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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 250 208
Rank change year-on-year -14 -42 +127
Contract jobs citing Local Government 553 344 450
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.02% 1.06% 1.18%
As % of the General category 1.83% 1.66% 2.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 397 227 248
10th Percentile £320 £250 £300
25th Percentile £406 £381 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £614 £572 £538
90th Percentile £738 £660 £626
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 62 31
10th Percentile £14.82 £21.10 £21.00
25th Percentile £16.70 £29.00 £23.50
Median hourly rate £20.62 £33.45 £26.68
Median % change year-on-year -38.36% +25.36% +19.67%
75th Percentile £27.74 £57.50 £33.84
90th Percentile £32.00 £58.75 £54.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.51 £29.00 £25.18
% change year-on-year -29.28% +15.17% +25.46%

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 30,249 20,664 22,066
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.59% 63.67% 57.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,774 12,794 13,287
10th Percentile £313 £275 £288
25th Percentile £419 £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 £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,472 1,190 1,117
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.72
25th Percentile £16.38 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £37.28
Median % change year-on-year +19.28% -32.54% +35.56%
75th Percentile £54.06 £48.74 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.25 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.39 £37.28
% change year-on-year +40.25% -42.62% +43.38%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 -5 504 £525 +13.51% 684
UK excluding London +14 281 £525 +16.67% 407
London -40 218 £525 +10.53% 324
Work from Home -28 174 £517 +10.41% 325
Midlands +30 85 £525 +31.25% 73
South East -30 65 £637 +59.25% 92
West Midlands +9 63 £525 +31.25% 52
North of England -50 55 £390 -13.33% 115
South West -48 36 £638 +57.41% 48
East of England -5 31 £370 +23.33% 39
Yorkshire -16 28 £494 +27.42% 33
North West -41 26 £383 -15.00% 62
East Midlands +3 20 £500 +73.91% 21
Scotland -14 9 £650 +30.00% 27
Wales -11 3 £425 - 11
North East -38 1 - - 21

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 26 (4.70%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.45%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.08%) CMS
4 4 (0.72%) Confluence
4 4 (0.72%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.54%) Drupal
5 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.54%) WordPress
6 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.18%) Apache
7 1 (0.18%) govService
7 1 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 27 (4.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.81%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (1.63%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.36%) Trello
7 1 (0.18%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 19 (3.44%) Oracle Receivables
2 16 (2.89%) ContrOCC
2 16 (2.89%) Oracle Payables
2 16 (2.89%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 15 (2.71%) NEC Housing
3 15 (2.71%) Oracle General Ledger
4 8 (1.45%) SAP S/4HANA
5 7 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.90%) iTrent
7 4 (0.72%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.36%) MIS ActiveH
8 2 (0.36%) SAP CO
8 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
8 2 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
8 2 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 1 (0.18%) OPENHousing
9 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.18%) Orchard Housing
9 1 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.18%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 57 (10.31%) Azure
2 46 (8.32%) Power Platform
3 23 (4.16%) AWS
3 23 (4.16%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.25%) SaaS
5 16 (2.89%) Entra ID
6 13 (2.35%) GCP
7 12 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (1.81%) GitHub
8 10 (1.81%) Miro
9 8 (1.45%) PowerApps
10 7 (1.27%) OCI
10 7 (1.27%) Power Automate
11 6 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
11 6 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
12 5 (0.90%) Azure Key Vault
12 5 (0.90%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (0.90%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (0.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.07%) Firewall
2 10 (1.81%) DNS
3 6 (1.08%) DHCP
3 6 (1.08%) LAN
3 6 (1.08%) Network Security
3 6 (1.08%) WAN
4 5 (0.90%) VPN
5 4 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.54%) Broadband
7 2 (0.36%) Intranet
7 2 (0.36%) PSTN
7 2 (0.36%) VSAN
8 1 (0.18%) SSL
8 1 (0.18%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.18%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (7.78%) Power BI
2 14 (2.53%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (1.45%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.27%) Metadata
5 6 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.08%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.08%) Power Query
6 5 (0.90%) GIS
6 5 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (0.72%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.36%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.36%) Apache Hudi
9 2 (0.36%) Big Data
9 2 (0.36%) Presto
9 2 (0.36%) Redis
9 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.36%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 8 (1.45%) JIRA
2 6 (1.08%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.54%) Git
3 3 (0.54%) GitLab
4 2 (0.36%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.36%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.36%) Mocha
5 1 (0.18%) Capybara
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle APEX
5 1 (0.18%) RSpec
General
1 250 (45.21%) Public Sector
2 167 (30.20%) Social Skills
3 150 (27.12%) Finance
4 87 (15.73%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (7.78%) Organisational Skills
6 25 (4.52%) Influencing Skills
7 23 (4.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 22 (3.98%) Legal
9 20 (3.62%) Social Housing
10 10 (1.81%) Police
11 9 (1.63%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.63%) Retail
12 8 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
13 6 (1.08%) Fire and Rescue
14 5 (0.90%) Back Office
14 5 (0.90%) Banking
15 4 (0.72%) General Ledger
15 4 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.72%) Publishing
16 3 (0.54%) Law
Job Titles
1 75 (13.56%) Analyst
2 71 (12.84%) Lead
3 70 (12.66%) Senior
4 38 (6.87%) Business Analyst
5 35 (6.33%) Architect
6 30 (5.42%) Developer
7 28 (5.06%) Consultant
8 26 (4.70%) Project Manager
9 24 (4.34%) Support Officer
10 22 (3.98%) Senior Analyst
11 18 (3.25%) Finance Manager
12 16 (2.89%) Transformation Manager
13 15 (2.71%) Data Analyst
14 14 (2.53%) Designer
14 14 (2.53%) Team Leader
15 13 (2.35%) Finance Systems Manager
16 12 (2.17%) Applications Support
17 11 (1.99%) Administrator
17 11 (1.99%) Information Officer
17 11 (1.99%) Systems Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (6.69%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (2.71%) Terraform
3 11 (1.99%) RESTful
4 5 (0.90%) .NET
4 5 (0.90%) HTML
4 5 (0.90%) REST
4 5 (0.90%) SAP Fiori
5 3 (0.54%) ARM Templates
5 3 (0.54%) ASP.NET
5 3 (0.54%) ASP.NET Core
5 3 (0.54%) CSS
6 2 (0.36%) Chai
6 2 (0.36%) Express.js
6 2 (0.36%) FHIR
6 2 (0.36%) Jest
6 2 (0.36%) JWT
6 2 (0.36%) Node.js
6 2 (0.36%) Nunjucks
6 2 (0.36%) Play Framework
6 2 (0.36%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (6.51%) Management Information System
2 20 (3.62%) Analytical Mindset
2 20 (3.62%) Freedom of Information
3 19 (3.44%) NHS
4 14 (2.53%) Onboarding
5 13 (2.35%) Product Ownership
6 12 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (1.81%) Cloud Native
7 10 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (1.63%) Housing Association
9 6 (1.08%) Public Cloud
10 5 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (0.90%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.72%) Distributed Systems
12 3 (0.54%) Cyber Security Posture
12 3 (0.54%) Cyber Threat
12 3 (0.54%) Cyberattack
12 3 (0.54%) Data Structures
12 3 (0.54%) Manufacturing Execution System
12 3 (0.54%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 13 (2.35%) Windows
2 6 (1.08%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.90%) Windows 10
4 3 (0.54%) Linux
5 2 (0.36%) Unix
6 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.18%) VMS
6 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (21.34%) Stakeholder Management
2 115 (20.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 100 (18.08%) Agile
4 85 (15.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 81 (14.65%) Decision-Making
6 66 (11.93%) Service Delivery
7 53 (9.58%) Migration
8 50 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (8.50%) Business Intelligence
10 44 (7.96%) Roadmaps
11 43 (7.78%) Business Analysis
12 42 (7.59%) Project Delivery
13 41 (7.41%) Validation
14 40 (7.23%) Collaborative Working
15 39 (7.05%) Data Protection
16 38 (6.87%) Case Management
16 38 (6.87%) ERP
17 36 (6.51%) DevOps
17 36 (6.51%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
18 35 (6.33%) Digital Transformation Programme
Programming Languages
1 42 (7.59%) SQL
2 11 (1.99%) JavaScript
3 10 (1.81%) Python
4 8 (1.45%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.27%) Java
6 6 (1.08%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (0.72%) C#
7 4 (0.72%) TypeScript
8 3 (0.54%) ABAP
8 3 (0.54%) Bicep
9 2 (0.36%) Go
9 2 (0.36%) Scala
10 1 (0.18%) Bash
10 1 (0.18%) Groovy
10 1 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.18%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.18%) Ruby
10 1 (0.18%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.18%) Swift
10 1 (0.18%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 48 (8.68%) Security Cleared
2 41 (7.41%) SC Cleared
3 24 (4.34%) Degree
4 11 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (1.99%) DBS Check
5 9 (1.63%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (1.08%) CISSP
7 5 (0.90%) Azure Certification
7 5 (0.90%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (0.72%) CCNP
8 4 (0.72%) CISM
9 3 (0.54%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.54%) CCNA
9 3 (0.54%) CIMA
9 3 (0.54%) CIPFA
10 2 (0.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.36%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (8.86%) Data Quality
2 44 (7.96%) GDPR
3 28 (5.06%) Accessibility
4 27 (4.88%) PMO
5 18 (3.25%) QA
6 13 (2.35%) NCSC
6 13 (2.35%) SLA
7 10 (1.81%) WCAG
8 8 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.08%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.72%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.72%) IFRS
10 4 (0.72%) NIST
11 2 (0.36%) GRC
11 2 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.18%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.18%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (2.17%) Active Directory
2 10 (1.81%) Docker
3 2 (0.36%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.18%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 12 (2.17%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.54%) Grafana
2 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.36%) Failover Clustering
3 2 (0.36%) Kibana
3 2 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (0.36%) VxRail
4 1 (0.18%) Ansible
4 1 (0.18%) Argo
4 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.18%) SCCM
Vendors
1 87 (15.73%) Microsoft
2 50 (9.04%) Oracle
3 24 (4.34%) SAP
4 16 (2.89%) Liquidlogic
5 15 (2.71%) NEC
6 14 (2.53%) Civica
6 14 (2.53%) ServiceNow
7 12 (2.17%) Google
8 7 (1.27%) Databricks
8 7 (1.27%) Orchard
9 4 (0.72%) Cisco
9 4 (0.72%) Northgate
9 4 (0.72%) Palo Alto
9 4 (0.72%) Splunk
10 3 (0.54%) Infoblox
10 3 (0.54%) Juniper
10 3 (0.54%) Kronos
10 3 (0.54%) Sitecore
10 3 (0.54%) VMware
11 2 (0.36%) Ribbon