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 3 June 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 36 32
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,191 667 1,068
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.78% 5.18% 5.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.21% 5.65% 5.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 659 423 736
10th Percentile £400 £400 £391
25th Percentile £450 £469 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% -
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £650 £725
UK median daily rate £545 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -0.91% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 14 22
10th Percentile £51.75 £28.12 £26.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £38.43 £50.73
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £58.44
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +19.78% -10.77%
75th Percentile £59.69 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 - -
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 22,867 11,810 19,265
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.82% 91.69% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,128 7,518 11,619
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £403 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £677 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,652 862 2,432
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.56 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.07 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.09 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -4 339 £525 -4.55% 295
North of England -22 258 £550 +3.77% 395
Midlands -13 231 £525 -3.45% 118
South West +33 198 £600 +9.09% 217
West Midlands -8 153 £528 -4.09% 81
North West -17 126 £525 -3.67% 268
Yorkshire -10 110 £550 +15.79% 86
Scotland +27 71 £410 -11.35% 63
East of England -9 70 £550 +7.42% 66
East Midlands -14 69 £500 -3.85% 36
Wales +1 30 £550 +37.50% 22
North East -31 22 £638 +19.38% 41
Northern Ireland 0 3 £600 +15.38% 54
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 255 (21.41%) SAP
2 252 (21.16%) Security Cleared
3 184 (15.45%) SC Cleared
4 151 (12.68%) Migration
5 149 (12.51%) ERP
6 136 (11.42%) Azure
7 135 (11.34%) Oracle
8 119 (9.99%) Microsoft
8 119 (9.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 112 (9.40%) Problem-Solving
10 105 (8.82%) SQL
11 99 (8.31%) Continuous Improvement
12 93 (7.81%) Stakeholder Management
13 90 (7.56%) Data Migration
13 90 (7.56%) SAP S/4HANA
14 82 (6.88%) Validation
15 81 (6.80%) Cybersecurity
16 80 (6.72%) Workshop Facilitation
17 69 (5.79%) Agile
18 67 (5.63%) User Acceptance Testing
19 61 (5.12%) Roadmaps
20 60 (5.04%) AWS
20 60 (5.04%) PLM
21 59 (4.95%) Business Intelligence
22 57 (4.79%) Change Management
22 57 (4.79%) Data Protection
23 54 (4.53%) Siemens
24 53 (4.45%) Analytics
25 52 (4.37%) CISSP
25 52 (4.37%) DV Cleared

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 (2.10%) Confluence
2 18 (1.51%) SharePoint
3 7 (0.59%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.50%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.25%) Apache
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.25%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.17%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.084%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.084%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.084%) SAS
7 1 (0.084%) Tomcat
Applications
1 42 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.18%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.50%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.42%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.17%) Lectora
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.084%) CATIA
8 1 (0.084%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 90 (7.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (2.52%) SAP PSCD
3 29 (2.43%) Oracle EBS
4 25 (2.10%) Teamcenter
5 22 (1.85%) Oracle Payables
5 22 (1.85%) SAP MM
6 20 (1.68%) Oracle Receivables
7 19 (1.60%) SAP FI
8 18 (1.51%) Oracle ERP
9 15 (1.26%) SAP SD
10 14 (1.18%) SAP EWM
11 11 (0.92%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.92%) Oracle Cash Management
11 11 (0.92%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.92%) SAP HCM
11 11 (0.92%) SAP PP
12 10 (0.84%) SAP BRIM
12 10 (0.84%) SAP FI/CO
12 10 (0.84%) SAP Hybris
13 9 (0.76%) Oracle Assets
Cloud Services
1 136 (11.42%) Azure
2 60 (5.04%) AWS
3 50 (4.20%) Power Platform
4 44 (3.69%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.61%) OCI
6 31 (2.60%) GCP
7 27 (2.27%) Microsoft 365
8 23 (1.93%) SuccessFactors
9 19 (1.60%) Power Automate
10 18 (1.51%) Entra ID
11 17 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
12 16 (1.34%) SaaS
13 12 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (1.01%) PowerApps
14 11 (0.92%) GitHub
14 11 (0.92%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.76%) Copilot Studio
16 8 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
17 6 (0.50%) Azure AI
17 6 (0.50%) Oracle Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.85%) Network Security
2 16 (1.34%) SNMP
3 12 (1.01%) Firewall
4 9 (0.76%) FTP
5 5 (0.42%) HTTP
6 4 (0.34%) LAN
6 4 (0.34%) SAN
6 4 (0.34%) VPN
7 3 (0.25%) DNS
7 3 (0.25%) SMS
7 3 (0.25%) WAN
7 3 (0.25%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (0.17%) Connectrix
8 2 (0.17%) Ethernet VPN
8 2 (0.17%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.17%) Intranet
8 2 (0.17%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.17%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.17%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.94%) Oracle Reports
2 32 (2.69%) Power BI
3 17 (1.43%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.34%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (1.09%) SAP HANA
6 9 (0.76%) Tableau
7 7 (0.59%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.50%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.50%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.42%) Metadata
9 5 (0.42%) NonStop SQL
9 5 (0.42%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.34%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.34%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.25%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.25%) BusinessObjects
11 3 (0.25%) GIS
11 3 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.25%) Power Query
11 3 (0.25%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 39 (3.27%) JIRA
2 13 (1.09%) Hudson
3 7 (0.59%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.42%) Git
4 5 (0.42%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.25%) Toad
5 3 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.17%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.17%) Postman
7 1 (0.084%) Appium
7 1 (0.084%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.084%) GitLab
7 1 (0.084%) JUnit
7 1 (0.084%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.084%) MSTest
7 1 (0.084%) NUnit
General
1 242 (20.32%) Finance
2 235 (19.73%) Social Skills
3 92 (7.72%) Analytical Skills
4 89 (7.47%) Public Sector
5 43 (3.61%) Manufacturing
6 30 (2.52%) Banking
7 27 (2.27%) Legal
8 22 (1.85%) Billing
9 21 (1.76%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.60%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.26%) Aerospace
11 15 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
11 15 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.09%) Retail
14 12 (1.01%) Local Government
14 12 (1.01%) Marketing
15 11 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (0.67%) Advertising
16 8 (0.67%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.53%) XML
2 38 (3.19%) REST
3 26 (2.18%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (1.01%) Web Services
5 9 (0.76%) SOAP
6 8 (0.67%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.50%) JSON
7 6 (0.50%) Middleware
7 6 (0.50%) RESTful
8 5 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.42%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.42%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.34%) .NET
9 4 (0.34%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.34%) BAPI
9 4 (0.34%) LDAP
10 3 (0.25%) PyTorch
10 3 (0.25%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.25%) TensorFlow
10 3 (0.25%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 31 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
2 20 (1.68%) Onboarding
2 20 (1.68%) Security Posture
3 17 (1.43%) Operational Technology
4 14 (1.18%) AI Agents
4 14 (1.18%) Product Ownership
5 13 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (1.01%) Public Cloud
6 12 (1.01%) Replication
7 9 (0.76%) Cloud Native
7 9 (0.76%) Management Information System
8 7 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (0.59%) NHS
8 7 (0.59%) SCADA
9 6 (0.50%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.50%) Beowulf
9 6 (0.50%) Data Centre
9 6 (0.50%) Data Structures
9 6 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
9 6 (0.50%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 41 (3.44%) Windows
2 36 (3.02%) Linux
3 17 (1.43%) Solaris
4 13 (1.09%) AIX
5 11 (0.92%) VMS
6 4 (0.34%) Unix
7 3 (0.25%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.084%) Android
9 1 (0.084%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.084%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.084%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.084%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (12.68%) Migration
2 149 (12.51%) ERP
3 119 (9.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 112 (9.40%) Problem-Solving
5 99 (8.31%) Continuous Improvement
6 93 (7.81%) Stakeholder Management
7 90 (7.56%) Data Migration
8 82 (6.88%) Validation
9 81 (6.80%) Cybersecurity
10 80 (6.72%) Workshop Facilitation
11 69 (5.79%) Agile
12 67 (5.63%) User Acceptance Testing
13 61 (5.12%) Roadmaps
14 60 (5.04%) PLM
15 59 (4.95%) Business Intelligence
16 57 (4.79%) Change Management
16 57 (4.79%) Data Protection
17 53 (4.45%) Analytics
18 46 (3.86%) Workflow
19 45 (3.78%) GAP Analysis
Programming Languages
1 105 (8.82%) SQL
2 46 (3.86%) Python
3 28 (2.35%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.10%) PL/SQL
5 22 (1.85%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.09%) Search Processing Language
7 12 (1.01%) JavaScript
8 9 (0.76%) Bash
8 9 (0.76%) Java
8 9 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.59%) ABAP
9 7 (0.59%) R
10 5 (0.42%) C#
11 3 (0.25%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.17%) C++
12 2 (0.17%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.17%) VBScript
13 1 (0.084%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.084%) REXX
13 1 (0.084%) VB
Qualifications
1 252 (21.16%) Security Cleared
2 184 (15.45%) SC Cleared
3 52 (4.37%) CISSP
3 52 (4.37%) DV Cleared
4 38 (3.19%) CISM
5 34 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (2.52%) Degree
7 23 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (1.68%) CCSP
9 19 (1.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 11 (0.92%) CEH
11 10 (0.84%) ACCA
11 10 (0.84%) CIMA
11 10 (0.84%) PMP
12 9 (0.76%) OSCP
13 8 (0.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (0.59%) SAP Certification
15 6 (0.50%) Azure Certification
15 6 (0.50%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (3.86%) NIST
2 43 (3.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 29 (2.43%) GRC
4 28 (2.35%) Data Quality
5 18 (1.51%) GDPR
6 13 (1.09%) PCI DSS
6 13 (1.09%) QA
7 10 (0.84%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.76%) JSP 440
8 9 (0.76%) NCSC
9 7 (0.59%) Accessibility
9 7 (0.59%) COBIT
9 7 (0.59%) RMADS
9 7 (0.59%) SLA
10 5 (0.42%) PMO
10 5 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.34%) WCAG
12 2 (0.17%) ISO 22301
12 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.17%) NIST 800
System Software
1 22 (1.85%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (0.84%) Docker
3 10 (0.84%) vSphere
4 9 (0.76%) VMware NSX
5 8 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.50%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.17%) NFS
9 1 (0.084%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.084%) IAG
9 1 (0.084%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 27 (2.27%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.09%) Nagios
2 13 (1.09%) ZABBIX
3 12 (1.01%) Netcool
3 12 (1.01%) Tivoli
4 11 (0.92%) Ansible
4 11 (0.92%) OpenView
4 11 (0.92%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 10 (0.84%) Terraform
6 6 (0.50%) NetBackup
6 6 (0.50%) Podman
6 6 (0.50%) vRealize
7 4 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.25%) Grafana
8 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.25%) Oracle Identity Management
8 3 (0.25%) Oracle Identity Manager
8 3 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.25%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 2 (0.17%) Dell DRAC
Vendors
1 255 (21.41%) SAP
2 135 (11.34%) Oracle
3 119 (9.99%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.53%) Siemens
5 27 (2.27%) ServiceNow
6 22 (1.85%) BMC
6 22 (1.85%) Splunk
7 21 (1.76%) VMware
7 21 (1.76%) Workday
8 18 (1.51%) Ariba
8 18 (1.51%) IBM
9 14 (1.18%) Sage
10 13 (1.09%) Google
10 13 (1.09%) SolarWinds
11 12 (1.01%) Databricks
11 12 (1.01%) HP
12 10 (0.84%) IFS
13 7 (0.59%) Epicor
13 7 (0.59%) Informatica
13 7 (0.59%) Veritas