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 24 April 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 35 34
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,137 669 1,026
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.84% 5.22% 4.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.26% 5.65% 5.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 657 438 742
10th Percentile £400 £419 £371
25th Percentile £450 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £544 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.53% -1.06% -
75th Percentile £613 £620 £642
90th Percentile £712 £682 £725
UK median daily rate £538 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -2.27% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 9 23
10th Percentile £51.60 £69.00 £26.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £70.00 £42.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £86.00 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -33.14% +51.18% -13.81%
75th Percentile £59.38 - £61.60
90th Percentile £60.00 £86.05 £63.29
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £60.80
% change year-on-year -31.34% +37.75% -7.88%

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 21,623 11,844 19,243
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.04% 92.34% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,725 7,620 11,846
10th Percentile £275 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £598
90th Percentile £679 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,394 815 2,208
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.13 £15.63
Median hourly rate £44.00 £28.75 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.04% -23.33% -11.76%
75th Percentile £65.88 £65.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £29.23 £35.50
% change year-on-year +45.40% -17.66% -21.11%

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 24 April 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 24 April 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 24 April 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 -3 339 £545 -0.91% 222
Midlands -12 223 £525 -1.18% 62
North of England -23 222 £525 -2.42% 190
South West +26 173 £525 -4.55% 140
West Midlands -4 153 £550 - 39
North West -28 106 £518 -4.93% 121
Yorkshire -7 97 £538 +2.38% 57
East of England -7 83 £550 +10.00% 42
Scotland +32 71 £454 -12.91% 19
East Midlands -19 63 £500 -3.85% 23
Wales +8 30 £550 +37.50% 15
North East -20 19 £525 -1.69% 13
Northern Ireland 0 4 £525 +0.96% 25
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 April 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 (21.90%) Security Cleared
2 237 (20.84%) SAP
3 195 (17.15%) SC Cleared
4 159 (13.98%) Oracle
5 157 (13.81%) Migration
6 142 (12.49%) ERP
7 119 (10.47%) Azure
8 115 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 105 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
9 105 (9.23%) SQL
10 85 (7.48%) Workshop Facilitation
11 84 (7.39%) SAP S/4HANA
12 83 (7.30%) Stakeholder Management
13 81 (7.12%) Data Migration
13 81 (7.12%) Microsoft
14 80 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 77 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
16 73 (6.42%) User Acceptance Testing
17 65 (5.72%) Business Intelligence
17 65 (5.72%) Validation
18 59 (5.19%) Agile
18 59 (5.19%) Roadmaps
19 56 (4.93%) Change Management
19 56 (4.93%) PLM
20 55 (4.84%) XML
21 54 (4.75%) Data Protection
22 53 (4.66%) Siemens
23 51 (4.49%) Analytics
23 51 (4.49%) AWS
23 51 (4.49%) DV Cleared

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 (1.67%) SharePoint
2 15 (1.32%) Confluence
3 6 (0.53%) Jupyter
4 5 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.26%) Apache
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.088%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.088%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.088%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.088%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.088%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.088%) WebLogic
Applications
1 37 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.62%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.44%) PTC Creo
5 2 (0.18%) Lectora
5 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
5 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.088%) CATIA
6 1 (0.088%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.088%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.088%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 84 (7.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 46 (4.05%) Oracle EBS
3 28 (2.46%) Oracle Receivables
4 26 (2.29%) SAP PSCD
5 25 (2.20%) Oracle Payables
6 23 (2.02%) SAP FI
7 21 (1.85%) Oracle EBS R12
7 21 (1.85%) SAP HCM
7 21 (1.85%) SAP MM
7 21 (1.85%) Teamcenter
8 19 (1.67%) Oracle Assets
8 19 (1.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 17 (1.50%) Oracle Cash Management
9 17 (1.50%) Oracle ERP
9 17 (1.50%) Oracle General Ledger
10 14 (1.23%) SAP EWM
11 13 (1.14%) SAP Hybris
12 12 (1.06%) SAP BRIM
12 12 (1.06%) SAP PP
13 11 (0.97%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 119 (10.47%) Azure
2 51 (4.49%) AWS
3 50 (4.40%) OCI
4 42 (3.69%) Power Platform
5 39 (3.43%) Dynamics 365
6 32 (2.81%) SuccessFactors
7 23 (2.02%) GCP
8 16 (1.41%) Microsoft 365
8 16 (1.41%) SaaS
9 15 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
10 14 (1.23%) Entra ID
10 14 (1.23%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 13 (1.14%) Power Automate
12 11 (0.97%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (0.62%) Copilot Studio
14 7 (0.62%) GitHub
15 5 (0.44%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 5 (0.44%) Serverless
16 4 (0.35%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.23%) Network Security
2 13 (1.14%) Firewall
3 12 (1.06%) SNMP
4 9 (0.79%) FTP
5 5 (0.44%) HTTP
6 4 (0.35%) VPN
7 3 (0.26%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (0.26%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.26%) SMS
7 3 (0.26%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.26%) WAN
8 2 (0.18%) Cisco Firepower
8 2 (0.18%) DNS
8 2 (0.18%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.18%) Intranet
8 2 (0.18%) LAN
8 2 (0.18%) SAN
8 2 (0.18%) VSAN
8 2 (0.18%) VXLAN
8 2 (0.18%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.08%) Oracle Reports
2 34 (2.99%) Power BI
3 17 (1.50%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 17 (1.50%) Oracle ODI
4 14 (1.23%) SAP HANA
5 9 (0.79%) Tableau
6 8 (0.70%) SQL Server
7 6 (0.53%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.53%) SAP Data Services
8 4 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.26%) Delta Lake
9 3 (0.26%) GIS
9 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.26%) Metadata
9 3 (0.26%) NonStop SQL
9 3 (0.26%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.26%) SAP BW
9 3 (0.26%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 30 (2.64%) JIRA
2 14 (1.23%) Hudson
3 7 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 4 (0.35%) Git
4 4 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
5 3 (0.26%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.26%) Toad
6 2 (0.18%) Postman
7 1 (0.088%) Appium
7 1 (0.088%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.088%) GitLab
7 1 (0.088%) JUnit
7 1 (0.088%) MSTest
7 1 (0.088%) NUnit
7 1 (0.088%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.088%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 229 (20.14%) Finance
2 222 (19.53%) Social Skills
3 103 (9.06%) Public Sector
4 96 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (3.34%) Manufacturing
6 27 (2.37%) Legal
7 24 (2.11%) Billing
8 23 (2.02%) Banking
9 21 (1.85%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.67%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.06%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.06%) Retail
14 11 (0.97%) Local Government
15 10 (0.88%) Law
15 10 (0.88%) Marketing
16 9 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
17 7 (0.62%) Back Office
17 7 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (4.84%) XML
2 42 (3.69%) REST
3 33 (2.90%) Oracle Fusion
4 21 (1.85%) SOAP
5 18 (1.58%) Web Services
6 12 (1.06%) JSON
7 7 (0.62%) .NET
8 6 (0.53%) SAP Basis
9 5 (0.44%) LDAP
10 4 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.35%) BAPI
10 4 (0.35%) Middleware
10 4 (0.35%) SailPoint
10 4 (0.35%) SAP Fiori
11 3 (0.26%) HTML
11 3 (0.26%) IDoc
11 3 (0.26%) PySpark
11 3 (0.26%) RESTful
11 3 (0.26%) scikit-learn
11 3 (0.26%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 29 (2.55%) Data Protection Act
2 21 (1.85%) Replication
3 17 (1.50%) Operational Technology
4 15 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (1.32%) Onboarding
5 12 (1.06%) Product Ownership
5 12 (1.06%) Public Cloud
6 11 (0.97%) AI Agents
7 10 (0.88%) NHS
7 10 (0.88%) Security Posture
8 9 (0.79%) Data Structures
8 9 (0.79%) Management Information System
9 7 (0.62%) Cloud Native
9 7 (0.62%) Data Centre
10 6 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.53%) Beowulf
10 6 (0.53%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (0.53%) FMCG
10 6 (0.53%) SCADA
11 5 (0.44%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 28 (2.46%) Windows
2 24 (2.11%) Linux
3 9 (0.79%) AIX
4 8 (0.70%) VMS
5 7 (0.62%) Solaris
6 4 (0.35%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.18%) Unix
9 1 (0.088%) CentOS
9 1 (0.088%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.088%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.088%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.088%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (13.81%) Migration
2 142 (12.49%) ERP
3 115 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 105 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
5 85 (7.48%) Workshop Facilitation
6 83 (7.30%) Stakeholder Management
7 81 (7.12%) Data Migration
8 80 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 77 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
10 73 (6.42%) User Acceptance Testing
11 65 (5.72%) Business Intelligence
11 65 (5.72%) Validation
12 59 (5.19%) Agile
12 59 (5.19%) Roadmaps
13 56 (4.93%) Change Management
13 56 (4.93%) PLM
14 54 (4.75%) Data Protection
15 51 (4.49%) Analytics
16 46 (4.05%) Knowledge Transfer
17 43 (3.78%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 105 (9.23%) SQL
2 41 (3.61%) Python
3 28 (2.46%) T-SQL
4 24 (2.11%) PL/SQL
5 17 (1.50%) ABAP
5 17 (1.50%) PowerShell
6 15 (1.32%) JavaScript
7 9 (0.79%) Java
7 9 (0.79%) Search Processing Language
8 8 (0.70%) Bash
9 7 (0.62%) C#
9 7 (0.62%) R
10 4 (0.35%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.18%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.18%) VBScript
12 1 (0.088%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.088%) C++
12 1 (0.088%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.088%) VBA
Qualifications
1 249 (21.90%) Security Cleared
2 195 (17.15%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.49%) DV Cleared
4 34 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 32 (2.81%) CISSP
6 31 (2.73%) Degree
7 21 (1.85%) CISM
8 12 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (0.88%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (0.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 8 (0.70%) SAP Certification
11 7 (0.62%) CCSP
11 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Certification
12 6 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 5 (0.44%) Azure Certification
13 5 (0.44%) CEH
13 5 (0.44%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.44%) Oracle Certification
14 4 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.35%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (3.96%) NIST
3 32 (2.81%) GRC
4 24 (2.11%) Data Quality
5 17 (1.50%) GDPR
6 13 (1.14%) QA
7 11 (0.97%) JSP 440
8 10 (0.88%) PCI DSS
9 9 (0.79%) NCSC
10 8 (0.70%) COBIT
10 8 (0.70%) PMO
11 7 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (0.62%) RMADS
11 7 (0.62%) SLA
12 5 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.18%) HL7
15 1 (0.088%) DICOM
15 1 (0.088%) ISO/IEC 12207
15 1 (0.088%) WCAG
System Software
1 19 (1.67%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (0.88%) Docker
4 9 (0.79%) VMware NSX
5 6 (0.53%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 6 (0.53%) vSphere
6 4 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.088%) Ceph
8 1 (0.088%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.088%) IAG
8 1 (0.088%) KVM
8 1 (0.088%) NFS
8 1 (0.088%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 15 (1.32%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.88%) Ansible
3 9 (0.79%) Nagios
3 9 (0.79%) ZABBIX
4 8 (0.70%) Netcool
4 8 (0.70%) OpenView
4 8 (0.70%) Terraform
4 8 (0.70%) Tivoli
4 8 (0.70%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 6 (0.53%) Podman
5 6 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.44%) NetBackup
6 5 (0.44%) PingFederate
6 5 (0.44%) vRealize
7 3 (0.26%) Grafana
7 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Management
7 3 (0.26%) Oracle Identity Manager
7 3 (0.26%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.26%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 237 (20.84%) SAP
2 159 (13.98%) Oracle
3 81 (7.12%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.66%) Siemens
5 24 (2.11%) ServiceNow
6 23 (2.02%) Cisco
7 20 (1.76%) VMware
8 19 (1.67%) Workday
9 18 (1.58%) Ariba
9 18 (1.58%) Aruba
10 17 (1.50%) Splunk
11 15 (1.32%) BMC
12 14 (1.23%) Sage
13 13 (1.14%) Google
13 13 (1.14%) IBM
14 12 (1.06%) IFS
15 11 (0.97%) Databricks
16 10 (0.88%) OpenText
17 9 (0.79%) SolarWinds
18 8 (0.70%) HP