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 18 November 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 28
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,561 2,480 2,914
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.24% 6.88% 6.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.96% 7.41% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,501 1,309 1,630
10th Percentile £403 £413 £405
25th Percentile £470 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.31%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £568 £525
% change year-on-year -3.08% +8.10% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 18 41
10th Percentile £36.00 £50.73 £50.00
25th Percentile £60.13 £57.86 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.69 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% +1.38% -4.91%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £86.25
90th Percentile £86.00 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
% change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -12.70%

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 32,191 33,474 43,775
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 92.85% 93.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,427 20,165 29,691
10th Percentile £278 £300 £293
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
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 1,886 1,246 1,552
10th Percentile £14.16 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.08 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% -19.82% +60.06%
75th Percentile £54.56 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +87.50%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -1 1,986 £550 - 1,877
UK excluding London 0 1,062 £550 -3.08% 1,084
Work from Home +1 947 £550 - 956
London 0 903 £575 +4.55% 884
North of England -7 295 £581 +2.88% 237
South East 0 268 £525 -4.55% 380
North West 0 204 £620 +12.73% 142
Midlands -28 151 £575 +4.55% 117
East of England +16 121 £550 +4.76% 72
South West +1 110 £550 -8.33% 211
West Midlands -26 108 £575 +10.58% 78
Yorkshire -11 85 £475 -20.83% 72
Scotland -3 72 £500 -11.50% 35
East Midlands -21 42 £600 +4.35% 36
Wales +9 34 £405 -32.50% 23
Northern Ireland -13 14 £405 -32.50% 18
North East -11 6 £550 -8.33% 23
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 698 (27.25%) SAP
2 661 (25.81%) Security Cleared
3 561 (21.91%) SC Cleared
4 370 (14.45%) SAP S/4HANA
5 335 (13.08%) Migration
6 328 (12.81%) Problem-Solving
7 289 (11.28%) Microsoft
8 287 (11.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 285 (11.13%) Oracle
10 283 (11.05%) Stakeholder Management
11 214 (8.36%) Azure
12 213 (8.32%) Agile
13 180 (7.03%) SQL
14 169 (6.60%) ERP
15 168 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
16 166 (6.48%) Analytics
17 162 (6.33%) Data Migration
18 150 (5.86%) Roadmaps
19 146 (5.70%) Validation
20 140 (5.47%) Knowledge Transfer
21 139 (5.43%) User Acceptance Testing
22 134 (5.23%) Cybersecurity
23 129 (5.04%) Python
24 128 (5.00%) DevOps
25 125 (4.88%) Requirements Gathering
26 124 (4.84%) AWS
27 122 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
28 116 (4.53%) Risk Management
29 112 (4.37%) Data Modelling
30 107 (4.18%) Degree

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 (2.11%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.90%) WebLogic
5 22 (0.86%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 8 (0.31%) Apache
8 8 (0.31%) IIS
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.20%) MTS
11 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
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 38 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.55%) 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
1 370 (14.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 80 (3.12%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.30%) SAP FI
4 53 (2.07%) Oracle Payables
4 53 (2.07%) SAP MM
5 50 (1.95%) Oracle EBS R12
6 48 (1.87%) SAP HCM
7 47 (1.84%) SAP EWM
8 43 (1.68%) Dynamics CRM
8 43 (1.68%) SAP CO
9 40 (1.56%) Oracle General Ledger
9 40 (1.56%) SAP FI/CO
10 36 (1.41%) SAP Payroll
11 35 (1.37%) Oracle Cash Management
12 34 (1.33%) SAP WM
13 33 (1.29%) Oracle Receivables
13 33 (1.29%) SAP PP
14 31 (1.21%) Oracle Assets
15 29 (1.13%) Oracle Financials
16 27 (1.05%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 214 (8.36%) Azure
2 124 (4.84%) AWS
3 106 (4.14%) Power Platform
4 103 (4.02%) Dynamics 365
5 92 (3.59%) OCI
6 88 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
7 63 (2.46%) GCP
8 60 (2.34%) SuccessFactors
9 57 (2.23%) Entra ID
10 55 (2.15%) SaaS
11 38 (1.48%) Power Automate
12 29 (1.13%) PowerApps
13 24 (0.94%) GitHub
14 23 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
14 23 (0.90%) OneDrive
15 20 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
17 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
18 13 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
18 13 (0.51%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 68 (2.66%) Firewall
2 36 (1.41%) Network Security
3 29 (1.13%) VPN
4 27 (1.05%) DNS
5 22 (0.86%) WAN
6 20 (0.78%) SD-WAN
7 18 (0.70%) DHCP
8 16 (0.62%) HTTP
9 15 (0.59%) SSL
10 13 (0.51%) 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 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Internet
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.27%) Kerberos
15 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.81%) Power BI
2 48 (1.87%) SAP HANA
3 44 (1.72%) SQL Server
4 41 (1.60%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (0.90%) Metadata
6 20 (0.78%) SAP BW
7 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) DB2
9 15 (0.59%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.59%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
9 15 (0.59%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 12 (0.47%) Tableau
11 9 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
13 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
13 6 (0.23%) Power Query
14 5 (0.20%) DynamoDB
14 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 60 (2.34%) JIRA
2 22 (0.86%) GitLab
2 22 (0.86%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.78%) Git
4 10 (0.39%) LSMW
5 9 (0.35%) Hudson
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
6 4 (0.16%) Postman
7 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.12%) Selenium
7 3 (0.12%) Snyk
8 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.078%) JUnit
8 2 (0.078%) Mockito
8 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
8 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 757 (29.56%) Social Skills
2 567 (22.14%) Finance
3 243 (9.49%) Analytical Skills
4 238 (9.29%) Public Sector
5 176 (6.87%) Manufacturing
6 84 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
7 79 (3.08%) Banking
8 65 (2.54%) Presentation Skills
9 59 (2.30%) Marketing
10 56 (2.19%) Billing
11 55 (2.15%) Legal
12 53 (2.07%) Telecoms
13 46 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
14 37 (1.44%) General Ledger
14 37 (1.44%) Retail
15 26 (1.02%) Law
16 25 (0.98%) Electronics
17 24 (0.94%) Local Government
18 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 18 (0.70%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.32%) SAP Fiori
2 64 (2.50%) REST
3 62 (2.42%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.07%) SOAP
5 48 (1.87%) Web Services
6 46 (1.80%) XML
7 39 (1.52%) HTML
8 33 (1.29%) Node.js
9 32 (1.25%) Middleware
10 26 (1.02%) BAPI
10 26 (1.02%) JSON
10 26 (1.02%) OAuth
11 24 (0.94%) .NET
12 23 (0.90%) EDI
12 23 (0.90%) LDAP
13 20 (0.78%) CSS
13 20 (0.78%) SAP TM
14 19 (0.74%) SAP Basis
15 17 (0.66%) IDoc
16 15 (0.59%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 79 (3.08%) Onboarding
2 53 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.56%) Security Posture
4 36 (1.41%) Product Ownership
5 35 (1.37%) Management Information System
6 32 (1.25%) Data Centre
7 29 (1.13%) Cloud Native
8 24 (0.94%) Replication
9 23 (0.90%) Data Structures
9 23 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
10 22 (0.86%) Hybrid Cloud
11 20 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (0.78%) Operational Technology
12 18 (0.70%) Life Science
12 18 (0.70%) Private Cloud
12 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
13 15 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (0.51%) CMDB
14 13 (0.51%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 83 (3.24%) Windows
2 56 (2.19%) 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%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
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%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 335 (13.08%) Migration
2 328 (12.81%) Problem-Solving
3 287 (11.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 283 (11.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 213 (8.32%) Agile
6 169 (6.60%) ERP
7 168 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
8 166 (6.48%) Analytics
9 162 (6.33%) Data Migration
10 150 (5.86%) Roadmaps
11 146 (5.70%) Validation
12 140 (5.47%) Knowledge Transfer
13 139 (5.43%) User Acceptance Testing
14 134 (5.23%) Cybersecurity
15 128 (5.00%) DevOps
16 125 (4.88%) Requirements Gathering
17 122 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
18 116 (4.53%) Risk Management
19 112 (4.37%) Data Modelling
20 103 (4.02%) AI
Programming Languages
1 180 (7.03%) SQL
2 129 (5.04%) Python
3 85 (3.32%) PowerShell
4 78 (3.05%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.81%) ABAP
6 60 (2.34%) Java
7 31 (1.21%) PL/SQL
8 25 (0.98%) Groovy
9 20 (0.78%) C++
10 18 (0.70%) Bash
11 15 (0.59%) C
12 14 (0.55%) PHP
12 14 (0.55%) TypeScript
13 12 (0.47%) C#
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
16 6 (0.23%) COBOL
16 6 (0.23%) VBA
17 5 (0.20%) Perl
Qualifications
1 661 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 561 (21.91%) SC Cleared
3 107 (4.18%) Degree
4 89 (3.48%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 74 (2.89%) CISSP
7 48 (1.87%) CISM
8 27 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
8 27 (1.05%) SAP Certification
9 23 (0.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 20 (0.78%) ACCA
10 20 (0.78%) CIMA
10 20 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.59%) CCNP
12 15 (0.59%) CESG Certified Professional
13 13 (0.51%) AWS Certification
13 13 (0.51%) Master's Degree
14 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
15 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 78 (3.05%) NIST
3 63 (2.46%) GDPR
4 61 (2.38%) QA
5 42 (1.64%) Data Quality
6 28 (1.09%) GRC
7 21 (0.82%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) NCSC
9 16 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.62%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.62%) RMADS
10 15 (0.59%) COBIT
11 14 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (0.51%) PMO
13 10 (0.39%) Accessibility
13 10 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.39%) IFRS
14 9 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 75 (2.93%) Active Directory
2 42 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.48%) Docker
4 25 (0.98%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.78%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.20%) NDS
7 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.16%) Firmware
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.16%) UAG
9 1 (0.039%) Ceph
9 1 (0.039%) IAG
9 1 (0.039%) KVM
9 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.039%) QEMU
9 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.039%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (2.07%) Kubernetes
1 53 (2.07%) Terraform
2 25 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
3 23 (0.90%) Ansible
3 23 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (0.82%) vRealize
5 16 (0.62%) SCCM
6 12 (0.47%) Grafana
7 10 (0.39%) PingFederate
7 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.27%) CASB
9 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.23%) PowerCLI
10 5 (0.20%) FortiGate
10 5 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
10 5 (0.20%) QRadar
10 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
11 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (0.16%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 698 (27.25%) SAP
2 289 (11.28%) Microsoft
3 285 (11.13%) Oracle
4 95 (3.71%) VMware
5 87 (3.40%) ServiceNow
6 71 (2.77%) Cisco
7 65 (2.54%) CyberArk
8 63 (2.46%) Workday
9 59 (2.30%) Salesforce
10 47 (1.84%) Ariba
11 37 (1.44%) Google
11 37 (1.44%) IBM
12 35 (1.37%) Aruba
13 30 (1.17%) Adobe
13 30 (1.17%) Dynatrace
14 26 (1.02%) OpenText
15 22 (0.86%) Splunk
16 19 (0.74%) IFS
17 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
17 18 (0.70%) Remedy