Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 November 2025.

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

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 28
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,584 2,527 2,841
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.15% 6.89% 6.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.86% 7.42% 6.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,498 1,335 1,591
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £470 £476 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.96%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 18 38
10th Percentile £41.92 £50.73 £51.53
25th Percentile £62.75 £57.86 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £72.88
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% -5.75% +4.11%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £86.81
90th Percentile £86.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
% change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -11.17%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 32,869 34,044 42,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.79% 93.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,808 20,593 28,688
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £401 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £494 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,928 1,258 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.21
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.75 £19.12
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £56.69 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +81.52%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 27 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 27 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 27 November 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
England -2 2,010 £550 - 1,080
UK excluding London -1 1,070 £550 -4.35% 813
Work from Home 0 945 £541 -1.59% 494
London 0 917 £575 +4.55% 487
North of England -8 290 £598 +5.47% 135
South East +1 278 £525 -8.70% 346
North West 0 203 £620 +12.73% 79
Midlands -21 159 £575 +4.55% 79
East of England +13 119 £550 +10.00% 44
West Midlands -18 117 £550 +4.76% 59
South West +5 108 £550 -5.17% 158
Yorkshire -17 80 £485 -19.17% 46
Scotland -8 71 £500 -11.35% 28
East Midlands -18 41 £580 +0.87% 19
Wales +7 34 £405 -32.50% 17
Northern Ireland -10 14 £405 -32.50% 15
North East -10 7 £550 -8.33% 10
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 November 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 featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 699 (27.05%) SAP
2 664 (25.70%) Security Cleared
3 560 (21.67%) SC Cleared
4 369 (14.28%) SAP S/4HANA
5 339 (13.12%) Migration
6 329 (12.73%) Problem-Solving
7 296 (11.46%) Stakeholder Management
8 291 (11.26%) Microsoft
8 291 (11.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 290 (11.22%) Oracle
10 224 (8.67%) Azure
11 222 (8.59%) Agile
12 175 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
13 173 (6.70%) SQL
14 170 (6.58%) ERP
15 160 (6.19%) Analytics
15 160 (6.19%) Data Migration
16 151 (5.84%) Roadmaps
16 151 (5.84%) User Acceptance Testing
17 150 (5.80%) Knowledge Transfer
18 142 (5.50%) Validation
19 133 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
20 129 (4.99%) Python
21 126 (4.88%) DevOps
22 123 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
23 122 (4.72%) AWS
24 119 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
25 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
26 112 (4.33%) Data Modelling
26 112 (4.33%) Degree

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 59 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.04%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.23%) Apache
8 6 (0.23%) CMS
8 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.19%) IIS
9 5 (0.19%) MTS
10 4 (0.15%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.077%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.077%) Camunda
Applications
1 40 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.077%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) InDesign
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 369 (14.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (3.37%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.28%) SAP FI
4 55 (2.13%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.05%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.01%) SAP MM
7 51 (1.97%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 43 (1.66%) Oracle General Ledger
9 43 (1.66%) SAP CO
10 41 (1.59%) Dynamics CRM
11 40 (1.55%) SAP FI/CO
12 38 (1.47%) Oracle Cash Management
13 36 (1.39%) SAP Payroll
14 35 (1.35%) Oracle Receivables
14 35 (1.35%) SAP PP
15 34 (1.32%) Oracle Assets
15 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
16 28 (1.08%) Oracle Financials
17 27 (1.04%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 224 (8.67%) Azure
2 122 (4.72%) AWS
3 108 (4.18%) Power Platform
4 107 (4.14%) Dynamics 365
5 91 (3.52%) OCI
6 89 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
7 69 (2.67%) GCP
8 60 (2.32%) SuccessFactors
9 59 (2.28%) SaaS
10 57 (2.21%) Entra ID
11 41 (1.59%) Power Automate
12 31 (1.20%) PowerApps
13 29 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
14 23 (0.89%) GitHub
14 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
15 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
16 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
17 15 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
18 14 (0.54%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 13 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.59%) Firewall
2 31 (1.20%) Network Security
3 29 (1.12%) VPN
4 27 (1.04%) DNS
5 21 (0.81%) WAN
6 19 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 17 (0.66%) DHCP
8 15 (0.58%) HTTP
8 15 (0.58%) SSL
9 14 (0.54%) TCP/IP
10 13 (0.50%) BGP
11 12 (0.46%) OSPF
12 10 (0.39%) SSH
13 9 (0.35%) LAN
13 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 8 (0.31%) Kerberos
14 8 (0.31%) VSAN
15 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.86%) Power BI
2 46 (1.78%) SAP HANA
3 41 (1.59%) Oracle Reports
4 40 (1.55%) SQL Server
5 23 (0.89%) Metadata
6 21 (0.81%) SAP BW
7 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
10 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 13 (0.50%) DB2
12 11 (0.43%) Tableau
13 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
16 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 60 (2.32%) JIRA
2 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.85%) Git
4 21 (0.81%) GitLab
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.31%) Hudson
7 7 (0.27%) LSMW
8 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.15%) Postman
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Snyk
10 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.077%) JUnit
10 2 (0.077%) Mockito
10 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 751 (29.06%) Social Skills
2 583 (22.56%) Finance
3 246 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
3 246 (9.52%) Public Sector
4 177 (6.85%) Manufacturing
5 81 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
6 75 (2.90%) Banking
7 65 (2.52%) Presentation Skills
8 59 (2.28%) Marketing
9 57 (2.21%) Billing
10 56 (2.17%) Legal
11 54 (2.09%) Telecoms
12 45 (1.74%) Pharmaceutical
13 39 (1.51%) General Ledger
14 36 (1.39%) Retail
15 26 (1.01%) Electronics
15 26 (1.01%) Law
16 24 (0.93%) Local Government
17 21 (0.81%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.25%) SAP Fiori
2 68 (2.63%) REST
3 63 (2.44%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (2.01%) SOAP
5 47 (1.82%) XML
6 45 (1.74%) Web Services
7 37 (1.43%) HTML
8 36 (1.39%) Node.js
9 33 (1.28%) Middleware
10 31 (1.20%) JSON
11 26 (1.01%) .NET
11 26 (1.01%) OAuth
12 25 (0.97%) BAPI
13 24 (0.93%) LDAP
14 20 (0.77%) EDI
14 20 (0.77%) SAP Basis
14 20 (0.77%) SAP TM
15 18 (0.70%) CSS
16 17 (0.66%) SAP PI
17 15 (0.58%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 82 (3.17%) Onboarding
2 57 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
3 38 (1.47%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.39%) Management Information System
4 36 (1.39%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.32%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.24%) Cloud Native
7 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
8 23 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
8 23 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
8 23 (0.89%) Replication
9 20 (0.77%) Operational Technology
10 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
11 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
12 17 (0.66%) Life Science
13 16 (0.62%) Private Cloud
14 13 (0.50%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (0.50%) IoT
15 12 (0.46%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 80 (3.10%) Windows
2 57 (2.21%) Linux
3 18 (0.70%) Unix
4 16 (0.62%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
6 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.27%) AIX
7 7 (0.27%) Solaris
8 4 (0.15%) VMS
9 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.12%) CentOS
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.077%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.039%) Android
11 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 339 (13.12%) Migration
2 329 (12.73%) Problem-Solving
3 296 (11.46%) Stakeholder Management
4 291 (11.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 222 (8.59%) Agile
6 175 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
7 170 (6.58%) ERP
8 160 (6.19%) Analytics
8 160 (6.19%) Data Migration
9 151 (5.84%) Roadmaps
9 151 (5.84%) User Acceptance Testing
10 150 (5.80%) Knowledge Transfer
11 142 (5.50%) Validation
12 133 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
13 126 (4.88%) DevOps
14 123 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
15 119 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
16 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
17 112 (4.33%) Data Modelling
18 102 (3.95%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 173 (6.70%) SQL
2 129 (4.99%) Python
3 88 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 76 (2.94%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.79%) ABAP
6 60 (2.32%) Java
7 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 27 (1.04%) Groovy
9 21 (0.81%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.77%) C++
11 18 (0.70%) Bash
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) C#
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.27%) VBA
17 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
17 6 (0.23%) COBOL
18 5 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 664 (25.70%) Security Cleared
2 560 (21.67%) SC Cleared
3 112 (4.33%) Degree
4 91 (3.52%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 67 (2.59%) CISSP
7 45 (1.74%) CISM
8 29 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
9 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
10 23 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 21 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
12 20 (0.77%) ACCA
12 20 (0.77%) CIMA
13 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
14 14 (0.54%) CCNP
14 14 (0.54%) CESG Certified Professional
14 14 (0.54%) Master's Degree
15 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
16 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
16 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 75 (2.90%) NIST
3 63 (2.44%) GDPR
4 62 (2.40%) QA
5 42 (1.63%) Data Quality
6 28 (1.08%) GRC
7 18 (0.70%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
8 17 (0.66%) NCSC
9 15 (0.58%) RMADS
9 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 14 (0.54%) COBIT
10 14 (0.54%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.54%) PMO
11 11 (0.43%) Accessibility
12 10 (0.39%) IFRS
13 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
13 9 (0.35%) PERC
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 76 (2.94%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.51%) Docker
4 27 (1.04%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.81%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.15%) UAG
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) IAG
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.09%) Kubernetes
2 50 (1.93%) Terraform
3 24 (0.93%) Ansible
3 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
3 24 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
4 22 (0.85%) vRealize
5 16 (0.62%) SCCM
6 13 (0.50%) Grafana
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.27%) CASB
9 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (0.19%) FortiGate
10 5 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
10 5 (0.19%) PowerCLI
10 5 (0.19%) QRadar
10 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
11 4 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (0.15%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 699 (27.05%) SAP
2 291 (11.26%) Microsoft
3 290 (11.22%) Oracle
4 96 (3.72%) VMware
5 86 (3.33%) ServiceNow
6 67 (2.59%) Cisco
7 61 (2.36%) CyberArk
7 61 (2.36%) Salesforce
8 60 (2.32%) Workday
9 48 (1.86%) Ariba
10 37 (1.43%) Google
11 35 (1.35%) Aruba
12 31 (1.20%) Adobe
12 31 (1.20%) Dynatrace
12 31 (1.20%) IBM
13 25 (0.97%) OpenText
14 19 (0.74%) Splunk
15 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
15 18 (0.70%) Remedy
16 17 (0.66%) EMC