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 18 September 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,251 2,277 2,603
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.98% 6.91% 6.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.47% 7.59% 7.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,834 1,337 1,425
10th Percentile £407 £412 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.09%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £749 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £550 £567
% change year-on-year -1.82% -3.04% +8.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 27 23
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £43.58
25th Percentile £45.00 £42.92 £55.83
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £86.11 £81.25 £68.84
90th Percentile £91.50 £87.35 £74.84
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 50,223 30,015 35,830
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 91.09% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,737 18,953 22,040
10th Percentile £325 £278 £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 £626 £623 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,829 1,585 1,681
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.75 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.84 £52.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +2.86%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 2,596 £550 - 3,138
UK excluding London -4 1,370 £540 -1.82% 1,641
London -3 1,247 £550 -4.35% 1,735
Work from Home -4 1,066 £550 - 1,650
South East -6 390 £540 -1.82% 413
North of England -23 318 £575 - 387
Midlands +1 231 £500 -9.09% 216
North West -11 206 £576 -7.06% 241
South West +11 203 £550 -7.56% 203
West Midlands +1 163 £500 -9.09% 172
Scotland +31 125 £452 -9.70% 138
East of England -15 102 £550 - 145
Yorkshire -10 91 £575 +22.99% 87
East Midlands -6 62 £525 -4.55% 43
Wales -14 23 £550 +22.22% 34
North East -39 20 £750 +37.61% 59
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -8 2 £544 +4.57% 115

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 715 (21.99%) Security Cleared
2 670 (20.61%) SAP
3 556 (17.10%) Stakeholder Management
4 489 (15.04%) SC Cleared
5 460 (14.15%) Microsoft
6 431 (13.26%) Migration
7 421 (12.95%) Oracle
8 320 (9.84%) Azure
9 305 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 290 (8.92%) SAP S/4HANA
11 285 (8.77%) User Acceptance Testing
12 263 (8.09%) Problem-Solving
13 244 (7.51%) Validation
14 241 (7.41%) Workshop Facilitation
15 234 (7.20%) ERP
16 231 (7.11%) Cybersecurity
17 225 (6.92%) SQL
18 214 (6.58%) Analytics
19 206 (6.34%) Continuous Improvement
20 195 (6.00%) Roadmaps
21 190 (5.84%) Data Migration
22 189 (5.81%) Agile
23 184 (5.66%) AWS
24 181 (5.57%) Requirements Gathering
25 166 (5.11%) AI
26 159 (4.89%) Power Platform
27 154 (4.74%) DV Cleared
28 150 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
28 150 (4.61%) Knowledge Transfer
28 150 (4.61%) Translating Business Requirements

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 75 (2.31%) 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 4 (0.12%) Apache
7 4 (0.12%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.092%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.092%) CMS
8 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.062%) Apache Superset
9 2 (0.062%) Oracle Service Bus
9 2 (0.062%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.062%) WordPress
Applications
1 49 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.25%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.062%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 290 (8.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (2.77%) Oracle EBS
3 75 (2.31%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.51%) SAP PSCD
5 47 (1.45%) Oracle ERP
6 45 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
7 44 (1.35%) SAP CO
8 40 (1.23%) SAP Payroll
9 37 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
9 37 (1.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 37 (1.14%) SAP SD
10 35 (1.08%) SAP FI/CO
11 34 (1.05%) SAP MM
12 33 (1.02%) Workday HCM
13 32 (0.98%) SAP BRIM
14 31 (0.95%) Oracle General Ledger
14 31 (0.95%) SAP HR
15 30 (0.92%) NetSuite
15 30 (0.92%) SAP PP
16 29 (0.89%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 320 (9.84%) Azure
2 184 (5.66%) AWS
3 159 (4.89%) Power Platform
4 142 (4.37%) Dynamics 365
5 123 (3.78%) OCI
6 109 (3.35%) SuccessFactors
7 96 (2.95%) GCP
8 86 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.12%) Entra ID
10 66 (2.03%) Power Automate
11 62 (1.91%) Azure DevOps
12 54 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 43 (1.32%) SaaS
14 35 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (0.80%) GitHub
17 18 (0.55%) Azure AI
17 18 (0.55%) Snowflake
18 16 (0.49%) Azure Logic Apps
18 16 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.06%) Firewall
1 67 (2.06%) Network Security
2 34 (1.05%) BGP
2 34 (1.05%) WAN
3 25 (0.77%) VPN
4 21 (0.65%) SNMP
5 18 (0.55%) DNS
6 15 (0.46%) LAN
7 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
8 13 (0.40%) TCP/IP
9 12 (0.37%) SAN
9 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
10 11 (0.34%) MPLS
10 11 (0.34%) NGFW
11 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
11 10 (0.31%) 5G
11 10 (0.31%) IPsec
11 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
11 10 (0.31%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (2.95%) Power BI
2 59 (1.81%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.14%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 36 (1.11%) SAP BW
5 35 (1.08%) SAP HANA
6 34 (1.05%) Data Warehouse
7 28 (0.86%) SQL Server
7 28 (0.86%) Tableau
8 26 (0.80%) Metadata
9 20 (0.62%) BusinessObjects
10 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
11 14 (0.43%) Power Query
12 13 (0.40%) Oracle ODI
13 11 (0.34%) Relational Database
14 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
14 8 (0.25%) DynamoDB
14 8 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
14 8 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 7 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
15 7 (0.22%) Looker
Development Applications
1 93 (2.86%) JIRA
2 26 (0.80%) Git
3 20 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.37%) GitLab
6 8 (0.25%) Hudson
7 7 (0.22%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.22%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.12%) MLflow
11 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.092%) JMeter
11 3 (0.092%) Maven
11 3 (0.092%) Postman
11 3 (0.092%) Snyk
11 3 (0.092%) TestRail
11 3 (0.092%) Toad
General
1 727 (22.36%) Social Skills
2 711 (21.87%) Finance
3 253 (7.78%) Public Sector
4 231 (7.11%) Analytical Skills
5 119 (3.66%) Manufacturing
6 97 (2.98%) Banking
7 86 (2.65%) Legal
8 80 (2.46%) Billing
9 78 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
10 66 (2.03%) Telecoms
11 58 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
12 56 (1.72%) Retail
13 54 (1.66%) General Ledger
14 47 (1.45%) Marketing
15 43 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
16 41 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 40 (1.23%) Pharmaceutical
18 30 (0.92%) Local Government
19 24 (0.74%) Law
20 18 (0.55%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 127 (3.91%) Oracle Fusion
2 81 (2.49%) REST
3 62 (1.91%) Terraform
4 49 (1.51%) SAP Fiori
5 39 (1.20%) Middleware
6 37 (1.14%) SOAP
6 37 (1.14%) XML
7 35 (1.08%) Web Services
8 27 (0.83%) SailPoint
9 24 (0.74%) JSON
10 22 (0.68%) OAuth
11 21 (0.65%) LDAP
12 19 (0.58%) HTML
13 18 (0.55%) BAPI
13 18 (0.55%) SAP Basis
13 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
14 17 (0.52%) CSS
15 14 (0.43%) EDI
16 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
16 13 (0.40%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 129 (3.97%) Onboarding
2 53 (1.63%) CMDB
3 48 (1.48%) Operational Technology
4 47 (1.45%) Data Centre
5 42 (1.29%) Data Structures
6 40 (1.23%) Security Posture
7 38 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
7 38 (1.17%) Product Ownership
8 35 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
9 31 (0.95%) Replication
10 30 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (0.80%) Cloud Native
12 25 (0.77%) AI Agents
13 24 (0.74%) Life Science
14 22 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
15 21 (0.65%) Public Cloud
16 17 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
16 17 (0.52%) Management Information System
16 17 (0.52%) NHS
17 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 95 (2.92%) Windows
2 74 (2.28%) Linux
3 24 (0.74%) Unix
4 21 (0.65%) Solaris
5 20 (0.62%) Windows Server
6 15 (0.46%) AIX
7 14 (0.43%) VMS
8 6 (0.18%) Android
8 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.15%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.15%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 556 (17.10%) Stakeholder Management
2 431 (13.26%) Migration
3 305 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 285 (8.77%) User Acceptance Testing
5 263 (8.09%) Problem-Solving
6 244 (7.51%) Validation
7 241 (7.41%) Workshop Facilitation
8 234 (7.20%) ERP
9 231 (7.11%) Cybersecurity
10 214 (6.58%) Analytics
11 206 (6.34%) Continuous Improvement
12 195 (6.00%) Roadmaps
13 190 (5.84%) Data Migration
14 189 (5.81%) Agile
15 181 (5.57%) Requirements Gathering
16 166 (5.11%) AI
17 150 (4.61%) Business Intelligence
17 150 (4.61%) Knowledge Transfer
17 150 (4.61%) Translating Business Requirements
18 134 (4.12%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 225 (6.92%) SQL
2 109 (3.35%) Python
3 57 (1.75%) ABAP
4 56 (1.72%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.48%) PL/SQL
6 45 (1.38%) JavaScript
7 28 (0.86%) Java
8 18 (0.55%) Bash
9 14 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (0.37%) C#
12 11 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
13 9 (0.28%) T-SQL
13 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
14 8 (0.25%) R
15 6 (0.18%) Groovy
15 6 (0.18%) Perl
15 6 (0.18%) Shell Script
16 5 (0.15%) Korn
17 3 (0.092%) Scala
Qualifications
1 715 (21.99%) Security Cleared
2 489 (15.04%) SC Cleared
3 154 (4.74%) DV Cleared
4 107 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.34%) CISSP
5 76 (2.34%) 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 19 (0.58%) ACCA
11 16 (0.49%) CIMA
11 16 (0.49%) CRISC
12 15 (0.46%) PMP
13 14 (0.43%) AWS Certification
14 13 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.37%) Azure Certification
16 11 (0.34%) CISA
17 10 (0.31%) CCIE
17 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (3.14%) Data Quality
2 99 (3.05%) NIST
3 82 (2.52%) GRC
4 72 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 57 (1.75%) QA
6 42 (1.29%) NCSC
7 37 (1.14%) GDPR
8 29 (0.89%) SLA
9 26 (0.80%) PMO
10 23 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
11 21 (0.65%) Accessibility
12 18 (0.55%) PCI DSS
13 15 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
14 12 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 11 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (0.34%) GxP
15 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.28%) IFRS
17 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
17 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 84 (2.58%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (1.02%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) Docker
4 18 (0.55%) vSphere
5 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.37%) IAG
7 11 (0.34%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.12%) Firmware
10 2 (0.062%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.062%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.031%) HDFS
11 1 (0.031%) NFS
11 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.031%) RHEV
11 1 (0.031%) SRDF
11 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 47 (1.45%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.98%) Ansible
3 21 (0.65%) SCCM
4 20 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.46%) vRealize
6 14 (0.43%) Grafana
7 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
7 12 (0.37%) Nagios
7 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.37%) ZABBIX
8 10 (0.31%) Netcool
8 10 (0.31%) Prometheus
8 10 (0.31%) Tivoli
8 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.28%) OpenView
9 9 (0.28%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 6 (0.18%) VxRail
11 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 670 (20.61%) SAP
2 460 (14.15%) Microsoft
3 421 (12.95%) Oracle
4 130 (4.00%) ServiceNow
5 76 (2.34%) VMware
6 71 (2.18%) Workday
7 63 (1.94%) Ariba
8 43 (1.32%) Salesforce
9 41 (1.26%) Databricks
10 38 (1.17%) Splunk
11 35 (1.08%) Palo Alto
12 30 (0.92%) Cisco
13 28 (0.86%) BMC
14 27 (0.83%) IBM
15 26 (0.80%) OpenText
16 25 (0.77%) CyberArk
17 24 (0.74%) Google
18 20 (0.62%) Adobe
19 18 (0.55%) Dell
19 18 (0.55%) Zscaler