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 19 January 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 28 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,520 2,083 2,639
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.82% 6.62% 6.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.46% 7.13% 6.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,462 1,125 1,534
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £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 28 14 39
10th Percentile £41.64 £56.95 £42.50
25th Percentile £59.38 £68.80 £57.58
Median hourly rate £70.50 £77.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -8.89% +22.25% -9.59%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.00 £86.63
90th Percentile £84.08 £87.13 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.25 £77.38 £62.50
% change year-on-year -7.92% +23.80% -0.79%

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 33,788 29,232 40,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.39% 92.85% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,356 17,863 26,715
10th Percentile £300 £295 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £481 £500
% change year-on-year -1.14% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,002 885 1,834
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £13.99
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.76
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.32
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -19.39% +18.58%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +46.55%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -2 1,969 £550 - 1,215
UK excluding London +3 1,027 £550 - 1,025
Work from Home +1 915 £539 -2.00% 431
London -3 913 £575 +4.55% 404
North of England -1 275 £595 +8.18% 196
South East -2 271 £540 -4.00% 354
Midlands -12 176 £525 - 118
North West -5 166 £623 +15.71% 97
West Midlands -8 136 £550 +4.76% 54
South West +10 112 £588 +11.90% 189
Yorkshire +10 100 £550 -12.00% 77
East of England +5 92 £550 -4.35% 108
Scotland +18 66 £514 -6.59% 20
East Midlands -24 39 £505 -3.35% 60
Wales +9 28 £405 -26.36% 35
Northern Ireland +1 12 £405 -22.86% 22
North East -21 9 £620 +3.33% 23
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 651 (25.83%) SAP
2 635 (25.20%) Security Cleared
3 530 (21.03%) SC Cleared
4 348 (13.81%) Migration
5 342 (13.57%) SAP S/4HANA
6 317 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
7 306 (12.14%) Oracle
8 303 (12.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 293 (11.63%) Stakeholder Management
10 263 (10.44%) Microsoft
11 248 (9.84%) Azure
12 203 (8.06%) Workshop Facilitation
13 184 (7.30%) Agile
14 183 (7.26%) ERP
15 176 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
16 165 (6.55%) Analytics
17 151 (5.99%) Data Migration
18 149 (5.91%) Roadmaps
18 149 (5.91%) SQL
19 147 (5.83%) Knowledge Transfer
20 135 (5.36%) Validation
21 132 (5.24%) Business Intelligence
22 128 (5.08%) Cybersecurity
23 125 (4.96%) DevOps
24 122 (4.84%) Dynamics 365
25 118 (4.68%) Python
26 116 (4.60%) Risk Management
27 110 (4.37%) AWS
28 109 (4.33%) Power Platform
29 105 (4.17%) Continuous Improvement

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 (2.34%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.15%) Confluence
2 29 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.20%) CMS
4 5 (0.20%) Jupyter
4 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.12%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.079%) Apache
7 2 (0.079%) IIS
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle Service Bus
7 2 (0.079%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.040%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.040%) nginx
8 1 (0.040%) WebSphere
Applications
1 45 (1.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.60%) 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
7 3 (0.12%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 342 (13.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 78 (3.10%) Oracle EBS
3 61 (2.42%) SAP FI
4 59 (2.34%) Oracle Payables
5 52 (2.06%) SAP EWM
6 51 (2.02%) Oracle Receivables
7 49 (1.94%) Oracle EBS R12
7 49 (1.94%) SAP MM
8 45 (1.79%) Oracle General Ledger
9 44 (1.75%) SAP HCM
10 41 (1.63%) SAP CO
10 41 (1.63%) SAP PP
11 39 (1.55%) Oracle Cash Management
12 38 (1.51%) SAP FI/CO
13 36 (1.43%) Oracle Assets
14 34 (1.35%) Dynamics CRM
15 33 (1.31%) SAP Payroll
15 33 (1.31%) SAP WM
16 26 (1.03%) Oracle Financials
17 25 (0.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 248 (9.84%) Azure
2 122 (4.84%) Dynamics 365
3 110 (4.37%) AWS
4 109 (4.33%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.93%) OCI
6 74 (2.94%) GCP
7 62 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
8 59 (2.34%) SaaS
9 54 (2.14%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.55%) SuccessFactors
11 33 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (1.31%) Power Automate
12 28 (1.11%) PowerApps
13 27 (1.07%) Microsoft Copilot
14 21 (0.83%) GitHub
15 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
16 18 (0.71%) OneDrive
16 18 (0.71%) Serverless
17 17 (0.67%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 16 (0.63%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.94%) Firewall
2 19 (0.75%) DNS
3 18 (0.71%) VPN
4 15 (0.60%) Network Security
4 15 (0.60%) WAN
5 14 (0.56%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.52%) HTTP
6 13 (0.52%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.48%) DHCP
7 12 (0.48%) SMS
7 12 (0.48%) SSL
8 10 (0.40%) TCP/IP
9 9 (0.36%) SSH
10 8 (0.32%) Intranet
11 7 (0.28%) Cisco IPT
11 7 (0.28%) LAN
11 7 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
12 6 (0.24%) BGP
12 6 (0.24%) SAN
12 6 (0.24%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (3.02%) Power BI
2 49 (1.94%) Oracle Reports
3 43 (1.71%) SAP HANA
4 33 (1.31%) 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 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.48%) PostgreSQL
11 10 (0.40%) NoSQL
11 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (0.40%) Tableau
12 9 (0.36%) Oracle Database
13 8 (0.32%) DB2
14 7 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.24%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.20%) MongoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 62 (2.46%) JIRA
2 21 (0.83%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.71%) Git
4 16 (0.63%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) 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
1 715 (28.37%) Social Skills
2 578 (22.94%) Finance
3 242 (9.60%) Public Sector
4 225 (8.93%) Analytical Skills
5 144 (5.71%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.57%) Banking
7 80 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
8 71 (2.82%) Marketing
9 57 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
10 56 (2.22%) Billing
11 54 (2.14%) Legal
12 45 (1.79%) General Ledger
13 42 (1.67%) Telecoms
14 31 (1.23%) Retail
15 30 (1.19%) Pharmaceutical
16 28 (1.11%) Law
17 22 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
18 21 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 20 (0.79%) Financial Institution
20 19 (0.75%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.82%) REST
3 70 (2.78%) SAP Fiori
4 43 (1.71%) Web Services
5 39 (1.55%) SOAP
6 35 (1.39%) XML
7 30 (1.19%) SAP TM
8 29 (1.15%) Node.js
9 28 (1.11%) LDAP
10 22 (0.87%) Middleware
11 21 (0.83%) JSON
12 20 (0.79%) BAPI
12 20 (0.79%) HTML
13 19 (0.75%) SAP PI
14 18 (0.71%) GraphQL
15 16 (0.63%) CSS
15 16 (0.63%) OAuth
16 14 (0.56%) Kafka
16 14 (0.56%) SAP Basis
17 13 (0.52%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 77 (3.06%) Onboarding
2 62 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
3 45 (1.79%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.47%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.27%) Data Centre
6 31 (1.23%) Cloud Native
7 29 (1.15%) Management Information System
8 24 (0.95%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (0.95%) Replication
9 23 (0.91%) Data Structures
10 19 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
11 18 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
12 15 (0.60%) Operational Technology
13 13 (0.52%) NHS
13 13 (0.52%) Public Cloud
14 11 (0.44%) AI Agents
14 11 (0.44%) Life Science
15 10 (0.40%) FMCG
15 10 (0.40%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.90%) Windows
2 52 (2.06%) Linux
3 22 (0.87%) Unix
4 13 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.36%) Mac OS
6 9 (0.36%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.28%) AIX
7 7 (0.28%) Solaris
8 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.12%) VMS
10 2 (0.079%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.079%) CentOS
10 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.079%) zOS
11 1 (0.040%) Android
11 1 (0.040%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (13.81%) Migration
2 317 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
3 303 (12.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 293 (11.63%) Stakeholder Management
5 203 (8.06%) Workshop Facilitation
6 184 (7.30%) Agile
7 183 (7.26%) ERP
8 176 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
9 165 (6.55%) Analytics
10 151 (5.99%) Data Migration
11 149 (5.91%) Roadmaps
12 147 (5.83%) Knowledge Transfer
13 135 (5.36%) Validation
14 132 (5.24%) Business Intelligence
15 128 (5.08%) Cybersecurity
16 125 (4.96%) DevOps
17 116 (4.60%) Risk Management
18 105 (4.17%) Continuous Improvement
19 103 (4.09%) AI
20 102 (4.05%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 149 (5.91%) SQL
2 118 (4.68%) Python
3 87 (3.45%) PowerShell
4 79 (3.13%) JavaScript
5 67 (2.66%) ABAP
6 39 (1.55%) Java
7 30 (1.19%) Groovy
8 28 (1.11%) TypeScript
9 25 (0.99%) PL/SQL
10 17 (0.67%) Bash
11 15 (0.60%) C#
12 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
13 8 (0.32%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 6 (0.24%) C++
15 6 (0.24%) R
15 6 (0.24%) VBA
16 5 (0.20%) Bicep
16 5 (0.20%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 635 (25.20%) Security Cleared
2 530 (21.03%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.89%) Degree
4 81 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 74 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
6 53 (2.10%) CISSP
7 36 (1.43%) CISM
8 29 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 27 (1.07%) SAP Certification
10 17 (0.67%) CIMA
10 17 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
12 14 (0.56%) Master's Degree
13 13 (0.52%) ACCA
14 12 (0.48%) Computer Science Degree
15 11 (0.44%) CCNP
16 10 (0.40%) AWS Certification
17 9 (0.36%) CESG Certified Professional
18 8 (0.32%) CISA
19 7 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (2.90%) NIST
3 71 (2.82%) GDPR
4 53 (2.10%) QA
5 45 (1.79%) Data Quality
6 39 (1.55%) GRC
7 21 (0.83%) SLA
8 20 (0.79%) NCSC
9 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
10 14 (0.56%) PMO
11 12 (0.48%) PCI DSS
11 12 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.44%) PERC
13 9 (0.36%) COBIT
14 8 (0.32%) Accessibility
14 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.32%) HIPAA
14 8 (0.32%) IFRS
15 7 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 68 (2.70%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.75%) Docker
3 32 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (0.99%) VMware NSX
5 18 (0.71%) 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 1 (0.040%) Ceph
10 1 (0.040%) Firmware
10 1 (0.040%) KVM
10 1 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.040%) QEMU
10 1 (0.040%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.040%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 59 (2.34%) Kubernetes
2 38 (1.51%) Terraform
3 31 (1.23%) vRealize
4 21 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.71%) Ansible
5 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.48%) Grafana
7 11 (0.44%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.44%) SCCM
8 10 (0.40%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.32%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 5 (0.20%) Podman
13 3 (0.12%) CASB
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
14 2 (0.079%) Nexpose
Vendors
1 651 (25.83%) SAP
2 306 (12.14%) Oracle
3 263 (10.44%) Microsoft
4 89 (3.53%) VMware
5 73 (2.90%) ServiceNow
6 60 (2.38%) Workday
7 58 (2.30%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.26%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.14%) Cisco
10 53 (2.10%) Ariba
11 38 (1.51%) Google
12 35 (1.39%) Aruba
13 33 (1.31%) Adobe
14 23 (0.91%) OpenText
15 19 (0.75%) Databricks
16 18 (0.71%) Dynatrace
17 14 (0.56%) Dell
17 14 (0.56%) Murex
17 14 (0.56%) Remedy
18 12 (0.48%) Zscaler