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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 25 23
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 0
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,751 1,010 1,229
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.60% 7.55% 7.68%
As % of the General category 13.96% 10.94% 12.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,325 734 775
10th Percentile £381 £364 £350
25th Percentile £463 £431 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -6.46%
75th Percentile £638 £613 £625
90th Percentile £709 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £500 £524
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.53% -3.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 21 9
10th Percentile £16.76 £19.79 £18.13
25th Percentile £22.94 £23.45 £20.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £30.00 £33.75
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -11.11% -20.49%
75th Percentile £50.00 £47.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £62.00 £86.25 £90.75
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.40 £23.99
% change year-on-year -0.23% -10.80% +14.24%

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 12,543 9,229 9,923
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 61.61% 69.01% 62.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,016 6,067 6,562
10th Percentile £350 £325 £331
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £700
90th Percentile £788 £788 £825
England median daily rate £525 £500 £538
% change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 181 117
10th Percentile £16.70 £17.00 £17.80
25th Percentile £21.41 £24.61 £25.00
Median hourly rate £29.03 £31.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.86% -10.00% +27.27%
75th Percentile £47.50 £49.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £65.00 £65.01
England median hourly rate £30.90 £25.08 £39.18
% change year-on-year +23.23% -35.99% +36.26%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +5 180 £550 +6.80% 146
South London -2 56 £525 +7.03% 17
West London -23 16 £475 -5.00% 95
East London +9 10 £613 +2.08% 16
North London 0 5 £400 -27.27%
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 77 (4.40%) Confluence
2 49 (2.80%) SharePoint
3 22 (1.26%) CMS
4 17 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.74%) Apache
5 13 (0.74%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.51%) nginx
8 7 (0.40%) SAS
9 6 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
9 6 (0.34%) Headless CMS
9 6 (0.34%) WordPress
10 3 (0.17%) Drupal
11 2 (0.11%) Mendix
11 2 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.11%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.11%) WebLogic
12 1 (0.057%) IIS
12 1 (0.057%) PowerExchange
12 1 (0.057%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 36 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.17%) Adobe XD
5 3 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.17%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.17%) Sketch
6 2 (0.11%) Trello
7 1 (0.057%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 21 (1.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (1.03%) Oracle ERP
3 14 (0.80%) Oracle EBS
4 12 (0.69%) NetSuite
5 7 (0.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 5 (0.29%) Exchequer
7 4 (0.23%) iTrent
7 4 (0.23%) SAP FI
8 3 (0.17%) PeopleSoft HCM
8 3 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
8 3 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.17%) SAP CO
8 3 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
8 3 (0.17%) SAP HR
9 2 (0.11%) Changepoint
9 2 (0.11%) Oracle Payroll
9 2 (0.11%) SAP ERP
10 1 (0.057%) Oracle Applications
10 1 (0.057%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 384 (21.93%) AWS
2 346 (19.76%) Azure
3 112 (6.40%) Power Platform
4 94 (5.37%) GCP
5 80 (4.57%) GitHub
6 71 (4.05%) Azure DevOps
6 71 (4.05%) Serverless
7 69 (3.94%) Entra ID
7 69 (3.94%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (3.83%) Amazon S3
9 58 (3.31%) GitHub Actions
10 46 (2.63%) SaaS
11 44 (2.51%) AWS Lambda
12 38 (2.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 37 (2.11%) Amazon EKS
14 33 (1.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 31 (1.77%) Amazon EC2
16 29 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
17 27 (1.54%) Power Automate
17 27 (1.54%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 47 (2.68%) Firewall
2 29 (1.66%) DNS
2 29 (1.66%) Network Security
3 14 (0.80%) WAN
4 13 (0.74%) LAN
5 11 (0.63%) VPN
6 10 (0.57%) Cisco IPT
6 10 (0.57%) NGFW
6 10 (0.57%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.34%) DHCP
8 6 (0.34%) DKIM
8 6 (0.34%) DMARC
8 6 (0.34%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.29%) 3GPP
9 5 (0.29%) 5G
9 5 (0.29%) HTTPS
9 5 (0.29%) Kerberos
9 5 (0.29%) Radio Access Network
9 5 (0.29%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.11%) Power BI
2 56 (3.20%) PostgreSQL
3 41 (2.34%) Metadata
4 34 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
5 30 (1.71%) Amazon RDS
6 26 (1.48%) Data Lake
7 23 (1.31%) MongoDB
8 22 (1.26%) NoSQL
9 21 (1.20%) Amazon Redshift
9 21 (1.20%) MySQL
10 20 (1.14%) Amazon Aurora
11 19 (1.09%) Amazon Athena
12 17 (0.97%) SQL Server
13 16 (0.91%) Tableau
14 15 (0.86%) Relational Database
15 14 (0.80%) Oracle Database
16 12 (0.69%) Delta Lake
17 11 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
17 11 (0.63%) Redis
18 10 (0.57%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 109 (6.23%) JIRA
2 93 (5.31%) Git
3 71 (4.05%) Jenkins
4 64 (3.66%) GitLab
5 13 (0.74%) JUnit
6 11 (0.63%) Selenium
6 11 (0.63%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.51%) CircleCI
7 9 (0.51%) Cucumber
7 9 (0.51%) Cypress.io
7 9 (0.51%) Maven
7 9 (0.51%) Mockito
8 7 (0.40%) Postman
9 6 (0.34%) JMeter
10 5 (0.29%) Snyk
11 4 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.23%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.23%) TestNG
12 3 (0.17%) Gradle
12 3 (0.17%) VTune
General
1 571 (32.61%) Social Skills
2 177 (10.11%) Finance
3 167 (9.54%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (6.68%) Local Government
5 96 (5.48%) Military
6 71 (4.05%) Influencing Skills
7 50 (2.86%) Legal
8 49 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
9 42 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 38 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
11 36 (2.06%) Police
12 35 (2.00%) Law
13 25 (1.43%) Telecoms
14 21 (1.20%) Banking
14 21 (1.20%) Marketing
15 15 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
16 14 (0.80%) Publishing
17 13 (0.74%) Manufacturing
18 9 (0.51%) Retail
19 7 (0.40%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 298 (17.02%) Architect
2 225 (12.85%) Lead
3 203 (11.59%) Senior
4 193 (11.02%) Developer
5 126 (7.20%) Analyst
6 80 (4.57%) Designer
7 70 (4.00%) Delivery Manager
8 65 (3.71%) DevOps Engineer
9 64 (3.66%) Consultant
10 63 (3.60%) Solutions Architect
10 63 (3.60%) User Researcher
11 58 (3.31%) Business Analyst
12 52 (2.97%) Data Architect
13 50 (2.86%) Technical Architect
14 48 (2.74%) Data Engineer
15 41 (2.34%) Java Developer
16 40 (2.28%) Software Engineer
17 36 (2.06%) AWS Engineer
17 36 (2.06%) Project Manager
18 35 (2.00%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 174 (9.94%) Terraform
2 70 (4.00%) REST
3 49 (2.80%) Spring
4 47 (2.68%) Django
5 43 (2.46%) React
6 41 (2.34%) RESTful
7 38 (2.17%) Spring Boot
8 33 (1.88%) Kafka
9 32 (1.83%) Node.js
10 31 (1.77%) Oracle Fusion
11 30 (1.71%) SOAP
12 29 (1.66%) .NET
13 26 (1.48%) HTML
14 25 (1.43%) PySpark
14 25 (1.43%) Web Services
15 24 (1.37%) Lightning Web Components
16 22 (1.26%) JSON
17 19 (1.09%) AngularJS
17 19 (1.09%) CSS
18 17 (0.97%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 114 (6.51%) Cloud Native
2 78 (4.45%) Onboarding
3 65 (3.71%) Product Ownership
4 63 (3.60%) NHS
5 53 (3.03%) Legacy Systems
6 42 (2.40%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
8 29 (1.66%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
10 21 (1.20%) AI Agents
11 19 (1.09%) Data Structures
12 18 (1.03%) Low-Code
13 15 (0.86%) Replication
14 14 (0.80%) CMDB
14 14 (0.80%) Data Centre
14 14 (0.80%) Freedom of Information
15 13 (0.74%) Data Protection Act
15 13 (0.74%) Virtual Team
16 12 (0.69%) Security Operations Centre
16 12 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 48 (2.74%) Linux
2 39 (2.23%) Windows
3 14 (0.80%) Android
4 11 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 10 (0.57%) Mac OS
5 10 (0.57%) Windows 10
5 10 (0.57%) Windows Server
6 8 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.40%) Unix
8 5 (0.29%) Amazon Linux
9 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) Solaris
10 2 (0.11%) VMS
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.057%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 562 (32.10%) Agile
2 421 (24.04%) Stakeholder Management
3 311 (17.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 305 (17.42%) CI/CD
5 299 (17.08%) Continuous Improvement
6 284 (16.22%) DevOps
7 232 (13.25%) Decision-Making
8 210 (11.99%) AI
9 194 (11.08%) Problem-Solving
10 175 (9.99%) Infrastructure as Code
11 171 (9.77%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 169 (9.65%) Migration
13 160 (9.14%) Roadmaps
14 151 (8.62%) Analytics
15 141 (8.05%) Data Modelling
16 136 (7.77%) Technical Leadership
17 133 (7.60%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
18 122 (6.97%) User Research
19 117 (6.68%) Containerisation
20 111 (6.34%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 227 (12.96%) Python
2 156 (8.91%) SQL
3 114 (6.51%) Java
4 88 (5.03%) JavaScript
5 61 (3.48%) TypeScript
6 45 (2.57%) PowerShell
7 34 (1.94%) C#
8 30 (1.71%) Bash
9 28 (1.60%) Bicep
10 22 (1.26%) Apex Code
10 22 (1.26%) Groovy
11 17 (0.97%) PL/SQL
11 17 (0.97%) R
12 16 (0.91%) Ruby
13 13 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 11 (0.63%) Scala
15 10 (0.57%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.46%) Go
17 6 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
17 6 (0.34%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 950 (54.25%) Security Cleared
2 842 (48.09%) SC Cleared
3 119 (6.80%) BPSS Clearance
4 93 (5.31%) DV Cleared
5 52 (2.97%) Degree
6 46 (2.63%) AWS Certification
7 39 (2.23%) Azure Certification
8 33 (1.88%) CISSP
9 32 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
10 21 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
11 20 (1.14%) CISM
12 15 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 13 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
13 13 (0.74%) Master's Degree
14 10 (0.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 10 (0.57%) CCNP
15 9 (0.51%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 9 (0.51%) TOGAF Certification
16 8 (0.46%) APMG
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 127 (7.25%) Accessibility
2 103 (5.88%) Data Quality
3 72 (4.11%) QA
4 57 (3.26%) GDPR
5 52 (2.97%) WCAG
6 46 (2.63%) PMO
7 41 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 39 (2.23%) NCSC
9 32 (1.83%) NIST
10 22 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
11 16 (0.91%) GRC
12 15 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 11 (0.63%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 11 (0.63%) SLA
14 10 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
15 9 (0.51%) PCI DSS
16 8 (0.46%) Government Security Classifications
17 5 (0.29%) NIST 800
17 5 (0.29%) P3O
17 5 (0.29%) PERC
System Software
1 128 (7.31%) Docker
2 44 (2.51%) Active Directory
3 10 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.11%) Postfix
6 1 (0.057%) Ceph
6 1 (0.057%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.057%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.057%) Squid
6 1 (0.057%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.057%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 133 (7.60%) Kubernetes
2 42 (2.40%) Grafana
3 35 (2.00%) Prometheus
4 27 (1.54%) Ansible
4 27 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (0.74%) Kibana
6 10 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (0.51%) SCCM
8 8 (0.46%) Argo
9 5 (0.29%) Puppet
10 4 (0.23%) Istio
11 3 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.17%) Karpenter
12 2 (0.11%) AirWatch
12 2 (0.11%) Consul
12 2 (0.11%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.11%) Kustomize
12 2 (0.11%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.11%) Salt
13 1 (0.057%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 240 (13.71%) Microsoft
2 117 (6.68%) Oracle
3 79 (4.51%) Salesforce
4 67 (3.83%) Google
5 60 (3.43%) ServiceNow
6 47 (2.68%) Databricks
7 41 (2.34%) SAP
8 21 (1.20%) Foundry
9 17 (0.97%) Cisco
9 17 (0.97%) Palantir
10 16 (0.91%) Palo Alto
11 13 (0.74%) Splunk
12 12 (0.69%) IBM
13 11 (0.63%) Informatica
14 10 (0.57%) OpenAI
15 9 (0.51%) CrowdStrike
16 8 (0.46%) Juniper
17 7 (0.40%) Pega
17 7 (0.40%) VMware
17 7 (0.40%) Workday