SQL Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

SQL (Structured Query Language)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring SQL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 11 18
Rank change year-on-year +5 +7 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL 439 180 149
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 13.43% 12.11% 7.26%
As % of the Programming Languages category 63.07% 45.92% 33.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 118 100
10th Percentile £350 £235 £259
25th Percentile £406 £391 £312
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £453 £425
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% +6.59% -15.00%
75th Percentile £514 £538 £550
90th Percentile £575 £638 £625
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -1.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 17 2
10th Percentile £52.05 £27.84 £30.73
25th Percentile £53.25 £33.91 £31.26
Median hourly rate £56.00 £50.00 £32.15
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +55.52% +27.33%
75th Percentile £58.25 - £33.04
90th Percentile £59.15 - £33.57
England median hourly rate £47.50 £41.66 £42.50
% change year-on-year +14.03% -1.98% -15.00%

All Programming Languages
West Midlands

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 West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 696 392 448
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 21.29% 26.38% 21.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 233 315
10th Percentile £350 £276 £260
25th Percentile £410 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% -2.63% -7.00%
75th Percentile £538 £543 £554
90th Percentile £624 £650 £638
England median daily rate £514 £521 £538
% change year-on-year -1.25% -3.25% -3.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 20 15
10th Percentile £46.25 £27.24 £36.36
25th Percentile £56.50 £32.77 £47.75
Median hourly rate £59.50 £41.96 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.82% -27.03% +96.13%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £69.77 - £72.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.54% -9.20% -

SQL
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

SQL job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

SQL
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SQL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SQL

SQL
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL in the West Midlands

SQL
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SQL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SQL

SQL
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SQL within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 17 June 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
Shropshire +4 189 £459 -0.22% 44
Birmingham -2 71 £460 -9.19% 57
Warwickshire -14 57 £513 +28.13% 19
Coventry -2 36 £416 +33.12% 34
Solihull -12 18 £478 +13.81% 2
Worcestershire +6 10 £425 -39.29% 8
Herefordshire 0 9 £538 -2.27% 2
Staffordshire +3 8 £413 -25.00% 40
Dudley - 8 £410 - 4
Brierley Hill - 3 £395 - 1
Wolverhampton - 2 - - 26
Wednesbury - 1 - -
SQL
England

SQL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 64 (14.58%) SAS
2 35 (7.97%) Confluence
3 15 (3.42%) WebLogic
4 13 (2.96%) Tuxedo
5 9 (2.05%) Apache
6 7 (1.59%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (1.37%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 5 (1.14%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.68%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.68%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.68%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.23%) Apache Geronimo
10 1 (0.23%) Apache ServiceMix
10 1 (0.23%) CMS
10 1 (0.23%) IIS
10 1 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.23%) Umbraco
10 1 (0.23%) WebSphere
Applications
1 12 (2.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.14%) Notepad++
3 3 (0.68%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.46%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
1 6 (1.37%) Oracle HRMS
2 4 (0.91%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.46%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.23%) Aareon QL
4 1 (0.23%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.23%) OPENHousing
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.23%) Orchard Housing
4 1 (0.23%) SAP EWM
4 1 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.23%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 131 (29.84%) AWS
2 99 (22.55%) Azure
3 58 (13.21%) Power Platform
4 42 (9.57%) Azure DevOps
5 33 (7.52%) Amazon S3
6 28 (6.38%) Azure Data Factory
7 22 (5.01%) Amazon EC2
7 22 (5.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 22 (5.01%) GitHub
8 21 (4.78%) Serverless
9 20 (4.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 16 (3.64%) Snowflake
11 15 (3.42%) Amazon SQS
11 15 (3.42%) AWS KMS
11 15 (3.42%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (3.42%) Route 53
12 11 (2.51%) Matillion
13 9 (2.05%) AWS Lambda
13 9 (2.05%) GCP
14 8 (1.82%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.82%) Firewall
2 7 (1.59%) SNMP
3 5 (1.14%) PuTTY
3 5 (1.14%) WinSCP
4 3 (0.68%) DNS
4 3 (0.68%) SSL
5 2 (0.46%) DHCP
5 2 (0.46%) LAN
5 2 (0.46%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.46%) VLAN
5 2 (0.46%) VPN
5 2 (0.46%) WAN
5 2 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.23%) 4G
6 1 (0.23%) AMQP
6 1 (0.23%) Internet
6 1 (0.23%) Network Security
6 1 (0.23%) tcpdump
6 1 (0.23%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.23%) WPA2
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (17.08%) Pentaho
2 71 (16.17%) Data Warehouse
3 56 (12.76%) Power BI
4 32 (7.29%) PostgreSQL
5 30 (6.83%) Amazon RDS
6 26 (5.92%) Relational Database
7 22 (5.01%) Amazon Redshift
8 21 (4.78%) Oracle Reports
8 21 (4.78%) Tableau
9 20 (4.56%) Oracle Database
9 20 (4.56%) SQL Server
10 19 (4.33%) DynamoDB
11 16 (3.64%) Data Lake
12 15 (3.42%) Amazon Aurora
12 15 (3.42%) BusinessObjects
12 15 (3.42%) Ingres
12 15 (3.42%) MySQL
13 14 (3.19%) Metadata
14 12 (2.73%) Azure SQL Database
14 12 (2.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 86 (19.59%) Git
2 76 (17.31%) JIRA
3 65 (14.81%) GitLab
4 56 (12.76%) Jenkins
5 22 (5.01%) Zephyr
6 21 (4.78%) Postman
7 20 (4.56%) JUnit
8 19 (4.33%) Maven
9 18 (4.10%) Mockito
10 16 (3.64%) SonarQube
11 11 (2.51%) Artifactory
11 11 (2.51%) Bitbucket Server
11 11 (2.51%) DbUnit
11 11 (2.51%) jMock
12 8 (1.82%) Team Foundation Server
13 7 (1.59%) Oracle Forms
13 7 (1.59%) Selenium
14 5 (1.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 4 (0.91%) CA Gen
15 4 (0.91%) Cypress.io
General
1 104 (23.69%) Social Skills
2 81 (18.45%) Public Sector
3 72 (16.40%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (7.97%) Finance
5 11 (2.51%) Banking
6 7 (1.59%) Manufacturing
6 7 (1.59%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (1.37%) Marketing
8 5 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.14%) Retail
9 4 (0.91%) Advertising
10 3 (0.68%) Billing
10 3 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.68%) Legal
10 3 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.46%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.23%) Automotive
12 1 (0.23%) Law
12 1 (0.23%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 174 (39.64%) Data Engineer
2 73 (16.63%) Developer
3 53 (12.07%) Senior
4 40 (9.11%) Analyst
5 28 (6.38%) Java Developer
6 26 (5.92%) Senior Data Engineer
7 21 (4.78%) Architect
8 20 (4.56%) Lead
8 20 (4.56%) Tester
9 19 (4.33%) Data Analyst
10 17 (3.87%) QA Tester
11 15 (3.42%) SAS Engineer
12 14 (3.19%) Full-Stack Developer
13 12 (2.73%) AWS Data Engineer
13 12 (2.73%) AWS Engineer
14 10 (2.28%) Senior Developer
14 10 (2.28%) Software Engineer
15 9 (2.05%) SQL Developer
15 9 (2.05%) Unix Engineer
16 8 (1.82%) Business Intelligence Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (7.29%) Spring
1 32 (7.29%) Spring Boot
2 31 (7.06%) REST
3 24 (5.47%) Node.js
4 20 (4.56%) JPA
5 18 (4.10%) SOAP
6 17 (3.87%) Hibernate
6 17 (3.87%) Spring Batch
6 17 (3.87%) Spring Integration
6 17 (3.87%) Web Services
7 16 (3.64%) AngularJS
7 16 (3.64%) Flask
8 15 (3.42%) ActiveMQ
8 15 (3.42%) PySpark
9 14 (3.19%) Spring Cloud
10 13 (2.96%) RESTful
11 12 (2.73%) .NET
11 12 (2.73%) Django
11 12 (2.73%) YAML
12 11 (2.51%) PowerMock
Miscellaneous
1 16 (3.64%) Distributed Systems
2 15 (3.42%) Cloud Native
3 9 (2.05%) Legacy Systems
3 9 (2.05%) SCADA
4 7 (1.59%) Product Ownership
5 6 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
5 6 (1.37%) Low-Code
6 4 (0.91%) Clustering
6 4 (0.91%) Data Centre
6 4 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (0.91%) Robotics
6 4 (0.91%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (0.68%) Credit Risk
7 3 (0.68%) Data Fabric
7 3 (0.68%) Data Structures
7 3 (0.68%) Educational Technology
7 3 (0.68%) IoT
7 3 (0.68%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.46%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (0.46%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 61 (13.90%) Unix
2 48 (10.93%) Linux
3 23 (5.24%) Windows
4 6 (1.37%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.23%) AIX
6 1 (0.23%) HPUX
6 1 (0.23%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (39.86%) ETL
2 160 (36.45%) Agile
3 138 (31.44%) CI/CD
4 118 (26.88%) Data Modelling
5 99 (22.55%) Test Automation
6 98 (22.32%) Analytics
7 97 (22.10%) Data Pipeline
8 95 (21.64%) Business Intelligence
8 95 (21.64%) DevOps
9 94 (21.41%) Problem-Solving
10 81 (18.45%) Data Integration
11 76 (17.31%) Migration
11 76 (17.31%) Scrum
12 62 (14.12%) Validation
13 55 (12.53%) Continuous Improvement
13 55 (12.53%) Data Engineering
14 50 (11.39%) Decision-Making
15 41 (9.34%) Data Migration
16 38 (8.66%) AI
17 36 (8.20%) Data Analytics
Programming Languages
1 81 (18.45%) Python
2 64 (14.58%) PL/SQL
3 59 (13.44%) Java
4 26 (5.92%) Shell Script
5 18 (4.10%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.96%) Bash
6 13 (2.96%) C
7 10 (2.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (2.28%) VB
8 8 (1.82%) ProC
8 8 (1.82%) VB6
9 7 (1.59%) Bicep
9 7 (1.59%) C#
10 5 (1.14%) Go
10 5 (1.14%) Perl
10 5 (1.14%) PowerShell
11 4 (0.91%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.91%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.68%) HiveQL
13 2 (0.46%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 240 (54.67%) Security Cleared
2 218 (49.66%) SC Cleared
3 27 (6.15%) ISTQB
4 15 (3.42%) Degree
5 12 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.82%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.37%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.14%) Master's Degree
8 5 (1.14%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.91%) PhD
10 3 (0.68%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.68%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 2 (0.46%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.46%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 2 (0.46%) TOGAF Certification
12 1 (0.23%) ACCA
12 1 (0.23%) CIMA
12 1 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.23%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.23%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (15.26%) Data Quality
2 51 (11.62%) QA
3 11 (2.51%) SLA
4 7 (1.59%) FATCA
5 6 (1.37%) GDPR
6 4 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.46%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.46%) GRC
8 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.23%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (14.12%) Docker
2 10 (2.28%) Active Directory
3 9 (2.05%) Postfix
4 4 (0.91%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.91%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.68%) HDFS
5 3 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.23%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle Clusterware
Systems Management
1 51 (11.62%) Kubernetes
2 36 (8.20%) Grafana
3 29 (6.61%) Terraform
4 13 (2.96%) Prometheus
5 8 (1.82%) Ansible
6 7 (1.59%) WMI
7 4 (0.91%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.68%) Data Guard
8 3 (0.68%) Kibana
8 3 (0.68%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.46%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.46%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.23%) Control-M
10 1 (0.23%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.23%) SCOM
Vendors
1 182 (41.46%) Oracle
2 98 (22.32%) Talend
3 75 (17.08%) Informatica
4 59 (13.44%) Microsoft
5 52 (11.85%) Denodo
6 31 (7.06%) Databricks
7 30 (6.83%) ServiceNow
8 16 (3.64%) SAP
9 15 (3.42%) Jaspersoft
10 14 (3.19%) Atlassian
11 11 (2.51%) Cloudera
12 10 (2.28%) Sage
12 10 (2.28%) Splunk
13 9 (2.05%) Cisco
13 9 (2.05%) Google
14 8 (1.82%) Fortinet
15 7 (1.59%) Actian
15 7 (1.59%) F5
15 7 (1.59%) NEC
15 7 (1.59%) SolarWinds