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 22 November 2025.

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

6 months to
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 28 28 33
Rank change year-on-year 0 +5 +29
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,082 1,043 1,144
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 6.13% 6.26% 5.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.82% 6.79% 5.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 685 608 729
10th Percentile £403 £425 £400
25th Percentile £475 £500 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £573 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.93% +9.05% -6.25%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £623
90th Percentile £716 £734 £688
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 13 25
10th Percentile £62.75 £55.00 £50.88
25th Percentile £72.00 £56.65 £60.82
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -12.70%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.25 £86.50 £84.20
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £67.75
% change year-on-year +12.83% +1.38% -4.91%

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 15,860 15,362 19,483
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.85% 92.25% 93.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,795 8,783 12,851
10th Percentile £210 £215 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £494 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £675 £678 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,586 1,075 1,274
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.01 £14.38
25th Percentile £17.30 £19.74 £18.49
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.03% -24.44% +83.97%
75th Percentile £55.96 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +50.00%

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 22 November 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 22 November 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 22 November 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 -6 295 £581 +2.88% 209
South East 0 277 £525 -8.70% 344
North West 0 203 £620 +12.73% 127
Midlands -22 160 £575 +4.55% 97
East of England +17 122 £550 +7.32% 60
West Midlands -20 118 £550 +5.77% 67
South West +3 110 £550 -8.14% 172
Yorkshire -15 86 £475 -20.83% 62
Scotland -9 73 £500 -11.35% 31
East Midlands -18 41 £580 +0.87% 29
Wales +6 34 £405 -32.50% 18
Northern Ireland -10 14 £405 -32.50% 16
North East -8 6 £550 -8.33% 20
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 22 November 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.

1 355 (32.81%) Security Cleared
2 288 (26.62%) SC Cleared
3 283 (26.16%) SAP
4 160 (14.79%) SAP S/4HANA
5 129 (11.92%) Migration
6 122 (11.28%) Microsoft
7 117 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
8 111 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 108 (9.98%) Oracle
10 100 (9.24%) Stakeholder Management
11 80 (7.39%) Workshop Facilitation
12 75 (6.93%) ERP
12 75 (6.93%) Roadmaps
13 70 (6.47%) Agile
14 63 (5.82%) Azure
14 63 (5.82%) Cybersecurity
15 60 (5.55%) DevOps
16 59 (5.45%) DV Cleared
17 58 (5.36%) Knowledge Transfer
18 57 (5.27%) Requirements Gathering
19 56 (5.18%) Analytics
20 55 (5.08%) CyberArk
20 55 (5.08%) Validation
21 53 (4.90%) Cisco
21 53 (4.90%) Risk Management
22 51 (4.71%) Business Intelligence
22 51 (4.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
22 51 (4.71%) SQL
23 50 (4.62%) BPSS Clearance
24 48 (4.44%) Collaborative Working

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 26 (2.40%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.94%) WebLogic
2 21 (1.94%) WebSphere
3 15 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (1.11%) Confluence
5 7 (0.65%) Apache
5 7 (0.65%) IIS
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 4 (0.37%) CMS
7 3 (0.28%) MTS
8 2 (0.18%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.092%) Camunda
9 1 (0.092%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.092%) SAS
9 1 (0.092%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.092%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.55%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.28%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.28%) Revit
7 2 (0.18%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.18%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.092%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.092%) InDesign
8 1 (0.092%) InVision
8 1 (0.092%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.092%) Sketch
8 1 (0.092%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 160 (14.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (2.59%) SAP MM
3 26 (2.40%) Oracle EBS
4 24 (2.22%) SAP Payroll
5 23 (2.13%) SAP EWM
5 23 (2.13%) SAP FI
6 22 (2.03%) SAP HCM
7 21 (1.94%) Maximo
8 18 (1.66%) Oracle EBS R12
8 18 (1.66%) SAP WM
9 16 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
10 15 (1.39%) Oracle Cash Management
10 15 (1.39%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (1.39%) SAP HR
10 15 (1.39%) SAP PSCD
11 14 (1.29%) SAP CO
11 14 (1.29%) SAP FI/CO
12 13 (1.20%) SAP BRIM
12 13 (1.20%) SAP Hybris
13 12 (1.11%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 63 (5.82%) Azure
2 40 (3.70%) AWS
3 35 (3.23%) Dynamics 365
3 35 (3.23%) OCI
4 32 (2.96%) Power Platform
5 31 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
6 29 (2.68%) SuccessFactors
7 28 (2.59%) GCP
8 16 (1.48%) Entra ID
9 13 (1.20%) SaaS
9 13 (1.20%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 11 (1.02%) Power Automate
11 9 (0.83%) PowerApps
11 9 (0.83%) Snowflake
12 8 (0.74%) OneDrive
13 7 (0.65%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (0.55%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (0.55%) PaaS
15 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Copilot
16 4 (0.37%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.85%) Firewall
2 12 (1.11%) Network Security
3 7 (0.65%) SD-WAN
3 7 (0.65%) SSH
3 7 (0.65%) WAN
4 6 (0.55%) VSAN
5 5 (0.46%) DMZ
5 5 (0.46%) Kerberos
5 5 (0.46%) VoIP
6 4 (0.37%) DNS
7 3 (0.28%) BGP
7 3 (0.28%) Cisco Firepower
7 3 (0.28%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (0.28%) DHCP
7 3 (0.28%) EIGRP
7 3 (0.28%) Internet
7 3 (0.28%) OSPF
7 3 (0.28%) SAN
7 3 (0.28%) VPN
7 3 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.22%) Power BI
2 23 (2.13%) SQL Server
3 22 (2.03%) SAP HANA
4 16 (1.48%) Oracle Reports
5 15 (1.39%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (0.92%) Metadata
6 10 (0.92%) Oracle Database
7 9 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (0.83%) SAP BW
8 8 (0.74%) DB2
9 6 (0.55%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 5 (0.46%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.28%) Tableau
12 2 (0.18%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.18%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.18%) MS Access
12 2 (0.18%) Oracle BI EE
12 2 (0.18%) Power Query
12 2 (0.18%) QGIS
12 2 (0.18%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 24 (2.22%) JIRA
2 9 (0.83%) GitLab
3 8 (0.74%) Hudson
4 7 (0.65%) Git
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.18%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.092%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.092%) Dreamweaver
6 1 (0.092%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.092%) LSMW
6 1 (0.092%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.092%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.092%) Visual Studio
General
1 274 (25.32%) Social Skills
2 200 (18.48%) Finance
3 134 (12.38%) Public Sector
4 109 (10.07%) Analytical Skills
5 62 (5.73%) Manufacturing
6 41 (3.79%) Telecoms
7 34 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
8 33 (3.05%) Presentation Skills
9 29 (2.68%) Marketing
10 21 (1.94%) Pharmaceutical
11 19 (1.76%) Billing
12 16 (1.48%) Electronics
12 16 (1.48%) Local Government
13 15 (1.39%) Banking
14 14 (1.29%) General Ledger
15 11 (1.02%) Retail
16 10 (0.92%) Legal
17 9 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
18 8 (0.74%) Aerospace
19 6 (0.55%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.07%) SAP Fiori
2 32 (2.96%) Web Services
3 31 (2.87%) SOAP
4 29 (2.68%) XML
5 27 (2.50%) Oracle Fusion
5 27 (2.50%) REST
6 23 (2.13%) Middleware
7 21 (1.94%) HTML
8 16 (1.48%) .NET
8 16 (1.48%) OAuth
9 15 (1.39%) BAPI
9 15 (1.39%) Node.js
10 14 (1.29%) SAP Basis
11 13 (1.20%) JSON
12 12 (1.11%) LDAP
13 10 (0.92%) SAML
14 9 (0.83%) OAuth2
15 8 (0.74%) Swagger
16 7 (0.65%) OpenAPI
16 7 (0.65%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 38 (3.51%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (1.39%) Data Centre
4 14 (1.29%) Security Posture
5 12 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (1.11%) Management Information System
6 11 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 11 (1.02%) Replication
7 10 (0.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (0.74%) Data Structures
8 8 (0.74%) FMCG
9 7 (0.65%) Cloud Native
9 7 (0.65%) Operational Technology
9 7 (0.65%) Virtual Team
10 6 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.55%) IoT
10 6 (0.55%) Private Cloud
11 5 (0.46%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.46%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (0.46%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 42 (3.88%) Windows
2 24 (2.22%) Linux
3 12 (1.11%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.65%) AIX
4 7 (0.65%) Solaris
5 6 (0.55%) Unix
5 6 (0.55%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.37%) VMS
7 3 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.092%) CentOS
9 1 (0.092%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.092%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (11.92%) Migration
2 117 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
3 111 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 100 (9.24%) Stakeholder Management
5 80 (7.39%) Workshop Facilitation
6 75 (6.93%) ERP
6 75 (6.93%) Roadmaps
7 70 (6.47%) Agile
8 63 (5.82%) Cybersecurity
9 60 (5.55%) DevOps
10 58 (5.36%) Knowledge Transfer
11 57 (5.27%) Requirements Gathering
12 56 (5.18%) Analytics
13 55 (5.08%) Validation
14 53 (4.90%) Risk Management
15 51 (4.71%) Business Intelligence
16 48 (4.44%) Collaborative Working
16 48 (4.44%) User Acceptance Testing
17 46 (4.25%) Change Management
18 44 (4.07%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 51 (4.71%) SQL
2 37 (3.42%) ABAP
3 31 (2.87%) Python
4 23 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 20 (1.85%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.76%) Java
7 15 (1.39%) C
7 15 (1.39%) C++
8 14 (1.29%) PHP
9 10 (0.92%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.74%) Bash
10 8 (0.74%) Groovy
11 3 (0.28%) C#
11 3 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.28%) VBA
12 2 (0.18%) X++
13 1 (0.092%) Bicep
13 1 (0.092%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.092%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.092%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 355 (32.81%) Security Cleared
2 288 (26.62%) SC Cleared
3 59 (5.45%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.62%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (3.05%) Degree
6 32 (2.96%) CISSP
7 23 (2.13%) CISM
8 13 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.11%) SAP Certification
10 10 (0.92%) ACCA
10 10 (0.92%) CCNP
10 10 (0.92%) CIMA
11 9 (0.83%) CESG Certified Professional
12 7 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.65%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 7 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
13 6 (0.55%) AWS Certification
14 5 (0.46%) CCIE
15 4 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (4.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 40 (3.70%) QA
3 38 (3.51%) NIST
4 23 (2.13%) GDPR
5 18 (1.66%) Data Quality
6 16 (1.48%) RMADS
7 12 (1.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 12 (1.11%) GRC
8 10 (0.92%) NCSC
9 8 (0.74%) NIST 800
10 7 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.65%) PMO
11 6 (0.55%) COBIT
11 6 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.55%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.55%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.46%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.18%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.18%) HIPAA
System Software
1 31 (2.87%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.11%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.55%) vSphere
5 5 (0.46%) Docker
6 4 (0.37%) UAG
7 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.092%) Ceph
8 1 (0.092%) Firmware
8 1 (0.092%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.092%) IAG
8 1 (0.092%) KVM
8 1 (0.092%) NDS
8 1 (0.092%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.092%) QEMU
8 1 (0.092%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.092%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 19 (1.76%) Terraform
2 15 (1.39%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.29%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (0.92%) PingFederate
5 8 (0.74%) Ansible
5 8 (0.74%) Grafana
5 8 (0.74%) SCCM
6 7 (0.65%) Prometheus
7 6 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (0.37%) HP ALM
9 4 (0.37%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.18%) EMC NetWorker
10 2 (0.18%) EMC VPLEX
10 2 (0.18%) EnCase
10 2 (0.18%) FTK
10 2 (0.18%) NetBackup
10 2 (0.18%) OpenView
10 2 (0.18%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.18%) vRealize
Vendors
1 283 (26.16%) SAP
2 122 (11.28%) Microsoft
3 108 (9.98%) Oracle
4 55 (5.08%) CyberArk
5 53 (4.90%) Cisco
6 38 (3.51%) ServiceNow
7 33 (3.05%) Aruba
8 26 (2.40%) VMware
9 22 (2.03%) IBM
10 21 (1.94%) Dynatrace
11 18 (1.66%) Workday
12 16 (1.48%) Google
13 13 (1.20%) Adobe
13 13 (1.20%) EMC
13 13 (1.20%) IFS
14 12 (1.11%) Ariba
14 12 (1.11%) OpenText
15 11 (1.02%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.74%) Remedy
17 7 (0.65%) Computacenter