Local government officer: Employers and vacancy sources

Local councils/authorities are the sole employer of local government officers. However, local government is one of the largest graduate employers in the country, with 478 local councils in the UK, employing over two million people in over 600 different occupational roles. Local government is a huge service provider covering areas such as education, leisure, property, emergency services, housing, community, environmental and social services. Education alone employs over 900,000 people and corporate services include functions such as:

• finance, administration and secretarial services;
• personnel;
• management services;
• legal services;
• IT;
• central offices' cleaning and maintenance services;
• registration of births, deaths and marriages.

Local government roles are affected by any downturn in the national economy and job cuts can occur when funding is low and budgets need to be trimmed down.

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• Local Government Jobs  - the official recruitment website for local government advertising over 1,500 jobs every week in over 200 councils.
• Local Government Association (LGA)  
• Local Government Careers  
• Opportunities: The Public Sector Media  
• jobsgopublic  
• sector1  
• Guardian Jobs  
• National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP)  
• Local and regional press.
• Local authority websites, which often have additional information to adverts that are in local or national press.

Recruitment agencies also handle vacancies. See the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)  website for details.

Many local authorities also produce internal vacancy bulletins, so gaining casual term-time work or even taking a post to get 'a foot in the door' could be used to find those otherwise hidden vacancies.

Get tips on job hunting, CVs and cover letters and interviews.