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 25 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 243 228
Rank change year-on-year -25 -15 +154
Contract jobs citing Local Government 459 319 453
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 1.06% 1.04%
As % of the General category 1.66% 1.67% 1.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 330 217 316
10th Percentile £336 £296 £319
25th Percentile £411 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% - -
75th Percentile £600 £550 £561
90th Percentile £700 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £409 £475
% change year-on-year +22.25% -13.89% +9.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 47 60
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.21 £15.39
25th Percentile £17.57 £20.23 £16.00
Median hourly rate £22.91 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.00% +16.00% +12.97%
75th Percentile £27.25 £34.48 £33.65
90th Percentile £33.93 £57.50 £43.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.70 £20.87 £22.50
% change year-on-year -0.84% -7.24% +25.00%

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 27,698 19,134 24,851
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.43% 63.53% 57.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,710 12,053 15,562
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +6.38% -4.08% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,885 916 2,005
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.41 £12.78
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.47 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.00 £27.50 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +16.36% -12.70% +5.00%
75th Percentile £61.18 £53.75 £53.75
90th Percentile £80.03 £72.50 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.46 £23.10 £30.00
% change year-on-year +36.19% -23.00% +17.19%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 -15 444 £505 +12.11% 218
UK excluding London -23 247 £500 +22.25% 181
London -39 194 £523 +10.05% 53
Work from Home -13 155 £525 +17.10% 107
Midlands +28 113 £513 +11.41% 44
West Midlands +10 76 £525 +13.51% 19
South East -54 35 £637 +27.40% 55
North of England -75 35 £531 +25.00% 47
East Midlands +9 33 £500 +8.70% 25
East of England -6 29 £370 -7.44% 19
South West -60 28 £500 +25.00% 16
North West -33 18 £350 -15.15% 26
Yorkshire -58 17 £550 +41.94% 16
Scotland -10 4 £198 -50.63% 1
Wales -9 3 £425 - 4

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 (5.01%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.74%) Oracle Workflow
3 5 (1.09%) CMS
4 4 (0.87%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.65%) Drupal
5 3 (0.65%) WordPress
6 2 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.44%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.44%) Confluence
6 2 (0.44%) govService
6 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 21 (4.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.31%) Spreadsheet
3 5 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.44%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (5.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (3.92%) NEC Housing
3 17 (3.70%) Oracle Receivables
4 14 (3.05%) ContrOCC
4 14 (3.05%) Oracle General Ledger
4 14 (3.05%) Oracle Payables
4 14 (3.05%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 5 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
5 5 (1.09%) iTrent
6 4 (0.87%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.87%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.22%) MIS ActiveH
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.22%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.22%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 42 (9.15%) Azure
2 27 (5.88%) Power Platform
3 26 (5.66%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.92%) AWS
5 17 (3.70%) SaaS
6 14 (3.05%) Dynamics 365
7 11 (2.40%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (1.53%) GCP
10 6 (1.31%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (1.09%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (1.09%) Power Automate
12 4 (0.87%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (0.87%) GitHub
12 4 (0.87%) OCI
12 4 (0.87%) PowerApps
12 4 (0.87%) SuccessFactors
13 3 (0.65%) Azure Key Vault
13 3 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.65%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.40%) Firewall
2 8 (1.74%) DHCP
2 8 (1.74%) DNS
3 7 (1.53%) Network Security
4 5 (1.09%) Broadband
5 4 (0.87%) VPN
5 4 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.65%) LAN
6 3 (0.65%) WAN
7 2 (0.44%) Intranet
7 2 (0.44%) PSTN
8 1 (0.22%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.22%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.22%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (5.23%) Power BI
2 23 (5.01%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (1.74%) SQL Server
4 6 (1.31%) GIS
5 4 (0.87%) BusinessObjects
5 4 (0.87%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.65%) Star Schema
7 2 (0.44%) Amazon Aurora
7 2 (0.44%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.44%) Apache Hudi
7 2 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.44%) Big Data
7 2 (0.44%) Crystal Reports
7 2 (0.44%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.44%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.44%) Power Query
7 2 (0.44%) Presto
7 2 (0.44%) Spatial Data
8 1 (0.22%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 6 (1.31%) JIRA
2 2 (0.44%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.22%) JUnit
3 1 (0.22%) Oracle APEX
General
1 207 (45.10%) Public Sector
2 152 (33.12%) Finance
3 123 (26.80%) Social Skills
4 45 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (5.23%) Legal
6 22 (4.79%) Organisational Skills
7 14 (3.05%) Influencing Skills
7 14 (3.05%) Social Housing
8 11 (2.40%) Police
9 9 (1.96%) Retail
10 8 (1.74%) Fire and Rescue
10 8 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.09%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.87%) Banking
13 3 (0.65%) General Ledger
13 3 (0.65%) Publishing
14 2 (0.44%) Law
14 2 (0.44%) Marketing
14 2 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 60 (13.07%) Lead
2 58 (12.64%) Analyst
3 55 (11.98%) Senior
4 32 (6.97%) Accountant
5 30 (6.54%) Systems Accountant
6 24 (5.23%) Business Analyst
7 23 (5.01%) Developer
8 22 (4.79%) Project Manager
9 21 (4.58%) Architect
9 21 (4.58%) Consultant
10 17 (3.70%) Finance Manager
11 16 (3.49%) Support Officer
12 14 (3.05%) Senior Analyst
13 12 (2.61%) Applications Support
13 12 (2.61%) Finance Systems Manager
13 12 (2.61%) Solutions Architect
14 11 (2.40%) Senior Accountant
14 11 (2.40%) Systems Analyst
14 11 (2.40%) Team Leader
14 11 (2.40%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (10.02%) Oracle Fusion
2 5 (1.09%) Middleware
2 5 (1.09%) SAP Fiori
3 4 (0.87%) CSS
3 4 (0.87%) HTML
4 3 (0.65%) REST
4 3 (0.65%) RESTful
5 2 (0.44%) JSON
5 2 (0.44%) Play Framework
5 2 (0.44%) SOAP
6 1 (0.22%) .NET
6 1 (0.22%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.22%) FHIR
6 1 (0.22%) Node.js
6 1 (0.22%) PySpark
6 1 (0.22%) SAP MI
6 1 (0.22%) Spring
6 1 (0.22%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.22%) Web Services
6 1 (0.22%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (7.19%) Management Information System
2 21 (4.58%) Public Cloud
3 16 (3.49%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (2.83%) NHS
5 12 (2.61%) Data Structures
6 11 (2.40%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.18%) Freedom of Information
8 9 (1.96%) Product Ownership
9 8 (1.74%) Housing Association
10 7 (1.53%) Driving Licence
10 7 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (1.09%) Cloud Native
11 5 (1.09%) Security Posture
12 4 (0.87%) Enterprise Cloud
12 4 (0.87%) Hybrid Cloud
13 3 (0.65%) Cyber Security Posture
13 3 (0.65%) Distributed Systems
14 2 (0.44%) Analytical Mindset
14 2 (0.44%) Self-Motivation
14 2 (0.44%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (3.70%) Windows
2 7 (1.53%) Linux
3 5 (1.09%) Windows 10
3 5 (1.09%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.44%) Unix
5 1 (0.22%) Android
5 1 (0.22%) VMS
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (20.92%) Stakeholder Management
2 79 (17.21%) Continuous Improvement
3 75 (16.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 60 (13.07%) Service Delivery
5 57 (12.42%) Agile
6 55 (11.98%) Migration
7 53 (11.55%) ERP
8 49 (10.68%) Decision-Making
9 46 (10.02%) Problem-Solving
10 39 (8.50%) Change Management
11 38 (8.28%) Project Delivery
12 35 (7.63%) Data Protection
12 35 (7.63%) Roadmaps
13 33 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
14 32 (6.97%) Digital Transformation Programme
15 30 (6.54%) Data Migration
16 29 (6.32%) Analytics
16 29 (6.32%) Collaborative Working
16 29 (6.32%) Validation
17 27 (5.88%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 28 (6.10%) SQL
2 6 (1.31%) Java
2 6 (1.31%) JavaScript
2 6 (1.31%) Python
3 4 (0.87%) C#
3 4 (0.87%) PowerShell
4 3 (0.65%) ABAP
4 3 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 2 (0.44%) Go
5 2 (0.44%) Scala
5 2 (0.44%) T-SQL
5 2 (0.44%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.22%) Apex Code
6 1 (0.22%) Bicep
6 1 (0.22%) Groovy
6 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.22%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 21 (4.58%) Security Cleared
2 16 (3.49%) SC Cleared
3 15 (3.27%) Degree
4 14 (3.05%) DBS Check
5 13 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.53%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.31%) NVQ Level 3
8 5 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (0.87%) CCNA
9 4 (0.87%) CCNP
9 4 (0.87%) CIPFA
9 4 (0.87%) CISSP
10 3 (0.65%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.65%) CISM
10 3 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (0.65%) SAP Certification
11 2 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.44%) IIBA
11 2 (0.44%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.44%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (6.10%) Data Quality
2 26 (5.66%) GDPR
3 17 (3.70%) PMO
4 13 (2.83%) Accessibility
5 11 (2.40%) SLA
6 8 (1.74%) QA
7 7 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.53%) NCSC
8 6 (1.31%) PCI DSS
8 6 (1.31%) WCAG
9 4 (0.87%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.65%) IFRS
10 3 (0.65%) PERC
11 2 (0.44%) GRC
11 2 (0.44%) NIST
12 1 (0.22%) BS7666
12 1 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 11 (2.40%) Active Directory
2 5 (1.09%) Docker
2 5 (1.09%) Hyper-V
2 5 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.22%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (1.96%) Terraform
2 8 (1.74%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.44%) Grafana
3 2 (0.44%) Kibana
3 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.44%) SCCM
4 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 69 (15.03%) Microsoft
2 60 (13.07%) Oracle
3 45 (9.80%) SAP
4 19 (4.14%) NEC
5 14 (3.05%) Liquidlogic
6 10 (2.18%) Civica
7 6 (1.31%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.31%) VMware
8 5 (1.09%) Ariba
8 5 (1.09%) Google
9 4 (0.87%) Cisco
9 4 (0.87%) Infoblox
9 4 (0.87%) Orchard
9 4 (0.87%) Palo Alto
10 3 (0.65%) Juniper
10 3 (0.65%) Kronos
10 3 (0.65%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.65%) Sitecore
10 3 (0.65%) Splunk
11 2 (0.44%) Blue Prism