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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 38 29
Rank change year-on-year +2 -9 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,263 691 1,171
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.86% 5.09% 5.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.28% 5.57% 5.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 699 439 772
10th Percentile £405 £400 £407
25th Percentile £455 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £548 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -0.45% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 17 22
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.72 £26.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £59.95
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +16.76% -7.54%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 - £68.88
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -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 23,913 12,405 19,589
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.35% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,681 7,776 11,697
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,763 973 2,473
10th Percentile £14.97 £13.47 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.37 £16.67 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £74.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £26.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.86% -29.47% -12.79%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 26 June 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 -1 345 £525 -3.38% 180
North of England -15 271 £550 +2.33% 153
Midlands -12 245 £525 -4.55% 69
South West +28 209 £553 +0.55% 80
West Midlands +5 169 £525 -4.55% 52
North West -14 145 £550 -4.35% 100
Yorkshire -6 104 £544 +14.47% 36
East of England -4 88 £550 +7.42% 57
Scotland +26 83 £425 -10.53% 22
East Midlands -7 67 £500 -9.09% 15
Wales -1 30 £550 +31.34% 18
North East -32 22 £650 +20.37% 18
Northern Ireland -3 3 £600 +15.38% 20
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 June 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.

1 269 (21.30%) Security Cleared
2 268 (21.22%) SAP
3 194 (15.36%) SC Cleared
4 154 (12.19%) ERP
5 150 (11.88%) Azure
6 149 (11.80%) Migration
7 136 (10.77%) Oracle
8 134 (10.61%) Microsoft
9 122 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 116 (9.18%) SQL
11 115 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
12 111 (8.79%) Stakeholder Management
13 102 (8.08%) Continuous Improvement
14 97 (7.68%) SAP S/4HANA
15 94 (7.44%) Validation
16 86 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
17 85 (6.73%) Data Migration
18 83 (6.57%) Workshop Facilitation
19 72 (5.70%) Agile
20 71 (5.62%) User Acceptance Testing
21 66 (5.23%) AWS
21 66 (5.23%) Roadmaps
22 65 (5.15%) Analytics
23 60 (4.75%) DV Cleared
23 60 (4.75%) PLM
24 57 (4.51%) Data Protection
25 55 (4.35%) CISSP
26 54 (4.28%) Change Management
26 54 (4.28%) Siemens
27 53 (4.20%) AI

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 (1.98%) Confluence
2 15 (1.19%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
3 8 (0.63%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.55%) WebLogic
5 4 (0.32%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.24%) Apache
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.079%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.079%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.079%) SAS
7 1 (0.079%) Tomcat
Applications
1 43 (3.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.48%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.40%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.16%) Lectora
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.079%) CATIA
8 1 (0.079%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 97 (7.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.69%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.82%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.82%) Teamcenter
4 22 (1.74%) SAP MM
5 19 (1.50%) Oracle ERP
5 19 (1.50%) Oracle Payables
6 16 (1.27%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (1.27%) SAP EWM
6 16 (1.27%) SAP FI
7 13 (1.03%) SAP SD
8 12 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
8 12 (0.95%) SAP Hybris
8 12 (0.95%) SAP Payroll
9 11 (0.87%) NetSuite
10 10 (0.79%) SAP CO
10 10 (0.79%) SAP HCM
10 10 (0.79%) SAP QM
11 9 (0.71%) SAP FI/CO
11 9 (0.71%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 150 (11.88%) Azure
2 66 (5.23%) AWS
3 52 (4.12%) Power Platform
4 44 (3.48%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.40%) OCI
6 37 (2.93%) GCP
7 29 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (2.06%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.66%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.50%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
12 15 (1.19%) SaaS
13 14 (1.11%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 13 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (1.03%) GitHub
15 12 (0.95%) PowerApps
16 11 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
17 9 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
18 8 (0.63%) Copilot Studio
19 7 (0.55%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.30%) Network Security
2 20 (1.58%) Firewall
3 16 (1.27%) SNMP
4 9 (0.71%) FTP
5 8 (0.63%) BGP
6 7 (0.55%) WAN
7 5 (0.40%) HTTP
8 4 (0.32%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.32%) LAN
8 4 (0.32%) SAN
8 4 (0.32%) VPN
8 4 (0.32%) VXLAN
9 3 (0.24%) DNS
9 3 (0.24%) SMS
9 3 (0.24%) VSAN
10 2 (0.16%) BIG-IP
10 2 (0.16%) Connectrix
10 2 (0.16%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.16%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.61%) Power BI
2 31 (2.45%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.35%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.27%) SAP HANA
5 12 (0.95%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 11 (0.87%) Tableau
7 9 (0.71%) SAP Data Services
8 8 (0.63%) Metadata
8 8 (0.63%) SAP BW
8 8 (0.63%) SQL Server
9 7 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
10 6 (0.48%) Oracle Database
11 5 (0.40%) NonStop SQL
11 5 (0.40%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.32%) Power Query
12 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
13 3 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.24%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.24%) Hadoop
14 2 (0.16%) Crystal Reports
Development Applications
1 42 (3.33%) JIRA
2 13 (1.03%) Hudson
3 8 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.55%) Git
4 7 (0.55%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.32%) Toad
6 3 (0.24%) Postman
6 3 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.16%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.16%) TestRail
7 2 (0.16%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.079%) Appium
8 1 (0.079%) GitLab
8 1 (0.079%) JUnit
8 1 (0.079%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.079%) MSTest
8 1 (0.079%) NUnit
8 1 (0.079%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.079%) Yeoman
General
1 265 (20.98%) Social Skills
2 253 (20.03%) Finance
3 101 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
3 101 (8.00%) Public Sector
4 43 (3.40%) Manufacturing
5 36 (2.85%) Legal
6 31 (2.45%) Banking
7 27 (2.14%) Telecoms
8 25 (1.98%) General Ledger
9 24 (1.90%) Billing
10 21 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
11 19 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
12 17 (1.35%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.11%) Retail
14 13 (1.03%) Marketing
15 11 (0.87%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (0.87%) Local Government
16 9 (0.71%) Aviation
16 9 (0.71%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.33%) XML
2 38 (3.01%) REST
3 22 (1.74%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.95%) Web Services
5 11 (0.87%) SOAP
6 10 (0.79%) Middleware
6 10 (0.79%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.48%) JSON
7 6 (0.48%) RESTful
7 6 (0.48%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.40%) BAPI
8 5 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.40%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.32%) .NET
9 4 (0.32%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.32%) LDAP
10 3 (0.24%) CSS
10 3 (0.24%) HTML
10 3 (0.24%) PySpark
10 3 (0.24%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 34 (2.69%) Data Protection Act
2 27 (2.14%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.90%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.27%) Operational Technology
5 15 (1.19%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.95%) Product Ownership
6 12 (0.95%) Replication
7 11 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (0.87%) Public Cloud
8 10 (0.79%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.79%) Management Information System
9 7 (0.55%) CMDB
9 7 (0.55%) FMCG
9 7 (0.55%) NHS
9 7 (0.55%) Security Operations Centre
10 6 (0.48%) Data Centre
10 6 (0.48%) Data Structures
10 6 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (0.48%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.48%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 49 (3.88%) Windows
2 39 (3.09%) Linux
3 17 (1.35%) Solaris
4 13 (1.03%) AIX
5 9 (0.71%) VMS
6 4 (0.32%) Unix
7 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.079%) Android
8 1 (0.079%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.079%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.079%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.079%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (12.19%) ERP
2 149 (11.80%) Migration
3 122 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 115 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
5 111 (8.79%) Stakeholder Management
6 102 (8.08%) Continuous Improvement
7 94 (7.44%) Validation
8 86 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
9 85 (6.73%) Data Migration
10 83 (6.57%) Workshop Facilitation
11 72 (5.70%) Agile
12 71 (5.62%) User Acceptance Testing
13 66 (5.23%) Roadmaps
14 65 (5.15%) Analytics
15 60 (4.75%) PLM
16 57 (4.51%) Data Protection
17 54 (4.28%) Change Management
18 53 (4.20%) AI
18 53 (4.20%) Business Intelligence
19 52 (4.12%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 116 (9.18%) SQL
2 52 (4.12%) Python
3 28 (2.22%) T-SQL
4 26 (2.06%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.90%) PowerShell
6 18 (1.43%) ABAP
7 15 (1.19%) JavaScript
8 13 (1.03%) Search Processing Language
9 10 (0.79%) Bash
9 10 (0.79%) Java
9 10 (0.79%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.48%) R
11 5 (0.40%) C#
12 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.16%) C++
13 2 (0.16%) VBScript
14 1 (0.079%) C
14 1 (0.079%) COBOL
14 1 (0.079%) VB
Qualifications
1 269 (21.30%) Security Cleared
2 194 (15.36%) SC Cleared
3 60 (4.75%) DV Cleared
4 55 (4.35%) CISSP
5 39 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 39 (3.09%) CISM
6 31 (2.45%) Degree
7 26 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
8 22 (1.74%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 22 (1.74%) CCSP
9 11 (0.87%) PMP
10 10 (0.79%) CEH
11 9 (0.71%) ACCA
11 9 (0.71%) CIMA
11 9 (0.71%) OSCP
12 8 (0.63%) Azure Certification
12 8 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (0.63%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 6 (0.48%) CCA
13 6 (0.48%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.88%) NIST
2 41 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.53%) GRC
4 27 (2.14%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.50%) QA
6 17 (1.35%) GDPR
7 13 (1.03%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.95%) NCSC
9 8 (0.63%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.63%) SLA
10 7 (0.55%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.55%) COBIT
10 7 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.48%) RMADS
12 5 (0.40%) PMO
13 4 (0.32%) WCAG
14 2 (0.16%) Def Stans
14 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 25 (1.98%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (0.95%) VMware NSX
4 11 (0.87%) VMware ESXi
4 11 (0.87%) vSphere
5 8 (0.63%) Docker
6 4 (0.32%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.16%) NFS
8 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.079%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.079%) IAG
9 1 (0.079%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 27 (2.14%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.43%) Terraform
3 13 (1.03%) Ansible
3 13 (1.03%) Nagios
3 13 (1.03%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.95%) Netcool
4 12 (0.95%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.87%) OpenView
5 11 (0.87%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.71%) vRealize
7 7 (0.55%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.48%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.48%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.32%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.32%) Grafana
9 4 (0.32%) Podman
10 3 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Manager
10 3 (0.24%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.24%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 268 (21.22%) SAP
2 136 (10.77%) Oracle
3 134 (10.61%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.28%) Siemens
5 33 (2.61%) ServiceNow
6 27 (2.14%) VMware
7 23 (1.82%) Splunk
8 18 (1.43%) Ariba
8 18 (1.43%) BMC
9 17 (1.35%) IBM
10 16 (1.27%) Workday
11 14 (1.11%) Databricks
11 14 (1.11%) Sage
12 13 (1.03%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.95%) Google
13 12 (0.95%) HP
13 12 (0.95%) JD Edwards
14 10 (0.79%) IFS
15 9 (0.71%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.63%) Informatica