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 £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 September 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 31 27
Rank change year-on-year -5 -4 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,355 912 1,088
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.78% 5.85% 6.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.25% 6.52% 6.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 809 589 645
10th Percentile £405 £413 £419
25th Percentile £461 £491 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% -2.65% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £717 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +0.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 20 16
10th Percentile £44.25 £29.31 £55.00
25th Percentile £58.97 £49.50 £60.36
Median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £83.94 £81.25 £70.95
90th Percentile £100.40 £87.78 £81.18
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%

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 25,833 13,994 16,380
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.18% 89.71% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,141 8,606 9,363
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £413 £361 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £663 £676
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,399 1,306 1,353
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.51
25th Percentile £19.37 £16.50 £19.59
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -0.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £51.65 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £70.00 £74.70
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.27%

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 26 September 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 26 September 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 26 September 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 -9 378 £540 -1.82% 452
North of England -19 325 £575 -0.86% 426
Midlands -2 228 £500 -9.09% 227
North West -15 211 £581 -6.29% 251
South West +13 196 £550 -4.35% 201
West Midlands +1 164 £500 -9.09% 174
Scotland +24 125 £450 -10.00% 150
East of England -20 104 £550 - 131
Yorkshire -17 93 £575 +21.05% 95
East Midlands -10 59 £525 -4.55% 51
Wales -12 23 £550 +22.22% 30
North East -31 20 £750 +38.89% 80
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -11 2 £544 +4.57% 105
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 September 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.

1 410 (30.26%) Security Cleared
2 321 (23.69%) SAP
3 273 (20.15%) SC Cleared
4 237 (17.49%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (14.46%) Microsoft
6 159 (11.73%) Migration
7 142 (10.48%) Oracle
8 139 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 133 (9.82%) Cybersecurity
10 123 (9.08%) Azure
11 121 (8.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 121 (8.93%) Problem-Solving
12 113 (8.34%) SAP S/4HANA
13 107 (7.90%) ERP
14 105 (7.75%) Workshop Facilitation
15 101 (7.45%) Validation
16 100 (7.38%) DV Cleared
17 99 (7.31%) User Acceptance Testing
18 89 (6.57%) Agile
19 87 (6.42%) Roadmaps
20 84 (6.20%) AWS
21 80 (5.90%) Analytics
21 80 (5.90%) SQL
22 75 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
23 71 (5.24%) Data Migration
24 68 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
25 65 (4.80%) Dynamics 365
26 64 (4.72%) BPSS Clearance
27 62 (4.58%) Risk Management
28 59 (4.35%) ServiceNow

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 24 (1.77%) Confluence
2 18 (1.33%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) WebLogic
5 6 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Apache
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.074%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.074%) JBoss
8 1 (0.074%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.074%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.074%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.66%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.074%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 113 (8.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.73%) SAP PSCD
3 30 (2.21%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.70%) SAP HCM
5 21 (1.55%) Oracle ERP
6 20 (1.48%) SAP HR
7 19 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
7 19 (1.40%) SAP FI
7 19 (1.40%) Workday HCM
8 16 (1.18%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.11%) Oracle EBS
9 15 (1.11%) SAP EWM
9 15 (1.11%) SAP QM
10 13 (0.96%) SAP BRIM
10 13 (0.96%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.89%) SAP Hybris
11 12 (0.89%) SAP SD
12 11 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.81%) SAP MM
12 11 (0.81%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 123 (9.08%) Azure
2 84 (6.20%) AWS
3 65 (4.80%) Dynamics 365
4 59 (4.35%) SuccessFactors
5 58 (4.28%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.06%) GCP
7 46 (3.39%) OCI
8 37 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
9 31 (2.29%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.70%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.18%) SaaS
12 14 (1.03%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (0.96%) Microsoft Copilot
14 12 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.74%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 10 (0.74%) PowerApps
16 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
17 8 (0.59%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.36%) Network Security
2 21 (1.55%) Firewall
3 15 (1.11%) SNMP
4 12 (0.89%) BGP
4 12 (0.89%) WAN
5 9 (0.66%) DNS
5 9 (0.66%) VPN
6 7 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) FTP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.30%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.14%) Power BI
2 22 (1.62%) Oracle Reports
3 15 (1.11%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 15 (1.11%) SAP BW
4 13 (0.96%) SAP HANA
5 11 (0.81%) Metadata
6 10 (0.74%) BusinessObjects
6 10 (0.74%) SQL Server
7 9 (0.66%) Tableau
8 7 (0.52%) Oracle ODI
9 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.30%) NonStop SQL
10 4 (0.30%) Power Query
10 4 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
11 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 45 (3.32%) JIRA
2 16 (1.18%) Git
3 7 (0.52%) Hudson
3 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (0.30%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
7 2 (0.15%) Gradle
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) Maven
7 2 (0.15%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.074%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.074%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 335 (24.72%) Social Skills
2 274 (20.22%) Finance
3 124 (9.15%) Public Sector
4 105 (7.75%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (4.35%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (2.36%) Legal
8 30 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 29 (2.14%) General Ledger
10 24 (1.77%) Banking
10 24 (1.77%) Billing
11 20 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
12 19 (1.40%) Retail
13 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.03%) Marketing
14 12 (0.89%) Aerospace
14 12 (0.89%) Military
14 12 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
15 8 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.03%) REST
2 34 (2.51%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.62%) SOAP
4 20 (1.48%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.48%) Terraform
5 19 (1.40%) Middleware
5 19 (1.40%) Web Services
6 18 (1.33%) LDAP
7 17 (1.25%) SAP Fiori
8 16 (1.18%) XML
9 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
10 8 (0.59%) SAPUI5
11 7 (0.52%) XSLT
12 6 (0.44%) EDI
12 6 (0.44%) IDoc
12 6 (0.44%) JSON
12 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (0.44%) OAuth
13 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
13 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.39%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.99%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
3 25 (1.85%) Security Posture
4 23 (1.70%) CMDB
5 15 (1.11%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.03%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.03%) PKI
7 13 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (0.81%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.81%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.81%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.81%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.59%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.52%) FMCG
10 7 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.52%) Private Cloud
10 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.44%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.06%) Windows
2 35 (2.58%) Linux
3 17 (1.25%) Solaris
4 13 (0.96%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.66%) AIX
5 9 (0.66%) Unix
6 5 (0.37%) VMS
7 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.074%) Android
9 1 (0.074%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.074%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 237 (17.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 159 (11.73%) Migration
3 139 (10.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 133 (9.82%) Cybersecurity
5 121 (8.93%) Continuous Improvement
5 121 (8.93%) Problem-Solving
6 107 (7.90%) ERP
7 105 (7.75%) Workshop Facilitation
8 101 (7.45%) Validation
9 99 (7.31%) User Acceptance Testing
10 89 (6.57%) Agile
11 87 (6.42%) Roadmaps
12 80 (5.90%) Analytics
13 75 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
14 71 (5.24%) Data Migration
15 68 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
16 62 (4.58%) Risk Management
17 59 (4.35%) Translating Business Requirements
18 57 (4.21%) AI
18 57 (4.21%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 80 (5.90%) SQL
2 49 (3.62%) Python
3 36 (2.66%) ABAP
4 24 (1.77%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.40%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.11%) Java
6 15 (1.11%) PL/SQL
7 12 (0.89%) Bash
8 10 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
8 10 (0.74%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.30%) R
9 4 (0.30%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.22%) C#
10 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.15%) Groovy
11 2 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.15%) Magik
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 410 (30.26%) Security Cleared
2 273 (20.15%) SC Cleared
3 100 (7.38%) DV Cleared
4 64 (4.72%) BPSS Clearance
5 53 (3.91%) CISSP
6 44 (3.25%) CISM
7 35 (2.58%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 26 (1.92%) CCSP
10 23 (1.70%) Degree
11 13 (0.96%) ACCA
11 13 (0.96%) CIMA
12 12 (0.89%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.74%) CRISC
13 10 (0.74%) PMP
14 8 (0.59%) CCSK
15 7 (0.52%) CCA
15 7 (0.52%) CEH
15 7 (0.52%) OSCP
16 6 (0.44%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (3.32%) NIST
2 44 (3.25%) GRC
3 35 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 33 (2.44%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.48%) QA
6 18 (1.33%) NCSC
7 16 (1.18%) GDPR
7 16 (1.18%) SLA
8 13 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.89%) PMO
10 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.52%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.37%) COBIT
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.22%) GxP
15 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 51 (3.76%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.03%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.96%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.74%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.59%) Docker
7 4 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.22%) Firmware
8 3 (0.22%) IAG
8 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.074%) NFS
9 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.21%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.33%) Ansible
3 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
3 10 (0.74%) vRealize
4 8 (0.59%) Nagios
4 8 (0.59%) ZABBIX
5 7 (0.52%) Grafana
5 7 (0.52%) Netcool
5 7 (0.52%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.44%) OpenView
6 6 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 6 (0.44%) VxRail
7 5 (0.37%) SCCM
8 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 321 (23.69%) SAP
2 196 (14.46%) Microsoft
3 142 (10.48%) Oracle
4 59 (4.35%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.29%) VMware
6 29 (2.14%) Workday
7 22 (1.62%) Salesforce
7 22 (1.62%) Splunk
8 15 (1.11%) Ariba
9 14 (1.03%) JD Edwards
10 13 (0.96%) BMC
10 13 (0.96%) CyberArk
10 13 (0.96%) Databricks
11 11 (0.81%) Google
12 10 (0.74%) IBM
13 8 (0.59%) SolarWinds
13 8 (0.59%) Veeam
14 7 (0.52%) Cisco
14 7 (0.52%) Epicor
14 7 (0.52%) HP