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 24 June 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 39 29
Rank change year-on-year +4 -10 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,264 680 1,167
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.86% 5.04% 5.50%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.28% 5.51% 5.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 698 427 769
10th Percentile £405 £400 £411
25th Percentile £455 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £605 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £543 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.36% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 18 22
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.92 £26.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £59.95
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +23.02% -7.54%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 £86.08 £68.88
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -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 23,926 12,335 19,636
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 91.38% 92.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,719 7,742 11,699
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £518 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,758 968 2,517
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.49 £12.56
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.84 £15.96
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.61 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.38 £37.50
% change year-on-year +57.08% -27.00% -12.79%

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 24 June 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 24 June 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 24 June 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 -1 345 £525 -3.38% 224
North of England -20 273 £550 +2.33% 226
Midlands -9 240 £525 -4.55% 76
South West +33 210 £556 +1.09% 96
West Midlands +2 163 £525 -4.55% 58
North West -21 145 £550 -1.57% 149
Yorkshire -7 105 £544 +14.47% 54
East of England -4 90 £550 +6.08% 63
Scotland +23 83 £425 -8.11% 22
East Midlands -8 68 £500 -9.09% 16
Wales +2 30 £550 +31.34% 18
North East -36 23 £650 +20.37% 24
Northern Ireland -5 3 £600 +15.38% 25
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 June 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.

1 270 (21.36%) Security Cleared
2 265 (20.97%) SAP
3 195 (15.43%) SC Cleared
4 153 (12.10%) ERP
5 152 (12.03%) Azure
5 152 (12.03%) Migration
6 138 (10.92%) Oracle
7 133 (10.52%) Microsoft
8 121 (9.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 117 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
10 116 (9.18%) SQL
11 109 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
12 100 (7.91%) Continuous Improvement
13 98 (7.75%) SAP S/4HANA
14 96 (7.59%) Validation
15 87 (6.88%) Data Migration
16 85 (6.72%) Cybersecurity
17 83 (6.57%) Workshop Facilitation
18 75 (5.93%) User Acceptance Testing
19 71 (5.62%) Agile
20 68 (5.38%) AWS
21 66 (5.22%) Analytics
21 66 (5.22%) Roadmaps
22 60 (4.75%) Data Protection
22 60 (4.75%) DV Cleared
22 60 (4.75%) PLM
23 58 (4.59%) Business Intelligence
24 55 (4.35%) AI
24 55 (4.35%) Change Management
24 55 (4.35%) CISSP

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 25 (1.98%) Confluence
2 16 (1.27%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
3 8 (0.63%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.55%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.40%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.24%) Apache
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.079%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.079%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.079%) SAS
7 1 (0.079%) Tomcat
Applications
1 42 (3.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.42%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.47%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.40%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.16%) Lectora
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.079%) CATIA
8 1 (0.079%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 98 (7.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.61%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.82%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.82%) Teamcenter
4 22 (1.74%) SAP MM
5 19 (1.50%) Oracle ERP
5 19 (1.50%) Oracle Payables
6 17 (1.34%) SAP FI
7 16 (1.27%) Oracle Receivables
7 16 (1.27%) SAP EWM
8 13 (1.03%) SAP SD
9 12 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
9 12 (0.95%) SAP Hybris
9 12 (0.95%) SAP Payroll
10 11 (0.87%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.87%) SAP CO
11 10 (0.79%) SAP FI/CO
11 10 (0.79%) SAP HCM
12 9 (0.71%) Workday HCM
13 8 (0.63%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 152 (12.03%) Azure
2 68 (5.38%) AWS
3 53 (4.19%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.56%) OCI
5 44 (3.48%) Dynamics 365
6 39 (3.09%) GCP
7 28 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (2.06%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.66%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
10 19 (1.50%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.27%) SaaS
12 14 (1.11%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (1.03%) GitHub
14 12 (0.95%) PowerApps
15 11 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 9 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
16 9 (0.71%) Copilot Studio
17 7 (0.55%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 27 (2.14%) Network Security
2 20 (1.58%) Firewall
3 16 (1.27%) SNMP
4 9 (0.71%) FTP
5 8 (0.63%) BGP
6 7 (0.55%) WAN
7 5 (0.40%) HTTP
8 4 (0.32%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.32%) LAN
8 4 (0.32%) SAN
8 4 (0.32%) VPN
8 4 (0.32%) VXLAN
9 3 (0.24%) DNS
9 3 (0.24%) SMS
9 3 (0.24%) VSAN
10 2 (0.16%) Connectrix
10 2 (0.16%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.16%) Intranet
10 2 (0.16%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.69%) Oracle Reports
1 34 (2.69%) Power BI
2 17 (1.34%) Oracle ODI
3 16 (1.27%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.87%) Tableau
6 8 (0.63%) Metadata
6 8 (0.63%) SAP Data Services
6 8 (0.63%) SQL Server
7 7 (0.55%) SAP BW
8 6 (0.47%) BusinessObjects
8 6 (0.47%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.47%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.40%) NonStop SQL
10 4 (0.32%) Power Query
10 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.24%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.24%) Hadoop
12 2 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 42 (3.32%) JIRA
2 12 (0.95%) Hudson
3 8 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.55%) Git
4 7 (0.55%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.32%) Toad
6 3 (0.24%) Postman
6 3 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.16%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.16%) TestRail
7 2 (0.16%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.079%) Appium
8 1 (0.079%) GitLab
8 1 (0.079%) JUnit
8 1 (0.079%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.079%) MSTest
8 1 (0.079%) NUnit
8 1 (0.079%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.079%) Yeoman
General
1 264 (20.89%) Social Skills
2 249 (19.70%) Finance
3 102 (8.07%) Public Sector
4 101 (7.99%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (3.40%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.85%) Legal
7 31 (2.45%) Banking
8 26 (2.06%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.90%) Billing
9 24 (1.90%) General Ledger
10 23 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
12 17 (1.34%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.11%) Retail
14 13 (1.03%) Marketing
15 11 (0.87%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (0.87%) Local Government
16 10 (0.79%) Aviation
17 8 (0.63%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.32%) REST
2 41 (3.24%) XML
3 25 (1.98%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.95%) Web Services
5 11 (0.87%) SOAP
6 10 (0.79%) Middleware
6 10 (0.79%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.47%) JSON
7 6 (0.47%) RESTful
7 6 (0.47%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.40%) BAPI
8 5 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.40%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.32%) .NET
9 4 (0.32%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.32%) LDAP
10 3 (0.24%) CSS
10 3 (0.24%) HTML
10 3 (0.24%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.24%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 34 (2.69%) Data Protection Act
2 27 (2.14%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.90%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.27%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.11%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (0.95%) Product Ownership
6 12 (0.95%) Replication
7 11 (0.87%) Public Cloud
8 10 (0.79%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.79%) Management Information System
9 7 (0.55%) CMDB
9 7 (0.55%) FMCG
9 7 (0.55%) NHS
9 7 (0.55%) Security Operations Centre
10 6 (0.47%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.47%) Data Centre
10 6 (0.47%) Data Structures
10 6 (0.47%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.47%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 48 (3.80%) Windows
2 38 (3.01%) Linux
3 17 (1.34%) Solaris
4 13 (1.03%) AIX
5 9 (0.71%) VMS
6 4 (0.32%) Unix
7 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.079%) Android
8 1 (0.079%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.079%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.079%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.079%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (12.10%) ERP
2 152 (12.03%) Migration
3 121 (9.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 117 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
5 109 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
6 100 (7.91%) Continuous Improvement
7 96 (7.59%) Validation
8 87 (6.88%) Data Migration
9 85 (6.72%) Cybersecurity
10 83 (6.57%) Workshop Facilitation
11 75 (5.93%) User Acceptance Testing
12 71 (5.62%) Agile
13 66 (5.22%) Analytics
13 66 (5.22%) Roadmaps
14 60 (4.75%) Data Protection
14 60 (4.75%) PLM
15 58 (4.59%) Business Intelligence
16 55 (4.35%) AI
16 55 (4.35%) Change Management
17 51 (4.03%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 116 (9.18%) SQL
2 53 (4.19%) Python
3 28 (2.22%) T-SQL
4 25 (1.98%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.90%) PowerShell
6 17 (1.34%) ABAP
7 15 (1.19%) JavaScript
8 13 (1.03%) Search Processing Language
9 10 (0.79%) Bash
9 10 (0.79%) Java
9 10 (0.79%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.47%) R
11 5 (0.40%) C#
12 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.16%) C++
13 2 (0.16%) VBScript
14 1 (0.079%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.079%) COBOL
14 1 (0.079%) VB
Qualifications
1 270 (21.36%) Security Cleared
2 195 (15.43%) SC Cleared
3 60 (4.75%) DV Cleared
4 55 (4.35%) CISSP
5 39 (3.09%) CISM
6 38 (3.01%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.53%) Degree
8 26 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.74%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.74%) CCSP
10 11 (0.87%) PMP
11 10 (0.79%) ACCA
11 10 (0.79%) CEH
11 10 (0.79%) CIMA
12 9 (0.71%) OSCP
13 8 (0.63%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.63%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (0.47%) DBS Check
15 6 (0.47%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.88%) NIST
2 41 (3.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.53%) GRC
4 28 (2.22%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.50%) GDPR
5 19 (1.50%) QA
6 13 (1.03%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (0.95%) NCSC
8 8 (0.63%) JSP 440
8 8 (0.63%) SLA
9 7 (0.55%) Accessibility
9 7 (0.55%) COBIT
10 6 (0.47%) RMADS
10 6 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.32%) PMO
11 4 (0.32%) WCAG
12 2 (0.16%) Def Stans
12 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 25 (1.98%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.87%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.79%) Docker
4 10 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (0.79%) vSphere
5 5 (0.40%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.16%) NFS
7 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.079%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.079%) IAG
8 1 (0.079%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 29 (2.29%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.42%) Terraform
3 13 (1.03%) Ansible
3 13 (1.03%) Nagios
3 13 (1.03%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.95%) Netcool
4 12 (0.95%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.87%) OpenView
5 11 (0.87%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.71%) vRealize
7 6 (0.47%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.47%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.47%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.40%) Podman
9 4 (0.32%) Grafana
10 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.24%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.24%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 265 (20.97%) SAP
2 138 (10.92%) Oracle
3 133 (10.52%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.27%) Siemens
5 33 (2.61%) ServiceNow
6 26 (2.06%) VMware
7 23 (1.82%) Splunk
8 19 (1.50%) BMC
9 18 (1.42%) Ariba
9 18 (1.42%) IBM
10 17 (1.34%) Workday
11 14 (1.11%) Databricks
11 14 (1.11%) Google
11 14 (1.11%) Sage
12 13 (1.03%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.95%) HP
13 12 (0.95%) JD Edwards
14 9 (0.71%) IFS
14 9 (0.71%) Salesforce
15 8 (0.63%) Informatica