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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,147 2,133 2,734
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.90% 6.49% 6.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.37% 7.09% 7.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,742 1,248 1,617
10th Percentile £403 £411 £408
25th Percentile £463 £475 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £640 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £744 £760
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 29 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.05
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.47
Median hourly rate £58.25 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -16.79% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £86.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.75 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -24.19% +25.81% -4.99%

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 49,377 30,074 36,691
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 91.44% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,758 19,109 23,758
10th Percentile £331 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,409 1,479 2,147
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.69 £14.13
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.22
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.91
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.39% +0.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £54.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +11.69%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -4 2,533 £550 - 1,478
UK excluding London +3 1,372 £525 -4.55% 1,019
London -1 1,165 £550 -4.35% 651
Work from Home -2 1,059 £545 -0.91% 868
South East +2 401 £525 -4.55% 281
North of England -6 297 £550 +2.04% 283
Midlands +1 259 £500 -9.09% 105
South West +18 213 £553 -7.06% 167
West Midlands +14 187 £500 -13.04% 68
North West -13 176 £550 - 206
Scotland +39 103 £425 -10.53% 62
Yorkshire -11 100 £538 +13.16% 61
East of England -18 82 £550 - 53
East Midlands -4 63 £500 -9.09% 37
Wales -3 29 £550 +10.00% 16
North East -36 20 £750 +39.66% 17
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 57

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 August 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.

1 655 (20.81%) SAP
2 627 (19.92%) Security Cleared
3 433 (13.76%) SC Cleared
4 413 (13.12%) Migration
5 401 (12.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 393 (12.49%) Microsoft
7 366 (11.63%) Oracle
8 314 (9.98%) Azure
9 288 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 272 (8.64%) SAP S/4HANA
11 261 (8.29%) Problem-Solving
12 258 (8.20%) SQL
13 251 (7.98%) ERP
14 243 (7.72%) User Acceptance Testing
15 216 (6.86%) Workshop Facilitation
16 211 (6.70%) Validation
17 206 (6.55%) Continuous Improvement
18 194 (6.16%) Cybersecurity
19 184 (5.85%) Data Migration
20 182 (5.78%) Roadmaps
21 180 (5.72%) Agile
22 178 (5.66%) Analytics
23 165 (5.24%) AI
24 152 (4.83%) AWS
25 147 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
26 146 (4.64%) Power Platform
26 146 (4.64%) Requirements Gathering
27 143 (4.54%) DV Cleared
28 136 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements
29 131 (4.16%) Dynamics 365

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 86 (2.73%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.53%) Confluence
3 14 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.064%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.064%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) IIS
10 2 (0.064%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.064%) WordPress
Applications
1 71 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.064%) Lectora
8 2 (0.064%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 272 (8.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 92 (2.92%) Oracle EBS
3 69 (2.19%) SAP FI
4 52 (1.65%) SAP PSCD
5 44 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
6 37 (1.18%) Oracle ERP
7 36 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
7 36 (1.14%) SAP CO
7 36 (1.14%) SAP MM
8 35 (1.11%) SAP BRIM
9 34 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
10 33 (1.05%) SAP SD
11 32 (1.02%) SAP FI/CO
12 31 (0.99%) SAP FI-CA
13 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
14 29 (0.92%) SAP EWM
15 28 (0.89%) SAP Payroll
15 28 (0.89%) SAP PP
16 27 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
17 25 (0.79%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 314 (9.98%) Azure
2 152 (4.83%) AWS
3 146 (4.64%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.16%) Dynamics 365
5 105 (3.34%) OCI
6 98 (3.11%) SuccessFactors
7 90 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
8 85 (2.70%) GCP
9 72 (2.29%) Power Automate
10 54 (1.72%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.62%) SaaS
12 50 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
12 50 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
13 36 (1.14%) PowerApps
14 33 (1.05%) GitHub
15 25 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
17 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
17 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
18 15 (0.48%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 62 (1.97%) Firewall
2 53 (1.68%) Network Security
3 33 (1.05%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 21 (0.67%) VPN
6 20 (0.64%) BGP
6 20 (0.64%) LAN
7 15 (0.48%) DNS
8 13 (0.41%) SAN
8 13 (0.41%) VSAN
9 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.32%) NGFW
11 8 (0.25%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.22%) HTTP
12 7 (0.22%) IPsec
12 7 (0.22%) Wireless
13 6 (0.19%) FTP
13 6 (0.19%) MPLS
13 6 (0.19%) NAS
13 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (2.92%) Power BI
2 59 (1.87%) Oracle Reports
3 40 (1.27%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.14%) SQL Server
5 33 (1.05%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 33 (1.05%) Tableau
6 29 (0.92%) SAP BW
7 26 (0.83%) Metadata
8 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
12 10 (0.32%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
15 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
15 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 88 (2.80%) JIRA
2 20 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.51%) Git
3 16 (0.51%) Hudson
3 16 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.32%) GitLab
5 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.16%) Postman
6 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.13%) Selenium
7 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.095%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.095%) JMeter
8 3 (0.095%) LoadRunner
8 3 (0.095%) MLflow
8 3 (0.095%) Snyk
8 3 (0.095%) TestRail
8 3 (0.095%) Toad
8 3 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 678 (21.54%) Finance
2 672 (21.35%) Social Skills
3 252 (8.01%) Analytical Skills
4 223 (7.09%) Public Sector
5 110 (3.50%) Manufacturing
6 95 (3.02%) Banking
7 89 (2.83%) Legal
8 78 (2.48%) Billing
9 66 (2.10%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.75%) Marketing
11 54 (1.72%) General Ledger
11 54 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
12 48 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
13 45 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 43 (1.37%) Retail
15 41 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
16 32 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
17 25 (0.79%) Aerospace
18 24 (0.76%) Local Government
19 20 (0.64%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.05%) Oracle Fusion
2 79 (2.51%) REST
3 59 (1.87%) XML
4 39 (1.24%) SOAP
5 38 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
6 34 (1.08%) Middleware
7 26 (0.83%) Web Services
8 25 (0.79%) BAPI
9 24 (0.76%) JSON
10 20 (0.64%) HTML
11 18 (0.57%) CSS
12 17 (0.54%) IDoc
12 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 17 (0.54%) SAP PI
13 15 (0.48%) OAuth
14 13 (0.41%) .NET
14 13 (0.41%) LDAP
15 11 (0.35%) ADO
15 11 (0.35%) EDI
15 11 (0.35%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 115 (3.65%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.49%) CMDB
3 45 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 36 (1.14%) Product Ownership
6 34 (1.08%) AI Agents
6 34 (1.08%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.05%) Data Centre
8 32 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
9 28 (0.89%) Operational Technology
10 23 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
12 20 (0.64%) Life Science
12 20 (0.64%) Replication
13 19 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
14 18 (0.57%) Management Information System
15 17 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (0.54%) NHS
15 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
15 17 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 96 (3.05%) Windows
2 68 (2.16%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.60%) AIX
6 18 (0.57%) VMS
7 10 (0.32%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.064%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.064%) zOS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 413 (13.12%) Migration
2 401 (12.74%) Stakeholder Management
3 288 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 261 (8.29%) Problem-Solving
5 251 (7.98%) ERP
6 243 (7.72%) User Acceptance Testing
7 216 (6.86%) Workshop Facilitation
8 211 (6.70%) Validation
9 206 (6.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 194 (6.16%) Cybersecurity
11 184 (5.85%) Data Migration
12 182 (5.78%) Roadmaps
13 180 (5.72%) Agile
14 178 (5.66%) Analytics
15 165 (5.24%) AI
16 147 (4.67%) Business Intelligence
17 146 (4.64%) Requirements Gathering
18 136 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements
19 129 (4.10%) Change Management
20 118 (3.75%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 258 (8.20%) SQL
2 124 (3.94%) Python
3 58 (1.84%) PowerShell
4 57 (1.81%) JavaScript
5 54 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 53 (1.68%) ABAP
7 37 (1.18%) T-SQL
8 34 (1.08%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.44%) C#
11 13 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.22%) R
13 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.19%) Korn
14 6 (0.19%) Perl
15 5 (0.16%) C++
15 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 627 (19.92%) Security Cleared
2 433 (13.76%) SC Cleared
3 143 (4.54%) DV Cleared
4 93 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.45%) CISSP
6 70 (2.22%) Degree
7 59 (1.87%) CISM
8 38 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.83%) CCSP
11 21 (0.67%) CIMA
12 18 (0.57%) ACCA
13 15 (0.48%) PMP
14 14 (0.44%) CEH
14 14 (0.44%) CRISC
15 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.38%) OSCP
16 11 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.89%) NIST
2 82 (2.61%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 64 (2.03%) GRC
5 54 (1.72%) QA
6 39 (1.24%) GDPR
7 29 (0.92%) NCSC
7 29 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 26 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
9 22 (0.70%) SLA
10 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
11 17 (0.54%) PMO
11 17 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (0.41%) COBIT
12 13 (0.41%) GxP
13 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.29%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.25%) IFRS
15 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 61 (1.94%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.27%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.79%) vSphere
5 14 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.32%) Docker
8 8 (0.25%) IAG
9 7 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.064%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.064%) Firmware
11 2 (0.064%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.032%) HDFS
12 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.032%) SRDF
12 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.68%) Terraform
2 42 (1.33%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.99%) Ansible
4 22 (0.70%) vRealize
5 17 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.44%) Grafana
7 14 (0.44%) Netcool
7 14 (0.44%) SCCM
7 14 (0.44%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.41%) OpenView
8 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 655 (20.81%) SAP
2 393 (12.49%) Microsoft
3 366 (11.63%) Oracle
4 122 (3.88%) ServiceNow
5 91 (2.89%) VMware
6 63 (2.00%) Ariba
7 61 (1.94%) Salesforce
8 57 (1.81%) Workday
9 49 (1.56%) Splunk
10 42 (1.33%) Databricks
11 33 (1.05%) Siemens
12 27 (0.86%) Palo Alto
13 26 (0.83%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) Google
14 25 (0.79%) OpenText
15 24 (0.76%) IBM
16 19 (0.60%) Adobe
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
18 16 (0.51%) Okta