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 19 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 24 18
Rank change year-on-year +1 -6 +10
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,646 1,055 1,526
As % of all contract jobs in London 9.47% 8.30% 8.54%
As % of the General category 15.50% 12.31% 13.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 775 1,063
10th Percentile £385 £382 £375
25th Percentile £443 £453 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £607 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £745
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 12
10th Percentile £17.50 £21.20 £15.00
25th Percentile £18.17 £22.27 £15.38
Median hourly rate £31.39 £37.50 £18.25
Median % change year-on-year -16.31% +105.48% -19.64%
75th Percentile £50.00 £47.50 £34.06
90th Percentile £74.05 £66.50 £68.30
England median hourly rate £22.57 £22.50 £22.50
% change year-on-year +0.30% - +12.50%

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 10,618 8,573 11,297
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 61.07% 67.47% 63.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,923 5,809 8,074
10th Percentile £348 £338 £331
25th Percentile £425 £447 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £663 £700 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 137 249
10th Percentile £18.27 £15.84 £15.90
25th Percentile £22.87 £23.80 £18.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% +15.00% -7.69%
75th Percentile £50.00 £52.00 £47.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £66.00 £68.90
England median hourly rate £29.04 £28.75 £28.44
% change year-on-year +1.01% +1.09% -16.35%

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 19 April 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 19 April 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 19 April 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 -2 154 £550 +4.76% 104
South London +1 71 £500 +2.04% 10
East London -7 8 £750 +27.66% 21
North London -3 5 £525 +52.28% 4
West London -35 4 £506 +26.56% 12
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 (4.19%) Confluence
2 40 (2.43%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.73%) Apache
5 11 (0.67%) Apache Spark
5 11 (0.67%) nginx
6 9 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.36%) CMS
7 6 (0.36%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.30%) Camunda
8 5 (0.30%) Palantir Foundry
9 4 (0.24%) SAS
10 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.12%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.12%) Drupal
11 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
12 1 (0.061%) Apache Solr
12 1 (0.061%) Sitecore CMS
12 1 (0.061%) WebSphere
12 1 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 47 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.36%) Trello
6 5 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
7 3 (0.18%) Adobe XD
7 3 (0.18%) Sketch
8 2 (0.12%) InVision
9 1 (0.061%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.061%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 25 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
4 8 (0.49%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.49%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.30%) iTrent
5 5 (0.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 4 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.18%) Exchequer
8 2 (0.12%) Integrated Workplace Management System
8 2 (0.12%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle Payroll
8 2 (0.12%) SAP GRC
8 2 (0.12%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.061%) NEC Housing
9 1 (0.061%) Oracle Assets
9 1 (0.061%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.061%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.061%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 370 (22.48%) AWS
2 300 (18.23%) Azure
3 96 (5.83%) Power Platform
4 91 (5.53%) Serverless
5 66 (4.01%) Azure DevOps
5 66 (4.01%) GCP
6 63 (3.83%) GitHub
7 57 (3.46%) AWS Lambda
8 55 (3.34%) Amazon S3
9 54 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
10 45 (2.73%) AWS CloudFormation
11 37 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
12 36 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
12 36 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
12 36 (2.19%) SaaS
13 35 (2.13%) Amazon EC2
13 35 (2.13%) Entra ID
14 33 (2.00%) OCI
14 33 (2.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 29 (1.76%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.70%) Network Security
2 27 (1.64%) Firewall
3 22 (1.34%) DNS
4 15 (0.91%) VPN
5 14 (0.85%) WAN
6 13 (0.79%) LAN
6 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
7 10 (0.61%) Wireless
8 9 (0.55%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.49%) Internet
10 7 (0.43%) BGP
10 7 (0.43%) DKIM
10 7 (0.43%) OSPF
11 6 (0.36%) NGFW
11 6 (0.36%) WLAN
12 5 (0.30%) DMARC
12 5 (0.30%) Reverse Proxy
12 5 (0.30%) SD-WAN
13 4 (0.24%) DHCP
13 4 (0.24%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.37%) Power BI
2 35 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
3 28 (1.70%) Metadata
4 27 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
5 26 (1.58%) SQL Server
6 24 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
7 22 (1.34%) Data Lake
8 20 (1.22%) MongoDB
9 17 (1.03%) NoSQL
9 17 (1.03%) Tableau
10 15 (0.91%) Amazon Redshift
11 14 (0.85%) Amazon Athena
11 14 (0.85%) Delta Lake
12 12 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
13 11 (0.67%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.55%) Data Hub
15 8 (0.49%) Amazon QuickSight
15 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
16 7 (0.43%) BigQuery
16 7 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 99 (6.01%) JIRA
2 96 (5.83%) Git
3 52 (3.16%) GitLab
4 45 (2.73%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.46%) Selenium
6 22 (1.34%) Postman
7 14 (0.85%) JUnit
8 11 (0.67%) Mockito
9 9 (0.55%) SonarQube
10 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
10 7 (0.43%) JMeter
11 6 (0.36%) Liquibase
11 6 (0.36%) Snyk
12 5 (0.30%) CircleCI
12 5 (0.30%) Cypress.io
12 5 (0.30%) Gradle
12 5 (0.30%) Maven
13 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
13 4 (0.24%) Cucumber
13 4 (0.24%) MLflow
General
1 407 (24.73%) Social Skills
2 224 (13.61%) Finance
3 146 (8.87%) Analytical Skills
4 75 (4.56%) Local Government
5 48 (2.92%) Marketing
5 48 (2.92%) Telecoms
6 47 (2.86%) Military
7 44 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
8 35 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
8 35 (2.13%) Manufacturing
9 33 (2.00%) Legal
10 31 (1.88%) Banking
11 29 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
12 26 (1.58%) Electronics
13 24 (1.46%) Law
13 24 (1.46%) Police
14 23 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 19 (1.15%) Retail
17 12 (0.73%) Billing
Job Titles
1 235 (14.28%) Developer
2 229 (13.91%) Architect
3 183 (11.12%) Senior
4 148 (8.99%) Analyst
5 142 (8.63%) Lead
6 88 (5.35%) Designer
7 82 (4.98%) Business Analyst
8 65 (3.95%) DevOps Engineer
9 57 (3.46%) User Researcher
10 56 (3.40%) Data Engineer
11 53 (3.22%) Solutions Architect
12 52 (3.16%) Consultant
13 50 (3.04%) Project Manager
14 48 (2.92%) Technical Architect
15 46 (2.79%) Delivery Manager
16 43 (2.61%) Senior Developer
17 39 (2.37%) Salesforce Developer
17 39 (2.37%) Service Designer
18 37 (2.25%) Azure Engineer
19 36 (2.19%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (3.40%) REST
2 49 (2.98%) React
2 49 (2.98%) RESTful
3 47 (2.86%) Node.js
4 39 (2.37%) .NET
5 37 (2.25%) Lightning Web Components
5 37 (2.25%) Oracle Fusion
5 37 (2.25%) Spring
5 37 (2.25%) Web Services
6 35 (2.13%) AngularJS
7 34 (2.07%) HTML
8 31 (1.88%) Spring Boot
9 27 (1.64%) Kafka
10 26 (1.58%) SOAP
11 23 (1.40%) CSS
12 20 (1.22%) JSON
13 18 (1.09%) Middleware
14 17 (1.03%) PySpark
15 15 (0.91%) XML
16 12 (0.73%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 110 (6.68%) Cloud Native
2 62 (3.77%) Onboarding
3 49 (2.98%) Legacy Systems
4 41 (2.49%) Product Ownership
5 35 (2.13%) Data Centre
6 34 (2.07%) NHS
7 25 (1.52%) Distributed Systems
8 21 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (1.09%) Management Information System
10 17 (1.03%) Public Cloud
11 16 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (0.91%) Data Structures
12 15 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
13 14 (0.85%) Security Posture
14 13 (0.79%) AI Agents
15 10 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
15 10 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
15 10 (0.61%) Replication
16 9 (0.55%) CMDB
16 9 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.22%) Linux
2 50 (3.04%) Windows
3 15 (0.91%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.79%) Android
5 9 (0.55%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.49%) Mac OS
7 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
7 7 (0.43%) VMS
8 6 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.30%) Solaris
9 5 (0.30%) Unix
9 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
9 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.061%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.061%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 412 (25.03%) Agile
2 258 (15.67%) CI/CD
3 244 (14.82%) DevOps
4 213 (12.94%) Stakeholder Management
5 189 (11.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 158 (9.60%) Continuous Improvement
7 152 (9.23%) Roadmaps
8 151 (9.17%) Problem-Solving
9 150 (9.11%) Decision-Making
9 150 (9.11%) Migration
10 132 (8.02%) AI
11 131 (7.96%) Infrastructure as Code
12 127 (7.72%) Containerisation
13 124 (7.53%) Analytics
14 115 (6.99%) User Research
15 114 (6.93%) Data Modelling
16 109 (6.62%) Test Automation
17 104 (6.32%) Business Intelligence
18 103 (6.26%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 97 (5.89%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 201 (12.21%) Python
2 139 (8.44%) SQL
3 99 (6.01%) Java
4 83 (5.04%) JavaScript
5 48 (2.92%) TypeScript
6 43 (2.61%) C#
7 39 (2.37%) Ruby
8 37 (2.25%) Apex Code
9 33 (2.00%) PowerShell
10 24 (1.46%) Bash
11 15 (0.91%) PL/SQL
12 12 (0.73%) Bicep
12 12 (0.73%) R
13 11 (0.67%) Go
13 11 (0.67%) Kotlin
14 9 (0.55%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.36%) C
15 6 (0.36%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 4 (0.24%) Scala
Qualifications
1 937 (56.93%) Security Cleared
2 710 (43.13%) SC Cleared
3 57 (3.46%) DV Cleared
4 54 (3.28%) Degree
5 46 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.58%) Azure Certification
7 25 (1.52%) CISSP
8 21 (1.28%) AWS Certification
9 16 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (0.97%) CISM
10 14 (0.85%) PMP
11 12 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
12 11 (0.67%) APMP
12 11 (0.67%) CIMA
13 10 (0.61%) ACCA
14 9 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 9 (0.55%) PMI Certification
15 8 (0.49%) CTC Cleared
15 8 (0.49%) OSCP
15 8 (0.49%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (6.14%) Accessibility
2 71 (4.31%) Data Quality
3 67 (4.07%) QA
4 47 (2.86%) GDPR
5 41 (2.49%) NCSC
6 39 (2.37%) WCAG
7 38 (2.31%) PMO
8 36 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 17 (1.03%) NIST
10 15 (0.91%) GRC
11 12 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
11 12 (0.73%) SLA
12 10 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.55%) PCI DSS
14 8 (0.49%) Government Security Classifications
15 7 (0.43%) NIST 800
16 5 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
17 4 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 4 (0.24%) IFRS
18 3 (0.18%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 125 (7.59%) Docker
2 32 (1.94%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.30%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.12%) Postfix
7 2 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.12%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.12%) vSphere
8 1 (0.061%) FreeRADIUS
8 1 (0.061%) IAG
8 1 (0.061%) NLBS
8 1 (0.061%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.061%) Squid
8 1 (0.061%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 153 (9.30%) Terraform
2 131 (7.96%) Kubernetes
3 28 (1.70%) Grafana
4 27 (1.64%) Ansible
5 24 (1.46%) Prometheus
6 10 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.36%) Packer
7 6 (0.36%) Puppet
7 6 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.30%) Argo
8 5 (0.30%) Consul
9 4 (0.24%) SCCM
10 3 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.18%) Kibana
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.18%) Salt
10 3 (0.18%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.12%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.12%) vRealize
Vendors
1 163 (9.90%) Microsoft
2 94 (5.71%) Salesforce
3 88 (5.35%) Oracle
4 60 (3.65%) SAP
5 55 (3.34%) Databricks
6 44 (2.67%) ServiceNow
7 36 (2.19%) Google
8 24 (1.46%) Cisco
9 21 (1.28%) VMware
10 20 (1.22%) MuleSoft
11 19 (1.15%) IBM
12 17 (1.03%) Atlassian
13 16 (0.97%) Foundry
14 15 (0.91%) Virgin Media
15 12 (0.73%) OpenAI
15 12 (0.73%) Red Hat
15 12 (0.73%) Splunk
16 10 (0.61%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.61%) Palo Alto
17 8 (0.49%) ForgeRock