Public Sector Contract Job Trends in Scotland

Public Sector
UK > Scotland

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Sector in contract job vacancies in Scotland. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Sector over the 6 months leading up to 27 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 1
Rank change year-on-year -1 -5 0
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 305 271 481
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 12.88% 16.82% 25.50%
As % of the General category 20.66% 24.30% 39.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 176 323
10th Percentile £315 £215 £158
25th Percentile £378 £375 £281
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £558 £538 £538
90th Percentile £718 £600 £625
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 6 16
10th Percentile - £14.51 £12.61
25th Percentile £13.25 £15.59 £13.60
Median hourly rate £13.50 £18.26 £19.38
Median % change year-on-year -26.06% -5.79% +12.61%
75th Percentile £13.75 £26.01 £21.99
90th Percentile - £36.87 £30.63
UK median hourly rate £21.35 £21.00 £22.56
% change year-on-year +1.67% -6.91% +7.43%

All General Skills
Scotland

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 Scotland.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 1,476 1,115 1,207
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 62.33% 69.21% 64.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 789 640 715
10th Percentile £230 £222 £164
25th Percentile £363 £368 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £470 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% +4.44% -5.26%
75th Percentile £564 £538 £538
90th Percentile £650 £600 £628
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 52 45
10th Percentile - £16.00 £12.30
25th Percentile £13.45 £16.61 £13.64
Median hourly rate £16.11 £19.23 £16.92
Median % change year-on-year -16.22% +13.65% -31.19%
75th Percentile £40.48 £25.42 £24.18
90th Percentile £58.00 £59.75 £43.42
UK median hourly rate £29.01 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +15.35% -28.14% +27.27%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

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

Public Sector job vacancy trend in Scotland

Public Sector
Daily Rate Trend in Scotland

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Daily Rate Histogram in Scotland

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Sector in Scotland over the 6 months to 27 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Sector in Scotland

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Trend in Scotland

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Contract Job Locations in Scotland

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 Scotland region over the 6 months to 27 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
Glasgow +12 158 £475 -5.00% 53
Edinburgh -1 122 £475 - 52
South Lanarkshire -2 8 £669 +21.55%
Lanarkshire 0 7 £415 +219.04% 16
Dumfries and Galloway - 2 £500 - 6
Dundee -1 1 - - 1
East Lothian - 1 - -
Midlothian - 1 £500 - 14
Inverclyde - 1 £675 -
Public Sector
UK

Public Sector
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 17 (5.57%) Confluence
2 10 (3.28%) CMS
2 10 (3.28%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.33%) IIS
3 1 (0.33%) JBoss
3 1 (0.33%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 12 (3.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.66%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.66%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.33%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.33%) InDesign
5 1 (0.33%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.33%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.33%) SAP GRC
2 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 56 (18.36%) AWS
2 39 (12.79%) Azure
3 22 (7.21%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (6.56%) Power Platform
5 15 (4.92%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (4.59%) Amazon S3
7 13 (4.26%) OCI
8 10 (3.28%) GCP
8 10 (3.28%) SaaS
8 10 (3.28%) Serverless
9 8 (2.62%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (2.30%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (1.97%) GitHub
11 6 (1.97%) OpenShift
12 5 (1.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (1.64%) Anthropic Claude
12 5 (1.64%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 5 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
12 5 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (1.64%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.97%) DNS
2 5 (1.64%) SSL
3 4 (1.31%) Firewall
3 4 (1.31%) LAN
3 4 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (0.98%) HTTPS
4 3 (0.98%) SSH
4 3 (0.98%) Wireless
5 2 (0.66%) Cisco Nexus
5 2 (0.66%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.66%) VPN
5 2 (0.66%) WAN
6 1 (0.33%) Cisco Wireless
6 1 (0.33%) Network Security
6 1 (0.33%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (0.33%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.33%) TETRA
6 1 (0.33%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (4.92%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.93%) Power BI
3 10 (3.28%) Amazon Aurora
3 10 (3.28%) MySQL
3 10 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (2.95%) MongoDB
5 7 (2.30%) MariaDB
6 6 (1.97%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.64%) Metadata
7 5 (1.64%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.98%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.98%) Power Query
9 2 (0.66%) MS Access
9 2 (0.66%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.66%) SQLPlus
10 1 (0.33%) GIS
10 1 (0.33%) Oracle Database 10g
10 1 (0.33%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.33%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 19 (6.23%) JIRA
2 17 (5.57%) Jenkins
3 11 (3.61%) Git
4 9 (2.95%) GitLab
5 7 (2.30%) Cypress.io
6 6 (1.97%) Gradle
6 6 (1.97%) Maven
7 4 (1.31%) Selenium
7 4 (1.31%) Subversion
8 3 (0.98%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.98%) GoCD
8 3 (0.98%) JProfiler
8 3 (0.98%) JUnit
8 3 (0.98%) webpack
9 2 (0.66%) Appium
9 2 (0.66%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.66%) Postman
9 2 (0.66%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.66%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.33%) Metasploit
General
1 84 (27.54%) Social Skills
2 30 (9.84%) Finance
3 20 (6.56%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (6.56%) Organisational Skills
4 8 (2.62%) Documentation Skills
4 8 (2.62%) Influencing Skills
5 7 (2.30%) Legal
5 7 (2.30%) Presentation Skills
6 6 (1.97%) Publishing
7 5 (1.64%) Local Government
8 4 (1.31%) Military
9 3 (0.98%) Marketing
9 3 (0.98%) Retail
10 2 (0.66%) Back Office
11 1 (0.33%) Banking
11 1 (0.33%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.33%) Law
11 1 (0.33%) Multimedia
11 1 (0.33%) Police
11 1 (0.33%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 41 (13.44%) Architect
2 33 (10.82%) Developer
3 25 (8.20%) Solutions Architect
4 23 (7.54%) Analyst
5 20 (6.56%) Senior
6 19 (6.23%) Lead
7 16 (5.25%) Project Manager
7 16 (5.25%) Technical Architect
8 15 (4.92%) Consultant
9 13 (4.26%) DBA
10 12 (3.93%) Administrator
11 11 (3.61%) DevOps Engineer
12 10 (3.28%) Technical Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.95%) SQL DBA
14 8 (2.62%) Software Developer
14 8 (2.62%) SQL Server DBA
15 7 (2.30%) Java Developer
15 7 (2.30%) Linux Administrator
15 7 (2.30%) Linux Systems Administrator
15 7 (2.30%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.23%) Spring
1 19 (6.23%) Spring Boot
2 18 (5.90%) Terraform
3 14 (4.59%) REST
4 11 (3.61%) Node.js
4 11 (3.61%) React
5 8 (2.62%) Playwright
6 7 (2.30%) RESTful
6 7 (2.30%) Web Services
7 6 (1.97%) AWS CDK
7 6 (1.97%) HTML
7 6 (1.97%) Jest
8 5 (1.64%) .NET
8 5 (1.64%) Middleware
8 5 (1.64%) Next.js
8 5 (1.64%) Vue
9 4 (1.31%) AngularJS
9 4 (1.31%) JSON
10 3 (0.98%) OAuth2
10 3 (0.98%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.89%) Product Ownership
2 20 (6.56%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.61%) Data Protection Act
4 10 (3.28%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.95%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (2.62%) NHS
7 6 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (1.64%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.98%) Freedom of Information
10 3 (0.98%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.98%) Mainframe
10 3 (0.98%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.66%) Data Structures
11 2 (0.66%) Distributed Architecture
11 2 (0.66%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.66%) Web Conferencing
12 1 (0.33%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 24 (7.87%) Linux
2 12 (3.93%) Windows
3 7 (2.30%) SUSE
4 5 (1.64%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.33%) Android
6 1 (0.33%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.33%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.33%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.33%) Unix
6 1 (0.33%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (30.49%) Agile
2 58 (19.02%) Stakeholder Management
3 57 (18.69%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 53 (17.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 42 (13.77%) CI/CD
6 41 (13.44%) DevOps
7 32 (10.49%) Decision-Making
8 30 (9.84%) Project Delivery
9 28 (9.18%) AI
9 28 (9.18%) Coaching
10 27 (8.85%) Infrastructure as Code
10 27 (8.85%) Mentoring
10 27 (8.85%) Workshop Facilitation
11 24 (7.87%) Migration
12 22 (7.21%) Microservices
12 22 (7.21%) Risk Management
13 21 (6.89%) Roadmaps
13 21 (6.89%) Scrum
13 21 (6.89%) Test Automation
14 20 (6.56%) Digital Transformation Programme
Programming Languages
1 32 (10.49%) Java
2 24 (7.87%) JavaScript
3 19 (6.23%) Python
3 19 (6.23%) TypeScript
4 18 (5.90%) SQL
5 8 (2.62%) Bash
5 8 (2.62%) PowerShell
6 6 (1.97%) Bicep
7 5 (1.64%) C#
8 4 (1.31%) PL/SQL
8 4 (1.31%) Shell Script
9 3 (0.98%) Groovy
10 2 (0.66%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.33%) R
11 1 (0.33%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.33%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.33%) VBA
11 1 (0.33%) XPath
Qualifications
1 58 (19.02%) Security Cleared
2 54 (17.70%) SC Cleared
3 13 (4.26%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (3.61%) DV Cleared
5 8 (2.62%) Degree
6 5 (1.64%) PMI Certification
6 5 (1.64%) PMP
7 4 (1.31%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (0.98%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.98%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (0.98%) CISM
8 3 (0.98%) CISSP
8 3 (0.98%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (0.98%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 2 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 2 (0.66%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
9 2 (0.66%) CISA
9 2 (0.66%) IIBA
9 2 (0.66%) Six Sigma Black Belt
9 2 (0.66%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.87%) Disclosure Scotland
2 23 (7.54%) Accessibility
3 13 (4.26%) PMO
4 11 (3.61%) Data Quality
5 10 (3.28%) GDPR
5 10 (3.28%) QA
6 9 (2.95%) WCAG
7 6 (1.97%) NIST
8 5 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 4 (1.31%) NCSC
10 3 (0.98%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.66%) GRC
11 2 (0.66%) SLA
12 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 12 (3.93%) Docker
2 6 (1.97%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.64%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.98%) Ceph
4 3 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.66%) Squid
6 1 (0.33%) IAG
6 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (5.90%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.30%) Ansible
2 7 (2.30%) Grafana
3 4 (1.31%) Istio
4 3 (0.98%) Argo
4 3 (0.98%) Kibana
4 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.98%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.66%) SCCM
5 2 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.33%) Nessus
Vendors
1 39 (12.79%) Microsoft
2 33 (10.82%) Oracle
3 9 (2.95%) Salesforce
4 5 (1.64%) Cisco
4 5 (1.64%) Google
4 5 (1.64%) MuleSoft
5 4 (1.31%) Atlassian
6 3 (0.98%) Red Hat
6 3 (0.98%) SAP
6 3 (0.98%) UiPath
6 3 (0.98%) VMware
7 2 (0.66%) Adobe
7 2 (0.66%) Dell
7 2 (0.66%) F5
7 2 (0.66%) Okta
7 2 (0.66%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.33%) AppDynamics
8 1 (0.33%) EnterpriseDB
8 1 (0.33%) Infor
8 1 (0.33%) SolarWinds