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 2 February 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 26 26
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,558 2,065 2,748
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.66% 6.65% 6.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.28% 7.15% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,466 1,114 1,606
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £719 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £549
% change year-on-year - +0.18% -0.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 15 40
10th Percentile £50.38 £65.38 £41.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.06 £55.18
Median hourly rate £58.75 £82.50 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -28.79% +30.35% -4.11%
75th Percentile £72.72 £86.13 £86.44
90th Percentile £81.45 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
% change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -4.46%

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 35,158 28,873 41,963
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.49% 92.93% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,167 17,619 27,765
10th Percentile £300 £300 £275
25th Percentile £405 £408 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.84% -3.23% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,109 850 2,268
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.92 £13.23
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.86
Median hourly rate £29.61 £33.00 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year -10.27% -8.21% +2.71%
75th Percentile £61.25 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £70.77 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.76 £36.50
% change year-on-year -13.41% -12.99% +15.54%

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 2 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 2 February 2026.

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 2 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 -3 1,990 £550 - 1,270
UK excluding London +1 1,029 £550 - 848
Work from Home 0 947 £537 -2.36% 568
London -4 925 £575 +1.55% 648
South East +2 272 £550 - 330
North of England -6 267 £600 +9.09% 184
Midlands -16 187 £525 - 84
North West 0 159 £625 +16.17% 106
West Midlands -10 142 £550 +4.76% 63
South West +13 119 £588 +11.90% 159
Yorkshire +3 98 £550 -12.00% 68
East of England +3 94 £550 - 45
Scotland +7 59 £520 -5.45% 25
East Midlands -19 44 £505 -2.88% 20
Wales +12 27 £405 -22.86% 16
Northern Ireland +5 13 £405 -22.86% 18
North East -22 10 £525 -9.48% 10
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 650 (25.41%) SAP
2 634 (24.78%) Security Cleared
3 534 (20.88%) SC Cleared
4 363 (14.19%) Migration
5 358 (14.00%) SAP S/4HANA
6 320 (12.51%) Problem-Solving
7 300 (11.73%) Oracle
8 292 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 283 (11.06%) Stakeholder Management
10 280 (10.95%) Microsoft
11 269 (10.52%) Azure
12 209 (8.17%) Workshop Facilitation
13 206 (8.05%) ERP
14 182 (7.11%) User Acceptance Testing
15 176 (6.88%) Agile
16 165 (6.45%) Analytics
17 159 (6.22%) Data Migration
18 152 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
19 149 (5.82%) SQL
20 145 (5.67%) Roadmaps
21 138 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
22 135 (5.28%) Validation
23 128 (5.00%) Dynamics 365
24 124 (4.85%) Cybersecurity
25 116 (4.53%) DevOps
26 114 (4.46%) Power Platform
27 113 (4.42%) Python
28 111 (4.34%) Risk Management
29 107 (4.18%) AI
30 104 (4.07%) Logistics

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 61 (2.38%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 29 (1.13%) Confluence
4 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.20%) CMS
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
6 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.078%) Apache
7 2 (0.078%) IIS
7 2 (0.078%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.078%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.039%) nginx
8 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.039%) SharePoint 2010
8 1 (0.039%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 48 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.55%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) CATIA
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 358 (14.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 70 (2.74%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.54%) SAP FI
4 56 (2.19%) Oracle Payables
5 52 (2.03%) SAP EWM
6 51 (1.99%) Oracle Receivables
7 50 (1.95%) SAP MM
8 44 (1.72%) Oracle EBS R12
9 42 (1.64%) Oracle General Ledger
10 40 (1.56%) SAP CO
10 40 (1.56%) SAP HCM
10 40 (1.56%) SAP PP
11 37 (1.45%) SAP FI/CO
12 36 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
12 36 (1.41%) Oracle Cash Management
13 33 (1.29%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.29%) SAP WM
14 29 (1.13%) SAP PSCD
15 27 (1.06%) SAP Travel Management
16 26 (1.02%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 269 (10.52%) Azure
2 128 (5.00%) Dynamics 365
3 114 (4.46%) Power Platform
4 103 (4.03%) AWS
5 102 (3.99%) OCI
6 74 (2.89%) GCP
7 71 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
8 65 (2.54%) SaaS
9 61 (2.38%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.52%) SuccessFactors
11 38 (1.49%) Power Automate
12 30 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
12 30 (1.17%) PowerApps
13 28 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
14 24 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (0.74%) GitHub
15 19 (0.74%) OneDrive
16 18 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 17 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
17 17 (0.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.95%) Firewall
2 19 (0.74%) VPN
3 18 (0.70%) DNS
4 16 (0.63%) Network Security
5 13 (0.51%) HTTP
5 13 (0.51%) Kerberos
5 13 (0.51%) WAN
6 12 (0.47%) SMS
6 12 (0.47%) SSL
7 11 (0.43%) DHCP
7 11 (0.43%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.35%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.31%) Intranet
9 8 (0.31%) SSH
10 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.27%) LAN
10 7 (0.27%) SAN
11 6 (0.23%) BGP
11 6 (0.23%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (3.17%) Power BI
2 46 (1.80%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.60%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.17%) SQL Server
5 22 (0.86%) Metadata
5 22 (0.86%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 17 (0.66%) SAP BW
7 15 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (0.43%) SAP Data Services
9 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.43%) Tableau
10 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
11 8 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.31%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.27%) DB2
13 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
13 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.23%) GIS
13 6 (0.23%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 64 (2.50%) JIRA
2 20 (0.78%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.66%) Git
4 14 (0.55%) GitLab
5 13 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
6 9 (0.35%) Hudson
7 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.20%) LSMW
9 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.16%) Postman
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
11 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.078%) git-flow
11 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
11 2 (0.078%) Selenium
11 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.078%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
11 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 711 (27.80%) Social Skills
2 561 (21.93%) Finance
3 251 (9.81%) Public Sector
4 232 (9.07%) Analytical Skills
5 135 (5.28%) Manufacturing
6 89 (3.48%) Banking
7 79 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
8 69 (2.70%) Marketing
9 62 (2.42%) Billing
10 54 (2.11%) Legal
11 53 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
12 45 (1.76%) General Ledger
13 38 (1.49%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.17%) Law
14 30 (1.17%) Retail
15 28 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
16 25 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
17 20 (0.78%) Financial Institution
18 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 17 (0.66%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.28%) Oracle Fusion
2 74 (2.89%) REST
3 71 (2.78%) SAP Fiori
4 45 (1.76%) Web Services
5 40 (1.56%) SAP TM
6 39 (1.52%) SOAP
7 33 (1.29%) XML
8 28 (1.09%) LDAP
8 28 (1.09%) Node.js
9 24 (0.94%) BAPI
10 21 (0.82%) Middleware
11 19 (0.74%) JSON
11 19 (0.74%) SAP PI
12 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
13 17 (0.66%) HTML
14 15 (0.59%) .NET
14 15 (0.59%) CSS
15 13 (0.51%) Kafka
15 13 (0.51%) OAuth
15 13 (0.51%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 77 (3.01%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
3 42 (1.64%) Product Ownership
4 40 (1.56%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.29%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.25%) Management Information System
7 29 (1.13%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
9 24 (0.94%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.94%) Replication
10 20 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
11 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
11 18 (0.70%) Operational Technology
12 16 (0.63%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (0.63%) NHS
13 15 (0.59%) Public Cloud
14 13 (0.51%) Life Science
15 12 (0.47%) AI Agents
16 10 (0.39%) FMCG
16 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 77 (3.01%) Windows
2 51 (1.99%) Linux
3 23 (0.90%) Unix
4 14 (0.55%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.23%) AIX
8 6 (0.23%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.16%) VMS
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.12%) zOS
12 2 (0.078%) SUSE
12 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.039%) Android
13 1 (0.039%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 363 (14.19%) Migration
2 320 (12.51%) Problem-Solving
3 292 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 283 (11.06%) Stakeholder Management
5 209 (8.17%) Workshop Facilitation
6 206 (8.05%) ERP
7 182 (7.11%) User Acceptance Testing
8 176 (6.88%) Agile
9 165 (6.45%) Analytics
10 159 (6.22%) Data Migration
11 152 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
12 145 (5.67%) Roadmaps
13 138 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
14 135 (5.28%) Validation
15 124 (4.85%) Cybersecurity
16 116 (4.53%) DevOps
17 111 (4.34%) Risk Management
18 107 (4.18%) AI
19 104 (4.07%) Logistics
20 103 (4.03%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 149 (5.82%) SQL
2 113 (4.42%) Python
3 88 (3.44%) PowerShell
4 81 (3.17%) JavaScript
5 67 (2.62%) ABAP
6 38 (1.49%) Java
7 30 (1.17%) TypeScript
8 25 (0.98%) PL/SQL
9 24 (0.94%) Groovy
10 17 (0.66%) C#
11 16 (0.63%) Bash
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.27%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.23%) VBA
16 5 (0.20%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 634 (24.78%) Security Cleared
2 534 (20.88%) SC Cleared
3 102 (3.99%) Degree
4 82 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 76 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (1.95%) CISSP
7 33 (1.29%) CISM
8 31 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 25 (0.98%) SAP Certification
10 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.66%) Master's Degree
12 16 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
13 15 (0.59%) CIMA
13 15 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (0.39%) CCNP
15 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
15 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.31%) ACCA
16 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
17 7 (0.27%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (2.97%) NIST
2 74 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.74%) GDPR
4 52 (2.03%) QA
5 51 (1.99%) Data Quality
6 40 (1.56%) GRC
7 20 (0.78%) NCSC
8 19 (0.74%) PMO
9 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 18 (0.70%) SLA
10 12 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.43%) PERC
12 10 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 9 (0.35%) COBIT
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.31%) JSP 440
15 7 (0.27%) HIPAA
15 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.23%) Accessibility
System Software
1 73 (2.85%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.72%) Docker
3 32 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.06%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.27%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 5 (0.20%) NDS
9 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) Firmware
11 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 59 (2.31%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.41%) Terraform
3 32 (1.25%) vRealize
4 22 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.63%) Ansible
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Grafana
9 9 (0.35%) Failover Clustering
10 8 (0.31%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.23%) Podman
13 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 3 (0.12%) CASB
14 3 (0.12%) CEMLI
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 650 (25.41%) SAP
2 300 (11.73%) Oracle
3 280 (10.95%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.60%) VMware
5 80 (3.13%) ServiceNow
6 59 (2.31%) Workday
7 58 (2.27%) CyberArk
8 54 (2.11%) Salesforce
9 53 (2.07%) Cisco
10 51 (1.99%) Ariba
11 37 (1.45%) Google
12 36 (1.41%) Aruba
13 33 (1.29%) Adobe
14 23 (0.90%) Siemens
15 22 (0.86%) OpenText
16 19 (0.74%) Databricks
17 15 (0.59%) Dynatrace
18 14 (0.55%) Dell
18 14 (0.55%) Murex
19 12 (0.47%) Zscaler