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 £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026.

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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 36 32
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,159 658 1,023
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.72% 5.11% 5.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.13% 5.56% 5.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 649 417 725
10th Percentile £404 £400 £377
25th Percentile £455 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.47% -2.27% +1.85%
75th Percentile £615 £604 £650
90th Percentile £713 £663 £725
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 12 21
10th Percentile £51.00 £37.27 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £59.81 £50.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -24.59% +34.04% -12.48%
75th Percentile £58.75 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -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 22,592 11,845 18,751
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 91.91% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,093 7,556 11,466
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £401 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £683 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,540 855 2,268
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.61 £17.28 £15.74
Median hourly rate £44.00 £27.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +62.96% -32.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £66.44 £63.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.83
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%

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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 -5 339 £538 -4.44% 295
North of England -22 235 £531 -0.51% 399
Midlands -13 229 £525 -2.33% 141
South West +26 191 £552 +5.14% 235
West Midlands -1 154 £550 - 98
North West -26 108 £518 -4.49% 268
Yorkshire -5 106 £550 +8.64% 90
Scotland +26 71 £425 -15.00% 62
East of England -10 69 £550 +12.82% 78
East Midlands -16 67 £500 -3.85% 44
Wales +5 30 £550 +37.50% 40
North East -25 21 £725 +35.77% 42
Northern Ireland -5 3 £600 +15.38% 52
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 May 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.

1 244 (21.05%) SAP
2 243 (20.97%) Security Cleared
3 177 (15.27%) SC Cleared
4 148 (12.77%) Migration
5 145 (12.51%) ERP
5 145 (12.51%) Oracle
6 131 (11.30%) Azure
7 112 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 107 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
9 106 (9.15%) Microsoft
10 105 (9.06%) SQL
11 91 (7.85%) Continuous Improvement
12 90 (7.77%) Data Migration
13 89 (7.68%) Stakeholder Management
14 84 (7.25%) SAP S/4HANA
15 83 (7.16%) Workshop Facilitation
16 77 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
17 73 (6.30%) Validation
18 72 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
19 64 (5.52%) Agile
20 61 (5.26%) Business Intelligence
21 60 (5.18%) PLM
22 57 (4.92%) Data Protection
23 56 (4.83%) AWS
24 55 (4.75%) Roadmaps
25 54 (4.66%) DV Cleared
25 54 (4.66%) Siemens
26 53 (4.57%) Analytics
26 53 (4.57%) Change Management
27 49 (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 20 (1.73%) SharePoint
2 19 (1.64%) Confluence
3 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 3 (0.26%) Apache
4 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.26%) Apache Superset
5 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.086%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.086%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.086%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.086%) WebLogic
Applications
1 37 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.52%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.43%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.17%) Lectora
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.086%) CATIA
8 1 (0.086%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.086%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.086%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 84 (7.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (3.02%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.59%) SAP PSCD
4 27 (2.33%) Oracle Payables
5 26 (2.24%) Oracle Receivables
6 25 (2.16%) Teamcenter
7 22 (1.90%) SAP MM
8 20 (1.73%) SAP FI
9 17 (1.47%) Oracle Assets
9 17 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
10 16 (1.38%) Oracle Cash Management
11 15 (1.29%) Oracle General Ledger
11 15 (1.29%) SAP SD
12 14 (1.21%) SAP EWM
13 13 (1.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
14 12 (1.04%) SAP Hybris
15 11 (0.95%) Oracle EBS R12
15 11 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
15 11 (0.95%) SAP CO
15 11 (0.95%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 131 (11.30%) Azure
2 56 (4.83%) AWS
3 49 (4.23%) Power Platform
4 48 (4.14%) OCI
5 46 (3.97%) Dynamics 365
6 28 (2.42%) GCP
7 22 (1.90%) Microsoft 365
7 22 (1.90%) SuccessFactors
8 18 (1.55%) Power Automate
9 16 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
10 15 (1.29%) SaaS
11 13 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (1.12%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 12 (1.04%) Entra ID
12 12 (1.04%) PowerApps
13 8 (0.69%) Copilot Studio
14 7 (0.60%) GitHub
15 6 (0.52%) Azure AI
15 6 (0.52%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 5 (0.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.55%) Network Security
2 16 (1.38%) SNMP
3 11 (0.95%) Firewall
4 9 (0.78%) FTP
5 5 (0.43%) HTTP
6 4 (0.35%) SAN
6 4 (0.35%) VPN
7 3 (0.26%) SMS
7 3 (0.26%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (0.17%) Connectrix
8 2 (0.17%) DNS
8 2 (0.17%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.17%) Intranet
8 2 (0.17%) LAN
8 2 (0.17%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.17%) WAN
9 1 (0.086%) Ethernet VPN
9 1 (0.086%) VXLAN
9 1 (0.086%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.85%) Oracle Reports
1 33 (2.85%) Power BI
2 17 (1.47%) Oracle ODI
3 15 (1.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 13 (1.12%) SAP HANA
5 9 (0.78%) Tableau
6 8 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.43%) NonStop SQL
8 5 (0.43%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.35%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.26%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.26%) GIS
10 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.26%) Metadata
10 3 (0.26%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (2.85%) JIRA
2 14 (1.21%) Hudson
3 7 (0.60%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.43%) Git
5 4 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
6 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.26%) Toad
7 2 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.086%) Appium
8 1 (0.086%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.086%) GitLab
8 1 (0.086%) JDeveloper
8 1 (0.086%) JUnit
8 1 (0.086%) MSTest
8 1 (0.086%) NUnit
8 1 (0.086%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 238 (20.53%) Finance
2 225 (19.41%) Social Skills
3 88 (7.59%) Public Sector
4 86 (7.42%) Analytical Skills
5 42 (3.62%) Manufacturing
6 27 (2.33%) Legal
7 24 (2.07%) Banking
8 23 (1.98%) Billing
9 22 (1.90%) General Ledger
10 20 (1.73%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.21%) Retail
12 13 (1.12%) Marketing
13 12 (1.04%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (1.04%) Local Government
13 12 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
14 10 (0.86%) Documentation Skills
15 9 (0.78%) Law
16 6 (0.52%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.88%) REST
2 44 (3.80%) XML
3 30 (2.59%) Oracle Fusion
4 13 (1.12%) SOAP
5 10 (0.86%) JSON
5 10 (0.86%) Web Services
6 8 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (0.60%) .NET
8 5 (0.43%) LDAP
8 5 (0.43%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.35%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.35%) BAPI
9 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
9 4 (0.35%) Middleware
9 4 (0.35%) RESTful
9 4 (0.35%) SailPoint
10 3 (0.26%) eBPF
10 3 (0.26%) OpenTelemetry
10 3 (0.26%) PyTorch
10 3 (0.26%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 32 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
2 19 (1.64%) Onboarding
3 16 (1.38%) Operational Technology
4 15 (1.29%) Security Posture
5 14 (1.21%) AI Agents
5 14 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.12%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.95%) Replication
8 10 (0.86%) Public Cloud
9 9 (0.78%) Data Centre
9 9 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 8 (0.69%) Cloud Native
10 8 (0.69%) NHS
11 7 (0.60%) SCADA
12 6 (0.52%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (0.52%) Beowulf
12 6 (0.52%) Data Structures
13 5 (0.43%) BYOD
13 5 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
13 5 (0.43%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 33 (2.85%) Windows
2 26 (2.24%) Linux
3 13 (1.12%) AIX
3 13 (1.12%) Solaris
4 11 (0.95%) VMS
5 4 (0.35%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.17%) Unix
7 1 (0.086%) CoreOS
7 1 (0.086%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (12.77%) Migration
2 145 (12.51%) ERP
3 112 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 107 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
5 91 (7.85%) Continuous Improvement
6 90 (7.77%) Data Migration
7 89 (7.68%) Stakeholder Management
8 83 (7.16%) Workshop Facilitation
9 77 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
10 73 (6.30%) Validation
11 72 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
12 64 (5.52%) Agile
13 61 (5.26%) Business Intelligence
14 60 (5.18%) PLM
15 57 (4.92%) Data Protection
16 55 (4.75%) Roadmaps
17 53 (4.57%) Analytics
17 53 (4.57%) Change Management
18 45 (3.88%) Knowledge Transfer
19 44 (3.80%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 105 (9.06%) SQL
2 42 (3.62%) Python
3 28 (2.42%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.16%) PL/SQL
5 19 (1.64%) PowerShell
6 16 (1.38%) JavaScript
7 13 (1.12%) Search Processing Language
8 9 (0.78%) Java
9 8 (0.69%) C#
10 7 (0.60%) ABAP
10 7 (0.60%) Bash
10 7 (0.60%) R
11 6 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.17%) C++
13 2 (0.17%) VBScript
14 1 (0.086%) ActionScript 2.0
14 1 (0.086%) C
14 1 (0.086%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 243 (20.97%) Security Cleared
2 177 (15.27%) SC Cleared
3 54 (4.66%) DV Cleared
4 41 (3.54%) CISSP
5 34 (2.93%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (2.59%) CISM
7 23 (1.98%) Degree
8 18 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.29%) CCSP
10 14 (1.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 8 (0.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 7 (0.60%) ACCA
12 7 (0.60%) CIMA
12 7 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.60%) PMP
12 7 (0.60%) SAP Certification
13 6 (0.52%) CEH
13 6 (0.52%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.43%) Azure Certification
14 5 (0.43%) CCSK
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.71%) NIST
2 42 (3.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (2.67%) GRC
4 27 (2.33%) Data Quality
5 16 (1.38%) GDPR
6 12 (1.04%) QA
7 10 (0.86%) JSP 440
7 10 (0.86%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.69%) NCSC
8 8 (0.69%) SLA
9 7 (0.60%) RMADS
10 6 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.52%) COBIT
10 6 (0.52%) PMO
11 5 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.26%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) ISA99
13 2 (0.17%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.17%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 19 (1.64%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.95%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.86%) vSphere
5 9 (0.78%) Docker
6 8 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.086%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.086%) IAG
9 1 (0.086%) NFS
Systems Management
1 24 (2.07%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.12%) Nagios
2 13 (1.12%) ZABBIX
3 12 (1.04%) Netcool
3 12 (1.04%) Tivoli
4 11 (0.95%) OpenView
4 11 (0.95%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 9 (0.78%) Ansible
6 7 (0.60%) Terraform
7 6 (0.52%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.52%) Podman
7 6 (0.52%) vRealize
8 4 (0.35%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.26%) Grafana
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Management
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Manager
9 3 (0.26%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.26%) Puppet
9 3 (0.26%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 244 (21.05%) SAP
2 145 (12.51%) Oracle
3 106 (9.15%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.66%) Siemens
5 24 (2.07%) ServiceNow
6 22 (1.90%) Splunk
7 21 (1.81%) BMC
7 21 (1.81%) VMware
8 20 (1.73%) Workday
9 17 (1.47%) Ariba
9 17 (1.47%) IBM
10 14 (1.21%) Sage
11 13 (1.12%) SolarWinds
12 12 (1.04%) Databricks
12 12 (1.04%) HP
12 12 (1.04%) IFS
13 11 (0.95%) Google
14 7 (0.60%) Informatica
14 7 (0.60%) OpenText
14 7 (0.60%) Veritas