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 January 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 29 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,516 2,062 2,635
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.88% 6.58% 6.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.53% 7.09% 6.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,459 1,130 1,522
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £465 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £721 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £525
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 12 38
10th Percentile £40.48 £55.65 £49.28
25th Percentile £61.44 £66.38 £60.21
Median hourly rate £71.25 £74.00 £65.06
Median % change year-on-year -3.71% +13.73% -7.05%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.06 £86.81
90th Percentile £85.18 £87.38 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £74.00 £63.15
% change year-on-year +4.73% +17.19% +0.23%

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 33,423 29,063 39,970
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.34% 92.68% 93.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,125 17,795 26,676
10th Percentile £300 £289 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,961 876 1,672
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.49 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.03 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +26.87%
75th Percentile £60.00 £61.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.62 £45.00
% change year-on-year -17.85% -31.97% +64.38%

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 January 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 January 2026.

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 13 January 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 0 1,965 £550 - 1,040
UK excluding London +3 1,020 £550 - 827
London -2 913 £575 +4.55% 399
Work from Home 0 911 £538 -2.27% 412
South East -2 278 £550 - 310
North of England -4 271 £598 +8.73% 156
Midlands -14 168 £531 +1.19% 90
North West +3 164 £623 +15.71% 84
West Midlands -6 132 £538 +2.38% 52
South West +3 112 £594 +13.10% 156
Yorkshire +9 98 £550 -12.00% 58
East of England 0 88 £550 -4.35% 75
Scotland +11 67 £500 -9.09% 21
East Midlands -19 35 £524 -0.71% 38
Wales +10 29 £405 -31.06% 20
Northern Ireland +1 12 £405 -22.86% 12
North East -13 9 £620 +3.33% 15
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 January 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.

1 661 (26.27%) SAP
2 647 (25.72%) Security Cleared
3 541 (21.50%) SC Cleared
4 353 (14.03%) Migration
5 345 (13.71%) SAP S/4HANA
6 316 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
7 308 (12.24%) Oracle
8 302 (12.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 299 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
10 262 (10.41%) Microsoft
11 235 (9.34%) Azure
12 196 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
13 193 (7.67%) Agile
14 178 (7.07%) ERP
15 168 (6.68%) User Acceptance Testing
16 161 (6.40%) Analytics
17 157 (6.24%) Data Migration
18 152 (6.04%) SQL
19 149 (5.92%) Roadmaps
20 145 (5.76%) Knowledge Transfer
21 136 (5.41%) Validation
22 130 (5.17%) Business Intelligence
22 130 (5.17%) Cybersecurity
23 122 (4.85%) DevOps
24 118 (4.69%) Dynamics 365
25 116 (4.61%) Python
26 112 (4.45%) Risk Management
27 108 (4.29%) AWS
28 107 (4.25%) Data Modelling
29 104 (4.13%) Power Platform

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 59 (2.34%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.11%) Confluence
4 6 (0.24%) CMS
4 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 6 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.20%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Service Bus
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.079%) Apache
8 2 (0.079%) IIS
8 2 (0.079%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.040%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.040%) nginx
9 1 (0.040%) WebSphere
Applications
1 45 (1.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.040%) InVision
8 1 (0.040%) Sketch
8 1 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 345 (13.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 77 (3.06%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.34%) Oracle Payables
3 59 (2.34%) SAP FI
4 51 (2.03%) SAP EWM
4 51 (2.03%) SAP HCM
5 50 (1.99%) Oracle Receivables
6 49 (1.95%) SAP MM
7 47 (1.87%) Oracle EBS R12
8 45 (1.79%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.67%) SAP PP
10 39 (1.55%) Oracle Cash Management
10 39 (1.55%) SAP CO
11 36 (1.43%) SAP FI/CO
12 35 (1.39%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
13 33 (1.31%) SAP Payroll
13 33 (1.31%) SAP WM
14 25 (0.99%) Oracle Financials
14 25 (0.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 235 (9.34%) Azure
2 118 (4.69%) Dynamics 365
3 108 (4.29%) AWS
4 104 (4.13%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.93%) OCI
6 74 (2.94%) GCP
7 65 (2.58%) Microsoft 365
8 58 (2.31%) SaaS
9 54 (2.15%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.55%) SuccessFactors
11 34 (1.35%) Power Automate
12 32 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
13 28 (1.11%) PowerApps
14 24 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
15 20 (0.79%) GitHub
16 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.76%) OneDrive
17 17 (0.68%) Serverless
18 16 (0.64%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 15 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 52 (2.07%) Firewall
2 19 (0.76%) VPN
3 18 (0.72%) DNS
4 17 (0.68%) Network Security
4 17 (0.68%) WAN
5 15 (0.60%) SD-WAN
6 14 (0.56%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.52%) HTTP
8 12 (0.48%) SSL
9 11 (0.44%) DHCP
9 11 (0.44%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.40%) SMS
11 9 (0.36%) Intranet
11 9 (0.36%) SSH
12 7 (0.28%) BGP
12 7 (0.28%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.28%) LAN
12 7 (0.28%) SAN
13 6 (0.24%) OSPF
13 6 (0.24%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.94%) Power BI
2 50 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
3 45 (1.79%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.35%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.95%) Metadata
6 21 (0.83%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.64%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
10 13 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 9 (0.36%) DB2
13 9 (0.36%) NoSQL
13 9 (0.36%) Tableau
14 7 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
16 5 (0.20%) MongoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.38%) JIRA
2 21 (0.83%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.76%) Git
4 16 (0.64%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.32%) Hudson
6 8 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.20%) LSMW
7 5 (0.20%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
10 2 (0.079%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.079%) git-flow
10 2 (0.079%) Mockito
10 2 (0.079%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.079%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.079%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.079%) Visual Studio
General
1 716 (28.46%) Social Skills
2 567 (22.54%) Finance
3 239 (9.50%) Public Sector
4 227 (9.02%) Analytical Skills
5 150 (5.96%) Manufacturing
6 89 (3.54%) Banking
7 77 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
8 68 (2.70%) Marketing
9 59 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
10 55 (2.19%) Billing
11 50 (1.99%) Legal
12 40 (1.59%) Telecoms
13 38 (1.51%) General Ledger
14 31 (1.23%) Pharmaceutical
15 28 (1.11%) Retail
16 26 (1.03%) Law
17 23 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 22 (0.87%) Electronics
18 22 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
19 20 (0.79%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.34%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.90%) REST
3 69 (2.74%) SAP Fiori
4 47 (1.87%) Web Services
5 43 (1.71%) SOAP
6 39 (1.55%) XML
7 30 (1.19%) Node.js
7 30 (1.19%) SAP TM
8 28 (1.11%) LDAP
9 25 (0.99%) JSON
10 24 (0.95%) Middleware
11 21 (0.83%) HTML
12 20 (0.79%) BAPI
12 20 (0.79%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.72%) GraphQL
13 18 (0.72%) OAuth
14 16 (0.64%) CSS
15 15 (0.60%) SAP Basis
16 14 (0.56%) .NET
16 14 (0.56%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 76 (3.02%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.75%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.43%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.27%) Cloud Native
6 31 (1.23%) Data Centre
7 27 (1.07%) Management Information System
8 24 (0.95%) Replication
9 23 (0.91%) Data Structures
10 22 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
11 19 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
12 18 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
13 14 (0.56%) NHS
13 14 (0.56%) Operational Technology
14 12 (0.48%) CMDB
14 12 (0.48%) Virtual Team
15 10 (0.40%) FMCG
15 10 (0.40%) Public Cloud
15 10 (0.40%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.90%) Windows
2 52 (2.07%) Linux
3 22 (0.87%) Unix
4 13 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.36%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.28%) AIX
8 7 (0.28%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.079%) CentOS
11 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.040%) Android
12 1 (0.040%) SUSE
12 1 (0.040%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (14.03%) Migration
2 316 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
3 302 (12.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 299 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
6 193 (7.67%) Agile
7 178 (7.07%) ERP
8 168 (6.68%) User Acceptance Testing
9 161 (6.40%) Analytics
10 157 (6.24%) Data Migration
11 149 (5.92%) Roadmaps
12 145 (5.76%) Knowledge Transfer
13 136 (5.41%) Validation
14 130 (5.17%) Business Intelligence
14 130 (5.17%) Cybersecurity
15 122 (4.85%) DevOps
16 112 (4.45%) Risk Management
17 107 (4.25%) Data Modelling
18 101 (4.01%) Continuous Improvement
19 100 (3.97%) AI
Programming Languages
1 152 (6.04%) SQL
2 116 (4.61%) Python
3 88 (3.50%) PowerShell
4 77 (3.06%) JavaScript
5 75 (2.98%) ABAP
6 41 (1.63%) Java
7 30 (1.19%) Groovy
8 28 (1.11%) PL/SQL
8 28 (1.11%) TypeScript
9 17 (0.68%) Bash
10 14 (0.56%) C#
11 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
12 7 (0.28%) C++
12 7 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 7 (0.28%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.24%) R
13 6 (0.24%) VBA
14 5 (0.20%) Bicep
15 4 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 647 (25.72%) Security Cleared
2 541 (21.50%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.90%) Degree
4 81 (3.22%) BPSS Clearance
4 81 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 55 (2.19%) CISSP
6 40 (1.59%) CISM
7 27 (1.07%) SAP Certification
7 27 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
9 17 (0.68%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (0.64%) CIMA
11 14 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.52%) ACCA
12 13 (0.52%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.44%) CCNP
14 10 (0.40%) CESG Certified Professional
15 9 (0.36%) CISA
16 7 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 70 (2.78%) GDPR
2 70 (2.78%) NIST
3 53 (2.11%) QA
4 44 (1.75%) Data Quality
5 38 (1.51%) GRC
6 22 (0.87%) NCSC
7 20 (0.79%) SLA
8 17 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
9 14 (0.56%) PMO
10 13 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 12 (0.48%) PCI DSS
12 11 (0.44%) PERC
13 9 (0.36%) COBIT
14 8 (0.32%) Accessibility
14 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.32%) HIPAA
14 8 (0.32%) IFRS
15 7 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 73 (2.90%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.75%) Docker
3 34 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (0.99%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.76%) vSphere
6 10 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 5 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) Ceph
11 1 (0.040%) Firmware
11 1 (0.040%) KVM
11 1 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.040%) QEMU
11 1 (0.040%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 60 (2.38%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.55%) Terraform
3 28 (1.11%) vRealize
4 25 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (0.76%) Ansible
6 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.52%) SCCM
8 12 (0.48%) Grafana
9 11 (0.44%) PingFederate
10 10 (0.40%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 5 (0.20%) Podman
14 4 (0.16%) CASB
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
15 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
15 3 (0.12%) Nessus
16 2 (0.079%) Nexpose
Vendors
1 661 (26.27%) SAP
2 308 (12.24%) Oracle
3 262 (10.41%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.62%) VMware
5 74 (2.94%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.50%) Workday
7 58 (2.31%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.27%) Salesforce
9 56 (2.23%) Cisco
10 50 (1.99%) Ariba
11 38 (1.51%) Google
12 35 (1.39%) Aruba
13 34 (1.35%) Adobe
14 23 (0.91%) OpenText
15 19 (0.76%) Remedy
16 18 (0.72%) Dynatrace
17 17 (0.68%) Databricks
18 15 (0.60%) Dell
19 13 (0.52%) Splunk
20 12 (0.48%) Zscaler