Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £545, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 June 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 28 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,920 1,928 2,812
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.82% 6.51% 6.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.05% 6.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,628 1,116 1,689
10th Percentile £400 £410 £400
25th Percentile £460 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 25 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £26.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £41.60 £50.73
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £87.40 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £56.89
% change year-on-year -22.03% +29.65% -13.15%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 46,354 27,333 40,601
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 92.29% 92.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,205 17,581 26,034
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,093 1,154 2,952
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.52 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.48% -26.63% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%

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 15 June 2026.

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 15 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Top 17 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 15 June 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
England -2 2,330 £550 - 1,191
UK excluding London +1 1,227 £525 -2.23% 821
London -2 1,079 £550 -4.35% 503
Work from Home -2 1,045 £540 -1.82% 498
South East +2 339 £525 -4.55% 232
North of England -17 266 £550 +4.27% 254
Midlands -10 232 £525 -4.55% 93
South West +35 204 £550 - 126
West Midlands -2 156 £525 -4.55% 70
North West -10 137 £550 - 157
Yorkshire -7 107 £544 +14.47% 68
East of England -9 84 £550 +7.42% 55
Scotland +18 79 £425 -10.53% 28
East Midlands -11 67 £500 -9.09% 22
Wales -3 30 £550 +37.50% 17
North East -36 22 £650 +21.72% 30
Northern Ireland -3 3 £600 +15.38% 27

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 June 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 featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 602 (20.62%) SAP
2 541 (18.53%) Security Cleared
3 406 (13.90%) SC Cleared
4 379 (12.98%) Migration
5 341 (11.68%) Oracle
6 331 (11.34%) Microsoft
7 324 (11.10%) Azure
8 279 (9.55%) SAP S/4HANA
9 268 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
10 264 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
11 261 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 246 (8.42%) ERP
13 230 (7.88%) SQL
14 209 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
15 193 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
16 184 (6.30%) Validation
16 184 (6.30%) Workshop Facilitation
17 170 (5.82%) Data Migration
18 161 (5.51%) Cybersecurity
19 160 (5.48%) Analytics
20 156 (5.34%) Agile
21 155 (5.31%) Roadmaps
22 147 (5.03%) AI
23 145 (4.97%) Power Platform
24 140 (4.79%) AWS
24 140 (4.79%) Business Intelligence
25 139 (4.76%) Dynamics 365
26 126 (4.32%) Change Management
27 122 (4.18%) Python
28 112 (3.84%) Translating Business Requirements

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 80 (2.74%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.54%) Confluence
3 14 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
5 6 (0.21%) WebSphere
6 5 (0.17%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.17%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.14%) SAS
8 3 (0.10%) Apache
8 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.068%) IIS
9 2 (0.068%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.034%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.034%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.034%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 22 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.068%) Lectora
8 2 (0.068%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.034%) CATIA
9 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 279 (9.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 75 (2.57%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.88%) SAP FI
4 44 (1.51%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.30%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.20%) Oracle Receivables
8 34 (1.16%) SAP BRIM
9 31 (1.06%) SAP Travel Management
10 30 (1.03%) SAP EWM
11 29 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
11 29 (0.99%) SAP SD
12 28 (0.96%) Oracle ERP
13 27 (0.92%) Teamcenter
14 26 (0.89%) SAP CO
14 26 (0.89%) SAP FI-CA
15 25 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
15 25 (0.86%) SAP FI/CO
16 23 (0.79%) SAP PP
17 22 (0.75%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 324 (11.10%) Azure
2 145 (4.97%) Power Platform
3 140 (4.79%) AWS
4 139 (4.76%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.36%) OCI
6 90 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (2.53%) GCP
8 69 (2.36%) SuccessFactors
9 67 (2.29%) Power Automate
10 55 (1.88%) SaaS
11 53 (1.82%) Entra ID
12 43 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
13 42 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
14 33 (1.13%) PowerApps
15 32 (1.10%) GitHub
15 32 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
16 21 (0.72%) Copilot Studio
17 18 (0.62%) Serverless
18 16 (0.55%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.51%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 42 (1.44%) Firewall
2 38 (1.30%) Network Security
3 21 (0.72%) SNMP
4 17 (0.58%) WAN
5 15 (0.51%) DNS
6 14 (0.48%) SMS
7 13 (0.45%) SAN
8 12 (0.41%) BGP
8 12 (0.41%) LAN
9 11 (0.38%) VPN
10 10 (0.34%) Software-Defined Networking
10 10 (0.34%) VSAN
11 9 (0.31%) FTP
12 8 (0.27%) NAS
13 7 (0.24%) Intranet
13 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.21%) DHCP
14 6 (0.21%) HTTP
14 6 (0.21%) IPsec
14 6 (0.21%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (2.88%) Power BI
2 55 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.23%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.06%) Tableau
5 26 (0.89%) Metadata
5 26 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 18 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
7 18 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
8 16 (0.55%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (0.34%) Power Query
11 9 (0.31%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
13 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
13 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 82 (2.81%) JIRA
2 19 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.55%) Hudson
4 12 (0.41%) Git
4 12 (0.41%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.31%) GitLab
6 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Toad
9 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.10%) Postman
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.068%) git-flow
10 2 (0.068%) JUnit
10 2 (0.068%) Snyk
10 2 (0.068%) Zephyr
General
1 621 (21.27%) Social Skills
2 599 (20.51%) Finance
3 245 (8.39%) Analytical Skills
4 210 (7.19%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.18%) Manufacturing
6 91 (3.12%) Banking
7 75 (2.57%) Legal
8 69 (2.36%) Billing
9 54 (1.85%) Marketing
10 52 (1.78%) General Ledger
11 50 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
12 49 (1.68%) Telecoms
13 37 (1.27%) Retail
14 35 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 33 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
16 32 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
17 31 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
18 22 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
19 21 (0.72%) Law
20 20 (0.68%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.47%) REST
3 59 (2.02%) XML
4 31 (1.06%) Middleware
4 31 (1.06%) SAP TM
5 29 (0.99%) SAP Fiori
6 28 (0.96%) Web Services
7 26 (0.89%) BAPI
8 24 (0.82%) SOAP
9 19 (0.65%) HTML
10 17 (0.58%) JSON
11 16 (0.55%) .NET
11 16 (0.55%) CSS
11 16 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 13 (0.45%) LDAP
13 12 (0.41%) OAuth
14 11 (0.38%) IDoc
15 10 (0.34%) EDI
15 10 (0.34%) React
16 9 (0.31%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 76 (2.60%) Onboarding
2 44 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.47%) Security Posture
4 40 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
5 39 (1.34%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.10%) CMDB
7 30 (1.03%) AI Agents
8 29 (0.99%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.86%) Data Structures
10 23 (0.79%) Data Centre
10 23 (0.79%) Management Information System
11 22 (0.75%) Cloud Native
12 21 (0.72%) Life Science
12 21 (0.72%) NHS
13 19 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
14 17 (0.58%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.58%) Replication
15 14 (0.48%) Algorithms
15 14 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
15 14 (0.48%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 85 (2.91%) Windows
2 64 (2.19%) Linux
3 21 (0.72%) Solaris
4 20 (0.68%) Unix
4 20 (0.68%) VMS
5 17 (0.58%) AIX
6 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.10%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.068%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.068%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.068%) SUSE
11 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 379 (12.98%) Migration
2 268 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
3 264 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
4 261 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 246 (8.42%) ERP
6 209 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
7 193 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
8 184 (6.30%) Validation
8 184 (6.30%) Workshop Facilitation
9 170 (5.82%) Data Migration
10 161 (5.51%) Cybersecurity
11 160 (5.48%) Analytics
12 156 (5.34%) Agile
13 155 (5.31%) Roadmaps
14 147 (5.03%) AI
15 140 (4.79%) Business Intelligence
16 126 (4.32%) Change Management
17 112 (3.84%) Translating Business Requirements
18 111 (3.80%) DevOps
19 110 (3.77%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 230 (7.88%) SQL
2 122 (4.18%) Python
3 67 (2.29%) JavaScript
4 59 (2.02%) PowerShell
5 50 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 38 (1.30%) ABAP
7 34 (1.16%) Java
7 34 (1.16%) T-SQL
8 18 (0.62%) C#
9 15 (0.51%) Bash
10 13 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
11 11 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 11 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
11 11 (0.38%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.31%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.24%) C++
13 7 (0.24%) R
14 5 (0.17%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.14%) Groovy
15 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 541 (18.53%) Security Cleared
2 406 (13.90%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.53%) DV Cleared
4 86 (2.95%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.43%) CISSP
6 67 (2.29%) Degree
7 54 (1.85%) CISM
8 29 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (0.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (0.86%) CCSP
10 24 (0.82%) CIMA
11 19 (0.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 16 (0.55%) PMP
13 15 (0.51%) CEH
14 14 (0.48%) ACCA
15 13 (0.45%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.41%) OSCP
17 11 (0.38%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.98%) NIST
2 74 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 71 (2.43%) Data Quality
4 50 (1.71%) GRC
5 44 (1.51%) QA
6 42 (1.44%) GDPR
7 33 (1.13%) NCSC
8 27 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
9 21 (0.72%) SLA
10 20 (0.68%) Accessibility
11 18 (0.62%) PMO
12 16 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.51%) COBIT
14 13 (0.45%) GxP
15 11 (0.38%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.27%) WCAG
17 7 (0.24%) DICOM
17 7 (0.24%) GAAP
17 7 (0.24%) HL7
System Software
1 55 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 39 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.23%) VMware NSX
4 24 (0.82%) vSphere
5 17 (0.58%) Docker
6 12 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 7 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (0.21%) IAG
9 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 4 (0.14%) NFS
11 2 (0.068%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.034%) HDFS
12 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.034%) SRDF
12 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 51 (1.75%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.58%) Terraform
3 30 (1.03%) vRealize
4 22 (0.75%) Ansible
5 18 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.51%) Nagios
6 15 (0.51%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.48%) Netcool
7 14 (0.48%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.45%) OpenView
8 13 (0.45%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.38%) Grafana
9 11 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.34%) Prometheus
11 8 (0.27%) SCCM
12 7 (0.24%) FortiGate
12 7 (0.24%) NetBackup
12 7 (0.24%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
13 6 (0.21%) Podman
Vendors
1 602 (20.62%) SAP
2 341 (11.68%) Oracle
3 331 (11.34%) Microsoft
4 101 (3.46%) ServiceNow
5 94 (3.22%) VMware
6 58 (1.99%) Ariba
7 54 (1.85%) Siemens
8 49 (1.68%) Salesforce
8 49 (1.68%) Workday
9 36 (1.23%) Splunk
10 34 (1.16%) Databricks
11 30 (1.03%) Google
12 24 (0.82%) BMC
12 24 (0.82%) IBM
13 20 (0.68%) Palo Alto
14 19 (0.65%) Adobe
15 16 (0.55%) Sage
15 16 (0.55%) SolarWinds
16 15 (0.51%) IFS
17 14 (0.48%) OpenAI