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 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 29 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,538 2,069 2,602
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.87% 6.55% 6.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.51% 7.06% 6.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,473 1,131 1,505
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £469 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £525
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 12 38
10th Percentile £40.77 £55.65 £49.28
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.38 £60.21
Median hourly rate £70.50 £74.00 £65.06
Median % change year-on-year -4.73% +13.73% -7.05%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.06 £86.81
90th Percentile £84.90 £87.38 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £74.00 £63.15
% change year-on-year +4.73% +17.19% +0.23%

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 33,773 29,297 39,613
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.35% 92.69% 93.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,365 17,961 26,425
10th Percentile £300 £288 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,972 883 1,665
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.51 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.30 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.08% -23.53% +25.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.37 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.08% -30.93% +55.17%

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 14 January 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 14 January 2026.

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 14 January 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 0 1,980 £555 +0.91% 988
UK excluding London +4 1,026 £550 - 781
London -3 924 £575 +4.55% 399
Work from Home 0 911 £538 -2.27% 411
South East -2 279 £550 - 302
North of England -6 272 £599 +8.91% 149
Midlands -15 168 £531 +1.19% 81
North West 0 165 £623 +15.71% 82
West Midlands -11 132 £538 +2.38% 48
South West +3 110 £588 +11.90% 146
Yorkshire +9 98 £550 -12.00% 54
East of England +1 90 £550 -4.35% 64
Scotland +8 69 £508 -7.73% 21
East Midlands -24 35 £524 -0.24% 33
Wales +12 31 £426 -27.49% 19
Northern Ireland +1 12 £405 -22.86% 11
North East -16 9 £620 +3.33% 14
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 January 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.

1 663 (26.12%) SAP
2 648 (25.53%) Security Cleared
3 541 (21.32%) SC Cleared
4 353 (13.91%) Migration
5 346 (13.63%) SAP S/4HANA
6 319 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
7 309 (12.17%) Oracle
8 304 (11.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 300 (11.82%) Stakeholder Management
10 264 (10.40%) Microsoft
11 244 (9.61%) Azure
12 197 (7.76%) Workshop Facilitation
13 193 (7.60%) Agile
14 179 (7.05%) ERP
15 168 (6.62%) User Acceptance Testing
16 165 (6.50%) Analytics
17 156 (6.15%) Data Migration
18 154 (6.07%) SQL
19 153 (6.03%) Roadmaps
20 147 (5.79%) Knowledge Transfer
21 136 (5.36%) Validation
22 133 (5.24%) Business Intelligence
23 130 (5.12%) Cybersecurity
24 127 (5.00%) DevOps
25 119 (4.69%) Dynamics 365
26 118 (4.65%) Python
27 116 (4.57%) Risk Management
28 113 (4.45%) AWS
29 108 (4.26%) Power Platform
30 107 (4.22%) Data Modelling

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 30 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.10%) Confluence
4 6 (0.24%) CMS
4 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 6 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.20%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Service Bus
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.079%) Apache
8 2 (0.079%) IIS
8 2 (0.079%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.039%) nginx
9 1 (0.039%) WebSphere
Applications
1 45 (1.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) InVision
8 1 (0.039%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.039%) Sketch
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 346 (13.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 78 (3.07%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.32%) Oracle Payables
3 59 (2.32%) SAP FI
4 52 (2.05%) SAP EWM
5 51 (2.01%) SAP HCM
6 50 (1.97%) Oracle Receivables
7 49 (1.93%) SAP MM
8 48 (1.89%) Oracle EBS R12
9 45 (1.77%) Oracle General Ledger
10 42 (1.65%) SAP PP
11 39 (1.54%) Oracle Cash Management
11 39 (1.54%) SAP CO
12 36 (1.42%) SAP FI/CO
13 35 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
14 34 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
15 33 (1.30%) SAP Payroll
15 33 (1.30%) SAP WM
16 25 (0.99%) Oracle Financials
16 25 (0.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 244 (9.61%) Azure
2 119 (4.69%) Dynamics 365
3 113 (4.45%) AWS
4 108 (4.26%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.90%) OCI
6 76 (2.99%) GCP
7 65 (2.56%) Microsoft 365
8 58 (2.29%) SaaS
9 54 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.54%) SuccessFactors
11 35 (1.38%) Power Automate
12 32 (1.26%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (1.14%) PowerApps
14 25 (0.99%) Microsoft Copilot
15 20 (0.79%) GitHub
15 20 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.75%) OneDrive
17 17 (0.67%) Serverless
18 16 (0.63%) Azure Data Factory
18 16 (0.63%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 52 (2.05%) Firewall
2 19 (0.75%) VPN
3 18 (0.71%) DNS
4 17 (0.67%) Network Security
4 17 (0.67%) WAN
5 15 (0.59%) SD-WAN
6 14 (0.55%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.51%) HTTP
8 12 (0.47%) SSL
9 11 (0.43%) DHCP
9 11 (0.43%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.39%) SMS
11 9 (0.35%) Intranet
11 9 (0.35%) SSH
12 7 (0.28%) BGP
12 7 (0.28%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.28%) LAN
12 7 (0.28%) SAN
13 6 (0.24%) OSPF
13 6 (0.24%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.99%) Power BI
2 50 (1.97%) Oracle Reports
3 45 (1.77%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.34%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.99%) Metadata
6 21 (0.83%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.55%) SAP Data Services
10 13 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) Oracle Database
12 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
12 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.39%) Tableau
13 9 (0.35%) DB2
14 7 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
16 5 (0.20%) MongoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.36%) JIRA
2 21 (0.83%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.75%) Git
4 16 (0.63%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.32%) Hudson
6 8 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.20%) LSMW
7 5 (0.20%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
10 2 (0.079%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.079%) git-flow
10 2 (0.079%) Mockito
10 2 (0.079%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.079%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.079%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 722 (28.45%) Social Skills
2 574 (22.62%) Finance
3 237 (9.34%) Public Sector
4 226 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
5 148 (5.83%) Manufacturing
6 91 (3.59%) Banking
7 80 (3.15%) Documentation Skills
8 67 (2.64%) Marketing
9 59 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
10 55 (2.17%) Billing
11 51 (2.01%) Legal
12 40 (1.58%) General Ledger
13 39 (1.54%) Telecoms
14 31 (1.22%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.18%) Retail
16 27 (1.06%) Law
17 23 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 22 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
19 21 (0.83%) Electronics
20 20 (0.79%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.31%) Oracle Fusion
2 74 (2.92%) REST
3 69 (2.72%) SAP Fiori
4 47 (1.85%) Web Services
5 43 (1.69%) SOAP
6 39 (1.54%) XML
7 30 (1.18%) Node.js
7 30 (1.18%) SAP TM
8 28 (1.10%) LDAP
9 25 (0.99%) JSON
10 24 (0.95%) Middleware
11 21 (0.83%) HTML
12 20 (0.79%) BAPI
12 20 (0.79%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.71%) GraphQL
13 18 (0.71%) OAuth
14 16 (0.63%) CSS
15 15 (0.59%) SAP Basis
16 14 (0.55%) .NET
16 14 (0.55%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.07%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.73%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.50%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.22%) Cloud Native
5 31 (1.22%) Data Centre
6 29 (1.14%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.95%) Replication
8 23 (0.91%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
10 19 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
11 18 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
12 16 (0.63%) Analytical Mindset
13 14 (0.55%) NHS
13 14 (0.55%) Operational Technology
14 12 (0.47%) CMDB
14 12 (0.47%) Virtual Team
15 10 (0.39%) FMCG
15 10 (0.39%) Public Cloud
15 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 72 (2.84%) Windows
2 52 (2.05%) Linux
3 22 (0.87%) Unix
4 13 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.39%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.28%) AIX
8 7 (0.28%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.079%) CentOS
11 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.079%) zOS
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) SUSE
12 1 (0.039%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (13.91%) Migration
2 319 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
3 304 (11.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 300 (11.82%) Stakeholder Management
5 197 (7.76%) Workshop Facilitation
6 193 (7.60%) Agile
7 179 (7.05%) ERP
8 168 (6.62%) User Acceptance Testing
9 165 (6.50%) Analytics
10 156 (6.15%) Data Migration
11 153 (6.03%) Roadmaps
12 147 (5.79%) Knowledge Transfer
13 136 (5.36%) Validation
14 133 (5.24%) Business Intelligence
15 130 (5.12%) Cybersecurity
16 127 (5.00%) DevOps
17 116 (4.57%) Risk Management
18 107 (4.22%) Data Modelling
19 104 (4.10%) Continuous Improvement
20 100 (3.94%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 154 (6.07%) SQL
2 118 (4.65%) Python
3 88 (3.47%) PowerShell
4 78 (3.07%) JavaScript
5 75 (2.96%) ABAP
6 43 (1.69%) Java
7 30 (1.18%) Groovy
8 28 (1.10%) PL/SQL
8 28 (1.10%) TypeScript
9 17 (0.67%) Bash
10 14 (0.55%) C#
11 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
12 7 (0.28%) C++
12 7 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 7 (0.28%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.24%) R
13 6 (0.24%) VBA
14 5 (0.20%) Bicep
15 4 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 648 (25.53%) Security Cleared
2 541 (21.32%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.86%) Degree
4 82 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
4 82 (3.23%) DV Cleared
5 54 (2.13%) CISSP
6 39 (1.54%) CISM
7 27 (1.06%) SAP Certification
7 27 (1.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 17 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 16 (0.63%) CIMA
10 14 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
11 13 (0.51%) ACCA
11 13 (0.51%) Master's Degree
12 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
12 11 (0.43%) CCNP
13 9 (0.35%) CESG Certified Professional
13 9 (0.35%) CISA
14 7 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (2.88%) NIST
3 70 (2.76%) GDPR
4 54 (2.13%) QA
5 45 (1.77%) Data Quality
6 40 (1.58%) GRC
7 21 (0.83%) NCSC
8 20 (0.79%) SLA
9 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
10 14 (0.55%) PMO
11 13 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.47%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.43%) PERC
14 9 (0.35%) COBIT
15 8 (0.32%) Accessibility
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.32%) HIPAA
15 8 (0.32%) IFRS
15 8 (0.32%) JSP 440
System Software
1 73 (2.88%) Active Directory
2 45 (1.77%) Docker
3 34 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (0.99%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.75%) vSphere
6 8 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 5 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) Firmware
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 61 (2.40%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.54%) Terraform
3 28 (1.10%) vRealize
4 23 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (0.75%) Ansible
6 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.47%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 11 (0.43%) SCCM
9 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 5 (0.20%) Podman
13 4 (0.16%) CASB
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
15 2 (0.079%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 663 (26.12%) SAP
2 309 (12.17%) Oracle
3 264 (10.40%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.59%) VMware
5 74 (2.92%) ServiceNow
6 65 (2.56%) Workday
7 58 (2.29%) CyberArk
8 56 (2.21%) Cisco
8 56 (2.21%) Salesforce
9 52 (2.05%) Ariba
10 39 (1.54%) Google
11 35 (1.38%) Aruba
12 34 (1.34%) Adobe
13 23 (0.91%) OpenText
14 19 (0.75%) Databricks
14 19 (0.75%) Remedy
15 18 (0.71%) Dynatrace
16 15 (0.59%) Dell
17 13 (0.51%) Splunk
18 12 (0.47%) Zscaler