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 December 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 0 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,581 2,302 2,821
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.05% 6.73% 6.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.75% 7.26% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,486 1,282 1,594
10th Percentile £403 £413 £400
25th Percentile £475 £493 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £644 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £568 £525
% change year-on-year -3.08% +8.10% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 13 39
10th Percentile £41.35 £43.60 £51.75
25th Percentile £62.75 £55.00 £60.93
Median hourly rate £77.50 £68.00 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +13.97% +0.37% -3.21%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £86.63
90th Percentile £84.35 £86.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £72.38 £63.29
% change year-on-year +7.08% +14.35% +0.46%

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 33,289 31,718 41,239
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.98% 92.78% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,068 19,534 27,738
10th Percentile £290 £300 £288
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £644
90th Percentile £720 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,959 999 1,468
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £15.14
25th Percentile £18.19 £21.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.47 £34.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.09% -23.60% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.84 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.46 £72.55 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%

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 December 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 December 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 December 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 2,027 £555 +0.82% 1,896
UK excluding London +1 1,080 £550 -3.08% 1,657
Work from Home 0 929 £550 - 1,092
London -3 920 £575 +4.55% 512
North of England +1 296 £600 +6.24% 374
South East -2 291 £550 -4.35% 493
North West +5 192 £623 +13.18% 196
Midlands -18 158 £563 +7.14% 262
West Midlands -9 129 £550 +5.77% 158
South West +8 116 £588 +6.82% 235
East of England +3 110 £550 - 195
Yorkshire -3 95 £550 -8.33% 159
Scotland +7 69 £504 -10.44% 70
Wales +14 32 £405 -32.50% 32
East Midlands -29 28 £578 +1.94% 93
Northern Ireland -5 13 £405 -32.50% 19
North East -9 9 £575 -4.17% 19
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 December 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.

1 685 (26.54%) SAP
2 670 (25.96%) Security Cleared
3 559 (21.66%) SC Cleared
4 349 (13.52%) SAP S/4HANA
5 336 (13.02%) Migration
6 320 (12.40%) Problem-Solving
7 305 (11.82%) Oracle
8 304 (11.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 303 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
10 273 (10.58%) Microsoft
11 229 (8.87%) Azure
12 213 (8.25%) Agile
13 189 (7.32%) Workshop Facilitation
14 164 (6.35%) ERP
15 163 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
16 162 (6.28%) SQL
17 157 (6.08%) Analytics
18 153 (5.93%) Knowledge Transfer
18 153 (5.93%) Roadmaps
19 152 (5.89%) Data Migration
20 134 (5.19%) Validation
21 129 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
22 126 (4.88%) Business Intelligence
23 125 (4.84%) DevOps
24 123 (4.77%) Python
25 115 (4.46%) Risk Management
26 114 (4.42%) Requirements Gathering
27 111 (4.30%) AWS
28 108 (4.18%) Data Modelling
29 106 (4.11%) 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 61 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 16 (0.62%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 6 (0.23%) CMS
8 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.19%) MTS
10 4 (0.15%) Apache
10 4 (0.15%) IIS
10 4 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.077%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
13 1 (0.039%) nginx
13 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
Applications
1 39 (1.51%) 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 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.077%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Sketch
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 349 (13.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 88 (3.41%) Oracle EBS
3 63 (2.44%) Oracle Payables
4 57 (2.21%) SAP FI
5 53 (2.05%) SAP MM
6 52 (2.01%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.01%) SAP HCM
7 51 (1.98%) Oracle Receivables
8 48 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 46 (1.78%) Oracle Cash Management
9 46 (1.78%) Oracle General Ledger
10 42 (1.63%) SAP PP
11 37 (1.43%) SAP CO
12 36 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
13 35 (1.36%) Oracle Assets
14 34 (1.32%) SAP FI/CO
14 34 (1.32%) SAP Payroll
15 33 (1.28%) SAP WM
16 29 (1.12%) Oracle Financials
17 27 (1.05%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 229 (8.87%) Azure
2 111 (4.30%) AWS
3 106 (4.11%) Power Platform
4 105 (4.07%) Dynamics 365
5 91 (3.53%) OCI
6 81 (3.14%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (2.87%) GCP
8 57 (2.21%) SaaS
9 55 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 51 (1.98%) SuccessFactors
11 41 (1.59%) Power Automate
12 33 (1.28%) PowerApps
13 32 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
14 23 (0.89%) GitHub
15 22 (0.85%) OneDrive
16 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
18 16 (0.62%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 14 (0.54%) GitHub Actions
20 13 (0.50%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 64 (2.48%) Firewall
2 26 (1.01%) Network Security
3 25 (0.97%) VPN
4 23 (0.89%) DNS
5 20 (0.77%) WAN
6 18 (0.70%) SD-WAN
7 14 (0.54%) HTTP
7 14 (0.54%) TCP/IP
8 13 (0.50%) BGP
8 13 (0.50%) DHCP
8 13 (0.50%) SSL
9 12 (0.46%) OSPF
10 11 (0.43%) Kerberos
11 10 (0.39%) SSH
12 8 (0.31%) LAN
12 8 (0.31%) VSAN
13 7 (0.27%) Cisco ISE
13 7 (0.27%) Internet
13 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
13 7 (0.27%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (3.06%) Power BI
2 46 (1.78%) Oracle Reports
3 42 (1.63%) SAP HANA
4 40 (1.55%) SQL Server
5 23 (0.89%) Metadata
6 21 (0.81%) SAP BW
7 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
8 17 (0.66%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
10 14 (0.54%) SAP Data Services
11 11 (0.43%) DB2
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.39%) Tableau
13 7 (0.27%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.19%) Data Mart
14 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
14 5 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
14 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 63 (2.44%) JIRA
2 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.74%) Git
4 17 (0.66%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.31%) Hudson
7 5 (0.19%) LSMW
7 5 (0.19%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.19%) Postman
8 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Snyk
10 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.077%) JUnit
10 2 (0.077%) Mockito
10 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.077%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 732 (28.36%) Social Skills
2 593 (22.98%) Finance
3 247 (9.57%) Public Sector
4 235 (9.10%) Analytical Skills
5 168 (6.51%) Manufacturing
6 82 (3.18%) Banking
7 80 (3.10%) Documentation Skills
8 61 (2.36%) Marketing
8 61 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
9 57 (2.21%) Legal
10 55 (2.13%) Billing
11 43 (1.67%) Telecoms
12 38 (1.47%) General Ledger
13 37 (1.43%) Pharmaceutical
14 31 (1.20%) Retail
15 27 (1.05%) Electronics
15 27 (1.05%) Law
16 22 (0.85%) Financial Institution
16 22 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 18 (0.70%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (2.94%) SAP Fiori
2 71 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
3 67 (2.60%) REST
4 50 (1.94%) SOAP
5 46 (1.78%) XML
6 44 (1.70%) Web Services
7 42 (1.63%) Node.js
8 35 (1.36%) HTML
8 35 (1.36%) Middleware
9 31 (1.20%) JSON
10 26 (1.01%) LDAP
11 25 (0.97%) .NET
12 22 (0.85%) BAPI
12 22 (0.85%) OAuth
12 22 (0.85%) SAP TM
13 20 (0.77%) SAP PI
14 18 (0.70%) CSS
14 18 (0.70%) EDI
14 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
15 17 (0.66%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 80 (3.10%) Onboarding
2 57 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.51%) Product Ownership
3 39 (1.51%) Security Posture
4 33 (1.28%) Cloud Native
5 31 (1.20%) Data Centre
6 25 (0.97%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.93%) Replication
8 23 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
8 23 (0.89%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
10 21 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.77%) Operational Technology
12 18 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (0.62%) Virtual Team
14 14 (0.54%) CMDB
15 13 (0.50%) IoT
15 13 (0.50%) Life Science
16 12 (0.46%) Enterprise Software
16 12 (0.46%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 77 (2.98%) Windows
2 49 (1.90%) Linux
3 17 (0.66%) Unix
4 16 (0.62%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) Mac OS
6 9 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.27%) AIX
7 7 (0.27%) Solaris
8 5 (0.19%) VMS
9 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.077%) CentOS
10 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.039%) Android
11 1 (0.039%) SUSE
11 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 336 (13.02%) Migration
2 320 (12.40%) Problem-Solving
3 304 (11.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 303 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
5 213 (8.25%) Agile
6 189 (7.32%) Workshop Facilitation
7 164 (6.35%) ERP
8 163 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
9 157 (6.08%) Analytics
10 153 (5.93%) Knowledge Transfer
10 153 (5.93%) Roadmaps
11 152 (5.89%) Data Migration
12 134 (5.19%) Validation
13 129 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
14 126 (4.88%) Business Intelligence
15 125 (4.84%) DevOps
16 115 (4.46%) Risk Management
17 114 (4.42%) Requirements Gathering
18 108 (4.18%) Data Modelling
19 105 (4.07%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 162 (6.28%) SQL
2 123 (4.77%) Python
3 88 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 75 (2.91%) ABAP
5 74 (2.87%) JavaScript
6 55 (2.13%) Java
7 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 30 (1.16%) Groovy
9 28 (1.08%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.77%) C++
11 18 (0.70%) Bash
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) C#
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.27%) VBA
16 6 (0.23%) R
16 6 (0.23%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 670 (25.96%) Security Cleared
2 559 (21.66%) SC Cleared
3 104 (4.03%) Degree
4 90 (3.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 85 (3.29%) DV Cleared
6 67 (2.60%) CISSP
7 47 (1.82%) CISM
8 29 (1.12%) SAP Certification
9 25 (0.97%) Microsoft Certification
10 24 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
12 17 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (0.58%) ACCA
13 15 (0.58%) CIMA
14 13 (0.50%) CESG Certified Professional
14 13 (0.50%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.46%) CCNP
15 12 (0.46%) CISA
16 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
16 11 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (3.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 75 (2.91%) NIST
3 67 (2.60%) GDPR
4 52 (2.01%) QA
5 41 (1.59%) Data Quality
6 38 (1.47%) GRC
7 21 (0.81%) NCSC
8 19 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.62%) PMO
9 16 (0.62%) SLA
10 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 14 (0.54%) PCI DSS
12 13 (0.50%) COBIT
13 11 (0.43%) PERC
14 10 (0.39%) RMADS
15 9 (0.35%) Accessibility
15 9 (0.35%) IFRS
16 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
17 7 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
17 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 75 (2.91%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.47%) Docker
4 28 (1.08%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.85%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.19%) NDS
8 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
9 3 (0.12%) UAG
10 2 (0.077%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) IAG
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 55 (2.13%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.82%) Terraform
3 24 (0.93%) Ansible
3 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (0.89%) vRealize
5 19 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.58%) SCCM
7 13 (0.50%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
9 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.19%) CASB
11 5 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.15%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) Istio
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 685 (26.54%) SAP
2 305 (11.82%) Oracle
3 273 (10.58%) Microsoft
4 94 (3.64%) VMware
5 75 (2.91%) ServiceNow
6 64 (2.48%) Workday
7 62 (2.40%) Cisco
8 61 (2.36%) Salesforce
9 60 (2.32%) CyberArk
10 53 (2.05%) Ariba
11 37 (1.43%) Google
12 36 (1.39%) Aruba
13 32 (1.24%) Dynatrace
14 30 (1.16%) Adobe
15 25 (0.97%) IBM
15 25 (0.97%) OpenText
16 19 (0.74%) Remedy
17 16 (0.62%) EMC
18 15 (0.58%) Databricks
18 15 (0.58%) Splunk