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 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 29 30 31
Rank change year-on-year +1 +1 +31
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,084 886 1,088
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.97% 5.91% 5.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.63% 6.40% 5.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 567 701
10th Percentile £403 £420 £390
25th Percentile £482 £500 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £568 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% +8.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £716 £731 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 9 25
10th Percentile £64.33 £47.38 £50.88
25th Percentile £72.44 £55.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £77.50 £72.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +7.08% +14.35% +0.46%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.95 £83.50 £84.20
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £68.00 £67.75
% change year-on-year +13.97% +0.37% -3.21%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 16,356 13,848 18,397
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 92.36% 93.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,052 8,265 12,022
10th Percentile £210 £213 £213
25th Percentile £369 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £575 £591 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,646 795 1,208
10th Percentile £13.85 £15.41 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.08 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.50 £34.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% -23.60% +48.33%

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 19 December 2025.

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 19 December 2025.

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 19 December 2025. 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
North of England -1 297 £600 +6.24% 328
South East -1 291 £550 -4.35% 453
North West +3 192 £623 +13.18% 173
Midlands -20 159 £550 +4.76% 237
West Midlands -11 129 £550 +5.77% 147
South West +8 117 £588 +6.82% 203
East of England +3 110 £550 - 168
Yorkshire -3 96 £550 -8.33% 144
Scotland +7 69 £504 -10.44% 55
Wales +14 33 £405 -32.50% 31
East Midlands -30 29 £575 +1.50% 79
Northern Ireland -5 13 £405 -32.50% 18
North East -9 9 £575 -4.17% 11
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 December 2025, 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.

1 352 (32.47%) Security Cleared
2 280 (25.83%) SAP
3 278 (25.65%) SC Cleared
4 150 (13.84%) SAP S/4HANA
5 138 (12.73%) Migration
6 130 (11.99%) Oracle
7 121 (11.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 117 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
9 108 (9.96%) Stakeholder Management
10 105 (9.69%) Microsoft
11 90 (8.30%) Workshop Facilitation
12 79 (7.29%) Roadmaps
13 76 (7.01%) ERP
14 66 (6.09%) Agile
15 65 (6.00%) Azure
16 62 (5.72%) Knowledge Transfer
17 59 (5.44%) User Acceptance Testing
18 57 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
19 55 (5.07%) Validation
20 54 (4.98%) Requirements Gathering
21 53 (4.89%) CyberArk
21 53 (4.89%) DevOps
22 52 (4.80%) Analytics
23 51 (4.70%) DV Cleared
24 50 (4.61%) BPSS Clearance
24 50 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
25 49 (4.52%) Logistics
26 48 (4.43%) Cisco
27 47 (4.34%) Change Management
27 47 (4.34%) Collaborative Working

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 27 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.94%) WebLogic
3 16 (1.48%) WebSphere
4 14 (1.29%) Confluence
4 14 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.28%) CMS
6 3 (0.28%) MTS
7 2 (0.18%) Apache
7 2 (0.18%) IIS
7 2 (0.18%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.18%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.092%) Camunda
8 1 (0.092%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.092%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.092%) SAS
8 1 (0.092%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.092%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.74%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.46%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.28%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.28%) Revit
7 2 (0.18%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.18%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.092%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.092%) InVision
8 1 (0.092%) Sketch
8 1 (0.092%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 150 (13.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (3.51%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.77%) Oracle Payables
4 29 (2.68%) Oracle Receivables
5 27 (2.49%) SAP MM
6 26 (2.40%) SAP FI
7 25 (2.31%) Oracle EBS R12
7 25 (2.31%) SAP HCM
8 24 (2.21%) Oracle Cash Management
9 23 (2.12%) SAP EWM
9 23 (2.12%) SAP Payroll
10 22 (2.03%) Oracle General Ledger
11 18 (1.66%) Oracle Assets
11 18 (1.66%) SAP PSCD
11 18 (1.66%) SAP WM
12 17 (1.57%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
13 16 (1.48%) Maximo
14 15 (1.38%) SAP HR
14 15 (1.38%) SAP Hybris
15 14 (1.29%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 65 (6.00%) Azure
2 39 (3.60%) Dynamics 365
3 38 (3.51%) OCI
4 32 (2.95%) AWS
5 31 (2.86%) Power Platform
6 29 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
7 28 (2.58%) GCP
8 23 (2.12%) SuccessFactors
9 15 (1.38%) Entra ID
9 15 (1.38%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 9 (0.83%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (0.83%) Power Automate
10 9 (0.83%) PowerApps
10 9 (0.83%) SaaS
11 8 (0.74%) OneDrive
11 8 (0.74%) Snowflake
12 6 (0.55%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 4 (0.37%) Cloud Computing
13 4 (0.37%) PaaS
13 4 (0.37%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.75%) Firewall
2 7 (0.65%) Network Security
2 7 (0.65%) SSH
3 6 (0.55%) Kerberos
3 6 (0.55%) SD-WAN
3 6 (0.55%) VSAN
3 6 (0.55%) WAN
4 5 (0.46%) VoIP
5 4 (0.37%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (0.37%) DMZ
6 3 (0.28%) BGP
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.28%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.28%) Internet
6 3 (0.28%) OSPF
6 3 (0.28%) VPN
6 3 (0.28%) WebEx
7 2 (0.18%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.21%) Power BI
2 21 (1.94%) SAP HANA
3 18 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
4 17 (1.57%) SQL Server
5 15 (1.38%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (0.92%) Oracle Database
7 9 (0.83%) Metadata
8 8 (0.74%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 8 (0.74%) SAP BW
9 4 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.37%) GIS
9 4 (0.37%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.28%) DB2
10 3 (0.28%) Tableau
11 2 (0.18%) EDMS
11 2 (0.18%) MS Access
11 2 (0.18%) Oracle BI EE
11 2 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
11 2 (0.18%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 28 (2.58%) JIRA
2 8 (0.74%) GitLab
2 8 (0.74%) Hudson
3 7 (0.65%) Git
4 2 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
4 2 (0.18%) Tricentis qTest
5 1 (0.092%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.092%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.092%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.092%) LSMW
5 1 (0.092%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.092%) Postman
5 1 (0.092%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.092%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.092%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.092%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 271 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 207 (19.10%) Finance
3 137 (12.64%) Public Sector
4 102 (9.41%) Analytical Skills
5 61 (5.63%) Manufacturing
6 34 (3.14%) Telecoms
7 32 (2.95%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (2.31%) Marketing
10 22 (2.03%) Billing
11 21 (1.94%) General Ledger
12 16 (1.48%) Pharmaceutical
13 14 (1.29%) Electronics
13 14 (1.29%) Local Government
14 12 (1.11%) Banking
15 10 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (0.92%) Legal
15 10 (0.92%) Retail
16 6 (0.55%) Aerospace
16 6 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.60%) SAP Fiori
2 33 (3.04%) Oracle Fusion
3 32 (2.95%) REST
4 29 (2.68%) SOAP
5 28 (2.58%) Web Services
6 27 (2.49%) XML
7 24 (2.21%) Middleware
8 18 (1.66%) .NET
9 17 (1.57%) HTML
10 15 (1.38%) JSON
10 15 (1.38%) Node.js
10 15 (1.38%) OAuth
11 14 (1.29%) BAPI
12 13 (1.20%) LDAP
12 13 (1.20%) SAP Basis
13 10 (0.92%) SAML
14 9 (0.83%) OAuth2
15 7 (0.65%) SAP TM
15 7 (0.65%) Swagger
15 7 (0.65%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 37 (3.41%) Onboarding
2 28 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (1.29%) Data Centre
4 13 (1.20%) Product Ownership
4 13 (1.20%) Security Posture
5 12 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (1.01%) Replication
7 8 (0.74%) Data Structures
7 8 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (0.74%) Operational Technology
8 7 (0.65%) Cloud Native
8 7 (0.65%) Management Information System
8 7 (0.65%) Virtual Team
9 6 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.55%) IoT
10 5 (0.46%) Algorithms
10 5 (0.46%) FMCG
11 4 (0.37%) NHS
11 4 (0.37%) SCADA
11 4 (0.37%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 33 (3.04%) Windows
2 22 (2.03%) Linux
3 8 (0.74%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.65%) AIX
4 7 (0.65%) Solaris
5 6 (0.55%) Unix
6 5 (0.46%) VMS
6 5 (0.46%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.092%) CentOS
10 1 (0.092%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.092%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (12.73%) Migration
2 121 (11.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 117 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
4 108 (9.96%) Stakeholder Management
5 90 (8.30%) Workshop Facilitation
6 79 (7.29%) Roadmaps
7 76 (7.01%) ERP
8 66 (6.09%) Agile
9 62 (5.72%) Knowledge Transfer
10 59 (5.44%) User Acceptance Testing
11 57 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
12 55 (5.07%) Validation
13 54 (4.98%) Requirements Gathering
14 53 (4.89%) DevOps
15 52 (4.80%) Analytics
16 50 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
17 49 (4.52%) Logistics
18 47 (4.34%) Change Management
18 47 (4.34%) Collaborative Working
18 47 (4.34%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 45 (4.15%) SQL
2 40 (3.69%) ABAP
3 25 (2.31%) Python
4 23 (2.12%) PowerShell
5 17 (1.57%) Java
6 15 (1.38%) C
6 15 (1.38%) C++
7 14 (1.29%) PHP
8 11 (1.01%) JavaScript
8 11 (1.01%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.74%) Bash
10 7 (0.65%) Groovy
11 3 (0.28%) C#
11 3 (0.28%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.28%) VBA
12 2 (0.18%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.18%) X++
13 1 (0.092%) R
13 1 (0.092%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 352 (32.47%) Security Cleared
2 278 (25.65%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.70%) DV Cleared
4 50 (4.61%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.49%) Degree
6 25 (2.31%) CISSP
7 21 (1.94%) CISM
8 13 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
8 13 (1.20%) SAP Certification
9 11 (1.01%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.74%) CCNP
11 7 (0.65%) CESG Certified Professional
12 6 (0.55%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 5 (0.46%) ACCA
13 5 (0.46%) CIMA
13 5 (0.46%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.37%) CEH
15 3 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
15 3 (0.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (3.04%) NIST
3 30 (2.77%) QA
4 22 (2.03%) GDPR
5 19 (1.75%) Data Quality
6 16 (1.48%) GRC
7 13 (1.20%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (1.11%) NCSC
9 10 (0.92%) RMADS
10 9 (0.83%) PMO
11 6 (0.55%) COBIT
11 6 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.55%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.46%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.46%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.37%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.28%) ISO 19650
14 3 (0.28%) SLA
15 2 (0.18%) Accessibility
System Software
1 32 (2.95%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.29%) VMware NSX
4 6 (0.55%) vSphere
5 5 (0.46%) Docker
6 3 (0.28%) UAG
6 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.092%) Ceph
8 1 (0.092%) Firmware
8 1 (0.092%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.092%) IAG
8 1 (0.092%) KVM
8 1 (0.092%) NDS
8 1 (0.092%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.092%) QEMU
8 1 (0.092%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.092%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 17 (1.57%) Terraform
2 14 (1.29%) Kubernetes
3 12 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (0.92%) PingFederate
5 8 (0.74%) Ansible
5 8 (0.74%) Grafana
5 8 (0.74%) SCCM
6 7 (0.65%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.18%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.18%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.18%) EnCase
8 2 (0.18%) FTK
8 2 (0.18%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.18%) PowerCLI
8 2 (0.18%) vRealize
9 1 (0.092%) CASB
9 1 (0.092%) Control-M
9 1 (0.092%) Istio
Vendors
1 280 (25.83%) SAP
2 130 (11.99%) Oracle
3 105 (9.69%) Microsoft
4 53 (4.89%) CyberArk
5 48 (4.43%) Cisco
6 34 (3.14%) Aruba
7 33 (3.04%) ServiceNow
8 24 (2.21%) VMware
9 23 (2.12%) Workday
10 21 (1.94%) Dynatrace
11 17 (1.57%) IBM
12 16 (1.48%) Google
13 13 (1.20%) Adobe
13 13 (1.20%) Salesforce
14 12 (1.11%) Ariba
14 12 (1.11%) EMC
14 12 (1.11%) OpenText
15 9 (0.83%) Remedy
16 8 (0.74%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.74%) IFS