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 £537, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 35 34
Rank change year-on-year +3 -1 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,147 652 1,021
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.27% 5.14% 4.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.76% 5.55% 5.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 635 422 722
10th Percentile £403 £419 £369
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £550 £537
Median % change year-on-year -2.36% +2.42% -2.36%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £712 £700 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -1.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 11 29
10th Percentile - £70.00 £27.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £74.34 £50.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +37.99% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £65.00 £86.25 £87.20
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -32.35% +36.00% -5.30%

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 19,913 11,746 19,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.56% 92.53% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,839 7,581 12,143
10th Percentile £256 £213 £213
25th Percentile £395 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £487
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £593
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,155 701 2,076
10th Percentile £14.39 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.12 £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 £75.79 £75.50 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.49% - -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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +5 341 £525 -8.70% 300
North of England -14 249 £550 +2.23% 182
Midlands -8 230 £550 +4.76% 94
West Midlands +7 170 £563 +7.14% 48
South West +18 148 £550 - 154
North West -19 127 £575 +6.88% 108
Yorkshire +5 113 £538 +1.18% 58
East of England -2 97 £550 +2.33% 71
East Midlands -18 55 £500 -2.44% 45
Scotland +10 50 £520 -5.45% 47
Wales +6 32 £455 +1.06% 28
Northern Ireland +2 9 £405 -22.86% 12
North East -18 9 £525 -4.55% 17
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 19 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.

1 302 (26.33%) Security Cleared
2 247 (21.53%) SC Cleared
3 227 (19.79%) SAP
4 186 (16.22%) Migration
5 133 (11.60%) Oracle
6 129 (11.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 127 (11.07%) ERP
8 115 (10.03%) Azure
9 111 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
10 106 (9.24%) SAP S/4HANA
11 101 (8.81%) Microsoft
12 91 (7.93%) Workshop Facilitation
13 87 (7.59%) Stakeholder Management
14 84 (7.32%) SQL
15 83 (7.24%) Data Migration
16 72 (6.28%) User Acceptance Testing
17 71 (6.19%) Roadmaps
18 69 (6.02%) Cybersecurity
19 67 (5.84%) Validation
20 65 (5.67%) Business Intelligence
21 62 (5.41%) Change Management
22 56 (4.88%) Agile
23 55 (4.80%) Continuous Improvement
24 54 (4.71%) Analytics
24 54 (4.71%) Knowledge Transfer
25 53 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 53 (4.62%) PLM
25 53 (4.62%) Siemens
26 50 (4.36%) XML
27 49 (4.27%) 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 (2.70%) SharePoint
2 19 (1.66%) Confluence
3 12 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) MTS
5 3 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.17%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.087%) Apache
7 1 (0.087%) Apache Superset
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 42 (3.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.44%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
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
1 106 (9.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (3.23%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.62%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.44%) Oracle Payables
4 28 (2.44%) SAP FI
5 25 (2.18%) SAP MM
6 24 (2.09%) Oracle EBS R12
6 24 (2.09%) SAP PSCD
7 22 (1.92%) Oracle General Ledger
8 21 (1.83%) Oracle Cash Management
8 21 (1.83%) SAP HCM
9 20 (1.74%) Oracle Assets
9 20 (1.74%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 19 (1.66%) Teamcenter
11 18 (1.57%) SAP Payroll
12 17 (1.48%) SAP Hybris
13 16 (1.39%) SAP BRIM
14 13 (1.13%) Oracle AGIS
15 11 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
15 11 (0.96%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 115 (10.03%) Azure
2 42 (3.66%) OCI
3 36 (3.14%) AWS
3 36 (3.14%) Dynamics 365
4 31 (2.70%) GCP
4 31 (2.70%) Power Platform
5 24 (2.09%) Microsoft 365
6 19 (1.66%) Entra ID
7 18 (1.57%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 18 (1.57%) SuccessFactors
8 16 (1.39%) SaaS
9 13 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
10 11 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (0.87%) PowerApps
12 8 (0.70%) OneDrive
12 8 (0.70%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.44%) GitHub
14 4 (0.35%) Copilot Studio
14 4 (0.35%) dbt
15 3 (0.26%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.31%) Firewall
2 9 (0.78%) Network Security
3 8 (0.70%) FTP
4 5 (0.44%) Kerberos
5 4 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (0.35%) HTTP
5 4 (0.35%) SD-WAN
5 4 (0.35%) SNMP
5 4 (0.35%) SSH
5 4 (0.35%) VSAN
5 4 (0.35%) WAN
6 3 (0.26%) BGP
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.26%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.26%) OSPF
6 3 (0.26%) VPN
6 3 (0.26%) WebEx
7 2 (0.17%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.35%) Power BI
2 23 (2.01%) Oracle Reports
3 20 (1.74%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.48%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (1.13%) SQL Server
6 8 (0.70%) Metadata
7 6 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.52%) Oracle ODI
7 6 (0.52%) SAP Data Services
8 5 (0.44%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.35%) SAP BW
9 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
10 3 (0.26%) GIS
10 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.26%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.26%) Tableau
11 2 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 34 (2.96%) JIRA
2 10 (0.87%) 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%) Visual Studio Code
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%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 244 (21.27%) Social Skills
2 230 (20.05%) Finance
3 126 (10.99%) Public Sector
4 92 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (3.49%) Manufacturing
6 28 (2.44%) Billing
7 27 (2.35%) Telecoms
8 26 (2.27%) Legal
9 21 (1.83%) Banking
9 21 (1.83%) General Ledger
10 18 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
11 17 (1.48%) Marketing
12 16 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.31%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
15 11 (0.96%) Law
15 11 (0.96%) Local Government
16 9 (0.78%) Retail
17 5 (0.44%) Advertising
17 5 (0.44%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.36%) XML
2 48 (4.18%) Oracle Fusion
3 40 (3.49%) REST
4 23 (2.01%) SOAP
5 22 (1.92%) Web Services
6 14 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
7 13 (1.13%) SAP Basis
8 9 (0.78%) JSON
8 9 (0.78%) LDAP
9 7 (0.61%) .NET
9 7 (0.61%) BAPI
10 6 (0.52%) SAML
10 6 (0.52%) SAP Business Workflow
11 5 (0.44%) OAuth
12 4 (0.35%) IDoc
12 4 (0.35%) Middleware
13 3 (0.26%) AngularJS
13 3 (0.26%) PySpark
13 3 (0.26%) scikit-learn
13 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 22 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
2 21 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
3 20 (1.74%) Onboarding
4 15 (1.31%) Replication
5 14 (1.22%) Product Ownership
6 13 (1.13%) Operational Technology
7 10 (0.87%) Data Centre
8 9 (0.78%) AI Agents
8 9 (0.78%) Data Structures
8 9 (0.78%) Public Cloud
8 9 (0.78%) Security Posture
9 8 (0.70%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.70%) NHS
10 7 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (0.52%) Beowulf
12 5 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (0.44%) Market Risk
12 5 (0.44%) SCADA
12 5 (0.44%) SCORM
13 4 (0.35%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 36 (3.14%) Windows
2 23 (2.01%) Linux
3 8 (0.70%) AIX
4 7 (0.61%) VMS
4 7 (0.61%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.35%) Solaris
5 4 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.26%) 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
1 186 (16.22%) Migration
2 129 (11.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 127 (11.07%) ERP
4 111 (9.68%) Problem-Solving
5 91 (7.93%) Workshop Facilitation
6 87 (7.59%) Stakeholder Management
7 83 (7.24%) Data Migration
8 72 (6.28%) User Acceptance Testing
9 71 (6.19%) Roadmaps
10 69 (6.02%) Cybersecurity
11 67 (5.84%) Validation
12 65 (5.67%) Business Intelligence
13 62 (5.41%) Change Management
14 56 (4.88%) Agile
15 55 (4.80%) Continuous Improvement
16 54 (4.71%) Analytics
16 54 (4.71%) Knowledge Transfer
17 53 (4.62%) PLM
18 44 (3.84%) Project Management
19 42 (3.66%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 84 (7.32%) SQL
2 37 (3.23%) Python
3 28 (2.44%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.18%) ABAP
4 25 (2.18%) PowerShell
5 12 (1.05%) JavaScript
6 11 (0.96%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.70%) Bash
7 8 (0.70%) Java
8 7 (0.61%) C#
9 4 (0.35%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.17%) R
10 2 (0.17%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.17%) VBA
10 2 (0.17%) VBScript
11 1 (0.087%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.087%) C++
11 1 (0.087%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 302 (26.33%) Security Cleared
2 247 (21.53%) SC Cleared
3 42 (3.66%) DV Cleared
4 29 (2.53%) Degree
5 27 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (2.09%) CISSP
7 15 (1.31%) CISM
8 11 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (0.52%) CEH
11 6 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (0.52%) SAP Certification
12 5 (0.44%) CCNP
12 5 (0.44%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.35%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 3 (0.26%) CCIE
14 3 (0.26%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.26%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (3.84%) NIST
3 24 (2.09%) GDPR
4 22 (1.92%) QA
5 21 (1.83%) GRC
6 19 (1.66%) Data Quality
7 11 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (0.96%) NCSC
7 11 (0.96%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.78%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.70%) PMO
10 7 (0.61%) COBIT
11 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.44%) RMADS
12 4 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.26%) SLA
14 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
15 1 (0.087%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 30 (2.62%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.13%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.87%) Docker
5 6 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 6 (0.52%) vSphere
6 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.087%) Ceph
7 1 (0.087%) KVM
7 1 (0.087%) NFS
7 1 (0.087%) QEMU
7 1 (0.087%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.087%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 14 (1.22%) Kubernetes
2 9 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.61%) PingFederate
3 7 (0.61%) Terraform
4 6 (0.52%) Podman
5 5 (0.44%) Ansible
5 5 (0.44%) NetBackup
6 4 (0.35%) Nagios
6 4 (0.35%) Netcool
6 4 (0.35%) OpenView
6 4 (0.35%) Tivoli
6 4 (0.35%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 4 (0.35%) ZABBIX
7 3 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.26%) Puppet
7 3 (0.26%) SCCM
7 3 (0.26%) vRealize
8 1 (0.087%) CEMLI
8 1 (0.087%) Control-M
Vendors
1 227 (19.79%) SAP
2 133 (11.60%) Oracle
3 101 (8.81%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.62%) Siemens
5 49 (4.27%) CyberArk
6 43 (3.75%) Cisco
7 35 (3.05%) Aruba
8 31 (2.70%) Workday
9 30 (2.62%) ServiceNow
10 22 (1.92%) Google
11 20 (1.74%) VMware
12 15 (1.31%) Sage
13 11 (0.96%) OpenText
14 10 (0.87%) BMC
14 10 (0.87%) IBM
15 9 (0.78%) Databricks
15 9 (0.78%) Splunk
16 8 (0.70%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.70%) IFS
17 7 (0.61%) Computacenter