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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 253 235 233
Rank change year-on-year -18 -2 +105
Contract jobs citing Local Government 531 363 416
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.09% 1.07%
As % of the General category 1.81% 1.73% 1.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 385 227 279
10th Percentile £327 £268 £312
25th Percentile £413 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £638 £550 £550
90th Percentile £738 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 63 38
10th Percentile £16.50 £12.74 £18.73
25th Percentile £16.70 £21.92 £22.71
Median hourly rate £20.70 £30.00 £26.71
Median % change year-on-year -31.02% +12.34% +16.49%
75th Percentile £25.84 £40.73 £33.07
90th Percentile £32.07 £57.50 £42.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.62 £20.83 £25.18
% change year-on-year -1.03% -17.28% +13.94%

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 29,369 21,001 22,288
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.06% 63.35% 57.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,411 13,107 14,053
10th Percentile £313 £279 £290
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 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.99% -1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,226 1,130 1,377
10th Percentile £13.97 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +27.24% -34.02% +27.07%
75th Percentile £57.99 £50.38 £58.49
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +46.90%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -4 502 £525 +13.51% 321
UK excluding London +3 279 £525 +16.67% 241
London -42 220 £525 +10.53% 127
Work from Home -10 174 £525 +13.51% 170
Midlands +31 94 £525 +31.25% 38
West Midlands +16 71 £525 +31.25% 22
South East -45 57 £637 +45.60% 62
North of England -54 56 £488 +2.63% 63
South West -46 36 £625 +56.25% 30
North West -31 29 £390 -22.00% 41
East of England +4 28 £370 -25.93% 21
Yorkshire -42 27 £513 +13.89% 18
East Midlands +6 20 £500 +25.00% 16
Scotland -10 8 £650 +30.00% 14
Wales -15 3 £425 - 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 23 (4.33%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.51%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.13%) CMS
4 4 (0.75%) Confluence
4 4 (0.75%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.56%) Drupal
5 3 (0.56%) WordPress
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Spark
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 21 (3.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.69%) Spreadsheet
3 8 (1.51%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.94%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.38%) Trello
6 1 (0.19%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (3.77%) Oracle Receivables
2 17 (3.20%) ContrOCC
2 17 (3.20%) NEC Housing
2 17 (3.20%) Oracle Payables
2 17 (3.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 17 (3.20%) SAP S/4HANA
3 16 (3.01%) Oracle General Ledger
4 7 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
5 6 (1.13%) iTrent
6 4 (0.75%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.75%) 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
7 2 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.19%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 56 (10.55%) Azure
2 33 (6.21%) Power Platform
3 30 (5.65%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (3.58%) AWS
4 19 (3.58%) SaaS
5 17 (3.20%) Dynamics 365
6 15 (2.82%) Entra ID
7 13 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (1.88%) GCP
9 8 (1.51%) Power Automate
9 8 (1.51%) PowerApps
10 7 (1.32%) GitHub
11 6 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
11 6 (1.13%) OCI
12 5 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
12 5 (0.94%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (0.94%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.39%) Firewall
2 11 (2.07%) DNS
3 7 (1.32%) DHCP
3 7 (1.32%) LAN
3 7 (1.32%) WAN
4 6 (1.13%) Network Security
5 5 (0.94%) VPN
6 4 (0.75%) Broadband
6 4 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.38%) Intranet
7 2 (0.38%) PSTN
7 2 (0.38%) VSAN
8 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (5.46%) Power BI
2 21 (3.95%) Oracle Reports
3 9 (1.69%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.32%) GIS
5 5 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
5 5 (0.94%) Metadata
5 5 (0.94%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.56%) Power Query
7 3 (0.56%) Spatial Data
7 3 (0.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.56%) Star Schema
8 2 (0.38%) Amazon Aurora
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%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 10 (1.88%) JIRA
2 4 (0.75%) 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
1 241 (45.39%) Public Sector
2 157 (29.57%) Finance
3 148 (27.87%) Social Skills
4 71 (13.37%) Analytical Skills
5 29 (5.46%) Organisational Skills
6 22 (4.14%) Legal
7 17 (3.20%) Influencing Skills
7 17 (3.20%) Social Housing
8 9 (1.69%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.69%) Retail
9 8 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.32%) Police
11 5 (0.94%) Banking
11 5 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.75%) General Ledger
12 4 (0.75%) Publishing
13 3 (0.56%) Fire and Rescue
13 3 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.38%) Back Office
14 2 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 72 (13.56%) Analyst
2 67 (12.62%) Lead
3 63 (11.86%) Senior
4 38 (7.16%) Business Analyst
4 38 (7.16%) Developer
5 35 (6.59%) Architect
6 26 (4.90%) Project Manager
7 24 (4.52%) Consultant
8 20 (3.77%) Support Officer
9 19 (3.58%) Finance Manager
9 19 (3.58%) Senior Analyst
10 17 (3.20%) Accountant
11 15 (2.82%) Systems Accountant
11 15 (2.82%) Transformation Manager
12 14 (2.64%) Finance Systems Manager
13 13 (2.45%) Applications Support
13 13 (2.45%) Solutions Architect
14 12 (2.26%) Data Analyst
14 12 (2.26%) Data Manager
14 12 (2.26%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (8.66%) Oracle Fusion
2 8 (1.51%) RESTful
3 5 (0.94%) .NET
3 5 (0.94%) HTML
3 5 (0.94%) REST
3 5 (0.94%) SAP Fiori
4 4 (0.75%) CSS
5 3 (0.56%) ARM Templates
5 3 (0.56%) ASP.NET
5 3 (0.56%) ASP.NET Core
5 3 (0.56%) Middleware
6 2 (0.38%) FHIR
6 2 (0.38%) JSON
6 2 (0.38%) Play Framework
6 2 (0.38%) PySpark
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%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.21%) Management Information System
2 19 (3.58%) NHS
3 16 (3.01%) Freedom of Information
3 16 (3.01%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
5 14 (2.64%) Product Ownership
6 13 (2.45%) Public Cloud
7 12 (2.26%) Onboarding
8 11 (2.07%) Housing Association
9 10 (1.88%) Cloud Native
10 9 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.51%) Data Structures
12 5 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
12 5 (0.94%) Security Posture
13 4 (0.75%) Distributed Systems
13 4 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
14 3 (0.56%) Cyber Security Posture
14 3 (0.56%) Cyberattack
14 3 (0.56%) Manufacturing Execution System
15 2 (0.38%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 12 (2.26%) Windows
2 6 (1.13%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.94%) Windows 10
4 2 (0.38%) Linux
4 2 (0.38%) Unix
5 1 (0.19%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.19%) VMS
5 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (20.53%) Stakeholder Management
2 99 (18.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 87 (16.38%) Continuous Improvement
4 80 (15.07%) Agile
5 70 (13.18%) Service Delivery
6 59 (11.11%) Decision-Making
7 53 (9.98%) Migration
8 50 (9.42%) Problem-Solving
9 48 (9.04%) ERP
10 40 (7.53%) Project Delivery
10 40 (7.53%) Roadmaps
10 40 (7.53%) Validation
11 37 (6.97%) Data Protection
12 36 (6.78%) Change Management
12 36 (6.78%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 34 (6.40%) Case Management
13 34 (6.40%) Collaborative Working
13 34 (6.40%) Cybersecurity
13 34 (6.40%) DevOps
14 33 (6.21%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 36 (6.78%) SQL
2 9 (1.69%) JavaScript
2 9 (1.69%) Python
3 8 (1.51%) Java
4 5 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 5 (0.94%) PowerShell
5 4 (0.75%) C#
6 3 (0.56%) ABAP
6 3 (0.56%) Bicep
6 3 (0.56%) TypeScript
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%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.19%) Ruby
8 1 (0.19%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.19%) Swift
Qualifications
1 36 (6.78%) Security Cleared
2 30 (5.65%) SC Cleared
3 17 (3.20%) Degree
4 15 (2.82%) DBS Check
5 12 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.51%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.13%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.13%) CISSP
7 6 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.94%) Azure Certification
8 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.75%) CCNP
9 4 (0.75%) CISM
10 3 (0.56%) CCNA
10 3 (0.56%) CIPFA
11 2 (0.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.38%) CIMA
11 2 (0.38%) CIPD
11 2 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (0.38%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (7.34%) Data Quality
2 30 (5.65%) GDPR
3 23 (4.33%) PMO
4 21 (3.95%) Accessibility
5 15 (2.82%) QA
5 15 (2.82%) SLA
6 9 (1.69%) NCSC
7 8 (1.51%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.13%) PCI DSS
9 6 (1.13%) WCAG
10 4 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.75%) IFRS
11 3 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.56%) NIST
11 3 (0.56%) PERC
12 2 (0.38%) GRC
12 2 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.19%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (2.26%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.69%) Docker
3 2 (0.38%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 13 (2.45%) Terraform
2 11 (2.07%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.38%) Failover Clustering
3 2 (0.38%) Grafana
3 2 (0.38%) Kibana
3 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (0.38%) VxRail
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 92 (17.33%) Microsoft
2 63 (11.86%) Oracle
3 35 (6.59%) SAP
4 19 (3.58%) NEC
5 15 (2.82%) Liquidlogic
6 13 (2.45%) ServiceNow
7 11 (2.07%) Civica
8 8 (1.51%) Google
9 6 (1.13%) Databricks
10 4 (0.75%) Ariba
10 4 (0.75%) Cisco
10 4 (0.75%) Orchard
10 4 (0.75%) Palo Alto
11 3 (0.56%) Infoblox
11 3 (0.56%) Juniper
11 3 (0.56%) Kronos
11 3 (0.56%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.56%) Splunk
11 3 (0.56%) VMware
12 2 (0.38%) Ribbon