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 19 August 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 604 524 530
Rank change year-on-year -80 +6 +66
Contract jobs requiring an IT Consultant 71 31 47
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.094% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.10% 0.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 22 32
10th Percentile £188 £363 £453
25th Percentile £361 £466 £508
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -6.14% +8.37%
75th Percentile £725 £584 £626
90th Percentile £875 £635 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £513 £600
% change year-on-year +26.83% -14.58% +2.13%
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 49,538 29,942 36,126
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.48% 91.24% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,723 18,896 23,187
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,497 1,549 1,984
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.59 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.60 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.19% -42.78% +17.20%

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 19 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 15 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 19 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 -86 60 £525 +0.96% 45
UK excluding London -52 39 £650 +26.83% 39
Work from Home -50 27 £650 +26.83% 27
London -68 27 £475 -7.99% 17
South West - 21 £650 - 10
Midlands -34 7 £388 -35.42% 7
West Midlands -52 4 £388 -35.42% 7
Scotland -11 3 £365 -2.67% 3
North of England -77 3 £388 -11.43% 6
East Midlands - 3 - -
North West - 3 £388 - 4
Wales -15 2 £463 -
South East -70 2 £700 +40.00% 7
Yorkshire -44 1 £400 -8.57% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 £638 - 5

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

For the 6 months to 19 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 22 (30.99%) Azure
2 18 (25.35%) Disaster Recovery
3 16 (22.54%) Microsoft
4 13 (18.31%) Active Directory
5 11 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
6 9 (12.68%) Migration
6 9 (12.68%) Service Management
7 8 (11.27%) Digital Transformation Programme
7 8 (11.27%) Entra ID
7 8 (11.27%) ITIL
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%) Firewall
8 7 (9.86%) Identity Management
8 7 (9.86%) ITSM
8 7 (9.86%) Microsoft 365
8 7 (9.86%) Palo Alto
8 7 (9.86%) Roadmaps
8 7 (9.86%) VPN
8 7 (9.86%) WAN
8 7 (9.86%) Windows
9 6 (8.45%) SC Cleared
9 6 (8.45%) Target Operating Model
10 5 (7.04%) Business Continuity
10 5 (7.04%) Cybersecurity
10 5 (7.04%) DNS
10 5 (7.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 5 (7.04%) Process Improvement

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 22 (30.99%) Azure
2 8 (11.27%) Entra ID
3 7 (9.86%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (5.63%) Nutanix
5 2 (2.82%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (1.41%) AWS
6 1 (1.41%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (1.41%) IaaS
6 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Copilot
6 1 (1.41%) Power Automate
6 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 5 (7.04%) DNS
4 4 (5.63%) DHCP
4 4 (5.63%) NGFW
5 1 (1.41%) LAN
5 1 (1.41%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.41%) SNMP
Development Applications
1 2 (2.82%) JIRA
2 1 (1.41%) Hudson
General
1 12 (16.90%) Social Skills
2 9 (12.68%) Finance
3 5 (7.04%) Banking
4 4 (5.63%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (2.82%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.41%) Advertising
6 1 (1.41%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.41%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (1.41%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.41%) Retail
6 1 (1.41%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.41%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 6 (8.45%) Onboarding
2 4 (5.63%) Hybrid Cloud
3 3 (4.23%) Data Centre
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 7 (9.86%) Windows
2 4 (5.63%) Windows Server
3 2 (2.82%) Android
3 2 (2.82%) Apple iOS
3 2 (2.82%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.41%) AIX
4 1 (1.41%) Linux
4 1 (1.41%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.41%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (25.35%) Disaster Recovery
2 11 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
3 9 (12.68%) Migration
3 9 (12.68%) Service Management
4 8 (11.27%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 8 (11.27%) ITIL
4 8 (11.27%) Service Design
5 7 (9.86%) Change Management
5 7 (9.86%) Identity Management
5 7 (9.86%) ITSM
5 7 (9.86%) Roadmaps
6 6 (8.45%) Target Operating Model
7 5 (7.04%) Business Continuity
7 5 (7.04%) Cybersecurity
7 5 (7.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 5 (7.04%) Process Improvement
7 5 (7.04%) Project Delivery
8 4 (5.63%) Digital Enablement
8 4 (5.63%) Technology Transformation
8 4 (5.63%) Zero Trust
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 2 (2.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (2.82%) PMO
1 2 (2.82%) SLA
2 1 (1.41%) Accessibility
2 1 (1.41%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.41%) GxP
2 1 (1.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 13 (18.31%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.23%) 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 16 (22.54%) Microsoft
2 7 (9.86%) Palo Alto
3 5 (7.04%) ServiceNow
4 3 (4.23%) Aruba
4 3 (4.23%) VMware
5 1 (1.41%) BMC
5 1 (1.41%) SAP
5 1 (1.41%) SolarWinds
5 1 (1.41%) Splunk