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 £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 37 33
Rank change year-on-year -1 -4 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,157 654 1,021
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.70% 5.08% 5.04%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.11% 5.53% 5.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 647 416 722
10th Percentile £403 £406 £376
25th Percentile £455 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.56% -2.18% +1.85%
75th Percentile £616 £605 £650
90th Percentile £713 £663 £725
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 12 21
10th Percentile £51.45 £37.27 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £59.81 £50.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -24.59% +34.04% -12.48%
75th Percentile £58.75 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -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 22,637 11,826 18,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 91.90% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,110 7,547 11,455
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £401 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £489
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £682 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,546 855 2,269
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.79 £17.30 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 -2 336 £530 -4.72% 275
North of England -21 237 £531 -0.14% 356
Midlands -14 227 £525 -2.33% 116
South West +31 191 £577 +4.91% 235
West Midlands -6 152 £550 - 81
North West -24 109 £518 -4.05% 252
Yorkshire -3 107 £550 +8.64% 72
Scotland +31 71 £425 -15.00% 53
East of England -4 70 £550 +10.00% 72
East Midlands -15 67 £500 -3.85% 36
Wales +6 30 £550 +37.50% 37
North East -24 21 £725 +35.77% 33
Northern Ireland -4 3 £600 +15.38% 62
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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 (20.92%) SAP
2 241 (20.83%) Security Cleared
3 177 (15.30%) SC Cleared
4 148 (12.79%) Migration
5 145 (12.53%) ERP
6 143 (12.36%) Oracle
7 130 (11.24%) Azure
8 112 (9.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 107 (9.25%) Microsoft
9 107 (9.25%) Problem-Solving
10 103 (8.90%) SQL
11 91 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
12 90 (7.78%) Data Migration
13 89 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
14 83 (7.17%) SAP S/4HANA
15 81 (7.00%) Workshop Facilitation
16 79 (6.83%) Cybersecurity
17 73 (6.31%) Validation
18 70 (6.05%) User Acceptance Testing
19 66 (5.70%) Agile
20 61 (5.27%) Business Intelligence
21 60 (5.19%) PLM
22 57 (4.93%) Data Protection
23 56 (4.84%) AWS
24 55 (4.75%) Roadmaps
25 54 (4.67%) Siemens
26 53 (4.58%) Analytics
26 53 (4.58%) Change Management
26 53 (4.58%) DV Cleared
27 49 (4.24%) Power Platform

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 19 (1.64%) Confluence
1 19 (1.64%) SharePoint
2 6 (0.52%) Jupyter
2 6 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
3 3 (0.26%) Apache
3 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.26%) Apache Superset
4 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.086%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.086%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.086%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.086%) WebLogic
Applications
1 37 (3.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.52%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.43%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
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%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.086%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 83 (7.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.94%) Oracle EBS
3 27 (2.33%) SAP PSCD
4 26 (2.25%) Oracle Payables
5 25 (2.16%) Oracle Receivables
5 25 (2.16%) Teamcenter
6 22 (1.90%) SAP MM
7 19 (1.64%) SAP FI
8 17 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
9 16 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
10 15 (1.30%) Oracle Cash Management
10 15 (1.30%) SAP SD
11 14 (1.21%) Oracle General Ledger
11 14 (1.21%) SAP EWM
12 12 (1.04%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
13 11 (0.95%) SAP CO
13 11 (0.95%) SAP PP
14 10 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
14 10 (0.86%) SAP FI/CO
14 10 (0.86%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 130 (11.24%) Azure
2 56 (4.84%) AWS
3 49 (4.24%) Power Platform
4 48 (4.15%) OCI
5 46 (3.98%) Dynamics 365
6 28 (2.42%) GCP
7 22 (1.90%) Microsoft 365
7 22 (1.90%) SuccessFactors
8 18 (1.56%) Power Automate
9 16 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
10 15 (1.30%) SaaS
11 12 (1.04%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (1.04%) Entra ID
11 12 (1.04%) PowerApps
12 11 (0.95%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 8 (0.69%) Copilot Studio
14 7 (0.61%) GitHub
15 6 (0.52%) Azure AI
15 6 (0.52%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 5 (0.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.56%) Network Security
2 16 (1.38%) SNMP
3 11 (0.95%) Firewall
4 9 (0.78%) FTP
5 5 (0.43%) HTTP
6 4 (0.35%) SAN
6 4 (0.35%) VPN
7 3 (0.26%) SMS
7 3 (0.26%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (0.17%) Connectrix
8 2 (0.17%) DNS
8 2 (0.17%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.17%) Intranet
8 2 (0.17%) LAN
8 2 (0.17%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.17%) WAN
9 1 (0.086%) Ethernet VPN
9 1 (0.086%) Junos
9 1 (0.086%) MVNO
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.85%) Oracle Reports
1 33 (2.85%) Power BI
2 17 (1.47%) Oracle ODI
3 15 (1.30%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 13 (1.12%) SAP HANA
5 9 (0.78%) Tableau
6 8 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.43%) NonStop SQL
8 5 (0.43%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
9 4 (0.35%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.26%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.26%) GIS
10 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.26%) Metadata
10 3 (0.26%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.26%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (2.85%) JIRA
2 14 (1.21%) Hudson
3 7 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.43%) Git
5 4 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
6 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.26%) Toad
7 2 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.086%) Appium
8 1 (0.086%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.086%) GitLab
8 1 (0.086%) JDeveloper
8 1 (0.086%) JUnit
8 1 (0.086%) MSTest
8 1 (0.086%) NUnit
8 1 (0.086%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 235 (20.31%) Finance
2 224 (19.36%) Social Skills
3 86 (7.43%) Analytical Skills
4 85 (7.35%) Public Sector
5 42 (3.63%) Manufacturing
6 27 (2.33%) Legal
7 24 (2.07%) Banking
8 21 (1.82%) General Ledger
9 20 (1.73%) Billing
10 19 (1.64%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.21%) Retail
12 13 (1.12%) Marketing
13 12 (1.04%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
14 11 (0.95%) Local Government
15 10 (0.86%) Documentation Skills
16 9 (0.78%) Law
17 6 (0.52%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.89%) REST
2 44 (3.80%) XML
3 30 (2.59%) Oracle Fusion
4 13 (1.12%) SOAP
5 10 (0.86%) JSON
5 10 (0.86%) Web Services
6 8 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (0.61%) .NET
8 6 (0.52%) RESTful
9 5 (0.43%) LDAP
9 5 (0.43%) SAP Basis
10 4 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.35%) BAPI
10 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.35%) Middleware
10 4 (0.35%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.26%) IDoc
11 3 (0.26%) PySpark
11 3 (0.26%) PyTorch
11 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 32 (2.77%) Data Protection Act
2 20 (1.73%) Onboarding
3 16 (1.38%) Operational Technology
4 15 (1.30%) Security Posture
5 14 (1.21%) AI Agents
5 14 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (1.04%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.95%) Replication
8 10 (0.86%) Public Cloud
9 9 (0.78%) Data Centre
9 9 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 8 (0.69%) Cloud Native
10 8 (0.69%) NHS
11 7 (0.61%) SCADA
12 6 (0.52%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (0.52%) Beowulf
12 6 (0.52%) Data Structures
12 6 (0.52%) Private Cloud
13 5 (0.43%) BYOD
13 5 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 33 (2.85%) Windows
2 26 (2.25%) Linux
3 13 (1.12%) AIX
3 13 (1.12%) Solaris
4 11 (0.95%) VMS
5 4 (0.35%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.17%) Unix
7 1 (0.086%) CoreOS
7 1 (0.086%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (12.79%) Migration
2 145 (12.53%) ERP
3 112 (9.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 107 (9.25%) Problem-Solving
5 91 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
6 90 (7.78%) Data Migration
7 89 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
8 81 (7.00%) Workshop Facilitation
9 79 (6.83%) Cybersecurity
10 73 (6.31%) Validation
11 70 (6.05%) User Acceptance Testing
12 66 (5.70%) Agile
13 61 (5.27%) Business Intelligence
14 60 (5.19%) PLM
15 57 (4.93%) Data Protection
16 55 (4.75%) Roadmaps
17 53 (4.58%) Analytics
17 53 (4.58%) Change Management
18 45 (3.89%) Knowledge Transfer
19 44 (3.80%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 103 (8.90%) SQL
2 42 (3.63%) Python
3 28 (2.42%) T-SQL
4 24 (2.07%) PL/SQL
5 19 (1.64%) PowerShell
6 16 (1.38%) JavaScript
7 13 (1.12%) Search Processing Language
8 9 (0.78%) Java
9 8 (0.69%) C#
10 7 (0.61%) ABAP
10 7 (0.61%) Bash
10 7 (0.61%) R
11 6 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.17%) C++
13 2 (0.17%) VBScript
14 1 (0.086%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.086%) C
14 1 (0.086%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 241 (20.83%) Security Cleared
2 177 (15.30%) SC Cleared
3 53 (4.58%) DV Cleared
4 43 (3.72%) CISSP
5 34 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
6 32 (2.77%) CISM
7 23 (1.99%) Degree
8 20 (1.73%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.47%) CCSP
10 16 (1.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 8 (0.69%) CEH
11 8 (0.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 7 (0.61%) ACCA
12 7 (0.61%) CIMA
12 7 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.61%) PMP
12 7 (0.61%) SAP Certification
13 6 (0.52%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.52%) OSCP
14 5 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (3.89%) NIST
2 42 (3.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 30 (2.59%) GRC
4 27 (2.33%) Data Quality
5 16 (1.38%) GDPR
6 12 (1.04%) PCI DSS
6 12 (1.04%) QA
7 10 (0.86%) JSP 440
8 8 (0.69%) COBIT
8 8 (0.69%) NCSC
8 8 (0.69%) SLA
9 7 (0.61%) RMADS
10 6 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.52%) PMO
11 5 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.26%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) HL7
13 2 (0.17%) ISA99
13 2 (0.17%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 19 (1.64%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.95%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.86%) vSphere
5 9 (0.78%) Docker
6 8 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.086%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.086%) IAG
9 1 (0.086%) NFS
Systems Management
1 24 (2.07%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.12%) Nagios
2 13 (1.12%) ZABBIX
3 12 (1.04%) Netcool
3 12 (1.04%) Tivoli
4 11 (0.95%) OpenView
4 11 (0.95%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 9 (0.78%) Ansible
6 7 (0.61%) Terraform
7 6 (0.52%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.52%) Podman
7 6 (0.52%) vRealize
8 4 (0.35%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.26%) Grafana
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Management
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Manager
9 3 (0.26%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.26%) Puppet
9 3 (0.26%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 242 (20.92%) SAP
2 143 (12.36%) Oracle
3 107 (9.25%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.67%) Siemens
5 25 (2.16%) ServiceNow
6 22 (1.90%) BMC
6 22 (1.90%) Splunk
7 21 (1.82%) VMware
8 20 (1.73%) Workday
9 17 (1.47%) Ariba
9 17 (1.47%) IBM
10 14 (1.21%) Sage
11 13 (1.12%) SolarWinds
12 12 (1.04%) Databricks
12 12 (1.04%) HP
12 12 (1.04%) IFS
13 11 (0.95%) Google
14 7 (0.61%) Informatica
14 7 (0.61%) OpenText
14 7 (0.61%) Veritas