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 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 32 26
Rank change year-on-year -4 -6 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,363 921 1,068
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.81% 5.89% 6.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.28% 6.57% 6.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 810 593 631
10th Percentile £405 £413 £425
25th Percentile £461 £492 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -0.09% -2.65% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £718 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 20 17
10th Percentile £38.25 £29.31 £55.00
25th Percentile £61.13 £49.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -3.75%
75th Percentile £84.56 £81.25 £73.56
90th Percentile £99.38 £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 25,823 14,015 16,120
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 89.66% 92.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,089 8,639 9,175
10th Percentile £303 £212 £219
25th Percentile £413 £363 £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 £669 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,420 1,302 1,311
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.69
25th Percentile £19.33 £16.30 £19.92
Median hourly rate £41.87 £25.08 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.97% -41.69% -2.05%
75th Percentile £67.70 £50.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.50 £69.65 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -2.82%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 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 -7 379 £533 -3.18% 412
North of England -21 333 £578 -0.43% 432
Midlands -8 228 £500 -11.11% 235
North West -16 220 £583 -5.97% 255
South West +14 193 £553 -5.06% 204
West Midlands +2 164 £500 -11.11% 177
Scotland +25 128 £452 -9.70% 158
East of England -14 106 £552 +0.36% 130
Yorkshire -20 89 £575 +21.05% 93
East Midlands -10 58 £525 -6.67% 58
Wales -16 24 £550 +22.22% 65
North East -23 23 £750 +38.89% 85
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 92
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 421 (30.89%) Security Cleared
2 324 (23.77%) SAP
3 280 (20.54%) SC Cleared
4 243 (17.83%) Stakeholder Management
5 195 (14.31%) Microsoft
6 163 (11.96%) Migration
7 139 (10.20%) Oracle
8 135 (9.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 134 (9.83%) Cybersecurity
10 126 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
11 124 (9.10%) Azure
12 118 (8.66%) Continuous Improvement
13 115 (8.44%) SAP S/4HANA
14 108 (7.92%) Validation
15 104 (7.63%) ERP
15 104 (7.63%) Workshop Facilitation
16 102 (7.48%) DV Cleared
17 101 (7.41%) User Acceptance Testing
18 87 (6.38%) Agile
19 86 (6.31%) Roadmaps
20 82 (6.02%) AWS
21 81 (5.94%) Analytics
22 76 (5.58%) Knowledge Transfer
22 76 (5.58%) SQL
23 73 (5.36%) Data Migration
24 70 (5.14%) Requirements Gathering
25 67 (4.92%) Dynamics 365
26 63 (4.62%) BPSS Clearance
27 61 (4.48%) SuccessFactors
28 60 (4.40%) 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 26 (1.91%) Confluence
2 19 (1.39%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 2 (0.15%) SAP Portal
6 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.073%) Apache
7 1 (0.073%) IIS
7 1 (0.073%) JBoss
7 1 (0.073%) OpenEdge
7 1 (0.073%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (1.32%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (0.73%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 115 (8.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (2.79%) SAP PSCD
3 32 (2.35%) SAP Payroll
4 25 (1.83%) SAP HCM
5 22 (1.61%) Oracle ERP
5 22 (1.61%) SAP FI
5 22 (1.61%) SAP HR
6 20 (1.47%) Workday HCM
7 19 (1.39%) Oracle Payables
8 18 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.10%) Oracle EBS
9 15 (1.10%) SAP BRIM
9 15 (1.10%) SAP QM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP EWM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP Hybris
10 13 (0.95%) SAP PP
10 13 (0.95%) Teamcenter
11 12 (0.88%) SAP CO
11 12 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.81%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 124 (9.10%) Azure
2 82 (6.02%) AWS
3 67 (4.92%) Dynamics 365
4 61 (4.48%) SuccessFactors
5 58 (4.26%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.04%) GCP
7 47 (3.45%) OCI
8 38 (2.79%) Microsoft 365
9 32 (2.35%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.76%) Power Automate
11 18 (1.32%) SaaS
12 16 (1.17%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 14 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
15 11 (0.81%) Microsoft Purview
15 11 (0.81%) PowerApps
16 10 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
17 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
18 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
18 8 (0.59%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.27%) Network Security
2 22 (1.61%) Firewall
3 14 (1.03%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
4 12 (0.88%) WAN
5 9 (0.66%) DNS
5 9 (0.66%) VPN
6 7 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) FTP
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.05%) Power BI
2 19 (1.39%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.17%) SAP BW
4 15 (1.10%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 14 (1.03%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.81%) Metadata
7 10 (0.73%) BusinessObjects
7 10 (0.73%) SQL Server
8 8 (0.59%) Tableau
9 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.37%) Oracle ODI
10 5 (0.37%) Power Query
11 4 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) GIS
12 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 48 (3.52%) JIRA
2 16 (1.17%) Git
3 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.44%) Hudson
5 4 (0.29%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
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 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.073%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.073%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 337 (24.72%) Social Skills
2 275 (20.18%) Finance
3 128 (9.39%) Public Sector
4 110 (8.07%) Analytical Skills
5 64 (4.70%) Manufacturing
6 37 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (2.42%) Legal
8 32 (2.35%) Telecoms
9 30 (2.20%) General Ledger
10 29 (2.13%) Billing
10 29 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
11 23 (1.69%) Banking
12 19 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
12 19 (1.39%) Retail
13 14 (1.03%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.03%) Marketing
13 14 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.88%) Military
15 8 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (2.93%) REST
2 35 (2.57%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.61%) SOAP
4 20 (1.47%) Middleware
4 20 (1.47%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.47%) Terraform
4 20 (1.47%) Web Services
5 18 (1.32%) LDAP
6 17 (1.25%) SAP Fiori
6 17 (1.25%) XML
7 10 (0.73%) SAPUI5
8 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
9 8 (0.59%) XSLT
10 6 (0.44%) JSON
10 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.44%) OAuth
11 5 (0.37%) EDI
11 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
11 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.37%) Onboarding
2 29 (2.13%) Operational Technology
3 24 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.76%) Security Posture
4 23 (1.69%) CMDB
5 15 (1.10%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (1.03%) PKI
6 14 (1.03%) Product Ownership
7 12 (0.88%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.81%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.81%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.81%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.59%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.51%) FMCG
10 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.51%) Replication
10 7 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.44%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.04%) Windows
2 34 (2.49%) Linux
3 17 (1.25%) Solaris
4 14 (1.03%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.66%) Unix
6 8 (0.59%) AIX
7 5 (0.37%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.073%) Android
10 1 (0.073%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 243 (17.83%) Stakeholder Management
2 163 (11.96%) Migration
3 135 (9.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 134 (9.83%) Cybersecurity
5 126 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
6 118 (8.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (7.92%) Validation
8 104 (7.63%) ERP
8 104 (7.63%) Workshop Facilitation
9 101 (7.41%) User Acceptance Testing
10 87 (6.38%) Agile
11 86 (6.31%) Roadmaps
12 81 (5.94%) Analytics
13 76 (5.58%) Knowledge Transfer
14 73 (5.36%) Data Migration
15 70 (5.14%) Requirements Gathering
16 58 (4.26%) Vulnerability Management
17 57 (4.18%) AI
18 56 (4.11%) CI/CD
18 56 (4.11%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (5.58%) SQL
2 46 (3.37%) Python
3 38 (2.79%) ABAP
4 24 (1.76%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.39%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.10%) Java
7 12 (0.88%) Bash
7 12 (0.88%) PL/SQL
8 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
9 9 (0.66%) Search Processing Language
10 4 (0.29%) C#
10 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.15%) Groovy
12 2 (0.15%) Korn
12 2 (0.15%) Magik
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) R
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 421 (30.89%) Security Cleared
2 280 (20.54%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.48%) DV Cleared
4 63 (4.62%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (3.74%) CISSP
6 42 (3.08%) CISM
7 34 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (1.83%) CCSP
10 23 (1.69%) Degree
11 12 (0.88%) CompTIA Security+
12 11 (0.81%) ACCA
12 11 (0.81%) CIMA
13 10 (0.73%) CRISC
14 8 (0.59%) CCSK
14 8 (0.59%) PMP
15 7 (0.51%) CCA
15 7 (0.51%) DBS Check
16 6 (0.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 6 (0.44%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (3.23%) NIST
2 39 (2.86%) GRC
3 35 (2.57%) Data Quality
3 35 (2.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (1.47%) QA
4 20 (1.47%) SLA
5 19 (1.39%) NCSC
6 15 (1.10%) GDPR
7 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.88%) PMO
9 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 4 (0.29%) COBIT
12 4 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.29%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.29%) WCAG
13 3 (0.22%) GxP
14 2 (0.15%) ITGC
System Software
1 52 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (0.95%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.73%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.66%) vSphere
7 8 (0.59%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Firmware
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
9 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.073%) NFS
10 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 31 (2.27%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.32%) Ansible
3 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
4 9 (0.66%) vRealize
5 7 (0.51%) Grafana
5 7 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.51%) Nagios
5 7 (0.51%) ZABBIX
6 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.44%) Netcool
6 6 (0.44%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.44%) VxRail
7 5 (0.37%) OpenView
7 5 (0.37%) SCCM
7 5 (0.37%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 324 (23.77%) SAP
2 195 (14.31%) Microsoft
3 139 (10.20%) Oracle
4 60 (4.40%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.27%) Workday
6 30 (2.20%) VMware
7 22 (1.61%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.54%) Splunk
9 15 (1.10%) Ariba
10 14 (1.03%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.95%) CyberArk
12 12 (0.88%) BMC
12 12 (0.88%) Databricks
13 11 (0.81%) Google
14 9 (0.66%) Concur
14 9 (0.66%) IBM
15 8 (0.59%) Veeam
16 7 (0.51%) Cisco
16 7 (0.51%) OpenText
16 7 (0.51%) SolarWinds