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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 10 11
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 -6
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 18 30 24
As % of all contract jobs in Northern Ireland 8.22% 12.61% 13.11%
As % of the General category 13.33% 18.52% 20.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 9 5
10th Percentile £106 £113 -
25th Percentile £550 £158 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £520 £185
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% +181.08% -63.00%
75th Percentile £694 £594 £538
90th Percentile - £678 £605
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 17 16
10th Percentile - £12.31 -
25th Percentile - £12.66 -
Median hourly rate - £13.60 £15.48
Median % change year-on-year - -12.14% +11.29%
75th Percentile - £15.33 £23.94
90th Percentile - £15.80 £24.18
UK median hourly rate £21.35 £21.00 £22.53
% change year-on-year +1.67% -6.79% +7.29%

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 general skills in Northern Ireland.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 135 162 117
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Northern Ireland 61.64% 68.07% 63.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 89 48
10th Percentile £224 £200 £143
25th Percentile £384 £313 £167
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £350
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% +35.71% -17.65%
75th Percentile £666 £575 £495
90th Percentile £751 £612 £580
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 25 22
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.31 -
25th Percentile £16.01 £13.57 £15.48
Median hourly rate £43.96 £15.05 £22.56
Median % change year-on-year +192.09% -33.29% +64.85%
75th Percentile - £15.50 £24.18
90th Percentile £45.88 £24.50 -
UK median hourly rate £29.50 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +17.30% -28.14% +27.27%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in Northern Ireland

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Public Sector relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Northern Ireland.

Public Sector job vacancy trend 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 24 September 2026.

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
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 24 September 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
County Antrim -2 16 £669 +25.00% 93
Public Sector
UK

Public Sector
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Northern Ireland 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 3 (16.67%) SharePoint
2 1 (5.56%) Anypoint
2 1 (5.56%) Drupal
2 1 (5.56%) Mule
Applications
1 3 (16.67%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 2 (11.11%) AWS
1 2 (11.11%) Azure
1 2 (11.11%) GCP
2 1 (5.56%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (5.56%) LAN
1 1 (5.56%) WAN
1 1 (5.56%) WLAN
Development Applications
1 2 (11.11%) JIRA
General
1 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
2 4 (22.22%) Organisational Skills
3 2 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (5.56%) Finance
Job Titles
1 11 (61.11%) Developer
2 9 (50.00%) Salesforce Developer
3 2 (11.11%) Coordinator
3 2 (11.11%) Project Coordinator
3 2 (11.11%) Senior
3 2 (11.11%) Senior Developer
3 2 (11.11%) Senior Salesforce Developer
4 1 (5.56%) Bid Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Cloud Infrastructure Manager
4 1 (5.56%) Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Drupal Developer
4 1 (5.56%) Infrastructure Manager
4 1 (5.56%) IT Consultant
4 1 (5.56%) Lead
4 1 (5.56%) MuleSoft Developer
4 1 (5.56%) Network Engineer
4 1 (5.56%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (50.00%) Lightning Web Components
1 9 (50.00%) Visualforce
2 1 (5.56%) JSON
2 1 (5.56%) JWT
2 1 (5.56%) OAuth
2 1 (5.56%) OAuth2
2 1 (5.56%) REST
2 1 (5.56%) SOAP
2 1 (5.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (22.22%) Data Protection Act
2 3 (16.67%) Onboarding
3 1 (5.56%) Enterprise Cloud
3 1 (5.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (5.56%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.56%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (38.89%) Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)
2 4 (22.22%) Data Protection
3 3 (16.67%) Agile
3 3 (16.67%) Coaching
3 3 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (16.67%) Logistics
3 3 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (16.67%) Project Management
3 3 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
4 2 (11.11%) API Integration
4 2 (11.11%) Business Case
4 2 (11.11%) CI/CD
4 2 (11.11%) Collaborative Culture
4 2 (11.11%) Data Modelling
4 2 (11.11%) DevOps
4 2 (11.11%) Mentoring
4 2 (11.11%) Sprint Planning
4 2 (11.11%) Sprint Retrospective
4 2 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
4 2 (11.11%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 9 (50.00%) Apex Code
2 1 (5.56%) Java
Qualifications
1 11 (61.11%) SC Cleared
1 11 (61.11%) Security Cleared
2 2 (11.11%) Degree
3 1 (5.56%) CCIE
3 1 (5.56%) CCNP
3 1 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (5.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) Accessibility
1 2 (11.11%) PMO
2 1 (5.56%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (5.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
Vendors
1 10 (55.56%) Salesforce
2 7 (38.89%) Pardot
3 3 (16.67%) Cisco
4 2 (11.11%) Huawei
5 1 (5.56%) Microsoft
5 1 (5.56%) MuleSoft