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 12 June 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,903 1,917 2,827
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.81% 6.51% 6.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.29% 7.05% 6.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,621 1,104 1,714
10th Percentile £400 £411 £400
25th Percentile £460 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +0.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 25 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £26.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £41.60 £50.73
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 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £87.40 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £56.89
% change year-on-year -22.03% +29.65% -13.15%

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 46,156 27,173 40,538
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.32% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,087 17,480 26,089
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.68% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,077 1,137 2,938
10th Percentile £15.19 £13.94 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.64 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.57% -26.29% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £61.71
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -4.76%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -2 2,313 £550 - 1,166
UK excluding London +4 1,222 £525 -2.23% 802
London -3 1,068 £550 -4.35% 530
Work from Home -2 1,035 £540 -1.82% 596
South East +1 343 £535 -2.73% 241
North of England -14 269 £550 +3.77% 237
Midlands -13 230 £525 -4.55% 79
South West +37 200 £550 - 120
West Midlands -3 154 £525 -4.55% 54
North West -9 135 £550 - 150
Yorkshire -6 111 £550 +15.79% 66
Scotland +29 79 £425 -8.11% 47
East of England -8 78 £550 +6.08% 44
East Midlands -8 67 £500 -9.09% 24
Wales -2 30 £550 +37.50% 15
North East -33 23 £725 +35.77% 22
Northern Ireland -2 3 £600 +15.38% 27

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 602 (20.74%) SAP
2 536 (18.46%) Security Cleared
3 403 (13.88%) SC Cleared
4 377 (12.99%) Migration
5 333 (11.47%) Oracle
6 331 (11.40%) Microsoft
7 322 (11.09%) Azure
8 279 (9.61%) SAP S/4HANA
9 269 (9.27%) Stakeholder Management
10 262 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 261 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
12 246 (8.47%) ERP
13 226 (7.79%) SQL
14 207 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
15 192 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
16 183 (6.30%) Validation
16 183 (6.30%) Workshop Facilitation
17 170 (5.86%) Data Migration
18 160 (5.51%) Cybersecurity
19 158 (5.44%) Analytics
20 156 (5.37%) Agile
21 154 (5.30%) Roadmaps
22 146 (5.03%) Power Platform
23 141 (4.86%) AI
23 141 (4.86%) Business Intelligence
24 140 (4.82%) Dynamics 365
25 139 (4.79%) AWS
26 125 (4.31%) Change Management
27 122 (4.20%) Python
28 111 (3.82%) 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 81 (2.79%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.55%) Confluence
3 14 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 5 (0.17%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.10%) Apache
8 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) SAS
8 3 (0.10%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.10%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.069%) IIS
9 2 (0.069%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.034%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.034%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.034%) WordPress
Applications
1 78 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.069%) Lectora
8 2 (0.069%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.034%) CATIA
9 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 279 (9.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 74 (2.55%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.89%) SAP FI
4 43 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
4 43 (1.48%) SAP PSCD
5 39 (1.34%) SAP MM
6 35 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
7 33 (1.14%) SAP BRIM
8 31 (1.07%) SAP Travel Management
9 29 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
9 29 (1.00%) SAP EWM
9 29 (1.00%) SAP SD
10 28 (0.96%) Oracle ERP
10 28 (0.96%) Teamcenter
11 26 (0.90%) SAP CO
11 26 (0.90%) SAP FI-CA
12 25 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
12 25 (0.86%) SAP FI/CO
13 23 (0.79%) SAP PP
14 22 (0.76%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 322 (11.09%) Azure
2 146 (5.03%) Power Platform
3 140 (4.82%) Dynamics 365
4 139 (4.79%) AWS
5 96 (3.31%) OCI
6 90 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (2.55%) GCP
8 69 (2.38%) SuccessFactors
9 67 (2.31%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.93%) SaaS
11 53 (1.83%) Entra ID
12 42 (1.45%) Azure DevOps
12 42 (1.45%) Microsoft Copilot
13 34 (1.17%) PowerApps
14 32 (1.10%) GitHub
14 32 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
15 21 (0.72%) Copilot Studio
16 18 (0.62%) Serverless
17 16 (0.55%) Azure Data Factory
18 15 (0.52%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 41 (1.41%) Firewall
2 38 (1.31%) Network Security
3 21 (0.72%) SNMP
4 17 (0.59%) WAN
5 15 (0.52%) DNS
6 14 (0.48%) SMS
7 13 (0.45%) SAN
8 12 (0.41%) BGP
8 12 (0.41%) LAN
9 11 (0.38%) VPN
10 10 (0.34%) Software-Defined Networking
10 10 (0.34%) VSAN
11 9 (0.31%) FTP
12 8 (0.28%) NAS
13 7 (0.24%) Intranet
13 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.21%) DHCP
14 6 (0.21%) HTTP
14 6 (0.21%) IPsec
14 6 (0.21%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (2.93%) Power BI
2 54 (1.86%) Oracle Reports
3 35 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.07%) Tableau
5 26 (0.90%) SQL Server
6 25 (0.86%) Metadata
7 23 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 18 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
8 18 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.55%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
11 10 (0.34%) Power Query
12 9 (0.31%) Oracle Database
13 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
14 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
14 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
14 6 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 82 (2.82%) JIRA
2 19 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.55%) Hudson
4 12 (0.41%) Git
4 12 (0.41%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.31%) GitLab
6 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) Toad
9 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.069%) git-flow
10 2 (0.069%) JUnit
10 2 (0.069%) Snyk
10 2 (0.069%) Zephyr
General
1 618 (21.29%) Social Skills
2 594 (20.46%) Finance
3 242 (8.34%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (7.10%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.20%) Manufacturing
6 91 (3.13%) Banking
7 73 (2.51%) Legal
8 68 (2.34%) Billing
9 54 (1.86%) Marketing
10 52 (1.79%) General Ledger
11 48 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
12 47 (1.62%) Telecoms
13 36 (1.24%) Retail
14 35 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 33 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
16 31 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
17 27 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
18 22 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
19 21 (0.72%) Law
20 17 (0.59%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (2.72%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.45%) REST
3 59 (2.03%) XML
4 31 (1.07%) SAP TM
5 29 (1.00%) Middleware
5 29 (1.00%) SAP Fiori
6 28 (0.96%) Web Services
7 26 (0.90%) BAPI
8 23 (0.79%) SOAP
9 19 (0.65%) HTML
10 17 (0.59%) JSON
11 16 (0.55%) .NET
11 16 (0.55%) CSS
11 16 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 14 (0.48%) LDAP
13 12 (0.41%) OAuth
14 11 (0.38%) IDoc
15 10 (0.34%) EDI
15 10 (0.34%) React
16 9 (0.31%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 74 (2.55%) Onboarding
2 44 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
2 44 (1.52%) Security Posture
3 41 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
4 40 (1.38%) Product Ownership
5 32 (1.10%) Operational Technology
6 30 (1.03%) AI Agents
7 29 (1.00%) CMDB
8 25 (0.86%) Data Structures
9 23 (0.79%) Data Centre
9 23 (0.79%) Management Information System
10 22 (0.76%) Cloud Native
11 21 (0.72%) Life Science
11 21 (0.72%) NHS
12 19 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (0.59%) Public Cloud
14 16 (0.55%) Replication
15 14 (0.48%) Algorithms
15 14 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
15 14 (0.48%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 85 (2.93%) Windows
2 64 (2.20%) Linux
3 21 (0.72%) Solaris
4 20 (0.69%) Unix
4 20 (0.69%) VMS
5 17 (0.59%) AIX
6 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.10%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.069%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.069%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.069%) SUSE
11 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 377 (12.99%) Migration
2 269 (9.27%) Stakeholder Management
3 262 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 261 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
5 246 (8.47%) ERP
6 207 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
7 192 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
8 183 (6.30%) Validation
8 183 (6.30%) Workshop Facilitation
9 170 (5.86%) Data Migration
10 160 (5.51%) Cybersecurity
11 158 (5.44%) Analytics
12 156 (5.37%) Agile
13 154 (5.30%) Roadmaps
14 141 (4.86%) AI
14 141 (4.86%) Business Intelligence
15 125 (4.31%) Change Management
16 111 (3.82%) DevOps
16 111 (3.82%) Translating Business Requirements
17 108 (3.72%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 226 (7.79%) SQL
2 122 (4.20%) Python
3 67 (2.31%) JavaScript
4 59 (2.03%) PowerShell
5 50 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 39 (1.34%) ABAP
7 34 (1.17%) T-SQL
8 33 (1.14%) Java
9 18 (0.62%) C#
10 15 (0.52%) Bash
11 13 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
12 11 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 11 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
12 11 (0.38%) Shell Script
13 10 (0.34%) TypeScript
14 7 (0.24%) C++
14 7 (0.24%) R
15 5 (0.17%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.14%) Korn
16 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 536 (18.46%) Security Cleared
2 403 (13.88%) SC Cleared
3 101 (3.48%) DV Cleared
4 86 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.45%) CISSP
6 68 (2.34%) Degree
7 54 (1.86%) CISM
8 29 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (0.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (0.86%) CCSP
10 24 (0.83%) CIMA
11 19 (0.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 16 (0.55%) PMP
13 15 (0.52%) CEH
14 14 (0.48%) ACCA
15 13 (0.45%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.41%) OSCP
17 11 (0.38%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.03%) NIST
2 74 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 72 (2.48%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.76%) GRC
5 43 (1.48%) QA
6 42 (1.45%) GDPR
7 33 (1.14%) NCSC
8 27 (0.93%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
9 21 (0.72%) SLA
10 20 (0.69%) Accessibility
11 18 (0.62%) PMO
12 16 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.52%) COBIT
14 13 (0.45%) GxP
15 11 (0.38%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.28%) WCAG
17 7 (0.24%) DICOM
17 7 (0.24%) GAAP
17 7 (0.24%) HL7
System Software
1 55 (1.89%) Active Directory
2 39 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.24%) VMware NSX
4 24 (0.83%) vSphere
5 17 (0.59%) Docker
6 12 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (0.21%) IAG
9 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 4 (0.14%) NFS
11 2 (0.069%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.034%) HDFS
12 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.034%) SRDF
12 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 51 (1.76%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.58%) Terraform
3 30 (1.03%) vRealize
4 22 (0.76%) Ansible
5 18 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.52%) Nagios
6 15 (0.52%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.48%) Netcool
7 14 (0.48%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.45%) OpenView
8 13 (0.45%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.38%) Grafana
9 11 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.34%) Prometheus
11 8 (0.28%) SCCM
12 7 (0.24%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
13 6 (0.21%) FortiGate
13 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
13 6 (0.21%) Podman
Vendors
1 602 (20.74%) SAP
2 333 (11.47%) Oracle
3 331 (11.40%) Microsoft
4 97 (3.34%) ServiceNow
5 91 (3.13%) VMware
6 58 (2.00%) Ariba
7 54 (1.86%) Siemens
8 52 (1.79%) Workday
9 48 (1.65%) Salesforce
10 36 (1.24%) Splunk
11 33 (1.14%) Databricks
12 30 (1.03%) Google
13 25 (0.86%) BMC
14 24 (0.83%) IBM
15 20 (0.69%) Palo Alto
16 19 (0.65%) Adobe
17 16 (0.55%) Sage
17 16 (0.55%) SolarWinds
18 15 (0.52%) IFS
19 14 (0.48%) HP