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 30 November 2025.

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

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 28
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,565 2,502 2,856
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.16% 6.90% 6.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.87% 7.43% 6.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,483 1,324 1,606
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £475 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.79%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £723
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 17 36
10th Percentile £41.92 £49.30 £51.10
25th Percentile £62.75 £56.65 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £72.88
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% -4.80% +4.11%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £87.13
90th Percentile £86.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £70.88 £63.29
% change year-on-year +9.35% +11.98% -11.17%

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 32,598 33,656 42,848
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 92.81% 93.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,655 20,421 28,929
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,903 1,218 1,519
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.24 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.50 £19.09
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +46.67%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 30 November 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 30 November 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 30 November 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 -1 2,005 £550 - 921
UK excluding London -1 1,065 £550 -4.35% 728
Work from Home 0 936 £550 - 394
London -1 918 £575 +4.55% 444
North of England -6 291 £583 +2.82% 109
South East -1 278 £545 -5.22% 330
North West +2 203 £620 +12.73% 66
Midlands -17 157 £575 +4.55% 71
West Midlands -13 120 £563 +7.14% 48
East of England +14 118 £550 +10.00% 34
South West +2 105 £550 -4.35% 145
Yorkshire -8 81 £480 -20.00% 36
Scotland -1 72 £500 -9.58% 22
East Midlands -25 36 £590 +2.61% 22
Wales +6 33 £405 -32.50% 18
Northern Ireland -8 14 £405 -32.50% 8
North East -10 7 £550 -8.33% 7
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 November 2025, 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.

1 692 (26.98%) SAP
2 663 (25.85%) Security Cleared
3 560 (21.83%) SC Cleared
4 367 (14.31%) SAP S/4HANA
5 339 (13.22%) Migration
6 322 (12.55%) Problem-Solving
7 293 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 293 (11.42%) Stakeholder Management
8 290 (11.31%) Oracle
9 283 (11.03%) Microsoft
10 228 (8.89%) Azure
11 215 (8.38%) Agile
12 179 (6.98%) Workshop Facilitation
13 170 (6.63%) ERP
14 166 (6.47%) SQL
15 160 (6.24%) Data Migration
16 158 (6.16%) User Acceptance Testing
17 155 (6.04%) Analytics
18 151 (5.89%) Knowledge Transfer
19 149 (5.81%) Roadmaps
20 138 (5.38%) Validation
21 133 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
22 128 (4.99%) Python
23 124 (4.83%) DevOps
24 122 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
25 120 (4.68%) AWS
26 118 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
27 115 (4.48%) Data Modelling
28 113 (4.41%) Risk Management
29 109 (4.25%) Degree

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 59 (2.30%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.90%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.23%) Apache
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) IIS
10 5 (0.19%) MTS
11 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.078%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.078%) Camunda
14 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 38 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.16%) Revit
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.078%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Sketch
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 367 (14.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (3.51%) Oracle EBS
3 62 (2.42%) Oracle Payables
4 58 (2.26%) SAP FI
5 55 (2.14%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.03%) SAP MM
7 51 (1.99%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.87%) Oracle General Ledger
8 48 (1.87%) SAP EWM
9 42 (1.64%) Oracle Receivables
10 41 (1.60%) Oracle Cash Management
10 41 (1.60%) SAP CO
11 39 (1.52%) Oracle Assets
12 38 (1.48%) Dynamics CRM
12 38 (1.48%) SAP FI/CO
13 35 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
14 34 (1.33%) SAP PP
14 34 (1.33%) SAP WM
15 29 (1.13%) Oracle Financials
16 27 (1.05%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 228 (8.89%) Azure
2 120 (4.68%) AWS
3 107 (4.17%) Power Platform
4 102 (3.98%) Dynamics 365
5 88 (3.43%) OCI
6 86 (3.35%) Microsoft 365
7 70 (2.73%) GCP
8 59 (2.30%) SuccessFactors
9 58 (2.26%) Entra ID
9 58 (2.26%) SaaS
10 41 (1.60%) Power Automate
11 31 (1.21%) PowerApps
12 30 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (0.94%) GitHub
14 22 (0.86%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
15 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
17 14 (0.55%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 13 (0.51%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.61%) Firewall
2 29 (1.13%) Network Security
2 29 (1.13%) VPN
3 27 (1.05%) DNS
4 21 (0.82%) WAN
5 19 (0.74%) SD-WAN
6 17 (0.66%) DHCP
7 15 (0.58%) HTTP
7 15 (0.58%) TCP/IP
8 14 (0.55%) SSL
9 13 (0.51%) BGP
10 12 (0.47%) OSPF
11 10 (0.39%) SSH
12 9 (0.35%) Kerberos
12 9 (0.35%) LAN
12 9 (0.35%) SAN
13 8 (0.31%) VLAN
14 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
14 7 (0.27%) Internet
14 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.92%) Power BI
2 46 (1.79%) SAP HANA
3 41 (1.60%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.60%) SQL Server
4 23 (0.90%) Metadata
5 22 (0.86%) SAP BW
6 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
9 14 (0.55%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 14 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.51%) DB2
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 9 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
14 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
14 6 (0.23%) Power Query
15 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.34%) JIRA
2 23 (0.90%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.82%) Git
3 21 (0.82%) GitLab
4 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
5 8 (0.31%) Hudson
6 7 (0.27%) LSMW
7 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.078%) JUnit
9 2 (0.078%) Mockito
9 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 739 (28.81%) Social Skills
2 588 (22.92%) Finance
3 243 (9.47%) Public Sector
4 238 (9.28%) Analytical Skills
5 172 (6.71%) Manufacturing
6 80 (3.12%) Banking
7 77 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
8 63 (2.46%) Presentation Skills
9 56 (2.18%) Billing
9 56 (2.18%) Legal
9 56 (2.18%) Marketing
10 51 (1.99%) Telecoms
11 45 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
12 44 (1.72%) General Ledger
13 33 (1.29%) Retail
14 27 (1.05%) Law
15 25 (0.97%) Electronics
16 23 (0.90%) Local Government
17 21 (0.82%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.24%) SAP Fiori
2 68 (2.65%) REST
3 63 (2.46%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (2.03%) SOAP
5 48 (1.87%) XML
6 45 (1.75%) Web Services
7 36 (1.40%) Node.js
8 35 (1.36%) HTML
9 33 (1.29%) Middleware
10 31 (1.21%) JSON
11 26 (1.01%) OAuth
12 25 (0.97%) .NET
12 25 (0.97%) BAPI
12 25 (0.97%) LDAP
13 20 (0.78%) EDI
13 20 (0.78%) SAP TM
14 18 (0.70%) CSS
14 18 (0.70%) SAP Basis
15 17 (0.66%) SAP PI
16 15 (0.58%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 83 (3.24%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.52%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.44%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.29%) Data Centre
5 33 (1.29%) Management Information System
6 32 (1.25%) Cloud Native
7 24 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
7 24 (0.94%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
8 23 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
8 23 (0.90%) Replication
9 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
10 17 (0.66%) Virtual Team
11 16 (0.62%) Life Science
12 14 (0.55%) Private Cloud
13 13 (0.51%) CMDB
13 13 (0.51%) IoT
14 12 (0.47%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 81 (3.16%) Windows
2 56 (2.18%) Linux
3 17 (0.66%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.62%) Unix
5 12 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.078%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 339 (13.22%) Migration
2 322 (12.55%) Problem-Solving
3 293 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 293 (11.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 215 (8.38%) Agile
5 179 (6.98%) Workshop Facilitation
6 170 (6.63%) ERP
7 160 (6.24%) Data Migration
8 158 (6.16%) User Acceptance Testing
9 155 (6.04%) Analytics
10 151 (5.89%) Knowledge Transfer
11 149 (5.81%) Roadmaps
12 138 (5.38%) Validation
13 133 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
14 124 (4.83%) DevOps
15 122 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
16 118 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
17 115 (4.48%) Data Modelling
18 113 (4.41%) Risk Management
19 106 (4.13%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 166 (6.47%) SQL
2 128 (4.99%) Python
3 89 (3.47%) PowerShell
4 73 (2.85%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.81%) ABAP
6 61 (2.38%) Java
7 31 (1.21%) PL/SQL
8 27 (1.05%) Groovy
9 22 (0.86%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.78%) C++
11 19 (0.74%) Bash
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.55%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.35%) C#
16 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.27%) VBA
18 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.23%) COBOL
19 5 (0.19%) Go
Qualifications
1 663 (25.85%) Security Cleared
2 560 (21.83%) SC Cleared
3 109 (4.25%) Degree
4 89 (3.47%) DV Cleared
5 88 (3.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 66 (2.57%) CISSP
7 44 (1.72%) CISM
8 28 (1.09%) SAP Certification
9 27 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (0.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.78%) ACCA
11 20 (0.78%) CIMA
12 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
13 18 (0.70%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (0.55%) CCNP
14 14 (0.55%) Master's Degree
15 13 (0.51%) CESG Certified Professional
16 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
16 10 (0.39%) CISA
17 9 (0.35%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (3.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 75 (2.92%) NIST
3 64 (2.50%) GDPR
4 57 (2.22%) QA
5 44 (1.72%) Data Quality
6 31 (1.21%) GRC
7 18 (0.70%) NCSC
7 18 (0.70%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
9 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 14 (0.55%) COBIT
10 14 (0.55%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.55%) PMO
10 14 (0.55%) RMADS
11 9 (0.35%) Accessibility
11 9 (0.35%) IFRS
11 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
11 9 (0.35%) PERC
12 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 78 (3.04%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.48%) Docker
4 26 (1.01%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.78%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.16%) UAG
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) IAG
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.11%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.03%) Terraform
3 25 (0.97%) Ansible
4 24 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
5 22 (0.86%) vRealize
6 16 (0.62%) SCCM
7 13 (0.51%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.27%) CASB
10 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.19%) QRadar
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.16%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 692 (26.98%) SAP
2 290 (11.31%) Oracle
3 283 (11.03%) Microsoft
4 97 (3.78%) VMware
5 81 (3.16%) ServiceNow
6 65 (2.53%) Cisco
7 61 (2.38%) CyberArk
7 61 (2.38%) Workday
8 60 (2.34%) Salesforce
9 48 (1.87%) Ariba
10 37 (1.44%) Google
11 35 (1.36%) Aruba
12 31 (1.21%) Dynatrace
12 31 (1.21%) IBM
13 29 (1.13%) Adobe
14 25 (0.97%) OpenText
15 18 (0.70%) Remedy
15 18 (0.70%) Splunk
16 17 (0.66%) EMC
17 16 (0.62%) Palo Alto