Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £543, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 June 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 28 24
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,966 1,946 2,864
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.84% 6.49% 6.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.32% 7.05% 7.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,652 1,127 1,725
10th Percentile £400 £410 £400
25th Percentile £460 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £543 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.36% - -
75th Percentile £638 £640 £650
90th Percentile £734 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 27 30
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £27.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.92 £52.90
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 £64.52
90th Percentile £85.70 £87.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £58.30
% change year-on-year -22.03% +26.50% -10.31%

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 46,904 27,610 40,551
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 92.14% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,521 17,729 25,983
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £414 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.60% -1.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,134 1,203 2,979
10th Percentile £15.38 £13.85 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.44 £16.37
Median hourly rate £43.25 £27.38 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +57.99% -27.00% -14.77%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.23%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 2,367 £550 - 996
UK excluding London +3 1,259 £525 -2.23% 745
London 0 1,091 £550 -4.35% 417
Work from Home -2 1,055 £530 -3.64% 437
South East -2 344 £525 -3.97% 222
North of England -15 272 £550 +3.00% 226
Midlands -10 238 £525 -4.55% 78
South West +30 209 £553 +0.55% 104
West Midlands 0 162 £525 -4.55% 59
North West -14 144 £550 - 148
Yorkshire -6 106 £550 +15.79% 55
East of England -4 90 £550 +6.08% 60
Scotland +23 83 £425 -10.53% 23
East Midlands -10 67 £500 -9.09% 17
Wales 0 30 £550 +31.34% 18
North East -36 22 £650 +20.37% 24
Northern Ireland -4 3 £600 +15.38% 24

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 23 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.

1 609 (20.53%) SAP
2 547 (18.44%) Security Cleared
3 408 (13.76%) SC Cleared
4 390 (13.15%) Migration
5 347 (11.70%) Microsoft
6 341 (11.50%) Oracle
7 332 (11.19%) Azure
8 286 (9.64%) Stakeholder Management
9 272 (9.17%) SAP S/4HANA
10 268 (9.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 261 (8.80%) Problem-Solving
12 250 (8.43%) ERP
13 236 (7.96%) SQL
14 214 (7.22%) User Acceptance Testing
15 199 (6.71%) Validation
16 196 (6.61%) Workshop Facilitation
17 194 (6.54%) Continuous Improvement
18 176 (5.93%) Data Migration
19 170 (5.73%) Analytics
20 161 (5.43%) Cybersecurity
21 159 (5.36%) Agile
22 154 (5.19%) AI
22 154 (5.19%) Roadmaps
23 150 (5.06%) Power Platform
24 146 (4.92%) AWS
25 143 (4.82%) Business Intelligence
26 140 (4.72%) Dynamics 365
27 128 (4.32%) Change Management
28 126 (4.25%) Python
29 118 (3.98%) 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 78 (2.63%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.52%) Confluence
3 14 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (0.27%) WebSphere
6 7 (0.24%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 5 (0.17%) Jupyter
9 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.13%) SAS
10 3 (0.10%) Apache
10 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
10 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.067%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.067%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.067%) IIS
11 2 (0.067%) NetWeaver
11 2 (0.067%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.067%) WordPress
12 1 (0.034%) Oracle Self-Service HR
Applications
1 77 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.20%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.067%) Lectora
8 2 (0.067%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.034%) CATIA
9 1 (0.034%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 272 (9.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 79 (2.66%) Oracle EBS
3 56 (1.89%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.65%) SAP PSCD
5 41 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.28%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.21%) SAP BRIM
8 32 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
9 30 (1.01%) SAP EWM
10 29 (0.98%) SAP FI-CA
10 29 (0.98%) SAP SD
11 28 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
11 28 (0.94%) Oracle ERP
12 26 (0.88%) Teamcenter
13 25 (0.84%) Oracle EBS R12
13 25 (0.84%) SAP CO
13 25 (0.84%) SAP Travel Management
14 24 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
14 24 (0.81%) SAP PP
15 23 (0.78%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 332 (11.19%) Azure
2 150 (5.06%) Power Platform
3 146 (4.92%) AWS
4 140 (4.72%) Dynamics 365
5 96 (3.24%) OCI
6 91 (3.07%) Microsoft 365
7 80 (2.70%) GCP
8 74 (2.49%) SuccessFactors
9 67 (2.26%) Power Automate
10 53 (1.79%) Entra ID
10 53 (1.79%) SaaS
11 48 (1.62%) Microsoft Copilot
12 43 (1.45%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.11%) GitHub
14 32 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 23 (0.78%) Copilot Studio
16 18 (0.61%) Serverless
17 16 (0.54%) Azure AI
18 15 (0.51%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 46 (1.55%) Firewall
2 41 (1.38%) Network Security
3 21 (0.71%) SNMP
4 19 (0.64%) WAN
5 15 (0.51%) DNS
6 14 (0.47%) BGP
7 13 (0.44%) LAN
7 13 (0.44%) SAN
8 12 (0.40%) SMS
9 11 (0.37%) VPN
9 11 (0.37%) VSAN
10 9 (0.30%) FTP
11 8 (0.27%) NAS
11 8 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
12 7 (0.24%) Intranet
12 7 (0.24%) NGFW
12 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
13 6 (0.20%) DHCP
13 6 (0.20%) Ethernet VPN
13 6 (0.20%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (2.97%) Power BI
2 54 (1.82%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.15%) Tableau
5 27 (0.91%) Metadata
6 25 (0.84%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 25 (0.84%) SQL Server
7 20 (0.67%) SAP BW
8 18 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.47%) BusinessObjects
11 10 (0.34%) Power Query
11 10 (0.34%) SAP Data Services
12 9 (0.30%) Oracle Database
13 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.20%) Crystal Reports
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.17%) GIS
15 5 (0.17%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 83 (2.80%) JIRA
2 19 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.54%) Hudson
4 13 (0.44%) Git
5 12 (0.40%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.30%) GitLab
7 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.13%) Postman
9 4 (0.13%) Toad
10 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
10 3 (0.10%) Oracle APEX
10 3 (0.10%) Selenium
10 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 3 (0.10%) Zephyr
11 2 (0.067%) git-flow
11 2 (0.067%) MLflow
11 2 (0.067%) TestRail
General
1 628 (21.17%) Finance
2 626 (21.11%) Social Skills
3 249 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
4 213 (7.18%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.14%) Manufacturing
6 89 (3.00%) Banking
7 76 (2.56%) Legal
8 75 (2.53%) Billing
9 59 (1.99%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.85%) General Ledger
10 55 (1.85%) Marketing
11 49 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
12 38 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 38 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
12 38 (1.28%) Retail
13 36 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
14 29 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
15 22 (0.74%) Local Government
16 21 (0.71%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (2.73%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.43%) REST
3 57 (1.92%) XML
4 32 (1.08%) Middleware
5 31 (1.05%) SAP Fiori
6 29 (0.98%) Web Services
7 27 (0.91%) BAPI
8 25 (0.84%) SAP TM
9 24 (0.81%) SOAP
10 20 (0.67%) HTML
11 18 (0.61%) CSS
12 17 (0.57%) .NET
12 17 (0.57%) JSON
13 16 (0.54%) SAP Basis
14 13 (0.44%) LDAP
15 12 (0.40%) OAuth
16 11 (0.37%) IDoc
17 10 (0.34%) EDI
17 10 (0.34%) React
18 9 (0.30%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 79 (2.66%) Onboarding
2 46 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.48%) Security Posture
4 39 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
5 38 (1.28%) Product Ownership
6 35 (1.18%) CMDB
7 31 (1.05%) AI Agents
8 27 (0.91%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.84%) Data Structures
10 24 (0.81%) Data Centre
10 24 (0.81%) Management Information System
11 23 (0.78%) Life Science
12 22 (0.74%) Cloud Native
13 21 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
13 21 (0.71%) NHS
14 18 (0.61%) Public Cloud
15 17 (0.57%) Replication
16 15 (0.51%) Algorithms
16 15 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
17 13 (0.44%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 88 (2.97%) Windows
2 67 (2.26%) Linux
3 21 (0.71%) Solaris
4 19 (0.64%) Unix
5 18 (0.61%) VMS
6 17 (0.57%) AIX
7 7 (0.24%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.17%) zOS
10 4 (0.13%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.10%) Android
11 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.067%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.067%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.067%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.067%) SUSE
13 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 390 (13.15%) Migration
2 286 (9.64%) Stakeholder Management
3 268 (9.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 261 (8.80%) Problem-Solving
5 250 (8.43%) ERP
6 214 (7.22%) User Acceptance Testing
7 199 (6.71%) Validation
8 196 (6.61%) Workshop Facilitation
9 194 (6.54%) Continuous Improvement
10 176 (5.93%) Data Migration
11 170 (5.73%) Analytics
12 161 (5.43%) Cybersecurity
13 159 (5.36%) Agile
14 154 (5.19%) AI
14 154 (5.19%) Roadmaps
15 143 (4.82%) Business Intelligence
16 128 (4.32%) Change Management
17 118 (3.98%) Translating Business Requirements
18 117 (3.94%) Requirements Gathering
19 111 (3.74%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 236 (7.96%) SQL
2 126 (4.25%) Python
3 67 (2.26%) JavaScript
4 58 (1.96%) PowerShell
5 50 (1.69%) PL/SQL
6 41 (1.38%) ABAP
7 35 (1.18%) Java
8 34 (1.15%) T-SQL
9 18 (0.61%) C#
10 16 (0.54%) Bash
11 13 (0.44%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 11 (0.37%) Kusto Query Language
13 11 (0.37%) Shell Script
14 9 (0.30%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.24%) C++
15 7 (0.24%) R
16 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.13%) COBOL
16 4 (0.13%) Perl
Qualifications
1 547 (18.44%) Security Cleared
2 408 (13.76%) SC Cleared
3 112 (3.78%) DV Cleared
4 86 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 74 (2.49%) CISSP
6 71 (2.39%) Degree
7 54 (1.82%) CISM
8 31 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.88%) CCSP
11 24 (0.81%) CIMA
12 17 (0.57%) PMP
12 17 (0.57%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 15 (0.51%) CEH
14 14 (0.47%) ACCA
14 14 (0.47%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.40%) OSCP
17 10 (0.34%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (2.97%) NIST
2 75 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 71 (2.39%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.82%) GRC
5 51 (1.72%) QA
6 40 (1.35%) GDPR
7 32 (1.08%) NCSC
8 27 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 23 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.71%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.71%) SLA
11 18 (0.61%) PMO
12 16 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.51%) COBIT
14 13 (0.44%) GxP
15 12 (0.40%) 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 56 (1.89%) Active Directory
2 40 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.25%) VMware NSX
4 24 (0.81%) vSphere
5 15 (0.51%) Docker
6 11 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 7 (0.24%) Hyper-V
9 6 (0.20%) IAG
9 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 4 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.067%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.034%) HDFS
13 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.034%) SRDF
13 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 50 (1.69%) Kubernetes
2 48 (1.62%) Terraform
3 29 (0.98%) vRealize
4 23 (0.78%) Ansible
5 16 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.51%) Nagios
6 15 (0.51%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.47%) Netcool
7 14 (0.47%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.44%) OpenView
8 13 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.37%) Grafana
11 10 (0.34%) Prometheus
12 9 (0.30%) FortiGate
13 8 (0.27%) SCCM
13 8 (0.27%) vCenter Server
14 7 (0.24%) NetBackup
15 5 (0.17%) Podman
15 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 609 (20.53%) SAP
2 347 (11.70%) Microsoft
3 341 (11.50%) Oracle
4 106 (3.57%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.20%) VMware
6 62 (2.09%) Ariba
7 54 (1.82%) Siemens
8 50 (1.69%) Workday
9 49 (1.65%) Salesforce
10 38 (1.28%) Databricks
11 37 (1.25%) Splunk
12 31 (1.05%) Google
13 24 (0.81%) IBM
14 23 (0.78%) BMC
15 21 (0.71%) Adobe
15 21 (0.71%) Palo Alto
16 17 (0.57%) OpenAI
17 16 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 16 (0.54%) Sage
17 16 (0.54%) SolarWinds