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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 11 21
Rank change year-on-year -2 +10 -7
Contract jobs citing SQL 364 205 125
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 10.59% 11.82% 6.57%
As % of the Programming Languages category 49.52% 46.70% 30.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 129 78
10th Percentile £358 £235 £300
25th Percentile £410 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £463 £438
Median % change year-on-year +0.54% +5.71% -12.50%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £575
90th Percentile £589 £628 £630
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 21 3
10th Percentile - - £31.08
25th Percentile £21.25 £33.91 £32.15
Median hourly rate £21.50 £50.00 £33.93
Median % change year-on-year -57.00% +47.36% +34.38%
75th Percentile £53.75 - £34.47
90th Percentile £57.35 - £34.79
England median hourly rate £43.75 £50.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year -12.50% +20.48% -9.55%

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 735 439 406
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 21.38% 25.30% 21.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 525 271 268
10th Percentile £367 £300 £313
25th Percentile £413 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.53% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £551 £538 £575
90th Percentile £650 £625 £650
England median daily rate £525 £514 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -6.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 24 9
10th Percentile £21.25 £28.18 £33.22
25th Percentile £25.00 £33.91 £35.00
Median hourly rate £56.00 £50.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -9.09% +129.17%
75th Percentile £67.84 - £56.25
90th Percentile - - £62.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%

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 27 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 27 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL in the West Midlands

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 27 August 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 -1 149 £465 -11.00% 8
Birmingham -6 57 £475 - 29
Warwickshire -12 53 £500 +17.65% 14
Coventry +1 42 £407 +36.01% 8
Solihull -15 11 £481 +6.89% 4
Staffordshire -2 9 £431 - 11
Dudley - 8 £400 - 2
Worcestershire - 8 £425 - 11
Herefordshire -1 4 £700 +75.00% 2
Wolverhampton - 3 £350 - 1
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 38 (10.44%) SAS
2 24 (6.59%) Confluence
3 10 (2.75%) WebLogic
4 7 (1.92%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (1.65%) Oracle Self-Service HR
5 6 (1.65%) Tuxedo
6 4 (1.10%) Apache Spark
6 4 (1.10%) ArcGIS
6 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (1.10%) SharePoint
7 2 (0.55%) Apache
7 2 (0.55%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.27%) IIS
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.27%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.37%) Notepad++
3 2 (0.55%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 13 (3.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.65%) Oracle HRMS
3 1 (0.27%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.27%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (0.27%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.27%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.27%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 107 (29.40%) AWS
1 107 (29.40%) Azure
2 59 (16.21%) Power Platform
3 44 (12.09%) Azure Data Factory
4 33 (9.07%) Azure DevOps
5 28 (7.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 20 (5.49%) Serverless
6 20 (5.49%) Snowflake
7 19 (5.22%) Amazon S3
8 17 (4.67%) GitHub
9 13 (3.57%) Microsoft Purview
10 12 (3.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 12 (3.30%) Amazon EC2
10 12 (3.30%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (3.02%) Matillion
12 10 (2.75%) AWS Lambda
13 9 (2.47%) dbt
14 8 (2.20%) AWS KMS
14 8 (2.20%) Azure Functions
14 8 (2.20%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.75%) Firewall
2 7 (1.92%) SNMP
3 5 (1.37%) PuTTY
3 5 (1.37%) WinSCP
4 3 (0.82%) DHCP
4 3 (0.82%) DNS
4 3 (0.82%) SSL
4 3 (0.82%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.55%) LAN
5 2 (0.55%) VLAN
5 2 (0.55%) VPN
5 2 (0.55%) WAN
5 2 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.27%) 4G
6 1 (0.27%) BGP
6 1 (0.27%) Internet
6 1 (0.27%) MPLS
6 1 (0.27%) OSPF
6 1 (0.27%) SAN
6 1 (0.27%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (20.60%) Data Warehouse
2 57 (15.66%) Pentaho
2 57 (15.66%) Power BI
3 23 (6.32%) Oracle Database
3 23 (6.32%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (6.32%) SQL Server
4 19 (5.22%) Data Lake
4 19 (5.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 18 (4.95%) Azure SQL Database
6 17 (4.67%) Tableau
7 16 (4.40%) Oracle Reports
8 15 (4.12%) Amazon RDS
8 15 (4.12%) Relational Database
9 14 (3.85%) Amazon Redshift
9 14 (3.85%) Delta Lake
9 14 (3.85%) Metadata
10 12 (3.30%) BusinessObjects
10 12 (3.30%) DynamoDB
11 11 (3.02%) Ingres
11 11 (3.02%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 70 (19.23%) Git
2 60 (16.48%) JIRA
3 57 (15.66%) GitLab
4 30 (8.24%) Jenkins
5 22 (6.04%) Maven
5 22 (6.04%) Postman
6 20 (5.49%) Zephyr
7 16 (4.40%) JUnit
8 14 (3.85%) Mockito
9 11 (3.02%) Artifactory
10 9 (2.47%) SonarQube
11 6 (1.65%) Bitbucket Server
11 6 (1.65%) DbUnit
11 6 (1.65%) jMock
11 6 (1.65%) Selenium
12 5 (1.37%) MLflow
12 5 (1.37%) Oracle Forms
12 5 (1.37%) Team Foundation Server
13 4 (1.10%) Cypress.io
13 4 (1.10%) TestRail
General
1 90 (24.73%) Social Skills
2 65 (17.86%) Public Sector
3 57 (15.66%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (9.62%) Finance
5 10 (2.75%) Manufacturing
6 9 (2.47%) Banking
7 7 (1.92%) Marketing
8 6 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (1.37%) Retail
10 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.82%) Military
12 2 (0.55%) Billing
12 2 (0.55%) Front Office
12 2 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.27%) Legal
13 1 (0.27%) Local Government
13 1 (0.27%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.27%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 148 (40.66%) Data Engineer
2 55 (15.11%) Developer
3 50 (13.74%) Senior
4 31 (8.52%) Analyst
5 28 (7.69%) Senior Data Engineer
6 20 (5.49%) Java Developer
7 17 (4.67%) AWS Engineer
8 16 (4.40%) Tester
9 14 (3.85%) Architect
10 13 (3.57%) AWS Data Engineer
11 12 (3.30%) Lead
12 11 (3.02%) Azure Engineer
12 11 (3.02%) QA Tester
13 10 (2.75%) Data Analyst
13 10 (2.75%) Java Engineer
13 10 (2.75%) SQL Developer
13 10 (2.75%) Test Analyst
14 9 (2.47%) Data Architect
15 8 (2.20%) Azure Data Engineer
15 8 (2.20%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.22%) REST
2 18 (4.95%) PySpark
2 18 (4.95%) Spring
2 18 (4.95%) Spring Boot
3 17 (4.67%) Terraform
4 15 (4.12%) JPA
5 12 (3.30%) Node.js
6 11 (3.02%) Web Services
7 10 (2.75%) SOAP
8 9 (2.47%) Flask
8 9 (2.47%) Hibernate
8 9 (2.47%) Spring Batch
8 9 (2.47%) Spring Integration
9 8 (2.20%) .NET
9 8 (2.20%) ActiveMQ
9 8 (2.20%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.92%) Django
10 7 (1.92%) Spring Cloud
10 7 (1.92%) XML
10 7 (1.92%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.40%) Cloud Native
2 13 (3.57%) Linux Command Line
3 12 (3.30%) SCADA
4 11 (3.02%) Legacy Systems
5 8 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (1.65%) IoT
7 5 (1.37%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.10%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (0.82%) Data Fabric
9 3 (0.82%) Onboarding
10 2 (0.55%) BYOD
10 2 (0.55%) Credit Risk
10 2 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (0.55%) Data Structures
10 2 (0.55%) Educational Technology
10 2 (0.55%) Legacy Applications
10 2 (0.55%) Operational Technology
10 2 (0.55%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 42 (11.54%) Unix
2 38 (10.44%) Linux
3 21 (5.77%) Windows
4 7 (1.92%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.27%) AIX
5 1 (0.27%) CentOS
5 1 (0.27%) HPUX
5 1 (0.27%) Solaris
5 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2003
5 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (41.76%) ETL
2 131 (35.99%) Agile
3 118 (32.42%) Data Modelling
4 93 (25.55%) CI/CD
5 92 (25.27%) Data Pipeline
6 87 (23.90%) Business Intelligence
7 85 (23.35%) Analytics
8 84 (23.08%) Test Automation
9 70 (19.23%) Data Integration
10 68 (18.68%) Migration
10 68 (18.68%) Problem-Solving
11 63 (17.31%) DevOps
12 61 (16.76%) Data Engineering
13 55 (15.11%) Validation
14 48 (13.19%) Scrum
15 41 (11.26%) Continuous Improvement
16 40 (10.99%) Data Migration
17 39 (10.71%) AI
18 38 (10.44%) Decision-Making
19 30 (8.24%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 76 (20.88%) Python
2 46 (12.64%) PL/SQL
3 37 (10.16%) Java
4 21 (5.77%) Shell Script
5 13 (3.57%) C
6 12 (3.30%) JavaScript
7 11 (3.02%) Bash
8 9 (2.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (2.47%) T-SQL
9 8 (2.20%) ProC
10 6 (1.65%) Bicep
10 6 (1.65%) VB
10 6 (1.65%) VB6
11 4 (1.10%) C#
11 4 (1.10%) COBOL
12 3 (0.82%) PowerShell
12 3 (0.82%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.55%) Go
13 2 (0.55%) R
13 2 (0.55%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 177 (48.63%) Security Cleared
2 152 (41.76%) SC Cleared
3 26 (7.14%) ISTQB
4 25 (6.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.47%) Degree
6 8 (2.20%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 6 (1.65%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.37%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.10%) ISEB
9 4 (1.10%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.10%) PhD
10 3 (0.82%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.27%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.27%) MCSE
11 1 (0.27%) OCP
11 1 (0.27%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (14.84%) Data Quality
2 44 (12.09%) QA
3 8 (2.20%) SLA
4 7 (1.92%) GDPR
5 6 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.10%) FATCA
7 2 (0.55%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.55%) GRC
8 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.27%) WCAG
System Software
1 32 (8.79%) Docker
2 9 (2.47%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.37%) Postfix
5 3 (0.82%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.55%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 30 (8.24%) Kubernetes
2 18 (4.95%) Grafana
3 7 (1.92%) WMI
4 6 (1.65%) Kibana
5 5 (1.37%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.55%) Data Guard
6 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle RMAN
7 1 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.27%) SCCM
7 1 (0.27%) SCOM
Vendors
1 146 (40.11%) Oracle
2 71 (19.51%) Talend
3 64 (17.58%) Microsoft
4 53 (14.56%) Informatica
5 43 (11.81%) Denodo
6 41 (11.26%) Databricks
7 19 (5.22%) ServiceNow
8 18 (4.95%) SAP
9 9 (2.47%) Atlassian
9 9 (2.47%) Cisco
10 8 (2.20%) Fortinet
10 8 (2.20%) Jaspersoft
11 7 (1.92%) F5
11 7 (1.92%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.92%) SolarWinds
11 7 (1.92%) Splunk
11 7 (1.92%) VMware
12 6 (1.65%) Cloudera
12 6 (1.65%) Sage
13 5 (1.37%) IBM