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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 258 256 236
Rank change year-on-year -2 -20 +115
Contract jobs citing Local Government 520 346 406
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.98% 1.05% 1.03%
As % of the General category 1.77% 1.67% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 378 219 279
10th Percentile £350 £260 £313
25th Percentile £413 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £455 £475
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -4.21% +5.56%
75th Percentile £638 £550 £550
90th Percentile £738 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +23.53% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 57 38
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.21 £18.35
25th Percentile £17.57 £20.45 £21.56
Median hourly rate £21.01 £29.07 £26.68
Median % change year-on-year -27.73% +8.96% +17.30%
75th Percentile £25.84 £35.00 £33.05
90th Percentile £32.20 £57.50 £41.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.62 £20.83 £25.18
% change year-on-year -1.03% -17.28% +22.83%

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 29,343 20,776 22,576
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.04% 63.17% 57.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,454 12,989 14,241
10th Percentile £313 £280 £286
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,143 1,108 1,460
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.25 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.92 £16.13 £16.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -32.93% +25.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £51.10 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.05 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +49.05% -41.92% +46.62%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -9 491 £525 +16.67% 279
UK excluding London +3 270 £525 +23.53% 227
London -26 219 £525 +10.53% 99
Work from Home -13 169 £525 +17.10% 156
Midlands +30 98 £525 +31.25% 39
West Midlands +6 73 £525 +31.25% 21
South East -39 55 £625 +56.25% 61
North of England -59 52 £513 +13.89% 61
South West -46 33 £550 +37.50% 28
North West -37 27 £390 -13.33% 42
Yorkshire -39 25 £531 +18.06% 17
East of England -1 24 £370 -25.93% 15
East Midlands +1 22 £500 +25.00% 18
Scotland -10 8 £650 +30.00% 8
Wales -9 3 £425 - 18

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 22 (4.23%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.54%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.15%) CMS
4 4 (0.77%) Drupal
4 4 (0.77%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.58%) WordPress
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.38%) Confluence
6 2 (0.38%) govService
6 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.19%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 20 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.15%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.38%) Trello
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (3.85%) Oracle Receivables
2 19 (3.65%) NEC Housing
2 19 (3.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 17 (3.27%) ContrOCC
3 17 (3.27%) Oracle Payables
3 17 (3.27%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 16 (3.08%) Oracle General Ledger
5 6 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
5 6 (1.15%) iTrent
6 4 (0.77%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.77%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.38%) MIS ActiveH
7 2 (0.38%) SAP CO
7 2 (0.38%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.38%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.19%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
8 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 49 (9.42%) Azure
2 32 (6.15%) Power Platform
3 31 (5.96%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (3.65%) AWS
5 18 (3.46%) SaaS
6 16 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
7 14 (2.69%) Entra ID
8 13 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (1.73%) GCP
10 7 (1.35%) Power Automate
10 7 (1.35%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.15%) GitHub
12 5 (0.96%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (0.96%) Microsoft Copilot
12 5 (0.96%) OCI
13 4 (0.77%) Azure Key Vault
13 4 (0.77%) Azure Sentinel
13 4 (0.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 4 (0.77%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 20 (3.85%) Firewall
2 12 (2.31%) DNS
3 8 (1.54%) DHCP
3 8 (1.54%) LAN
3 8 (1.54%) WAN
4 6 (1.15%) Network Security
5 5 (0.96%) Broadband
5 5 (0.96%) VPN
5 5 (0.96%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.38%) Intranet
6 2 (0.38%) PSTN
7 1 (0.19%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.19%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (5.38%) Power BI
2 23 (4.42%) Oracle Reports
3 9 (1.73%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.35%) GIS
5 5 (0.96%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.77%) BusinessObjects
6 4 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.58%) Power Query
7 3 (0.58%) Star Schema
8 2 (0.38%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.38%) Apache Hudi
8 2 (0.38%) Big Data
8 2 (0.38%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.38%) Presto
8 2 (0.38%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.38%) Spatial Data
8 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 8 (1.54%) JIRA
2 4 (0.77%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.38%) Git
4 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.19%) Capybara
4 1 (0.19%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.19%) GitLab
4 1 (0.19%) JUnit
4 1 (0.19%) Mocha
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
4 1 (0.19%) RSpec
General
1 232 (44.62%) Public Sector
2 162 (31.15%) Finance
3 139 (26.73%) Social Skills
4 63 (12.12%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (5.00%) Organisational Skills
6 23 (4.42%) Legal
7 17 (3.27%) Social Housing
8 14 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.73%) Manufacturing
9 9 (1.73%) Retail
10 8 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.35%) Police
12 5 (0.96%) Banking
12 5 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.77%) General Ledger
13 4 (0.77%) Publishing
14 3 (0.58%) Fire and Rescue
14 3 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.38%) Back Office
15 2 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 71 (13.65%) Analyst
2 64 (12.31%) Senior
3 62 (11.92%) Lead
4 38 (7.31%) Developer
5 37 (7.12%) Business Analyst
6 31 (5.96%) Architect
7 26 (5.00%) Project Manager
8 24 (4.62%) Accountant
8 24 (4.62%) Consultant
9 22 (4.23%) Systems Accountant
10 19 (3.65%) Finance Manager
10 19 (3.65%) Senior Analyst
11 17 (3.27%) Support Officer
12 15 (2.88%) Transformation Manager
13 14 (2.69%) Finance Systems Manager
13 14 (2.69%) Solutions Architect
14 13 (2.50%) Applications Support
15 12 (2.31%) Data Manager
15 12 (2.31%) Tester
16 11 (2.12%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (9.23%) Oracle Fusion
2 7 (1.35%) RESTful
3 5 (0.96%) .NET
3 5 (0.96%) CSS
3 5 (0.96%) HTML
3 5 (0.96%) REST
3 5 (0.96%) SAP Fiori
4 4 (0.77%) Middleware
5 3 (0.58%) ASP.NET
5 3 (0.58%) ASP.NET Core
6 2 (0.38%) ARM Templates
6 2 (0.38%) FHIR
6 2 (0.38%) JSON
6 2 (0.38%) Play Framework
6 2 (0.38%) SOAP
6 2 (0.38%) Spring
6 2 (0.38%) Spring Boot
6 2 (0.38%) Web Services
7 1 (0.19%) OAuth
7 1 (0.19%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 32 (6.15%) Management Information System
2 17 (3.27%) NHS
3 16 (3.08%) Legacy Systems
4 14 (2.69%) Freedom of Information
4 14 (2.69%) Product Ownership
4 14 (2.69%) Public Cloud
5 11 (2.12%) Housing Association
5 11 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 10 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
6 10 (1.92%) Data Structures
7 9 (1.73%) Cloud Native
8 8 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.77%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.77%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.58%) Cyber Security Posture
11 3 (0.58%) Cyberattack
11 3 (0.58%) Manufacturing Execution System
12 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 12 (2.31%) Windows
2 5 (0.96%) Windows 10
2 5 (0.96%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.38%) Linux
3 2 (0.38%) Unix
3 2 (0.38%) VMS
4 1 (0.19%) Android
4 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (20.58%) Stakeholder Management
2 90 (17.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 84 (16.15%) Continuous Improvement
4 73 (14.04%) Agile
5 69 (13.27%) Service Delivery
6 57 (10.96%) Decision-Making
7 53 (10.19%) ERP
7 53 (10.19%) Migration
8 48 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
9 42 (8.08%) Project Delivery
10 41 (7.88%) Roadmaps
11 36 (6.92%) Change Management
11 36 (6.92%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 35 (6.73%) Data Protection
12 35 (6.73%) Validation
13 34 (6.54%) Case Management
14 33 (6.35%) Collaborative Working
14 33 (6.35%) Cybersecurity
15 31 (5.96%) Data Migration
16 30 (5.77%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 34 (6.54%) SQL
2 8 (1.54%) Java
2 8 (1.54%) JavaScript
3 7 (1.35%) Python
4 5 (0.96%) PowerShell
5 4 (0.77%) C#
5 4 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (0.58%) ABAP
6 3 (0.58%) TypeScript
7 2 (0.38%) Bicep
7 2 (0.38%) Go
7 2 (0.38%) Scala
7 2 (0.38%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
8 1 (0.19%) Groovy
8 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.19%) Ruby
8 1 (0.19%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 33 (6.35%) Security Cleared
2 27 (5.19%) SC Cleared
3 16 (3.08%) DBS Check
4 15 (2.88%) Degree
5 13 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.54%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.96%) CCNP
8 5 (0.96%) CISSP
9 4 (0.77%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.77%) CCNA
9 4 (0.77%) CIPFA
9 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.58%) CISM
11 2 (0.38%) CIMA
11 2 (0.38%) CIPD
11 2 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (0.38%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.38%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (6.15%) Data Quality
2 28 (5.38%) GDPR
3 22 (4.23%) PMO
4 20 (3.85%) Accessibility
5 14 (2.69%) SLA
6 11 (2.12%) QA
7 8 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (1.54%) NCSC
8 7 (1.35%) WCAG
9 6 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.15%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.77%) IFRS
11 3 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.58%) NIST
11 3 (0.58%) PERC
12 2 (0.38%) GRC
13 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.19%) P3O
System Software
1 14 (2.69%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.73%) Docker
3 1 (0.19%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 11 (2.12%) Kubernetes
1 11 (2.12%) Terraform
2 2 (0.38%) Grafana
2 2 (0.38%) Kibana
2 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.38%) SCCM
3 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 86 (16.54%) Microsoft
2 64 (12.31%) Oracle
3 37 (7.12%) SAP
4 20 (3.85%) NEC
5 15 (2.88%) Liquidlogic
6 14 (2.69%) ServiceNow
7 10 (1.92%) Civica
8 7 (1.35%) Google
9 5 (0.96%) Ariba
9 5 (0.96%) Cisco
9 5 (0.96%) Palo Alto
10 4 (0.77%) Databricks
10 4 (0.77%) Infoblox
10 4 (0.77%) Orchard
11 3 (0.58%) Juniper
11 3 (0.58%) Kronos
11 3 (0.58%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.58%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.58%) Splunk
12 2 (0.38%) Northgate
331 Local Government jobs Nationwide