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 19 June 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 38 30
Rank change year-on-year +2 -8 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,240 676 1,137
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.80% 5.04% 5.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.22% 5.51% 5.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 687 426 733
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 £623 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 17 23
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.72 £26.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +20.07% -11.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 £86.10 £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 23,760 12,273 19,810
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 91.51% 92.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,626 7,719 11,771
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £598 £575 £591
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 2,729 948 2,549
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.27 £16.84 £15.96
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.70 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.80 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £27.21 £37.50
% change year-on-year +60.57% -27.44% -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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -4 340 £525 -4.55% 235
North of England -15 267 £550 +3.77% 235
Midlands -9 236 £525 -4.55% 81
South West +40 207 £550 - 105
West Midlands +1 160 £525 -4.55% 62
North West -12 141 £550 - 149
Yorkshire -12 104 £550 +15.79% 62
East of England -6 85 £550 +6.08% 58
Scotland +29 83 £425 -10.53% 22
East Midlands -9 67 £500 -9.09% 18
Wales -2 29 £550 +37.50% 17
North East -35 22 £650 +21.72% 25
Northern Ireland -3 3 £600 +15.38% 22
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 264 (21.29%) Security Cleared
2 259 (20.89%) SAP
3 193 (15.56%) SC Cleared
4 152 (12.26%) ERP
4 152 (12.26%) Migration
5 149 (12.02%) Azure
6 134 (10.81%) Oracle
7 131 (10.56%) Microsoft
8 120 (9.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 116 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
10 112 (9.03%) SQL
11 104 (8.39%) Stakeholder Management
12 96 (7.74%) Continuous Improvement
13 95 (7.66%) SAP S/4HANA
13 95 (7.66%) Validation
14 87 (7.02%) Data Migration
15 82 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
16 81 (6.53%) Workshop Facilitation
17 72 (5.81%) User Acceptance Testing
18 69 (5.56%) Agile
19 68 (5.48%) AWS
20 65 (5.24%) Roadmaps
21 64 (5.16%) Analytics
22 60 (4.84%) PLM
23 59 (4.76%) Data Protection
24 57 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
25 55 (4.44%) Change Management
26 54 (4.35%) DV Cleared
26 54 (4.35%) Python
26 54 (4.35%) 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 (1.85%) Confluence
2 16 (1.29%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.65%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.48%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.40%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.40%) WebLogic
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 (0.081%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.081%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.081%) SAS
7 1 (0.081%) Tomcat
Applications
1 43 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.05%) 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 (0.081%) CATIA
8 1 (0.081%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 95 (7.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.66%) SAP PSCD
3 24 (1.94%) Teamcenter
4 23 (1.85%) Oracle EBS
5 22 (1.77%) SAP MM
6 19 (1.53%) Oracle ERP
6 19 (1.53%) Oracle Payables
7 17 (1.37%) SAP FI
8 16 (1.29%) Oracle Receivables
8 16 (1.29%) SAP EWM
9 13 (1.05%) SAP SD
10 12 (0.97%) SAP BRIM
10 12 (0.97%) SAP Hybris
11 11 (0.89%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.89%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.89%) SAP Payroll
12 10 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
12 10 (0.81%) SAP HCM
13 8 (0.65%) Oracle Cash Management
13 8 (0.65%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 149 (12.02%) Azure
2 68 (5.48%) AWS
3 53 (4.27%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.63%) OCI
5 43 (3.47%) Dynamics 365
6 37 (2.98%) GCP
7 28 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (2.10%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.69%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
10 19 (1.53%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.29%) SaaS
12 14 (1.13%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 12 (0.97%) PowerApps
14 11 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (0.89%) GitHub
15 9 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
15 9 (0.73%) Copilot Studio
15 9 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 7 (0.56%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.10%) Network Security
2 20 (1.61%) Firewall
3 16 (1.29%) SNMP
4 9 (0.73%) FTP
5 8 (0.65%) 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 (2.74%) Oracle Reports
1 34 (2.74%) Power BI
2 17 (1.37%) Oracle ODI
3 16 (1.29%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.21%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.89%) Tableau
6 8 (0.65%) Metadata
6 8 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
6 8 (0.65%) 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
11 3 (0.24%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 38 (3.06%) JIRA
2 12 (0.97%) Hudson
3 8 (0.65%) 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 (0.081%) Appium
9 1 (0.081%) GitLab
9 1 (0.081%) JUnit
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) MSTest
9 1 (0.081%) NUnit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
9 1 (0.081%) Yeoman
General
1 254 (20.48%) Social Skills
2 248 (20.00%) Finance
3 100 (8.06%) Public Sector
4 98 (7.90%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (3.47%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.82%) Legal
7 31 (2.50%) Banking
8 26 (2.10%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.94%) Billing
9 24 (1.94%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
11 17 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.29%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (1.05%) Marketing
14 13 (1.05%) Retail
15 12 (0.97%) Local Government
16 11 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.81%) Aviation
18 8 (0.65%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.31%) XML
2 37 (2.98%) REST
3 26 (2.10%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.97%) Web Services
5 10 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
5 10 (0.81%) SOAP
6 8 (0.65%) Middleware
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%) PyTorch
10 3 (0.24%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.24%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 33 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
2 27 (2.18%) Onboarding
3 23 (1.85%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.29%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.13%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.97%) Product Ownership
6 12 (0.97%) Replication
7 11 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (0.89%) Public Cloud
8 10 (0.81%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.81%) Management Information System
9 7 (0.56%) FMCG
9 7 (0.56%) NHS
10 6 (0.48%) Analytical Mindset
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
10 6 (0.48%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 47 (3.79%) Windows
2 37 (2.98%) Linux
3 17 (1.37%) Solaris
4 13 (1.05%) AIX
5 9 (0.73%) VMS
6 4 (0.32%) Unix
7 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.081%) Android
8 1 (0.081%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.081%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.081%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.081%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (12.26%) ERP
1 152 (12.26%) Migration
2 120 (9.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 116 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
4 104 (8.39%) Stakeholder Management
5 96 (7.74%) Continuous Improvement
6 95 (7.66%) Validation
7 87 (7.02%) Data Migration
8 82 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
9 81 (6.53%) Workshop Facilitation
10 72 (5.81%) User Acceptance Testing
11 69 (5.56%) Agile
12 65 (5.24%) Roadmaps
13 64 (5.16%) Analytics
14 60 (4.84%) PLM
15 59 (4.76%) Data Protection
16 57 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
17 55 (4.44%) Change Management
18 51 (4.11%) AI
19 48 (3.87%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 112 (9.03%) SQL
2 54 (4.35%) Python
3 28 (2.26%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.02%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.94%) PowerShell
6 14 (1.13%) ABAP
7 13 (1.05%) JavaScript
7 13 (1.05%) Search Processing Language
8 10 (0.81%) Bash
8 10 (0.81%) Java
8 10 (0.81%) 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 (0.081%) C
13 1 (0.081%) COBOL
13 1 (0.081%) Perl
13 1 (0.081%) VB
Qualifications
1 264 (21.29%) Security Cleared
2 193 (15.56%) SC Cleared
3 54 (4.35%) DV Cleared
4 53 (4.27%) CISSP
5 39 (3.15%) CISM
6 38 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.58%) Degree
8 25 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.77%) CCSP
10 21 (1.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 11 (0.89%) PMP
12 10 (0.81%) ACCA
12 10 (0.81%) CEH
12 10 (0.81%) CIMA
13 9 (0.73%) OSCP
14 8 (0.65%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.48%) DBS Check
16 6 (0.48%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.79%) NIST
2 40 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.58%) GRC
4 27 (2.18%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.53%) GDPR
6 16 (1.29%) QA
7 13 (1.05%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (0.89%) NCSC
9 8 (0.65%) SLA
10 7 (0.56%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.56%) COBIT
10 7 (0.56%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.48%) RMADS
11 6 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.32%) PMO
12 4 (0.32%) WCAG
13 2 (0.16%) ISA99
13 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 25 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.89%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.81%) Docker
4 10 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (0.81%) 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 (0.081%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.081%) IAG
8 1 (0.081%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 29 (2.34%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.45%) Terraform
3 13 (1.05%) Ansible
3 13 (1.05%) Nagios
3 13 (1.05%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.97%) Netcool
4 12 (0.97%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.89%) OpenView
5 11 (0.89%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.73%) 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%) CEMLI
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
1 259 (20.89%) SAP
2 134 (10.81%) Oracle
3 131 (10.56%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.35%) Siemens
5 31 (2.50%) ServiceNow
6 25 (2.02%) VMware
7 23 (1.85%) Splunk
8 20 (1.61%) BMC
9 18 (1.45%) Ariba
9 18 (1.45%) IBM
10 16 (1.29%) Workday
11 14 (1.13%) Sage
12 13 (1.05%) Databricks
12 13 (1.05%) Google
12 13 (1.05%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.97%) HP
14 9 (0.73%) IFS
15 8 (0.65%) JD Edwards
16 7 (0.56%) Informatica
16 7 (0.56%) OpenText