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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,128 2,122 2,746
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.89% 6.47% 6.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.36% 7.07% 7.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,733 1,246 1,627
10th Percentile £402 £411 £409
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £640 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £760
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 29 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.05
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.47
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £86.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +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 49,168 30,000 36,945
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.60% 91.47% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,645 19,092 23,906
10th Percentile £331 £284 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
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 3,387 1,467 2,179
10th Percentile £15.37 £13.72 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.05
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £67.86 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%

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 31 July 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 31 July 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 31 July 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 2,517 £550 - 964
UK excluding London +3 1,364 £525 -4.55% 622
London +1 1,157 £550 -4.35% 480
Work from Home -3 1,054 £550 - 470
South East 0 394 £525 -4.55% 205
North of England -6 295 £550 +2.04% 162
Midlands 0 259 £500 -9.09% 72
South West +23 214 £553 -3.83% 110
West Midlands +11 187 £500 -11.11% 52
North West -12 174 £550 - 114
Scotland +36 103 £425 -10.53% 23
Yorkshire -19 100 £538 +13.16% 39
East of England -18 82 £550 - 29
East Midlands -4 63 £500 -9.09% 20
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 12
North East -40 20 £750 +39.66% 10
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 14

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 31 July 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.

1 653 (20.88%) SAP
2 622 (19.88%) Security Cleared
3 431 (13.78%) SC Cleared
4 409 (13.08%) Migration
5 390 (12.47%) Microsoft
5 390 (12.47%) Stakeholder Management
6 362 (11.57%) Oracle
7 314 (10.04%) Azure
8 284 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 271 (8.66%) SAP S/4HANA
10 259 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
11 257 (8.22%) SQL
12 247 (7.90%) ERP
13 239 (7.64%) User Acceptance Testing
14 213 (6.81%) Workshop Facilitation
15 209 (6.68%) Validation
16 205 (6.55%) Continuous Improvement
17 191 (6.11%) Cybersecurity
18 182 (5.82%) Data Migration
19 178 (5.69%) Roadmaps
20 176 (5.63%) Agile
21 175 (5.59%) Analytics
22 165 (5.27%) AI
23 152 (4.86%) AWS
24 144 (4.60%) Power Platform
25 143 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
25 143 (4.57%) Requirements Gathering
26 140 (4.48%) DV Cleared
27 133 (4.25%) Translating Business Requirements
28 130 (4.16%) 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 (2.75%) 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 (0.26%) 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 (2.27%) 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
1 271 (8.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 92 (2.94%) Oracle EBS
3 69 (2.21%) SAP FI
4 52 (1.66%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 36 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 36 (1.15%) Oracle ERP
6 36 (1.15%) SAP CO
6 36 (1.15%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.12%) SAP BRIM
8 33 (1.05%) Oracle Receivables
8 33 (1.05%) SAP SD
9 32 (1.02%) SAP FI/CO
10 31 (0.99%) SAP FI-CA
11 30 (0.96%) NetSuite
12 29 (0.93%) SAP EWM
13 28 (0.90%) SAP Payroll
13 28 (0.90%) SAP PP
14 27 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
15 24 (0.77%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 314 (10.04%) Azure
2 152 (4.86%) AWS
3 144 (4.60%) Power Platform
4 130 (4.16%) Dynamics 365
5 103 (3.29%) OCI
6 98 (3.13%) SuccessFactors
7 90 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
8 85 (2.72%) GCP
9 72 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 53 (1.69%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.63%) SaaS
12 50 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
13 49 (1.57%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.15%) PowerApps
15 33 (1.05%) GitHub
16 25 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
18 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.48%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 61 (1.95%) Firewall
2 53 (1.69%) Network Security
3 33 (1.05%) WAN
4 25 (0.80%) SNMP
5 21 (0.67%) VPN
6 20 (0.64%) BGP
6 20 (0.64%) LAN
7 14 (0.45%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
8 13 (0.42%) VSAN
9 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.32%) NGFW
11 8 (0.26%) 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%) NAS
13 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (2.88%) Power BI
2 58 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
3 40 (1.28%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 33 (1.05%) Tableau
6 31 (0.99%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 29 (0.93%) SAP BW
8 26 (0.83%) Metadata
9 22 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.32%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 86 (2.75%) JIRA
2 19 (0.61%) 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%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.096%) JDeveloper
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
1 668 (21.36%) Finance
2 663 (21.20%) Social Skills
3 249 (7.96%) Analytical Skills
4 220 (7.03%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.48%) Manufacturing
6 91 (2.91%) Banking
7 89 (2.85%) Legal
8 78 (2.49%) Billing
9 66 (2.11%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.76%) Marketing
11 53 (1.69%) General Ledger
11 53 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
12 47 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
13 43 (1.37%) Retail
14 42 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 41 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
16 31 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
17 25 (0.80%) Aerospace
18 24 (0.77%) Local Government
19 20 (0.64%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (3.01%) Oracle Fusion
2 78 (2.49%) REST
3 59 (1.89%) XML
4 39 (1.25%) SOAP
5 38 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
6 34 (1.09%) Middleware
7 26 (0.83%) Web Services
8 25 (0.80%) BAPI
9 23 (0.74%) JSON
10 20 (0.64%) HTML
11 18 (0.58%) CSS
12 17 (0.54%) IDoc
12 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 17 (0.54%) SAP PI
13 15 (0.48%) OAuth
14 13 (0.42%) .NET
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 11 (0.35%) ADO
15 11 (0.35%) EDI
15 11 (0.35%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 110 (3.52%) Onboarding
2 46 (1.47%) CMDB
3 45 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.28%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.09%) AI Agents
5 34 (1.09%) Data Structures
5 34 (1.09%) Product Ownership
6 33 (1.05%) Data Centre
7 32 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
8 27 (0.86%) Operational Technology
9 23 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
11 20 (0.64%) Life Science
11 20 (0.64%) Replication
12 18 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
12 18 (0.58%) Management Information System
13 17 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.54%) NHS
13 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
13 17 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 95 (3.04%) Windows
2 67 (2.14%) Linux
3 25 (0.80%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.61%) AIX
6 18 (0.58%) 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
1 409 (13.08%) Migration
2 390 (12.47%) Stakeholder Management
3 284 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 259 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
5 247 (7.90%) ERP
6 239 (7.64%) User Acceptance Testing
7 213 (6.81%) Workshop Facilitation
8 209 (6.68%) Validation
9 205 (6.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 191 (6.11%) Cybersecurity
11 182 (5.82%) Data Migration
12 178 (5.69%) Roadmaps
13 176 (5.63%) Agile
14 175 (5.59%) Analytics
15 165 (5.27%) AI
16 143 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
16 143 (4.57%) Requirements Gathering
17 133 (4.25%) Translating Business Requirements
18 125 (4.00%) Change Management
19 116 (3.71%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 257 (8.22%) SQL
2 124 (3.96%) Python
3 57 (1.82%) JavaScript
3 57 (1.82%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.73%) PL/SQL
5 53 (1.69%) ABAP
6 37 (1.18%) T-SQL
7 34 (1.09%) Java
8 17 (0.54%) Bash
9 14 (0.45%) C#
10 13 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.22%) R
12 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.19%) Korn
13 6 (0.19%) Perl
14 5 (0.16%) C++
15 4 (0.13%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 622 (19.88%) Security Cleared
2 431 (13.78%) SC Cleared
3 140 (4.48%) DV Cleared
4 93 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.46%) CISSP
6 70 (2.24%) Degree
7 59 (1.89%) CISM
8 38 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.83%) CCSP
11 19 (0.61%) CIMA
12 16 (0.51%) 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 90 (2.88%) NIST
2 81 (2.59%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 62 (1.98%) GRC
5 52 (1.66%) QA
6 38 (1.21%) GDPR
7 29 (0.93%) NCSC
7 29 (0.93%) PCI DSS
8 25 (0.80%) Actionable Recommendations
9 22 (0.70%) SLA
10 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
11 17 (0.54%) PMO
11 17 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (0.42%) COBIT
12 13 (0.42%) GxP
13 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.29%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.26%) IFRS
15 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.28%) 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 (0.26%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) 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 53 (1.69%) Terraform
2 42 (1.34%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.99%) Ansible
4 22 (0.70%) vRealize
5 16 (0.51%) 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%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.42%) OpenView
8 13 (0.42%) SCCM
8 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.42%) 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
1 653 (20.88%) SAP
2 390 (12.47%) Microsoft
3 362 (11.57%) Oracle
4 119 (3.80%) ServiceNow
5 91 (2.91%) VMware
6 63 (2.01%) Ariba
7 58 (1.85%) Salesforce
8 54 (1.73%) Workday
9 49 (1.57%) Splunk
10 42 (1.34%) Databricks
11 34 (1.09%) Siemens
12 27 (0.86%) Palo Alto
13 26 (0.83%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) Google
14 25 (0.80%) OpenText
15 24 (0.77%) IBM
16 19 (0.61%) Adobe
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
18 16 (0.51%) Okta