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 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 34 26
Rank change year-on-year +2 -8 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,384 790 1,108
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.03% 5.13% 6.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.47% 5.69% 6.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 792 489 710
10th Percentile £400 £412 £420
25th Percentile £455 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £552
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -0.27% +5.05%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £742
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 20 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.31 £47.75
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.78 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £93.00 £81.73 £70.21
UK median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.32%

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 25,286 13,888 16,745
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 90.13% 92.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,271 8,515 10,242
10th Percentile £305 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,046 1,244 1,711
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.45 £16.32 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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 0 417 £533 -3.18% 208
North of England -9 307 £550 - 191
Midlands +3 249 £500 -9.09% 85
South West +13 205 £553 -6.27% 122
North West -5 188 £585 +6.36% 134
West Midlands +9 177 £490 -10.91% 62
Scotland +31 109 £425 -10.53% 29
Yorkshire -8 98 £531 +3.66% 44
East of England -15 81 £550 - 52
East Midlands -7 63 £525 -4.55% 22
Wales -9 28 £550 +10.00% 10
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 14
Northern Ireland -2 2 £544 +4.57% 40
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 August 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.

1 380 (27.46%) Security Cleared
2 310 (22.40%) SAP
3 250 (18.06%) SC Cleared
4 177 (12.79%) Microsoft
4 177 (12.79%) Stakeholder Management
5 154 (11.13%) Migration
6 144 (10.40%) Oracle
7 138 (9.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 133 (9.61%) ERP
9 126 (9.10%) SQL
10 125 (9.03%) Azure
11 120 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
12 119 (8.60%) Problem-Solving
13 117 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
14 100 (7.23%) DV Cleared
15 98 (7.08%) Validation
16 94 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
17 93 (6.72%) SAP S/4HANA
18 91 (6.58%) Agile
19 86 (6.21%) Roadmaps
19 86 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
20 78 (5.64%) AWS
21 76 (5.49%) Data Migration
22 72 (5.20%) Analytics
23 67 (4.84%) Risk Management
24 62 (4.48%) Business Intelligence
25 60 (4.34%) CISSP
25 60 (4.34%) Knowledge Transfer
25 60 (4.34%) Power Platform
26 59 (4.26%) Python

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 27 (1.95%) Confluence
2 17 (1.23%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.65%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.51%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) Apache
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.072%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.072%) SAS
8 1 (0.072%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 50 (3.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.02%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.14%) Lectora
7 1 (0.072%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.072%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 93 (6.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.31%) SAP PSCD
3 26 (1.88%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.59%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.45%) SAP MM
6 19 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 19 (1.37%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.23%) SAP FI
8 16 (1.16%) Oracle Receivables
8 16 (1.16%) SAP Payroll
9 15 (1.08%) SAP QM
9 15 (1.08%) SAP SD
10 13 (0.94%) Teamcenter
11 11 (0.79%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.79%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.79%) SAP PP
11 11 (0.79%) Workday HCM
12 10 (0.72%) SAP FI/CO
12 10 (0.72%) SAP HCM
13 8 (0.58%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 125 (9.03%) Azure
2 78 (5.64%) AWS
3 60 (4.34%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.26%) SuccessFactors
5 57 (4.12%) Dynamics 365
6 49 (3.54%) OCI
7 47 (3.40%) GCP
8 32 (2.31%) Microsoft 365
9 26 (1.88%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.66%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.08%) SaaS
12 12 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.79%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.79%) GitHub
14 10 (0.72%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.24%) Network Security
2 22 (1.59%) Firewall
3 20 (1.45%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
5 11 (0.79%) WAN
6 7 (0.51%) DNS
6 7 (0.51%) LAN
6 7 (0.51%) VPN
6 7 (0.51%) VSAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.36%) HTTP
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) FTP
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) DHCP
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (2.67%) Power BI
2 30 (2.17%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.30%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.23%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.23%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.16%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.01%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.79%) Metadata
7 11 (0.79%) Tableau
8 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
10 6 (0.43%) Oracle Database
10 6 (0.43%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 4 (0.29%) Power Query
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.47%) JIRA
2 12 (0.87%) Hudson
3 11 (0.79%) Git
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.43%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
6 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.14%) Postman
7 2 (0.14%) TestRail
7 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.072%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.072%) GitLab
8 1 (0.072%) JMeter
8 1 (0.072%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 315 (22.76%) Social Skills
2 267 (19.29%) Finance
3 114 (8.24%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (8.16%) Public Sector
5 51 (3.68%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.38%) Legal
7 30 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.02%) General Ledger
9 27 (1.95%) Banking
9 27 (1.95%) Documentation Skills
10 26 (1.88%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.45%) Billing
12 17 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
12 17 (1.23%) Retail
13 15 (1.08%) Aerospace
13 15 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.87%) Marketing
15 10 (0.72%) Financial Institution
16 9 (0.65%) Advertising
17 8 (0.58%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.40%) REST
2 41 (2.96%) XML
3 25 (1.81%) SOAP
4 24 (1.73%) Oracle Fusion
5 16 (1.16%) Middleware
6 12 (0.87%) SAP Fiori
6 12 (0.87%) Web Services
7 11 (0.79%) LDAP
8 10 (0.72%) SailPoint
9 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.51%) IDoc
10 7 (0.51%) JSON
11 6 (0.43%) JDBC
11 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.36%) RESTful
12 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
13 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
13 4 (0.29%) eBPF
13 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 41 (2.96%) Onboarding
2 30 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.66%) Security Posture
4 22 (1.59%) CMDB
5 17 (1.23%) Operational Technology
6 15 (1.08%) Product Ownership
7 14 (1.01%) Replication
8 12 (0.87%) Management Information System
9 11 (0.79%) Cloud Native
9 11 (0.79%) Data Centre
9 11 (0.79%) Data Structures
10 9 (0.65%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (0.65%) FMCG
10 9 (0.65%) Private Cloud
10 9 (0.65%) Public Cloud
11 8 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
12 7 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 56 (4.05%) Windows
2 44 (3.18%) Linux
3 17 (1.23%) Solaris
4 14 (1.01%) AIX
5 10 (0.72%) Unix
6 8 (0.58%) VMS
6 8 (0.58%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.072%) Android
9 1 (0.072%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.072%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 177 (12.79%) Stakeholder Management
2 154 (11.13%) Migration
3 138 (9.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 133 (9.61%) ERP
5 120 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
6 119 (8.60%) Problem-Solving
7 117 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (7.08%) Validation
9 94 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
10 91 (6.58%) Agile
11 86 (6.21%) Roadmaps
11 86 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
12 76 (5.49%) Data Migration
13 72 (5.20%) Analytics
14 67 (4.84%) Risk Management
15 62 (4.48%) Business Intelligence
16 60 (4.34%) Knowledge Transfer
17 57 (4.12%) Requirements Gathering
18 56 (4.05%) Workflow
19 55 (3.97%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 126 (9.10%) SQL
2 59 (4.26%) Python
3 31 (2.24%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.10%) PowerShell
5 27 (1.95%) ABAP
6 25 (1.81%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.37%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.94%) Java
8 13 (0.94%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.87%) Bash
10 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.14%) Groovy
12 2 (0.14%) Korn
12 2 (0.14%) Perl
12 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 380 (27.46%) Security Cleared
2 250 (18.06%) SC Cleared
3 100 (7.23%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.34%) CISSP
5 48 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.32%) CISM
7 34 (2.46%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.10%) Degree
9 28 (2.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.73%) CCSP
11 13 (0.94%) ACCA
11 13 (0.94%) CIMA
12 11 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
12 11 (0.79%) PMP
13 10 (0.72%) CEH
13 10 (0.72%) CRISC
14 9 (0.65%) OSCP
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.40%) NIST
2 42 (3.03%) GRC
3 41 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 33 (2.38%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.66%) QA
6 18 (1.30%) GDPR
7 13 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.94%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.79%) NCSC
8 11 (0.79%) SLA
9 9 (0.65%) Accessibility
9 9 (0.65%) PMO
10 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.43%) RMADS
12 5 (0.36%) COBIT
13 4 (0.29%) WCAG
14 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 40 (2.89%) Active Directory
2 24 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.94%) vSphere
6 8 (0.58%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.14%) IAG
9 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.072%) Firmware
10 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.73%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.52%) Terraform
3 19 (1.37%) Ansible
4 13 (0.94%) Nagios
4 13 (0.94%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.87%) Netcool
5 12 (0.87%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.79%) OpenView
6 11 (0.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.79%) vRealize
7 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.43%) VxRail
10 5 (0.36%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 310 (22.40%) SAP
2 177 (12.79%) Microsoft
3 144 (10.40%) Oracle
4 56 (4.05%) ServiceNow
5 33 (2.38%) VMware
6 29 (2.10%) Splunk
7 19 (1.37%) Salesforce
8 18 (1.30%) BMC
9 16 (1.16%) Ariba
9 16 (1.16%) Databricks
9 16 (1.16%) IBM
10 14 (1.01%) JD Edwards
10 14 (1.01%) Workday
11 13 (0.94%) Siemens
11 13 (0.94%) SolarWinds
12 12 (0.87%) HP
13 11 (0.79%) Google
14 9 (0.65%) IFS
14 9 (0.65%) Informatica
14 9 (0.65%) Veeam