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 1 December 2025.

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

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 28
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,546 2,480 2,843
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.13% 6.89% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.84% 7.43% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,480 1,312 1,591
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £475 £480 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -0.09%
75th Percentile £648 £638 £648
90th Percentile £725 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 17 36
10th Percentile £41.92 £49.30 £51.10
25th Percentile £62.75 £56.65 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £72.88
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% -4.80% +4.11%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £87.13
90th Percentile £86.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £70.88 £63.29
% change year-on-year +9.35% +11.98% -11.17%

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 32,486 33,393 42,696
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.92% 92.81% 93.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,605 20,273 28,801
10th Percentile £281 £300 £293
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 £723 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £497 £500
% change year-on-year -4.43% -0.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,896 1,201 1,522
10th Percentile £14.15 £15.25 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +43.93%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 1 December 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 1 December 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 1 December 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 1,990 £550 - 1,030
UK excluding London -3 1,055 £550 -4.35% 800
Work from Home +1 924 £550 - 452
London -2 914 £575 +4.55% 457
North of England -8 288 £583 +2.82% 158
South East 0 277 £545 -5.22% 320
North West +3 201 £620 +12.73% 100
Midlands -22 155 £575 +4.55% 85
West Midlands -15 119 £563 +7.14% 53
East of England +10 116 £550 +10.00% 38
South West +2 104 £550 -4.76% 157
Yorkshire -14 80 £480 -20.00% 49
Scotland -2 72 £500 -9.58% 23
East Midlands -22 35 £590 +2.61% 31
Wales +4 32 £405 -32.50% 18
Northern Ireland -9 14 £405 -32.50% 9
North East -10 7 £550 -8.33% 10
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 December 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.

1 689 (27.06%) SAP
2 657 (25.81%) Security Cleared
3 553 (21.72%) SC Cleared
4 364 (14.30%) SAP S/4HANA
5 338 (13.28%) Migration
6 318 (12.49%) Problem-Solving
7 292 (11.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 292 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 288 (11.31%) Oracle
9 283 (11.12%) Microsoft
10 227 (8.92%) Azure
11 212 (8.33%) Agile
12 179 (7.03%) Workshop Facilitation
13 167 (6.56%) ERP
14 164 (6.44%) SQL
15 159 (6.25%) Data Migration
16 158 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
17 155 (6.09%) Analytics
18 150 (5.89%) Knowledge Transfer
19 149 (5.85%) Roadmaps
20 137 (5.38%) Validation
21 131 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
22 128 (5.03%) Python
23 124 (4.87%) DevOps
24 121 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
25 118 (4.63%) AWS
26 117 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
27 115 (4.52%) Data Modelling
28 112 (4.40%) Risk Management
29 108 (4.24%) 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 (2.32%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.06%) Confluence
4 23 (0.90%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.75%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.24%) Apache
9 6 (0.24%) CMS
9 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.20%) IIS
10 5 (0.20%) MTS
11 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.079%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.079%) Camunda
14 1 (0.039%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 38 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.24%) 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 (0.079%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Sketch
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 364 (14.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (3.53%) Oracle EBS
3 62 (2.44%) Oracle Payables
4 57 (2.24%) SAP FI
5 55 (2.16%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.04%) SAP MM
7 51 (2.00%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.89%) Oracle General Ledger
8 48 (1.89%) SAP EWM
9 42 (1.65%) Oracle Receivables
10 41 (1.61%) Oracle Cash Management
11 40 (1.57%) SAP CO
12 39 (1.53%) Oracle Assets
13 38 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
14 37 (1.45%) SAP FI/CO
15 35 (1.37%) SAP Payroll
16 34 (1.34%) SAP PP
16 34 (1.34%) SAP WM
17 29 (1.14%) Oracle Financials
18 27 (1.06%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 227 (8.92%) Azure
2 118 (4.63%) AWS
3 107 (4.20%) Power Platform
4 102 (4.01%) Dynamics 365
5 87 (3.42%) OCI
6 86 (3.38%) Microsoft 365
7 70 (2.75%) GCP
8 59 (2.32%) SuccessFactors
9 57 (2.24%) Entra ID
9 57 (2.24%) SaaS
10 41 (1.61%) Power Automate
11 31 (1.22%) PowerApps
12 30 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (0.94%) GitHub
14 22 (0.86%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.71%) Microsoft Copilot
15 18 (0.71%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.63%) GitHub Actions
17 14 (0.55%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 13 (0.51%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 66 (2.59%) Firewall
2 29 (1.14%) VPN
3 28 (1.10%) Network Security
4 26 (1.02%) DNS
5 20 (0.79%) WAN
6 18 (0.71%) SD-WAN
7 16 (0.63%) DHCP
8 15 (0.59%) HTTP
8 15 (0.59%) TCP/IP
9 14 (0.55%) SSL
10 13 (0.51%) BGP
11 12 (0.47%) OSPF
12 10 (0.39%) SSH
13 9 (0.35%) Kerberos
13 9 (0.35%) LAN
13 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 8 (0.31%) VLAN
15 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Internet
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.95%) Power BI
2 46 (1.81%) SAP HANA
3 41 (1.61%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.61%) SQL Server
4 23 (0.90%) Metadata
5 22 (0.86%) SAP BW
6 19 (0.75%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (0.63%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.59%) SAP Data Services
9 14 (0.55%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 14 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.51%) DB2
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 9 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
14 6 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
14 6 (0.24%) Power Query
15 5 (0.20%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.36%) 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 (0.079%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.079%) JUnit
9 2 (0.079%) Mockito
9 2 (0.079%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.079%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.079%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.079%) Visual Studio
General
1 737 (28.95%) Social Skills
2 587 (23.06%) Finance
3 243 (9.54%) Public Sector
4 238 (9.35%) Analytical Skills
5 172 (6.76%) Manufacturing
6 79 (3.10%) Banking
7 77 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
8 63 (2.47%) Presentation Skills
9 56 (2.20%) Billing
9 56 (2.20%) Legal
9 56 (2.20%) Marketing
10 51 (2.00%) Telecoms
11 45 (1.77%) Pharmaceutical
12 44 (1.73%) General Ledger
13 33 (1.30%) Retail
14 27 (1.06%) Law
15 25 (0.98%) Electronics
16 23 (0.90%) Local Government
17 21 (0.82%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.22%) SAP Fiori
2 68 (2.67%) REST
3 62 (2.44%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (2.04%) SOAP
5 48 (1.89%) XML
6 45 (1.77%) Web Services
7 37 (1.45%) Node.js
8 35 (1.37%) HTML
9 33 (1.30%) Middleware
10 31 (1.22%) JSON
11 25 (0.98%) .NET
11 25 (0.98%) BAPI
11 25 (0.98%) LDAP
11 25 (0.98%) OAuth
12 20 (0.79%) EDI
13 19 (0.75%) SAP TM
14 18 (0.71%) CSS
14 18 (0.71%) SAP Basis
15 17 (0.67%) SAP PI
16 15 (0.59%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 83 (3.26%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.53%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.45%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.26%) Cloud Native
5 32 (1.26%) Data Centre
5 32 (1.26%) Management Information System
6 24 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
6 24 (0.94%) Data Structures
7 23 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 23 (0.90%) Replication
8 22 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
9 19 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (0.75%) Operational Technology
10 17 (0.67%) Virtual Team
11 16 (0.63%) Life Science
12 14 (0.55%) Private Cloud
13 13 (0.51%) CMDB
13 13 (0.51%) IoT
14 12 (0.47%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 81 (3.18%) Windows
2 55 (2.16%) Linux
3 17 (0.67%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Unix
5 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
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 (0.079%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 338 (13.28%) Migration
2 318 (12.49%) Problem-Solving
3 292 (11.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 292 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
4 212 (8.33%) Agile
5 179 (7.03%) Workshop Facilitation
6 167 (6.56%) ERP
7 159 (6.25%) Data Migration
8 158 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
9 155 (6.09%) Analytics
10 150 (5.89%) Knowledge Transfer
11 149 (5.85%) Roadmaps
12 137 (5.38%) Validation
13 131 (5.15%) Cybersecurity
14 124 (4.87%) DevOps
15 121 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
16 117 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
17 115 (4.52%) Data Modelling
18 112 (4.40%) Risk Management
19 105 (4.12%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 164 (6.44%) SQL
2 128 (5.03%) Python
3 89 (3.50%) PowerShell
4 73 (2.87%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.83%) ABAP
6 61 (2.40%) Java
7 31 (1.22%) PL/SQL
8 27 (1.06%) Groovy
9 23 (0.90%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.79%) C++
11 19 (0.75%) Bash
12 15 (0.59%) C
13 14 (0.55%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.35%) C#
16 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.27%) VBA
18 6 (0.24%) COBOL
19 5 (0.20%) Perl
19 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 657 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 553 (21.72%) SC Cleared
3 108 (4.24%) Degree
4 88 (3.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 83 (3.26%) DV Cleared
6 66 (2.59%) CISSP
7 44 (1.73%) CISM
8 28 (1.10%) SAP Certification
9 27 (1.06%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (0.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.79%) ACCA
11 20 (0.79%) CIMA
12 18 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
13 17 (0.67%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (0.55%) Master's Degree
15 13 (0.51%) CCNP
15 13 (0.51%) CESG Certified Professional
16 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
16 10 (0.39%) CISA
17 9 (0.35%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 75 (2.95%) NIST
3 64 (2.51%) GDPR
4 57 (2.24%) QA
5 43 (1.69%) Data Quality
6 32 (1.26%) GRC
7 18 (0.71%) NCSC
7 18 (0.71%) SLA
8 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
9 15 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 14 (0.55%) COBIT
10 14 (0.55%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.55%) PMO
10 14 (0.55%) RMADS
11 9 (0.35%) Accessibility
11 9 (0.35%) IFRS
11 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
11 9 (0.35%) PERC
12 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 78 (3.06%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.49%) Docker
4 26 (1.02%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.79%) vSphere
6 6 (0.24%) 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 54 (2.12%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.04%) Terraform
3 25 (0.98%) Ansible
4 24 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
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 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.20%) QRadar
12 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
13 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
13 4 (0.16%) PowerCLI
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) Istio
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 689 (27.06%) SAP
2 288 (11.31%) Oracle
3 283 (11.12%) Microsoft
4 97 (3.81%) VMware
5 79 (3.10%) ServiceNow
6 64 (2.51%) Cisco
7 61 (2.40%) CyberArk
8 60 (2.36%) Workday
9 58 (2.28%) Salesforce
10 48 (1.89%) Ariba
11 37 (1.45%) Google
12 35 (1.37%) Aruba
13 31 (1.22%) Dynatrace
13 31 (1.22%) IBM
14 29 (1.14%) Adobe
15 25 (0.98%) OpenText
16 18 (0.71%) Remedy
16 18 (0.71%) Splunk
17 17 (0.67%) EMC
18 16 (0.63%) Palo Alto