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 3 July 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 37 29
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,293 722 1,187
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.90% 5.12% 5.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.32% 5.62% 6.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 718 457 781
10th Percentile £405 £400 £415
25th Percentile £458 £463 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £619 £612 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
UK median daily rate £543 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -1.36% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 19 22
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.11 £26.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £59.95
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +29.27% -7.31%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £63.38 - £68.88
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 24,282 12,849 19,573
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.01% 91.14% 92.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,840 7,995 11,727
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £494
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,827 1,033 2,438
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.51 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.68
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £26.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +62.26% -29.33% -12.79%

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 3 July 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 3 July 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 3 July 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 -1 353 £525 -4.55% 240
North of England -20 276 £550 - 247
Midlands -8 254 £506 -8.00% 112
South West +30 212 £550 - 121
West Midlands +11 179 £503 -8.50% 79
North West -17 154 £538 -5.29% 170
Yorkshire -17 101 £544 +14.47% 58
East of England -11 90 £550 - 69
Scotland +37 89 £425 -8.11% 57
East Midlands -10 66 £500 -9.09% 33
Wales -4 31 £550 +31.34% 21
North East -39 21 £650 +20.37% 20
Northern Ireland -4 2 £525 +0.96% 30
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 July 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.

1 281 (21.73%) SAP
2 275 (21.27%) Security Cleared
3 196 (15.16%) SC Cleared
4 152 (11.76%) ERP
5 151 (11.68%) Azure
6 147 (11.37%) Microsoft
7 146 (11.29%) Migration
8 135 (10.44%) Oracle
9 124 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 121 (9.36%) Stakeholder Management
11 118 (9.13%) SQL
12 114 (8.82%) Problem-Solving
13 106 (8.20%) Continuous Improvement
14 98 (7.58%) SAP S/4HANA
15 92 (7.12%) Validation
16 89 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
17 86 (6.65%) Workshop Facilitation
18 82 (6.34%) Data Migration
19 75 (5.80%) User Acceptance Testing
20 73 (5.65%) Agile
21 68 (5.26%) Roadmaps
22 66 (5.10%) AWS
23 63 (4.87%) Analytics
23 63 (4.87%) DV Cleared
24 60 (4.64%) PLM
25 56 (4.33%) AI
25 56 (4.33%) Data Protection
26 55 (4.25%) CISSP
26 55 (4.25%) Power Platform
26 55 (4.25%) Python

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 27 (2.09%) Confluence
2 15 (1.16%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.70%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.62%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.62%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.23%) Apache
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.23%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.077%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.077%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.077%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.077%) SAS
6 1 (0.077%) Tomcat
Applications
1 44 (3.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.54%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.39%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.15%) Lectora
7 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.077%) CATIA
8 1 (0.077%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 98 (7.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.86%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.78%) Oracle EBS
4 22 (1.70%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.62%) Teamcenter
6 19 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
6 19 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
6 19 (1.47%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.31%) SAP EWM
8 16 (1.24%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.16%) SAP Payroll
9 15 (1.16%) SAP SD
10 12 (0.93%) SAP BRIM
10 12 (0.93%) SAP HCM
10 12 (0.93%) SAP Hybris
11 11 (0.85%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.85%) SAP QM
12 10 (0.77%) SAP CO
13 9 (0.70%) SAP FI/CO
13 9 (0.70%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 151 (11.68%) Azure
2 66 (5.10%) AWS
3 55 (4.25%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.48%) Dynamics 365
5 42 (3.25%) OCI
6 37 (2.86%) GCP
7 31 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
8 27 (2.09%) SuccessFactors
9 24 (1.86%) Entra ID
10 21 (1.62%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
12 14 (1.08%) SaaS
12 14 (1.08%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (1.01%) PowerApps
14 12 (0.93%) GitHub
14 12 (0.93%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 9 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.62%) Azure Monitor
17 7 (0.54%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.24%) Network Security
2 23 (1.78%) Firewall
3 18 (1.39%) SNMP
4 10 (0.77%) BGP
5 8 (0.62%) FTP
5 8 (0.62%) VPN
5 8 (0.62%) WAN
6 5 (0.39%) HTTP
6 5 (0.39%) LAN
7 4 (0.31%) Ethernet VPN
7 4 (0.31%) SAN
7 4 (0.31%) VXLAN
7 4 (0.31%) Wireless
8 3 (0.23%) DNS
8 3 (0.23%) SMS
8 3 (0.23%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.23%) VSAN
8 3 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.15%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.15%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.71%) Power BI
2 30 (2.32%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.31%) Oracle ODI
3 17 (1.31%) SAP HANA
4 11 (0.85%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 11 (0.85%) Tableau
5 9 (0.70%) Metadata
5 9 (0.70%) SAP Data Services
5 9 (0.70%) SQL Server
6 8 (0.62%) SAP BW
7 7 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
8 6 (0.46%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.39%) NonStop SQL
10 4 (0.31%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.31%) Power Query
10 4 (0.31%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
12 2 (0.15%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 44 (3.40%) JIRA
2 13 (1.01%) Hudson
3 9 (0.70%) Git
4 8 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.46%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.31%) Toad
7 3 (0.23%) Postman
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.15%) TestRail
8 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.077%) Appium
9 1 (0.077%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.077%) MSTest
9 1 (0.077%) NUnit
9 1 (0.077%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.077%) Yeoman
General
1 277 (21.42%) Social Skills
2 253 (19.57%) Finance
3 104 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
4 103 (7.97%) Public Sector
5 44 (3.40%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.78%) Legal
7 31 (2.40%) Banking
8 27 (2.09%) General Ledger
8 27 (2.09%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.01%) Billing
10 22 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
12 17 (1.31%) Aerospace
13 16 (1.24%) Retail
14 14 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (1.01%) Marketing
16 11 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.77%) Local Government
18 9 (0.70%) Financial Institution
19 8 (0.62%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.25%) XML
2 39 (3.02%) REST
3 21 (1.62%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (1.16%) SOAP
5 12 (0.93%) Middleware
5 12 (0.93%) Web Services
6 11 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.46%) JSON
7 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
7 6 (0.46%) RESTful
7 6 (0.46%) SailPoint
8 5 (0.39%) BAPI
8 5 (0.39%) IDoc
8 5 (0.39%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.31%) .NET
9 4 (0.31%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.31%) eBPF
9 4 (0.31%) JDBC
9 4 (0.31%) LDAP
9 4 (0.31%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
2 28 (2.17%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.86%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.24%) Operational Technology
5 15 (1.16%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.93%) Public Cloud
6 12 (0.93%) Replication
7 11 (0.85%) Management Information System
7 11 (0.85%) Product Ownership
8 10 (0.77%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.77%) CMDB
8 10 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (0.70%) FMCG
10 8 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
10 8 (0.62%) Data Structures
11 7 (0.54%) Data Centre
11 7 (0.54%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (0.54%) NHS
11 7 (0.54%) Private Cloud
11 7 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 54 (4.18%) Windows
2 40 (3.09%) Linux
3 17 (1.31%) Solaris
4 13 (1.01%) AIX
5 9 (0.70%) VMS
6 8 (0.62%) Unix
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.23%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.077%) Android
8 1 (0.077%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.077%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.077%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.077%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (11.76%) ERP
2 146 (11.29%) Migration
3 124 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 121 (9.36%) Stakeholder Management
5 114 (8.82%) Problem-Solving
6 106 (8.20%) Continuous Improvement
7 92 (7.12%) Validation
8 89 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
9 86 (6.65%) Workshop Facilitation
10 82 (6.34%) Data Migration
11 75 (5.80%) User Acceptance Testing
12 73 (5.65%) Agile
13 68 (5.26%) Roadmaps
14 63 (4.87%) Analytics
15 60 (4.64%) PLM
16 56 (4.33%) AI
16 56 (4.33%) Data Protection
17 53 (4.10%) Business Intelligence
17 53 (4.10%) Change Management
18 51 (3.94%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 118 (9.13%) SQL
2 55 (4.25%) Python
3 28 (2.17%) T-SQL
4 26 (2.01%) PL/SQL
5 25 (1.93%) PowerShell
6 23 (1.78%) ABAP
7 15 (1.16%) JavaScript
8 13 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.93%) Java
10 11 (0.85%) Bash
11 10 (0.77%) Kusto Query Language
12 6 (0.46%) R
13 5 (0.39%) C#
14 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.15%) C++
15 2 (0.15%) VBScript
16 1 (0.077%) ActionScript
16 1 (0.077%) REXX
16 1 (0.077%) VB
Qualifications
1 275 (21.27%) Security Cleared
2 196 (15.16%) SC Cleared
3 63 (4.87%) DV Cleared
4 55 (4.25%) CISSP
5 39 (3.02%) CISM
6 38 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (2.32%) Degree
8 27 (2.09%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (1.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.70%) CCSP
10 11 (0.85%) PMP
11 10 (0.77%) CEH
12 9 (0.70%) OSCP
13 8 (0.62%) ACCA
13 8 (0.62%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.62%) CIMA
13 8 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (0.62%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (0.46%) CCA
14 6 (0.46%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.87%) NIST
2 42 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.55%) GRC
4 27 (2.09%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.70%) QA
6 17 (1.31%) GDPR
7 13 (1.01%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.93%) NCSC
9 9 (0.70%) SLA
10 8 (0.62%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.62%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.54%) COBIT
11 7 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.46%) RMADS
13 5 (0.39%) PMO
14 4 (0.31%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) Def Stans
15 2 (0.15%) ISA99
15 2 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 27 (2.09%) Active Directory
2 19 (1.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.01%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
4 12 (0.93%) vSphere
5 6 (0.46%) Docker
6 4 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.077%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.077%) IAG
9 1 (0.077%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 25 (1.93%) Kubernetes
2 20 (1.55%) Terraform
3 16 (1.24%) Ansible
4 13 (1.01%) Nagios
4 13 (1.01%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.93%) Netcool
5 12 (0.93%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.85%) OpenView
6 11 (0.85%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 9 (0.70%) vRealize
8 8 (0.62%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.46%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.46%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.39%) Grafana
11 4 (0.31%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.23%) Podman
12 3 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 281 (21.73%) SAP
2 147 (11.37%) Microsoft
3 135 (10.44%) Oracle
4 54 (4.18%) Siemens
5 36 (2.78%) ServiceNow
6 29 (2.24%) VMware
7 24 (1.86%) Splunk
8 18 (1.39%) Ariba
9 17 (1.31%) BMC
10 16 (1.24%) IBM
11 15 (1.16%) Workday
12 14 (1.08%) Databricks
12 14 (1.08%) JD Edwards
13 13 (1.01%) SolarWinds
14 12 (0.93%) HP
14 12 (0.93%) Sage
15 10 (0.77%) Google
15 10 (0.77%) IFS
15 10 (0.77%) Salesforce
16 9 (0.70%) Informatica