Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £545, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 May 2026.

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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,816 1,881 2,715
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.80% 6.58% 6.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.28% 7.13% 6.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,563 1,102 1,695
10th Percentile £393 £411 £400
25th Percentile £456 £476 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £535 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.56% -2.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 23 28
10th Percentile £41.25 £27.93 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £84.65 £87.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
% change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.15%

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 44,822 26,395 39,583
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.28% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,378 17,183 25,758
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,008 2,746
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.49 £18.12 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.52 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.46% -24.62% -18.89%
75th Percentile £67.06 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -5.88%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 2,251 £550 - 1,773
UK excluding London +1 1,174 £535 -0.56% 1,084
London -3 1,041 £550 -4.35% 814
Work from Home -2 987 £550 - 823
South East -1 337 £535 -2.73% 268
North of England -22 247 £531 -0.51% 357
Midlands -15 232 £525 -3.45% 101
South West +32 197 £600 +9.09% 189
West Midlands -10 156 £550 - 76
North West -16 120 £513 -5.96% 254
Yorkshire -11 106 £550 +10.00% 80
Scotland +24 68 £418 -12.11% 56
East of England -14 68 £550 +10.00% 57
East Midlands -15 68 £500 -3.85% 24
Wales +4 30 £550 +37.50% 20
North East -24 21 £725 +35.77% 24
Northern Ireland -1 3 £600 +15.38% 45

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 26 May 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.

1 583 (20.70%) SAP
2 526 (18.68%) Security Cleared
3 399 (14.17%) SC Cleared
4 360 (12.78%) Migration
5 315 (11.19%) Oracle
6 313 (11.12%) Microsoft
7 310 (11.01%) Azure
8 260 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
9 257 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
10 246 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 246 (8.74%) Stakeholder Management
11 239 (8.49%) ERP
12 209 (7.42%) SQL
13 197 (7.00%) User Acceptance Testing
14 189 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
15 177 (6.29%) Continuous Improvement
16 168 (5.97%) Data Migration
17 165 (5.86%) Validation
18 156 (5.54%) Agile
19 151 (5.36%) Cybersecurity
20 148 (5.26%) Roadmaps
21 145 (5.15%) Analytics
22 143 (5.08%) Dynamics 365
23 140 (4.97%) Power Platform
24 137 (4.87%) Business Intelligence
25 132 (4.69%) AI
26 128 (4.55%) AWS
27 113 (4.01%) Change Management
28 111 (3.94%) Translating Business Requirements
29 109 (3.87%) 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 79 (2.81%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.60%) Confluence
3 14 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) SAS
8 2 (0.071%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 69 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (0.64%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
5 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.071%) Lectora
7 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.036%) CATIA
8 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 257 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 72 (2.56%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (2.02%) SAP FI
4 47 (1.67%) Oracle Payables
5 42 (1.49%) SAP MM
5 42 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
6 40 (1.42%) Oracle Receivables
7 31 (1.10%) SAP BRIM
8 30 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
9 28 (0.99%) SAP CO
9 28 (0.99%) SAP EWM
9 28 (0.99%) Teamcenter
10 27 (0.96%) Oracle EBS R12
10 27 (0.96%) SAP PP
10 27 (0.96%) SAP SD
10 27 (0.96%) SAP Travel Management
11 26 (0.92%) SAP FI/CO
11 26 (0.92%) SAP FI-CA
12 24 (0.85%) Oracle Assets
12 24 (0.85%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 310 (11.01%) Azure
2 143 (5.08%) Dynamics 365
3 140 (4.97%) Power Platform
4 128 (4.55%) AWS
5 91 (3.23%) OCI
6 79 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
7 68 (2.41%) GCP
8 64 (2.27%) Power Automate
9 62 (2.20%) SuccessFactors
10 59 (2.10%) SaaS
11 47 (1.67%) Entra ID
12 42 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
13 40 (1.42%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.21%) PowerApps
15 32 (1.14%) GitHub
16 28 (0.99%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.71%) Copilot Studio
18 18 (0.64%) Serverless
19 15 (0.53%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.53%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 35 (1.24%) Firewall
2 32 (1.14%) Network Security
3 21 (0.75%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 13 (0.46%) DNS
6 12 (0.43%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) WAN
7 11 (0.39%) LAN
7 11 (0.39%) VPN
8 10 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
8 10 (0.36%) VSAN
9 9 (0.32%) FTP
10 8 (0.28%) Intranet
10 8 (0.28%) Kerberos
10 8 (0.28%) NAS
10 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.25%) VLAN
12 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 6 (0.21%) Wireless
13 5 (0.18%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (2.88%) Power BI
2 54 (1.92%) Oracle Reports
3 34 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.07%) Tableau
5 25 (0.89%) Metadata
5 25 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 23 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
8 16 (0.57%) SAP BW
9 12 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
11 8 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.25%) GIS
12 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.21%) Essbase
13 6 (0.21%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
14 5 (0.18%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 78 (2.77%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.60%) Hudson
4 11 (0.39%) Git
4 11 (0.39%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.28%) GitLab
6 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.14%) Postman
7 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
8 3 (0.11%) Toad
9 2 (0.071%) Browser DevTools
9 2 (0.071%) git-flow
9 2 (0.071%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.071%) JUnit
9 2 (0.071%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.071%) Selenium
10 1 (0.036%) Burp Suite
General
1 596 (21.16%) Social Skills
2 591 (20.99%) Finance
3 237 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (7.00%) Public Sector
5 97 (3.44%) Banking
6 87 (3.09%) Manufacturing
7 62 (2.20%) Legal
8 61 (2.17%) Billing
9 60 (2.13%) Marketing
10 53 (1.88%) General Ledger
11 47 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
12 36 (1.28%) Telecoms
13 34 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
14 32 (1.14%) Retail
15 28 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 27 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
17 26 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
18 23 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
19 20 (0.71%) Law
20 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (2.56%) REST
2 71 (2.52%) Oracle Fusion
3 60 (2.13%) XML
4 28 (0.99%) SAP TM
5 24 (0.85%) Middleware
5 24 (0.85%) SOAP
6 23 (0.82%) Web Services
7 22 (0.78%) BAPI
7 22 (0.78%) SAP Fiori
8 18 (0.64%) HTML
8 18 (0.64%) JSON
9 17 (0.60%) .NET
9 17 (0.60%) LDAP
9 17 (0.60%) SAP Basis
10 15 (0.53%) CSS
11 11 (0.39%) OAuth
12 10 (0.36%) IDoc
12 10 (0.36%) Kafka
12 10 (0.36%) React
13 8 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 64 (2.27%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.56%) Security Posture
4 37 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
5 34 (1.21%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.14%) Operational Technology
7 29 (1.03%) AI Agents
8 23 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 23 (0.82%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
9 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 21 (0.75%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.75%) NHS
11 20 (0.71%) CMDB
12 19 (0.67%) Life Science
13 15 (0.53%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.53%) Replication
14 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
15 13 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.46%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 78 (2.77%) Windows
2 59 (2.10%) Linux
3 20 (0.71%) VMS
4 18 (0.64%) Solaris
5 16 (0.57%) AIX
5 16 (0.57%) Unix
6 8 (0.28%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.14%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.14%) zOS
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.11%) SUSE
10 2 (0.071%) Android
10 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 360 (12.78%) Migration
2 260 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
3 246 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 246 (8.74%) Stakeholder Management
4 239 (8.49%) ERP
5 197 (7.00%) User Acceptance Testing
6 189 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
7 177 (6.29%) Continuous Improvement
8 168 (5.97%) Data Migration
9 165 (5.86%) Validation
10 156 (5.54%) Agile
11 151 (5.36%) Cybersecurity
12 148 (5.26%) Roadmaps
13 145 (5.15%) Analytics
14 137 (4.87%) Business Intelligence
15 132 (4.69%) AI
16 113 (4.01%) Change Management
17 111 (3.94%) Translating Business Requirements
18 108 (3.84%) DevOps
19 97 (3.44%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 209 (7.42%) SQL
2 109 (3.87%) Python
3 69 (2.45%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.92%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.74%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.24%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.10%) Java
8 29 (1.03%) ABAP
9 19 (0.67%) C#
10 15 (0.53%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.43%) Bash
13 9 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.32%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (0.28%) R
15 7 (0.25%) C++
15 7 (0.25%) Groovy
16 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
17 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 526 (18.68%) Security Cleared
2 399 (14.17%) SC Cleared
3 107 (3.80%) DV Cleared
4 81 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 72 (2.56%) CISSP
6 67 (2.38%) Degree
7 55 (1.95%) CISM
8 26 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (0.78%) CIMA
10 21 (0.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 21 (0.75%) CCSP
11 19 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 15 (0.53%) CEH
13 14 (0.50%) PMP
14 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.43%) ACCA
15 12 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
16 11 (0.39%) OSCP
17 10 (0.36%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.02%) NIST
2 77 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.41%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.92%) GRC
5 44 (1.56%) GDPR
6 35 (1.24%) QA
7 28 (0.99%) NCSC
8 25 (0.89%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
9 20 (0.71%) SLA
10 19 (0.67%) PMO
11 17 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.50%) COBIT
13 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 10 (0.36%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 8 (0.28%) RMADS
17 7 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 50 (1.78%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (1.28%) VMware NSX
3 25 (0.89%) vSphere
4 17 (0.60%) Docker
5 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.18%) IAG
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
10 1 (0.036%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.036%) HDFS
10 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.036%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 51 (1.81%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.28%) Terraform
3 27 (0.96%) vRealize
4 18 (0.64%) Ansible
5 16 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.36%) Grafana
9 10 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.25%) SCCM
10 7 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
11 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 583 (20.70%) SAP
2 315 (11.19%) Oracle
3 313 (11.12%) Microsoft
4 89 (3.16%) VMware
5 82 (2.91%) ServiceNow
6 58 (2.06%) Ariba
7 54 (1.92%) Siemens
8 52 (1.85%) Workday
9 49 (1.74%) Salesforce
10 36 (1.28%) Splunk
11 29 (1.03%) Databricks
11 29 (1.03%) Google
12 26 (0.92%) BMC
13 22 (0.78%) IBM
14 19 (0.67%) Palo Alto
15 18 (0.64%) Adobe
16 17 (0.60%) IFS
17 16 (0.57%) Sage
17 16 (0.57%) SolarWinds
18 14 (0.50%) HP