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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 257 244 207
Rank change year-on-year -13 -37 +124
Contract jobs citing Local Government 563 352 456
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.03% 1.07% 1.19%
As % of the General category 1.86% 1.68% 2.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 403 232 253
10th Percentile £325 £250 £300
25th Percentile £406 £388 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £600 £559 £538
90th Percentile £738 £650 £627
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +16.67% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 64 33
10th Percentile £15.06 £21.63 £21.05
25th Percentile £16.70 £28.66 £23.66
Median hourly rate £20.62 £32.83 £27.84
Median % change year-on-year -37.21% +17.92% +24.87%
75th Percentile £27.74 £57.50 £33.75
90th Percentile £31.98 £58.75 £52.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.51 £28.32 £25.93
% change year-on-year -27.58% +9.22% +27.73%

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 30,281 20,994 22,109
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.57% 63.64% 57.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,811 12,998 13,405
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 2,436 1,187 1,144
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.66
25th Percentile £16.46 £16.17 £17.44
Median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.28% -32.93% +36.36%
75th Percentile £55.00 £50.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £68.75 £70.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.40 £38.12
% change year-on-year +40.19% -43.86% +46.76%

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 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 10 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 10 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 +10 514 £525 +13.51% 325
UK excluding London +8 290 £525 +16.67% 229
London -34 219 £525 +10.53% 139
Work from Home -17 183 £500 +8.11% 149
Midlands +25 93 £513 +28.13% 47
West Midlands +22 68 £525 +31.25% 32
South East -34 62 £613 +53.13% 62
North of England -47 58 £390 -13.33% 53
South West -44 36 £625 +56.25% 31
East of England -3 32 £370 +23.33% 26
North West -46 29 £383 -17.30% 27
Yorkshire -29 28 £494 +9.72% 23
East Midlands 0 23 £500 +73.91% 17
Scotland -39 9 £650 +30.00% 10
Wales -10 3 £425 - 8
North East -46 1 - - 5

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 28 (4.97%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.42%) Oracle Workflow
3 6 (1.07%) CMS
4 4 (0.71%) Confluence
4 4 (0.71%) OpenEdge
5 3 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.53%) Drupal
5 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.53%) WordPress
6 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.18%) Apache
7 1 (0.18%) govService
7 1 (0.18%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 28 (4.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.78%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (1.60%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.36%) Trello
7 1 (0.18%) Gliffy
Business Applications
1 20 (3.55%) Oracle Receivables
2 19 (3.37%) ContrOCC
3 17 (3.02%) Oracle Payables
3 17 (3.02%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 16 (2.84%) NEC Housing
4 16 (2.84%) Oracle General Ledger
5 9 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
6 8 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
7 5 (0.89%) iTrent
8 4 (0.71%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.36%) MIS ActiveH
9 2 (0.36%) SAP CO
9 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
9 2 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
9 2 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 1 (0.18%) OPENHousing
10 1 (0.18%) Orchard Housing
10 1 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.18%) SAP HR
10 1 (0.18%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 60 (10.66%) Azure
2 47 (8.35%) Power Platform
3 27 (4.80%) Microsoft 365
4 23 (4.09%) AWS
5 18 (3.20%) SaaS
6 17 (3.02%) Entra ID
7 15 (2.66%) Dynamics 365
8 14 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (2.31%) GCP
10 10 (1.78%) GitHub
10 10 (1.78%) Miro
11 9 (1.60%) Power Automate
11 9 (1.60%) PowerApps
12 7 (1.24%) OCI
13 6 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (1.07%) Microsoft Purview
14 5 (0.89%) Azure Key Vault
14 5 (0.89%) Azure Logic Apps
14 5 (0.89%) Azure Sentinel
14 5 (0.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.02%) Firewall
2 11 (1.95%) DNS
3 7 (1.24%) DHCP
4 6 (1.07%) LAN
4 6 (1.07%) Network Security
4 6 (1.07%) WAN
5 5 (0.89%) VPN
6 4 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.53%) Broadband
8 2 (0.36%) Intranet
8 2 (0.36%) PSTN
8 2 (0.36%) VSAN
9 1 (0.18%) SSL
9 1 (0.18%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.18%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (7.64%) Power BI
2 15 (2.66%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (1.42%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.24%) Power Query
5 6 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.07%) Metadata
5 6 (1.07%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.89%) GIS
6 5 (0.89%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (0.71%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.36%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.36%) Big Data
9 2 (0.36%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.36%) Presto
9 2 (0.36%) Redis
9 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.36%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.36%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 9 (1.60%) JIRA
2 6 (1.07%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.53%) Git
3 3 (0.53%) 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
1 252 (44.76%) Public Sector
2 163 (28.95%) Social Skills
3 152 (27.00%) Finance
4 89 (15.81%) Analytical Skills
5 44 (7.82%) Organisational Skills
6 25 (4.44%) Influencing Skills
7 23 (4.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (3.55%) Legal
8 20 (3.55%) Social Housing
9 10 (1.78%) Police
10 9 (1.60%) Manufacturing
10 9 (1.60%) Retail
11 8 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.07%) Fire and Rescue
13 5 (0.89%) Back Office
13 5 (0.89%) Banking
14 4 (0.71%) General Ledger
14 4 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.71%) Publishing
15 3 (0.53%) Law
Job Titles
1 78 (13.85%) Analyst
2 73 (12.97%) Lead
3 69 (12.26%) Senior
4 40 (7.10%) Business Analyst
5 35 (6.22%) Architect
6 32 (5.68%) Developer
7 28 (4.97%) Consultant
8 26 (4.62%) Project Manager
9 23 (4.09%) Support Officer
10 22 (3.91%) Senior Analyst
11 19 (3.37%) Finance Manager
12 16 (2.84%) Data Analyst
12 16 (2.84%) Transformation Manager
13 14 (2.49%) Finance Systems Manager
13 14 (2.49%) Team Leader
14 12 (2.13%) Applications Support
14 12 (2.13%) Designer
15 11 (1.95%) Administrator
15 11 (1.95%) Systems Analyst
16 10 (1.78%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (6.75%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (2.66%) Terraform
3 11 (1.95%) RESTful
4 6 (1.07%) HTML
5 5 (0.89%) .NET
5 5 (0.89%) REST
5 5 (0.89%) SAP Fiori
6 4 (0.71%) CSS
7 3 (0.53%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.53%) ASP.NET
7 3 (0.53%) ASP.NET Core
8 2 (0.36%) Chai
8 2 (0.36%) FHIR
8 2 (0.36%) Jest
8 2 (0.36%) JWT
8 2 (0.36%) Nunjucks
8 2 (0.36%) Play Framework
8 2 (0.36%) PySpark
8 2 (0.36%) SOAP
8 2 (0.36%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 36 (6.39%) Management Information System
2 20 (3.55%) Analytical Mindset
2 20 (3.55%) Freedom of Information
2 20 (3.55%) NHS
3 14 (2.49%) Onboarding
4 13 (2.31%) Product Ownership
5 12 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (1.78%) Cloud Native
6 10 (1.78%) Housing Association
7 9 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (1.24%) Public Cloud
9 5 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.89%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.71%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (0.53%) Cyber Security Posture
11 3 (0.53%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (0.53%) Cyberattack
11 3 (0.53%) Data Structures
11 3 (0.53%) Manufacturing Execution System
11 3 (0.53%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.49%) Windows
2 7 (1.24%) Windows Server
3 6 (1.07%) Windows 10
4 3 (0.53%) 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
1 117 (20.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 110 (19.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 100 (17.76%) Agile
4 85 (15.10%) Continuous Improvement
5 80 (14.21%) Decision-Making
6 69 (12.26%) Service Delivery
7 54 (9.59%) Migration
8 51 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (8.35%) Business Intelligence
10 45 (7.99%) Roadmaps
11 42 (7.46%) Business Analysis
11 42 (7.46%) Project Delivery
11 42 (7.46%) Validation
12 41 (7.28%) Collaborative Working
12 41 (7.28%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 40 (7.10%) Data Protection
14 38 (6.75%) Case Management
14 38 (6.75%) DevOps
14 38 (6.75%) ERP
15 36 (6.39%) AI
Programming Languages
1 42 (7.46%) SQL
2 12 (2.13%) JavaScript
3 11 (1.95%) Python
4 9 (1.60%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.24%) Java
6 6 (1.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (0.71%) C#
7 4 (0.71%) TypeScript
8 3 (0.53%) ABAP
8 3 (0.53%) 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 (8.53%) Security Cleared
2 41 (7.28%) SC Cleared
3 25 (4.44%) Degree
4 13 (2.31%) DBS Check
5 11 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (1.60%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.07%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (1.07%) CISSP
8 5 (0.89%) Azure Certification
8 5 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.71%) CCNP
9 4 (0.71%) CISM
10 3 (0.53%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.53%) CCNA
10 3 (0.53%) CIMA
10 3 (0.53%) CIPFA
10 3 (0.53%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.53%) PMP
11 2 (0.36%) AAT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (8.53%) Data Quality
2 45 (7.99%) GDPR
3 26 (4.62%) Accessibility
4 25 (4.44%) PMO
5 19 (3.37%) QA
6 13 (2.31%) NCSC
6 13 (2.31%) SLA
7 10 (1.78%) WCAG
8 8 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.07%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.71%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.71%) IFRS
10 4 (0.71%) NIST
11 2 (0.36%) GRC
11 2 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 2 (0.36%) PERC
12 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 13 (2.31%) Active Directory
2 10 (1.78%) 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 (2.13%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.53%) Grafana
2 3 (0.53%) 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 93 (16.52%) Microsoft
2 52 (9.24%) Oracle
3 26 (4.62%) SAP
4 18 (3.20%) Liquidlogic
5 16 (2.84%) NEC
6 14 (2.49%) Civica
6 14 (2.49%) ServiceNow
7 12 (2.13%) Google
8 7 (1.24%) Orchard
9 6 (1.07%) Databricks
10 4 (0.71%) Cisco
10 4 (0.71%) Northgate
10 4 (0.71%) Palo Alto
10 4 (0.71%) Splunk
11 3 (0.53%) Infoblox
11 3 (0.53%) Juniper
11 3 (0.53%) Kronos
11 3 (0.53%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.53%) VMware
12 2 (0.36%) Ribbon