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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 27 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,146 2,170 2,698
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.89% 6.59% 6.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.36% 7.21% 7.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,735 1,269 1,581
10th Percentile £400 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £644 £650 £644
90th Percentile £738 £746 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £568
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 27 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £41.05
25th Percentile £53.25 £42.92 £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £80.75 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £83.15 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £61.13 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -21.13% +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 49,431 30,083 36,174
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.36% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,700 19,069 23,306
10th Percentile £328 £282 £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 £625 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,475 1,511 2,026
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.08 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.49% -44.28% +28.57%

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 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 11 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 11 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 2,541 £550 - 1,841
UK excluding London +1 1,377 £525 -4.55% 1,105
London -3 1,177 £550 -4.35% 896
Work from Home -3 1,059 £540 -1.82% 1,022
South East -2 412 £525 -4.55% 280
North of England -9 302 £550 +2.66% 353
Midlands +2 256 £500 -9.09% 124
South West +20 204 £550 -7.56% 169
West Midlands +15 183 £500 -9.09% 95
North West -7 179 £563 +2.27% 272
Scotland +35 108 £425 -15.00% 58
Yorkshire -13 102 £531 +11.84% 66
East of England -18 80 £551 +0.18% 72
East Midlands -6 64 £513 -6.82% 26
Wales -5 28 £550 +10.00% 15
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 16
Northern Ireland -2 1 £450 -13.46% 44

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 645 (20.50%) Security Cleared
2 644 (20.47%) SAP
3 440 (13.99%) SC Cleared
4 439 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
5 410 (13.03%) Migration
6 406 (12.91%) Microsoft
7 381 (12.11%) Oracle
8 303 (9.63%) Azure
9 288 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 264 (8.39%) SAP S/4HANA
11 258 (8.20%) SQL
12 256 (8.14%) Problem-Solving
13 253 (8.04%) User Acceptance Testing
14 238 (7.57%) ERP
15 219 (6.96%) Workshop Facilitation
16 212 (6.74%) Validation
17 208 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
18 202 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
19 187 (5.94%) Roadmaps
20 183 (5.82%) Agile
20 183 (5.82%) Analytics
21 182 (5.79%) Data Migration
22 165 (5.24%) AI
23 158 (5.02%) AWS
24 150 (4.77%) Business Intelligence
24 150 (4.77%) Power Platform
25 149 (4.74%) Requirements Gathering
26 148 (4.70%) DV Cleared
27 135 (4.29%) Translating Business Requirements
28 131 (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 87 (2.77%) SharePoint
2 49 (1.56%) Confluence
3 14 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 11 (0.35%) 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 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.064%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.064%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) IIS
10 2 (0.064%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.064%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.064%) WordPress
Applications
1 76 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.064%) Lectora
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 264 (8.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (2.86%) Oracle EBS
3 70 (2.23%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.59%) SAP PSCD
5 45 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 43 (1.37%) Oracle ERP
7 38 (1.21%) SAP CO
8 36 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
9 34 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
9 34 (1.08%) SAP FI/CO
9 34 (1.08%) SAP MM
10 33 (1.05%) SAP BRIM
11 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
11 30 (0.95%) SAP FI-CA
11 30 (0.95%) SAP SD
12 28 (0.89%) SAP PP
13 27 (0.86%) SAP Payroll
14 26 (0.83%) Oracle EBS R12
15 25 (0.79%) SAP EWM
16 24 (0.76%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 303 (9.63%) Azure
2 158 (5.02%) AWS
3 150 (4.77%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.16%) Dynamics 365
5 110 (3.50%) OCI
6 104 (3.31%) SuccessFactors
7 91 (2.89%) GCP
8 89 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
9 74 (2.35%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.78%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.62%) Microsoft Copilot
12 50 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 49 (1.56%) SaaS
14 36 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 30 (0.95%) GitHub
16 27 (0.86%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
19 15 (0.48%) OneDrive
20 14 (0.45%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (1.97%) Firewall
2 56 (1.78%) Network Security
3 35 (1.11%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 20 (0.64%) BGP
5 20 (0.64%) LAN
5 20 (0.64%) VPN
6 17 (0.54%) DNS
7 14 (0.45%) VSAN
8 13 (0.41%) SAN
9 11 (0.35%) NGFW
9 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.32%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.22%) HTTP
11 7 (0.22%) IPsec
11 7 (0.22%) MPLS
11 7 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
11 7 (0.22%) Wireless
12 6 (0.19%) DHCP
12 6 (0.19%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (3.05%) Power BI
2 59 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.18%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.14%) SQL Server
5 33 (1.05%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 33 (1.05%) Tableau
6 30 (0.95%) SAP BW
7 28 (0.89%) Metadata
8 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
10 18 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
12 10 (0.32%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.22%) Relational Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) Looker
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 90 (2.86%) JIRA
2 20 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 19 (0.60%) Git
4 17 (0.54%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.45%) Hudson
6 11 (0.35%) GitLab
7 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.13%) Postman
10 4 (0.13%) PowerBuilder
10 4 (0.13%) Selenium
10 4 (0.13%) Snyk
10 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
11 3 (0.095%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.095%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.095%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.095%) MLflow
11 3 (0.095%) TestRail
11 3 (0.095%) Toad
General
1 693 (22.03%) Finance
2 685 (21.77%) Social Skills
3 246 (7.82%) Analytical Skills
4 222 (7.06%) Public Sector
5 114 (3.62%) Manufacturing
6 97 (3.08%) Banking
7 89 (2.83%) Legal
8 78 (2.48%) Billing
9 67 (2.13%) Telecoms
10 58 (1.84%) Presentation Skills
11 56 (1.78%) General Ledger
12 55 (1.75%) Marketing
13 52 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
14 51 (1.62%) Retail
15 46 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 40 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
17 33 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
18 24 (0.76%) Local Government
19 21 (0.67%) Aerospace
20 19 (0.60%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (3.43%) Oracle Fusion
2 84 (2.67%) REST
3 60 (1.91%) XML
4 40 (1.27%) SOAP
5 38 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
6 32 (1.02%) Middleware
7 26 (0.83%) JSON
7 26 (0.83%) Web Services
8 23 (0.73%) BAPI
9 20 (0.64%) HTML
10 18 (0.57%) CSS
11 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
11 17 (0.54%) SAP PI
12 16 (0.51%) OAuth
13 15 (0.48%) LDAP
14 14 (0.45%) IDoc
15 13 (0.41%) .NET
16 11 (0.35%) ADO
17 10 (0.32%) React
17 10 (0.32%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 117 (3.72%) Onboarding
2 51 (1.62%) CMDB
3 44 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
4 41 (1.30%) Security Posture
5 36 (1.14%) Product Ownership
6 34 (1.08%) Data Structures
6 34 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
7 33 (1.05%) AI Agents
8 31 (0.99%) Data Centre
9 29 (0.92%) Operational Technology
10 22 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
12 20 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
12 20 (0.64%) Replication
13 19 (0.60%) Life Science
13 19 (0.60%) Management Information System
14 18 (0.57%) Security Operations Centre
15 17 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
15 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 98 (3.12%) Windows
2 72 (2.29%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.60%) AIX
6 18 (0.57%) VMS
7 14 (0.45%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.064%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.032%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.032%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 439 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
2 410 (13.03%) Migration
3 288 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 256 (8.14%) Problem-Solving
5 253 (8.04%) User Acceptance Testing
6 238 (7.57%) ERP
7 219 (6.96%) Workshop Facilitation
8 212 (6.74%) Validation
9 208 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
10 202 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
11 187 (5.94%) Roadmaps
12 183 (5.82%) Agile
12 183 (5.82%) Analytics
13 182 (5.79%) Data Migration
14 165 (5.24%) AI
15 150 (4.77%) Business Intelligence
16 149 (4.74%) Requirements Gathering
17 135 (4.29%) Translating Business Requirements
18 128 (4.07%) Change Management
19 123 (3.91%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 258 (8.20%) SQL
2 122 (3.88%) Python
3 58 (1.84%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.72%) PL/SQL
5 52 (1.65%) JavaScript
6 50 (1.59%) ABAP
7 38 (1.21%) T-SQL
8 32 (1.02%) Java
9 18 (0.57%) Bash
10 14 (0.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) C#
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.25%) R
14 7 (0.22%) Korn
14 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.19%) Perl
16 5 (0.16%) C++
16 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 645 (20.50%) Security Cleared
2 440 (13.99%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.70%) DV Cleared
4 90 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 80 (2.54%) CISSP
6 73 (2.32%) Degree
7 61 (1.94%) CISM
8 39 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
9 32 (1.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.86%) CCSP
11 19 (0.60%) CIMA
12 18 (0.57%) ACCA
13 16 (0.51%) CRISC
14 15 (0.48%) PMP
15 14 (0.45%) CEH
16 13 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
17 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
17 12 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
17 12 (0.38%) OSCP
18 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.86%) NIST
2 81 (2.57%) Data Quality
3 78 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 69 (2.19%) GRC
5 55 (1.75%) QA
6 40 (1.27%) GDPR
7 29 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 28 (0.89%) NCSC
9 25 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
10 23 (0.73%) SLA
11 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 20 (0.64%) PMO
13 15 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 13 (0.41%) GxP
15 12 (0.38%) COBIT
16 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
17 9 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
17 9 (0.29%) IFRS
17 9 (0.29%) SOC 2
18 8 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 66 (2.10%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.27%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.86%) vSphere
5 14 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 12 (0.38%) Docker
8 9 (0.29%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.25%) IAG
10 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.095%) NFS
12 2 (0.064%) BitLocker
12 2 (0.064%) Firmware
12 2 (0.064%) PowerHA
13 1 (0.032%) HDFS
13 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.032%) oVirt
13 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.032%) RHEV
13 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 57 (1.81%) Terraform
2 45 (1.43%) Kubernetes
3 33 (1.05%) Ansible
4 19 (0.60%) vRealize
5 17 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) SCCM
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.45%) Grafana
7 14 (0.45%) Netcool
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%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.19%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 644 (20.47%) SAP
2 406 (12.91%) Microsoft
3 381 (12.11%) Oracle
4 128 (4.07%) ServiceNow
5 91 (2.89%) VMware
6 61 (1.94%) Ariba
7 60 (1.91%) Salesforce
8 56 (1.78%) Workday
9 48 (1.53%) Splunk
10 41 (1.30%) Databricks
11 29 (0.92%) Google
12 28 (0.89%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) IBM
13 26 (0.83%) OpenText
13 26 (0.83%) Palo Alto
14 21 (0.67%) Adobe
15 20 (0.64%) Siemens
16 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
17 16 (0.51%) Okta