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 17 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 253 232
Rank change year-on-year -10 -21 +125
Contract jobs citing Local Government 487 336 435
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.03% 1.03%
As % of the General category 1.69% 1.64% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 355 221 295
10th Percentile £330 £268 £325
25th Percentile £413 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +15.67% -5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £575
90th Percentile £700 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £415 £475
% change year-on-year +23.64% -12.74% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 52 55
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.21 £15.62
25th Percentile £19.46 £20.45 £18.35
Median hourly rate £21.49 £28.60 £25.18
Median % change year-on-year -24.86% +13.58% +10.71%
75th Percentile £27.25 £34.48 £33.31
90th Percentile £32.33 £57.50 £49.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.66 £20.83 £25.00
% change year-on-year -0.84% -16.68% +21.95%

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 28,882 20,470 24,177
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.84% 62.94% 57.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,256 12,838 15,149
10th Percentile £313 £281 £280
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £489
% change year-on-year +6.61% -4.09% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,010 1,053 1,774
10th Percentile £14.09 £13.27 £13.06
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.25 £16.06
Median hourly rate £33.00 £26.21 £33.29
Median % change year-on-year +25.91% -21.26% +8.61%
75th Percentile £62.00 £51.80 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.24 £70.13 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £22.50 £33.00
% change year-on-year +46.67% -31.82% +24.62%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 17 July 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 -15 466 £513 +13.89% 224
UK excluding London -8 256 £513 +23.64% 208
London -42 209 £523 +10.05% 53
Work from Home -24 161 £525 +16.67% 138
Midlands +34 109 £525 +31.25% 28
West Midlands +14 79 £525 +31.25% 12
North of England -70 43 £494 +9.72% 66
South East -52 42 £637 +41.56% 52
South West -58 28 £500 +25.00% 16
East Midlands +5 26 £500 +8.70% 16
East of England -6 24 £370 -25.93% 19
Yorkshire -45 22 £550 +41.94% 25
North West -39 21 £390 -10.86% 33
Scotland -6 7 £650 +62.50% 14
Wales -11 3 £425 - 12

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 21 (4.31%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.64%) Oracle Workflow
3 7 (1.44%) CMS
4 4 (0.82%) Drupal
4 4 (0.82%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.62%) WordPress
6 2 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.41%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.41%) Confluence
6 2 (0.41%) govService
6 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 19 (3.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.23%) Spreadsheet
3 3 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.41%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.41%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (4.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (3.90%) Oracle Receivables
3 18 (3.70%) NEC Housing
4 17 (3.49%) ContrOCC
5 16 (3.29%) Oracle General Ledger
5 16 (3.29%) Oracle Payables
5 16 (3.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 6 (1.23%) iTrent
7 5 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
8 4 (0.82%) Oracle Financials
8 4 (0.82%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.41%) MIS ActiveH
9 2 (0.41%) SAP CO
9 2 (0.41%) SAP FI
9 2 (0.41%) SAP FI/CO
10 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
10 1 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.21%) SAP HR
10 1 (0.21%) SAP MM
10 1 (0.21%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 44 (9.03%) Azure
2 29 (5.95%) Power Platform
3 28 (5.75%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (3.90%) AWS
5 18 (3.70%) SaaS
6 15 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
7 11 (2.26%) Azure DevOps
7 11 (2.26%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.64%) GCP
9 6 (1.23%) Power Automate
9 6 (1.23%) PowerApps
10 5 (1.03%) Azure Logic Apps
10 5 (1.03%) Microsoft Copilot
11 4 (0.82%) GitHub
11 4 (0.82%) OCI
11 4 (0.82%) SuccessFactors
12 3 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
12 3 (0.62%) Azure Service Bus
12 3 (0.62%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 3 (0.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 15 (3.08%) Firewall
2 11 (2.26%) DNS
3 8 (1.64%) DHCP
4 5 (1.03%) Broadband
4 5 (1.03%) Network Security
5 4 (0.82%) VPN
5 4 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.62%) LAN
6 3 (0.62%) WAN
7 2 (0.41%) Intranet
7 2 (0.41%) PSTN
8 1 (0.21%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.21%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.21%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (5.13%) Oracle Reports
1 25 (5.13%) Power BI
2 8 (1.64%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.44%) GIS
4 4 (0.82%) BusinessObjects
4 4 (0.82%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.62%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
6 2 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.41%) Apache Hudi
6 2 (0.41%) Big Data
6 2 (0.41%) Crystal Reports
6 2 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.41%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.41%) Power Query
6 2 (0.41%) Presto
6 2 (0.41%) Spatial Data
6 2 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 8 (1.64%) JIRA
2 3 (0.62%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.21%) Git
3 1 (0.21%) JUnit
3 1 (0.21%) Oracle APEX
General
1 216 (44.35%) Public Sector
2 158 (32.44%) Finance
3 123 (25.26%) Social Skills
4 52 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (4.93%) Legal
6 23 (4.72%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (3.29%) Social Housing
8 12 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.85%) Police
9 9 (1.85%) Retail
10 8 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.23%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.03%) Banking
12 5 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.03%) Fire and Rescue
13 4 (0.82%) Publishing
14 3 (0.62%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.41%) Law
15 2 (0.41%) Marketing
15 2 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 63 (12.94%) Analyst
2 59 (12.11%) Senior
3 56 (11.50%) Lead
4 31 (6.37%) Accountant
4 31 (6.37%) Developer
5 29 (5.95%) Business Analyst
5 29 (5.95%) Systems Accountant
6 22 (4.52%) Architect
6 22 (4.52%) Project Manager
7 21 (4.31%) Consultant
8 19 (3.90%) Finance Manager
9 18 (3.70%) Support Officer
10 14 (2.87%) Finance Systems Manager
10 14 (2.87%) Senior Analyst
10 14 (2.87%) Solutions Architect
11 12 (2.46%) Applications Support
11 12 (2.46%) Data Manager
12 11 (2.26%) Data Analyst
12 11 (2.26%) Systems Analyst
12 11 (2.26%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (10.27%) Oracle Fusion
2 5 (1.03%) RESTful
2 5 (1.03%) SAP Fiori
3 4 (0.82%) .NET
3 4 (0.82%) CSS
3 4 (0.82%) HTML
3 4 (0.82%) Middleware
3 4 (0.82%) REST
4 2 (0.41%) ASP.NET
4 2 (0.41%) ASP.NET Core
4 2 (0.41%) FHIR
4 2 (0.41%) JSON
4 2 (0.41%) Play Framework
4 2 (0.41%) SOAP
4 2 (0.41%) Spring
4 2 (0.41%) Spring Boot
4 2 (0.41%) Web Services
5 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.21%) Next.js
5 1 (0.21%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 32 (6.57%) Management Information System
2 16 (3.29%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (2.87%) NHS
3 14 (2.87%) Public Cloud
4 12 (2.46%) Data Structures
4 12 (2.46%) Product Ownership
5 11 (2.26%) Freedom of Information
5 11 (2.26%) Onboarding
6 10 (2.05%) Housing Association
7 9 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (1.23%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.82%) Driving Licence
10 4 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.82%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.62%) Cyber Security Posture
11 3 (0.62%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.41%) Cyber Threat
12 2 (0.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.08%) Windows
2 5 (1.03%) Windows 10
2 5 (1.03%) Windows Server
3 4 (0.82%) Linux
4 2 (0.41%) Unix
4 2 (0.41%) VMS
5 1 (0.21%) Android
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (20.53%) Stakeholder Management
2 83 (17.04%) Continuous Improvement
3 79 (16.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 65 (13.35%) Agile
5 61 (12.53%) Service Delivery
6 57 (11.70%) ERP
7 55 (11.29%) Migration
8 50 (10.27%) Decision-Making
8 50 (10.27%) Problem-Solving
9 40 (8.21%) Project Delivery
10 37 (7.60%) Change Management
11 35 (7.19%) Digital Transformation Programme
11 35 (7.19%) Roadmaps
12 32 (6.57%) Data Protection
13 31 (6.37%) Validation
14 30 (6.16%) Case Management
14 30 (6.16%) Collaborative Working
15 29 (5.95%) Data Migration
15 29 (5.95%) User Acceptance Testing
16 28 (5.75%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 31 (6.37%) SQL
2 8 (1.64%) Java
3 7 (1.44%) Python
4 6 (1.23%) JavaScript
5 4 (0.82%) C#
5 4 (0.82%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.62%) ABAP
6 3 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 2 (0.41%) Go
7 2 (0.41%) Scala
7 2 (0.41%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.41%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.21%) Apex Code
8 1 (0.21%) Bicep
8 1 (0.21%) Groovy
8 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 24 (4.93%) Security Cleared
2 20 (4.11%) SC Cleared
3 15 (3.08%) DBS Check
4 13 (2.67%) Degree
5 12 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (1.23%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (1.03%) CCNP
7 5 (1.03%) CIPFA
7 5 (1.03%) CISSP
8 4 (0.82%) CCNA
9 3 (0.62%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.62%) CISM
9 3 (0.62%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.41%) CIPD
10 2 (0.41%) CTC Cleared
10 2 (0.41%) ISTQB
10 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.41%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.95%) Data Quality
2 27 (5.54%) GDPR
3 19 (3.90%) PMO
4 15 (3.08%) Accessibility
5 13 (2.67%) SLA
6 9 (1.85%) QA
7 8 (1.64%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (1.44%) NCSC
8 7 (1.44%) WCAG
9 6 (1.23%) PCI DSS
10 5 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 4 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.82%) IFRS
12 3 (0.62%) NIST
12 3 (0.62%) PERC
13 2 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.41%) GRC
14 1 (0.21%) BS7666
14 1 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
14 1 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 11 (2.26%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.23%) Docker
3 2 (0.41%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 10 (2.05%) Terraform
2 9 (1.85%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.41%) Grafana
3 2 (0.41%) Kibana
3 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.41%) SCCM
4 1 (0.21%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 75 (15.40%) Microsoft
2 64 (13.14%) Oracle
3 39 (8.01%) SAP
4 19 (3.90%) NEC
5 16 (3.29%) Liquidlogic
6 11 (2.26%) ServiceNow
7 10 (2.05%) Civica
8 6 (1.23%) Google
9 5 (1.03%) Ariba
9 5 (1.03%) Cisco
9 5 (1.03%) Palo Alto
10 4 (0.82%) Infoblox
10 4 (0.82%) Orchard
11 3 (0.62%) Juniper
11 3 (0.62%) Kronos
11 3 (0.62%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.62%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.62%) Splunk
11 3 (0.62%) VMware
12 2 (0.41%) Northgate