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 29 November 2025.

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

6 months to
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 28
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,583 2,524 2,868
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.17% 6.92% 6.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.88% 7.46% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,498 1,336 1,609
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £470 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.79%
75th Percentile £648 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 17 38
10th Percentile £41.92 £49.30 £51.53
25th Percentile £62.75 £56.65 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £72.88
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% -4.80% +4.11%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £86.81
90th Percentile £86.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £70.88 £63.29
% change year-on-year +9.35% +11.98% -11.17%

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 32,783 33,839 42,964
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 92.83% 93.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,795 20,464 29,004
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £494 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,905 1,235 1,530
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.89 £20.63 £19.08
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -23.79% -25.84% +78.00%

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 29 November 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 29 November 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 29 November 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 2,020 £550 - 1,107
UK excluding London -2 1,072 £550 -4.35% 897
Work from Home +1 948 £546 -0.68% 543
London -1 925 £569 +3.41% 476
North of England -3 292 £581 +2.47% 149
South East -2 282 £540 -6.09% 373
North West +2 204 £620 +12.73% 90
Midlands -20 157 £575 +4.55% 101
East of England +9 120 £550 +10.00% 58
West Midlands -13 119 £563 +7.14% 65
South West 0 105 £550 -5.17% 166
Yorkshire -5 81 £480 -20.00% 47
Scotland 0 72 £500 -11.35% 28
East Midlands -21 37 £580 +0.87% 34
Wales +7 33 £405 -32.50% 21
Northern Ireland -7 14 £405 -32.50% 12
North East -9 7 £550 -8.33% 12
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 November 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.

1 693 (26.83%) SAP
2 667 (25.82%) Security Cleared
3 564 (21.84%) SC Cleared
4 367 (14.21%) SAP S/4HANA
5 339 (13.12%) Migration
6 325 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
7 295 (11.42%) Stakeholder Management
8 293 (11.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 291 (11.27%) Oracle
10 286 (11.07%) Microsoft
11 229 (8.87%) Azure
12 220 (8.52%) Agile
13 179 (6.93%) Workshop Facilitation
14 170 (6.58%) ERP
15 168 (6.50%) SQL
16 160 (6.19%) Data Migration
17 159 (6.16%) User Acceptance Testing
18 156 (6.04%) Analytics
19 152 (5.88%) Knowledge Transfer
20 149 (5.77%) Roadmaps
21 138 (5.34%) Validation
22 133 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
23 128 (4.96%) Python
24 125 (4.84%) DevOps
25 123 (4.76%) AWS
26 122 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
27 118 (4.57%) Requirements Gathering
28 114 (4.41%) Data Modelling
28 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
29 110 (4.26%) Degree

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 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.23%) Apache
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) IIS
10 5 (0.19%) MTS
11 4 (0.15%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.077%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.077%) Camunda
14 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 38 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.077%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) InDesign
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 367 (14.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (3.48%) Oracle EBS
3 62 (2.40%) Oracle Payables
4 58 (2.25%) SAP FI
5 55 (2.13%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.01%) SAP MM
7 51 (1.97%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.86%) Oracle General Ledger
8 48 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 42 (1.63%) Oracle Receivables
10 41 (1.59%) Oracle Cash Management
10 41 (1.59%) SAP CO
11 40 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
12 39 (1.51%) Oracle Assets
13 38 (1.47%) SAP FI/CO
14 35 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
15 34 (1.32%) SAP PP
15 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
16 29 (1.12%) Oracle Financials
17 27 (1.05%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 229 (8.87%) Azure
2 123 (4.76%) AWS
3 108 (4.18%) Power Platform
4 104 (4.03%) Dynamics 365
5 88 (3.41%) OCI
6 87 (3.37%) Microsoft 365
7 70 (2.71%) GCP
8 59 (2.28%) SaaS
8 59 (2.28%) SuccessFactors
9 58 (2.25%) Entra ID
10 42 (1.63%) Power Automate
11 32 (1.24%) PowerApps
12 30 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (0.93%) GitHub
14 22 (0.85%) OneDrive
15 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
16 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
17 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
18 14 (0.54%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 13 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 68 (2.63%) Firewall
2 31 (1.20%) Network Security
3 29 (1.12%) VPN
4 27 (1.05%) DNS
5 21 (0.81%) WAN
6 19 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 17 (0.66%) DHCP
8 15 (0.58%) HTTP
8 15 (0.58%) TCP/IP
9 14 (0.54%) SSL
10 13 (0.50%) BGP
11 12 (0.46%) OSPF
12 10 (0.39%) SSH
13 9 (0.35%) Kerberos
13 9 (0.35%) LAN
13 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 8 (0.31%) VLAN
15 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Internet
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.86%) Power BI
2 46 (1.78%) SAP HANA
3 41 (1.59%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.59%) SQL Server
4 23 (0.89%) Metadata
5 22 (0.85%) SAP BW
6 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
9 14 (0.54%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.50%) DB2
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 9 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
14 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
14 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
14 6 (0.23%) Power Query
15 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 60 (2.32%) JIRA
2 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.85%) Git
4 21 (0.81%) GitLab
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.31%) Hudson
7 7 (0.27%) LSMW
8 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.15%) Postman
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Snyk
10 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.077%) JUnit
10 2 (0.077%) Mockito
10 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 746 (28.88%) Social Skills
2 590 (22.84%) Finance
3 243 (9.41%) Public Sector
4 242 (9.37%) Analytical Skills
5 173 (6.70%) Manufacturing
6 80 (3.10%) Banking
7 79 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
8 64 (2.48%) Presentation Skills
9 59 (2.28%) Marketing
10 56 (2.17%) Billing
10 56 (2.17%) Legal
11 52 (2.01%) Telecoms
12 45 (1.74%) Pharmaceutical
13 44 (1.70%) General Ledger
14 35 (1.36%) Retail
15 27 (1.05%) Law
16 26 (1.01%) Electronics
17 24 (0.93%) Local Government
18 21 (0.81%) Financial Institution
19 20 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.21%) SAP Fiori
2 69 (2.67%) REST
3 63 (2.44%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.05%) SOAP
5 48 (1.86%) XML
6 45 (1.74%) Web Services
7 37 (1.43%) HTML
8 36 (1.39%) Node.js
9 33 (1.28%) Middleware
10 31 (1.20%) JSON
11 27 (1.05%) .NET
12 26 (1.01%) OAuth
13 25 (0.97%) BAPI
13 25 (0.97%) LDAP
14 20 (0.77%) EDI
14 20 (0.77%) SAP TM
15 19 (0.74%) CSS
16 18 (0.70%) SAP Basis
17 17 (0.66%) SAP PI
18 15 (0.58%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 84 (3.25%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.51%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.43%) Security Posture
5 35 (1.36%) Data Centre
6 34 (1.32%) Management Information System
7 32 (1.24%) Cloud Native
8 24 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
9 23 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
9 23 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
9 23 (0.89%) Replication
10 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
11 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
12 16 (0.62%) Life Science
13 14 (0.54%) Private Cloud
14 13 (0.50%) CMDB
14 13 (0.50%) IoT
15 12 (0.46%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 81 (3.14%) Windows
2 57 (2.21%) Linux
3 18 (0.70%) Unix
4 17 (0.66%) Windows Server
5 13 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.077%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 339 (13.12%) Migration
2 325 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
3 295 (11.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 293 (11.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 220 (8.52%) Agile
6 179 (6.93%) Workshop Facilitation
7 170 (6.58%) ERP
8 160 (6.19%) Data Migration
9 159 (6.16%) User Acceptance Testing
10 156 (6.04%) Analytics
11 152 (5.88%) Knowledge Transfer
12 149 (5.77%) Roadmaps
13 138 (5.34%) Validation
14 133 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
15 125 (4.84%) DevOps
16 122 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
17 118 (4.57%) Requirements Gathering
18 114 (4.41%) Data Modelling
18 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
19 106 (4.10%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 168 (6.50%) SQL
2 128 (4.96%) Python
3 89 (3.45%) PowerShell
4 75 (2.90%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.79%) ABAP
6 61 (2.36%) Java
7 31 (1.20%) PL/SQL
8 27 (1.05%) Groovy
9 22 (0.85%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.77%) C++
11 19 (0.74%) Bash
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) C#
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.27%) VBA
17 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
17 6 (0.23%) COBOL
18 5 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 667 (25.82%) Security Cleared
2 564 (21.84%) SC Cleared
3 110 (4.26%) Degree
4 91 (3.52%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 67 (2.59%) CISSP
7 45 (1.74%) CISM
8 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
9 27 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (0.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.77%) ACCA
11 20 (0.77%) CIMA
12 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
12 19 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (0.54%) CCNP
13 14 (0.54%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (0.54%) Master's Degree
14 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
14 10 (0.39%) CISA
14 10 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 76 (2.94%) NIST
3 64 (2.48%) GDPR
4 59 (2.28%) QA
5 44 (1.70%) Data Quality
6 31 (1.20%) GRC
7 19 (0.74%) SLA
8 18 (0.70%) NCSC
9 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
10 15 (0.58%) RMADS
10 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 14 (0.54%) COBIT
11 14 (0.54%) PCI DSS
11 14 (0.54%) PMO
12 10 (0.39%) Accessibility
13 9 (0.35%) IFRS
13 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
13 9 (0.35%) PERC
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 78 (3.02%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.47%) Docker
4 26 (1.01%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.77%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.15%) UAG
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) IAG
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.09%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.01%) Terraform
3 25 (0.97%) Ansible
4 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
5 22 (0.85%) vRealize
6 16 (0.62%) SCCM
7 13 (0.50%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.27%) CASB
10 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.19%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.19%) QRadar
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.15%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 693 (26.83%) SAP
2 291 (11.27%) Oracle
3 286 (11.07%) Microsoft
4 97 (3.76%) VMware
5 87 (3.37%) ServiceNow
6 67 (2.59%) Cisco
7 62 (2.40%) CyberArk
8 61 (2.36%) Salesforce
8 61 (2.36%) Workday
9 48 (1.86%) Ariba
10 37 (1.43%) Google
11 35 (1.36%) Aruba
12 31 (1.20%) Dynatrace
12 31 (1.20%) IBM
13 30 (1.16%) Adobe
14 25 (0.97%) OpenText
15 19 (0.74%) Splunk
16 18 (0.70%) Remedy
17 17 (0.66%) EMC
17 17 (0.66%) Palo Alto