Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 May 2026.

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

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,770 1,896 2,727
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.82% 6.54% 6.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.31% 7.08% 6.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,534 1,101 1,700
10th Percentile £383 £413 £400
25th Percentile £450 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -
75th Percentile £631 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 19 30
10th Percentile £51.00 £40.58 £27.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £56.50 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £75.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -23.33% +21.75% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.22
90th Percentile £83.45 £87.50 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £60.00
% change year-on-year -24.59% +27.08% -8.40%

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 43,905 26,796 39,671
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.46% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,903 17,460 25,789
10th Percentile £320 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £614 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.21% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,866 1,033 2,665
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.20 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.43 £28.18 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.13% -24.85% -16.67%
75th Percentile £66.50 £62.25 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.26
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.24 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.21% -31.91% -4.94%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 2,195 £540 -1.82% 1,409
UK excluding London -2 1,143 £525 -2.42% 969
London -2 1,027 £550 -4.35% 549
Work from Home -1 970 £550 - 605
South East -4 336 £525 -6.67% 250
Midlands -16 229 £525 -2.33% 110
North of England -21 226 £525 -1.69% 298
South West +26 184 £550 +4.76% 194
West Midlands -5 154 £550 - 81
North West -28 105 £518 -4.93% 191
Yorkshire -7 102 £538 +6.17% 74
East of England -16 72 £550 +10.00% 61
Scotland +35 71 £425 -15.00% 24
East Midlands -16 67 £500 -3.85% 30
Wales +4 30 £550 +37.50% 26
North East -22 19 £538 +0.66% 34
Northern Ireland -2 3 £600 +15.38% 19

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 581 (20.97%) SAP
2 522 (18.84%) Security Cleared
3 406 (14.66%) SC Cleared
4 358 (12.92%) Migration
5 318 (11.48%) Oracle
6 309 (11.16%) Azure
7 299 (10.79%) Microsoft
8 258 (9.31%) Problem-Solving
9 251 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
10 236 (8.52%) ERP
10 236 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
11 229 (8.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 212 (7.65%) SQL
13 197 (7.11%) User Acceptance Testing
14 187 (6.75%) Workshop Facilitation
15 166 (5.99%) Continuous Improvement
15 166 (5.99%) Data Migration
16 162 (5.85%) Agile
17 157 (5.67%) Validation
18 147 (5.31%) Dynamics 365
19 146 (5.27%) Cybersecurity
20 143 (5.16%) Analytics
21 142 (5.13%) Business Intelligence
21 142 (5.13%) Power Platform
21 142 (5.13%) Roadmaps
22 129 (4.66%) AI
22 129 (4.66%) AWS
23 114 (4.12%) Python
24 110 (3.97%) Change Management
25 108 (3.90%) Translating Business Requirements

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 (2.92%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.48%) Confluence
3 13 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.072%) IIS
8 2 (0.072%) SAS
8 2 (0.072%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) CMS
9 1 (0.036%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 66 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.072%) Lectora
8 2 (0.072%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.036%) CATIA
9 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 251 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 75 (2.71%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (2.06%) SAP FI
4 46 (1.66%) Oracle Payables
5 43 (1.55%) SAP PSCD
6 41 (1.48%) SAP MM
7 39 (1.41%) Oracle Receivables
8 32 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
9 31 (1.12%) SAP BRIM
9 31 (1.12%) SAP PP
10 30 (1.08%) Oracle EBS R12
10 30 (1.08%) SAP CO
11 28 (1.01%) SAP EWM
11 28 (1.01%) SAP FI/CO
11 28 (1.01%) Teamcenter
12 27 (0.97%) SAP Travel Management
13 25 (0.90%) SAP FI-CA
14 24 (0.87%) Oracle Assets
14 24 (0.87%) SAP SD
15 22 (0.79%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 309 (11.16%) Azure
2 147 (5.31%) Dynamics 365
3 142 (5.13%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.66%) AWS
5 100 (3.61%) OCI
6 73 (2.64%) Microsoft 365
7 72 (2.60%) GCP
8 65 (2.35%) Power Automate
8 65 (2.35%) SuccessFactors
9 62 (2.24%) SaaS
10 42 (1.52%) Entra ID
11 41 (1.48%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.41%) Microsoft Copilot
13 36 (1.30%) PowerApps
14 29 (1.05%) GitHub
15 28 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.69%) Copilot Studio
16 19 (0.69%) Serverless
17 17 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
18 15 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 31 (1.12%) Firewall
2 28 (1.01%) Network Security
3 20 (0.72%) SNMP
4 16 (0.58%) SMS
5 14 (0.51%) DNS
6 12 (0.43%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) VSAN
7 10 (0.36%) FTP
7 10 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.32%) VPN
8 9 (0.32%) WAN
9 8 (0.29%) Intranet
9 8 (0.29%) Kerberos
9 8 (0.29%) NAS
10 7 (0.25%) LAN
10 7 (0.25%) SD-WAN
11 6 (0.22%) HTTP
11 6 (0.22%) VLAN
12 5 (0.18%) DHCP
12 5 (0.18%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (3.10%) Power BI
2 55 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
3 33 (1.19%) SAP HANA
4 28 (1.01%) Tableau
5 27 (0.97%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.87%) Metadata
7 22 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 15 (0.54%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
11 9 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 7 (0.25%) GIS
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.22%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.22%) Essbase
14 6 (0.22%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.22%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.18%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 73 (2.64%) JIRA
2 19 (0.69%) Hudson
3 18 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
4 13 (0.47%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.36%) Git
6 9 (0.32%) 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%) Toad
10 2 (0.072%) git-flow
10 2 (0.072%) JUnit
10 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.072%) Selenium
11 1 (0.036%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.036%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.036%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 591 (21.34%) Finance
2 587 (21.19%) Social Skills
3 232 (8.38%) Analytical Skills
4 196 (7.08%) Public Sector
5 92 (3.32%) Banking
6 85 (3.07%) Manufacturing
7 62 (2.24%) Billing
7 62 (2.24%) Legal
8 58 (2.09%) Marketing
9 50 (1.81%) General Ledger
10 46 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
11 36 (1.30%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
12 33 (1.19%) Retail
13 25 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 24 (0.87%) Pharmaceutical
14 24 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
15 23 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
16 18 (0.65%) Law
17 15 (0.54%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (2.71%) Oracle Fusion
1 75 (2.71%) REST
2 62 (2.24%) XML
3 28 (1.01%) SAP TM
4 25 (0.90%) Middleware
5 24 (0.87%) SOAP
6 22 (0.79%) BAPI
6 22 (0.79%) Web Services
7 21 (0.76%) JSON
7 21 (0.76%) SAP Fiori
8 19 (0.69%) .NET
9 17 (0.61%) LDAP
10 16 (0.58%) HTML
10 16 (0.58%) SAP Basis
11 14 (0.51%) CSS
12 12 (0.43%) Node.js
13 11 (0.40%) IDoc
13 11 (0.40%) Kafka
13 11 (0.40%) React
14 10 (0.36%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 63 (2.27%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
3 42 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
4 38 (1.37%) Security Posture
5 30 (1.08%) Operational Technology
5 30 (1.08%) Product Ownership
6 28 (1.01%) AI Agents
7 24 (0.87%) Cloud Native
7 24 (0.87%) Data Structures
8 23 (0.83%) Data Centre
8 23 (0.83%) Management Information System
9 21 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
10 20 (0.72%) NHS
11 19 (0.69%) Life Science
12 16 (0.58%) CMDB
12 16 (0.58%) Public Cloud
12 16 (0.58%) Replication
13 14 (0.51%) Algorithms
14 13 (0.47%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (0.47%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 70 (2.53%) Windows
2 51 (1.84%) Linux
3 18 (0.65%) VMS
4 17 (0.61%) Solaris
4 17 (0.61%) Unix
5 15 (0.54%) AIX
6 8 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.14%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.14%) zOS
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.11%) SUSE
10 2 (0.072%) Android
10 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (12.92%) Migration
2 258 (9.31%) Problem-Solving
3 236 (8.52%) ERP
3 236 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
4 229 (8.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 197 (7.11%) User Acceptance Testing
6 187 (6.75%) Workshop Facilitation
7 166 (5.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 166 (5.99%) Data Migration
8 162 (5.85%) Agile
9 157 (5.67%) Validation
10 146 (5.27%) Cybersecurity
11 143 (5.16%) Analytics
12 142 (5.13%) Business Intelligence
12 142 (5.13%) Roadmaps
13 129 (4.66%) AI
14 110 (3.97%) Change Management
15 108 (3.90%) Translating Business Requirements
16 106 (3.83%) DevOps
17 97 (3.50%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 212 (7.65%) SQL
2 114 (4.12%) Python
3 69 (2.49%) JavaScript
4 53 (1.91%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.73%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.26%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.12%) ABAP
8 30 (1.08%) Java
9 22 (0.79%) TypeScript
10 19 (0.69%) C#
11 13 (0.47%) Bash
11 13 (0.47%) Search Processing Language
12 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.32%) Groovy
13 9 (0.32%) R
14 7 (0.25%) C++
14 7 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 6 (0.22%) Apex Code
15 6 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
16 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 522 (18.84%) Security Cleared
2 406 (14.66%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.54%) DV Cleared
4 79 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 69 (2.49%) Degree
6 63 (2.27%) CISSP
7 48 (1.73%) CISM
8 23 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (0.72%) CIMA
9 20 (0.72%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 18 (0.65%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 18 (0.65%) CCSP
11 14 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (0.47%) SAP Certification
13 12 (0.43%) PMP
14 11 (0.40%) Master's Degree
15 10 (0.36%) ACCA
15 10 (0.36%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.36%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (2.89%) NIST
2 76 (2.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 65 (2.35%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.95%) GRC
5 46 (1.66%) GDPR
6 36 (1.30%) QA
7 24 (0.87%) NCSC
8 22 (0.79%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.72%) SLA
10 19 (0.69%) PMO
11 17 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
11 17 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 16 (0.58%) Accessibility
13 14 (0.51%) COBIT
14 13 (0.47%) JSP 440
15 9 (0.32%) DICOM
15 9 (0.32%) GxP
15 9 (0.32%) HL7
16 7 (0.25%) RMADS
17 6 (0.22%) WCAG
System Software
1 47 (1.70%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.34%) VMware NSX
3 35 (1.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (0.87%) vSphere
5 21 (0.76%) Docker
6 11 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 4 (0.14%) IAG
11 3 (0.11%) NFS
12 1 (0.036%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.036%) HDFS
12 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 50 (1.81%) Kubernetes
2 31 (1.12%) Terraform
3 30 (1.08%) vRealize
4 18 (0.65%) Ansible
5 17 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.54%) Nagios
6 15 (0.54%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.51%) Netcool
7 14 (0.51%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.47%) OpenView
8 13 (0.47%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.40%) Grafana
9 11 (0.40%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.25%) SCCM
12 6 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.22%) Podman
13 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 581 (20.97%) SAP
2 318 (11.48%) Oracle
3 299 (10.79%) Microsoft
4 90 (3.25%) VMware
5 73 (2.64%) ServiceNow
6 60 (2.17%) Ariba
7 54 (1.95%) Siemens
8 51 (1.84%) Salesforce
9 48 (1.73%) Workday
10 36 (1.30%) Splunk
11 31 (1.12%) Google
12 28 (1.01%) Databricks
13 24 (0.87%) BMC
14 22 (0.79%) IBM
15 20 (0.72%) Adobe
16 16 (0.58%) IFS
16 16 (0.58%) Sage
17 15 (0.54%) SolarWinds
18 13 (0.47%) HP
18 13 (0.47%) Palo Alto