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 13 August 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,155 2,176 2,702
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.91% 6.61% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.39% 7.23% 7.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,732 1,272 1,583
10th Percentile £402 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £650 £650 £638
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -4.55% -2.22% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 27 28
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £41.10
25th Percentile £52.50 £42.92 £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £79.88 £81.25 £68.42
90th Percentile £88.75 £83.15 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.23%

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 49,387 30,089 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.36% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,655 19,063 23,293
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,474 1,522 2,032
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.18
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.26 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.31 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.21% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.66% -44.20% +25.00%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -4 2,547 £550 - 1,680
UK excluding London 0 1,372 £525 -4.55% 974
London -3 1,187 £550 -4.35% 891
Work from Home -3 1,062 £550 - 820
South East +1 417 £525 -4.55% 273
North of England -15 294 £550 +0.92% 246
Midlands +2 251 £500 -9.09% 107
South West +18 207 £556 -7.33% 166
West Midlands +18 179 £490 -10.91% 79
North West -11 177 £575 +4.55% 173
Scotland +33 107 £425 -12.82% 58
Yorkshire -16 96 £531 +7.59% 55
East of England -19 81 £551 +0.18% 69
East Midlands -4 63 £519 -5.68% 27
Wales -8 28 £550 +10.00% 15
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 19
Northern Ireland -1 1 £450 -13.46% 51

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 August 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.

1 651 (20.63%) SAP
2 647 (20.51%) Security Cleared
3 444 (14.07%) Stakeholder Management
4 438 (13.88%) SC Cleared
5 416 (13.19%) Migration
6 408 (12.93%) Microsoft
7 384 (12.17%) Oracle
8 305 (9.67%) Azure
9 294 (9.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 267 (8.46%) SAP S/4HANA
11 261 (8.27%) SQL
12 256 (8.11%) User Acceptance Testing
13 250 (7.92%) Problem-Solving
14 235 (7.45%) ERP
15 221 (7.00%) Workshop Facilitation
16 218 (6.91%) Validation
17 206 (6.53%) Continuous Improvement
18 205 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
19 189 (5.99%) Roadmaps
20 187 (5.93%) Agile
21 184 (5.83%) Analytics
21 184 (5.83%) Data Migration
22 166 (5.26%) AI
23 161 (5.10%) AWS
24 152 (4.82%) Requirements Gathering
25 149 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
26 148 (4.69%) DV Cleared
26 148 (4.69%) Power Platform
27 136 (4.31%) Translating Business Requirements
28 132 (4.18%) Dynamics 365

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 85 (2.69%) SharePoint
2 49 (1.55%) Confluence
3 14 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.063%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) IIS
10 2 (0.063%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.063%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.063%) Lectora
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 267 (8.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (2.85%) Oracle EBS
3 70 (2.22%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.55%) SAP PSCD
5 45 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 43 (1.36%) Oracle ERP
7 39 (1.24%) SAP CO
8 36 (1.14%) SAP MM
9 35 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
10 34 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
11 33 (1.05%) SAP FI/CO
11 33 (1.05%) SAP SD
12 32 (1.01%) SAP BRIM
13 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
14 29 (0.92%) SAP FI-CA
15 28 (0.89%) SAP PP
16 26 (0.82%) Oracle EBS R12
16 26 (0.82%) SAP Payroll
17 25 (0.79%) SAP EWM
18 24 (0.76%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 305 (9.67%) Azure
2 161 (5.10%) AWS
3 148 (4.69%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.18%) Dynamics 365
5 111 (3.52%) OCI
6 105 (3.33%) SuccessFactors
7 92 (2.92%) GCP
8 89 (2.82%) Microsoft 365
9 70 (2.22%) Power Automate
10 54 (1.71%) Entra ID
11 52 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
12 49 (1.55%) Microsoft Copilot
13 48 (1.52%) SaaS
14 34 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.92%) GitHub
16 24 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
19 14 (0.44%) Azure Logic Apps
19 14 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.90%) Firewall
2 56 (1.77%) Network Security
3 35 (1.11%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 22 (0.70%) BGP
6 20 (0.63%) LAN
6 20 (0.63%) VPN
7 18 (0.57%) DNS
8 13 (0.41%) SAN
8 13 (0.41%) VSAN
9 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.32%) NGFW
10 10 (0.32%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.25%) Ethernet VPN
12 7 (0.22%) HTTP
12 7 (0.22%) IPsec
12 7 (0.22%) MPLS
12 7 (0.22%) VXLAN
12 7 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
12 7 (0.22%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (2.98%) Power BI
2 60 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.14%) SQL Server
4 35 (1.11%) SAP HANA
5 33 (1.05%) Tableau
6 32 (1.01%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 30 (0.95%) SAP BW
8 27 (0.86%) Metadata
9 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
11 18 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.32%) Oracle Database
13 10 (0.32%) Power Query
14 7 (0.22%) Relational Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) Looker
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 93 (2.95%) JIRA
2 20 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 19 (0.60%) Git
4 16 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.44%) Hudson
6 11 (0.35%) GitLab
7 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.16%) PowerBuilder
10 4 (0.13%) Postman
10 4 (0.13%) Selenium
10 4 (0.13%) Snyk
10 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
11 3 (0.095%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.095%) JMeter
11 3 (0.095%) MLflow
11 3 (0.095%) TestRail
11 3 (0.095%) Toad
11 3 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 697 (22.09%) Finance
2 689 (21.84%) Social Skills
3 239 (7.58%) Analytical Skills
4 224 (7.10%) Public Sector
5 116 (3.68%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.04%) Banking
7 87 (2.76%) Legal
8 78 (2.47%) Billing
9 68 (2.16%) Telecoms
10 57 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
11 55 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
11 55 (1.74%) General Ledger
12 54 (1.71%) Marketing
13 51 (1.62%) Retail
14 47 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 40 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
16 34 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.76%) Local Government
18 20 (0.63%) Aerospace
19 19 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (3.39%) Oracle Fusion
2 84 (2.66%) REST
3 61 (1.93%) XML
4 40 (1.27%) SOAP
5 38 (1.20%) SAP Fiori
6 32 (1.01%) Middleware
7 27 (0.86%) Web Services
8 26 (0.82%) JSON
9 22 (0.70%) BAPI
10 20 (0.63%) HTML
11 18 (0.57%) CSS
11 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
13 16 (0.51%) LDAP
13 16 (0.51%) OAuth
14 14 (0.44%) IDoc
15 12 (0.38%) .NET
16 11 (0.35%) ADO
17 10 (0.32%) EDI
17 10 (0.32%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 117 (3.71%) Onboarding
2 51 (1.62%) CMDB
3 43 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 37 (1.17%) Product Ownership
6 35 (1.11%) Data Centre
7 34 (1.08%) Data Structures
7 34 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
8 32 (1.01%) AI Agents
9 29 (0.92%) Operational Technology
10 22 (0.70%) Cloud Native
10 22 (0.70%) Public Cloud
10 22 (0.70%) Replication
11 21 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
11 21 (0.67%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
12 18 (0.57%) Life Science
12 18 (0.57%) Management Information System
13 17 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
13 17 (0.54%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 98 (3.11%) Windows
2 74 (2.35%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 20 (0.63%) VMS
6 19 (0.60%) AIX
7 14 (0.44%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.063%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.063%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.032%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.032%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 444 (14.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 416 (13.19%) Migration
3 294 (9.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 256 (8.11%) User Acceptance Testing
5 250 (7.92%) Problem-Solving
6 235 (7.45%) ERP
7 221 (7.00%) Workshop Facilitation
8 218 (6.91%) Validation
9 206 (6.53%) Continuous Improvement
10 205 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
11 189 (5.99%) Roadmaps
12 187 (5.93%) Agile
13 184 (5.83%) Analytics
13 184 (5.83%) Data Migration
14 166 (5.26%) AI
15 152 (4.82%) Requirements Gathering
16 149 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
17 136 (4.31%) Translating Business Requirements
18 129 (4.09%) Change Management
19 127 (4.03%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 261 (8.27%) SQL
2 122 (3.87%) Python
3 57 (1.81%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.71%) PL/SQL
5 52 (1.65%) JavaScript
6 49 (1.55%) ABAP
7 38 (1.20%) T-SQL
8 31 (0.98%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) C#
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.25%) R
14 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.19%) Korn
15 6 (0.19%) Perl
16 5 (0.16%) C++
16 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 647 (20.51%) Security Cleared
2 438 (13.88%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.69%) DV Cleared
4 90 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 81 (2.57%) CISSP
6 72 (2.28%) Degree
7 63 (2.00%) CISM
8 41 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
9 32 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.86%) CCSP
11 18 (0.57%) ACCA
11 18 (0.57%) CIMA
12 16 (0.51%) CRISC
13 15 (0.48%) PMP
14 14 (0.44%) CEH
15 13 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
16 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
16 12 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.38%) OSCP
17 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.85%) NIST
2 82 (2.60%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 67 (2.12%) GRC
5 54 (1.71%) QA
6 41 (1.30%) GDPR
7 28 (0.89%) NCSC
7 28 (0.89%) PCI DSS
8 24 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
9 23 (0.73%) SLA
10 22 (0.70%) PMO
11 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 13 (0.41%) GxP
14 12 (0.38%) COBIT
15 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
16 9 (0.29%) IFRS
16 9 (0.29%) SOC 2
17 8 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 67 (2.12%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.24%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.82%) vSphere
5 14 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.38%) Docker
6 12 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.29%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.25%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.095%) NFS
11 2 (0.063%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.063%) Firmware
11 2 (0.063%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.032%) HDFS
12 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.032%) oVirt
12 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.032%) RHEV
12 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 59 (1.87%) Terraform
2 45 (1.43%) Kubernetes
3 32 (1.01%) Ansible
4 19 (0.60%) vRealize
5 16 (0.51%) SCCM
6 15 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.44%) Grafana
7 14 (0.44%) Netcool
7 14 (0.44%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.41%) OpenView
8 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 11 (0.35%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.19%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.19%) VxRail
12 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 651 (20.63%) SAP
2 408 (12.93%) Microsoft
3 384 (12.17%) Oracle
4 128 (4.06%) ServiceNow
5 90 (2.85%) VMware
6 62 (1.97%) Ariba
7 59 (1.87%) Salesforce
8 56 (1.77%) Workday
9 48 (1.52%) Splunk
10 41 (1.30%) Databricks
11 30 (0.95%) BMC
12 29 (0.92%) Google
13 27 (0.86%) OpenText
14 26 (0.82%) IBM
15 25 (0.79%) Palo Alto
16 21 (0.67%) Adobe
17 18 (0.57%) Cisco
17 18 (0.57%) Siemens
18 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
18 17 (0.54%) OpenAI