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 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 33 27
Rank change year-on-year -3 -6 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,347 893 1,072
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.78% 5.79% 6.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.24% 6.46% 6.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 800 580 634
10th Percentile £405 £413 £422
25th Percentile £460 £492 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £550 £564
Median % change year-on-year -0.32% -2.44% +7.38%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £719 £733
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 20 17
10th Percentile £44.25 £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 £85.25 £81.25 £73.56
90th Percentile £100.40 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £62.30
% change year-on-year -1.94% +24.40% -4.15%

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 25,723 13,822 16,154
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.19% 89.67% 92.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,052 8,506 9,193
10th Percentile £303 £209 £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 £590
90th Percentile £688 £664 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,396 1,294 1,322
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.65
25th Percentile £19.46 £16.30 £19.60
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.82%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.70 £69.90 £74.73
UK median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.68% -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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -4 379 £540 -1.82% 348
North of England -22 323 £575 - 348
Midlands -3 225 £500 -9.09% 205
North West -14 212 £581 -6.29% 203
South West +13 191 £553 -6.27% 175
West Midlands -2 161 £500 -9.09% 154
Scotland +24 125 £450 -10.00% 123
East of England -16 105 £552 +0.36% 113
Yorkshire -19 90 £575 +21.05% 71
East Midlands -9 59 £525 -4.55% 51
Wales -14 23 £550 +22.22% 29
North East -29 20 £750 +38.89% 74
Channel Islands -3 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 £544 +4.57% 96
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 411 (30.51%) Security Cleared
2 319 (23.68%) SAP
3 271 (20.12%) SC Cleared
4 240 (17.82%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (14.55%) Microsoft
6 162 (12.03%) Migration
7 141 (10.47%) Oracle
8 135 (10.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 132 (9.80%) Cybersecurity
10 126 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
11 122 (9.06%) Azure
12 117 (8.69%) Continuous Improvement
13 112 (8.31%) SAP S/4HANA
14 104 (7.72%) ERP
14 104 (7.72%) Workshop Facilitation
15 103 (7.65%) Validation
16 102 (7.57%) DV Cleared
17 99 (7.35%) User Acceptance Testing
18 87 (6.46%) Agile
19 86 (6.38%) Roadmaps
20 83 (6.16%) AWS
21 80 (5.94%) Analytics
22 79 (5.86%) SQL
23 74 (5.49%) Data Migration
23 74 (5.49%) Knowledge Transfer
24 68 (5.05%) Requirements Gathering
25 66 (4.90%) Dynamics 365
26 63 (4.68%) BPSS Clearance
27 59 (4.38%) Power Platform
27 59 (4.38%) ServiceNow

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 (1.78%) Confluence
2 18 (1.34%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.67%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) 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 (0.074%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.074%) JBoss
8 1 (0.074%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.074%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.074%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.74%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.074%) Adobe Captivate
5 1 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 112 (8.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (2.82%) SAP PSCD
3 30 (2.23%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.71%) SAP HCM
5 22 (1.63%) Oracle ERP
6 20 (1.48%) SAP FI
6 20 (1.48%) SAP HR
6 20 (1.48%) Workday HCM
7 19 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
8 17 (1.26%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.11%) Oracle EBS
9 15 (1.11%) SAP QM
10 14 (1.04%) SAP BRIM
11 13 (0.97%) SAP EWM
11 13 (0.97%) SAP PP
11 13 (0.97%) Teamcenter
12 12 (0.89%) SAP Hybris
13 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
13 11 (0.82%) SAP FI/CO
13 11 (0.82%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 122 (9.06%) Azure
2 83 (6.16%) AWS
3 66 (4.90%) Dynamics 365
4 59 (4.38%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.38%) SuccessFactors
5 55 (4.08%) GCP
6 45 (3.34%) OCI
7 37 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
8 31 (2.30%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.78%) Power Automate
10 18 (1.34%) SaaS
11 15 (1.11%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 13 (0.97%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (0.82%) PowerApps
15 10 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.74%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
17 8 (0.59%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.30%) Network Security
2 21 (1.56%) Firewall
3 14 (1.04%) SNMP
4 12 (0.89%) BGP
4 12 (0.89%) WAN
5 9 (0.67%) DNS
5 9 (0.67%) VPN
6 7 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.45%) FTP
7 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.45%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
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%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.15%) Power BI
2 21 (1.56%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.19%) SAP BW
4 15 (1.11%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (0.97%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.82%) Metadata
7 10 (0.74%) BusinessObjects
7 10 (0.74%) SQL Server
8 9 (0.67%) Tableau
9 6 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.45%) Oracle ODI
9 6 (0.45%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.37%) Power Query
11 4 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) BigQuery
12 3 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 46 (3.41%) JIRA
2 16 (1.19%) 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 (0.074%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.074%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.074%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 334 (24.80%) Social Skills
2 273 (20.27%) Finance
3 124 (9.21%) Public Sector
4 106 (7.87%) Analytical Skills
5 62 (4.60%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.30%) Legal
7 31 (2.30%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.15%) General Ledger
8 29 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
9 27 (2.00%) Billing
10 23 (1.71%) Banking
11 20 (1.48%) Retail
12 19 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
13 14 (1.04%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.04%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.04%) Marketing
13 14 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.89%) Military
15 8 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (2.97%) REST
2 35 (2.60%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.63%) SOAP
4 20 (1.48%) Middleware
4 20 (1.48%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.48%) Terraform
4 20 (1.48%) Web Services
5 18 (1.34%) LDAP
6 17 (1.26%) SAP Fiori
6 17 (1.26%) XML
7 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
8 8 (0.59%) SAPUI5
8 8 (0.59%) XSLT
9 6 (0.45%) JSON
9 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
9 6 (0.45%) OAuth
10 5 (0.37%) Jakarta EE
10 5 (0.37%) JDBC
10 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
10 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.41%) Onboarding
2 28 (2.08%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
4 24 (1.78%) Security Posture
5 23 (1.71%) CMDB
6 14 (1.04%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (1.04%) PKI
6 14 (1.04%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.82%) Cloud Native
7 11 (0.82%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.82%) Learning Management System
7 11 (0.82%) Management Information System
8 8 (0.59%) AI Agents
9 7 (0.52%) FMCG
9 7 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (0.52%) Replication
9 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
10 6 (0.45%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.45%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 54 (4.01%) Windows
2 34 (2.52%) Linux
3 17 (1.26%) Solaris
4 13 (0.97%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.67%) Unix
6 8 (0.59%) AIX
7 5 (0.37%) VMS
8 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.074%) Android
10 1 (0.074%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.074%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 240 (17.82%) Stakeholder Management
2 162 (12.03%) Migration
3 135 (10.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 132 (9.80%) Cybersecurity
5 126 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
6 117 (8.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 104 (7.72%) ERP
7 104 (7.72%) Workshop Facilitation
8 103 (7.65%) Validation
9 99 (7.35%) User Acceptance Testing
10 87 (6.46%) Agile
11 86 (6.38%) Roadmaps
12 80 (5.94%) Analytics
13 74 (5.49%) Data Migration
13 74 (5.49%) Knowledge Transfer
14 68 (5.05%) Requirements Gathering
15 58 (4.31%) Risk Management
16 57 (4.23%) AI
17 56 (4.16%) Translating Business Requirements
18 55 (4.08%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 79 (5.86%) SQL
2 47 (3.49%) Python
3 36 (2.67%) ABAP
4 23 (1.71%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.41%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.11%) Java
7 14 (1.04%) PL/SQL
8 12 (0.89%) Bash
9 10 (0.74%) 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
1 411 (30.51%) Security Cleared
2 271 (20.12%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.57%) DV Cleared
4 63 (4.68%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (3.79%) CISSP
6 42 (3.12%) CISM
7 34 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (1.86%) CCSP
10 23 (1.71%) Degree
11 12 (0.89%) ACCA
11 12 (0.89%) CIMA
11 12 (0.89%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (0.74%) CRISC
13 9 (0.67%) PMP
14 8 (0.59%) CCSK
15 7 (0.52%) CCA
16 6 (0.45%) CEH
16 6 (0.45%) CISA
16 6 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (3.27%) NIST
2 41 (3.04%) GRC
3 35 (2.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 34 (2.52%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.48%) QA
6 19 (1.41%) NCSC
7 16 (1.19%) SLA
8 15 (1.11%) GDPR
9 13 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
10 12 (0.89%) PMO
11 9 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (0.52%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.45%) Def Stans
14 4 (0.30%) COBIT
14 4 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) GxP
16 2 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 51 (3.79%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (0.97%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.89%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.74%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.67%) vSphere
7 8 (0.59%) 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 (0.074%) NFS
10 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.23%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.34%) Ansible
3 10 (0.74%) 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
1 319 (23.68%) SAP
2 196 (14.55%) Microsoft
3 141 (10.47%) Oracle
4 59 (4.38%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.30%) Workday
6 29 (2.15%) VMware
7 22 (1.63%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.56%) Splunk
9 15 (1.11%) Ariba
10 14 (1.04%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.97%) CyberArk
12 12 (0.89%) BMC
12 12 (0.89%) Databricks
13 11 (0.82%) Google
14 9 (0.67%) IBM
15 8 (0.59%) Veeam
16 7 (0.52%) Cisco
16 7 (0.52%) Epicor
16 7 (0.52%) OpenText
16 7 (0.52%) SolarWinds