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 22 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 271 248 213
Rank change year-on-year -23 -35 +130
Contract jobs citing Local Government 529 357 449
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.98% 1.09% 1.16%
As % of the General category 1.79% 1.71% 2.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 378 231 268
10th Percentile £325 £250 £311
25th Percentile £413 £386 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £638 £559 £538
90th Percentile £738 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 63 37
10th Percentile £16.12 £14.93 £18.67
25th Percentile £16.70 £23.50 £22.50
Median hourly rate £20.76 £30.00 £26.68
Median % change year-on-year -30.82% +12.44% +19.67%
75th Percentile £27.25 £47.50 £33.07
90th Percentile £31.58 £58.50 £44.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.62 £23.25 £25.18
% change year-on-year -11.33% -7.66% +24.04%

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 29,628 20,830 22,290
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.05% 63.48% 57.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,566 12,959 13,906
10th Percentile £313 £275 £291
25th Percentile £415 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £748 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,273 1,159 1,303
10th Percentile £13.90 £13.37 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.12 £16.21 £16.50
Median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.25% -29.15% +29.09%
75th Percentile £56.21 £50.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £70.00 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.23 £22.14 £35.03
% change year-on-year +45.55% -36.80% +40.12%

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 22 August 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 22 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Local Government in the UK

Local Government
Top 15 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 22 August 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 +1 501 £525 +12.86% 325
UK excluding London -5 277 £525 +16.67% 274
London -39 218 £525 +10.53% 101
Work from Home -18 175 £525 +13.51% 163
Midlands +27 94 £525 +31.25% 54
West Midlands +17 71 £525 +31.25% 31
South East -43 56 £650 +62.50% 67
North of England -53 56 £488 +2.63% 73
South West -43 35 £625 +56.25% 47
East of England +2 29 £370 -7.50% 21
Yorkshire -32 28 £494 +9.72% 22
North West -39 28 £445 -8.72% 41
East Midlands -4 20 £500 +73.91% 25
Scotland -16 7 £650 +30.00% 9
Wales -18 3 £425 - 14

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 24 (4.54%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.51%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.13%) CMS
4 4 (0.76%) Confluence
4 4 (0.76%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.57%) Drupal
5 3 (0.57%) WordPress
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.38%) govService
6 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.19%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 24 (4.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.08%) Spreadsheet
3 8 (1.51%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.95%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.38%) Trello
6 1 (0.19%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (3.78%) Oracle Receivables
2 17 (3.21%) ContrOCC
2 17 (3.21%) Oracle Payables
2 17 (3.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 16 (3.02%) Oracle General Ledger
4 15 (2.84%) NEC Housing
5 12 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
6 7 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
7 5 (0.95%) iTrent
8 4 (0.76%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.57%) Oracle Financials
10 2 (0.38%) MIS ActiveH
10 2 (0.38%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.38%) SAP FI
10 2 (0.38%) SAP FI/CO
10 2 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
11 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
11 1 (0.19%) SAP MM
11 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 55 (10.40%) Azure
2 39 (7.37%) Power Platform
3 29 (5.48%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.40%) AWS
4 18 (3.40%) SaaS
5 17 (3.21%) Dynamics 365
6 16 (3.02%) Entra ID
7 14 (2.65%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (1.70%) GCP
8 9 (1.70%) Power Automate
8 9 (1.70%) PowerApps
9 8 (1.51%) GitHub
10 7 (1.32%) OCI
11 6 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
12 5 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (0.95%) Azure Key Vault
12 5 (0.95%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (0.95%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.40%) Firewall
2 11 (2.08%) DNS
3 7 (1.32%) DHCP
3 7 (1.32%) LAN
3 7 (1.32%) WAN
4 6 (1.13%) Network Security
5 5 (0.95%) VPN
6 4 (0.76%) Broadband
6 4 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.38%) Intranet
7 2 (0.38%) PSTN
7 2 (0.38%) VSAN
8 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (6.62%) Power BI
2 19 (3.59%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (1.51%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.32%) GIS
5 6 (1.13%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.95%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (0.95%) Metadata
7 4 (0.76%) BusinessObjects
7 4 (0.76%) Power Query
7 4 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.57%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.38%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.38%) Big Data
9 2 (0.38%) Presto
9 2 (0.38%) Redis
9 2 (0.38%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.38%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 10 (1.89%) JIRA
2 5 (0.95%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.57%) Git
4 2 (0.38%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.38%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.38%) GitLab
4 2 (0.38%) Mocha
5 1 (0.19%) Capybara
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
5 1 (0.19%) RSpec
General
1 237 (44.80%) Public Sector
2 147 (27.79%) Social Skills
3 146 (27.60%) Finance
4 77 (14.56%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (6.81%) Organisational Skills
6 21 (3.97%) Legal
7 18 (3.40%) Influencing Skills
7 18 (3.40%) Social Housing
8 9 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (1.70%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.70%) Retail
9 7 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (1.32%) Police
10 5 (0.95%) Banking
11 4 (0.76%) General Ledger
11 4 (0.76%) Publishing
12 3 (0.57%) Fire and Rescue
12 3 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.38%) Back Office
13 2 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 74 (13.99%) Analyst
2 68 (12.85%) Lead
3 61 (11.53%) Senior
4 37 (6.99%) Developer
5 35 (6.62%) Architect
5 35 (6.62%) Business Analyst
6 26 (4.91%) Project Manager
7 23 (4.35%) Consultant
8 22 (4.16%) Support Officer
9 20 (3.78%) Senior Analyst
10 19 (3.59%) Finance Manager
11 16 (3.02%) Data Analyst
11 16 (3.02%) Transformation Manager
12 14 (2.65%) Finance Systems Manager
13 12 (2.27%) Accountant
13 12 (2.27%) Applications Support
13 12 (2.27%) Solutions Architect
14 11 (2.08%) Systems Analyst
14 11 (2.08%) Team Leader
14 11 (2.08%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (8.13%) Oracle Fusion
2 13 (2.46%) Terraform
3 8 (1.51%) RESTful
4 6 (1.13%) HTML
5 5 (0.95%) .NET
5 5 (0.95%) REST
5 5 (0.95%) SAP Fiori
6 4 (0.76%) CSS
7 3 (0.57%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.57%) ASP.NET
7 3 (0.57%) ASP.NET Core
7 3 (0.57%) Middleware
8 2 (0.38%) Express.js
8 2 (0.38%) FHIR
8 2 (0.38%) Jest
8 2 (0.38%) JSON
8 2 (0.38%) JWT
8 2 (0.38%) Nunjucks
8 2 (0.38%) OAuth
8 2 (0.38%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.43%) Management Information System
2 19 (3.59%) Freedom of Information
3 17 (3.21%) NHS
4 16 (3.02%) Analytical Mindset
5 15 (2.84%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (2.27%) Onboarding
6 12 (2.27%) Product Ownership
7 10 (1.89%) Cloud Native
7 10 (1.89%) Housing Association
7 10 (1.89%) Public Cloud
8 9 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (0.95%) Data Structures
9 5 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.95%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (0.57%) Cyber Security Posture
11 3 (0.57%) Cyberattack
11 3 (0.57%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 3 (0.57%) Mobile App
12 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.65%) Windows
2 7 (1.32%) Windows 10
3 6 (1.13%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.38%) Linux
4 2 (0.38%) Unix
5 1 (0.19%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.19%) VMS
5 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (20.04%) Stakeholder Management
2 100 (18.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 86 (16.26%) Continuous Improvement
4 79 (14.93%) Agile
5 69 (13.04%) Service Delivery
6 66 (12.48%) Decision-Making
7 51 (9.64%) Migration
7 51 (9.64%) Problem-Solving
8 42 (7.94%) ERP
8 42 (7.94%) Validation
9 41 (7.75%) Project Delivery
9 41 (7.75%) Roadmaps
10 39 (7.37%) Business Intelligence
11 38 (7.18%) Collaborative Working
11 38 (7.18%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 37 (6.99%) Data Protection
13 35 (6.62%) Case Management
14 34 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
14 34 (6.43%) DevOps
15 33 (6.24%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 37 (6.99%) SQL
2 11 (2.08%) JavaScript
3 9 (1.70%) Python
4 7 (1.32%) Java
5 6 (1.13%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (0.76%) C#
7 4 (0.76%) TypeScript
8 3 (0.57%) ABAP
8 3 (0.57%) Bicep
9 2 (0.38%) Go
9 2 (0.38%) Scala
10 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.19%) Groovy
10 1 (0.19%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.19%) Ruby
10 1 (0.19%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.19%) Swift
10 1 (0.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (6.81%) Security Cleared
2 30 (5.67%) SC Cleared
3 18 (3.40%) Degree
4 15 (2.84%) DBS Check
5 11 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.51%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.13%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.13%) CISSP
8 5 (0.95%) Azure Certification
8 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.76%) CCNP
9 4 (0.76%) CISM
9 4 (0.76%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (0.57%) CCNA
10 3 (0.57%) CIPFA
11 2 (0.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.38%) AAT
11 2 (0.38%) CIPD
11 2 (0.38%) CRISC
11 2 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (7.94%) Data Quality
2 35 (6.62%) GDPR
3 25 (4.73%) PMO
4 20 (3.78%) Accessibility
5 19 (3.59%) QA
6 15 (2.84%) SLA
7 9 (1.70%) NCSC
8 8 (1.51%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 6 (1.13%) PCI DSS
10 6 (1.13%) WCAG
11 4 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.76%) IFRS
12 3 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.57%) NIST
12 3 (0.57%) PERC
13 2 (0.38%) GRC
13 2 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
14 1 (0.19%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (2.27%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.70%) Docker
3 2 (0.38%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 10 (1.89%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.38%) Failover Clustering
3 2 (0.38%) Grafana
3 2 (0.38%) Kibana
3 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (0.38%) VxRail
Vendors
1 92 (17.39%) Microsoft
2 60 (11.34%) Oracle
3 29 (5.48%) SAP
4 16 (3.02%) NEC
5 15 (2.84%) Liquidlogic
6 13 (2.46%) ServiceNow
7 12 (2.27%) Civica
8 8 (1.51%) Google
9 6 (1.13%) Databricks
9 6 (1.13%) Orchard
10 4 (0.76%) Cisco
10 4 (0.76%) Palo Alto
11 3 (0.57%) Infoblox
11 3 (0.57%) Juniper
11 3 (0.57%) Kronos
11 3 (0.57%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.57%) Splunk
11 3 (0.57%) VMware
12 2 (0.38%) Ariba
12 2 (0.38%) Ribbon