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 16 March 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 36 34
Rank change year-on-year +4 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,159 663 1,021
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.36% 5.19% 4.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.85% 5.60% 5.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 647 427 722
10th Percentile £403 £423 £369
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £539
Median % change year-on-year - +2.09% -2.05%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £716 £700 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 12 28
10th Percentile - £70.12 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.86 £48.13
Median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £60.80
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +37.75% -7.88%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £70.60 £86.23 £87.30
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £62.75
% change year-on-year -32.35% +35.46% -4.92%

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 19,796 11,829 19,548
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.55% 92.53% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,734 7,617 12,157
10th Percentile £250 £210 £213
25th Percentile £392 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £590
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,157 696 2,083
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.85 £20.12 £15.51
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -20.36%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.16 £75.38 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.71 £32.81 £32.90
% change year-on-year +8.84% -0.26% -22.60%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 +2 335 £525 -8.70% 320
North of England -7 276 £581 +7.99% 165
Midlands -7 231 £550 +4.76% 79
West Midlands +3 171 £563 +7.14% 44
North West -4 155 £644 +19.70% 85
South West +11 144 £550 - 165
Yorkshire +1 112 £538 +1.18% 59
East of England -5 91 £525 -2.33% 60
East Midlands -15 55 £500 -3.15% 33
Scotland +9 48 £520 -5.45% 41
Wales +8 33 £447 -0.67% 33
Northern Ireland +5 10 £496 -5.48% 9
North East -22 9 £525 -4.55% 22
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 16 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.

1 333 (28.73%) Security Cleared
2 275 (23.73%) SC Cleared
3 254 (21.92%) SAP
4 176 (15.19%) Migration
5 137 (11.82%) SAP S/4HANA
6 133 (11.48%) Oracle
7 126 (10.87%) ERP
7 126 (10.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 115 (9.92%) Azure
9 114 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
10 99 (8.54%) Microsoft
11 98 (8.46%) Workshop Facilitation
12 92 (7.94%) Stakeholder Management
13 81 (6.99%) SQL
14 74 (6.38%) Data Migration
14 74 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
15 70 (6.04%) Roadmaps
16 68 (5.87%) Cybersecurity
17 65 (5.61%) Business Intelligence
17 65 (5.61%) Validation
18 60 (5.18%) Change Management
19 58 (5.00%) Analytics
20 56 (4.83%) Knowledge Transfer
21 55 (4.75%) Agile
21 55 (4.75%) Continuous Improvement
22 53 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
22 53 (4.57%) PLM
22 53 (4.57%) Siemens
23 50 (4.31%) XML
24 49 (4.23%) CyberArk

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 31 (2.67%) SharePoint
2 19 (1.64%) Confluence
3 12 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) MTS
6 2 (0.17%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.086%) Apache
7 1 (0.086%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.086%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.086%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.086%) SAS
7 1 (0.086%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.086%) WebSphere
Applications
1 42 (3.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.43%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.17%) Lectora
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.086%) CATIA
8 1 (0.086%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.086%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.086%) Revit
8 1 (0.086%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.086%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 137 (11.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (3.11%) Oracle EBS
3 31 (2.67%) SAP MM
4 30 (2.59%) Oracle Receivables
5 28 (2.42%) Oracle Payables
5 28 (2.42%) SAP FI
6 24 (2.07%) Oracle EBS R12
6 24 (2.07%) SAP PSCD
7 22 (1.90%) Oracle General Ledger
8 21 (1.81%) Oracle Cash Management
8 21 (1.81%) SAP HCM
9 20 (1.73%) Oracle Assets
9 20 (1.73%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 19 (1.64%) SAP Payroll
10 19 (1.64%) Teamcenter
11 17 (1.47%) SAP Hybris
12 16 (1.38%) SAP BRIM
13 13 (1.12%) Oracle AGIS
14 11 (0.95%) SAP FI-CA
14 11 (0.95%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 115 (9.92%) Azure
2 43 (3.71%) OCI
3 37 (3.19%) Dynamics 365
4 36 (3.11%) AWS
5 31 (2.67%) GCP
6 30 (2.59%) Power Platform
7 23 (1.98%) Microsoft 365
8 18 (1.55%) Entra ID
8 18 (1.55%) SAP Commerce Cloud
8 18 (1.55%) SuccessFactors
9 16 (1.38%) SaaS
10 13 (1.12%) Microsoft Copilot
11 11 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
12 10 (0.86%) PowerApps
13 8 (0.69%) OneDrive
13 8 (0.69%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.35%) Copilot Studio
14 4 (0.35%) dbt
14 4 (0.35%) GitHub
15 3 (0.26%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.47%) Firewall
2 8 (0.69%) FTP
2 8 (0.69%) Network Security
3 5 (0.43%) Kerberos
4 4 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
4 4 (0.35%) HTTP
4 4 (0.35%) SD-WAN
4 4 (0.35%) SSH
4 4 (0.35%) VSAN
4 4 (0.35%) WAN
5 3 (0.26%) BGP
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.26%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.26%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.26%) OSPF
5 3 (0.26%) SNMP
5 3 (0.26%) VPN
5 3 (0.26%) WebEx
6 2 (0.17%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.33%) SAP HANA
2 26 (2.24%) Power BI
3 22 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
4 18 (1.55%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 15 (1.29%) SQL Server
6 8 (0.69%) Metadata
7 7 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.35%) Oracle ODI
9 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
9 4 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.26%) GIS
10 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.26%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.26%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.26%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.26%) Tableau
11 2 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.17%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 34 (2.93%) JIRA
2 8 (0.69%) Hudson
3 4 (0.35%) Git
4 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.17%) Postman
5 2 (0.17%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.086%) Appium
6 1 (0.086%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.086%) GitLab
6 1 (0.086%) JUnit
6 1 (0.086%) MSTest
6 1 (0.086%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.086%) NUnit
6 1 (0.086%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.086%) Toad
6 1 (0.086%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 244 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 225 (19.41%) Finance
3 132 (11.39%) Public Sector
4 90 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
5 42 (3.62%) Manufacturing
6 29 (2.50%) Billing
7 28 (2.42%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.16%) Legal
9 21 (1.81%) Banking
10 20 (1.73%) General Ledger
11 19 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
12 18 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
12 18 (1.55%) Marketing
13 15 (1.29%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
15 11 (0.95%) Law
15 11 (0.95%) Local Government
16 9 (0.78%) Retail
17 5 (0.43%) Advertising
17 5 (0.43%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.31%) XML
2 47 (4.06%) Oracle Fusion
3 39 (3.36%) REST
4 32 (2.76%) Web Services
5 25 (2.16%) SAP Fiori
6 24 (2.07%) SOAP
7 16 (1.38%) BAPI
8 12 (1.04%) SAP Basis
9 9 (0.78%) JSON
9 9 (0.78%) LDAP
10 6 (0.52%) SAML
10 6 (0.52%) SAP Business Workflow
10 6 (0.52%) SAP TM
11 5 (0.43%) .NET
11 5 (0.43%) Middleware
11 5 (0.43%) OAuth
12 4 (0.35%) IDoc
13 3 (0.26%) AngularJS
13 3 (0.26%) PySpark
13 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 23 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
2 22 (1.90%) Onboarding
3 20 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
4 15 (1.29%) Replication
5 14 (1.21%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.21%) Product Ownership
6 10 (0.86%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.78%) AI Agents
7 9 (0.78%) Data Structures
7 9 (0.78%) Public Cloud
7 9 (0.78%) Security Posture
8 7 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (0.60%) Management Information System
8 7 (0.60%) NHS
9 6 (0.52%) Beowulf
9 6 (0.52%) SCADA
10 5 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (0.43%) Market Risk
10 5 (0.43%) SCORM
11 4 (0.35%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 35 (3.02%) Windows
2 21 (1.81%) Linux
3 7 (0.60%) AIX
3 7 (0.60%) VMS
4 6 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.35%) Solaris
5 4 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.17%) Unix
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.086%) CentOS
8 1 (0.086%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.086%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.086%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (15.19%) Migration
2 126 (10.87%) ERP
2 126 (10.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 114 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
4 98 (8.46%) Workshop Facilitation
5 92 (7.94%) Stakeholder Management
6 74 (6.38%) Data Migration
6 74 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
7 70 (6.04%) Roadmaps
8 68 (5.87%) Cybersecurity
9 65 (5.61%) Business Intelligence
9 65 (5.61%) Validation
10 60 (5.18%) Change Management
11 58 (5.00%) Analytics
12 56 (4.83%) Knowledge Transfer
13 55 (4.75%) Agile
13 55 (4.75%) Continuous Improvement
14 53 (4.57%) PLM
15 44 (3.80%) Project Management
16 41 (3.54%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 81 (6.99%) SQL
2 34 (2.93%) ABAP
2 34 (2.93%) Python
3 28 (2.42%) T-SQL
4 22 (1.90%) PowerShell
5 10 (0.86%) JavaScript
6 9 (0.78%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.69%) Bash
8 6 (0.52%) Java
9 4 (0.35%) C#
9 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.26%) Search Processing Language
11 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.17%) R
11 2 (0.17%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.17%) VBA
11 2 (0.17%) X++
12 1 (0.086%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.086%) C++
12 1 (0.086%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 333 (28.73%) Security Cleared
2 275 (23.73%) SC Cleared
3 43 (3.71%) DV Cleared
4 31 (2.67%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (2.50%) Degree
6 22 (1.90%) CISSP
7 13 (1.12%) CISM
8 11 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.60%) SAP Certification
11 6 (0.52%) CCNP
11 6 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.43%) CEH
12 5 (0.43%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.35%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.26%) CCIE
14 3 (0.26%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.26%) PMP
14 3 (0.26%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (3.80%) NIST
3 24 (2.07%) GDPR
4 23 (1.98%) QA
5 21 (1.81%) GRC
6 13 (1.12%) Data Quality
7 12 (1.04%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (0.95%) NCSC
9 9 (0.78%) JSP 440
9 9 (0.78%) PCI DSS
10 8 (0.69%) PMO
11 6 (0.52%) COBIT
12 5 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.43%) RMADS
13 3 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.26%) SLA
14 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.17%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 29 (2.50%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (1.12%) VMware NSX
3 11 (0.95%) Docker
4 6 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 6 (0.52%) vSphere
5 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.086%) Ceph
6 1 (0.086%) KVM
6 1 (0.086%) NDS
6 1 (0.086%) NetIQ eDirectory
6 1 (0.086%) NFS
6 1 (0.086%) QEMU
6 1 (0.086%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.086%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.086%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (1.29%) Kubernetes
2 9 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.60%) PingFederate
4 6 (0.52%) Podman
4 6 (0.52%) Terraform
5 5 (0.43%) Ansible
5 5 (0.43%) NetBackup
6 3 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.26%) Nagios
6 3 (0.26%) Netcool
6 3 (0.26%) OpenView
6 3 (0.26%) Puppet
6 3 (0.26%) SCCM
6 3 (0.26%) Tivoli
6 3 (0.26%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 3 (0.26%) vRealize
6 3 (0.26%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.086%) CEMLI
7 1 (0.086%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 254 (21.92%) SAP
2 133 (11.48%) Oracle
3 99 (8.54%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.57%) Siemens
5 49 (4.23%) CyberArk
6 44 (3.80%) Cisco
7 35 (3.02%) Aruba
8 30 (2.59%) ServiceNow
8 30 (2.59%) Workday
9 22 (1.90%) Google
10 19 (1.64%) VMware
11 15 (1.29%) Sage
12 12 (1.04%) Adobe
12 12 (1.04%) OpenText
13 10 (0.86%) Databricks
14 9 (0.78%) BMC
14 9 (0.78%) IBM
15 8 (0.69%) Atlassian
16 7 (0.60%) Ariba
16 7 (0.60%) Computacenter