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 16 June 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 37 31
Rank change year-on-year +1 -6 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,230 668 1,117
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.80% 4.99% 5.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.22% 5.46% 5.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 678 421 723
10th Percentile £405 £400 £400
25th Percentile £454 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £536 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.05% -2.55% +1.85%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £665 £725
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 16 20
10th Percentile £52.35 £28.52 £24.84
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.30 £48.13
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +29.65% -13.81%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 £86.13 -
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 23,561 12,242 19,704
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.96% 91.52% 92.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,527 7,714 11,706
10th Percentile £303 £216 £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 £594 £575 £590
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 2,707 933 2,533
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.84 £15.96
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -2.55%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.85% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 +1 340 £525 -4.55% 380
North of England -13 268 £550 +4.27% 382
Midlands -13 231 £525 -4.55% 170
South West +34 203 £550 - 193
West Midlands -1 155 £525 -4.55% 103
North West -10 139 £550 - 236
Yorkshire -8 107 £544 +14.47% 93
East of England -8 86 £550 +7.42% 120
Scotland +24 80 £425 -10.53% 94
East Midlands -12 67 £500 -9.09% 66
Wales 0 30 £550 +37.50% 43
North East -36 22 £650 +21.72% 54
Northern Ireland -2 3 £600 +15.38% 85
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 261 (21.22%) Security Cleared
2 259 (21.06%) SAP
3 193 (15.69%) SC Cleared
4 151 (12.28%) ERP
4 151 (12.28%) Migration
5 146 (11.87%) Azure
6 138 (11.22%) Oracle
7 128 (10.41%) Microsoft
8 120 (9.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 116 (9.43%) Problem-Solving
10 110 (8.94%) SQL
11 104 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
12 98 (7.97%) Continuous Improvement
12 98 (7.97%) SAP S/4HANA
13 91 (7.40%) Validation
14 87 (7.07%) Data Migration
15 82 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
16 76 (6.18%) Workshop Facilitation
17 74 (6.02%) User Acceptance Testing
18 68 (5.53%) Agile
19 65 (5.28%) AWS
19 65 (5.28%) Roadmaps
20 60 (4.88%) PLM
21 59 (4.80%) Analytics
22 58 (4.72%) Change Management
22 58 (4.72%) Data Protection
23 57 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
24 54 (4.39%) Siemens
25 52 (4.23%) CISSP
25 52 (4.23%) Power Platform

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 (1.87%) Confluence
2 16 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.65%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.49%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.49%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.41%) 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 (3.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.41%) 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 98 (7.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (2.52%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (2.03%) Oracle EBS
4 24 (1.95%) Teamcenter
5 22 (1.79%) SAP MM
6 21 (1.71%) Oracle Payables
7 19 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
7 19 (1.54%) SAP FI
8 18 (1.46%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.22%) SAP EWM
9 15 (1.22%) SAP SD
10 12 (0.98%) SAP BRIM
10 12 (0.98%) SAP CO
10 12 (0.98%) SAP Hybris
11 11 (0.89%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.89%) SAP FI/CO
11 11 (0.89%) SAP Payroll
12 10 (0.81%) SAP HCM
13 9 (0.73%) Oracle Cash Management
14 8 (0.65%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 146 (11.87%) Azure
2 65 (5.28%) AWS
3 52 (4.23%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.66%) OCI
5 43 (3.50%) Dynamics 365
6 34 (2.76%) GCP
7 28 (2.28%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (2.11%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.71%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
10 19 (1.54%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.30%) SaaS
12 13 (1.06%) PowerApps
12 13 (1.06%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 11 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.89%) GitHub
14 9 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
14 9 (0.73%) Copilot Studio
14 9 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 6 (0.49%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.95%) Network Security
2 18 (1.46%) Firewall
3 16 (1.30%) SNMP
4 9 (0.73%) FTP
5 6 (0.49%) BGP
5 6 (0.49%) WAN
6 5 (0.41%) HTTP
7 4 (0.33%) LAN
7 4 (0.33%) SAN
7 4 (0.33%) VPN
8 3 (0.24%) DNS
8 3 (0.24%) Ethernet VPN
8 3 (0.24%) SMS
8 3 (0.24%) VSAN
8 3 (0.24%) VXLAN
9 2 (0.16%) Connectrix
9 2 (0.16%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.16%) Intranet
9 2 (0.16%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.85%) Oracle Reports
2 32 (2.60%) Power BI
3 17 (1.38%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.30%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 15 (1.22%) SAP HANA
6 9 (0.73%) Tableau
7 8 (0.65%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.49%) Metadata
8 6 (0.49%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.49%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.41%) NonStop SQL
9 5 (0.41%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.33%) Power Query
10 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.33%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.24%) BusinessObjects
11 3 (0.24%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.24%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.24%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (3.01%) JIRA
2 12 (0.98%) Hudson
3 8 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
4 6 (0.49%) Git
5 5 (0.41%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.33%) 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
General
1 250 (20.33%) Social Skills
2 245 (19.92%) Finance
3 97 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (7.80%) Public Sector
5 43 (3.50%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.85%) Legal
7 31 (2.52%) Banking
8 24 (1.95%) Billing
9 22 (1.79%) General Ledger
9 22 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 19 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
11 18 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.30%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (1.06%) Marketing
14 13 (1.06%) Retail
15 12 (0.98%) Local Government
16 11 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
17 8 (0.65%) Aviation
17 8 (0.65%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.33%) XML
2 38 (3.09%) REST
3 27 (2.20%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.98%) Web Services
5 10 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
5 10 (0.81%) SOAP
6 8 (0.65%) Middleware
7 6 (0.49%) JSON
7 6 (0.49%) RESTful
7 6 (0.49%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.41%) BAPI
8 5 (0.41%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.41%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.33%) .NET
9 4 (0.33%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.33%) LDAP
10 3 (0.24%) IDoc
10 3 (0.24%) PySpark
10 3 (0.24%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.24%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 32 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
2 26 (2.11%) Onboarding
3 22 (1.79%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.30%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.14%) AI Agents
6 13 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.06%) Product Ownership
7 12 (0.98%) Public Cloud
7 12 (0.98%) Replication
8 10 (0.81%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.81%) Management Information System
9 7 (0.57%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (0.57%) NHS
10 6 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.49%) Data Centre
10 6 (0.49%) Data Structures
10 6 (0.49%) FMCG
10 6 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.49%) Private Cloud
10 6 (0.49%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 46 (3.74%) Windows
2 37 (3.01%) Linux
3 17 (1.38%) Solaris
4 13 (1.06%) AIX
5 11 (0.89%) VMS
6 4 (0.33%) 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
1 151 (12.28%) ERP
1 151 (12.28%) Migration
2 120 (9.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 116 (9.43%) Problem-Solving
4 104 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
5 98 (7.97%) Continuous Improvement
6 91 (7.40%) Validation
7 87 (7.07%) Data Migration
8 82 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
9 76 (6.18%) Workshop Facilitation
10 74 (6.02%) User Acceptance Testing
11 68 (5.53%) Agile
12 65 (5.28%) Roadmaps
13 60 (4.88%) PLM
14 59 (4.80%) Analytics
15 58 (4.72%) Change Management
15 58 (4.72%) Data Protection
16 57 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
17 49 (3.98%) AI
18 46 (3.74%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 110 (8.94%) SQL
2 50 (4.07%) Python
3 28 (2.28%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.03%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.95%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.06%) JavaScript
6 13 (1.06%) Search Processing Language
7 11 (0.89%) ABAP
8 10 (0.81%) Bash
8 10 (0.81%) Java
8 10 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.49%) R
10 5 (0.41%) C#
11 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.16%) C++
12 2 (0.16%) VBScript
13 1 (0.081%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.081%) C
13 1 (0.081%) COBOL
13 1 (0.081%) VB
Qualifications
1 261 (21.22%) Security Cleared
2 193 (15.69%) SC Cleared
3 52 (4.23%) CISSP
4 51 (4.15%) DV Cleared
5 38 (3.09%) CISM
6 37 (3.01%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.60%) Degree
8 24 (1.95%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (1.71%) CCSP
10 20 (1.63%) (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 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
15 7 (0.57%) SAP Certification
16 6 (0.49%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.82%) NIST
2 40 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (2.52%) GRC
4 29 (2.36%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.54%) GDPR
6 15 (1.22%) QA
7 13 (1.06%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.89%) NCSC
9 10 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (0.65%) SLA
11 7 (0.57%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.57%) COBIT
11 7 (0.57%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.49%) RMADS
12 6 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.33%) PMO
13 4 (0.33%) WCAG
14 2 (0.16%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 25 (2.03%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.89%) Docker
3 11 (0.89%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (0.81%) vSphere
5 6 (0.49%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.16%) NFS
8 1 (0.081%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.081%) IAG
8 1 (0.081%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 29 (2.36%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.38%) Terraform
3 13 (1.06%) Nagios
3 13 (1.06%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.98%) Ansible
4 12 (0.98%) Netcool
4 12 (0.98%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.89%) OpenView
5 11 (0.89%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.73%) vRealize
7 6 (0.49%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.49%) Podman
7 6 (0.49%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.41%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.33%) 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
1 259 (21.06%) SAP
2 138 (11.22%) Oracle
3 128 (10.41%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.39%) Siemens
5 30 (2.44%) ServiceNow
6 25 (2.03%) VMware
7 22 (1.79%) Splunk
8 20 (1.63%) BMC
9 18 (1.46%) Ariba
9 18 (1.46%) IBM
9 18 (1.46%) Workday
10 14 (1.14%) Google
10 14 (1.14%) Sage
11 13 (1.06%) Databricks
11 13 (1.06%) SolarWinds
12 12 (0.98%) HP
13 9 (0.73%) IFS
14 8 (0.65%) JD Edwards
15 7 (0.57%) Red Hat
15 7 (0.57%) Veritas