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 20 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 2 1
Rank change year-on-year -4 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 275 461 683
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 17.39% 25.12% 29.14%
As % of the General category 25.75% 38.58% 43.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 309 449
10th Percentile £201 £173 £163
25th Percentile £330 £313 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £530 £560
90th Percentile £600 £600 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 14 8
10th Percentile £14.39 £12.36 £11.61
25th Percentile £15.09 £13.53 £12.11
Median hourly rate £17.15 £18.26 £15.38
Median % change year-on-year -6.05% +18.73% -13.23%
75th Percentile £27.95 £20.59 £55.00
90th Percentile £38.66 £32.18 £55.42
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £22.25 £21.00
% change year-on-year -5.62% +5.95% +5.79%

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 common skills in Scotland.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 1,068 1,195 1,574
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 67.55% 65.12% 67.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 619 692 1,007
10th Percentile £200 £169 £188
25th Percentile £360 £324 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £440 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.11% -7.37% -
75th Percentile £538 £531 £575
90th Percentile £600 £619 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 39 35
10th Percentile £13.00 £12.48 £11.79
25th Percentile £16.02 £14.62 £12.19
Median hourly rate £17.87 £16.92 £19.18
Median % change year-on-year +5.61% -11.78% +5.91%
75th Percentile £23.58 £24.17 £55.70
90th Percentile £53.99 £42.81 £76.30
UK median hourly rate £24.34 £31.31 £27.50
% change year-on-year -22.26% +13.85% +10.00%

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 20 October 2025.

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 20 October 2025.

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 20 October 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
Edinburgh -3 145 £453 +0.56% 20
Glasgow -13 100 £500 +11.11% 18
Aberdeen 0 4 £334 +51.70%
South Lanarkshire +10 3 £550 +10.00%
West Lothian +5 3 £300 -42.86% 7
Lanarkshire -1 3 £130 -55.93% 12
North Lanarkshire - 3 £314 -
Dundee 0 2 £201 +2.82% 2
West Dunbartonshire +1 1 £141 +16.12%
Stirling 0 1 £275 +71.88%
East Renfrewshire - 1 - -
Midlothian - 1 £150 - 16
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 10 (3.64%) SharePoint
2 7 (2.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (2.18%) Confluence
4 4 (1.45%) Exchange Server 2013
5 3 (1.09%) Apache
6 2 (0.73%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.73%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.73%) CMS
6 2 (0.73%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.73%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.73%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.36%) Alfresco
7 1 (0.36%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.36%) Drupal
7 1 (0.36%) Joomla!
7 1 (0.36%) nginx
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.36%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (2.18%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.73%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.36%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 48 (17.45%) AWS
2 42 (15.27%) Azure
3 26 (9.45%) Microsoft 365
4 23 (8.36%) Power Platform
5 18 (6.55%) Amazon S3
6 15 (5.45%) AWS Lambda
6 15 (5.45%) Serverless
7 13 (4.73%) AWS CloudFormation
8 11 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (4.00%) GitHub
9 10 (3.64%) Amazon EKS
9 10 (3.64%) OpenShift
10 8 (2.91%) Entra ID
10 8 (2.91%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 7 (2.55%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (2.55%) Power Automate
12 6 (2.18%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (2.18%) Amazon SQS
13 5 (1.82%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.00%) Firewall
2 9 (3.27%) WAN
3 8 (2.91%) VPN
4 5 (1.82%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (1.45%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (1.45%) Unified Communications
6 3 (1.09%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (1.09%) LAN
7 2 (0.73%) IPsec
7 2 (0.73%) MPLS
7 2 (0.73%) Network Security
7 2 (0.73%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.73%) TETRA
7 2 (0.73%) VoIP
8 1 (0.36%) Cisco Firepower
8 1 (0.36%) Ethernet VPN
8 1 (0.36%) MQTT
8 1 (0.36%) Multicast
8 1 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
8 1 (0.36%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (5.82%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (5.09%) Power BI
3 13 (4.73%) Amazon Aurora
4 6 (2.18%) Relational Database
4 6 (2.18%) SQL Server
5 5 (1.82%) Elasticsearch
5 5 (1.82%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (1.45%) GIS
6 4 (1.45%) Metadata
6 4 (1.45%) MySQL
6 4 (1.45%) Oracle Database
6 4 (1.45%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (1.09%) MariaDB
7 3 (1.09%) Power Query
8 2 (0.73%) Big Data
8 2 (0.73%) InfluxDB
8 2 (0.73%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.73%) Spatial Data
9 1 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 14 (5.09%) Git
2 13 (4.73%) JIRA
3 12 (4.36%) Jenkins
4 9 (3.27%) Cypress.io
5 5 (1.82%) webpack
6 4 (1.45%) Terragrunt
7 3 (1.09%) Axure RP
7 3 (1.09%) Cucumber
7 3 (1.09%) Subversion
8 2 (0.73%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.73%) GitLab
8 2 (0.73%) Newman
8 2 (0.73%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.73%) Selenium
9 1 (0.36%) Balsamiq
9 1 (0.36%) Mockito
9 1 (0.36%) Postman
9 1 (0.36%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.36%) Tricentis qTest
9 1 (0.36%) WebDriver
General
1 86 (31.27%) Social Skills
2 41 (14.91%) Finance
3 38 (13.82%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (4.73%) Telecoms
5 11 (4.00%) Influencing Skills
5 11 (4.00%) Marketing
6 9 (3.27%) Electronics
6 9 (3.27%) Manufacturing
7 8 (2.91%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (2.55%) Legal
9 5 (1.82%) Publishing
10 4 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.09%) Law
11 3 (1.09%) Local Government
11 3 (1.09%) Military
12 2 (0.73%) Back Office
12 2 (0.73%) Retail
13 1 (0.36%) Billing
13 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 35 (12.73%) Developer
2 32 (11.64%) Analyst
3 24 (8.73%) Architect
4 18 (6.55%) Senior
5 14 (5.09%) Lead
6 11 (4.00%) Project Manager
7 10 (3.64%) Solutions Architect
8 8 (2.91%) Business Analyst
9 7 (2.55%) Administrator
9 7 (2.55%) Designer
9 7 (2.55%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
9 7 (2.55%) Information Governance Specialist
9 7 (2.55%) Information Specialist
9 7 (2.55%) Network Engineer
9 7 (2.55%) Programme Manager
9 7 (2.55%) Service Analyst
9 7 (2.55%) Service Desk Analyst
9 7 (2.55%) Support Officer
9 7 (2.55%) User Researcher
10 6 (2.18%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (6.55%) HTML
2 16 (5.82%) React
3 15 (5.45%) CSS
4 14 (5.09%) AWS CDK
5 13 (4.73%) .NET
6 11 (4.00%) Node.js
6 11 (4.00%) RESTful
7 8 (2.91%) REST
8 7 (2.55%) PyTorch
8 7 (2.55%) Spring
8 7 (2.55%) Spring Boot
9 6 (2.18%) AngularJS
10 5 (1.82%) CSS3
10 5 (1.82%) HTML5
10 5 (1.82%) Redux
11 4 (1.45%) Hugging Face
11 4 (1.45%) NumPy
11 4 (1.45%) OAuth
11 4 (1.45%) SQLAlchemy
11 4 (1.45%) X-Windows
Miscellaneous
1 13 (4.73%) Management Information System
2 9 (3.27%) Product Ownership
3 8 (2.91%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (2.18%) Freedom of Information
4 6 (2.18%) NHS
5 5 (1.82%) Cloud Native
5 5 (1.82%) Cyber Threat
5 5 (1.82%) Device Driver
5 5 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (1.82%) Web Conferencing
6 4 (1.45%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.45%) Driving Licence
6 4 (1.45%) Legacy Applications
6 4 (1.45%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.45%) PKI
6 4 (1.45%) Wiki
7 3 (1.09%) Algorithms
7 3 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.09%) Data Structures
7 3 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 27 (9.82%) Windows
2 26 (9.45%) Linux
3 12 (4.36%) Unix
3 12 (4.36%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.18%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.82%) Mac OS
5 5 (1.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (0.73%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.36%) AIX
8 1 (0.36%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (31.27%) Agile
2 49 (17.82%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (13.82%) DevOps
4 35 (12.73%) CI/CD
5 31 (11.27%) Mentoring
6 30 (10.91%) Project Management
7 26 (9.45%) Infrastructure as Code
8 25 (9.09%) Coaching
8 25 (9.09%) User Experience
9 23 (8.36%) Business Intelligence
10 22 (8.00%) Continuous Improvement
11 21 (7.64%) Cybersecurity
12 20 (7.27%) Roadmaps
12 20 (7.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 19 (6.91%) Stakeholder Management
14 18 (6.55%) Migration
15 16 (5.82%) ITIL
15 16 (5.82%) Service Design
16 15 (5.45%) Data Protection
16 15 (5.45%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 31 (11.27%) Python
2 21 (7.64%) JavaScript
2 21 (7.64%) TypeScript
3 19 (6.91%) Java
4 15 (5.45%) SQL
5 11 (4.00%) PowerShell
6 9 (3.27%) Shell Script
7 8 (2.91%) Bash
7 8 (2.91%) C#
8 7 (2.55%) Bicep
9 4 (1.45%) Perl
9 4 (1.45%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.09%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.73%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.73%) Groovy
11 2 (0.73%) R
12 1 (0.36%) C
12 1 (0.36%) C++
Qualifications
1 61 (22.18%) Security Cleared
2 34 (12.36%) SC Cleared
3 32 (11.64%) Degree
4 11 (4.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (3.27%) CISSP
6 8 (2.91%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.55%) CCNA
7 7 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.18%) Azure Certification
8 6 (2.18%) Master's Degree
9 5 (1.82%) MCSA
9 5 (1.82%) Postgraduate
10 4 (1.45%) CISM
10 4 (1.45%) HND
11 3 (1.09%) CEH
11 3 (1.09%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.09%) DV Cleared
11 3 (1.09%) GIAC
11 3 (1.09%) HNC
11 3 (1.09%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (9.45%) Accessibility
2 21 (7.64%) GDPR
3 14 (5.09%) Disclosure Scotland
4 9 (3.27%) QA
5 5 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (1.82%) PMO
5 5 (1.82%) SLA
6 4 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (1.09%) Data Quality
7 3 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.09%) NCSC
8 2 (0.73%) WCAG
9 1 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.36%) COBIT
9 1 (0.36%) NIST
9 1 (0.36%) P3O
System Software
1 20 (7.27%) Docker
2 12 (4.36%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.82%) Hyper-V
3 5 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.45%) KVM
5 3 (1.09%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 20 (7.27%) Terraform
2 19 (6.91%) Kubernetes
3 17 (6.18%) Grafana
4 8 (2.91%) Prometheus
5 7 (2.55%) SCCM
6 6 (2.18%) Ansible
7 4 (1.45%) Argo
7 4 (1.45%) Istio
8 3 (1.09%) Kibana
8 3 (1.09%) logstash
8 3 (1.09%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (0.73%) Fluentd
9 2 (0.73%) HAProxy
9 2 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.73%) Nagios
9 2 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.36%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 64 (23.27%) Microsoft
2 23 (8.36%) Oracle
3 10 (3.64%) SAP
4 9 (3.27%) Cisco
5 5 (1.82%) F5
6 4 (1.45%) Red Hat
6 4 (1.45%) Salesforce
6 4 (1.45%) Splunk
7 3 (1.09%) Commvault
7 3 (1.09%) OpenAI
8 2 (0.73%) Apple
8 2 (0.73%) ArcSight
8 2 (0.73%) Palo Alto
8 2 (0.73%) VMware
9 1 (0.36%) CheckPoint
9 1 (0.36%) Dell
9 1 (0.36%) HP
9 1 (0.36%) NetApp
9 1 (0.36%) Remedy
9 1 (0.36%) Siemens