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 11 January 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 29 27
Rank change year-on-year +4 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,517 2,089 2,664
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.92% 6.57% 6.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.57% 7.09% 6.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,450 1,140 1,533
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £468 £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 26 12 37
10th Percentile £41.06 £55.65 £48.32
25th Percentile £62.75 £66.38 £60.82
Median hourly rate £72.63 £74.00 £65.13
Median % change year-on-year -1.85% +13.62% -6.96%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.06 £87.00
90th Percentile £84.63 £87.38 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £74.00 £63.29
% change year-on-year +4.73% +16.92% +0.46%

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 33,229 29,465 40,074
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.70% 93.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,002 18,045 26,741
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,953 888 1,677
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.51 £44.78
% change year-on-year -20.18% -29.63% +65.05%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 0 1,963 £551 +0.23% 1,071
UK excluding London +3 1,024 £550 - 853
London -2 907 £575 +4.55% 407
Work from Home 0 906 £538 -2.14% 425
South East +2 277 £550 - 303
North of England 0 275 £598 +8.73% 161
North West +1 167 £623 +15.71% 86
Midlands -13 167 £544 +3.57% 105
West Midlands -8 133 £550 +4.76% 57
South West +9 112 £588 +9.30% 162
Yorkshire +8 99 £550 -12.00% 61
East of England -3 89 £550 -4.35% 75
Scotland +12 67 £500 -9.09% 20
East Midlands -25 33 £510 -2.86% 48
Wales +14 30 £405 -31.06% 21
Northern Ireland 0 12 £405 -22.86% 18
North East -13 9 £620 +3.33% 15
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 664 (26.38%) SAP
2 648 (25.74%) Security Cleared
3 542 (21.53%) SC Cleared
4 350 (13.91%) Migration
5 349 (13.87%) SAP S/4HANA
6 318 (12.63%) Problem-Solving
7 307 (12.20%) Oracle
8 303 (12.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 298 (11.84%) Stakeholder Management
10 265 (10.53%) Microsoft
11 232 (9.22%) Azure
12 196 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
13 194 (7.71%) Agile
14 174 (6.91%) ERP
15 165 (6.56%) User Acceptance Testing
16 160 (6.36%) Analytics
17 154 (6.12%) Data Migration
18 152 (6.04%) SQL
19 150 (5.96%) Roadmaps
20 144 (5.72%) Knowledge Transfer
21 136 (5.40%) Validation
22 131 (5.20%) Business Intelligence
23 128 (5.09%) Cybersecurity
24 123 (4.89%) DevOps
25 120 (4.77%) Dynamics 365
26 116 (4.61%) Python
27 111 (4.41%) Risk Management
28 110 (4.37%) AWS
29 107 (4.25%) Power Platform
30 105 (4.17%) Data Modelling

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 62 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.11%) Confluence
4 7 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 7 (0.28%) WebLogic
5 6 (0.24%) CMS
5 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
5 6 (0.24%) Oracle Service Bus
6 5 (0.20%) MTS
7 4 (0.16%) Jupyter
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.079%) Apache
9 2 (0.079%) IIS
9 2 (0.079%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.040%) LiveCycle
10 1 (0.040%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.040%) WebSphere
Applications
1 43 (1.71%) 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
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%) InVision
8 1 (0.040%) Sketch
8 1 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 349 (13.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 77 (3.06%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.34%) SAP FI
4 58 (2.30%) Oracle Payables
5 52 (2.07%) SAP EWM
6 51 (2.03%) SAP HCM
7 50 (1.99%) SAP MM
8 49 (1.95%) Oracle Receivables
9 47 (1.87%) Oracle EBS R12
10 44 (1.75%) Oracle General Ledger
11 42 (1.67%) SAP PP
12 39 (1.55%) Oracle Cash Management
12 39 (1.55%) SAP CO
13 36 (1.43%) SAP FI/CO
14 35 (1.39%) Oracle Assets
15 33 (1.31%) SAP Payroll
15 33 (1.31%) SAP WM
16 32 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
17 25 (0.99%) Oracle Financials
18 24 (0.95%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 232 (9.22%) Azure
2 120 (4.77%) Dynamics 365
3 110 (4.37%) AWS
4 107 (4.25%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.93%) OCI
6 75 (2.98%) GCP
7 69 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
8 57 (2.26%) SaaS
9 55 (2.19%) Entra ID
10 42 (1.67%) SuccessFactors
11 35 (1.39%) Power Automate
12 30 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
12 30 (1.19%) PowerApps
13 24 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
14 20 (0.79%) GitHub
14 20 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
14 20 (0.79%) OneDrive
15 16 (0.64%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 16 (0.64%) Serverless
16 15 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 53 (2.11%) Firewall
2 20 (0.79%) VPN
3 18 (0.72%) Network Security
4 17 (0.68%) DNS
4 17 (0.68%) WAN
5 15 (0.60%) SD-WAN
6 14 (0.56%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.52%) HTTP
8 12 (0.48%) SSL
9 11 (0.44%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.40%) DHCP
10 10 (0.40%) SMS
10 10 (0.40%) SSH
11 9 (0.36%) Intranet
12 7 (0.28%) BGP
12 7 (0.28%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.28%) LAN
12 7 (0.28%) SAN
13 6 (0.24%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.24%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.98%) Power BI
2 50 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
3 46 (1.83%) SAP HANA
4 35 (1.39%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.99%) Metadata
6 21 (0.83%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.64%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
9 14 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.48%) Oracle Database
11 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 9 (0.36%) DB2
12 9 (0.36%) NoSQL
12 9 (0.36%) Tableau
13 7 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
14 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.20%) Data Mart
15 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
15 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.38%) JIRA
2 21 (0.83%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.75%) Git
4 16 (0.64%) 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%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.079%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.079%) Visual Studio
General
1 717 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 564 (22.41%) Finance
3 240 (9.54%) Public Sector
4 228 (9.06%) Analytical Skills
5 150 (5.96%) Manufacturing
6 85 (3.38%) Banking
7 78 (3.10%) Documentation Skills
8 68 (2.70%) Marketing
9 59 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
10 55 (2.19%) Billing
11 50 (1.99%) Legal
12 40 (1.59%) Telecoms
13 37 (1.47%) General Ledger
14 32 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.19%) Retail
16 25 (0.99%) Law
17 22 (0.87%) Electronics
17 22 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 21 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
19 20 (0.79%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.30%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.90%) SAP Fiori
3 72 (2.86%) REST
4 47 (1.87%) Web Services
5 43 (1.71%) SOAP
6 39 (1.55%) XML
7 30 (1.19%) Node.js
7 30 (1.19%) SAP TM
8 28 (1.11%) LDAP
9 25 (0.99%) JSON
10 23 (0.91%) Middleware
11 22 (0.87%) HTML
12 20 (0.79%) BAPI
12 20 (0.79%) SAP PI
13 19 (0.75%) OAuth
14 18 (0.72%) GraphQL
15 17 (0.68%) CSS
16 16 (0.64%) SAP Basis
17 14 (0.56%) .NET
17 14 (0.56%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 75 (2.98%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.71%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.43%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.27%) Cloud Native
5 32 (1.27%) Data Centre
6 25 (0.99%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.95%) Replication
8 23 (0.91%) Data Protection Act
8 23 (0.91%) Data Structures
9 19 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
9 19 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
10 18 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
11 14 (0.56%) NHS
11 14 (0.56%) Operational Technology
12 13 (0.52%) Virtual Team
13 12 (0.48%) CMDB
14 11 (0.44%) Public Cloud
15 10 (0.40%) Enterprise Software
15 10 (0.40%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 74 (2.94%) Windows
2 53 (2.11%) Linux
3 21 (0.83%) Unix
4 13 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.36%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.28%) AIX
8 7 (0.28%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.16%) VMS
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.079%) CentOS
12 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.040%) Android
13 1 (0.040%) SUSE
13 1 (0.040%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 350 (13.91%) Migration
2 318 (12.63%) Problem-Solving
3 303 (12.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 298 (11.84%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
6 194 (7.71%) Agile
7 174 (6.91%) ERP
8 165 (6.56%) User Acceptance Testing
9 160 (6.36%) Analytics
10 154 (6.12%) Data Migration
11 150 (5.96%) Roadmaps
12 144 (5.72%) Knowledge Transfer
13 136 (5.40%) Validation
14 131 (5.20%) Business Intelligence
15 128 (5.09%) Cybersecurity
16 123 (4.89%) DevOps
17 111 (4.41%) Risk Management
18 105 (4.17%) Data Modelling
19 100 (3.97%) AI
19 100 (3.97%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 152 (6.04%) SQL
2 116 (4.61%) Python
3 88 (3.50%) PowerShell
4 77 (3.06%) JavaScript
5 76 (3.02%) ABAP
6 41 (1.63%) Java
7 30 (1.19%) Groovy
8 29 (1.15%) PL/SQL
9 28 (1.11%) TypeScript
10 18 (0.72%) Bash
11 14 (0.56%) C#
12 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
13 7 (0.28%) C++
13 7 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 6 (0.24%) R
14 6 (0.24%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.24%) VBA
15 5 (0.20%) Bicep
16 4 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 648 (25.74%) Security Cleared
2 542 (21.53%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.89%) Degree
4 81 (3.22%) BPSS Clearance
4 81 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 55 (2.19%) CISSP
6 40 (1.59%) CISM
7 27 (1.07%) SAP Certification
7 27 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 20 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
9 18 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (0.64%) CIMA
11 14 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.52%) ACCA
12 13 (0.52%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.44%) CCNP
14 10 (0.40%) CESG Certified Professional
15 9 (0.36%) CISA
16 7 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (2.86%) GDPR
2 71 (2.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.78%) NIST
4 52 (2.07%) QA
5 42 (1.67%) Data Quality
6 38 (1.51%) GRC
7 22 (0.87%) NCSC
8 18 (0.72%) SLA
9 17 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 14 (0.56%) PMO
11 13 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.48%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.44%) PERC
14 9 (0.36%) COBIT
14 9 (0.36%) HIPAA
15 8 (0.32%) Accessibility
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.32%) IFRS
16 7 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 72 (2.86%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.71%) Docker
3 35 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.03%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.79%) vSphere
6 10 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 4 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) Ceph
11 1 (0.040%) Firmware
11 1 (0.040%) IAG
11 1 (0.040%) KVM
11 1 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.040%) QEMU
11 1 (0.040%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 61 (2.42%) Kubernetes
2 41 (1.63%) Terraform
3 28 (1.11%) vRealize
4 25 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (0.79%) Ansible
6 19 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.52%) SCCM
8 12 (0.48%) Grafana
9 11 (0.44%) PingFederate
10 10 (0.40%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) CASB
13 4 (0.16%) Podman
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
14 3 (0.12%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 664 (26.38%) SAP
2 307 (12.20%) Oracle
3 265 (10.53%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.66%) VMware
5 72 (2.86%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.50%) Workday
7 58 (2.30%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.26%) Cisco
8 57 (2.26%) Salesforce
9 50 (1.99%) Ariba
10 40 (1.59%) Google
11 35 (1.39%) Adobe
11 35 (1.39%) Aruba
12 25 (0.99%) OpenText
13 19 (0.75%) Remedy
14 18 (0.72%) Dynatrace
15 16 (0.64%) Databricks
16 15 (0.60%) Dell
17 13 (0.52%) Splunk
17 13 (0.52%) Zscaler