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 December 2025.

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

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 30 27 33
Rank change year-on-year -3 +6 +28
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,055 1,007 1,102
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.99% 6.27% 5.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.66% 6.79% 5.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 665 593 696
10th Percentile £403 £421 £400
25th Percentile £475 £500 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £625
90th Percentile £716 £734 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 12 23
10th Percentile £62.75 £55.00 £50.44
25th Percentile £72.00 £56.24 £60.93
Median hourly rate £77.50 £70.88 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +9.35% +11.98% -11.17%
75th Percentile £81.25 £76.78 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.25 £87.00 £85.60
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £72.88
% change year-on-year +11.71% -4.80% +4.11%

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 15,846 14,829 19,023
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.95% 92.35% 93.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,792 8,575 12,481
10th Percentile £206 £215 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £497 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.43% -0.60% -
75th Percentile £575 £598 £600
90th Percentile £675 £679 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,565 982 1,255
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.20 £14.42
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.12 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.27 £72.50 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +43.93%

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 December 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 1 December 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 1 December 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 -8 288 £583 +2.82% 171
South East 0 277 £545 -5.22% 313
North West +3 201 £620 +12.73% 102
Midlands -22 155 £575 +4.55% 85
West Midlands -15 119 £563 +7.14% 55
East of England +10 116 £550 +10.00% 35
South West +2 104 £550 -4.76% 156
Yorkshire -14 80 £480 -20.00% 59
Scotland -2 72 £500 -9.58% 23
East Midlands -22 35 £590 +2.61% 28
Wales +4 32 £405 -32.50% 18
Northern Ireland -9 14 £405 -32.50% 8
North East -10 7 £550 -8.33% 10
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 December 2025, 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.

1 343 (32.51%) Security Cleared
2 277 (26.26%) SAP
3 273 (25.88%) SC Cleared
4 157 (14.88%) SAP S/4HANA
5 129 (12.23%) Migration
6 115 (10.90%) Problem-Solving
7 114 (10.81%) Microsoft
8 113 (10.71%) Oracle
9 110 (10.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 101 (9.57%) Stakeholder Management
11 82 (7.77%) Workshop Facilitation
12 77 (7.30%) Roadmaps
13 73 (6.92%) ERP
14 68 (6.45%) Agile
15 67 (6.35%) Azure
16 59 (5.59%) Knowledge Transfer
17 58 (5.50%) Cybersecurity
18 55 (5.21%) DevOps
19 54 (5.12%) DV Cleared
19 54 (5.12%) User Acceptance Testing
19 54 (5.12%) Validation
20 53 (5.02%) CyberArk
20 53 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
21 52 (4.93%) Analytics
22 50 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
22 50 (4.74%) Risk Management
23 49 (4.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
24 48 (4.55%) Cisco
24 48 (4.55%) Collaborative Working
24 48 (4.55%) Logistics

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 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.99%) WebLogic
3 18 (1.71%) WebSphere
4 15 (1.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.14%) Confluence
6 7 (0.66%) Oracle Service Bus
6 7 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 4 (0.38%) Apache
7 4 (0.38%) IIS
8 3 (0.28%) CMS
8 3 (0.28%) MTS
9 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.095%) Camunda
10 1 (0.095%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.095%) SAS
10 1 (0.095%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.095%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.28%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.28%) Revit
7 2 (0.19%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.095%) InVision
8 1 (0.095%) Sketch
8 1 (0.095%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 157 (14.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (2.94%) Oracle EBS
3 28 (2.65%) SAP MM
4 23 (2.18%) Oracle Payables
4 23 (2.18%) SAP EWM
4 23 (2.18%) SAP Payroll
5 22 (2.09%) Oracle Receivables
5 22 (2.09%) SAP HCM
6 21 (1.99%) SAP FI
7 20 (1.90%) Oracle EBS R12
8 19 (1.80%) Oracle Cash Management
9 18 (1.71%) Maximo
9 18 (1.71%) SAP WM
10 17 (1.61%) Oracle General Ledger
11 16 (1.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 15 (1.42%) SAP HR
12 15 (1.42%) SAP PSCD
13 13 (1.23%) Oracle Assets
13 13 (1.23%) SAP BRIM
13 13 (1.23%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 67 (6.35%) Azure
2 36 (3.41%) OCI
3 35 (3.32%) AWS
3 35 (3.32%) Dynamics 365
4 31 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
5 30 (2.84%) Power Platform
6 28 (2.65%) GCP
6 28 (2.65%) SuccessFactors
7 17 (1.61%) Entra ID
8 13 (1.23%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 12 (1.14%) SaaS
10 10 (0.95%) Power Automate
11 9 (0.85%) Snowflake
12 8 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
12 8 (0.76%) OneDrive
12 8 (0.76%) PowerApps
13 6 (0.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.57%) PaaS
14 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
15 4 (0.38%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.80%) Firewall
2 7 (0.66%) Network Security
2 7 (0.66%) SSH
3 6 (0.57%) Kerberos
3 6 (0.57%) VSAN
4 5 (0.47%) DMZ
4 5 (0.47%) SD-WAN
4 5 (0.47%) VoIP
4 5 (0.47%) WAN
5 3 (0.28%) BGP
5 3 (0.28%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.28%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.28%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.28%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.28%) Internet
5 3 (0.28%) OSPF
5 3 (0.28%) SAN
5 3 (0.28%) VLAN
5 3 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.09%) Power BI
1 22 (2.09%) SAP HANA
2 19 (1.80%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.42%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (0.95%) Metadata
5 10 (0.95%) Oracle Database
6 9 (0.85%) SAP BW
7 6 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (0.57%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 5 (0.47%) DB2
8 5 (0.47%) SAP Data Services
9 3 (0.28%) Tableau
10 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.19%) EDMS
10 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.19%) MS Access
10 2 (0.19%) QGIS
10 2 (0.19%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.19%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 24 (2.27%) JIRA
2 9 (0.85%) GitLab
3 7 (0.66%) Hudson
4 6 (0.57%) Git
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.095%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.095%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.095%) LSMW
6 1 (0.095%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.095%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.095%) Visual Studio
General
1 267 (25.31%) Social Skills
2 202 (19.15%) Finance
3 134 (12.70%) Public Sector
4 101 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (5.59%) Manufacturing
6 38 (3.60%) Telecoms
7 31 (2.94%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (2.37%) Marketing
10 21 (1.99%) Pharmaceutical
11 20 (1.90%) General Ledger
12 19 (1.80%) Billing
13 16 (1.52%) Local Government
14 14 (1.33%) Electronics
15 12 (1.14%) Banking
16 10 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
16 10 (0.95%) Retail
17 9 (0.85%) Legal
18 8 (0.76%) Aerospace
19 6 (0.57%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.98%) SAP Fiori
2 30 (2.84%) SOAP
3 29 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
3 29 (2.75%) REST
3 29 (2.75%) Web Services
3 29 (2.75%) XML
4 23 (2.18%) Middleware
5 18 (1.71%) .NET
6 17 (1.61%) HTML
7 16 (1.52%) JSON
7 16 (1.52%) OAuth
8 15 (1.42%) BAPI
9 14 (1.33%) Node.js
9 14 (1.33%) SAP Basis
10 13 (1.23%) LDAP
11 10 (0.95%) SAML
12 9 (0.85%) OAuth2
13 7 (0.66%) SAP TM
13 7 (0.66%) Swagger
13 7 (0.66%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 37 (3.51%) Onboarding
2 26 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (1.42%) Data Centre
4 14 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
5 13 (1.23%) Security Posture
6 11 (1.04%) Product Ownership
6 11 (1.04%) Replication
7 10 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
7 10 (0.95%) Management Information System
8 8 (0.76%) Data Structures
9 7 (0.66%) Cloud Native
9 7 (0.66%) FMCG
9 7 (0.66%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.66%) Virtual Team
10 6 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.57%) IoT
11 5 (0.47%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.47%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (0.47%) Private Cloud
12 4 (0.38%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 38 (3.60%) Windows
2 24 (2.27%) Linux
3 10 (0.95%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.66%) AIX
4 7 (0.66%) Solaris
5 6 (0.57%) Unix
6 5 (0.47%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.38%) VMS
8 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.095%) CentOS
10 1 (0.095%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.095%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (12.23%) Migration
2 115 (10.90%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (10.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 101 (9.57%) Stakeholder Management
5 82 (7.77%) Workshop Facilitation
6 77 (7.30%) Roadmaps
7 73 (6.92%) ERP
8 68 (6.45%) Agile
9 59 (5.59%) Knowledge Transfer
10 58 (5.50%) Cybersecurity
11 55 (5.21%) DevOps
12 54 (5.12%) User Acceptance Testing
12 54 (5.12%) Validation
13 53 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
14 52 (4.93%) Analytics
15 50 (4.74%) Risk Management
16 48 (4.55%) Collaborative Working
16 48 (4.55%) Logistics
17 46 (4.36%) Change Management
18 45 (4.27%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 42 (3.98%) SQL
2 37 (3.51%) ABAP
3 27 (2.56%) Python
4 24 (2.27%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.80%) Java
6 15 (1.42%) C
6 15 (1.42%) C++
7 14 (1.33%) PHP
8 12 (1.14%) JavaScript
9 10 (0.95%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.76%) Bash
10 8 (0.76%) Groovy
11 3 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.28%) VBA
12 2 (0.19%) C#
12 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.19%) X++
13 1 (0.095%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.095%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.095%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 343 (32.51%) Security Cleared
2 273 (25.88%) SC Cleared
3 54 (5.12%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (2.84%) Degree
6 27 (2.56%) CISSP
7 23 (2.18%) CISM
8 13 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.14%) SAP Certification
10 11 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (0.95%) ACCA
11 10 (0.95%) CIMA
12 8 (0.76%) CCNP
13 7 (0.66%) CESG Certified Professional
13 7 (0.66%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 5 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
15 4 (0.38%) Master's Degree
16 3 (0.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (4.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 37 (3.51%) NIST
3 33 (3.13%) QA
4 23 (2.18%) GDPR
5 19 (1.80%) Data Quality
6 14 (1.33%) RMADS
7 13 (1.23%) GRC
8 12 (1.14%) Actionable Recommendations
9 11 (1.04%) NCSC
10 8 (0.76%) NIST 800
11 7 (0.66%) COBIT
11 7 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.66%) PMO
12 6 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.57%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.47%) PCI DSS
14 4 (0.38%) JSP 440
15 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
16 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
16 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
System Software
1 33 (3.13%) Active Directory
2 19 (1.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.23%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.57%) vSphere
5 4 (0.38%) Docker
5 4 (0.38%) UAG
6 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.095%) Ceph
7 1 (0.095%) Firmware
7 1 (0.095%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.095%) IAG
7 1 (0.095%) KVM
7 1 (0.095%) NDS
7 1 (0.095%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.095%) QEMU
7 1 (0.095%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.095%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (1.71%) Terraform
2 14 (1.33%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.33%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.95%) PingFederate
4 8 (0.76%) Ansible
4 8 (0.76%) Grafana
4 8 (0.76%) SCCM
5 7 (0.66%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.19%) EnCase
8 2 (0.19%) FTK
8 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
9 1 (0.095%) CASB
9 1 (0.095%) Control-M
9 1 (0.095%) QRadar
Vendors
1 277 (26.26%) SAP
2 114 (10.81%) Microsoft
3 113 (10.71%) Oracle
4 53 (5.02%) CyberArk
5 48 (4.55%) Cisco
6 35 (3.32%) ServiceNow
7 33 (3.13%) Aruba
8 26 (2.46%) VMware
9 21 (1.99%) Dynatrace
10 19 (1.80%) IBM
11 18 (1.71%) Workday
12 15 (1.42%) Google
13 13 (1.23%) EMC
14 12 (1.14%) Adobe
14 12 (1.14%) Ariba
14 12 (1.14%) OpenText
15 11 (1.04%) IFS
15 11 (1.04%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.76%) Remedy
17 7 (0.66%) Dell