Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £548, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 June 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,971 1,968 2,887
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.49% 6.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.31% 7.04% 7.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,656 1,146 1,729
10th Percentile £400 £406 £400
25th Percentile £462 £470 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.45% - -
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £731 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 27 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £27.25
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 £65.03
90th Percentile £85.70 £87.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £59.95
% change year-on-year -22.03% +23.02% -7.54%

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 47,106 27,940 40,291
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.14% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,573 17,914 25,878
10th Percentile £325 £289 £281
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -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% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,158 1,233 2,861
10th Percentile £15.38 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.25 £26.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.21% -29.33% -14.29%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 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 27 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 27 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 -3 2,376 £550 - 847
UK excluding London +1 1,269 £525 -2.33% 619
London -1 1,093 £550 -4.35% 376
Work from Home -2 1,064 £539 -2.05% 392
South East -4 347 £525 -4.55% 198
North of England -20 270 £550 +2.33% 166
Midlands -12 247 £525 -4.55% 77
South West +27 209 £553 +0.55% 70
West Midlands +5 171 £525 -4.55% 56
North West -18 144 £550 -4.35% 110
Yorkshire -1 104 £544 +14.47% 40
East of England -8 90 £550 +8.70% 56
Scotland +30 83 £425 -8.11% 22
East Midlands -8 67 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -1 31 £550 +31.34% 13
North East -37 22 £650 +20.37% 17
Northern Ireland -5 3 £600 +15.38% 28

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 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.

1 617 (20.77%) SAP
2 546 (18.38%) Security Cleared
3 405 (13.63%) SC Cleared
4 393 (13.23%) Migration
5 351 (11.81%) Microsoft
6 338 (11.38%) Oracle
7 330 (11.11%) Azure
8 299 (10.06%) Stakeholder Management
9 273 (9.19%) SAP S/4HANA
10 270 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 257 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
12 252 (8.48%) ERP
13 238 (8.01%) SQL
14 214 (7.20%) User Acceptance Testing
15 200 (6.73%) Validation
15 200 (6.73%) Workshop Facilitation
16 199 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
17 177 (5.96%) Data Migration
18 169 (5.69%) Analytics
19 163 (5.49%) Agile
20 162 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
21 156 (5.25%) AI
22 154 (5.18%) Roadmaps
23 144 (4.85%) Power Platform
24 143 (4.81%) AWS
25 136 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
26 134 (4.51%) Dynamics 365
27 127 (4.27%) Change Management
28 126 (4.24%) Python
29 121 (4.07%) Requirements Gathering

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 77 (2.59%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.55%) Confluence
3 14 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.30%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.27%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.10%) Apache
9 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.067%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.067%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.067%) IIS
10 2 (0.067%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.067%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.067%) WordPress
11 1 (0.034%) CMS
Applications
1 78 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.24%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.067%) Lectora
9 2 (0.067%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.034%) CATIA
10 1 (0.034%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 273 (9.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 80 (2.69%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (1.92%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.68%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
6 37 (1.25%) SAP BRIM
6 37 (1.25%) SAP MM
7 33 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
8 30 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
8 30 (1.01%) SAP FI-CA
8 30 (1.01%) SAP SD
9 29 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
9 29 (0.98%) SAP EWM
10 26 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
10 26 (0.88%) SAP CO
10 26 (0.88%) Teamcenter
11 25 (0.84%) SAP PP
12 24 (0.81%) NetSuite
12 24 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
13 23 (0.77%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 330 (11.11%) Azure
2 144 (4.85%) Power Platform
3 143 (4.81%) AWS
4 134 (4.51%) Dynamics 365
5 93 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
6 91 (3.06%) OCI
7 79 (2.66%) GCP
8 75 (2.52%) SuccessFactors
9 67 (2.26%) Power Automate
10 53 (1.78%) Entra ID
11 52 (1.75%) SaaS
12 45 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
13 44 (1.48%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.14%) GitHub
15 33 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
16 32 (1.08%) PowerApps
17 22 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
18 17 (0.57%) Serverless
19 16 (0.54%) OneDrive
20 15 (0.50%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.65%) Firewall
2 43 (1.45%) Network Security
3 22 (0.74%) SNMP
4 21 (0.71%) WAN
5 15 (0.50%) BGP
5 15 (0.50%) DNS
5 15 (0.50%) LAN
6 13 (0.44%) SAN
7 11 (0.37%) VPN
7 11 (0.37%) VSAN
8 10 (0.34%) SMS
9 9 (0.30%) FTP
10 8 (0.27%) NAS
10 8 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
11 7 (0.24%) NGFW
11 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.20%) Ethernet VPN
12 6 (0.20%) HTTP
12 6 (0.20%) IPsec
12 6 (0.20%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (2.86%) Power BI
2 51 (1.72%) Oracle Reports
3 35 (1.18%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.14%) Tableau
5 28 (0.94%) Metadata
6 26 (0.88%) SQL Server
7 22 (0.74%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 22 (0.74%) SAP BW
8 18 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
9 16 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
10 12 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
11 10 (0.34%) Power Query
12 9 (0.30%) Oracle Database
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.17%) Crystal Reports
15 5 (0.17%) GIS
15 5 (0.17%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.17%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 87 (2.93%) JIRA
2 19 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.57%) Hudson
4 13 (0.44%) Git
4 13 (0.44%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.30%) GitLab
6 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.17%) Postman
7 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) TestRail
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.067%) MLflow
10 2 (0.067%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.067%) Snyk
General
1 639 (21.51%) Finance
2 633 (21.31%) Social Skills
3 251 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
4 214 (7.20%) Public Sector
5 96 (3.23%) Manufacturing
6 91 (3.06%) Banking
7 80 (2.69%) Legal
8 76 (2.56%) Billing
9 63 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 57 (1.92%) General Ledger
11 52 (1.75%) Marketing
12 49 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
13 40 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 38 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
15 38 (1.28%) Retail
16 27 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
17 22 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
18 21 (0.71%) Law
18 21 (0.71%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (2.63%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.39%) REST
3 58 (1.95%) XML
4 32 (1.08%) Middleware
4 32 (1.08%) SAP Fiori
5 28 (0.94%) Web Services
6 27 (0.91%) BAPI
7 25 (0.84%) SOAP
8 23 (0.77%) SAP TM
9 20 (0.67%) HTML
10 18 (0.61%) CSS
11 17 (0.57%) JSON
12 16 (0.54%) .NET
12 16 (0.54%) SAP Basis
13 12 (0.40%) LDAP
13 12 (0.40%) OAuth
14 11 (0.37%) IDoc
15 10 (0.34%) EDI
15 10 (0.34%) React
16 9 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 80 (2.69%) Onboarding
2 46 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.48%) Security Posture
4 37 (1.25%) CMDB
4 37 (1.25%) Product Ownership
5 36 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
6 32 (1.08%) AI Agents
7 27 (0.91%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.88%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.84%) Data Centre
10 24 (0.81%) Cloud Native
10 24 (0.81%) Management Information System
11 23 (0.77%) Life Science
12 21 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (0.64%) NHS
13 19 (0.64%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.57%) Replication
15 15 (0.50%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.50%) Security Operations Centre
16 14 (0.47%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 90 (3.03%) Windows
2 67 (2.26%) Linux
3 21 (0.71%) Solaris
3 21 (0.71%) Unix
4 18 (0.61%) VMS
5 17 (0.57%) AIX
6 8 (0.27%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.067%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.067%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.067%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.067%) SUSE
10 2 (0.067%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 393 (13.23%) Migration
2 299 (10.06%) Stakeholder Management
3 270 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 257 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
5 252 (8.48%) ERP
6 214 (7.20%) User Acceptance Testing
7 200 (6.73%) Validation
7 200 (6.73%) Workshop Facilitation
8 199 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
9 177 (5.96%) Data Migration
10 169 (5.69%) Analytics
11 163 (5.49%) Agile
12 162 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
13 156 (5.25%) AI
14 154 (5.18%) Roadmaps
15 136 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
16 127 (4.27%) Change Management
17 121 (4.07%) Requirements Gathering
18 119 (4.01%) Translating Business Requirements
19 110 (3.70%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 238 (8.01%) SQL
2 126 (4.24%) Python
3 66 (2.22%) JavaScript
4 58 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 51 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 43 (1.45%) ABAP
7 35 (1.18%) Java
8 34 (1.14%) T-SQL
9 17 (0.57%) 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 10 (0.34%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.24%) C++
15 7 (0.24%) R
16 5 (0.17%) Korn
17 4 (0.13%) COBOL
17 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 546 (18.38%) Security Cleared
2 405 (13.63%) SC Cleared
3 113 (3.80%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.52%) CISSP
6 74 (2.49%) Degree
7 55 (1.85%) CISM
8 32 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.88%) CCSP
11 22 (0.74%) CIMA
12 17 (0.57%) PMP
13 16 (0.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 15 (0.50%) CEH
15 13 (0.44%) ACCA
15 13 (0.44%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.40%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.40%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (2.96%) NIST
2 77 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 72 (2.42%) Data Quality
4 57 (1.92%) GRC
5 52 (1.75%) QA
6 38 (1.28%) GDPR
7 31 (1.04%) NCSC
8 28 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 23 (0.77%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.71%) Accessibility
11 20 (0.67%) SLA
12 18 (0.61%) PMO
12 18 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.50%) COBIT
14 14 (0.47%) 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 55 (1.85%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.28%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.84%) vSphere
5 13 (0.44%) Docker
6 11 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (0.24%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.24%) IAG
8 5 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.13%) NFS
9 4 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.067%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.034%) HDFS
11 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.034%) SRDF
11 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 48 (1.62%) Terraform
2 47 (1.58%) Kubernetes
3 28 (0.94%) vRealize
4 24 (0.81%) Ansible
5 15 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.50%) Nagios
5 15 (0.50%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.47%) Netcool
6 14 (0.47%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.44%) OpenView
7 13 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (0.37%) Grafana
9 10 (0.34%) FortiGate
9 10 (0.34%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.30%) vCenter Server
11 8 (0.27%) SCCM
12 7 (0.24%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.13%) Podman
Vendors
1 617 (20.77%) SAP
2 351 (11.81%) Microsoft
3 338 (11.38%) Oracle
4 110 (3.70%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.23%) VMware
6 64 (2.15%) Ariba
7 54 (1.82%) Siemens
8 50 (1.68%) Salesforce
8 50 (1.68%) Workday
9 39 (1.31%) Databricks
10 38 (1.28%) Splunk
11 28 (0.94%) Google
12 23 (0.77%) BMC
12 23 (0.77%) IBM
13 21 (0.71%) Palo Alto
14 19 (0.64%) Adobe
15 18 (0.61%) JD Edwards
16 16 (0.54%) IFS
16 16 (0.54%) Okta
16 16 (0.54%) OpenAI