Consultant Contracts

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £550 according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 9 December 2023.

The first table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2023
Same period 2022 Same period 2021
Rank 27 48 46
Rank change year-on-year +21 -2 -20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,794 3,832 4,881
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 6.28% 4.98% 5.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.72% 5.24% 5.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,570 2,246 2,834
10th Percentile £400 £411 £400
25th Percentile £475 £481 £454
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% +10.26%
75th Percentile £645 £650 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 49 68
10th Percentile £51.53 £57.40 £27.35
25th Percentile £61.04 £62.50 £46.81
Median hourly rate £67.75 £70.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.21% +11.11% -
75th Percentile £86.81 £87.50 £75.25
90th Percentile £90.25 £95.25 £79.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.29 £71.25 £63.00
% change year-on-year -11.17% +13.10% +16.67%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 41,552 73,161 85,704
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.42% 95.16% 95.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,976 50,990 60,003
10th Percentile £292 £313 £301
25th Percentile £413 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +7.32% +7.89%
75th Percentile £644 £650 £613
90th Percentile £740 £750 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,472 1,722 2,210
10th Percentile £15.16 £13.25 £12.00
25th Percentile £19.06 £17.00 £14.00
Median hourly rate £44.50 £30.00 £20.15
Median % change year-on-year +48.33% +48.90% -15.61%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £46.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £72.48 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £24.79 £17.64
% change year-on-year +79.51% +40.53% -11.80%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Consultant in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Consultant.

Daily rate trend for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 9 December 2023.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Consultant.

Hourly rate trend for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 9 December 2023.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Top 18 Contract 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 December 2023. 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 +25 2,144 £550 -4.35% 1,546
Work from Home +17 1,302 £525 -4.55% 865
UK excluding London +29 1,087 £525 -4.55% 812
London +21 927 £550 -4.35% 708
South East +17 372 £525 -9.95% 201
North of England +57 288 £525 +5.00% 211
North West +43 167 £525 +5.00% 116
Midlands +16 167 £550 -2.14% 125
West Midlands +11 124 £550 -2.31% 102
Yorkshire +50 104 £550 +8.91% 70
South West +15 103 £550 -4.35% 135
East of England +30 87 £525 -4.55% 79
Scotland +41 79 £525 +13.51% 54
East Midlands +30 34 £605 +13.62% 21
North East +47 17 £425 -19.05% 25
Wales +7 16 £588 +20.51% 25
Channel Islands - 3 £390 -
Northern Ireland +12 1 £500 -16.67% 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 9 December 2023, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 822 (29.42%) SAP
2 649 (23.23%) Social Skills
3 577 (20.65%) Finance
4 504 (18.04%) Security Cleared
5 360 (12.88%) Migration
6 359 (12.85%) SC Cleared
7 321 (11.49%) Microsoft
8 314 (11.24%) Problem-Solving
9 309 (11.06%) SAP S/4HANA
10 288 (10.31%) Oracle
11 261 (9.34%) Azure
12 248 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
13 217 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
14 216 (7.73%) Public Sector
15 185 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
16 175 (6.26%) Agile
17 170 (6.08%) Data Migration
18 167 (5.98%) ERP
19 164 (5.87%) Information Security
20 161 (5.76%) Degree
21 151 (5.40%) SQL
22 139 (4.97%) Dynamics 365
23 129 (4.62%) User Acceptance Testing
24 126 (4.51%) Manufacturing
25 125 (4.47%) AWS
25 125 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 125 (4.47%) Requirements Gathering
26 119 (4.26%) Workshop Facilitation
26 119 (4.26%) Telecoms
27 118 (4.22%) Project Management

Consultant Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 44 (1.57%) SharePoint
2 22 (0.79%) Confluence
2 22 (0.79%) MS Exchange
3 10 (0.36%) CMS
4 8 (0.29%) Apache
4 8 (0.29%) OpenStack
5 7 (0.25%) IIS
6 6 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
7 5 (0.18%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.14%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.14%) SAP Portal
9 3 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.11%) EPiServer
9 3 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.11%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.11%) WordPress
10 2 (0.072%) Red Hat Fuse
10 2 (0.072%) SharePoint 2010
10 2 (0.072%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 41 (1.47%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.50%) Chatbot
5 10 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 10 (0.36%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.11%) Lectora
7 2 (0.072%) Blender
7 2 (0.072%) CATIA
7 2 (0.072%) Fusion 360
7 2 (0.072%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.072%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.036%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.036%) Notepad++
8 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 309 (11.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 99 (3.54%) SAP FI
3 83 (2.97%) SAP PSCD
4 68 (2.43%) SAP MM
5 65 (2.33%) SAP CO
6 59 (2.11%) SAP FI-CA
7 56 (2.00%) SAP FI/CO
8 50 (1.79%) SAP Hybris
9 49 (1.75%) SAP BRIM
10 44 (1.57%) Dynamics CRM
10 44 (1.57%) SAP SD
11 38 (1.36%) SAP HCM
12 35 (1.25%) SAP EWM
13 34 (1.22%) Oracle EBS
14 32 (1.15%) SAP PM
15 31 (1.11%) SAP MDG
16 27 (0.97%) SAP PP
17 26 (0.93%) SAP IS-U
18 24 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
18 24 (0.86%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 261 (9.34%) Azure
2 139 (4.97%) Dynamics 365
3 125 (4.47%) AWS
4 106 (3.79%) Microsoft 365
5 89 (3.19%) OCI
6 88 (3.15%) Power Platform
7 57 (2.04%) SuccessFactors
8 50 (1.79%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 45 (1.61%) SaaS
10 44 (1.57%) GCP
11 43 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (1.29%) Entra ID
13 34 (1.22%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.00%) Power Automate
15 26 (0.93%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 24 (0.86%) IaaS
17 22 (0.79%) PaaS
18 18 (0.64%) GitHub
19 16 (0.57%) WhatsApp
20 15 (0.54%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 64 (2.29%) Firewall
2 49 (1.75%) Network Security
3 29 (1.04%) WAN
4 26 (0.93%) Wireless
5 24 (0.86%) DNS
6 19 (0.68%) Cisco ISE
6 19 (0.68%) SD-WAN
7 16 (0.57%) BGP
7 16 (0.57%) SSL
8 15 (0.54%) LAN
8 15 (0.54%) TCP/IP
9 14 (0.50%) OSPF
9 14 (0.50%) SAN
9 14 (0.50%) VPN
10 13 (0.47%) Cisco Nexus
10 13 (0.47%) Intrusion Detection
11 12 (0.43%) HTTPS
11 12 (0.43%) Internet
12 11 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
13 9 (0.32%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (2.29%) Power BI
2 43 (1.54%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.40%) SQL Server
4 38 (1.36%) SAP BW
5 26 (0.93%) SAP HANA
6 23 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 22 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (0.57%) Big Data
9 15 (0.54%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.50%) BusinessObjects
10 14 (0.50%) Metadata
10 14 (0.50%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 13 (0.47%) Tableau
12 12 (0.43%) Data Lake
12 12 (0.43%) MySQL
13 10 (0.36%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
15 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
15 7 (0.25%) RDBMS
16 6 (0.21%) DB2
Development Applications
1 51 (1.83%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Postman
3 15 (0.54%) Git
4 13 (0.47%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.39%) GitLab
5 11 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 10 (0.36%) Fiddler
7 9 (0.32%) Selenium
7 9 (0.32%) SoapUI
8 8 (0.29%) Cypress.io
9 7 (0.25%) Robot Framework
10 5 (0.18%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.14%) Maven
11 4 (0.14%) Protractor
11 4 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
12 3 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 3 (0.11%) JMeter
13 2 (0.072%) JDeveloper
13 2 (0.072%) LSMW
13 2 (0.072%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 649 (23.23%) Social Skills
2 577 (20.65%) Finance
3 217 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
4 216 (7.73%) Public Sector
5 126 (4.51%) Manufacturing
6 119 (4.26%) Telecoms
7 110 (3.94%) Billing
8 98 (3.51%) Retail
9 90 (3.22%) Banking
10 87 (3.11%) Presentation Skills
11 71 (2.54%) Marketing
12 58 (2.08%) Pharmaceutical
13 56 (2.00%) Legal
14 39 (1.40%) Law
15 35 (1.25%) General Ledger
15 35 (1.25%) German Language
16 31 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
17 23 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 22 (0.79%) Police
19 20 (0.72%) French Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.11%) Oracle Fusion
2 45 (1.61%) REST
3 40 (1.43%) SAP Fiori
4 36 (1.29%) Web Services
5 34 (1.22%) SailPoint
6 29 (1.04%) .NET
6 29 (1.04%) XML
7 28 (1.00%) SAP PI
8 25 (0.89%) LDAP
9 24 (0.86%) SAPUI5
10 20 (0.72%) EDI
11 17 (0.61%) HTML
11 17 (0.61%) SOAP
12 16 (0.57%) Node.js
13 15 (0.54%) RESTful
14 14 (0.50%) IDoc
14 14 (0.50%) JSON
14 14 (0.50%) SAP Basis
15 13 (0.47%) XSLT
16 11 (0.39%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 93 (3.33%) Management Information System
2 59 (2.11%) Data Centre
3 38 (1.36%) Onboarding
4 37 (1.32%) Life Science
5 36 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
6 31 (1.11%) CMDB
6 31 (1.11%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
8 26 (0.93%) Public Cloud
9 25 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
10 22 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.72%) IoT
11 20 (0.72%) Operational Technology
11 20 (0.72%) Product Ownership
12 19 (0.68%) Enterprise Cloud
13 18 (0.64%) IVR
14 15 (0.54%) PKI
14 15 (0.54%) Virtual Team
15 13 (0.47%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 12 (0.43%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.47%) Linux
2 94 (3.36%) Windows
3 36 (1.29%) Unix
4 35 (1.25%) Windows Server
5 34 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.43%) Windows 10
7 11 (0.39%) Solaris
8 9 (0.32%) VMS
9 8 (0.29%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
11 6 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.14%) HPUX
12 4 (0.14%) Oracle Linux
13 3 (0.11%) AIX
13 3 (0.11%) Android
13 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.11%) OpenVMS
14 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 360 (12.88%) Migration
2 314 (11.24%) Problem-Solving
3 248 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
4 185 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
5 175 (6.26%) Agile
6 170 (6.08%) Data Migration
7 167 (5.98%) ERP
8 164 (5.87%) Information Security
9 129 (4.62%) User Acceptance Testing
10 125 (4.47%) Requirements Gathering
11 119 (4.26%) Workshop Facilitation
12 118 (4.22%) Project Management
13 115 (4.12%) Process Improvement
13 115 (4.12%) Roadmaps
14 114 (4.08%) DevOps
15 113 (4.04%) ITIL
16 112 (4.01%) Risk Management
17 110 (3.94%) Analytics
18 109 (3.90%) Project Delivery
19 103 (3.69%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 151 (5.40%) SQL
2 91 (3.26%) Python
3 76 (2.72%) Java
4 59 (2.11%) ABAP
5 58 (2.08%) PowerShell
6 39 (1.40%) JavaScript
7 25 (0.89%) PL/SQL
8 22 (0.79%) Bash
9 21 (0.75%) C#
10 17 (0.61%) Shell Script
11 13 (0.47%) C
11 13 (0.47%) TypeScript
12 10 (0.36%) BeanShell
13 9 (0.32%) MATLAB
14 8 (0.29%) Ada
14 8 (0.29%) Groovy
15 7 (0.25%) PHP
16 6 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 5 (0.18%) Go
17 5 (0.18%) R
Qualifications
1 504 (18.04%) Security Cleared
2 359 (12.85%) SC Cleared
3 161 (5.76%) Degree
4 118 (4.22%) CISSP
5 105 (3.76%) DV Cleared
6 100 (3.58%) CISM
7 65 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
8 60 (2.15%) CRISC
9 39 (1.40%) CISA
10 37 (1.32%) SAP Certification
11 28 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
12 27 (0.97%) BPSS Clearance
13 26 (0.93%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 24 (0.86%) CCNP
15 23 (0.82%) CCIE
16 20 (0.72%) CCA
17 18 (0.64%) CESG Certified Professional
17 18 (0.64%) CISMP
18 17 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
19 14 (0.50%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 125 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 111 (3.97%) NIST
3 97 (3.47%) QA
4 57 (2.04%) GRC
5 31 (1.11%) GDPR
6 30 (1.07%) Data Quality
7 27 (0.97%) PMO
7 27 (0.97%) RMADS
7 27 (0.97%) SLA
8 26 (0.93%) COBIT
9 22 (0.79%) NCSC
9 22 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 20 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 19 (0.68%) JSP 440
12 14 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 13 (0.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 11 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
14 11 (0.39%) Government Security Classifications
15 10 (0.36%) GxP
15 10 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 106 (3.79%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (0.61%) Docker
5 16 (0.57%) VMware NSX
5 16 (0.57%) vSphere
6 15 (0.54%) Firmware
7 12 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (0.39%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.21%) UAG
11 3 (0.11%) vCloud
11 3 (0.11%) XenApp
12 2 (0.072%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.072%) Ceph
12 2 (0.072%) Microsoft App-V
12 2 (0.072%) NFS
12 2 (0.072%) Xen
12 2 (0.072%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.036%) LXC
Systems Management
1 53 (1.90%) Terraform
2 44 (1.57%) Kubernetes
3 33 (1.18%) Ansible
4 25 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
6 16 (0.57%) SCCM
7 12 (0.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 10 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 9 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
9 9 (0.32%) vRealize
10 8 (0.29%) VxRail
11 7 (0.25%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.21%) Puppet
13 5 (0.18%) CSIRT
13 5 (0.18%) EnCase
13 5 (0.18%) FTK
13 5 (0.18%) Grafana
14 4 (0.14%) Avamar
14 4 (0.14%) CASB
14 4 (0.14%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 822 (29.42%) SAP
2 321 (11.49%) Microsoft
3 288 (10.31%) Oracle
4 116 (4.15%) VMware
5 97 (3.47%) ServiceNow
6 78 (2.79%) Ariba
7 69 (2.47%) Cisco
8 58 (2.08%) Salesforce
9 37 (1.32%) Red Hat
10 35 (1.25%) Dell
11 30 (1.07%) IBM
12 29 (1.04%) Workday
13 20 (0.72%) Genesys
14 19 (0.68%) Google
15 17 (0.61%) Adobe
15 17 (0.61%) Citrix
15 17 (0.61%) Siemens
16 16 (0.57%) HP
17 15 (0.54%) CyberArk
17 15 (0.54%) Splunk