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 5 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 263 192 298
Rank change year-on-year -71 +106 +121
Contract jobs citing Local Government 363 487 340
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.35% 0.76%
As % of the General category 1.60% 2.24% 1.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 245 245
10th Percentile £339 £300 £264
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £470 £455
Median % change year-on-year +6.38% +3.30% +1.11%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £653 £605 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +8.33% - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 38 43
10th Percentile £20.75 £20.13 £16.20
25th Percentile £25.00 £21.25 £18.35
Median hourly rate £30.63 £30.18 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.49% +37.16% -1.83%
75th Percentile £52.50 £33.75 £26.29
90th Percentile £57.50 £39.22 £31.71
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £25.18 £20.07
% change year-on-year -0.71% +25.46% -4.43%

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 common skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 22,682 21,707 26,789
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 62.15% 60.09% 59.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,252 12,898 17,761
10th Percentile £275 £294 £285
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £756 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.61% -2.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,444 788 1,123
10th Percentile £13.81 £15.21 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.82 £18.00 £16.85
Median hourly rate £24.00 £27.50 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year -12.73% -13.28% +26.84%
75th Percentile £45.46 £53.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.25 £70.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.11 £26.00 £28.92
% change year-on-year -14.95% -10.11% +31.45%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Local Government in the UK

Local Government
Top 17 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 5 December 2025. 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 -96 302 £500 +9.65% 250
UK excluding London -106 162 £488 +8.33% 232
London -43 148 £500 +5.26% 48
Work from Home -14 131 £500 +5.26% 160
North of England -57 43 £450 -10.00% 52
South West -50 35 £435 -3.33% 23
North West -32 33 £450 -10.00% 29
Midlands -34 27 £600 +20.00% 51
South East -21 26 £400 -5.88% 62
East Midlands -7 14 £288 -42.21% 16
Scotland +11 13 £500 -16.67% 6
West Midlands -32 13 £600 +14.29% 34
Yorkshire -31 9 £450 -7.69% 21
East of England -37 9 £500 +37.93% 34
Channel Islands - 5 £725 -
Wales -3 4 - - 8
North East -8 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 14 (3.86%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.83%) ArcGIS
3 3 (0.83%) CMS
3 3 (0.83%) Confluence
Applications
1 23 (6.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.10%) Trello
4 3 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.28%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 22 (6.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.48%) NEC Housing
3 7 (1.93%) iTrent
4 6 (1.65%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (1.38%) SAP ERP
6 4 (1.10%) Unit4 Business World
7 2 (0.55%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.55%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.28%) Academy Housing
8 1 (0.28%) ContrOCC
8 1 (0.28%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle Payroll
8 1 (0.28%) Primavera
8 1 (0.28%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 42 (11.57%) Azure
2 30 (8.26%) Power Platform
3 19 (5.23%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (3.03%) SuccessFactors
5 10 (2.75%) AWS
5 10 (2.75%) Entra ID
5 10 (2.75%) SaaS
6 7 (1.93%) OCI
6 7 (1.93%) PowerApps
7 6 (1.65%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (1.65%) IaaS
8 5 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (1.10%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (1.10%) PaaS
10 3 (0.83%) Miro
10 3 (0.83%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.55%) Azure Functions
11 2 (0.55%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (0.55%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.55%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.68%) Firewall
2 12 (3.31%) WAN
3 10 (2.75%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (1.93%) SAN
4 7 (1.93%) TCP/IP
4 7 (1.93%) VPN
5 6 (1.65%) Wireless
6 5 (1.38%) LAN
6 5 (1.38%) SD-WAN
7 4 (1.10%) DNS
7 4 (1.10%) Internet
7 4 (1.10%) VLAN
8 3 (0.83%) DHCP
8 3 (0.83%) Network Security
9 2 (0.55%) BGP
9 2 (0.55%) Broadband
9 2 (0.55%) EIGRP
9 2 (0.55%) OSPF
9 2 (0.55%) SNMP
9 2 (0.55%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (7.71%) Power BI
2 9 (2.48%) GIS
2 9 (2.48%) SQL Server
3 8 (2.20%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (1.38%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.10%) Data Vault
5 4 (1.10%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (1.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 4 (1.10%) Tableau
6 3 (0.83%) Power Query
6 3 (0.83%) Star Schema
7 2 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
7 2 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.55%) Metadata
7 2 (0.55%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.55%) QGIS
7 2 (0.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.28%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.28%) QlikView
8 1 (0.28%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 6 (1.65%) JIRA
2 3 (0.83%) Oracle APEX
3 1 (0.28%) Eclipse
3 1 (0.28%) Selenium
3 1 (0.28%) SpecFlow
General
1 135 (37.19%) Public Sector
2 82 (22.59%) Social Skills
3 81 (22.31%) Finance
4 34 (9.37%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (6.89%) Law
6 17 (4.68%) Fire and Rescue
7 11 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (3.03%) Legal
7 11 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (1.93%) Back Office
9 5 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.38%) Police
10 3 (0.83%) Publishing
11 2 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.55%) Retail
11 2 (0.55%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.55%) Welsh Language
12 1 (0.28%) Front Office
12 1 (0.28%) Social Housing
12 1 (0.28%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 57 (15.70%) Analyst
2 42 (11.57%) Senior
3 37 (10.19%) Lead
4 25 (6.89%) Business Analyst
5 24 (6.61%) Project Manager
6 23 (6.34%) Consultant
7 21 (5.79%) Architect
8 20 (5.51%) Support Officer
9 15 (4.13%) Project Officer
10 12 (3.31%) Applications Support
11 9 (2.48%) Developer
11 9 (2.48%) Migration Specialist
11 9 (2.48%) Programme Manager
12 8 (2.20%) Data Analyst
12 8 (2.20%) Data Architect
12 8 (2.20%) Support Analyst
13 7 (1.93%) Data Manager
13 7 (1.93%) Network Engineer
13 7 (1.93%) SAP Analyst
13 7 (1.93%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.75%) EDI
2 7 (1.93%) Oracle Fusion
3 5 (1.38%) Middleware
4 3 (0.83%) HTML
5 2 (0.55%) CSS
5 2 (0.55%) REST
6 1 (0.28%) .NET
6 1 (0.28%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.28%) FHIR
6 1 (0.28%) HTML5 Canvas
6 1 (0.28%) JSON
6 1 (0.28%) OAuth
6 1 (0.28%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.34%) Management Information System
2 19 (5.23%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (3.86%) Public Cloud
4 10 (2.75%) NHS
5 8 (2.20%) Housing Association
6 7 (1.93%) Data Centre
6 7 (1.93%) Data Structures
7 3 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (0.83%) Clustering
7 3 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (0.83%) Onboarding
7 3 (0.83%) Product Ownership
7 3 (0.83%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 2 (0.55%) CCTV
8 2 (0.55%) Cyber Security Posture
8 2 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.55%) IVR
8 2 (0.55%) Reference Data
8 2 (0.55%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.55%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.48%) Windows
2 6 (1.65%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.28%) Android
3 1 (0.28%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.28%) VMS
3 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (15.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 54 (14.88%) Migration
3 49 (13.50%) Project Management
4 48 (13.22%) ERP
5 38 (10.47%) Data Migration
6 36 (9.92%) Problem-Solving
7 35 (9.64%) Agile
8 33 (9.09%) Stakeholder Management
9 32 (8.82%) Decision-Making
10 30 (8.26%) Business Intelligence
11 29 (7.99%) User Acceptance Testing
12 27 (7.44%) Change Management
13 24 (6.61%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 24 (6.61%) Roadmaps
14 22 (6.06%) Collaborative Working
14 22 (6.06%) Data Management
14 22 (6.06%) PRINCE2
14 22 (6.06%) Risk Management
15 21 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
15 21 (5.79%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 36 (9.92%) SQL
2 9 (2.48%) Python
3 4 (1.10%) Data Analysis Expressions
3 4 (1.10%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.10%) R
4 3 (0.83%) C#
5 2 (0.55%) Bicep
5 2 (0.55%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.28%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.28%) VBA
Qualifications
1 21 (5.79%) Degree
2 19 (5.23%) DBS Check
3 10 (2.75%) Security Cleared
4 8 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (2.20%) CISSP
4 8 (2.20%) SC Cleared
5 7 (1.93%) HND
6 6 (1.65%) CCAB
6 6 (1.65%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (1.65%) CISM
6 6 (1.65%) ISTQB
7 5 (1.38%) CCNP
8 4 (1.10%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.10%) CCNA
8 4 (1.10%) CISA
8 4 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (1.10%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
9 3 (0.83%) JNCIA
9 3 (0.83%) JNCIP
9 3 (0.83%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (5.23%) Data Quality
2 13 (3.58%) GDPR
2 13 (3.58%) QA
3 12 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (3.03%) PMO
5 9 (2.48%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (2.20%) Accessibility
7 6 (1.65%) SLA
8 5 (1.38%) NCSC
8 5 (1.38%) NIST
9 3 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.28%) HL7
11 1 (0.28%) IFRS
11 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 11 (3.03%) Active Directory
2 8 (2.20%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (0.55%) vSphere
4 1 (0.28%) Docker
4 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (1.65%) FortiGate
3 4 (1.10%) CSIRT
3 4 (1.10%) QRadar
3 4 (1.10%) SCCM
4 2 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.55%) Terraform
5 1 (0.28%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 62 (17.08%) Microsoft
2 37 (10.19%) Oracle
3 36 (9.92%) SAP
4 13 (3.58%) VMware
5 10 (2.75%) Liquidlogic
5 10 (2.75%) NEC
6 6 (1.65%) Palo Alto
7 5 (1.38%) Cisco
7 5 (1.38%) Fortinet
7 5 (1.38%) HP
7 5 (1.38%) Splunk
7 5 (1.38%) Workday
8 4 (1.10%) Capita
8 4 (1.10%) Citrix
8 4 (1.10%) ESRI
9 3 (0.83%) Juniper
9 3 (0.83%) OneLogin
9 3 (0.83%) ServiceNow
9 3 (0.83%) SolarWinds
10 2 (0.55%) Meraki