisation
13 42 (11.26%) Data Analysis
13 42 (11.26%) Performance Tuning
13 42 (11.26%) Stakeholder Management
14 36 (9.65%) Containerisation
15 35 (9.38%) Actionable Insight
16 34 (9.12%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 114 (30.56%) Python
2 83 (22.25%) Java
3 28 (7.51%) C#
4 27 (7.24%) JavaScript
5 21 (5.63%) PL/SQL
6 15 (4.02%) PowerShell
7 12 (3.22%) PHP
8 11 (2.95%) Bash
8 11 (2.95%) VBA
9 10 (2.68%) TypeScript
10 9 (2.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 9 (2.41%) Go
11 8 (2.14%) Rust
11 8 (2.14%) T-SQL
12 7 (1.88%) Scala
13 6 (1.61%) Shell Script
14 4 (1.07%) ProC
14 4 (1.07%) R
15 3 (0.80%) Bicep
15 3 (0.80%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 52 (13.94%) Degree
2 40 (10.72%) Security Cleared
3 26 (6.97%) SC Cleared
4 21 (5.63%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (4.56%) Master's Degree
6 15 (4.02%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.88%) AWS Certification
8 6 (1.61%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.07%) MBA
10 3 (0.80%) CEH
10 3 (0.80%) GIAC
10 3 (0.80%) GWAPT
10 3 (0.80%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.54%) AWS Certified Developer
11 2 (0.54%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.27%) Oracle Certification
12 1 (0.27%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (12.87%) Data Quality
2 31 (8.31%) QA
3 12 (3.22%) ISO 20022
3 12 (3.22%) PSD2
3 12 (3.22%) SEPA
4 11 (2.95%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.88%) GDPR
5 7 (1.88%) WCAG
6 6 (1.61%) SLA
7 4 (1.07%) PMO
8 2 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.54%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.27%) HL7
9 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.27%) PERC
System Software
1 64 (17.16%) Docker
2 6 (1.61%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.34%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.34%) RACF
4 3 (0.80%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.80%) KVM
5 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 54 (14.48%) Kubernetes
2 28 (7.51%) Terraform
3 22 (5.90%) Grafana
4 19 (5.09%) Prometheus
5 14 (3.75%) Ansible
6 9 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.14%) Kiali
8 4 (1.07%) SCCM
9 3 (0.80%) IBM BigFix
9 3 (0.80%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.54%) Control-M
11 1 (0.27%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
11 1 (0.27%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 1 (0.27%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 60 (16.09%) Microsoft
2 45 (12.06%) Oracle
3 30 (8.04%) Databricks
4 29 (7.77%) Splunk
5 21 (5.63%) ServiceNow
6 17 (4.56%) Google
7 9 (2.41%) Advent
7 9 (2.41%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.88%) IBM
8 7 (1.88%) SolarWinds
9 6 (1.61%) MuleSoft
9 6 (1.61%) RedGate
10 5 (1.34%) SAP
11 4 (1.07%) AppDynamics
11 4 (1.07%) Cognos
11 4 (1.07%) Dynatrace
12 3 (0.80%) Citrix
12 3 (0.80%) F5
12 3 (0.80%) Informatica
12 3 (0.80%) Red Hat