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 9 March 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 36 34
Rank change year-on-year +4 -2 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,138 680 1,009
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.39% 5.28% 4.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.88% 5.71% 5.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 636 433 714
10th Percentile £403 £425 £372
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £547
Median % change year-on-year - +0.55% -0.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £716 £700 £716
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 12 25
10th Percentile - £70.12 £26.75
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.86 £42.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +35.86% -6.60%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £71.30 £86.23 £87.60
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
% change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -4.55%

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 19,342 11,905 19,697
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.62% 92.49% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,509 7,599 12,259
10th Percentile £250 £209 £210
25th Percentile £388 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £593
90th Percentile £675 £667 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,090 681 2,087
10th Percentile £14.36 £15.22 £12.52
25th Percentile £18.86 £20.30 £15.61
Median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% -1.20% -17.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £34.95 £33.75 £32.69
% change year-on-year +3.54% +3.24% -20.33%

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 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 9 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 9 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 +3 324 £525 -8.70% 337
North of England -7 272 £581 +7.99% 184
Midlands -10 222 £563 +7.14% 84
West Midlands -2 164 £563 +7.14% 47
North West -1 152 £627 +16.45% 105
South West +14 143 £550 - 145
Yorkshire +8 110 £544 +3.57% 60
East of England -9 92 £538 -2.27% 57
East Midlands -18 54 £500 -3.15% 35
Scotland +11 51 £520 -5.45% 32
Wales +10 32 £447 -8.31% 29
Northern Ireland +4 11 £405 -22.86% 15
North East -21 10 £525 -4.55% 20
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 9 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.

1 329 (28.91%) Security Cleared
2 271 (23.81%) SC Cleared
3 257 (22.58%) SAP
4 172 (15.11%) Migration
5 141 (12.39%) SAP S/4HANA
6 133 (11.69%) Oracle
7 126 (11.07%) ERP
8 122 (10.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 112 (9.84%) Azure
10 108 (9.49%) Problem-Solving
11 99 (8.70%) Workshop Facilitation
12 95 (8.35%) Microsoft
13 94 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
14 74 (6.50%) SQL
15 73 (6.41%) Data Migration
16 72 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
17 69 (6.06%) Roadmaps
18 66 (5.80%) Validation
19 63 (5.54%) Cybersecurity
20 62 (5.45%) Business Intelligence
21 58 (5.10%) Analytics
22 57 (5.01%) Change Management
23 56 (4.92%) Knowledge Transfer
24 54 (4.75%) Continuous Improvement
25 53 (4.66%) Agile
25 53 (4.66%) PLM
25 53 (4.66%) Siemens
26 51 (4.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
27 50 (4.39%) CyberArk
28 48 (4.22%) Cisco

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 32 (2.81%) SharePoint
2 17 (1.49%) Confluence
3 13 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.53%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) MTS
6 2 (0.18%) CMS
6 2 (0.18%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.088%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.088%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.088%) SAS
7 1 (0.088%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.088%) WebSphere
Applications
1 37 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.70%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.44%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.18%) Lectora
7 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.088%) CATIA
8 1 (0.088%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.088%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.088%) Revit
8 1 (0.088%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.088%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 141 (12.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (3.08%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.64%) Oracle Receivables
4 29 (2.55%) SAP FI
4 29 (2.55%) SAP MM
5 28 (2.46%) Oracle Payables
6 26 (2.28%) SAP PSCD
7 23 (2.02%) Oracle EBS R12
8 22 (1.93%) Oracle General Ledger
9 21 (1.85%) Oracle Cash Management
9 21 (1.85%) SAP HCM
10 20 (1.76%) Oracle Assets
11 19 (1.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 19 (1.67%) SAP Hybris
11 19 (1.67%) SAP Payroll
11 19 (1.67%) Teamcenter
12 18 (1.58%) SAP BRIM
13 13 (1.14%) Oracle AGIS
13 13 (1.14%) SAP CO
14 12 (1.05%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 112 (9.84%) Azure
2 44 (3.87%) OCI
3 37 (3.25%) Dynamics 365
4 33 (2.90%) AWS
5 32 (2.81%) GCP
6 26 (2.28%) Power Platform
7 25 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
8 19 (1.67%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 18 (1.58%) Entra ID
9 18 (1.58%) SuccessFactors
10 16 (1.41%) SaaS
11 13 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
12 10 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (0.79%) OneDrive
13 9 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 7 (0.62%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.44%) GitHub
16 4 (0.35%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.35%) dbt
16 4 (0.35%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.49%) Firewall
2 8 (0.70%) FTP
3 7 (0.62%) Network Security
4 5 (0.44%) Kerberos
5 4 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (0.35%) SD-WAN
5 4 (0.35%) SSH
5 4 (0.35%) VPN
5 4 (0.35%) VSAN
5 4 (0.35%) WAN
6 3 (0.26%) BGP
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.26%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.26%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.26%) HTTP
6 3 (0.26%) OSPF
6 3 (0.26%) SAN
6 3 (0.26%) WebEx
7 2 (0.18%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (2.28%) SAP HANA
2 22 (1.93%) Oracle Reports
2 22 (1.93%) Power BI
3 18 (1.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 11 (0.97%) SQL Server
5 8 (0.70%) Metadata
6 7 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.53%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle ODI
8 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.26%) GIS
9 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.26%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.26%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.26%) SAP BW
10 2 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.18%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.18%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 31 (2.72%) JIRA
2 7 (0.62%) Hudson
3 3 (0.26%) Git
3 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.26%) Oracle Forms
4 2 (0.18%) Postman
4 2 (0.18%) Tricentis qTest
5 1 (0.088%) Appium
5 1 (0.088%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.088%) GitLab
5 1 (0.088%) JUnit
5 1 (0.088%) MSTest
5 1 (0.088%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.088%) NUnit
5 1 (0.088%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.088%) Toad
5 1 (0.088%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.088%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 247 (21.70%) Social Skills
2 216 (18.98%) Finance
3 134 (11.78%) Public Sector
4 82 (7.21%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (3.78%) Manufacturing
6 30 (2.64%) Billing
7 29 (2.55%) Telecoms
8 21 (1.85%) Banking
9 20 (1.76%) General Ledger
9 20 (1.76%) Legal
10 19 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
11 18 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
11 18 (1.58%) Marketing
12 16 (1.41%) Aerospace
13 11 (0.97%) Law
14 10 (0.88%) Local Government
15 9 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
16 8 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
16 8 (0.70%) Retail
17 6 (0.53%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (4.13%) Oracle Fusion
2 46 (4.04%) XML
3 38 (3.34%) REST
4 33 (2.90%) Web Services
5 28 (2.46%) SAP Fiori
6 24 (2.11%) SOAP
7 16 (1.41%) BAPI
8 11 (0.97%) SAP Basis
9 10 (0.88%) LDAP
10 9 (0.79%) JSON
11 8 (0.70%) SAML
12 6 (0.53%) Middleware
12 6 (0.53%) OAuth
12 6 (0.53%) SAP Business Workflow
12 6 (0.53%) SAP TM
13 5 (0.44%) .NET
14 4 (0.35%) IDoc
14 4 (0.35%) OpenID
15 3 (0.26%) AngularJS
15 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 24 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
2 23 (2.02%) Onboarding
3 21 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
4 14 (1.23%) Replication
5 13 (1.14%) Operational Technology
5 13 (1.14%) Product Ownership
6 10 (0.88%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.79%) AI Agents
7 9 (0.79%) Data Structures
7 9 (0.79%) Public Cloud
7 9 (0.79%) Security Posture
8 7 (0.62%) NHS
8 7 (0.62%) SCADA
9 6 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.53%) Beowulf
9 6 (0.53%) Management Information System
10 5 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (0.44%) Market Risk
10 5 (0.44%) SCORM
11 4 (0.35%) Contract for Difference
Operating Systems
1 32 (2.81%) Windows
2 18 (1.58%) Linux
3 6 (0.53%) AIX
3 6 (0.53%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.44%) VMS
5 4 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.35%) Solaris
5 4 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.18%) Unix
6 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.088%) CentOS
7 1 (0.088%) CoreOS
7 1 (0.088%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.088%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.088%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (15.11%) Migration
2 126 (11.07%) ERP
3 122 (10.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 108 (9.49%) Problem-Solving
5 99 (8.70%) Workshop Facilitation
6 94 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
7 73 (6.41%) Data Migration
8 72 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
9 69 (6.06%) Roadmaps
10 66 (5.80%) Validation
11 63 (5.54%) Cybersecurity
12 62 (5.45%) Business Intelligence
13 58 (5.10%) Analytics
14 57 (5.01%) Change Management
15 56 (4.92%) Knowledge Transfer
16 54 (4.75%) Continuous Improvement
17 53 (4.66%) Agile
17 53 (4.66%) PLM
18 45 (3.95%) Project Management
19 40 (3.51%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 74 (6.50%) SQL
2 35 (3.08%) ABAP
3 31 (2.72%) Python
4 24 (2.11%) T-SQL
5 22 (1.93%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.88%) JavaScript
7 9 (0.79%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.70%) Bash
9 6 (0.53%) Java
10 4 (0.35%) C#
10 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.18%) Search Processing Language
11 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.18%) VBA
11 2 (0.18%) X++
12 1 (0.088%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.088%) Bicep
12 1 (0.088%) C++
12 1 (0.088%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.088%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 329 (28.91%) Security Cleared
2 271 (23.81%) SC Cleared
3 40 (3.51%) DV Cleared
4 33 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 26 (2.28%) Degree
6 17 (1.49%) CISSP
7 11 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (0.97%) CISM
8 8 (0.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (0.53%) CCNP
10 6 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (0.44%) CEH
12 4 (0.35%) Master's Degree
12 4 (0.35%) SAP Certification
13 3 (0.26%) CCIE
13 3 (0.26%) CISA
13 3 (0.26%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.26%) PMP
13 3 (0.26%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (4.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 41 (3.60%) NIST
3 25 (2.20%) GDPR
4 23 (2.02%) QA
5 19 (1.67%) GRC
6 14 (1.23%) Data Quality
7 12 (1.05%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (0.97%) NCSC
9 8 (0.70%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.70%) PMO
10 7 (0.62%) PCI DSS
11 6 (0.53%) COBIT
12 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.35%) RMADS
14 3 (0.26%) SLA
14 3 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 30 (2.64%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.05%) VMware NSX
4 11 (0.97%) Docker
5 6 (0.53%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 5 (0.44%) vSphere
7 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.088%) Ceph
8 1 (0.088%) KVM
8 1 (0.088%) NDS
8 1 (0.088%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.088%) NFS
8 1 (0.088%) QEMU
8 1 (0.088%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.088%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (1.32%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (0.79%) PingFederate
4 6 (0.53%) Podman
4 6 (0.53%) Terraform
5 5 (0.44%) Ansible
6 4 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.35%) NetBackup
7 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.26%) Puppet
7 3 (0.26%) SCCM
8 2 (0.18%) Nagios
8 2 (0.18%) Netcool
8 2 (0.18%) OpenView
8 2 (0.18%) Tivoli
8 2 (0.18%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 2 (0.18%) vRealize
8 2 (0.18%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.088%) Control-M
9 1 (0.088%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 257 (22.58%) SAP
2 133 (11.69%) Oracle
3 95 (8.35%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.66%) Siemens
5 50 (4.39%) CyberArk
6 48 (4.22%) Cisco
7 35 (3.08%) Aruba
8 29 (2.55%) ServiceNow
8 29 (2.55%) Workday
9 22 (1.93%) Google
10 19 (1.67%) VMware
11 14 (1.23%) Sage
12 12 (1.05%) Adobe
12 12 (1.05%) OpenText
13 8 (0.70%) Ariba
13 8 (0.70%) Atlassian
13 8 (0.70%) BMC
13 8 (0.70%) Databricks
13 8 (0.70%) IBM
14 6 (0.53%) IFS