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 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,076 2,131 2,789
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.52% 6.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.29% 7.12% 7.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,691 1,242 1,657
10th Percentile £400 £411 £412
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £734 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 29 30
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £39.43
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.24
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%
75th Percentile £72.84 £81.25 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.30 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.32%

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 48,872 29,931 38,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,492 19,056 24,610
10th Percentile £328 £283 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £727 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,302 1,437 2,371
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.92 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 2,463 £550 - 1,074
UK excluding London 0 1,328 £525 -4.55% 738
London -1 1,135 £550 -4.35% 486
Work from Home -2 1,052 £540 -1.82% 491
South East -1 383 £538 -2.27% 240
North of England -18 276 £525 -4.55% 183
Midlands -2 260 £500 -9.09% 83
South West +20 213 £553 -3.83% 125
West Midlands +15 188 £500 -13.04% 58
North West -17 158 £525 -7.49% 128
Scotland +36 99 £436 -8.16% 32
Yorkshire -15 99 £544 +11.54% 44
East of England -15 81 £550 - 41
East Midlands -5 63 £500 -9.09% 25
Wales -6 29 £550 +23.94% 18
North East -35 20 £750 +40.45% 11
Northern Ireland -3 2 £525 +0.96% 21

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 July 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.

1 644 (20.94%) SAP
2 595 (19.34%) Security Cleared
3 418 (13.59%) SC Cleared
4 399 (12.97%) Migration
5 386 (12.55%) Microsoft
6 357 (11.61%) Stakeholder Management
7 350 (11.38%) Oracle
8 316 (10.27%) Azure
9 277 (9.01%) SAP S/4HANA
9 277 (9.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 258 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
11 250 (8.13%) SQL
12 247 (8.03%) ERP
13 228 (7.41%) User Acceptance Testing
14 207 (6.73%) Workshop Facilitation
15 205 (6.66%) Validation
16 202 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
17 181 (5.88%) Cybersecurity
18 176 (5.72%) Data Migration
19 170 (5.53%) Agile
20 168 (5.46%) Roadmaps
21 167 (5.43%) Analytics
22 159 (5.17%) AI
23 152 (4.94%) AWS
24 141 (4.58%) Power Platform
25 137 (4.45%) Business Intelligence
26 135 (4.39%) Requirements Gathering
27 133 (4.32%) DV Cleared
28 131 (4.26%) Dynamics 365
29 126 (4.10%) Python

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 85 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.56%) Confluence
3 15 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.098%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.098%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 74 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.065%) Lectora
6 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.065%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.033%) CATIA
7 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 277 (9.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 89 (2.89%) Oracle EBS
3 69 (2.24%) SAP FI
4 54 (1.76%) SAP PSCD
5 41 (1.33%) Oracle Payables
6 37 (1.20%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
8 35 (1.14%) SAP BRIM
9 34 (1.11%) SAP CO
9 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
10 32 (1.04%) Oracle ERP
10 32 (1.04%) SAP FI-CA
11 31 (1.01%) Oracle Receivables
12 30 (0.98%) NetSuite
12 30 (0.98%) SAP FI/CO
13 29 (0.94%) SAP EWM
14 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
14 28 (0.91%) SAP PP
15 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
16 24 (0.78%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 316 (10.27%) Azure
2 152 (4.94%) AWS
3 141 (4.58%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.26%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.22%) OCI
6 92 (2.99%) Microsoft 365
7 85 (2.76%) GCP
8 81 (2.63%) SuccessFactors
9 73 (2.37%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.82%) Entra ID
11 53 (1.72%) SaaS
12 49 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 48 (1.56%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 34 (1.11%) GitHub
16 28 (0.91%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Azure AI
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 61 (1.98%) Firewall
2 50 (1.63%) Network Security
3 30 (0.98%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
5 20 (0.65%) VPN
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
7 14 (0.46%) DNS
7 14 (0.46%) SAN
7 14 (0.46%) VSAN
8 10 (0.33%) NGFW
8 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.23%) FTP
10 7 (0.23%) HTTP
10 7 (0.23%) IPsec
10 7 (0.23%) MPLS
10 7 (0.23%) NAS
10 7 (0.23%) Wireless
11 6 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (2.89%) Power BI
2 57 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.33%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 33 (1.07%) SQL Server
6 30 (0.98%) SAP BW
7 25 (0.81%) Metadata
7 25 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 21 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
12 10 (0.33%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 86 (2.80%) JIRA
2 19 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.52%) Git
3 16 (0.52%) Hudson
3 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.29%) GitLab
5 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.16%) Postman
6 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.098%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.098%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.098%) MLflow
8 3 (0.098%) Selenium
8 3 (0.098%) Snyk
8 3 (0.098%) TestRail
8 3 (0.098%) Toad
8 3 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.065%) LoadRunner
General
1 650 (21.13%) Finance
2 641 (20.84%) Social Skills
3 248 (8.06%) Analytical Skills
4 220 (7.15%) Public Sector
5 107 (3.48%) Manufacturing
6 91 (2.96%) Legal
7 85 (2.76%) Banking
8 81 (2.63%) Billing
9 66 (2.15%) Telecoms
10 54 (1.76%) General Ledger
11 53 (1.72%) Marketing
12 46 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 45 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
14 42 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 42 (1.37%) Retail
15 38 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
17 26 (0.85%) Aerospace
18 23 (0.75%) Local Government
19 20 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (2.70%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.37%) REST
3 60 (1.95%) XML
4 40 (1.30%) SAP Fiori
5 35 (1.14%) Middleware
5 35 (1.14%) SOAP
6 27 (0.88%) BAPI
7 26 (0.85%) Web Services
8 20 (0.65%) HTML
8 20 (0.65%) JSON
9 18 (0.59%) CSS
10 17 (0.55%) IDoc
10 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
11 16 (0.52%) SAP PI
12 14 (0.46%) OAuth
13 13 (0.42%) .NET
13 13 (0.42%) LDAP
14 12 (0.39%) SAP TM
15 11 (0.36%) EDI
16 10 (0.33%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 104 (3.38%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.40%) CMDB
3 43 (1.40%) Security Posture
4 33 (1.07%) AI Agents
4 33 (1.07%) Product Ownership
5 31 (1.01%) Data Centre
5 31 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
6 30 (0.98%) Data Structures
7 27 (0.88%) Operational Technology
8 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
8 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
9 20 (0.65%) Management Information System
10 19 (0.62%) Life Science
11 18 (0.59%) NHS
11 18 (0.59%) Public Cloud
11 18 (0.59%) Replication
12 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
12 17 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
13 16 (0.52%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 96 (3.12%) Windows
2 66 (2.15%) Linux
3 26 (0.85%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) AIX
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 8 (0.26%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.20%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) zOS
12 1 (0.033%) SUSE
12 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 399 (12.97%) Migration
2 357 (11.61%) Stakeholder Management
3 277 (9.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 258 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
5 247 (8.03%) ERP
6 228 (7.41%) User Acceptance Testing
7 207 (6.73%) Workshop Facilitation
8 205 (6.66%) Validation
9 202 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 181 (5.88%) Cybersecurity
11 176 (5.72%) Data Migration
12 170 (5.53%) Agile
13 168 (5.46%) Roadmaps
14 167 (5.43%) Analytics
15 159 (5.17%) AI
16 137 (4.45%) Business Intelligence
17 135 (4.39%) Requirements Gathering
18 126 (4.10%) Translating Business Requirements
19 125 (4.06%) Change Management
20 114 (3.71%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 250 (8.13%) SQL
2 126 (4.10%) Python
3 60 (1.95%) JavaScript
4 57 (1.85%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.82%) ABAP
6 55 (1.79%) PL/SQL
7 36 (1.17%) T-SQL
8 35 (1.14%) Java
9 18 (0.59%) Bash
10 13 (0.42%) C#
10 13 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.26%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.20%) C++
15 6 (0.20%) Perl
16 5 (0.16%) Korn
17 3 (0.098%) Scala
Qualifications
1 595 (19.34%) Security Cleared
2 418 (13.59%) SC Cleared
3 133 (4.32%) DV Cleared
4 87 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.50%) CISSP
6 70 (2.28%) Degree
7 59 (1.92%) CISM
8 38 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 19 (0.62%) CIMA
12 14 (0.46%) ACCA
12 14 (0.46%) CEH
12 14 (0.46%) PMP
13 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
13 12 (0.39%) OSCP
14 11 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (0.36%) CRISC
14 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
15 10 (0.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.96%) NIST
2 79 (2.57%) Data Quality
3 78 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 62 (2.02%) GRC
5 52 (1.69%) QA
6 39 (1.27%) GDPR
7 30 (0.98%) NCSC
8 29 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 25 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.68%) SLA
11 18 (0.59%) PMO
11 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (0.42%) COBIT
12 13 (0.42%) GxP
13 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
14 9 (0.29%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
16 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 59 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.85%) vSphere
5 14 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
12 2 (0.065%) Firmware
12 2 (0.065%) PowerHA
13 1 (0.033%) HDFS
13 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.033%) SRDF
13 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 54 (1.76%) Terraform
2 42 (1.37%) Kubernetes
3 30 (0.98%) Ansible
4 23 (0.75%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) Grafana
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) SCCM
8 12 (0.39%) vCenter Server
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) VxRail
12 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 644 (20.94%) SAP
2 386 (12.55%) Microsoft
3 350 (11.38%) Oracle
4 116 (3.77%) ServiceNow
5 93 (3.02%) VMware
6 63 (2.05%) Ariba
7 54 (1.76%) Salesforce
7 54 (1.76%) Workday
8 46 (1.50%) Splunk
9 43 (1.40%) Siemens
10 39 (1.27%) Databricks
11 27 (0.88%) Palo Alto
12 26 (0.85%) Google
13 24 (0.78%) IBM
14 23 (0.75%) BMC
14 23 (0.75%) OpenText
15 18 (0.59%) Adobe
16 17 (0.55%) Cisco
16 17 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.55%) Okta