Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £548, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 May 2026.

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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,823 1,877 2,713
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.78% 6.55% 6.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.26% 7.10% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,572 1,102 1,695
10th Percentile £395 £413 £400
25th Percentile £456 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.45% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -1.49% -2.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 23 28
10th Percentile £39.25 £27.93 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £85.55 £87.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
% change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.15%

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 45,082 26,443 39,660
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.30% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,504 17,178 25,818
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,000 1,028 2,760
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.80
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.09 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.63 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.54
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.30 £40.00
% change year-on-year +72.35% -36.75% -5.88%

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 28 May 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 28 May 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 28 May 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 -2 2,251 £550 - 1,863
UK excluding London +2 1,179 £530 -1.49% 1,132
London -1 1,038 £550 -4.35% 858
Work from Home -2 998 £550 - 856
South East -4 337 £525 -4.55% 276
North of England -21 250 £550 +3.77% 377
Midlands -15 234 £525 -3.45% 101
South West +36 197 £600 +9.09% 206
West Midlands -5 158 £530 -3.64% 76
North West -17 120 £519 -4.38% 271
Yorkshire -11 109 £550 +15.79% 77
East of England -9 69 £550 +7.32% 64
Scotland +23 68 £425 -10.53% 61
East Midlands -13 68 £500 -3.85% 25
Wales +1 30 £550 +37.50% 12
North East -29 21 £725 +35.77% 29
Northern Ireland 0 3 £600 +15.38% 45

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 May 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.

1 583 (20.65%) SAP
2 527 (18.67%) Security Cleared
3 398 (14.10%) SC Cleared
4 364 (12.89%) Migration
5 315 (11.16%) Microsoft
5 315 (11.16%) Oracle
6 309 (10.95%) Azure
7 263 (9.32%) Problem-Solving
8 255 (9.03%) SAP S/4HANA
9 249 (8.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 242 (8.57%) Stakeholder Management
11 241 (8.54%) ERP
12 212 (7.51%) SQL
13 196 (6.94%) User Acceptance Testing
14 188 (6.66%) Workshop Facilitation
15 183 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
16 169 (5.99%) Data Migration
17 166 (5.88%) Validation
18 159 (5.63%) Agile
19 152 (5.38%) Cybersecurity
20 146 (5.17%) Roadmaps
21 145 (5.14%) Power Platform
22 144 (5.10%) Analytics
23 142 (5.03%) Dynamics 365
24 139 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
25 133 (4.71%) AI
26 131 (4.64%) AWS
27 112 (3.97%) Change Management
27 112 (3.97%) DevOps
28 110 (3.90%) Python

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 81 (2.87%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.59%) Confluence
3 14 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) SAS
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.035%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 74 (2.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
5 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.071%) Lectora
7 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.035%) CATIA
8 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 255 (9.03%) SAP S/4HANA
2 70 (2.48%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (1.95%) SAP FI
4 43 (1.52%) SAP PSCD
5 41 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
5 41 (1.45%) SAP MM
6 34 (1.20%) Oracle Receivables
7 32 (1.13%) SAP BRIM
8 31 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
9 28 (0.99%) SAP EWM
9 28 (0.99%) SAP PP
9 28 (0.99%) Teamcenter
10 27 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
10 27 (0.96%) SAP SD
10 27 (0.96%) SAP Travel Management
11 25 (0.89%) Oracle EBS R12
11 25 (0.89%) SAP CO
12 24 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
12 24 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
12 24 (0.85%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 309 (10.95%) Azure
2 145 (5.14%) Power Platform
3 142 (5.03%) Dynamics 365
4 131 (4.64%) AWS
5 91 (3.22%) OCI
6 80 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
7 68 (2.41%) Power Automate
8 67 (2.37%) GCP
9 61 (2.16%) SuccessFactors
10 58 (2.05%) SaaS
11 46 (1.63%) Entra ID
12 44 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
13 40 (1.42%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.24%) PowerApps
15 32 (1.13%) GitHub
16 29 (1.03%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.71%) Copilot Studio
18 19 (0.67%) Serverless
19 15 (0.53%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.53%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.28%) Firewall
2 34 (1.20%) Network Security
3 21 (0.74%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 13 (0.46%) DNS
5 13 (0.46%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) WAN
7 11 (0.39%) LAN
7 11 (0.39%) VPN
8 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
8 10 (0.35%) VSAN
9 9 (0.32%) FTP
10 8 (0.28%) Intranet
10 8 (0.28%) NAS
10 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
11 6 (0.21%) HTTP
11 6 (0.21%) Kerberos
11 6 (0.21%) NGFW
11 6 (0.21%) VLAN
11 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (2.98%) Power BI
2 54 (1.91%) Oracle Reports
3 32 (1.13%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.06%) Tableau
5 25 (0.89%) Metadata
5 25 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 23 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
8 15 (0.53%) SAP BW
9 14 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
11 8 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.25%) GIS
12 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.25%) Power Query
12 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
13 6 (0.21%) Essbase
13 6 (0.21%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 79 (2.80%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.60%) Hudson
4 12 (0.43%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.39%) Git
6 8 (0.28%) GitLab
7 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.11%) Toad
10 2 (0.071%) git-flow
10 2 (0.071%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.071%) JUnit
10 2 (0.071%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.071%) Selenium
11 1 (0.035%) Bitbucket
General
1 599 (21.22%) Social Skills
2 593 (21.01%) Finance
3 242 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
4 196 (6.94%) Public Sector
5 98 (3.47%) Banking
6 88 (3.12%) Manufacturing
7 63 (2.23%) Billing
8 61 (2.16%) Legal
8 61 (2.16%) Marketing
9 50 (1.77%) General Ledger
10 48 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
11 38 (1.35%) Telecoms
12 34 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
13 31 (1.10%) Retail
14 30 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 28 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
16 24 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
17 22 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
18 19 (0.67%) Law
19 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (2.55%) REST
2 71 (2.52%) Oracle Fusion
3 59 (2.09%) XML
4 28 (0.99%) SAP TM
5 27 (0.96%) Middleware
6 25 (0.89%) Web Services
7 24 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
8 23 (0.81%) SOAP
9 22 (0.78%) BAPI
10 18 (0.64%) .NET
10 18 (0.64%) HTML
10 18 (0.64%) JSON
11 16 (0.57%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.53%) CSS
12 15 (0.53%) LDAP
13 12 (0.43%) OAuth
14 10 (0.35%) IDoc
14 10 (0.35%) Kafka
14 10 (0.35%) React
15 9 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 63 (2.23%) Onboarding
2 45 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
3 44 (1.56%) Security Posture
4 38 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
5 34 (1.20%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.13%) Operational Technology
7 29 (1.03%) AI Agents
8 24 (0.85%) Data Centre
9 23 (0.81%) Data Structures
10 22 (0.78%) Cloud Native
10 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
11 21 (0.74%) CMDB
11 21 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.74%) NHS
12 20 (0.71%) Life Science
13 16 (0.57%) Replication
14 15 (0.53%) Public Cloud
15 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
16 13 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.46%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 79 (2.80%) Windows
2 61 (2.16%) Linux
3 20 (0.71%) VMS
4 19 (0.67%) Solaris
5 17 (0.60%) AIX
6 16 (0.57%) Unix
7 7 (0.25%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.18%) zOS
9 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.071%) Android
11 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 364 (12.89%) Migration
2 263 (9.32%) Problem-Solving
3 249 (8.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 242 (8.57%) Stakeholder Management
5 241 (8.54%) ERP
6 196 (6.94%) User Acceptance Testing
7 188 (6.66%) Workshop Facilitation
8 183 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
9 169 (5.99%) Data Migration
10 166 (5.88%) Validation
11 159 (5.63%) Agile
12 152 (5.38%) Cybersecurity
13 146 (5.17%) Roadmaps
14 144 (5.10%) Analytics
15 139 (4.92%) Business Intelligence
16 133 (4.71%) AI
17 112 (3.97%) Change Management
17 112 (3.97%) DevOps
18 109 (3.86%) Translating Business Requirements
19 101 (3.58%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 212 (7.51%) SQL
2 110 (3.90%) Python
3 68 (2.41%) JavaScript
4 55 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.74%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.24%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.10%) Java
8 29 (1.03%) ABAP
9 20 (0.71%) C#
10 14 (0.50%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.43%) Bash
13 10 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 10 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
14 8 (0.28%) R
14 8 (0.28%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.25%) C++
15 7 (0.25%) Groovy
16 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
17 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 527 (18.67%) Security Cleared
2 398 (14.10%) SC Cleared
3 107 (3.79%) DV Cleared
4 81 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 74 (2.62%) CISSP
6 68 (2.41%) Degree
7 56 (1.98%) CISM
8 27 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (0.78%) CCSP
9 22 (0.78%) CIMA
10 19 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 15 (0.53%) CEH
12 14 (0.50%) PMP
13 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
14 12 (0.43%) ACCA
14 12 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
15 11 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 11 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.01%) NIST
2 76 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 66 (2.34%) Data Quality
4 52 (1.84%) GRC
5 44 (1.56%) GDPR
6 37 (1.31%) QA
7 27 (0.96%) NCSC
8 26 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
9 20 (0.71%) SLA
10 19 (0.67%) PMO
11 18 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.50%) COBIT
13 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
14 10 (0.35%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 8 (0.28%) RMADS
17 7 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 47 (1.66%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.28%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.89%) vSphere
5 18 (0.64%) Docker
6 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.21%) IAG
8 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.035%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.035%) HDFS
10 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.035%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.035%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.035%) SRDF
10 1 (0.035%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.88%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.31%) Terraform
3 27 (0.96%) vRealize
4 19 (0.67%) Ansible
5 16 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.25%) SCCM
10 7 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
11 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 583 (20.65%) SAP
2 315 (11.16%) Microsoft
2 315 (11.16%) Oracle
3 90 (3.19%) VMware
4 82 (2.90%) ServiceNow
5 64 (2.27%) Ariba
6 54 (1.91%) Siemens
7 52 (1.84%) Salesforce
7 52 (1.84%) Workday
8 36 (1.28%) Splunk
9 29 (1.03%) Databricks
9 29 (1.03%) Google
10 26 (0.92%) BMC
11 24 (0.85%) IBM
12 20 (0.71%) Palo Alto
13 18 (0.64%) Adobe
14 17 (0.60%) IFS
15 16 (0.57%) Sage
15 16 (0.57%) SolarWinds
16 14 (0.50%) HP