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 4 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 24 23
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,686 995 1,259
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.40% 7.53% 7.85%
As % of the General category 13.76% 10.90% 12.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,266 724 849
10th Percentile £390 £363 £355
25th Percentile £463 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +6.83% -2.38% -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £613 £620
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £500 £520
% change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% -3.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 22 10
10th Percentile £16.73 £20.01 £17.87
25th Percentile £26.47 £23.71 £18.60
Median hourly rate £41.00 £33.75 £28.97
Median % change year-on-year +21.48% +16.52% -33.96%
75th Percentile £50.00 £47.38 £54.15
90th Percentile £67.68 £84.50 £83.50
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.95 £24.09
% change year-on-year -2.73% -8.88% +19.85%

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 12,252 9,127 10,010
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 61.06% 69.08% 62.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,803 6,037 6,825
10th Percentile £350 £325 £338
25th Percentile £450 £424 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £680 £700
90th Percentile £788 £800 £825
England median daily rate £525 £500 £538
% change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 231 186 129
10th Percentile £18.50 £16.17 £17.90
25th Percentile £21.93 £24.66 £24.18
Median hourly rate £28.40 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.63% -7.14% +9.65%
75th Percentile £43.75 £49.75 £51.75
90th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £65.23
England median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +25.25% -34.02% +38.62%

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 4 September 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 4 September 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 4 September 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 +6 178 £550 +4.76% 117
South London 0 56 £525 +6.54% 15
West London -22 14 £500 - 99
East London +9 12 £750 +30.43% 20
North London +1 5 £400 -27.27% 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 73 (4.33%) Confluence
2 48 (2.85%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.13%) CMS
4 17 (1.01%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.77%) Apache
5 13 (0.77%) Apache Spark
6 11 (0.65%) Palantir Foundry
7 8 (0.47%) nginx
8 7 (0.42%) SAS
9 6 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
9 6 (0.36%) WordPress
10 4 (0.24%) Headless CMS
11 3 (0.18%) Camunda
11 3 (0.18%) Drupal
11 3 (0.18%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.12%) Mendix
12 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
12 2 (0.12%) WebLogic
13 1 (0.059%) Luigi
13 1 (0.059%) R Markdown
Applications
1 35 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.18%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.12%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.12%) Sketch
6 2 (0.12%) Trello
7 1 (0.059%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.059%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.059%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 20 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.01%) Oracle EBS
2 17 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
3 16 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.65%) NetSuite
5 6 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 4 (0.24%) iTrent
6 4 (0.24%) SAP FI
7 3 (0.18%) Exchequer
7 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payroll
7 3 (0.18%) PeopleSoft HCM
7 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.18%) SAP CO
7 3 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
7 3 (0.18%) SAP HR
8 2 (0.12%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle Assets
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 390 (23.13%) AWS
2 341 (20.23%) Azure
3 104 (6.17%) Power Platform
4 88 (5.22%) GCP
5 84 (4.98%) GitHub
6 76 (4.51%) Serverless
7 74 (4.39%) Azure DevOps
8 71 (4.21%) Amazon S3
9 68 (4.03%) Microsoft 365
10 66 (3.91%) Entra ID
11 58 (3.44%) GitHub Actions
12 49 (2.91%) AWS Lambda
13 43 (2.55%) SaaS
14 37 (2.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 35 (2.08%) Amazon EKS
16 33 (1.96%) Amazon EC2
16 33 (1.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 30 (1.78%) AWS CloudFormation
18 28 (1.66%) Power Automate
18 28 (1.66%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.61%) Firewall
2 29 (1.72%) DNS
2 29 (1.72%) Network Security
3 14 (0.83%) LAN
3 14 (0.83%) WAN
4 9 (0.53%) Cisco IPT
4 9 (0.53%) VPN
5 8 (0.47%) DHCP
5 8 (0.47%) NGFW
5 8 (0.47%) TCP/IP
6 7 (0.42%) DKIM
6 7 (0.42%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.36%) DMARC
8 5 (0.30%) HTTPS
8 5 (0.30%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.24%) NGN
9 4 (0.24%) Radio Access Network
9 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.24%) SSL
9 4 (0.24%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (3.86%) Power BI
2 57 (3.38%) PostgreSQL
3 37 (2.19%) Metadata
4 35 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
5 30 (1.78%) Amazon RDS
6 25 (1.48%) MongoDB
6 25 (1.48%) NoSQL
7 23 (1.36%) Data Lake
8 21 (1.25%) Amazon Redshift
9 20 (1.19%) MySQL
10 19 (1.13%) SQL Server
11 18 (1.07%) Amazon Aurora
12 17 (1.01%) Amazon Athena
13 16 (0.95%) Relational Database
13 16 (0.95%) Tableau
14 14 (0.83%) Oracle Reports
15 13 (0.77%) Delta Lake
15 13 (0.77%) Oracle Database
16 11 (0.65%) Redis
17 9 (0.53%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 106 (6.29%) JIRA
2 102 (6.05%) Git
3 66 (3.91%) Jenkins
4 61 (3.62%) GitLab
5 12 (0.71%) JUnit
6 11 (0.65%) Mockito
6 11 (0.65%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.59%) Maven
8 9 (0.53%) CircleCI
8 9 (0.53%) Cypress.io
8 9 (0.53%) Selenium
9 6 (0.36%) Cucumber
9 6 (0.36%) Postman
10 5 (0.30%) JMeter
10 5 (0.30%) Snyk
11 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.24%) Gradle
12 3 (0.18%) Artifactory
12 3 (0.18%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.18%) VTune
General
1 530 (31.44%) Social Skills
2 175 (10.38%) Finance
3 164 (9.73%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (6.17%) Local Government
5 91 (5.40%) Military
6 68 (4.03%) Influencing Skills
7 45 (2.67%) Legal
8 43 (2.55%) Organisational Skills
9 40 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 34 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
10 34 (2.02%) Police
11 32 (1.90%) Law
12 26 (1.54%) Telecoms
13 22 (1.30%) Marketing
14 21 (1.25%) Banking
15 13 (0.77%) Publishing
16 12 (0.71%) Manufacturing
17 10 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
18 9 (0.53%) Retail
19 7 (0.42%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 283 (16.79%) Architect
2 221 (13.11%) Lead
3 207 (12.28%) Developer
4 192 (11.39%) Senior
5 117 (6.94%) Analyst
6 69 (4.09%) Delivery Manager
6 69 (4.09%) Designer
7 65 (3.86%) DevOps Engineer
8 64 (3.80%) Solutions Architect
9 55 (3.26%) User Researcher
10 54 (3.20%) Consultant
11 52 (3.08%) Technical Architect
12 50 (2.97%) Business Analyst
12 50 (2.97%) Data Engineer
13 49 (2.91%) Data Architect
14 42 (2.49%) Software Engineer
15 39 (2.31%) Java Developer
16 36 (2.14%) AWS Architect
16 36 (2.14%) AWS Engineer
17 35 (2.08%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 170 (10.08%) Terraform
2 75 (4.45%) REST
3 51 (3.02%) React
4 50 (2.97%) Django
5 49 (2.91%) Spring
6 46 (2.73%) RESTful
7 40 (2.37%) Spring Boot
8 34 (2.02%) Kafka
8 34 (2.02%) Oracle Fusion
9 33 (1.96%) Node.js
10 31 (1.84%) SOAP
11 30 (1.78%) HTML
12 29 (1.72%) .NET
13 28 (1.66%) Web Services
14 27 (1.60%) Lightning Web Components
15 26 (1.54%) PySpark
16 25 (1.48%) AngularJS
17 23 (1.36%) JSON
18 22 (1.30%) CSS
19 19 (1.13%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 115 (6.82%) Cloud Native
2 77 (4.57%) Onboarding
3 60 (3.56%) NHS
4 57 (3.38%) Product Ownership
5 53 (3.14%) Legacy Systems
6 39 (2.31%) Management Information System
7 33 (1.96%) Distributed Systems
8 27 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 27 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
9 22 (1.30%) Data Structures
10 19 (1.13%) AI Agents
11 18 (1.07%) Low-Code
12 16 (0.95%) Data Centre
13 15 (0.89%) Replication
13 15 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (0.77%) CMDB
14 13 (0.77%) Virtual Team
15 12 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
15 12 (0.71%) Security Operations Centre
15 12 (0.71%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 45 (2.67%) Linux
2 37 (2.19%) Windows
3 12 (0.71%) Windows Server
4 11 (0.65%) Android
5 10 (0.59%) Windows 10
6 9 (0.53%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.47%) Apple iOS
7 8 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.36%) Unix
9 5 (0.30%) Amazon Linux
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.12%) Solaris
11 2 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.059%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 546 (32.38%) Agile
2 361 (21.41%) Stakeholder Management
3 309 (18.33%) CI/CD
4 293 (17.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 289 (17.14%) Continuous Improvement
6 288 (17.08%) DevOps
7 209 (12.40%) Decision-Making
8 195 (11.57%) AI
9 189 (11.21%) Problem-Solving
10 176 (10.44%) Infrastructure as Code
11 160 (9.49%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 159 (9.43%) Migration
13 152 (9.02%) Roadmaps
14 147 (8.72%) Data Modelling
15 146 (8.66%) Analytics
16 132 (7.83%) Technical Leadership
17 117 (6.94%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
18 115 (6.82%) Containerisation
19 106 (6.29%) Software Engineering
20 105 (6.23%) User Research
Programming Languages
1 235 (13.94%) Python
2 158 (9.37%) SQL
3 115 (6.82%) Java
4 88 (5.22%) JavaScript
5 63 (3.74%) TypeScript
6 44 (2.61%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.14%) C#
8 30 (1.78%) Bash
9 26 (1.54%) Bicep
10 25 (1.48%) Apex Code
11 23 (1.36%) Ruby
12 21 (1.25%) Groovy
13 19 (1.13%) PL/SQL
14 13 (0.77%) R
15 11 (0.65%) Kotlin
16 10 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.42%) Scala
18 6 (0.36%) Search Processing Language
18 6 (0.36%) Shell Script
19 5 (0.30%) Perl
Qualifications
1 942 (55.87%) Security Cleared
2 832 (49.35%) SC Cleared
3 97 (5.75%) BPSS Clearance
4 90 (5.34%) DV Cleared
5 48 (2.85%) Degree
6 40 (2.37%) AWS Certification
7 33 (1.96%) Azure Certification
8 30 (1.78%) CISSP
8 30 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
9 19 (1.13%) Cisco Certification
10 18 (1.07%) CISM
11 13 (0.77%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 13 (0.77%) Master's Degree
12 12 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
13 10 (0.59%) CCNP
14 9 (0.53%) APMG
14 9 (0.53%) CTC Cleared
14 9 (0.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 8 (0.47%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (7.35%) Accessibility
2 92 (5.46%) Data Quality
3 74 (4.39%) QA
4 54 (3.20%) WCAG
5 51 (3.02%) GDPR
6 49 (2.91%) PMO
7 36 (2.14%) NCSC
8 33 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 28 (1.66%) NIST
10 20 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
11 16 (0.95%) GRC
12 13 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 11 (0.65%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 11 (0.65%) PCI DSS
14 10 (0.59%) SLA
15 8 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
15 8 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
16 5 (0.30%) NIST 800
17 4 (0.24%) PERC
17 4 (0.24%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 129 (7.65%) Docker
2 41 (2.43%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.12%) Postfix
5 1 (0.059%) Ceph
5 1 (0.059%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.059%) Oracle RAC
5 1 (0.059%) Sendmail
5 1 (0.059%) Squid
5 1 (0.059%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.059%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 128 (7.59%) Kubernetes
2 38 (2.25%) Grafana
3 31 (1.84%) Prometheus
4 26 (1.54%) Ansible
5 23 (1.36%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (0.77%) Kibana
7 9 (0.53%) SCCM
7 9 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.47%) Argo
9 5 (0.30%) Puppet
10 4 (0.24%) Istio
11 3 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.18%) Karpenter
12 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
12 2 (0.12%) Consul
12 2 (0.12%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.12%) Kustomize
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.12%) Salt
13 1 (0.059%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 226 (13.40%) Microsoft
2 116 (6.88%) Oracle
3 82 (4.86%) Salesforce
4 62 (3.68%) Google
5 60 (3.56%) ServiceNow
6 49 (2.91%) Databricks
7 39 (2.31%) SAP
8 22 (1.30%) Foundry
9 18 (1.07%) Cisco
9 18 (1.07%) Palantir
10 14 (0.83%) IBM
10 14 (0.83%) Palo Alto
11 12 (0.71%) Splunk
12 11 (0.65%) Informatica
13 9 (0.53%) OpenAI
14 8 (0.47%) CrowdStrike
14 8 (0.47%) Juniper
14 8 (0.47%) VMware
15 7 (0.42%) Atlassian
15 7 (0.42%) MuleSoft