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 10 March 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,740 1,957 2,771
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.46% 6.62% 6.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.02% 7.12% 6.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,542 1,117 1,669
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.79%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £547
% change year-on-year - +0.55% -0.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 17 35
10th Percentile - £68.00 £33.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £54.42
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -4.55%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £83.13
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.65
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.86% -6.60%

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 39,016 27,486 41,551
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.96% 92.97% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,419 17,729 27,243
10th Percentile £310 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.46%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.16% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,405 862 2,505
10th Percentile £14.91 £15.64 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.20 £32.69
Median % change year-on-year +5.42% +1.56% -22.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.10 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.75 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +3.85% -0.60% -18.26%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 10 March 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 2,152 £550 - 1,188
UK excluding London +4 1,144 £550 - 809
Work from Home 0 1,012 £530 -3.64% 549
London -4 979 £550 -4.35% 442
South East +4 326 £525 -8.70% 298
North of England -7 273 £581 +7.99% 180
Midlands -10 224 £550 +4.76% 80
West Midlands -3 167 £563 +7.14% 46
North West -2 153 £626 +16.40% 106
South West +15 143 £550 - 145
Yorkshire +5 110 £544 +3.57% 54
East of England -6 93 £525 -4.55% 49
East Midlands -19 53 £500 -3.15% 33
Scotland +10 51 £520 -5.45% 31
Wales +13 32 £447 -8.31% 24
Northern Ireland +4 11 £405 -22.86% 15
North East -23 10 £525 -4.55% 21

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 10 March 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.

1 649 (23.69%) Security Cleared
2 639 (23.32%) SAP
3 548 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 383 (13.98%) Migration
5 335 (12.23%) SAP S/4HANA
6 302 (11.02%) Azure
7 300 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
8 291 (10.62%) Oracle
9 283 (10.33%) Microsoft
10 279 (10.18%) Stakeholder Management
11 277 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 223 (8.14%) ERP
13 216 (7.88%) Workshop Facilitation
14 186 (6.79%) SQL
15 182 (6.64%) User Acceptance Testing
16 175 (6.39%) Agile
17 168 (6.13%) Analytics
18 166 (6.06%) Data Migration
19 159 (5.80%) Roadmaps
20 146 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
21 143 (5.22%) Knowledge Transfer
22 142 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
23 141 (5.15%) Validation
24 136 (4.96%) Cybersecurity
25 133 (4.85%) Continuous Improvement
26 119 (4.34%) Python
27 114 (4.16%) AI
28 111 (4.05%) Power Platform
28 111 (4.05%) Risk Management
29 109 (3.98%) AWS

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 67 (2.45%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.31%) Confluence
3 26 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
6 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
6 5 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
7 4 (0.15%) CMS
7 4 (0.15%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.073%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.073%) Apache
9 2 (0.073%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.073%) IIS
10 1 (0.036%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.036%) SAS
10 1 (0.036%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.036%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.036%) Tomcat
Applications
1 61 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.073%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.073%) Lectora
9 1 (0.036%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.036%) CATIA
9 1 (0.036%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.036%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.036%) Revit
9 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 335 (12.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (2.26%) SAP FI
3 57 (2.08%) Oracle EBS
4 53 (1.93%) SAP MM
5 49 (1.79%) Oracle Payables
6 45 (1.64%) Oracle Receivables
7 39 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
8 38 (1.39%) Oracle EBS R12
8 38 (1.39%) SAP PP
9 37 (1.35%) SAP CO
9 37 (1.35%) SAP HCM
10 34 (1.24%) SAP FI/CO
11 33 (1.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 33 (1.20%) SAP PSCD
12 30 (1.09%) SAP EWM
12 30 (1.09%) SAP Travel Management
13 29 (1.06%) Oracle Assets
14 28 (1.02%) SAP Payroll
15 24 (0.88%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
16 23 (0.84%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 302 (11.02%) Azure
2 142 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
3 111 (4.05%) Power Platform
4 109 (3.98%) AWS
5 100 (3.65%) OCI
6 80 (2.92%) GCP
7 76 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
8 66 (2.41%) SaaS
9 61 (2.23%) Entra ID
10 52 (1.90%) SuccessFactors
11 40 (1.46%) Power Automate
12 33 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
13 32 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
14 31 (1.13%) PowerApps
15 30 (1.09%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.91%) GitHub
17 22 (0.80%) OneDrive
18 19 (0.69%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 18 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
20 17 (0.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 48 (1.75%) Firewall
2 18 (0.66%) Network Security
3 17 (0.62%) DNS
4 16 (0.58%) HTTP
4 16 (0.58%) VPN
5 15 (0.55%) WAN
6 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.47%) SMS
6 13 (0.47%) VSAN
7 12 (0.44%) SD-WAN
8 11 (0.40%) LAN
8 11 (0.40%) SAN
9 10 (0.36%) DHCP
9 10 (0.36%) SSL
10 9 (0.33%) FTP
10 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
10 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.29%) Intranet
12 7 (0.26%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.26%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (2.85%) Power BI
2 46 (1.68%) Oracle Reports
2 46 (1.68%) SAP HANA
3 26 (0.95%) SQL Server
4 25 (0.91%) Metadata
5 24 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 12 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (0.44%) NoSQL
7 11 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
7 11 (0.40%) SAP BW
7 11 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 11 (0.40%) Tableau
8 8 (0.29%) Oracle ODI
9 7 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
10 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
10 6 (0.22%) Essbase
10 6 (0.22%) GIS
10 6 (0.22%) MongoDB
10 6 (0.22%) Oracle Database
11 5 (0.18%) DB2
Development Applications
1 66 (2.41%) JIRA
2 16 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
4 11 (0.40%) Git
5 10 (0.36%) Hudson
6 7 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.15%) LSMW
8 3 (0.11%) Postman
9 2 (0.073%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.073%) git-flow
9 2 (0.073%) JUnit
9 2 (0.073%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.073%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.073%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.073%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.073%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.073%) Tricentis qTest
10 1 (0.036%) Toad
10 1 (0.036%) Visual Studio
General
1 694 (25.33%) Social Skills
2 581 (21.20%) Finance
3 258 (9.42%) Public Sector
4 248 (9.05%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (4.49%) Manufacturing
6 97 (3.54%) Banking
7 74 (2.70%) Marketing
8 70 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
9 62 (2.26%) Billing
9 62 (2.26%) Legal
10 45 (1.64%) Telecoms
11 43 (1.57%) General Ledger
12 36 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
13 34 (1.24%) Retail
14 31 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
15 27 (0.99%) Law
16 24 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
17 19 (0.69%) Aerospace
18 18 (0.66%) Electronics
19 17 (0.62%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (3.54%) Oracle Fusion
2 68 (2.48%) REST
3 57 (2.08%) XML
4 56 (2.04%) SAP Fiori
5 49 (1.79%) Web Services
6 38 (1.39%) SAP TM
7 36 (1.31%) SOAP
8 27 (0.99%) BAPI
8 27 (0.99%) LDAP
9 23 (0.84%) Node.js
10 21 (0.77%) Middleware
11 18 (0.66%) JSON
12 17 (0.62%) .NET
12 17 (0.62%) SAP PI
13 15 (0.55%) GraphQL
13 15 (0.55%) IDoc
14 13 (0.47%) HTML
14 13 (0.47%) Kafka
14 13 (0.47%) SAP Basis
15 12 (0.44%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 72 (2.63%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
3 42 (1.53%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.39%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.09%) Data Centre
7 26 (0.95%) Management Information System
7 26 (0.95%) Replication
8 25 (0.91%) Operational Technology
9 23 (0.84%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.77%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (0.73%) Data Structures
11 20 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
12 19 (0.69%) AI Agents
12 19 (0.69%) NHS
13 15 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
14 14 (0.51%) Life Science
14 14 (0.51%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.51%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (0.47%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.66%) Windows
2 44 (1.61%) Linux
3 15 (0.55%) Unix
4 14 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.40%) VMS
6 10 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.36%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.26%) AIX
8 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.15%) Solaris
10 4 (0.15%) zOS
11 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.11%) SUSE
12 2 (0.073%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.073%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.036%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 383 (13.98%) Migration
2 300 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
3 279 (10.18%) Stakeholder Management
4 277 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 223 (8.14%) ERP
6 216 (7.88%) Workshop Facilitation
7 182 (6.64%) User Acceptance Testing
8 175 (6.39%) Agile
9 168 (6.13%) Analytics
10 166 (6.06%) Data Migration
11 159 (5.80%) Roadmaps
12 146 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
13 143 (5.22%) Knowledge Transfer
14 141 (5.15%) Validation
15 136 (4.96%) Cybersecurity
16 133 (4.85%) Continuous Improvement
17 114 (4.16%) AI
18 111 (4.05%) Risk Management
19 108 (3.94%) Change Management
20 105 (3.83%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 186 (6.79%) SQL
2 119 (4.34%) Python
3 80 (2.92%) PowerShell
4 79 (2.88%) JavaScript
5 69 (2.52%) ABAP
6 36 (1.31%) Java
7 28 (1.02%) TypeScript
8 26 (0.95%) T-SQL
9 23 (0.84%) PL/SQL
10 22 (0.80%) Groovy
11 16 (0.58%) C#
12 15 (0.55%) Bash
13 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
14 9 (0.33%) C++
15 7 (0.26%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
16 5 (0.18%) Korn
17 4 (0.15%) R
17 4 (0.15%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 649 (23.69%) Security Cleared
2 548 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 101 (3.69%) Degree
4 82 (2.99%) DV Cleared
5 63 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 53 (1.93%) CISSP
7 35 (1.28%) CISM
8 31 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 18 (0.66%) CIMA
9 18 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (0.66%) Master's Degree
10 16 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
12 14 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
13 13 (0.47%) SAP Certification
14 8 (0.29%) CCNP
14 8 (0.29%) CEH
14 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
15 7 (0.26%) AWS Certification
15 7 (0.26%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.36%) NIST
2 86 (3.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.48%) GDPR
4 51 (1.86%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.86%) QA
5 43 (1.57%) GRC
6 23 (0.84%) NCSC
7 21 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 20 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
8 20 (0.73%) PCI DSS
8 20 (0.73%) SLA
9 18 (0.66%) PMO
10 13 (0.47%) COBIT
11 11 (0.40%) JSP 440
11 11 (0.40%) PERC
12 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 8 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.18%) ITGC
System Software
1 68 (2.48%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.24%) Docker
3 32 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 31 (1.13%) VMware NSX
5 26 (0.95%) vSphere
6 8 (0.29%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.18%) NDS
9 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.11%) NFS
11 1 (0.036%) Ceph
11 1 (0.036%) IAG
11 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.036%) KVM
11 1 (0.036%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.036%) QEMU
11 1 (0.036%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.036%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 50 (1.82%) Kubernetes
2 32 (1.17%) Terraform
3 31 (1.13%) vRealize
4 22 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.62%) Ansible
5 17 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.36%) Failover Clustering
7 9 (0.33%) PingFederate
8 6 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (0.22%) Podman
9 5 (0.18%) SCCM
10 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.15%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
11 3 (0.11%) Grafana
11 3 (0.11%) Nagios
11 3 (0.11%) Rancher
11 3 (0.11%) vMotion
11 3 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 639 (23.32%) SAP
2 291 (10.62%) Oracle
3 283 (10.33%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.36%) VMware
5 86 (3.14%) ServiceNow
6 55 (2.01%) Salesforce
7 54 (1.97%) CyberArk
8 53 (1.93%) Siemens
9 52 (1.90%) Cisco
9 52 (1.90%) Workday
10 45 (1.64%) Google
11 44 (1.61%) Ariba
12 37 (1.35%) Aruba
13 32 (1.17%) Adobe
14 24 (0.88%) Databricks
15 21 (0.77%) OpenText
16 18 (0.66%) Splunk
17 17 (0.62%) Sage
18 15 (0.55%) Murex
19 13 (0.47%) IBM