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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,169 2,169 2,706
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.94% 6.59% 6.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.41% 7.22% 7.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,738 1,265 1,583
10th Percentile £403 £411 £404
25th Percentile £463 £475 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £650 £650 £638
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -4.55% -2.22% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 27 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £41.15
25th Percentile £52.50 £42.92 £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -5.32%
75th Percentile £80.75 £81.25 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £83.15 £74.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.23%

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 49,408 30,056 36,163
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.31% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,654 19,017 23,287
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,477 1,528 2,029
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.59 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.29 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%
75th Percentile £67.98 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.13 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +71.50% -44.11% +23.29%

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 August 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 August 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 14 August 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 -4 2,556 £550 - 1,539
UK excluding London +2 1,379 £525 -4.55% 901
London -3 1,192 £550 -4.35% 811
Work from Home -3 1,070 £550 - 793
South East 0 417 £525 -4.55% 258
North of England -13 297 £550 +0.92% 232
Midlands +2 252 £500 -9.09% 100
South West +14 206 £556 -7.33% 159
West Midlands +13 179 £490 -10.91% 76
North West -7 178 £575 +4.55% 165
Scotland +38 109 £425 -12.82% 52
Yorkshire -9 98 £531 +7.59% 50
East of England -17 82 £550 - 54
East Midlands -8 64 £525 -4.55% 23
Wales -10 28 £550 +10.00% 13
North East -38 20 £750 +39.66% 18
Northern Ireland -1 2 £544 +4.57% 44

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 August 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.

1 656 (20.70%) SAP
2 653 (20.61%) Security Cleared
3 452 (14.26%) Stakeholder Management
4 444 (14.01%) SC Cleared
5 417 (13.16%) Migration
6 415 (13.10%) Microsoft
7 387 (12.21%) Oracle
8 305 (9.62%) Azure
9 296 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 270 (8.52%) SAP S/4HANA
11 262 (8.27%) SQL
12 257 (8.11%) User Acceptance Testing
13 252 (7.95%) Problem-Solving
14 237 (7.48%) ERP
15 223 (7.04%) Workshop Facilitation
16 219 (6.91%) Validation
17 206 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
18 205 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
19 189 (5.96%) Agile
20 188 (5.93%) Analytics
20 188 (5.93%) Roadmaps
21 185 (5.84%) Data Migration
22 166 (5.24%) AI
23 160 (5.05%) AWS
24 153 (4.83%) Requirements Gathering
25 150 (4.73%) Business Intelligence
25 150 (4.73%) Power Platform
26 148 (4.67%) DV Cleared
27 137 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements
28 134 (4.23%) Dynamics 365

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 86 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 50 (1.58%) Confluence
3 14 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.063%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) CMS
10 2 (0.063%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.063%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.063%) Lectora
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 270 (8.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (2.87%) Oracle EBS
3 70 (2.21%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.55%) SAP PSCD
5 46 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
6 44 (1.39%) Oracle ERP
7 39 (1.23%) SAP CO
8 36 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
8 36 (1.14%) SAP MM
9 35 (1.10%) Oracle Receivables
10 33 (1.04%) SAP FI/CO
11 32 (1.01%) SAP BRIM
11 32 (1.01%) SAP SD
12 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
13 29 (0.92%) SAP FI-CA
14 28 (0.88%) SAP PP
15 26 (0.82%) Oracle EBS R12
15 26 (0.82%) SAP Payroll
16 25 (0.79%) SAP EWM
17 24 (0.76%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 305 (9.62%) Azure
2 160 (5.05%) AWS
3 150 (4.73%) Power Platform
4 134 (4.23%) Dynamics 365
5 114 (3.60%) OCI
6 105 (3.31%) SuccessFactors
7 91 (2.87%) GCP
8 89 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
9 70 (2.21%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.77%) Entra ID
11 53 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
12 51 (1.61%) Microsoft Copilot
13 49 (1.55%) SaaS
14 34 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.92%) GitHub
16 25 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.50%) Azure AI
19 14 (0.44%) Azure Monitor
19 14 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.89%) Firewall
2 56 (1.77%) Network Security
3 35 (1.10%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 22 (0.69%) BGP
6 20 (0.63%) LAN
6 20 (0.63%) VPN
7 19 (0.60%) DNS
8 13 (0.41%) VSAN
9 12 (0.38%) SAN
10 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
11 10 (0.32%) NGFW
11 10 (0.32%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.25%) Ethernet VPN
13 7 (0.22%) HTTP
13 7 (0.22%) IPsec
13 7 (0.22%) MPLS
13 7 (0.22%) VXLAN
13 7 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
13 7 (0.22%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (3.00%) Power BI
2 60 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.14%) SAP HANA
3 36 (1.14%) SQL Server
4 34 (1.07%) SAP BW
4 34 (1.07%) Tableau
5 33 (1.04%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 26 (0.82%) Metadata
7 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
8 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
9 18 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
10 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
11 10 (0.32%) Oracle Database
11 10 (0.32%) Power Query
12 7 (0.22%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
13 6 (0.19%) Looker
14 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 94 (2.97%) JIRA
2 20 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 19 (0.60%) Git
4 16 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.44%) Hudson
6 11 (0.35%) GitLab
7 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.16%) PowerBuilder
10 4 (0.13%) Postman
10 4 (0.13%) Selenium
10 4 (0.13%) Snyk
10 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
11 3 (0.095%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.095%) JMeter
11 3 (0.095%) MLflow
11 3 (0.095%) TestRail
11 3 (0.095%) Toad
11 3 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 705 (22.25%) Finance
2 696 (21.96%) Social Skills
3 241 (7.60%) Analytical Skills
4 229 (7.23%) Public Sector
5 116 (3.66%) Manufacturing
6 95 (3.00%) Banking
7 89 (2.81%) Legal
8 78 (2.46%) Billing
9 68 (2.15%) Telecoms
10 57 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
11 56 (1.77%) General Ledger
12 55 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
13 53 (1.67%) Marketing
14 50 (1.58%) Retail
15 47 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 40 (1.26%) Pharmaceutical
17 36 (1.14%) Influencing Skills
18 24 (0.76%) Local Government
19 20 (0.63%) Aerospace
20 19 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (3.44%) Oracle Fusion
2 85 (2.68%) REST
3 61 (1.92%) XML
4 40 (1.26%) SAP Fiori
4 40 (1.26%) SOAP
5 32 (1.01%) Middleware
6 27 (0.85%) Web Services
7 26 (0.82%) JSON
8 22 (0.69%) BAPI
9 20 (0.63%) HTML
10 18 (0.57%) CSS
10 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
11 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 16 (0.50%) LDAP
12 16 (0.50%) OAuth
13 14 (0.44%) IDoc
14 13 (0.41%) .NET
15 11 (0.35%) ADO
15 11 (0.35%) SailPoint
16 10 (0.32%) React
Miscellaneous
1 119 (3.76%) Onboarding
2 51 (1.61%) CMDB
3 42 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.26%) Security Posture
5 39 (1.23%) Product Ownership
6 35 (1.10%) Data Centre
6 35 (1.10%) Data Structures
7 34 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
8 32 (1.01%) AI Agents
9 29 (0.92%) Operational Technology
10 24 (0.76%) Cloud Native
11 23 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
12 22 (0.69%) Public Cloud
12 22 (0.69%) Replication
13 21 (0.66%) Greenfield Project
14 19 (0.60%) Life Science
15 18 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
15 18 (0.57%) Management Information System
16 17 (0.54%) NHS
17 16 (0.50%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 99 (3.12%) Windows
2 73 (2.30%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.66%) Solaris
5 19 (0.60%) AIX
5 19 (0.60%) VMS
6 14 (0.44%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.19%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.032%) CoreOS
11 1 (0.032%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.032%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.032%) SUSE
11 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.032%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 452 (14.26%) Stakeholder Management
2 417 (13.16%) Migration
3 296 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 257 (8.11%) User Acceptance Testing
5 252 (7.95%) Problem-Solving
6 237 (7.48%) ERP
7 223 (7.04%) Workshop Facilitation
8 219 (6.91%) Validation
9 206 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
10 205 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
11 189 (5.96%) Agile
12 188 (5.93%) Analytics
12 188 (5.93%) Roadmaps
13 185 (5.84%) Data Migration
14 166 (5.24%) AI
15 153 (4.83%) Requirements Gathering
16 150 (4.73%) Business Intelligence
17 137 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements
18 130 (4.10%) Project Delivery
19 128 (4.04%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 262 (8.27%) SQL
2 122 (3.85%) Python
3 56 (1.77%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.70%) PL/SQL
5 51 (1.61%) JavaScript
6 49 (1.55%) ABAP
7 38 (1.20%) T-SQL
8 31 (0.98%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.44%) C#
10 14 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.25%) R
14 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.19%) Korn
15 6 (0.19%) Perl
16 5 (0.16%) C++
16 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 653 (20.61%) Security Cleared
2 444 (14.01%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.67%) DV Cleared
4 92 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 81 (2.56%) CISSP
6 75 (2.37%) Degree
7 63 (1.99%) CISM
8 41 (1.29%) Cisco Certification
9 32 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.85%) CCSP
11 20 (0.63%) ACCA
11 20 (0.63%) CIMA
12 16 (0.50%) CRISC
13 15 (0.47%) PMP
14 14 (0.44%) CEH
15 13 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
16 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
16 12 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.38%) OSCP
17 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.84%) NIST
2 82 (2.59%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 70 (2.21%) GRC
5 54 (1.70%) QA
6 40 (1.26%) GDPR
7 28 (0.88%) NCSC
7 28 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 24 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
9 23 (0.73%) Accessibility
9 23 (0.73%) PMO
9 23 (0.73%) SLA
10 15 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 13 (0.41%) GxP
12 12 (0.38%) COBIT
13 10 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.28%) IFRS
14 9 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 69 (2.18%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.23%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.79%) vSphere
5 14 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.38%) Docker
7 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (0.28%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.28%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.063%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.063%) Firmware
10 2 (0.063%) NFS
10 2 (0.063%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.032%) HDFS
11 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.032%) oVirt
11 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.032%) RHEV
11 1 (0.032%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 58 (1.83%) Terraform
2 44 (1.39%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.98%) Ansible
4 18 (0.57%) vRealize
5 17 (0.54%) SCCM
6 16 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (0.47%) Nagios
7 15 (0.47%) ZABBIX
8 14 (0.44%) Grafana
8 14 (0.44%) Netcool
8 14 (0.44%) Tivoli
9 13 (0.41%) OpenView
9 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
9 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
11 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 11 (0.35%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.19%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.19%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 656 (20.70%) SAP
2 415 (13.10%) Microsoft
3 387 (12.21%) Oracle
4 128 (4.04%) ServiceNow
5 87 (2.75%) VMware
6 61 (1.92%) Ariba
7 57 (1.80%) Salesforce
8 56 (1.77%) Workday
9 46 (1.45%) Splunk
10 41 (1.29%) Databricks
11 30 (0.95%) BMC
12 29 (0.92%) Google
13 27 (0.85%) IBM
13 27 (0.85%) OpenText
14 25 (0.79%) Palo Alto
15 22 (0.69%) Adobe
16 19 (0.60%) Cisco
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
17 17 (0.54%) Siemens