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 June 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,975 1,978 2,880
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.47% 6.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.31% 7.03% 7.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,658 1,154 1,726
10th Percentile £400 £407 £400
25th Percentile £463 £473 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £731 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £543 £550
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.20% +3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 27 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £27.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.92 £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 £65.03
90th Percentile £85.70 £87.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £59.95
% change year-on-year -22.03% +23.02% -7.31%

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 47,123 28,128 40,377
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.07% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,580 18,010 25,933
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,165 1,254 2,874
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.31 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.50% -28.00% -14.50%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 -3 2,381 £550 - 850
UK excluding London +1 1,272 £525 -3.38% 623
London -1 1,095 £550 -4.35% 376
Work from Home -2 1,066 £540 -1.82% 392
South East -1 348 £525 -4.55% 202
North of England -17 269 £550 +1.85% 166
Midlands -11 248 £525 -4.55% 75
South West +26 210 £556 +1.09% 72
West Midlands +9 172 £525 -4.55% 56
North West -14 144 £550 -3.30% 108
Yorkshire -7 103 £544 +14.47% 41
East of England -9 91 £550 +4.46% 56
Scotland +30 83 £425 -8.11% 21
East Midlands -9 67 £500 -9.09% 17
Wales -4 31 £550 +31.34% 14
North East -37 22 £650 +20.37% 18
Northern Ireland -5 3 £600 +15.38% 28

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 June 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.

1 618 (20.77%) SAP
2 547 (18.39%) Security Cleared
3 406 (13.65%) SC Cleared
4 393 (13.21%) Migration
5 352 (11.83%) Microsoft
6 338 (11.36%) Oracle
7 331 (11.13%) Azure
8 299 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
9 273 (9.18%) SAP S/4HANA
10 270 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 257 (8.64%) Problem-Solving
12 252 (8.47%) ERP
13 238 (8.00%) SQL
14 214 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
15 200 (6.72%) Validation
15 200 (6.72%) Workshop Facilitation
16 199 (6.69%) Continuous Improvement
17 177 (5.95%) Data Migration
18 169 (5.68%) Analytics
19 163 (5.48%) Agile
19 163 (5.48%) Cybersecurity
20 156 (5.24%) AI
21 155 (5.21%) Roadmaps
22 144 (4.84%) AWS
22 144 (4.84%) Power Platform
23 136 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
24 133 (4.47%) Dynamics 365
25 128 (4.30%) Change Management
26 127 (4.27%) Python
27 121 (4.07%) Requirements Gathering

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 77 (2.59%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.55%) Confluence
3 14 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.30%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.27%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.10%) Apache
9 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.067%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.067%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.067%) IIS
10 2 (0.067%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.067%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.067%) WordPress
11 1 (0.034%) CMS
Applications
1 78 (2.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.24%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.067%) Lectora
9 2 (0.067%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.034%) CATIA
10 1 (0.034%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.034%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 273 (9.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 80 (2.69%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (1.92%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.68%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
6 37 (1.24%) SAP BRIM
6 37 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 33 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
8 30 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
8 30 (1.01%) SAP EWM
8 30 (1.01%) SAP FI-CA
8 30 (1.01%) SAP SD
9 29 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
10 26 (0.87%) Oracle EBS R12
10 26 (0.87%) SAP CO
11 25 (0.84%) SAP PP
11 25 (0.84%) Teamcenter
12 24 (0.81%) NetSuite
12 24 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
13 23 (0.77%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 331 (11.13%) Azure
2 144 (4.84%) AWS
2 144 (4.84%) Power Platform
3 133 (4.47%) Dynamics 365
4 93 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
5 91 (3.06%) OCI
6 80 (2.69%) GCP
7 75 (2.52%) SuccessFactors
8 67 (2.25%) Power Automate
9 54 (1.82%) Entra ID
10 52 (1.75%) SaaS
11 45 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
12 44 (1.48%) Microsoft Copilot
13 34 (1.14%) GitHub
14 33 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
15 32 (1.08%) PowerApps
16 22 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
17 17 (0.57%) Serverless
18 16 (0.54%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.50%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.65%) Firewall
2 43 (1.45%) Network Security
3 23 (0.77%) SNMP
4 21 (0.71%) WAN
5 15 (0.50%) BGP
5 15 (0.50%) DNS
5 15 (0.50%) LAN
6 13 (0.44%) SAN
7 11 (0.37%) VPN
7 11 (0.37%) VSAN
8 10 (0.34%) SMS
9 9 (0.30%) FTP
10 8 (0.27%) NAS
10 8 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
11 7 (0.24%) NGFW
11 7 (0.24%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.20%) Ethernet VPN
12 6 (0.20%) HTTP
12 6 (0.20%) IPsec
12 6 (0.20%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (2.86%) Power BI
2 51 (1.71%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.14%) Tableau
5 28 (0.94%) Metadata
6 26 (0.87%) SQL Server
7 22 (0.74%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 22 (0.74%) SAP BW
8 18 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
9 16 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
10 12 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
11 10 (0.34%) Power Query
12 9 (0.30%) Oracle Database
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.17%) Crystal Reports
15 5 (0.17%) GIS
15 5 (0.17%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.17%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 87 (2.92%) JIRA
2 19 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.57%) Hudson
4 14 (0.47%) Git
5 13 (0.44%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.30%) GitLab
7 7 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.17%) Postman
8 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.13%) Toad
9 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
10 3 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.10%) JDeveloper
10 3 (0.10%) Selenium
10 3 (0.10%) TestRail
10 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
11 2 (0.067%) MLflow
11 2 (0.067%) Oracle APEX
11 2 (0.067%) Snyk
General
1 639 (21.48%) Finance
2 633 (21.28%) Social Skills
3 251 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
4 214 (7.19%) Public Sector
5 96 (3.23%) Manufacturing
6 91 (3.06%) Banking
7 81 (2.72%) Legal
8 76 (2.55%) Billing
9 63 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 57 (1.92%) General Ledger
11 52 (1.75%) Marketing
12 49 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
13 40 (1.34%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 38 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
15 38 (1.28%) Retail
16 27 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
17 22 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
18 21 (0.71%) Law
18 21 (0.71%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (2.62%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.39%) REST
3 58 (1.95%) XML
4 32 (1.08%) Middleware
4 32 (1.08%) SAP Fiori
5 28 (0.94%) Web Services
6 27 (0.91%) BAPI
7 25 (0.84%) SOAP
8 23 (0.77%) SAP TM
9 20 (0.67%) HTML
10 18 (0.61%) CSS
11 17 (0.57%) JSON
12 16 (0.54%) .NET
12 16 (0.54%) SAP Basis
13 12 (0.40%) LDAP
13 12 (0.40%) OAuth
14 11 (0.37%) IDoc
15 10 (0.34%) EDI
15 10 (0.34%) React
16 9 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 81 (2.72%) Onboarding
2 46 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.48%) Security Posture
4 37 (1.24%) CMDB
4 37 (1.24%) Product Ownership
5 36 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
6 32 (1.08%) AI Agents
7 27 (0.91%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.87%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.84%) Cloud Native
9 25 (0.84%) Data Centre
10 24 (0.81%) Management Information System
11 23 (0.77%) Life Science
12 21 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (0.64%) NHS
13 19 (0.64%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.57%) Replication
15 15 (0.50%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.50%) Security Operations Centre
16 14 (0.47%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 90 (3.03%) Windows
2 67 (2.25%) Linux
3 21 (0.71%) Solaris
3 21 (0.71%) Unix
4 18 (0.61%) VMS
5 17 (0.57%) AIX
6 8 (0.27%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.067%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.067%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.067%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.067%) SUSE
10 2 (0.067%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.034%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 393 (13.21%) Migration
2 299 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
3 270 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 257 (8.64%) Problem-Solving
5 252 (8.47%) ERP
6 214 (7.19%) User Acceptance Testing
7 200 (6.72%) Validation
7 200 (6.72%) Workshop Facilitation
8 199 (6.69%) Continuous Improvement
9 177 (5.95%) Data Migration
10 169 (5.68%) Analytics
11 163 (5.48%) Agile
11 163 (5.48%) Cybersecurity
12 156 (5.24%) AI
13 155 (5.21%) Roadmaps
14 136 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
15 128 (4.30%) Change Management
16 121 (4.07%) Requirements Gathering
17 119 (4.00%) Translating Business Requirements
18 111 (3.73%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 238 (8.00%) SQL
2 127 (4.27%) Python
3 66 (2.22%) JavaScript
4 58 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 51 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 43 (1.45%) ABAP
7 35 (1.18%) Java
8 34 (1.14%) T-SQL
9 17 (0.57%) Bash
9 17 (0.57%) C#
10 13 (0.44%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 11 (0.37%) Kusto Query Language
12 11 (0.37%) Shell Script
13 10 (0.34%) TypeScript
14 7 (0.24%) C++
14 7 (0.24%) R
15 5 (0.17%) Korn
16 4 (0.13%) COBOL
16 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 547 (18.39%) Security Cleared
2 406 (13.65%) SC Cleared
3 113 (3.80%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.52%) CISSP
6 74 (2.49%) Degree
7 55 (1.85%) CISM
8 32 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.87%) CCSP
11 22 (0.74%) CIMA
12 17 (0.57%) PMP
13 16 (0.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 15 (0.50%) CEH
15 13 (0.44%) ACCA
15 13 (0.44%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.40%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.40%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (2.96%) NIST
2 77 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 72 (2.42%) Data Quality
4 57 (1.92%) GRC
5 52 (1.75%) QA
6 38 (1.28%) GDPR
7 31 (1.04%) NCSC
8 28 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 23 (0.77%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.71%) Accessibility
11 20 (0.67%) SLA
12 18 (0.61%) PMO
12 18 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.50%) COBIT
14 14 (0.47%) GxP
15 12 (0.40%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.27%) WCAG
17 7 (0.24%) DICOM
17 7 (0.24%) GAAP
17 7 (0.24%) HL7
System Software
1 55 (1.85%) Active Directory
2 41 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.28%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.84%) vSphere
5 13 (0.44%) Docker
6 11 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (0.24%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.24%) IAG
8 5 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.13%) NFS
9 4 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.067%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.034%) HDFS
11 1 (0.034%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.034%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.034%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.034%) SRDF
11 1 (0.034%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 49 (1.65%) Terraform
2 47 (1.58%) Kubernetes
3 28 (0.94%) vRealize
4 25 (0.84%) Ansible
5 15 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.50%) Nagios
5 15 (0.50%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.47%) Netcool
6 14 (0.47%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.44%) OpenView
7 13 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.40%) Grafana
9 11 (0.37%) Prometheus
10 10 (0.34%) FortiGate
11 9 (0.30%) vCenter Server
12 8 (0.27%) SCCM
13 7 (0.24%) NetBackup
14 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
15 4 (0.13%) Podman
Vendors
1 618 (20.77%) SAP
2 352 (11.83%) Microsoft
3 338 (11.36%) Oracle
4 110 (3.70%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.23%) VMware
6 64 (2.15%) Ariba
7 54 (1.82%) Siemens
8 50 (1.68%) Salesforce
8 50 (1.68%) Workday
9 39 (1.31%) Databricks
9 39 (1.31%) Splunk
10 28 (0.94%) Google
11 24 (0.81%) BMC
12 23 (0.77%) IBM
13 21 (0.71%) Palo Alto
14 19 (0.64%) Adobe
15 18 (0.61%) JD Edwards
16 16 (0.54%) IFS
16 16 (0.54%) Okta
16 16 (0.54%) OpenAI