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 16 June 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 28 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,919 1,926 2,811
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.81% 6.50% 6.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.29% 7.05% 6.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,627 1,114 1,685
10th Percentile £400 £409 £400
25th Percentile £460 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £732 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £536 £550
% change year-on-year -2.05% -2.55% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 25 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £26.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £41.60 £50.73
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 £86.00 £87.40 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £56.89
% change year-on-year -22.03% +29.65% -13.81%

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 46,390 27,334 40,477
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.27% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,221 17,578 25,945
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £623 £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 3,091 1,160 2,956
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.85 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.75 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.85% -26.80% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
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% -2.55%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -1 2,325 £550 - 1,958
UK excluding London +1 1,230 £525 -2.05% 1,155
London -3 1,075 £550 -4.35% 953
Work from Home -2 1,046 £540 -1.82% 885
South East +1 340 £525 -4.55% 311
North of England -13 268 £550 +4.27% 345
Midlands -13 231 £525 -4.55% 135
South West +34 203 £550 - 183
West Midlands -1 155 £525 -4.55% 96
North West -10 139 £550 - 221
Yorkshire -8 107 £544 +14.47% 86
East of England -8 86 £550 +7.42% 69
Scotland +24 80 £425 -10.53% 49
East Midlands -12 67 £500 -9.09% 38
Wales 0 30 £550 +37.50% 19
North East -36 22 £650 +21.72% 39
Northern Ireland -2 3 £600 +15.38% 57

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 604 (20.69%) SAP
2 541 (18.53%) Security Cleared
3 407 (13.94%) SC Cleared
4 378 (12.95%) Migration
5 341 (11.68%) Oracle
6 335 (11.48%) Microsoft
7 325 (11.13%) Azure
8 279 (9.56%) SAP S/4HANA
9 270 (9.25%) Stakeholder Management
10 264 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
11 261 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 248 (8.50%) ERP
13 229 (7.85%) SQL
14 210 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
15 193 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
16 186 (6.37%) Validation
17 185 (6.34%) Workshop Facilitation
18 171 (5.86%) Data Migration
19 159 (5.45%) Analytics
19 159 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
20 157 (5.38%) Agile
21 155 (5.31%) Roadmaps
22 146 (5.00%) AI
22 146 (5.00%) Power Platform
23 140 (4.80%) AWS
24 139 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
24 139 (4.76%) Dynamics 365
25 127 (4.35%) Change Management
26 122 (4.18%) Python
27 112 (3.84%) 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 79 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.54%) Confluence
3 14 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
5 6 (0.21%) WebSphere
6 5 (0.17%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.17%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.14%) SAS
8 3 (0.10%) Apache
8 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.10%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.069%) IIS
9 2 (0.069%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.034%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.034%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.034%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 22 (0.75%) 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 (0.069%) Lectora
8 2 (0.069%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.034%) CATIA
9 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 279 (9.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 75 (2.57%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.88%) SAP FI
4 45 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.30%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.20%) Oracle Receivables
7 35 (1.20%) SAP BRIM
8 31 (1.06%) SAP Travel Management
9 30 (1.03%) SAP EWM
10 29 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
10 29 (0.99%) SAP SD
11 28 (0.96%) Oracle ERP
12 27 (0.92%) Teamcenter
13 26 (0.89%) SAP CO
13 26 (0.89%) SAP FI-CA
14 25 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
14 25 (0.86%) SAP FI/CO
15 23 (0.79%) SAP PP
16 22 (0.75%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 325 (11.13%) Azure
2 146 (5.00%) Power Platform
3 140 (4.80%) AWS
4 139 (4.76%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.36%) OCI
6 90 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (2.54%) GCP
8 72 (2.47%) SuccessFactors
9 67 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 55 (1.88%) SaaS
11 53 (1.82%) Entra ID
12 44 (1.51%) Microsoft Copilot
13 42 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
14 34 (1.16%) PowerApps
15 32 (1.10%) GitHub
15 32 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
16 21 (0.72%) Copilot Studio
17 18 (0.62%) Serverless
18 16 (0.55%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.51%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 43 (1.47%) Firewall
2 38 (1.30%) Network Security
3 21 (0.72%) SNMP
4 17 (0.58%) WAN
5 15 (0.51%) DNS
6 14 (0.48%) SMS
7 13 (0.45%) SAN
8 12 (0.41%) BGP
8 12 (0.41%) LAN
9 11 (0.38%) VPN
9 11 (0.38%) VSAN
10 9 (0.31%) FTP
10 9 (0.31%) Software-Defined Networking
11 8 (0.27%) NAS
12 7 (0.24%) Intranet
12 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
13 6 (0.21%) DHCP
13 6 (0.21%) HTTP
13 6 (0.21%) IPsec
13 6 (0.21%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (2.88%) Power BI
2 55 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.23%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.06%) Tableau
5 26 (0.89%) Metadata
5 26 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 18 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
7 18 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
8 16 (0.55%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (0.34%) Power Query
11 9 (0.31%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
13 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
13 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 81 (2.77%) JIRA
2 19 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.55%) Hudson
4 12 (0.41%) Git
4 12 (0.41%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.31%) GitLab
6 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Toad
9 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.10%) Postman
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.069%) git-flow
10 2 (0.069%) MLflow
10 2 (0.069%) Snyk
10 2 (0.069%) Zephyr
General
1 620 (21.24%) Social Skills
2 607 (20.79%) Finance
3 248 (8.50%) Analytical Skills
4 209 (7.16%) Public Sector
5 92 (3.15%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.08%) Banking
7 76 (2.60%) Legal
8 70 (2.40%) Billing
9 56 (1.92%) Marketing
10 52 (1.78%) General Ledger
11 51 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
12 50 (1.71%) Telecoms
13 37 (1.27%) Retail
14 35 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 33 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
16 32 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
17 31 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
18 22 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
19 21 (0.72%) Law
19 21 (0.72%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.47%) REST
3 60 (2.06%) XML
4 32 (1.10%) Middleware
5 31 (1.06%) SAP TM
6 29 (0.99%) SAP Fiori
6 29 (0.99%) Web Services
7 26 (0.89%) BAPI
8 25 (0.86%) SOAP
9 20 (0.69%) HTML
10 18 (0.62%) JSON
11 17 (0.58%) CSS
12 16 (0.55%) .NET
12 16 (0.55%) SAP Basis
13 13 (0.45%) LDAP
14 12 (0.41%) OAuth
15 11 (0.38%) IDoc
16 10 (0.34%) EDI
16 10 (0.34%) React
17 9 (0.31%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 76 (2.60%) Onboarding
2 45 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.47%) Security Posture
4 40 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
5 39 (1.34%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.10%) CMDB
7 30 (1.03%) AI Agents
8 29 (0.99%) Operational Technology
9 24 (0.82%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.82%) Management Information System
10 23 (0.79%) Cloud Native
10 23 (0.79%) Data Centre
11 21 (0.72%) Life Science
12 20 (0.69%) NHS
13 19 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
14 17 (0.58%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.58%) Replication
15 15 (0.51%) Algorithms
16 14 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
16 14 (0.48%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 85 (2.91%) Windows
2 65 (2.23%) Linux
3 21 (0.72%) Solaris
4 20 (0.69%) VMS
5 19 (0.65%) Unix
6 17 (0.58%) AIX
7 6 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.17%) zOS
9 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.10%) Android
10 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.10%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.069%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.069%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.069%) SUSE
12 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 378 (12.95%) Migration
2 270 (9.25%) Stakeholder Management
3 264 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
4 261 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 248 (8.50%) ERP
6 210 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
7 193 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
8 186 (6.37%) Validation
9 185 (6.34%) Workshop Facilitation
10 171 (5.86%) Data Migration
11 159 (5.45%) Analytics
11 159 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
12 157 (5.38%) Agile
13 155 (5.31%) Roadmaps
14 146 (5.00%) AI
15 139 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
16 127 (4.35%) Change Management
17 112 (3.84%) DevOps
17 112 (3.84%) Translating Business Requirements
18 110 (3.77%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 229 (7.85%) SQL
2 122 (4.18%) Python
3 65 (2.23%) JavaScript
4 59 (2.02%) PowerShell
5 50 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 37 (1.27%) ABAP
7 35 (1.20%) Java
8 34 (1.16%) T-SQL
9 18 (0.62%) C#
10 16 (0.55%) 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
13 9 (0.31%) TypeScript
14 7 (0.24%) C++
15 6 (0.21%) R
16 4 (0.14%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.14%) Korn
16 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 541 (18.53%) Security Cleared
2 407 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 104 (3.56%) DV Cleared
4 86 (2.95%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.43%) CISSP
6 69 (2.36%) Degree
7 53 (1.82%) CISM
8 29 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (0.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (0.86%) CCSP
10 24 (0.82%) CIMA
11 18 (0.62%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 17 (0.58%) PMP
13 15 (0.51%) CEH
14 14 (0.48%) ACCA
14 14 (0.48%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.41%) OSCP
17 11 (0.38%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (2.95%) NIST
2 74 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 71 (2.43%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.75%) GRC
5 45 (1.54%) QA
6 42 (1.44%) GDPR
7 32 (1.10%) NCSC
8 27 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
9 21 (0.72%) SLA
10 20 (0.69%) Accessibility
11 18 (0.62%) PMO
12 16 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.51%) COBIT
14 13 (0.45%) GxP
15 11 (0.38%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.27%) WCAG
17 7 (0.24%) DICOM
17 7 (0.24%) GAAP
17 7 (0.24%) HL7
System Software
1 55 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 40 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.27%) VMware NSX
4 24 (0.82%) vSphere
5 17 (0.58%) Docker
6 12 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.27%) Hyper-V
9 7 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.21%) IAG
10 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 4 (0.14%) NFS
12 2 (0.069%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.034%) HDFS
13 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.034%) SRDF
13 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 51 (1.75%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.61%) Terraform
3 30 (1.03%) vRealize
4 22 (0.75%) Ansible
5 17 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.51%) Nagios
6 15 (0.51%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.48%) Netcool
7 14 (0.48%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.45%) OpenView
8 13 (0.45%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.38%) Grafana
9 11 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.34%) Prometheus
11 8 (0.27%) SCCM
11 8 (0.27%) vCenter Server
12 7 (0.24%) FortiGate
12 7 (0.24%) NetBackup
13 6 (0.21%) Podman
14 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 604 (20.69%) SAP
2 341 (11.68%) Oracle
3 335 (11.48%) Microsoft
4 102 (3.49%) ServiceNow
5 94 (3.22%) VMware
6 58 (1.99%) Ariba
7 54 (1.85%) Siemens
8 49 (1.68%) Salesforce
8 49 (1.68%) Workday
9 35 (1.20%) Databricks
9 35 (1.20%) Splunk
10 31 (1.06%) Google
11 24 (0.82%) BMC
11 24 (0.82%) IBM
12 20 (0.69%) Adobe
12 20 (0.69%) Palo Alto
13 16 (0.55%) Sage
13 16 (0.55%) SolarWinds
14 15 (0.51%) IFS
14 15 (0.51%) OpenAI