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 21 June 2026.

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

6 months to
21 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 1,253 680 1,163
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.84% 5.06% 5.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.26% 5.54% 5.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 694 430 759
10th Percentile £405 £400 £400
25th Percentile £455 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £605 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 18 23
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.92 £26.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +26.50% -11.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 £86.08 £68.07
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 23,822 12,284 19,872
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.41% 92.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,662 7,714 11,796
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £492
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.36% -1.70%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,732 954 2,576
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.50 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.73 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £27.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.16% -26.80% -16.67%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -3 345 £525 -4.55% 223
North of England -17 269 £550 +3.00% 239
Midlands -10 237 £525 -4.55% 76
South West +31 208 £556 +1.09% 110
West Midlands 0 160 £525 -4.55% 59
North West -13 143 £550 - 152
Yorkshire -11 104 £544 +14.47% 63
East of England -4 89 £550 +6.08% 56
Scotland +31 83 £425 -10.53% 21
East Midlands -9 68 £500 -9.09% 16
Wales 0 29 £550 +31.34% 16
North East -37 22 £650 +20.37% 25
Northern Ireland -5 3 £600 +15.38% 36
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 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.

1 268 (21.39%) Security Cleared
2 261 (20.83%) SAP
3 195 (15.56%) SC Cleared
4 153 (12.21%) ERP
5 151 (12.05%) Migration
6 149 (11.89%) Azure
7 135 (10.77%) Oracle
8 133 (10.61%) Microsoft
9 122 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 118 (9.42%) Problem-Solving
11 114 (9.10%) SQL
12 106 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
13 98 (7.82%) Continuous Improvement
14 96 (7.66%) SAP S/4HANA
14 96 (7.66%) Validation
15 87 (6.94%) Data Migration
16 84 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
17 81 (6.46%) Workshop Facilitation
18 72 (5.75%) User Acceptance Testing
19 70 (5.59%) Agile
20 68 (5.43%) AWS
21 65 (5.19%) Analytics
21 65 (5.19%) Roadmaps
22 60 (4.79%) Data Protection
22 60 (4.79%) PLM
23 58 (4.63%) DV Cleared
24 57 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
25 55 (4.39%) Change Management
25 55 (4.39%) CISSP
26 54 (4.31%) Siemens

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 (1.84%) Confluence
2 16 (1.28%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.64%) Oracle Workflow
3 8 (0.64%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.56%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.40%) 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 (0.080%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.080%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.080%) SAS
7 1 (0.080%) Tomcat
Applications
1 42 (3.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.36%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.96%) 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 (0.080%) CATIA
8 1 (0.080%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 96 (7.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.63%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.84%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.84%) Teamcenter
4 22 (1.76%) SAP MM
5 19 (1.52%) Oracle ERP
5 19 (1.52%) Oracle Payables
6 17 (1.36%) SAP FI
7 16 (1.28%) Oracle Receivables
7 16 (1.28%) SAP EWM
8 13 (1.04%) SAP SD
9 12 (0.96%) SAP BRIM
9 12 (0.96%) SAP Hybris
10 11 (0.88%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.88%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.88%) SAP Payroll
11 10 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
11 10 (0.80%) SAP HCM
12 9 (0.72%) Workday HCM
13 8 (0.64%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 149 (11.89%) Azure
2 68 (5.43%) AWS
3 53 (4.23%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.59%) Dynamics 365
4 45 (3.59%) OCI
5 39 (3.11%) GCP
6 28 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
7 26 (2.08%) SuccessFactors
8 21 (1.68%) Entra ID
9 19 (1.52%) Microsoft Copilot
9 19 (1.52%) Power Automate
10 16 (1.28%) SaaS
11 14 (1.12%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 12 (0.96%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.88%) GitHub
14 9 (0.72%) Cloud Computing
14 9 (0.72%) Copilot Studio
14 9 (0.72%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 7 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.08%) Network Security
2 20 (1.60%) Firewall
3 16 (1.28%) SNMP
4 9 (0.72%) FTP
5 8 (0.64%) BGP
6 7 (0.56%) 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%) Connectrix
10 2 (0.16%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.16%) Intranet
10 2 (0.16%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.71%) Oracle Reports
1 34 (2.71%) Power BI
2 17 (1.36%) Oracle ODI
3 16 (1.28%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.20%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.88%) Tableau
6 8 (0.64%) Metadata
6 8 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
6 8 (0.64%) SQL Server
7 7 (0.56%) SAP BW
8 6 (0.48%) BusinessObjects
8 6 (0.48%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.48%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.40%) NonStop SQL
10 4 (0.32%) Power Query
10 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.24%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.24%) Hadoop
12 2 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 38 (3.03%) JIRA
2 12 (0.96%) Hudson
3 8 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.56%) Git
5 5 (0.40%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.32%) Toad
7 3 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.16%) JDeveloper
9 1 (0.080%) Appium
9 1 (0.080%) GitLab
9 1 (0.080%) JUnit
9 1 (0.080%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.080%) MSTest
9 1 (0.080%) NUnit
9 1 (0.080%) Postman
9 1 (0.080%) Yeoman
General
1 259 (20.67%) Social Skills
2 247 (19.71%) Finance
3 100 (7.98%) Analytical Skills
4 99 (7.90%) Public Sector
5 43 (3.43%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.79%) Legal
7 31 (2.47%) Banking
8 26 (2.08%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.92%) Billing
9 24 (1.92%) General Ledger
10 22 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
11 18 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 17 (1.36%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (1.04%) Marketing
14 13 (1.04%) Retail
15 12 (0.96%) Local Government
16 11 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.80%) Aviation
18 8 (0.64%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.27%) XML
2 37 (2.95%) REST
3 25 (2.00%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.96%) Web Services
5 10 (0.80%) Middleware
5 10 (0.80%) SAP Fiori
5 10 (0.80%) SOAP
6 6 (0.48%) JSON
6 6 (0.48%) RESTful
6 6 (0.48%) SailPoint
7 5 (0.40%) BAPI
7 5 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
7 5 (0.40%) SAP Basis
8 4 (0.32%) .NET
8 4 (0.32%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.32%) LDAP
9 3 (0.24%) CSS
9 3 (0.24%) HTML
9 3 (0.24%) scikit-learn
9 3 (0.24%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 34 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
2 27 (2.15%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.92%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.28%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.12%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (0.96%) Product Ownership
6 12 (0.96%) Replication
7 11 (0.88%) Public Cloud
8 10 (0.80%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.72%) Management Information System
10 7 (0.56%) FMCG
10 7 (0.56%) NHS
10 7 (0.56%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.48%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (0.48%) Data Centre
11 6 (0.48%) Data Structures
11 6 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
11 6 (0.48%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.48%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 48 (3.83%) Windows
2 38 (3.03%) Linux
3 17 (1.36%) Solaris
4 13 (1.04%) AIX
5 9 (0.72%) VMS
6 4 (0.32%) Unix
7 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.080%) Android
8 1 (0.080%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.080%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.080%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.080%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (12.21%) ERP
2 151 (12.05%) Migration
3 122 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 118 (9.42%) Problem-Solving
5 106 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
6 98 (7.82%) Continuous Improvement
7 96 (7.66%) Validation
8 87 (6.94%) Data Migration
9 84 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
10 81 (6.46%) Workshop Facilitation
11 72 (5.75%) User Acceptance Testing
12 70 (5.59%) Agile
13 65 (5.19%) Analytics
13 65 (5.19%) Roadmaps
14 60 (4.79%) Data Protection
14 60 (4.79%) PLM
15 57 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
16 55 (4.39%) Change Management
17 52 (4.15%) AI
18 49 (3.91%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 114 (9.10%) SQL
2 53 (4.23%) Python
3 28 (2.23%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.00%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.92%) PowerShell
6 15 (1.20%) ABAP
7 13 (1.04%) JavaScript
7 13 (1.04%) Search Processing Language
8 10 (0.80%) Bash
8 10 (0.80%) Java
8 10 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.48%) R
10 5 (0.40%) C#
11 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.16%) C++
12 2 (0.16%) VBScript
13 1 (0.080%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.080%) C
13 1 (0.080%) COBOL
13 1 (0.080%) VB
Qualifications
1 268 (21.39%) Security Cleared
2 195 (15.56%) SC Cleared
3 58 (4.63%) DV Cleared
4 55 (4.39%) CISSP
5 39 (3.11%) CISM
6 38 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.55%) Degree
8 26 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.76%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.76%) CCSP
10 11 (0.88%) PMP
11 10 (0.80%) ACCA
11 10 (0.80%) CEH
11 10 (0.80%) CIMA
12 9 (0.72%) OSCP
13 8 (0.64%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.64%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (0.48%) DBS Check
15 6 (0.48%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.91%) NIST
2 41 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.55%) GRC
4 27 (2.15%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.52%) GDPR
6 16 (1.28%) QA
7 13 (1.04%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.96%) NCSC
9 11 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (0.64%) JSP 440
10 8 (0.64%) SLA
11 7 (0.56%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.56%) COBIT
12 6 (0.48%) RMADS
12 6 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.32%) 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 (2.00%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.88%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.80%) Docker
4 10 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (0.80%) vSphere
5 5 (0.40%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.16%) NFS
7 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.080%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.080%) IAG
8 1 (0.080%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 29 (2.31%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.44%) Terraform
3 13 (1.04%) Ansible
3 13 (1.04%) Nagios
3 13 (1.04%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.96%) Netcool
4 12 (0.96%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.88%) OpenView
5 11 (0.88%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.72%) vRealize
7 6 (0.48%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.48%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.48%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.40%) Podman
9 4 (0.32%) Grafana
10 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.24%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.24%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 261 (20.83%) SAP
2 135 (10.77%) Oracle
3 133 (10.61%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.31%) Siemens
5 31 (2.47%) ServiceNow
6 26 (2.08%) VMware
7 23 (1.84%) Splunk
8 20 (1.60%) BMC
9 18 (1.44%) Ariba
9 18 (1.44%) IBM
10 17 (1.36%) Workday
11 14 (1.12%) Databricks
11 14 (1.12%) Google
11 14 (1.12%) Sage
12 13 (1.04%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.96%) HP
14 11 (0.88%) JD Edwards
15 9 (0.72%) IFS
16 7 (0.56%) Red Hat
16 7 (0.56%) Salesforce