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 £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 November 2025.

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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 29 28 32
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 +29
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,075 1,032 1,112
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 6.06% 6.29% 5.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.73% 6.81% 5.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 603 701
10th Percentile £403 £425 £400
25th Percentile £475 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £625
90th Percentile £716 £734 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -0.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 13 25
10th Percentile £62.75 £55.00 £50.88
25th Percentile £72.00 £56.65 £60.82
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -11.17%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.25 £86.50 £84.20
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £72.88
% change year-on-year +12.83% -5.75% +4.11%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 15,976 15,148 19,048
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.99% 92.39% 93.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,872 8,703 12,525
10th Percentile £210 £213 £213
25th Percentile £363 £373 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,575 1,022 1,256
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.11 £14.42
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.12 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.75
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.79% +79.00%
75th Percentile £56.44 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.66 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%

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 28 November 2025.

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 28 November 2025.

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 28 November 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
North of England -7 293 £583 +2.82% 119
South East 0 282 £540 -6.09% 346
North West +4 205 £620 +12.73% 70
Midlands -23 159 £575 +4.55% 82
East of England +11 119 £550 +10.00% 39
West Midlands -15 119 £550 +4.76% 56
South West -1 105 £550 -5.17% 153
Yorkshire -18 81 £480 -20.00% 40
Scotland -6 72 £500 -13.04% 25
East Midlands -17 39 £590 +2.61% 25
Wales +6 34 £405 -32.50% 19
Northern Ireland -8 14 £405 -32.50% 9
North East -9 7 £550 -8.33% 9
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 November 2025, 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.

1 349 (32.47%) Security Cleared
2 280 (26.05%) SAP
2 280 (26.05%) SC Cleared
3 159 (14.79%) SAP S/4HANA
4 129 (12.00%) Migration
5 118 (10.98%) Problem-Solving
6 116 (10.79%) Microsoft
7 114 (10.60%) Oracle
8 110 (10.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 103 (9.58%) Stakeholder Management
10 81 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
11 77 (7.16%) Roadmaps
12 74 (6.88%) ERP
13 71 (6.60%) Agile
14 66 (6.14%) Azure
15 62 (5.77%) Knowledge Transfer
16 60 (5.58%) DV Cleared
17 59 (5.49%) Cybersecurity
18 54 (5.02%) CyberArk
18 54 (5.02%) DevOps
18 54 (5.02%) User Acceptance Testing
18 54 (5.02%) Validation
19 53 (4.93%) Analytics
19 53 (4.93%) Requirements Gathering
20 50 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
20 50 (4.65%) Cisco
20 50 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
20 50 (4.65%) Risk Management
21 48 (4.47%) Business Intelligence
22 47 (4.37%) Collaborative Working

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 26 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.95%) WebLogic
3 18 (1.67%) WebSphere
4 15 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.12%) Confluence
6 7 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
6 7 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 4 (0.37%) Apache
7 4 (0.37%) IIS
8 3 (0.28%) CMS
8 3 (0.28%) MTS
9 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.093%) Camunda
10 1 (0.093%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.093%) SAS
10 1 (0.093%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.093%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.28%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.28%) Revit
7 2 (0.19%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.093%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.093%) InDesign
8 1 (0.093%) InVision
8 1 (0.093%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.093%) Sketch
8 1 (0.093%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 159 (14.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (2.79%) Oracle EBS
3 28 (2.60%) SAP MM
4 24 (2.23%) SAP Payroll
5 23 (2.14%) SAP EWM
5 23 (2.14%) SAP FI
6 22 (2.05%) Oracle Payables
6 22 (2.05%) SAP HCM
7 21 (1.95%) Oracle Receivables
8 20 (1.86%) Oracle EBS R12
9 19 (1.77%) Oracle Cash Management
10 18 (1.67%) Maximo
10 18 (1.67%) SAP WM
11 17 (1.58%) Oracle General Ledger
12 15 (1.40%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 15 (1.40%) SAP HR
12 15 (1.40%) SAP PSCD
13 14 (1.30%) SAP CO
13 14 (1.30%) SAP FI/CO
14 13 (1.21%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 66 (6.14%) Azure
2 37 (3.44%) AWS
3 36 (3.35%) OCI
4 35 (3.26%) Dynamics 365
5 31 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
6 30 (2.79%) Power Platform
7 29 (2.70%) SuccessFactors
8 28 (2.60%) GCP
9 17 (1.58%) Entra ID
10 13 (1.21%) SaaS
10 13 (1.21%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 10 (0.93%) Power Automate
12 9 (0.84%) Snowflake
13 8 (0.74%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (0.74%) OneDrive
13 8 (0.74%) PowerApps
14 6 (0.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (0.56%) PaaS
15 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
16 4 (0.37%) Matillion
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.86%) Firewall
2 9 (0.84%) Network Security
3 7 (0.65%) SSH
4 6 (0.56%) Kerberos
4 6 (0.56%) SD-WAN
4 6 (0.56%) VSAN
4 6 (0.56%) WAN
5 5 (0.47%) DMZ
5 5 (0.47%) VoIP
6 3 (0.28%) BGP
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.28%) DNS
6 3 (0.28%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.28%) Internet
6 3 (0.28%) OSPF
6 3 (0.28%) SAN
6 3 (0.28%) VLAN
6 3 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.05%) Power BI
1 22 (2.05%) SAP HANA
2 19 (1.77%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.49%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (0.93%) Metadata
5 10 (0.93%) Oracle Database
6 9 (0.84%) SAP BW
7 6 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (0.56%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 5 (0.47%) DB2
8 5 (0.47%) SAP Data Services
9 3 (0.28%) Tableau
10 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.19%) MS Access
10 2 (0.19%) Oracle BI EE
10 2 (0.19%) Power Query
10 2 (0.19%) QGIS
10 2 (0.19%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 24 (2.23%) JIRA
2 9 (0.84%) GitLab
3 7 (0.65%) Git
3 7 (0.65%) Hudson
4 2 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
4 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
5 1 (0.093%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.093%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.093%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.093%) LSMW
5 1 (0.093%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.093%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.093%) Visual Studio
General
1 270 (25.12%) Social Skills
2 202 (18.79%) Finance
3 134 (12.47%) Public Sector
4 105 (9.77%) Analytical Skills
5 61 (5.67%) Manufacturing
6 40 (3.72%) Telecoms
7 33 (3.07%) Presentation Skills
8 29 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
9 27 (2.51%) Marketing
10 21 (1.95%) Pharmaceutical
11 19 (1.77%) Billing
11 19 (1.77%) General Ledger
12 16 (1.49%) Local Government
13 15 (1.40%) Electronics
14 12 (1.12%) Banking
15 10 (0.93%) Retail
16 9 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.84%) Legal
17 8 (0.74%) Aerospace
18 6 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.09%) SAP Fiori
2 31 (2.88%) SOAP
3 30 (2.79%) REST
4 29 (2.70%) Oracle Fusion
4 29 (2.70%) Web Services
4 29 (2.70%) XML
5 23 (2.14%) Middleware
6 18 (1.67%) HTML
7 17 (1.58%) .NET
8 16 (1.49%) JSON
8 16 (1.49%) OAuth
9 15 (1.40%) BAPI
10 14 (1.30%) Node.js
10 14 (1.30%) SAP Basis
11 13 (1.21%) LDAP
12 10 (0.93%) SAML
13 9 (0.84%) OAuth2
14 7 (0.65%) SAP TM
14 7 (0.65%) Swagger
14 7 (0.65%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 38 (3.53%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.51%) Legacy Systems
3 16 (1.49%) Data Centre
4 14 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
5 13 (1.21%) Security Posture
6 11 (1.02%) Management Information System
6 11 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 11 (1.02%) Replication
7 10 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (0.74%) Data Structures
8 8 (0.74%) FMCG
9 7 (0.65%) Cloud Native
9 7 (0.65%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.65%) Virtual Team
10 6 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.56%) IoT
11 5 (0.47%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.47%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (0.47%) Private Cloud
12 4 (0.37%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 39 (3.63%) Windows
2 25 (2.33%) Linux
3 10 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.65%) AIX
4 7 (0.65%) Solaris
5 6 (0.56%) Unix
5 6 (0.56%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.37%) VMS
7 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.093%) CentOS
9 1 (0.093%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.093%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.093%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (12.00%) Migration
2 118 (10.98%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (10.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 103 (9.58%) Stakeholder Management
5 81 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
6 77 (7.16%) Roadmaps
7 74 (6.88%) ERP
8 71 (6.60%) Agile
9 62 (5.77%) Knowledge Transfer
10 59 (5.49%) Cybersecurity
11 54 (5.02%) DevOps
11 54 (5.02%) User Acceptance Testing
11 54 (5.02%) Validation
12 53 (4.93%) Analytics
12 53 (4.93%) Requirements Gathering
13 50 (4.65%) Risk Management
14 48 (4.47%) Business Intelligence
15 47 (4.37%) Collaborative Working
15 47 (4.37%) Logistics
16 46 (4.28%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (4.09%) SQL
2 37 (3.44%) ABAP
3 27 (2.51%) Python
4 24 (2.23%) PowerShell
5 18 (1.67%) Java
6 15 (1.40%) C
6 15 (1.40%) C++
7 14 (1.30%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.30%) PHP
8 10 (0.93%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.74%) Bash
9 8 (0.74%) Groovy
10 3 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.28%) VBA
11 2 (0.19%) C#
11 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.19%) X++
12 1 (0.093%) Bicep
12 1 (0.093%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.093%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 349 (32.47%) Security Cleared
2 280 (26.05%) SC Cleared
3 60 (5.58%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 32 (2.98%) Degree
6 28 (2.60%) CISSP
7 23 (2.14%) CISM
8 13 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.12%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (1.12%) SAP Certification
10 10 (0.93%) ACCA
10 10 (0.93%) CIMA
11 9 (0.84%) CCNP
12 8 (0.74%) CESG Certified Professional
13 7 (0.65%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 6 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
14 6 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.37%) CCIE
15 4 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
15 4 (0.37%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 38 (3.53%) NIST
3 35 (3.26%) QA
4 23 (2.14%) GDPR
5 19 (1.77%) Data Quality
6 15 (1.40%) RMADS
7 12 (1.12%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (1.12%) GRC
8 11 (1.02%) NCSC
9 8 (0.74%) NIST 800
10 7 (0.65%) COBIT
10 7 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.65%) PMO
11 6 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.56%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.47%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.47%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.19%) IFRS
14 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 33 (3.07%) Active Directory
2 19 (1.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.21%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.56%) vSphere
5 4 (0.37%) Docker
5 4 (0.37%) UAG
6 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.093%) Ceph
7 1 (0.093%) Firmware
7 1 (0.093%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.093%) IAG
7 1 (0.093%) KVM
7 1 (0.093%) NDS
7 1 (0.093%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.093%) QEMU
7 1 (0.093%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.093%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (1.67%) Terraform
2 14 (1.30%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.93%) PingFederate
4 8 (0.74%) Ansible
4 8 (0.74%) Grafana
4 8 (0.74%) SCCM
5 7 (0.65%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.19%) EnCase
8 2 (0.19%) FTK
8 2 (0.19%) HP ALM
8 2 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
9 1 (0.093%) Puppet
Vendors
1 280 (26.05%) SAP
2 116 (10.79%) Microsoft
3 114 (10.60%) Oracle
4 54 (5.02%) CyberArk
5 50 (4.65%) Cisco
6 39 (3.63%) ServiceNow
7 33 (3.07%) Aruba
8 26 (2.42%) VMware
9 21 (1.95%) Dynatrace
10 19 (1.77%) IBM
11 18 (1.67%) Workday
12 15 (1.40%) Google
13 13 (1.21%) Adobe
13 13 (1.21%) EMC
14 12 (1.12%) Ariba
14 12 (1.12%) IFS
14 12 (1.12%) OpenText
15 11 (1.02%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.74%) Remedy
17 7 (0.65%) Dell