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 22 November 2025.

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

6 months to
22 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 2,584 2,532 2,914
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.19% 6.89% 6.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.91% 7.43% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,511 1,337 1,637
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £470 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.27%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £717
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £573 £525
% change year-on-year -3.93% +9.05% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 18 41
10th Percentile £39.58 £50.73 £50.00
25th Percentile £62.75 £57.86 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% +1.38% -4.91%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £86.25
90th Percentile £86.13 £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 32,680 34,083 43,648
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.96% 92.77% 93.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,712 20,554 29,563
10th Percentile £281 £300 £292
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 £647
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £494 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,932 1,297 1,552
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.21 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +50.00%
75th Percentile £56.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.92 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -26.03% -24.44% +83.97%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 2,008 £550 - 1,656
UK excluding London 0 1,082 £550 -3.93% 925
Work from Home 0 949 £540 -1.82% 842
London 0 908 £575 +4.55% 815
North of England -6 295 £581 +2.88% 211
South East 0 277 £525 -8.70% 345
North West 0 203 £620 +12.73% 128
Midlands -22 160 £575 +4.55% 95
East of England +17 122 £550 +7.32% 58
West Midlands -20 118 £550 +5.77% 66
South West +3 110 £550 -8.14% 162
Yorkshire -15 86 £475 -20.83% 63
Scotland -9 73 £500 -11.35% 30
East Midlands -18 41 £580 +0.87% 27
Wales +6 34 £405 -32.50% 17
Northern Ireland -10 14 £405 -32.50% 16
North East -8 6 £550 -8.33% 20
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 22 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.

1 696 (26.93%) SAP
2 669 (25.89%) Security Cleared
3 566 (21.90%) SC Cleared
4 367 (14.20%) SAP S/4HANA
5 334 (12.93%) Migration
6 328 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
7 296 (11.46%) Microsoft
8 289 (11.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 289 (11.18%) Stakeholder Management
9 287 (11.11%) Oracle
10 222 (8.59%) Azure
11 220 (8.51%) Agile
12 181 (7.00%) SQL
13 173 (6.70%) Workshop Facilitation
14 169 (6.54%) ERP
15 160 (6.19%) Analytics
16 157 (6.08%) Data Migration
17 147 (5.69%) Roadmaps
18 146 (5.65%) User Acceptance Testing
19 145 (5.61%) Knowledge Transfer
20 141 (5.46%) Validation
21 138 (5.34%) Cybersecurity
22 130 (5.03%) DevOps
22 130 (5.03%) Python
23 126 (4.88%) AWS
24 125 (4.84%) Business Intelligence
25 124 (4.80%) Requirements Gathering
26 115 (4.45%) Data Modelling
26 115 (4.45%) Risk Management
27 109 (4.22%) 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 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 26 (1.01%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 22 (0.85%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Apache
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 8 (0.31%) IIS
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) MTS
11 4 (0.15%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.077%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.077%) Camunda
Applications
1 41 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.077%) 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
1 367 (14.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (3.33%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.28%) SAP FI
4 54 (2.09%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.05%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.01%) SAP MM
7 50 (1.93%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 45 (1.74%) Dynamics CRM
10 42 (1.63%) Oracle General Ledger
11 41 (1.59%) SAP CO
12 39 (1.51%) SAP FI/CO
13 37 (1.43%) Oracle Cash Management
14 36 (1.39%) SAP Payroll
15 35 (1.35%) SAP PP
16 34 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
16 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
17 33 (1.28%) Oracle Assets
18 28 (1.08%) Oracle Financials
19 27 (1.04%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 222 (8.59%) Azure
2 126 (4.88%) AWS
3 109 (4.22%) Power Platform
4 107 (4.14%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
5 89 (3.44%) OCI
6 66 (2.55%) GCP
7 59 (2.28%) SuccessFactors
8 58 (2.24%) SaaS
9 55 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 42 (1.63%) Power Automate
11 32 (1.24%) PowerApps
12 27 (1.04%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (0.89%) GitHub
13 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
14 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
14 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Purview
15 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
16 14 (0.54%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 13 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 68 (2.63%) Firewall
2 36 (1.39%) Network Security
3 29 (1.12%) VPN
4 27 (1.04%) DNS
5 22 (0.85%) WAN
6 20 (0.77%) SD-WAN
7 18 (0.70%) DHCP
8 15 (0.58%) HTTP
8 15 (0.58%) SSL
9 13 (0.50%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.46%) 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%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.27%) Kerberos
15 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.90%) Power BI
2 45 (1.74%) SQL Server
3 44 (1.70%) SAP HANA
4 41 (1.59%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (0.89%) Metadata
6 20 (0.77%) SAP BW
7 18 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) DB2
8 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
10 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 9 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
16 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 58 (2.24%) JIRA
2 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.81%) GitLab
4 20 (0.77%) Git
5 9 (0.35%) Hudson
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
6 7 (0.27%) LSMW
7 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.15%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.077%) JUnit
9 2 (0.077%) Mockito
9 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 752 (29.10%) Social Skills
2 581 (22.48%) Finance
3 245 (9.48%) Public Sector
4 244 (9.44%) Analytical Skills
5 177 (6.85%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.21%) Documentation Skills
7 81 (3.13%) Banking
8 66 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
9 59 (2.28%) Marketing
10 58 (2.24%) Billing
11 56 (2.17%) Telecoms
12 55 (2.13%) Legal
13 45 (1.74%) Pharmaceutical
14 38 (1.47%) General Ledger
15 35 (1.35%) Retail
16 26 (1.01%) Electronics
16 26 (1.01%) Law
17 25 (0.97%) Local Government
18 21 (0.81%) Financial Institution
19 20 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (3.13%) SAP Fiori
2 65 (2.52%) REST
3 62 (2.40%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.05%) SOAP
5 48 (1.86%) Web Services
5 48 (1.86%) XML
6 41 (1.59%) HTML
7 34 (1.32%) Node.js
8 33 (1.28%) Middleware
9 28 (1.08%) JSON
10 26 (1.01%) OAuth
11 25 (0.97%) .NET
12 24 (0.93%) BAPI
13 23 (0.89%) LDAP
14 22 (0.85%) CSS
15 20 (0.77%) EDI
15 20 (0.77%) SAP TM
16 19 (0.74%) SAP Basis
17 16 (0.62%) SAP PI
18 14 (0.54%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 81 (3.13%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
3 38 (1.47%) Product Ownership
3 38 (1.47%) Security Posture
4 36 (1.39%) Management Information System
5 34 (1.32%) Data Centre
6 31 (1.20%) Cloud Native
7 23 (0.89%) Replication
8 22 (0.85%) Data Structures
8 22 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
9 20 (0.77%) Data Protection Act
9 20 (0.77%) Operational Technology
10 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
11 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
12 17 (0.66%) Life Science
12 17 (0.66%) Private Cloud
13 14 (0.54%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (0.50%) CMDB
14 13 (0.50%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 83 (3.21%) Windows
2 57 (2.21%) Linux
3 19 (0.74%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.70%) Unix
5 12 (0.46%) 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 (0.15%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.077%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 334 (12.93%) Migration
2 328 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
3 289 (11.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 289 (11.18%) Stakeholder Management
4 220 (8.51%) Agile
5 173 (6.70%) Workshop Facilitation
6 169 (6.54%) ERP
7 160 (6.19%) Analytics
8 157 (6.08%) Data Migration
9 147 (5.69%) Roadmaps
10 146 (5.65%) User Acceptance Testing
11 145 (5.61%) Knowledge Transfer
12 141 (5.46%) Validation
13 138 (5.34%) Cybersecurity
14 130 (5.03%) DevOps
15 125 (4.84%) Business Intelligence
16 124 (4.80%) Requirements Gathering
17 115 (4.45%) Data Modelling
17 115 (4.45%) Risk Management
18 103 (3.99%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 181 (7.00%) SQL
2 130 (5.03%) Python
3 87 (3.37%) PowerShell
4 82 (3.17%) JavaScript
5 70 (2.71%) ABAP
6 61 (2.36%) Java
7 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 26 (1.01%) Groovy
9 21 (0.81%) C++
10 19 (0.74%) Bash
11 17 (0.66%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 13 (0.50%) 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 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 669 (25.89%) Security Cleared
2 566 (21.90%) SC Cleared
3 109 (4.22%) Degree
4 91 (3.52%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 71 (2.75%) CISSP
7 45 (1.74%) CISM
8 28 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
8 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
9 23 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 20 (0.77%) ACCA
10 20 (0.77%) CIMA
10 20 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.58%) CCNP
12 15 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (0.54%) Master's Degree
14 13 (0.50%) AWS Certification
15 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
16 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 75 (2.90%) NIST
3 64 (2.48%) QA
4 62 (2.40%) GDPR
5 41 (1.59%) Data Quality
6 30 (1.16%) GRC
7 18 (0.70%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.62%) NCSC
9 16 (0.62%) RMADS
10 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 14 (0.54%) PCI DSS
12 13 (0.50%) COBIT
12 13 (0.50%) 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 (2.83%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.51%) Docker
4 27 (1.04%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.81%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.15%) Firmware
8 4 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.15%) UAG
9 1 (0.039%) Ceph
9 1 (0.039%) IAG
9 1 (0.039%) KVM
9 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.039%) QEMU
9 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.039%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.09%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.01%) Terraform
3 25 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
4 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (0.89%) Ansible
5 23 (0.89%) vRealize
6 16 (0.62%) SCCM
7 13 (0.50%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.27%) CASB
10 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.19%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.19%) PowerCLI
11 5 (0.19%) QRadar
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.15%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 696 (26.93%) SAP
2 296 (11.46%) Microsoft
3 287 (11.11%) Oracle
4 97 (3.75%) VMware
5 86 (3.33%) ServiceNow
6 71 (2.75%) Cisco
7 64 (2.48%) CyberArk
8 61 (2.36%) Workday
9 59 (2.28%) Salesforce
10 48 (1.86%) Ariba
11 36 (1.39%) Google
12 35 (1.35%) Aruba
13 34 (1.32%) IBM
14 30 (1.16%) Adobe
14 30 (1.16%) Dynatrace
15 26 (1.01%) OpenText
16 22 (0.85%) Splunk
17 18 (0.70%) IFS
17 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
17 18 (0.70%) Remedy