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 24 September 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,260 2,298 2,581
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.94% 6.97% 6.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.44% 7.66% 7.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,845 1,354 1,401
10th Percentile £410 £413 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.55%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £567
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.00% +8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 26 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.52 £44.75
25th Percentile £45.00 £42.26 £56.24
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £86.11 £81.25 £69.77
90th Percentile £91.50 £87.38 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -5.23%

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 50,643 30,010 35,418
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.25% 91.03% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,934 18,949 21,605
10th Percentile £325 £277 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,909 1,607 1,616
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.84
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.70 £51.57 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.90
% change year-on-year +69.49% -42.88% +0.83%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 -6 2,592 £550 -0.90% 3,384
UK excluding London -6 1,372 £525 -4.55% 1,725
London -4 1,252 £550 -4.35% 1,866
Work from Home -6 1,077 £550 - 1,756
South East -7 379 £540 -1.82% 448
North of England -20 328 £575 - 412
Midlands -1 228 £500 -9.09% 232
North West -13 213 £581 -6.29% 245
South West +13 200 £550 -5.58% 212
West Midlands +4 164 £500 -9.09% 182
Scotland +29 133 £450 -10.00% 146
East of England -16 104 £550 - 160
Yorkshire -13 93 £575 +21.05% 93
East Midlands -9 60 £525 -4.55% 47
Wales -10 24 £550 +22.22% 35
North East -35 21 £750 +38.89% 74
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +4.57% 91

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 September 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.

1 702 (21.53%) Security Cleared
2 653 (20.03%) SAP
3 578 (17.73%) Stakeholder Management
4 478 (14.66%) SC Cleared
5 463 (14.20%) Microsoft
6 440 (13.50%) Migration
7 419 (12.85%) Oracle
8 318 (9.75%) Azure
9 307 (9.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 288 (8.83%) User Acceptance Testing
11 283 (8.68%) SAP S/4HANA
12 262 (8.04%) Problem-Solving
13 247 (7.58%) Validation
14 242 (7.42%) ERP
14 242 (7.42%) Workshop Facilitation
15 237 (7.27%) Cybersecurity
16 222 (6.81%) SQL
17 214 (6.56%) Analytics
18 210 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
19 196 (6.01%) Data Migration
19 196 (6.01%) Roadmaps
20 187 (5.74%) Agile
21 186 (5.71%) Requirements Gathering
22 185 (5.67%) AWS
23 166 (5.09%) AI
24 162 (4.97%) Power Platform
25 154 (4.72%) Translating Business Requirements
26 153 (4.69%) Business Intelligence
27 152 (4.66%) Knowledge Transfer
28 150 (4.60%) DV Cleared

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 74 (2.27%) SharePoint
2 42 (1.29%) Confluence
3 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) SAS
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 5 (0.15%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.12%) Apache
8 4 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.092%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.061%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.061%) Smallworld
10 2 (0.061%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 49 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.28%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.061%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 283 (8.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 88 (2.70%) Oracle EBS
3 76 (2.33%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.50%) Oracle ERP
4 49 (1.50%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.47%) SAP Payroll
6 45 (1.38%) SAP CO
7 44 (1.35%) Oracle Payables
8 38 (1.17%) Workday HCM
9 37 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
9 37 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 36 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
11 35 (1.07%) SAP HR
11 35 (1.07%) SAP SD
12 33 (1.01%) Oracle General Ledger
12 33 (1.01%) SAP BRIM
12 33 (1.01%) SAP HCM
13 32 (0.98%) SAP MM
14 29 (0.89%) NetSuite
14 29 (0.89%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 318 (9.75%) Azure
2 185 (5.67%) AWS
3 162 (4.97%) Power Platform
4 146 (4.48%) Dynamics 365
5 124 (3.80%) OCI
6 101 (3.10%) SuccessFactors
7 97 (2.98%) GCP
8 89 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.12%) Entra ID
10 66 (2.02%) Power Automate
11 64 (1.96%) Azure DevOps
12 54 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 45 (1.38%) SaaS
14 35 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (0.80%) GitHub
17 20 (0.61%) Snowflake
18 18 (0.55%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.52%) Amazon S3
20 15 (0.46%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.12%) Firewall
2 68 (2.09%) Network Security
3 35 (1.07%) WAN
4 34 (1.04%) BGP
5 25 (0.77%) VPN
6 19 (0.58%) SNMP
7 18 (0.55%) DNS
8 16 (0.49%) LAN
9 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
9 14 (0.43%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.37%) SAN
10 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
11 11 (0.34%) IPsec
11 11 (0.34%) MPLS
11 11 (0.34%) NGFW
12 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
12 10 (0.31%) 5G
12 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
12 10 (0.31%) SD-WAN
13 7 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (3.01%) Power BI
2 53 (1.63%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.20%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.07%) SAP BW
5 34 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (1.04%) SAP HANA
6 30 (0.92%) Tableau
7 28 (0.86%) SQL Server
8 27 (0.83%) Metadata
9 20 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
10 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
11 14 (0.43%) Power Query
12 13 (0.40%) Oracle ODI
13 10 (0.31%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
15 8 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
16 7 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
16 7 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
16 7 (0.21%) Looker
Development Applications
1 93 (2.85%) JIRA
2 27 (0.83%) Git
3 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.52%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.37%) GitLab
5 8 (0.25%) Hudson
6 7 (0.21%) PowerBuilder
6 7 (0.21%) Zephyr
7 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.12%) MLflow
10 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
10 3 (0.092%) JMeter
10 3 (0.092%) LoadRunner
10 3 (0.092%) Postman
10 3 (0.092%) Snyk
10 3 (0.092%) TestRail
10 3 (0.092%) Toad
General
1 730 (22.39%) Finance
1 730 (22.39%) Social Skills
2 266 (8.16%) Public Sector
3 232 (7.12%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (3.71%) Manufacturing
5 100 (3.07%) Banking
6 90 (2.76%) Legal
7 81 (2.48%) Billing
8 79 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
9 66 (2.02%) Telecoms
10 58 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
11 57 (1.75%) Retail
12 55 (1.69%) General Ledger
13 50 (1.53%) Marketing
14 42 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
15 39 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
16 38 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 30 (0.92%) Local Government
18 25 (0.77%) Law
19 18 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (3.93%) Oracle Fusion
2 78 (2.39%) REST
3 62 (1.90%) Terraform
4 49 (1.50%) SAP Fiori
5 38 (1.17%) SOAP
5 38 (1.17%) XML
6 37 (1.13%) Middleware
6 37 (1.13%) Web Services
7 29 (0.89%) SailPoint
8 23 (0.71%) JSON
8 23 (0.71%) OAuth
9 21 (0.64%) LDAP
10 19 (0.58%) HTML
11 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.52%) BAPI
12 17 (0.52%) CSS
12 17 (0.52%) SAP Basis
13 14 (0.43%) EDI
13 14 (0.43%) SAML
14 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 129 (3.96%) Onboarding
2 54 (1.66%) CMDB
3 48 (1.47%) Data Centre
3 48 (1.47%) Operational Technology
4 45 (1.38%) Data Structures
5 41 (1.26%) Security Posture
6 40 (1.23%) Product Ownership
7 37 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
8 35 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (0.83%) Replication
11 26 (0.80%) AI Agents
12 25 (0.77%) Cloud Native
13 24 (0.74%) Life Science
14 22 (0.67%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (0.55%) NHS
15 18 (0.55%) Public Cloud
16 17 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
16 17 (0.52%) Management Information System
17 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 95 (2.91%) Windows
2 74 (2.27%) Linux
3 26 (0.80%) Unix
4 21 (0.64%) Solaris
4 21 (0.64%) Windows Server
5 14 (0.43%) VMS
6 13 (0.40%) AIX
7 6 (0.18%) Android
7 6 (0.18%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (0.15%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 578 (17.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 440 (13.50%) Migration
3 307 (9.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 288 (8.83%) User Acceptance Testing
5 262 (8.04%) Problem-Solving
6 247 (7.58%) Validation
7 242 (7.42%) ERP
7 242 (7.42%) Workshop Facilitation
8 237 (7.27%) Cybersecurity
9 214 (6.56%) Analytics
10 210 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
11 196 (6.01%) Data Migration
11 196 (6.01%) Roadmaps
12 187 (5.74%) Agile
13 186 (5.71%) Requirements Gathering
14 166 (5.09%) AI
15 154 (4.72%) Translating Business Requirements
16 153 (4.69%) Business Intelligence
17 152 (4.66%) Knowledge Transfer
18 136 (4.17%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 222 (6.81%) SQL
2 103 (3.16%) Python
3 59 (1.81%) ABAP
4 51 (1.56%) PowerShell
5 43 (1.32%) JavaScript
5 43 (1.32%) PL/SQL
6 29 (0.89%) Java
7 18 (0.55%) Bash
8 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 13 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (0.37%) C#
10 10 (0.31%) Search Processing Language
10 10 (0.31%) T-SQL
11 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.21%) R
13 6 (0.18%) Groovy
13 6 (0.18%) Shell Script
14 5 (0.15%) Korn
14 5 (0.15%) Perl
15 3 (0.092%) Scala
Qualifications
1 702 (21.53%) Security Cleared
2 478 (14.66%) SC Cleared
3 150 (4.60%) DV Cleared
4 114 (3.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.33%) CISSP
5 76 (2.33%) Degree
6 59 (1.81%) CISM
7 44 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
8 32 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 28 (0.86%) CCSP
10 20 (0.61%) ACCA
11 17 (0.52%) CIMA
12 16 (0.49%) CRISC
13 14 (0.43%) AWS Certification
13 14 (0.43%) PMP
14 13 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (0.34%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.31%) CCIE
16 10 (0.31%) CISA
16 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (3.28%) Data Quality
2 102 (3.13%) NIST
3 84 (2.58%) GRC
4 77 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 60 (1.84%) QA
6 44 (1.35%) NCSC
7 39 (1.20%) GDPR
8 30 (0.92%) SLA
9 26 (0.80%) PMO
10 23 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
11 19 (0.58%) Accessibility
11 19 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 17 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
13 14 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 12 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (0.34%) GxP
15 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.28%) IFRS
17 8 (0.25%) COBIT
17 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 85 (2.61%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (0.98%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) vSphere
5 17 (0.52%) Docker
6 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.34%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.34%) IAG
8 10 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 8 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.12%) Firmware
11 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.031%) HDFS
12 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.031%) oVirt
12 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.031%) RHEV
12 1 (0.031%) SRDF
12 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 46 (1.41%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.98%) Ansible
3 21 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (0.64%) SCCM
4 14 (0.43%) Grafana
5 13 (0.40%) vRealize
6 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
6 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.31%) Nagios
7 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
7 10 (0.31%) ZABBIX
8 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.25%) Netcool
9 8 (0.25%) Tivoli
10 7 (0.21%) OpenView
10 7 (0.21%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 6 (0.18%) VxRail
12 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 653 (20.03%) SAP
2 463 (14.20%) Microsoft
3 419 (12.85%) Oracle
4 133 (4.08%) ServiceNow
5 79 (2.42%) Workday
6 72 (2.21%) VMware
7 60 (1.84%) Ariba
8 46 (1.41%) Salesforce
9 39 (1.20%) Databricks
10 38 (1.17%) Splunk
11 36 (1.10%) Palo Alto
12 30 (0.92%) Cisco
13 26 (0.80%) BMC
13 26 (0.80%) CyberArk
13 26 (0.80%) OpenText
14 25 (0.77%) IBM
15 24 (0.74%) Google
16 19 (0.58%) Adobe
16 19 (0.58%) Zscaler
17 18 (0.55%) Dell