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 6 December 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -1 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,573 2,472 2,836
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.06% 6.87% 6.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.76% 7.40% 6.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,504 1,324 1,587
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £475 £488 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £648 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 38
10th Percentile £42.21 £49.30 £51.53
25th Percentile £62.75 £56.65 £61.04
Median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.71% +2.40% -3.21%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.87 £86.81
90th Percentile £86.13 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £70.88 £63.29
% change year-on-year +9.35% +11.98% -11.17%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 33,145 33,385 42,274
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.77% 93.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,040 20,359 28,495
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,927 1,147 1,515
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.36 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +39.88%
75th Percentile £57.25 £63.93 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 6 December 2025.

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 6 December 2025.

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 6 December 2025. 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 2,017 £550 - 1,125
UK excluding London -1 1,067 £550 -4.35% 937
Work from Home -1 933 £550 - 635
London -1 925 £575 +4.55% 438
North of England -4 290 £581 +2.88% 207
South East -2 283 £545 -5.22% 353
North West +3 201 £621 +12.95% 112
Midlands -20 156 £575 +4.55% 102
West Midlands -18 123 £550 +5.26% 64
East of England +9 116 £550 +10.00% 47
South West +3 109 £564 +1.21% 173
Yorkshire -12 82 £489 -18.58% 84
Scotland -1 71 £500 -9.34% 35
Wales +7 33 £405 -32.50% 20
East Midlands -29 32 £590 +2.61% 36
Northern Ireland -9 13 £405 -32.50% 10
North East -5 7 £550 -8.33% 11
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 December 2025, 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.

1 690 (26.82%) SAP
2 665 (25.85%) Security Cleared
3 558 (21.69%) SC Cleared
4 359 (13.95%) SAP S/4HANA
5 340 (13.21%) Migration
6 328 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
7 301 (11.70%) Stakeholder Management
8 297 (11.54%) Oracle
9 295 (11.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 283 (11.00%) Microsoft
11 229 (8.90%) Azure
12 217 (8.43%) Agile
13 182 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
14 170 (6.61%) ERP
15 166 (6.45%) SQL
16 164 (6.37%) Data Migration
17 161 (6.26%) User Acceptance Testing
18 156 (6.06%) Analytics
19 153 (5.95%) Roadmaps
20 151 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
21 137 (5.32%) Validation
22 135 (5.25%) Cybersecurity
23 128 (4.97%) Python
24 123 (4.78%) Business Intelligence
24 123 (4.78%) DevOps
25 119 (4.62%) AWS
26 117 (4.55%) Risk Management
27 113 (4.39%) Requirements Gathering
28 112 (4.35%) Data Modelling
29 110 (4.28%) Degree

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 (2.37%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 18 (0.70%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.23%) Apache
8 6 (0.23%) CMS
8 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.19%) IIS
9 5 (0.19%) MTS
10 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.078%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.078%) Camunda
13 1 (0.039%) Oracle Self-Service HR
Applications
1 38 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.16%) Revit
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.078%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Sketch
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 359 (13.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (3.54%) Oracle EBS
3 63 (2.45%) Oracle Payables
4 56 (2.18%) Oracle EBS R12
4 56 (2.18%) SAP FI
5 52 (2.02%) SAP HCM
5 52 (2.02%) SAP MM
6 49 (1.90%) Oracle General Ledger
7 48 (1.87%) SAP EWM
8 43 (1.67%) Oracle Receivables
9 42 (1.63%) Oracle Cash Management
10 40 (1.55%) Oracle Assets
11 39 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
12 37 (1.44%) SAP CO
12 37 (1.44%) SAP PP
13 34 (1.32%) SAP FI/CO
13 34 (1.32%) SAP Payroll
13 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
14 29 (1.13%) Oracle Financials
15 26 (1.01%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 229 (8.90%) Azure
2 119 (4.62%) AWS
3 108 (4.20%) Power Platform
4 104 (4.04%) Dynamics 365
5 88 (3.42%) OCI
6 85 (3.30%) Microsoft 365
7 71 (2.76%) GCP
8 59 (2.29%) Entra ID
9 58 (2.25%) SaaS
10 57 (2.22%) SuccessFactors
11 43 (1.67%) Power Automate
12 33 (1.28%) PowerApps
13 30 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
14 24 (0.93%) GitHub
15 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
16 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
17 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
18 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
19 15 (0.58%) SAP Commerce Cloud
20 13 (0.51%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.60%) Firewall
2 29 (1.13%) Network Security
2 29 (1.13%) VPN
3 26 (1.01%) DNS
4 20 (0.78%) WAN
5 18 (0.70%) SD-WAN
6 16 (0.62%) DHCP
7 15 (0.58%) HTTP
7 15 (0.58%) TCP/IP
8 13 (0.51%) BGP
8 13 (0.51%) SSL
9 12 (0.47%) OSPF
10 10 (0.39%) Kerberos
10 10 (0.39%) SSH
11 9 (0.35%) LAN
11 9 (0.35%) SAN
12 8 (0.31%) VLAN
13 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
13 7 (0.27%) Internet
13 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.95%) Power BI
2 44 (1.71%) SAP HANA
3 43 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
4 41 (1.59%) SQL Server
5 23 (0.89%) Metadata
6 22 (0.86%) SAP BW
7 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
10 14 (0.54%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 13 (0.51%) DB2
12 11 (0.43%) Tableau
13 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
16 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
16 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
16 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 61 (2.37%) JIRA
2 22 (0.86%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.82%) Git
4 19 (0.74%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) Hudson
5 10 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 6 (0.23%) LSMW
7 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.078%) JUnit
9 2 (0.078%) Mockito
9 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 744 (28.92%) Social Skills
2 602 (23.40%) Finance
3 248 (9.64%) Public Sector
4 239 (9.29%) Analytical Skills
5 176 (6.84%) Manufacturing
6 82 (3.19%) Banking
7 79 (3.07%) Documentation Skills
8 64 (2.49%) Presentation Skills
9 59 (2.29%) Marketing
10 57 (2.22%) Legal
11 56 (2.18%) Billing
12 50 (1.94%) Telecoms
13 45 (1.75%) General Ledger
14 44 (1.71%) Pharmaceutical
15 33 (1.28%) Retail
16 27 (1.05%) Electronics
16 27 (1.05%) Law
17 23 (0.89%) Local Government
18 21 (0.82%) Financial Institution
18 21 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.03%) SAP Fiori
2 67 (2.60%) REST
3 66 (2.57%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (2.02%) SOAP
5 49 (1.90%) XML
6 45 (1.75%) Web Services
7 38 (1.48%) Node.js
8 35 (1.36%) HTML
9 33 (1.28%) Middleware
10 31 (1.20%) JSON
11 25 (0.97%) .NET
11 25 (0.97%) LDAP
12 24 (0.93%) OAuth
13 23 (0.89%) BAPI
14 19 (0.74%) EDI
14 19 (0.74%) SAP TM
15 18 (0.70%) CSS
15 18 (0.70%) SAP Basis
15 18 (0.70%) SAP PI
16 14 (0.54%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 82 (3.19%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.52%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.44%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.24%) Cloud Native
5 32 (1.24%) Data Centre
5 32 (1.24%) Management Information System
6 25 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
7 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.89%) Replication
9 22 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
11 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
12 18 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.66%) Virtual Team
14 16 (0.62%) Life Science
15 14 (0.54%) IoT
16 13 (0.51%) CMDB
16 13 (0.51%) Private Cloud
17 12 (0.47%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 80 (3.11%) Windows
2 51 (1.98%) Linux
3 18 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.62%) Unix
5 10 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) tvOS
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (13.21%) Migration
2 328 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
3 301 (11.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 295 (11.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 217 (8.43%) Agile
6 182 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
7 170 (6.61%) ERP
8 164 (6.37%) Data Migration
9 161 (6.26%) User Acceptance Testing
10 156 (6.06%) Analytics
11 153 (5.95%) Roadmaps
12 151 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
13 137 (5.32%) Validation
14 135 (5.25%) Cybersecurity
15 123 (4.78%) Business Intelligence
15 123 (4.78%) DevOps
16 117 (4.55%) Risk Management
17 113 (4.39%) Requirements Gathering
18 112 (4.35%) Data Modelling
19 105 (4.08%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 166 (6.45%) SQL
2 128 (4.97%) Python
3 90 (3.50%) PowerShell
4 74 (2.88%) JavaScript
5 71 (2.76%) ABAP
6 60 (2.33%) Java
7 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 29 (1.13%) Groovy
9 24 (0.93%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.78%) C++
11 19 (0.74%) Bash
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 10 (0.39%) C#
14 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 7 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.27%) VBA
16 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
17 5 (0.19%) Bicep
17 5 (0.19%) Go
Qualifications
1 665 (25.85%) Security Cleared
2 558 (21.69%) SC Cleared
3 110 (4.28%) Degree
4 90 (3.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 85 (3.30%) DV Cleared
6 71 (2.76%) CISSP
7 48 (1.87%) CISM
8 27 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
8 27 (1.05%) SAP Certification
9 22 (0.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 20 (0.78%) ACCA
10 20 (0.78%) CIMA
11 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
12 17 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (0.58%) Master's Degree
14 14 (0.54%) CESG Certified Professional
15 12 (0.47%) CCNP
16 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
16 11 (0.43%) CISA
17 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 79 (3.07%) NIST
3 66 (2.57%) GDPR
4 58 (2.25%) QA
5 41 (1.59%) Data Quality
6 34 (1.32%) GRC
7 20 (0.78%) NCSC
8 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
8 18 (0.70%) SLA
9 15 (0.58%) PMO
9 15 (0.58%) RMADS
9 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 14 (0.54%) COBIT
10 14 (0.54%) PCI DSS
11 10 (0.39%) PERC
12 9 (0.35%) Accessibility
12 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
13 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
13 8 (0.31%) IFRS
System Software
1 78 (3.03%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.40%) Docker
4 27 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.78%) vSphere
6 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.16%) UAG
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) IAG
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (2.06%) Kubernetes
2 51 (1.98%) Terraform
3 24 (0.93%) Ansible
3 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (0.86%) vRealize
5 21 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.58%) SCCM
7 13 (0.51%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
9 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 7 (0.27%) CASB
11 5 (0.19%) QRadar
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.16%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 690 (26.82%) SAP
2 297 (11.54%) Oracle
3 283 (11.00%) Microsoft
4 96 (3.73%) VMware
5 78 (3.03%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.45%) Cisco
7 61 (2.37%) CyberArk
8 59 (2.29%) Salesforce
8 59 (2.29%) Workday
9 50 (1.94%) Ariba
10 37 (1.44%) Google
11 35 (1.36%) Aruba
12 31 (1.20%) Adobe
13 30 (1.17%) Dynatrace
13 30 (1.17%) IBM
14 25 (0.97%) OpenText
15 18 (0.70%) IFS
15 18 (0.70%) Remedy
16 17 (0.66%) EMC
16 17 (0.66%) Palo Alto