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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 24 23
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,765 1,010 1,268
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.73% 7.61% 7.86%
As % of the General category 14.15% 11.05% 12.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,326 731 790
10th Percentile £375 £363 £353
25th Percentile £463 £428 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -7.08%
75th Percentile £638 £614 £625
90th Percentile £713 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £500 £523
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.31% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 20 11
10th Percentile £16.85 £19.60 £18.13
25th Percentile £18.90 £23.31 £22.09
Median hourly rate £35.00 £27.58 £33.75
Median % change year-on-year +26.93% -18.30% -23.05%
75th Percentile £50.00 £47.00 £50.79
90th Percentile £57.50 £86.25 £76.25
England median hourly rate £21.35 £22.03 £23.99
% change year-on-year -3.09% -8.17% +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 12,476 9,139 10,045
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 61.70% 68.84% 62.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,973 6,023 6,556
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 £535
% change year-on-year +5.00% -6.54% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 276 173 117
10th Percentile £16.47 £17.02 £17.80
25th Percentile £20.85 £24.61 £25.75
Median hourly rate £28.55 £31.50 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.37% -11.27% +23.48%
75th Percentile £47.50 £47.00 £53.75
90th Percentile £73.38 £64.55 £65.42
England median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +19.28% -32.93% +27.12%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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% 138
South London +1 57 £525 +6.06% 18
West London -19 18 £450 -10.00% 76
East London +11 12 £600 - 17
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 75 (4.25%) Confluence
2 50 (2.83%) SharePoint
3 22 (1.25%) CMS
4 17 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.74%) Apache
5 13 (0.74%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
7 8 (0.45%) 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
12 1 (0.057%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.057%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.057%) Luigi
12 1 (0.057%) PowerExchange
12 1 (0.057%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 38 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.17%) Adobe XD
6 3 (0.17%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.17%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.17%) Sketch
7 2 (0.11%) Trello
8 1 (0.057%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 20 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (1.02%) Oracle ERP
3 16 (0.91%) Oracle EBS
4 12 (0.68%) NetSuite
5 6 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 5 (0.28%) 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
1 379 (21.47%) AWS
2 343 (19.43%) Azure
3 112 (6.35%) Power Platform
4 90 (5.10%) GCP
5 78 (4.42%) GitHub
6 74 (4.19%) Azure DevOps
7 71 (4.02%) Serverless
8 70 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (3.91%) Entra ID
10 67 (3.80%) Amazon S3
11 58 (3.29%) GitHub Actions
12 47 (2.66%) SaaS
13 44 (2.49%) AWS Lambda
14 39 (2.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 39 (2.21%) Amazon EKS
15 32 (1.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 31 (1.76%) Amazon EC2
17 29 (1.64%) AWS CloudFormation
18 27 (1.53%) Power Automate
18 27 (1.53%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.55%) Firewall
2 29 (1.64%) DNS
2 29 (1.64%) Network Security
3 11 (0.62%) VPN
3 11 (0.62%) WAN
4 10 (0.57%) Cisco IPT
4 10 (0.57%) LAN
4 10 (0.57%) NGFW
4 10 (0.57%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (0.34%) DHCP
6 6 (0.34%) DKIM
6 6 (0.34%) DMARC
6 6 (0.34%) Wireshark
7 5 (0.28%) 5G
7 5 (0.28%) Kerberos
7 5 (0.28%) NGN
7 5 (0.28%) Radio Access Network
7 5 (0.28%) Reverse Proxy
7 5 (0.28%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.08%) Power BI
2 56 (3.17%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (2.38%) Metadata
4 34 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
5 29 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
6 27 (1.53%) Data Lake
7 23 (1.30%) MongoDB
8 22 (1.25%) NoSQL
9 21 (1.19%) Amazon Redshift
9 21 (1.19%) MySQL
10 20 (1.13%) Amazon Aurora
11 19 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
12 17 (0.96%) SQL Server
13 15 (0.85%) Oracle Database
13 15 (0.85%) Relational Database
13 15 (0.85%) Tableau
14 12 (0.68%) Delta Lake
15 11 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
15 11 (0.62%) Redis
16 10 (0.57%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 106 (6.01%) JIRA
2 87 (4.93%) Git
3 71 (4.02%) Jenkins
4 64 (3.63%) GitLab
5 12 (0.68%) JUnit
5 12 (0.68%) Selenium
6 10 (0.57%) Cucumber
6 10 (0.57%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.51%) Cypress.io
7 9 (0.51%) Maven
8 8 (0.45%) CircleCI
8 8 (0.45%) Mockito
8 8 (0.45%) Postman
9 7 (0.40%) JMeter
10 5 (0.28%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.23%) MSI
11 4 (0.23%) Snyk
11 4 (0.23%) TestNG
12 3 (0.17%) VTune
General
1 581 (32.92%) Social Skills
2 177 (10.03%) Finance
3 171 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (6.69%) Local Government
5 100 (5.67%) Military
6 71 (4.02%) Influencing Skills
7 53 (3.00%) Legal
8 50 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
9 41 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 38 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
11 35 (1.98%) Police
12 33 (1.87%) Law
13 25 (1.42%) Telecoms
14 23 (1.30%) Banking
15 21 (1.19%) Marketing
16 16 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
17 14 (0.79%) Publishing
18 13 (0.74%) Manufacturing
19 9 (0.51%) Retail
20 7 (0.40%) Billing
Job Titles
1 303 (17.17%) Architect
2 223 (12.63%) Lead
3 208 (11.78%) Senior
4 184 (10.42%) Developer
5 134 (7.59%) Analyst
6 83 (4.70%) Designer
7 69 (3.91%) Delivery Manager
8 68 (3.85%) Consultant
9 67 (3.80%) DevOps Engineer
9 67 (3.80%) User Researcher
10 64 (3.63%) Solutions Architect
11 62 (3.51%) Business Analyst
12 53 (3.00%) Data Architect
13 50 (2.83%) Data Engineer
14 49 (2.78%) Technical Architect
15 39 (2.21%) Java Developer
15 39 (2.21%) Software Engineer
16 36 (2.04%) Cloud Engineer
16 36 (2.04%) Service Designer
17 35 (1.98%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 175 (9.92%) Terraform
2 72 (4.08%) REST
3 46 (2.61%) Django
3 46 (2.61%) Spring
4 41 (2.32%) React
5 39 (2.21%) RESTful
6 35 (1.98%) Spring Boot
7 32 (1.81%) Oracle Fusion
8 31 (1.76%) Kafka
8 31 (1.76%) Node.js
9 30 (1.70%) SOAP
10 29 (1.64%) .NET
11 25 (1.42%) PySpark
12 24 (1.36%) HTML
12 24 (1.36%) Web Services
13 22 (1.25%) JSON
14 21 (1.19%) Lightning Web Components
15 18 (1.02%) AngularJS
15 18 (1.02%) Middleware
16 17 (0.96%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 113 (6.40%) Cloud Native
2 80 (4.53%) Onboarding
3 65 (3.68%) Product Ownership
4 62 (3.51%) NHS
5 53 (3.00%) Legacy Systems
6 44 (2.49%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 25 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
10 23 (1.30%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.25%) AI Agents
12 17 (0.96%) Low-Code
13 15 (0.85%) Replication
14 14 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
14 14 (0.79%) Freedom of Information
14 14 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (0.79%) Virtual Team
15 13 (0.74%) CMDB
15 13 (0.74%) Data Centre
15 13 (0.74%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 48 (2.72%) Linux
2 40 (2.27%) Windows
3 14 (0.79%) Android
4 12 (0.68%) Windows 10
5 11 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 10 (0.57%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.51%) Windows Server
8 7 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.34%) Unix
10 5 (0.28%) Amazon Linux
11 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.11%) VMS
13 1 (0.057%) Solaris
13 1 (0.057%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.057%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 555 (31.44%) Agile
2 433 (24.53%) Stakeholder Management
3 310 (17.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 300 (17.00%) CI/CD
5 298 (16.88%) Continuous Improvement
6 283 (16.03%) DevOps
7 234 (13.26%) Decision-Making
8 212 (12.01%) AI
9 202 (11.44%) Problem-Solving
10 175 (9.92%) Infrastructure as Code
11 174 (9.86%) Migration
12 170 (9.63%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 158 (8.95%) Roadmaps
14 153 (8.67%) Analytics
15 142 (8.05%) Data Modelling
16 134 (7.59%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
17 132 (7.48%) Technical Leadership
18 128 (7.25%) User Research
19 114 (6.46%) Service Design
20 113 (6.40%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 230 (13.03%) Python
2 159 (9.01%) SQL
3 110 (6.23%) Java
4 85 (4.82%) JavaScript
5 59 (3.34%) TypeScript
6 46 (2.61%) PowerShell
7 34 (1.93%) C#
8 32 (1.81%) Bash
9 28 (1.59%) Bicep
10 22 (1.25%) Groovy
11 19 (1.08%) Apex Code
12 16 (0.91%) PL/SQL
12 16 (0.91%) R
13 14 (0.79%) Ruby
14 13 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 13 (0.74%) Scala
15 10 (0.57%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.45%) Go
17 6 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
18 5 (0.28%) Perl
Qualifications
1 949 (53.77%) Security Cleared
2 842 (47.71%) SC Cleared
3 125 (7.08%) BPSS Clearance
4 94 (5.33%) DV Cleared
5 54 (3.06%) Degree
6 47 (2.66%) AWS Certification
7 39 (2.21%) Azure Certification
8 33 (1.87%) Microsoft Certification
9 31 (1.76%) CISSP
10 19 (1.08%) CISM
11 17 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.85%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 13 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
13 13 (0.74%) Master's Degree
14 10 (0.57%) PMI Certification
15 9 (0.51%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 9 (0.51%) CRISC
15 9 (0.51%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 9 (0.51%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 127 (7.20%) Accessibility
2 107 (6.06%) Data Quality
3 73 (4.14%) QA
4 56 (3.17%) GDPR
5 49 (2.78%) WCAG
6 43 (2.44%) PMO
7 40 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 38 (2.15%) NCSC
9 33 (1.87%) NIST
10 21 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
11 16 (0.91%) GRC
12 13 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 12 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
14 11 (0.62%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 10 (0.57%) SLA
16 8 (0.45%) Government Security Classifications
17 7 (0.40%) PCI DSS
18 5 (0.28%) NIST 800
18 5 (0.28%) P3O
18 5 (0.28%) PERC
System Software
1 124 (7.03%) Docker
2 44 (2.49%) Active Directory
3 10 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.11%) Postfix
6 1 (0.057%) Ceph
6 1 (0.057%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.057%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.057%) Squid
6 1 (0.057%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 131 (7.42%) Kubernetes
2 43 (2.44%) Grafana
3 36 (2.04%) Prometheus
4 29 (1.64%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.47%) Ansible
6 13 (0.74%) Kibana
7 10 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (0.51%) SCCM
9 8 (0.45%) Argo
10 5 (0.28%) Puppet
11 4 (0.23%) Istio
12 3 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.17%) Karpenter
13 2 (0.11%) AirWatch
13 2 (0.11%) Consul
13 2 (0.11%) Docker Swarm
13 2 (0.11%) Kustomize
13 2 (0.11%) Salt
14 1 (0.057%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
14 1 (0.057%) SELinux
Vendors
1 244 (13.82%) Microsoft
2 120 (6.80%) Oracle
3 76 (4.31%) Salesforce
4 69 (3.91%) Google
5 62 (3.51%) ServiceNow
6 48 (2.72%) Databricks
7 42 (2.38%) SAP
8 21 (1.19%) Foundry
9 18 (1.02%) Cisco
10 17 (0.96%) Palantir
11 16 (0.91%) Palo Alto
12 13 (0.74%) Splunk
13 11 (0.62%) Informatica
14 10 (0.57%) OpenAI
15 9 (0.51%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (0.51%) IBM
15 9 (0.51%) Workday
16 8 (0.45%) Juniper
17 6 (0.34%) Fortinet
17 6 (0.34%) NEC