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 28 February 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,709 2,019 2,757
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.50% 6.60% 6.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.08% 7.11% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,529 1,120 1,634
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £539
% change year-on-year - +2.09% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 17 36
10th Percentile - £68.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £55.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -7.35%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £81.56
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -6.38%

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 38,243 28,404 41,374
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.82% 92.82% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,036 17,847 27,236
10th Percentile £310 £293 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,330 852 2,355
10th Percentile £14.64 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.30
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.60% -0.71% -12.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -3.08% -7.14% -6.67%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 2,108 £550 - 831
UK excluding London -4 1,101 £550 - 655
Work from Home 0 1,025 £525 -4.55% 341
London -4 975 £550 -4.35% 414
South East +3 301 £520 -9.57% 288
North of England -9 266 £581 +6.61% 150
Midlands -9 204 £563 +7.14% 59
West Midlands -1 150 £563 +4.17% 42
North West -7 149 £626 +15.93% 90
South West +15 146 £552 +0.36% 87
Yorkshire -1 107 £550 +3.53% 48
East of England -1 97 £550 - 34
Scotland +4 51 £520 -5.45% 16
East Midlands -13 50 £500 -3.85% 16
Wales +10 33 £426 -12.62% 14
Northern Ireland +2 12 £405 -22.86% 17
North East -26 10 £525 -7.08% 13

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 February 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.

1 652 (24.07%) SAP
2 645 (23.81%) Security Cleared
3 545 (20.12%) SC Cleared
4 390 (14.40%) Migration
5 347 (12.81%) SAP S/4HANA
6 313 (11.55%) Problem-Solving
7 306 (11.30%) Azure
8 294 (10.85%) Microsoft
8 294 (10.85%) Oracle
9 282 (10.41%) Stakeholder Management
10 273 (10.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 231 (8.53%) ERP
12 217 (8.01%) Workshop Facilitation
13 178 (6.57%) User Acceptance Testing
14 176 (6.50%) Agile
15 168 (6.20%) Data Migration
16 162 (5.98%) Analytics
17 160 (5.91%) SQL
18 158 (5.83%) Roadmaps
19 148 (5.46%) Business Intelligence
20 145 (5.35%) Knowledge Transfer
21 144 (5.32%) Dynamics 365
22 134 (4.95%) Validation
23 132 (4.87%) Cybersecurity
24 126 (4.65%) Continuous Improvement
25 120 (4.43%) Python
26 115 (4.25%) Power Platform
27 111 (4.10%) AI
28 109 (4.02%) DevOps
29 108 (3.99%) Risk Management

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 67 (2.47%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.22%) Confluence
3 28 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.22%) NetWeaver
4 6 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.18%) MTS
6 4 (0.15%) CMS
6 4 (0.15%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.074%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.074%) Apache
8 2 (0.074%) Cloud Foundry
8 2 (0.074%) IIS
8 2 (0.074%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.037%) SAS
9 1 (0.037%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.037%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.037%) Tomcat
Applications
1 47 (1.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.26%) Oracle Smart View
6 6 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
7 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.074%) Lectora
8 2 (0.074%) Navisworks
8 2 (0.074%) Revit
9 1 (0.037%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.037%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.037%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.037%) CATIA
9 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.037%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.037%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.037%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.037%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 347 (12.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 64 (2.36%) SAP FI
3 57 (2.10%) Oracle EBS
4 52 (1.92%) SAP MM
5 49 (1.81%) Oracle Payables
6 47 (1.73%) Oracle Receivables
7 42 (1.55%) SAP HCM
8 40 (1.48%) Dynamics CRM
9 39 (1.44%) SAP PP
10 38 (1.40%) SAP CO
11 37 (1.37%) Oracle General Ledger
11 37 (1.37%) SAP EWM
12 36 (1.33%) Oracle EBS R12
13 35 (1.29%) SAP FI/CO
14 32 (1.18%) SAP PSCD
15 31 (1.14%) SAP Travel Management
16 30 (1.11%) Oracle Assets
17 28 (1.03%) SAP Payroll
18 25 (0.92%) Oracle Cash Management
18 25 (0.92%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 306 (11.30%) Azure
2 144 (5.32%) Dynamics 365
3 115 (4.25%) Power Platform
4 106 (3.91%) AWS
4 106 (3.91%) OCI
5 83 (3.06%) Microsoft 365
6 76 (2.81%) GCP
7 69 (2.55%) SaaS
8 62 (2.29%) Entra ID
9 49 (1.81%) SuccessFactors
10 39 (1.44%) Power Automate
11 35 (1.29%) Microsoft Copilot
12 32 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
13 30 (1.11%) PowerApps
14 26 (0.96%) GitHub
15 24 (0.89%) OneDrive
16 19 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
16 19 (0.70%) Serverless
17 18 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 47 (1.73%) Firewall
2 19 (0.70%) VPN
3 17 (0.63%) DNS
4 16 (0.59%) Network Security
5 14 (0.52%) HTTP
6 13 (0.48%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.48%) SMS
6 13 (0.48%) WAN
7 12 (0.44%) DHCP
8 11 (0.41%) VSAN
9 10 (0.37%) SD-WAN
9 10 (0.37%) SSL
10 9 (0.33%) FTP
10 9 (0.33%) SAN
10 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
10 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.30%) Intranet
11 8 (0.30%) LAN
12 7 (0.26%) BGP
12 7 (0.26%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (3.03%) Power BI
2 48 (1.77%) SAP HANA
3 45 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
4 25 (0.92%) Metadata
5 24 (0.89%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 24 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 14 (0.52%) NoSQL
7 13 (0.48%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.48%) SAP BW
8 12 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.41%) Tableau
10 8 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
10 8 (0.30%) GIS
10 8 (0.30%) Oracle Database
11 7 (0.26%) MongoDB
12 6 (0.22%) Data Lake
12 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
12 6 (0.22%) DynamoDB
13 5 (0.18%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 63 (2.33%) JIRA
2 19 (0.70%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.48%) Hudson
3 13 (0.48%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.44%) Git
5 9 (0.33%) GitLab
6 7 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.15%) LSMW
7 4 (0.15%) Postman
8 3 (0.11%) JUnit
9 2 (0.074%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.074%) git-flow
9 2 (0.074%) Mockito
9 2 (0.074%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.074%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.074%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.074%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.074%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.074%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.037%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 711 (26.25%) Social Skills
2 590 (21.78%) Finance
3 253 (9.34%) Public Sector
4 249 (9.19%) Analytical Skills
5 125 (4.61%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.54%) Banking
7 76 (2.81%) Marketing
8 74 (2.73%) Documentation Skills
9 62 (2.29%) Billing
10 60 (2.21%) Legal
11 45 (1.66%) General Ledger
12 43 (1.59%) Presentation Skills
13 42 (1.55%) Telecoms
14 34 (1.26%) Retail
15 31 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
16 29 (1.07%) Pharmaceutical
17 26 (0.96%) Law
18 21 (0.78%) Financial Institution
19 20 (0.74%) Aerospace
20 17 (0.63%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.54%) Oracle Fusion
2 70 (2.58%) REST
3 60 (2.21%) SAP Fiori
4 48 (1.77%) Web Services
5 44 (1.62%) XML
6 39 (1.44%) SAP TM
6 39 (1.44%) SOAP
7 28 (1.03%) BAPI
8 27 (1.00%) LDAP
9 26 (0.96%) Node.js
10 23 (0.85%) Middleware
11 19 (0.70%) JSON
11 19 (0.70%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.63%) GraphQL
13 16 (0.59%) .NET
14 15 (0.55%) HTML
14 15 (0.55%) IDoc
15 14 (0.52%) Kafka
16 13 (0.48%) EDI
16 13 (0.48%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 71 (2.62%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
3 41 (1.51%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.40%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
6 31 (1.14%) Data Centre
7 27 (1.00%) Cloud Native
8 25 (0.92%) Operational Technology
9 24 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
9 24 (0.89%) Replication
10 23 (0.85%) Data Structures
10 23 (0.85%) Management Information System
11 19 (0.70%) AI Agents
12 18 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
12 18 (0.66%) NHS
13 15 (0.55%) Life Science
13 15 (0.55%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (0.52%) Public Cloud
15 13 (0.48%) Hybrid Cloud
16 12 (0.44%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 70 (2.58%) Windows
2 38 (1.40%) Linux
3 15 (0.55%) Unix
4 14 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.37%) Windows 10
6 9 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.22%) VMS
8 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.15%) AIX
9 4 (0.15%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.074%) SUSE
11 2 (0.074%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.074%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.074%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.037%) Android
12 1 (0.037%) CentOS
12 1 (0.037%) CoreOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 390 (14.40%) Migration
2 313 (11.55%) Problem-Solving
3 282 (10.41%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (10.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 231 (8.53%) ERP
6 217 (8.01%) Workshop Facilitation
7 178 (6.57%) User Acceptance Testing
8 176 (6.50%) Agile
9 168 (6.20%) Data Migration
10 162 (5.98%) Analytics
11 158 (5.83%) Roadmaps
12 148 (5.46%) Business Intelligence
13 145 (5.35%) Knowledge Transfer
14 134 (4.95%) Validation
15 132 (4.87%) Cybersecurity
16 126 (4.65%) Continuous Improvement
17 111 (4.10%) AI
18 109 (4.02%) DevOps
19 108 (3.99%) Risk Management
20 106 (3.91%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 160 (5.91%) SQL
2 120 (4.43%) Python
3 88 (3.25%) PowerShell
4 87 (3.21%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.66%) ABAP
6 35 (1.29%) Java
7 30 (1.11%) TypeScript
8 22 (0.81%) Groovy
9 21 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 16 (0.59%) C#
11 15 (0.55%) Bash
12 10 (0.37%) Shell Script
12 10 (0.37%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.30%) Apex Code
13 8 (0.30%) C++
13 8 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.18%) Bicep
15 5 (0.18%) Korn
16 4 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 645 (23.81%) Security Cleared
2 545 (20.12%) SC Cleared
3 102 (3.77%) Degree
4 77 (2.84%) DV Cleared
5 65 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (1.77%) CISSP
7 36 (1.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 32 (1.18%) CISM
9 18 (0.66%) Master's Degree
10 17 (0.63%) CIMA
10 17 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 17 (0.63%) SAP Certification
11 16 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.30%) AWS Certification
14 8 (0.30%) CCNP
14 8 (0.30%) CESG Certified Professional
15 7 (0.26%) CISA
15 7 (0.26%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.32%) NIST
2 84 (3.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.55%) GDPR
4 52 (1.92%) Data Quality
5 48 (1.77%) QA
6 38 (1.40%) GRC
7 23 (0.85%) NCSC
8 22 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
9 19 (0.70%) SLA
10 18 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 17 (0.63%) PMO
12 16 (0.59%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.41%) COBIT
13 11 (0.41%) PERC
14 9 (0.33%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
17 5 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (2.58%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.40%) Docker
3 32 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.11%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.81%) vSphere
6 8 (0.30%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.18%) NDS
8 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 2 (0.074%) NFS
10 1 (0.037%) Ceph
10 1 (0.037%) IAG
10 1 (0.037%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.037%) KVM
10 1 (0.037%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.037%) QEMU
10 1 (0.037%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.037%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (1.96%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.37%) vRealize
3 33 (1.22%) Terraform
4 22 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.59%) Ansible
7 10 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
7 10 (0.37%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.26%) SCCM
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
10 5 (0.18%) Grafana
11 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.15%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.15%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Puppet
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
Vendors
1 652 (24.07%) SAP
2 294 (10.85%) Microsoft
2 294 (10.85%) Oracle
3 95 (3.51%) VMware
4 79 (2.92%) ServiceNow
5 58 (2.14%) Salesforce
6 56 (2.07%) CyberArk
7 53 (1.96%) Siemens
7 53 (1.96%) Workday
8 52 (1.92%) Cisco
9 51 (1.88%) Ariba
10 42 (1.55%) Google
11 37 (1.37%) Aruba
12 34 (1.26%) Adobe
13 22 (0.81%) Databricks
14 19 (0.70%) OpenText
15 15 (0.55%) Sage
16 14 (0.52%) Murex
17 13 (0.48%) IFS
17 13 (0.48%) Splunk