Local Government Contract Job Trends

Local Government (Local Authority, Local Council)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Local Government in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Local Government over the 6 months leading up to 8 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 233 249
Rank change year-on-year -58 +16 +157
Contract jobs citing Local Government 382 336 413
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.84% 1.15% 0.94%
As % of the General category 1.50% 1.83% 1.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 264 212 299
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £600 £543 £575
90th Percentile £663 £601 £645
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £451 £475
% change year-on-year +10.99% -5.16% +18.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 53 70
10th Percentile £17.91 £17.24 £15.39
25th Percentile £22.55 £20.45 £17.47
Median hourly rate £25.38 £26.12 £24.63
Median % change year-on-year -2.83% +6.06% +10.64%
75th Percentile £27.71 £31.00 £31.71
90th Percentile £41.06 £34.75 £38.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.12 £25.00 £18.35
% change year-on-year +0.48% +36.24% -17.84%

All General Skills
UK

Local Government 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 25,537 18,398 25,541
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.82% 62.96% 58.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,887 11,782 16,206
10th Percentile £303 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £640 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,600 742 1,874
10th Percentile £13.71 £14.70 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.51 £15.39
Median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £26.70
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% +8.63% -23.73%
75th Percentile £59.00 £57.50 £50.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £27.13 £25.28
% change year-on-year -7.83% +7.32% -17.82%

Local Government
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Local Government relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Local Government job vacancy trend in the UK

Local Government
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Local Government.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Local Government

Local Government
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Local Government over the 6 months to 8 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Local Government in the UK

Local Government
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Local Government.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Local Government

Local Government
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Local Government over the 6 months to 8 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Local Government in the UK

Local Government
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Local Government within the UK over the 6 months to 8 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
England -64 360 £500 +5.26% 193
UK excluding London -61 201 £500 +10.99% 156
London -63 165 £525 +7.69% 53
Work from Home -8 132 £500 +5.26% 70
Midlands +7 96 £513 -1.44% 35
West Midlands -16 59 £525 - 25
North of England -65 38 £488 +2.63% 42
East Midlands -3 34 £500 -3.85% 10
North West -18 31 £363 -25.64% 22
South West -47 29 £488 +19.19% 22
East of England -30 18 £425 -8.06% 15
South East -58 11 £400 -11.11% 39
Scotland +6 7 £500 +25.00% 3
Yorkshire -66 6 £650 +33.33% 17
Wales -9 2 - - 4
North East -19 1 £500 +66.67% 4

Local Government
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 18 (4.71%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.79%) CMS
2 3 (0.79%) Confluence
3 2 (0.52%) ArcGIS
3 2 (0.52%) OpenEdge
4 1 (0.26%) Drupal
4 1 (0.26%) govService
4 1 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
4 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 18 (4.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.36%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.79%) Trello
5 2 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.52%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 28 (7.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (4.97%) NEC Housing
3 7 (1.83%) ContrOCC
4 6 (1.57%) Oracle Payables
5 5 (1.31%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (1.31%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 5 (1.31%) Oracle Receivables
6 4 (1.05%) iTrent
6 4 (1.05%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (1.05%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.79%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
8 2 (0.52%) SAP HR
8 2 (0.52%) Unit4 Business World
9 1 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.26%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.26%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
9 1 (0.26%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 44 (11.52%) Azure
2 27 (7.07%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (4.97%) Power Platform
4 16 (4.19%) SaaS
5 13 (3.40%) Dynamics 365
6 12 (3.14%) AWS
7 10 (2.62%) Microsoft Copilot
8 8 (2.09%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (2.09%) SuccessFactors
9 7 (1.83%) Entra ID
10 5 (1.31%) OCI
11 4 (1.05%) OneDrive
11 4 (1.05%) Power Automate
11 4 (1.05%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.79%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (0.79%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (0.79%) IaaS
12 3 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (0.79%) Miro
13 2 (0.52%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.88%) Firewall
2 6 (1.57%) LAN
2 6 (1.57%) WAN
3 5 (1.31%) Broadband
3 5 (1.31%) DNS
3 5 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
3 5 (1.31%) Wireless
4 4 (1.05%) DHCP
4 4 (1.05%) Network Security
5 3 (0.79%) SD-WAN
5 3 (0.79%) VPN
6 2 (0.52%) Internet
6 2 (0.52%) WLAN
7 1 (0.26%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.24%) Oracle Reports
2 16 (4.19%) Power BI
3 9 (2.36%) SQL Server
4 8 (2.09%) GIS
5 3 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
5 3 (0.79%) OLTP
5 3 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.52%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.52%) MS Access
6 2 (0.52%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.52%) Spatial Data
6 2 (0.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.26%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.26%) Metadata
7 1 (0.26%) Power Query
7 1 (0.26%) QGIS
7 1 (0.26%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.26%) Semantic Layer
7 1 (0.26%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.26%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (1.83%) JIRA
2 3 (0.79%) GitLab
3 1 (0.26%) JUnit
General
1 179 (46.86%) Public Sector
2 128 (33.51%) Finance
3 102 (26.70%) Social Skills
4 33 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (4.45%) Fire and Rescue
5 17 (4.45%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (3.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (3.40%) Legal
7 9 (2.36%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.09%) Social Housing
9 7 (1.83%) Back Office
10 5 (1.31%) Police
11 3 (0.79%) Marketing
12 2 (0.52%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.52%) General Ledger
12 2 (0.52%) Welsh Language
13 1 (0.26%) Front Office
13 1 (0.26%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.26%) Retail
13 1 (0.26%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 57 (14.92%) Senior
2 51 (13.35%) Analyst
3 41 (10.73%) Lead
4 29 (7.59%) Accountant
4 29 (7.59%) Systems Accountant
5 28 (7.33%) Business Analyst
6 25 (6.54%) Architect
6 25 (6.54%) Project Manager
7 23 (6.02%) Developer
8 16 (4.19%) Consultant
9 14 (3.66%) Applications Support
9 14 (3.66%) Support Officer
10 12 (3.14%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (2.88%) Project Officer
11 11 (2.88%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (2.88%) Tester
12 10 (2.62%) Administrator
12 10 (2.62%) Financial Analyst
12 10 (2.62%) Senior Accountant
12 10 (2.62%) Senior Systems Accountant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.02%) Oracle Fusion
2 10 (2.62%) EDI
3 4 (1.05%) Middleware
4 3 (0.79%) REST
5 2 (0.52%) CSS
5 2 (0.52%) HTML
6 1 (0.26%) FHIR
6 1 (0.26%) Node.js
6 1 (0.26%) OAuth
6 1 (0.26%) RESTful
6 1 (0.26%) SAP Fiori
6 1 (0.26%) SPFx
6 1 (0.26%) Spring
6 1 (0.26%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.26%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 42 (10.99%) Management Information System
2 23 (6.02%) Public Cloud
3 16 (4.19%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (3.40%) Data Structures
5 10 (2.62%) NHS
6 7 (1.83%) Driving Licence
6 7 (1.83%) Product Ownership
7 6 (1.57%) Housing Association
8 5 (1.31%) Freedom of Information
8 5 (1.31%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.05%) Enterprise Cloud
9 4 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.79%) Legacy Code
10 3 (0.79%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 3 (0.79%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.52%) Data Centre
11 2 (0.52%) PKI
11 2 (0.52%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (5.24%) Windows
2 6 (1.57%) Windows Server
3 5 (1.31%) Linux
3 5 (1.31%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.26%) Android
4 1 (0.26%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (17.54%) Stakeholder Management
2 64 (16.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 60 (15.71%) ERP
4 44 (11.52%) Migration
5 43 (11.26%) Decision-Making
6 41 (10.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 39 (10.21%) Change Management
7 39 (10.21%) Service Delivery
8 34 (8.90%) Agile
9 33 (8.64%) Project Management
9 33 (8.64%) Roadmaps
10 32 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
11 31 (8.12%) User Acceptance Testing
12 30 (7.85%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 26 (6.81%) Data Protection
14 25 (6.54%) Project Delivery
15 23 (6.02%) Cybersecurity
16 19 (4.97%) Analytics
16 19 (4.97%) Data Governance
16 19 (4.97%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 29 (7.59%) SQL
2 5 (1.31%) PL/SQL
3 4 (1.05%) PowerShell
4 3 (0.79%) ProC
4 3 (0.79%) Python
4 3 (0.79%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 2 (0.52%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.26%) ABAP
6 1 (0.26%) Apex Code
6 1 (0.26%) Bash
6 1 (0.26%) Bicep
6 1 (0.26%) C
6 1 (0.26%) C#
6 1 (0.26%) Java
6 1 (0.26%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.26%) Korn
6 1 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 16 (4.19%) DBS Check
2 13 (3.40%) Degree
3 11 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (2.09%) Security Cleared
5 6 (1.57%) SC Cleared
6 5 (1.31%) NVQ Level 3
6 5 (1.31%) SAP Certification
7 4 (1.05%) CCNA
7 4 (1.05%) CCNP
7 4 (1.05%) CIPFA
7 4 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (1.05%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (0.79%) ISTQB
8 3 (0.79%) JNCIA
8 3 (0.79%) JNCIP
8 3 (0.79%) JNCIS
9 2 (0.52%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (0.52%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.52%) IIBA
9 2 (0.52%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (4.71%) Data Quality
2 17 (4.45%) GDPR
3 9 (2.36%) QA
4 7 (1.83%) Accessibility
5 6 (1.57%) PMO
5 6 (1.57%) SLA
6 5 (1.31%) Actionable Recommendations
6 5 (1.31%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.79%) NCSC
7 3 (0.79%) PERC
7 3 (0.79%) WCAG
8 2 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.26%) GRC
9 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 8 (2.09%) Active Directory
1 8 (2.09%) Hyper-V
2 5 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.26%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.79%) Prometheus
3 2 (0.52%) SCCM
4 1 (0.26%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.26%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.26%) Terraform
Vendors
1 62 (16.23%) Microsoft
2 45 (11.78%) Oracle
3 41 (10.73%) SAP
4 21 (5.50%) NEC
5 10 (2.62%) VMware
6 8 (2.09%) Liquidlogic
7 6 (1.57%) Civica
8 4 (1.05%) Ariba
8 4 (1.05%) Workday
9 3 (0.79%) Dynatrace
9 3 (0.79%) ESRI
9 3 (0.79%) Juniper
10 2 (0.52%) Blue Prism
10 2 (0.52%) Cisco
10 2 (0.52%) Citrix
10 2 (0.52%) OneLogin
10 2 (0.52%) Orchard
10 2 (0.52%) Palo Alto
10 2 (0.52%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.52%) ServiceNow