Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,044 2,060 2,888
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.85% 6.47% 6.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.32% 7.04% 7.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,697 1,197 1,723
10th Percentile £404 £405 £406
25th Percentile £463 £470 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% - -
75th Percentile £631 £649 £650
90th Percentile £726 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £564
% change year-on-year -4.55% -2.44% +7.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 28 31
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £26.25
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% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £65.52
90th Percentile £86.07 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year -25.81% +32.93% -10.08%

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 48,135 29,273 40,238
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.98% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,133 18,680 25,890
10th Percentile £325 £287 £285
25th Percentile £417 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,254 1,329 2,797
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £42.59 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.03% -29.47% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% +1.14%

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 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 7 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 7 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 -3 2,437 £550 - 1,253
UK excluding London +2 1,305 £525 -4.55% 849
London 0 1,123 £550 -4.35% 564
Work from Home -3 1,080 £530 -3.64% 715
South East +1 359 £525 -4.55% 232
North of England -20 278 £550 - 220
Midlands -7 259 £501 -9.00% 111
South West +27 211 £553 +0.55% 118
West Midlands +9 184 £501 -9.00% 71
North West -13 156 £538 -5.49% 132
Yorkshire -14 101 £544 +14.47% 64
Scotland +31 91 £425 -8.11% 33
East of England -16 90 £550 - 74
East Midlands -10 66 £500 -9.09% 40
Wales -4 31 £550 +31.34% 31
North East -40 21 £650 +20.37% 25
Northern Ireland -2 2 £525 +0.96% 40

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 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.

1 640 (21.02%) SAP
2 566 (18.59%) Security Cleared
3 415 (13.63%) SC Cleared
4 405 (13.30%) Migration
5 377 (12.39%) Microsoft
6 347 (11.40%) Oracle
7 335 (11.01%) Azure
8 312 (10.25%) Stakeholder Management
9 276 (9.07%) SAP S/4HANA
10 272 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 256 (8.41%) ERP
11 256 (8.41%) Problem-Solving
12 240 (7.88%) SQL
13 225 (7.39%) User Acceptance Testing
14 204 (6.70%) Validation
15 202 (6.64%) Workshop Facilitation
16 201 (6.60%) Continuous Improvement
17 184 (6.04%) Data Migration
18 169 (5.55%) Cybersecurity
19 167 (5.49%) Analytics
20 165 (5.42%) Agile
20 165 (5.42%) AI
21 155 (5.09%) Roadmaps
22 146 (4.80%) AWS
23 145 (4.76%) Power Platform
24 137 (4.50%) Business Intelligence
25 132 (4.34%) Dynamics 365
26 129 (4.24%) Python
27 123 (4.04%) Change Management
27 123 (4.04%) Requirements Gathering

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 79 (2.60%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.58%) Confluence
3 15 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.30%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.099%) Apache
9 3 (0.099%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.099%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.099%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.066%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.066%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.066%) IIS
10 2 (0.066%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.066%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.066%) WordPress
11 1 (0.033%) CMS
Applications
1 76 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.23%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.066%) Lectora
8 2 (0.066%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.033%) CATIA
9 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 276 (9.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 84 (2.76%) Oracle EBS
3 63 (2.07%) SAP FI
4 58 (1.91%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
6 37 (1.22%) SAP BRIM
6 37 (1.22%) SAP MM
7 34 (1.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 33 (1.08%) SAP SD
9 32 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
9 32 (1.05%) SAP FI-CA
10 31 (1.02%) Oracle ERP
11 29 (0.95%) SAP EWM
12 28 (0.92%) NetSuite
12 28 (0.92%) Oracle EBS R12
12 28 (0.92%) SAP CO
13 25 (0.82%) SAP PP
14 24 (0.79%) SAP FI/CO
14 24 (0.79%) Teamcenter
15 23 (0.76%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 335 (11.01%) Azure
2 146 (4.80%) AWS
3 145 (4.76%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.34%) Dynamics 365
5 96 (3.15%) Microsoft 365
6 93 (3.06%) OCI
7 83 (2.73%) GCP
8 77 (2.53%) SuccessFactors
9 70 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 54 (1.77%) Entra ID
11 53 (1.74%) SaaS
12 50 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
13 45 (1.48%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.18%) GitHub
15 34 (1.12%) PowerApps
16 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.69%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.53%) OneDrive
18 16 (0.53%) Serverless
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 54 (1.77%) Firewall
2 45 (1.48%) Network Security
3 23 (0.76%) SNMP
3 23 (0.76%) WAN
4 16 (0.53%) BGP
4 16 (0.53%) LAN
4 16 (0.53%) VPN
5 15 (0.49%) DNS
6 13 (0.43%) SAN
7 11 (0.36%) VSAN
8 8 (0.26%) FTP
8 8 (0.26%) NAS
8 8 (0.26%) NGFW
8 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
8 8 (0.26%) SMS
8 8 (0.26%) Software-Defined Networking
9 7 (0.23%) Wireless
10 6 (0.20%) DHCP
10 6 (0.20%) Ethernet VPN
10 6 (0.20%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (2.89%) Power BI
2 54 (1.77%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.28%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.12%) Tableau
5 28 (0.92%) Metadata
5 28 (0.92%) SQL Server
6 25 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 22 (0.72%) SAP BW
8 18 (0.59%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
9 16 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
10 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
11 10 (0.33%) Power Query
12 9 (0.30%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
13 6 (0.20%) NoSQL
13 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.16%) GIS
14 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 88 (2.89%) JIRA
2 20 (0.66%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.56%) Hudson
4 16 (0.53%) Git
4 16 (0.53%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.16%) Postman
7 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.099%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.099%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.099%) MLflow
9 3 (0.099%) Selenium
9 3 (0.099%) TestRail
9 3 (0.099%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.066%) LSMW
10 2 (0.066%) Snyk
General
1 661 (21.71%) Finance
2 646 (21.22%) Social Skills
3 246 (8.08%) Analytical Skills
4 221 (7.26%) Public Sector
5 101 (3.32%) Manufacturing
6 87 (2.86%) Banking
7 86 (2.83%) Legal
8 83 (2.73%) Billing
9 66 (2.17%) Telecoms
10 60 (1.97%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
12 48 (1.58%) Marketing
13 40 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
13 40 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
13 40 (1.31%) Retail
14 39 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 25 (0.82%) Law
16 24 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
17 23 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
18 21 (0.69%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (2.69%) Oracle Fusion
2 78 (2.56%) REST
3 58 (1.91%) XML
4 37 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
5 35 (1.15%) SOAP
6 34 (1.12%) Middleware
7 28 (0.92%) BAPI
8 26 (0.85%) Web Services
9 20 (0.66%) HTML
9 20 (0.66%) SAP TM
10 18 (0.59%) CSS
11 17 (0.56%) IDoc
11 17 (0.56%) JSON
11 17 (0.56%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.49%) .NET
13 13 (0.43%) OAuth
14 11 (0.36%) EDI
14 11 (0.36%) LDAP
15 10 (0.33%) Microsoft Graph
15 10 (0.33%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 84 (2.76%) Onboarding
2 49 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
3 45 (1.48%) Security Posture
4 42 (1.38%) CMDB
5 36 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
6 33 (1.08%) AI Agents
6 33 (1.08%) Product Ownership
7 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
8 27 (0.89%) Operational Technology
9 24 (0.79%) Cloud Native
9 24 (0.79%) Management Information System
10 23 (0.76%) Life Science
11 22 (0.72%) Data Centre
12 21 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
13 20 (0.66%) Public Cloud
14 19 (0.62%) NHS
15 17 (0.56%) Replication
16 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
16 15 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
16 15 (0.49%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 95 (3.12%) Windows
2 66 (2.17%) Linux
3 26 (0.85%) Unix
4 21 (0.69%) Solaris
5 18 (0.59%) VMS
6 17 (0.56%) AIX
7 8 (0.26%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) zOS
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.099%) Android
10 3 (0.099%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.066%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.066%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.066%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.066%) SUSE
12 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 405 (13.30%) Migration
2 312 (10.25%) Stakeholder Management
3 272 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 256 (8.41%) ERP
4 256 (8.41%) Problem-Solving
5 225 (7.39%) User Acceptance Testing
6 204 (6.70%) Validation
7 202 (6.64%) Workshop Facilitation
8 201 (6.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 184 (6.04%) Data Migration
10 169 (5.55%) Cybersecurity
11 167 (5.49%) Analytics
12 165 (5.42%) Agile
12 165 (5.42%) AI
13 155 (5.09%) Roadmaps
14 137 (4.50%) Business Intelligence
15 123 (4.04%) Change Management
15 123 (4.04%) Requirements Gathering
16 121 (3.98%) Translating Business Requirements
17 114 (3.75%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 240 (7.88%) SQL
2 129 (4.24%) Python
3 64 (2.10%) JavaScript
4 60 (1.97%) PowerShell
5 54 (1.77%) ABAP
6 52 (1.71%) PL/SQL
7 40 (1.31%) Java
8 35 (1.15%) T-SQL
9 17 (0.56%) Bash
10 16 (0.53%) C#
11 13 (0.43%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 11 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
13 11 (0.36%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.23%) C++
15 7 (0.23%) R
16 5 (0.16%) Korn
17 4 (0.13%) COBOL
17 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 566 (18.59%) Security Cleared
2 415 (13.63%) SC Cleared
3 115 (3.78%) DV Cleared
4 87 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.46%) CISSP
6 74 (2.43%) Degree
7 55 (1.81%) CISM
8 33 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
9 28 (0.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 20 (0.66%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
12 15 (0.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.96%) NIST
2 78 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 74 (2.43%) Data Quality
4 58 (1.91%) GRC
5 55 (1.81%) QA
6 37 (1.22%) GDPR
7 28 (0.92%) NCSC
7 28 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 24 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
9 22 (0.72%) Accessibility
9 22 (0.72%) SLA
10 18 (0.59%) PMO
10 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 14 (0.46%) COBIT
11 14 (0.46%) GxP
12 12 (0.39%) JSP 440
13 8 (0.26%) WCAG
14 7 (0.23%) DICOM
14 7 (0.23%) GAAP
14 7 (0.23%) HL7
System Software
1 56 (1.84%) Active Directory
2 42 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.31%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.85%) vSphere
5 12 (0.39%) Docker
5 12 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.23%) IAG
8 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.13%) NFS
10 3 (0.099%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.066%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.033%) HDFS
12 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.033%) SRDF
12 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 51 (1.68%) Terraform
2 45 (1.48%) Kubernetes
3 27 (0.89%) vRealize
4 26 (0.85%) Ansible
5 15 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.43%) OpenView
7 13 (0.43%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
8 12 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 10 (0.33%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.30%) SCCM
12 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
13 5 (0.16%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 640 (21.02%) SAP
2 377 (12.39%) Microsoft
3 347 (11.40%) Oracle
4 117 (3.84%) ServiceNow
5 99 (3.25%) VMware
6 65 (2.14%) Ariba
7 54 (1.77%) Siemens
8 51 (1.68%) Salesforce
9 50 (1.64%) Workday
10 39 (1.28%) Databricks
10 39 (1.28%) Splunk
11 27 (0.89%) Google
12 23 (0.76%) BMC
12 23 (0.76%) IBM
12 23 (0.76%) Palo Alto
13 19 (0.62%) OpenText
14 18 (0.59%) JD Edwards
15 16 (0.53%) Adobe
15 16 (0.53%) IFS
15 16 (0.53%) Okta