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 15 November 2025.

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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 27 34
Rank change year-on-year 0 +7 +27
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,073 1,041 1,124
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 6.17% 6.24% 5.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.87% 6.77% 5.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 684 608 715
10th Percentile £403 £425 £390
25th Percentile £476 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -6.25%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £625
90th Percentile £716 £734 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 14 23
10th Percentile £52.40 £55.00 £50.00
25th Percentile £66.75 £57.89 £58.20
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% +5.67% -10.34%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.13 £86.00 £85.60
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £68.00 £67.75
% change year-on-year +13.97% +0.37% -4.91%

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 15,618 15,385 19,532
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.75% 92.25% 93.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,681 8,827 12,943
10th Percentile £207 £220 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,532 1,057 1,264
10th Percentile £13.75 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.22 £20.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +85.26%
75th Percentile £53.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +58.28%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -5 296 £581 +2.47% 229
South East +3 277 £537 -2.36% 374
North West 0 204 £620 +12.73% 139
Midlands -23 153 £575 +4.55% 120
East of England +19 121 £550 +4.76% 72
South West 0 109 £551 -8.13% 203
West Midlands -25 109 £575 +9.52% 84
Yorkshire -9 85 £475 -20.83% 68
Scotland -7 72 £500 -11.50% 34
East Midlands -15 43 £600 +4.35% 34
Wales +9 34 £405 -32.50% 20
Northern Ireland -8 14 £405 -32.50% 14
North East -14 7 £550 -8.33% 22
South Coast -1 2 £525 -
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 353 (32.90%) Security Cleared
2 288 (26.84%) SC Cleared
3 279 (26.00%) SAP
4 158 (14.73%) SAP S/4HANA
5 125 (11.65%) Migration
6 122 (11.37%) Microsoft
7 117 (10.90%) Problem-Solving
8 112 (10.44%) Oracle
9 108 (10.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 99 (9.23%) Stakeholder Management
11 80 (7.46%) Roadmaps
12 76 (7.08%) Workshop Facilitation
13 74 (6.90%) ERP
14 68 (6.34%) Agile
15 64 (5.96%) Cybersecurity
16 62 (5.78%) Azure
17 59 (5.50%) DevOps
18 57 (5.31%) Analytics
19 56 (5.22%) DV Cleared
19 56 (5.22%) Knowledge Transfer
20 55 (5.13%) CyberArk
20 55 (5.13%) Requirements Gathering
21 54 (5.03%) Cisco
21 54 (5.03%) Validation
22 53 (4.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
22 53 (4.94%) Risk Management
23 50 (4.66%) BPSS Clearance
24 48 (4.47%) Business Intelligence
24 48 (4.47%) Collaborative Working
25 46 (4.29%) SQL

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 23 (2.14%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.96%) WebLogic
2 21 (1.96%) WebSphere
3 15 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (1.12%) Confluence
5 7 (0.65%) Apache
5 7 (0.65%) IIS
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 4 (0.37%) CMS
7 3 (0.28%) MTS
8 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.093%) Camunda
9 1 (0.093%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.093%) SAS
9 1 (0.093%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.093%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (1.49%) 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%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.093%) Sketch
8 1 (0.093%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 158 (14.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (2.70%) Oracle EBS
3 28 (2.61%) SAP MM
4 24 (2.24%) SAP Payroll
5 23 (2.14%) SAP EWM
6 22 (2.05%) SAP FI
6 22 (2.05%) SAP HCM
7 21 (1.96%) Maximo
7 21 (1.96%) Oracle EBS R12
8 18 (1.68%) Oracle Payables
8 18 (1.68%) SAP WM
9 15 (1.40%) Oracle Cash Management
9 15 (1.40%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.40%) SAP HR
10 14 (1.30%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 14 (1.30%) SAP CO
10 14 (1.30%) SAP FI/CO
11 12 (1.12%) SAP PSCD
12 11 (1.03%) Oracle General Ledger
12 11 (1.03%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 62 (5.78%) Azure
2 41 (3.82%) AWS
3 36 (3.36%) OCI
4 33 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
5 31 (2.89%) Dynamics 365
6 29 (2.70%) GCP
6 29 (2.70%) Power Platform
6 29 (2.70%) SuccessFactors
7 19 (1.77%) Entra ID
8 12 (1.12%) SaaS
9 11 (1.03%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 9 (0.84%) Power Automate
10 9 (0.84%) Snowflake
11 8 (0.75%) OneDrive
11 8 (0.75%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (0.56%) PaaS
13 5 (0.47%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
14 4 (0.37%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.96%) Firewall
2 13 (1.21%) Network Security
3 7 (0.65%) SD-WAN
3 7 (0.65%) SSH
3 7 (0.65%) WAN
4 5 (0.47%) DMZ
4 5 (0.47%) Kerberos
4 5 (0.47%) VoIP
4 5 (0.47%) VSAN
5 4 (0.37%) Cisco Firepower
5 4 (0.37%) DNS
6 3 (0.28%) BGP
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.28%) DHCP
6 3 (0.28%) HTTP
6 3 (0.28%) Internet
6 3 (0.28%) OSPF
6 3 (0.28%) SAN
6 3 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.05%) SAP HANA
1 22 (2.05%) SQL Server
2 21 (1.96%) Power BI
3 18 (1.68%) Oracle Reports
4 16 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (0.93%) Metadata
6 9 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
6 9 (0.84%) Oracle Database
6 9 (0.84%) SAP BW
7 8 (0.75%) DB2
8 6 (0.56%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 5 (0.47%) Oracle BI EE
9 5 (0.47%) SAP Data Services
10 3 (0.28%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.28%) Tableau
11 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.19%) MS Access
11 2 (0.19%) Power Query
11 2 (0.19%) QGIS
11 2 (0.19%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 25 (2.33%) JIRA
2 10 (0.93%) 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
1 274 (25.54%) Social Skills
2 196 (18.27%) Finance
3 132 (12.30%) Public Sector
4 107 (9.97%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (5.59%) Manufacturing
6 38 (3.54%) Telecoms
7 36 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
8 34 (3.17%) Presentation Skills
9 29 (2.70%) Marketing
10 21 (1.96%) Pharmaceutical
11 16 (1.49%) Electronics
12 15 (1.40%) Banking
12 15 (1.40%) Billing
12 15 (1.40%) Local Government
13 13 (1.21%) Retail
14 12 (1.12%) General Ledger
15 11 (1.03%) Legal
16 9 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
17 8 (0.75%) Aerospace
18 6 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.10%) SAP Fiori
2 32 (2.98%) Web Services
3 31 (2.89%) SOAP
4 26 (2.42%) Oracle Fusion
4 26 (2.42%) REST
4 26 (2.42%) XML
5 22 (2.05%) Middleware
6 20 (1.86%) HTML
7 16 (1.49%) OAuth
8 15 (1.40%) .NET
8 15 (1.40%) BAPI
8 15 (1.40%) Node.js
9 14 (1.30%) SAP Basis
10 13 (1.21%) LDAP
11 11 (1.03%) JSON
12 10 (0.93%) SAML
13 9 (0.84%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.75%) Swagger
15 7 (0.65%) OpenAPI
15 7 (0.65%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 39 (3.63%) Onboarding
2 26 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
3 17 (1.58%) Security Posture
4 13 (1.21%) Data Centre
5 12 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (1.12%) Management Information System
5 12 (1.12%) Replication
6 11 (1.03%) Product Ownership
7 10 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
8 9 (0.84%) Data Structures
8 9 (0.84%) 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
10 6 (0.56%) Private Cloud
11 5 (0.47%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.47%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (0.47%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 43 (4.01%) Windows
2 24 (2.24%) Linux
3 12 (1.12%) 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%) VMS
7 3 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.093%) Android
9 1 (0.093%) Apple iOS
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
1 125 (11.65%) Migration
2 117 (10.90%) Problem-Solving
3 108 (10.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 99 (9.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 80 (7.46%) Roadmaps
6 76 (7.08%) Workshop Facilitation
7 74 (6.90%) ERP
8 68 (6.34%) Agile
9 64 (5.96%) Cybersecurity
10 59 (5.50%) DevOps
11 57 (5.31%) Analytics
12 56 (5.22%) Knowledge Transfer
13 55 (5.13%) Requirements Gathering
14 54 (5.03%) Validation
15 53 (4.94%) Risk Management
16 48 (4.47%) Business Intelligence
16 48 (4.47%) Collaborative Working
17 45 (4.19%) User Acceptance Testing
18 44 (4.10%) Change Management
19 43 (4.01%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 46 (4.29%) SQL
2 37 (3.45%) ABAP
3 32 (2.98%) Python
4 23 (2.14%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.77%) Java
6 18 (1.68%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.40%) C
7 15 (1.40%) C++
8 14 (1.30%) PHP
9 9 (0.84%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.75%) Bash
10 8 (0.75%) Groovy
11 3 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.19%) C#
12 2 (0.19%) VBA
12 2 (0.19%) X++
13 1 (0.093%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.093%) Korn
13 1 (0.093%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.093%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 353 (32.90%) Security Cleared
2 288 (26.84%) SC Cleared
3 56 (5.22%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.66%) BPSS Clearance
5 34 (3.17%) CISSP
5 34 (3.17%) Degree
6 25 (2.33%) CISM
7 14 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
8 13 (1.21%) SAP Certification
9 12 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (0.93%) ACCA
10 10 (0.93%) CCNP
10 10 (0.93%) CIMA
11 9 (0.84%) CESG Certified Professional
12 7 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.65%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 7 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
13 6 (0.56%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.56%) CCIE
14 4 (0.37%) CLAS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (4.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 40 (3.73%) NIST
3 39 (3.63%) QA
4 25 (2.33%) GDPR
5 18 (1.68%) Data Quality
6 16 (1.49%) RMADS
7 11 (1.03%) Actionable Recommendations
8 10 (0.93%) GRC
8 10 (0.93%) NCSC
9 9 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.75%) NIST 800
11 7 (0.65%) COBIT
11 7 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.65%) PMO
12 6 (0.56%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.56%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.28%) Accessibility
13 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 33 (3.08%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (0.93%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.56%) Docker
5 5 (0.47%) vSphere
6 4 (0.37%) UAG
7 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.093%) Ceph
8 1 (0.093%) Firmware
8 1 (0.093%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.093%) IAG
8 1 (0.093%) KVM
8 1 (0.093%) NDS
8 1 (0.093%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.093%) QEMU
8 1 (0.093%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.093%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (1.86%) Terraform
2 16 (1.49%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.75%) Ansible
4 8 (0.75%) Grafana
4 8 (0.75%) PingFederate
4 8 (0.75%) SCCM
5 7 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.65%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (0.37%) HP ALM
7 4 (0.37%) HP Quality Center
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%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) OpenView
8 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
Vendors
1 279 (26.00%) SAP
2 122 (11.37%) Microsoft
3 112 (10.44%) Oracle
4 55 (5.13%) CyberArk
5 54 (5.03%) Cisco
6 38 (3.54%) ServiceNow
7 33 (3.08%) Aruba
8 25 (2.33%) VMware
9 22 (2.05%) IBM
10 21 (1.96%) Dynatrace
11 18 (1.68%) Workday
12 17 (1.58%) Google
13 13 (1.21%) Adobe
13 13 (1.21%) EMC
13 13 (1.21%) IFS
14 12 (1.12%) Ariba
14 12 (1.12%) OpenText
14 12 (1.12%) Salesforce
15 8 (0.75%) Remedy
16 7 (0.65%) Computacenter