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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 37 29
Rank change year-on-year +2 -8 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,287 706 1,169
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.90% 5.12% 5.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.33% 5.62% 6.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 448 768
10th Percentile £405 £400 £413
25th Percentile £456 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £543 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -1.20% +3.77%
75th Percentile £621 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £545 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -0.91% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 18 22
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.92 £26.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £59.95
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +23.02% -7.31%
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 24,165 12,555 19,465
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.99% 91.12% 92.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,791 7,838 11,638
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £368
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 2,799 1,003 2,455
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.51 £16.67 £15.99
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 £75.00 £74.48
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -3 348 £525 -4.55% 182
North of England -19 278 £550 +0.92% 138
Midlands -8 251 £525 -4.55% 67
South West +29 211 £553 +0.55% 63
West Midlands +10 175 £525 -4.55% 52
North West -11 151 £550 -3.51% 91
Yorkshire -8 105 £550 +15.79% 34
East of England -7 92 £550 +4.17% 45
Scotland +26 85 £425 -8.11% 16
East Midlands -12 67 £500 -9.09% 14
Wales 0 31 £550 +31.34% 10
North East -35 22 £650 +20.37% 14
Northern Ireland -4 3 £600 +15.38% 26
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 276 (21.45%) SAP
2 270 (20.98%) Security Cleared
3 194 (15.07%) SC Cleared
4 154 (11.97%) ERP
5 153 (11.89%) Azure
6 150 (11.66%) Migration
7 140 (10.88%) Microsoft
8 137 (10.64%) Oracle
9 122 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 119 (9.25%) Stakeholder Management
11 118 (9.17%) SQL
12 115 (8.94%) Problem-Solving
13 105 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
14 97 (7.54%) SAP S/4HANA
15 94 (7.30%) Validation
16 89 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
17 86 (6.68%) Workshop Facilitation
18 85 (6.60%) Data Migration
19 76 (5.91%) User Acceptance Testing
20 73 (5.67%) Agile
21 69 (5.36%) Roadmaps
22 67 (5.21%) AWS
23 66 (5.13%) Analytics
24 61 (4.74%) DV Cleared
25 60 (4.66%) PLM
26 58 (4.51%) Data Protection
27 57 (4.43%) AI
28 56 (4.35%) Python
29 55 (4.27%) CISSP
30 54 (4.20%) Business Intelligence

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 (2.10%) Confluence
2 16 (1.24%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.70%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.62%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.62%) WebLogic
5 4 (0.31%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.23%) Apache
6 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.078%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.078%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.078%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.078%) SAS
7 1 (0.078%) Tomcat
Applications
1 44 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.54%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.39%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.16%) Lectora
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.078%) CATIA
8 1 (0.078%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 97 (7.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.64%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.79%) Oracle EBS
4 22 (1.71%) SAP MM
4 22 (1.71%) Teamcenter
5 19 (1.48%) Oracle ERP
5 19 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
5 19 (1.48%) SAP FI
6 17 (1.32%) SAP EWM
7 16 (1.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 14 (1.09%) SAP Payroll
8 14 (1.09%) SAP SD
9 12 (0.93%) SAP BRIM
9 12 (0.93%) SAP HCM
9 12 (0.93%) SAP Hybris
10 11 (0.85%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.85%) SAP CO
11 10 (0.78%) SAP FI/CO
11 10 (0.78%) SAP QM
12 9 (0.70%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 153 (11.89%) Azure
2 67 (5.21%) AWS
3 53 (4.12%) Power Platform
4 44 (3.42%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.34%) OCI
6 39 (3.03%) GCP
7 29 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
8 27 (2.10%) SuccessFactors
9 24 (1.86%) Entra ID
10 20 (1.55%) Power Automate
11 18 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
12 15 (1.17%) SaaS
13 14 (1.09%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 13 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
15 12 (0.93%) GitHub
15 12 (0.93%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 12 (0.93%) PowerApps
16 9 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.62%) Azure Monitor
17 8 (0.62%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.25%) Network Security
2 21 (1.63%) Firewall
3 18 (1.40%) SNMP
4 10 (0.78%) BGP
5 9 (0.70%) FTP
6 8 (0.62%) WAN
7 5 (0.39%) HTTP
7 5 (0.39%) LAN
7 5 (0.39%) VPN
8 4 (0.31%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.31%) SAN
8 4 (0.31%) VXLAN
9 3 (0.23%) DNS
9 3 (0.23%) SMS
9 3 (0.23%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.23%) VSAN
9 3 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.16%) Connectrix
10 2 (0.16%) TACACS
10 2 (0.16%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.64%) Power BI
2 31 (2.41%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.32%) Oracle ODI
3 17 (1.32%) SAP HANA
4 12 (0.93%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.85%) Tableau
6 9 (0.70%) Metadata
6 9 (0.70%) SAP Data Services
7 8 (0.62%) SAP BW
7 8 (0.62%) SQL Server
8 7 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
9 6 (0.47%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.39%) NonStop SQL
10 5 (0.39%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.31%) Power Query
11 4 (0.31%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
13 2 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 44 (3.42%) JIRA
2 13 (1.01%) Hudson
3 9 (0.70%) Git
4 8 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.47%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.31%) Toad
7 3 (0.23%) Postman
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.16%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.16%) TestRail
8 2 (0.16%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.078%) Appium
9 1 (0.078%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.078%) MSTest
9 1 (0.078%) NUnit
9 1 (0.078%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.078%) Yeoman
General
1 274 (21.29%) Social Skills
2 255 (19.81%) Finance
3 105 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (7.85%) Public Sector
5 44 (3.42%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.80%) Legal
7 32 (2.49%) Banking
8 27 (2.10%) General Ledger
8 27 (2.10%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.94%) Billing
10 23 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
11 21 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
12 17 (1.32%) Aerospace
13 16 (1.24%) Retail
14 14 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (1.01%) Marketing
16 11 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
16 11 (0.85%) Local Government
17 9 (0.70%) Aviation
17 9 (0.70%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.26%) XML
2 38 (2.95%) REST
3 22 (1.71%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.93%) Web Services
5 11 (0.85%) Middleware
5 11 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
5 11 (0.85%) SOAP
6 6 (0.47%) JSON
6 6 (0.47%) Microsoft Graph
6 6 (0.47%) RESTful
6 6 (0.47%) SailPoint
7 5 (0.39%) BAPI
7 5 (0.39%) SAP Basis
8 4 (0.31%) .NET
8 4 (0.31%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.31%) eBPF
8 4 (0.31%) LDAP
8 4 (0.31%) OpenTelemetry
9 3 (0.23%) PySpark
9 3 (0.23%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.80%) Data Protection Act
2 27 (2.10%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.86%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.24%) Operational Technology
5 15 (1.17%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.93%) Public Cloud
6 12 (0.93%) Replication
7 11 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (0.85%) Management Information System
7 11 (0.85%) Product Ownership
8 10 (0.78%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.70%) FMCG
10 8 (0.62%) CMDB
10 8 (0.62%) Data Structures
11 7 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (0.54%) Data Centre
11 7 (0.54%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (0.54%) NHS
11 7 (0.54%) Private Cloud
11 7 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 52 (4.04%) Windows
2 39 (3.03%) Linux
3 17 (1.32%) Solaris
4 13 (1.01%) AIX
5 9 (0.70%) VMS
6 5 (0.39%) Unix
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.23%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.078%) Android
8 1 (0.078%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.078%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.078%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.078%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (11.97%) ERP
2 150 (11.66%) Migration
3 122 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 119 (9.25%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (8.94%) Problem-Solving
6 105 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
7 94 (7.30%) Validation
8 89 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
9 86 (6.68%) Workshop Facilitation
10 85 (6.60%) Data Migration
11 76 (5.91%) User Acceptance Testing
12 73 (5.67%) Agile
13 69 (5.36%) Roadmaps
14 66 (5.13%) Analytics
15 60 (4.66%) PLM
16 58 (4.51%) Data Protection
17 57 (4.43%) AI
18 54 (4.20%) Business Intelligence
18 54 (4.20%) Change Management
19 52 (4.04%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 118 (9.17%) SQL
2 56 (4.35%) Python
3 28 (2.18%) T-SQL
4 26 (2.02%) PL/SQL
5 25 (1.94%) PowerShell
6 19 (1.48%) ABAP
7 15 (1.17%) JavaScript
8 13 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
9 11 (0.85%) Bash
10 10 (0.78%) Kusto Query Language
11 9 (0.70%) Java
12 6 (0.47%) R
13 5 (0.39%) C#
14 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.16%) C++
15 2 (0.16%) VBScript
16 1 (0.078%) ActionScript
16 1 (0.078%) COBOL
16 1 (0.078%) VB
Qualifications
1 270 (20.98%) Security Cleared
2 194 (15.07%) SC Cleared
3 61 (4.74%) DV Cleared
4 55 (4.27%) CISSP
5 39 (3.03%) CISM
6 38 (2.95%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (2.41%) Degree
8 28 (2.18%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.71%) CCSP
10 11 (0.85%) PMP
11 10 (0.78%) CEH
12 9 (0.70%) ACCA
12 9 (0.70%) CIMA
12 9 (0.70%) OSCP
13 8 (0.62%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (0.62%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (0.47%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.47%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.89%) NIST
2 42 (3.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.56%) GRC
4 28 (2.18%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.55%) QA
6 18 (1.40%) GDPR
7 13 (1.01%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.93%) NCSC
9 8 (0.62%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.62%) SLA
10 7 (0.54%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.54%) COBIT
10 7 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.47%) RMADS
12 5 (0.39%) PMO
13 4 (0.31%) WCAG
14 2 (0.16%) Def Stans
14 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 26 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (0.93%) VMware NSX
4 11 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
4 11 (0.85%) vSphere
5 8 (0.62%) Docker
6 4 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.16%) NFS
8 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.078%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.078%) IAG
9 1 (0.078%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 27 (2.10%) Kubernetes
2 20 (1.55%) Terraform
3 16 (1.24%) Ansible
4 13 (1.01%) Nagios
4 13 (1.01%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.93%) Netcool
5 12 (0.93%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.85%) OpenView
6 11 (0.85%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 9 (0.70%) vRealize
8 7 (0.54%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.47%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.47%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.39%) Grafana
11 4 (0.31%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.31%) Podman
11 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 276 (21.45%) SAP
2 140 (10.88%) Microsoft
3 137 (10.64%) Oracle
4 54 (4.20%) Siemens
5 33 (2.56%) ServiceNow
6 28 (2.18%) VMware
7 24 (1.86%) Splunk
8 18 (1.40%) Ariba
8 18 (1.40%) BMC
9 17 (1.32%) IBM
10 16 (1.24%) Workday
11 14 (1.09%) Databricks
11 14 (1.09%) JD Edwards
12 13 (1.01%) Sage
12 13 (1.01%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.93%) Google
13 12 (0.93%) HP
14 10 (0.78%) IFS
15 9 (0.70%) Informatica
15 9 (0.70%) Salesforce