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 3 December 2025.

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

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 27 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 0 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,575 2,462 2,822
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.11% 6.87% 6.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.81% 7.41% 6.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,497 1,313 1,577
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £473 £481 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £648 £638 £645
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 37
10th Percentile £42.21 £49.30 £51.32
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 £87.00
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 32,959 33,240 42,117
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.98% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,905 20,226 28,386
10th Percentile £284 £300 £293
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 1,918 1,167 1,500
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.48 £15.24
25th Percentile £17.91 £20.75 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.47 £73.53 £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 3 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 3 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 3 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 2,016 £550 - 1,466
UK excluding London -3 1,064 £550 -4.35% 1,285
Work from Home +1 935 £550 - 626
London 0 927 £575 +4.55% 501
North of England -5 291 £583 +2.82% 255
South East -3 279 £545 -5.22% 467
North West +3 203 £620 +12.73% 143
Midlands -18 157 £575 +4.55% 154
West Midlands -12 121 £575 +9.52% 87
East of England +11 117 £550 +10.00% 103
South West +2 106 £550 -4.35% 220
Yorkshire -11 81 £485 -19.17% 99
Scotland -1 71 £500 -9.34% 49
East Midlands -28 35 £590 +2.61% 60
Wales +6 33 £405 -32.50% 33
Northern Ireland -9 13 £405 -32.50% 16
North East -9 7 £550 -8.33% 13
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 698 (27.11%) SAP
2 660 (25.63%) Security Cleared
3 555 (21.55%) SC Cleared
4 368 (14.29%) SAP S/4HANA
5 340 (13.20%) Migration
6 330 (12.82%) Problem-Solving
7 298 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 294 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 293 (11.38%) Oracle
10 283 (10.99%) Microsoft
11 227 (8.82%) Azure
12 217 (8.43%) Agile
13 183 (7.11%) Workshop Facilitation
14 169 (6.56%) ERP
15 165 (6.41%) SQL
16 161 (6.25%) Data Migration
17 160 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
18 159 (6.17%) Analytics
19 154 (5.98%) Roadmaps
20 153 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
21 139 (5.40%) Validation
22 134 (5.20%) Cybersecurity
23 129 (5.01%) Python
24 125 (4.85%) DevOps
25 122 (4.74%) Business Intelligence
26 120 (4.66%) AWS
27 116 (4.50%) Requirements Gathering
27 116 (4.50%) Risk Management
28 115 (4.47%) Data Modelling
29 111 (4.31%) 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 60 (2.33%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 19 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.23%) Apache
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) IIS
10 5 (0.19%) MTS
11 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.078%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.078%) Camunda
14 1 (0.039%) Oracle Self-Service HR
Applications
1 38 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) 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
1 368 (14.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (3.50%) Oracle EBS
3 62 (2.41%) Oracle Payables
4 57 (2.21%) SAP FI
5 55 (2.14%) Oracle EBS R12
6 53 (2.06%) SAP MM
7 52 (2.02%) SAP HCM
8 48 (1.86%) Oracle General Ledger
8 48 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 42 (1.63%) Oracle Receivables
10 41 (1.59%) Oracle Cash Management
11 40 (1.55%) SAP CO
12 39 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
12 39 (1.51%) Oracle Assets
13 37 (1.44%) SAP FI/CO
13 37 (1.44%) SAP PP
14 35 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
15 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
16 29 (1.13%) Oracle Financials
17 27 (1.05%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 227 (8.82%) Azure
2 120 (4.66%) AWS
3 107 (4.16%) Power Platform
4 103 (4.00%) Dynamics 365
5 88 (3.42%) OCI
6 87 (3.38%) Microsoft 365
7 71 (2.76%) GCP
8 59 (2.29%) SuccessFactors
9 58 (2.25%) Entra ID
9 58 (2.25%) SaaS
10 42 (1.63%) Power Automate
11 32 (1.24%) PowerApps
12 30 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (0.93%) GitHub
14 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
15 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
17 15 (0.58%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 13 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.60%) Firewall
2 29 (1.13%) VPN
3 28 (1.09%) Network Security
4 26 (1.01%) DNS
5 20 (0.78%) WAN
6 18 (0.70%) SD-WAN
7 16 (0.62%) DHCP
8 15 (0.58%) HTTP
8 15 (0.58%) TCP/IP
9 14 (0.54%) SSL
10 13 (0.50%) BGP
11 12 (0.47%) OSPF
12 10 (0.39%) SSH
13 9 (0.35%) Kerberos
13 9 (0.35%) LAN
13 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 8 (0.31%) VLAN
15 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Internet
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.91%) Power BI
2 46 (1.79%) SAP HANA
3 43 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
4 41 (1.59%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.93%) Metadata
6 22 (0.85%) 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 (0.50%) DB2
12 11 (0.43%) Tableau
13 9 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
15 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
16 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 61 (2.37%) JIRA
2 24 (0.93%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.85%) Git
4 21 (0.82%) GitLab
5 9 (0.35%) Hudson
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
6 7 (0.27%) 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
1 747 (29.01%) Social Skills
2 594 (23.07%) Finance
3 245 (9.51%) Public Sector
4 241 (9.36%) Analytical Skills
5 174 (6.76%) Manufacturing
6 80 (3.11%) Banking
6 80 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
7 63 (2.45%) Presentation Skills
8 60 (2.33%) Marketing
9 58 (2.25%) Legal
10 56 (2.17%) Billing
11 52 (2.02%) Telecoms
12 45 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
13 44 (1.71%) General Ledger
14 33 (1.28%) Retail
15 27 (1.05%) Electronics
15 27 (1.05%) Law
16 23 (0.89%) Local Government
17 21 (0.82%) Financial Institution
17 21 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.18%) SAP Fiori
2 69 (2.68%) REST
3 64 (2.49%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.06%) SOAP
5 48 (1.86%) 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%) BAPI
11 25 (0.97%) LDAP
11 25 (0.97%) OAuth
12 20 (0.78%) EDI
13 19 (0.74%) SAP TM
14 18 (0.70%) CSS
14 18 (0.70%) SAP Basis
14 18 (0.70%) SAP PI
15 15 (0.58%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 83 (3.22%) Onboarding
2 57 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.51%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.44%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.28%) Cloud Native
5 33 (1.28%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.24%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
7 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
8 23 (0.89%) Replication
9 22 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
10 19 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
11 17 (0.66%) Virtual Team
12 16 (0.62%) Life Science
13 14 (0.54%) Private Cloud
14 13 (0.50%) CMDB
14 13 (0.50%) IoT
15 12 (0.47%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 82 (3.18%) Windows
2 55 (2.14%) Linux
3 18 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.62%) Unix
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 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%) OpenVMS
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%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (13.20%) Migration
2 330 (12.82%) Problem-Solving
3 298 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
4 294 (11.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 217 (8.43%) Agile
6 183 (7.11%) Workshop Facilitation
7 169 (6.56%) ERP
8 161 (6.25%) Data Migration
9 160 (6.21%) User Acceptance Testing
10 159 (6.17%) Analytics
11 154 (5.98%) Roadmaps
12 153 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
13 139 (5.40%) Validation
14 134 (5.20%) Cybersecurity
15 125 (4.85%) DevOps
16 122 (4.74%) Business Intelligence
17 116 (4.50%) Requirements Gathering
17 116 (4.50%) Risk Management
18 115 (4.47%) Data Modelling
19 105 (4.08%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 165 (6.41%) SQL
2 129 (5.01%) Python
3 90 (3.50%) PowerShell
4 75 (2.91%) JavaScript
5 73 (2.83%) ABAP
6 61 (2.37%) Java
7 31 (1.20%) PL/SQL
8 30 (1.17%) 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 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.27%) VBA
17 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
17 6 (0.23%) COBOL
18 5 (0.19%) Perl
Qualifications
1 660 (25.63%) Security Cleared
2 555 (21.55%) SC Cleared
3 111 (4.31%) Degree
4 90 (3.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 83 (3.22%) DV Cleared
6 68 (2.64%) CISSP
7 45 (1.75%) CISM
8 28 (1.09%) SAP Certification
9 27 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (0.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.78%) ACCA
11 20 (0.78%) CIMA
12 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
13 17 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
14 15 (0.58%) Master's Degree
15 14 (0.54%) CESG Certified Professional
16 13 (0.50%) CCNP
17 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
18 10 (0.39%) CISA
19 9 (0.35%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 76 (2.95%) NIST
3 65 (2.52%) GDPR
4 57 (2.21%) QA
5 43 (1.67%) Data Quality
6 32 (1.24%) GRC
7 19 (0.74%) SLA
8 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
8 18 (0.70%) NCSC
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%) IFRS
12 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
13 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 78 (3.03%) Active Directory
2 45 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.51%) 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 55 (2.14%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.02%) Terraform
3 25 (0.97%) Ansible
4 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (0.85%) vRealize
7 16 (0.62%) SCCM
8 13 (0.50%) Grafana
9 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
9 11 (0.43%) 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%) Istio
Vendors
1 698 (27.11%) SAP
2 293 (11.38%) Oracle
3 283 (10.99%) Microsoft
4 98 (3.81%) VMware
5 79 (3.07%) ServiceNow
6 64 (2.49%) Cisco
7 61 (2.37%) CyberArk
7 61 (2.37%) Salesforce
8 60 (2.33%) Workday
9 49 (1.90%) Ariba
10 37 (1.44%) Google
11 35 (1.36%) Aruba
12 31 (1.20%) Adobe
12 31 (1.20%) Dynatrace
12 31 (1.20%) IBM
13 25 (0.97%) OpenText
14 18 (0.70%) Remedy
14 18 (0.70%) Splunk
15 17 (0.66%) EMC
15 17 (0.66%) Palo Alto