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 7 March 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,764 2,011 2,788
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.47% 6.56% 6.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.04% 7.07% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,548 1,132 1,670
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £540
% change year-on-year - +1.85% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 17 36
10th Percentile - £68.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £55.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -7.35%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £81.56
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.72
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.70% -6.49%

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 39,253 28,458 41,733
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 92.86% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,589 18,093 27,411
10th Percentile £310 £293 £273
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,404 876 2,465
10th Percentile £14.84 £16.17 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.89 £21.39 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% +6.06% -18.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.17 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year +2.06% -1.71% -14.67%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -1 2,161 £550 - 1,252
UK excluding London +3 1,143 £550 - 893
Work from Home +1 1,032 £530 -3.64% 585
London -4 990 £550 -4.35% 559
South East +4 318 £525 -8.70% 330
North of England -8 274 £575 +6.88% 205
Midlands -10 223 £563 +7.14% 90
West Midlands 0 165 £563 +4.17% 54
North West -8 150 £626 +16.40% 118
South West +12 148 £550 - 152
Yorkshire +5 114 £500 -5.88% 64
East of England -2 94 £538 -2.27% 56
East Midlands -17 54 £500 -3.15% 36
Scotland +12 52 £520 -5.45% 27
Wales +13 32 £447 -8.31% 29
Northern Ireland +3 11 £405 -22.86% 17
North East -24 10 £525 -4.55% 24

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 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.

1 662 (23.95%) Security Cleared
2 654 (23.66%) SAP
3 558 (20.19%) SC Cleared
4 397 (14.36%) Migration
5 343 (12.41%) SAP S/4HANA
6 305 (11.03%) Azure
6 305 (11.03%) Problem-Solving
7 296 (10.71%) Oracle
8 288 (10.42%) Microsoft
9 286 (10.35%) Stakeholder Management
10 281 (10.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 229 (8.29%) ERP
12 213 (7.71%) Workshop Facilitation
13 185 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
14 176 (6.37%) Agile
14 176 (6.37%) SQL
15 174 (6.30%) Data Migration
16 168 (6.08%) Analytics
17 159 (5.75%) Roadmaps
18 148 (5.35%) Knowledge Transfer
19 146 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
20 141 (5.10%) Cybersecurity
20 141 (5.10%) Validation
21 140 (5.07%) Dynamics 365
22 131 (4.74%) Continuous Improvement
23 118 (4.27%) Python
24 113 (4.09%) AI
24 113 (4.09%) Risk Management
25 111 (4.02%) AWS
26 110 (3.98%) 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 69 (2.50%) SharePoint
2 35 (1.27%) Confluence
3 27 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
5 6 (0.22%) NetWeaver
6 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
7 4 (0.14%) CMS
7 4 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.072%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.072%) Apache
9 2 (0.072%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.072%) IIS
9 2 (0.072%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.036%) nginx
10 1 (0.036%) SAS
10 1 (0.036%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.036%) WebSphere
Applications
1 52 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
7 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
8 4 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.072%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.072%) Lectora
9 2 (0.072%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.072%) Revit
10 1 (0.036%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.036%) CATIA
10 1 (0.036%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.036%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 343 (12.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 64 (2.32%) SAP FI
3 60 (2.17%) Oracle EBS
4 54 (1.95%) SAP MM
5 50 (1.81%) Oracle Payables
6 47 (1.70%) Oracle Receivables
7 39 (1.41%) SAP CO
7 39 (1.41%) SAP PP
8 38 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
8 38 (1.37%) Oracle EBS R12
8 38 (1.37%) Oracle General Ledger
8 38 (1.37%) SAP HCM
9 35 (1.27%) SAP EWM
9 35 (1.27%) SAP FI/CO
10 33 (1.19%) SAP PSCD
11 32 (1.16%) Oracle Assets
12 30 (1.09%) SAP Travel Management
13 28 (1.01%) SAP Payroll
14 25 (0.90%) Oracle Cash Management
14 25 (0.90%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 305 (11.03%) Azure
2 140 (5.07%) Dynamics 365
3 111 (4.02%) AWS
4 110 (3.98%) Power Platform
5 106 (3.84%) OCI
6 82 (2.97%) GCP
7 79 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
8 68 (2.46%) SaaS
9 61 (2.21%) Entra ID
10 52 (1.88%) SuccessFactors
11 40 (1.45%) Power Automate
12 32 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
13 30 (1.09%) Microsoft Purview
13 30 (1.09%) PowerApps
14 26 (0.94%) GitHub
15 23 (0.83%) OneDrive
16 19 (0.69%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 18 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
17 18 (0.65%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.77%) Firewall
2 18 (0.65%) Network Security
3 17 (0.62%) DNS
3 17 (0.62%) VPN
4 15 (0.54%) HTTP
5 14 (0.51%) WAN
6 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.47%) SMS
6 13 (0.47%) VSAN
7 11 (0.40%) DHCP
7 11 (0.40%) SAN
7 11 (0.40%) SD-WAN
8 10 (0.36%) LAN
8 10 (0.36%) SSL
9 9 (0.33%) FTP
9 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
9 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.29%) Intranet
11 7 (0.25%) BGP
11 7 (0.25%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (2.82%) Power BI
2 49 (1.77%) SAP HANA
3 46 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
4 27 (0.98%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.90%) Metadata
6 24 (0.87%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 14 (0.51%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
8 12 (0.43%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.40%) Tableau
10 8 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
10 8 (0.29%) GIS
11 7 (0.25%) MongoDB
11 7 (0.25%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
12 6 (0.22%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.22%) Essbase
12 6 (0.22%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 65 (2.35%) JIRA
2 18 (0.65%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.43%) Hudson
5 11 (0.40%) Git
6 8 (0.29%) GitLab
7 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) LSMW
9 3 (0.11%) JUnit
9 3 (0.11%) Postman
10 2 (0.072%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.072%) git-flow
10 2 (0.072%) Mockito
10 2 (0.072%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.072%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.072%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.072%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.072%) Tricentis qTest
11 1 (0.036%) GCC
General
1 711 (25.72%) Social Skills
2 594 (21.49%) Finance
3 261 (9.44%) Public Sector
4 249 (9.01%) Analytical Skills
5 125 (4.52%) Manufacturing
6 98 (3.55%) Banking
7 75 (2.71%) Marketing
8 71 (2.57%) Documentation Skills
9 63 (2.28%) Billing
9 63 (2.28%) Legal
10 45 (1.63%) General Ledger
11 42 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
11 42 (1.52%) Telecoms
12 34 (1.23%) Retail
13 31 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
14 27 (0.98%) Law
15 26 (0.94%) Pharmaceutical
16 21 (0.76%) Financial Institution
17 20 (0.72%) Aerospace
18 18 (0.65%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.47%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.57%) REST
3 58 (2.10%) SAP Fiori
4 51 (1.85%) XML
5 49 (1.77%) Web Services
6 39 (1.41%) SOAP
7 38 (1.37%) SAP TM
8 29 (1.05%) BAPI
9 28 (1.01%) LDAP
10 25 (0.90%) Node.js
11 24 (0.87%) Middleware
12 21 (0.76%) JSON
13 19 (0.69%) SAP PI
14 17 (0.62%) .NET
15 16 (0.58%) GraphQL
16 15 (0.54%) IDoc
17 14 (0.51%) HTML
17 14 (0.51%) Kafka
17 14 (0.51%) SAP Basis
18 13 (0.47%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 72 (2.60%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.45%) Product Ownership
4 39 (1.41%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.09%) Data Centre
7 26 (0.94%) Operational Technology
7 26 (0.94%) Replication
8 25 (0.90%) Cloud Native
8 25 (0.90%) Management Information System
9 22 (0.80%) Data Structures
10 21 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (0.72%) NHS
12 18 (0.65%) AI Agents
13 15 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
13 15 (0.54%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (0.51%) Life Science
15 12 (0.43%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 72 (2.60%) Windows
2 44 (1.59%) Linux
3 16 (0.58%) Unix
4 14 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.36%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.29%) VMS
7 7 (0.25%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.22%) AIX
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%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.036%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 397 (14.36%) Migration
2 305 (11.03%) Problem-Solving
3 286 (10.35%) Stakeholder Management
4 281 (10.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 229 (8.29%) ERP
6 213 (7.71%) Workshop Facilitation
7 185 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
8 176 (6.37%) Agile
9 174 (6.30%) Data Migration
10 168 (6.08%) Analytics
11 159 (5.75%) Roadmaps
12 148 (5.35%) Knowledge Transfer
13 146 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
14 141 (5.10%) Cybersecurity
14 141 (5.10%) Validation
15 131 (4.74%) Continuous Improvement
16 113 (4.09%) AI
16 113 (4.09%) Risk Management
17 107 (3.87%) Change Management
17 107 (3.87%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 176 (6.37%) SQL
2 118 (4.27%) Python
3 82 (2.97%) JavaScript
3 82 (2.97%) PowerShell
4 71 (2.57%) ABAP
5 38 (1.37%) Java
6 30 (1.09%) TypeScript
7 24 (0.87%) PL/SQL
8 22 (0.80%) Groovy
9 17 (0.62%) T-SQL
10 16 (0.58%) C#
11 15 (0.54%) Bash
12 10 (0.36%) C++
12 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.29%) Apex Code
13 8 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.18%) Bicep
15 5 (0.18%) Korn
16 4 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 662 (23.95%) Security Cleared
2 558 (20.19%) SC Cleared
3 105 (3.80%) Degree
4 83 (3.00%) DV Cleared
5 64 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
6 52 (1.88%) CISSP
7 35 (1.27%) CISM
8 33 (1.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 19 (0.69%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.62%) CIMA
12 16 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (0.58%) SAP Certification
13 15 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
14 14 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.29%) AWS Certification
15 8 (0.29%) CCNP
15 8 (0.29%) CEH
15 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
16 7 (0.25%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (3.47%) NIST
2 91 (3.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.50%) GDPR
4 53 (1.92%) Data Quality
5 51 (1.85%) QA
6 42 (1.52%) GRC
7 24 (0.87%) NCSC
8 22 (0.80%) Actionable Recommendations
9 20 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 19 (0.69%) PCI DSS
10 19 (0.69%) SLA
11 18 (0.65%) PMO
12 13 (0.47%) COBIT
13 11 (0.40%) PERC
14 10 (0.36%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
17 5 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 69 (2.50%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.34%) Docker
3 33 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 26 (0.94%) vSphere
6 8 (0.29%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.18%) NDS
9 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.11%) NFS
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
11 1 (0.036%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 52 (1.88%) Kubernetes
2 33 (1.19%) vRealize
3 32 (1.16%) Terraform
4 22 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.62%) Ansible
7 10 (0.36%) Failover Clustering
7 10 (0.36%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
10 5 (0.18%) SCCM
11 4 (0.14%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.14%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.14%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.14%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Grafana
12 3 (0.11%) Puppet
12 3 (0.11%) Rancher
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
Vendors
1 654 (23.66%) SAP
2 296 (10.71%) Oracle
3 288 (10.42%) Microsoft
4 95 (3.44%) VMware
5 83 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 56 (2.03%) CyberArk
6 56 (2.03%) Salesforce
7 55 (1.99%) Workday
8 53 (1.92%) Siemens
9 52 (1.88%) Cisco
10 51 (1.85%) Ariba
11 45 (1.63%) Google
12 37 (1.34%) Aruba
13 32 (1.16%) Adobe
14 24 (0.87%) Databricks
15 21 (0.76%) OpenText
16 16 (0.58%) Sage
16 16 (0.58%) Splunk
17 15 (0.54%) Murex
18 13 (0.47%) Zscaler