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 16 October 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 29 25
Rank change year-on-year -9 -4 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,345 985 1,065
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.72% 6.16% 6.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.20% 6.87% 6.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 769 599 615
10th Percentile £413 £413 £420
25th Percentile £463 £492 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year - -1.79% +6.67%
75th Percentile £650 £645 £638
90th Percentile £722 £719 £740
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 24 17
10th Percentile £36.00 £31.61 £55.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £61.56 -
Median hourly rate £75.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +25.81% -3.97%
75th Percentile £82.88 £81.25 £73.56
90th Percentile £90.75 £86.88 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £74.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -4.52% +25.81% -6.67%

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 25,889 14,338 15,965
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.89% 89.63% 92.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,936 8,800 9,095
10th Percentile £300 £208 £220
25th Percentile £412 £363 £371
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £670 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,613 1,363 1,199
10th Percentile £14.21 £13.57 £14.73
25th Percentile £18.45 £16.50 £19.50
Median hourly rate £40.32 £25.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.28% -39.76% -6.74%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.47
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.92 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £41.08
% change year-on-year +63.24% -38.77% -8.72%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 16 October 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 -3 382 £533 -3.18% 117
North of England -16 346 £575 -4.17% 101
North West -15 225 £585 -6.02% 49
Midlands -7 220 £501 -12.96% 34
South West +5 184 £600 +8.84% 59
West Midlands -3 162 £500 -11.11% 26
Scotland +6 115 £500 - 20
East of England -15 108 £552 +0.36% 18
Yorkshire -22 91 £563 +10.62% 17
East Midlands -7 51 £550 -4.35% 8
North East -14 29 £750 +36.36% 35
Wales -25 19 £575 +27.78% 6
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 -
Northern Ireland -10 1 £638 +22.60% 4
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 October 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.

1 420 (31.23%) Security Cleared
2 341 (25.35%) SAP
3 273 (20.30%) SC Cleared
4 252 (18.74%) Stakeholder Management
5 203 (15.09%) Microsoft
6 171 (12.71%) Migration
7 135 (10.04%) Problem-Solving
8 134 (9.96%) Azure
8 134 (9.96%) Cybersecurity
9 133 (9.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 124 (9.22%) Oracle
10 124 (9.22%) SAP S/4HANA
11 117 (8.70%) Validation
12 111 (8.25%) Continuous Improvement
12 111 (8.25%) Workshop Facilitation
13 107 (7.96%) DV Cleared
14 103 (7.66%) ERP
15 101 (7.51%) User Acceptance Testing
16 83 (6.17%) Analytics
16 83 (6.17%) Roadmaps
17 79 (5.87%) Agile
18 78 (5.80%) Data Migration
19 75 (5.58%) Knowledge Transfer
20 71 (5.28%) AWS
21 70 (5.20%) Requirements Gathering
22 67 (4.98%) SQL
23 64 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
24 62 (4.61%) SuccessFactors
25 59 (4.39%) Windows
26 57 (4.24%) Active Directory

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 25 (1.86%) Confluence
2 21 (1.56%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.59%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.52%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.22%) SAP Portal
5 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 2 (0.15%) Apache
6 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.074%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.074%) IIS
7 1 (0.074%) JBoss
7 1 (0.074%) OpenEdge
7 1 (0.074%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.074%) SAS
7 1 (0.074%) Tomcat
Applications
1 26 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.67%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.22%) PTC Creo
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.074%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 124 (9.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.75%) SAP PSCD
3 36 (2.68%) SAP Payroll
4 31 (2.30%) SAP HCM
5 25 (1.86%) SAP HR
6 23 (1.71%) SAP FI
7 22 (1.64%) Oracle ERP
7 22 (1.64%) Teamcenter
8 20 (1.49%) Workday HCM
9 19 (1.41%) Oracle Receivables
10 18 (1.34%) Oracle Payables
11 16 (1.19%) SAP BRIM
12 13 (0.97%) Oracle EBS
12 13 (0.97%) Oracle General Ledger
12 13 (0.97%) SAP EWM
12 13 (0.97%) SAP Hybris
12 13 (0.97%) SAP QM
13 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
13 11 (0.82%) SAP FI/CO
13 11 (0.82%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 134 (9.96%) Azure
2 71 (5.28%) AWS
3 62 (4.61%) SuccessFactors
4 57 (4.24%) Dynamics 365
5 50 (3.72%) GCP
5 50 (3.72%) Power Platform
6 41 (3.05%) Microsoft 365
6 41 (3.05%) OCI
7 34 (2.53%) Entra ID
8 20 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (1.41%) Power Automate
9 19 (1.41%) SaaS
10 17 (1.26%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 11 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
12 10 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
13 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
13 9 (0.67%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 9 (0.67%) PowerApps
14 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
15 7 (0.52%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.30%) Network Security
2 21 (1.56%) Firewall
3 12 (0.89%) BGP
3 12 (0.89%) SNMP
4 11 (0.82%) WAN
5 9 (0.67%) VPN
6 7 (0.52%) DNS
6 7 (0.52%) FTP
6 7 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.45%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.30%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.30%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
11 2 (0.15%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (1.71%) Power BI
2 16 (1.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 15 (1.12%) Oracle Reports
3 15 (1.12%) SAP BW
3 15 (1.12%) SAP HANA
4 11 (0.82%) Metadata
4 11 (0.82%) SQL Server
5 9 (0.67%) BusinessObjects
6 6 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.45%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.37%) Power Query
8 4 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
8 4 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (0.30%) Tableau
9 3 (0.22%) GIS
9 3 (0.22%) NonStop SQL
9 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 43 (3.20%) JIRA
2 17 (1.26%) Git
3 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.30%) GitLab
4 4 (0.30%) Hudson
5 2 (0.15%) Gradle
5 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
5 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.15%) LSMW
5 2 (0.15%) Maven
5 2 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.15%) Postman
5 2 (0.15%) TestRail
5 2 (0.15%) Toad
5 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
5 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
6 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.074%) JMeter
6 1 (0.074%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.074%) Oracle APEX
General
1 345 (25.65%) Social Skills
2 263 (19.55%) Finance
3 124 (9.22%) Public Sector
4 108 (8.03%) Analytical Skills
5 69 (5.13%) Manufacturing
6 41 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (2.53%) Telecoms
8 33 (2.45%) Legal
9 30 (2.23%) Billing
9 30 (2.23%) General Ledger
10 29 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
11 24 (1.78%) Banking
12 19 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
13 18 (1.34%) Retail
14 17 (1.26%) Aerospace
15 14 (1.04%) Financial Institution
15 14 (1.04%) Marketing
16 12 (0.89%) Military
16 12 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (2.60%) REST
2 34 (2.53%) Oracle Fusion
3 21 (1.56%) Middleware
3 21 (1.56%) SOAP
4 20 (1.49%) Terraform
5 19 (1.41%) Web Services
6 18 (1.34%) SailPoint
7 16 (1.19%) SAP Fiori
8 15 (1.12%) LDAP
9 12 (0.89%) XML
10 11 (0.82%) SAPUI5
11 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
12 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Graph
12 7 (0.52%) XSLT
13 6 (0.45%) SAP Basis
14 5 (0.37%) IDoc
14 5 (0.37%) JDBC
14 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
14 5 (0.37%) SLSA
15 4 (0.30%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 51 (3.79%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.01%) Operational Technology
3 23 (1.71%) CMDB
4 20 (1.49%) Security Posture
5 17 (1.26%) Data Structures
5 17 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (1.04%) Management Information System
7 14 (1.04%) PKI
7 14 (1.04%) Product Ownership
8 12 (0.89%) Data Centre
8 12 (0.89%) Learning Management System
9 11 (0.82%) Cloud Native
10 9 (0.67%) AI Agents
11 8 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (0.52%) Replication
13 6 (0.45%) FMCG
13 6 (0.45%) Public Cloud
13 6 (0.45%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 59 (4.39%) Windows
2 32 (2.38%) Linux
3 15 (1.12%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.97%) Solaris
5 9 (0.67%) Unix
6 6 (0.45%) AIX
7 5 (0.37%) VMS
8 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.22%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.15%) Android
10 2 (0.15%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.074%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 252 (18.74%) Stakeholder Management
2 171 (12.71%) Migration
3 135 (10.04%) Problem-Solving
4 134 (9.96%) Cybersecurity
5 133 (9.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 117 (8.70%) Validation
7 111 (8.25%) Continuous Improvement
7 111 (8.25%) Workshop Facilitation
8 103 (7.66%) ERP
9 101 (7.51%) User Acceptance Testing
10 83 (6.17%) Analytics
10 83 (6.17%) Roadmaps
11 79 (5.87%) Agile
12 78 (5.80%) Data Migration
13 75 (5.58%) Knowledge Transfer
14 70 (5.20%) Requirements Gathering
15 57 (4.24%) AI
15 57 (4.24%) Risk Management
15 57 (4.24%) Vulnerability Management
16 54 (4.01%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 67 (4.98%) SQL
2 43 (3.20%) Python
3 41 (3.05%) ABAP
4 25 (1.86%) PowerShell
5 18 (1.34%) Java
6 14 (1.04%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.97%) Bash
8 8 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (0.59%) PL/SQL
9 7 (0.52%) Search Processing Language
10 5 (0.37%) C#
11 4 (0.30%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.15%) C++
13 2 (0.15%) Groovy
13 2 (0.15%) Korn
13 2 (0.15%) Magik
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 420 (31.23%) Security Cleared
2 273 (20.30%) SC Cleared
3 107 (7.96%) DV Cleared
4 64 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
5 46 (3.42%) CISSP
6 39 (2.90%) CISM
7 32 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
8 27 (2.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (1.71%) CCSP
10 21 (1.56%) Degree
11 12 (0.89%) ACCA
11 12 (0.89%) CIMA
11 12 (0.89%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (0.74%) CRISC
13 8 (0.59%) DBS Check
13 8 (0.59%) PMP
14 6 (0.45%) CEH
14 6 (0.45%) CISA
14 6 (0.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 6 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (2.97%) NIST
2 38 (2.83%) Data Quality
3 35 (2.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 34 (2.53%) GRC
5 23 (1.71%) QA
6 20 (1.49%) NCSC
7 17 (1.26%) SLA
8 15 (1.12%) GDPR
9 12 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.89%) PMO
10 8 (0.59%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.52%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.45%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.37%) ISO 14001
13 5 (0.37%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 4 (0.30%) COBIT
14 4 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 57 (4.24%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (0.97%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.89%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.74%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.59%) Docker
6 8 (0.59%) Firmware
7 5 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
8 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.15%) IAG
10 1 (0.074%) Corosync
10 1 (0.074%) NFS
10 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 29 (2.16%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.19%) Ansible
3 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
4 9 (0.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 8 (0.59%) vRealize
6 7 (0.52%) Grafana
7 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.45%) SCCM
7 6 (0.45%) VxRail
8 5 (0.37%) Nagios
8 5 (0.37%) ZABBIX
9 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.30%) Netcool
9 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.30%) Tivoli
10 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.22%) OpenView
10 3 (0.22%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 341 (25.35%) SAP
2 203 (15.09%) Microsoft
3 124 (9.22%) Oracle
4 55 (4.09%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.30%) Workday
6 29 (2.16%) VMware
7 22 (1.64%) Salesforce
8 19 (1.41%) Splunk
9 14 (1.04%) JD Edwards
10 12 (0.89%) Concur
10 12 (0.89%) CyberArk
10 12 (0.89%) Google
11 11 (0.82%) Databricks
12 10 (0.74%) BMC
13 8 (0.59%) IBM
13 8 (0.59%) Veeam
14 7 (0.52%) Epicor
14 7 (0.52%) OpenAI
14 7 (0.52%) Qualtrics
15 6 (0.45%) Okta