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 7 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 248 263 195
Rank change year-on-year +15 -68 +138
Contract jobs citing Local Government 587 340 464
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.03% 1.23%
As % of the General category 1.90% 1.63% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 421 223 241
10th Percentile £300 £254 £300
25th Percentile £400 £393 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £613 £562 £538
90th Percentile £738 £650 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 65 33
10th Percentile £14.35 £20.73 £20.35
25th Percentile £16.66 £29.00 £23.66
Median hourly rate £20.76 £34.00 £31.12
Median % change year-on-year -38.96% +9.25% +47.94%
75th Percentile £28.17 £57.50 £33.93
90th Percentile £32.00 £58.75 £52.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.51 £25.11 £28.90
% change year-on-year -18.32% -13.11% +44.00%

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 30,940 20,880 22,031
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.35% 63.24% 58.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,992 12,992 13,020
10th Percentile £313 £275 £280
25th Percentile £420 £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 £743 £738 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £486
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.31% -2.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,724 1,232 972
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.51 £14.76
25th Percentile £16.11 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £27.85 £25.08 £33.52
Median % change year-on-year +11.07% -25.19% +21.89%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.74 £21.39 £32.50
% change year-on-year +29.69% -34.18% +25.00%

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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 October 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 +14 524 £525 +10.53% 777
UK excluding London +15 286 £525 +16.67% 512
London -20 235 £525 +10.53% 298
Work from Home -25 179 £500 +5.26% 336
Midlands +24 78 £500 +25.00% 93
South East -22 74 £613 +53.13% 135
North of England -42 60 £383 -15.00% 137
West Midlands +8 59 £500 -16.67% 64
South West -43 34 £625 +56.25% 62
Yorkshire -16 30 £550 +41.94% 52
East of England -2 29 £370 -26.00% 47
North West -31 29 £320 -28.89% 67
East Midlands -5 18 £500 +73.91% 29
Scotland -21 10 £600 +20.00% 21
Wales -9 4 £425 - 24
North East -39 1 - - 19

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 29 (4.94%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.36%) CMS
2 8 (1.36%) Oracle Workflow
3 7 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (0.85%) Confluence
5 3 (0.51%) Drupal
5 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.51%) WordPress
6 2 (0.34%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.34%) OpenEdge
7 1 (0.17%) Apache
7 1 (0.17%) govService
7 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 33 (5.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (2.56%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.70%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (1.53%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.34%) Trello
7 1 (0.17%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 17 (2.90%) NEC Housing
2 15 (2.56%) Oracle Receivables
3 13 (2.21%) ContrOCC
4 12 (2.04%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (2.04%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 11 (1.87%) Oracle General Ledger
6 7 (1.19%) Dynamics CRM
6 7 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
7 5 (0.85%) iTrent
8 4 (0.68%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.51%) SystmOne
9 3 (0.51%) Unit4 Business World
10 2 (0.34%) MIS ActiveH
10 2 (0.34%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.34%) SAP FI
10 2 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
10 2 (0.34%) SAP Payroll
10 2 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 1 (0.17%) Orchard Housing
11 1 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 62 (10.56%) Azure
2 50 (8.52%) Power Platform
3 32 (5.45%) AWS
4 21 (3.58%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (2.90%) GCP
6 16 (2.73%) Entra ID
6 16 (2.73%) SaaS
7 14 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (2.21%) GitHub
9 12 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
10 11 (1.87%) Miro
11 9 (1.53%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (1.53%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.36%) Lucidchart
12 8 (1.36%) Power Automate
12 8 (1.36%) PowerApps
13 7 (1.19%) Azure Key Vault
13 7 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
14 6 (1.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 6 (1.02%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.73%) Firewall
2 11 (1.87%) DNS
3 8 (1.36%) Network Security
4 6 (1.02%) VPN
5 5 (0.85%) DHCP
5 5 (0.85%) LAN
5 5 (0.85%) WAN
6 4 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.51%) Broadband
7 3 (0.51%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.34%) Intranet
8 2 (0.34%) PSTN
8 2 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (0.34%) VSAN
9 1 (0.17%) SSL
9 1 (0.17%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (8.01%) Power BI
2 8 (1.36%) Metadata
2 8 (1.36%) Oracle Reports
2 8 (1.36%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.19%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.02%) BusinessObjects
4 6 (1.02%) NoSQL
4 6 (1.02%) Power Query
5 5 (0.85%) GIS
5 5 (0.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.51%) Apache Hudi
7 3 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.34%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (0.34%) Crystal Reports
8 2 (0.34%) Presto
8 2 (0.34%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.34%) Spatial Data
8 2 (0.34%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (1.87%) Jenkins
2 10 (1.70%) JIRA
3 4 (0.68%) GitLab
4 3 (0.51%) Cypress.io
4 3 (0.51%) Git
5 2 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.34%) Mocha
5 2 (0.34%) MSI
6 1 (0.17%) Capybara
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
6 1 (0.17%) Postman
6 1 (0.17%) RSpec
6 1 (0.17%) Selenium
General
1 271 (46.17%) Public Sector
2 194 (33.05%) Social Skills
3 152 (25.89%) Finance
4 109 (18.57%) Analytical Skills
5 47 (8.01%) Organisational Skills
6 27 (4.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 24 (4.09%) Influencing Skills
7 24 (4.09%) Legal
8 20 (3.41%) Social Housing
9 12 (2.04%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.87%) Police
11 9 (1.53%) Back Office
12 8 (1.36%) Fire and Rescue
12 8 (1.36%) Retail
13 7 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
13 7 (1.19%) Publishing
14 5 (0.85%) Banking
15 4 (0.68%) General Ledger
15 4 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
16 3 (0.51%) Billing
Job Titles
1 80 (13.63%) Senior
2 75 (12.78%) Analyst
3 73 (12.44%) Lead
4 39 (6.64%) Architect
5 38 (6.47%) Business Analyst
6 33 (5.62%) Consultant
7 31 (5.28%) Developer
8 30 (5.11%) Support Officer
9 29 (4.94%) Project Manager
10 22 (3.75%) Senior Analyst
11 17 (2.90%) Transformation Manager
12 16 (2.73%) Administrator
12 16 (2.73%) Applications Support
13 15 (2.56%) Designer
13 15 (2.56%) Team Leader
14 14 (2.39%) Finance Manager
15 13 (2.21%) Data Analyst
16 12 (2.04%) Information Officer
17 11 (1.87%) Senior Business Analyst
18 10 (1.70%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.28%) Oracle Fusion
2 17 (2.90%) Terraform
3 15 (2.56%) RESTful
4 6 (1.02%) .NET
4 6 (1.02%) SAP Fiori
5 5 (0.85%) HTML
5 5 (0.85%) Play Framework
6 4 (0.68%) ASP.NET
6 4 (0.68%) REST
7 3 (0.51%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.51%) ASP.NET Core
7 3 (0.51%) CSS
8 2 (0.34%) Chai
8 2 (0.34%) Express.js
8 2 (0.34%) FHIR
8 2 (0.34%) Jest
8 2 (0.34%) JWT
8 2 (0.34%) Node.js
8 2 (0.34%) Nunjucks
8 2 (0.34%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.67%) Management Information System
2 26 (4.43%) Analytical Mindset
3 22 (3.75%) Freedom of Information
4 18 (3.07%) NHS
5 17 (2.90%) Product Ownership
6 14 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (2.21%) Onboarding
8 11 (1.87%) Cloud Native
8 11 (1.87%) Housing Association
9 6 (1.02%) Manufacturing Execution System
10 5 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (0.85%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
11 4 (0.68%) Security Posture
12 3 (0.51%) Cyberattack
12 3 (0.51%) e-Learning
12 3 (0.51%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.51%) SystemC
13 2 (0.34%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 18 (3.07%) Windows
2 8 (1.36%) Windows 10
3 5 (0.85%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.51%) Linux
5 2 (0.34%) Unix
6 1 (0.17%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.17%) VMS
6 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 132 (22.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 120 (20.44%) Agile
3 114 (19.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 90 (15.33%) Decision-Making
5 88 (14.99%) Continuous Improvement
6 63 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
7 62 (10.56%) Migration
7 62 (10.56%) Service Delivery
8 53 (9.03%) Business Analysis
9 51 (8.69%) Business Intelligence
10 47 (8.01%) Validation
11 45 (7.67%) Data Protection
11 45 (7.67%) Project Delivery
11 45 (7.67%) Roadmaps
12 44 (7.50%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 43 (7.33%) AI
13 43 (7.33%) DevOps
14 40 (6.81%) Collaborative Working
14 40 (6.81%) Customer Service
15 39 (6.64%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 49 (8.35%) SQL
2 15 (2.56%) Python
3 12 (2.04%) JavaScript
4 9 (1.53%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 7 (1.19%) Java
7 6 (1.02%) C#
8 5 (0.85%) Scala
9 4 (0.68%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.51%) ABAP
10 3 (0.51%) Bicep
10 3 (0.51%) Go
11 2 (0.34%) Ruby
11 2 (0.34%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.17%) Groovy
12 1 (0.17%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.17%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.17%) Swift
12 1 (0.17%) VB
12 1 (0.17%) VBA
Qualifications
1 58 (9.88%) Security Cleared
2 51 (8.69%) SC Cleared
3 29 (4.94%) Degree
4 16 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (1.53%) DV Cleared
6 7 (1.19%) DBS Check
7 6 (1.02%) CCAB
7 6 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (0.85%) Azure Certification
8 5 (0.85%) CISSP
8 5 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.68%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.68%) CCNP
10 3 (0.51%) CCNA
10 3 (0.51%) CIMA
10 3 (0.51%) CIPFA
10 3 (0.51%) CISM
11 2 (0.34%) CIPD
11 2 (0.34%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (9.71%) Data Quality
2 47 (8.01%) GDPR
3 31 (5.28%) Accessibility
4 29 (4.94%) PMO
5 19 (3.24%) QA
6 15 (2.56%) NCSC
7 12 (2.04%) SLA
8 11 (1.87%) WCAG
9 10 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 7 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.68%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.68%) IFRS
11 4 (0.68%) NIST
12 2 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.34%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.17%) GRC
System Software
1 15 (2.56%) Docker
2 12 (2.04%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.34%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.17%) Firmware
4 1 (0.17%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 14 (2.39%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.19%) Grafana
2 7 (1.19%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (1.02%) Kibana
4 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.34%) VxRail
5 1 (0.17%) Ansible
5 1 (0.17%) Argo
5 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.17%) SCCM
Vendors
1 92 (15.67%) Microsoft
2 42 (7.16%) Oracle
3 24 (4.09%) SAP
4 20 (3.41%) Liquidlogic
5 18 (3.07%) Google
5 18 (3.07%) NEC
6 14 (2.39%) ServiceNow
7 11 (1.87%) Civica
8 9 (1.53%) Northgate
9 7 (1.19%) Databricks
10 6 (1.02%) Palo Alto
11 5 (0.85%) Orchard
12 4 (0.68%) Cisco
12 4 (0.68%) Splunk
13 3 (0.51%) Infoblox
13 3 (0.51%) Juniper
13 3 (0.51%) Kronos
13 3 (0.51%) Sitecore
13 3 (0.51%) VMware
14 2 (0.34%) F5