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

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 11 18
Rank change year-on-year +5 +7 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL 466 187 145
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 13.68% 12.05% 7.05%
As % of the Programming Languages category 61.40% 47.22% 33.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 358 123 101
10th Percentile £355 £235 £259
25th Percentile £406 £394 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% +5.88% -11.46%
75th Percentile £514 £538 £550
90th Percentile £577 £635 £625
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 19 2
10th Percentile £52.05 £30.88 £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 £45.00 £43.16 £42.50
% change year-on-year +4.27% +1.55% -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 759 396 434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 22.28% 25.52% 21.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 559 246 307
10th Percentile £358 £278 £260
25th Percentile £413 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% +2.22% -10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £564
90th Percentile £625 £641 £638
England median daily rate £520 £520 £540
% change year-on-year - -3.70% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 22 15
10th Percentile £46.25 £28.18 £36.36
25th Percentile £56.50 £33.91 £47.75
Median hourly rate £59.50 £50.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.00% -13.04% +96.13%
75th Percentile £67.84 - £58.75
90th Percentile £69.77 - £72.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +14.54% -12.69% +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 8 July 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 8 July 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 +5 195 £459 -0.22% 10
Birmingham -3 77 £469 -6.20% 31
Warwickshire -14 63 £500 +17.65% 18
Coventry -1 47 £407 +30.24% 6
Solihull -11 18 £496 +17.98% 5
Worcestershire +4 10 £425 -39.29% 11
Staffordshire +3 9 £431 -21.59% 14
Herefordshire -1 9 £538 +34.38% 4
Dudley - 8 £410 - 2
Brierley Hill - 3 £395 -
Wolverhampton - 3 - - 8
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 63 (13.52%) SAS
2 34 (7.30%) Confluence
3 16 (3.43%) WebLogic
4 13 (2.79%) Tuxedo
5 9 (1.93%) Apache
6 7 (1.50%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (1.29%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 5 (1.07%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.64%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.64%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.64%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.21%) Apache Geronimo
10 1 (0.21%) Apache ServiceMix
10 1 (0.21%) CMS
10 1 (0.21%) IIS
10 1 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.21%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.21%) Umbraco
10 1 (0.21%) WebSphere
Applications
1 14 (3.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.07%) Notepad++
3 3 (0.64%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.43%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (2.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.29%) Oracle HRMS
3 3 (0.64%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.21%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.21%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.21%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.21%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 138 (29.61%) AWS
2 116 (24.89%) Azure
3 68 (14.59%) Power Platform
4 44 (9.44%) Azure DevOps
5 35 (7.51%) Amazon S3
5 35 (7.51%) Azure Data Factory
6 29 (6.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 25 (5.36%) Serverless
8 22 (4.72%) Amazon EC2
8 22 (4.72%) GitHub
9 20 (4.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 18 (3.86%) Snowflake
11 16 (3.43%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (3.22%) Amazon SQS
12 15 (3.22%) AWS KMS
12 15 (3.22%) Route 53
13 14 (3.00%) dbt
14 12 (2.58%) AWS Lambda
14 12 (2.58%) Matillion
15 11 (2.36%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.93%) Firewall
2 7 (1.50%) SNMP
3 5 (1.07%) PuTTY
3 5 (1.07%) WinSCP
4 3 (0.64%) DNS
4 3 (0.64%) SSL
5 2 (0.43%) DHCP
5 2 (0.43%) LAN
5 2 (0.43%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.43%) VLAN
5 2 (0.43%) VPN
5 2 (0.43%) WAN
5 2 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.21%) 4G
6 1 (0.21%) AMQP
6 1 (0.21%) Internet
6 1 (0.21%) Network Security
6 1 (0.21%) tcpdump
6 1 (0.21%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.21%) WPA2
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (16.31%) Pentaho
2 74 (15.88%) Data Warehouse
3 66 (14.16%) Power BI
4 34 (7.30%) PostgreSQL
5 31 (6.65%) Amazon RDS
6 26 (5.58%) Relational Database
7 25 (5.36%) Tableau
8 24 (5.15%) SQL Server
9 22 (4.72%) Amazon Redshift
10 21 (4.51%) Oracle Database
10 21 (4.51%) Oracle Reports
11 19 (4.08%) DynamoDB
12 18 (3.86%) Azure SQL Database
13 17 (3.65%) Data Lake
13 17 (3.65%) Metadata
14 15 (3.22%) Amazon Aurora
14 15 (3.22%) BusinessObjects
14 15 (3.22%) Ingres
14 15 (3.22%) MySQL
14 15 (3.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 89 (19.10%) Git
2 75 (16.09%) JIRA
3 67 (14.38%) GitLab
4 55 (11.80%) Jenkins
5 22 (4.72%) Postman
5 22 (4.72%) Zephyr
6 21 (4.51%) JUnit
6 21 (4.51%) Maven
7 19 (4.08%) Mockito
8 16 (3.43%) SonarQube
9 11 (2.36%) Artifactory
9 11 (2.36%) Bitbucket Server
9 11 (2.36%) DbUnit
9 11 (2.36%) jMock
10 8 (1.72%) Team Foundation Server
11 7 (1.50%) Oracle Forms
11 7 (1.50%) Selenium
12 5 (1.07%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 5 (1.07%) MLflow
13 4 (0.86%) CA Gen
General
1 109 (23.39%) Social Skills
2 83 (17.81%) Public Sector
3 74 (15.88%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (9.01%) Finance
5 12 (2.58%) Banking
6 10 (2.15%) Manufacturing
7 8 (1.72%) Marketing
8 7 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (1.50%) Retail
9 5 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (0.86%) Advertising
10 4 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.64%) Billing
11 3 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.43%) Front Office
12 2 (0.43%) Legal
12 2 (0.43%) Military
13 1 (0.21%) Publishing
13 1 (0.21%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 184 (39.48%) Data Engineer
2 78 (16.74%) Developer
3 58 (12.45%) Senior
4 41 (8.80%) Analyst
5 30 (6.44%) Java Developer
5 30 (6.44%) Senior Data Engineer
6 23 (4.94%) Lead
7 22 (4.72%) Architect
8 20 (4.29%) Tester
9 19 (4.08%) Data Analyst
10 17 (3.65%) QA Tester
11 14 (3.00%) Full-Stack Developer
11 14 (3.00%) SAS Engineer
12 12 (2.58%) AWS Data Engineer
12 12 (2.58%) AWS Engineer
13 10 (2.15%) Azure Engineer
13 10 (2.15%) Business Intelligence Developer
13 10 (2.15%) Senior Developer
13 10 (2.15%) Software Engineer
13 10 (2.15%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (7.30%) Spring
1 34 (7.30%) Spring Boot
2 30 (6.44%) REST
3 24 (5.15%) Node.js
4 21 (4.51%) JPA
5 19 (4.08%) PySpark
6 18 (3.86%) SOAP
7 17 (3.65%) Hibernate
7 17 (3.65%) Spring Batch
7 17 (3.65%) Spring Integration
7 17 (3.65%) Web Services
8 16 (3.43%) AngularJS
8 16 (3.43%) Flask
9 15 (3.22%) ActiveMQ
10 14 (3.00%) Spring Cloud
11 13 (2.79%) RESTful
12 12 (2.58%) .NET
12 12 (2.58%) Django
13 11 (2.36%) Bootstrap
13 11 (2.36%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (3.86%) Cloud Native
2 16 (3.43%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
3 10 (2.15%) SCADA
4 7 (1.50%) Linux Command Line
4 7 (1.50%) Product Ownership
5 6 (1.29%) Low-Code
6 4 (0.86%) Clustering
6 4 (0.86%) Data Centre
6 4 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (0.86%) IoT
6 4 (0.86%) Robotics
6 4 (0.86%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (0.64%) Credit Risk
7 3 (0.64%) Data Fabric
7 3 (0.64%) Data Structures
7 3 (0.64%) Educational Technology
7 3 (0.64%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.43%) BYOD
8 2 (0.43%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 62 (13.30%) Unix
2 49 (10.52%) Linux
3 23 (4.94%) Windows
4 7 (1.50%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.21%) AIX
6 1 (0.21%) HPUX
6 1 (0.21%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (39.70%) ETL
2 165 (35.41%) Agile
3 143 (30.69%) CI/CD
4 133 (28.54%) Data Modelling
5 116 (24.89%) Analytics
6 106 (22.75%) Business Intelligence
7 103 (22.10%) Test Automation
8 102 (21.89%) Data Pipeline
9 97 (20.82%) DevOps
9 97 (20.82%) Problem-Solving
10 82 (17.60%) Data Integration
11 79 (16.95%) Migration
12 78 (16.74%) Scrum
13 67 (14.38%) Validation
14 65 (13.95%) Data Engineering
15 60 (12.88%) Continuous Improvement
16 56 (12.02%) Decision-Making
17 45 (9.66%) AI
18 43 (9.23%) Data Migration
19 39 (8.37%) Generative AI
Programming Languages
1 94 (20.17%) Python
2 65 (13.95%) PL/SQL
3 62 (13.30%) Java
4 28 (6.01%) Shell Script
5 18 (3.86%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.79%) C
7 12 (2.58%) Bash
7 12 (2.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (2.15%) VB
9 8 (1.72%) Bicep
9 8 (1.72%) ProC
9 8 (1.72%) VB6
10 7 (1.50%) C#
11 5 (1.07%) Go
11 5 (1.07%) Perl
12 4 (0.86%) PowerShell
12 4 (0.86%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.86%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.64%) HiveQL
13 3 (0.64%) R
Qualifications
1 242 (51.93%) Security Cleared
2 219 (47.00%) SC Cleared
3 27 (5.79%) ISTQB
4 17 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.43%) Degree
6 8 (1.72%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.50%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.07%) Master's Degree
8 5 (1.07%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.86%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.86%) PhD
10 3 (0.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 2 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.43%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 2 (0.43%) TOGAF Certification
12 1 (0.21%) ACCA
12 1 (0.21%) CIMA
12 1 (0.21%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.21%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.21%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (16.09%) Data Quality
2 54 (11.59%) QA
3 11 (2.36%) SLA
4 7 (1.50%) FATCA
5 6 (1.29%) GDPR
6 5 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.43%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.43%) GRC
8 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.21%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (12.88%) Docker
2 11 (2.36%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.93%) Postfix
4 5 (1.07%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.64%) HDFS
5 3 (0.64%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.21%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.21%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 51 (10.94%) Kubernetes
2 36 (7.73%) Grafana
3 30 (6.44%) Terraform
4 13 (2.79%) Prometheus
5 8 (1.72%) Ansible
6 7 (1.50%) WMI
7 4 (0.86%) Kibana
7 4 (0.86%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.64%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.43%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.43%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.43%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.21%) Control-M
10 1 (0.21%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.21%) SCCM
10 1 (0.21%) SCOM
Vendors
1 185 (39.70%) Oracle
2 99 (21.24%) Talend
3 77 (16.52%) Informatica
4 69 (14.81%) Microsoft
5 51 (10.94%) Denodo
6 39 (8.37%) Databricks
7 30 (6.44%) ServiceNow
8 17 (3.65%) SAP
9 15 (3.22%) Jaspersoft
10 14 (3.00%) Atlassian
11 11 (2.36%) Cloudera
11 11 (2.36%) Sage
12 10 (2.15%) Splunk
13 9 (1.93%) Cisco
13 9 (1.93%) Google
14 8 (1.72%) Fortinet
15 7 (1.50%) Actian
15 7 (1.50%) Dynatrace
15 7 (1.50%) F5
15 7 (1.50%) SolarWinds