Public Sector Contract Job Trends in London

Public Sector
England > London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Sector in contract job vacancies in London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Sector over the 6 months leading up to 2 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 26 19
Rank change year-on-year +4 -7 +7
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,657 880 1,446
As % of all contract jobs in London 9.06% 7.24% 8.26%
As % of the General category 15.14% 10.70% 13.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,241 622 1,029
10th Percentile £390 £400 £363
25th Percentile £450 £450 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £650
90th Percentile £716 £725 £738
England median daily rate £505 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -3.35% -0.48% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 17 16
10th Percentile £16.91 £21.20 £15.00
25th Percentile £25.19 £22.27 £15.98
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.08 £18.32
Median % change year-on-year +63.51% +36.91% -26.74%
75th Percentile £50.00 £47.50 £60.50
90th Percentile £75.55 £86.25 £77.50
England median hourly rate £23.83 £25.08 £23.50
% change year-on-year -4.99% +6.70% +14.30%

All General Skills
London

Public Sector falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills in London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 10,942 8,228 10,976
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 59.80% 67.68% 62.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,046 5,491 7,837
10th Percentile £350 £346 £335
25th Percentile £431 £435 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £558 £575
Median % change year-on-year -1.79% -3.04% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £825
England median daily rate £515 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -1.90% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 149 242
10th Percentile £18.75 £15.84 £16.00
25th Percentile £22.46 £24.66 £18.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +13.33% -
75th Percentile £45.56 £50.50 £48.44
90th Percentile £69.00 £63.35 £65.90
England median hourly rate £31.16 £28.00 £30.44
% change year-on-year +11.27% -8.00% -4.65%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Public Sector relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

Public Sector job vacancy trend in London

Public Sector
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Public Sector.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Sector in London over the 6 months to 2 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Sector in London

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Public Sector.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Public Sector in London over the 6 months to 2 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Public Sector in London

Public Sector
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Public Sector within the London region over the 6 months to 2 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
Central London 0 149 £550 +4.76% 92
South London +1 66 £500 +1.52% 5
West London -30 11 £500 +25.00% 11
East London -5 9 £750 +30.43% 11
North London -2 2 £425 -19.05% 1
Public Sector
England

Public Sector
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 69 (4.16%) Confluence
2 37 (2.23%) SharePoint
3 14 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.72%) Apache Spark
5 9 (0.54%) Apache
5 9 (0.54%) nginx
5 9 (0.54%) Palantir Foundry
6 8 (0.48%) CMS
7 7 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
7 7 (0.42%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.30%) Camunda
9 4 (0.24%) WordPress
10 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.12%) Drupal
11 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
12 1 (0.060%) Apache Solr
12 1 (0.060%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.060%) Mule
12 1 (0.060%) Skype for Business
12 1 (0.060%) WebSphere
Applications
1 36 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
3 5 (0.30%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.24%) Trello
5 3 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.12%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.12%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.12%) Sketch
7 1 (0.060%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.060%) InVision
7 1 (0.060%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 21 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (0.91%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.42%) Oracle EBS
5 5 (0.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 4 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.18%) Exchequer
7 3 (0.18%) PeopleSoft HCM
7 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.18%) SAP Payroll
8 2 (0.12%) Integrated Workplace Management System
8 2 (0.12%) iTrent
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle Financials
8 2 (0.12%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.12%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.060%) Endur
9 1 (0.060%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 1 (0.060%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.060%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 368 (22.21%) AWS
2 306 (18.47%) Azure
3 93 (5.61%) Power Platform
4 72 (4.35%) GCP
4 72 (4.35%) Serverless
5 64 (3.86%) GitHub
6 60 (3.62%) Azure DevOps
7 57 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
8 56 (3.38%) Amazon S3
9 48 (2.90%) AWS Lambda
10 42 (2.53%) Amazon EC2
10 42 (2.53%) Amazon EKS
11 39 (2.35%) Entra ID
12 38 (2.29%) SaaS
13 37 (2.23%) Dynamics 365
14 36 (2.17%) GitHub Actions
14 36 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 33 (1.99%) Power Automate
16 29 (1.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 28 (1.69%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 31 (1.87%) Firewall
2 27 (1.63%) Network Security
3 17 (1.03%) DNS
4 11 (0.66%) LAN
4 11 (0.66%) VPN
4 11 (0.66%) WAN
5 9 (0.54%) NGFW
5 9 (0.54%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.48%) DKIM
7 7 (0.42%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.36%) DMARC
9 4 (0.24%) BGP
9 4 (0.24%) DHCP
9 4 (0.24%) OSPF
9 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.24%) Wireless
10 3 (0.18%) HTTP
10 3 (0.18%) SSL
10 3 (0.18%) VoIP
10 3 (0.18%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (3.68%) Power BI
2 41 (2.47%) PostgreSQL
3 28 (1.69%) Amazon RDS
3 28 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (1.63%) Metadata
5 23 (1.39%) SQL Server
6 22 (1.33%) Data Lake
7 20 (1.21%) MongoDB
8 18 (1.09%) NoSQL
9 15 (0.91%) Delta Lake
9 15 (0.91%) Tableau
10 12 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
10 12 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
11 11 (0.66%) DynamoDB
12 10 (0.60%) Oracle Reports
13 8 (0.48%) Amazon QuickSight
13 8 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.48%) MySQL
14 7 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
14 7 (0.42%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 96 (5.79%) JIRA
2 88 (5.31%) Git
3 56 (3.38%) GitLab
4 54 (3.26%) Jenkins
5 21 (1.27%) Selenium
6 16 (0.97%) Postman
7 12 (0.72%) JUnit
8 11 (0.66%) Mockito
9 10 (0.60%) SonarQube
10 9 (0.54%) CircleCI
11 8 (0.48%) Cypress.io
12 7 (0.42%) Artifactory
12 7 (0.42%) JMeter
12 7 (0.42%) Snyk
13 5 (0.30%) Maven
14 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket Server
14 4 (0.24%) Cucumber
14 4 (0.24%) DbUnit
14 4 (0.24%) Gradle
14 4 (0.24%) jMock
General
1 404 (24.38%) Social Skills
2 202 (12.19%) Finance
3 129 (7.79%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (4.59%) Local Government
5 58 (3.50%) Military
6 44 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
7 42 (2.53%) Influencing Skills
8 34 (2.05%) Marketing
8 34 (2.05%) Telecoms
9 33 (1.99%) Banking
10 31 (1.87%) Legal
11 30 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 30 (1.81%) Organisational Skills
11 30 (1.81%) Police
12 26 (1.57%) Law
13 21 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
14 15 (0.91%) Retail
15 10 (0.60%) Billing
16 9 (0.54%) Manufacturing
17 8 (0.48%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 253 (15.27%) Architect
2 239 (14.42%) Developer
3 171 (10.32%) Lead
3 171 (10.32%) Senior
4 119 (7.18%) Analyst
5 87 (5.25%) Designer
6 74 (4.47%) DevOps Engineer
7 66 (3.98%) Business Analyst
8 59 (3.56%) User Researcher
9 56 (3.38%) Solutions Architect
10 55 (3.32%) Project Manager
10 55 (3.32%) Technical Architect
11 51 (3.08%) Data Engineer
12 49 (2.96%) Consultant
13 47 (2.84%) Delivery Manager
14 46 (2.78%) AWS Engineer
15 42 (2.53%) Salesforce Developer
16 40 (2.41%) Security Architect
16 40 (2.41%) Senior Developer
17 39 (2.35%) Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.96%) React
2 46 (2.78%) REST
2 46 (2.78%) RESTful
3 43 (2.60%) Node.js
4 41 (2.47%) Lightning Web Components
5 40 (2.41%) Spring
6 35 (2.11%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (1.99%) .NET
7 33 (1.99%) HTML
8 32 (1.93%) Spring Boot
8 32 (1.93%) Web Services
9 31 (1.87%) Kafka
10 28 (1.69%) AngularJS
11 24 (1.45%) SOAP
12 23 (1.39%) CSS
13 21 (1.27%) Django
14 19 (1.15%) JSON
15 17 (1.03%) Middleware
16 16 (0.97%) PySpark
17 15 (0.91%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 109 (6.58%) Cloud Native
2 61 (3.68%) Onboarding
3 48 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
4 42 (2.53%) Product Ownership
5 40 (2.41%) NHS
6 29 (1.75%) Data Centre
7 26 (1.57%) Management Information System
8 25 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
9 22 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
10 18 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
11 17 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
12 14 (0.84%) Virtual Team
13 13 (0.78%) Data Structures
14 12 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
14 12 (0.72%) Security Posture
15 11 (0.66%) Enterprise Cloud
15 11 (0.66%) Low-Code
15 11 (0.66%) Public Cloud
16 10 (0.60%) AI Agents
16 10 (0.60%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.14%) Linux
2 42 (2.53%) Windows
3 16 (0.97%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.84%) Android
5 11 (0.66%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.48%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.36%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.36%) Solaris
8 6 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
8 6 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.24%) Unix
9 4 (0.24%) VMS
10 3 (0.18%) Amazon Linux
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 421 (25.41%) Agile
2 265 (15.99%) CI/CD
2 265 (15.99%) DevOps
3 228 (13.76%) Stakeholder Management
4 204 (12.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 168 (10.14%) Continuous Improvement
6 161 (9.72%) Decision-Making
7 151 (9.11%) Migration
8 147 (8.87%) Roadmaps
9 143 (8.63%) Problem-Solving
10 140 (8.45%) Infrastructure as Code
11 129 (7.79%) AI
12 125 (7.54%) Containerisation
12 125 (7.54%) Data Modelling
13 120 (7.24%) User Research
14 116 (7.00%) Analytics
14 116 (7.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
15 104 (6.28%) Service Design
15 104 (6.28%) Test Automation
16 84 (5.07%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 188 (11.35%) Python
2 135 (8.15%) SQL
3 113 (6.82%) Java
4 83 (5.01%) JavaScript
5 52 (3.14%) TypeScript
6 42 (2.53%) Apex Code
7 39 (2.35%) C#
8 37 (2.23%) PowerShell
9 35 (2.11%) Ruby
10 29 (1.75%) Bash
11 21 (1.27%) PL/SQL
12 14 (0.84%) Bicep
13 11 (0.66%) Kotlin
14 10 (0.60%) Shell Script
15 9 (0.54%) R
16 8 (0.48%) Go
17 7 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 5 (0.30%) Scala
19 4 (0.24%) C
19 4 (0.24%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 931 (56.19%) Security Cleared
2 725 (43.75%) SC Cleared
3 67 (4.04%) DV Cleared
4 51 (3.08%) Degree
5 45 (2.72%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.69%) CISSP
7 25 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 23 (1.39%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.27%) Microsoft Certification
10 18 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (0.97%) CISM
12 14 (0.84%) PMP
13 12 (0.72%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 10 (0.60%) APMP
15 9 (0.54%) CIMA
15 9 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.48%) ACCA
16 8 (0.48%) CCSP
16 8 (0.48%) CTC Cleared
16 8 (0.48%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (7.48%) Accessibility
2 73 (4.41%) Data Quality
3 70 (4.22%) QA
4 48 (2.90%) WCAG
5 44 (2.66%) GDPR
6 38 (2.29%) PMO
7 37 (2.23%) NCSC
8 29 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (0.84%) SLA
10 13 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (0.78%) NIST
11 11 (0.66%) PCI DSS
12 10 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
13 9 (0.54%) Government Security Classifications
13 9 (0.54%) GRC
14 8 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 6 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 5 (0.30%) IFRS
17 4 (0.24%) IFRS 9
18 3 (0.18%) NIST 800
System Software
1 118 (7.12%) Docker
2 33 (1.99%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.18%) Postfix
5 3 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.12%) Squid
7 1 (0.060%) FreeRADIUS
7 1 (0.060%) NLBS
7 1 (0.060%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.060%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.060%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 143 (8.63%) Terraform
2 124 (7.48%) Kubernetes
3 37 (2.23%) Grafana
4 34 (2.05%) Prometheus
5 31 (1.87%) Ansible
6 13 (0.78%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.48%) Puppet
9 6 (0.36%) Argo
9 6 (0.36%) Kibana
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.18%) Salt
10 3 (0.18%) SCCM
11 2 (0.12%) Consul
11 2 (0.12%) Istio
11 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.12%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.060%) Microsoft Clustering
12 1 (0.060%) RSA Archer
12 1 (0.060%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 167 (10.08%) Microsoft
2 96 (5.79%) Salesforce
3 95 (5.73%) Oracle
4 52 (3.14%) Databricks
5 46 (2.78%) SAP
6 43 (2.60%) ServiceNow
7 40 (2.41%) Google
8 19 (1.15%) IBM
9 18 (1.09%) MuleSoft
10 17 (1.03%) Cisco
11 16 (0.97%) Atlassian
11 16 (0.97%) Foundry
12 14 (0.84%) Red Hat
12 14 (0.84%) Splunk
13 11 (0.66%) OpenAI
13 11 (0.66%) Palo Alto
13 11 (0.66%) VMware
14 10 (0.60%) Fortinet
14 10 (0.60%) Virgin Media
15 9 (0.54%) Palantir