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 27 July 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,092 2,145 2,766
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.86% 6.51% 6.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.32% 7.11% 7.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,707 1,250 1,634
10th Percentile £402 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £735 £738 £759
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 30 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.31 £38.10
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £55.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -4.99%
75th Percentile £76.50 £81.25 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.28 £71.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%

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 48,898 30,175 37,360
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.56% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,518 19,205 24,201
10th Percentile £329 £284 £300
25th Percentile £423 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,323 1,465 2,247
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.71 £13.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.32
Median hourly rate £43.00 £25.15 £42.03
Median % change year-on-year +70.97% -40.16% -2.26%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%

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 27 July 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 27 July 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 27 July 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 -4 2,476 £550 - 974
UK excluding London +2 1,337 £525 -4.55% 646
London -1 1,140 £550 -4.35% 474
Work from Home -3 1,052 £540 -1.82% 484
South East -1 389 £525 -4.55% 221
North of England -19 279 £525 -2.60% 169
Midlands -3 259 £500 -9.09% 65
South West +20 211 £553 -3.83% 104
West Midlands +21 187 £500 -11.11% 48
North West -22 159 £525 -4.55% 120
Scotland +42 101 £425 -12.82% 25
Yorkshire -15 101 £544 +11.54% 39
East of England -11 82 £550 - 37
East Midlands -6 63 £500 -9.09% 17
Wales -6 29 £550 +23.94% 11
North East -40 20 £750 +40.45% 10
Northern Ireland -5 2 £525 +0.96% 19

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 July 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.

1 643 (20.80%) SAP
2 602 (19.47%) Security Cleared
3 417 (13.49%) SC Cleared
4 398 (12.87%) Migration
5 385 (12.45%) Microsoft
6 364 (11.77%) Stakeholder Management
7 357 (11.55%) Oracle
8 316 (10.22%) Azure
9 277 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 273 (8.83%) SAP S/4HANA
11 258 (8.34%) Problem-Solving
12 251 (8.12%) SQL
13 246 (7.96%) ERP
14 232 (7.50%) User Acceptance Testing
15 210 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
16 205 (6.63%) Validation
17 201 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
18 184 (5.95%) Cybersecurity
19 176 (5.69%) Data Migration
20 174 (5.63%) Agile
21 170 (5.50%) Roadmaps
22 169 (5.47%) Analytics
23 161 (5.21%) AI
24 152 (4.92%) AWS
25 142 (4.59%) Power Platform
26 140 (4.53%) Business Intelligence
26 140 (4.53%) Requirements Gathering
27 138 (4.46%) DV Cleared
28 130 (4.20%) Translating Business Requirements
29 129 (4.17%) Dynamics 365

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 87 (2.81%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.55%) Confluence
3 15 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.097%) Apache
9 3 (0.097%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.097%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.097%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.097%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.097%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
Applications
1 74 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.065%) Lectora
6 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.032%) CATIA
7 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.032%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.032%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 273 (8.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (2.94%) Oracle EBS
3 70 (2.26%) SAP FI
4 54 (1.75%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.39%) Oracle Payables
6 36 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
6 36 (1.16%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.13%) Oracle ERP
7 35 (1.13%) SAP BRIM
7 35 (1.13%) SAP CO
8 34 (1.10%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.07%) Oracle Receivables
10 32 (1.03%) SAP FI-CA
11 31 (1.00%) SAP FI/CO
12 30 (0.97%) NetSuite
13 29 (0.94%) SAP EWM
14 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
14 28 (0.91%) SAP PP
15 27 (0.87%) Oracle EBS R12
16 24 (0.78%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 316 (10.22%) Azure
2 152 (4.92%) AWS
3 142 (4.59%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
5 104 (3.36%) OCI
6 91 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
7 84 (2.72%) GCP
8 82 (2.65%) SuccessFactors
9 73 (2.36%) Power Automate
10 55 (1.78%) Entra ID
11 54 (1.75%) SaaS
12 50 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
13 48 (1.55%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.13%) PowerApps
15 34 (1.10%) GitHub
16 26 (0.84%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
18 17 (0.55%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Azure AI
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.94%) Firewall
2 51 (1.65%) Network Security
3 31 (1.00%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
5 20 (0.65%) VPN
6 19 (0.61%) LAN
7 14 (0.45%) DNS
7 14 (0.45%) SAN
7 14 (0.45%) VSAN
8 10 (0.32%) NGFW
8 10 (0.32%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.23%) FTP
10 7 (0.23%) HTTP
10 7 (0.23%) IPsec
10 7 (0.23%) NAS
10 7 (0.23%) Wireless
11 6 (0.19%) MPLS
11 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (2.88%) Power BI
2 58 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.33%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.10%) Tableau
5 33 (1.07%) SQL Server
6 30 (0.97%) SAP BW
7 28 (0.91%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 25 (0.81%) Metadata
9 21 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.32%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 89 (2.88%) JIRA
2 19 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.52%) Git
3 16 (0.52%) Hudson
3 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.29%) GitLab
5 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.16%) Postman
6 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.097%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.097%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.097%) MLflow
8 3 (0.097%) Selenium
8 3 (0.097%) Snyk
8 3 (0.097%) TestRail
8 3 (0.097%) Toad
8 3 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.065%) LoadRunner
General
1 657 (21.25%) Finance
2 647 (20.92%) Social Skills
3 248 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
4 221 (7.15%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.53%) Manufacturing
6 91 (2.94%) Legal
7 88 (2.85%) Banking
8 81 (2.62%) Billing
9 66 (2.13%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.78%) Marketing
11 53 (1.71%) General Ledger
12 47 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
12 47 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
13 42 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 42 (1.36%) Retail
14 38 (1.23%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
16 26 (0.84%) Aerospace
17 24 (0.78%) Local Government
18 21 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (2.81%) Oracle Fusion
2 75 (2.43%) REST
3 61 (1.97%) XML
4 40 (1.29%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.16%) SOAP
6 35 (1.13%) Middleware
7 28 (0.91%) Web Services
8 27 (0.87%) BAPI
9 22 (0.71%) JSON
10 20 (0.65%) HTML
11 18 (0.58%) CSS
12 17 (0.55%) IDoc
12 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 17 (0.55%) SAP PI
13 15 (0.49%) OAuth
14 13 (0.42%) .NET
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 12 (0.39%) SAP TM
16 11 (0.36%) ADO
16 11 (0.36%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 104 (3.36%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.39%) CMDB
4 41 (1.33%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.10%) Product Ownership
6 33 (1.07%) AI Agents
7 32 (1.03%) Data Centre
8 31 (1.00%) Data Structures
8 31 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (0.87%) Operational Technology
10 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (0.61%) Life Science
11 19 (0.61%) Management Information System
12 18 (0.58%) NHS
12 18 (0.58%) Public Cloud
12 18 (0.58%) Replication
13 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (0.52%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 95 (3.07%) Windows
2 66 (2.13%) Linux
3 26 (0.84%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.61%) AIX
5 19 (0.61%) VMS
6 8 (0.26%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.19%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.097%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) zOS
12 1 (0.032%) SUSE
12 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 398 (12.87%) Migration
2 364 (11.77%) Stakeholder Management
3 277 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 258 (8.34%) Problem-Solving
5 246 (7.96%) ERP
6 232 (7.50%) User Acceptance Testing
7 210 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
8 205 (6.63%) Validation
9 201 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
10 184 (5.95%) Cybersecurity
11 176 (5.69%) Data Migration
12 174 (5.63%) Agile
13 170 (5.50%) Roadmaps
14 169 (5.47%) Analytics
15 161 (5.21%) AI
16 140 (4.53%) Business Intelligence
16 140 (4.53%) Requirements Gathering
17 130 (4.20%) Translating Business Requirements
18 125 (4.04%) Change Management
19 114 (3.69%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 251 (8.12%) SQL
2 126 (4.08%) Python
3 60 (1.94%) JavaScript
4 57 (1.84%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.81%) ABAP
6 55 (1.78%) PL/SQL
7 36 (1.16%) T-SQL
8 35 (1.13%) Java
9 18 (0.58%) Bash
10 13 (0.42%) C#
10 13 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 10 (0.32%) TypeScript
12 8 (0.26%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.23%) R
14 6 (0.19%) C++
14 6 (0.19%) Perl
15 5 (0.16%) Korn
16 4 (0.13%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 602 (19.47%) Security Cleared
2 417 (13.49%) SC Cleared
3 138 (4.46%) DV Cleared
4 87 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.46%) CISSP
6 71 (2.30%) Degree
7 59 (1.91%) CISM
8 37 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.81%) CCSP
11 19 (0.61%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) ACCA
13 14 (0.45%) CEH
13 14 (0.45%) PMP
14 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.39%) CRISC
14 12 (0.39%) OSCP
15 11 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
15 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
16 10 (0.32%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.91%) NIST
2 78 (2.52%) Data Quality
3 76 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 61 (1.97%) GRC
5 52 (1.68%) QA
6 39 (1.26%) GDPR
7 30 (0.97%) NCSC
8 29 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 25 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.68%) SLA
11 18 (0.58%) PMO
12 17 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 13 (0.42%) COBIT
13 13 (0.42%) GxP
14 9 (0.29%) JSP 440
14 9 (0.29%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
16 7 (0.23%) HL7
System Software
1 58 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.33%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.84%) vSphere
5 14 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.32%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 6 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.065%) Firmware
11 2 (0.065%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.032%) HDFS
12 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.032%) SRDF
12 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.71%) Terraform
2 42 (1.36%) Kubernetes
3 30 (0.97%) Ansible
4 23 (0.74%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.45%) Grafana
6 14 (0.45%) Netcool
6 14 (0.45%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) SCCM
8 12 (0.39%) vCenter Server
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) VxRail
12 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 643 (20.80%) SAP
2 385 (12.45%) Microsoft
3 357 (11.55%) Oracle
4 118 (3.82%) ServiceNow
5 93 (3.01%) VMware
6 63 (2.04%) Ariba
7 56 (1.81%) Salesforce
7 56 (1.81%) Workday
8 48 (1.55%) Splunk
9 39 (1.26%) Databricks
10 38 (1.23%) Siemens
11 27 (0.87%) Palo Alto
12 26 (0.84%) Google
13 24 (0.78%) BMC
13 24 (0.78%) IBM
13 24 (0.78%) OpenText
14 19 (0.61%) Adobe
15 17 (0.55%) Cisco
15 17 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 16 (0.52%) Informatica