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

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 261 239
Rank change year-on-year -3 -22 +122
Contract jobs citing Local Government 487 336 437
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.04% 1.02%
As % of the General category 1.68% 1.64% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 225 296
10th Percentile £325 £279 £325
25th Percentile £406 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +13.11% -5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £575
90th Percentile £700 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £409 £475
% change year-on-year +22.25% -13.89% +7.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 51 57
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.21 £15.39
25th Percentile £18.04 £20.45 £18.35
Median hourly rate £21.49 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.90% +16.00% +11.56%
75th Percentile £26.90 £34.74 £33.07
90th Percentile £32.30 £57.50 £47.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.62 £20.83 £24.63
% change year-on-year -1.03% -15.42% +10.64%

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 29,012 20,465 24,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.85% 63.06% 57.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,395 12,853 15,377
10th Percentile £313 £281 £277
25th Percentile £413 £402 £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 £472 £490
% change year-on-year +5.88% -3.62% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,002 1,036 1,895
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.36 £12.88
25th Percentile £18.38 £16.30 £15.95
Median hourly rate £32.50 £27.17 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.63% -16.41% +6.42%
75th Percentile £61.18 £53.56 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £71.88 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £31.89
% change year-on-year +41.30% -27.87% +22.63%

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 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 11 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 11 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 -8 470 £509 +13.11% 213
UK excluding London -14 259 £500 +22.25% 174
London -25 208 £520 +9.53% 62
Work from Home -17 170 £525 +17.10% 105
Midlands +34 116 £525 +14.13% 25
West Midlands +8 79 £525 +13.51% 13
South East -48 42 £637 +41.56% 55
North of England -71 41 £494 +12.86% 54
East Midlands +6 33 £500 +8.70% 12
South West -48 28 £500 +26.58% 12
East of England -10 25 £370 -25.93% 14
North West -43 21 £390 -8.24% 27
Yorkshire -53 20 £550 +41.94% 20
Scotland -7 4 £198 -50.63% 8
Wales -13 3 £425 - 9

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 (4.93%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.64%) Oracle Workflow
3 5 (1.03%) CMS
4 4 (0.82%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.62%) Drupal
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 20 (4.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.23%) Spreadsheet
3 4 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.62%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.41%) Trello
Business Applications
1 27 (5.54%) 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 3 (0.62%) SAP CO
9 3 (0.62%) SAP FI
9 3 (0.62%) SAP FI/CO
10 1 (0.21%) MIS ActiveH
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 30 (6.16%) Power Platform
3 28 (5.75%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (3.90%) AWS
5 17 (3.49%) SaaS
6 14 (2.87%) Dynamics 365
7 13 (2.67%) Entra ID
8 9 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (1.64%) GCP
10 6 (1.23%) Power Automate
10 6 (1.23%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.03%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (1.03%) Microsoft Copilot
12 4 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (0.82%) GitHub
12 4 (0.82%) OCI
12 4 (0.82%) SuccessFactors
13 3 (0.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 3 (0.62%) OneDrive
13 3 (0.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.87%) Firewall
2 10 (2.05%) DNS
3 8 (1.64%) DHCP
4 6 (1.23%) Network Security
5 5 (1.03%) Broadband
6 4 (0.82%) VPN
6 4 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.62%) LAN
7 3 (0.62%) WAN
8 2 (0.41%) Intranet
8 2 (0.41%) PSTN
9 1 (0.21%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.21%) Unified Communications
9 1 (0.21%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (5.34%) Power BI
2 25 (5.13%) Oracle Reports
3 7 (1.44%) SQL Server
4 6 (1.23%) GIS
5 4 (0.82%) BusinessObjects
5 4 (0.82%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (0.62%) Star Schema
7 2 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
7 2 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.41%) Apache Hudi
7 2 (0.41%) Big Data
7 2 (0.41%) Crystal Reports
7 2 (0.41%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.41%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.41%) Power Query
7 2 (0.41%) Presto
7 2 (0.41%) Spatial Data
8 1 (0.21%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 7 (1.44%) JIRA
2 3 (0.62%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.21%) Git
3 1 (0.21%) JUnit
3 1 (0.21%) Oracle APEX
General
1 220 (45.17%) Public Sector
2 166 (34.09%) Finance
3 128 (26.28%) Social Skills
4 49 (10.06%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (4.93%) Legal
6 21 (4.31%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (3.29%) Social Housing
8 12 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (2.05%) Police
10 9 (1.85%) Retail
11 8 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.23%) Fire and Rescue
12 6 (1.23%) Manufacturing
13 5 (1.03%) Banking
14 4 (0.82%) General Ledger
15 3 (0.62%) Publishing
16 2 (0.41%) Back Office
16 2 (0.41%) Law
16 2 (0.41%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 66 (13.55%) Analyst
2 60 (12.32%) Lead
3 59 (12.11%) Senior
4 32 (6.57%) Accountant
5 31 (6.37%) Business Analyst
6 30 (6.16%) Systems Accountant
7 28 (5.75%) Developer
8 22 (4.52%) Architect
8 22 (4.52%) Consultant
9 21 (4.31%) Project Manager
10 19 (3.90%) Finance Manager
11 18 (3.70%) Support Officer
12 14 (2.87%) Finance Systems Manager
12 14 (2.87%) Senior Analyst
13 13 (2.67%) Applications Support
13 13 (2.67%) Solutions Architect
14 11 (2.26%) Data Analyst
14 11 (2.26%) Systems Analyst
14 11 (2.26%) Team Leader
14 11 (2.26%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (10.06%) Oracle Fusion
2 5 (1.03%) Middleware
2 5 (1.03%) RESTful
2 5 (1.03%) SAP Fiori
3 4 (0.82%) CSS
3 4 (0.82%) HTML
3 4 (0.82%) REST
4 2 (0.41%) .NET
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
5 1 (0.21%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.21%) FHIR
5 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.21%) PySpark
5 1 (0.21%) SAP MI
5 1 (0.21%) Web Services
5 1 (0.21%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (6.57%) Management Information System
2 21 (4.31%) Public Cloud
3 16 (3.29%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (2.67%) NHS
5 12 (2.46%) Data Structures
5 12 (2.46%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.05%) Freedom of Information
6 10 (2.05%) Onboarding
7 9 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (1.85%) Housing Association
8 6 (1.23%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.03%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.03%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.82%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
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 16 (3.29%) Windows
2 5 (1.03%) Linux
2 5 (1.03%) Windows 10
2 5 (1.03%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.41%) Unix
4 1 (0.21%) Android
4 1 (0.21%) VMS
4 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (20.94%) Stakeholder Management
2 82 (16.84%) Continuous Improvement
3 79 (16.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 62 (12.73%) Agile
4 62 (12.73%) Service Delivery
5 58 (11.91%) ERP
5 58 (11.91%) Migration
6 51 (10.47%) Decision-Making
7 48 (9.86%) Problem-Solving
8 40 (8.21%) Project Delivery
9 39 (8.01%) Change Management
10 35 (7.19%) Digital Transformation Programme
10 35 (7.19%) Roadmaps
10 35 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
11 34 (6.98%) Data Protection
12 31 (6.37%) Collaborative Working
12 31 (6.37%) Data Migration
12 31 (6.37%) Validation
13 30 (6.16%) Analytics
14 28 (5.75%) Case Management
Programming Languages
1 29 (5.95%) 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 14 (2.87%) Degree
5 13 (2.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (1.23%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.03%) CCNP
7 5 (1.03%) CIPFA
7 5 (1.03%) CISSP
7 5 (1.03%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (0.82%) CCNA
8 4 (0.82%) NVQ Level 3
9 3 (0.62%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.62%) CISM
9 3 (0.62%) SAP Certification
10 2 (0.41%) AAT
10 2 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.41%) CTC Cleared
10 2 (0.41%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.95%) Data Quality
2 26 (5.34%) GDPR
3 19 (3.90%) PMO
4 13 (2.67%) Accessibility
4 13 (2.67%) SLA
5 9 (1.85%) QA
6 8 (1.64%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.44%) NCSC
8 6 (1.23%) PCI DSS
8 6 (1.23%) WCAG
9 5 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.82%) IFRS
11 3 (0.62%) NIST
11 3 (0.62%) PERC
12 2 (0.41%) GRC
13 1 (0.21%) BS7666
13 1 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 12 (2.46%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.23%) Docker
3 3 (0.62%) Hyper-V
3 3 (0.62%) 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 74 (15.20%) Microsoft
2 63 (12.94%) Oracle
3 47 (9.65%) SAP
4 19 (3.90%) NEC
5 16 (3.29%) Liquidlogic
6 10 (2.05%) Civica
6 10 (2.05%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.23%) Google
8 5 (1.03%) Ariba
8 5 (1.03%) Cisco
8 5 (1.03%) Palo Alto
9 4 (0.82%) Infoblox
9 4 (0.82%) Orchard
9 4 (0.82%) VMware
10 3 (0.62%) Juniper
10 3 (0.62%) Kronos
10 3 (0.62%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.62%) Sitecore
10 3 (0.62%) Splunk
11 2 (0.41%) Northgate