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 £530, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 May 2026.

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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 37 33
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,179 654 1,032
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.73% 5.13% 5.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.15% 5.59% 5.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 659 424 727
10th Percentile £405 £400 £388
25th Percentile £455 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.49% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £650 £725
UK median daily rate £548 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -0.45% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 14 21
10th Percentile £51.75 £28.12 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £38.43 £50.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.15%
75th Percentile £59.69 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -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 22,881 11,697 18,990
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 91.71% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,187 7,479 11,558
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £680 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,637 829 2,352
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.77 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.30 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.35% -36.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 £61.64
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
% change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -4 337 £525 -4.55% 253
North of England -21 250 £550 +3.77% 347
Midlands -15 234 £525 -3.45% 97
South West +36 197 £600 +9.09% 194
West Midlands -5 158 £530 -3.64% 71
North West -17 120 £519 -4.38% 250
Yorkshire -11 109 £550 +15.79% 64
East of England -9 69 £550 +7.32% 61
Scotland +23 68 £425 -10.53% 53
East Midlands -13 68 £500 -3.85% 26
Wales +1 30 £550 +37.50% 11
North East -29 21 £725 +35.77% 33
Northern Ireland 0 3 £600 +15.38% 47
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 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.

1 249 (21.12%) Security Cleared
2 246 (20.87%) SAP
3 181 (15.35%) SC Cleared
4 150 (12.72%) Migration
5 148 (12.55%) ERP
6 134 (11.37%) Oracle
7 130 (11.03%) Azure
8 120 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 111 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
10 110 (9.33%) Microsoft
11 104 (8.82%) SQL
12 96 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
13 91 (7.72%) Stakeholder Management
14 90 (7.63%) Data Migration
15 85 (7.21%) SAP S/4HANA
16 81 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
16 81 (6.87%) Workshop Facilitation
17 77 (6.53%) Validation
18 67 (5.68%) User Acceptance Testing
19 65 (5.51%) Agile
20 60 (5.09%) PLM
21 58 (4.92%) AWS
21 58 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
22 57 (4.83%) Roadmaps
23 55 (4.66%) Data Protection
23 55 (4.66%) DV Cleared
24 54 (4.58%) Siemens
25 51 (4.33%) Analytics
25 51 (4.33%) Change Management
25 51 (4.33%) CISSP

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 23 (1.95%) Confluence
2 19 (1.61%) SharePoint
3 7 (0.59%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.51%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.25%) Apache
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.25%) Apache Superset
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.085%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.085%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.085%) SAS
7 1 (0.085%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.085%) WebLogic
Applications
1 40 (3.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.51%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.42%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.17%) Lectora
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.085%) CATIA
7 1 (0.085%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.085%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 85 (7.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (2.63%) Oracle EBS
3 29 (2.46%) SAP PSCD
4 25 (2.12%) Teamcenter
5 22 (1.87%) Oracle Payables
5 22 (1.87%) SAP MM
6 20 (1.70%) Oracle Receivables
6 20 (1.70%) SAP FI
7 18 (1.53%) Oracle ERP
8 15 (1.27%) SAP SD
9 14 (1.19%) SAP EWM
10 12 (1.02%) Oracle Cash Management
11 11 (0.93%) Oracle Assets
11 11 (0.93%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.93%) SAP Hybris
11 11 (0.93%) SAP PP
12 10 (0.85%) SAP BRIM
12 10 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
12 10 (0.85%) SAP HCM
13 9 (0.76%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 130 (11.03%) Azure
2 58 (4.92%) AWS
3 47 (3.99%) Power Platform
4 43 (3.65%) OCI
5 42 (3.56%) Dynamics 365
6 29 (2.46%) GCP
7 23 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
8 22 (1.87%) SuccessFactors
9 18 (1.53%) Power Automate
10 16 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
11 15 (1.27%) SaaS
12 14 (1.19%) Entra ID
13 12 (1.02%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 11 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (0.93%) PowerApps
15 9 (0.76%) GitHub
16 8 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
17 6 (0.51%) Azure AI
17 6 (0.51%) Oracle Service Cloud
18 4 (0.34%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.70%) Network Security
2 16 (1.36%) SNMP
3 12 (1.02%) Firewall
4 9 (0.76%) FTP
5 5 (0.42%) HTTP
6 4 (0.34%) SAN
6 4 (0.34%) VPN
7 3 (0.25%) LAN
7 3 (0.25%) SMS
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%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.17%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.17%) WAN
8 2 (0.17%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.17%) Wireless
9 1 (0.085%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.88%) Oracle Reports
2 30 (2.54%) Power BI
3 17 (1.44%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.36%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (1.10%) SAP HANA
6 9 (0.76%) Tableau
7 7 (0.59%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.51%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.42%) Metadata
9 5 (0.42%) NonStop SQL
9 5 (0.42%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.34%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.34%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.25%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.25%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
11 3 (0.25%) GIS
11 3 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.25%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (3.14%) JIRA
2 13 (1.10%) Hudson
3 7 (0.59%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.42%) Git
5 4 (0.34%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
6 3 (0.25%) Toad
7 2 (0.17%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.085%) Appium
8 1 (0.085%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.085%) GitLab
8 1 (0.085%) JUnit
8 1 (0.085%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.085%) MSTest
8 1 (0.085%) NUnit
8 1 (0.085%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 241 (20.44%) Finance
2 232 (19.68%) Social Skills
3 91 (7.72%) Analytical Skills
4 88 (7.46%) Public Sector
5 42 (3.56%) Manufacturing
6 29 (2.46%) Banking
7 27 (2.29%) Legal
8 20 (1.70%) Billing
8 20 (1.70%) General Ledger
9 19 (1.61%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.19%) Aerospace
12 13 (1.10%) Marketing
12 13 (1.10%) Retail
13 12 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
14 11 (0.93%) Local Government
15 10 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
16 9 (0.76%) Law
17 6 (0.51%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.56%) XML
2 40 (3.39%) REST
3 28 (2.37%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (1.02%) Web Services
5 10 (0.85%) SOAP
6 8 (0.68%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.51%) JSON
7 6 (0.51%) RESTful
8 5 (0.42%) .NET
8 5 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (0.42%) SAP Basis
9 4 (0.34%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.34%) BAPI
9 4 (0.34%) LDAP
9 4 (0.34%) Middleware
9 4 (0.34%) SailPoint
10 3 (0.25%) IDoc
10 3 (0.25%) PySpark
10 3 (0.25%) scikit-learn
10 3 (0.25%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 30 (2.54%) Data Protection Act
2 20 (1.70%) Onboarding
3 19 (1.61%) Security Posture
4 17 (1.44%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.19%) AI Agents
6 13 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.10%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.93%) Replication
8 10 (0.85%) Public Cloud
9 9 (0.76%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.76%) Management Information System
10 8 (0.68%) NHS
11 7 (0.59%) Data Centre
11 7 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (0.59%) SCADA
12 6 (0.51%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (0.51%) Beowulf
12 6 (0.51%) Data Structures
12 6 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (0.51%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 40 (3.39%) Windows
2 33 (2.80%) Linux
3 15 (1.27%) Solaris
4 13 (1.10%) AIX
5 11 (0.93%) VMS
6 3 (0.25%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.17%) Unix
8 1 (0.085%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.085%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.085%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.085%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (12.72%) Migration
2 148 (12.55%) ERP
3 120 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 111 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
5 96 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
6 91 (7.72%) Stakeholder Management
7 90 (7.63%) Data Migration
8 81 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
8 81 (6.87%) Workshop Facilitation
9 77 (6.53%) Validation
10 67 (5.68%) User Acceptance Testing
11 65 (5.51%) Agile
12 60 (5.09%) PLM
13 58 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
14 57 (4.83%) Roadmaps
15 55 (4.66%) Data Protection
16 51 (4.33%) Analytics
16 51 (4.33%) Change Management
17 45 (3.82%) Risk Management
17 45 (3.82%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 104 (8.82%) SQL
2 44 (3.73%) Python
3 28 (2.37%) T-SQL
4 25 (2.12%) PL/SQL
5 20 (1.70%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.10%) JavaScript
6 13 (1.10%) Search Processing Language
7 10 (0.85%) Java
8 9 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.59%) ABAP
9 7 (0.59%) Bash
9 7 (0.59%) R
10 6 (0.51%) C#
11 2 (0.17%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.17%) C++
11 2 (0.17%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.17%) VBScript
12 1 (0.085%) ActionScript 2.0
12 1 (0.085%) SOQL
12 1 (0.085%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 249 (21.12%) Security Cleared
2 181 (15.35%) SC Cleared
3 55 (4.66%) DV Cleared
4 51 (4.33%) CISSP
5 37 (3.14%) CISM
6 33 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (2.54%) Degree
8 21 (1.78%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (1.53%) CCSP
10 17 (1.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 11 (0.93%) CEH
12 9 (0.76%) OSCP
13 8 (0.68%) ACCA
13 8 (0.68%) CIMA
13 8 (0.68%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (0.68%) PMP
14 7 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (0.59%) SAP Certification
15 6 (0.51%) Azure Certification
15 6 (0.51%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.99%) NIST
2 44 (3.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 30 (2.54%) GRC
4 28 (2.37%) Data Quality
5 17 (1.44%) GDPR
6 13 (1.10%) PCI DSS
7 11 (0.93%) QA
8 10 (0.85%) JSP 440
9 9 (0.76%) NCSC
10 8 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (0.68%) RMADS
10 8 (0.68%) SLA
11 7 (0.59%) COBIT
12 6 (0.51%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.51%) PMO
13 5 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.25%) WCAG
15 2 (0.17%) HL7
15 2 (0.17%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 20 (1.70%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (0.85%) Docker
3 10 (0.85%) VMware NSX
3 10 (0.85%) vSphere
4 8 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (0.51%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.17%) NFS
8 1 (0.085%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.085%) IAG
8 1 (0.085%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 26 (2.21%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.10%) Nagios
2 13 (1.10%) ZABBIX
3 12 (1.02%) Netcool
3 12 (1.02%) Tivoli
4 11 (0.93%) OpenView
4 11 (0.93%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 10 (0.85%) Ansible
6 9 (0.76%) Terraform
7 6 (0.51%) NetBackup
7 6 (0.51%) Podman
7 6 (0.51%) vRealize
8 4 (0.34%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.25%) Grafana
9 3 (0.25%) Oracle Identity Management
9 3 (0.25%) Oracle Identity Manager
9 3 (0.25%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.25%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 2 (0.17%) Dell DRAC
10 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 246 (20.87%) SAP
2 134 (11.37%) Oracle
3 110 (9.33%) Microsoft
4 54 (4.58%) Siemens
5 27 (2.29%) ServiceNow
6 22 (1.87%) BMC
6 22 (1.87%) Splunk
7 21 (1.78%) VMware
7 21 (1.78%) Workday
8 18 (1.53%) IBM
9 17 (1.44%) Ariba
10 14 (1.19%) Sage
11 13 (1.10%) SolarWinds
12 12 (1.02%) Databricks
12 12 (1.02%) Google
12 12 (1.02%) HP
13 11 (0.93%) IFS
14 8 (0.68%) Epicor
15 7 (0.59%) Salesforce
15 7 (0.59%) Veritas