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 6 February 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 26
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,582 2,057 2,726
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.59% 6.60% 6.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.21% 7.11% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,480 1,116 1,594
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £644 £638 £650
90th Percentile £719 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £535
% change year-on-year - +2.90% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 15 41
10th Percentile £54.25 £65.38 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.06 £55.94
Median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% +30.35% -9.59%
75th Percentile £72.25 £86.13 £86.25
90th Percentile £82.05 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
% change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -5.43%

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 35,834 28,947 41,693
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.51% 92.90% 93.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,581 17,764 27,572
10th Percentile £300 £291 £275
25th Percentile £406 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £490
% change year-on-year -0.42% -2.65% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,159 838 2,289
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.98 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.54 £21.25 £16.54
Median hourly rate £29.65 £33.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.17% -5.71% -
75th Percentile £61.25 £62.64 £61.60
90th Percentile £71.00 £75.00 £73.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.77 £31.76 £36.00
% change year-on-year -12.56% -11.78% +10.77%

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 6 February 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 6 February 2026.

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 6 February 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 2,003 £550 - 1,436
UK excluding London 0 1,042 £550 - 969
Work from Home 0 953 £537 -2.36% 627
London -4 927 £575 - 712
South East -1 276 £550 - 367
North of England -11 264 £601 +9.32% 215
Midlands -14 190 £550 +4.76% 108
North West 0 157 £626 +16.26% 135
West Midlands -9 143 £575 +9.52% 85
South West +11 128 £588 +11.90% 172
Yorkshire +2 97 £550 -7.37% 71
East of England -3 93 £550 +4.76% 51
Scotland +8 58 £520 -5.45% 32
East Midlands -18 46 £505 -2.88% 21
Wales +10 27 £405 -22.86% 18
Northern Ireland +1 13 £405 -22.86% 22
North East -23 10 £525 -7.08% 9
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 February 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.

1 655 (25.37%) SAP
2 640 (24.79%) Security Cleared
3 540 (20.91%) SC Cleared
4 369 (14.29%) Migration
5 356 (13.79%) SAP S/4HANA
6 329 (12.74%) Problem-Solving
7 299 (11.58%) Oracle
8 291 (11.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 282 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
10 278 (10.77%) Microsoft
11 275 (10.65%) Azure
12 210 (8.13%) ERP
12 210 (8.13%) Workshop Facilitation
13 182 (7.05%) User Acceptance Testing
14 178 (6.89%) Agile
15 166 (6.43%) Analytics
16 162 (6.27%) Data Migration
17 151 (5.85%) Knowledge Transfer
18 150 (5.81%) SQL
19 146 (5.65%) Roadmaps
20 138 (5.34%) Business Intelligence
20 138 (5.34%) Validation
21 128 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
22 125 (4.84%) Cybersecurity
23 115 (4.45%) Python
24 113 (4.38%) DevOps
25 112 (4.34%) AI
26 111 (4.30%) Power Platform
27 106 (4.11%) Continuous Improvement
27 106 (4.11%) Logistics

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 (2.29%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.12%) Confluence
2 29 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.19%) CMS
4 5 (0.19%) MTS
4 5 (0.19%) NetWeaver
5 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.077%) Apache
6 2 (0.077%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.077%) IIS
6 2 (0.077%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.039%) nginx
7 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
7 1 (0.039%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 47 (1.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
5 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.15%) Revit
6 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) CATIA
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 356 (13.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 69 (2.67%) Oracle EBS
3 64 (2.48%) SAP FI
4 55 (2.13%) Oracle Payables
5 54 (2.09%) SAP EWM
6 53 (2.05%) SAP MM
7 51 (1.98%) Oracle Receivables
8 44 (1.70%) Oracle EBS R12
9 42 (1.63%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.63%) SAP HCM
10 39 (1.51%) SAP CO
10 39 (1.51%) SAP PP
11 36 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
11 36 (1.39%) SAP FI/CO
12 35 (1.36%) Oracle Cash Management
13 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
14 33 (1.28%) Oracle Assets
15 31 (1.20%) SAP PSCD
16 27 (1.05%) SAP Payroll
16 27 (1.05%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 275 (10.65%) Azure
2 128 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
3 111 (4.30%) Power Platform
4 103 (3.99%) AWS
5 101 (3.91%) OCI
6 74 (2.87%) GCP
7 70 (2.71%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.59%) SaaS
9 61 (2.36%) Entra ID
10 41 (1.59%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.43%) Power Automate
12 31 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (1.12%) Microsoft Copilot
13 29 (1.12%) PowerApps
14 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (0.74%) GitHub
15 19 (0.74%) OneDrive
15 19 (0.74%) SAP Commerce Cloud
16 17 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
16 17 (0.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.90%) Firewall
2 20 (0.77%) VPN
3 18 (0.70%) DNS
4 15 (0.58%) Network Security
5 13 (0.50%) HTTP
5 13 (0.50%) Kerberos
5 13 (0.50%) WAN
6 12 (0.46%) SMS
6 12 (0.46%) SSL
7 11 (0.43%) DHCP
7 11 (0.43%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.35%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.31%) Intranet
9 8 (0.31%) SAN
9 8 (0.31%) Software-Defined Networking
10 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.27%) LAN
11 6 (0.23%) BGP
11 6 (0.23%) FTP
11 6 (0.23%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (3.02%) Power BI
2 45 (1.74%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.59%) SAP HANA
4 29 (1.12%) SQL Server
5 21 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 20 (0.77%) Metadata
7 14 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
8 13 (0.50%) SAP BW
9 12 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
10 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (0.43%) Tableau
11 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
11 10 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
12 9 (0.35%) Oracle Database
13 8 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
14 7 (0.27%) DB2
14 7 (0.27%) GIS
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
15 6 (0.23%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 65 (2.52%) JIRA
2 20 (0.77%) Jenkins
3 16 (0.62%) Git
4 13 (0.50%) GitLab
4 13 (0.50%) Oracle Forms
5 10 (0.39%) Hudson
6 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.19%) LSMW
8 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.15%) Postman
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
10 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.077%) git-flow
10 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.077%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.077%) Selenium
10 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.077%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 713 (27.61%) Social Skills
2 558 (21.61%) Finance
3 252 (9.76%) Public Sector
4 239 (9.26%) Analytical Skills
5 132 (5.11%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.49%) Banking
7 79 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
8 68 (2.63%) Marketing
9 64 (2.48%) Billing
10 54 (2.09%) Legal
11 53 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
12 44 (1.70%) General Ledger
13 37 (1.43%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.16%) Retail
15 29 (1.12%) Law
15 29 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
16 25 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
17 20 (0.77%) Financial Institution
18 18 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 17 (0.66%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (3.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.75%) REST
2 71 (2.75%) SAP Fiori
3 47 (1.82%) Web Services
4 40 (1.55%) SAP TM
5 39 (1.51%) SOAP
6 35 (1.36%) XML
7 28 (1.08%) Node.js
8 26 (1.01%) LDAP
9 25 (0.97%) BAPI
10 20 (0.77%) Middleware
11 19 (0.74%) JSON
12 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
12 18 (0.70%) SAP PI
13 17 (0.66%) HTML
14 15 (0.58%) .NET
14 15 (0.58%) CSS
15 13 (0.50%) Kafka
15 13 (0.50%) OAuth
15 13 (0.50%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.02%) Onboarding
2 60 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.55%) Security Posture
4 39 (1.51%) Product Ownership
5 35 (1.36%) Data Centre
6 33 (1.28%) Management Information System
7 29 (1.12%) Cloud Native
8 25 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (0.97%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.93%) Replication
10 20 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
12 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
13 17 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
14 16 (0.62%) NHS
15 15 (0.58%) Public Cloud
16 13 (0.50%) AI Agents
16 13 (0.50%) Life Science
17 10 (0.39%) CMDB
17 10 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 76 (2.94%) Windows
2 48 (1.86%) Linux
3 22 (0.85%) Unix
4 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.19%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.15%) AIX
9 4 (0.15%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) zOS
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (14.29%) Migration
2 329 (12.74%) Problem-Solving
3 291 (11.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 282 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
5 210 (8.13%) ERP
5 210 (8.13%) Workshop Facilitation
6 182 (7.05%) User Acceptance Testing
7 178 (6.89%) Agile
8 166 (6.43%) Analytics
9 162 (6.27%) Data Migration
10 151 (5.85%) Knowledge Transfer
11 146 (5.65%) Roadmaps
12 138 (5.34%) Business Intelligence
12 138 (5.34%) Validation
13 125 (4.84%) Cybersecurity
14 113 (4.38%) DevOps
15 112 (4.34%) AI
16 106 (4.11%) Continuous Improvement
16 106 (4.11%) Logistics
16 106 (4.11%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 150 (5.81%) SQL
2 115 (4.45%) Python
3 88 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 81 (3.14%) JavaScript
5 66 (2.56%) ABAP
6 39 (1.51%) Java
7 30 (1.16%) TypeScript
8 26 (1.01%) PL/SQL
9 23 (0.89%) Groovy
10 17 (0.66%) C#
11 16 (0.62%) Bash
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.27%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.23%) VBA
16 5 (0.19%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 640 (24.79%) Security Cleared
2 540 (20.91%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.87%) Degree
4 83 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 77 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
6 49 (1.90%) CISSP
7 32 (1.24%) CISM
8 31 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 25 (0.97%) SAP Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Master's Degree
11 16 (0.62%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.58%) CIMA
13 13 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
15 9 (0.35%) CCNP
16 8 (0.31%) ACCA
16 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
17 7 (0.27%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (2.98%) NIST
2 75 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.71%) GDPR
4 56 (2.17%) Data Quality
5 52 (2.01%) QA
6 39 (1.51%) GRC
7 22 (0.85%) NCSC
8 19 (0.74%) SLA
9 18 (0.70%) PMO
10 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
11 14 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.43%) PERC
13 10 (0.39%) COBIT
13 10 (0.39%) PCI DSS
14 9 (0.35%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 7 (0.27%) HIPAA
16 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
17 6 (0.23%) Accessibility
System Software
1 71 (2.75%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.67%) Docker
3 33 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.27%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 5 (0.19%) NDS
9 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) Firmware
11 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) NFS
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (2.25%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.36%) Terraform
3 32 (1.24%) vRealize
4 21 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.58%) Ansible
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Grafana
9 9 (0.35%) Failover Clustering
10 8 (0.31%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.23%) Podman
13 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.15%) EMC VPLEX
15 3 (0.12%) CEMLI
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
15 3 (0.12%) Nessus
15 3 (0.12%) vMotion
Vendors
1 655 (25.37%) SAP
2 299 (11.58%) Oracle
3 278 (10.77%) Microsoft
4 93 (3.60%) VMware
5 80 (3.10%) ServiceNow
6 61 (2.36%) Workday
7 56 (2.17%) CyberArk
8 55 (2.13%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.09%) Cisco
10 52 (2.01%) Ariba
11 37 (1.43%) Google
12 36 (1.39%) Aruba
13 33 (1.28%) Adobe
14 29 (1.12%) Siemens
15 20 (0.77%) Databricks
15 20 (0.77%) OpenText
16 15 (0.58%) Dynatrace
17 14 (0.54%) Dell
17 14 (0.54%) Murex
18 12 (0.46%) IFS