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 18 October 2026.
The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 40 | 28 | 24 |
| Rank change year-on-year | -12 | -4 | +11 |
| Contract jobs requiring a Consultant | 1,330 | 997 | 1,065 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London | 4.70% | 6.21% | 6.19% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 5.17% | 6.93% | 6.71% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 753 | 612 | 618 |
| 10th Percentile | £413 | £406 | £420 |
| 25th Percentile | £463 | £481 | £481 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £550 | £550 | £561 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | -2.00% | +6.90% |
| 75th Percentile | £650 | £644 | £638 |
| 90th Percentile | £724 | £719 | £739 |
| UK median daily rate | £550 | £550 | £550 |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 60 | 24 | 16 |
| 10th Percentile | £36.13 | £31.61 | £55.00 |
| 25th Percentile | £56.25 | £61.56 | £60.36 |
| Median hourly rate | £75.00 | £77.50 | £61.60 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -3.23% | +25.81% | -3.97% |
| 75th Percentile | £82.69 | £81.25 | £73.86 |
| 90th Percentile | £90.38 | £86.88 | £81.18 |
| UK median hourly rate | £74.00 | £77.50 | £63.00 |
| % change year-on-year | -4.52% | +23.02% | -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.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title | 25,719 | 14,384 | 15,862 |
| % of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title | 90.86% | 89.62% | 92.22% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 13,812 | 8,852 | 9,028 |
| 10th Percentile | £300 | £209 | £220 |
| 25th Percentile | £411 | £363 | £373 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £500 | £475 | £490 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -3.06% | -2.00% |
| 75th Percentile | £600 | £575 | £588 |
| 90th Percentile | £688 | £675 | £675 |
| UK median daily rate | £525 | £500 | £525 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -4.76% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 3,614 | 1,371 | 1,184 |
| 10th Percentile | £14.22 | £13.57 | £14.73 |
| 25th Percentile | £18.50 | £16.50 | £19.59 |
| Median hourly rate | £40.32 | £24.62 | £41.27 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +63.77% | -40.34% | -7.27% |
| 75th Percentile | £67.88 | £50.00 | £66.61 |
| 90th Percentile | £78.75 | £69.65 | £73.75 |
| UK median hourly rate | £41.06 | £25.15 | £40.33 |
| % change year-on-year | +63.26% | -37.63% | -10.39% |
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 Daily Rate Trend 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 18 October 2026.
Consultant Hourly Rate Trend 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 18 October 2026.
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 18 October 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 | 380 | £540 | -1.82% | 315 |
| North of England | -18 | 345 | £575 | -2.95% | 330 |
| North West | -18 | 223 | £585 | -5.65% | 174 |
| Midlands | -10 | 214 | £501 | -12.96% | 179 |
| South West | +4 | 182 | £600 | +9.09% | 123 |
| West Midlands | -5 | 159 | £500 | -11.11% | 119 |
| Scotland | +8 | 112 | £510 | +2.00% | 140 |
| East of England | -14 | 107 | £559 | +1.55% | 97 |
| Yorkshire | -20 | 91 | £563 | +15.15% | 68 |
| East Midlands | -18 | 48 | £550 | -5.17% | 59 |
| North East | -15 | 30 | £750 | +36.36% | 88 |
| Wales | -25 | 20 | £575 | +29.58% | 24 |
| Channel Islands | -4 | 2 | £600 | - | 1 |
| Northern Ireland | -10 | 1 | £638 | +57.41% | 54 |
| Consultant UK |
|||||
Consultant Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London
For the 6 months to 18 October 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.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Security Cleared | 31.6% | 420 |
| 2 | SAP | 25.7% | 342 |
| 3 | SC Cleared | 20.5% | 272 |
| 4 | Stakeholder Management | 18.9% | 252 |
| 5 | Microsoft | 15.1% | 201 |
| 6 | Migration | 12.5% | 166 |
| 7 | Problem-Solving | 10.2% | 135 |
| 8 | Azure | 10.1% | 134 |
| 9 | Stakeholder Engagement | 10.0% | 133 |
| 10 | Cybersecurity | 9.9% | 132 |
| 11 | SAP S/4HANA | 9.3% | 124 |
| 12 | Oracle | 9.2% | 123 |
| 13 | Validation | 8.5% | 113 |
| 14 | Continuous Improvement | 8.4% | 112 |
| 15 | Workshop Facilitation | 8.3% | 111 |
| 16 | DV Cleared | 8.1% | 108 |
| 17 | ERP | 7.8% | 104 |
| 18 | User Acceptance Testing | 7.3% | 97 |
| 19 | Analytics | 6.2% | 82 |
| 19 | Roadmaps | 6.2% | 82 |
| 21 | Agile | 5.7% | 76 |
| 22 | Knowledge Transfer | 5.6% | 75 |
| 23 | Data Migration | 5.4% | 72 |
| 24 | AWS | 5.3% | 71 |
| 25 | SQL | 5.1% | 68 |
| 26 | Requirements Gathering | 5.0% | 67 |
| 27 | BPSS Clearance | 4.9% | 65 |
| 28 | SuccessFactors | 4.5% | 60 |
| 29 | Windows | 4.4% | 59 |
| 30 | AI | 4.3% | 57 |
Consultant Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SAP Consultant | 20.7% | 275 |
| 2 | Security Consultant | 11.4% | 152 |
| 3 | Functional Consultant | 8.0% | 107 |
| 4 | Oracle Consultant | 7.6% | 101 |
| 5 | Senior Consultant | 6.7% | 89 |
| 6 | Technical Consultant | 5.6% | 74 |
| 7 | Management Consultant | 4.4% | 58 |
| 8 | Data Consultant | 4.3% | 57 |
| 9 | Cybersecurity Consultant | 4.1% | 54 |
| 10 | SAP Functional Consultant | 3.5% | 47 |
| 11 | Cloud Consultant | 3.4% | 45 |
| 12 | Artificial Intelligence Consultant | 3.2% | 43 |
| 13 | Dynamics 365 Consultant | 3.0% | 40 |
| 13 | Lead Consultant | 3.0% | 40 |
| 15 | Microsoft Consultant | 2.9% | 38 |
| 16 | Payroll Consultant | 2.7% | 36 |
| 17 | Azure Consultant | 2.6% | 35 |
| 18 | IT Consultant | 2.6% | 34 |
| 19 | Applications Consultant | 2.1% | 28 |
| 20 | HR Consultant | 2.0% | 27 |