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 6 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 24 18
Rank change year-on-year +4 -6 +8
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,641 1,005 1,516
As % of all contract jobs in London 9.22% 8.00% 8.57%
As % of the General category 15.34% 11.83% 13.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,239 738 1,062
10th Percentile £381 £394 £375
25th Percentile £448 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -4.44%
75th Percentile £610 £625 £650
90th Percentile £701 £750 £745
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 17 14
10th Percentile £17.39 £21.20 £15.00
25th Percentile £20.65 £22.00 £15.66
Median hourly rate £37.00 £26.45 £18.13
Median % change year-on-year +39.89% +45.89% -20.17%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £25.73
90th Percentile £74.95 £75.75 £65.90
England median hourly rate £23.83 £22.50 £21.62
% change year-on-year +5.89% +4.09% +7.54%

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 10,699 8,498 11,168
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 60.08% 67.61% 63.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,938 5,739 7,968
10th Percentile £349 £340 £335
25th Percentile £425 £447 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £668 £713 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £813
England median daily rate £505 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 197 137 244
10th Percentile £18.41 £15.84 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.93 £22.66 £18.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.00 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +20.35% -11.50%
75th Percentile £48.75 £51.18 £43.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £64.86
England median hourly rate £30.50 £27.64 £30.16
% change year-on-year +10.35% -8.36% -6.63%

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 6 May 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 6 May 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 6 May 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 -1 153 £550 +4.76% 96
South London +1 67 £500 +2.04% 9
West London -29 8 £506 +26.56% 14
East London -9 7 £750 +27.66% 17
North London -1 4 £450 -0.50%
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 72 (4.39%) Confluence
2 35 (2.13%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.67%) Apache Spark
3 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.61%) Apache
5 8 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.49%) Palantir Foundry
6 7 (0.43%) CMS
6 7 (0.43%) nginx
7 6 (0.37%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.30%) Camunda
9 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.12%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.12%) Drupal
10 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
11 1 (0.061%) Appian
11 1 (0.061%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.061%) R Markdown
11 1 (0.061%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 47 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.30%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.30%) Trello
6 3 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
6 3 (0.18%) Adobe XD
6 3 (0.18%) Sketch
7 2 (0.12%) InVision
8 1 (0.061%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.061%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 27 (1.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.79%) Oracle ERP
4 8 (0.49%) Oracle EBS
5 6 (0.37%) iTrent
5 6 (0.37%) SAP Payroll
6 5 (0.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 4 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.18%) Exchequer
9 2 (0.12%) Integrated Workplace Management System
9 2 (0.12%) Loan IQ
9 2 (0.12%) Oracle Payroll
9 2 (0.12%) PeopleSoft HCM
9 2 (0.12%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.12%) SAP GRC
9 2 (0.12%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
10 1 (0.061%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 1 (0.061%) Oracle Cash Management
10 1 (0.061%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 356 (21.69%) AWS
2 301 (18.34%) Azure
3 100 (6.09%) Power Platform
4 80 (4.88%) Serverless
5 66 (4.02%) GitHub
6 64 (3.90%) GCP
7 60 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
8 54 (3.29%) Microsoft 365
9 53 (3.23%) Amazon S3
10 51 (3.11%) AWS Lambda
11 38 (2.32%) GitHub Actions
12 37 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
12 37 (2.25%) AWS CloudFormation
12 37 (2.25%) Dynamics 365
12 37 (2.25%) Entra ID
13 35 (2.13%) Amazon EC2
14 34 (2.07%) OCI
14 34 (2.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 32 (1.95%) SaaS
16 30 (1.83%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 30 (1.83%) Firewall
2 27 (1.65%) Network Security
3 19 (1.16%) DNS
4 14 (0.85%) VPN
5 13 (0.79%) WAN
5 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
6 12 (0.73%) LAN
7 8 (0.49%) NGFW
7 8 (0.49%) TCP/IP
8 7 (0.43%) DKIM
8 7 (0.43%) Internet
8 7 (0.43%) Wireless
9 6 (0.37%) BGP
9 6 (0.37%) OSPF
10 5 (0.30%) DMARC
10 5 (0.30%) SD-WAN
10 5 (0.30%) WLAN
11 4 (0.24%) HTTP
11 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
11 4 (0.24%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (4.45%) Power BI
2 33 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
3 28 (1.71%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (1.65%) Metadata
5 24 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
6 23 (1.40%) SQL Server
7 22 (1.34%) Data Lake
8 20 (1.22%) MongoDB
9 17 (1.04%) NoSQL
10 15 (0.91%) Tableau
11 14 (0.85%) Delta Lake
12 12 (0.73%) Amazon Athena
12 12 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
13 11 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
14 10 (0.61%) DynamoDB
15 9 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
16 8 (0.49%) Amazon QuickSight
17 7 (0.43%) Data Hub
17 7 (0.43%) GIS
17 7 (0.43%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 99 (6.03%) JIRA
2 92 (5.61%) Git
3 53 (3.23%) GitLab
4 50 (3.05%) Jenkins
5 21 (1.28%) Selenium
6 20 (1.22%) Postman
7 15 (0.91%) JUnit
8 13 (0.79%) Mockito
9 10 (0.61%) SonarQube
10 8 (0.49%) CircleCI
10 8 (0.49%) Cypress.io
11 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.43%) Snyk
12 6 (0.37%) JMeter
13 5 (0.30%) Gradle
13 5 (0.30%) Liquibase
13 5 (0.30%) Maven
14 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
14 4 (0.24%) Cucumber
14 4 (0.24%) MLflow
General
1 393 (23.95%) Social Skills
2 216 (13.16%) Finance
3 142 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (4.51%) Local Government
5 52 (3.17%) Military
6 45 (2.74%) Influencing Skills
6 45 (2.74%) Telecoms
7 41 (2.50%) Marketing
8 35 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
9 32 (1.95%) Banking
9 32 (1.95%) Legal
10 28 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 26 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (1.52%) Law
14 24 (1.46%) Manufacturing
15 23 (1.40%) Police
16 19 (1.16%) Retail
17 18 (1.10%) Electronics
18 11 (0.67%) Billing
Job Titles
1 239 (14.56%) Developer
2 227 (13.83%) Architect
3 175 (10.66%) Senior
4 155 (9.45%) Lead
5 138 (8.41%) Analyst
6 91 (5.55%) Designer
7 78 (4.75%) Business Analyst
8 65 (3.96%) DevOps Engineer
9 57 (3.47%) Consultant
9 57 (3.47%) User Researcher
10 53 (3.23%) Project Manager
11 52 (3.17%) Data Engineer
12 48 (2.93%) Solutions Architect
12 48 (2.93%) Technical Architect
13 43 (2.62%) Delivery Manager
14 42 (2.56%) Senior Developer
15 40 (2.44%) Salesforce Developer
16 38 (2.32%) Security Architect
16 38 (2.32%) Service Designer
17 37 (2.25%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (3.41%) REST
2 48 (2.93%) RESTful
3 46 (2.80%) React
4 45 (2.74%) Node.js
5 42 (2.56%) Spring
6 39 (2.38%) Oracle Fusion
7 37 (2.25%) Lightning Web Components
8 36 (2.19%) Spring Boot
9 35 (2.13%) Web Services
10 34 (2.07%) HTML
11 32 (1.95%) .NET
12 31 (1.89%) AngularJS
13 27 (1.65%) Kafka
14 25 (1.52%) SOAP
15 23 (1.40%) CSS
16 18 (1.10%) JSON
17 17 (1.04%) Middleware
18 15 (0.91%) PySpark
19 14 (0.85%) OAuth
20 12 (0.73%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 103 (6.28%) Cloud Native
2 62 (3.78%) Onboarding
3 48 (2.93%) Legacy Systems
4 41 (2.50%) Product Ownership
5 34 (2.07%) NHS
6 31 (1.89%) Data Centre
7 24 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
8 23 (1.40%) Management Information System
9 22 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
10 16 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (0.91%) Public Cloud
12 13 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (0.79%) Data Structures
13 12 (0.73%) AI Agents
14 11 (0.67%) CMDB
14 11 (0.67%) Enterprise Cloud
14 11 (0.67%) Security Posture
15 10 (0.61%) Low-Code
16 9 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 47 (2.86%) Linux
1 47 (2.86%) Windows
2 14 (0.85%) Windows Server
3 11 (0.67%) Android
4 9 (0.55%) Windows 10
5 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.37%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.37%) VMS
7 5 (0.30%) Solaris
7 5 (0.30%) Unix
7 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
7 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.12%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.061%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 408 (24.86%) Agile
2 258 (15.72%) CI/CD
3 248 (15.11%) DevOps
4 218 (13.28%) Stakeholder Management
5 185 (11.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 154 (9.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 152 (9.26%) Decision-Making
7 152 (9.26%) Migration
7 152 (9.26%) Roadmaps
8 143 (8.71%) Problem-Solving
9 133 (8.10%) AI
9 133 (8.10%) Infrastructure as Code
10 130 (7.92%) Containerisation
11 125 (7.62%) Analytics
12 123 (7.50%) User Research
13 115 (7.01%) Data Modelling
14 108 (6.58%) Test Automation
15 102 (6.22%) Digital Transformation Programme
16 101 (6.15%) Service Design
17 96 (5.85%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 192 (11.70%) Python
2 136 (8.29%) SQL
3 110 (6.70%) Java
4 78 (4.75%) JavaScript
5 53 (3.23%) TypeScript
6 37 (2.25%) Apex Code
6 37 (2.25%) C#
6 37 (2.25%) Ruby
7 34 (2.07%) PowerShell
8 26 (1.58%) Bash
9 17 (1.04%) PL/SQL
10 13 (0.79%) Bicep
11 12 (0.73%) Kotlin
11 12 (0.73%) R
12 10 (0.61%) Go
12 10 (0.61%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.30%) C
14 5 (0.30%) T-SQL
15 4 (0.24%) Scala
Qualifications
1 925 (56.37%) Security Cleared
2 699 (42.60%) SC Cleared
3 69 (4.20%) DV Cleared
4 54 (3.29%) Degree
5 46 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.58%) Azure Certification
7 25 (1.52%) CISSP
8 21 (1.28%) AWS Certification
9 17 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (0.91%) CISM
10 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (0.79%) PMP
12 11 (0.67%) APMP
13 10 (0.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 10 (0.61%) CIMA
14 9 (0.55%) ACCA
15 8 (0.49%) CTC Cleared
15 8 (0.49%) PMI Certification
16 7 (0.43%) ISTQB
16 7 (0.43%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (6.83%) Accessibility
2 72 (4.39%) Data Quality
2 72 (4.39%) QA
3 46 (2.80%) WCAG
4 42 (2.56%) GDPR
5 40 (2.44%) PMO
6 36 (2.19%) NCSC
7 29 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 13 (0.79%) NIST
9 12 (0.73%) SLA
10 11 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
10 11 (0.67%) GRC
11 9 (0.55%) PCI DSS
12 7 (0.43%) Government Security Classifications
13 6 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 5 (0.30%) IFRS
15 4 (0.24%) IFRS 9
15 4 (0.24%) NIST 800
System Software
1 123 (7.50%) Docker
2 33 (2.01%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.12%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.12%) Postfix
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
1 148 (9.02%) Terraform
2 128 (7.80%) Kubernetes
3 32 (1.95%) Grafana
4 29 (1.77%) Ansible
4 29 (1.77%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.37%) Kibana
6 6 (0.37%) Puppet
6 6 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.30%) Argo
8 3 (0.18%) Consul
8 3 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.18%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.18%) Salt
8 3 (0.18%) SCCM
8 3 (0.18%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.12%) Packer
9 2 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 171 (10.42%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.55%) Salesforce
3 90 (5.48%) Oracle
4 57 (3.47%) SAP
5 49 (2.99%) Databricks
6 44 (2.68%) ServiceNow
7 33 (2.01%) Google
8 22 (1.34%) Cisco
9 19 (1.16%) IBM
9 19 (1.16%) MuleSoft
10 18 (1.10%) Foundry
11 16 (0.98%) Atlassian
12 15 (0.91%) VMware
13 12 (0.73%) OpenAI
13 12 (0.73%) Red Hat
13 12 (0.73%) Splunk
13 12 (0.73%) Virgin Media
14 10 (0.61%) Fortinet
14 10 (0.61%) Palo Alto
15 9 (0.55%) ForgeRock