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 14 March 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,781 1,931 2,772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.44% 6.54% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.01% 7.04% 6.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,552 1,098 1,678
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.22%
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 17 37
10th Percentile - £68.00 £36.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -4.55%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £80.00
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year -31.34% +39.58% -9.09%

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 39,662 27,424 41,343
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.92% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,771 17,715 27,123
10th Percentile £313 £296 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £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 2,471 874 2,496
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.36 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.06 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +1.71% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 2,182 £550 - 1,251
UK excluding London +4 1,155 £550 - 893
Work from Home +1 1,028 £531 -3.45% 602
London -3 998 £550 -4.35% 583
South East +3 333 £525 -8.70% 327
North of England -4 275 £588 +9.29% 176
Midlands -8 231 £550 +4.76% 86
West Midlands +1 171 £563 +7.14% 48
North West -2 155 £644 +19.70% 92
South West +17 142 £550 - 176
Yorkshire +4 111 £544 +2.35% 64
East of England -6 91 £525 -2.33% 61
East Midlands -15 55 £500 -3.15% 36
Scotland +15 49 £520 -5.45% 35
Wales +5 33 £447 -8.31% 32
Northern Ireland +4 10 £496 -5.48% 10
North East -24 9 £525 -4.55% 21

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 650 (23.37%) Security Cleared
2 635 (22.83%) SAP
3 548 (19.71%) SC Cleared
4 392 (14.10%) Migration
5 334 (12.01%) SAP S/4HANA
6 309 (11.11%) Azure
6 309 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
7 292 (10.50%) Microsoft
7 292 (10.50%) Oracle
8 284 (10.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 278 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
10 227 (8.16%) ERP
11 220 (7.91%) Workshop Facilitation
12 195 (7.01%) SQL
13 187 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
14 174 (6.26%) Agile
15 169 (6.08%) Analytics
16 166 (5.97%) Data Migration
17 160 (5.75%) Roadmaps
18 151 (5.43%) Business Intelligence
19 144 (5.18%) Knowledge Transfer
20 143 (5.14%) Dynamics 365
21 141 (5.07%) Validation
22 140 (5.03%) Continuous Improvement
22 140 (5.03%) Cybersecurity
23 123 (4.42%) Python
24 118 (4.24%) AI
25 117 (4.21%) Power Platform
26 110 (3.96%) AWS
26 110 (3.96%) Change 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 37 (1.33%) Confluence
3 26 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.25%) 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%) nginx
10 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.036%) SAS
10 1 (0.036%) WebSphere
Applications
1 68 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.072%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.072%) Lectora
9 1 (0.036%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.036%) CATIA
9 1 (0.036%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.036%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.036%) Revit
9 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 334 (12.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 63 (2.27%) SAP FI
3 58 (2.09%) Oracle EBS
4 53 (1.91%) SAP MM
5 50 (1.80%) Oracle Payables
6 46 (1.65%) Oracle Receivables
7 39 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
7 39 (1.40%) Oracle EBS R12
8 38 (1.37%) SAP PP
9 37 (1.33%) SAP HCM
10 35 (1.26%) SAP CO
11 33 (1.19%) SAP PSCD
12 32 (1.15%) Oracle General Ledger
12 32 (1.15%) SAP FI/CO
13 31 (1.11%) SAP EWM
14 30 (1.08%) Oracle Assets
14 30 (1.08%) SAP Travel Management
15 28 (1.01%) SAP Payroll
16 25 (0.90%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
17 24 (0.86%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 309 (11.11%) Azure
2 143 (5.14%) Dynamics 365
3 117 (4.21%) Power Platform
4 110 (3.96%) AWS
5 99 (3.56%) OCI
6 79 (2.84%) GCP
7 76 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.41%) SaaS
9 61 (2.19%) Entra ID
10 54 (1.94%) SuccessFactors
11 43 (1.55%) Power Automate
12 36 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
13 34 (1.22%) PowerApps
14 33 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
15 31 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.90%) GitHub
17 22 (0.79%) OneDrive
18 18 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
18 18 (0.65%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 16 (0.58%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.80%) Firewall
2 19 (0.68%) Network Security
3 17 (0.61%) DNS
4 16 (0.58%) HTTP
5 15 (0.54%) VPN
5 15 (0.54%) WAN
6 14 (0.50%) VSAN
7 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.47%) SMS
8 12 (0.43%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.40%) LAN
10 10 (0.36%) DHCP
10 10 (0.36%) SAN
10 10 (0.36%) SSL
11 9 (0.32%) FTP
11 9 (0.32%) Software-Defined Networking
11 9 (0.32%) TCP/IP
12 8 (0.29%) Intranet
13 7 (0.25%) Cisco IPT
13 7 (0.25%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (3.02%) Power BI
2 47 (1.69%) SAP HANA
3 46 (1.65%) Oracle Reports
4 29 (1.04%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.90%) Metadata
6 24 (0.86%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.61%) Tableau
8 12 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.43%) NoSQL
9 11 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (0.40%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 8 (0.29%) Oracle ODI
11 7 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
11 7 (0.25%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.22%) Data Lake
12 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
12 6 (0.22%) Essbase
12 6 (0.22%) GIS
12 6 (0.22%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 66 (2.37%) JIRA
2 16 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 12 (0.43%) Git
3 12 (0.43%) Hudson
3 12 (0.43%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.25%) GitLab
4 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
5 4 (0.14%) LSMW
6 3 (0.11%) Postman
6 3 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.072%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.072%) git-flow
7 2 (0.072%) JUnit
7 2 (0.072%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.072%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.072%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.072%) Tricentis qTest
8 1 (0.036%) PeopleTools
8 1 (0.036%) Toad
General
1 696 (25.03%) Social Skills
2 597 (21.47%) Finance
3 259 (9.31%) Analytical Skills
4 254 (9.13%) Public Sector
5 125 (4.49%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.45%) Banking
7 76 (2.73%) Marketing
8 70 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
9 68 (2.45%) Legal
10 64 (2.30%) Billing
11 45 (1.62%) General Ledger
11 45 (1.62%) Telecoms
12 36 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
13 35 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
13 35 (1.26%) Retail
14 27 (0.97%) Law
15 20 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
16 19 (0.68%) Electronics
17 18 (0.65%) Aerospace
17 18 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (3.52%) Oracle Fusion
2 68 (2.45%) REST
3 61 (2.19%) XML
4 52 (1.87%) SAP Fiori
5 47 (1.69%) Web Services
6 38 (1.37%) SAP TM
7 36 (1.29%) SOAP
8 29 (1.04%) BAPI
9 26 (0.93%) LDAP
10 23 (0.83%) Node.js
11 21 (0.76%) Middleware
12 18 (0.65%) JSON
13 17 (0.61%) .NET
13 17 (0.61%) SAP PI
14 16 (0.58%) IDoc
15 15 (0.54%) GraphQL
16 14 (0.50%) SAP Basis
17 13 (0.47%) Kafka
18 12 (0.43%) HTML
19 11 (0.40%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 72 (2.59%) Onboarding
2 60 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.55%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.37%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.08%) Data Centre
7 27 (0.97%) Replication
8 26 (0.93%) Management Information System
8 26 (0.93%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.90%) Cloud Native
10 22 (0.79%) AI Agents
10 22 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (0.72%) Data Structures
12 19 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
12 19 (0.68%) NHS
13 15 (0.54%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
14 14 (0.50%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (0.47%) CMDB
15 13 (0.47%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 76 (2.73%) Windows
2 44 (1.58%) Linux
3 15 (0.54%) Unix
4 14 (0.50%) VMS
4 14 (0.50%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.40%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.25%) AIX
6 7 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.14%) Solaris
9 4 (0.14%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.036%) CentOS
12 1 (0.036%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 392 (14.10%) Migration
2 309 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
3 284 (10.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 278 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
5 227 (8.16%) ERP
6 220 (7.91%) Workshop Facilitation
7 187 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
8 174 (6.26%) Agile
9 169 (6.08%) Analytics
10 166 (5.97%) Data Migration
11 160 (5.75%) Roadmaps
12 151 (5.43%) Business Intelligence
13 144 (5.18%) Knowledge Transfer
14 141 (5.07%) Validation
15 140 (5.03%) Continuous Improvement
15 140 (5.03%) Cybersecurity
16 118 (4.24%) AI
17 110 (3.96%) Change Management
18 108 (3.88%) DevOps
18 108 (3.88%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 195 (7.01%) SQL
2 123 (4.42%) Python
3 81 (2.91%) PowerShell
4 78 (2.80%) JavaScript
5 69 (2.48%) ABAP
6 37 (1.33%) Java
7 30 (1.08%) T-SQL
8 28 (1.01%) TypeScript
9 23 (0.83%) PL/SQL
10 22 (0.79%) Groovy
11 16 (0.58%) C#
12 15 (0.54%) Bash
13 11 (0.40%) Shell Script
14 9 (0.32%) C++
15 8 (0.29%) Apex Code
15 8 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
17 6 (0.22%) Korn
18 5 (0.18%) R
19 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 650 (23.37%) Security Cleared
2 548 (19.71%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.70%) Degree
4 85 (3.06%) DV Cleared
5 62 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (1.94%) CISSP
7 34 (1.22%) CISM
8 31 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 18 (0.65%) CIMA
9 18 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
9 18 (0.65%) Master's Degree
10 16 (0.58%) Microsoft Certification
11 15 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
12 14 (0.50%) SAP Certification
13 8 (0.29%) CCNP
13 8 (0.29%) CEH
13 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
14 7 (0.25%) AWS Certification
14 7 (0.25%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (3.27%) NIST
2 85 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.45%) GDPR
4 51 (1.83%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.83%) QA
5 43 (1.55%) GRC
6 23 (0.83%) NCSC
7 21 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
7 21 (0.76%) PCI DSS
8 20 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 20 (0.72%) SLA
9 18 (0.65%) PMO
10 13 (0.47%) COBIT
11 11 (0.40%) JSP 440
11 11 (0.40%) PERC
12 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 8 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 7 (0.25%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.18%) ITGC
System Software
1 67 (2.41%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.22%) Docker
2 34 (1.22%) VMware NSX
3 32 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 28 (1.01%) vSphere
5 8 (0.29%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.18%) NDS
8 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
10 2 (0.072%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.036%) Ceph
11 1 (0.036%) IAG
11 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.036%) KVM
11 1 (0.036%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.036%) QEMU
11 1 (0.036%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 52 (1.87%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.26%) Terraform
3 32 (1.15%) vRealize
4 22 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.61%) Ansible
5 17 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.32%) Failover Clustering
7 7 (0.25%) PingFederate
8 6 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (0.22%) Podman
8 6 (0.22%) SCCM
9 5 (0.18%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.14%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.14%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
11 3 (0.11%) Puppet
11 3 (0.11%) Rancher
11 3 (0.11%) vMotion
11 3 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
11 3 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 635 (22.83%) SAP
2 292 (10.50%) Microsoft
2 292 (10.50%) Oracle
3 94 (3.38%) VMware
4 87 (3.13%) ServiceNow
5 61 (2.19%) Salesforce
6 54 (1.94%) CyberArk
6 54 (1.94%) Workday
7 53 (1.91%) Siemens
8 50 (1.80%) Cisco
9 47 (1.69%) Ariba
10 44 (1.58%) Google
11 37 (1.33%) Aruba
12 32 (1.15%) Adobe
13 25 (0.90%) Databricks
14 21 (0.76%) OpenText
15 18 (0.65%) Splunk
16 17 (0.61%) Sage
17 15 (0.54%) Murex
18 13 (0.47%) IBM