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 9 July 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 35 27
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,310 748 1,190
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.88% 5.11% 5.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.30% 5.62% 6.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 727 471 774
10th Percentile £405 £400 £425
25th Percentile £459 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £619 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £729
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £556
% change year-on-year - -1.08% +1.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 19 23
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.11 £18.79
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +32.93% -10.08%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.88 - £68.07
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -5.95%

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 24,721 13,316 19,430
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.05% 90.98% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,139 8,275 11,701
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £371
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £494
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £523 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,838 1,081 2,384
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.75 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +0.50%
75th Percentile £67.75 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -1 363 £525 -4.55% 235
North of England -21 278 £550 - 189
Midlands -8 257 £501 -9.00% 102
South West +24 215 £556 +1.09% 112
West Midlands +8 183 £501 -9.00% 71
North West -11 156 £525 -7.69% 110
Yorkshire -14 101 £544 +14.47% 55
Scotland +37 92 £425 -8.11% 22
East of England -15 88 £550 - 62
East Midlands -9 65 £500 -9.09% 31
Wales -3 31 £550 +31.34% 21
North East -35 21 £650 +20.37% 25
Northern Ireland -1 2 £525 +0.96% 71
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 284 (21.68%) SAP
2 283 (21.60%) Security Cleared
3 199 (15.19%) SC Cleared
4 152 (11.60%) Azure
5 151 (11.53%) ERP
5 151 (11.53%) Microsoft
6 145 (11.07%) Migration
7 136 (10.38%) Oracle
8 124 (9.47%) Stakeholder Management
9 123 (9.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 120 (9.16%) SQL
11 118 (9.01%) Problem-Solving
12 107 (8.17%) Continuous Improvement
13 98 (7.48%) SAP S/4HANA
14 94 (7.18%) Cybersecurity
14 94 (7.18%) Validation
15 86 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
16 81 (6.18%) Data Migration
17 77 (5.88%) User Acceptance Testing
18 74 (5.65%) Agile
19 69 (5.27%) AWS
19 69 (5.27%) Roadmaps
20 67 (5.11%) DV Cleared
21 60 (4.58%) Analytics
21 60 (4.58%) PLM
22 58 (4.43%) Python
23 57 (4.35%) Data Protection
24 56 (4.27%) AI
24 56 (4.27%) CISSP
24 56 (4.27%) Windows

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 (2.06%) Confluence
2 15 (1.15%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.69%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.61%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.23%) Apache
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.15%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.15%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.076%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.076%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.076%) SAS
7 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 45 (3.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.61%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.38%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.15%) Lectora
7 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.076%) CATIA
8 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 98 (7.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (2.98%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.76%) Oracle EBS
4 22 (1.68%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.60%) Teamcenter
6 19 (1.45%) Oracle ERP
6 19 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
6 19 (1.45%) SAP FI
7 18 (1.37%) SAP EWM
8 16 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
8 16 (1.22%) SAP Payroll
9 15 (1.15%) SAP SD
10 13 (0.99%) SAP HCM
11 12 (0.92%) SAP BRIM
11 12 (0.92%) SAP Hybris
11 12 (0.92%) SAP QM
12 11 (0.84%) NetSuite
13 10 (0.76%) SAP CO
14 9 (0.69%) SAP FI/CO
14 9 (0.69%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 152 (11.60%) Azure
2 69 (5.27%) AWS
3 55 (4.20%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.44%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.28%) OCI
6 39 (2.98%) GCP
7 31 (2.37%) Microsoft 365
8 27 (2.06%) SuccessFactors
9 26 (1.98%) Entra ID
10 21 (1.60%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.22%) Microsoft Copilot
12 15 (1.15%) SaaS
13 14 (1.07%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 13 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (0.99%) PowerApps
15 12 (0.92%) GitHub
15 12 (0.92%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 9 (0.69%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.61%) Azure Monitor
18 7 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.21%) Network Security
2 24 (1.83%) Firewall
3 19 (1.45%) SNMP
4 11 (0.84%) BGP
5 9 (0.69%) WAN
6 8 (0.61%) FTP
6 8 (0.61%) VPN
7 6 (0.46%) LAN
8 5 (0.38%) HTTP
8 5 (0.38%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.31%) DNS
9 4 (0.31%) Ethernet VPN
9 4 (0.31%) SAN
9 4 (0.31%) VSAN
9 4 (0.31%) VXLAN
9 4 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.31%) Wireless
10 3 (0.23%) SMS
10 3 (0.23%) TACACS
11 2 (0.15%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.67%) Power BI
2 29 (2.21%) Oracle Reports
3 19 (1.45%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.30%) Oracle ODI
5 11 (0.84%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.84%) Tableau
6 9 (0.69%) Metadata
6 9 (0.69%) SAP Data Services
6 9 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 8 (0.61%) SAP BW
8 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
9 6 (0.46%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
11 4 (0.31%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.31%) Power Query
11 4 (0.31%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
12 3 (0.23%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 44 (3.36%) JIRA
2 13 (0.99%) Hudson
3 9 (0.69%) Git
4 8 (0.61%) 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 (0.076%) Appium
9 1 (0.076%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.076%) MSTest
9 1 (0.076%) NUnit
9 1 (0.076%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.076%) Yeoman
General
1 283 (21.60%) Social Skills
2 255 (19.47%) Finance
3 107 (8.17%) Analytical Skills
4 105 (8.02%) Public Sector
5 44 (3.36%) Manufacturing
6 37 (2.82%) Legal
7 31 (2.37%) Banking
8 28 (2.14%) Telecoms
9 27 (2.06%) General Ledger
10 26 (1.98%) Billing
11 22 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
12 20 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (1.45%) Aerospace
14 16 (1.22%) Retail
15 14 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
16 13 (0.99%) Marketing
17 12 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
18 10 (0.76%) Local Government
19 9 (0.69%) Financial Institution
20 8 (0.61%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.21%) REST
1 42 (3.21%) XML
2 22 (1.68%) Oracle Fusion
3 18 (1.37%) SOAP
4 12 (0.92%) Middleware
4 12 (0.92%) SAP Fiori
4 12 (0.92%) Web Services
5 7 (0.53%) IDoc
6 6 (0.46%) BAPI
6 6 (0.46%) JDBC
6 6 (0.46%) JSON
6 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
6 6 (0.46%) RESTful
6 6 (0.46%) SailPoint
6 6 (0.46%) SAP PI
7 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
8 4 (0.31%) .NET
8 4 (0.31%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.31%) eBPF
8 4 (0.31%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 37 (2.82%) Data Protection Act
2 28 (2.14%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.83%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.22%) Operational Technology
5 15 (1.15%) AI Agents
6 13 (0.99%) Public Cloud
7 12 (0.92%) Replication
8 11 (0.84%) CMDB
8 11 (0.84%) Management Information System
8 11 (0.84%) Product Ownership
9 10 (0.76%) Cloud Native
9 10 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (0.69%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (0.69%) Data Centre
10 9 (0.69%) FMCG
11 8 (0.61%) Data Structures
11 8 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (0.61%) NHS
11 8 (0.61%) Private Cloud
12 7 (0.53%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 56 (4.27%) Windows
2 41 (3.13%) Linux
3 17 (1.30%) Solaris
4 13 (0.99%) AIX
5 10 (0.76%) Unix
6 9 (0.69%) VMS
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.23%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.076%) Android
8 1 (0.076%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.076%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.076%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.076%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (11.53%) ERP
2 145 (11.07%) Migration
3 124 (9.47%) Stakeholder Management
4 123 (9.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 118 (9.01%) Problem-Solving
6 107 (8.17%) Continuous Improvement
7 94 (7.18%) Cybersecurity
7 94 (7.18%) Validation
8 86 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
9 81 (6.18%) Data Migration
10 77 (5.88%) User Acceptance Testing
11 74 (5.65%) Agile
12 69 (5.27%) Roadmaps
13 60 (4.58%) Analytics
13 60 (4.58%) PLM
14 57 (4.35%) Data Protection
15 56 (4.27%) AI
16 53 (4.05%) Business Intelligence
17 52 (3.97%) Information Security
17 52 (3.97%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 120 (9.16%) SQL
2 58 (4.43%) Python
3 28 (2.14%) T-SQL
4 27 (2.06%) ABAP
4 27 (2.06%) PL/SQL
4 27 (2.06%) PowerShell
5 16 (1.22%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.07%) Java
7 13 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.92%) Bash
9 10 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.46%) R
11 5 (0.38%) C#
12 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.15%) C++
13 2 (0.15%) VBScript
14 1 (0.076%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.076%) COBOL
14 1 (0.076%) VB
Qualifications
1 283 (21.60%) Security Cleared
2 199 (15.19%) SC Cleared
3 67 (5.11%) DV Cleared
4 56 (4.27%) CISSP
5 40 (3.05%) CISM
6 38 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (2.29%) Degree
8 29 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
9 23 (1.76%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.68%) CCSP
11 11 (0.84%) PMP
12 10 (0.76%) CEH
13 9 (0.69%) OSCP
14 8 (0.61%) ACCA
14 8 (0.61%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.61%) CIMA
14 8 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 6 (0.46%) CCA
15 6 (0.46%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (3.97%) NIST
2 44 (3.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.52%) GRC
4 27 (2.06%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.68%) QA
6 17 (1.30%) GDPR
7 13 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.92%) NCSC
9 10 (0.76%) SLA
10 8 (0.61%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.61%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.53%) COBIT
11 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.46%) PMO
12 6 (0.46%) RMADS
13 4 (0.31%) WCAG
14 3 (0.23%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.23%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.15%) ISA99
System Software
1 30 (2.29%) Active Directory
2 20 (1.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.07%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.99%) vSphere
5 12 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.46%) Docker
7 4 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.076%) IAG
9 1 (0.076%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 25 (1.91%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.60%) Terraform
3 18 (1.37%) Ansible
4 13 (0.99%) Nagios
4 13 (0.99%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.92%) Netcool
5 12 (0.92%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.84%) OpenView
6 11 (0.84%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 9 (0.69%) vRealize
8 8 (0.61%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.46%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.46%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.38%) CEMLI
10 5 (0.38%) Grafana
11 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 284 (21.68%) SAP
2 151 (11.53%) Microsoft
3 136 (10.38%) Oracle
4 54 (4.12%) Siemens
5 38 (2.90%) ServiceNow
6 30 (2.29%) VMware
7 24 (1.83%) Splunk
8 18 (1.37%) Ariba
9 16 (1.22%) BMC
10 15 (1.15%) IBM
11 14 (1.07%) Databricks
11 14 (1.07%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.07%) Workday
12 13 (0.99%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.92%) HP
14 11 (0.84%) Google
14 11 (0.84%) Sage
14 11 (0.84%) Salesforce
15 10 (0.76%) IFS
16 9 (0.69%) Informatica