Consultant Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Consultant
UK > UK excluding London

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK excluding London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 34 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,397 808 1,112
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.05% 5.24% 6.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.51% 5.82% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 813 511 691
10th Percentile £400 £413 £413
25th Percentile £456 £486 £478
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £567
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.00% +8.00%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £59.34 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £83.94 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £100.40 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 25,361 13,894 16,642
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.62% 90.07% 92.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,227 8,511 9,919
10th Percentile £304 £213 £220
25th Percentile £413 £362 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,094 1,261 1,563
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.46 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.30 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.04
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.89% +13.95%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.99 £66.16
90th Percentile £78.75 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.96%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 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
South East -1 397 £540 -1.82% 193
North of England -6 327 £572 +3.91% 118
Midlands +7 255 £500 -9.09% 83
North West -4 213 £572 -0.61% 80
South West +13 209 £550 -8.33% 124
West Midlands +15 182 £481 -12.50% 69
Scotland +33 123 £450 -7.69% 44
Yorkshire -14 93 £563 +9.76% 23
East of England -13 84 £531 -3.41% 67
East Midlands -2 66 £525 -4.55% 11
Wales -16 22 £550 +22.22% 8
North East -29 20 £750 +38.89% 15
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 31
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 31 August 2026, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 412 (29.49%) Security Cleared
2 326 (23.34%) SAP
3 275 (19.69%) SC Cleared
4 205 (14.67%) Stakeholder Management
5 190 (13.60%) Microsoft
6 156 (11.17%) Migration
7 152 (10.88%) Oracle
8 143 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 130 (9.31%) Cybersecurity
10 127 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
11 124 (8.88%) Continuous Improvement
12 121 (8.66%) Azure
13 120 (8.59%) ERP
14 115 (8.23%) SQL
15 107 (7.66%) DV Cleared
16 101 (7.23%) Validation
17 99 (7.09%) Workshop Facilitation
18 98 (7.02%) SAP S/4HANA
19 93 (6.66%) User Acceptance Testing
20 85 (6.08%) AWS
20 85 (6.08%) Roadmaps
21 81 (5.80%) Agile
22 75 (5.37%) Analytics
23 73 (5.23%) Data Migration
24 68 (4.87%) Knowledge Transfer
25 65 (4.65%) Risk Management
26 63 (4.51%) Requirements Gathering
27 61 (4.37%) Power Platform
27 61 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements
27 61 (4.37%) Windows

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 27 (1.93%) Confluence
2 14 (1.00%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.64%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.57%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.21%) Apache
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.072%) SAS
8 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (2.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 98 (7.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.29%) SAP PSCD
3 24 (1.72%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.57%) Oracle EBS
4 22 (1.57%) SAP MM
5 20 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
5 20 (1.43%) SAP EWM
6 17 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
6 17 (1.22%) SAP Payroll
6 17 (1.22%) SAP SD
7 16 (1.15%) SAP FI
7 16 (1.15%) SAP QM
7 16 (1.15%) Workday HCM
8 13 (0.93%) SAP PP
9 11 (0.79%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.79%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.79%) SAP HR
9 11 (0.79%) Teamcenter
10 10 (0.72%) SAP FI/CO
10 10 (0.72%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 121 (8.66%) Azure
2 85 (6.08%) AWS
3 61 (4.37%) Power Platform
4 60 (4.29%) SuccessFactors
5 55 (3.94%) Dynamics 365
6 50 (3.58%) GCP
7 47 (3.36%) OCI
8 34 (2.43%) Microsoft 365
9 29 (2.08%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.72%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.07%) SaaS
12 12 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.86%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.72%) GitHub
14 10 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.15%) Network Security
2 23 (1.65%) Firewall
3 20 (1.43%) SNMP
4 12 (0.86%) BGP
4 12 (0.86%) WAN
5 8 (0.57%) DNS
5 8 (0.57%) VPN
6 7 (0.50%) LAN
6 7 (0.50%) VSAN
6 7 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.43%) SAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.29%) DHCP
8 4 (0.29%) Wireless
9 3 (0.21%) FTP
9 3 (0.21%) HTTP
9 3 (0.21%) MPLS
9 3 (0.21%) SMS
9 3 (0.21%) TACACS
9 3 (0.21%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.58%) Power BI
2 28 (2.00%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.22%) SAP HANA
4 16 (1.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 16 (1.15%) SAP BW
5 15 (1.07%) Oracle ODI
6 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.79%) Tableau
8 10 (0.72%) Metadata
9 9 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
10 8 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
11 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
11 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
12 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
13 5 (0.36%) Power Query
14 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.21%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.21%) RDBMS
14 3 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.44%) JIRA
2 11 (0.79%) Git
3 10 (0.72%) Hudson
4 8 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.21%) Toad
6 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) GitLab
7 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.14%) Postman
7 2 (0.14%) TestRail
7 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.072%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.072%) JMeter
8 1 (0.072%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 331 (23.69%) Social Skills
2 263 (18.83%) Finance
3 123 (8.80%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (8.09%) Public Sector
5 57 (4.08%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
6 31 (2.22%) Legal
6 31 (2.22%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.15%) General Ledger
8 27 (1.93%) Banking
9 26 (1.86%) Telecoms
10 20 (1.43%) Billing
11 19 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (1.36%) Retail
12 15 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (0.86%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.86%) Marketing
14 11 (0.79%) Aerospace
15 9 (0.64%) Advertising
15 9 (0.64%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (3.15%) REST
2 33 (2.36%) Oracle Fusion
3 29 (2.08%) XML
4 22 (1.57%) Terraform
5 21 (1.50%) SOAP
6 17 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
7 16 (1.15%) Middleware
8 15 (1.07%) LDAP
9 14 (1.00%) SailPoint
10 12 (0.86%) Web Services
11 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
12 8 (0.57%) SAP Basis
13 6 (0.43%) EDI
13 6 (0.43%) IDoc
13 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
14 5 (0.36%) JDBC
14 5 (0.36%) JSON
14 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
14 5 (0.36%) RESTful
14 5 (0.36%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 43 (3.08%) Onboarding
2 28 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.72%) CMDB
4 23 (1.65%) Operational Technology
4 23 (1.65%) Security Posture
5 15 (1.07%) Product Ownership
5 15 (1.07%) Replication
6 13 (0.93%) PKI
7 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
8 11 (0.79%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.79%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.79%) Data Structures
9 10 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (0.72%) Learning Management System
10 9 (0.64%) FMCG
10 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
11 8 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
11 8 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (0.57%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 61 (4.37%) Windows
2 47 (3.36%) Linux
3 17 (1.22%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 12 (0.86%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.72%) Unix
7 8 (0.57%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.072%) Android
10 1 (0.072%) CoreOS
10 1 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.072%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (14.67%) Stakeholder Management
2 156 (11.17%) Migration
3 143 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 130 (9.31%) Cybersecurity
5 127 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
6 124 (8.88%) Continuous Improvement
7 120 (8.59%) ERP
8 101 (7.23%) Validation
9 99 (7.09%) Workshop Facilitation
10 93 (6.66%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.08%) Roadmaps
12 81 (5.80%) Agile
13 75 (5.37%) Analytics
14 73 (5.23%) Data Migration
15 68 (4.87%) Knowledge Transfer
16 65 (4.65%) Risk Management
17 63 (4.51%) Requirements Gathering
18 61 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements
19 58 (4.15%) Project Delivery
20 57 (4.08%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 115 (8.23%) SQL
2 57 (4.08%) Python
3 30 (2.15%) PowerShell
4 29 (2.08%) ABAP
5 24 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 20 (1.43%) T-SQL
7 17 (1.22%) JavaScript
8 15 (1.07%) Search Processing Language
9 13 (0.93%) Java
10 12 (0.86%) Bash
11 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
12 6 (0.43%) C#
12 6 (0.43%) R
13 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.14%) Korn
13 2 (0.14%) Magik
13 2 (0.14%) Perl
13 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 412 (29.49%) Security Cleared
2 275 (19.69%) SC Cleared
3 107 (7.66%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.22%) CISSP
5 51 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.29%) CISM
7 35 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 27 (1.93%) Degree
10 26 (1.86%) CCSP
11 13 (0.93%) ACCA
11 13 (0.93%) CIMA
12 11 (0.79%) PMP
13 10 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.72%) CRISC
14 9 (0.64%) CEH
14 9 (0.64%) OSCP
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.50%) CCSK
16 7 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (3.44%) NIST
2 44 (3.15%) GRC
3 41 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.51%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.65%) QA
6 16 (1.15%) SLA
7 15 (1.07%) GDPR
8 14 (1.00%) NCSC
9 13 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 11 (0.79%) PMO
11 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.43%) COBIT
13 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.43%) RMADS
14 5 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.29%) WCAG
16 3 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 46 (3.29%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.15%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.93%) vSphere
6 9 (0.64%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
9 3 (0.21%) Firmware
10 2 (0.14%) IAG
10 2 (0.14%) NFS
11 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 25 (1.79%) Kubernetes
2 19 (1.36%) Ansible
3 13 (0.93%) Nagios
3 13 (0.93%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.86%) Netcool
4 12 (0.86%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.79%) OpenView
5 11 (0.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.79%) vRealize
6 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.29%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.29%) SCCM
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 326 (23.34%) SAP
2 190 (13.60%) Microsoft
3 152 (10.88%) Oracle
4 59 (4.22%) ServiceNow
5 35 (2.51%) VMware
6 28 (2.00%) Splunk
7 20 (1.43%) Salesforce
8 19 (1.36%) Workday
9 18 (1.29%) BMC
10 17 (1.22%) Ariba
11 16 (1.15%) IBM
12 15 (1.07%) Databricks
13 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
14 13 (0.93%) SolarWinds
15 12 (0.86%) HP
16 10 (0.72%) CyberArk
16 10 (0.72%) Google
17 9 (0.64%) Informatica
17 9 (0.64%) Veeam
18 8 (0.57%) Cisco