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 27 May 2026.

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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,823 1,876 2,715
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.79% 6.57% 6.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.28% 7.11% 6.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,575 1,099 1,695
10th Percentile £390 £412 £400
25th Percentile £456 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £533 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -1.02% -2.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 23 28
10th Percentile £38.75 £27.93 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £52.18
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 £63.00
90th Percentile £84.25 £87.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
% change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -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 44,984 26,371 39,600
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.30% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,456 17,159 25,763
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £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 2,981 1,009 2,752
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.04 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.53 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.38% -24.58% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.97% -37.13% -5.88%

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 May 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 27 May 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 27 May 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 -1 2,254 £550 - 1,742
UK excluding London -2 1,181 £533 -1.02% 1,064
London -1 1,040 £550 -4.35% 810
Work from Home -1 994 £550 - 817
South East 0 339 £530 -3.64% 264
North of England -25 248 £531 +0.24% 340
Midlands -16 235 £525 -2.33% 104
South West +36 198 £600 +9.09% 188
West Midlands -7 159 £550 - 79
North West -21 119 £512 -6.07% 243
Yorkshire -9 108 £550 +15.79% 73
Scotland +25 69 £425 -10.53% 58
East of England -7 68 £550 +10.00% 59
East Midlands -12 68 £500 -3.85% 25
Wales 0 30 £550 +37.50% 17
North East -26 21 £725 +35.77% 24
Northern Ireland -1 3 £600 +15.38% 44

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 May 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.

1 580 (20.55%) SAP
2 530 (18.77%) Security Cleared
3 401 (14.20%) SC Cleared
4 362 (12.82%) Migration
5 320 (11.34%) Oracle
6 314 (11.12%) Microsoft
7 313 (11.09%) Azure
8 263 (9.32%) Problem-Solving
9 254 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
10 250 (8.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 243 (8.61%) ERP
11 243 (8.61%) Stakeholder Management
12 211 (7.47%) SQL
13 198 (7.01%) User Acceptance Testing
14 189 (6.70%) Workshop Facilitation
15 182 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
16 166 (5.88%) Data Migration
17 165 (5.84%) Validation
18 157 (5.56%) Agile
19 152 (5.38%) Cybersecurity
20 148 (5.24%) Roadmaps
21 143 (5.07%) Analytics
21 143 (5.07%) Power Platform
22 140 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
23 139 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
24 132 (4.68%) AWS
25 131 (4.64%) AI
26 112 (3.97%) Change Management
27 110 (3.90%) Translating Business Requirements
28 109 (3.86%) DevOps

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 (2.83%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.59%) Confluence
3 14 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) SAS
8 2 (0.071%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.035%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 72 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
5 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.071%) Lectora
7 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.035%) CATIA
8 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 254 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 72 (2.55%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.95%) SAP FI
4 47 (1.66%) Oracle Payables
5 42 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
6 41 (1.45%) SAP MM
7 40 (1.42%) Oracle Receivables
8 31 (1.10%) SAP BRIM
9 30 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
10 28 (0.99%) SAP EWM
10 28 (0.99%) Teamcenter
11 27 (0.96%) Oracle EBS R12
11 27 (0.96%) SAP PP
11 27 (0.96%) SAP SD
11 27 (0.96%) SAP Travel Management
12 26 (0.92%) SAP FI-CA
13 25 (0.89%) Oracle Assets
13 25 (0.89%) SAP CO
14 24 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
14 24 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 313 (11.09%) Azure
2 143 (5.07%) Power Platform
3 140 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
4 132 (4.68%) AWS
5 92 (3.26%) OCI
6 80 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
7 68 (2.41%) GCP
8 66 (2.34%) Power Automate
9 61 (2.16%) SuccessFactors
10 60 (2.13%) SaaS
11 47 (1.66%) Entra ID
12 42 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
13 40 (1.42%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.24%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.10%) GitHub
16 29 (1.03%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.71%) Copilot Studio
18 19 (0.67%) Serverless
19 15 (0.53%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.53%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.28%) Firewall
2 34 (1.20%) Network Security
3 21 (0.74%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 13 (0.46%) DNS
5 13 (0.46%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) WAN
7 11 (0.39%) LAN
7 11 (0.39%) VPN
8 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
8 10 (0.35%) VSAN
9 9 (0.32%) FTP
10 8 (0.28%) Intranet
10 8 (0.28%) NAS
10 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.25%) Kerberos
11 7 (0.25%) VLAN
12 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 6 (0.21%) NGFW
12 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 83 (2.94%) Power BI
2 54 (1.91%) Oracle Reports
3 33 (1.17%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.06%) Tableau
5 26 (0.92%) SQL Server
6 25 (0.89%) Metadata
7 23 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
9 15 (0.53%) SAP BW
10 14 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
12 8 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.25%) GIS
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.25%) Power Query
13 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
14 6 (0.21%) Essbase
14 6 (0.21%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 77 (2.73%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.60%) Hudson
4 11 (0.39%) Git
4 11 (0.39%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.28%) GitLab
6 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.14%) Postman
7 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
8 3 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.11%) Toad
9 2 (0.071%) git-flow
9 2 (0.071%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.071%) JUnit
9 2 (0.071%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.071%) Selenium
10 1 (0.035%) Bitbucket
General
1 603 (21.36%) Social Skills
2 593 (21.01%) Finance
3 241 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (6.98%) Public Sector
5 98 (3.47%) Banking
6 87 (3.08%) Manufacturing
7 61 (2.16%) Billing
7 61 (2.16%) Legal
7 61 (2.16%) Marketing
8 53 (1.88%) General Ledger
9 49 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
10 36 (1.28%) Telecoms
11 34 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
12 31 (1.10%) Retail
13 28 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 27 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
15 25 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
16 23 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
17 20 (0.71%) Law
18 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (2.55%) Oracle Fusion
1 72 (2.55%) REST
2 60 (2.13%) XML
3 28 (0.99%) SAP TM
4 26 (0.92%) Middleware
5 24 (0.85%) SOAP
5 24 (0.85%) Web Services
6 23 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
7 22 (0.78%) BAPI
8 19 (0.67%) HTML
9 18 (0.64%) JSON
10 17 (0.60%) .NET
11 16 (0.57%) CSS
11 16 (0.57%) LDAP
11 16 (0.57%) SAP Basis
12 12 (0.43%) OAuth
13 10 (0.35%) IDoc
13 10 (0.35%) Kafka
13 10 (0.35%) React
14 9 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 63 (2.23%) Onboarding
2 45 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
2 45 (1.59%) Security Posture
3 37 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
4 34 (1.20%) Product Ownership
5 32 (1.13%) Operational Technology
6 29 (1.03%) AI Agents
7 24 (0.85%) Data Centre
8 23 (0.81%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 21 (0.74%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.74%) NHS
11 20 (0.71%) CMDB
12 19 (0.67%) Life Science
13 16 (0.57%) Replication
14 15 (0.53%) Public Cloud
15 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
16 13 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.46%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 79 (2.80%) Windows
2 60 (2.13%) Linux
3 20 (0.71%) VMS
4 18 (0.64%) Solaris
5 17 (0.60%) AIX
6 16 (0.57%) Unix
7 8 (0.28%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.14%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.071%) Android
11 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 362 (12.82%) Migration
2 263 (9.32%) Problem-Solving
3 250 (8.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 243 (8.61%) ERP
4 243 (8.61%) Stakeholder Management
5 198 (7.01%) User Acceptance Testing
6 189 (6.70%) Workshop Facilitation
7 182 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 166 (5.88%) Data Migration
9 165 (5.84%) Validation
10 157 (5.56%) Agile
11 152 (5.38%) Cybersecurity
12 148 (5.24%) Roadmaps
13 143 (5.07%) Analytics
14 139 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
15 131 (4.64%) AI
16 112 (3.97%) Change Management
17 110 (3.90%) Translating Business Requirements
18 109 (3.86%) DevOps
19 98 (3.47%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 211 (7.47%) SQL
2 108 (3.83%) Python
3 69 (2.44%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.91%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.74%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.24%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.10%) Java
8 29 (1.03%) ABAP
9 19 (0.67%) C#
10 15 (0.53%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.43%) Bash
13 10 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 9 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.28%) R
15 8 (0.28%) Shell Script
16 7 (0.25%) C++
16 7 (0.25%) Groovy
17 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
18 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 530 (18.77%) Security Cleared
2 401 (14.20%) SC Cleared
3 107 (3.79%) DV Cleared
4 81 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 73 (2.59%) CISSP
6 67 (2.37%) Degree
7 56 (1.98%) CISM
8 27 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (0.78%) CCSP
9 22 (0.78%) CIMA
10 19 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 15 (0.53%) CEH
12 14 (0.50%) PMP
13 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
14 12 (0.43%) ACCA
14 12 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
15 11 (0.39%) OSCP
16 10 (0.35%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.08%) NIST
2 78 (2.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.41%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.91%) GRC
5 45 (1.59%) GDPR
6 36 (1.28%) QA
7 28 (0.99%) NCSC
8 26 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
9 20 (0.71%) SLA
10 19 (0.67%) PMO
11 18 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.50%) COBIT
13 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 10 (0.35%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 8 (0.28%) RMADS
17 7 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 49 (1.74%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (1.28%) VMware NSX
3 25 (0.89%) vSphere
4 17 (0.60%) Docker
5 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.18%) IAG
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
10 1 (0.035%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.035%) HDFS
10 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.035%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.035%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.035%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 52 (1.84%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.28%) Terraform
3 27 (0.96%) vRealize
4 18 (0.64%) Ansible
5 16 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.25%) SCCM
10 7 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
11 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 580 (20.55%) SAP
2 320 (11.34%) Oracle
3 314 (11.12%) Microsoft
4 90 (3.19%) VMware
5 82 (2.90%) ServiceNow
6 62 (2.20%) Ariba
7 54 (1.91%) Siemens
8 53 (1.88%) Workday
9 52 (1.84%) Salesforce
10 37 (1.31%) Splunk
11 29 (1.03%) Databricks
12 28 (0.99%) Google
13 26 (0.92%) BMC
14 23 (0.81%) IBM
15 20 (0.71%) Palo Alto
16 18 (0.64%) Adobe
17 17 (0.60%) IFS
18 16 (0.57%) Sage
18 16 (0.57%) SolarWinds
19 14 (0.50%) HP