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 21 November 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 23 27 29
Rank change year-on-year +4 +2 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,584 2,532 2,882
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.20% 6.94% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.92% 7.48% 6.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,507 1,342 1,611
10th Percentile £403 £413 £406
25th Percentile £470 £481 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.22%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 18 41
10th Percentile £35.43 £50.73 £50.00
25th Percentile £55.94 £57.86 £61.04
Median hourly rate £74.75 £68.69 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +8.83% +1.38% -4.91%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.84 £86.25
90th Percentile £85.73 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £69.38 £63.29
% change year-on-year +11.71% +9.61% -12.70%

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 32,630 33,866 43,334
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.96% 92.82% 93.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,686 20,426 29,351
10th Percentile £280 £300 £292
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 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,921 1,265 1,542
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -20.00% +50.00%
75th Percentile £55.85 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +83.67%

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 21 November 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 21 November 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 21 November 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 2,006 £550 - 1,773
UK excluding London -2 1,078 £550 -4.35% 1,024
Work from Home 0 955 £541 -1.59% 906
London -1 908 £575 +4.55% 845
North of England -9 293 £581 +2.47% 234
South East 0 276 £525 -8.70% 383
North West +1 203 £620 +12.73% 143
Midlands -22 160 £575 +4.55% 105
East of England +15 123 £550 +7.32% 59
West Midlands -19 117 £563 +8.17% 70
South West 0 109 £550 -8.33% 182
Yorkshire -17 84 £475 -20.83% 69
Scotland -10 72 £500 -11.50% 34
East Midlands -16 42 £590 +2.61% 32
Wales +8 34 £405 -32.50% 20
Northern Ireland -12 14 £405 -32.50% 16
North East -13 6 £550 -8.33% 22
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 November 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.

1 703 (27.21%) SAP
2 668 (25.85%) Security Cleared
3 565 (21.87%) SC Cleared
4 374 (14.47%) SAP S/4HANA
5 336 (13.00%) Migration
6 333 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
7 291 (11.26%) Microsoft
8 287 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 285 (11.03%) Oracle
10 284 (10.99%) Stakeholder Management
11 216 (8.36%) Agile
11 216 (8.36%) Azure
12 182 (7.04%) SQL
13 171 (6.62%) ERP
13 171 (6.62%) Workshop Facilitation
14 165 (6.39%) Analytics
15 159 (6.15%) Data Migration
16 150 (5.80%) Roadmaps
17 144 (5.57%) Knowledge Transfer
17 144 (5.57%) Validation
18 143 (5.53%) User Acceptance Testing
19 136 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
20 131 (5.07%) Python
21 128 (4.95%) DevOps
21 128 (4.95%) Requirements Gathering
22 126 (4.88%) AWS
23 122 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
24 115 (4.45%) Risk Management
25 113 (4.37%) Data Modelling
26 109 (4.22%) 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 57 (2.21%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 26 (1.01%) Confluence
4 23 (0.89%) WebLogic
5 22 (0.85%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.35%) Apache
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
7 9 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
8 8 (0.31%) IIS
9 6 (0.23%) CMS
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) MTS
11 4 (0.15%) Apache Spark
12 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
13 2 (0.077%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.077%) Camunda
Applications
1 40 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.077%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.039%) InDesign
10 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.039%) InVision
10 1 (0.039%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 374 (14.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 85 (3.29%) Oracle EBS
3 61 (2.36%) SAP FI
4 54 (2.09%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.05%) Oracle EBS R12
6 52 (2.01%) SAP MM
7 50 (1.93%) SAP HCM
8 47 (1.82%) SAP EWM
9 44 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
10 43 (1.66%) SAP CO
11 42 (1.63%) Oracle General Ledger
12 41 (1.59%) SAP FI/CO
13 37 (1.43%) Oracle Cash Management
14 36 (1.39%) SAP Payroll
15 34 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
15 34 (1.32%) SAP PP
15 34 (1.32%) SAP WM
16 33 (1.28%) Oracle Assets
17 28 (1.08%) Oracle Financials
18 27 (1.04%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 216 (8.36%) Azure
2 126 (4.88%) AWS
3 106 (4.10%) Power Platform
4 104 (4.02%) Dynamics 365
5 88 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
5 88 (3.41%) OCI
6 66 (2.55%) GCP
7 60 (2.32%) SuccessFactors
8 58 (2.24%) SaaS
9 56 (2.17%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.51%) Power Automate
11 29 (1.12%) PowerApps
12 24 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (0.89%) GitHub
13 23 (0.89%) OneDrive
14 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
14 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Purview
15 16 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
16 14 (0.54%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 13 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 68 (2.63%) Firewall
2 36 (1.39%) Network Security
3 29 (1.12%) VPN
4 27 (1.04%) DNS
5 22 (0.85%) WAN
6 20 (0.77%) SD-WAN
7 18 (0.70%) DHCP
8 16 (0.62%) HTTP
9 15 (0.58%) SSL
10 13 (0.50%) TCP/IP
11 12 (0.46%) BGP
12 11 (0.43%) OSPF
13 10 (0.39%) SSH
14 9 (0.35%) LAN
14 9 (0.35%) SAN
14 9 (0.35%) VSAN
15 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
15 7 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.27%) Kerberos
15 7 (0.27%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.79%) Power BI
2 48 (1.86%) SAP HANA
3 45 (1.74%) SQL Server
4 41 (1.59%) Oracle Reports
5 24 (0.93%) Metadata
6 20 (0.77%) SAP BW
7 18 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.62%) DB2
8 16 (0.62%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 15 (0.58%) SAP Data Services
10 14 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 9 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
13 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
14 6 (0.23%) Power Query
15 5 (0.19%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 59 (2.28%) JIRA
2 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.85%) GitLab
4 20 (0.77%) Git
5 10 (0.39%) LSMW
6 9 (0.35%) Oracle Forms
7 8 (0.31%) Hudson
8 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.15%) Postman
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Snyk
10 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.077%) JUnit
10 2 (0.077%) Mockito
10 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 755 (29.22%) Social Skills
2 577 (22.33%) Finance
3 247 (9.56%) Analytical Skills
4 243 (9.40%) Public Sector
5 177 (6.85%) Manufacturing
6 84 (3.25%) Documentation Skills
7 80 (3.10%) Banking
8 66 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
9 60 (2.32%) Marketing
10 59 (2.28%) Billing
11 55 (2.13%) Legal
11 55 (2.13%) Telecoms
12 46 (1.78%) Pharmaceutical
13 38 (1.47%) General Ledger
14 36 (1.39%) Retail
15 26 (1.01%) Electronics
15 26 (1.01%) Law
16 25 (0.97%) Local Government
17 20 (0.77%) Financial Institution
18 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.29%) SAP Fiori
2 64 (2.48%) REST
3 62 (2.40%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.05%) SOAP
5 49 (1.90%) Web Services
6 48 (1.86%) XML
7 41 (1.59%) HTML
8 34 (1.32%) Node.js
9 32 (1.24%) Middleware
10 27 (1.04%) JSON
11 26 (1.01%) BAPI
11 26 (1.01%) OAuth
12 24 (0.93%) .NET
13 23 (0.89%) EDI
13 23 (0.89%) LDAP
14 22 (0.85%) CSS
15 20 (0.77%) SAP TM
16 19 (0.74%) SAP Basis
17 17 (0.66%) IDoc
18 16 (0.62%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 81 (3.13%) Onboarding
2 55 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.55%) Security Posture
4 37 (1.43%) Product Ownership
5 36 (1.39%) Management Information System
6 33 (1.28%) Data Centre
7 30 (1.16%) Cloud Native
8 24 (0.93%) Replication
9 22 (0.85%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
9 22 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
10 20 (0.77%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (0.77%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (0.77%) Operational Technology
11 18 (0.70%) Life Science
11 18 (0.70%) Private Cloud
11 18 (0.70%) Virtual Team
12 15 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (0.50%) CMDB
13 13 (0.50%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 83 (3.21%) Windows
2 56 (2.17%) Linux
3 19 (0.74%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.66%) Unix
5 12 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.31%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.077%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.039%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 336 (13.00%) Migration
2 333 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
3 287 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 284 (10.99%) Stakeholder Management
5 216 (8.36%) Agile
6 171 (6.62%) ERP
6 171 (6.62%) Workshop Facilitation
7 165 (6.39%) Analytics
8 159 (6.15%) Data Migration
9 150 (5.80%) Roadmaps
10 144 (5.57%) Knowledge Transfer
10 144 (5.57%) Validation
11 143 (5.53%) User Acceptance Testing
12 136 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
13 128 (4.95%) DevOps
13 128 (4.95%) Requirements Gathering
14 122 (4.72%) Business Intelligence
15 115 (4.45%) Risk Management
16 113 (4.37%) Data Modelling
17 105 (4.06%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 182 (7.04%) SQL
2 131 (5.07%) Python
3 87 (3.37%) PowerShell
4 81 (3.13%) JavaScript
5 73 (2.83%) ABAP
6 61 (2.36%) Java
7 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 26 (1.01%) Groovy
9 21 (0.81%) C++
10 18 (0.70%) Bash
11 16 (0.62%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.58%) C
13 14 (0.54%) PHP
14 12 (0.46%) C#
15 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.27%) VBA
18 6 (0.23%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.23%) COBOL
19 5 (0.19%) R
Qualifications
1 668 (25.85%) Security Cleared
2 565 (21.87%) SC Cleared
3 109 (4.22%) Degree
4 92 (3.56%) DV Cleared
5 87 (3.37%) BPSS Clearance
6 73 (2.83%) CISSP
7 47 (1.82%) CISM
8 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
9 27 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
10 24 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 21 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
12 20 (0.77%) ACCA
12 20 (0.77%) CIMA
13 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
14 15 (0.58%) CCNP
14 15 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
15 14 (0.54%) Master's Degree
16 13 (0.50%) AWS Certification
17 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
18 10 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 78 (3.02%) NIST
3 65 (2.52%) GDPR
4 63 (2.44%) QA
5 42 (1.63%) Data Quality
6 30 (1.16%) GRC
7 21 (0.81%) SLA
8 17 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
9 16 (0.62%) NCSC
9 16 (0.62%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.62%) RMADS
10 15 (0.58%) COBIT
10 15 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 13 (0.50%) PMO
12 11 (0.43%) Accessibility
13 10 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.39%) IFRS
14 9 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.35%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
System Software
1 74 (2.86%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.51%) Docker
4 28 (1.08%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.85%) 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 (0.15%) Firmware
8 4 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.15%) UAG
9 1 (0.039%) Ceph
9 1 (0.039%) IAG
9 1 (0.039%) KVM
9 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.039%) QEMU
9 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.039%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.09%) Kubernetes
2 53 (2.05%) Terraform
3 26 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
4 23 (0.89%) Ansible
4 23 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (0.89%) vRealize
5 16 (0.62%) SCCM
6 12 (0.46%) Grafana
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.27%) CASB
10 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.23%) PowerCLI
11 5 (0.19%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.19%) QRadar
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.15%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 703 (27.21%) SAP
2 291 (11.26%) Microsoft
3 285 (11.03%) Oracle
4 98 (3.79%) VMware
5 86 (3.33%) ServiceNow
6 71 (2.75%) Cisco
7 64 (2.48%) CyberArk
8 62 (2.40%) Workday
9 60 (2.32%) Salesforce
10 48 (1.86%) Ariba
11 37 (1.43%) Google
12 35 (1.35%) Aruba
13 34 (1.32%) IBM
14 31 (1.20%) Adobe
15 30 (1.16%) Dynatrace
16 26 (1.01%) OpenText
17 22 (0.85%) Splunk
18 18 (0.70%) IFS
18 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
18 18 (0.70%) Remedy