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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 36 26
Rank change year-on-year +4 -10 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,407 796 1,108
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.09% 5.16% 6.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.55% 5.73% 6.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 816 498 699
10th Percentile £400 £413 £418
25th Percentile £456 £476 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £553
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -0.54% +5.33%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £721 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £55.13 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £82.88 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £100.80 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £68.63 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -11.45% +25.81% -5.41%

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 25,334 13,887 16,772
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.69% 90.05% 92.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,259 8,518 10,100
10th Percentile £304 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £360 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,066 1,264 1,652
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.36 £13.87
25th Percentile £20.44 £16.41 £18.27
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £73.60 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.51% -1.71%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 0 412 £540 -1.82% 185
North of England -4 325 £554 +0.68% 133
Midlands +6 257 £500 -9.09% 80
North West -4 210 £572 -0.61% 90
South West +11 203 £550 -5.58% 132
West Midlands +14 184 £486 -15.54% 58
Scotland +36 118 £450 -5.26% 33
Yorkshire -8 94 £538 +7.02% 31
East of England -17 83 £523 -5.00% 52
East Midlands 0 66 £525 -4.55% 22
Wales -12 27 £550 +10.00% 7
North East -32 20 £750 +38.89% 13
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 32
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 August 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.

1 401 (28.50%) Security Cleared
2 318 (22.60%) SAP
3 267 (18.98%) SC Cleared
4 195 (13.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 184 (13.08%) Microsoft
6 154 (10.95%) Migration
7 153 (10.87%) Oracle
8 140 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 128 (9.10%) Cybersecurity
9 128 (9.10%) ERP
10 127 (9.03%) SQL
11 125 (8.88%) Problem-Solving
12 122 (8.67%) Azure
12 122 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
13 103 (7.32%) Validation
14 102 (7.25%) DV Cleared
15 101 (7.18%) Workshop Facilitation
16 93 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
17 92 (6.54%) User Acceptance Testing
18 85 (6.04%) Agile
19 84 (5.97%) Roadmaps
20 80 (5.69%) AWS
21 75 (5.33%) Analytics
21 75 (5.33%) Data Migration
22 70 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
23 69 (4.90%) Risk Management
24 62 (4.41%) Requirements Gathering
25 61 (4.34%) Business Intelligence
26 60 (4.26%) ServiceNow
26 60 (4.26%) SuccessFactors

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 26 (1.85%) Confluence
2 15 (1.07%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.64%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.57%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.21%) Apache
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.071%) SAS
8 1 (0.071%) Tomcat
Applications
1 50 (3.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.071%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.071%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 93 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.27%) SAP PSCD
3 27 (1.92%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.63%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.49%) Oracle EBS
6 20 (1.42%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.42%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
7 17 (1.21%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.21%) SAP SD
8 16 (1.14%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.14%) SAP QM
8 16 (1.14%) Workday HCM
9 13 (0.92%) SAP PP
10 11 (0.78%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.78%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.78%) Teamcenter
11 10 (0.71%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.64%) SAP HCM
13 8 (0.57%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 122 (8.67%) Azure
2 80 (5.69%) AWS
3 60 (4.26%) SuccessFactors
4 59 (4.19%) Power Platform
5 54 (3.84%) Dynamics 365
6 48 (3.41%) GCP
7 47 (3.34%) OCI
8 33 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
9 29 (2.06%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.63%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.07%) SaaS
12 12 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.85%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 10 (0.71%) GitHub
13 10 (0.71%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.13%) Network Security
2 22 (1.56%) Firewall
3 20 (1.42%) SNMP
4 12 (0.85%) BGP
5 11 (0.78%) WAN
6 8 (0.57%) DNS
7 7 (0.50%) LAN
7 7 (0.50%) VPN
7 7 (0.50%) VSAN
8 6 (0.43%) SAN
8 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.28%) DHCP
9 4 (0.28%) FTP
9 4 (0.28%) HTTP
9 4 (0.28%) Wireless
10 3 (0.21%) MPLS
10 3 (0.21%) SMS
10 3 (0.21%) TACACS
10 3 (0.21%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.56%) Power BI
2 30 (2.13%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.21%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.14%) SAP BW
6 15 (1.07%) SAP HANA
7 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
8 11 (0.78%) Metadata
8 11 (0.78%) Tableau
9 9 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
10 8 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
11 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
11 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
12 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
14 4 (0.28%) Power Query
15 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
15 3 (0.21%) Delta Lake
15 3 (0.21%) RDBMS
15 3 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.41%) JIRA
2 11 (0.78%) Git
3 10 (0.71%) Hudson
4 8 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.21%) Toad
6 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.14%) Postman
7 2 (0.14%) TestRail
7 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.071%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.071%) GitLab
8 1 (0.071%) JMeter
8 1 (0.071%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.071%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.071%) Yeoman
General
1 325 (23.10%) Social Skills
2 263 (18.69%) Finance
3 123 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (7.89%) Public Sector
5 54 (3.84%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.27%) Legal
7 30 (2.13%) General Ledger
7 30 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
8 29 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (1.78%) Banking
9 25 (1.78%) Telecoms
10 20 (1.42%) Billing
11 18 (1.28%) Retail
12 17 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (0.92%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.85%) Marketing
16 10 (0.71%) Financial Institution
17 9 (0.64%) Advertising
18 8 (0.57%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.34%) REST
2 42 (2.99%) XML
3 33 (2.35%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.71%) SOAP
5 21 (1.49%) Terraform
6 16 (1.14%) Middleware
7 14 (1.00%) SailPoint
8 13 (0.92%) LDAP
8 13 (0.92%) SAP Fiori
8 13 (0.92%) Web Services
9 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.50%) IDoc
10 7 (0.50%) JSON
11 6 (0.43%) EDI
11 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.43%) SAP Basis
12 5 (0.36%) JDBC
12 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.36%) RESTful
13 4 (0.28%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 42 (2.99%) Onboarding
2 29 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.63%) CMDB
3 23 (1.63%) Security Posture
4 18 (1.28%) Operational Technology
5 16 (1.14%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.00%) Replication
7 12 (0.85%) Data Structures
7 12 (0.85%) PKI
8 11 (0.78%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.78%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.78%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.64%) FMCG
9 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Learning Management System
9 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Public Cloud
10 7 (0.50%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 59 (4.19%) Windows
2 45 (3.20%) Linux
3 17 (1.21%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 11 (0.78%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.71%) Unix
7 8 (0.57%) VMS
8 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.071%) Android
9 1 (0.071%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.071%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.071%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.071%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 195 (13.86%) Stakeholder Management
2 154 (10.95%) Migration
3 140 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 128 (9.10%) Cybersecurity
4 128 (9.10%) ERP
5 125 (8.88%) Problem-Solving
6 122 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
7 103 (7.32%) Validation
8 101 (7.18%) Workshop Facilitation
9 92 (6.54%) User Acceptance Testing
10 85 (6.04%) Agile
11 84 (5.97%) Roadmaps
12 75 (5.33%) Analytics
12 75 (5.33%) Data Migration
13 70 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
14 69 (4.90%) Risk Management
15 62 (4.41%) Requirements Gathering
16 61 (4.34%) Business Intelligence
17 59 (4.19%) Translating Business Requirements
18 58 (4.12%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 127 (9.03%) SQL
2 57 (4.05%) Python
3 31 (2.20%) T-SQL
4 30 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 27 (1.92%) ABAP
6 24 (1.71%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.35%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.92%) Java
8 13 (0.92%) Search Processing Language
9 11 (0.78%) Bash
10 10 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 2 (0.14%) Groovy
12 2 (0.14%) Korn
12 2 (0.14%) Magik
12 2 (0.14%) Perl
12 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 401 (28.50%) Security Cleared
2 267 (18.98%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.25%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.19%) CISSP
5 48 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 45 (3.20%) CISM
7 34 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
8 28 (1.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 28 (1.99%) Degree
9 24 (1.71%) CCSP
10 13 (0.92%) ACCA
10 13 (0.92%) CIMA
11 11 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
11 11 (0.78%) PMP
12 10 (0.71%) CEH
12 10 (0.71%) CRISC
13 9 (0.64%) OSCP
14 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
15 7 (0.50%) DBS Check
15 7 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.55%) NIST
2 47 (3.34%) GRC
3 43 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.49%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.63%) QA
6 17 (1.21%) GDPR
7 16 (1.14%) NCSC
7 16 (1.14%) SLA
8 13 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.85%) PCI DSS
10 10 (0.71%) PMO
11 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.43%) RMADS
12 6 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
14 4 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 45 (3.20%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.92%) vSphere
6 9 (0.64%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.28%) Docker
9 2 (0.14%) IAG
9 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.071%) Firmware
10 1 (0.071%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.071%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.63%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.28%) Ansible
3 13 (0.92%) Nagios
3 13 (0.92%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.85%) Netcool
4 12 (0.85%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.78%) OpenView
5 11 (0.78%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.78%) vRealize
6 10 (0.71%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 4 (0.28%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.28%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Manager
10 3 (0.21%) SCCM
Vendors
1 318 (22.60%) SAP
2 184 (13.08%) Microsoft
3 153 (10.87%) Oracle
4 60 (4.26%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.42%) VMware
6 28 (1.99%) Splunk
7 19 (1.35%) Salesforce
7 19 (1.35%) Workday
8 18 (1.28%) BMC
9 17 (1.21%) Ariba
10 16 (1.14%) Databricks
10 16 (1.14%) IBM
11 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
12 13 (0.92%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.85%) HP
14 11 (0.78%) Google
15 9 (0.64%) CyberArk
15 9 (0.64%) Informatica
15 9 (0.64%) Veeam
16 8 (0.57%) IFS