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 January 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,563 2,101 2,672
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.74% 6.65% 6.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.37% 7.16% 6.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,484 1,133 1,550
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £525
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 13 39
10th Percentile £42.50 £63.44 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £71.62 £55.70
Median hourly rate £65.00 £82.50 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -21.21% +30.35% -6.93%
75th Percentile £78.25 £86.00 £83.13
90th Percentile £83.25 £87.25 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £82.50 £62.15
% change year-on-year -27.27% +32.75% -1.36%

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 34,755 29,351 41,026
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.84% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,967 17,954 27,186
10th Percentile £300 £291 £275
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £477 £500
% change year-on-year +0.16% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,062 872 2,014
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.64
Median hourly rate £27.72 £32.50 £38.10
Median % change year-on-year -14.72% -14.69% +9.53%
75th Percentile £60.72 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.98 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £30.98 £40.00
% change year-on-year -16.07% -22.56% +33.33%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -3 2,000 £550 - 1,296
UK excluding London 0 1,037 £550 - 1,108
Work from Home 0 943 £538 -2.27% 517
London -2 931 £575 +4.45% 434
South East -3 275 £540 -1.82% 398
North of England -7 271 £595 +8.68% 205
Midlands -17 181 £525 - 113
North West -4 162 £623 +15.71% 103
West Midlands -15 139 £550 +4.76% 49
South West +10 115 £588 +11.90% 209
Yorkshire 0 99 £550 -7.37% 83
East of England +8 97 £550 -2.22% 117
Scotland +8 64 £500 -9.09% 23
East Midlands -24 41 £505 -2.88% 61
Wales +10 29 £405 -26.36% 42
Northern Ireland +1 12 £405 -22.86% 26
North East -19 10 £525 -12.50% 19
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 January 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.

1 656 (25.60%) SAP
2 639 (24.93%) Security Cleared
3 534 (20.83%) SC Cleared
4 362 (14.12%) Migration
5 354 (13.81%) SAP S/4HANA
6 320 (12.49%) Problem-Solving
7 304 (11.86%) Oracle
8 296 (11.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 294 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
10 276 (10.77%) Microsoft
11 261 (10.18%) Azure
12 213 (8.31%) Workshop Facilitation
13 192 (7.49%) ERP
14 183 (7.14%) User Acceptance Testing
15 182 (7.10%) Agile
16 170 (6.63%) Analytics
17 158 (6.16%) Data Migration
18 153 (5.97%) Knowledge Transfer
19 150 (5.85%) SQL
20 143 (5.58%) Roadmaps
21 137 (5.35%) Validation
22 136 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
23 127 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
24 126 (4.92%) Cybersecurity
25 125 (4.88%) DevOps
26 117 (4.56%) Python
27 115 (4.49%) Risk Management
28 114 (4.45%) Power Platform
29 109 (4.25%) AI
30 108 (4.21%) AWS

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 59 (2.30%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.13%) Confluence
2 29 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.20%) CMS
4 5 (0.20%) MTS
4 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.078%) Apache
6 2 (0.078%) IIS
6 2 (0.078%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.078%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (0.078%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.039%) nginx
7 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
7 1 (0.039%) WebSphere
Applications
1 46 (1.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.27%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
7 3 (0.12%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 354 (13.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (2.85%) Oracle EBS
3 61 (2.38%) SAP FI
4 59 (2.30%) Oracle Payables
5 54 (2.11%) SAP EWM
6 53 (2.07%) Oracle Receivables
7 49 (1.91%) SAP MM
8 45 (1.76%) Oracle EBS R12
8 45 (1.76%) Oracle General Ledger
9 43 (1.68%) SAP HCM
10 41 (1.60%) SAP PP
11 39 (1.52%) SAP CO
12 38 (1.48%) Oracle Cash Management
13 36 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
13 36 (1.40%) SAP FI/CO
14 34 (1.33%) Oracle Assets
15 33 (1.29%) SAP Payroll
15 33 (1.29%) SAP WM
16 27 (1.05%) SAP PSCD
17 26 (1.01%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 261 (10.18%) Azure
2 127 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
3 114 (4.45%) Power Platform
4 108 (4.21%) AWS
5 101 (3.94%) OCI
6 73 (2.85%) GCP
7 66 (2.58%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.42%) SaaS
9 56 (2.18%) Entra ID
10 40 (1.56%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.44%) Power Automate
12 34 (1.33%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.17%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
15 22 (0.86%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.78%) GitHub
17 18 (0.70%) OneDrive
17 18 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 18 (0.70%) Serverless
18 17 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.95%) Firewall
2 19 (0.74%) DNS
3 18 (0.70%) VPN
4 15 (0.59%) Network Security
4 15 (0.59%) WAN
5 14 (0.55%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.51%) HTTP
6 13 (0.51%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.47%) DHCP
7 12 (0.47%) SMS
7 12 (0.47%) SSL
8 10 (0.39%) TCP/IP
9 9 (0.35%) SSH
10 8 (0.31%) Intranet
11 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
11 7 (0.27%) LAN
11 7 (0.27%) SAN
11 7 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
12 6 (0.23%) BGP
12 6 (0.23%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.12%) Power BI
2 47 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
3 43 (1.68%) SAP HANA
4 32 (1.25%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.94%) Metadata
6 22 (0.86%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 21 (0.82%) SAP BW
8 16 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.55%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
12 10 (0.39%) Tableau
13 9 (0.35%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.27%) DB2
14 7 (0.27%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
15 6 (0.23%) GIS
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 63 (2.46%) JIRA
2 20 (0.78%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.66%) Git
4 16 (0.62%) GitLab
5 13 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
6 9 (0.35%) Hudson
7 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.20%) LSMW
9 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.16%) Postman
10 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
10 3 (0.12%) Selenium
11 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.078%) git-flow
11 2 (0.078%) Mockito
11 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.078%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 725 (28.29%) Social Skills
2 578 (22.55%) Finance
3 250 (9.75%) Public Sector
4 227 (8.86%) Analytical Skills
5 139 (5.42%) Manufacturing
6 92 (3.59%) Banking
7 80 (3.12%) Documentation Skills
8 71 (2.77%) Marketing
9 59 (2.30%) Billing
10 56 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
11 55 (2.15%) Legal
12 46 (1.79%) General Ledger
13 42 (1.64%) Telecoms
14 31 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.17%) Retail
16 29 (1.13%) Law
17 23 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
18 21 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 20 (0.78%) Financial Institution
20 18 (0.70%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.20%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.85%) REST
3 70 (2.73%) SAP Fiori
4 43 (1.68%) Web Services
5 38 (1.48%) SAP TM
5 38 (1.48%) SOAP
6 34 (1.33%) XML
7 29 (1.13%) LDAP
7 29 (1.13%) Node.js
8 22 (0.86%) BAPI
8 22 (0.86%) Middleware
9 20 (0.78%) JSON
10 19 (0.74%) SAP PI
11 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
11 18 (0.70%) HTML
12 16 (0.62%) .NET
13 15 (0.59%) CSS
13 15 (0.59%) OAuth
14 14 (0.55%) Kafka
14 14 (0.55%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.04%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.72%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.44%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.25%) Data Centre
6 31 (1.21%) Cloud Native
7 29 (1.13%) Management Information System
8 24 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (0.94%) Data Structures
8 24 (0.94%) Replication
9 19 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
10 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
11 15 (0.59%) NHS
11 15 (0.59%) Operational Technology
12 14 (0.55%) Public Cloud
13 12 (0.47%) AI Agents
13 12 (0.47%) Life Science
14 10 (0.39%) FMCG
14 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 75 (2.93%) Windows
2 54 (2.11%) Linux
3 23 (0.90%) Unix
4 14 (0.55%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.43%) 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 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) zOS
11 2 (0.078%) CentOS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 362 (14.12%) Migration
2 320 (12.49%) Problem-Solving
3 296 (11.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 294 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
5 213 (8.31%) Workshop Facilitation
6 192 (7.49%) ERP
7 183 (7.14%) User Acceptance Testing
8 182 (7.10%) Agile
9 170 (6.63%) Analytics
10 158 (6.16%) Data Migration
11 153 (5.97%) Knowledge Transfer
12 143 (5.58%) Roadmaps
13 137 (5.35%) Validation
14 136 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
15 126 (4.92%) Cybersecurity
16 125 (4.88%) DevOps
17 115 (4.49%) Risk Management
18 109 (4.25%) AI
19 106 (4.14%) Continuous Improvement
20 104 (4.06%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 150 (5.85%) SQL
2 117 (4.56%) Python
3 88 (3.43%) PowerShell
4 78 (3.04%) JavaScript
5 66 (2.58%) ABAP
6 40 (1.56%) Java
7 28 (1.09%) TypeScript
8 27 (1.05%) Groovy
9 24 (0.94%) PL/SQL
10 17 (0.66%) Bash
10 17 (0.66%) C#
11 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 9 (0.35%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.31%) Apex Code
13 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.27%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
16 5 (0.20%) Bicep
16 5 (0.20%) VBA
Qualifications
1 639 (24.93%) Security Cleared
2 534 (20.83%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.90%) Degree
4 81 (3.16%) DV Cleared
5 74 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (1.95%) CISSP
7 32 (1.25%) CISM
8 30 (1.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 26 (1.01%) SAP Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
11 16 (0.62%) CIMA
12 15 (0.59%) Master's Degree
13 14 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (0.43%) ACCA
14 11 (0.43%) CCNP
15 10 (0.39%) AWS Certification
16 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
17 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
18 7 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (2.85%) NIST
3 70 (2.73%) GDPR
4 56 (2.18%) QA
5 49 (1.91%) Data Quality
6 39 (1.52%) GRC
7 20 (0.78%) SLA
8 19 (0.74%) NCSC
9 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
10 17 (0.66%) PMO
11 12 (0.47%) PCI DSS
11 12 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.43%) PERC
13 9 (0.35%) COBIT
14 8 (0.31%) Accessibility
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
15 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 7 (0.27%) JSP 440
System Software
1 71 (2.77%) Active Directory
2 45 (1.76%) Docker
3 32 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.01%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
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 61 (2.38%) Kubernetes
2 38 (1.48%) Terraform
3 32 (1.25%) vRealize
4 22 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.70%) Ansible
5 18 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.47%) Grafana
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.23%) Podman
11 6 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.12%) CASB
12 3 (0.12%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
12 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
12 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 656 (25.60%) SAP
2 304 (11.86%) Oracle
3 276 (10.77%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.59%) VMware
5 79 (3.08%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.46%) Workday
7 60 (2.34%) Salesforce
8 59 (2.30%) CyberArk
9 54 (2.11%) Cisco
10 51 (1.99%) Ariba
11 37 (1.44%) Google
12 36 (1.40%) Aruba
13 33 (1.29%) Adobe
14 22 (0.86%) OpenText
15 19 (0.74%) Databricks
16 18 (0.70%) Dynatrace
17 14 (0.55%) Dell
17 14 (0.55%) Murex
18 12 (0.47%) Siemens
18 12 (0.47%) Splunk