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 17 May 2026.

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

6 months to
17 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 2,798 1,926 2,703
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.81% 6.56% 6.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.10% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,548 1,125 1,695
10th Percentile £387 £413 £400
25th Percentile £453 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -
75th Percentile £632 £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 82 19 28
10th Percentile £42.23 £40.58 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £56.50 £52.18
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 £63.00
90th Percentile £82.30 £87.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £56.89
% change year-on-year -24.59% +34.04% -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 44,407 27,141 39,490
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.39% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,193 17,684 25,687
10th Percentile £321 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,046 2,662
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.27 £18.15 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.17 £36.58
Median % change year-on-year +51.55% -22.99% -18.72%
75th Percentile £66.25 £61.44 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -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 17 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 17 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 17 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 2,220 £545 -0.91% 1,506
UK excluding London -3 1,155 £525 -2.42% 1,043
London -1 1,037 £550 -4.35% 574
Work from Home -2 980 £550 - 958
South East -4 338 £535 -5.81% 263
Midlands -16 232 £525 -2.33% 113
North of England -23 231 £525 -1.69% 315
South West +31 187 £550 +4.76% 214
West Midlands -6 156 £550 - 80
North West -27 107 £518 -4.93% 199
Yorkshire -7 104 £538 +6.17% 80
Scotland +32 71 £425 -15.00% 28
East of England -11 71 £550 +11.39% 73
East Midlands -15 68 £500 -3.85% 34
Wales +4 30 £550 +37.50% 33
North East -25 20 £638 +19.38% 37
Northern Ireland -1 3 £600 +15.38% 19

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 584 (20.87%) SAP
2 528 (18.87%) Security Cleared
3 405 (14.47%) SC Cleared
4 362 (12.94%) Migration
5 316 (11.29%) Oracle
6 314 (11.22%) Azure
7 308 (11.01%) Microsoft
8 260 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
9 255 (9.11%) SAP S/4HANA
10 243 (8.68%) Stakeholder Management
11 236 (8.43%) ERP
11 236 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 212 (7.58%) SQL
13 200 (7.15%) User Acceptance Testing
14 190 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
15 168 (6.00%) Continuous Improvement
16 167 (5.97%) Data Migration
17 162 (5.79%) Agile
18 161 (5.75%) Validation
19 150 (5.36%) Dynamics 365
20 146 (5.22%) Cybersecurity
20 146 (5.22%) Power Platform
20 146 (5.22%) Roadmaps
21 145 (5.18%) Analytics
22 142 (5.08%) Business Intelligence
23 132 (4.72%) AI
24 131 (4.68%) AWS
25 114 (4.07%) Python
26 112 (4.00%) Change Management
27 111 (3.97%) 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 83 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.47%) Confluence
3 13 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) 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 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) SAS
8 2 (0.071%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) CMS
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 68 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.46%) 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 (0.071%) Lectora
8 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.036%) CATIA
9 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 255 (9.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 75 (2.68%) Oracle EBS
3 57 (2.04%) SAP FI
4 46 (1.64%) Oracle Payables
5 43 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
6 41 (1.47%) SAP MM
7 39 (1.39%) Oracle Receivables
8 36 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
9 31 (1.11%) SAP BRIM
9 31 (1.11%) SAP PP
10 30 (1.07%) SAP CO
11 29 (1.04%) Oracle EBS R12
12 28 (1.00%) SAP EWM
12 28 (1.00%) SAP FI/CO
12 28 (1.00%) Teamcenter
13 27 (0.96%) SAP Travel Management
14 25 (0.89%) SAP FI-CA
15 24 (0.86%) Oracle Assets
15 24 (0.86%) SAP SD
16 23 (0.82%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 314 (11.22%) Azure
2 150 (5.36%) Dynamics 365
3 146 (5.22%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.68%) AWS
5 98 (3.50%) OCI
6 75 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (2.64%) GCP
8 68 (2.43%) Power Automate
9 63 (2.25%) SaaS
10 62 (2.22%) SuccessFactors
11 45 (1.61%) Entra ID
12 42 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
13 40 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
14 38 (1.36%) PowerApps
15 30 (1.07%) GitHub
16 29 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
17 19 (0.68%) Serverless
18 17 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.14%) Firewall
2 28 (1.00%) Network Security
3 20 (0.71%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 14 (0.50%) 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 (0.21%) HTTP
11 6 (0.21%) VLAN
12 5 (0.18%) DHCP
12 5 (0.18%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (3.15%) Power BI
2 54 (1.93%) Oracle Reports
3 34 (1.22%) SAP HANA
4 29 (1.04%) Tableau
5 27 (0.96%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.86%) Metadata
7 21 (0.75%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 15 (0.54%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.39%) 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 (0.21%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.21%) Essbase
14 6 (0.21%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.18%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 73 (2.61%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Hudson
3 17 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 13 (0.46%) 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 (0.071%) git-flow
10 2 (0.071%) JUnit
10 2 (0.071%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.071%) Selenium
11 1 (0.036%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.036%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.036%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 594 (21.23%) Finance
2 593 (21.19%) Social Skills
3 234 (8.36%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (7.11%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.32%) Banking
6 85 (3.04%) Manufacturing
7 64 (2.29%) Legal
8 63 (2.25%) Marketing
9 62 (2.22%) Billing
10 49 (1.75%) General Ledger
11 48 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
12 37 (1.32%) Telecoms
13 33 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
13 33 (1.18%) Retail
14 26 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 25 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
16 24 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
17 23 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
18 20 (0.71%) Law
19 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (2.68%) REST
2 74 (2.64%) Oracle Fusion
3 61 (2.18%) XML
4 28 (1.00%) SAP TM
5 24 (0.86%) Middleware
5 24 (0.86%) SOAP
6 22 (0.79%) BAPI
7 21 (0.75%) JSON
7 21 (0.75%) SAP Fiori
7 21 (0.75%) Web Services
8 19 (0.68%) .NET
9 18 (0.64%) HTML
10 17 (0.61%) LDAP
10 17 (0.61%) SAP Basis
11 15 (0.54%) CSS
12 12 (0.43%) Node.js
13 11 (0.39%) IDoc
13 11 (0.39%) Kafka
13 11 (0.39%) React
14 10 (0.36%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 65 (2.32%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
3 41 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
4 38 (1.36%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.11%) Product Ownership
6 30 (1.07%) Operational Technology
7 29 (1.04%) AI Agents
8 26 (0.93%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.86%) Cloud Native
9 24 (0.86%) Data Centre
10 23 (0.82%) Management Information System
11 21 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
12 20 (0.71%) NHS
13 19 (0.68%) CMDB
13 19 (0.68%) Life Science
14 16 (0.57%) Public Cloud
15 15 (0.54%) Replication
16 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
17 13 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (0.46%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 71 (2.54%) Windows
2 52 (1.86%) Linux
3 18 (0.64%) VMS
4 17 (0.61%) Solaris
4 17 (0.61%) Unix
5 16 (0.57%) 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 (0.071%) Android
10 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 362 (12.94%) Migration
2 260 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
3 243 (8.68%) Stakeholder Management
4 236 (8.43%) ERP
4 236 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 200 (7.15%) User Acceptance Testing
6 190 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
7 168 (6.00%) Continuous Improvement
8 167 (5.97%) Data Migration
9 162 (5.79%) Agile
10 161 (5.75%) Validation
11 146 (5.22%) Cybersecurity
11 146 (5.22%) Roadmaps
12 145 (5.18%) Analytics
13 142 (5.08%) Business Intelligence
14 132 (4.72%) AI
15 112 (4.00%) Change Management
16 111 (3.97%) Translating Business Requirements
17 109 (3.90%) DevOps
18 98 (3.50%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 212 (7.58%) SQL
2 114 (4.07%) Python
3 72 (2.57%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.93%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.25%) T-SQL
7 32 (1.14%) ABAP
8 30 (1.07%) Java
9 22 (0.79%) TypeScript
10 21 (0.75%) C#
11 13 (0.46%) Bash
11 13 (0.46%) 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
14 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
15 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 528 (18.87%) Security Cleared
2 405 (14.47%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.68%) DV Cleared
4 79 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 69 (2.47%) Degree
6 63 (2.25%) CISSP
7 48 (1.72%) CISM
8 23 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (0.71%) CIMA
9 20 (0.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 18 (0.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 18 (0.64%) CCSP
11 14 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (0.46%) SAP Certification
13 12 (0.43%) PMP
14 11 (0.39%) Master's Degree
15 10 (0.36%) ACCA
15 10 (0.36%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.36%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (2.89%) NIST
2 76 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (2.39%) Data Quality
4 54 (1.93%) GRC
5 47 (1.68%) GDPR
6 37 (1.32%) QA
7 24 (0.86%) NCSC
8 22 (0.79%) PCI DSS
9 19 (0.68%) PMO
9 19 (0.68%) SLA
10 18 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
11 16 (0.57%) Accessibility
11 16 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.50%) COBIT
13 13 (0.46%) JSP 440
14 9 (0.32%) DICOM
14 9 (0.32%) GxP
14 9 (0.32%) HL7
15 7 (0.25%) RMADS
16 6 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 48 (1.72%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.32%) VMware NSX
3 35 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (0.86%) vSphere
5 21 (0.75%) Docker
6 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.21%) 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 (1.79%) Kubernetes
2 32 (1.14%) Terraform
3 30 (1.07%) vRealize
4 18 (0.64%) Ansible
5 17 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.54%) Nagios
6 15 (0.54%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.39%) Grafana
9 11 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.25%) SCCM
12 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.21%) Podman
13 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 584 (20.87%) SAP
2 316 (11.29%) Oracle
3 308 (11.01%) Microsoft
4 90 (3.22%) VMware
5 77 (2.75%) ServiceNow
6 60 (2.14%) Ariba
7 54 (1.93%) Salesforce
7 54 (1.93%) Siemens
8 50 (1.79%) Workday
9 36 (1.29%) Splunk
10 30 (1.07%) Google
11 28 (1.00%) Databricks
12 25 (0.89%) BMC
13 22 (0.79%) IBM
14 21 (0.75%) Adobe
15 16 (0.57%) Sage
16 15 (0.54%) IFS
16 15 (0.54%) SolarWinds
17 14 (0.50%) Palo Alto
18 13 (0.46%) HP