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 2 March 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 33 34
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +25
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,095 710 1,016
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.30% 5.41% 4.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.79% 5.86% 5.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 626 445 705
10th Percentile £403 £425 £375
25th Percentile £463 £494 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £537
Median % change year-on-year - +2.42% -2.36%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £713
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -0.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 12 27
10th Percentile - £70.12 £36.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.86 £52.55
Median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -6.38%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £72.13
90th Percentile £77.63 £86.23 £87.40
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
% change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -7.35%

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 18,901 12,125 19,557
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.41% 92.32% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,300 7,525 12,225
10th Percentile £237 £209 £213
25th Percentile £384 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £487
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% -2.46% -2.60%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £674 £681
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,043 659 2,011
10th Percentile £14.28 £15.28 £12.82
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £15.86
Median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year - -7.14% -7.03%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £34.06 £34.25
% change year-on-year -1.63% -0.57% -14.38%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 2 March 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 +2 299 £515 -10.43% 413
North of England -8 266 £581 +6.61% 251
Midlands -11 204 £563 +7.14% 118
West Midlands -4 151 £563 +4.17% 71
North West -6 148 £626 +15.97% 152
South West +18 145 £550 - 162
Yorkshire -1 108 £544 +2.35% 77
East of England -5 96 £550 - 88
Scotland +8 50 £520 -5.45% 29
East Midlands -19 49 £500 -3.85% 47
Wales +11 32 £447 -8.31% 43
Northern Ireland +4 12 £405 -22.86% 26
North East -24 10 £525 -7.08% 23
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 March 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.

1 322 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 265 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 253 (23.11%) SAP
4 169 (15.43%) Migration
5 143 (13.06%) SAP S/4HANA
6 132 (12.05%) Oracle
7 128 (11.69%) ERP
8 123 (11.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 112 (10.23%) Azure
10 110 (10.05%) Problem-Solving
11 100 (9.13%) Workshop Facilitation
12 96 (8.77%) Stakeholder Management
13 94 (8.58%) Microsoft
14 70 (6.39%) Roadmaps
15 69 (6.30%) Data Migration
15 69 (6.30%) User Acceptance Testing
16 63 (5.75%) Cybersecurity
17 62 (5.66%) Validation
18 59 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
19 58 (5.30%) Analytics
20 56 (5.11%) Knowledge Transfer
21 55 (5.02%) SQL
22 54 (4.93%) Change Management
23 53 (4.84%) Siemens
24 52 (4.75%) PLM
25 50 (4.57%) Continuous Improvement
25 50 (4.57%) CyberArk
26 49 (4.47%) Agile
26 49 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
27 48 (4.38%) Cisco

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 32 (2.92%) SharePoint
2 16 (1.46%) Confluence
3 13 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.55%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.27%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.27%) MTS
6 2 (0.18%) CMS
6 2 (0.18%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.091%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.091%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.091%) SAS
7 1 (0.091%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 23 (2.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.73%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
3 5 (0.46%) PTC Creo
4 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.18%) Lectora
5 2 (0.18%) Navisworks
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
5 2 (0.18%) Revit
6 1 (0.091%) CATIA
6 1 (0.091%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.091%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.091%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.091%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 143 (13.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (3.20%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.74%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.56%) Oracle Payables
4 28 (2.56%) SAP FI
4 28 (2.56%) SAP MM
5 26 (2.37%) SAP PSCD
6 24 (2.19%) SAP HCM
7 23 (2.10%) Oracle EBS R12
8 22 (2.01%) Oracle General Ledger
9 21 (1.92%) Oracle Cash Management
10 20 (1.83%) Oracle Assets
11 19 (1.74%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 19 (1.74%) SAP Hybris
11 19 (1.74%) SAP Payroll
11 19 (1.74%) Teamcenter
12 18 (1.64%) SAP BRIM
13 13 (1.19%) Oracle AGIS
14 12 (1.10%) SAP CO
14 12 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 112 (10.23%) Azure
2 46 (4.20%) OCI
3 37 (3.38%) Dynamics 365
4 32 (2.92%) AWS
5 30 (2.74%) GCP
6 26 (2.37%) Microsoft 365
6 26 (2.37%) Power Platform
7 19 (1.74%) SAP Commerce Cloud
8 18 (1.64%) Entra ID
9 16 (1.46%) SuccessFactors
10 15 (1.37%) SaaS
11 13 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
12 10 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (0.82%) OneDrive
13 9 (0.82%) PowerApps
14 7 (0.64%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.46%) GitHub
16 4 (0.37%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.37%) dbt
16 4 (0.37%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.46%) Firewall
2 8 (0.73%) FTP
3 5 (0.46%) Kerberos
3 5 (0.46%) Network Security
3 5 (0.46%) VPN
4 4 (0.37%) Cisco ISE
4 4 (0.37%) SD-WAN
4 4 (0.37%) SSH
4 4 (0.37%) WAN
5 3 (0.27%) BGP
5 3 (0.27%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.27%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.27%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.27%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.27%) OSPF
5 3 (0.27%) VSAN
5 3 (0.27%) WebEx
6 2 (0.18%) Intranet
6 2 (0.18%) SSL
6 2 (0.18%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (2.28%) SAP HANA
2 22 (2.01%) Oracle Reports
2 22 (2.01%) Power BI
3 18 (1.64%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 11 (1.00%) SQL Server
5 8 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (0.73%) Metadata
6 6 (0.55%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.46%) GIS
8 4 (0.37%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.37%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.27%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.27%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.27%) SAP BW
10 2 (0.18%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.18%) EDMS
10 2 (0.18%) Oracle BI EE
10 2 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (2.65%) JIRA
2 10 (0.91%) Hudson
3 3 (0.27%) Git
3 3 (0.27%) GitLab
3 3 (0.27%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
4 2 (0.18%) Postman
4 2 (0.18%) Tricentis qTest
5 1 (0.091%) Appium
5 1 (0.091%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.091%) JUnit
5 1 (0.091%) MSTest
5 1 (0.091%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.091%) NUnit
5 1 (0.091%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.091%) Toad
5 1 (0.091%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.091%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 248 (22.65%) Social Skills
2 221 (20.18%) Finance
3 131 (11.96%) Public Sector
4 85 (7.76%) Analytical Skills
5 42 (3.84%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.83%) Billing
7 29 (2.65%) Telecoms
8 22 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
9 21 (1.92%) General Ledger
10 20 (1.83%) Legal
11 19 (1.74%) Marketing
12 18 (1.64%) Banking
12 18 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
13 16 (1.46%) Aerospace
14 11 (1.00%) Law
15 10 (0.91%) Local Government
15 10 (0.91%) Pharmaceutical
16 9 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
17 8 (0.73%) Retail
18 6 (0.55%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (4.29%) Oracle Fusion
2 34 (3.11%) REST
3 32 (2.92%) Web Services
3 32 (2.92%) XML
4 28 (2.56%) SAP Fiori
5 23 (2.10%) SOAP
6 16 (1.46%) BAPI
7 11 (1.00%) LDAP
8 10 (0.91%) SAP Basis
9 9 (0.82%) SAML
10 8 (0.73%) JSON
11 7 (0.64%) Middleware
11 7 (0.64%) OAuth
12 6 (0.55%) SAP Business Workflow
12 6 (0.55%) SAP TM
13 5 (0.46%) .NET
13 5 (0.46%) OpenID
14 4 (0.37%) IDoc
15 3 (0.27%) PyTorch
15 3 (0.27%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 26 (2.37%) Onboarding
2 23 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
4 13 (1.19%) Product Ownership
5 12 (1.10%) Operational Technology
5 12 (1.10%) Replication
6 10 (0.91%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.82%) AI Agents
7 9 (0.82%) Data Structures
7 9 (0.82%) Security Posture
8 8 (0.73%) Public Cloud
9 7 (0.64%) NHS
9 7 (0.64%) SCADA
10 6 (0.55%) Beowulf
11 5 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (0.46%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (0.46%) Management Information System
11 5 (0.46%) Market Risk
11 5 (0.46%) SCORM
12 4 (0.37%) Contract for Difference
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.65%) Windows
2 14 (1.28%) Linux
3 6 (0.55%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.37%) AIX
4 4 (0.37%) Solaris
4 4 (0.37%) VMS
4 4 (0.37%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.18%) Unix
6 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.091%) CentOS
7 1 (0.091%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (15.43%) Migration
2 128 (11.69%) ERP
3 123 (11.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 110 (10.05%) Problem-Solving
5 100 (9.13%) Workshop Facilitation
6 96 (8.77%) Stakeholder Management
7 70 (6.39%) Roadmaps
8 69 (6.30%) Data Migration
8 69 (6.30%) User Acceptance Testing
9 63 (5.75%) Cybersecurity
10 62 (5.66%) Validation
11 59 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
12 58 (5.30%) Analytics
13 56 (5.11%) Knowledge Transfer
14 54 (4.93%) Change Management
15 52 (4.75%) PLM
16 50 (4.57%) Continuous Improvement
17 49 (4.47%) Agile
18 45 (4.11%) Project Management
19 43 (3.93%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 55 (5.02%) SQL
2 35 (3.20%) ABAP
3 29 (2.65%) Python
4 20 (1.83%) PowerShell
5 11 (1.00%) T-SQL
6 9 (0.82%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.73%) Bash
8 7 (0.64%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.46%) Java
10 4 (0.37%) C#
10 4 (0.37%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.18%) C++
11 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.18%) VBA
11 2 (0.18%) X++
12 1 (0.091%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.091%) ActionScript 2.0
12 1 (0.091%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.091%) C
12 1 (0.091%) R
Qualifications
1 322 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 265 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 37 (3.38%) DV Cleared
4 34 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.47%) Degree
6 15 (1.37%) CISSP
7 10 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (0.91%) CISM
8 8 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (0.64%) SAP Certification
10 6 (0.55%) CCNP
10 6 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (0.37%) CEH
11 4 (0.37%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.27%) CCIE
12 3 (0.27%) CIMA
12 3 (0.27%) CISA
12 3 (0.27%) PMP
12 3 (0.27%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 41 (3.74%) NIST
3 24 (2.19%) GDPR
4 21 (1.92%) QA
5 16 (1.46%) Data Quality
6 15 (1.37%) GRC
7 13 (1.19%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (1.00%) NCSC
9 8 (0.73%) PMO
10 6 (0.55%) COBIT
10 6 (0.55%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.46%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.37%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.27%) SLA
14 2 (0.18%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.18%) RMADS
System Software
1 30 (2.74%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.00%) Docker
2 11 (1.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (1.00%) VMware NSX
3 6 (0.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 3 (0.27%) vSphere
5 1 (0.091%) Ceph
5 1 (0.091%) KVM
5 1 (0.091%) NDS
5 1 (0.091%) NetIQ eDirectory
5 1 (0.091%) QEMU
5 1 (0.091%) Terminal Services
5 1 (0.091%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.091%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 16 (1.46%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.91%) PingFederate
2 10 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.64%) Terraform
4 6 (0.55%) Podman
5 4 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.37%) Ansible
5 4 (0.37%) NetBackup
6 3 (0.27%) Grafana
6 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.27%) Puppet
6 3 (0.27%) SCCM
7 2 (0.18%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.18%) vRealize
8 1 (0.091%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.091%) Cisco UCCE
8 1 (0.091%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.091%) EMC VPLEX
8 1 (0.091%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.091%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 253 (23.11%) SAP
2 132 (12.05%) Oracle
3 94 (8.58%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.84%) Siemens
5 50 (4.57%) CyberArk
6 48 (4.38%) Cisco
7 35 (3.20%) Aruba
8 29 (2.65%) Workday
9 27 (2.47%) ServiceNow
10 19 (1.74%) Google
11 16 (1.46%) VMware
12 13 (1.19%) Sage
13 12 (1.10%) Adobe
14 11 (1.00%) Ariba
14 11 (1.00%) OpenText
15 9 (0.82%) IFS
16 8 (0.73%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.73%) Databricks
17 7 (0.64%) Salesforce
18 6 (0.55%) BMC