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 19 October 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 23 27 30
Rank change year-on-year +4 +3 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,410 2,557 2,916
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.27% 6.85% 6.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.00% 7.37% 6.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,400 1,344 1,622
10th Percentile £406 £413 £400
25th Percentile £475 £470 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.22%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £750 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £564 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% +7.38% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 22 46
10th Percentile £29.31 £42.63 £53.60
25th Percentile £45.99 £57.86 £61.09
Median hourly rate £77.50 £63.18 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.67% -4.28% -8.97%
75th Percentile £81.25 £72.67 £84.69
90th Percentile £86.13 £86.24 £90.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £61.60 £64.15
% change year-on-year +25.81% -3.97% -11.52%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 30,128 34,701 45,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.88% 92.90% 93.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,009 20,914 30,950
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,674 1,398 1,545
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.02 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.16 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.38% -10.75% +68.35%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.42 £40.33 £44.50
% change year-on-year -39.44% -9.38% +97.78%

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 19 October 2025.

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 19 October 2025.

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 19 October 2025. 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 1,879 £563 +2.27% 2,045
UK excluding London -1 994 £550 -2.44% 1,510
Work from Home -1 893 £550 - 1,012
London 0 864 £575 +4.55% 916
North of England -1 283 £600 +5.82% 341
South East -1 241 £550 -2.22% 674
North West -2 196 £620 +12.73% 239
Midlands -20 150 £575 +4.55% 121
East of England +17 106 £550 +4.76% 78
South West -2 99 £550 -8.33% 203
West Midlands -22 99 £563 +4.17% 83
Yorkshire -3 83 £485 -19.17% 76
Scotland -4 67 £500 -9.09% 62
East Midlands -11 49 £580 +0.87% 38
Wales +8 38 £444 -26.04% 25
Northern Ireland -10 14 £403 -32.92% 16
North East -10 4 £550 -8.33% 26
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 October 2025, 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.

1 667 (27.68%) SAP
2 626 (25.98%) Security Cleared
3 529 (21.95%) SC Cleared
4 347 (14.40%) SAP S/4HANA
5 323 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
6 311 (12.90%) Migration
7 291 (12.07%) Microsoft
8 269 (11.16%) Stakeholder Management
9 244 (10.12%) Oracle
10 230 (9.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 209 (8.67%) Azure
12 188 (7.80%) Agile
13 185 (7.68%) SQL
14 166 (6.89%) Data Migration
15 164 (6.80%) ERP
16 162 (6.72%) Analytics
17 156 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
18 136 (5.64%) Validation
19 125 (5.19%) Roadmaps
20 124 (5.15%) Knowledge Transfer
21 123 (5.10%) User Acceptance Testing
22 122 (5.06%) Cybersecurity
22 122 (5.06%) Python
23 121 (5.02%) DevOps
24 120 (4.98%) Business Intelligence
25 118 (4.90%) AWS
26 115 (4.77%) Requirements Gathering
27 111 (4.61%) Project Delivery
28 105 (4.36%) Power Platform
29 104 (4.32%) 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 53 (2.20%) SharePoint
2 26 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (1.00%) WebLogic
4 22 (0.91%) WebSphere
5 21 (0.87%) Confluence
6 11 (0.46%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.37%) Apache
7 9 (0.37%) NetWeaver
7 9 (0.37%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.33%) IIS
9 7 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.25%) Apache Spark
11 5 (0.21%) CMS
11 5 (0.21%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 4 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
14 2 (0.083%) Anypoint
14 2 (0.083%) Camunda
14 2 (0.083%) OpenStack
15 1 (0.041%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 40 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.41%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
5 4 (0.17%) Navisworks
5 4 (0.17%) Revit
6 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
6 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.083%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.041%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.041%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.041%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
8 1 (0.041%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.041%) InVision
8 1 (0.041%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.041%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 347 (14.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 80 (3.32%) Oracle EBS
3 63 (2.61%) SAP FI
4 56 (2.32%) Oracle Payables
5 55 (2.28%) SAP CO
6 50 (2.07%) SAP FI/CO
7 48 (1.99%) Oracle EBS R12
8 45 (1.87%) SAP MM
9 42 (1.74%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.74%) SAP EWM
10 40 (1.66%) Dynamics CRM
10 40 (1.66%) SAP HCM
11 35 (1.45%) Oracle Assets
11 35 (1.45%) Oracle Cash Management
12 31 (1.29%) Oracle Financials
12 31 (1.29%) SAP WM
13 30 (1.24%) Oracle Receivables
13 30 (1.24%) SAP HR
14 29 (1.20%) SAP SD
15 28 (1.16%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 209 (8.67%) Azure
2 118 (4.90%) AWS
3 105 (4.36%) Power Platform
4 104 (4.32%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (3.69%) Microsoft 365
6 70 (2.90%) OCI
7 57 (2.37%) GCP
8 51 (2.12%) Entra ID
9 42 (1.74%) SaaS
10 41 (1.70%) SuccessFactors
11 36 (1.49%) Power Automate
12 29 (1.20%) PowerApps
13 23 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (0.95%) GitHub
14 20 (0.83%) OneDrive
15 19 (0.79%) Microsoft Copilot
16 16 (0.66%) GitHub Actions
17 15 (0.62%) Microsoft Purview
18 12 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
18 12 (0.50%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 63 (2.61%) Firewall
2 31 (1.29%) Network Security
3 29 (1.20%) VPN
4 27 (1.12%) DNS
5 19 (0.79%) WAN
6 17 (0.71%) SD-WAN
7 16 (0.66%) DHCP
8 13 (0.54%) SSL
9 12 (0.50%) HTTP
9 12 (0.50%) TCP/IP
10 11 (0.46%) BGP
11 10 (0.41%) OSPF
11 10 (0.41%) SAN
12 8 (0.33%) Internet
12 8 (0.33%) Intrusion Detection
13 7 (0.29%) SSH
14 6 (0.25%) LAN
14 6 (0.25%) MPLS
14 6 (0.25%) VLAN
14 6 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.90%) Power BI
2 48 (1.99%) SAP HANA
3 47 (1.95%) SQL Server
4 34 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
5 22 (0.91%) SAP BW
6 21 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
7 17 (0.71%) SAP Data Services
8 16 (0.66%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.62%) DB2
9 15 (0.62%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.58%) Metadata
11 13 (0.54%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 12 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
13 11 (0.46%) Tableau
14 8 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
14 8 (0.33%) GIS
15 7 (0.29%) NoSQL
16 6 (0.25%) Data Lake
16 6 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
17 5 (0.21%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 52 (2.16%) JIRA
2 23 (0.95%) GitLab
3 19 (0.79%) Git
4 18 (0.75%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.41%) LSMW
6 9 (0.37%) Hudson
7 7 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
8 5 (0.21%) Postman
9 4 (0.17%) Eclipse
10 3 (0.12%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.12%) Selenium
10 3 (0.12%) Snyk
11 2 (0.083%) JUnit
11 2 (0.083%) Mockito
11 2 (0.083%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.083%) Visual Studio
12 1 (0.041%) Ant
12 1 (0.041%) PVCS
12 1 (0.041%) Toad
General
1 735 (30.50%) Social Skills
2 531 (22.03%) Finance
3 229 (9.50%) Analytical Skills
4 194 (8.05%) Public Sector
5 143 (5.93%) Manufacturing
6 80 (3.32%) Documentation Skills
7 68 (2.82%) Banking
8 63 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
9 53 (2.20%) Telecoms
10 49 (2.03%) Billing
10 49 (2.03%) Marketing
11 47 (1.95%) Pharmaceutical
12 46 (1.91%) Legal
13 43 (1.78%) General Ledger
14 33 (1.37%) Retail
15 23 (0.95%) Law
15 23 (0.95%) Local Government
16 20 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 17 (0.71%) Aerospace
17 17 (0.71%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.40%) SAP Fiori
2 59 (2.45%) REST
3 48 (1.99%) SOAP
4 47 (1.95%) Oracle Fusion
5 40 (1.66%) Web Services
6 38 (1.58%) HTML
7 35 (1.45%) XML
8 32 (1.33%) Middleware
9 27 (1.12%) EntireX
10 26 (1.08%) Node.js
11 25 (1.04%) BAPI
11 25 (1.04%) OAuth
12 24 (1.00%) .NET
12 24 (1.00%) EDI
13 22 (0.91%) JSON
14 21 (0.87%) SAP TM
15 19 (0.79%) CSS
16 17 (0.71%) IDoc
16 17 (0.71%) LDAP
17 16 (0.66%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.24%) Onboarding
2 53 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
3 37 (1.54%) Management Information System
3 37 (1.54%) Security Posture
4 31 (1.29%) Product Ownership
5 28 (1.16%) Data Centre
6 24 (1.00%) Cloud Native
7 23 (0.95%) Greenfield Project
7 23 (0.95%) Life Science
8 22 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
9 21 (0.87%) Operational Technology
10 19 (0.79%) Virtual Team
11 18 (0.75%) Data Structures
12 17 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
12 17 (0.71%) Private Cloud
13 15 (0.62%) CMDB
13 15 (0.62%) SCADA
14 14 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
14 14 (0.58%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 75 (3.11%) Windows
2 57 (2.37%) Linux
3 20 (0.83%) Windows Server
4 19 (0.79%) Unix
5 15 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.33%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.25%) AIX
7 6 (0.25%) Solaris
8 5 (0.21%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.12%) VMS
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.083%) Android
10 2 (0.083%) CentOS
10 2 (0.083%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.083%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.083%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.083%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.041%) HPUX
11 1 (0.041%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 323 (13.40%) Problem-Solving
2 311 (12.90%) Migration
3 269 (11.16%) Stakeholder Management
4 230 (9.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 188 (7.80%) Agile
6 166 (6.89%) Data Migration
7 164 (6.80%) ERP
8 162 (6.72%) Analytics
9 156 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
10 136 (5.64%) Validation
11 125 (5.19%) Roadmaps
12 124 (5.15%) Knowledge Transfer
13 123 (5.10%) User Acceptance Testing
14 122 (5.06%) Cybersecurity
15 121 (5.02%) DevOps
16 120 (4.98%) Business Intelligence
17 115 (4.77%) Requirements Gathering
18 111 (4.61%) Project Delivery
19 101 (4.19%) Logistics
19 101 (4.19%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 185 (7.68%) SQL
2 122 (5.06%) Python
3 70 (2.90%) PowerShell
4 69 (2.86%) JavaScript
5 61 (2.53%) ABAP
6 60 (2.49%) Java
7 35 (1.45%) PL/SQL
8 21 (0.87%) C++
9 20 (0.83%) Groovy
10 17 (0.71%) Bash
11 16 (0.66%) C
12 14 (0.58%) PHP
13 13 (0.54%) C#
14 9 (0.37%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.29%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.29%) Perl
16 6 (0.25%) COBOL
16 6 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 6 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
16 6 (0.25%) VBA
Qualifications
1 626 (25.98%) Security Cleared
2 529 (21.95%) SC Cleared
3 91 (3.78%) Degree
4 88 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 78 (3.24%) DV Cleared
6 67 (2.78%) CISSP
7 43 (1.78%) CISM
8 28 (1.16%) SAP Certification
9 24 (1.00%) Microsoft Certification
10 18 (0.75%) ACCA
10 18 (0.75%) CIMA
10 18 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
10 18 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 16 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (0.58%) AWS Certification
12 14 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
13 11 (0.46%) CCNP
13 11 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
13 11 (0.46%) Master's Degree
14 10 (0.41%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (3.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 69 (2.86%) NIST
3 60 (2.49%) QA
4 50 (2.07%) GDPR
5 49 (2.03%) Data Quality
6 23 (0.95%) GRC
7 21 (0.87%) SLA
8 18 (0.75%) NCSC
9 17 (0.71%) IFRS
10 16 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
10 16 (0.66%) RMADS
11 14 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 14 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.50%) Accessibility
12 12 (0.50%) PMO
13 11 (0.46%) COBIT
13 11 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
14 9 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.33%) EMIR
15 8 (0.33%) HIPAA
System Software
1 67 (2.78%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (1.45%) Docker
4 18 (0.75%) VMware NSX
5 14 (0.58%) vSphere
6 6 (0.25%) Firmware
6 6 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.17%) NDS
8 4 (0.17%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 4 (0.17%) UAG
9 3 (0.12%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.041%) IAG
10 1 (0.041%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.041%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.041%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.041%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.041%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 49 (2.03%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.95%) Terraform
3 22 (0.91%) Ansible
3 22 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
4 21 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (0.66%) vRealize
6 14 (0.58%) SCCM
7 13 (0.54%) Grafana
8 11 (0.46%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.29%) CASB
10 6 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.25%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.25%) PingFederate
10 6 (0.25%) PowerCLI
11 5 (0.21%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.21%) QRadar
11 5 (0.21%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.17%) HP ALM
12 4 (0.17%) Nessus
Vendors
1 667 (27.68%) SAP
2 291 (12.07%) Microsoft
3 244 (10.12%) Oracle
4 80 (3.32%) VMware
5 75 (3.11%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.61%) CyberArk
7 59 (2.45%) IBM
8 57 (2.37%) Workday
9 54 (2.24%) Salesforce
10 50 (2.07%) Cisco
11 44 (1.83%) Ariba
12 32 (1.33%) Google
13 31 (1.29%) Adobe
13 31 (1.29%) Dynatrace
14 27 (1.12%) Software AG
15 22 (0.91%) Splunk
16 20 (0.83%) IFS
16 20 (0.83%) Palo Alto
17 17 (0.71%) Databricks
18 16 (0.66%) OpenText