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 30 April 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 34 34
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,134 676 1,017
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.73% 5.31% 4.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.14% 5.76% 5.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 645 438 726
10th Percentile £400 £425 £369
25th Percentile £450 £484 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.67% -0.91% -
75th Percentile £613 £618 £650
90th Percentile £712 £680 £725
UK median daily rate £538 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -2.27% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 10 23
10th Percentile £51.30 £62.92 £26.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £70.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £84.25 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -31.75% +48.11% -13.81%
75th Percentile £58.75 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 £86.03 £63.29
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -30.30% +33.93% -6.67%

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 22,064 11,738 19,262
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.06% 92.21% 92.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,933 7,547 11,777
10th Percentile £280 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +2.87% -3.55% -1.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £598
90th Percentile £680 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,456 822 2,236
10th Percentile £14.64 £14.04 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £18.11 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.46 £28.75 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.12% -25.32% -9.41%
75th Percentile £66.00 £65.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £29.07 £36.00
% change year-on-year +51.36% -19.25% -20.00%

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 30 April 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 30 April 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 30 April 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 -3 339 £550 -1.12% 199
Midlands -9 227 £525 -2.33% 74
North of England -32 216 £525 -2.33% 210
South West +24 174 £550 - 148
West Midlands -6 154 £550 - 50
North West -32 103 £518 -4.93% 132
Yorkshire -12 93 £538 +2.38% 56
East of England -12 81 £550 +10.00% 55
Scotland +28 72 £450 -14.29% 22
East Midlands -16 66 £500 -3.85% 25
Wales +4 30 £550 +37.50% 22
North East -21 20 £525 -1.69% 23
Northern Ireland 0 3 £600 +15.38% 28
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 April 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.

1 242 (21.34%) Security Cleared
2 238 (20.99%) SAP
3 186 (16.40%) SC Cleared
4 159 (14.02%) Oracle
5 149 (13.14%) Migration
6 142 (12.52%) ERP
7 118 (10.41%) Azure
8 110 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 106 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
9 106 (9.35%) SQL
10 85 (7.50%) Microsoft
10 85 (7.50%) Workshop Facilitation
11 83 (7.32%) Continuous Improvement
12 82 (7.23%) Data Migration
12 82 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
12 82 (7.23%) Stakeholder Management
13 78 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
14 76 (6.70%) User Acceptance Testing
15 66 (5.82%) Business Intelligence
15 66 (5.82%) Validation
16 62 (5.47%) Agile
17 58 (5.11%) Data Protection
17 58 (5.11%) Roadmaps
18 57 (5.03%) PLM
19 55 (4.85%) Change Management
20 53 (4.67%) Analytics
20 53 (4.67%) Siemens
21 52 (4.59%) XML
22 51 (4.50%) AWS
22 51 (4.50%) DV Cleared

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 22 (1.94%) SharePoint
2 17 (1.50%) Confluence
3 6 (0.53%) Jupyter
4 5 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.26%) Apache
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Superset
6 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.088%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.088%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.088%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.088%) WebLogic
Applications
1 37 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.62%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.44%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.18%) Lectora
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.088%) CATIA
7 1 (0.088%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.088%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.088%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 82 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 46 (4.06%) Oracle EBS
3 28 (2.47%) Oracle Receivables
4 27 (2.38%) SAP PSCD
5 25 (2.20%) Oracle Payables
6 23 (2.03%) SAP FI
6 23 (2.03%) SAP MM
7 22 (1.94%) Teamcenter
8 21 (1.85%) Oracle EBS R12
9 19 (1.68%) Oracle Assets
9 19 (1.68%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 19 (1.68%) SAP HCM
10 17 (1.50%) Oracle Cash Management
10 17 (1.50%) Oracle ERP
10 17 (1.50%) Oracle General Ledger
11 13 (1.15%) SAP EWM
11 13 (1.15%) SAP Hybris
11 13 (1.15%) SAP PP
12 12 (1.06%) SAP BRIM
13 11 (0.97%) Oracle AGIS
Cloud Services
1 118 (10.41%) Azure
2 51 (4.50%) AWS
3 50 (4.41%) OCI
4 47 (4.14%) Power Platform
5 42 (3.70%) Dynamics 365
6 31 (2.73%) SuccessFactors
7 23 (2.03%) GCP
8 17 (1.50%) Microsoft 365
9 16 (1.41%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
10 15 (1.32%) SaaS
11 14 (1.23%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 11 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.97%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.88%) Entra ID
14 7 (0.62%) Copilot Studio
14 7 (0.62%) GitHub
15 5 (0.44%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 5 (0.44%) Serverless
16 4 (0.35%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.23%) Network Security
1 14 (1.23%) SNMP
2 12 (1.06%) Firewall
3 9 (0.79%) FTP
4 5 (0.44%) HTTP
5 4 (0.35%) SAN
5 4 (0.35%) VPN
6 3 (0.26%) SMS
6 3 (0.26%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
7 2 (0.18%) Connectrix
7 2 (0.18%) DNS
7 2 (0.18%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.18%) Intranet
7 2 (0.18%) LAN
7 2 (0.18%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.18%) VSAN
7 2 (0.18%) WAN
8 1 (0.088%) Ethernet VPN
8 1 (0.088%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.09%) Oracle Reports
1 35 (3.09%) Power BI
2 17 (1.50%) Oracle BI Publisher
2 17 (1.50%) Oracle ODI
3 14 (1.23%) SAP HANA
4 9 (0.79%) Tableau
5 8 (0.71%) SQL Server
6 6 (0.53%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.44%) SAP Data Services
8 4 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.35%) SAP BW
9 3 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.26%) Delta Lake
9 3 (0.26%) GIS
9 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.26%) Metadata
9 3 (0.26%) NonStop SQL
9 3 (0.26%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 32 (2.82%) JIRA
2 14 (1.23%) Hudson
3 7 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 4 (0.35%) Git
4 4 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
5 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.26%) Toad
6 2 (0.18%) Postman
7 1 (0.088%) Appium
7 1 (0.088%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.088%) GitLab
7 1 (0.088%) JUnit
7 1 (0.088%) MSTest
7 1 (0.088%) NUnit
7 1 (0.088%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.088%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 232 (20.46%) Finance
2 223 (19.66%) Social Skills
3 94 (8.29%) Public Sector
4 93 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (3.35%) Manufacturing
6 28 (2.47%) Legal
7 24 (2.12%) Billing
8 21 (1.85%) General Ledger
9 20 (1.76%) Banking
10 19 (1.68%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
12 13 (1.15%) Retail
13 12 (1.06%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
14 11 (0.97%) Local Government
15 10 (0.88%) Marketing
16 9 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
17 8 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
17 8 (0.71%) Law
18 7 (0.62%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.59%) XML
2 43 (3.79%) REST
3 33 (2.91%) Oracle Fusion
4 19 (1.68%) SOAP
5 16 (1.41%) Web Services
6 11 (0.97%) JSON
7 7 (0.62%) .NET
8 6 (0.53%) SAP Basis
9 5 (0.44%) LDAP
9 5 (0.44%) SAP Fiori
10 4 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.35%) BAPI
10 4 (0.35%) CSS
10 4 (0.35%) HTML
10 4 (0.35%) Middleware
10 4 (0.35%) RESTful
10 4 (0.35%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.26%) scikit-learn
11 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
11 3 (0.26%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 31 (2.73%) Data Protection Act
2 19 (1.68%) Replication
3 18 (1.59%) Operational Technology
4 15 (1.32%) Onboarding
5 14 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.15%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.97%) AI Agents
7 11 (0.97%) Public Cloud
7 11 (0.97%) Security Posture
8 9 (0.79%) Management Information System
8 9 (0.79%) NHS
9 8 (0.71%) Cloud Native
9 8 (0.71%) Data Structures
10 7 (0.62%) SCADA
11 6 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (0.53%) Beowulf
11 6 (0.53%) Data Centre
11 6 (0.53%) FMCG
12 5 (0.44%) BYOD
12 5 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 30 (2.65%) Windows
2 25 (2.20%) Linux
3 11 (0.97%) AIX
4 8 (0.71%) Solaris
4 8 (0.71%) VMS
5 4 (0.35%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.18%) Unix
7 1 (0.088%) CoreOS
7 1 (0.088%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.088%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (13.14%) Migration
2 142 (12.52%) ERP
3 110 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 106 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
5 85 (7.50%) Workshop Facilitation
6 83 (7.32%) Continuous Improvement
7 82 (7.23%) Data Migration
7 82 (7.23%) Stakeholder Management
8 78 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
9 76 (6.70%) User Acceptance Testing
10 66 (5.82%) Business Intelligence
10 66 (5.82%) Validation
11 62 (5.47%) Agile
12 58 (5.11%) Data Protection
12 58 (5.11%) Roadmaps
13 57 (5.03%) PLM
14 55 (4.85%) Change Management
15 53 (4.67%) Analytics
16 46 (4.06%) Knowledge Transfer
17 43 (3.79%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 106 (9.35%) SQL
2 41 (3.62%) Python
3 28 (2.47%) T-SQL
4 23 (2.03%) PL/SQL
5 18 (1.59%) PowerShell
6 16 (1.41%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.32%) ABAP
8 11 (0.97%) Search Processing Language
9 8 (0.71%) Java
10 7 (0.62%) Bash
10 7 (0.62%) C#
10 7 (0.62%) R
11 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.18%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.18%) VBScript
13 1 (0.088%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.088%) C++
13 1 (0.088%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.088%) VBA
Qualifications
1 242 (21.34%) Security Cleared
2 186 (16.40%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.50%) DV Cleared
4 37 (3.26%) CISSP
5 34 (3.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (2.47%) Degree
7 26 (2.29%) CISM
8 13 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (0.88%) CCSP
10 9 (0.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 8 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (0.71%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 8 (0.71%) SAP Certification
12 6 (0.53%) CEH
12 6 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
13 5 (0.44%) Azure Certification
13 5 (0.44%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.44%) Oracle Certification
14 4 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.35%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 48 (4.23%) NIST
2 34 (3.00%) GRC
3 26 (2.29%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.50%) GDPR
5 13 (1.15%) QA
6 11 (0.97%) JSP 440
6 11 (0.97%) PCI DSS
7 9 (0.79%) COBIT
7 9 (0.79%) NCSC
8 8 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (0.71%) PMO
9 7 (0.62%) RMADS
9 7 (0.62%) SLA
10 5 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.26%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.18%) ISA99
12 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 18 (1.59%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.79%) Docker
3 9 (0.79%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.53%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 6 (0.53%) vSphere
5 4 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.088%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.088%) IAG
7 1 (0.088%) NFS
Systems Management
1 16 (1.41%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.97%) Nagios
2 11 (0.97%) ZABBIX
3 10 (0.88%) Netcool
3 10 (0.88%) Tivoli
4 9 (0.79%) Ansible
4 9 (0.79%) OpenView
4 9 (0.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 7 (0.62%) Terraform
6 6 (0.53%) Podman
7 5 (0.44%) NetBackup
7 5 (0.44%) vRealize
8 4 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.26%) Grafana
9 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Management
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Manager
9 3 (0.26%) PingFederate
9 3 (0.26%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.26%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 238 (20.99%) SAP
2 159 (14.02%) Oracle
3 85 (7.50%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.67%) Siemens
5 24 (2.12%) ServiceNow
6 20 (1.76%) VMware
7 19 (1.68%) Splunk
7 19 (1.68%) Workday
8 18 (1.59%) Ariba
9 17 (1.50%) BMC
10 15 (1.32%) IBM
11 14 (1.23%) Sage
12 13 (1.15%) Cisco
12 13 (1.15%) Google
13 12 (1.06%) Databricks
13 12 (1.06%) IFS
14 11 (0.97%) SolarWinds
15 10 (0.88%) Aruba
15 10 (0.88%) OpenText
16 9 (0.79%) HP