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 12 March 2026.

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

6 months to
12 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 2,753 1,944 2,775
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.45% 6.61% 6.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.02% 7.11% 6.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,544 1,112 1,677
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £462 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.00%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £549
% change year-on-year - +0.18% -0.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 17 35
10th Percentile - £68.00 £33.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £54.42
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 £83.13
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.65
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.86% -6.60%

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 39,233 27,349 41,475
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.93% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,515 17,680 27,207
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £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 £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,440 862 2,502
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.60 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.45 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.63% +2.92% -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.50
90th Percentile £75.79 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 2,162 £550 - 1,249
UK excluding London +3 1,144 £550 - 857
Work from Home +1 1,016 £528 -4.09% 584
London -4 989 £550 -4.35% 598
South East +4 326 £525 -8.70% 307
North of England -9 274 £581 +7.99% 192
Midlands -8 228 £550 +4.76% 93
West Midlands -5 169 £563 +7.14% 55
North West -3 155 £644 +19.70% 109
South West +16 141 £550 - 158
Yorkshire -1 110 £544 +2.35% 60
East of England -7 92 £524 -2.56% 47
East Midlands -18 55 £500 -3.15% 37
Scotland +9 50 £520 -5.45% 34
Wales +7 32 £447 -8.31% 26
Northern Ireland +2 10 £496 -5.48% 13
North East -24 9 £525 -4.55% 24

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 646 (23.47%) Security Cleared
2 630 (22.88%) SAP
3 544 (19.76%) SC Cleared
4 388 (14.09%) Migration
5 335 (12.17%) SAP S/4HANA
6 306 (11.12%) Azure
7 304 (11.04%) Problem-Solving
8 290 (10.53%) Microsoft
8 290 (10.53%) Oracle
9 280 (10.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 279 (10.13%) Stakeholder Management
11 225 (8.17%) ERP
12 219 (7.95%) Workshop Facilitation
13 191 (6.94%) SQL
14 186 (6.76%) User Acceptance Testing
15 174 (6.32%) Agile
16 167 (6.07%) Analytics
17 165 (5.99%) Data Migration
18 159 (5.78%) Roadmaps
19 146 (5.30%) Business Intelligence
20 143 (5.19%) Dynamics 365
21 142 (5.16%) Knowledge Transfer
22 140 (5.09%) Continuous Improvement
22 140 (5.09%) Validation
23 138 (5.01%) Cybersecurity
24 120 (4.36%) Python
25 116 (4.21%) AI
26 113 (4.10%) Power Platform
27 110 (4.00%) Change Management
28 109 (3.96%) AWS

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 66 (2.40%) SharePoint
2 35 (1.27%) Confluence
3 26 (0.94%) 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 (0.15%) CMS
7 4 (0.15%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.073%) Apache
9 2 (0.073%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.073%) IIS
10 1 (0.036%) nginx
10 1 (0.036%) SAS
10 1 (0.036%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.036%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.036%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.036%) WebSphere
Applications
1 66 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.073%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.073%) 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
1 335 (12.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (2.25%) SAP FI
3 57 (2.07%) Oracle EBS
4 51 (1.85%) SAP MM
5 50 (1.82%) Oracle Payables
6 46 (1.67%) Oracle Receivables
7 39 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
8 38 (1.38%) Oracle EBS R12
8 38 (1.38%) SAP PP
9 37 (1.34%) SAP HCM
10 36 (1.31%) SAP CO
11 33 (1.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 33 (1.20%) SAP FI/CO
12 30 (1.09%) Oracle Assets
12 30 (1.09%) SAP EWM
12 30 (1.09%) SAP PSCD
12 30 (1.09%) SAP Travel Management
13 28 (1.02%) SAP Payroll
14 24 (0.87%) Oracle Cash Management
14 24 (0.87%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 306 (11.12%) Azure
2 143 (5.19%) Dynamics 365
3 113 (4.10%) Power Platform
4 109 (3.96%) AWS
5 100 (3.63%) OCI
6 80 (2.91%) GCP
7 76 (2.76%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.43%) SaaS
9 61 (2.22%) Entra ID
10 53 (1.93%) SuccessFactors
11 41 (1.49%) Power Automate
12 36 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
14 32 (1.16%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.91%) GitHub
17 22 (0.80%) OneDrive
18 18 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
19 17 (0.62%) SAP Commerce Cloud
20 16 (0.58%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.78%) Firewall
2 19 (0.69%) Network Security
3 17 (0.62%) DNS
4 16 (0.58%) HTTP
5 15 (0.54%) VPN
5 15 (0.54%) WAN
6 14 (0.51%) VSAN
7 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.47%) SMS
8 12 (0.44%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.40%) LAN
10 10 (0.36%) DHCP
10 10 (0.36%) SAN
10 10 (0.36%) SSL
11 9 (0.33%) FTP
11 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
11 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
12 8 (0.29%) Intranet
13 7 (0.25%) Cisco IPT
13 7 (0.25%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (2.91%) Power BI
2 47 (1.71%) SAP HANA
3 46 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
4 29 (1.05%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.91%) Metadata
6 24 (0.87%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 13 (0.47%) Tableau
8 12 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.44%) 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
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
12 6 (0.22%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 63 (2.29%) JIRA
2 16 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 12 (0.44%) Git
3 12 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
4 10 (0.36%) Hudson
5 7 (0.25%) GitLab
5 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
6 4 (0.15%) LSMW
7 3 (0.11%) Postman
8 2 (0.073%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.073%) git-flow
8 2 (0.073%) JUnit
8 2 (0.073%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.073%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.073%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.073%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.073%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.073%) Tricentis qTest
9 1 (0.036%) PeopleTools
9 1 (0.036%) Toad
General
1 693 (25.17%) Social Skills
2 591 (21.47%) Finance
3 253 (9.19%) Analytical Skills
3 253 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 125 (4.54%) Manufacturing
5 96 (3.49%) Banking
6 74 (2.69%) Marketing
7 70 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
8 66 (2.40%) Legal
9 60 (2.18%) Billing
10 45 (1.63%) General Ledger
11 44 (1.60%) Telecoms
12 36 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
13 35 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
13 35 (1.27%) Retail
14 27 (0.98%) Law
15 23 (0.84%) Pharmaceutical
16 19 (0.69%) Electronics
17 18 (0.65%) Advertising
17 18 (0.65%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (3.56%) Oracle Fusion
2 68 (2.47%) REST
3 61 (2.22%) XML
4 53 (1.93%) SAP Fiori
5 48 (1.74%) Web Services
6 38 (1.38%) SAP TM
7 36 (1.31%) SOAP
8 27 (0.98%) BAPI
9 26 (0.94%) LDAP
10 23 (0.84%) Node.js
11 21 (0.76%) Middleware
12 18 (0.65%) JSON
13 17 (0.62%) .NET
13 17 (0.62%) SAP PI
14 16 (0.58%) IDoc
15 15 (0.54%) GraphQL
16 13 (0.47%) Kafka
16 13 (0.47%) SAP Basis
17 12 (0.44%) HTML
18 11 (0.40%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 72 (2.62%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.56%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.38%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.09%) Data Centre
7 26 (0.94%) Management Information System
7 26 (0.94%) Operational Technology
7 26 (0.94%) Replication
8 24 (0.87%) Cloud Native
9 22 (0.80%) AI Agents
9 22 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (0.73%) Data Structures
10 20 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (0.69%) NHS
12 15 (0.54%) Public Cloud
13 14 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
13 14 (0.51%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (0.47%) CMDB
14 13 (0.47%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 74 (2.69%) Windows
2 42 (1.53%) Linux
3 15 (0.54%) Unix
4 14 (0.51%) VMS
4 14 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.40%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.25%) AIX
8 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.15%) Solaris
10 4 (0.15%) zOS
11 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.11%) SUSE
12 2 (0.073%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.073%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.036%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 388 (14.09%) Migration
2 304 (11.04%) Problem-Solving
3 280 (10.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 279 (10.13%) Stakeholder Management
5 225 (8.17%) ERP
6 219 (7.95%) Workshop Facilitation
7 186 (6.76%) User Acceptance Testing
8 174 (6.32%) Agile
9 167 (6.07%) Analytics
10 165 (5.99%) Data Migration
11 159 (5.78%) Roadmaps
12 146 (5.30%) Business Intelligence
13 142 (5.16%) Knowledge Transfer
14 140 (5.09%) Continuous Improvement
14 140 (5.09%) Validation
15 138 (5.01%) Cybersecurity
16 116 (4.21%) AI
17 110 (4.00%) Change Management
18 109 (3.96%) Risk Management
19 108 (3.92%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 191 (6.94%) SQL
2 120 (4.36%) Python
3 81 (2.94%) PowerShell
4 79 (2.87%) JavaScript
5 69 (2.51%) ABAP
6 36 (1.31%) Java
7 30 (1.09%) T-SQL
8 28 (1.02%) TypeScript
9 22 (0.80%) Groovy
9 22 (0.80%) PL/SQL
10 16 (0.58%) C#
11 15 (0.54%) Bash
12 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.33%) C++
14 8 (0.29%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
16 6 (0.22%) Korn
17 4 (0.15%) R
17 4 (0.15%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 646 (23.47%) Security Cleared
2 544 (19.76%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.63%) Degree
4 85 (3.09%) DV Cleared
5 60 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
6 53 (1.93%) CISSP
7 35 (1.27%) CISM
8 31 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 18 (0.65%) CIMA
9 18 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (0.65%) Master's Degree
10 16 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
10 16 (0.58%) Microsoft Certification
11 15 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (0.47%) 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 90 (3.27%) NIST
2 84 (3.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.47%) GDPR
4 51 (1.85%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.85%) QA
5 43 (1.56%) GRC
6 23 (0.84%) NCSC
7 21 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
8 20 (0.73%) PCI DSS
8 20 (0.73%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 20 (0.73%) 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 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.18%) ITGC
System Software
1 67 (2.43%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.24%) Docker
3 32 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.98%) 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 1 (0.036%) Ceph
10 1 (0.036%) IAG
10 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.036%) KVM
10 1 (0.036%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.036%) QEMU
10 1 (0.036%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.036%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 52 (1.89%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.27%) Terraform
3 31 (1.13%) vRealize
4 22 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.62%) Ansible
5 17 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.36%) 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 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.15%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
10 3 (0.11%) Nagios
10 3 (0.11%) OpenView
10 3 (0.11%) Rancher
10 3 (0.11%) vMotion
10 3 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 630 (22.88%) SAP
2 290 (10.53%) Microsoft
2 290 (10.53%) Oracle
3 92 (3.34%) VMware
4 87 (3.16%) ServiceNow
5 58 (2.11%) Salesforce
6 54 (1.96%) CyberArk
7 53 (1.93%) Siemens
7 53 (1.93%) Workday
8 51 (1.85%) Cisco
9 45 (1.63%) Ariba
10 44 (1.60%) Google
11 37 (1.34%) Aruba
12 31 (1.13%) Adobe
13 24 (0.87%) Databricks
14 21 (0.76%) OpenText
15 18 (0.65%) Splunk
16 17 (0.62%) Sage
17 15 (0.54%) Murex
18 13 (0.47%) IBM