IT Consultant Contract Job Trends

IT Consultant
UK

The median IT Consultant daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 597 529 521
Rank change year-on-year -68 -8 +103
Contract jobs requiring an IT Consultant 71 30 46
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.091% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.100% 0.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 21 33
10th Percentile £188 £368 £453
25th Percentile £360 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% +10.00%
75th Percentile £669 £588 £630
90th Percentile £875 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £513 £600
% change year-on-year +26.83% -14.58% -2.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £54.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 - -

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 49,377 30,074 36,691
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 91.44% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,758 19,109 23,758
10th Percentile £331 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,409 1,479 2,147
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.69 £14.13
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.22
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.91
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.39% +0.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £54.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +11.69%

IT Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'IT Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

IT Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK

IT Consultant
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Consultant job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Consultant job vacancies in the UK

IT Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Consultant over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IT Consultant in the UK

IT Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Consultant job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Consultant job vacancies in the UK

IT Consultant
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IT Consultant within the UK over the 6 months to 1 August 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 -85 58 £525 +0.96% 37
UK excluding London -66 35 £650 +26.83% 23
Work from Home -39 29 £650 +23.81% 16
London -64 27 £475 -9.09% 17
South West - 21 £650 - 7
Midlands -48 5 £388 -35.42% 3
West Midlands -59 4 £388 -35.42% 1
North of England -70 3 £388 -13.89% 6
Scotland - 3 £365 - 2
North West - 3 £388 - 5
Wales -10 2 £463 -
Yorkshire -40 1 £400 -11.11% 1
South East -64 1 - - 5
East Midlands - 1 - - 2

IT Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 August 2026, IT 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 IT Consultant in the job title.

1 20 (28.17%) Azure
2 18 (25.35%) Disaster Recovery
3 14 (19.72%) Microsoft
4 11 (15.49%) Active Directory
4 11 (15.49%) Service Management
4 11 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
5 10 (14.08%) ITIL
6 9 (12.68%) ITSM
7 8 (11.27%) Entra ID
7 8 (11.27%) Network Security
7 8 (11.27%) Security Cleared
7 8 (11.27%) Service Design
8 7 (9.86%) Change Management
8 7 (9.86%) Digital Transformation Programme
8 7 (9.86%) Firewall
8 7 (9.86%) Identity Management
8 7 (9.86%) Migration
8 7 (9.86%) Palo Alto
8 7 (9.86%) Roadmaps
8 7 (9.86%) Target Operating Model
8 7 (9.86%) VPN
8 7 (9.86%) WAN
9 6 (8.45%) SC Cleared
10 5 (7.04%) Business Continuity
10 5 (7.04%) Microsoft 365
10 5 (7.04%) Technology Transformation
10 5 (7.04%) Windows
10 5 (7.04%) Workshop Facilitation
11 4 (5.63%) Application Rationalisation
11 4 (5.63%) Client Onboarding

IT 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 1 (1.41%) Confluence
1 1 (1.41%) IIS
Business Applications
1 1 (1.41%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 20 (28.17%) Azure
2 8 (11.27%) Entra ID
3 5 (7.04%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (2.82%) Dynamics 365
4 2 (2.82%) Nutanix
5 1 (1.41%) AWS
5 1 (1.41%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (1.41%) IaaS
5 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (1.41%) Power Automate
5 1 (1.41%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 8 (11.27%) Network Security
2 7 (9.86%) Firewall
2 7 (9.86%) VPN
2 7 (9.86%) WAN
3 4 (5.63%) NGFW
4 3 (4.23%) DNS
5 2 (2.82%) DHCP
6 1 (1.41%) LAN
6 1 (1.41%) SD-WAN
6 1 (1.41%) SNMP
Development Applications
1 1 (1.41%) Hudson
1 1 (1.41%) JIRA
General
1 11 (15.49%) Social Skills
2 8 (11.27%) Finance
3 5 (7.04%) Banking
4 2 (2.82%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (2.82%) Manufacturing
4 2 (2.82%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.41%) Advertising
5 1 (1.41%) Financial Institution
5 1 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.41%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 6 (8.45%) Onboarding
2 3 (4.23%) Data Centre
3 2 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (2.82%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.41%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.41%) CMDB
4 1 (1.41%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Licensing
4 1 (1.41%) Replication
4 1 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 5 (7.04%) Windows
2 2 (2.82%) Android
2 2 (2.82%) Apple iOS
2 2 (2.82%) Windows 10
2 2 (2.82%) Windows Server
3 1 (1.41%) AIX
3 1 (1.41%) Linux
3 1 (1.41%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.41%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (25.35%) Disaster Recovery
2 11 (15.49%) Service Management
2 11 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
3 10 (14.08%) ITIL
4 9 (12.68%) ITSM
5 8 (11.27%) Service Design
6 7 (9.86%) Change Management
6 7 (9.86%) Digital Transformation Programme
6 7 (9.86%) Identity Management
6 7 (9.86%) Migration
6 7 (9.86%) Roadmaps
6 7 (9.86%) Target Operating Model
7 5 (7.04%) Business Continuity
7 5 (7.04%) Technology Transformation
7 5 (7.04%) Workshop Facilitation
8 4 (5.63%) Application Rationalisation
8 4 (5.63%) Client Onboarding
8 4 (5.63%) Enterprise Architecture
8 4 (5.63%) Process Improvement
8 4 (5.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 2 (2.82%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.41%) Python
2 1 (1.41%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 8 (11.27%) Security Cleared
2 6 (8.45%) SC Cleared
3 2 (2.82%) DV Cleared
4 1 (1.41%) CISA
4 1 (1.41%) CRISC
4 1 (1.41%) Degree
4 1 (1.41%) Master's Degree
4 1 (1.41%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.41%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.41%) GxP
2 1 (1.41%) NIST
2 1 (1.41%) PMO
2 1 (1.41%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (15.49%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (2.82%) Microsoft Intune
1 2 (2.82%) SCCM
2 1 (1.41%) Nagios
2 1 (1.41%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 14 (19.72%) Microsoft
2 7 (9.86%) Palo Alto
3 4 (5.63%) ServiceNow
4 1 (1.41%) Aruba
4 1 (1.41%) BMC
4 1 (1.41%) SAP
4 1 (1.41%) SolarWinds
4 1 (1.41%) Splunk
4 1 (1.41%) VMware