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 12 March 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 35 33
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +25
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,144 674 1,015
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.35% 5.29% 4.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.85% 5.72% 5.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 642 433 719
10th Percentile £403 £425 £370
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £549
Median % change year-on-year - +0.18% -0.18%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £716 £700 £723
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 12 25
10th Percentile - £70.12 £26.75
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.86 £42.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +35.86% -6.60%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £71.30 £86.23 £87.60
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
% change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -4.55%

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 19,571 11,787 19,677
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.48% 92.50% 92.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,606 7,548 12,249
10th Percentile £250 £210 £210
25th Percentile £388 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,134 676 2,085
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.18 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.86 £20.26 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £33.45 £32.50
% change year-on-year +4.63% +2.92% -23.29%

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 12 March 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 12 March 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 12 March 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 +4 326 £525 -8.70% 300
North of England -9 274 £581 +7.99% 192
Midlands -8 228 £550 +4.76% 92
West Midlands -5 169 £563 +7.14% 57
North West -3 155 £644 +19.70% 108
South West +16 141 £550 - 156
Yorkshire -1 110 £544 +2.35% 61
East of England -7 92 £524 -2.56% 49
East Midlands -18 55 £500 -3.15% 34
Scotland +9 50 £520 -5.45% 33
Wales +7 32 £447 -8.31% 21
Northern Ireland +2 10 £496 -5.48% 12
North East -24 9 £525 -4.55% 24
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 12 March 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.

1 327 (28.58%) Security Cleared
2 269 (23.51%) SC Cleared
3 254 (22.20%) SAP
4 175 (15.30%) Migration
5 141 (12.33%) SAP S/4HANA
6 132 (11.54%) Oracle
7 127 (11.10%) ERP
8 123 (10.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 112 (9.79%) Azure
9 112 (9.79%) Problem-Solving
10 98 (8.57%) Microsoft
10 98 (8.57%) Workshop Facilitation
11 94 (8.22%) Stakeholder Management
12 79 (6.91%) SQL
13 73 (6.38%) Data Migration
13 73 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
14 69 (6.03%) Roadmaps
15 66 (5.77%) Cybersecurity
16 65 (5.68%) Validation
17 62 (5.42%) Business Intelligence
18 60 (5.24%) Change Management
19 57 (4.98%) Continuous Improvement
20 56 (4.90%) Analytics
21 55 (4.81%) Agile
21 55 (4.81%) Knowledge Transfer
22 53 (4.63%) PLM
22 53 (4.63%) Siemens
23 51 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
24 50 (4.37%) XML
25 49 (4.28%) CyberArk

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 31 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 18 (1.57%) Confluence
3 12 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) MTS
6 2 (0.17%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.087%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.087%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.087%) SAS
7 1 (0.087%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.087%) WebSphere
Applications
1 41 (3.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.70%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.44%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.17%) Lectora
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.087%) CATIA
8 1 (0.087%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.087%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.087%) Revit
8 1 (0.087%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.087%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 141 (12.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (3.06%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.62%) Oracle Receivables
3 30 (2.62%) SAP MM
4 29 (2.53%) SAP FI
5 28 (2.45%) Oracle Payables
6 23 (2.01%) Oracle EBS R12
6 23 (2.01%) SAP PSCD
7 22 (1.92%) Oracle General Ledger
8 21 (1.84%) Oracle Cash Management
8 21 (1.84%) SAP HCM
9 20 (1.75%) Oracle Assets
10 19 (1.66%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 19 (1.66%) SAP Payroll
10 19 (1.66%) Teamcenter
11 17 (1.49%) SAP Hybris
12 16 (1.40%) SAP BRIM
13 13 (1.14%) Oracle AGIS
14 12 (1.05%) SAP CO
15 11 (0.96%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 112 (9.79%) Azure
2 44 (3.85%) OCI
3 37 (3.23%) Dynamics 365
4 34 (2.97%) AWS
5 31 (2.71%) GCP
6 27 (2.36%) Power Platform
7 23 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
8 18 (1.57%) Entra ID
8 18 (1.57%) SuccessFactors
9 17 (1.49%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 16 (1.40%) SaaS
11 13 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
12 11 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 8 (0.70%) OneDrive
15 7 (0.61%) Power Automate
16 4 (0.35%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.35%) dbt
16 4 (0.35%) GitHub
17 3 (0.26%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.49%) Firewall
2 8 (0.70%) FTP
2 8 (0.70%) Network Security
3 5 (0.44%) Kerberos
4 4 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
4 4 (0.35%) HTTP
4 4 (0.35%) SD-WAN
4 4 (0.35%) SSH
4 4 (0.35%) VSAN
4 4 (0.35%) WAN
5 3 (0.26%) BGP
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.26%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.26%) OSPF
5 3 (0.26%) SNMP
5 3 (0.26%) VPN
5 3 (0.26%) WebEx
6 2 (0.17%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (2.27%) SAP HANA
2 23 (2.01%) Power BI
3 22 (1.92%) Oracle Reports
4 18 (1.57%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 15 (1.31%) SQL Server
6 8 (0.70%) Metadata
7 7 (0.61%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle ODI
9 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
9 4 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.26%) GIS
10 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.26%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.26%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.26%) SAP BW
11 2 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.17%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.17%) Oracle BI EE
Development Applications
1 32 (2.80%) JIRA
2 7 (0.61%) Hudson
3 4 (0.35%) Git
4 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.17%) Postman
5 2 (0.17%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.087%) Appium
6 1 (0.087%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.087%) GitLab
6 1 (0.087%) JUnit
6 1 (0.087%) MSTest
6 1 (0.087%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.087%) NUnit
6 1 (0.087%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.087%) Toad
6 1 (0.087%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 247 (21.59%) Social Skills
2 222 (19.41%) Finance
3 132 (11.54%) Public Sector
4 86 (7.52%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (3.76%) Manufacturing
6 28 (2.45%) Billing
7 27 (2.36%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.10%) Legal
9 21 (1.84%) Banking
10 20 (1.75%) General Ledger
11 19 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
12 18 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
12 18 (1.57%) Marketing
13 15 (1.31%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
15 11 (0.96%) Law
15 11 (0.96%) Local Government
16 9 (0.79%) Retail
17 7 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
18 5 (0.44%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.37%) XML
2 47 (4.11%) Oracle Fusion
3 39 (3.41%) REST
4 32 (2.80%) Web Services
5 26 (2.27%) SAP Fiori
6 24 (2.10%) SOAP
7 16 (1.40%) BAPI
8 11 (0.96%) SAP Basis
9 9 (0.79%) JSON
9 9 (0.79%) LDAP
10 6 (0.52%) SAML
10 6 (0.52%) SAP Business Workflow
10 6 (0.52%) SAP TM
11 5 (0.44%) .NET
11 5 (0.44%) Middleware
11 5 (0.44%) OAuth
12 4 (0.35%) IDoc
13 3 (0.26%) AngularJS
13 3 (0.26%) PyTorch
13 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 23 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
2 22 (1.92%) Onboarding
3 20 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
4 14 (1.22%) Operational Technology
4 14 (1.22%) Product Ownership
4 14 (1.22%) Replication
5 10 (0.87%) Data Centre
6 9 (0.79%) AI Agents
6 9 (0.79%) Data Structures
6 9 (0.79%) Public Cloud
6 9 (0.79%) Security Posture
7 7 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (0.61%) Management Information System
7 7 (0.61%) NHS
8 6 (0.52%) Beowulf
8 6 (0.52%) SCADA
9 5 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (0.44%) Market Risk
9 5 (0.44%) SCORM
10 4 (0.35%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 34 (2.97%) Windows
2 19 (1.66%) Linux
3 7 (0.61%) AIX
3 7 (0.61%) VMS
4 6 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.35%) Solaris
5 4 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.17%) Unix
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.087%) CentOS
8 1 (0.087%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.087%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.087%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.087%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (15.30%) Migration
2 127 (11.10%) ERP
3 123 (10.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 112 (9.79%) Problem-Solving
5 98 (8.57%) Workshop Facilitation
6 94 (8.22%) Stakeholder Management
7 73 (6.38%) Data Migration
7 73 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
8 69 (6.03%) Roadmaps
9 66 (5.77%) Cybersecurity
10 65 (5.68%) Validation
11 62 (5.42%) Business Intelligence
12 60 (5.24%) Change Management
13 57 (4.98%) Continuous Improvement
14 56 (4.90%) Analytics
15 55 (4.81%) Agile
15 55 (4.81%) Knowledge Transfer
16 53 (4.63%) PLM
17 45 (3.93%) Project Management
18 41 (3.58%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 79 (6.91%) SQL
2 34 (2.97%) ABAP
3 33 (2.88%) Python
4 28 (2.45%) T-SQL
5 22 (1.92%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.87%) JavaScript
7 9 (0.79%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.70%) Bash
9 6 (0.52%) Java
10 4 (0.35%) C#
10 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.26%) Search Processing Language
12 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.17%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.17%) VBA
12 2 (0.17%) X++
13 1 (0.087%) ActionScript 2.0
13 1 (0.087%) Bicep
13 1 (0.087%) MATLAB
13 1 (0.087%) R
Qualifications
1 327 (28.58%) Security Cleared
2 269 (23.51%) SC Cleared
3 42 (3.67%) DV Cleared
4 30 (2.62%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.36%) Degree
6 20 (1.75%) CISSP
7 13 (1.14%) CISM
8 11 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (0.70%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (0.52%) CCNP
11 6 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (0.52%) SAP Certification
12 5 (0.44%) CEH
12 5 (0.44%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.35%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.26%) CISA
14 3 (0.26%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.26%) PMP
14 3 (0.26%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (3.67%) NIST
3 24 (2.10%) GDPR
4 23 (2.01%) QA
5 19 (1.66%) GRC
6 14 (1.22%) Data Quality
7 12 (1.05%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (0.96%) NCSC
9 8 (0.70%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 8 (0.70%) PMO
10 6 (0.52%) COBIT
11 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.35%) RMADS
13 3 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.26%) SLA
14 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.17%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 29 (2.53%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.05%) VMware NSX
4 11 (0.96%) Docker
5 6 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 5 (0.44%) vSphere
7 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.087%) Ceph
8 1 (0.087%) KVM
8 1 (0.087%) NDS
8 1 (0.087%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.087%) NFS
8 1 (0.087%) QEMU
8 1 (0.087%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.087%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (1.31%) Kubernetes
2 9 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.61%) PingFederate
4 6 (0.52%) Podman
4 6 (0.52%) Terraform
5 5 (0.44%) Ansible
6 4 (0.35%) NetBackup
7 3 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.26%) Nagios
7 3 (0.26%) Netcool
7 3 (0.26%) OpenView
7 3 (0.26%) Puppet
7 3 (0.26%) SCCM
7 3 (0.26%) Tivoli
7 3 (0.26%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 3 (0.26%) ZABBIX
8 2 (0.17%) vRealize
9 1 (0.087%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.087%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 254 (22.20%) SAP
2 132 (11.54%) Oracle
3 98 (8.57%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.63%) Siemens
5 49 (4.28%) CyberArk
6 47 (4.11%) Cisco
7 35 (3.06%) Aruba
8 29 (2.53%) ServiceNow
8 29 (2.53%) Workday
9 22 (1.92%) Google
10 18 (1.57%) VMware
11 15 (1.31%) Sage
12 12 (1.05%) Adobe
12 12 (1.05%) OpenText
13 9 (0.79%) BMC
13 9 (0.79%) Databricks
13 9 (0.79%) IBM
14 8 (0.70%) Atlassian
15 7 (0.61%) Ariba
15 7 (0.61%) Splunk