IT Consultant Contract Job Trends

IT Consultant
UK

The median IT Consultant daily rate in the UK is £460, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 532 509 549
Rank change year-on-year -23 +40 +164
Contract jobs requiring an IT Consultant 43 31 50
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.094% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.10% 0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 19 42
10th Percentile £313 £319 £259
25th Percentile £345 £428 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £520 £540
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% -3.70% +6.93%
75th Percentile £550 £591 £569
90th Percentile £700 £715 £698
UK excluding London median daily rate £420 £513 £440
% change year-on-year -18.05% +16.48% -7.37%

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 33,832 30,446 40,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.22% 92.70% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,457 18,648 27,012
10th Percentile £300 £291 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,952 945 1,577
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.11 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.66% -27.78% +41.02%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £46.09
% change year-on-year -20.81% -31.09% +78.99%

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 2 January 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 13 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 2 January 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 -42 39 £460 -11.96% 19
UK excluding London -34 26 £420 -18.05% 14
London -27 13 £600 +14.29% 9
Work from Home +7 10 £450 -34.55% 3
North of England -30 8 £420 - 5
West Midlands -33 8 - - 1
Midlands -33 8 - - 3
Yorkshire -43 7 £420 - 2
East of England - 4 £550 -
South East -16 3 £290 -29.70% 3
Wales +1 2 - -
Scotland - 1 £375 -
North West - 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 2 January 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 12 (27.91%) SQL
2 10 (23.26%) Migration
3 9 (20.93%) SharePoint
4 8 (18.60%) Cybersecurity
4 8 (18.60%) Identity Access Management
4 8 (18.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 7 (16.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (16.28%) Risk Management
6 6 (13.95%) IT Audit
6 6 (13.95%) Microsoft
6 6 (13.95%) NIST
6 6 (13.95%) Oracle
6 6 (13.95%) Problem-Solving
6 6 (13.95%) Server Migrations
7 5 (11.63%) Continuous Improvement
7 5 (11.63%) Data Protection
8 4 (9.30%) Agile
8 4 (9.30%) Incident Response
8 4 (9.30%) Internal Audit
8 4 (9.30%) ITGC
8 4 (9.30%) ITIL
8 4 (9.30%) ITSM
8 4 (9.30%) Python
8 4 (9.30%) Stakeholder Management
9 3 (6.98%) Acceptance Criteria
9 3 (6.98%) ERP
9 3 (6.98%) Firewall
9 3 (6.98%) Impact Assessments
9 3 (6.98%) Incident Management
9 3 (6.98%) Instructional Design

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 9 (20.93%) SharePoint
2 3 (6.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (4.65%) Oracle Service Bus
3 2 (4.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 2 (4.65%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (6.98%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (4.65%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (2.33%) SAP CO
3 1 (2.33%) SAP FI
3 1 (2.33%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 3 (6.98%) Microsoft 365
1 3 (6.98%) OneDrive
2 2 (4.65%) GitHub
3 1 (2.33%) AWS
3 1 (2.33%) Azure
3 1 (2.33%) GCP
3 1 (2.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (6.98%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.65%) Data Mart
2 1 (2.33%) DB2
2 1 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (4.65%) JIRA
General
1 15 (34.88%) Social Skills
2 11 (25.58%) Finance
3 6 (13.95%) Public Sector
4 4 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (9.30%) Financial Institution
5 1 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (2.33%) Law
5 1 (2.33%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.33%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (6.98%) Middleware
2 2 (4.65%) JSON
2 2 (4.65%) OAuth
2 2 (4.65%) OAuth2
2 2 (4.65%) OpenAPI
2 2 (4.65%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (4.65%) REST
2 2 (4.65%) SOAP
2 2 (4.65%) Swagger
2 2 (4.65%) XML
2 2 (4.65%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 3 (6.98%) e-Learning
2 2 (4.65%) Data Centre
2 2 (4.65%) Market Risk
2 2 (4.65%) Virtual Team
3 1 (2.33%) Algorithms
3 1 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (2.33%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.33%) Operational Technology
3 1 (2.33%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 3 (6.98%) Windows
1 3 (6.98%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (23.26%) Migration
2 8 (18.60%) Cybersecurity
2 8 (18.60%) Identity Access Management
2 8 (18.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 7 (16.28%) Risk Management
4 6 (13.95%) IT Audit
4 6 (13.95%) Problem-Solving
4 6 (13.95%) Server Migrations
5 5 (11.63%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (11.63%) Data Protection
6 4 (9.30%) Agile
6 4 (9.30%) Incident Response
6 4 (9.30%) Internal Audit
6 4 (9.30%) ITIL
6 4 (9.30%) ITSM
6 4 (9.30%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (6.98%) Acceptance Criteria
7 3 (6.98%) Impact Assessments
7 3 (6.98%) Instructional Design
7 3 (6.98%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 12 (27.91%) SQL
2 4 (9.30%) Python
3 2 (4.65%) JavaScript
3 2 (4.65%) PL/SQL
3 2 (4.65%) PowerShell
3 2 (4.65%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 2 (4.65%) CISA
1 2 (4.65%) CISM
2 1 (2.33%) ACCA
2 1 (2.33%) CIMA
2 1 (2.33%) CISSP
2 1 (2.33%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (2.33%) Degree
2 1 (2.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (16.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (13.95%) NIST
3 4 (9.30%) ITGC
4 3 (6.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (4.65%) COBIT
5 2 (4.65%) GDPR
5 2 (4.65%) SOX 404
6 1 (2.33%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (2.33%) GxP
6 1 (2.33%) IFRS
6 1 (2.33%) PMO
Vendors
1 6 (13.95%) Microsoft
1 6 (13.95%) Oracle
2 3 (6.98%) Remedy
2 3 (6.98%) SAP
2 3 (6.98%) ServiceNow
3 2 (4.65%) Dell
3 2 (4.65%) Intel
3 2 (4.65%) Murex
4 1 (2.33%) Salesforce