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 28 July 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 34 27
Rank change year-on-year -1 -7 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,343 757 1,138
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.97% 5.03% 5.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.39% 5.56% 6.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 747 470 734
10th Percentile £403 £400 £425
25th Percentile £456 £475 £477
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £628 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £749
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 20 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.31 £26.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £54.48
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £76.50 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £81.73 £68.17
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -5.23%

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 24,939 13,608 17,644
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 90.48% 92.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,169 8,393 10,794
10th Percentile £306 £218 £214
25th Percentile £409 £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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,907 1,180 1,928
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.14 £16.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.59%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £42.03
% change year-on-year +72.96% -40.16% -2.97%

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 -4 391 £530 -3.64% 219
North of England -16 282 £538 -0.37% 171
Midlands +1 258 £500 -9.09% 70
South West +22 213 £556 -3.30% 103
West Midlands +17 186 £500 -11.11% 50
North West -17 162 £525 -4.55% 119
Scotland +34 102 £425 -12.82% 24
Yorkshire -9 101 £544 +11.54% 40
East of England -13 82 £550 - 39
East Midlands -7 63 £500 -9.09% 20
Wales -7 29 £550 +23.94% 11
North East -41 20 £750 +40.45% 12
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 26
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 July 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.

1 318 (23.68%) Security Cleared
2 290 (21.59%) SAP
3 211 (15.71%) SC Cleared
4 156 (11.62%) Microsoft
5 144 (10.72%) Stakeholder Management
6 142 (10.57%) Migration
7 141 (10.50%) ERP
8 137 (10.20%) Azure
8 137 (10.20%) Oracle
9 128 (9.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 122 (9.08%) Problem-Solving
10 122 (9.08%) SQL
11 113 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
12 108 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
13 95 (7.07%) SAP S/4HANA
13 95 (7.07%) Validation
14 87 (6.48%) DV Cleared
14 87 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
15 85 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
16 82 (6.11%) Agile
17 78 (5.81%) Roadmaps
18 76 (5.66%) Data Migration
19 73 (5.44%) AWS
20 59 (4.39%) Analytics
20 59 (4.39%) Python
20 59 (4.39%) Risk Management
21 58 (4.32%) CISSP
22 57 (4.24%) Power Platform
23 54 (4.02%) AI
23 54 (4.02%) 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 29 (2.16%) Confluence
2 19 (1.41%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.67%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) Apache
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.074%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.074%) SAS
7 1 (0.074%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (2.01%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.074%) CATIA
7 1 (0.074%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.074%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 95 (7.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (2.61%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.71%) SAP MM
4 22 (1.64%) Oracle ERP
5 21 (1.56%) SAP EWM
6 18 (1.34%) Oracle Payables
6 18 (1.34%) SAP FI
6 18 (1.34%) SAP Payroll
6 18 (1.34%) Teamcenter
7 15 (1.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 15 (1.12%) SAP HCM
7 15 (1.12%) SAP SD
8 14 (1.04%) SAP QM
9 11 (0.82%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.82%) SAP PP
9 11 (0.82%) Workday HCM
10 10 (0.74%) SAP FI/CO
11 9 (0.67%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 137 (10.20%) Azure
2 73 (5.44%) AWS
3 57 (4.24%) Power Platform
4 54 (4.02%) Dynamics 365
5 45 (3.35%) OCI
6 42 (3.13%) GCP
7 34 (2.53%) SuccessFactors
8 31 (2.31%) Microsoft 365
9 24 (1.79%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.71%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.27%) SaaS
12 12 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.89%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.89%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.82%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.82%) GitHub
13 11 (0.82%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.16%) Network Security
2 24 (1.79%) Firewall
3 20 (1.49%) SNMP
4 12 (0.89%) BGP
5 10 (0.74%) WAN
6 8 (0.60%) VPN
7 7 (0.52%) LAN
8 6 (0.45%) FTP
8 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.45%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) SAN
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.22%) MPLS
11 3 (0.22%) SMS
11 3 (0.22%) TACACS
11 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.61%) Power BI
2 28 (2.08%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.64%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.27%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.12%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.04%) SQL Server
7 12 (0.89%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 11 (0.82%) Tableau
9 10 (0.74%) Metadata
10 9 (0.67%) SAP Data Services
11 7 (0.52%) BusinessObjects
12 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
13 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
14 4 (0.30%) Power Query
15 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
15 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
15 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
15 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.57%) JIRA
2 13 (0.97%) Hudson
3 10 (0.74%) Git
4 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.52%) Oracle Forms
5 3 (0.22%) Postman
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.15%) TestRail
6 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.074%) GitLab
7 1 (0.074%) JMeter
7 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.074%) tSQLt
7 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 293 (21.82%) Social Skills
2 246 (18.32%) Finance
3 116 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.89%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.57%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.68%) Legal
7 32 (2.38%) Banking
8 26 (1.94%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.86%) General Ledger
10 24 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
11 22 (1.64%) Aerospace
11 22 (1.64%) Billing
11 22 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.19%) Retail
13 15 (1.12%) Marketing
14 14 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.67%) Advertising
15 9 (0.67%) Financial Institution
16 8 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.13%) XML
2 40 (2.98%) REST
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle Fusion
4 18 (1.34%) SOAP
5 15 (1.12%) Middleware
6 11 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
6 11 (0.82%) Web Services
7 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
8 7 (0.52%) IDoc
8 7 (0.52%) JSON
9 6 (0.45%) JDBC
9 6 (0.45%) LDAP
9 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
10 5 (0.37%) RESTful
10 5 (0.37%) SailPoint
10 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
11 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.30%) eBPF
11 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 37 (2.76%) Onboarding
2 34 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.71%) Security Posture
4 15 (1.12%) Operational Technology
5 13 (0.97%) Replication
6 12 (0.89%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.89%) CMDB
6 12 (0.89%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 10 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.74%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.74%) Data Structures
9 9 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.67%) FMCG
9 9 (0.67%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.67%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.67%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.52%) NHS
11 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.80%) Windows
2 42 (3.13%) Linux
3 17 (1.27%) Solaris
4 14 (1.04%) AIX
5 11 (0.82%) Unix
6 9 (0.67%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.074%) Android
9 1 (0.074%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.074%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.074%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (10.72%) Stakeholder Management
2 142 (10.57%) Migration
3 141 (10.50%) ERP
4 128 (9.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 122 (9.08%) Problem-Solving
6 113 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
8 95 (7.07%) Validation
9 87 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
10 85 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
11 82 (6.11%) Agile
12 78 (5.81%) Roadmaps
13 76 (5.66%) Data Migration
14 59 (4.39%) Analytics
14 59 (4.39%) Risk Management
15 54 (4.02%) AI
15 54 (4.02%) Business Intelligence
15 54 (4.02%) Data Protection
16 51 (3.80%) Translating Business Requirements
17 50 (3.72%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 122 (9.08%) SQL
2 59 (4.39%) Python
3 30 (2.23%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.16%) ABAP
4 29 (2.16%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.94%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.41%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.97%) Java
7 13 (0.97%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.89%) Bash
9 10 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.45%) C#
10 6 (0.45%) R
11 3 (0.22%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) VBScript
13 1 (0.074%) C++
13 1 (0.074%) VB
Qualifications
1 318 (23.68%) Security Cleared
2 211 (15.71%) SC Cleared
3 87 (6.48%) DV Cleared
4 58 (4.32%) CISSP
5 45 (3.35%) CISM
6 41 (3.05%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.31%) Degree
9 26 (1.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.64%) CCSP
11 11 (0.82%) ACCA
11 11 (0.82%) CIMA
11 11 (0.82%) PMP
12 10 (0.74%) CEH
13 9 (0.67%) OSCP
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
16 6 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.72%) NIST
2 44 (3.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 35 (2.61%) GRC
4 29 (2.16%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.71%) QA
6 18 (1.34%) GDPR
7 14 (1.04%) NCSC
8 13 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.82%) SLA
11 8 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.45%) COBIT
13 6 (0.45%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.45%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.45%) PMO
13 6 (0.45%) RMADS
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 30 (2.23%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.19%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.97%) vSphere
6 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.22%) Docker
7 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.074%) Firmware
9 1 (0.074%) IAG
9 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.64%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.56%) Terraform
3 20 (1.49%) Ansible
4 13 (0.97%) Nagios
4 13 (0.97%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.89%) Netcool
5 12 (0.89%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.82%) OpenView
6 11 (0.82%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.82%) vRealize
7 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.52%) Grafana
9 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.45%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 290 (21.59%) SAP
2 156 (11.62%) Microsoft
3 137 (10.20%) Oracle
4 45 (3.35%) ServiceNow
5 37 (2.76%) Siemens
6 31 (2.31%) VMware
7 29 (2.16%) Splunk
8 16 (1.19%) BMC
8 16 (1.19%) IBM
9 15 (1.12%) Ariba
9 15 (1.12%) Salesforce
10 14 (1.04%) JD Edwards
10 14 (1.04%) Workday
11 13 (0.97%) Databricks
11 13 (0.97%) SolarWinds
12 12 (0.89%) HP
13 10 (0.74%) Google
13 10 (0.74%) IFS
14 9 (0.67%) Informatica
14 9 (0.67%) Veeam