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 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,068 2,118 2,887
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.52% 6.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.11% 7.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,694 1,234 1,712
10th Percentile £403 £410 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £568
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 28 30
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £26.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £43.57 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £82.44 £65.76
90th Percentile £88.00 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.23%

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 48,701 29,792 39,645
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.70% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,482 18,952 25,549
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,274 1,409 2,702
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.27 £17.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.21 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.69% -34.48% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.49 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.04 £74.00 £73.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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 -5 2,455 £550 - 977
UK excluding London -1 1,316 £525 -4.55% 696
London -1 1,133 £550 -4.35% 425
Work from Home -2 1,071 £540 -1.82% 579
South East -3 378 £535 -2.73% 232
North of England -16 276 £525 -3.67% 146
Midlands -8 255 £501 -9.00% 98
South West +26 212 £556 -3.30% 100
West Midlands +10 181 £501 -9.00% 70
North West -11 156 £525 -6.04% 95
Yorkshire -21 99 £544 +14.47% 39
Scotland +33 94 £425 -8.11% 18
East of England -17 85 £550 - 59
East Midlands -10 65 £500 -9.09% 28
Wales +1 29 £550 +25.71% 17
North East -37 21 £650 +21.72% 13
Northern Ireland -6 2 £525 +0.96% 35

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 July 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.

1 648 (21.12%) SAP
2 584 (19.04%) Security Cleared
3 412 (13.43%) SC Cleared
4 404 (13.17%) Migration
5 378 (12.32%) Microsoft
6 355 (11.57%) Oracle
7 333 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
8 324 (10.56%) Azure
9 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
10 273 (8.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 256 (8.34%) Problem-Solving
12 250 (8.15%) ERP
13 245 (7.99%) SQL
14 234 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
15 206 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
16 204 (6.65%) Validation
17 197 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
18 183 (5.96%) Data Migration
19 171 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
20 169 (5.51%) Agile
21 165 (5.38%) Analytics
22 162 (5.28%) AI
23 161 (5.25%) Roadmaps
24 145 (4.73%) AWS
25 141 (4.60%) Power Platform
26 140 (4.56%) Business Intelligence
27 131 (4.27%) DV Cleared
28 129 (4.20%) Requirements Gathering
29 128 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
30 126 (4.11%) Python

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 80 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.56%) Confluence
3 16 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.098%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 75 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.098%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.065%) Lectora
8 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.033%) CATIA
9 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 67 (2.18%) SAP FI
4 57 (1.86%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 37 (1.21%) SAP BRIM
8 35 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
9 34 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
9 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
10 33 (1.08%) SAP FI-CA
11 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
11 31 (1.01%) SAP CO
12 30 (0.98%) SAP EWM
13 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
13 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
14 28 (0.91%) Oracle EBS R12
14 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
15 27 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
16 25 (0.81%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 324 (10.56%) Azure
2 145 (4.73%) AWS
3 141 (4.60%) Power Platform
4 128 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.23%) OCI
6 96 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
7 81 (2.64%) GCP
8 79 (2.57%) SuccessFactors
9 71 (2.31%) Power Automate
10 58 (1.89%) Entra ID
11 56 (1.83%) SaaS
12 48 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
13 47 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.17%) GitHub
15 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
16 31 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
20 14 (0.46%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 49 (1.60%) Network Security
3 29 (0.95%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
6 19 (0.62%) VPN
7 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
8 13 (0.42%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 9 (0.29%) NGFW
11 8 (0.26%) NAS
11 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.23%) FTP
12 7 (0.23%) MPLS
12 7 (0.23%) Software-Defined Networking
12 7 (0.23%) Wireless
13 6 (0.20%) HTTP
13 6 (0.20%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (2.93%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 30 (0.98%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 25 (0.81%) Metadata
8 23 (0.75%) SAP BW
9 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
10 17 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
11 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
12 11 (0.36%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.20%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.16%) GIS
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 87 (2.84%) JIRA
2 22 (0.72%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.55%) Hudson
4 16 (0.52%) Git
4 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.098%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.098%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.098%) MLflow
9 3 (0.098%) Selenium
9 3 (0.098%) TestRail
9 3 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.065%) LSMW
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 656 (21.38%) Finance
2 642 (20.93%) Social Skills
3 254 (8.28%) Analytical Skills
4 225 (7.33%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.55%) Manufacturing
6 91 (2.97%) Legal
7 85 (2.77%) Banking
8 84 (2.74%) Billing
9 66 (2.15%) Telecoms
10 58 (1.89%) General Ledger
11 46 (1.50%) Marketing
12 45 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
13 44 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
14 40 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 39 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 39 (1.27%) Retail
16 27 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.78%) Aerospace
18 23 (0.75%) Local Government
19 22 (0.72%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (2.77%) Oracle Fusion
2 74 (2.41%) REST
3 59 (1.92%) XML
4 40 (1.30%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) Middleware
6 35 (1.14%) SOAP
7 29 (0.95%) BAPI
8 26 (0.85%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
9 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
10 18 (0.59%) CSS
11 17 (0.55%) IDoc
11 17 (0.55%) JSON
11 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 16 (0.52%) .NET
13 14 (0.46%) OAuth
13 14 (0.46%) SAP PI
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 11 (0.36%) EDI
16 10 (0.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 96 (3.13%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.40%) CMDB
3 43 (1.40%) Security Posture
4 35 (1.14%) Legacy Systems
5 34 (1.11%) AI Agents
6 32 (1.04%) Product Ownership
7 29 (0.95%) Data Centre
7 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
9 23 (0.75%) Public Cloud
10 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.68%) Life Science
10 21 (0.68%) Management Information System
11 20 (0.65%) NHS
12 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
12 17 (0.55%) Replication
13 15 (0.49%) FMCG
13 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.16%) Windows
2 67 (2.18%) Linux
3 25 (0.81%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 17 (0.55%) AIX
7 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.13%) Android
8 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.098%) zOS
10 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.065%) SUSE
11 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 404 (13.17%) Migration
2 333 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
3 273 (8.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 256 (8.34%) Problem-Solving
5 250 (8.15%) ERP
6 234 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
7 206 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
8 204 (6.65%) Validation
9 197 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 183 (5.96%) Data Migration
11 171 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
12 169 (5.51%) Agile
13 165 (5.38%) Analytics
14 162 (5.28%) AI
15 161 (5.25%) Roadmaps
16 140 (4.56%) Business Intelligence
17 129 (4.20%) Requirements Gathering
18 125 (4.07%) Change Management
19 124 (4.04%) Translating Business Requirements
20 113 (3.68%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 245 (7.99%) SQL
2 126 (4.11%) Python
3 59 (1.92%) JavaScript
3 59 (1.92%) PowerShell
4 56 (1.83%) ABAP
4 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
5 38 (1.24%) Java
6 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
7 18 (0.59%) Bash
8 16 (0.52%) C#
9 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.33%) Shell Script
12 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.23%) C++
13 7 (0.23%) R
14 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.13%) COBOL
14 4 (0.13%) Perl
Qualifications
1 584 (19.04%) Security Cleared
2 412 (13.43%) SC Cleared
3 131 (4.27%) DV Cleared
4 89 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.44%) CISSP
6 72 (2.35%) Degree
7 56 (1.83%) CISM
8 37 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 18 (0.59%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
15 12 (0.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.84%) NIST
2 77 (2.51%) Data Quality
3 74 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 52 (1.69%) QA
6 36 (1.17%) GDPR
7 29 (0.95%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 22 (0.72%) Accessibility
11 21 (0.68%) PMO
11 21 (0.68%) SLA
12 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.46%) COBIT
14 13 (0.42%) GxP
15 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.26%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.26%) WCAG
17 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 60 (1.96%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 13 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.033%) HDFS
13 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.033%) SRDF
13 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.40%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 24 (0.78%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) SCCM
9 11 (0.36%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.13%) VxRail
Vendors
1 648 (21.12%) SAP
2 378 (12.32%) Microsoft
3 355 (11.57%) Oracle
4 119 (3.88%) ServiceNow
5 97 (3.16%) VMware
6 62 (2.02%) Ariba
7 52 (1.69%) Salesforce
7 52 (1.69%) Siemens
7 52 (1.69%) Workday
8 45 (1.47%) Splunk
9 38 (1.24%) Databricks
10 26 (0.85%) Palo Alto
11 25 (0.81%) Google
12 24 (0.78%) BMC
13 22 (0.72%) IBM
13 22 (0.72%) OpenText
14 18 (0.59%) JD Edwards
15 17 (0.55%) Cisco
15 17 (0.55%) Okta
16 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds