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 £548, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 September 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 32 24
Rank change year-on-year -6 -8 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,338 901 1,082
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.76% 5.81% 6.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.22% 6.48% 6.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 797 584 642
10th Percentile £405 £413 £425
25th Percentile £460 £490 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £550 £564
Median % change year-on-year -0.45% -2.44% +7.38%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £718 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 20 17
10th Percentile £43.50 £29.31 £55.00
25th Percentile £61.13 £49.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £84.63 £81.25 £73.56
90th Percentile £100.80 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £62.30
% change year-on-year -1.94% +24.40% -2.66%

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 25,627 13,914 16,307
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 89.69% 92.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,982 8,564 9,302
10th Percentile £302 £210 £220
25th Percentile £413 £360 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £663 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,399 1,306 1,339
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.63
25th Percentile £19.34 £16.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.27%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.56 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.50 £69.83 £74.77
UK median hourly rate £41.72 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.89% -41.51% -3.37%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -4 374 £540 -1.82% 357
North of England -24 320 £575 - 364
Midlands -6 224 £500 -9.09% 205
North West -16 209 £581 -6.29% 214
South West +13 192 £556 -3.30% 172
West Midlands -3 161 £500 -9.09% 152
Scotland +28 125 £450 -10.00% 130
East of England -15 104 £552 +0.36% 116
Yorkshire -19 90 £575 +21.05% 73
East Midlands -8 59 £525 -4.55% 51
Wales -15 23 £550 +22.22% 29
North East -30 20 £750 +38.89% 77
Channel Islands -3 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 £544 +4.57% 103
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 September 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.

1 407 (30.42%) Security Cleared
2 315 (23.54%) SAP
3 269 (20.10%) SC Cleared
4 236 (17.64%) Stakeholder Management
5 195 (14.57%) Microsoft
6 159 (11.88%) Migration
7 138 (10.31%) Oracle
8 135 (10.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 131 (9.79%) Cybersecurity
10 122 (9.12%) Azure
11 120 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
12 116 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
13 111 (8.30%) SAP S/4HANA
14 103 (7.70%) Workshop Facilitation
15 102 (7.62%) ERP
16 101 (7.55%) Validation
17 100 (7.47%) DV Cleared
18 97 (7.25%) User Acceptance Testing
19 86 (6.43%) Agile
19 86 (6.43%) Roadmaps
20 83 (6.20%) AWS
21 79 (5.90%) Analytics
22 78 (5.83%) SQL
23 74 (5.53%) Knowledge Transfer
24 72 (5.38%) Data Migration
25 66 (4.93%) Requirements Gathering
26 65 (4.86%) Dynamics 365
27 62 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
28 59 (4.41%) ServiceNow
28 59 (4.41%) SuccessFactors

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 24 (1.79%) Confluence
2 18 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.67%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Apache
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.075%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.075%) JBoss
8 1 (0.075%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.075%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.075%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.075%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.075%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 111 (8.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.77%) SAP PSCD
3 30 (2.24%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.72%) SAP HCM
5 20 (1.49%) Oracle ERP
5 20 (1.49%) SAP HR
6 19 (1.42%) SAP FI
6 19 (1.42%) Workday HCM
7 18 (1.35%) Oracle Payables
8 15 (1.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.12%) SAP QM
9 14 (1.05%) Oracle EBS
10 13 (0.97%) SAP BRIM
10 13 (0.97%) SAP EWM
10 13 (0.97%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.90%) SAP Hybris
12 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
12 11 (0.82%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.82%) SAP MM
12 11 (0.82%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 122 (9.12%) Azure
2 83 (6.20%) AWS
3 65 (4.86%) Dynamics 365
4 59 (4.41%) SuccessFactors
5 58 (4.33%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.11%) GCP
7 45 (3.36%) OCI
8 37 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
9 31 (2.32%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.72%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.27%) SaaS
12 14 (1.05%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (0.97%) Microsoft Copilot
14 12 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.75%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 10 (0.75%) PowerApps
16 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
17 8 (0.60%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.32%) Network Security
2 21 (1.57%) Firewall
3 14 (1.05%) SNMP
4 12 (0.90%) BGP
4 12 (0.90%) WAN
5 9 (0.67%) DNS
5 9 (0.67%) VPN
6 7 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.45%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) FTP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.30%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.17%) Power BI
2 21 (1.57%) Oracle Reports
3 15 (1.12%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 15 (1.12%) SAP BW
4 13 (0.97%) SAP HANA
5 11 (0.82%) Metadata
6 10 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
6 10 (0.75%) SQL Server
7 9 (0.67%) Tableau
8 6 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
8 6 (0.45%) Oracle ODI
8 6 (0.45%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.30%) Power Query
9 4 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.22%) GIS
10 3 (0.22%) NonStop SQL
10 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 45 (3.36%) JIRA
2 16 (1.20%) Git
3 7 (0.52%) Hudson
3 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.37%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (0.30%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
7 2 (0.15%) Gradle
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) Maven
7 2 (0.15%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.075%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.075%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.075%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.075%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.075%) Yeoman
General
1 331 (24.74%) Social Skills
2 270 (20.18%) Finance
3 123 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 101 (7.55%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (4.48%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.32%) Legal
8 30 (2.24%) Telecoms
9 29 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
10 28 (2.09%) General Ledger
11 24 (1.79%) Billing
12 23 (1.72%) Banking
13 19 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
13 19 (1.42%) Retail
14 14 (1.05%) Financial Institution
14 14 (1.05%) Marketing
15 12 (0.90%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.90%) Military
15 12 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
16 8 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (2.99%) REST
2 34 (2.54%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.64%) SOAP
4 20 (1.49%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.49%) Terraform
5 19 (1.42%) Middleware
5 19 (1.42%) Web Services
6 18 (1.35%) LDAP
7 17 (1.27%) SAP Fiori
8 16 (1.20%) XML
9 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
10 8 (0.60%) SAPUI5
11 7 (0.52%) XSLT
12 6 (0.45%) JSON
12 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (0.45%) OAuth
13 5 (0.37%) IDoc
13 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
13 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
13 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.44%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.02%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
4 24 (1.79%) Security Posture
5 23 (1.72%) CMDB
6 14 (1.05%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.05%) PKI
6 14 (1.05%) Product Ownership
7 13 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (0.82%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.82%) Learning Management System
9 10 (0.75%) Management Information System
10 8 (0.60%) AI Agents
11 7 (0.52%) FMCG
11 7 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
12 6 (0.45%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (0.45%) Private Cloud
12 6 (0.45%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 54 (4.04%) Windows
2 34 (2.54%) Linux
3 17 (1.27%) Solaris
4 13 (0.97%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.67%) Unix
6 8 (0.60%) AIX
7 5 (0.37%) VMS
8 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.075%) Android
10 1 (0.075%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.075%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.075%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 236 (17.64%) Stakeholder Management
2 159 (11.88%) Migration
3 135 (10.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 131 (9.79%) Cybersecurity
5 120 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
6 116 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
7 103 (7.70%) Workshop Facilitation
8 102 (7.62%) ERP
9 101 (7.55%) Validation
10 97 (7.25%) User Acceptance Testing
11 86 (6.43%) Agile
11 86 (6.43%) Roadmaps
12 79 (5.90%) Analytics
13 74 (5.53%) Knowledge Transfer
14 72 (5.38%) Data Migration
15 66 (4.93%) Requirements Gathering
16 58 (4.33%) Risk Management
17 57 (4.26%) AI
18 56 (4.19%) Translating Business Requirements
19 55 (4.11%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 78 (5.83%) SQL
2 47 (3.51%) Python
3 36 (2.69%) ABAP
4 23 (1.72%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.42%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.12%) Java
7 14 (1.05%) PL/SQL
8 12 (0.90%) Bash
9 10 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.67%) Search Processing Language
11 4 (0.30%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.22%) C#
12 3 (0.22%) R
12 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.15%) Groovy
13 2 (0.15%) Korn
13 2 (0.15%) Magik
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 407 (30.42%) Security Cleared
2 269 (20.10%) SC Cleared
3 100 (7.47%) DV Cleared
4 62 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (3.81%) CISSP
6 42 (3.14%) CISM
7 34 (2.54%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (1.87%) CCSP
10 22 (1.64%) Degree
11 12 (0.90%) ACCA
11 12 (0.90%) CIMA
11 12 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (0.75%) CRISC
13 9 (0.67%) PMP
14 8 (0.60%) CCSK
15 7 (0.52%) CCA
16 6 (0.45%) CISA
16 6 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
16 6 (0.45%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.21%) NIST
2 41 (3.06%) GRC
3 34 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 33 (2.47%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.49%) QA
6 18 (1.35%) NCSC
7 16 (1.20%) SLA
8 15 (1.12%) GDPR
9 13 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
10 12 (0.90%) PMO
11 9 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.52%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.45%) Def Stans
14 4 (0.30%) COBIT
14 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.22%) GxP
16 2 (0.15%) JSP 440
System Software
1 51 (3.81%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (0.97%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.90%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.67%) vSphere
7 8 (0.60%) Docker
8 4 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
9 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.075%) NFS
10 1 (0.075%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.075%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.24%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.35%) Ansible
3 10 (0.75%) vCenter Server
4 9 (0.67%) vRealize
5 7 (0.52%) Grafana
5 7 (0.52%) Nagios
5 7 (0.52%) ZABBIX
6 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.45%) Netcool
6 6 (0.45%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.45%) VxRail
7 5 (0.37%) OpenView
7 5 (0.37%) SCCM
7 5 (0.37%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 315 (23.54%) SAP
2 195 (14.57%) Microsoft
3 138 (10.31%) Oracle
4 59 (4.41%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.24%) VMware
5 30 (2.24%) Workday
6 22 (1.64%) Salesforce
7 21 (1.57%) Splunk
8 15 (1.12%) Ariba
9 14 (1.05%) JD Edwards
10 13 (0.97%) CyberArk
11 12 (0.90%) BMC
11 12 (0.90%) Databricks
12 11 (0.82%) Google
13 9 (0.67%) IBM
14 8 (0.60%) Veeam
15 7 (0.52%) Cisco
15 7 (0.52%) Epicor
15 7 (0.52%) OpenText
15 7 (0.52%) SolarWinds