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 24 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 21 18
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +21
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,312 1,259 1,603
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.96% 9.04% 8.69%
As % of the General category 13.79% 13.92% 13.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 961 789 1,112
10th Percentile £375 £350 £400
25th Percentile £443 £443 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -3.34%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £688 £750 £743
England median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -0.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 16 8
10th Percentile - £21.00 £15.24
25th Percentile £17.50 £22.20 £16.97
Median hourly rate £20.84 £33.75 £22.69
Median % change year-on-year -38.25% +48.74% +11.12%
75th Percentile £41.25 £42.45 £35.06
90th Percentile £54.70 £65.00 £69.32
England median hourly rate £22.00 £25.25 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.87% +26.25% +0.63%

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 9,514 9,043 11,784
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 64.96% 64.91% 63.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,215 5,727 8,418
10th Percentile £340 £326 £338
25th Percentile £425 £450 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.52% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £671 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £527 £550
% change year-on-year -5.03% -4.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 166 111 223
10th Percentile £17.50 £20.75 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.82 £25.12 £19.05
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +22.81% +4.59%
75th Percentile £47.38 £52.25 £52.13
90th Percentile £72.50 £78.40 £73.73
England median hourly rate £23.00 £29.00 £26.00
% change year-on-year -20.71% +11.54% +1.13%

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 24 January 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 24 January 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 24 January 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 -5 153 £550 +4.76% 45
South London +3 45 £500 - 5
East London -2 5 £638 -1.92% 12
North London -1 4 £700 +174.51% 1
West London -25 4 £600 +54.84% 10
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 53 (4.04%) Confluence
2 40 (3.05%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.14%) nginx
4 12 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (0.76%) Apache
6 7 (0.53%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.30%) SAS
9 3 (0.23%) CMS
10 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.15%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.15%) Camunda
11 1 (0.076%) Appian
11 1 (0.076%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.076%) IIS
11 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.076%) Moodle
11 1 (0.076%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.076%) Sitecore CMS
11 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 42 (3.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (0.53%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 5 (0.38%) Adobe XD
6 5 (0.38%) MS Visio
7 4 (0.30%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.30%) Sketch
7 4 (0.30%) Trello
8 3 (0.23%) InVision
9 2 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.076%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.076%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.076%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.076%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.076%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 20 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.99%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.53%) SAP Payroll
5 6 (0.46%) iTrent
6 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
7 4 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.23%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.15%) Exchequer
9 2 (0.15%) Loan IQ
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.15%) SAP Business One
9 2 (0.15%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.15%) SAP GRC
9 2 (0.15%) SAP HR
9 2 (0.15%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 260 (19.82%) AWS
2 258 (19.66%) Azure
3 101 (7.70%) Power Platform
4 71 (5.41%) Serverless
5 59 (4.50%) GitHub
6 58 (4.42%) Microsoft 365
7 54 (4.12%) Azure DevOps
8 46 (3.51%) GCP
9 42 (3.20%) Power Automate
10 41 (3.13%) AWS Lambda
11 38 (2.90%) Amazon S3
12 35 (2.67%) Dynamics 365
12 35 (2.67%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (2.67%) OCI
13 31 (2.36%) Amazon ECS
13 31 (2.36%) PowerApps
14 29 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
15 24 (1.83%) SaaS
16 23 (1.75%) Entra ID
17 22 (1.68%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.29%) Firewall
2 24 (1.83%) DNS
3 23 (1.75%) Network Security
4 17 (1.30%) VPN
5 16 (1.22%) WAN
6 15 (1.14%) Wireless
7 13 (0.99%) TCP/IP
8 12 (0.91%) LAN
8 12 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (0.84%) BGP
9 11 (0.84%) OSPF
10 9 (0.69%) SSL
11 8 (0.61%) HTTP
11 8 (0.61%) SMTP
12 7 (0.53%) FTP
12 7 (0.53%) IMAP
12 7 (0.53%) Internet
12 7 (0.53%) OpenLDAP
12 7 (0.53%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.53%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.18%) Power BI
2 45 (3.43%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (1.98%) Metadata
4 20 (1.52%) Data Lake
5 18 (1.37%) Amazon RDS
5 18 (1.37%) SQL Server
6 14 (1.07%) MongoDB
6 14 (1.07%) NoSQL
7 13 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.99%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (0.76%) Power Query
10 9 (0.69%) Data Hub
10 9 (0.69%) Oracle Database
11 8 (0.61%) Amazon Athena
12 7 (0.53%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.53%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
13 6 (0.46%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 6 (0.46%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 80 (6.10%) JIRA
2 68 (5.18%) Git
3 33 (2.52%) GitLab
4 32 (2.44%) Jenkins
5 25 (1.91%) Postman
6 22 (1.68%) Selenium
7 7 (0.53%) JUnit
7 7 (0.53%) Vagrant
8 6 (0.46%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.38%) Gradle
9 5 (0.38%) MLflow
10 4 (0.30%) Cucumber
10 4 (0.30%) Liquibase
10 4 (0.30%) Mockito
11 3 (0.23%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.23%) Appium
11 3 (0.23%) Axure RP
11 3 (0.23%) JMeter
11 3 (0.23%) Pa11y
11 3 (0.23%) REST Assured
General
1 383 (29.19%) Social Skills
2 212 (16.16%) Finance
3 118 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (5.34%) Telecoms
5 66 (5.03%) Marketing
6 61 (4.65%) Manufacturing
7 58 (4.42%) Local Government
8 51 (3.89%) Electronics
9 39 (2.97%) Military
10 33 (2.52%) Legal
11 29 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
11 29 (2.21%) Influencing Skills
12 27 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (1.45%) Retail
14 17 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 17 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
15 16 (1.22%) Law
16 14 (1.07%) Banking
17 12 (0.91%) Police
18 10 (0.76%) Billing
Job Titles
1 182 (13.87%) Developer
2 161 (12.27%) Architect
3 157 (11.97%) Senior
4 126 (9.60%) Analyst
5 123 (9.38%) Lead
6 74 (5.64%) Business Analyst
7 64 (4.88%) Consultant
8 60 (4.57%) Designer
9 58 (4.42%) DevOps Engineer
10 41 (3.13%) Project Manager
10 41 (3.13%) Solutions Architect
11 37 (2.82%) User Researcher
12 35 (2.67%) Data Engineer
13 33 (2.52%) AWS Engineer
13 33 (2.52%) Service Designer
13 33 (2.52%) Technical Architect
14 29 (2.21%) Senior Developer
15 27 (2.06%) Azure Engineer
16 25 (1.91%) Product Manager
16 25 (1.91%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (4.88%) REST
2 40 (3.05%) Oracle Fusion
3 38 (2.90%) RESTful
4 36 (2.74%) React
5 32 (2.44%) Web Services
6 31 (2.36%) .NET
6 31 (2.36%) Node.js
7 30 (2.29%) JSON
8 27 (2.06%) AngularJS
8 27 (2.06%) HTML
8 27 (2.06%) SOAP
8 27 (2.06%) Spring
9 25 (1.91%) Kafka
10 23 (1.75%) CSS
10 23 (1.75%) Lightning Web Components
10 23 (1.75%) Spring Boot
11 21 (1.60%) XML
12 18 (1.37%) OAuth
13 13 (0.99%) LangChain
13 13 (0.99%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 67 (5.11%) Cloud Native
2 49 (3.73%) Onboarding
3 37 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
3 37 (2.82%) Product Ownership
4 29 (2.21%) Data Centre
5 25 (1.91%) AI Agents
6 24 (1.83%) NHS
7 17 (1.30%) Management Information System
7 17 (1.30%) Replication
8 16 (1.22%) Public Cloud
9 14 (1.07%) Security Posture
10 13 (0.99%) Data Structures
10 13 (0.99%) Virtual Team
11 12 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (0.91%) Security Operations Centre
12 11 (0.84%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
13 10 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
14 9 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
15 8 (0.61%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 49 (3.73%) Linux
2 46 (3.51%) Windows
3 16 (1.22%) Mac OS
4 14 (1.07%) VMS
5 13 (0.99%) Android
6 7 (0.53%) Amazon Linux
6 7 (0.53%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.46%) Unix
7 6 (0.46%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.23%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.076%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (25.91%) Agile
2 200 (15.24%) CI/CD
3 174 (13.26%) DevOps
4 167 (12.73%) Stakeholder Management
5 162 (12.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 145 (11.05%) Problem-Solving
7 127 (9.68%) Business Intelligence
8 125 (9.53%) AI
9 111 (8.46%) Continuous Improvement
9 111 (8.46%) Roadmaps
10 105 (8.00%) Decision-Making
11 99 (7.55%) Migration
12 92 (7.01%) Infrastructure as Code
13 87 (6.63%) Analytics
14 85 (6.48%) User Research
15 84 (6.40%) Containerisation
16 76 (5.79%) Project Management
17 75 (5.72%) Test Automation
18 74 (5.64%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 71 (5.41%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
Programming Languages
1 161 (12.27%) Python
2 124 (9.45%) SQL
3 81 (6.17%) Java
4 65 (4.95%) JavaScript
5 42 (3.20%) PowerShell
6 38 (2.90%) C#
7 34 (2.59%) TypeScript
8 29 (2.21%) Ruby
9 22 (1.68%) Bash
10 21 (1.60%) Apex Code
11 13 (0.99%) PL/SQL
12 11 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 11 (0.84%) Go
13 8 (0.61%) R
14 7 (0.53%) Bicep
14 7 (0.53%) C
14 7 (0.53%) Groovy
15 6 (0.46%) Kotlin
16 4 (0.30%) C++
16 4 (0.30%) JSX
Qualifications
1 771 (58.77%) Security Cleared
2 575 (43.83%) SC Cleared
3 68 (5.18%) Degree
4 48 (3.66%) DV Cleared
5 28 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (2.06%) Azure Certification
7 18 (1.37%) AWS Certification
8 16 (1.22%) CISSP
9 14 (1.07%) PMP
10 12 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
11 11 (0.84%) CISM
12 10 (0.76%) OSCP
12 10 (0.76%) PMI Certification
13 9 (0.69%) APMP
14 8 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
15 7 (0.53%) ACCA
15 7 (0.53%) CIMA
15 7 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
15 7 (0.53%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (4.34%) Accessibility
2 53 (4.04%) GDPR
3 51 (3.89%) QA
4 43 (3.28%) Data Quality
5 39 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 28 (2.13%) NCSC
6 28 (2.13%) NIST
7 24 (1.83%) PMO
8 14 (1.07%) GRC
9 10 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
9 10 (0.76%) HIPAA
9 10 (0.76%) WCAG
10 9 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.38%) NIST 800
11 5 (0.38%) SLA
12 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 2 (0.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 2 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 98 (7.47%) Docker
2 27 (2.06%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.61%) Squid
4 7 (0.53%) DFS Replication
4 7 (0.53%) Dovecot
4 7 (0.53%) Postfix
4 7 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (0.38%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.15%) vSphere
9 1 (0.076%) IAG
9 1 (0.076%) NLBS
9 1 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.076%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 117 (8.92%) Terraform
2 107 (8.16%) Kubernetes
3 23 (1.75%) Grafana
4 20 (1.52%) Ansible
5 19 (1.45%) Prometheus
6 8 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
7 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.53%) Nessus
7 7 (0.53%) Packer
7 7 (0.53%) Proxmox
7 7 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.46%) Argo
9 5 (0.38%) Consul
10 4 (0.30%) SCCM
11 3 (0.23%) CSIRT
11 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.23%) QRadar
12 2 (0.15%) Fluentd
12 2 (0.15%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.15%) vRealize
Vendors
1 156 (11.89%) Microsoft
2 92 (7.01%) SAP
3 78 (5.95%) Oracle
4 64 (4.88%) Salesforce
5 44 (3.35%) ServiceNow
6 31 (2.36%) Cisco
7 25 (1.91%) Databricks
8 18 (1.37%) VMware
9 17 (1.30%) Google
9 17 (1.30%) MuleSoft
10 16 (1.22%) Apple
11 15 (1.14%) Palo Alto
12 14 (1.07%) Splunk
12 14 (1.07%) Virgin Media
13 13 (0.99%) Fortinet
14 11 (0.84%) HP
15 10 (0.76%) Dell
15 10 (0.76%) Juniper
16 9 (0.69%) CyberArk
17 8 (0.61%) Foundry