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

6 months to
6 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 23 18
Rank change year-on-year 0 -5 +10
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 1,616 1,055 1,519
As % of all contract jobs in London 9.45% 8.32% 8.47%
As % of the General category 15.31% 12.40% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,219 764 1,048
10th Percentile £381 £375 £370
25th Percentile £431 £454 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £539
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.60% -4.18%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £745
England median daily rate £500 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -4.37% -0.40% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 17 11
10th Percentile - £18.03 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.50 £22.00 £15.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £26.45 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.57% +46.94% -11.85%
75th Percentile £48.13 £47.50 £25.81
90th Percentile £74.95 £66.50 £69.50
England median hourly rate £22.18 £22.27 £24.00
% change year-on-year -0.39% -7.21% +20.00%

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 10,558 8,507 11,348
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 61.74% 67.07% 63.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,883 5,744 8,075
10th Percentile £350 £337 £331
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £663 £706 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £800
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 178 140 251
10th Percentile £17.50 £16.66 £15.50
25th Percentile £20.82 £24.66 £18.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year - +16.67% -7.69%
75th Percentile £47.69 £53.75 £48.92
90th Percentile £70.75 £67.63 £69.50
England median hourly rate £27.00 £29.07 £26.87
% change year-on-year -7.12% +8.21% -23.24%

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 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 6 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 6 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 -1 147 £525 -0.19% 101
South London +2 67 £500 +2.04% 4
East London -3 8 £750 +25.00% 13
North London -2 5 £650 +128.07% 4
West London -30 5 £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 64 (3.96%) Confluence
2 39 (2.41%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.68%) Apache
3 11 (0.68%) nginx
4 10 (0.62%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.56%) Apache Spark
6 6 (0.37%) Tomcat
7 5 (0.31%) Camunda
8 4 (0.25%) CMS
8 4 (0.25%) SAS
9 3 (0.19%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.19%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.12%) Jupyter
10 2 (0.12%) OpenROAD
11 1 (0.062%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.062%) Appian
11 1 (0.062%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.062%) R Markdown
Applications
1 51 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.31%) Sketch
5 5 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.31%) Trello
6 4 (0.25%) Adobe XD
7 3 (0.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 3 (0.19%) InVision
8 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.062%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.062%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.062%) OmniGraffle
9 1 (0.062%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.062%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.062%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 23 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (0.87%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
4 9 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
5 8 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.31%) iTrent
6 5 (0.31%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 4 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.19%) 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%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.12%) SAP GRC
9 2 (0.12%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
10 1 (0.062%) NEC Housing
10 1 (0.062%) Oracle Assets
10 1 (0.062%) Oracle Cash Management
10 1 (0.062%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 362 (22.40%) AWS
2 298 (18.44%) Azure
3 98 (6.06%) Power Platform
4 91 (5.63%) Serverless
5 67 (4.15%) GitHub
6 65 (4.02%) Azure DevOps
7 59 (3.65%) GCP
8 58 (3.59%) AWS Lambda
9 52 (3.22%) Amazon S3
10 50 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
11 43 (2.66%) AWS CloudFormation
12 39 (2.41%) GitHub Actions
13 38 (2.35%) Amazon EKS
14 35 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
14 35 (2.17%) OCI
15 33 (2.04%) Amazon EC2
16 31 (1.92%) Entra ID
16 31 (1.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 29 (1.79%) Amazon ECS
17 29 (1.79%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.67%) Network Security
2 25 (1.55%) Firewall
3 17 (1.05%) DNS
4 16 (0.99%) VPN
5 15 (0.93%) WAN
6 13 (0.80%) LAN
6 13 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
7 11 (0.68%) Wireless
8 10 (0.62%) TCP/IP
9 7 (0.43%) BGP
9 7 (0.43%) Internet
9 7 (0.43%) OSPF
10 6 (0.37%) NGFW
10 6 (0.37%) SD-WAN
10 6 (0.37%) WLAN
11 4 (0.25%) DHCP
11 4 (0.25%) HTTP
11 4 (0.25%) SSL
12 3 (0.19%) NAS
12 3 (0.19%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (4.76%) Power BI
2 38 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
3 29 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
4 28 (1.73%) Metadata
5 26 (1.61%) SQL Server
6 25 (1.55%) Amazon RDS
7 20 (1.24%) Data Lake
8 18 (1.11%) MongoDB
9 17 (1.05%) NoSQL
9 17 (1.05%) Tableau
10 14 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.80%) Delta Lake
12 12 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
12 12 (0.74%) DynamoDB
13 11 (0.68%) Amazon Athena
14 9 (0.56%) Data Hub
15 8 (0.50%) Relational Database
16 7 (0.43%) GIS
16 7 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
17 6 (0.37%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 92 (5.69%) Git
2 90 (5.57%) JIRA
3 49 (3.03%) GitLab
4 43 (2.66%) Jenkins
5 23 (1.42%) Postman
5 23 (1.42%) Selenium
6 13 (0.80%) JUnit
7 10 (0.62%) Mockito
8 7 (0.43%) JMeter
8 7 (0.43%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.37%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.37%) Liquibase
10 5 (0.31%) Artifactory
10 5 (0.31%) Gradle
10 5 (0.31%) Snyk
11 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.25%) CircleCI
11 4 (0.25%) Maven
11 4 (0.25%) MLflow
12 3 (0.19%) ERwin
General
1 414 (25.62%) Social Skills
2 232 (14.36%) Finance
3 143 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (4.52%) Local Government
5 49 (3.03%) Telecoms
6 48 (2.97%) Marketing
7 44 (2.72%) Influencing Skills
7 44 (2.72%) Military
8 39 (2.41%) Legal
8 39 (2.41%) Manufacturing
9 32 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
10 29 (1.79%) Electronics
11 28 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
12 26 (1.61%) Banking
13 22 (1.36%) Police
14 21 (1.30%) Law
14 21 (1.30%) Retail
15 20 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (1.24%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.74%) Billing
Job Titles
1 231 (14.29%) Developer
2 225 (13.92%) Architect
3 187 (11.57%) Senior
4 155 (9.59%) Analyst
5 131 (8.11%) Lead
6 87 (5.38%) Business Analyst
7 86 (5.32%) Designer
8 65 (4.02%) DevOps Engineer
9 56 (3.47%) Data Engineer
10 55 (3.40%) User Researcher
11 54 (3.34%) Solutions Architect
12 52 (3.22%) Consultant
13 50 (3.09%) Project Manager
14 49 (3.03%) Technical Architect
15 46 (2.85%) Delivery Manager
16 42 (2.60%) Senior Developer
17 39 (2.41%) Salesforce Developer
18 37 (2.29%) Azure Engineer
18 37 (2.29%) Service Designer
19 36 (2.23%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (3.71%) REST
2 50 (3.09%) React
2 50 (3.09%) RESTful
3 48 (2.97%) Node.js
4 40 (2.48%) Web Services
5 39 (2.41%) .NET
6 37 (2.29%) Oracle Fusion
7 35 (2.17%) Lightning Web Components
8 34 (2.10%) AngularJS
8 34 (2.10%) Spring
9 33 (2.04%) HTML
10 28 (1.73%) Spring Boot
11 27 (1.67%) CSS
11 27 (1.67%) Kafka
11 27 (1.67%) SOAP
12 23 (1.42%) JSON
13 18 (1.11%) Middleware
14 16 (0.99%) PySpark
15 15 (0.93%) XML
16 13 (0.80%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 100 (6.19%) Cloud Native
2 58 (3.59%) Onboarding
3 45 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
4 42 (2.60%) Product Ownership
5 34 (2.10%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.98%) NHS
7 23 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
8 19 (1.18%) Public Cloud
9 18 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
10 16 (0.99%) Data Structures
10 16 (0.99%) Management Information System
10 16 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (0.93%) AI Agents
11 15 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (0.80%) Security Posture
13 11 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
14 10 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
14 10 (0.62%) Replication
15 9 (0.56%) CMDB
15 9 (0.56%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 50 (3.09%) Linux
1 50 (3.09%) Windows
2 16 (0.99%) Windows Server
3 12 (0.74%) Android
4 9 (0.56%) Mac OS
5 8 (0.50%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.43%) VMS
7 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.31%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.31%) Solaris
8 5 (0.31%) Unix
8 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
8 5 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.062%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.062%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 413 (25.56%) Agile
2 251 (15.53%) CI/CD
3 238 (14.73%) DevOps
4 210 (13.00%) Stakeholder Management
5 190 (11.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 156 (9.65%) Problem-Solving
7 154 (9.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 150 (9.28%) Decision-Making
8 150 (9.28%) Roadmaps
9 143 (8.85%) Migration
10 132 (8.17%) AI
11 126 (7.80%) Infrastructure as Code
12 122 (7.55%) Containerisation
13 120 (7.43%) Analytics
14 115 (7.12%) User Research
15 113 (6.99%) Business Intelligence
15 113 (6.99%) Data Modelling
16 107 (6.62%) Test Automation
17 105 (6.50%) Digital Transformation Programme
18 91 (5.63%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 201 (12.44%) Python
2 142 (8.79%) SQL
3 93 (5.75%) Java
4 81 (5.01%) JavaScript
5 49 (3.03%) TypeScript
6 43 (2.66%) C#
7 39 (2.41%) Ruby
8 35 (2.17%) Apex Code
9 34 (2.10%) PowerShell
10 24 (1.49%) Bash
11 14 (0.87%) PL/SQL
12 12 (0.74%) Go
12 12 (0.74%) R
13 11 (0.68%) Bicep
13 11 (0.68%) Kotlin
14 9 (0.56%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.43%) C
16 6 (0.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 6 (0.37%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.19%) Scala
Qualifications
1 938 (58.04%) Security Cleared
2 705 (43.63%) SC Cleared
3 56 (3.47%) Degree
4 52 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 47 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (1.61%) Azure Certification
7 24 (1.49%) CISSP
8 20 (1.24%) AWS Certification
9 17 (1.05%) CISM
10 16 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (0.87%) PMP
12 12 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (0.68%) APMP
13 11 (0.68%) CIMA
14 10 (0.62%) ACCA
15 9 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 9 (0.56%) PMI Certification
16 8 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
17 7 (0.43%) CREST Certified
17 7 (0.43%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (6.06%) Accessibility
2 67 (4.15%) Data Quality
3 64 (3.96%) QA
4 47 (2.91%) GDPR
5 39 (2.41%) PMO
6 37 (2.29%) NCSC
7 36 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 35 (2.17%) WCAG
9 16 (0.99%) GRC
10 15 (0.93%) NIST
11 14 (0.87%) Actionable Recommendations
12 11 (0.68%) SLA
13 7 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
13 7 (0.43%) Government Security Classifications
13 7 (0.43%) PCI DSS
14 5 (0.31%) NIST 800
15 4 (0.25%) IFRS
16 3 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 3 (0.19%) HL7
16 3 (0.19%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 123 (7.61%) Docker
2 28 (1.73%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.31%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.12%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.12%) vSphere
8 1 (0.062%) FreeRADIUS
8 1 (0.062%) IAG
8 1 (0.062%) NLBS
8 1 (0.062%) Postfix
8 1 (0.062%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.062%) Squid
8 1 (0.062%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 151 (9.34%) Terraform
2 129 (7.98%) Kubernetes
3 25 (1.55%) Ansible
4 24 (1.49%) Grafana
5 21 (1.30%) Prometheus
6 10 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.37%) Packer
8 5 (0.31%) Argo
8 5 (0.31%) Consul
9 4 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.25%) Puppet
9 4 (0.25%) SCCM
9 4 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.19%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.12%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.12%) Kibana
11 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.12%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.12%) vRealize
Vendors
1 162 (10.02%) Microsoft
2 91 (5.63%) Salesforce
3 88 (5.45%) Oracle
4 64 (3.96%) SAP
5 54 (3.34%) Databricks
6 42 (2.60%) ServiceNow
7 28 (1.73%) Google
8 24 (1.49%) Cisco
9 22 (1.36%) VMware
10 20 (1.24%) IBM
10 20 (1.24%) MuleSoft
11 16 (0.99%) Atlassian
12 14 (0.87%) Foundry
13 12 (0.74%) Red Hat
13 12 (0.74%) Splunk
13 12 (0.74%) Virgin Media
14 11 (0.68%) OpenAI
14 11 (0.68%) Palo Alto
15 9 (0.56%) Fortinet
16 8 (0.50%) Zscaler