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 19 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,780 1,919 2,787
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.41% 6.55% 6.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.98% 7.05% 6.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,545 1,102 1,688
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £461 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.57%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £713 £749 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £537 £550 £537
% change year-on-year -2.36% +2.42% -2.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 16 39
10th Percentile - £67.50 £39.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.17 £54.42
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +36.00% -5.30%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.56 £79.09
90th Percentile £76.45 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -32.35% +37.99% -6.67%

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 39,828 27,223 41,240
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.95% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,890 17,719 27,066
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £613 £636 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 888 2,490
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.24 £12.91
25th Percentile £19.22 £21.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £76.25 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 19 March 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 19 March 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 19 March 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 2,180 £550 -0.54% 1,238
UK excluding London +3 1,147 £537 -2.36% 874
Work from Home 0 1,019 £525 -4.55% 593
London -2 1,006 £550 -4.35% 587
South East +5 341 £525 -8.70% 304
North of England -14 249 £550 +2.23% 177
Midlands -8 230 £550 +4.76% 88
West Midlands +7 170 £563 +7.14% 43
South West +18 148 £550 - 165
North West -19 127 £575 +6.88% 107
Yorkshire +5 113 £538 +1.18% 56
East of England -2 97 £550 +2.33% 65
East Midlands -18 55 £500 -2.44% 45
Scotland +10 50 £520 -5.45% 48
Wales +6 32 £455 +1.06% 28
Northern Ireland +2 9 £405 -22.86% 10
North East -18 9 £525 -4.55% 15

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 March 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.

1 618 (22.23%) Security Cleared
2 597 (21.47%) SAP
3 521 (18.74%) SC Cleared
4 403 (14.50%) Migration
5 305 (10.97%) Azure
6 299 (10.76%) Problem-Solving
7 293 (10.54%) Microsoft
8 292 (10.50%) Oracle
8 292 (10.50%) SAP S/4HANA
9 283 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 269 (9.68%) Stakeholder Management
11 229 (8.24%) ERP
12 206 (7.41%) Workshop Facilitation
13 193 (6.94%) SQL
14 187 (6.73%) User Acceptance Testing
15 174 (6.26%) Agile
15 174 (6.26%) Data Migration
16 167 (6.01%) Roadmaps
17 159 (5.72%) Analytics
18 150 (5.40%) Business Intelligence
19 146 (5.25%) Cybersecurity
20 143 (5.14%) Validation
21 140 (5.04%) Continuous Improvement
21 140 (5.04%) Dynamics 365
22 138 (4.96%) Knowledge Transfer
23 123 (4.42%) AI
24 121 (4.35%) Python
25 115 (4.14%) Power Platform
26 113 (4.06%) Change Management
27 109 (3.92%) Risk Management

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 67 (2.41%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.37%) Confluence
3 23 (0.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
6 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
6 5 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
7 4 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.11%) Apache
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.072%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.072%) IIS
9 2 (0.072%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.036%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.036%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.036%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.036%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 67 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
5 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.072%) Lectora
7 2 (0.072%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.036%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.036%) CATIA
8 1 (0.036%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.036%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.036%) Revit
8 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 292 (10.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (2.23%) SAP FI
3 59 (2.12%) Oracle EBS
4 51 (1.83%) Oracle Payables
5 46 (1.65%) Oracle Receivables
6 44 (1.58%) SAP MM
7 39 (1.40%) SAP HCM
8 37 (1.33%) Dynamics CRM
8 37 (1.33%) Oracle EBS R12
8 37 (1.33%) SAP PP
9 34 (1.22%) SAP CO
10 32 (1.15%) SAP FI/CO
10 32 (1.15%) SAP PSCD
11 31 (1.12%) Oracle General Ledger
12 30 (1.08%) Oracle Assets
13 28 (1.01%) SAP EWM
13 28 (1.01%) SAP Travel Management
14 27 (0.97%) SAP Payroll
15 25 (0.90%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
16 24 (0.86%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 305 (10.97%) Azure
2 140 (5.04%) Dynamics 365
3 115 (4.14%) Power Platform
4 107 (3.85%) AWS
5 97 (3.49%) OCI
6 83 (2.99%) GCP
7 76 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
8 66 (2.37%) SaaS
9 59 (2.12%) Entra ID
10 54 (1.94%) SuccessFactors
11 43 (1.55%) Power Automate
12 36 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
13 32 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
13 32 (1.15%) Microsoft Purview
13 32 (1.15%) PowerApps
14 26 (0.94%) GitHub
15 22 (0.79%) OneDrive
16 18 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
16 18 (0.65%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 15 (0.54%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 45 (1.62%) Firewall
2 20 (0.72%) Network Security
3 16 (0.58%) DNS
3 16 (0.58%) WAN
4 14 (0.50%) VPN
4 14 (0.50%) VSAN
5 13 (0.47%) HTTP
5 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
5 13 (0.47%) SMS
6 12 (0.43%) LAN
6 12 (0.43%) SD-WAN
7 10 (0.36%) SAN
8 9 (0.32%) DHCP
8 9 (0.32%) FTP
8 9 (0.32%) Software-Defined Networking
9 8 (0.29%) Intranet
10 7 (0.25%) Internet
10 7 (0.25%) NAS
10 7 (0.25%) SSH
10 7 (0.25%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (2.95%) Power BI
2 47 (1.69%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.40%) SAP HANA
4 25 (0.90%) Metadata
4 25 (0.90%) SQL Server
5 23 (0.83%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 17 (0.61%) Tableau
7 11 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
7 11 (0.40%) NoSQL
7 11 (0.40%) SAP BW
8 10 (0.36%) Oracle ODI
8 10 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 8 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
9 8 (0.29%) Oracle Database
9 8 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
10 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
10 6 (0.22%) Essbase
10 6 (0.22%) GIS
10 6 (0.22%) MongoDB
10 6 (0.22%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 68 (2.45%) JIRA
2 15 (0.54%) Jenkins
3 14 (0.50%) Hudson
4 12 (0.43%) Oracle Forms
5 10 (0.36%) Git
6 7 (0.25%) GitLab
6 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.14%) LSMW
8 3 (0.11%) Postman
8 3 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.072%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.072%) git-flow
9 2 (0.072%) JUnit
9 2 (0.072%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.072%) Selenium
9 2 (0.072%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.072%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.072%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.036%) GCC
General
1 689 (24.78%) Social Skills
2 606 (21.80%) Finance
3 263 (9.46%) Analytical Skills
4 248 (8.92%) Public Sector
5 121 (4.35%) Manufacturing
6 97 (3.49%) Banking
7 75 (2.70%) Marketing
8 68 (2.45%) Documentation Skills
8 68 (2.45%) Legal
9 62 (2.23%) Billing
10 47 (1.69%) General Ledger
11 46 (1.65%) Telecoms
12 35 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
12 35 (1.26%) Retail
13 33 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
14 27 (0.97%) Law
15 22 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 20 (0.72%) Electronics
17 19 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
18 18 (0.65%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (3.60%) Oracle Fusion
2 67 (2.41%) REST
3 61 (2.19%) XML
4 40 (1.44%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.29%) Web Services
6 35 (1.26%) SOAP
7 30 (1.08%) SAP TM
8 27 (0.97%) LDAP
9 21 (0.76%) Node.js
10 20 (0.72%) BAPI
10 20 (0.72%) Middleware
11 18 (0.65%) .NET
12 17 (0.61%) JSON
12 17 (0.61%) SAP PI
13 16 (0.58%) IDoc
14 15 (0.54%) SAP Basis
15 14 (0.50%) GraphQL
16 13 (0.47%) Kafka
17 12 (0.43%) HTML
18 11 (0.40%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 70 (2.52%) Onboarding
2 58 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.58%) Product Ownership
4 39 (1.40%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.08%) Data Centre
7 29 (1.04%) Management Information System
8 26 (0.94%) Replication
9 25 (0.90%) Operational Technology
10 24 (0.86%) Cloud Native
11 22 (0.79%) AI Agents
12 21 (0.76%) Data Structures
13 20 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
14 19 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
14 19 (0.68%) NHS
15 16 (0.58%) CMDB
15 16 (0.58%) Public Cloud
16 15 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
17 13 (0.47%) Life Science
17 13 (0.47%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 79 (2.84%) Windows
2 45 (1.62%) Linux
3 16 (0.58%) Unix
3 16 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.50%) VMS
5 11 (0.40%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.29%) AIX
7 7 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.14%) Solaris
10 4 (0.14%) zOS
11 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.11%) SUSE
12 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.036%) Android
13 1 (0.036%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 403 (14.50%) Migration
2 299 (10.76%) Problem-Solving
3 283 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 269 (9.68%) Stakeholder Management
5 229 (8.24%) ERP
6 206 (7.41%) Workshop Facilitation
7 187 (6.73%) User Acceptance Testing
8 174 (6.26%) Agile
8 174 (6.26%) Data Migration
9 167 (6.01%) Roadmaps
10 159 (5.72%) Analytics
11 150 (5.40%) Business Intelligence
12 146 (5.25%) Cybersecurity
13 143 (5.14%) Validation
14 140 (5.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 138 (4.96%) Knowledge Transfer
16 123 (4.42%) AI
17 113 (4.06%) Change Management
18 109 (3.92%) Risk Management
19 107 (3.85%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 193 (6.94%) SQL
2 121 (4.35%) Python
3 80 (2.88%) PowerShell
4 78 (2.81%) JavaScript
5 60 (2.16%) ABAP
6 38 (1.37%) Java
7 30 (1.08%) T-SQL
8 26 (0.94%) TypeScript
9 25 (0.90%) PL/SQL
10 22 (0.79%) Groovy
11 18 (0.65%) C#
12 14 (0.50%) Bash
13 11 (0.40%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.36%) C++
15 8 (0.29%) Apex Code
15 8 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
17 5 (0.18%) Korn
18 4 (0.14%) R
18 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 618 (22.23%) Security Cleared
2 521 (18.74%) SC Cleared
3 96 (3.45%) Degree
4 84 (3.02%) DV Cleared
5 57 (2.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 56 (2.01%) CISSP
7 37 (1.33%) CISM
8 29 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 19 (0.68%) CIMA
10 18 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.61%) Master's Degree
11 17 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
12 16 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
13 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
14 10 (0.36%) CEH
15 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
15 8 (0.29%) CompTIA Security+
16 7 (0.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 7 (0.25%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.38%) NIST
2 88 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 65 (2.34%) GDPR
4 56 (2.01%) Data Quality
5 49 (1.76%) QA
6 45 (1.62%) GRC
7 25 (0.90%) NCSC
8 23 (0.83%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
10 19 (0.68%) PMO
10 19 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 19 (0.68%) SLA
11 16 (0.58%) COBIT
12 12 (0.43%) JSP 440
13 11 (0.40%) PERC
14 9 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 8 (0.29%) Accessibility
15 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 6 (0.22%) DICOM
System Software
1 67 (2.41%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.22%) VMware NSX
3 33 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.08%) Docker
5 28 (1.01%) vSphere
6 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 3 (0.11%) NFS
11 2 (0.072%) NDS
11 2 (0.072%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 2 (0.072%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.036%) Ceph
12 1 (0.036%) IAG
12 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.036%) KVM
12 1 (0.036%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.036%) QEMU
12 1 (0.036%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 49 (1.76%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.29%) Terraform
3 31 (1.12%) vRealize
4 22 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.54%) Ansible
7 9 (0.32%) Failover Clustering
8 7 (0.25%) PingFederate
9 6 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
9 6 (0.22%) SCCM
10 5 (0.18%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.14%) Nagios
11 4 (0.14%) Netcool
11 4 (0.14%) OpenView
11 4 (0.14%) Tivoli
11 4 (0.14%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 4 (0.14%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.14%) ZABBIX
12 3 (0.11%) Rancher
Vendors
1 597 (21.47%) SAP
2 293 (10.54%) Microsoft
3 292 (10.50%) Oracle
4 95 (3.42%) VMware
5 90 (3.24%) ServiceNow
6 62 (2.23%) Salesforce
7 56 (2.01%) Workday
8 54 (1.94%) CyberArk
9 53 (1.91%) Siemens
10 47 (1.69%) Cisco
11 46 (1.65%) Ariba
11 46 (1.65%) Google
12 37 (1.33%) Aruba
13 24 (0.86%) Databricks
14 22 (0.79%) Adobe
15 21 (0.76%) Splunk
16 19 (0.68%) OpenText
17 17 (0.61%) Sage
18 15 (0.54%) Murex
19 14 (0.50%) IBM