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 November 2025.

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

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 29
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,554 2,518 2,883
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.18% 6.88% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.89% 7.41% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,492 1,332 1,617
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £470 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.22%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £723
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 18 38
10th Percentile £41.92 £50.73 £51.53
25th Percentile £62.75 £57.86 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £72.88
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% -5.75% +2.28%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £86.81
90th Percentile £86.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
% change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -12.70%

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 32,350 33,960 43,317
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.99% 92.81% 93.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,481 20,515 29,296
10th Percentile £280 £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 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,914 1,266 1,538
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.75
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.79% +49.17%
75th Percentile £56.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +80.00%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 1,989 £550 - 1,040
UK excluding London -2 1,063 £550 -4.35% 763
Work from Home +1 934 £546 -0.68% 464
London 0 903 £575 +4.55% 452
North of England -7 290 £585 +3.17% 137
South East -2 274 £525 -8.70% 304
North West +1 201 £620 +12.73% 83
Midlands -20 159 £575 +4.55% 73
East of England +15 118 £550 +10.00% 41
West Midlands -17 117 £550 +5.77% 53
South West +7 108 £550 -7.95% 158
Yorkshire -12 83 £475 -20.83% 43
Scotland -6 69 £500 -9.58% 26
East Midlands -18 41 £580 +0.87% 19
Wales +9 34 £405 -32.50% 18
Northern Ireland -11 14 £405 -32.50% 14
North East -12 6 £550 -8.33% 11
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 691 (27.06%) SAP
2 662 (25.92%) Security Cleared
3 559 (21.89%) SC Cleared
4 365 (14.29%) SAP S/4HANA
5 331 (12.96%) Migration
6 326 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
7 290 (11.35%) Microsoft
8 288 (11.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 287 (11.24%) Stakeholder Management
10 286 (11.20%) Oracle
11 219 (8.57%) Agile
11 219 (8.57%) Azure
12 177 (6.93%) SQL
13 173 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
14 169 (6.62%) ERP
15 158 (6.19%) Analytics
16 156 (6.11%) Data Migration
17 148 (5.79%) Roadmaps
18 145 (5.68%) Knowledge Transfer
18 145 (5.68%) User Acceptance Testing
19 139 (5.44%) Validation
20 133 (5.21%) Cybersecurity
21 126 (4.93%) Python
22 125 (4.89%) Business Intelligence
23 124 (4.86%) DevOps
24 120 (4.70%) Requirements Gathering
25 119 (4.66%) AWS
26 115 (4.50%) Data Modelling
27 113 (4.42%) Risk Management
28 110 (4.31%) 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 (2.31%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 26 (1.02%) Confluence
4 23 (0.90%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.23%) Apache
8 6 (0.23%) CMS
8 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.20%) IIS
9 5 (0.20%) MTS
10 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.078%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.078%) Camunda
Applications
1 41 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.55%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.16%) Revit
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.078%) 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
1 365 (14.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (3.37%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (2.23%) SAP FI
4 54 (2.11%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.08%) Oracle EBS R12
6 51 (2.00%) SAP MM
7 50 (1.96%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.88%) SAP EWM
9 44 (1.72%) Dynamics CRM
10 42 (1.64%) Oracle General Ledger
11 40 (1.57%) SAP CO
12 38 (1.49%) SAP FI/CO
13 37 (1.45%) Oracle Cash Management
14 36 (1.41%) SAP Payroll
15 35 (1.37%) SAP PP
16 34 (1.33%) Oracle Receivables
16 34 (1.33%) SAP WM
17 33 (1.29%) Oracle Assets
18 28 (1.10%) Oracle Financials
19 27 (1.06%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 219 (8.57%) Azure
2 119 (4.66%) AWS
3 110 (4.31%) Power Platform
4 106 (4.15%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (3.48%) Microsoft 365
5 89 (3.48%) OCI
6 65 (2.55%) GCP
7 59 (2.31%) SuccessFactors
8 58 (2.27%) SaaS
9 55 (2.15%) Entra ID
10 43 (1.68%) Power Automate
11 33 (1.29%) PowerApps
12 28 (1.10%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (0.90%) GitHub
13 23 (0.90%) OneDrive
14 20 (0.78%) Microsoft Copilot
15 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.63%) GitHub Actions
17 14 (0.55%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 13 (0.51%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.62%) Firewall
2 31 (1.21%) Network Security
3 29 (1.14%) VPN
4 26 (1.02%) DNS
5 21 (0.82%) WAN
6 19 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 17 (0.67%) DHCP
8 15 (0.59%) HTTP
8 15 (0.59%) SSL
9 13 (0.51%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.47%) BGP
11 11 (0.43%) OSPF
12 10 (0.39%) SSH
13 9 (0.35%) LAN
13 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 8 (0.31%) VSAN
15 7 (0.27%) Internet
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.27%) Kerberos
15 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.98%) Power BI
2 45 (1.76%) SAP HANA
3 43 (1.68%) SQL Server
4 41 (1.61%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (0.90%) Metadata
6 20 (0.78%) SAP BW
7 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.63%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.59%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.59%) SAP Data Services
10 14 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
11 13 (0.51%) DB2
12 11 (0.43%) Tableau
13 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
16 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 58 (2.27%) JIRA
2 23 (0.90%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.82%) Git
3 21 (0.82%) GitLab
4 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
5 8 (0.31%) Hudson
6 7 (0.27%) LSMW
7 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.078%) JUnit
9 2 (0.078%) Mockito
9 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 743 (29.09%) Social Skills
2 576 (22.55%) Finance
3 244 (9.55%) Public Sector
4 240 (9.40%) Analytical Skills
5 175 (6.85%) Manufacturing
6 81 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
7 76 (2.98%) Banking
8 65 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
9 58 (2.27%) Marketing
10 57 (2.23%) Billing
11 54 (2.11%) Legal
11 54 (2.11%) Telecoms
12 45 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
13 38 (1.49%) General Ledger
14 34 (1.33%) Retail
15 26 (1.02%) Law
16 25 (0.98%) Electronics
16 25 (0.98%) Local Government
17 21 (0.82%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.21%) SAP Fiori
2 65 (2.55%) REST
3 62 (2.43%) Oracle Fusion
4 50 (1.96%) SOAP
5 45 (1.76%) Web Services
5 45 (1.76%) XML
6 40 (1.57%) HTML
7 33 (1.29%) Middleware
7 33 (1.29%) Node.js
8 28 (1.10%) JSON
9 26 (1.02%) OAuth
10 25 (0.98%) .NET
10 25 (0.98%) BAPI
11 23 (0.90%) LDAP
12 21 (0.82%) CSS
13 20 (0.78%) EDI
13 20 (0.78%) SAP TM
14 19 (0.74%) SAP Basis
15 16 (0.63%) SAP PI
16 15 (0.59%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 80 (3.13%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
3 38 (1.49%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.41%) Management Information System
4 36 (1.41%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.29%) Data Centre
6 31 (1.21%) Cloud Native
7 23 (0.90%) Replication
8 22 (0.86%) Data Structures
8 22 (0.86%) Hybrid Cloud
9 21 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
10 20 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (0.78%) Operational Technology
11 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
12 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
13 17 (0.67%) Life Science
14 16 (0.63%) Private Cloud
15 14 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (0.51%) IoT
17 12 (0.47%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 79 (3.09%) Windows
2 57 (2.23%) Linux
3 18 (0.70%) Unix
4 16 (0.63%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.31%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.078%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 331 (12.96%) Migration
2 326 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
3 288 (11.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 287 (11.24%) Stakeholder Management
5 219 (8.57%) Agile
6 173 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
7 169 (6.62%) ERP
8 158 (6.19%) Analytics
9 156 (6.11%) Data Migration
10 148 (5.79%) Roadmaps
11 145 (5.68%) Knowledge Transfer
11 145 (5.68%) User Acceptance Testing
12 139 (5.44%) Validation
13 133 (5.21%) Cybersecurity
14 125 (4.89%) Business Intelligence
15 124 (4.86%) DevOps
16 120 (4.70%) Requirements Gathering
17 115 (4.50%) Data Modelling
18 113 (4.42%) Risk Management
19 102 (3.99%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 177 (6.93%) SQL
2 126 (4.93%) Python
3 87 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 78 (3.05%) JavaScript
5 71 (2.78%) ABAP
6 60 (2.35%) Java
7 32 (1.25%) PL/SQL
8 26 (1.02%) Groovy
9 20 (0.78%) C++
10 18 (0.70%) Bash
11 17 (0.67%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.59%) C
13 14 (0.55%) PHP
14 12 (0.47%) C#
15 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.27%) VBA
18 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.23%) COBOL
19 5 (0.20%) Perl
Qualifications
1 662 (25.92%) Security Cleared
2 559 (21.89%) SC Cleared
3 110 (4.31%) Degree
4 90 (3.52%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 67 (2.62%) CISSP
7 45 (1.76%) CISM
8 28 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
8 28 (1.10%) SAP Certification
9 23 (0.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 20 (0.78%) ACCA
10 20 (0.78%) CIMA
10 20 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (0.55%) CCNP
12 14 (0.55%) CESG Certified Professional
12 14 (0.55%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
14 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
14 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 74 (2.90%) NIST
3 62 (2.43%) GDPR
4 60 (2.35%) QA
5 41 (1.61%) Data Quality
6 28 (1.10%) GRC
7 18 (0.70%) SLA
8 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.63%) NCSC
10 15 (0.59%) RMADS
10 15 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 14 (0.55%) PCI DSS
12 13 (0.51%) COBIT
12 13 (0.51%) PMO
13 11 (0.43%) Accessibility
14 9 (0.35%) IFRS
14 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
15 8 (0.31%) PERC
System Software
1 73 (2.86%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.49%) Docker
4 26 (1.02%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.82%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.20%) NDS
7 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.16%) 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 53 (2.08%) Kubernetes
2 51 (2.00%) Terraform
3 25 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
4 24 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (0.90%) Ansible
6 22 (0.86%) vRealize
7 16 (0.63%) SCCM
8 13 (0.51%) Grafana
9 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
9 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.27%) CASB
11 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.20%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
12 5 (0.20%) PowerCLI
12 5 (0.20%) QRadar
12 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
13 4 (0.16%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 691 (27.06%) SAP
2 290 (11.35%) Microsoft
3 286 (11.20%) Oracle
4 95 (3.72%) VMware
5 85 (3.33%) ServiceNow
6 67 (2.62%) Cisco
7 61 (2.39%) CyberArk
7 61 (2.39%) Workday
8 59 (2.31%) Salesforce
9 48 (1.88%) Ariba
10 35 (1.37%) Aruba
10 35 (1.37%) Google
11 31 (1.21%) IBM
12 30 (1.17%) Adobe
12 30 (1.17%) Dynatrace
13 25 (0.98%) OpenText
14 19 (0.74%) Splunk
15 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
15 18 (0.70%) Remedy
16 17 (0.67%) EMC