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 12 November 2025.

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

6 months to
12 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 29
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,579 2,497 2,858
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.33% 6.89% 6.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.06% 7.42% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,521 1,321 1,593
10th Percentile £403 £413 £400
25th Percentile £470 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.31%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £567 £525
% change year-on-year -3.00% +8.00% -6.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 19 41
10th Percentile £36.05 £52.15 £50.00
25th Percentile £55.94 £59.08 £61.04
Median hourly rate £74.75 £68.00 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +9.93% +0.37% -4.91%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.81 £86.25
90th Percentile £85.73 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £64.15
% change year-on-year +12.83% +7.08% -11.52%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 31,989 33,651 43,674
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.92% 92.86% 93.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,308 20,292 29,666
10th Percentile £279 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £412 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,833 1,257 1,539
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.10 £14.99
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +60.48%
75th Percentile £51.80 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.92 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +87.37%

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 12 November 2025.

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 12 November 2025.

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 12 November 2025. 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 2,005 £550 - 1,829
UK excluding London 0 1,074 £550 -3.00% 1,042
Work from Home +1 962 £550 - 928
London +1 910 £575 +4.55% 878
North of England -4 296 £578 +1.94% 234
South East 0 275 £531 -3.45% 368
North West -1 203 £620 +12.73% 133
Midlands -20 156 £578 +5.00% 108
East of England +17 121 £550 +4.76% 72
South West +2 109 £551 -8.13% 208
West Midlands -24 109 £575 +9.52% 77
Yorkshire -6 87 £475 -20.83% 74
Scotland -4 72 £500 -9.58% 28
East Midlands -13 46 £600 +4.35% 30
Wales +5 34 £405 -32.50% 19
Northern Ireland -10 14 £405 -32.50% 13
North East -13 6 £550 -8.33% 27
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 November 2025, 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.

1 705 (27.34%) SAP
2 674 (26.13%) Security Cleared
3 573 (22.22%) SC Cleared
4 378 (14.66%) SAP S/4HANA
5 335 (12.99%) Migration
6 329 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
7 295 (11.44%) Microsoft
8 288 (11.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 287 (11.13%) Oracle
10 280 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
11 217 (8.41%) Azure
12 211 (8.18%) Agile
13 183 (7.10%) SQL
14 173 (6.71%) ERP
15 169 (6.55%) Workshop Facilitation
16 165 (6.40%) Analytics
17 163 (6.32%) Data Migration
18 157 (6.09%) Roadmaps
19 148 (5.74%) Validation
20 143 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
21 134 (5.20%) User Acceptance Testing
22 133 (5.16%) Cybersecurity
23 131 (5.08%) Python
24 128 (4.96%) DevOps
25 125 (4.85%) AWS
25 125 (4.85%) Business Intelligence
26 123 (4.77%) Requirements Gathering
27 113 (4.38%) Risk Management
28 112 (4.34%) Data Modelling
29 107 (4.15%) Power Platform

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 54 (2.09%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 24 (0.93%) WebLogic
5 22 (0.85%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.31%) Apache
8 8 (0.31%) IIS
8 8 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) Apache Spark
11 4 (0.16%) MTS
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.078%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.078%) Camunda
Applications
1 40 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.16%) Revit
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.078%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.039%) InDesign
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.039%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 378 (14.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 83 (3.22%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.52%) SAP FI
4 57 (2.21%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.06%) Oracle EBS R12
5 53 (2.06%) SAP MM
6 48 (1.86%) SAP CO
7 47 (1.82%) SAP EWM
8 45 (1.74%) SAP FI/CO
9 44 (1.71%) SAP HCM
10 42 (1.63%) Dynamics CRM
10 42 (1.63%) Oracle General Ledger
11 38 (1.47%) Oracle Cash Management
12 36 (1.40%) Oracle Receivables
13 35 (1.36%) Oracle Assets
13 35 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
13 35 (1.36%) SAP PP
14 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
15 29 (1.12%) Oracle Financials
16 28 (1.09%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 217 (8.41%) Azure
2 125 (4.85%) AWS
3 107 (4.15%) Power Platform
4 102 (3.96%) Dynamics 365
5 93 (3.61%) Microsoft 365
6 90 (3.49%) OCI
7 62 (2.40%) GCP
8 60 (2.33%) Entra ID
9 56 (2.17%) SuccessFactors
10 55 (2.13%) SaaS
11 37 (1.43%) Power Automate
12 28 (1.09%) PowerApps
13 24 (0.93%) GitHub
14 23 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
14 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
15 20 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
17 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
18 14 (0.54%) Azure Sentinel
19 13 (0.50%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.68%) Firewall
2 35 (1.36%) Network Security
3 29 (1.12%) VPN
4 26 (1.01%) DNS
5 22 (0.85%) WAN
6 20 (0.78%) SD-WAN
7 17 (0.66%) DHCP
8 16 (0.62%) HTTP
9 15 (0.58%) SSL
10 13 (0.50%) TCP/IP
11 12 (0.47%) BGP
12 11 (0.43%) OSPF
13 10 (0.39%) SSH
14 9 (0.35%) LAN
14 9 (0.35%) SAN
15 8 (0.31%) Intrusion Detection
16 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
16 7 (0.27%) Internet
16 7 (0.27%) Kerberos
16 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.83%) Power BI
2 49 (1.90%) SAP HANA
3 44 (1.71%) SQL Server
4 43 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (0.89%) Metadata
6 21 (0.81%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) DB2
8 16 (0.62%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.58%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
9 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
10 13 (0.50%) Tableau
11 12 (0.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 9 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
13 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.23%) Oracle BI EE
14 6 (0.23%) Oracle ODI
14 6 (0.23%) Power Query
15 5 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 62 (2.40%) JIRA
2 22 (0.85%) GitLab
2 22 (0.85%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.81%) Git
4 10 (0.39%) LSMW
5 8 (0.31%) Hudson
6 7 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
7 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.078%) JUnit
9 2 (0.078%) Mockito
9 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 759 (29.43%) Social Skills
2 570 (22.10%) Finance
3 243 (9.42%) Public Sector
4 239 (9.27%) Analytical Skills
5 176 (6.82%) Manufacturing
6 86 (3.33%) Documentation Skills
7 77 (2.99%) Banking
8 65 (2.52%) Presentation Skills
9 59 (2.29%) Marketing
10 58 (2.25%) Billing
11 55 (2.13%) Telecoms
12 53 (2.06%) Legal
13 46 (1.78%) Pharmaceutical
14 40 (1.55%) General Ledger
15 37 (1.43%) Retail
16 26 (1.01%) Law
17 25 (0.97%) Electronics
18 24 (0.93%) Local Government
19 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 18 (0.70%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (3.33%) SAP Fiori
2 63 (2.44%) REST
3 61 (2.37%) Oracle Fusion
4 51 (1.98%) SOAP
5 46 (1.78%) Web Services
6 43 (1.67%) XML
7 39 (1.51%) HTML
8 32 (1.24%) Middleware
8 32 (1.24%) Node.js
9 26 (1.01%) BAPI
9 26 (1.01%) JSON
9 26 (1.01%) OAuth
10 24 (0.93%) .NET
10 24 (0.93%) LDAP
11 23 (0.89%) EDI
12 20 (0.78%) CSS
12 20 (0.78%) SAP TM
13 19 (0.74%) SAP Basis
14 17 (0.66%) IDoc
15 14 (0.54%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 80 (3.10%) Onboarding
2 54 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
3 41 (1.59%) Security Posture
4 36 (1.40%) Management Information System
4 36 (1.40%) Product Ownership
5 32 (1.24%) Data Centre
6 29 (1.12%) Cloud Native
7 23 (0.89%) Data Structures
8 22 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
8 22 (0.85%) Replication
9 20 (0.78%) Life Science
9 20 (0.78%) Operational Technology
10 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 19 (0.74%) Data Protection Act
11 18 (0.70%) Private Cloud
11 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
12 15 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (0.50%) CMDB
13 13 (0.50%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 84 (3.26%) Windows
2 57 (2.21%) Linux
3 19 (0.74%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.66%) Unix
5 12 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.31%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.078%) Android
11 2 (0.078%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 335 (12.99%) Migration
2 329 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
3 288 (11.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 280 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 211 (8.18%) Agile
6 173 (6.71%) ERP
7 169 (6.55%) Workshop Facilitation
8 165 (6.40%) Analytics
9 163 (6.32%) Data Migration
10 157 (6.09%) Roadmaps
11 148 (5.74%) Validation
12 143 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
13 134 (5.20%) User Acceptance Testing
14 133 (5.16%) Cybersecurity
15 128 (4.96%) DevOps
16 125 (4.85%) Business Intelligence
17 123 (4.77%) Requirements Gathering
18 113 (4.38%) Risk Management
19 112 (4.34%) Data Modelling
20 105 (4.07%) AI
Programming Languages
1 183 (7.10%) SQL
2 131 (5.08%) Python
3 85 (3.30%) PowerShell
4 76 (2.95%) JavaScript
5 71 (2.75%) ABAP
6 61 (2.37%) Java
7 33 (1.28%) PL/SQL
8 24 (0.93%) Groovy
9 19 (0.74%) C++
10 18 (0.70%) Bash
11 15 (0.58%) C
12 14 (0.54%) PHP
13 13 (0.50%) TypeScript
14 12 (0.47%) C#
15 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.23%) COBOL
18 6 (0.23%) VBA
19 5 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 674 (26.13%) Security Cleared
2 573 (22.22%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.99%) Degree
4 88 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 87 (3.37%) DV Cleared
6 74 (2.87%) CISSP
7 48 (1.86%) CISM
8 28 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
9 27 (1.05%) SAP Certification
10 23 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.78%) ACCA
11 20 (0.78%) CIMA
11 20 (0.78%) Cisco Certification
11 20 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (0.58%) CCNP
12 15 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
13 13 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 13 (0.50%) Master's Degree
14 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
15 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 79 (3.06%) NIST
3 62 (2.40%) QA
4 60 (2.33%) GDPR
5 44 (1.71%) Data Quality
6 29 (1.12%) GRC
7 20 (0.78%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) NCSC
9 16 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.62%) RMADS
10 15 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.50%) COBIT
11 13 (0.50%) PMO
11 13 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.47%) Accessibility
13 11 (0.43%) IFRS
14 10 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
15 9 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 77 (2.99%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.47%) Docker
4 25 (0.97%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.78%) vSphere
6 5 (0.19%) NDS
6 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
6 5 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.16%) Firmware
7 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.16%) UAG
8 1 (0.039%) Ceph
8 1 (0.039%) IAG
8 1 (0.039%) KVM
8 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.039%) QEMU
8 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.039%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (2.06%) Kubernetes
1 53 (2.06%) Terraform
2 25 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
3 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (0.89%) Ansible
5 21 (0.81%) vRealize
6 16 (0.62%) SCCM
7 12 (0.47%) Grafana
8 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 9 (0.35%) PingFederate
10 7 (0.27%) CASB
11 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.23%) PowerCLI
12 5 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
12 5 (0.19%) QRadar
12 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
13 4 (0.16%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 705 (27.34%) SAP
2 295 (11.44%) Microsoft
3 287 (11.13%) Oracle
4 94 (3.64%) VMware
5 89 (3.45%) ServiceNow
6 73 (2.83%) Cisco
7 64 (2.48%) CyberArk
7 64 (2.48%) Workday
8 60 (2.33%) Salesforce
9 46 (1.78%) Ariba
10 43 (1.67%) IBM
11 36 (1.40%) Google
12 35 (1.36%) Aruba
13 31 (1.20%) Adobe
14 30 (1.16%) Dynatrace
15 26 (1.01%) OpenText
16 22 (0.85%) Splunk
17 20 (0.78%) Palo Alto
18 18 (0.70%) IFS
18 18 (0.70%) Remedy