Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 June 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,866 1,917 2,804
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.77% 6.55% 6.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.25% 7.09% 6.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,603 1,102 1,710
10th Percentile £400 £411 £400
25th Percentile £457 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £726 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +0.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 23 27
10th Percentile £39.75 £27.93 £27.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 -
90th Percentile £85.48 £87.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
% change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.15%

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 45,859 27,036 40,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.35% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,926 17,399 25,887
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,063 1,119 2,897
10th Percentile £15.15 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.84 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.73% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.47 £61.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 9 June 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 -2 2,288 £550 - 1,184
UK excluding London +4 1,209 £525 -2.23% 838
London 0 1,058 £550 -4.35% 477
Work from Home -1 1,009 £540 -1.82% 550
South East -1 338 £525 -4.55% 242
North of England -17 271 £550 +3.77% 251
Midlands -14 230 £525 -4.55% 74
South West +37 196 £550 - 155
West Midlands -10 153 £528 -4.09% 49
North West -12 135 £538 -1.38% 155
Yorkshire -6 113 £550 +15.79% 66
Scotland +26 77 £425 -8.11% 44
East of England -11 74 £550 +6.08% 41
East Midlands -13 68 £500 -3.85% 24
Wales +4 30 £550 +37.50% 10
North East -26 23 £725 +35.77% 31
Northern Ireland -1 3 £600 +15.38% 28

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 9 June 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.

1 583 (20.34%) SAP
2 532 (18.56%) Security Cleared
3 398 (13.89%) SC Cleared
4 368 (12.84%) Migration
5 330 (11.51%) Oracle
6 326 (11.37%) Microsoft
7 315 (10.99%) Azure
8 263 (9.18%) SAP S/4HANA
9 261 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
10 255 (8.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 254 (8.86%) Stakeholder Management
12 246 (8.58%) ERP
13 222 (7.75%) SQL
14 205 (7.15%) User Acceptance Testing
15 189 (6.59%) Continuous Improvement
16 183 (6.39%) Workshop Facilitation
17 179 (6.25%) Validation
18 169 (5.90%) Data Migration
19 159 (5.55%) Agile
19 159 (5.55%) Cybersecurity
20 152 (5.30%) Roadmaps
21 150 (5.23%) Power Platform
22 149 (5.20%) Analytics
23 143 (4.99%) Business Intelligence
23 143 (4.99%) Dynamics 365
24 139 (4.85%) AI
25 134 (4.68%) AWS
26 122 (4.26%) Change Management
27 118 (4.12%) Python
28 115 (4.01%) DevOps

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 78 (2.72%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.64%) Confluence
3 13 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
5 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.14%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.10%) Apache
6 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
6 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
6 3 (0.10%) SAS
6 3 (0.10%) Tomcat
6 3 (0.10%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.070%) IIS
7 2 (0.070%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.035%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 78 (2.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.070%) Lectora
8 2 (0.070%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.035%) CATIA
9 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 263 (9.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (2.55%) Oracle EBS
3 54 (1.88%) SAP FI
4 43 (1.50%) Oracle Payables
4 43 (1.50%) SAP PSCD
5 40 (1.40%) SAP MM
6 35 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
7 33 (1.15%) SAP BRIM
8 29 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
8 29 (1.01%) SAP EWM
8 29 (1.01%) SAP Travel Management
9 28 (0.98%) Oracle ERP
9 28 (0.98%) SAP SD
9 28 (0.98%) Teamcenter
10 26 (0.91%) SAP FI-CA
11 25 (0.87%) SAP CO
12 24 (0.84%) SAP FI/CO
13 23 (0.80%) Oracle EBS R12
14 22 (0.77%) SAP IBP
15 20 (0.70%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 315 (10.99%) Azure
2 150 (5.23%) Power Platform
3 143 (4.99%) Dynamics 365
4 134 (4.68%) AWS
5 96 (3.35%) OCI
6 88 (3.07%) Microsoft 365
7 71 (2.48%) GCP
8 67 (2.34%) Power Automate
9 66 (2.30%) SuccessFactors
10 56 (1.95%) SaaS
11 51 (1.78%) Entra ID
12 44 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
13 41 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.19%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.08%) GitHub
15 31 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
16 21 (0.73%) Copilot Studio
17 19 (0.66%) Serverless
18 15 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
18 15 (0.52%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.29%) Firewall
1 37 (1.29%) Network Security
2 21 (0.73%) SNMP
3 16 (0.56%) SMS
4 15 (0.52%) DNS
5 13 (0.45%) SAN
5 13 (0.45%) WAN
6 12 (0.42%) LAN
7 11 (0.38%) VPN
7 11 (0.38%) VSAN
8 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
9 9 (0.31%) FTP
10 8 (0.28%) NAS
10 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.24%) Intranet
12 6 (0.21%) BGP
12 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 6 (0.21%) IPsec
12 6 (0.21%) VLAN
12 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (3.04%) Power BI
2 53 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
3 32 (1.12%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.08%) Tableau
5 26 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.84%) Metadata
7 23 (0.80%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 18 (0.63%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.56%) Data Warehouse
9 16 (0.56%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
11 10 (0.35%) Power Query
12 9 (0.31%) Oracle Database
13 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
14 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 82 (2.86%) JIRA
2 18 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.56%) Hudson
4 12 (0.42%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.35%) Git
6 8 (0.28%) GitLab
7 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) Toad
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.070%) git-flow
10 2 (0.070%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.070%) JUnit
10 2 (0.070%) Zephyr
11 1 (0.035%) MSTest
General
1 610 (21.28%) Social Skills
2 585 (20.41%) Finance
3 240 (8.37%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (7.15%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.24%) Manufacturing
6 92 (3.21%) Banking
7 67 (2.34%) Billing
8 66 (2.30%) Legal
9 56 (1.95%) Marketing
10 50 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
10 50 (1.74%) General Ledger
11 43 (1.50%) Telecoms
12 35 (1.22%) Retail
13 33 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
14 32 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 30 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
16 25 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
17 22 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
18 21 (0.73%) Law
19 17 (0.59%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (2.79%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.48%) REST
3 59 (2.06%) XML
4 30 (1.05%) Middleware
4 30 (1.05%) SAP TM
5 26 (0.91%) Web Services
6 24 (0.84%) SAP Fiori
7 23 (0.80%) BAPI
8 22 (0.77%) SOAP
9 18 (0.63%) HTML
10 17 (0.59%) JSON
11 16 (0.56%) .NET
11 16 (0.56%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.52%) CSS
13 14 (0.49%) LDAP
14 12 (0.42%) OAuth
15 10 (0.35%) IDoc
15 10 (0.35%) Kafka
15 10 (0.35%) React
16 9 (0.31%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 69 (2.41%) Onboarding
2 44 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
2 44 (1.54%) Security Posture
3 37 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
4 35 (1.22%) Product Ownership
5 33 (1.15%) Operational Technology
6 30 (1.05%) AI Agents
7 28 (0.98%) CMDB
8 24 (0.84%) Data Structures
9 23 (0.80%) Cloud Native
9 23 (0.80%) Data Centre
9 23 (0.80%) Management Information System
10 21 (0.73%) NHS
11 20 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.70%) Life Science
12 17 (0.59%) Public Cloud
12 17 (0.59%) Replication
13 14 (0.49%) Algorithms
13 14 (0.49%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (0.45%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 80 (2.79%) Windows
2 64 (2.23%) Linux
3 21 (0.73%) Solaris
4 20 (0.70%) Unix
4 20 (0.70%) VMS
5 17 (0.59%) AIX
6 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.10%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.070%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.070%) SUSE
11 1 (0.035%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 368 (12.84%) Migration
2 261 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
3 255 (8.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 254 (8.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 246 (8.58%) ERP
6 205 (7.15%) User Acceptance Testing
7 189 (6.59%) Continuous Improvement
8 183 (6.39%) Workshop Facilitation
9 179 (6.25%) Validation
10 169 (5.90%) Data Migration
11 159 (5.55%) Agile
11 159 (5.55%) Cybersecurity
12 152 (5.30%) Roadmaps
13 149 (5.20%) Analytics
14 143 (4.99%) Business Intelligence
15 139 (4.85%) AI
16 122 (4.26%) Change Management
17 115 (4.01%) DevOps
18 109 (3.80%) Translating Business Requirements
19 104 (3.63%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 222 (7.75%) SQL
2 118 (4.12%) Python
3 65 (2.27%) JavaScript
4 57 (1.99%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.67%) PL/SQL
6 34 (1.19%) T-SQL
7 33 (1.15%) Java
8 31 (1.08%) ABAP
9 19 (0.66%) C#
10 14 (0.49%) Bash
11 13 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
12 11 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 11 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
12 11 (0.38%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.38%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.24%) C++
13 7 (0.24%) R
14 5 (0.17%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.14%) Korn
15 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 532 (18.56%) Security Cleared
2 398 (13.89%) SC Cleared
3 104 (3.63%) DV Cleared
4 85 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.48%) CISSP
6 65 (2.27%) Degree
7 54 (1.88%) CISM
8 28 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
9 24 (0.84%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 24 (0.84%) CCSP
9 24 (0.84%) CIMA
10 19 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 17 (0.59%) PMP
12 15 (0.52%) CEH
13 14 (0.49%) ACCA
14 13 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.42%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.42%) OSCP
15 12 (0.42%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.07%) NIST
2 76 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 71 (2.48%) Data Quality
4 50 (1.74%) GRC
5 43 (1.50%) GDPR
6 41 (1.43%) QA
7 33 (1.15%) NCSC
8 27 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
10 20 (0.70%) Accessibility
10 20 (0.70%) SLA
11 18 (0.63%) PMO
12 15 (0.52%) COBIT
12 15 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 11 (0.38%) GxP
13 11 (0.38%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.28%) WCAG
15 7 (0.24%) DICOM
15 7 (0.24%) GAAP
15 7 (0.24%) HL7
System Software
1 53 (1.85%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.29%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.87%) vSphere
5 16 (0.56%) Docker
6 12 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.31%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.21%) IAG
10 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 4 (0.14%) NFS
12 2 (0.070%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.035%) HDFS
13 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 1 (0.035%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.035%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.035%) SRDF
13 1 (0.035%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 50 (1.74%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.29%) Terraform
3 29 (1.01%) vRealize
4 20 (0.70%) Ansible
5 18 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.52%) Nagios
6 15 (0.52%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.49%) Netcool
7 14 (0.49%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.45%) OpenView
8 13 (0.45%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (0.28%) SCCM
12 7 (0.24%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
13 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
13 6 (0.21%) Podman
14 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 583 (20.34%) SAP
2 330 (11.51%) Oracle
3 326 (11.37%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.18%) ServiceNow
4 91 (3.18%) VMware
5 61 (2.13%) Ariba
6 54 (1.88%) Siemens
7 52 (1.81%) Workday
8 51 (1.78%) Salesforce
9 36 (1.26%) Splunk
10 31 (1.08%) Databricks
11 30 (1.05%) Google
12 26 (0.91%) BMC
13 24 (0.84%) IBM
14 20 (0.70%) Palo Alto
15 16 (0.56%) Adobe
15 16 (0.56%) Sage
15 16 (0.56%) SolarWinds
16 15 (0.52%) IFS
17 14 (0.49%) HP