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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 253 247 200
Rank change year-on-year -6 -47 +126
Contract jobs citing Local Government 582 342 458
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.03% 1.21%
As % of the General category 1.90% 1.63% 2.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 226 243
10th Percentile £310 £259 £300
25th Percentile £400 £393 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £606 £568 £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 64 34
10th Percentile £14.35 £20.71 £20.43
25th Percentile £16.66 £29.00 £23.42
Median hourly rate £20.76 £34.00 £29.48
Median % change year-on-year -38.96% +15.33% +34.00%
75th Percentile £28.17 £57.50 £33.89
90th Percentile £32.00 £58.75 £51.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.51 £25.11 £26.68
% change year-on-year -18.32% -5.88% +32.93%

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 30,700 21,001 22,220
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.19% 63.28% 58.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,860 13,046 13,160
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
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 £744 £738 £770
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,691 1,238 993
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.51 £14.78
25th Percentile £16.21 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £25.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.67% -28.36% +27.27%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £21.39 £33.00
% change year-on-year +31.32% -35.18% +23.23%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +14 520 £525 +10.53% 798
UK excluding London +13 284 £525 +16.67% 577
London -28 233 £525 +10.53% 303
Work from Home -33 179 £500 +5.26% 423
Midlands +24 79 £500 +25.00% 97
South East -17 74 £613 +53.13% 150
West Midlands +11 59 £500 -16.67% 63
North of England -42 58 £358 -20.56% 133
South West -33 34 £625 +56.25% 68
East of England +2 29 £370 -26.00% 46
Yorkshire -23 29 £550 +41.94% 47
North West -36 28 £300 -33.33% 66
East Midlands +4 19 £500 +73.91% 34
Scotland -24 9 £650 +30.00% 47
Wales -11 4 £425 - 35
North East -39 1 - - 22

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 (4.98%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.37%) Oracle Workflow
3 7 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.03%) CMS
5 5 (0.86%) Confluence
6 3 (0.52%) Drupal
6 3 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.52%) OpenEdge
6 3 (0.52%) WordPress
7 2 (0.34%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.17%) Apache
8 1 (0.17%) govService
8 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 33 (5.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.72%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (1.55%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.34%) Trello
7 1 (0.17%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 16 (2.75%) NEC Housing
1 16 (2.75%) Oracle Receivables
2 14 (2.41%) ContrOCC
3 13 (2.23%) Oracle Payables
3 13 (2.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 12 (2.06%) Oracle General Ledger
5 7 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
5 7 (1.20%) SAP S/4HANA
6 5 (0.86%) iTrent
7 4 (0.69%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.52%) Unit4 Business World
9 2 (0.34%) MIS ActiveH
9 2 (0.34%) SAP CO
9 2 (0.34%) SAP FI
9 2 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
9 2 (0.34%) SAP Payroll
9 2 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.34%) SystmOne
10 1 (0.17%) Orchard Housing
10 1 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 61 (10.48%) Azure
2 51 (8.76%) Power Platform
3 31 (5.33%) AWS
4 21 (3.61%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (2.92%) GCP
6 16 (2.75%) Entra ID
6 16 (2.75%) SaaS
7 13 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
7 13 (2.23%) GitHub
8 11 (1.89%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (1.89%) Miro
9 9 (1.55%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (1.55%) Google Workspace
10 8 (1.37%) Lucidchart
10 8 (1.37%) Power Automate
10 8 (1.37%) PowerApps
11 7 (1.20%) Azure Key Vault
11 7 (1.20%) Microsoft Purview
12 6 (1.03%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 6 (1.03%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.75%) Firewall
2 11 (1.89%) DNS
3 8 (1.37%) Network Security
4 6 (1.03%) VPN
5 5 (0.86%) DHCP
5 5 (0.86%) LAN
5 5 (0.86%) WAN
6 4 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.52%) Broadband
7 3 (0.52%) 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 48 (8.25%) Power BI
2 9 (1.55%) Oracle Reports
2 9 (1.55%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.37%) Metadata
4 7 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.03%) BusinessObjects
5 6 (1.03%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.03%) Power Query
6 5 (0.86%) GIS
6 5 (0.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.52%) Apache Hudi
8 3 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.34%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.34%) Crystal Reports
9 2 (0.34%) Presto
9 2 (0.34%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.34%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.34%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (1.89%) Jenkins
2 10 (1.72%) JIRA
3 4 (0.69%) GitLab
4 3 (0.52%) Git
5 2 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.34%) Cypress.io
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%) RSpec
General
1 268 (46.05%) Public Sector
2 193 (33.16%) Social Skills
3 152 (26.12%) Finance
4 110 (18.90%) Analytical Skills
5 47 (8.08%) Organisational Skills
6 27 (4.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 24 (4.12%) Legal
8 23 (3.95%) Influencing Skills
9 19 (3.26%) Social Housing
10 11 (1.89%) Police
11 9 (1.55%) Back Office
11 9 (1.55%) Manufacturing
12 8 (1.37%) Fire and Rescue
12 8 (1.37%) Retail
13 7 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
14 6 (1.03%) Publishing
15 5 (0.86%) Banking
16 4 (0.69%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
17 3 (0.52%) Law
Job Titles
1 80 (13.75%) Senior
2 78 (13.40%) Analyst
3 73 (12.54%) Lead
4 39 (6.70%) Architect
4 39 (6.70%) Business Analyst
5 31 (5.33%) Developer
6 30 (5.15%) Consultant
7 29 (4.98%) Support Officer
8 27 (4.64%) Project Manager
9 23 (3.95%) Senior Analyst
10 17 (2.92%) Transformation Manager
11 16 (2.75%) Administrator
12 15 (2.58%) Applications Support
12 15 (2.58%) Designer
12 15 (2.58%) Finance Manager
12 15 (2.58%) Team Leader
13 14 (2.41%) Data Analyst
14 12 (2.06%) Information Officer
15 11 (1.89%) Senior Business Analyst
16 10 (1.72%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.50%) Oracle Fusion
2 17 (2.92%) Terraform
3 15 (2.58%) RESTful
4 6 (1.03%) .NET
4 6 (1.03%) SAP Fiori
5 5 (0.86%) HTML
5 5 (0.86%) Play Framework
6 4 (0.69%) ASP.NET
6 4 (0.69%) REST
7 3 (0.52%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.52%) ASP.NET Core
7 3 (0.52%) 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%) JSON
8 2 (0.34%) Node.js
8 2 (0.34%) Nunjucks
8 2 (0.34%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.73%) Management Information System
2 26 (4.47%) Analytical Mindset
3 22 (3.78%) Freedom of Information
4 18 (3.09%) NHS
5 17 (2.92%) Product Ownership
6 13 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (2.23%) Onboarding
7 11 (1.89%) Cloud Native
8 10 (1.72%) Housing Association
9 5 (0.86%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.86%) Public Cloud
10 4 (0.69%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.69%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.52%) Cyberattack
11 3 (0.52%) e-Learning
11 3 (0.52%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 3 (0.52%) Mobile App
12 2 (0.34%) Data Protection Act
12 2 (0.34%) SystemC
Operating Systems
1 18 (3.09%) Windows
2 8 (1.37%) Windows 10
3 5 (0.86%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.52%) 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
1 128 (21.99%) Stakeholder Management
2 117 (20.10%) Agile
3 115 (19.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 88 (15.12%) Decision-Making
5 86 (14.78%) Continuous Improvement
6 64 (11.00%) Service Delivery
7 62 (10.65%) Problem-Solving
8 61 (10.48%) Migration
9 53 (9.11%) Business Analysis
10 52 (8.93%) Business Intelligence
11 46 (7.90%) Validation
12 45 (7.73%) Data Protection
13 44 (7.56%) Project Delivery
13 44 (7.56%) Roadmaps
14 43 (7.39%) AI
14 43 (7.39%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 42 (7.22%) DevOps
16 41 (7.04%) Collaborative Working
17 39 (6.70%) Customer Service
18 38 (6.53%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 50 (8.59%) SQL
2 14 (2.41%) Python
3 12 (2.06%) JavaScript
4 9 (1.55%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 7 (1.20%) Java
7 5 (0.86%) C#
7 5 (0.86%) Scala
8 4 (0.69%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.52%) ABAP
9 3 (0.52%) Bicep
9 3 (0.52%) Go
9 3 (0.52%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.17%) Bash
10 1 (0.17%) Groovy
10 1 (0.17%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.17%) R
10 1 (0.17%) Ruby
10 1 (0.17%) VB
10 1 (0.17%) VBA
Qualifications
1 56 (9.62%) Security Cleared
2 49 (8.42%) SC Cleared
3 29 (4.98%) Degree
4 13 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (1.55%) DV Cleared
6 8 (1.37%) DBS Check
7 6 (1.03%) CCAB
7 6 (1.03%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (0.86%) Azure Certification
8 5 (0.86%) CISSP
8 5 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.69%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.69%) CCNP
10 3 (0.52%) CCNA
10 3 (0.52%) CIMA
10 3 (0.52%) CIPFA
10 3 (0.52%) CISM
11 2 (0.34%) CCSP
11 2 (0.34%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (9.79%) Data Quality
2 47 (8.08%) GDPR
3 30 (5.15%) Accessibility
4 29 (4.98%) PMO
5 18 (3.09%) QA
6 15 (2.58%) NCSC
7 12 (2.06%) SLA
8 11 (1.89%) WCAG
9 10 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 7 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.69%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.69%) IFRS
11 4 (0.69%) 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%) JSP 440
System Software
1 15 (2.58%) Docker
2 12 (2.06%) 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 (2.41%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.20%) Grafana
2 7 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (1.03%) 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 (15.81%) Microsoft
2 43 (7.39%) Oracle
3 24 (4.12%) SAP
4 19 (3.26%) Liquidlogic
5 18 (3.09%) Google
6 17 (2.92%) NEC
7 14 (2.41%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.06%) Civica
9 9 (1.55%) Northgate
10 7 (1.20%) Databricks
11 6 (1.03%) Orchard
11 6 (1.03%) Palo Alto
12 4 (0.69%) Cisco
12 4 (0.69%) Splunk
13 3 (0.52%) Infoblox
13 3 (0.52%) Juniper
13 3 (0.52%) Kronos
13 3 (0.52%) Sitecore
13 3 (0.52%) VMware
14 2 (0.34%) F5
947 Local Government jobs Nationwide