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 £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 November 2025.

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

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 29 28 32
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 +30
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,070 1,025 1,112
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 6.05% 6.25% 5.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.72% 6.77% 5.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 672 596 703
10th Percentile £403 £425 £397
25th Percentile £475 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £625
90th Percentile £716 £734 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 13 25
10th Percentile £62.75 £55.00 £50.88
25th Percentile £72.00 £56.65 £60.82
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -11.17%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.25 £86.50 £84.20
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £72.88
% change year-on-year +12.83% -5.75% +4.11%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 15,912 15,145 19,086
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.94% 92.31% 93.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,821 8,676 12,567
10th Percentile £210 £215 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £494 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% -1.30% -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,580 1,036 1,251
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.10 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +82.00%
75th Percentile £56.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.24 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.75
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.79% +49.17%

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 26 November 2025.

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 26 November 2025.

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 26 November 2025. 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
North of England -9 291 £585 +3.17% 314
South East -1 277 £531 -7.65% 531
North West +1 201 £620 +12.73% 173
Midlands -21 160 £569 +3.41% 217
East of England +13 119 £550 +10.00% 167
West Midlands -19 117 £550 +5.77% 132
South West +6 108 £550 -6.58% 247
Yorkshire -11 83 £475 -20.83% 115
Scotland -9 70 £500 -11.35% 60
East Midlands -18 42 £578 +0.43% 75
Wales +6 34 £405 -32.50% 37
Northern Ireland -10 14 £405 -32.50% 28
North East -10 7 £550 -8.33% 26
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 November 2025, 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.

1 349 (32.62%) Security Cleared
2 281 (26.26%) SC Cleared
3 280 (26.17%) SAP
4 159 (14.86%) SAP S/4HANA
5 129 (12.06%) Migration
6 117 (10.93%) Microsoft
6 117 (10.93%) Problem-Solving
7 111 (10.37%) Oracle
8 109 (10.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 100 (9.35%) Stakeholder Management
10 80 (7.48%) Workshop Facilitation
11 75 (7.01%) Roadmaps
12 74 (6.92%) ERP
13 71 (6.64%) Agile
14 63 (5.89%) Azure
15 59 (5.51%) DV Cleared
15 59 (5.51%) Knowledge Transfer
16 58 (5.42%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (5.14%) Analytics
18 54 (5.05%) DevOps
18 54 (5.05%) Validation
19 53 (4.95%) CyberArk
19 53 (4.95%) Requirements Gathering
20 51 (4.77%) Risk Management
21 50 (4.67%) BPSS Clearance
21 50 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
21 50 (4.67%) Cisco
21 50 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
22 48 (4.49%) Collaborative Working
22 48 (4.49%) User Acceptance Testing

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 26 (2.43%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.96%) WebLogic
3 18 (1.68%) WebSphere
4 15 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.12%) Confluence
6 7 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
6 7 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 4 (0.37%) Apache
7 4 (0.37%) CMS
7 4 (0.37%) IIS
8 3 (0.28%) MTS
9 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.093%) Camunda
10 1 (0.093%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.093%) SAS
10 1 (0.093%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.093%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.28%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.28%) Revit
7 2 (0.19%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.093%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.093%) InDesign
8 1 (0.093%) InVision
8 1 (0.093%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.093%) Sketch
8 1 (0.093%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 159 (14.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (2.62%) SAP MM
3 27 (2.52%) Oracle EBS
4 24 (2.24%) SAP Payroll
5 23 (2.15%) SAP EWM
5 23 (2.15%) SAP FI
6 22 (2.06%) SAP HCM
7 18 (1.68%) Maximo
7 18 (1.68%) Oracle EBS R12
7 18 (1.68%) SAP WM
8 17 (1.59%) Oracle Payables
9 16 (1.50%) Oracle Cash Management
9 16 (1.50%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (1.40%) SAP HR
10 15 (1.40%) SAP PSCD
11 14 (1.31%) SAP CO
11 14 (1.31%) SAP FI/CO
12 13 (1.21%) Oracle General Ledger
12 13 (1.21%) SAP BRIM
12 13 (1.21%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 63 (5.89%) Azure
2 37 (3.46%) OCI
3 36 (3.36%) Dynamics 365
4 35 (3.27%) AWS
5 32 (2.99%) Power Platform
6 31 (2.90%) Microsoft 365
7 29 (2.71%) SuccessFactors
8 27 (2.52%) GCP
9 16 (1.50%) Entra ID
10 13 (1.21%) SaaS
10 13 (1.21%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 12 (1.12%) Power Automate
12 10 (0.93%) PowerApps
13 9 (0.84%) Snowflake
14 8 (0.75%) Azure DevOps
14 8 (0.75%) OneDrive
15 6 (0.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 6 (0.56%) PaaS
16 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
17 4 (0.37%) Matillion
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.78%) Firewall
2 9 (0.84%) Network Security
3 7 (0.65%) SSH
4 6 (0.56%) SD-WAN
4 6 (0.56%) VSAN
4 6 (0.56%) WAN
5 5 (0.47%) DMZ
5 5 (0.47%) Kerberos
5 5 (0.47%) VoIP
6 3 (0.28%) BGP
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.28%) DNS
6 3 (0.28%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.28%) Internet
6 3 (0.28%) OSPF
6 3 (0.28%) SAN
6 3 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.24%) Power BI
2 22 (2.06%) SAP HANA
3 20 (1.87%) SQL Server
4 16 (1.50%) Oracle Reports
5 15 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (0.93%) Metadata
6 10 (0.93%) Oracle Database
7 9 (0.84%) SAP BW
8 6 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (0.56%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 5 (0.47%) DB2
9 5 (0.47%) SAP Data Services
10 3 (0.28%) Tableau
11 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.19%) EDMS
11 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.19%) MS Access
11 2 (0.19%) QGIS
11 2 (0.19%) Semantic Layer
11 2 (0.19%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 24 (2.24%) JIRA
2 9 (0.84%) GitLab
3 7 (0.65%) Git
3 7 (0.65%) Hudson
4 2 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
4 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
5 1 (0.093%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.093%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.093%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.093%) LSMW
5 1 (0.093%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.093%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.093%) Visual Studio
General
1 270 (25.23%) Social Skills
2 196 (18.32%) Finance
3 134 (12.52%) Public Sector
4 107 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
5 61 (5.70%) Manufacturing
6 40 (3.74%) Telecoms
7 33 (3.08%) Presentation Skills
8 32 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
9 28 (2.62%) Marketing
10 21 (1.96%) Pharmaceutical
11 19 (1.78%) Billing
12 16 (1.50%) Local Government
13 15 (1.40%) Electronics
13 15 (1.40%) General Ledger
14 12 (1.12%) Banking
14 12 (1.12%) Retail
15 9 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.84%) Legal
16 8 (0.75%) Aerospace
17 6 (0.56%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.11%) SAP Fiori
2 29 (2.71%) Oracle Fusion
2 29 (2.71%) SOAP
2 29 (2.71%) Web Services
3 28 (2.62%) REST
4 27 (2.52%) XML
5 23 (2.15%) Middleware
6 21 (1.96%) HTML
7 17 (1.59%) .NET
8 16 (1.50%) OAuth
9 15 (1.40%) BAPI
9 15 (1.40%) JSON
10 14 (1.31%) Node.js
10 14 (1.31%) SAP Basis
11 12 (1.12%) LDAP
12 10 (0.93%) SAML
13 9 (0.84%) OAuth2
14 7 (0.65%) SAP TM
14 7 (0.65%) Swagger
14 7 (0.65%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 37 (3.46%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (1.40%) Data Centre
4 12 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (1.12%) Management Information System
4 12 (1.12%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.03%) Product Ownership
5 11 (1.03%) Replication
6 10 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (0.75%) Data Structures
7 8 (0.75%) FMCG
8 7 (0.65%) Cloud Native
8 7 (0.65%) Operational Technology
8 7 (0.65%) Virtual Team
9 6 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.56%) IoT
10 5 (0.47%) Algorithms
10 5 (0.47%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (0.47%) Private Cloud
10 5 (0.47%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 38 (3.55%) Windows
2 24 (2.24%) Linux
3 9 (0.84%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.65%) AIX
4 7 (0.65%) Solaris
5 6 (0.56%) Unix
5 6 (0.56%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.37%) VMS
7 3 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.093%) CentOS
9 1 (0.093%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.093%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.093%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (12.06%) Migration
2 117 (10.93%) Problem-Solving
3 109 (10.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 100 (9.35%) Stakeholder Management
5 80 (7.48%) Workshop Facilitation
6 75 (7.01%) Roadmaps
7 74 (6.92%) ERP
8 71 (6.64%) Agile
9 59 (5.51%) Knowledge Transfer
10 58 (5.42%) Cybersecurity
11 55 (5.14%) Analytics
12 54 (5.05%) DevOps
12 54 (5.05%) Validation
13 53 (4.95%) Requirements Gathering
14 51 (4.77%) Risk Management
15 50 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
16 48 (4.49%) Collaborative Working
16 48 (4.49%) User Acceptance Testing
17 44 (4.11%) Change Management
17 44 (4.11%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 47 (4.39%) SQL
2 37 (3.46%) ABAP
3 26 (2.43%) Python
4 23 (2.15%) PowerShell
5 18 (1.68%) Java
5 18 (1.68%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.40%) C
6 15 (1.40%) C++
7 14 (1.31%) PHP
8 10 (0.93%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.75%) Groovy
10 7 (0.65%) Bash
11 4 (0.37%) C#
12 3 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.28%) VBA
13 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.19%) X++
14 1 (0.093%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.093%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.093%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 349 (32.62%) Security Cleared
2 281 (26.26%) SC Cleared
3 59 (5.51%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.67%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (3.08%) Degree
6 28 (2.62%) CISSP
7 23 (2.15%) CISM
8 13 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.12%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (1.12%) SAP Certification
10 10 (0.93%) ACCA
10 10 (0.93%) CIMA
11 9 (0.84%) CCNP
12 8 (0.75%) CESG Certified Professional
13 7 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (0.65%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 7 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.37%) CCIE
14 4 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 4 (0.37%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 38 (3.55%) NIST
3 37 (3.46%) QA
4 23 (2.15%) GDPR
5 18 (1.68%) Data Quality
6 15 (1.40%) RMADS
7 12 (1.12%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (1.03%) GRC
9 10 (0.93%) NCSC
10 8 (0.75%) NIST 800
11 7 (0.65%) COBIT
11 7 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.65%) PMO
12 6 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.56%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.47%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.47%) PCI DSS
14 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
15 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
15 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 31 (2.90%) Active Directory
2 19 (1.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.21%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.56%) vSphere
5 4 (0.37%) Docker
5 4 (0.37%) UAG
6 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.093%) Ceph
7 1 (0.093%) Firmware
7 1 (0.093%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.093%) IAG
7 1 (0.093%) KVM
7 1 (0.093%) NDS
7 1 (0.093%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.093%) QEMU
7 1 (0.093%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.093%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (1.68%) Terraform
2 14 (1.31%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.93%) PingFederate
4 8 (0.75%) Ansible
4 8 (0.75%) Grafana
4 8 (0.75%) SCCM
5 7 (0.65%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (0.37%) HP ALM
8 4 (0.37%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
9 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
9 2 (0.19%) EnCase
9 2 (0.19%) FTK
9 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
9 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
9 2 (0.19%) vRealize
10 1 (0.093%) Control-M
Vendors
1 280 (26.17%) SAP
2 117 (10.93%) Microsoft
3 111 (10.37%) Oracle
4 53 (4.95%) CyberArk
5 50 (4.67%) Cisco
6 38 (3.55%) ServiceNow
7 33 (3.08%) Aruba
8 26 (2.43%) VMware
9 21 (1.96%) Dynatrace
10 19 (1.78%) IBM
11 18 (1.68%) Workday
12 15 (1.40%) Google
13 13 (1.21%) Adobe
13 13 (1.21%) EMC
14 12 (1.12%) Ariba
14 12 (1.12%) IFS
14 12 (1.12%) OpenText
15 11 (1.03%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.75%) Remedy
17 7 (0.65%) BeyondTrust