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

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 21 18
Rank change year-on-year -3 -3 +21
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,309 1,243 1,622
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.94% 9.06% 8.76%
As % of the General category 13.79% 13.94% 13.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 959 777 1,123
10th Percentile £381 £350 £400
25th Percentile £443 £450 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.22%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £658
90th Percentile £688 £750 £743
England median daily rate £500 £523 £538
% change year-on-year -4.37% -2.72% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 16 10
10th Percentile - £21.00 £14.81
25th Percentile £17.50 £22.20 £16.42
Median hourly rate £20.84 £33.75 £22.69
Median % change year-on-year -38.25% +48.74% +11.12%
75th Percentile £41.25 £42.45 £52.71
90th Percentile £54.70 £65.00 £79.63
England median hourly rate £22.00 £25.50 £21.00
% change year-on-year -13.73% +21.43% +5.63%

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 9,491 8,915 11,835
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 64.79% 65.01% 63.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,186 5,627 8,464
10th Percentile £343 £327 £336
25th Percentile £425 £450 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.30% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £673 £700 £695
90th Percentile £775 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £528 £545
% change year-on-year -5.21% -3.21% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 112 236
10th Percentile £17.50 £20.08 £16.08
25th Percentile £20.82 £24.94 £19.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £28.88
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +21.21% +6.94%
75th Percentile £47.50 £51.50 £51.94
90th Percentile £72.50 £78.40 £74.38
England median hourly rate £23.00 £29.12 £26.00
% change year-on-year -21.02% +11.98% +1.13%

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 27 January 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 27 January 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 27 January 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 -6 149 £550 +4.76% 49
South London +1 45 £500 - 8
East London +1 5 £638 -1.92% 12
North London -1 4 £700 +174.51% 1
West London -27 4 £600 +60.00% 9
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 51 (3.90%) Confluence
2 37 (2.83%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.15%) nginx
4 12 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (0.76%) Apache
6 7 (0.53%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.31%) SAS
9 3 (0.23%) CMS
10 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.15%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.15%) Camunda
11 1 (0.076%) Appian
11 1 (0.076%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.076%) IIS
11 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.076%) Moodle
11 1 (0.076%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.076%) Sitecore CMS
11 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 41 (3.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (0.53%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 5 (0.38%) Adobe XD
7 4 (0.31%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.31%) MS Visio
7 4 (0.31%) Sketch
7 4 (0.31%) Trello
8 3 (0.23%) InVision
9 2 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.076%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.076%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.076%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.076%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.076%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 21 (1.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.99%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.53%) SAP Payroll
5 6 (0.46%) iTrent
6 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
7 4 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
7 4 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.23%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.15%) Exchequer
9 2 (0.15%) Loan IQ
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.15%) SAP Business One
9 2 (0.15%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.15%) SAP GRC
9 2 (0.15%) SAP HR
9 2 (0.15%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 262 (20.02%) AWS
2 257 (19.63%) Azure
3 100 (7.64%) Power Platform
4 71 (5.42%) Serverless
5 60 (4.58%) GitHub
6 55 (4.20%) Microsoft 365
7 54 (4.13%) Azure DevOps
8 47 (3.59%) GCP
9 41 (3.13%) AWS Lambda
9 41 (3.13%) Power Automate
10 38 (2.90%) Amazon S3
11 35 (2.67%) Dynamics 365
11 35 (2.67%) GitHub Actions
11 35 (2.67%) OCI
12 30 (2.29%) Amazon ECS
12 30 (2.29%) PowerApps
13 29 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
14 24 (1.83%) SaaS
15 22 (1.68%) Amazon EC2
15 22 (1.68%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.22%) Firewall
2 24 (1.83%) DNS
3 22 (1.68%) Network Security
4 16 (1.22%) VPN
5 15 (1.15%) WAN
5 15 (1.15%) Wireless
6 13 (0.99%) TCP/IP
7 12 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (0.84%) LAN
9 10 (0.76%) BGP
9 10 (0.76%) OSPF
10 8 (0.61%) HTTP
10 8 (0.61%) SMTP
10 8 (0.61%) SSL
11 7 (0.53%) FTP
11 7 (0.53%) IMAP
11 7 (0.53%) Internet
11 7 (0.53%) OpenLDAP
11 7 (0.53%) SSH
12 6 (0.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.19%) Power BI
2 45 (3.44%) PostgreSQL
3 25 (1.91%) Metadata
4 20 (1.53%) Data Lake
5 18 (1.38%) Amazon RDS
5 18 (1.38%) SQL Server
6 14 (1.07%) MongoDB
6 14 (1.07%) NoSQL
7 13 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.99%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.92%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (0.76%) Power Query
10 9 (0.69%) Data Hub
10 9 (0.69%) Oracle Database
11 8 (0.61%) Amazon Athena
12 7 (0.53%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.53%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
13 6 (0.46%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 6 (0.46%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 80 (6.11%) JIRA
2 68 (5.19%) Git
3 33 (2.52%) GitLab
4 32 (2.44%) Jenkins
5 25 (1.91%) Postman
6 22 (1.68%) Selenium
7 7 (0.53%) JUnit
7 7 (0.53%) Vagrant
8 6 (0.46%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.38%) Gradle
9 5 (0.38%) MLflow
10 4 (0.31%) Cucumber
10 4 (0.31%) Liquibase
10 4 (0.31%) Mockito
11 3 (0.23%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.23%) Appium
11 3 (0.23%) Axure RP
11 3 (0.23%) JMeter
11 3 (0.23%) Pa11y
11 3 (0.23%) REST Assured
General
1 382 (29.18%) Social Skills
2 214 (16.35%) Finance
3 116 (8.86%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (5.35%) Telecoms
5 66 (5.04%) Marketing
6 61 (4.66%) Manufacturing
7 58 (4.43%) Local Government
8 51 (3.90%) Electronics
9 37 (2.83%) Military
10 33 (2.52%) Legal
11 29 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
12 28 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
13 27 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (1.45%) Retail
15 18 (1.38%) Organisational Skills
16 16 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 16 (1.22%) Law
17 14 (1.07%) Banking
18 12 (0.92%) Police
19 11 (0.84%) Billing
Job Titles
1 180 (13.75%) Developer
2 158 (12.07%) Architect
3 150 (11.46%) Senior
4 125 (9.55%) Analyst
5 123 (9.40%) Lead
6 74 (5.65%) Business Analyst
7 66 (5.04%) Consultant
8 60 (4.58%) Designer
9 58 (4.43%) DevOps Engineer
10 41 (3.13%) Project Manager
11 39 (2.98%) Solutions Architect
12 37 (2.83%) User Researcher
13 35 (2.67%) Data Engineer
14 34 (2.60%) AWS Engineer
15 33 (2.52%) Service Designer
16 32 (2.44%) Technical Architect
17 28 (2.14%) Senior Developer
18 27 (2.06%) Azure Engineer
19 25 (1.91%) Security Engineer
19 25 (1.91%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (4.81%) REST
2 40 (3.06%) Oracle Fusion
3 38 (2.90%) RESTful
4 37 (2.83%) React
5 31 (2.37%) .NET
5 31 (2.37%) Node.js
5 31 (2.37%) Web Services
6 29 (2.22%) JSON
7 27 (2.06%) AngularJS
7 27 (2.06%) Spring
8 26 (1.99%) HTML
8 26 (1.99%) SOAP
9 25 (1.91%) Kafka
10 23 (1.76%) CSS
10 23 (1.76%) Lightning Web Components
10 23 (1.76%) Spring Boot
11 21 (1.60%) XML
12 18 (1.38%) OAuth
13 13 (0.99%) LangChain
13 13 (0.99%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 67 (5.12%) Cloud Native
2 49 (3.74%) Onboarding
3 38 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
4 36 (2.75%) Product Ownership
5 30 (2.29%) Data Centre
6 25 (1.91%) AI Agents
7 24 (1.83%) NHS
8 17 (1.30%) Management Information System
8 17 (1.30%) Public Cloud
8 17 (1.30%) Replication
9 15 (1.15%) Security Posture
10 14 (1.07%) Virtual Team
11 13 (0.99%) Data Structures
12 12 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (0.92%) Security Operations Centre
13 11 (0.84%) Data Protection Act
14 10 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
14 10 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
15 9 (0.69%) Cyber Threat
15 9 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 49 (3.74%) Linux
2 45 (3.44%) Windows
3 16 (1.22%) Mac OS
4 14 (1.07%) VMS
5 13 (0.99%) Android
6 7 (0.53%) Amazon Linux
6 7 (0.53%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.46%) Unix
7 6 (0.46%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.31%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.23%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.076%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 334 (25.52%) Agile
2 200 (15.28%) CI/CD
3 173 (13.22%) DevOps
4 168 (12.83%) Stakeholder Management
5 160 (12.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 145 (11.08%) Problem-Solving
7 126 (9.63%) Business Intelligence
8 125 (9.55%) AI
9 111 (8.48%) Roadmaps
10 110 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
11 105 (8.02%) Decision-Making
12 97 (7.41%) Migration
13 92 (7.03%) Infrastructure as Code
14 86 (6.57%) Analytics
15 85 (6.49%) User Research
16 84 (6.42%) Containerisation
17 75 (5.73%) Test Automation
18 74 (5.65%) Digital Transformation Programme
18 74 (5.65%) Project Management
19 71 (5.42%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
Programming Languages
1 160 (12.22%) Python
2 124 (9.47%) SQL
3 81 (6.19%) Java
4 65 (4.97%) JavaScript
5 41 (3.13%) PowerShell
6 38 (2.90%) C#
7 34 (2.60%) TypeScript
8 30 (2.29%) Ruby
9 22 (1.68%) Bash
10 21 (1.60%) Apex Code
11 13 (0.99%) PL/SQL
12 11 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 10 (0.76%) Go
14 8 (0.61%) R
15 7 (0.53%) Bicep
15 7 (0.53%) C
15 7 (0.53%) Groovy
16 6 (0.46%) Kotlin
17 4 (0.31%) C++
17 4 (0.31%) JSX
Qualifications
1 767 (58.59%) Security Cleared
2 571 (43.62%) SC Cleared
3 68 (5.19%) Degree
4 46 (3.51%) DV Cleared
5 28 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (2.06%) Azure Certification
7 19 (1.45%) AWS Certification
8 17 (1.30%) CISSP
9 14 (1.07%) PMP
10 12 (0.92%) CISM
10 12 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
11 10 (0.76%) OSCP
11 10 (0.76%) PMI Certification
12 9 (0.69%) APMP
12 9 (0.69%) CIMA
13 8 (0.61%) ACCA
13 8 (0.61%) ISTQB
13 8 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
14 7 (0.53%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (4.35%) Accessibility
2 53 (4.05%) GDPR
3 51 (3.90%) QA
4 43 (3.28%) Data Quality
5 40 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.22%) NIST
7 28 (2.14%) NCSC
8 24 (1.83%) PMO
9 14 (1.07%) GRC
10 10 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
10 10 (0.76%) HIPAA
10 10 (0.76%) WCAG
11 9 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.38%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.38%) SLA
13 4 (0.31%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 2 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
15 2 (0.15%) IFRS
System Software
1 98 (7.49%) Docker
2 26 (1.99%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.61%) Squid
4 7 (0.53%) DFS Replication
4 7 (0.53%) Dovecot
4 7 (0.53%) Postfix
4 7 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (0.38%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.15%) vSphere
9 1 (0.076%) IAG
9 1 (0.076%) NLBS
9 1 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.076%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 116 (8.86%) Terraform
2 107 (8.17%) Kubernetes
3 22 (1.68%) Grafana
4 20 (1.53%) Ansible
5 19 (1.45%) Prometheus
6 8 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
6 8 (0.61%) Nessus
7 7 (0.53%) Packer
7 7 (0.53%) Proxmox
8 6 (0.46%) Argo
8 6 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (0.38%) Consul
9 5 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.31%) SCCM
11 3 (0.23%) CSIRT
11 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.23%) QRadar
12 2 (0.15%) Fluentd
12 2 (0.15%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.15%) vRealize
Vendors
1 151 (11.54%) Microsoft
2 90 (6.88%) SAP
3 79 (6.04%) Oracle
4 64 (4.89%) Salesforce
5 41 (3.13%) ServiceNow
6 30 (2.29%) Cisco
7 25 (1.91%) Databricks
8 18 (1.38%) VMware
9 17 (1.30%) Google
9 17 (1.30%) MuleSoft
10 16 (1.22%) Apple
10 16 (1.22%) Splunk
11 15 (1.15%) Palo Alto
12 14 (1.07%) Virgin Media
13 13 (0.99%) Fortinet
14 10 (0.76%) Dell
14 10 (0.76%) HP
15 9 (0.69%) CyberArk
15 9 (0.69%) Juniper
16 8 (0.61%) Foundry