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 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 27 30
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,217 2,589 2,959
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 6.79% 6.81% 5.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.45% 7.32% 6.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,296 1,419 1,659
10th Percentile £412 £413 £400
25th Percentile £475 £469 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £540
Median % change year-on-year - +1.85% -4.00%
75th Percentile £646 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £567 £525
% change year-on-year -3.00% +8.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 23 51
10th Percentile £28.52 £43.58 £52.19
25th Percentile £42.26 £55.83 £54.00
Median hourly rate £77.50 £61.60 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.81% -5.23% -1.52%
75th Percentile £81.25 £67.00 £74.00
90th Percentile £84.25 £73.89 £86.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £61.60 £65.00
% change year-on-year +25.81% -5.23% -10.34%

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 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Consultant in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Consultant 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 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 0 1,725 £550 - 2,069
UK excluding London -8 840 £550 -3.00% 1,607
London +1 826 £575 +4.55% 849
Work from Home -1 798 £550 - 1,149
South East 0 223 £550 -5.17% 623
North of England -15 219 £550 -2.00% 308
North West -11 141 £575 +4.55% 211
Midlands -24 131 £550 -1.79% 220
East of England +15 91 £550 +4.76% 139
South West +5 89 £595 -0.63% 200
West Midlands -29 81 £550 - 120
Yorkshire -11 65 £468 -17.80% 82
Scotland -18 54 £500 -9.09% 78
East Midlands -12 47 £550 -4.35% 90
Wales +10 24 £500 -16.67% 33
North East -2 13 £545 -9.17% 17
Northern Ireland -11 12 £460 -23.33% 21
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 696 (31.39%) Social Skills
2 624 (28.15%) SAP
3 511 (23.05%) Finance
4 495 (22.33%) Security Cleared
5 384 (17.32%) SC Cleared
6 309 (13.94%) Problem-Solving
7 285 (12.86%) SAP S/4HANA
8 280 (12.63%) Migration
9 260 (11.73%) Microsoft
10 235 (10.60%) Stakeholder Management
11 223 (10.06%) Analytical Skills
12 210 (9.47%) Oracle
13 187 (8.43%) Agile
14 186 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 176 (7.94%) Azure
16 172 (7.76%) SQL
17 162 (7.31%) Public Sector
18 149 (6.72%) Data Migration
19 140 (6.31%) Analytics
20 136 (6.13%) Manufacturing
21 134 (6.04%) ERP
22 130 (5.86%) Validation
23 128 (5.77%) Workshop Facilitation
24 115 (5.19%) DevOps
24 115 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
25 113 (5.10%) User Acceptance Testing
26 108 (4.87%) Requirements Gathering
26 108 (4.87%) Roadmaps
27 106 (4.78%) Project Delivery
28 105 (4.74%) Change Management

Consultant Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 41 (1.85%) SharePoint
2 24 (1.08%) WebLogic
3 22 (0.99%) WebSphere
4 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.63%) Confluence
6 11 (0.50%) NetWeaver
6 11 (0.50%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.41%) IIS
7 9 (0.41%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.36%) Apache
9 7 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.23%) CMS
10 5 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 4 (0.18%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.14%) Anypoint
12 3 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.090%) BizTalk Server
13 2 (0.090%) HCL Notes
13 2 (0.090%) OpenStack
Applications
1 37 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.36%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.36%) Oracle Smart View
5 3 (0.14%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.14%) ProjectWise
5 3 (0.14%) Revit
5 3 (0.14%) Sketch
6 2 (0.090%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.045%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.045%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.045%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) InDesign
7 1 (0.045%) InfoPath
7 1 (0.045%) InVision
7 1 (0.045%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.045%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 285 (12.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (3.29%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.66%) SAP FI
4 52 (2.35%) Oracle Payables
5 50 (2.26%) SAP CO
6 45 (2.03%) SAP FI/CO
7 43 (1.94%) Oracle EBS R12
8 42 (1.89%) SAP EWM
9 39 (1.76%) SAP PP
10 37 (1.67%) Oracle General Ledger
10 37 (1.67%) SAP HCM
11 35 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
12 32 (1.44%) Oracle Assets
12 32 (1.44%) Oracle Cash Management
12 32 (1.44%) Oracle Financials
12 32 (1.44%) SAP MM
12 32 (1.44%) SAP SD
13 28 (1.26%) SAP PS
13 28 (1.26%) SAP WM
14 24 (1.08%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 176 (7.94%) Azure
2 101 (4.56%) AWS
3 97 (4.38%) Power Platform
4 91 (4.10%) Dynamics 365
5 76 (3.43%) Microsoft 365
6 59 (2.66%) OCI
7 44 (1.98%) SuccessFactors
8 42 (1.89%) SaaS
9 34 (1.53%) GCP
9 34 (1.53%) Power Automate
10 29 (1.31%) Entra ID
11 27 (1.22%) PowerApps
12 22 (0.99%) GitHub
13 21 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
14 14 (0.63%) GitHub Actions
14 14 (0.63%) Microsoft Copilot
14 14 (0.63%) OneDrive
15 13 (0.59%) Snowflake
16 12 (0.54%) Google Workspace
16 12 (0.54%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 50 (2.26%) Firewall
2 35 (1.58%) Network Security
3 27 (1.22%) VPN
4 23 (1.04%) DNS
5 19 (0.86%) WAN
6 15 (0.68%) SD-WAN
7 13 (0.59%) BGP
7 13 (0.59%) DHCP
7 13 (0.59%) SAN
8 12 (0.54%) OSPF
9 10 (0.45%) MPLS
10 9 (0.41%) Intrusion Detection
10 9 (0.41%) LAN
11 8 (0.36%) VSAN
12 7 (0.32%) VLAN
13 6 (0.27%) Internet
13 6 (0.27%) SSL
13 6 (0.27%) TCP/IP
14 5 (0.23%) HTTP
14 5 (0.23%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (2.80%) Power BI
2 37 (1.67%) SQL Server
3 34 (1.53%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.40%) Oracle Reports
5 21 (0.95%) SAP BW
6 18 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
6 18 (0.81%) SAP Data Services
7 14 (0.63%) DB2
7 14 (0.63%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 14 (0.63%) Oracle Database
8 13 (0.59%) Metadata
9 11 (0.50%) GIS
10 9 (0.41%) Tableau
11 8 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
11 8 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 7 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
12 7 (0.32%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.32%) Data Mining
13 6 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
14 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 51 (2.30%) JIRA
2 25 (1.13%) GitLab
3 21 (0.95%) Git
4 17 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.41%) Hudson
6 8 (0.36%) Postman
7 7 (0.32%) LSMW
8 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.14%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.14%) Axure RP
9 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
9 3 (0.14%) Selenium
9 3 (0.14%) Snyk
10 2 (0.090%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.090%) JMeter
10 2 (0.090%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.090%) SoapUI
10 2 (0.090%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.090%) Visual Studio
General
1 696 (31.39%) Social Skills
2 511 (23.05%) Finance
3 223 (10.06%) Analytical Skills
4 162 (7.31%) Public Sector
5 136 (6.13%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.74%) Banking
7 68 (3.07%) Documentation Skills
8 61 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
9 53 (2.39%) Telecoms
10 50 (2.26%) Pharmaceutical
11 44 (1.98%) Marketing
12 43 (1.94%) General Ledger
13 42 (1.89%) Billing
14 40 (1.80%) Legal
15 36 (1.62%) Retail
16 24 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 23 (1.04%) Aerospace
18 21 (0.95%) Law
18 21 (0.95%) Local Government
19 17 (0.77%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (2.62%) SAP Fiori
2 53 (2.39%) REST
3 45 (2.03%) SOAP
4 38 (1.71%) HTML
5 35 (1.58%) Oracle Fusion
6 34 (1.53%) XML
7 30 (1.35%) Middleware
8 28 (1.26%) EntireX
9 24 (1.08%) Web Services
10 23 (1.04%) JSON
10 23 (1.04%) Node.js
11 22 (0.99%) .NET
12 20 (0.90%) CSS
12 20 (0.90%) OAuth
13 19 (0.86%) EDI
14 17 (0.77%) SAP Basis
15 13 (0.59%) IDoc
15 13 (0.59%) Swagger
16 12 (0.54%) OAuth2
16 12 (0.54%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 63 (2.84%) Onboarding
2 44 (1.98%) Management Information System
3 38 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
4 32 (1.44%) Data Centre
5 30 (1.35%) Security Posture
6 27 (1.22%) Operational Technology
7 26 (1.17%) Product Ownership
7 26 (1.17%) Virtual Team
8 22 (0.99%) Cloud Native
8 22 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
8 22 (0.99%) Data Structures
8 22 (0.99%) Life Science
9 21 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
10 20 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (0.86%) CMDB
12 18 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
12 18 (0.81%) Private Cloud
13 17 (0.77%) SCADA
14 14 (0.63%) FMCG
15 12 (0.54%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.62%) Windows
2 56 (2.53%) Linux
3 23 (1.04%) Unix
4 15 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (0.68%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.27%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.23%) AIX
7 4 (0.18%) Solaris
8 3 (0.14%) VMS
8 3 (0.14%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.090%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.090%) CentOS
9 2 (0.090%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.090%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.090%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.045%) Android
10 1 (0.045%) HPUX
10 1 (0.045%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.045%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 309 (13.94%) Problem-Solving
2 280 (12.63%) Migration
3 235 (10.60%) Stakeholder Management
4 187 (8.43%) Agile
5 186 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 149 (6.72%) Data Migration
7 140 (6.31%) Analytics
8 134 (6.04%) ERP
9 130 (5.86%) Validation
10 128 (5.77%) Workshop Facilitation
11 115 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
11 115 (5.19%) DevOps
12 113 (5.10%) User Acceptance Testing
13 108 (4.87%) Requirements Gathering
13 108 (4.87%) Roadmaps
14 106 (4.78%) Project Delivery
15 105 (4.74%) Change Management
16 102 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
17 101 (4.56%) Risk Management
18 100 (4.51%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 172 (7.76%) SQL
2 98 (4.42%) Python
3 59 (2.66%) JavaScript
4 55 (2.48%) Java
5 52 (2.35%) ABAP
6 51 (2.30%) PowerShell
7 35 (1.58%) PL/SQL
8 19 (0.86%) C++
9 17 (0.77%) C
10 14 (0.63%) PHP
11 13 (0.59%) C#
12 12 (0.54%) Bash
13 10 (0.45%) Groovy
14 9 (0.41%) Perl
15 7 (0.32%) Apex Code
15 7 (0.32%) COBOL
15 7 (0.32%) TypeScript
16 6 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 5 (0.23%) R
17 5 (0.23%) VBA
Qualifications
1 495 (22.33%) Security Cleared
2 384 (17.32%) SC Cleared
3 97 (4.38%) BPSS Clearance
4 86 (3.88%) Degree
5 83 (3.74%) DV Cleared
6 67 (3.02%) CISSP
7 48 (2.17%) CISM
8 28 (1.26%) SAP Certification
9 23 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
11 19 (0.86%) ACCA
11 19 (0.86%) CIMA
12 14 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
13 12 (0.54%) CRISC
14 11 (0.50%) CISA
14 11 (0.50%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 10 (0.45%) CCNP
15 10 (0.45%) CESG Certified Professional
15 10 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 9 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (3.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 67 (3.02%) NIST
3 52 (2.35%) QA
4 49 (2.21%) Data Quality
5 38 (1.71%) GDPR
6 26 (1.17%) GRC
7 23 (1.04%) IFRS
8 18 (0.81%) PCI DSS
9 17 (0.77%) RMADS
9 17 (0.77%) SLA
10 16 (0.72%) NCSC
11 14 (0.63%) Accessibility
12 13 (0.59%) PMO
13 12 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
14 10 (0.45%) IFRS 9
14 10 (0.45%) NIST 800
15 9 (0.41%) COBIT
15 9 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 8 (0.36%) EMIR
16 8 (0.36%) MiFID
System Software
1 56 (2.53%) Active Directory
2 39 (1.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (1.17%) Docker
4 18 (0.81%) VMware NSX
5 12 (0.54%) vSphere
6 6 (0.27%) Firmware
6 6 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.18%) UAG
9 2 (0.090%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.045%) IAG
10 1 (0.045%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.045%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.045%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 43 (1.94%) Terraform
2 41 (1.85%) Kubernetes
3 21 (0.95%) Ansible
4 17 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 17 (0.77%) vRealize
5 15 (0.68%) Grafana
5 15 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (0.59%) SCCM
7 11 (0.50%) Prometheus
8 9 (0.41%) VxRail
9 8 (0.36%) CASB
9 8 (0.36%) PowerCLI
10 6 (0.27%) QRadar
11 5 (0.23%) EMC NetWorker
11 5 (0.23%) EMC VPLEX
11 5 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.18%) HP ALM
12 4 (0.18%) PingFederate
13 3 (0.14%) Istio
Vendors
1 624 (28.15%) SAP
2 260 (11.73%) Microsoft
3 210 (9.47%) Oracle
4 81 (3.65%) ServiceNow
5 80 (3.61%) VMware
6 65 (2.93%) IBM
7 55 (2.48%) Salesforce
8 51 (2.30%) Workday
9 43 (1.94%) Ariba
10 41 (1.85%) Cisco
11 29 (1.31%) Dynatrace
11 29 (1.31%) Splunk
12 28 (1.26%) Software AG
13 25 (1.13%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.99%) Google
15 18 (0.81%) Adobe
16 17 (0.77%) EMC
16 17 (0.77%) IFS
17 14 (0.63%) CyberArk
17 14 (0.63%) OpenLink