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 5 November 2025.

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

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 23 26 29
Rank change year-on-year +3 +3 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,529 2,522 2,846
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 7.31% 6.91% 6.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.04% 7.44% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,494 1,329 1,586
10th Percentile £403 £412 £400
25th Percentile £469 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.14%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £557 £525
% change year-on-year -1.17% +6.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 20 41
10th Percentile £36.05 £53.58 £50.00
25th Percentile £55.94 £60.29 £61.04
Median hourly rate £74.75 £66.00 £67.75
Median % change year-on-year +13.26% -2.58% -6.55%
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.78 £86.25
90th Percentile £85.73 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £68.00 £64.15
% change year-on-year +13.97% +6.01% -11.52%

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 31,437 33,917 43,537
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.87% 93.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,929 20,451 29,620
10th Percentile £278 £300 £299
25th Percentile £402 £412 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,780 1,278 1,520
10th Percentile £14.05 £15.09 £14.92
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.21 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.39 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.74% -16.91% +55.71%
75th Percentile £51.02 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +85.42%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 0 1,969 £550 - 2,393
UK excluding London 0 1,057 £550 -1.17% 1,706
Work from Home 0 942 £550 - 1,176
London +2 893 £575 +4.55% 1,156
North of England -6 292 £575 +2.22% 277
South East 0 266 £531 -3.45% 834
North West -1 200 £620 +12.73% 161
Midlands -21 155 £578 +5.00% 127
East of England +18 115 £550 +4.76% 95
South West +7 110 £551 -8.13% 246
West Midlands -24 109 £575 +10.58% 79
Yorkshire -1 88 £475 -20.83% 86
Scotland -2 72 £500 -9.09% 52
East Midlands -15 45 £600 +4.35% 46
Wales +8 35 £405 -32.50% 32
Northern Ireland -11 15 £405 -32.50% 13
North East -17 4 £550 -8.33% 31
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 40

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 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.

1 689 (27.24%) SAP
2 667 (26.37%) Security Cleared
3 567 (22.42%) SC Cleared
4 378 (14.95%) SAP S/4HANA
5 333 (13.17%) Migration
6 326 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
7 290 (11.47%) Microsoft
8 283 (11.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 275 (10.87%) Stakeholder Management
10 272 (10.76%) Oracle
11 218 (8.62%) Azure
12 205 (8.11%) Agile
13 182 (7.20%) SQL
14 169 (6.68%) ERP
15 166 (6.56%) Analytics
16 162 (6.41%) Workshop Facilitation
17 159 (6.29%) Data Migration
18 153 (6.05%) Roadmaps
19 146 (5.77%) Validation
20 140 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
21 131 (5.18%) DevOps
22 129 (5.10%) Cybersecurity
22 129 (5.10%) Python
23 126 (4.98%) User Acceptance Testing
24 123 (4.86%) Business Intelligence
25 122 (4.82%) AWS
26 118 (4.67%) Requirements Gathering
27 111 (4.39%) Risk Management
28 109 (4.31%) Power Platform
29 103 (4.07%) Project Delivery

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 55 (2.17%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.07%) Confluence
4 24 (0.95%) WebLogic
5 22 (0.87%) WebSphere
6 10 (0.40%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Oracle Service Bus
8 8 (0.32%) IIS
8 8 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.24%) Apache Spark
9 6 (0.24%) CMS
9 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
10 4 (0.16%) MTS
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.079%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.079%) Camunda
Applications
1 42 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 17 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.24%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.16%) Revit
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.079%) CPLEX
10 1 (0.040%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.040%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.040%) InDesign
10 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.040%) InVision
10 1 (0.040%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.040%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 378 (14.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 83 (3.28%) Oracle EBS
3 67 (2.65%) SAP FI
4 58 (2.29%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.10%) SAP MM
6 51 (2.02%) Oracle EBS R12
7 50 (1.98%) SAP CO
8 47 (1.86%) SAP EWM
9 45 (1.78%) SAP FI/CO
10 42 (1.66%) Oracle General Ledger
11 40 (1.58%) SAP HCM
12 38 (1.50%) Dynamics CRM
13 37 (1.46%) Oracle Cash Management
14 35 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
14 35 (1.38%) Oracle Receivables
15 33 (1.30%) SAP PP
15 33 (1.30%) SAP WM
16 31 (1.23%) Oracle Financials
17 28 (1.11%) SAP HR
18 27 (1.07%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 218 (8.62%) Azure
2 122 (4.82%) AWS
3 109 (4.31%) Power Platform
4 98 (3.88%) Dynamics 365
5 92 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
6 86 (3.40%) OCI
7 60 (2.37%) GCP
8 58 (2.29%) Entra ID
9 52 (2.06%) SaaS
10 45 (1.78%) SuccessFactors
11 38 (1.50%) Power Automate
12 29 (1.15%) PowerApps
13 26 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
14 23 (0.91%) GitHub
14 23 (0.91%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.71%) Microsoft Copilot
15 18 (0.71%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.63%) GitHub Actions
17 13 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
17 13 (0.51%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.77%) Firewall
2 35 (1.38%) Network Security
3 29 (1.15%) VPN
4 26 (1.03%) DNS
5 22 (0.87%) WAN
6 20 (0.79%) SD-WAN
7 17 (0.67%) DHCP
8 16 (0.63%) HTTP
9 15 (0.59%) SSL
10 13 (0.51%) TCP/IP
11 12 (0.47%) BGP
12 11 (0.43%) OSPF
13 10 (0.40%) SAN
13 10 (0.40%) SSH
14 8 (0.32%) Intrusion Detection
14 8 (0.32%) LAN
15 7 (0.28%) Internet
15 7 (0.28%) Kerberos
15 7 (0.28%) VLAN
15 7 (0.28%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.93%) Power BI
2 48 (1.90%) SAP HANA
3 44 (1.74%) SQL Server
4 40 (1.58%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (0.91%) Metadata
6 20 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
6 20 (0.79%) SAP BW
7 18 (0.71%) SAP Data Services
8 15 (0.59%) DB2
9 14 (0.55%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 14 (0.55%) Oracle Database
10 13 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.51%) Tableau
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 9 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
13 7 (0.28%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.24%) Oracle ODI
14 6 (0.24%) Power Query
15 5 (0.20%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 61 (2.41%) JIRA
2 21 (0.83%) GitLab
3 20 (0.79%) Git
3 20 (0.79%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.40%) LSMW
5 8 (0.32%) Hudson
5 8 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
6 4 (0.16%) Postman
7 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.12%) Selenium
7 3 (0.12%) Snyk
8 2 (0.079%) JUnit
8 2 (0.079%) Mockito
8 2 (0.079%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.079%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.079%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.040%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.040%) ScriptRunner
General
1 747 (29.54%) Social Skills
2 561 (22.18%) Finance
3 236 (9.33%) Analytical Skills
4 233 (9.21%) Public Sector
5 163 (6.45%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
7 75 (2.97%) Banking
8 66 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
9 56 (2.21%) Marketing
10 52 (2.06%) Billing
10 52 (2.06%) Telecoms
11 50 (1.98%) Legal
12 45 (1.78%) Pharmaceutical
13 40 (1.58%) General Ledger
14 32 (1.27%) Retail
15 25 (0.99%) Law
16 24 (0.95%) Local Government
17 22 (0.87%) Electronics
18 20 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 18 (0.71%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (3.40%) SAP Fiori
2 63 (2.49%) REST
3 56 (2.21%) Oracle Fusion
4 47 (1.86%) SOAP
5 41 (1.62%) Web Services
6 39 (1.54%) HTML
6 39 (1.54%) XML
7 32 (1.27%) Middleware
8 31 (1.23%) Node.js
9 26 (1.03%) BAPI
9 26 (1.03%) OAuth
10 25 (0.99%) JSON
11 24 (0.95%) .NET
12 23 (0.91%) EDI
13 22 (0.87%) LDAP
14 20 (0.79%) CSS
14 20 (0.79%) SAP TM
15 19 (0.75%) SAP Basis
16 17 (0.67%) IDoc
17 14 (0.55%) EntireX
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.08%) Onboarding
2 53 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.54%) Security Posture
4 37 (1.46%) Product Ownership
5 36 (1.42%) Management Information System
6 31 (1.23%) Data Centre
7 28 (1.11%) Cloud Native
8 22 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
8 22 (0.87%) Hybrid Cloud
9 20 (0.79%) Life Science
9 20 (0.79%) Operational Technology
9 20 (0.79%) Virtual Team
10 19 (0.75%) Data Structures
11 18 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 18 (0.71%) Private Cloud
12 17 (0.67%) Data Protection Act
13 15 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
14 14 (0.55%) IoT
15 13 (0.51%) CMDB
16 12 (0.47%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 83 (3.28%) Windows
2 56 (2.21%) Linux
3 19 (0.75%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.67%) Unix
5 13 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.36%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.32%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.28%) AIX
8 7 (0.28%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) CentOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.079%) Android
11 2 (0.079%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.040%) tvOS
12 1 (0.040%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 333 (13.17%) Migration
2 326 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
3 283 (11.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 275 (10.87%) Stakeholder Management
5 205 (8.11%) Agile
6 169 (6.68%) ERP
7 166 (6.56%) Analytics
8 162 (6.41%) Workshop Facilitation
9 159 (6.29%) Data Migration
10 153 (6.05%) Roadmaps
11 146 (5.77%) Validation
12 140 (5.54%) Knowledge Transfer
13 131 (5.18%) DevOps
14 129 (5.10%) Cybersecurity
15 126 (4.98%) User Acceptance Testing
16 123 (4.86%) Business Intelligence
17 118 (4.67%) Requirements Gathering
18 111 (4.39%) Risk Management
19 103 (4.07%) Project Delivery
20 102 (4.03%) AI
Programming Languages
1 182 (7.20%) SQL
2 129 (5.10%) Python
3 81 (3.20%) PowerShell
4 76 (3.01%) JavaScript
5 66 (2.61%) ABAP
6 60 (2.37%) Java
7 33 (1.30%) PL/SQL
8 23 (0.91%) Groovy
9 19 (0.75%) C++
10 17 (0.67%) Bash
11 15 (0.59%) C
12 14 (0.55%) PHP
13 12 (0.47%) C#
14 11 (0.43%) TypeScript
15 9 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.24%) COBOL
18 6 (0.24%) VBA
19 5 (0.20%) Perl
Qualifications
1 667 (26.37%) Security Cleared
2 567 (22.42%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.95%) Degree
4 89 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 84 (3.32%) DV Cleared
6 71 (2.81%) CISSP
7 45 (1.78%) CISM
8 27 (1.07%) SAP Certification
9 25 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (0.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (0.79%) ACCA
11 20 (0.79%) CIMA
11 20 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
12 18 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (0.59%) CCNP
13 15 (0.59%) CESG Certified Professional
14 13 (0.51%) AWS Certification
15 12 (0.47%) Master's Degree
16 11 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.36%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 77 (3.04%) NIST
3 60 (2.37%) QA
4 56 (2.21%) GDPR
5 46 (1.82%) Data Quality
6 27 (1.07%) GRC
7 22 (0.87%) SLA
8 18 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
9 17 (0.67%) NCSC
10 16 (0.63%) RMADS
11 14 (0.55%) PCI DSS
12 13 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 12 (0.47%) Accessibility
13 12 (0.47%) COBIT
14 11 (0.43%) IFRS
14 11 (0.43%) PMO
15 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
16 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 9 (0.36%) NIST 800
17 8 (0.32%) HIPAA
System Software
1 74 (2.93%) Active Directory
2 39 (1.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.42%) Docker
4 23 (0.91%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.75%) vSphere
6 6 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.20%) NDS
7 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 5 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.16%) Firmware
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.16%) UAG
9 1 (0.040%) Ceph
9 1 (0.040%) IAG
9 1 (0.040%) KVM
9 1 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.040%) QEMU
9 1 (0.040%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.040%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 51 (2.02%) Kubernetes
1 51 (2.02%) Terraform
2 25 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
3 23 (0.91%) Ansible
4 22 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 21 (0.83%) vRealize
6 15 (0.59%) SCCM
7 12 (0.47%) Grafana
8 10 (0.40%) Prometheus
9 9 (0.36%) PingFederate
10 7 (0.28%) CASB
11 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) PowerCLI
12 5 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
12 5 (0.20%) QRadar
12 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
13 4 (0.16%) HP ALM
13 4 (0.16%) Nessus
Vendors
1 689 (27.24%) SAP
2 290 (11.47%) Microsoft
3 272 (10.76%) Oracle
4 91 (3.60%) VMware
5 87 (3.44%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.93%) Cisco
7 64 (2.53%) CyberArk
8 59 (2.33%) Workday
9 58 (2.29%) Salesforce
10 48 (1.90%) IBM
11 44 (1.74%) Ariba
12 35 (1.38%) Aruba
13 34 (1.34%) Google
14 30 (1.19%) Adobe
14 30 (1.19%) Dynatrace
15 26 (1.03%) OpenText
16 22 (0.87%) Splunk
17 20 (0.79%) Palo Alto
18 18 (0.71%) IFS
18 18 (0.71%) Remedy