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 22 July 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 37 27
Rank change year-on-year 0 -10 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,324 739 1,158
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.91% 4.97% 5.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.33% 5.48% 6.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 734 461 744
10th Percentile £405 £400 £425
25th Percentile £456 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 18 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.92 £26.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £55.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +19.72% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £82.68 £71.47
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%

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 24,857 13,481 18,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.59% 92.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,161 8,320 11,167
10th Percentile £305 £215 £215
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,866 1,153 2,085
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.67 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +4.53%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -8.57%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 -2 384 £540 -1.82% 235
North of England -14 275 £525 -4.55% 170
Midlands -1 257 £500 -9.05% 85
South West +20 209 £556 -4.55% 114
West Midlands +12 185 £500 -13.04% 65
North West -12 157 £525 -7.89% 116
Scotland +30 99 £436 -8.16% 24
Yorkshire -14 98 £550 +12.82% 40
East of England -16 82 £550 - 55
East Midlands -8 63 £500 -9.09% 20
Wales -4 31 £550 +23.94% 15
North East -35 20 £750 +40.45% 14
Northern Ireland -3 2 £525 +0.96% 22
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 July 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.

1 303 (22.89%) Security Cleared
2 284 (21.45%) SAP
3 203 (15.33%) SC Cleared
4 156 (11.78%) Microsoft
5 143 (10.80%) Azure
6 142 (10.73%) ERP
7 139 (10.50%) Migration
8 135 (10.20%) Oracle
9 133 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
10 126 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 123 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
12 122 (9.21%) SQL
13 108 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
14 101 (7.63%) Cybersecurity
15 96 (7.25%) Validation
16 95 (7.18%) SAP S/4HANA
17 85 (6.42%) Workshop Facilitation
18 82 (6.19%) User Acceptance Testing
19 81 (6.12%) DV Cleared
20 75 (5.66%) Agile
20 75 (5.66%) Data Migration
21 74 (5.59%) Roadmaps
22 71 (5.36%) AWS
23 58 (4.38%) Analytics
23 58 (4.38%) Python
24 57 (4.31%) CISSP
24 57 (4.31%) Power Platform
25 56 (4.23%) Data Protection
26 55 (4.15%) AI
27 54 (4.08%) Business Intelligence

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 27 (2.04%) Confluence
2 18 (1.36%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.68%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.23%) Apache
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.23%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.23%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.076%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.076%) SAS
6 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 47 (3.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.15%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.076%) CATIA
7 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 95 (7.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.57%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.74%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.74%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.59%) SAP EWM
5 20 (1.51%) Teamcenter
6 19 (1.44%) Oracle ERP
7 18 (1.36%) Oracle Payables
7 18 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.21%) SAP FI
9 15 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.13%) SAP HCM
9 15 (1.13%) SAP SD
10 13 (0.98%) SAP QM
11 11 (0.83%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.83%) SAP PP
12 10 (0.76%) Workday HCM
13 9 (0.68%) SAP BRIM
13 9 (0.68%) SAP CO
13 9 (0.68%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 143 (10.80%) Azure
2 71 (5.36%) AWS
3 57 (4.31%) Power Platform
4 53 (4.00%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.25%) OCI
6 41 (3.10%) GCP
7 31 (2.34%) SuccessFactors
8 30 (2.27%) Microsoft 365
9 27 (2.04%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.81%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.28%) SaaS
12 13 (0.98%) Microsoft Copilot
12 13 (0.98%) PowerApps
13 12 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (0.91%) GitHub
13 12 (0.91%) Oracle Service Cloud
14 11 (0.83%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
17 7 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.19%) Network Security
2 24 (1.81%) Firewall
3 20 (1.51%) SNMP
4 12 (0.91%) BGP
5 10 (0.76%) WAN
6 8 (0.60%) VPN
7 7 (0.53%) FTP
7 7 (0.53%) LAN
8 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.45%) VSAN
9 5 (0.38%) HTTP
9 5 (0.38%) SAN
9 5 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.23%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.23%) MPLS
11 3 (0.23%) SMS
11 3 (0.23%) TACACS
11 3 (0.23%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (2.79%) Power BI
2 29 (2.19%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.66%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.28%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.13%) SAP BW
6 12 (0.91%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.83%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 11 (0.83%) Tableau
8 10 (0.76%) Metadata
9 9 (0.68%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
13 4 (0.30%) Power Query
13 4 (0.30%) Relational Database
14 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.23%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 45 (3.40%) JIRA
2 13 (0.98%) Hudson
3 9 (0.68%) Git
4 8 (0.60%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.45%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.30%) Toad
7 3 (0.23%) Postman
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.15%) TestRail
8 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.076%) Appium
9 1 (0.076%) JMeter
9 1 (0.076%) MSTest
9 1 (0.076%) NUnit
9 1 (0.076%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.076%) Yeoman
General
1 281 (21.22%) Social Skills
2 239 (18.05%) Finance
3 115 (8.69%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (7.55%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.63%) Manufacturing
6 38 (2.87%) Legal
7 31 (2.34%) Banking
8 25 (1.89%) General Ledger
8 25 (1.89%) Telecoms
9 23 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.59%) Aerospace
10 21 (1.59%) Billing
11 18 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.21%) Retail
13 15 (1.13%) Marketing
14 14 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.68%) Advertising
16 9 (0.68%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.25%) XML
2 41 (3.10%) REST
3 21 (1.59%) Oracle Fusion
4 18 (1.36%) SOAP
5 15 (1.13%) Middleware
6 12 (0.91%) Web Services
7 11 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.68%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.53%) IDoc
10 6 (0.45%) JDBC
10 6 (0.45%) JSON
10 6 (0.45%) LDAP
10 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.45%) RESTful
10 6 (0.45%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.38%) .NET
11 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.30%) BAPI
12 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.72%) Data Protection Act
2 34 (2.57%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.81%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.21%) Operational Technology
5 13 (0.98%) AI Agents
5 13 (0.98%) Replication
6 11 (0.83%) CMDB
6 11 (0.83%) Data Centre
6 11 (0.83%) Product Ownership
7 10 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
7 10 (0.76%) Cloud Native
7 10 (0.76%) Management Information System
8 9 (0.68%) FMCG
8 9 (0.68%) Private Cloud
8 9 (0.68%) Public Cloud
9 8 (0.60%) Data Structures
9 8 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (0.60%) NHS
10 7 (0.53%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 54 (4.08%) Windows
2 42 (3.17%) Linux
3 17 (1.28%) Solaris
4 14 (1.06%) AIX
5 11 (0.83%) Unix
6 9 (0.68%) VMS
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.23%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.076%) Android
8 1 (0.076%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.076%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.076%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.076%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (10.73%) ERP
2 139 (10.50%) Migration
3 133 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 126 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 123 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
6 108 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
7 101 (7.63%) Cybersecurity
8 96 (7.25%) Validation
9 85 (6.42%) Workshop Facilitation
10 82 (6.19%) User Acceptance Testing
11 75 (5.66%) Agile
11 75 (5.66%) Data Migration
12 74 (5.59%) Roadmaps
13 58 (4.38%) Analytics
14 56 (4.23%) Data Protection
15 55 (4.15%) AI
16 54 (4.08%) Business Intelligence
16 54 (4.08%) PLM
17 52 (3.93%) Risk Management
17 52 (3.93%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 122 (9.21%) SQL
2 58 (4.38%) Python
3 29 (2.19%) ABAP
3 29 (2.19%) T-SQL
4 28 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 27 (2.04%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.44%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.06%) Java
8 13 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.91%) Bash
10 10 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.45%) C#
11 6 (0.45%) R
12 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.15%) C++
13 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) VBScript
14 1 (0.076%) VB
Qualifications
1 303 (22.89%) Security Cleared
2 203 (15.33%) SC Cleared
3 81 (6.12%) DV Cleared
4 57 (4.31%) CISSP
5 43 (3.25%) CISM
6 39 (2.95%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.34%) Degree
9 25 (1.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.66%) CCSP
11 11 (0.83%) PMP
12 10 (0.76%) CEH
13 9 (0.68%) OSCP
14 8 (0.60%) ACCA
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.60%) CIMA
14 8 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 6 (0.45%) CCA
15 6 (0.45%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (3.85%) NIST
2 43 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.49%) GRC
4 30 (2.27%) Data Quality
5 21 (1.59%) QA
6 19 (1.44%) GDPR
7 14 (1.06%) NCSC
8 13 (0.98%) Actionable Recommendations
8 13 (0.98%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.83%) SLA
10 8 (0.60%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.53%) COBIT
11 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.45%) PMO
12 6 (0.45%) RMADS
13 5 (0.38%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.38%) NIST 800
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 32 (2.42%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.21%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.98%) vSphere
6 4 (0.30%) Docker
6 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.076%) Firmware
9 1 (0.076%) IAG
9 1 (0.076%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.076%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.076%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.74%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.59%) Terraform
3 19 (1.44%) Ansible
4 13 (0.98%) Nagios
4 13 (0.98%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.91%) Netcool
5 12 (0.91%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.83%) OpenView
6 11 (0.83%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.83%) vRealize
7 10 (0.76%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.45%) Grafana
8 6 (0.45%) NetBackup
9 5 (0.38%) CEMLI
9 5 (0.38%) VxRail
10 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 284 (21.45%) SAP
2 156 (11.78%) Microsoft
3 135 (10.20%) Oracle
4 45 (3.40%) Siemens
5 40 (3.02%) ServiceNow
6 32 (2.42%) VMware
7 28 (2.11%) Splunk
8 16 (1.21%) BMC
8 16 (1.21%) IBM
9 15 (1.13%) Ariba
10 14 (1.06%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.98%) Databricks
11 13 (0.98%) Salesforce
11 13 (0.98%) SolarWinds
11 13 (0.98%) Workday
12 12 (0.91%) HP
13 10 (0.76%) Google
13 10 (0.76%) IFS
14 9 (0.68%) Sage
14 9 (0.68%) Veeam