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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 25 23
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +1
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,712 986 1,239
As % of all contract jobs in London 8.53% 7.34% 7.66%
As % of the General category 14.01% 10.66% 12.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,299 712 870
10th Percentile £390 £363 £363
25th Percentile £460 £439 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £619 £625
90th Percentile £725 £693 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 19 10
10th Percentile £17.53 £19.42 £16.40
25th Percentile £33.15 £23.18 £18.13
Median hourly rate £47.00 £26.45 £28.97
Median % change year-on-year +77.69% -8.68% -33.96%
75th Percentile £66.49 £46.25 £66.50
90th Percentile £76.15 £72.25 £83.50
England median hourly rate £21.50 £21.39 £26.13
% change year-on-year +0.54% -18.14% +30.63%

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 12,219 9,247 10,112
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 60.91% 68.84% 62.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,802 6,139 7,058
10th Percentile £350 £325 £338
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 £688 £700
90th Percentile £788 £800 £825
England median daily rate £525 £508 £540
% change year-on-year +3.45% -6.02% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 232 187 144
10th Percentile £18.50 £15.84 £17.25
25th Percentile £21.93 £24.58 £23.80
Median hourly rate £27.75 £30.00 £35.25
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% -14.89% +1.82%
75th Percentile £43.75 £48.13 £51.75
90th Percentile £65.00 £63.45 £67.40
England median hourly rate £32.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +27.24% -34.02% +38.62%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 20 August 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 +9 171 £550 +4.76% 78
South London +1 61 £525 +7.14% 12
West London -26 13 £500 +11.11% 35
East London +9 10 £750 +30.43% 19
North London -2 5 £400 -27.27% 2
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 (4.15%) Confluence
2 49 (2.86%) SharePoint
3 16 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (0.88%) CMS
5 14 (0.82%) Apache Spark
6 13 (0.76%) Apache
7 11 (0.64%) Palantir Foundry
8 10 (0.58%) nginx
9 6 (0.35%) WordPress
10 5 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
10 5 (0.29%) SAS
10 5 (0.29%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.18%) Camunda
11 3 (0.18%) Drupal
12 2 (0.12%) Mendix
12 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
12 2 (0.12%) WebLogic
13 1 (0.058%) Headless CMS
13 1 (0.058%) Luigi
13 1 (0.058%) R Markdown
Applications
1 34 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.18%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.18%) Sketch
5 3 (0.18%) Trello
6 2 (0.12%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.058%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.058%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.058%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 21 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.99%) Oracle EBS
3 15 (0.88%) Oracle ERP
4 11 (0.64%) NetSuite
5 6 (0.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 4 (0.23%) iTrent
6 4 (0.23%) SAP FI
7 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payroll
7 3 (0.18%) PeopleSoft HCM
7 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.18%) SAP CO
7 3 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
7 3 (0.18%) SAP HR
8 2 (0.12%) Exchequer
8 2 (0.12%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Financials
9 1 (0.058%) Primavera
9 1 (0.058%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 409 (23.89%) AWS
2 354 (20.68%) Azure
3 101 (5.90%) Power Platform
4 93 (5.43%) GCP
5 88 (5.14%) GitHub
6 76 (4.44%) Azure DevOps
7 72 (4.21%) Serverless
8 70 (4.09%) Amazon S3
9 67 (3.91%) Microsoft 365
10 64 (3.74%) Entra ID
11 62 (3.62%) GitHub Actions
12 47 (2.75%) AWS Lambda
13 45 (2.63%) SaaS
14 39 (2.28%) Amazon EKS
15 36 (2.10%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 34 (1.99%) Amazon EC2
17 33 (1.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 31 (1.81%) AWS CloudFormation
19 30 (1.75%) PowerApps
20 29 (1.69%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.63%) Firewall
2 31 (1.81%) DNS
3 29 (1.69%) Network Security
4 13 (0.76%) LAN
4 13 (0.76%) VPN
4 13 (0.76%) WAN
5 9 (0.53%) NGFW
5 9 (0.53%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.47%) DHCP
7 7 (0.41%) Cisco IPT
7 7 (0.41%) DKIM
8 6 (0.35%) DMARC
8 6 (0.35%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.29%) Reverse Proxy
10 4 (0.23%) HTTP
10 4 (0.23%) HTTPS
10 4 (0.23%) Intranet
10 4 (0.23%) Wireless
11 3 (0.18%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.18%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (3.68%) Power BI
2 58 (3.39%) PostgreSQL
3 37 (2.16%) Data Warehouse
4 31 (1.81%) Metadata
5 30 (1.75%) Amazon RDS
6 27 (1.58%) Data Lake
7 26 (1.52%) MongoDB
8 25 (1.46%) NoSQL
8 25 (1.46%) SQL Server
9 23 (1.34%) Amazon Redshift
10 20 (1.17%) MySQL
11 18 (1.05%) Amazon Athena
12 17 (0.99%) Amazon Aurora
13 16 (0.93%) Delta Lake
14 14 (0.82%) Oracle Reports
14 14 (0.82%) Relational Database
15 13 (0.76%) Tableau
16 12 (0.70%) Redis
17 10 (0.58%) Oracle Database
18 9 (0.53%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 103 (6.02%) Git
2 100 (5.84%) JIRA
3 71 (4.15%) Jenkins
4 63 (3.68%) GitLab
5 12 (0.70%) SonarQube
6 11 (0.64%) JUnit
6 11 (0.64%) Mockito
7 10 (0.58%) CircleCI
8 9 (0.53%) Cypress.io
8 9 (0.53%) Selenium
9 8 (0.47%) Maven
10 7 (0.41%) Snyk
11 6 (0.35%) JMeter
11 6 (0.35%) Postman
12 5 (0.29%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.29%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.29%) Cucumber
13 3 (0.18%) DbUnit
13 3 (0.18%) Gradle
13 3 (0.18%) VTune
General
1 502 (29.32%) Social Skills
2 185 (10.81%) Finance
3 147 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (6.07%) Local Government
5 83 (4.85%) Military
6 69 (4.03%) Influencing Skills
7 45 (2.63%) Legal
8 41 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 39 (2.28%) Organisational Skills
9 39 (2.28%) Police
10 33 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
11 28 (1.64%) Law
12 24 (1.40%) Marketing
12 24 (1.40%) Telecoms
13 21 (1.23%) Banking
14 14 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (0.53%) Manufacturing
15 9 (0.53%) Publishing
15 9 (0.53%) Retail
16 8 (0.47%) Billing
Job Titles
1 291 (17.00%) Architect
2 228 (13.32%) Developer
3 220 (12.85%) Lead
4 190 (11.10%) Senior
5 109 (6.37%) Analyst
6 77 (4.50%) Delivery Manager
7 71 (4.15%) Designer
8 69 (4.03%) DevOps Engineer
9 66 (3.86%) Solutions Architect
10 57 (3.33%) Technical Architect
10 57 (3.33%) User Researcher
11 52 (3.04%) Data Engineer
12 50 (2.92%) Business Analyst
12 50 (2.92%) Consultant
12 50 (2.92%) Data Architect
13 42 (2.45%) Software Engineer
14 40 (2.34%) AWS Engineer
14 40 (2.34%) Java Developer
15 39 (2.28%) Project Manager
16 38 (2.22%) AWS Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 172 (10.05%) Terraform
2 73 (4.26%) REST
3 57 (3.33%) React
4 48 (2.80%) RESTful
5 47 (2.75%) Spring
6 46 (2.69%) Django
7 40 (2.34%) Node.js
8 38 (2.22%) Spring Boot
9 36 (2.10%) Kafka
10 35 (2.04%) HTML
10 35 (2.04%) Oracle Fusion
11 32 (1.87%) Lightning Web Components
12 30 (1.75%) .NET
13 29 (1.69%) SOAP
14 28 (1.64%) Web Services
15 27 (1.58%) AngularJS
16 26 (1.52%) PySpark
17 24 (1.40%) CSS
18 22 (1.29%) JSON
19 18 (1.05%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 115 (6.72%) Cloud Native
2 78 (4.56%) Onboarding
3 62 (3.62%) NHS
4 56 (3.27%) Legacy Systems
5 55 (3.21%) Product Ownership
6 37 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
7 35 (2.04%) Management Information System
8 28 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
9 24 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (1.05%) Data Centre
10 18 (1.05%) Data Structures
10 18 (1.05%) Low-Code
11 16 (0.93%) AI Agents
12 15 (0.88%) Replication
13 14 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
14 13 (0.76%) Virtual Team
15 12 (0.70%) Enterprise Cloud
15 12 (0.70%) Security Operations Centre
16 11 (0.64%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 47 (2.75%) Linux
2 41 (2.39%) Windows
3 13 (0.76%) Windows Server
4 11 (0.64%) Android
4 11 (0.64%) Windows 10
5 9 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.47%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.35%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.23%) Amazon Linux
8 4 (0.23%) Solaris
8 4 (0.23%) Unix
8 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2008
8 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.12%) VMS
10 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 542 (31.66%) Agile
2 345 (20.15%) Stakeholder Management
3 313 (18.28%) CI/CD
4 308 (17.99%) DevOps
5 286 (16.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 279 (16.30%) Continuous Improvement
7 196 (11.45%) Decision-Making
8 188 (10.98%) AI
9 178 (10.40%) Infrastructure as Code
10 173 (10.11%) Problem-Solving
11 167 (9.75%) Roadmaps
12 164 (9.58%) Migration
13 157 (9.17%) Digital Transformation Programme
14 151 (8.82%) Analytics
15 148 (8.64%) Data Modelling
16 125 (7.30%) Containerisation
17 123 (7.18%) Technical Leadership
18 114 (6.66%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
19 112 (6.54%) User Research
20 105 (6.13%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 225 (13.14%) Python
2 166 (9.70%) SQL
3 119 (6.95%) Java
4 95 (5.55%) JavaScript
5 61 (3.56%) TypeScript
6 42 (2.45%) PowerShell
7 34 (1.99%) C#
8 30 (1.75%) Apex Code
8 30 (1.75%) Bash
9 26 (1.52%) Bicep
10 23 (1.34%) Ruby
11 22 (1.29%) PL/SQL
12 20 (1.17%) Groovy
13 12 (0.70%) Kotlin
13 12 (0.70%) R
14 11 (0.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 8 (0.47%) Scala
16 7 (0.41%) Shell Script
17 6 (0.35%) Search Processing Language
18 5 (0.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 966 (56.43%) Security Cleared
2 844 (49.30%) SC Cleared
3 87 (5.08%) DV Cleared
4 83 (4.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 41 (2.39%) AWS Certification
5 41 (2.39%) Degree
6 34 (1.99%) Azure Certification
7 30 (1.75%) Microsoft Certification
8 29 (1.69%) CISSP
9 19 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.99%) CISM
11 12 (0.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 11 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
13 10 (0.58%) CCNP
13 10 (0.58%) Master's Degree
14 9 (0.53%) CTC Cleared
15 8 (0.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 8 (0.47%) APMG
16 7 (0.41%) CCSP
16 7 (0.41%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (7.77%) Accessibility
2 91 (5.32%) Data Quality
3 72 (4.21%) QA
4 54 (3.15%) GDPR
4 54 (3.15%) WCAG
5 46 (2.69%) PMO
6 42 (2.45%) NCSC
7 30 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 25 (1.46%) NIST
9 20 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 12 (0.70%) GRC
11 12 (0.70%) SLA
12 11 (0.64%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 11 (0.64%) PCI DSS
13 8 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
13 8 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.29%) NIST 800
15 4 (0.23%) PERC
15 4 (0.23%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 134 (7.83%) Docker
2 42 (2.45%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.18%) Postfix
6 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.058%) Ceph
7 1 (0.058%) FreeRADIUS
7 1 (0.058%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.058%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.058%) Squid
Systems Management
1 134 (7.83%) Kubernetes
2 40 (2.34%) Grafana
3 31 (1.81%) Prometheus
4 29 (1.69%) Ansible
5 21 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.58%) Kibana
7 9 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.47%) Argo
9 7 (0.41%) SCCM
10 6 (0.35%) Puppet
11 5 (0.29%) Istio
12 3 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.18%) Salt
13 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
13 2 (0.12%) Consul
13 2 (0.12%) Docker Swarm
13 2 (0.12%) Karpenter
13 2 (0.12%) Kustomize
13 2 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
14 1 (0.058%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 221 (12.91%) Microsoft
2 116 (6.78%) Oracle
3 90 (5.26%) Salesforce
4 61 (3.56%) Google
5 55 (3.21%) Databricks
6 54 (3.15%) ServiceNow
7 39 (2.28%) SAP
8 20 (1.17%) Foundry
9 18 (1.05%) Cisco
9 18 (1.05%) Palantir
10 16 (0.93%) IBM
11 14 (0.82%) Palo Alto
12 11 (0.64%) MuleSoft
13 10 (0.58%) OpenAI
14 9 (0.53%) Atlassian
14 9 (0.53%) Informatica
14 9 (0.53%) VMware
15 8 (0.47%) Juniper
15 8 (0.47%) Red Hat
15 8 (0.47%) Splunk