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 3 August 2026.

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

6 months to
3 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 3,139 2,145 2,709
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.91% 6.48% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.38% 7.09% 7.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,734 1,255 1,594
10th Percentile £403 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £645
90th Percentile £738 £744 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 29 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.24
Median hourly rate £59.00 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.85 £81.25 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £86.25 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -4.99%

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 49,223 30,273 36,284
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 91.43% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,638 19,224 23,532
10th Percentile £331 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
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 3,407 1,497 2,061
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.95 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +76.94% -42.71% +11.00%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 2,530 £550 - 1,464
UK excluding London +2 1,370 £525 -4.55% 1,004
London -1 1,166 £550 -4.35% 690
Work from Home -3 1,055 £540 -1.82% 917
South East 0 399 £525 -4.55% 261
North of England -8 296 £550 +2.04% 257
Midlands +3 258 £500 -9.09% 110
South West +18 213 £550 -7.56% 156
West Midlands +17 186 £500 -13.04% 78
North West -11 175 £550 - 179
Scotland +40 105 £425 -10.53% 97
Yorkshire -17 100 £538 +13.16% 62
East of England -14 82 £550 - 48
East Midlands -4 63 £500 -9.09% 32
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 17
North East -35 20 £750 +39.66% 17
Northern Ireland -5 1 £450 -13.46% 63

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 650 (20.71%) SAP
2 627 (19.97%) Security Cleared
3 432 (13.76%) SC Cleared
4 411 (13.09%) Migration
5 402 (12.81%) Stakeholder Management
6 394 (12.55%) Microsoft
7 366 (11.66%) Oracle
8 311 (9.91%) Azure
9 287 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 268 (8.54%) SAP S/4HANA
11 259 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
12 258 (8.22%) SQL
13 248 (7.90%) ERP
14 244 (7.77%) User Acceptance Testing
15 213 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
16 211 (6.72%) Validation
17 205 (6.53%) Continuous Improvement
18 193 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
19 183 (5.83%) Data Migration
19 183 (5.83%) Roadmaps
20 178 (5.67%) Agile
21 177 (5.64%) Analytics
22 165 (5.26%) AI
23 153 (4.87%) AWS
24 147 (4.68%) Business Intelligence
25 146 (4.65%) Power Platform
25 146 (4.65%) Requirements Gathering
26 144 (4.59%) DV Cleared
27 135 (4.30%) Translating Business Requirements
28 131 (4.17%) 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 (2.74%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.53%) Confluence
3 14 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.096%) Apache
9 3 (0.096%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.096%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.096%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.096%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.096%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.096%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.064%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.064%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) IIS
10 2 (0.064%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.064%) WordPress
Applications
1 71 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.064%) Lectora
8 2 (0.064%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 268 (8.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 92 (2.93%) Oracle EBS
3 68 (2.17%) SAP FI
4 51 (1.62%) SAP PSCD
5 45 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.21%) Oracle ERP
7 36 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
7 36 (1.15%) SAP CO
7 36 (1.15%) SAP MM
8 34 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
8 34 (1.08%) SAP BRIM
9 33 (1.05%) SAP SD
10 32 (1.02%) SAP FI/CO
11 30 (0.96%) NetSuite
11 30 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
12 28 (0.89%) SAP EWM
12 28 (0.89%) SAP Payroll
12 28 (0.89%) SAP PP
13 27 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
14 25 (0.80%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 311 (9.91%) Azure
2 153 (4.87%) AWS
3 146 (4.65%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
5 105 (3.35%) OCI
6 97 (3.09%) SuccessFactors
7 90 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
8 85 (2.71%) GCP
9 72 (2.29%) Power Automate
10 54 (1.72%) Entra ID
11 50 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
11 50 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
11 50 (1.59%) SaaS
12 36 (1.15%) PowerApps
13 33 (1.05%) GitHub
14 25 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
16 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
16 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
17 15 (0.48%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 62 (1.98%) Firewall
2 53 (1.69%) Network Security
3 33 (1.05%) WAN
4 25 (0.80%) SNMP
5 20 (0.64%) BGP
5 20 (0.64%) LAN
5 20 (0.64%) VPN
6 15 (0.48%) DNS
7 13 (0.41%) VSAN
8 12 (0.38%) SAN
9 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.32%) NGFW
11 8 (0.25%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.22%) HTTP
12 7 (0.22%) IPsec
12 7 (0.22%) Wireless
13 6 (0.19%) FTP
13 6 (0.19%) MPLS
13 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
14 5 (0.16%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (2.93%) Power BI
2 59 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 40 (1.27%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 33 (1.05%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 33 (1.05%) Tableau
6 29 (0.92%) SAP BW
7 26 (0.83%) Metadata
8 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
12 10 (0.32%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
15 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 88 (2.80%) JIRA
2 20 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.51%) Git
3 16 (0.51%) Hudson
3 16 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.32%) GitLab
5 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.16%) Postman
6 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.13%) Selenium
7 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.096%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.096%) JMeter
8 3 (0.096%) LoadRunner
8 3 (0.096%) MLflow
8 3 (0.096%) Snyk
8 3 (0.096%) TestRail
8 3 (0.096%) Toad
8 3 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 677 (21.57%) Finance
2 669 (21.31%) Social Skills
3 251 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
4 218 (6.94%) Public Sector
5 110 (3.50%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.06%) Banking
7 89 (2.84%) Legal
8 77 (2.45%) Billing
9 66 (2.10%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.75%) Marketing
11 54 (1.72%) General Ledger
11 54 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
12 48 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
13 45 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 44 (1.40%) Retail
15 41 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
16 32 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.76%) Aerospace
17 24 (0.76%) Local Government
18 20 (0.64%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (3.09%) Oracle Fusion
2 79 (2.52%) REST
3 59 (1.88%) XML
4 39 (1.24%) SOAP
5 38 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
6 34 (1.08%) Middleware
7 26 (0.83%) Web Services
8 24 (0.76%) BAPI
8 24 (0.76%) JSON
9 20 (0.64%) HTML
10 18 (0.57%) CSS
10 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
11 17 (0.54%) IDoc
11 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.48%) OAuth
13 13 (0.41%) .NET
13 13 (0.41%) LDAP
14 11 (0.35%) ADO
14 11 (0.35%) EDI
15 10 (0.32%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 116 (3.70%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.50%) CMDB
3 45 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 36 (1.15%) Product Ownership
6 34 (1.08%) AI Agents
6 34 (1.08%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (0.99%) Data Centre
9 28 (0.89%) Operational Technology
10 23 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
12 20 (0.64%) Life Science
12 20 (0.64%) Replication
13 19 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
13 19 (0.61%) Management Information System
14 17 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (0.54%) NHS
14 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 96 (3.06%) Windows
2 68 (2.17%) Linux
3 25 (0.80%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.61%) AIX
6 18 (0.57%) VMS
7 10 (0.32%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.096%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.064%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.064%) zOS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 411 (13.09%) Migration
2 402 (12.81%) Stakeholder Management
3 287 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 259 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
5 248 (7.90%) ERP
6 244 (7.77%) User Acceptance Testing
7 213 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
8 211 (6.72%) Validation
9 205 (6.53%) Continuous Improvement
10 193 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
11 183 (5.83%) Data Migration
11 183 (5.83%) Roadmaps
12 178 (5.67%) Agile
13 177 (5.64%) Analytics
14 165 (5.26%) AI
15 147 (4.68%) Business Intelligence
16 146 (4.65%) Requirements Gathering
17 135 (4.30%) Translating Business Requirements
18 128 (4.08%) Change Management
19 118 (3.76%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 258 (8.22%) SQL
2 124 (3.95%) Python
3 58 (1.85%) PowerShell
4 57 (1.82%) JavaScript
5 54 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 53 (1.69%) ABAP
7 37 (1.18%) T-SQL
8 34 (1.08%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.45%) C#
11 13 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.22%) R
13 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.19%) Korn
14 6 (0.19%) Perl
15 5 (0.16%) C++
15 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 627 (19.97%) Security Cleared
2 432 (13.76%) SC Cleared
3 144 (4.59%) DV Cleared
4 91 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.45%) CISSP
6 70 (2.23%) Degree
7 59 (1.88%) CISM
8 38 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.83%) CCSP
11 20 (0.64%) CIMA
12 18 (0.57%) ACCA
13 15 (0.48%) PMP
14 14 (0.45%) CEH
14 14 (0.45%) CRISC
15 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.38%) OSCP
16 11 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.90%) NIST
2 82 (2.61%) Data Quality
3 78 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 64 (2.04%) GRC
5 54 (1.72%) QA
6 39 (1.24%) GDPR
7 29 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 27 (0.86%) NCSC
9 26 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
10 22 (0.70%) SLA
11 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 17 (0.54%) PMO
12 17 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 13 (0.41%) COBIT
13 13 (0.41%) GxP
14 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
15 9 (0.29%) JSP 440
15 9 (0.29%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.25%) IFRS
16 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 61 (1.94%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.27%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.80%) vSphere
5 14 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.32%) Docker
8 8 (0.25%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.25%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.096%) NFS
11 2 (0.064%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.064%) Firmware
11 2 (0.064%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.032%) HDFS
12 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.032%) SRDF
12 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 54 (1.72%) Terraform
2 42 (1.34%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.99%) Ansible
4 22 (0.70%) vRealize
5 17 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.45%) Grafana
7 14 (0.45%) Netcool
7 14 (0.45%) SCCM
7 14 (0.45%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.41%) OpenView
8 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 650 (20.71%) SAP
2 394 (12.55%) Microsoft
3 366 (11.66%) Oracle
4 122 (3.89%) ServiceNow
5 90 (2.87%) VMware
6 62 (1.98%) Ariba
7 61 (1.94%) Salesforce
8 57 (1.82%) Workday
9 49 (1.56%) Splunk
10 42 (1.34%) Databricks
11 30 (0.96%) Siemens
12 28 (0.89%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) Google
13 26 (0.83%) Palo Alto
14 25 (0.80%) OpenText
15 24 (0.76%) IBM
16 19 (0.61%) Adobe
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
18 16 (0.51%) Okta