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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 23 18
Rank change year-on-year +1 -5 +10
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,647 1,055 1,524
As % of all contract jobs in London 9.41% 8.29% 8.52%
As % of the General category 15.45% 12.28% 13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 775 1,058
10th Percentile £385 £382 £375
25th Percentile £443 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -4.44%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £702 £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% -10.63%
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 10,660 8,589 11,308
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 60.91% 67.47% 63.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,949 5,808 8,078
10th Percentile £345 £337 £334
25th Percentile £425 £445 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £663 £701 £700
90th Percentile £786 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 139 249
10th Percentile £17.75 £15.84 £15.90
25th Percentile £22.87 £23.70 £18.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.50 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% +18.97% -10.77%
75th Percentile £50.00 £51.63 £46.48
90th Percentile £72.50 £65.50 £68.75
England median hourly rate £30.00 £28.60 £29.83
% change year-on-year +4.90% -4.11% -14.79%

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 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 23 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 23 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 -3 152 £550 +4.76% 54
South London +1 69 £500 +2.04% 7
East London -6 8 £750 +27.66% 23
North London -3 5 £525 +52.28% 1
West London -35 4 £506 +26.56% 11
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 71 (4.31%) Confluence
2 38 (2.31%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
4 11 (0.67%) nginx
5 10 (0.61%) Apache
6 9 (0.55%) Apache Spark
7 8 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.43%) CMS
9 6 (0.36%) Tomcat
10 5 (0.30%) Camunda
10 5 (0.30%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.12%) Drupal
12 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
12 2 (0.12%) SAS
13 1 (0.061%) Apache Solr
13 1 (0.061%) Sitecore CMS
13 1 (0.061%) WebSphere
13 1 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 49 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.36%) Trello
7 5 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
8 3 (0.18%) Adobe XD
8 3 (0.18%) Sketch
9 2 (0.12%) InVision
10 1 (0.061%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.061%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 27 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (0.97%) 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
1 362 (21.98%) AWS
2 303 (18.40%) Azure
3 99 (6.01%) Power Platform
4 88 (5.34%) Serverless
5 65 (3.95%) Azure DevOps
6 64 (3.89%) GCP
6 64 (3.89%) GitHub
7 54 (3.28%) Amazon S3
7 54 (3.28%) AWS Lambda
7 54 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
8 44 (2.67%) AWS CloudFormation
9 38 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
10 37 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
10 37 (2.25%) Entra ID
10 37 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
11 36 (2.19%) SaaS
12 35 (2.13%) Amazon EC2
13 34 (2.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 33 (2.00%) OCI
15 32 (1.94%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.76%) Firewall
2 28 (1.70%) Network Security
3 21 (1.28%) 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%) Internet
7 8 (0.49%) TCP/IP
7 8 (0.49%) Wireless
8 7 (0.43%) DKIM
8 7 (0.43%) NGFW
9 6 (0.36%) BGP
9 6 (0.36%) OSPF
10 5 (0.30%) DMARC
10 5 (0.30%) Reverse Proxy
10 5 (0.30%) SD-WAN
10 5 (0.30%) WLAN
11 4 (0.24%) HTTP
11 4 (0.24%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (4.37%) Power BI
2 33 (2.00%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
3 27 (1.64%) Metadata
4 25 (1.52%) SQL Server
5 24 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
6 21 (1.28%) Data Lake
7 20 (1.21%) MongoDB
8 17 (1.03%) NoSQL
9 16 (0.97%) Tableau
10 14 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
10 14 (0.85%) Delta Lake
11 13 (0.79%) Amazon Athena
12 12 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
13 10 (0.61%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.55%) Data Hub
15 8 (0.49%) Amazon QuickSight
15 8 (0.49%) Oracle Reports
15 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
16 7 (0.43%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 99 (6.01%) JIRA
2 96 (5.83%) Git
3 52 (3.16%) GitLab
4 47 (2.85%) Jenkins
5 22 (1.34%) Selenium
6 20 (1.21%) Postman
7 13 (0.79%) JUnit
8 11 (0.67%) Mockito
9 9 (0.55%) SonarQube
10 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
11 6 (0.36%) JMeter
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%) Liquibase
12 5 (0.30%) Maven
13 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
13 4 (0.24%) Cucumber
13 4 (0.24%) MLflow
General
1 410 (24.89%) Social Skills
2 225 (13.66%) Finance
3 143 (8.68%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (4.61%) Local Government
5 47 (2.85%) Military
5 47 (2.85%) Telecoms
6 46 (2.79%) Marketing
7 44 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
8 35 (2.13%) Legal
9 34 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
10 33 (2.00%) Manufacturing
11 30 (1.82%) Banking
12 29 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
14 24 (1.46%) Electronics
14 24 (1.46%) Law
15 23 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 21 (1.28%) Police
17 19 (1.15%) Retail
18 12 (0.73%) Billing
Job Titles
1 234 (14.21%) Developer
2 230 (13.96%) Architect
3 177 (10.75%) Senior
4 146 (8.86%) Lead
5 145 (8.80%) Analyst
6 88 (5.34%) Designer
7 80 (4.86%) Business Analyst
8 66 (4.01%) DevOps Engineer
9 58 (3.52%) User Researcher
10 54 (3.28%) Solutions Architect
11 53 (3.22%) Data Engineer
12 52 (3.16%) Consultant
12 52 (3.16%) Project Manager
13 48 (2.91%) Technical Architect
14 45 (2.73%) Delivery Manager
15 41 (2.49%) Senior Developer
16 40 (2.43%) Azure Engineer
17 39 (2.37%) Salesforce Developer
18 38 (2.31%) Service Designer
19 36 (2.19%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (3.40%) REST
2 48 (2.91%) RESTful
3 45 (2.73%) Node.js
3 45 (2.73%) React
4 39 (2.37%) Oracle Fusion
5 38 (2.31%) Spring
6 36 (2.19%) .NET
6 36 (2.19%) Lightning Web Components
6 36 (2.19%) Web Services
7 34 (2.06%) HTML
8 33 (2.00%) AngularJS
9 32 (1.94%) Spring Boot
10 26 (1.58%) Kafka
10 26 (1.58%) SOAP
11 22 (1.34%) CSS
12 19 (1.15%) JSON
13 17 (1.03%) Middleware
14 16 (0.97%) PySpark
15 14 (0.85%) XML
16 12 (0.73%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 108 (6.56%) Cloud Native
2 61 (3.70%) Onboarding
3 51 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
4 39 (2.37%) Product Ownership
5 36 (2.19%) NHS
6 34 (2.06%) Data Centre
7 23 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
8 22 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
8 22 (1.34%) Management Information System
9 18 (1.09%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (1.03%) Public Cloud
11 15 (0.91%) Data Structures
11 15 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (0.79%) AI Agents
12 13 (0.79%) Security Posture
13 11 (0.67%) Replication
14 10 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
14 10 (0.61%) CMDB
14 10 (0.61%) Enterprise Cloud
14 10 (0.61%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.28%) Linux
2 48 (2.91%) Windows
3 14 (0.85%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.73%) Android
5 9 (0.55%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.43%) Mac OS
6 7 (0.43%) VMS
7 6 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.30%) Solaris
8 5 (0.30%) Unix
8 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
8 5 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.12%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.061%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 413 (25.08%) Agile
2 255 (15.48%) CI/CD
3 248 (15.06%) DevOps
4 217 (13.18%) Stakeholder Management
5 188 (11.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 156 (9.47%) Continuous Improvement
7 152 (9.23%) Migration
8 151 (9.17%) Decision-Making
8 151 (9.17%) Roadmaps
9 147 (8.93%) Problem-Solving
10 133 (8.08%) AI
10 133 (8.08%) Infrastructure as Code
11 128 (7.77%) Containerisation
12 125 (7.59%) Analytics
13 115 (6.98%) User Research
14 114 (6.92%) Data Modelling
15 106 (6.44%) Test Automation
16 103 (6.25%) Digital Transformation Programme
17 102 (6.19%) Business Intelligence
18 99 (6.01%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 198 (12.02%) Python
2 136 (8.26%) SQL
3 101 (6.13%) Java
4 79 (4.80%) JavaScript
5 46 (2.79%) TypeScript
6 41 (2.49%) C#
7 38 (2.31%) Ruby
8 36 (2.19%) Apex Code
9 35 (2.13%) PowerShell
10 25 (1.52%) Bash
11 15 (0.91%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.79%) Bicep
13 11 (0.67%) Kotlin
13 11 (0.67%) R
14 10 (0.61%) Go
15 9 (0.55%) Shell Script
16 6 (0.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 5 (0.30%) C
17 5 (0.30%) T-SQL
18 4 (0.24%) Scala
Qualifications
1 929 (56.41%) Security Cleared
2 704 (42.74%) SC Cleared
3 58 (3.52%) DV Cleared
4 55 (3.34%) Degree
5 48 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.70%) Azure Certification
7 24 (1.46%) CISSP
8 23 (1.40%) AWS Certification
9 16 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (0.91%) CISM
11 14 (0.85%) PMP
12 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (0.67%) APMP
13 11 (0.67%) CIMA
14 10 (0.61%) ACCA
15 9 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 9 (0.55%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.55%) PMI Certification
16 8 (0.49%) TOGAF Certification
17 7 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (6.07%) Accessibility
2 68 (4.13%) Data Quality
3 67 (4.07%) QA
4 49 (2.98%) GDPR
5 40 (2.43%) WCAG
6 39 (2.37%) NCSC
7 38 (2.31%) PMO
8 32 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 15 (0.91%) NIST
10 14 (0.85%) GRC
11 12 (0.73%) SLA
12 11 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
13 10 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
14 9 (0.55%) PCI DSS
15 8 (0.49%) Government Security Classifications
16 5 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 5 (0.30%) NIST 800
17 4 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 4 (0.24%) IFRS
18 3 (0.18%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 123 (7.47%) Docker
2 33 (2.00%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.36%) 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
1 155 (9.41%) Terraform
2 131 (7.95%) Kubernetes
3 29 (1.76%) Grafana
4 28 (1.70%) Ansible
5 26 (1.58%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.36%) Consul
7 6 (0.36%) Packer
7 6 (0.36%) Puppet
7 6 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.30%) Argo
9 4 (0.24%) Kibana
9 4 (0.24%) SCCM
10 3 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
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
1 169 (10.26%) Microsoft
2 92 (5.59%) Salesforce
3 88 (5.34%) Oracle
4 61 (3.70%) SAP
5 53 (3.22%) Databricks
6 44 (2.67%) ServiceNow
7 36 (2.19%) Google
8 22 (1.34%) Cisco
9 20 (1.21%) MuleSoft
9 20 (1.21%) VMware
10 19 (1.15%) IBM
11 16 (0.97%) Atlassian
11 16 (0.97%) Foundry
12 14 (0.85%) Virgin Media
13 12 (0.73%) OpenAI
13 12 (0.73%) Red Hat
14 11 (0.67%) Splunk
15 10 (0.61%) Fortinet
15 10 (0.61%) Palo Alto
16 8 (0.49%) ForgeRock