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 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,255 2,338 2,558
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.93% 7.07% 6.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.43% 7.77% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,836 1,379 1,369
10th Percentile £413 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £565
% change year-on-year -0.09% -2.65% +7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 25 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £45.38
25th Percentile £44.06 £41.60 £60.29
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £62.30
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +24.40% -4.15%
75th Percentile £86.03 £81.25 £70.89
90th Percentile £94.13 £87.40 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -3.75%

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 50,623 30,078 35,169
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 90.98% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,851 19,013 21,316
10th Percentile £325 £276 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £734 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,956 1,609 1,552
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.30 £20.94
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -2.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.31 £74.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.87 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.97% -41.69% -2.05%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 -5 2,593 £550 -0.90% 3,651
UK excluding London -4 1,363 £550 -0.09% 1,891
London -4 1,256 £550 -4.35% 2,020
Work from Home -5 1,068 £550 - 1,851
South East -7 379 £533 -3.18% 497
North of England -21 333 £578 -0.43% 447
Midlands -8 228 £500 -11.11% 255
North West -16 220 £583 -5.97% 263
South West +14 193 £553 -5.06% 218
West Midlands +2 164 £500 -11.11% 197
Scotland +25 128 £452 -9.70% 168
East of England -14 106 £552 +0.36% 161
Yorkshire -20 89 £575 +21.05% 98
East Midlands -10 58 £525 -6.67% 58
Wales -16 24 £550 +22.22% 66
North East -23 23 £750 +38.89% 87
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 95

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 October 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.

1 706 (21.69%) Security Cleared
2 647 (19.88%) SAP
3 601 (18.46%) Stakeholder Management
4 480 (14.75%) SC Cleared
5 470 (14.44%) Microsoft
6 448 (13.76%) Migration
7 406 (12.47%) Oracle
8 318 (9.77%) Azure
9 299 (9.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 299 (9.19%) User Acceptance Testing
10 279 (8.57%) SAP S/4HANA
11 267 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
12 254 (7.80%) Validation
13 246 (7.56%) Cybersecurity
14 245 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
15 232 (7.13%) ERP
16 216 (6.64%) Analytics
17 215 (6.61%) SQL
18 206 (6.33%) Continuous Improvement
19 201 (6.18%) Data Migration
20 197 (6.05%) Roadmaps
21 188 (5.78%) Requirements Gathering
22 186 (5.71%) Agile
23 181 (5.56%) AWS
24 168 (5.16%) AI
25 163 (5.01%) Power Platform
26 162 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
27 152 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
28 149 (4.58%) DV Cleared
28 149 (4.58%) 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 75 (2.30%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.38%) Confluence
3 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
5 8 (0.25%) SAS
5 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.12%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.12%) CMS
8 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.092%) Apache
8 3 (0.092%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.092%) IIS
8 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.061%) OpenEdge
9 2 (0.061%) Smallworld
9 2 (0.061%) Tomcat
Applications
1 48 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.061%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) 1Password
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.031%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 279 (8.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 84 (2.58%) Oracle EBS
3 79 (2.43%) SAP FI
4 52 (1.60%) SAP Payroll
5 50 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
5 50 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
6 45 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
6 45 (1.38%) SAP CO
7 43 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
8 41 (1.26%) Oracle General Ledger
9 40 (1.23%) Workday HCM
10 38 (1.17%) SAP HR
11 37 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
12 36 (1.11%) SAP FI/CO
12 36 (1.11%) SAP HCM
13 34 (1.04%) SAP BRIM
14 33 (1.01%) SAP SD
15 29 (0.89%) NetSuite
15 29 (0.89%) SAP PP
16 27 (0.83%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 318 (9.77%) Azure
2 181 (5.56%) AWS
3 163 (5.01%) Power Platform
4 149 (4.58%) Dynamics 365
5 117 (3.59%) OCI
6 102 (3.13%) SuccessFactors
7 99 (3.04%) GCP
8 94 (2.89%) Microsoft 365
9 72 (2.21%) Entra ID
10 68 (2.09%) Power Automate
11 65 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
12 58 (1.78%) Microsoft Copilot
13 49 (1.51%) SaaS
14 36 (1.11%) PowerApps
15 30 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.77%) GitHub
17 20 (0.61%) Snowflake
18 19 (0.58%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.52%) Copilot Studio
20 16 (0.49%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 72 (2.21%) Firewall
2 69 (2.12%) Network Security
3 34 (1.04%) BGP
3 34 (1.04%) WAN
4 26 (0.80%) VPN
5 20 (0.61%) DNS
6 17 (0.52%) SNMP
7 15 (0.46%) LAN
8 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
8 14 (0.43%) TCP/IP
9 12 (0.37%) SAN
9 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
10 11 (0.34%) IPsec
10 11 (0.34%) MPLS
10 11 (0.34%) NGFW
11 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
11 10 (0.31%) 5G
11 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
12 9 (0.28%) FTP
12 9 (0.28%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (2.95%) Power BI
2 45 (1.38%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.20%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (1.08%) SAP BW
4 35 (1.08%) SAP HANA
5 30 (0.92%) SQL Server
6 28 (0.86%) Tableau
7 26 (0.80%) Metadata
8 23 (0.71%) BusinessObjects
9 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
10 16 (0.49%) Power Query
11 11 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
12 10 (0.31%) Relational Database
13 9 (0.28%) BigQuery
13 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
13 9 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
14 7 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
14 7 (0.22%) Oracle ODI
14 7 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 96 (2.95%) JIRA
2 30 (0.92%) Git
3 19 (0.58%) Jenkins
4 13 (0.40%) GitLab
5 11 (0.34%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.25%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.22%) Hudson
7 7 (0.22%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.22%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.12%) Maven
11 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.092%) JMeter
11 3 (0.092%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.092%) MLflow
11 3 (0.092%) Postman
11 3 (0.092%) Snyk
11 3 (0.092%) Toad
General
1 742 (22.80%) Finance
2 740 (22.73%) Social Skills
3 268 (8.23%) Public Sector
4 237 (7.28%) Analytical Skills
5 128 (3.93%) Manufacturing
6 97 (2.98%) Banking
7 90 (2.76%) Billing
7 90 (2.76%) Legal
8 83 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
9 70 (2.15%) Telecoms
10 60 (1.84%) General Ledger
11 58 (1.78%) Retail
12 56 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
13 47 (1.44%) Marketing
14 41 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
15 39 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 37 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
17 29 (0.89%) Local Government
18 24 (0.74%) Law
19 20 (0.61%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (4.02%) Oracle Fusion
2 77 (2.37%) REST
3 62 (1.90%) Terraform
4 48 (1.47%) SAP Fiori
5 40 (1.23%) Web Services
5 40 (1.23%) XML
6 39 (1.20%) Middleware
6 39 (1.20%) SOAP
7 27 (0.83%) SailPoint
8 23 (0.71%) JSON
8 23 (0.71%) OAuth
9 21 (0.65%) LDAP
10 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
11 17 (0.52%) HTML
12 16 (0.49%) BAPI
13 15 (0.46%) CSS
13 15 (0.46%) SAP Basis
14 14 (0.43%) ADO
15 13 (0.40%) EDI
15 13 (0.40%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 132 (4.06%) Onboarding
2 53 (1.63%) CMDB
3 51 (1.57%) Operational Technology
4 49 (1.51%) Data Structures
5 46 (1.41%) Data Centre
6 40 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
7 39 (1.20%) Product Ownership
7 39 (1.20%) Security Posture
8 37 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
9 30 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
10 29 (0.89%) Cloud Native
10 29 (0.89%) Replication
11 28 (0.86%) AI Agents
12 22 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
12 22 (0.68%) Life Science
13 21 (0.65%) Public Cloud
14 19 (0.58%) Management Information System
15 18 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
16 16 (0.49%) NHS
16 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 99 (3.04%) Windows
2 77 (2.37%) Linux
3 31 (0.95%) Unix
4 27 (0.83%) Windows Server
5 20 (0.61%) Solaris
6 14 (0.43%) VMS
7 11 (0.34%) AIX
8 7 (0.22%) Android
8 7 (0.22%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.18%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.031%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.031%) SUSE
10 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 601 (18.46%) Stakeholder Management
2 448 (13.76%) Migration
3 299 (9.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 299 (9.19%) User Acceptance Testing
4 267 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
5 254 (7.80%) Validation
6 246 (7.56%) Cybersecurity
7 245 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
8 232 (7.13%) ERP
9 216 (6.64%) Analytics
10 206 (6.33%) Continuous Improvement
11 201 (6.18%) Data Migration
12 197 (6.05%) Roadmaps
13 188 (5.78%) Requirements Gathering
14 186 (5.71%) Agile
15 168 (5.16%) AI
16 162 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
17 152 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
18 145 (4.45%) Translating Business Requirements
19 138 (4.24%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 215 (6.61%) SQL
2 101 (3.10%) Python
3 62 (1.90%) ABAP
4 49 (1.51%) PowerShell
5 42 (1.29%) JavaScript
6 32 (0.98%) PL/SQL
7 31 (0.95%) Java
8 23 (0.71%) Bash
9 15 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.40%) C#
10 13 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.25%) Groovy
13 8 (0.25%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.18%) Korn
15 5 (0.15%) Perl
15 5 (0.15%) R
16 3 (0.092%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 706 (21.69%) Security Cleared
2 480 (14.75%) SC Cleared
3 149 (4.58%) DV Cleared
4 109 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
5 78 (2.40%) Degree
6 73 (2.24%) CISSP
7 57 (1.75%) CISM
8 43 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.83%) CCSP
11 18 (0.55%) ACCA
12 17 (0.52%) CRISC
13 16 (0.49%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.46%) CIMA
15 12 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.37%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.37%) PMP
16 11 (0.34%) CISA
17 10 (0.31%) CCIE
17 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (3.44%) Data Quality
2 102 (3.13%) NIST
3 81 (2.49%) GRC
4 77 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 58 (1.78%) QA
6 47 (1.44%) NCSC
7 35 (1.08%) GDPR
8 34 (1.04%) SLA
9 28 (0.86%) PMO
10 22 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
11 19 (0.58%) Accessibility
12 18 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
13 16 (0.49%) PCI DSS
14 13 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 13 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 10 (0.31%) GxP
17 9 (0.28%) IFRS
18 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
18 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 89 (2.73%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (0.92%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) Docker
5 17 (0.52%) vSphere
6 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.31%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.15%) Firmware
11 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.031%) HDFS
12 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.031%) oVirt
12 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.031%) RHEV
12 1 (0.031%) SRDF
12 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 49 (1.51%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.08%) Ansible
3 24 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (0.65%) SCCM
5 15 (0.46%) Grafana
6 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
6 12 (0.37%) vRealize
7 11 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.25%) Nagios
10 8 (0.25%) ZABBIX
11 6 (0.18%) Netcool
11 6 (0.18%) Tivoli
11 6 (0.18%) VxRail
12 5 (0.15%) OpenView
12 5 (0.15%) Tivoli Monitoring
13 4 (0.12%) Control-M
13 4 (0.12%) logstash
13 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 647 (19.88%) SAP
2 470 (14.44%) Microsoft
3 406 (12.47%) Oracle
4 138 (4.24%) ServiceNow
5 85 (2.61%) Workday
6 70 (2.15%) VMware
7 60 (1.84%) Ariba
8 48 (1.47%) Salesforce
9 38 (1.17%) Databricks
10 36 (1.11%) Palo Alto
10 36 (1.11%) Splunk
11 30 (0.92%) CyberArk
12 29 (0.89%) Cisco
13 28 (0.86%) Google
14 26 (0.80%) OpenText
15 24 (0.74%) BMC
16 23 (0.71%) IBM
17 19 (0.58%) Zscaler
18 18 (0.55%) Dell
18 18 (0.55%) Veeam