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 29 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 6 1
Rank change year-on-year -2 -5 +1
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 245 328 625
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 13.64% 20.30% 28.32%
As % of the General category 23.22% 28.08% 43.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 231 392
10th Percentile £288 £193 £158
25th Percentile £375 £381 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -5.26% +3.26%
75th Percentile £558 £519 £575
90th Percentile £650 £596 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £520
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 11 10
10th Percentile - £19.59 £13.10
25th Percentile £17.23 £21.12 £14.19
Median hourly rate £21.31 £24.33 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.42% +39.03% +13.97%
75th Percentile £26.47 £28.07 £19.07
90th Percentile £28.08 £28.38 £23.10
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £22.39 £21.25
% change year-on-year +0.51% +5.34% +6.25%

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 1,055 1,168 1,432
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 58.74% 72.28% 64.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 548 709 860
10th Percentile £250 £239 £181
25th Percentile £362 £370 £362
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -2.63% -
75th Percentile £575 £538 £588
90th Percentile £675 £610 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 35 73
10th Percentile £12.60 £16.05 £12.30
25th Percentile £13.45 £19.07 £16.00
Median hourly rate £16.97 £23.00 £19.17
Median % change year-on-year -26.22% +19.98% -3.57%
75th Percentile £50.00 £28.07 £60.00
90th Percentile £64.65 £54.32 £69.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £28.08 £30.00
% change year-on-year +3.29% -6.42% -14.29%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -3 119 £438 -2.78% 11
Glasgow +8 104 £500 +5.26% 13
South Lanarkshire -3 10 £634 +34.95%
West Lothian -2 3 £276 +47.33% 2
Lanarkshire +3 1 £450 +37.40% 9
Moray -2 1 - -
North Lanarkshire -4 1 £350 -12.50%
Fife - 1 - -
Aberdeen - 1 £138 - 1
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 8 (3.27%) Confluence
2 3 (1.22%) Apache
2 3 (1.22%) CMS
2 3 (1.22%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.82%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.82%) Apache TomEE
3 2 (0.82%) Drupal
4 1 (0.41%) CICS
4 1 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.41%) JBoss
4 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.41%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.41%) Umbraco
Applications
1 10 (4.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.82%) Adobe Illustrator
2 2 (0.82%) InDesign
2 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (0.82%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.41%) Adobe After Effects
3 1 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.41%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (4.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.82%) iTrent
3 1 (0.41%) IntelliMatch
3 1 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.41%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 48 (19.59%) Azure
2 46 (18.78%) AWS
3 24 (9.80%) Power Platform
4 21 (8.57%) Azure DevOps
5 14 (5.71%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (5.71%) Serverless
6 12 (4.90%) OCI
7 9 (3.67%) AWS Lambda
7 9 (3.67%) Dynamics 365
8 8 (3.27%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (3.27%) PowerApps
9 7 (2.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 7 (2.86%) Azure AI
9 7 (2.86%) Azure Cognitive Search
9 7 (2.86%) Azure Cognitive Services
9 7 (2.86%) Cloud Computing
9 7 (2.86%) Power Automate
10 6 (2.45%) Amazon EKS
10 6 (2.45%) SaaS
11 5 (2.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.45%) Cisco Nexus
1 6 (2.45%) WAN
1 6 (2.45%) Wi-Fi
2 5 (2.04%) DNS
2 5 (2.04%) LAN
2 5 (2.04%) Network Security
3 4 (1.63%) SD-WAN
3 4 (1.63%) VPN
4 3 (1.22%) Firewall
4 3 (1.22%) Remote Desktop
5 2 (0.82%) BGP
5 2 (0.82%) Fibre Channel
5 2 (0.82%) Intranet
5 2 (0.82%) MPLS
5 2 (0.82%) OSPF
5 2 (0.82%) SDH
5 2 (0.82%) SSH
5 2 (0.82%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.41%) DSL
6 1 (0.41%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (8.16%) Power BI
2 12 (4.90%) MySQL
2 12 (4.90%) Relational Database
3 9 (3.67%) Metadata
4 7 (2.86%) SQL Server
5 6 (2.45%) DynamoDB
5 6 (2.45%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (2.04%) Amazon Athena
7 4 (1.63%) Amazon Aurora
7 4 (1.63%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.63%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (1.63%) MariaDB
8 3 (1.22%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.22%) Snowflake Schema
9 2 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.82%) GIS
9 2 (0.82%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.82%) Power Query
9 2 (0.82%) Tableau
10 1 (0.41%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 12 (4.90%) JIRA
2 6 (2.45%) Git
3 5 (2.04%) Jenkins
3 5 (2.04%) Selenium
4 4 (1.63%) Cucumber
5 3 (1.22%) GitLab
5 3 (1.22%) WebDriver
6 2 (0.82%) Ant
6 2 (0.82%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.82%) Eclipse
6 2 (0.82%) Maven
6 2 (0.82%) MLflow
6 2 (0.82%) NUnit
6 2 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.82%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.41%) Postman
7 1 (0.41%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.41%) Subversion
7 1 (0.41%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 60 (24.49%) Social Skills
2 38 (15.51%) Finance
3 22 (8.98%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (4.49%) Influencing Skills
5 10 (4.08%) Legal
6 8 (3.27%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.22%) Banking
8 3 (1.22%) Military
8 3 (1.22%) Police
8 3 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.22%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.82%) Local Government
9 2 (0.82%) Retail
10 1 (0.41%) Back Office
10 1 (0.41%) Marketing
10 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 38 (15.51%) Analyst
2 25 (10.20%) Architect
3 22 (8.98%) Senior
4 20 (8.16%) Developer
5 17 (6.94%) Consultant
6 13 (5.31%) Lead
7 12 (4.90%) Project Manager
8 10 (4.08%) Business Analyst
9 9 (3.67%) DevOps Engineer
10 8 (3.27%) Cloud Consultant
10 8 (3.27%) DBA
10 8 (3.27%) Network Engineer
10 8 (3.27%) Oracle Consultant
11 7 (2.86%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 6 (2.45%) Data Analyst
12 6 (2.45%) Designer
12 6 (2.45%) Help Desk Consultant
12 6 (2.45%) HR Consultant
12 6 (2.45%) Oracle HRMS Consultant
13 5 (2.04%) Operations Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (7.76%) .NET
2 16 (6.53%) React
3 8 (3.27%) Spring
4 7 (2.86%) REST
4 7 (2.86%) RESTful
5 6 (2.45%) JSON
6 5 (2.04%) Node.js
7 4 (1.63%) Spring Boot
8 3 (1.22%) ASP.NET
8 3 (1.22%) Gherkin
8 3 (1.22%) Middleware
8 3 (1.22%) Playwright
8 3 (1.22%) XML
9 2 (0.82%) ADO
9 2 (0.82%) Hibernate
9 2 (0.82%) HTML
9 2 (0.82%) JSP
9 2 (0.82%) Kafka
9 2 (0.82%) SOAP
9 2 (0.82%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.16%) Product Ownership
2 13 (5.31%) Legacy Systems
3 12 (4.90%) Management Information System
4 8 (3.27%) NHS
5 7 (2.86%) Data Centre
6 6 (2.45%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (2.45%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (2.04%) Data Structures
7 5 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.63%) IVR
9 3 (1.22%) Cloud Native
9 3 (1.22%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.22%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.22%) Low-Code
9 3 (1.22%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.22%) Replication
9 3 (1.22%) Wiki
10 2 (0.82%) NVMe
10 2 (0.82%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.16%) Linux
2 18 (7.35%) Windows
3 5 (2.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (2.04%) Windows 10
3 5 (2.04%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.22%) Unix
5 1 (0.41%) Android
5 1 (0.41%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.41%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.41%) Rocky
5 1 (0.41%) Solaris
5 1 (0.41%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (24.90%) Agile
2 39 (15.92%) DevOps
3 38 (15.51%) CI/CD
4 36 (14.69%) Migration
5 34 (13.88%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (12.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 30 (12.24%) Stakeholder Management
7 29 (11.84%) Continuous Improvement
8 27 (11.02%) AI
8 27 (11.02%) Roadmaps
9 21 (8.57%) Decision-Making
10 20 (8.16%) Business Intelligence
11 17 (6.94%) Infrastructure as Code
12 15 (6.12%) Change Management
12 15 (6.12%) Data Protection
12 15 (6.12%) Machine Learning
13 14 (5.71%) Cybersecurity
13 14 (5.71%) OCR
13 14 (5.71%) Project Management
13 14 (5.71%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 35 (14.29%) Python
2 26 (10.61%) Java
3 21 (8.57%) SQL
4 18 (7.35%) C#
5 12 (4.90%) JavaScript
6 11 (4.49%) PowerShell
7 8 (3.27%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.63%) Bash
8 4 (1.63%) Bicep
9 2 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.82%) Go
10 1 (0.41%) C++
10 1 (0.41%) COBOL
10 1 (0.41%) JCL
10 1 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.41%) Perl
10 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.41%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.41%) VBA
10 1 (0.41%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 59 (24.08%) Security Cleared
2 34 (13.88%) SC Cleared
3 21 (8.57%) BPSS Clearance
4 15 (6.12%) Degree
5 6 (2.45%) DV Cleared
6 5 (2.04%) CCNP
6 5 (2.04%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (1.22%) CCAB
8 3 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.22%) PMI Certification
9 2 (0.82%) CIPD
9 2 (0.82%) CompTIA CySA+
9 2 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
9 2 (0.82%) PMP
10 1 (0.41%) CBAP
10 1 (0.41%) IIBA
10 1 (0.41%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 1 (0.41%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.35%) Disclosure Scotland
1 18 (7.35%) QA
2 14 (5.71%) GDPR
3 11 (4.49%) Data Quality
4 10 (4.08%) Accessibility
5 7 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (2.04%) PMO
7 4 (1.63%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.22%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (1.22%) GRC
8 3 (1.22%) HIPAA
8 3 (1.22%) NCSC
8 3 (1.22%) NIST
8 3 (1.22%) SLA
8 3 (1.22%) WCAG
9 1 (0.41%) COBIT
9 1 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.41%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.41%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 8 (3.27%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.86%) Docker
3 4 (1.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.63%) VMware NSX
4 2 (0.82%) Ceph
4 2 (0.82%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.82%) vSphere
5 1 (0.41%) HDFS
5 1 (0.41%) IAG
5 1 (0.41%) iptables
5 1 (0.41%) NFS
5 1 (0.41%) Samba
5 1 (0.41%) Squid
5 1 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 16 (6.53%) Terraform
2 10 (4.08%) Ansible
2 10 (4.08%) Kubernetes
3 5 (2.04%) Istio
4 4 (1.63%) Grafana
4 4 (1.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.82%) Argo
5 2 (0.82%) vMotion
6 1 (0.41%) PowerCLI
6 1 (0.41%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.41%) Rundeck
6 1 (0.41%) SCCM
6 1 (0.41%) SELinux
6 1 (0.41%) systemd
6 1 (0.41%) vRealize
6 1 (0.41%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 42 (17.14%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.57%) Oracle
3 14 (5.71%) Salesforce
4 13 (5.31%) Cisco
5 10 (4.08%) Google
6 7 (2.86%) OpenAI
6 7 (2.86%) Palo Alto
7 6 (2.45%) VMware
8 4 (1.63%) F5
8 4 (1.63%) ServiceNow
9 3 (1.22%) Avaya
9 3 (1.22%) Genesys
9 3 (1.22%) Greenplum
9 3 (1.22%) Informatica
9 3 (1.22%) Pega
9 3 (1.22%) Splunk
9 3 (1.22%) Talend
10 2 (0.82%) Juniper
10 2 (0.82%) Red Hat
10 2 (0.82%) SAP