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 18 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 32 28 39
Rank change year-on-year -4 +11 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 875 1,107 1,078
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.66% 6.18% 5.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.29% 6.70% 5.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 563 669 666
10th Percentile £413 £425 £375
25th Percentile £492 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £568 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% +8.10% -6.67%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £613
90th Percentile £718 £742 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £543
% change year-on-year - +1.38% -3.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 16 21
10th Percentile £29.51 £53.95 £52.19
25th Percentile £51.25 £56.24 £60.00
Median hourly rate £77.50 £61.60 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.81% -5.23% -10.34%
75th Percentile £81.25 £63.20 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.25 £72.28 -
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £61.60 £65.00
% change year-on-year +25.81% -5.23% -1.52%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 13,901 16,529 20,119
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.86% 92.25% 94.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,552 9,598 13,421
10th Percentile £213 £220 £225
25th Percentile £361 £375 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £660 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,264 1,436 1,179
10th Percentile £13.47 £14.34 £14.11
25th Percentile £16.30 £19.50 £17.89
Median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.11% +4.65% +95.45%
75th Percentile £52.50 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Consultant in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Consultant 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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025. 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
North of England -5 247 £575 +2.22% 320
South East -2 226 £550 -5.17% 629
North West -6 169 £620 +12.73% 218
Midlands -26 132 £550 -1.79% 261
East of England +15 91 £550 +4.76% 168
South West +9 90 £600 +0.21% 208
West Midlands -31 83 £550 - 145
Yorkshire -13 65 £468 -18.70% 88
Scotland -15 54 £500 -9.09% 90
East Midlands -11 46 £550 -4.35% 104
Wales +9 25 £450 -25.00% 29
North East 0 13 £545 -9.17% 16
Northern Ireland -10 13 £520 -13.33% 23
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -
South Coast -1 1 £500 -
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 277 (31.66%) SAP
2 252 (28.80%) Security Cleared
3 244 (27.89%) Social Skills
4 178 (20.34%) SC Cleared
5 166 (18.97%) Finance
6 134 (15.31%) SAP S/4HANA
7 109 (12.46%) Problem-Solving
8 105 (12.00%) Microsoft
9 95 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
10 90 (10.29%) Analytical Skills
11 86 (9.83%) Migration
11 86 (9.83%) Public Sector
12 69 (7.89%) Oracle
13 65 (7.43%) Agile
14 62 (7.09%) SQL
15 60 (6.86%) DV Cleared
16 55 (6.29%) BPSS Clearance
17 54 (6.17%) Analytics
18 53 (6.06%) Azure
18 53 (6.06%) ERP
19 52 (5.94%) Workshop Facilitation
19 52 (5.94%) Risk Management
19 52 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
20 49 (5.60%) DevOps
20 49 (5.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 49 (5.60%) Validation
21 47 (5.37%) Manufacturing
22 44 (5.03%) Data Migration
23 43 (4.91%) SAP Fiori
23 43 (4.91%) Roadmaps

Consultant Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 22 (2.51%) WebLogic
2 21 (2.40%) WebSphere
3 11 (1.26%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.03%) IIS
5 8 (0.91%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 7 (0.80%) Apache
6 7 (0.80%) Oracle Service Bus
7 6 (0.69%) Microsoft Exchange
8 5 (0.57%) Confluence
9 4 (0.46%) NetWeaver
10 3 (0.34%) CMS
11 2 (0.23%) BizTalk Server
12 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.11%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.11%) Camunda
12 1 (0.11%) HCL Notes
12 1 (0.11%) OpenStack
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 10 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.46%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.23%) CPLEX
5 2 (0.23%) Navisworks
5 2 (0.23%) ProjectWise
5 2 (0.23%) Revit
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.11%) InDesign
6 1 (0.11%) InVision
6 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.11%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.11%) Sketch
6 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 134 (15.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (2.74%) SAP EWM
3 21 (2.40%) Maximo
4 19 (2.17%) SAP CO
4 19 (2.17%) SAP FI
4 19 (2.17%) SAP FI/CO
5 18 (2.06%) SAP MM
6 17 (1.94%) SAP WM
7 16 (1.83%) Oracle EBS
8 15 (1.71%) SAP HCM
9 13 (1.49%) SAP HR
10 12 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
10 12 (1.37%) SAP Payroll
10 12 (1.37%) SAP PP
11 11 (1.26%) Oracle EBS R12
11 11 (1.26%) SAP SD
12 10 (1.14%) Oracle Cash Management
12 10 (1.14%) SAP IBP
13 9 (1.03%) SAP BRIM
13 9 (1.03%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 53 (6.06%) Azure
2 34 (3.89%) AWS
3 30 (3.43%) Power Platform
4 27 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (3.09%) OCI
5 23 (2.63%) Dynamics 365
6 20 (2.29%) SuccessFactors
7 14 (1.60%) GCP
8 10 (1.14%) Snowflake
9 9 (1.03%) Power Automate
9 9 (1.03%) SaaS
10 8 (0.91%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 7 (0.80%) Entra ID
11 7 (0.80%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.69%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 5 (0.57%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 4 (0.46%) Azure DevOps
14 4 (0.46%) PaaS
14 4 (0.46%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 4 (0.46%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.49%) Firewall
2 10 (1.14%) Network Security
3 8 (0.91%) SAN
4 6 (0.69%) DNS
4 6 (0.69%) VSAN
4 6 (0.69%) WAN
5 5 (0.57%) VoIP
6 4 (0.46%) DMZ
6 4 (0.46%) SD-WAN
6 4 (0.46%) VPN
6 4 (0.46%) Wireless
7 3 (0.34%) DHCP
7 3 (0.34%) HTTP
7 3 (0.34%) Internet
7 3 (0.34%) LAN
7 3 (0.34%) SSH
7 3 (0.34%) Wireshark
8 2 (0.23%) Ethernet
8 2 (0.23%) Intrusion Detection
8 2 (0.23%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.51%) Power BI
2 21 (2.40%) SAP HANA
2 21 (2.40%) SQL Server
3 18 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.71%) Data Warehouse
5 11 (1.26%) SAP BW
6 9 (1.03%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.91%) DB2
7 8 (0.91%) GIS
8 7 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
8 7 (0.80%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.46%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.34%) BusinessObjects
10 3 (0.34%) Metadata
10 3 (0.34%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.34%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 3 (0.34%) Tableau
11 2 (0.23%) Power Query
11 2 (0.23%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 13 (1.49%) JIRA
2 11 (1.26%) GitLab
3 10 (1.14%) Git
4 7 (0.80%) Hudson
5 4 (0.46%) Postman
6 2 (0.23%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.23%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.23%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.11%) Dreamweaver
7 1 (0.11%) LSMW
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.11%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.11%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 244 (27.89%) Social Skills
2 166 (18.97%) Finance
3 90 (10.29%) Analytical Skills
4 86 (9.83%) Public Sector
5 47 (5.37%) Manufacturing
6 36 (4.11%) Telecoms
7 32 (3.66%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.97%) Presentation Skills
9 25 (2.86%) Marketing
10 21 (2.40%) Pharmaceutical
11 19 (2.17%) Banking
12 15 (1.71%) Electronics
13 14 (1.60%) Billing
14 11 (1.26%) General Ledger
14 11 (1.26%) Local Government
14 11 (1.26%) Retail
15 10 (1.14%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (1.03%) French Language
17 7 (0.80%) Automotive
18 5 (0.57%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.91%) SAP Fiori
2 27 (3.09%) SOAP
3 22 (2.51%) Middleware
3 22 (2.51%) Web Services
4 20 (2.29%) HTML
4 20 (2.29%) REST
5 18 (2.06%) XML
6 17 (1.94%) .NET
7 15 (1.71%) Node.js
8 12 (1.37%) BAPI
9 11 (1.26%) JSON
9 11 (1.26%) OAuth
10 10 (1.14%) EntireX
11 9 (1.03%) OAuth2
11 9 (1.03%) Oracle Fusion
11 9 (1.03%) SAP Basis
11 9 (1.03%) Swagger
12 8 (0.91%) OpenAPI
13 7 (0.80%) SAP TM
13 7 (0.80%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 33 (3.77%) Onboarding
2 23 (2.63%) Management Information System
3 19 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (1.37%) Data Centre
4 12 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
5 11 (1.26%) Operational Technology
5 11 (1.26%) Security Posture
6 9 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (0.91%) Product Ownership
7 8 (0.91%) Virtual Team
8 7 (0.80%) FMCG
8 7 (0.80%) SCADA
9 6 (0.69%) Cloud Native
9 6 (0.69%) Data Structures
9 6 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (0.57%) Algorithms
10 5 (0.57%) CMDB
10 5 (0.57%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (0.57%) IoT
10 5 (0.57%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.66%) Windows
2 27 (3.09%) Linux
3 10 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.03%) Unix
5 4 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.34%) AIX
6 3 (0.34%) Solaris
6 3 (0.34%) VMS
7 2 (0.23%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.23%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.11%) Android
8 1 (0.11%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (12.46%) Problem-Solving
2 95 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
3 86 (9.83%) Migration
4 65 (7.43%) Agile
5 54 (6.17%) Analytics
6 53 (6.06%) ERP
7 52 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
7 52 (5.94%) Risk Management
7 52 (5.94%) Workshop Facilitation
8 49 (5.60%) DevOps
8 49 (5.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 49 (5.60%) Validation
9 44 (5.03%) Data Migration
10 43 (4.91%) Roadmaps
11 42 (4.80%) Business Intelligence
11 42 (4.80%) Knowledge Transfer
12 41 (4.69%) Logistics
13 40 (4.57%) Requirements Gathering
14 37 (4.23%) Artificial Intelligence
14 37 (4.23%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 62 (7.09%) SQL
2 25 (2.86%) ABAP
3 24 (2.74%) Python
4 23 (2.63%) Java
5 17 (1.94%) JavaScript
6 16 (1.83%) PL/SQL
7 15 (1.71%) C
7 15 (1.71%) C++
8 14 (1.60%) PHP
9 11 (1.26%) PowerShell
10 8 (0.91%) Groovy
11 6 (0.69%) Perl
12 5 (0.57%) Bash
13 4 (0.46%) C#
14 3 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 2 (0.23%) Apex Code
15 2 (0.23%) ProC
15 2 (0.23%) R
15 2 (0.23%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 252 (28.80%) Security Cleared
2 178 (20.34%) SC Cleared
3 60 (6.86%) DV Cleared
4 55 (6.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 34 (3.89%) CISSP
6 31 (3.54%) Degree
7 23 (2.63%) CISM
8 12 (1.37%) SAP Certification
9 11 (1.26%) ACCA
9 11 (1.26%) CIMA
9 11 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.14%) CESG Certified Professional
11 8 (0.91%) CCNP
11 8 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (0.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 7 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 5 (0.57%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.57%) CCIE
13 5 (0.57%) CLAS
13 5 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (3.66%) NIST
3 30 (3.43%) QA
4 20 (2.29%) Data Quality
5 17 (1.94%) RMADS
6 16 (1.83%) GDPR
7 9 (1.03%) NCSC
8 8 (0.91%) GRC
8 8 (0.91%) NIST 800
8 8 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.69%) IFRS
9 6 (0.69%) JSP 440
10 5 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.57%) COBIT
10 5 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.57%) PMO
11 4 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.46%) HIPAA
11 4 (0.46%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.34%) Accessibility
System Software
1 19 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (2.06%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.80%) VMware NSX
3 7 (0.80%) vSphere
4 5 (0.57%) Docker
5 4 (0.46%) UAG
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.11%) IAG
7 1 (0.11%) NDS
7 1 (0.11%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 17 (1.94%) Terraform
2 13 (1.49%) Kubernetes
3 8 (0.91%) Ansible
3 8 (0.91%) Grafana
3 8 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.80%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.69%) SCCM
5 6 (0.69%) vRealize
6 4 (0.46%) EMC NetWorker
6 4 (0.46%) EMC VPLEX
6 4 (0.46%) HP ALM
6 4 (0.46%) HP Quality Center
7 3 (0.34%) PingFederate
7 3 (0.34%) QRadar
7 3 (0.34%) VxRail
8 2 (0.23%) EnCase
8 2 (0.23%) FTK
8 2 (0.23%) OpenView
8 2 (0.23%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 277 (31.66%) SAP
2 105 (12.00%) Microsoft
3 69 (7.89%) Oracle
4 34 (3.89%) IBM
5 31 (3.54%) ServiceNow
6 28 (3.20%) VMware
7 22 (2.51%) Dynatrace
8 19 (2.17%) Cisco
9 17 (1.94%) Salesforce
10 15 (1.71%) EMC
11 14 (1.60%) IFS
12 13 (1.49%) Adobe
13 10 (1.14%) Software AG
13 10 (1.14%) webMethods
14 9 (1.03%) Ariba
15 8 (0.91%) Splunk
16 7 (0.80%) CyberArk
17 6 (0.69%) Dell
17 6 (0.69%) F5
17 6 (0.69%) Isilon