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 18 August 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,179 2,170 2,683
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.94% 6.60% 6.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.42% 7.23% 7.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,747 1,262 1,564
10th Percentile £404 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £650 £650 £638
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £552
% change year-on-year -4.55% -0.27% +5.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 25 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £41.15
25th Percentile £51.00 £41.60 £55.00
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.32%
75th Percentile £83.25 £81.25 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.75 - £74.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.23%

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 49,538 30,006 36,016
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.28% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,704 18,935 23,189
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £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 3,506 1,542 1,988
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.56 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.02
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.87% +22.28%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -3 2,564 £550 - 1,784
UK excluding London +2 1,388 £525 -4.55% 1,145
London -3 1,189 £550 -4.35% 950
Work from Home -3 1,073 £550 - 940
South East -1 412 £540 -1.82% 242
North of England -11 312 £550 - 305
Midlands +3 252 £500 -9.09% 145
South West +12 205 £553 -5.06% 178
North West -10 194 £581 +5.64% 217
West Midlands +17 179 £490 -10.91% 112
Scotland +36 111 £425 -10.53% 95
Yorkshire -18 97 £525 +2.44% 63
East of England -19 83 £550 - 74
East Midlands -7 64 £525 -4.55% 33
Wales -12 27 £550 +10.00% 11
North East -34 20 £750 +39.66% 27
Northern Ireland -2 2 £544 +4.57% 109

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 669 (21.04%) Security Cleared
2 663 (20.86%) SAP
3 466 (14.66%) Stakeholder Management
4 458 (14.41%) SC Cleared
5 421 (13.24%) Microsoft
6 416 (13.09%) Migration
7 394 (12.39%) Oracle
8 302 (9.50%) Azure
9 298 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 273 (8.59%) SAP S/4HANA
11 261 (8.21%) SQL
12 259 (8.15%) User Acceptance Testing
13 253 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
14 242 (7.61%) ERP
15 221 (6.95%) Workshop Facilitation
16 220 (6.92%) Validation
17 206 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
18 204 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
19 189 (5.95%) Analytics
20 188 (5.91%) Agile
20 188 (5.91%) Roadmaps
21 187 (5.88%) Data Migration
22 166 (5.22%) AI
23 160 (5.03%) AWS
24 159 (5.00%) Requirements Gathering
25 151 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
25 151 (4.75%) Power Platform
26 148 (4.66%) DV Cleared
27 139 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements
28 133 (4.18%) 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 85 (2.67%) SharePoint
2 50 (1.57%) Confluence
3 16 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.094%) Apache
9 3 (0.094%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.094%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.094%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.094%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.063%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) CMS
10 2 (0.063%) IIS
10 2 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.063%) WordPress
Applications
1 79 (2.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.031%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 273 (8.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (2.86%) Oracle EBS
3 69 (2.17%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
4 49 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
5 47 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.20%) SAP CO
7 36 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
7 36 (1.13%) SAP MM
8 35 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
9 32 (1.01%) SAP BRIM
9 32 (1.01%) SAP FI/CO
9 32 (1.01%) SAP SD
10 30 (0.94%) NetSuite
11 29 (0.91%) SAP FI-CA
12 28 (0.88%) SAP Payroll
12 28 (0.88%) SAP PP
13 26 (0.82%) Oracle EBS R12
14 25 (0.79%) Workday HCM
15 24 (0.75%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 302 (9.50%) Azure
2 160 (5.03%) AWS
3 151 (4.75%) Power Platform
4 133 (4.18%) Dynamics 365
5 117 (3.68%) OCI
6 108 (3.40%) SuccessFactors
7 89 (2.80%) GCP
7 89 (2.80%) Microsoft 365
8 70 (2.20%) Power Automate
9 56 (1.76%) Entra ID
10 55 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
11 54 (1.70%) Microsoft Copilot
12 46 (1.45%) SaaS
13 34 (1.07%) PowerApps
14 28 (0.88%) GitHub
15 25 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.63%) Copilot Studio
17 16 (0.50%) Azure AI
17 16 (0.50%) Azure Logic Apps
18 14 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.89%) Firewall
2 56 (1.76%) Network Security
3 35 (1.10%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 22 (0.69%) BGP
6 20 (0.63%) LAN
6 20 (0.63%) VPN
7 19 (0.60%) DNS
8 13 (0.41%) SAN
9 12 (0.38%) VSAN
10 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
11 10 (0.31%) NGFW
11 10 (0.31%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.25%) Ethernet VPN
12 8 (0.25%) MPLS
13 7 (0.22%) HTTP
13 7 (0.22%) IPsec
13 7 (0.22%) VXLAN
13 7 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
13 7 (0.22%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (3.02%) Power BI
2 60 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.13%) SAP HANA
3 36 (1.13%) SQL Server
4 34 (1.07%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 34 (1.07%) SAP BW
4 34 (1.07%) Tableau
5 26 (0.82%) Metadata
6 23 (0.72%) Data Warehouse
7 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
8 17 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
9 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
10 11 (0.35%) Oracle Database
11 10 (0.31%) Power Query
12 7 (0.22%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
13 6 (0.19%) Looker
13 6 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 94 (2.96%) JIRA
2 20 (0.63%) Git
2 20 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.50%) Jenkins
4 14 (0.44%) Hudson
5 11 (0.35%) GitLab
6 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.16%) PowerBuilder
9 4 (0.13%) Postman
9 4 (0.13%) Selenium
9 4 (0.13%) Snyk
9 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
10 3 (0.094%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.094%) JMeter
10 3 (0.094%) MLflow
10 3 (0.094%) TestRail
10 3 (0.094%) Toad
10 3 (0.094%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 708 (22.27%) Finance
2 698 (21.96%) Social Skills
3 240 (7.55%) Analytical Skills
4 233 (7.33%) Public Sector
5 115 (3.62%) Manufacturing
6 92 (2.89%) Banking
7 87 (2.74%) Legal
8 78 (2.45%) Billing
9 67 (2.11%) Telecoms
10 60 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
11 57 (1.79%) General Ledger
12 55 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
13 51 (1.60%) Marketing
14 50 (1.57%) Retail
15 48 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 38 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
17 37 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
18 23 (0.72%) Local Government
19 19 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
20 18 (0.57%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 114 (3.59%) Oracle Fusion
2 87 (2.74%) REST
3 62 (1.95%) XML
4 42 (1.32%) SOAP
5 40 (1.26%) SAP Fiori
6 33 (1.04%) Middleware
7 29 (0.91%) Web Services
8 27 (0.85%) JSON
9 22 (0.69%) BAPI
10 20 (0.63%) HTML
11 18 (0.57%) CSS
11 18 (0.57%) SAP Basis
11 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.53%) LDAP
12 17 (0.53%) OAuth
13 14 (0.44%) IDoc
13 14 (0.44%) SailPoint
14 13 (0.41%) .NET
15 12 (0.38%) EDI
16 11 (0.35%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 119 (3.74%) Onboarding
2 51 (1.60%) CMDB
3 41 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
4 39 (1.23%) Product Ownership
5 36 (1.13%) Data Centre
5 36 (1.13%) Security Posture
6 35 (1.10%) Data Structures
6 35 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
7 28 (0.88%) AI Agents
8 27 (0.85%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.79%) Replication
10 24 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (0.72%) Cloud Native
12 22 (0.69%) Public Cloud
13 20 (0.63%) Greenfield Project
14 19 (0.60%) Management Information System
15 18 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
15 18 (0.57%) Life Science
16 17 (0.53%) Hybrid Cloud
16 17 (0.53%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 100 (3.15%) Windows
2 78 (2.45%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.66%) Solaris
5 20 (0.63%) VMS
6 19 (0.60%) AIX
7 15 (0.47%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
8 6 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.094%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.063%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.031%) CoreOS
13 1 (0.031%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.031%) SUSE
13 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 466 (14.66%) Stakeholder Management
2 416 (13.09%) Migration
3 298 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 259 (8.15%) User Acceptance Testing
5 253 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
6 242 (7.61%) ERP
7 221 (6.95%) Workshop Facilitation
8 220 (6.92%) Validation
9 206 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
10 204 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
11 189 (5.95%) Analytics
12 188 (5.91%) Agile
12 188 (5.91%) Roadmaps
13 187 (5.88%) Data Migration
14 166 (5.22%) AI
15 159 (5.00%) Requirements Gathering
16 151 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
17 139 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements
18 129 (4.06%) Project Delivery
19 128 (4.03%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 261 (8.21%) SQL
2 122 (3.84%) Python
3 58 (1.82%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.70%) PL/SQL
5 51 (1.60%) JavaScript
6 49 (1.54%) ABAP
7 38 (1.20%) T-SQL
8 31 (0.98%) Java
9 17 (0.53%) Bash
10 14 (0.44%) C#
10 14 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.28%) R
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
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
1 669 (21.04%) Security Cleared
2 458 (14.41%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.66%) DV Cleared
4 94 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 79 (2.49%) CISSP
6 72 (2.26%) Degree
7 61 (1.92%) CISM
8 40 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.85%) CCSP
11 20 (0.63%) ACCA
11 20 (0.63%) CIMA
12 15 (0.47%) CRISC
12 15 (0.47%) PMP
13 14 (0.44%) CEH
13 14 (0.44%) CompTIA Security+
14 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.38%) OSCP
15 11 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
15 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.74%) NIST
2 83 (2.61%) Data Quality
3 76 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 72 (2.26%) GRC
5 54 (1.70%) QA
6 39 (1.23%) GDPR
7 29 (0.91%) NCSC
8 26 (0.82%) PCI DSS
8 26 (0.82%) PMO
9 25 (0.79%) SLA
10 23 (0.72%) Accessibility
11 22 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
12 16 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 12 (0.38%) GxP
14 11 (0.35%) COBIT
14 11 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
15 10 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 9 (0.28%) IFRS
16 9 (0.28%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (2.20%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.23%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.79%) vSphere
5 14 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.38%) Docker
7 11 (0.35%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.31%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.063%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.063%) Firmware
10 2 (0.063%) NFS
10 2 (0.063%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.031%) HDFS
11 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.031%) RHEV
11 1 (0.031%) SRDF
11 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 59 (1.86%) Terraform
2 44 (1.38%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.98%) Ansible
4 18 (0.57%) vRealize
5 17 (0.53%) SCCM
6 16 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (0.47%) Nagios
7 15 (0.47%) ZABBIX
8 14 (0.44%) Grafana
8 14 (0.44%) Netcool
8 14 (0.44%) Tivoli
9 13 (0.41%) OpenView
9 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
11 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 11 (0.35%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.19%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.19%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 663 (20.86%) SAP
2 421 (13.24%) Microsoft
3 394 (12.39%) Oracle
4 125 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 87 (2.74%) VMware
6 61 (1.92%) Ariba
7 56 (1.76%) Salesforce
7 56 (1.76%) Workday
8 46 (1.45%) Splunk
9 43 (1.35%) Databricks
10 30 (0.94%) BMC
11 28 (0.88%) IBM
11 28 (0.88%) OpenText
12 27 (0.85%) Google
13 24 (0.75%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.69%) Adobe
15 19 (0.60%) Cisco
16 17 (0.53%) Dell
16 17 (0.53%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.53%) Okta