IT Consultant Contract Job Trends

IT Consultant
UK

The median IT Consultant daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 578 498 531
Rank change year-on-year -80 +33 +96
Contract jobs requiring an IT Consultant 63 25 54
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.087% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.094% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 24 34
10th Percentile £358 £338 £372
25th Percentile £459 £459 £472
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £531 £545
Median % change year-on-year +3.53% -2.52% +4.81%
75th Percentile £725 £650 £625
90th Percentile £875 £700 £668
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £600 £600
% change year-on-year +8.33% - -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £12.13
Median hourly rate £54.00 - £12.25
75th Percentile - - £12.38
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 - £12.25
% change year-on-year - - -80.24%

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 45,155 26,550 39,743
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.33% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,543 17,231 25,865
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,003 1,045 2,776
10th Percentile £15.01 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.99 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +51.84% -24.72% -17.38%
75th Percentile £66.38 £59.90 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.38% -37.13% -5.88%

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 29 May 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 12 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 29 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 -101 49 £613 +15.29% 53
UK excluding London -79 32 £650 +8.33% 37
Work from Home -7 31 £650 +23.81% 21
London -70 18 £525 +0.96% 15
South West - 18 £650 - 5
Midlands -55 4 - - 8
West Midlands -57 4 - - 3
South East - 3 £283 - 9
Scotland - 3 £365 -
North West -35 2 £375 -44.44% 12
North of England -78 2 £375 -42.31% 14
Wales - 2 £463 -

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

For the 6 months to 29 May 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 (31.75%) Disaster Recovery
2 9 (14.29%) Security Cleared
3 8 (12.70%) Business Continuity
3 8 (12.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 7 (11.11%) SC Cleared
4 7 (11.11%) Service Management
5 6 (9.52%) Azure
5 6 (9.52%) Microsoft
6 5 (7.94%) Active Directory
6 5 (7.94%) Identity Management
6 5 (7.94%) ITIL
6 5 (7.94%) ITSM
6 5 (7.94%) Service Delivery
6 5 (7.94%) Service Design
6 5 (7.94%) SQL
7 4 (6.35%) Digital Transformation Programme
7 4 (6.35%) Entra ID
7 4 (6.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (6.35%) Migration
7 4 (6.35%) Target Operating Model
7 4 (6.35%) Workshop Facilitation
8 3 (4.76%) Agile
8 3 (4.76%) Cybersecurity
8 3 (4.76%) ERP
8 3 (4.76%) Impact Analysis
8 3 (4.76%) NIST
8 3 (4.76%) Python
8 3 (4.76%) Risk Management
8 3 (4.76%) Roadmaps
8 3 (4.76%) Server Migrations

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 3 (4.76%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (9.52%) Azure
2 4 (6.35%) Entra ID
3 2 (3.17%) GitHub
3 2 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.59%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.59%) DNS
1 1 (1.59%) Firewall
1 1 (1.59%) LAN
1 1 (1.59%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.17%) Data Mart
Development Applications
1 2 (3.17%) JIRA
2 1 (1.59%) Hudson
General
1 8 (12.70%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.52%) Public Sector
3 4 (6.35%) Finance
4 1 (1.59%) Advertising
4 1 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (1.59%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.59%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 4 (6.35%) Operational Technology
2 2 (3.17%) e-Learning
2 2 (3.17%) Market Risk
3 1 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (1.59%) Insider Threat
3 1 (1.59%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.59%) Onboarding
3 1 (1.59%) Product Ownership
3 1 (1.59%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 2 (3.17%) Windows
2 1 (1.59%) AIX
2 1 (1.59%) Android
2 1 (1.59%) Apple iOS
2 1 (1.59%) Linux
2 1 (1.59%) Mac OS
2 1 (1.59%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (31.75%) Disaster Recovery
2 8 (12.70%) Business Continuity
2 8 (12.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 7 (11.11%) Service Management
4 5 (7.94%) Identity Management
4 5 (7.94%) ITIL
4 5 (7.94%) ITSM
4 5 (7.94%) Service Delivery
4 5 (7.94%) Service Design
5 4 (6.35%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 4 (6.35%) Migration
5 4 (6.35%) Target Operating Model
5 4 (6.35%) Workshop Facilitation
6 3 (4.76%) Agile
6 3 (4.76%) Cybersecurity
6 3 (4.76%) ERP
6 3 (4.76%) Impact Analysis
6 3 (4.76%) Risk Management
6 3 (4.76%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (4.76%) Strategic Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 5 (7.94%) SQL
2 3 (4.76%) Python
3 2 (3.17%) JavaScript
3 2 (3.17%) Shell Script
4 1 (1.59%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.59%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 9 (14.29%) Security Cleared
2 7 (11.11%) SC Cleared
3 2 (3.17%) DV Cleared
4 1 (1.59%) CISA
4 1 (1.59%) CISM
4 1 (1.59%) CISSP
4 1 (1.59%) Degree
4 1 (1.59%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
4 1 (1.59%) Master's Degree
4 1 (1.59%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (4.76%) NIST
3 1 (1.59%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 1 (1.59%) PMO
System Software
1 5 (7.94%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
1 1 (1.59%) Nagios
1 1 (1.59%) SCCM
1 1 (1.59%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 6 (9.52%) Microsoft
2 2 (3.17%) Murex
2 2 (3.17%) Oracle
2 2 (3.17%) ServiceNow
3 1 (1.59%) BMC
3 1 (1.59%) Salesforce
3 1 (1.59%) SAP
3 1 (1.59%) SolarWinds
3 1 (1.59%) Splunk