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

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 1
Rank change year-on-year -3 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 260 367 685
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 16.33% 21.90% 29.32%
As % of the General category 25.54% 31.31% 44.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 264 417
10th Percentile £248 £190 £155
25th Percentile £360 £334 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £446 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.84% -6.05% +2.15%
75th Percentile £540 £504 £569
90th Percentile £580 £596 £663
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 11 11
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.59 £12.26
25th Percentile - £21.05 £13.27
Median hourly rate £17.23 £24.18 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.74% +38.17% +6.97%
75th Percentile £25.58 £28.07 £38.94
90th Percentile £27.72 £28.38 £55.00
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £24.18 £21.00
% change year-on-year -9.02% +15.14% +5.00%

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 1,018 1,172 1,552
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 63.94% 69.93% 66.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 564 699 933
10th Percentile £200 £193 £200
25th Percentile £358 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £480
Median % change year-on-year - -6.25% +1.05%
75th Percentile £556 £538 £588
90th Percentile £671 £625 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 29 69
10th Percentile £12.60 £18.89 £11.97
25th Percentile £13.25 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.87 £24.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.54% -7.69% +53.53%
75th Percentile £36.27 £27.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £67.80 £47.00 £70.75
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £29.00 £26.00
% change year-on-year -20.69% +11.54% -3.70%

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 19 February 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in Scotland

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Public Sector in Scotland over the 6 months to 19 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Public Sector in Scotland

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 19 February 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
Edinburgh -3 133 £450 +5.88% 8
Glasgow +3 104 £488 +3.17% 9
South Lanarkshire -1 8 £550 -
West Lothian - 3 £276 - 2
North Lanarkshire - 1 £350 - 1
Midlothian - 1 £150 - 6
Moray - 1 - -
Aberdeen - 1 £138 -
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 7 (2.69%) Confluence
2 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.15%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (1.15%) CMS
3 3 (1.15%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.77%) Apache
4 2 (0.77%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.77%) Apache TomEE
4 2 (0.77%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.77%) Drupal
5 1 (0.38%) CICS
5 1 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.38%) Oracle Coherence
5 1 (0.38%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (4.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (3.08%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.77%) Adobe Illustrator
4 2 (0.77%) InDesign
4 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.77%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.38%) Adobe After Effects
5 1 (0.38%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.38%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (5.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.77%) iTrent
3 1 (0.38%) IntelliMatch
3 1 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 62 (23.85%) Azure
2 49 (18.85%) AWS
3 26 (10.00%) Power Platform
4 20 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (6.15%) Serverless
6 15 (5.77%) AWS CloudFormation
7 14 (5.38%) Dynamics 365
7 14 (5.38%) Microsoft 365
8 13 (5.00%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (4.23%) Power Automate
9 11 (4.23%) PowerApps
10 9 (3.46%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (3.46%) SaaS
11 8 (3.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 8 (3.08%) Amazon S3
11 8 (3.08%) Entra ID
12 7 (2.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 6 (2.31%) Azure AI
13 6 (2.31%) Azure Cognitive Search
13 6 (2.31%) Azure Cognitive Services
Communications & Networking
1 10 (3.85%) WAN
2 7 (2.69%) Firewall
3 6 (2.31%) VPN
4 5 (1.92%) Cisco Nexus
4 5 (1.92%) LAN
4 5 (1.92%) Network Security
5 4 (1.54%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.15%) BGP
6 3 (1.15%) MPLS
6 3 (1.15%) OSPF
7 2 (0.77%) DNS
7 2 (0.77%) Fibre Channel
7 2 (0.77%) Intranet
7 2 (0.77%) SDH
7 2 (0.77%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.77%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.38%) Cisco Firepower
8 1 (0.38%) Ethernet VPN
8 1 (0.38%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.38%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.92%) Power BI
2 12 (4.62%) SQL Server
3 10 (3.85%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (3.85%) Relational Database
4 9 (3.46%) MySQL
5 6 (2.31%) Amazon Athena
5 6 (2.31%) Amazon Aurora
5 6 (2.31%) DynamoDB
5 6 (2.31%) Metadata
6 5 (1.92%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (1.54%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.54%) GIS
8 3 (1.15%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (1.15%) NoSQL
8 3 (1.15%) Snowflake Schema
9 2 (0.77%) Big Data
9 2 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.77%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.77%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.77%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 12 (4.62%) JIRA
2 8 (3.08%) Git
3 7 (2.69%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.15%) Cucumber
4 3 (1.15%) Cypress.io
4 3 (1.15%) GitLab
5 2 (0.77%) Ant
5 2 (0.77%) Axure RP
5 2 (0.77%) Eclipse
5 2 (0.77%) Maven
5 2 (0.77%) MLflow
5 2 (0.77%) NUnit
5 2 (0.77%) Postman
5 2 (0.77%) Selenium
5 2 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.77%) WebDriver
6 1 (0.38%) ERwin
6 1 (0.38%) JUnit
6 1 (0.38%) Subversion
6 1 (0.38%) Visual Studio
General
1 82 (31.54%) Social Skills
2 38 (14.62%) Finance
3 30 (11.54%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (5.00%) Influencing Skills
5 9 (3.46%) Legal
6 6 (2.31%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.92%) Local Government
8 4 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.15%) Banking
9 3 (1.15%) Military
9 3 (1.15%) Police
9 3 (1.15%) Retail
9 3 (1.15%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.77%) Back Office
10 2 (0.77%) Publishing
11 1 (0.38%) Billing
11 1 (0.38%) General Ledger
11 1 (0.38%) Law
11 1 (0.38%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 36 (13.85%) Developer
2 31 (11.92%) Analyst
3 30 (11.54%) Architect
4 17 (6.54%) Senior
5 15 (5.77%) Project Manager
6 12 (4.62%) Solutions Architect
7 11 (4.23%) Lead
8 10 (3.85%) Business Analyst
9 9 (3.46%) Consultant
10 8 (3.08%) Cloud Engineer
10 8 (3.08%) DBA
10 8 (3.08%) Java Developer
10 8 (3.08%) Network Engineer
10 8 (3.08%) Power Platform Developer
11 7 (2.69%) Project Officer
11 7 (2.69%) Project Support Officer
11 7 (2.69%) Support Officer
12 6 (2.31%) .NET Developer
12 6 (2.31%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 6 (2.31%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (7.31%) .NET
2 15 (5.77%) React
3 9 (3.46%) REST
4 8 (3.08%) Node.js
4 8 (3.08%) Spring
5 7 (2.69%) HTML
5 7 (2.69%) PyTorch
5 7 (2.69%) RESTful
6 6 (2.31%) AWS CDK
6 6 (2.31%) CSS
7 5 (1.92%) JSON
8 4 (1.54%) AngularJS
8 4 (1.54%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (1.54%) Hugging Face
8 4 (1.54%) NumPy
8 4 (1.54%) OpenCV
8 4 (1.54%) Pandas
8 4 (1.54%) Spring Boot
8 4 (1.54%) SQLAlchemy
9 3 (1.15%) boto
Miscellaneous
1 21 (8.08%) Product Ownership
2 12 (4.62%) Management Information System
2 12 (4.62%) NHS
3 11 (4.23%) Legacy Systems
4 10 (3.85%) Data Centre
5 8 (3.08%) Legacy Applications
6 7 (2.69%) Data Protection Act
6 7 (2.69%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.31%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.92%) Cloud Native
8 5 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.92%) Onboarding
8 5 (1.92%) Wiki
9 4 (1.54%) Algorithms
9 4 (1.54%) Freedom of Information
9 4 (1.54%) IVR
9 4 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
9 4 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.15%) Low-Code
10 3 (1.15%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.38%) Linux
2 13 (5.00%) Windows
3 5 (1.92%) Unix
3 5 (1.92%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.77%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.38%) Solaris
6 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (30.00%) Agile
2 47 (18.08%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (15.77%) DevOps
4 34 (13.08%) Migration
5 33 (12.69%) Stakeholder Management
6 28 (10.77%) CI/CD
7 26 (10.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 23 (8.85%) AI
9 22 (8.46%) Project Management
10 21 (8.08%) Infrastructure as Code
10 21 (8.08%) Roadmaps
10 21 (8.08%) User Experience
11 18 (6.92%) Continuous Improvement
11 18 (6.92%) CRM
11 18 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
11 18 (6.92%) Data Protection
11 18 (6.92%) Machine Learning
12 17 (6.54%) Business Intelligence
12 17 (6.54%) Collaborative Working
12 17 (6.54%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 38 (14.62%) Python
2 21 (8.08%) C#
3 20 (7.69%) Java
4 18 (6.92%) PowerShell
4 18 (6.92%) SQL
5 15 (5.77%) JavaScript
6 13 (5.00%) TypeScript
7 8 (3.08%) Bicep
8 3 (1.15%) Bash
9 2 (0.77%) Apex Code
9 2 (0.77%) Go
10 1 (0.38%) C++
10 1 (0.38%) COBOL
10 1 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.38%) JCL
10 1 (0.38%) Perl
10 1 (0.38%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.38%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.38%) VBA
10 1 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 56 (21.54%) Security Cleared
2 23 (8.85%) Degree
3 22 (8.46%) SC Cleared
4 20 (7.69%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (2.31%) CISSP
5 6 (2.31%) DV Cleared
5 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (1.92%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (1.54%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.54%) CCNP
8 3 (1.15%) CISM
8 3 (1.15%) CompTIA CySA+
8 3 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.15%) GIAC
8 3 (1.15%) SSCP
9 2 (0.77%) CCAB
9 2 (0.77%) CCIE
9 2 (0.77%) CCNA
9 2 (0.77%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.69%) QA
2 19 (7.31%) GDPR
3 17 (6.54%) Disclosure Scotland
4 15 (5.77%) Accessibility
5 12 (4.62%) Data Quality
6 9 (3.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (2.31%) PMO
8 5 (1.92%) SLA
9 4 (1.54%) NCSC
9 4 (1.54%) PCI DSS
10 3 (1.15%) HIPAA
10 3 (1.15%) NIST
11 2 (0.77%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.77%) GRC
11 2 (0.77%) WCAG
12 1 (0.38%) COBIT
12 1 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.38%) ISO 20022
12 1 (0.38%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 11 (4.23%) Docker
2 8 (3.08%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (1.54%) VMware NSX
4 3 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.77%) vSphere
6 1 (0.38%) HDFS
6 1 (0.38%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 15 (5.77%) Terraform
2 10 (3.85%) Kubernetes
3 8 (3.08%) Ansible
4 7 (2.69%) Grafana
5 4 (1.54%) Kibana
5 4 (1.54%) logstash
5 4 (1.54%) SCCM
6 2 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.77%) vMotion
7 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.38%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.38%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.38%) vRealize
Vendors
1 58 (22.31%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.38%) Cisco
2 14 (5.38%) Oracle
3 9 (3.46%) Google
4 7 (2.69%) Salesforce
5 6 (2.31%) OpenAI
5 6 (2.31%) Splunk
6 5 (1.92%) Palo Alto
6 5 (1.92%) VMware
7 4 (1.54%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.15%) Avaya
8 3 (1.15%) F5
8 3 (1.15%) Genesys
8 3 (1.15%) Greenplum
8 3 (1.15%) Informatica
8 3 (1.15%) Pega
8 3 (1.15%) Red Hat
8 3 (1.15%) Talend
9 2 (0.77%) Juniper
9 2 (0.77%) SAP