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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,838 1,895 2,744
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.77% 6.56% 6.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.26% 7.11% 6.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,580 1,114 1,705
10th Percentile £395 £411 £400
25th Percentile £456 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £533 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.93% -2.27% +0.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 23 29
10th Percentile £39.25 £27.93 £27.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £52.90
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 £85.55 £87.25 £71.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £58.44
% change year-on-year -17.86% +19.78% -10.77%

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 45,367 26,659 39,830
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.33% 92.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,689 17,296 25,850
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -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 3,009 1,048 2,796
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £59.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.31 £40.00
% change year-on-year +72.28% -36.73% -6.98%

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 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 30 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 30 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 -2 2,260 £550 - 1,468
UK excluding London +1 1,192 £533 -0.93% 952
London -1 1,040 £550 -4.35% 670
Work from Home -2 1,003 £550 - 675
South East -5 340 £525 -4.55% 234
North of England -25 253 £550 +3.77% 313
Midlands -15 234 £525 -3.45% 90
South West +29 199 £600 +9.09% 172
West Midlands -8 156 £530 -3.64% 65
North West -24 124 £525 -3.23% 230
Yorkshire -16 108 £550 +15.79% 55
East of England -12 71 £550 +7.42% 48
Scotland +25 70 £410 -11.35% 52
East Midlands -13 69 £500 -3.85% 25
Wales +3 31 £550 +37.50% 13
North East -26 21 £725 +35.77% 28
Northern Ireland +2 3 £600 +15.38% 40

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 587 (20.68%) SAP
2 528 (18.60%) Security Cleared
3 398 (14.02%) SC Cleared
4 369 (13.00%) Migration
5 321 (11.31%) Microsoft
5 321 (11.31%) Oracle
6 310 (10.92%) Azure
7 266 (9.37%) Problem-Solving
8 259 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
9 251 (8.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 245 (8.63%) ERP
11 242 (8.53%) Stakeholder Management
12 216 (7.61%) SQL
13 198 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
14 189 (6.66%) Workshop Facilitation
15 183 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
16 171 (6.03%) Data Migration
16 171 (6.03%) Validation
17 159 (5.60%) Agile
18 153 (5.39%) Cybersecurity
19 148 (5.21%) Analytics
19 148 (5.21%) Power Platform
19 148 (5.21%) Roadmaps
20 145 (5.11%) Dynamics 365
21 142 (5.00%) Business Intelligence
22 135 (4.76%) AI
23 132 (4.65%) AWS
24 115 (4.05%) Change Management
25 112 (3.95%) Python
25 112 (3.95%) Translating Business Requirements

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 81 (2.85%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.59%) Confluence
3 14 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.46%) 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%) SAS
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.11%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.070%) IIS
8 2 (0.070%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.070%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 75 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.070%) Lectora
7 2 (0.070%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.035%) CATIA
8 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 259 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 72 (2.54%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.94%) SAP FI
4 43 (1.52%) SAP PSCD
5 41 (1.44%) Oracle Payables
6 40 (1.41%) SAP MM
7 34 (1.20%) Oracle Receivables
8 32 (1.13%) SAP BRIM
9 31 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
10 28 (0.99%) SAP EWM
10 28 (0.99%) SAP Travel Management
10 28 (0.99%) Teamcenter
11 27 (0.95%) SAP FI-CA
11 27 (0.95%) SAP PP
11 27 (0.95%) SAP SD
12 25 (0.88%) SAP CO
13 24 (0.85%) Oracle EBS R12
13 24 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
13 24 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
13 24 (0.85%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 310 (10.92%) Azure
2 148 (5.21%) Power Platform
3 145 (5.11%) Dynamics 365
4 132 (4.65%) AWS
5 93 (3.28%) OCI
6 84 (2.96%) Microsoft 365
7 69 (2.43%) GCP
8 67 (2.36%) Power Automate
9 62 (2.18%) SuccessFactors
10 59 (2.08%) SaaS
11 49 (1.73%) Entra ID
12 43 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
13 41 (1.44%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.20%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.09%) GitHub
16 30 (1.06%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
18 20 (0.70%) Serverless
19 16 (0.56%) OneDrive
20 15 (0.53%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.30%) Firewall
2 35 (1.23%) Network Security
3 21 (0.74%) SNMP
4 16 (0.56%) SMS
5 14 (0.49%) DNS
6 13 (0.46%) SAN
6 13 (0.46%) WAN
7 12 (0.42%) LAN
8 11 (0.39%) VPN
9 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
9 10 (0.35%) VSAN
10 9 (0.32%) FTP
11 8 (0.28%) Intranet
11 8 (0.28%) NAS
11 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 6 (0.21%) Kerberos
12 6 (0.21%) NGFW
12 6 (0.21%) VLAN
12 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (3.00%) Power BI
2 54 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 32 (1.13%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.09%) Tableau
5 25 (0.88%) Metadata
5 25 (0.88%) SQL Server
6 23 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
8 15 (0.53%) SAP BW
9 14 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
11 8 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.28%) Power Query
12 7 (0.25%) GIS
12 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
13 6 (0.21%) Essbase
13 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 79 (2.78%) JIRA
2 18 (0.63%) Hudson
2 18 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 12 (0.42%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.35%) Git
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%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.11%) Toad
9 2 (0.070%) git-flow
9 2 (0.070%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.070%) JUnit
9 2 (0.070%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.070%) Selenium
10 1 (0.035%) Charles Proxy
General
1 607 (21.39%) Social Skills
2 596 (21.00%) Finance
3 243 (8.56%) Analytical Skills
4 195 (6.87%) Public Sector
5 95 (3.35%) Banking
6 89 (3.14%) Manufacturing
7 65 (2.29%) Billing
8 62 (2.18%) Legal
9 60 (2.11%) Marketing
10 51 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
10 51 (1.80%) General Ledger
11 39 (1.37%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
13 31 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 29 (1.02%) Retail
15 28 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
16 24 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
17 23 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
18 20 (0.70%) Law
19 18 (0.63%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (2.61%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.54%) REST
3 59 (2.08%) XML
4 29 (1.02%) SAP TM
5 28 (0.99%) Middleware
6 25 (0.88%) Web Services
7 23 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
7 23 (0.81%) SOAP
8 22 (0.78%) BAPI
9 18 (0.63%) HTML
9 18 (0.63%) JSON
10 17 (0.60%) .NET
11 16 (0.56%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.53%) CSS
12 15 (0.53%) LDAP
13 12 (0.42%) OAuth
14 10 (0.35%) IDoc
14 10 (0.35%) Kafka
14 10 (0.35%) React
15 9 (0.32%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 62 (2.18%) Onboarding
2 45 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.55%) Security Posture
4 38 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
5 34 (1.20%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.13%) Operational Technology
7 29 (1.02%) AI Agents
8 24 (0.85%) Data Centre
9 23 (0.81%) Data Structures
10 22 (0.78%) Cloud Native
10 22 (0.78%) CMDB
10 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 22 (0.78%) NHS
11 20 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.70%) Life Science
12 17 (0.60%) Replication
13 16 (0.56%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.49%) Algorithms
15 13 (0.46%) Hybrid Cloud
15 13 (0.46%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 78 (2.75%) Windows
2 62 (2.18%) Linux
3 20 (0.70%) VMS
4 19 (0.67%) Solaris
5 17 (0.60%) AIX
6 16 (0.56%) Unix
7 7 (0.25%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.18%) zOS
9 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.11%) Android
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.070%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (13.00%) Migration
2 266 (9.37%) Problem-Solving
3 251 (8.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 245 (8.63%) ERP
5 242 (8.53%) Stakeholder Management
6 198 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
7 189 (6.66%) Workshop Facilitation
8 183 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
9 171 (6.03%) Data Migration
9 171 (6.03%) Validation
10 159 (5.60%) Agile
11 153 (5.39%) Cybersecurity
12 148 (5.21%) Analytics
12 148 (5.21%) Roadmaps
13 142 (5.00%) Business Intelligence
14 135 (4.76%) AI
15 115 (4.05%) Change Management
16 112 (3.95%) Translating Business Requirements
17 111 (3.91%) DevOps
18 101 (3.56%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 216 (7.61%) SQL
2 112 (3.95%) Python
3 69 (2.43%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.90%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.73%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.23%) T-SQL
7 30 (1.06%) Java
8 29 (1.02%) ABAP
9 20 (0.70%) C#
10 14 (0.49%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.42%) Bash
13 10 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 10 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
14 9 (0.32%) Shell Script
15 8 (0.28%) R
16 7 (0.25%) C++
16 7 (0.25%) Groovy
17 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
18 4 (0.14%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 528 (18.60%) Security Cleared
2 398 (14.02%) SC Cleared
3 107 (3.77%) DV Cleared
4 81 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.64%) CISSP
6 67 (2.36%) Degree
7 56 (1.97%) CISM
8 27 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
9 23 (0.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (0.81%) CCSP
9 23 (0.81%) CIMA
10 19 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 15 (0.53%) CEH
11 15 (0.53%) PMP
12 13 (0.46%) ACCA
12 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
13 12 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
13 12 (0.42%) SAP Certification
14 11 (0.39%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.00%) NIST
2 76 (2.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.40%) Data Quality
4 52 (1.83%) GRC
5 44 (1.55%) GDPR
6 38 (1.34%) QA
7 27 (0.95%) NCSC
8 26 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
10 19 (0.67%) PMO
10 19 (0.67%) SLA
11 18 (0.63%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.49%) COBIT
13 14 (0.49%) JSP 440
14 10 (0.35%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 8 (0.28%) RMADS
17 7 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 48 (1.69%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.27%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.88%) vSphere
5 18 (0.63%) Docker
6 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.21%) IAG
8 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.035%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.035%) HDFS
10 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.035%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.035%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.035%) SRDF
10 1 (0.035%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 52 (1.83%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.27%) Terraform
3 27 (0.95%) vRealize
4 19 (0.67%) Ansible
5 17 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.49%) Netcool
7 14 (0.49%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) 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
1 587 (20.68%) SAP
2 321 (11.31%) Microsoft
2 321 (11.31%) Oracle
3 89 (3.14%) VMware
4 82 (2.89%) ServiceNow
5 64 (2.26%) Ariba
6 54 (1.90%) Siemens
7 52 (1.83%) Workday
8 51 (1.80%) Salesforce
9 36 (1.27%) Splunk
10 30 (1.06%) Databricks
10 30 (1.06%) Google
11 26 (0.92%) BMC
12 24 (0.85%) IBM
13 20 (0.70%) Palo Alto
14 18 (0.63%) Adobe
15 17 (0.60%) IFS
15 17 (0.60%) Sage
16 16 (0.56%) SolarWinds
17 14 (0.49%) HP