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 11 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 185 288
Rank change year-on-year -107 +103 +125
Contract jobs citing Local Government 336 435 339
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.37% 0.79%
As % of the General category 1.53% 2.23% 1.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 225 250
10th Percentile £363 £287 £250
25th Percentile £413 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £600 £542 £550
90th Percentile £683 £605 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £462 £450
% change year-on-year +8.34% +2.56% +8.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 40 47
10th Percentile £21.65 £20.17 £13.53
25th Percentile £25.38 £22.27 £17.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £28.71 £22.10
Median % change year-on-year +4.51% +29.89% -4.54%
75th Percentile £52.50 £33.75 £27.72
90th Percentile £57.50 £38.45 £37.11
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £29.62 £18.95
% change year-on-year -20.65% +56.28% -9.76%

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 21,923 19,550 25,372
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.24% 61.51% 59.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,747 11,658 16,657
10th Percentile £283 £285 £272
25th Percentile £400 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £727 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,363 647 1,179
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.50 £19.59 £16.25
Median hourly rate £23.00 £27.39 £30.48
Median % change year-on-year -16.01% -10.14% +21.90%
75th Percentile £45.88 £53.75 £57.33
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.64 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.46 £26.12 £29.65
% change year-on-year -17.85% -11.90% +31.78%

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 11 January 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 11 January 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 11 January 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 -105 287 £500 +5.26% 192
London -33 146 £525 +7.69% 31
UK excluding London -113 145 £500 +8.34% 188
Work from Home -39 103 £500 - 68
North of England -55 39 £500 - 48
Midlands -43 32 £506 -0.74% 36
North West -39 28 £500 - 24
South West -51 27 £500 +11.11% 26
West Midlands -30 18 £600 +9.09% 21
East of England -22 16 £425 +9.68% 18
South East -27 15 £400 -11.11% 48
East Midlands -17 14 £175 -65.00% 15
Scotland +7 13 £500 -16.67% 10
Yorkshire -46 9 £675 +38.46% 19
Wales +2 3 - - 7
North East -10 2 £500 +66.67% 7

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 13 (3.87%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.19%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.89%) Confluence
5 2 (0.60%) CMS
Applications
1 23 (6.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.38%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.89%) Trello
6 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 19 (5.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.08%) iTrent
2 7 (2.08%) NEC Housing
3 6 (1.79%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.19%) SAP Payroll
4 4 (1.19%) Unit4 Business World
5 3 (0.89%) Oracle Applications
6 2 (0.60%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.60%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.30%) ContrOCC
7 1 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.30%) IntelliMatch
7 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.30%) Primavera
7 1 (0.30%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 38 (11.31%) Azure
2 25 (7.44%) Power Platform
3 15 (4.46%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (4.17%) AWS
5 10 (2.98%) SaaS
6 8 (2.38%) SuccessFactors
7 7 (2.08%) Microsoft Copilot
8 6 (1.79%) OCI
8 6 (1.79%) PowerApps
9 5 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.19%) Entra ID
11 3 (0.89%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.89%) IaaS
11 3 (0.89%) Miro
11 3 (0.89%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (0.60%) PaaS
12 2 (0.60%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 13 (3.87%) Firewall
2 9 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
3 8 (2.38%) WAN
4 6 (1.79%) LAN
4 6 (1.79%) SAN
4 6 (1.79%) TCP/IP
4 6 (1.79%) Wireless
5 3 (0.89%) Broadband
5 3 (0.89%) DNS
5 3 (0.89%) Network Security
5 3 (0.89%) VLAN
6 2 (0.60%) DHCP
6 2 (0.60%) Internet
6 2 (0.60%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.60%) VPN
6 2 (0.60%) WLAN
7 1 (0.30%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.30%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.30%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.85%) Power BI
2 9 (2.68%) GIS
3 8 (2.38%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (2.38%) SQL Server
4 4 (1.19%) Data Vault
4 4 (1.19%) Geospatial Data
4 4 (1.19%) OLTP
4 4 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (0.89%) Power Query
5 3 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (0.89%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.60%) BusinessObjects
6 2 (0.60%) Metadata
6 2 (0.60%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.60%) QGIS
6 2 (0.60%) Tableau
7 1 (0.30%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.30%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.30%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 6 (1.79%) JIRA
2 3 (0.89%) GitLab
2 3 (0.89%) Oracle APEX
3 1 (0.30%) Selenium
3 1 (0.30%) SpecFlow
General
1 125 (37.20%) Public Sector
2 75 (22.32%) Finance
3 69 (20.54%) Social Skills
4 25 (7.44%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (5.36%) Fire and Rescue
5 18 (5.36%) Law
6 11 (3.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (3.27%) Influencing Skills
6 11 (3.27%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.98%) Legal
8 7 (2.08%) Back Office
9 4 (1.19%) Police
10 3 (0.89%) Social Housing
11 2 (0.60%) Marketing
11 2 (0.60%) Retail
11 2 (0.60%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.60%) Welsh Language
12 1 (0.30%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.30%) Publishing
12 1 (0.30%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 54 (16.07%) Analyst
2 42 (12.50%) Senior
3 35 (10.42%) Lead
4 25 (7.44%) Business Analyst
5 24 (7.14%) Project Manager
6 19 (5.65%) Architect
7 17 (5.06%) Consultant
8 13 (3.87%) Applications Support
9 11 (3.27%) Developer
9 11 (3.27%) Project Officer
9 11 (3.27%) Support Officer
10 10 (2.98%) Programme Manager
11 9 (2.68%) Service Analyst
11 9 (2.68%) Systems Manager
12 8 (2.38%) Data Architect
12 8 (2.38%) Data Manager
12 8 (2.38%) Implementation Manager
12 8 (2.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (2.38%) Migration Specialist
12 8 (2.38%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.98%) EDI
2 6 (1.79%) Oracle Fusion
3 5 (1.49%) Middleware
4 2 (0.60%) REST
5 1 (0.30%) .NET
5 1 (0.30%) .NET Core
5 1 (0.30%) CSS
5 1 (0.30%) FHIR
5 1 (0.30%) HTML
5 1 (0.30%) Node.js
5 1 (0.30%) OAuth
5 1 (0.30%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.25%) Management Information System
2 13 (3.87%) Legacy Systems
3 11 (3.27%) Public Cloud
4 8 (2.38%) NHS
5 7 (2.08%) Data Centre
6 5 (1.49%) Housing Association
6 5 (1.49%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.19%) Data Structures
7 4 (1.19%) Driving Licence
7 4 (1.19%) Enterprise Cloud
8 3 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (0.89%) Clustering
8 3 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.89%) Legacy Code
8 3 (0.89%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.89%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 2 (0.60%) CCTV
9 2 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.60%) IVR
9 2 (0.60%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.68%) Windows
2 4 (1.19%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.60%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (16.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 49 (14.58%) ERP
3 44 (13.10%) Project Management
4 39 (11.61%) Stakeholder Management
5 37 (11.01%) Decision-Making
6 34 (10.12%) Migration
7 32 (9.52%) Agile
7 32 (9.52%) Change Management
8 30 (8.93%) Problem-Solving
9 27 (8.04%) Roadmaps
10 26 (7.74%) Business Intelligence
11 23 (6.85%) Data Migration
12 22 (6.55%) Cybersecurity
12 22 (6.55%) Service Delivery
13 21 (6.25%) Risk Management
13 21 (6.25%) User Acceptance Testing
14 20 (5.95%) Business Analysis
14 20 (5.95%) Continuous Improvement
14 20 (5.95%) PRINCE2
15 18 (5.36%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 31 (9.23%) SQL
2 5 (1.49%) PL/SQL
3 4 (1.19%) Python
4 3 (0.89%) C#
4 3 (0.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 3 (0.89%) ProC
4 3 (0.89%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.60%) Bicep
5 2 (0.60%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.60%) R
6 1 (0.30%) Bash
6 1 (0.30%) C
6 1 (0.30%) Korn
Qualifications
1 21 (6.25%) Degree
2 13 (3.87%) DBS Check
3 11 (3.27%) Security Cleared
4 8 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.08%) CISSP
5 7 (2.08%) HND
5 7 (2.08%) SC Cleared
6 5 (1.49%) CCAB
6 5 (1.49%) CISM
7 4 (1.19%) CCNA
7 4 (1.19%) CISA
7 4 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 3 (0.89%) CCNP
8 3 (0.89%) ISTQB
8 3 (0.89%) JNCIA
8 3 (0.89%) JNCIP
8 3 (0.89%) JNCIS
9 2 (0.60%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.76%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.27%) PMO
3 9 (2.68%) GDPR
4 7 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.08%) SLA
5 6 (1.79%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (1.79%) QA
6 5 (1.49%) Actionable Recommendations
6 5 (1.49%) NIST
7 4 (1.19%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.30%) HL7
9 1 (0.30%) NCSC
9 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 10 (2.98%) Hyper-V
2 5 (1.49%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.30%) Docker
4 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (1.79%) FortiGate
1 6 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (1.19%) CSIRT
2 4 (1.19%) QRadar
3 3 (0.89%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.60%) Terraform
5 1 (0.30%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.30%) SCCM
Vendors
1 49 (14.58%) Microsoft
2 33 (9.82%) Oracle
3 31 (9.23%) SAP
4 13 (3.87%) VMware
5 8 (2.38%) NEC
6 7 (2.08%) Palo Alto
7 5 (1.49%) Fortinet
7 5 (1.49%) HP
7 5 (1.49%) Liquidlogic
7 5 (1.49%) Splunk
8 4 (1.19%) ESRI
9 3 (0.89%) Capita
9 3 (0.89%) Cisco
9 3 (0.89%) Dynatrace
9 3 (0.89%) Juniper
9 3 (0.89%) ServiceNow
9 3 (0.89%) Workday
10 2 (0.60%) Citrix
10 2 (0.60%) OneLogin
10 2 (0.60%) Proofpoint
219 Local Government jobs Nationwide