Public Sector Contract Job Trends in Northern Ireland

Public Sector
UK > Northern Ireland

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Sector in contract job vacancies in Northern Ireland. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Sector over the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 11 9 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 -5 +35
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 29 25 29
As % of all contract jobs advertised in Northern Ireland 11.93% 13.66% 16.96%
As % of the General category 17.58% 21.74% 24.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 5 11
10th Percentile £113 - £135
25th Percentile £158 £170 £174
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £185 £500
Median % change year-on-year +181.08% -63.00% -
75th Percentile £638 £538 £536
90th Percentile £778 £605 £573
UK median daily rate £500 £504 £525
% change year-on-year -0.73% -4.06% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 16 3
10th Percentile £12.31 - -
25th Percentile £12.57 - -
Median hourly rate £13.60 £15.48 £13.91
Median % change year-on-year -12.14% +11.29% -
75th Percentile £15.33 £23.94 -
90th Percentile £15.92 £24.18 -
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £22.56 £20.00
% change year-on-year -6.91% +12.80% +0.33%

All General Skills
Northern Ireland

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 common skills in Northern Ireland.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 165 115 120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Northern Ireland 67.90% 62.84% 70.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 49 63
10th Percentile £200 £143 £157
25th Percentile £313 £167 £318
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £338 £400
Median % change year-on-year +40.74% -15.63% -19.15%
75th Percentile £575 £488 £516
90th Percentile £633 £578 £575
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 22 10
10th Percentile £12.31 - £11.08
25th Percentile £13.36 £15.48 £13.23
Median hourly rate £15.05 £22.56 £13.69
Median % change year-on-year -33.29% +64.85% +24.69%
75th Percentile £15.75 £24.18 £13.91
90th Percentile £24.50 - £18.08
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £37.28 £27.50
% change year-on-year -32.54% +35.56% +12.43%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in Northern Ireland

Job postings citing Public Sector as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in Northern Ireland.

Job vacancy trend for Public Sector in Northern Ireland

Public Sector
Daily Rate Trend in Northern Ireland

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Northern Ireland citing Public Sector.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Northern Ireland citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Daily Rate Histogram in Northern Ireland

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Sector in Northern Ireland over the 6 months to 15 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Public Sector in Northern Ireland

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Trend in Northern Ireland

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Northern Ireland citing Public Sector.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Northern Ireland citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Histogram in Northern Ireland

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Public Sector in Northern Ireland over the 6 months to 15 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Public Sector in Northern Ireland

Public Sector
Contract Job Locations in Northern Ireland

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 Northern Ireland region over the 6 months to 15 September 2025. 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
County Antrim +4 28 £560 +229.41% 15
County Down - 1 £115 -
Public Sector
UK

Public Sector
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Northern Ireland by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (3.45%) Apache Spark
1 1 (3.45%) IIS
Applications
1 6 (20.69%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (10.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (6.90%) Oracle Payroll
Cloud Services
1 2 (6.90%) AWS
1 2 (6.90%) OCI
2 1 (3.45%) Amazon S3
2 1 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
2 1 (3.45%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.45%) Firewall
1 1 (3.45%) Internet
1 1 (3.45%) Intranet
1 1 (3.45%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (6.90%) GIS
2 1 (3.45%) Amazon QuickSight
2 1 (3.45%) Metadata
2 1 (3.45%) NoSQL
2 1 (3.45%) Oracle BI Publisher
2 1 (3.45%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (3.45%) GitLab
General
1 12 (41.38%) Social Skills
2 9 (31.03%) Finance
3 4 (13.79%) Electronics
3 4 (13.79%) Manufacturing
3 4 (13.79%) Marketing
3 4 (13.79%) Telecoms
4 2 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (6.90%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (3.45%) Legal
5 1 (3.45%) Retail
Job Titles
1 10 (34.48%) Information Governance Officer
1 10 (34.48%) Information Officer
2 4 (13.79%) Support Officer
3 3 (10.34%) Architect
3 3 (10.34%) Compliance Officer
3 3 (10.34%) Consultant
3 3 (10.34%) Installation Technician
4 2 (6.90%) Administrator
4 2 (6.90%) Functional Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Help Desk Administrator
4 2 (6.90%) Oracle Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Oracle Functional Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Oracle Payroll Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Oracle Payroll Functional Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Payroll Consultant
4 2 (6.90%) Project Manager
4 2 (6.90%) Solutions Architect
5 1 (3.45%) Lead Architect
5 1 (3.45%) Salesforce Consultant
5 1 (3.45%) Senior Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.45%) Middleware
1 1 (3.45%) Oracle Fusion
1 1 (3.45%) REST
1 1 (3.45%) SOAP
1 1 (3.45%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 7 (24.14%) Freedom of Information
2 3 (10.34%) Driving Licence
2 3 (10.34%) Management Information System
3 1 (3.45%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.45%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (37.93%) Data Protection
2 10 (34.48%) Information Governance
3 9 (31.03%) Mathematics
4 7 (24.14%) Records Management
5 6 (20.69%) Data Security
5 6 (20.69%) Informatics
5 6 (20.69%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (20.69%) Programme Management
6 5 (17.24%) Business Intelligence
7 4 (13.79%) Digital Marketing
7 4 (13.79%) Impact Assessments
8 3 (10.34%) Migration
8 3 (10.34%) Service Delivery
8 3 (10.34%) Test Automation
9 2 (6.90%) Data Architecture
9 2 (6.90%) Data Integration
9 2 (6.90%) Data Migration
9 2 (6.90%) Data Modelling
9 2 (6.90%) Project Management
9 2 (6.90%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (6.90%) SQL
2 1 (3.45%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (27.59%) Security Cleared
2 7 (24.14%) Degree
3 4 (13.79%) HND
3 4 (13.79%) SC Cleared
4 3 (10.34%) HNC
5 2 (6.90%) AWS Certification
6 1 (3.45%) PMI Certification
6 1 (3.45%) PMP
6 1 (3.45%) RIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (34.48%) GDPR
2 3 (10.34%) QA
3 2 (6.90%) Data Quality
3 2 (6.90%) SLA
4 1 (3.45%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 1 (3.45%) Active Directory
1 1 (3.45%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 1 (3.45%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 11 (37.93%) Microsoft
2 4 (13.79%) SAP
3 3 (10.34%) Salesforce
4 2 (6.90%) Oracle
5 1 (3.45%) Avaya
5 1 (3.45%) Citrix
5 1 (3.45%) Fujitsu