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 19 May 2026.

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

6 months to
19 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 2,795 1,915 2,704
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.82% 6.56% 6.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.10% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,552 1,122 1,695
10th Percentile £384 £413 £400
25th Percentile £453 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 19 28
10th Percentile £41.25 £40.58 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £56.50 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £75.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -23.33% +21.75% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £81.35 £87.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £56.89
% change year-on-year -24.59% +34.04% -12.48%

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 44,361 26,969 39,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.35% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,167 17,560 25,723
10th Percentile £325 £294 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -3.40%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,886 1,047 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.13 £16.29
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -5.88%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 2,222 £545 -0.91% 1,558
UK excluding London -3 1,157 £525 -2.42% 1,117
London 0 1,037 £550 -4.35% 577
Work from Home 0 979 £550 - 758
South East -5 339 £535 -5.35% 281
North of England -23 232 £525 -1.69% 345
Midlands -14 231 £525 -2.33% 110
South West +33 190 £552 +5.14% 217
West Midlands -3 156 £550 - 76
North West -28 108 £518 -4.93% 214
Yorkshire -6 104 £538 +6.17% 90
Scotland +29 70 £425 -15.00% 50
East of England -13 70 £550 +12.82% 75
East Midlands -16 67 £500 -3.85% 35
Wales +3 30 £550 +37.50% 33
North East -26 20 £638 +19.38% 42
Northern Ireland -4 3 £600 +15.38% 20

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 584 (20.89%) SAP
2 526 (18.82%) Security Cleared
3 403 (14.42%) SC Cleared
4 358 (12.81%) Migration
5 314 (11.23%) Azure
6 312 (11.16%) Oracle
7 309 (11.06%) Microsoft
8 257 (9.19%) Problem-Solving
9 256 (9.16%) SAP S/4HANA
10 241 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
11 238 (8.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 236 (8.44%) ERP
13 209 (7.48%) SQL
14 202 (7.23%) User Acceptance Testing
15 190 (6.80%) Workshop Facilitation
16 168 (6.01%) Continuous Improvement
17 165 (5.90%) Data Migration
18 160 (5.72%) Validation
19 159 (5.69%) Agile
20 149 (5.33%) Dynamics 365
21 147 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
22 146 (5.22%) Roadmaps
23 145 (5.19%) Analytics
24 144 (5.15%) Power Platform
25 141 (5.04%) Business Intelligence
26 131 (4.69%) AI
27 129 (4.62%) AWS
28 114 (4.08%) Change Management
29 112 (4.01%) Python
30 110 (3.94%) Translating Business Requirements

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 83 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.47%) Confluence
3 13 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
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%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.072%) SAS
8 2 (0.072%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) CMS
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 66 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.47%) 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
Business Applications
1 256 (9.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 71 (2.54%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (2.04%) SAP FI
4 46 (1.65%) Oracle Payables
5 43 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
6 41 (1.47%) SAP MM
7 40 (1.43%) Oracle Receivables
8 35 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
9 31 (1.11%) SAP BRIM
9 31 (1.11%) SAP PP
10 30 (1.07%) SAP CO
11 29 (1.04%) Oracle EBS R12
12 28 (1.00%) SAP EWM
12 28 (1.00%) SAP FI/CO
12 28 (1.00%) Teamcenter
13 27 (0.97%) SAP Travel Management
14 25 (0.89%) SAP FI-CA
14 25 (0.89%) SAP SD
15 24 (0.86%) Oracle Assets
16 23 (0.82%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 314 (11.23%) Azure
2 149 (5.33%) Dynamics 365
3 144 (5.15%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.62%) AWS
5 92 (3.29%) OCI
6 76 (2.72%) Microsoft 365
7 72 (2.58%) GCP
8 68 (2.43%) Power Automate
9 62 (2.22%) SuccessFactors
10 61 (2.18%) SaaS
11 45 (1.61%) Entra ID
12 43 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
13 39 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
14 38 (1.36%) PowerApps
15 30 (1.07%) GitHub
16 28 (1.00%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
17 19 (0.68%) Serverless
18 17 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.14%) Firewall
2 28 (1.00%) Network Security
3 20 (0.72%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 13 (0.47%) DNS
6 12 (0.43%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) VSAN
7 10 (0.36%) FTP
7 10 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
7 10 (0.36%) WAN
8 9 (0.32%) VPN
9 8 (0.29%) Intranet
9 8 (0.29%) Kerberos
9 8 (0.29%) LAN
9 8 (0.29%) NAS
9 8 (0.29%) SD-WAN
10 6 (0.21%) HTTP
10 6 (0.21%) VLAN
11 5 (0.18%) TCP/IP
12 4 (0.14%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (3.08%) Power BI
2 53 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 34 (1.22%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.07%) Tableau
5 26 (0.93%) SQL Server
6 23 (0.82%) Metadata
7 21 (0.75%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 15 (0.54%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.29%) BusinessObjects
13 7 (0.25%) GIS
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 6 (0.21%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.21%) Essbase
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.18%) Geospatial Data
15 5 (0.18%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 73 (2.61%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Hudson
3 17 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.43%) 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%) Browser DevTools
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%) Charles Proxy
11 1 (0.036%) MLflow
General
1 589 (21.07%) Social Skills
2 588 (21.04%) Finance
3 236 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (7.08%) Public Sector
5 94 (3.36%) Banking
6 86 (3.08%) Manufacturing
7 64 (2.29%) Legal
8 62 (2.22%) Billing
8 62 (2.22%) Marketing
9 50 (1.79%) General Ledger
10 48 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
11 38 (1.36%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
13 32 (1.14%) Retail
14 26 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 25 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
16 24 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
17 23 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
18 20 (0.72%) Law
19 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (2.68%) REST
2 72 (2.58%) Oracle Fusion
3 59 (2.11%) XML
4 28 (1.00%) SAP TM
5 25 (0.89%) Middleware
6 24 (0.86%) SOAP
7 22 (0.79%) BAPI
7 22 (0.79%) SAP Fiori
8 20 (0.72%) JSON
8 20 (0.72%) Web Services
9 19 (0.68%) .NET
9 19 (0.68%) HTML
10 17 (0.61%) LDAP
10 17 (0.61%) SAP Basis
11 16 (0.57%) CSS
12 11 (0.39%) IDoc
12 11 (0.39%) Node.js
12 11 (0.39%) OAuth
12 11 (0.39%) React
13 10 (0.36%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 64 (2.29%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
3 39 (1.40%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.40%) Security Posture
4 32 (1.14%) Product Ownership
5 30 (1.07%) Operational Technology
6 29 (1.04%) AI Agents
7 26 (0.93%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.82%) Cloud Native
8 23 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 23 (0.82%) Management Information System
9 21 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
10 20 (0.72%) NHS
11 19 (0.68%) CMDB
11 19 (0.68%) Life Science
12 16 (0.57%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.54%) Replication
14 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
15 13 (0.47%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.47%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 71 (2.54%) Windows
2 52 (1.86%) Linux
3 19 (0.68%) VMS
4 17 (0.61%) Solaris
4 17 (0.61%) Unix
5 16 (0.57%) AIX
6 8 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.14%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.14%) zOS
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.11%) SUSE
10 2 (0.072%) Android
10 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (12.81%) Migration
2 257 (9.19%) Problem-Solving
3 241 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
4 238 (8.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 236 (8.44%) ERP
6 202 (7.23%) User Acceptance Testing
7 190 (6.80%) Workshop Facilitation
8 168 (6.01%) Continuous Improvement
9 165 (5.90%) Data Migration
10 160 (5.72%) Validation
11 159 (5.69%) Agile
12 147 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
13 146 (5.22%) Roadmaps
14 145 (5.19%) Analytics
15 141 (5.04%) Business Intelligence
16 131 (4.69%) AI
17 114 (4.08%) Change Management
18 110 (3.94%) Translating Business Requirements
19 109 (3.90%) DevOps
20 96 (3.43%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 209 (7.48%) SQL
2 112 (4.01%) Python
3 72 (2.58%) JavaScript
4 52 (1.86%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.25%) T-SQL
7 32 (1.14%) ABAP
8 30 (1.07%) Java
9 21 (0.75%) C#
9 21 (0.75%) TypeScript
10 13 (0.47%) Bash
10 13 (0.47%) Search Processing Language
11 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.32%) Groovy
12 9 (0.32%) R
13 7 (0.25%) C++
13 7 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 526 (18.82%) Security Cleared
2 403 (14.42%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.69%) DV Cleared
4 79 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 68 (2.43%) Degree
6 63 (2.25%) CISSP
7 48 (1.72%) CISM
8 23 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (0.75%) CIMA
10 19 (0.68%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 18 (0.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 18 (0.64%) CCSP
12 13 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (0.47%) PMP
12 13 (0.47%) SAP Certification
13 11 (0.39%) ACCA
13 11 (0.39%) Master's Degree
14 10 (0.36%) Azure Certification
14 10 (0.36%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (2.90%) NIST
2 76 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (2.40%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.93%) GRC
5 44 (1.57%) GDPR
6 37 (1.32%) QA
7 25 (0.89%) NCSC
8 22 (0.79%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.72%) PMO
10 19 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 19 (0.68%) SLA
11 16 (0.57%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 13 (0.47%) COBIT
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 7 (0.25%) RMADS
17 6 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 48 (1.72%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.29%) VMware NSX
3 33 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (0.86%) vSphere
5 20 (0.72%) Docker
6 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
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 32 (1.14%) Terraform
3 29 (1.04%) vRealize
4 18 (0.64%) Ansible
5 17 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.54%) Nagios
6 15 (0.54%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.47%) OpenView
8 13 (0.47%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.39%) Grafana
9 11 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.25%) SCCM
12 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.21%) Podman
13 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 584 (20.89%) SAP
2 312 (11.16%) Oracle
3 309 (11.06%) Microsoft
4 88 (3.15%) VMware
5 78 (2.79%) ServiceNow
6 59 (2.11%) Ariba
7 54 (1.93%) Siemens
8 52 (1.86%) Salesforce
8 52 (1.86%) Workday
9 36 (1.29%) Splunk
10 30 (1.07%) Google
11 28 (1.00%) Databricks
12 25 (0.89%) BMC
13 22 (0.79%) IBM
14 19 (0.68%) Adobe
15 16 (0.57%) IFS
15 16 (0.57%) Sage
16 15 (0.54%) SolarWinds
17 14 (0.50%) Palo Alto
18 13 (0.47%) HP