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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 260 241 223
Rank change year-on-year -19 -18 +116
Contract jobs citing Local Government 530 358 422
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.08% 1.09%
As % of the General category 1.79% 1.71% 1.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 382 225 277
10th Percentile £326 £250 £312
25th Percentile £413 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £638 £550 £538
90th Percentile £738 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - +4.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 65 38
10th Percentile £16.06 £13.26 £18.73
25th Percentile £16.70 £23.50 £22.71
Median hourly rate £20.73 £30.00 £26.71
Median % change year-on-year -30.92% +12.34% +19.78%
75th Percentile £26.19 £52.50 £33.58
90th Percentile £31.74 £58.25 £42.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.62 £21.92 £25.18
% change year-on-year -5.93% -12.97% +24.04%

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 29,588 20,993 22,260
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.10% 63.45% 57.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,559 13,056 13,993
10th Percentile £313 £275 £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 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £749 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,243 1,151 1,365
10th Percentile £13.96 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £31.56 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +25.47% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.75 £58.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +52.48%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -1 501 £525 +13.51% 359
UK excluding London +13 277 £525 +16.67% 281
London -37 219 £525 +10.53% 134
Work from Home -20 178 £525 +13.51% 181
Midlands +34 95 £525 +31.25% 56
West Midlands +14 71 £525 +31.25% 33
North of England -66 56 £488 - 68
South East -48 55 £650 +48.57% 72
South West -50 36 £625 +56.25% 37
North West -30 29 £390 -22.00% 46
East of England +1 27 £370 -7.50% 22
Yorkshire -42 27 £513 +13.89% 16
East Midlands -3 21 £500 +73.91% 25
Scotland -11 8 £650 +30.00% 13
Wales -13 3 £425 - 22

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 (4.34%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.51%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.13%) CMS
4 4 (0.75%) Confluence
4 4 (0.75%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.57%) Drupal
5 3 (0.57%) 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 22 (4.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.08%) 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 (3.21%) ContrOCC
2 17 (3.21%) Oracle Payables
2 17 (3.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 16 (3.02%) Oracle General Ledger
4 15 (2.83%) NEC Housing
4 15 (2.83%) SAP S/4HANA
5 7 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (1.13%) iTrent
7 4 (0.75%) Oracle Financials
7 4 (0.75%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.38%) MIS ActiveH
8 2 (0.38%) SAP CO
8 2 (0.38%) SAP FI
8 2 (0.38%) SAP FI/CO
8 2 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.19%) SAP MM
9 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 54 (10.19%) Azure
2 35 (6.60%) Power Platform
3 29 (5.47%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.40%) AWS
4 18 (3.40%) SaaS
5 17 (3.21%) Dynamics 365
6 16 (3.02%) Entra ID
7 13 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (1.70%) GCP
8 9 (1.70%) Power Automate
8 9 (1.70%) PowerApps
9 7 (1.32%) GitHub
9 7 (1.32%) OCI
10 6 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Sentinel
11 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.40%) Firewall
2 11 (2.08%) 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 31 (5.85%) Power BI
2 20 (3.77%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (1.51%) GIS
3 8 (1.51%) SQL Server
4 5 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (0.94%) Metadata
4 5 (0.94%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
5 4 (0.75%) Power Query
5 4 (0.75%) Spatial Data
6 3 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 2 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.38%) Apache Hudi
7 2 (0.38%) Big Data
7 2 (0.38%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.38%) Presto
7 2 (0.38%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.38%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 10 (1.89%) 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%) Mocha
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
4 1 (0.19%) RSpec
General
1 239 (45.09%) Public Sector
2 152 (28.68%) Finance
3 150 (28.30%) Social Skills
4 73 (13.77%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (6.04%) Organisational Skills
6 21 (3.96%) Legal
7 18 (3.40%) Influencing Skills
7 18 (3.40%) Social Housing
8 9 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (1.70%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.70%) Retail
9 7 (1.32%) Police
10 6 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (0.94%) Banking
12 4 (0.75%) General Ledger
12 4 (0.75%) Publishing
13 3 (0.57%) Fire and Rescue
13 3 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.38%) Back Office
14 2 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 73 (13.77%) Analyst
2 69 (13.02%) Lead
3 61 (11.51%) Senior
4 37 (6.98%) Developer
5 36 (6.79%) Business Analyst
6 35 (6.60%) Architect
7 26 (4.91%) Project Manager
8 24 (4.53%) Consultant
9 20 (3.77%) Senior Analyst
9 20 (3.77%) Support Officer
10 19 (3.58%) Finance Manager
11 16 (3.02%) Transformation Manager
12 14 (2.64%) Accountant
12 14 (2.64%) Data Analyst
12 14 (2.64%) Finance Systems Manager
13 13 (2.45%) Applications Support
14 12 (2.26%) Data Manager
14 12 (2.26%) Solutions Architect
14 12 (2.26%) Systems Accountant
14 12 (2.26%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (8.49%) Oracle Fusion
2 7 (1.32%) RESTful
3 6 (1.13%) HTML
4 5 (0.94%) .NET
4 5 (0.94%) REST
4 5 (0.94%) SAP Fiori
5 4 (0.75%) CSS
6 3 (0.57%) ARM Templates
6 3 (0.57%) ASP.NET
6 3 (0.57%) ASP.NET Core
6 3 (0.57%) Middleware
7 2 (0.38%) FHIR
7 2 (0.38%) JSON
7 2 (0.38%) Play Framework
7 2 (0.38%) PySpark
7 2 (0.38%) SOAP
7 2 (0.38%) Web Services
8 1 (0.19%) OAuth
8 1 (0.19%) Sass
8 1 (0.19%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.42%) Management Information System
2 17 (3.21%) Freedom of Information
2 17 (3.21%) NHS
3 15 (2.83%) Analytical Mindset
3 15 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (2.45%) Public Cloud
5 12 (2.26%) Product Ownership
6 11 (2.08%) Onboarding
7 10 (1.89%) Cloud Native
7 10 (1.89%) Housing Association
8 9 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.13%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (0.94%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.75%) Distributed Systems
12 3 (0.57%) Cyber Security Posture
12 3 (0.57%) Cyberattack
12 3 (0.57%) Manufacturing Execution System
12 3 (0.57%) Mobile App
13 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.64%) Windows
2 7 (1.32%) Windows 10
3 6 (1.13%) Windows Server
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
1 106 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (19.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 86 (16.23%) Continuous Improvement
4 78 (14.72%) Agile
5 72 (13.58%) Service Delivery
6 62 (11.70%) Decision-Making
7 52 (9.81%) Migration
8 49 (9.25%) Problem-Solving
9 44 (8.30%) ERP
10 43 (8.11%) Roadmaps
11 41 (7.74%) Validation
12 40 (7.55%) Project Delivery
13 37 (6.98%) Collaborative Working
13 37 (6.98%) Data Protection
13 37 (6.98%) Digital Transformation Programme
14 35 (6.60%) Business Intelligence
14 35 (6.60%) Change Management
15 34 (6.42%) Case Management
15 34 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
15 34 (6.42%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 35 (6.60%) SQL
2 10 (1.89%) JavaScript
3 9 (1.70%) Python
4 7 (1.32%) Java
5 6 (1.13%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (0.75%) C#
8 3 (0.57%) ABAP
8 3 (0.57%) Bicep
8 3 (0.57%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.38%) Go
9 2 (0.38%) Scala
10 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.19%) Groovy
10 1 (0.19%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.19%) Ruby
10 1 (0.19%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.19%) Swift
10 1 (0.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 34 (6.42%) Security Cleared
2 28 (5.28%) SC Cleared
3 18 (3.40%) Degree
4 15 (2.83%) DBS Check
5 10 (1.89%) 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 (0.57%) CCNA
10 3 (0.57%) CIPFA
11 2 (0.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.38%) CIPD
11 2 (0.38%) CRISC
11 2 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (0.38%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (7.36%) Data Quality
2 33 (6.23%) GDPR
3 23 (4.34%) PMO
4 20 (3.77%) Accessibility
5 17 (3.21%) QA
6 15 (2.83%) SLA
7 9 (1.70%) NCSC
8 8 (1.51%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 6 (1.13%) PCI DSS
10 6 (1.13%) WCAG
11 4 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.75%) IFRS
12 3 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.57%) NIST
12 3 (0.57%) PERC
13 2 (0.38%) GRC
13 2 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
14 1 (0.19%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (2.26%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.51%) 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 10 (1.89%) Kubernetes
3 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.38%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (0.38%) Grafana
4 2 (0.38%) Kibana
4 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.38%) VxRail
Vendors
1 93 (17.55%) Microsoft
2 63 (11.89%) Oracle
3 33 (6.23%) SAP
4 17 (3.21%) NEC
5 15 (2.83%) Liquidlogic
6 13 (2.45%) ServiceNow
7 12 (2.26%) Civica
8 8 (1.51%) Google
9 6 (1.13%) Databricks
10 4 (0.75%) Cisco
10 4 (0.75%) Orchard
10 4 (0.75%) Palo Alto
11 3 (0.57%) Infoblox
11 3 (0.57%) Juniper
11 3 (0.57%) Kronos
11 3 (0.57%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.57%) Splunk
11 3 (0.57%) VMware
12 2 (0.38%) Blue Prism
12 2 (0.38%) Ribbon