Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 May 2026.

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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,797 1,939 2,748
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.91% 6.61% 6.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.41% 7.15% 6.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,559 1,134 1,710
10th Percentile £381 £413 £400
25th Percentile £450 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -
75th Percentile £633 £638 £650
90th Percentile £718 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £542 £550
% change year-on-year -3.08% -1.51% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 18 29
10th Percentile £51.08 £43.44 £27.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £62.19 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £78.75 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -26.98% +27.84% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £80.40 £87.50 £71.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £56.89
% change year-on-year -30.30% +45.03% -13.81%

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 43,667 27,136 40,368
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.52% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,936 17,712 26,266
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.55% -1.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,813 1,033 2,668
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.14 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -19.49% -19.95%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.11% -6.91%

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 2 May 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 2 May 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 2 May 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 -1 2,202 £540 -1.82% 1,440
UK excluding London -1 1,140 £525 -3.08% 948
London -2 1,037 £550 -4.35% 619
Work from Home 0 982 £550 - 641
South East -4 339 £540 -1.82% 240
Midlands -12 229 £525 -2.33% 112
North of England -25 217 £525 -2.33% 277
South West +18 176 £550 - 192
West Midlands -8 155 £550 - 87
North West -34 103 £518 -4.93% 177
Yorkshire -7 94 £526 +0.14% 76
East of England -12 81 £550 +10.00% 59
Scotland +28 73 £450 -13.63% 25
East Midlands -17 67 £500 -4.31% 26
Wales +7 30 £550 +37.50% 35
North East -23 20 £525 -1.69% 25
Northern Ireland +1 3 £600 +15.38% 21

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 2 May 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.

1 591 (21.13%) SAP
2 540 (19.31%) Security Cleared
3 427 (15.27%) SC Cleared
4 364 (13.01%) Migration
5 329 (11.76%) Oracle
6 298 (10.65%) Azure
7 287 (10.26%) Microsoft
8 267 (9.55%) Problem-Solving
9 257 (9.19%) SAP S/4HANA
10 247 (8.83%) Stakeholder Management
11 236 (8.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 234 (8.37%) ERP
13 210 (7.51%) SQL
14 203 (7.26%) User Acceptance Testing
15 192 (6.86%) Workshop Facilitation
16 177 (6.33%) Agile
17 168 (6.01%) Data Migration
18 165 (5.90%) Continuous Improvement
19 152 (5.43%) Cybersecurity
19 152 (5.43%) Validation
20 149 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
21 146 (5.22%) Analytics
22 145 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
23 144 (5.15%) Roadmaps
24 138 (4.93%) Power Platform
25 128 (4.58%) AI
26 122 (4.36%) AWS
27 117 (4.18%) Python
28 109 (3.90%) Change Management
29 105 (3.75%) DevOps

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 73 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.47%) Confluence
3 13 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.072%) IIS
8 2 (0.072%) SAS
8 2 (0.072%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) CMS
9 1 (0.036%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.036%) nginx
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 65 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.072%) Lectora
7 2 (0.072%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.036%) CATIA
8 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 257 (9.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 78 (2.79%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.97%) SAP FI
4 44 (1.57%) Oracle Payables
5 40 (1.43%) Oracle Receivables
5 40 (1.43%) SAP MM
6 38 (1.36%) SAP PSCD
7 36 (1.29%) Oracle EBS R12
8 34 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
8 34 (1.22%) SAP PP
9 31 (1.11%) SAP CO
9 31 (1.11%) SAP HCM
10 29 (1.04%) SAP EWM
10 29 (1.04%) SAP FI/CO
11 28 (1.00%) SAP BRIM
12 27 (0.97%) Oracle Assets
12 27 (0.97%) SAP Travel Management
13 26 (0.93%) Teamcenter
14 24 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
14 24 (0.86%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 298 (10.65%) Azure
2 145 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
3 138 (4.93%) Power Platform
4 122 (4.36%) AWS
5 104 (3.72%) OCI
6 77 (2.75%) SuccessFactors
7 67 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
8 66 (2.36%) GCP
9 65 (2.32%) SaaS
10 59 (2.11%) Power Automate
11 39 (1.39%) Microsoft Copilot
12 38 (1.36%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.36%) Entra ID
13 34 (1.22%) PowerApps
14 29 (1.04%) GitHub
14 29 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
16 18 (0.64%) Serverless
17 17 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
18 14 (0.50%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 31 (1.11%) Firewall
2 25 (0.89%) Network Security
3 20 (0.72%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 13 (0.46%) DNS
6 12 (0.43%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) VSAN
7 10 (0.36%) FTP
7 10 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.32%) VPN
8 9 (0.32%) WAN
9 8 (0.29%) Intranet
9 8 (0.29%) Kerberos
9 8 (0.29%) LAN
9 8 (0.29%) NAS
10 7 (0.25%) SD-WAN
11 6 (0.21%) DHCP
11 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 5 (0.18%) TCP/IP
12 5 (0.18%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (3.15%) Power BI
2 59 (2.11%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.29%) SAP HANA
4 28 (1.00%) Tableau
5 24 (0.86%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 23 (0.82%) SQL Server
7 22 (0.79%) Metadata
8 17 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
8 17 (0.61%) SAP BW
9 12 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
10 9 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
10 9 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 8 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.25%) GIS
13 6 (0.21%) Data Lake
13 6 (0.21%) Data Mart
13 6 (0.21%) Essbase
13 6 (0.21%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 76 (2.72%) JIRA
2 19 (0.68%) Oracle Forms
3 18 (0.64%) Hudson
4 16 (0.57%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.39%) Git
6 9 (0.32%) GitLab
7 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.11%) Toad
10 2 (0.072%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.072%) git-flow
10 2 (0.072%) JUnit
10 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.072%) Selenium
11 1 (0.036%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.036%) CircleCI
General
1 612 (21.88%) Social Skills
2 595 (21.27%) Finance
3 249 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (7.33%) Public Sector
5 100 (3.58%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.22%) Banking
7 68 (2.43%) Legal
8 65 (2.32%) Billing
9 62 (2.22%) Marketing
10 48 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
11 45 (1.61%) General Ledger
12 38 (1.36%) Retail
12 38 (1.36%) Telecoms
13 36 (1.29%) Organisational Skills
14 25 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 23 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
16 22 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
17 20 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
18 18 (0.64%) Law
19 16 (0.57%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (2.75%) REST
2 76 (2.72%) Oracle Fusion
3 68 (2.43%) XML
4 30 (1.07%) SOAP
5 28 (1.00%) SAP TM
6 27 (0.97%) Web Services
7 24 (0.86%) JSON
8 22 (0.79%) Middleware
8 22 (0.79%) SAP Fiori
9 19 (0.68%) LDAP
10 18 (0.64%) .NET
10 18 (0.64%) BAPI
11 15 (0.54%) HTML
11 15 (0.54%) Node.js
11 15 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 13 (0.46%) CSS
12 13 (0.46%) GraphQL
13 11 (0.39%) Kafka
14 10 (0.36%) IDoc
14 10 (0.36%) React
Miscellaneous
1 58 (2.07%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
4 36 (1.29%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.18%) Product Ownership
6 31 (1.11%) Operational Technology
7 27 (0.97%) Cloud Native
7 27 (0.97%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.93%) AI Agents
8 26 (0.93%) Replication
9 23 (0.82%) Management Information System
10 22 (0.79%) Data Centre
11 21 (0.75%) NHS
12 20 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.61%) CMDB
13 17 (0.61%) Life Science
13 17 (0.61%) Public Cloud
14 13 (0.46%) Self-Motivation
15 12 (0.43%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 70 (2.50%) Windows
2 52 (1.86%) Linux
3 18 (0.64%) VMS
4 17 (0.61%) Unix
5 15 (0.54%) AIX
6 13 (0.46%) Solaris
7 8 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.14%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.14%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.14%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.072%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.036%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 364 (13.01%) Migration
2 267 (9.55%) Problem-Solving
3 247 (8.83%) Stakeholder Management
4 236 (8.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 234 (8.37%) ERP
6 203 (7.26%) User Acceptance Testing
7 192 (6.86%) Workshop Facilitation
8 177 (6.33%) Agile
9 168 (6.01%) Data Migration
10 165 (5.90%) Continuous Improvement
11 152 (5.43%) Cybersecurity
11 152 (5.43%) Validation
12 149 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
13 146 (5.22%) Analytics
14 144 (5.15%) Roadmaps
15 128 (4.58%) AI
16 109 (3.90%) Change Management
17 105 (3.75%) DevOps
17 105 (3.75%) Translating Business Requirements
18 101 (3.61%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 210 (7.51%) SQL
2 117 (4.18%) Python
3 70 (2.50%) JavaScript
4 58 (2.07%) PowerShell
5 46 (1.64%) PL/SQL
6 36 (1.29%) ABAP
7 34 (1.22%) T-SQL
8 30 (1.07%) Java
9 26 (0.93%) TypeScript
10 16 (0.57%) C#
11 13 (0.46%) Bash
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 11 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 10 (0.36%) Groovy
14 9 (0.32%) R
15 8 (0.29%) C++
16 7 (0.25%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 5 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
18 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 540 (19.31%) Security Cleared
2 427 (15.27%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.58%) DV Cleared
4 81 (2.90%) Degree
5 77 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
6 63 (2.25%) CISSP
7 48 (1.72%) CISM
8 21 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 20 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
10 19 (0.68%) CIMA
11 16 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (0.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 15 (0.54%) CCSP
13 14 (0.50%) SAP Certification
14 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.43%) Master's Degree
16 11 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
17 10 (0.36%) Azure Certification
17 10 (0.36%) CEH
17 10 (0.36%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (2.93%) NIST
2 81 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 64 (2.29%) Data Quality
4 58 (2.07%) GRC
5 54 (1.93%) GDPR
6 40 (1.43%) QA
7 25 (0.89%) NCSC
8 24 (0.86%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.75%) PMO
10 20 (0.72%) SLA
11 17 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
11 17 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 16 (0.57%) COBIT
13 14 (0.50%) Accessibility
13 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 9 (0.32%) DICOM
14 9 (0.32%) HL7
14 9 (0.32%) PERC
15 8 (0.29%) GxP
16 7 (0.25%) RMADS
System Software
1 46 (1.64%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (1.25%) VMware NSX
4 24 (0.86%) Docker
5 22 (0.79%) vSphere
6 10 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 5 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.14%) IAG
11 3 (0.11%) NFS
12 1 (0.036%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.036%) HDFS
12 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 49 (1.75%) Kubernetes
2 31 (1.11%) Terraform
3 30 (1.07%) vRealize
4 18 (0.64%) Ansible
5 16 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.54%) Nagios
6 15 (0.54%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.36%) Grafana
9 10 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 10 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.25%) SCCM
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
12 5 (0.18%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.14%) Control-M
Vendors
1 591 (21.13%) SAP
2 329 (11.76%) Oracle
3 287 (10.26%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.29%) VMware
5 79 (2.82%) ServiceNow
6 60 (2.15%) Ariba
7 56 (2.00%) Salesforce
8 53 (1.89%) Siemens
9 52 (1.86%) Workday
10 36 (1.29%) Splunk
11 31 (1.11%) Google
12 27 (0.97%) Databricks
13 24 (0.86%) BMC
14 22 (0.79%) IBM
15 21 (0.75%) Adobe
16 17 (0.61%) Murex
16 17 (0.61%) Sage
17 15 (0.54%) SolarWinds
18 14 (0.50%) IFS
19 13 (0.46%) OpenText