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

6 months to
6 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 243 255
Rank change year-on-year -44 +12 +150
Contract jobs citing Local Government 395 317 410
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 1.08% 0.95%
As % of the General category 1.53% 1.71% 1.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 276 203 308
10th Percentile £325 £300 £344
25th Percentile £406 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £575
90th Percentile £663 £648 £644
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £494
% change year-on-year +11.11% -8.86% +23.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 50 60
10th Percentile £16.86 £17.00 £15.39
25th Percentile £20.51 £20.31 £16.65
Median hourly rate £25.38 £26.08 £25.49
Median % change year-on-year -2.68% +2.33% +14.49%
75th Percentile £27.74 £29.81 £36.27
90th Percentile £31.96 £33.75 £43.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.38 £24.24 £24.26
% change year-on-year +4.70% -0.06% +8.96%

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 25,766 18,539 25,093
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.11% 63.24% 58.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,810 11,839 15,826
10th Percentile £306 £300 £275
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £640 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £766
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +0.21% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,650 792 1,938
10th Percentile £13.72 £14.00 £12.77
25th Percentile £17.50 £17.50 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £60.56 £56.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.01
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £25.00 £28.25
% change year-on-year +10.00% -11.50% -2.59%

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 6 May 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 6 May 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 6 May 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 -47 379 £500 +5.26% 235
UK excluding London -60 198 £500 +11.11% 200
London -20 181 £500 +2.56% 58
Work from Home +4 142 £500 +5.26% 81
Midlands -2 94 £525 +0.96% 44
West Midlands -7 58 £525 - 28
East Midlands -5 33 £500 -3.85% 16
East of England -21 27 £425 -14.91% 23
North of England -72 27 £506 +6.58% 35
South West -50 26 £475 +16.14% 29
North West -39 18 £350 -20.00% 13
South East -58 18 £525 +16.67% 53
Yorkshire -69 8 £600 +23.08% 17
Scotland -3 3 - - 14
Wales -13 3 £413 -2.94% 4
North East -22 1 £500 +5.26% 6

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 18 (4.56%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.27%) CMS
3 3 (0.76%) Confluence
3 3 (0.76%) Drupal
3 3 (0.76%) OpenEdge
4 2 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.51%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.51%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.51%) govService
5 1 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 21 (5.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.01%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.51%) Trello
6 1 (0.25%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 24 (6.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (5.06%) NEC Housing
3 8 (2.03%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.77%) ContrOCC
4 7 (1.77%) Oracle General Ledger
4 7 (1.77%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (1.77%) Oracle Receivables
5 4 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (1.01%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.76%) Oracle Applications
6 3 (0.76%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.51%) iTrent
7 2 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.51%) Unit4 Business World
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.25%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.25%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.25%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 40 (10.13%) Azure
2 27 (6.84%) Microsoft 365
3 25 (6.33%) Power Platform
4 17 (4.30%) SaaS
5 15 (3.80%) Dynamics 365
6 11 (2.78%) AWS
7 8 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (2.03%) Microsoft Copilot
8 7 (1.77%) Entra ID
9 6 (1.52%) OCI
9 6 (1.52%) PowerApps
10 5 (1.27%) Power Automate
11 4 (1.01%) OneDrive
11 4 (1.01%) SuccessFactors
12 3 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (0.76%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (0.76%) IaaS
12 3 (0.76%) Miro
13 2 (0.51%) Amazon ECS
13 2 (0.51%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.78%) Firewall
2 6 (1.52%) LAN
2 6 (1.52%) WAN
3 5 (1.27%) Broadband
3 5 (1.27%) DNS
3 5 (1.27%) Network Security
3 5 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
3 5 (1.27%) Wireless
4 4 (1.01%) DHCP
4 4 (1.01%) VPN
5 3 (0.76%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.51%) Internet
6 2 (0.51%) Intranet
6 2 (0.51%) WLAN
7 1 (0.25%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.06%) Oracle Reports
1 20 (5.06%) Power BI
2 9 (2.28%) GIS
3 8 (2.03%) SQL Server
4 3 (0.76%) Geospatial Data
4 3 (0.76%) OLTP
5 2 (0.51%) Amazon Aurora
5 2 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.51%) Apache Hudi
5 2 (0.51%) Big Data
5 2 (0.51%) Crystal Reports
5 2 (0.51%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.51%) MS Access
5 2 (0.51%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.51%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.51%) Presto
5 2 (0.51%) Spatial Data
5 2 (0.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.25%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (1.52%) JIRA
2 3 (0.76%) GitLab
3 2 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.25%) JUnit
General
1 177 (44.81%) Public Sector
2 127 (32.15%) Finance
3 102 (25.82%) Social Skills
4 37 (9.37%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (4.56%) Influencing Skills
6 15 (3.80%) Fire and Rescue
6 15 (3.80%) Legal
7 13 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 13 (3.29%) Organisational Skills
8 10 (2.53%) Social Housing
9 7 (1.77%) Police
10 6 (1.52%) Back Office
11 4 (1.01%) Marketing
11 4 (1.01%) Retail
12 3 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.51%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.51%) Welsh Language
14 1 (0.25%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.25%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 56 (14.18%) Senior
2 48 (12.15%) Analyst
3 41 (10.38%) Lead
4 31 (7.85%) Accountant
5 30 (7.59%) Systems Accountant
6 27 (6.84%) Developer
7 26 (6.58%) Project Manager
8 22 (5.57%) Architect
9 20 (5.06%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.80%) Consultant
10 15 (3.80%) Support Officer
11 11 (2.78%) Applications Support
11 11 (2.78%) Oracle Developer
11 11 (2.78%) Senior Accountant
11 11 (2.78%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (2.78%) Senior Systems Accountant
11 11 (2.78%) Tester
12 10 (2.53%) Designer
13 9 (2.28%) Administrator
13 9 (2.28%) Finance Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (6.84%) Oracle Fusion
2 8 (2.03%) EDI
3 5 (1.27%) Middleware
4 4 (1.01%) CSS
4 4 (1.01%) HTML
5 3 (0.76%) RESTful
6 2 (0.51%) Play Framework
6 2 (0.51%) REST
7 1 (0.25%) .NET
7 1 (0.25%) FHIR
7 1 (0.25%) Node.js
7 1 (0.25%) SAP Fiori
7 1 (0.25%) Spring
7 1 (0.25%) Spring Boot
7 1 (0.25%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 40 (10.13%) Management Information System
2 17 (4.30%) Public Cloud
3 15 (3.80%) Legacy Systems
4 14 (3.54%) Data Structures
5 12 (3.04%) NHS
6 9 (2.28%) Freedom of Information
6 9 (2.28%) Product Ownership
7 7 (1.77%) Driving Licence
7 7 (1.77%) Housing Association
8 5 (1.27%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
9 4 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.01%) Security Posture
10 3 (0.76%) Cyber Security Posture
10 3 (0.76%) Legacy Code
10 3 (0.76%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.51%) e-Learning
11 2 (0.51%) PKI
11 2 (0.51%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.51%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 20 (5.06%) Windows
2 7 (1.77%) Linux
3 6 (1.52%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.27%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.51%) Unix
6 1 (0.25%) Android
6 1 (0.25%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (18.23%) Stakeholder Management
2 63 (15.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 52 (13.16%) Continuous Improvement
4 51 (12.91%) ERP
5 49 (12.41%) Decision-Making
6 48 (12.15%) Migration
7 42 (10.63%) Service Delivery
8 37 (9.37%) Agile
9 35 (8.86%) Change Management
9 35 (8.86%) Roadmaps
10 33 (8.35%) Project Management
11 30 (7.59%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 29 (7.34%) Problem-Solving
13 28 (7.09%) Data Protection
13 28 (7.09%) User Acceptance Testing
14 27 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
14 27 (6.84%) Project Delivery
15 25 (6.33%) Validation
16 24 (6.08%) Analytics
16 24 (6.08%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 30 (7.59%) SQL
2 6 (1.52%) PL/SQL
3 5 (1.27%) Python
4 4 (1.01%) JavaScript
5 3 (0.76%) Java
5 3 (0.76%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.76%) ProC
5 3 (0.76%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.51%) C#
6 2 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.51%) Scala
6 2 (0.51%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.25%) ABAP
7 1 (0.25%) Apex Code
7 1 (0.25%) Bash
7 1 (0.25%) Bicep
7 1 (0.25%) C
7 1 (0.25%) Korn
7 1 (0.25%) R
Qualifications
1 18 (4.56%) DBS Check
2 13 (3.29%) Degree
3 9 (2.28%) Security Cleared
4 8 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (1.52%) SC Cleared
6 5 (1.27%) NVQ Level 3
7 4 (1.01%) CCNA
7 4 (1.01%) CCNP
7 4 (1.01%) CIPFA
7 4 (1.01%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (0.76%) JNCIA
8 3 (0.76%) JNCIP
8 3 (0.76%) JNCIS
8 3 (0.76%) SAP Certification
9 2 (0.51%) CCAB
9 2 (0.51%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.51%) IIBA
9 2 (0.51%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.51%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (6.58%) Data Quality
2 18 (4.56%) GDPR
3 12 (3.04%) Accessibility
4 10 (2.53%) QA
5 6 (1.52%) PMO
5 6 (1.52%) SLA
5 6 (1.52%) WCAG
6 5 (1.27%) NCSC
6 5 (1.27%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.01%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.76%) PERC
9 2 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.25%) BS7666
10 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.25%) GRC
10 1 (0.25%) IFRS
10 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 8 (2.03%) Active Directory
2 5 (1.27%) Hyper-V
2 5 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.76%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.76%) Prometheus
2 3 (0.76%) Terraform
3 2 (0.51%) Grafana
3 2 (0.51%) Kibana
3 2 (0.51%) SCCM
4 1 (0.25%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.25%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 65 (16.46%) Microsoft
2 46 (11.65%) Oracle
3 35 (8.86%) SAP
4 22 (5.57%) NEC
5 7 (1.77%) Civica
5 7 (1.77%) Liquidlogic
5 7 (1.77%) VMware
6 4 (1.01%) Ariba
7 3 (0.76%) Dynatrace
7 3 (0.76%) ESRI
7 3 (0.76%) Juniper
7 3 (0.76%) Orchard
7 3 (0.76%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.51%) Blue Prism
8 2 (0.51%) OneLogin
8 2 (0.51%) Palo Alto
8 2 (0.51%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.51%) Splunk
8 2 (0.51%) UiPath
8 2 (0.51%) Workday
267 Local Government jobs Nationwide