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 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 38 31
Rank change year-on-year +2 -7 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,237 678 1,117
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.80% 5.06% 5.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.22% 5.52% 5.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 684 426 722
10th Percentile £405 £400 £400
25th Percentile £455 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +2.33%
75th Percentile £621 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £670 £725
UK median daily rate £543 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.36% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 17 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.72 £24.84
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £48.13
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.81%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 £86.10 -
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -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 23,676 12,272 19,824
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.55% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,574 7,721 11,789
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £598 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,721 947 2,542
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.89 £15.96
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -16.67%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 £525 -4.55% 301
North of England -19 267 £550 +3.77% 325
Midlands -8 234 £525 -4.55% 121
South West +41 207 £550 - 157
West Midlands +7 157 £525 -4.55% 80
North West -11 141 £550 - 214
Yorkshire -11 104 £544 +14.47% 78
East of England -6 85 £550 +6.08% 70
Scotland +24 82 £425 -10.53% 51
East Midlands -11 68 £500 -9.09% 40
Wales -1 30 £550 +37.50% 16
North East -36 22 £650 +21.72% 34
Northern Ireland -3 3 £600 +15.38% 65
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 June 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.

1 265 (21.42%) Security Cleared
2 260 (21.02%) SAP
3 194 (15.68%) SC Cleared
4 154 (12.45%) ERP
5 152 (12.29%) Migration
6 148 (11.96%) Azure
7 134 (10.83%) Oracle
8 130 (10.51%) Microsoft
9 121 (9.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 115 (9.30%) Problem-Solving
11 112 (9.05%) SQL
12 104 (8.41%) Stakeholder Management
13 97 (7.84%) SAP S/4HANA
14 96 (7.76%) Continuous Improvement
15 94 (7.60%) Validation
16 87 (7.03%) Data Migration
17 82 (6.63%) Cybersecurity
18 81 (6.55%) Workshop Facilitation
19 74 (5.98%) User Acceptance Testing
20 69 (5.58%) Agile
21 68 (5.50%) AWS
22 65 (5.25%) Roadmaps
23 63 (5.09%) Analytics
24 60 (4.85%) PLM
25 59 (4.77%) Data Protection
26 57 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
27 56 (4.53%) Change Management
28 54 (4.37%) DV Cleared
28 54 (4.37%) Python
28 54 (4.37%) Siemens

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 23 (1.86%) Confluence
2 16 (1.29%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.65%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.49%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.49%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.40%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.24%) Apache
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.24%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.081%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.081%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.081%) SAS
7 1 (0.081%) Tomcat
Applications
1 43 (3.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.40%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.16%) Lectora
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.081%) CATIA
8 1 (0.081%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 97 (7.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.67%) SAP PSCD
3 24 (1.94%) Teamcenter
4 23 (1.86%) Oracle EBS
5 22 (1.78%) SAP MM
6 19 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
6 19 (1.54%) Oracle Payables
6 19 (1.54%) SAP FI
7 16 (1.29%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.21%) SAP EWM
9 13 (1.05%) SAP CO
9 13 (1.05%) SAP SD
10 12 (0.97%) SAP BRIM
10 12 (0.97%) SAP FI/CO
10 12 (0.97%) SAP Hybris
11 11 (0.89%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.89%) SAP Payroll
12 10 (0.81%) SAP HCM
13 8 (0.65%) Oracle Cash Management
13 8 (0.65%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 148 (11.96%) Azure
2 68 (5.50%) AWS
3 53 (4.28%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.64%) OCI
5 43 (3.48%) Dynamics 365
6 37 (2.99%) GCP
7 28 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (2.10%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.70%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
10 19 (1.54%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.29%) SaaS
12 14 (1.13%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 12 (0.97%) PowerApps
14 11 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (0.89%) GitHub
15 9 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
15 9 (0.73%) Copilot Studio
15 9 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 6 (0.49%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.10%) Network Security
2 19 (1.54%) Firewall
3 16 (1.29%) SNMP
4 9 (0.73%) FTP
5 7 (0.57%) BGP
6 6 (0.49%) WAN
7 5 (0.40%) HTTP
8 4 (0.32%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.32%) LAN
8 4 (0.32%) SAN
8 4 (0.32%) VPN
8 4 (0.32%) VXLAN
9 3 (0.24%) DNS
9 3 (0.24%) SMS
9 3 (0.24%) VSAN
10 2 (0.16%) Connectrix
10 2 (0.16%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.16%) Intranet
10 2 (0.16%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.75%) Oracle Reports
1 34 (2.75%) Power BI
2 17 (1.37%) Oracle ODI
3 15 (1.21%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 15 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 11 (0.89%) Tableau
5 8 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
5 8 (0.65%) SQL Server
6 7 (0.57%) Metadata
6 7 (0.57%) SAP BW
7 6 (0.49%) BusinessObjects
7 6 (0.49%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.49%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.40%) NonStop SQL
9 4 (0.32%) Power Query
9 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.24%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.24%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.24%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 38 (3.07%) JIRA
2 12 (0.97%) Hudson
3 8 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.57%) Git
5 5 (0.40%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.32%) Toad
7 3 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.16%) JDeveloper
9 1 (0.081%) Appium
9 1 (0.081%) GitLab
9 1 (0.081%) JUnit
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) MSTest
9 1 (0.081%) NUnit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
General
1 253 (20.45%) Social Skills
2 249 (20.13%) Finance
3 100 (8.08%) Public Sector
4 98 (7.92%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (3.48%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.83%) Legal
7 31 (2.51%) Banking
8 26 (2.10%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.94%) Billing
9 24 (1.94%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
11 17 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.29%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (1.05%) Marketing
14 13 (1.05%) Retail
15 12 (0.97%) Local Government
16 11 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.81%) Aviation
18 8 (0.65%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.31%) XML
2 37 (2.99%) REST
3 26 (2.10%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.97%) Web Services
5 10 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
5 10 (0.81%) SOAP
6 8 (0.65%) Middleware
7 6 (0.49%) JSON
7 6 (0.49%) RESTful
7 6 (0.49%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.40%) BAPI
8 5 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.40%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.32%) .NET
9 4 (0.32%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.32%) LDAP
10 3 (0.24%) IDoc
10 3 (0.24%) PySpark
10 3 (0.24%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.24%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 33 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
2 26 (2.10%) Onboarding
3 23 (1.86%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.29%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.13%) AI Agents
6 13 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (0.97%) Product Ownership
7 12 (0.97%) Replication
8 11 (0.89%) Public Cloud
9 10 (0.81%) Cloud Native
9 10 (0.81%) Management Information System
10 7 (0.57%) FMCG
10 7 (0.57%) NHS
11 6 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (0.49%) Beowulf
11 6 (0.49%) Data Centre
11 6 (0.49%) Data Structures
11 6 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.49%) Private Cloud
11 6 (0.49%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 46 (3.72%) Windows
2 37 (2.99%) Linux
3 17 (1.37%) Solaris
4 13 (1.05%) AIX
5 9 (0.73%) VMS
6 4 (0.32%) Unix
7 3 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.081%) Android
8 1 (0.081%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.081%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.081%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.081%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (12.45%) ERP
2 152 (12.29%) Migration
3 121 (9.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 115 (9.30%) Problem-Solving
5 104 (8.41%) Stakeholder Management
6 96 (7.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 94 (7.60%) Validation
8 87 (7.03%) Data Migration
9 82 (6.63%) Cybersecurity
10 81 (6.55%) Workshop Facilitation
11 74 (5.98%) User Acceptance Testing
12 69 (5.58%) Agile
13 65 (5.25%) Roadmaps
14 63 (5.09%) Analytics
15 60 (4.85%) PLM
16 59 (4.77%) Data Protection
17 57 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
18 56 (4.53%) Change Management
19 51 (4.12%) AI
20 48 (3.88%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 112 (9.05%) SQL
2 54 (4.37%) Python
3 28 (2.26%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.02%) PL/SQL
5 24 (1.94%) PowerShell
6 14 (1.13%) ABAP
7 13 (1.05%) JavaScript
7 13 (1.05%) Search Processing Language
8 10 (0.81%) Bash
8 10 (0.81%) Java
8 10 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.49%) R
10 5 (0.40%) C#
11 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.16%) C++
12 2 (0.16%) VBScript
13 1 (0.081%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.081%) C
13 1 (0.081%) COBOL
13 1 (0.081%) VB
Qualifications
1 265 (21.42%) Security Cleared
2 194 (15.68%) SC Cleared
3 54 (4.37%) DV Cleared
4 53 (4.28%) CISSP
5 39 (3.15%) CISM
6 38 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.59%) Degree
8 25 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.78%) CCSP
10 21 (1.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 11 (0.89%) PMP
12 10 (0.81%) ACCA
12 10 (0.81%) CEH
12 10 (0.81%) CIMA
13 9 (0.73%) OSCP
14 8 (0.65%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.49%) DBS Check
16 6 (0.49%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.80%) NIST
2 40 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.59%) GRC
4 29 (2.34%) Data Quality
5 19 (1.54%) GDPR
6 15 (1.21%) QA
7 13 (1.05%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.89%) NCSC
9 10 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (0.65%) SLA
11 7 (0.57%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.57%) COBIT
11 7 (0.57%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.49%) RMADS
12 6 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.32%) PMO
13 4 (0.32%) WCAG
14 2 (0.16%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.16%) NIST 800
System Software
1 25 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.89%) Docker
3 11 (0.89%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (0.81%) vSphere
5 6 (0.49%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.16%) NFS
7 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.081%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.081%) IAG
8 1 (0.081%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.43%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.37%) Terraform
3 13 (1.05%) Ansible
3 13 (1.05%) Nagios
3 13 (1.05%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.97%) Netcool
4 12 (0.97%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.89%) OpenView
5 11 (0.89%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 9 (0.73%) vRealize
7 6 (0.49%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.49%) Podman
7 6 (0.49%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.40%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.32%) Grafana
10 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.24%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.24%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 260 (21.02%) SAP
2 134 (10.83%) Oracle
3 130 (10.51%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.37%) Siemens
5 31 (2.51%) ServiceNow
6 25 (2.02%) VMware
7 23 (1.86%) Splunk
8 20 (1.62%) BMC
9 18 (1.46%) Ariba
9 18 (1.46%) IBM
10 16 (1.29%) Workday
11 14 (1.13%) Sage
12 13 (1.05%) Databricks
12 13 (1.05%) Google
12 13 (1.05%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.97%) HP
14 9 (0.73%) IFS
15 8 (0.65%) JD Edwards
16 7 (0.57%) Red Hat
16 7 (0.57%) Salesforce