Project Manager Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
UK > UK excluding London

The median Project Manager daily rate in the UK excluding London is £510, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 December 2025.

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

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 51 33 30
Rank change year-on-year -18 -3 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Project Manager 753 848 1,078
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.12% 5.71% 5.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.57% 6.18% 5.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 559 543 787
10th Percentile £381 £313 £363
25th Percentile £425 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% - -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £663 £650 £638
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 46 48
10th Percentile £19.94 £23.54 £21.10
25th Percentile £29.94 £31.25 £28.63
Median hourly rate £58.25 £41.94 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.89% -11.71% -26.92%
75th Percentile £72.50 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £92.38 £70.00 -
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £35.00 £43.65
% change year-on-year +71.43% -19.82% -32.84%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 excluding London with a recognized job title 16,483 13,723 18,138
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.17% 92.39% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,121 8,182 11,804
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £371 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,659 774 1,222
10th Percentile £13.88 £15.26 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.60 £20.24 £18.61
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +84.72%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.25 £77.45
UK median hourly rate £25.25 £33.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.48% -26.67% +45.77%

Project Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Project Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Project Manager job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Project Manager in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Manager in the UK excluding London

Project Manager
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Project Manager within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 24 December 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
South East +9 213 £550 +7.84% 203
North of England -38 174 £500 +2.04% 208
Midlands -25 163 £525 - 144
West Midlands -19 108 £550 -4.35% 79
Yorkshire -6 87 £500 - 87
North West -45 84 £475 -0.21% 107
South West -35 64 £475 -5.00% 82
East Midlands -11 56 £500 +42.86% 59
East of England -18 56 £550 +10.00% 133
Scotland -24 55 £450 -5.26% 30
Wales +7 24 £316 -12.15% 27
Northern Ireland -1 14 £500 -9.09% 10
North East -23 6 £430 -14.00% 18
Channel Islands - 1 - -
Project Manager
UK

Project Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 24 December 2025, Project Manager 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 across the UK excluding London region featuring Project Manager in the job title.

1 347 (46.08%) Project Management
2 264 (35.06%) Stakeholder Management
3 245 (32.54%) Agile
4 222 (29.48%) Project Delivery
5 154 (20.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 145 (19.26%) PRINCE2
7 114 (15.14%) Migration
8 113 (15.01%) Problem-Solving
9 106 (14.08%) Change Management
10 99 (13.15%) JIRA
11 96 (12.75%) Waterfall
12 86 (11.42%) PMI Certification
12 86 (11.42%) PMP
13 85 (11.29%) ERP
14 81 (10.76%) Security Cleared
15 76 (10.09%) Degree
15 76 (10.09%) Microsoft
16 73 (9.69%) Microsoft Project
17 71 (9.43%) Project Governance
18 65 (8.63%) Risk Management
19 60 (7.97%) Oracle
19 60 (7.97%) Scrum
20 57 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
21 56 (7.44%) Budget Management
22 55 (7.30%) Continuous Improvement
23 53 (7.04%) Confluence
24 52 (6.91%) Azure
25 51 (6.77%) SC Cleared
26 50 (6.64%) Project Planning
27 46 (6.11%) SAP

Project Manager Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 53 (7.04%) Confluence
2 24 (3.19%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.46%) CMS
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.13%) Moodle
4 1 (0.13%) SAS
4 1 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
4 1 (0.13%) Umbraco
Applications
1 73 (9.69%) Microsoft Project
2 25 (3.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (2.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.93%) Trello
5 2 (0.27%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.59%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (1.06%) Oracle ERP
4 5 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.66%) SAP ERP
5 4 (0.53%) Primavera
6 3 (0.40%) Maximo
6 3 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.27%) PRMS
7 2 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.27%) SAP Oil and Gas
7 2 (0.27%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.13%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.13%) iTrent
8 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 52 (6.91%) Azure
2 24 (3.19%) AWS
3 23 (3.05%) SaaS
4 21 (2.79%) Power Platform
5 19 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
6 18 (2.39%) Microsoft 365
7 17 (2.26%) GCP
8 16 (2.12%) OCI
9 14 (1.86%) Dynamics 365
10 8 (1.06%) OpenShift
11 7 (0.93%) Smartsheet
11 7 (0.93%) SuccessFactors
12 5 (0.66%) Asana
12 5 (0.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 3 (0.40%) Boomi
13 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.40%) Oracle CX
14 2 (0.27%) Contentstack
14 2 (0.27%) Entra ID
14 2 (0.27%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.06%) Firewall
2 7 (0.93%) Structured Cabling
2 7 (0.93%) WAN
3 6 (0.80%) Network Security
3 6 (0.80%) SD-WAN
4 5 (0.66%) Broadband
4 5 (0.66%) LAN
4 5 (0.66%) Unified Communications
4 5 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.27%) 5G
5 2 (0.27%) Wireless
6 1 (0.13%) Internet
6 1 (0.13%) ISDN
6 1 (0.13%) PSTN
6 1 (0.13%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (2.66%) Power BI
2 8 (1.06%) Oracle Reports
3 6 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (0.66%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 4 (0.53%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.27%) EDMS
6 2 (0.27%) GIS
6 2 (0.27%) Looker
6 2 (0.27%) SQL Server
7 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.13%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.13%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.13%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
7 1 (0.13%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle BI EE
7 1 (0.13%) QlikView
7 1 (0.13%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 99 (13.15%) JIRA
2 1 (0.13%) Hudson
General
1 286 (37.98%) Social Skills
2 261 (34.66%) Finance
3 68 (9.03%) Public Sector
4 48 (6.37%) Banking
5 47 (6.24%) Analytical Skills
6 44 (5.84%) Manufacturing
7 43 (5.71%) Retail
8 36 (4.78%) Organisational Skills
9 34 (4.52%) Legal
10 27 (3.59%) Telecoms
11 22 (2.92%) Influencing Skills
12 17 (2.26%) Automotive
13 16 (2.12%) Marketing
14 12 (1.59%) Retail Banking
15 10 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
15 10 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (1.20%) Law
17 7 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 6 (0.80%) Pharmaceutical
19 5 (0.66%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.52%) Oracle Fusion
2 9 (1.20%) Middleware
3 4 (0.53%) ADO
4 2 (0.27%) EDI
4 2 (0.27%) ModSecurity
4 2 (0.27%) React
5 1 (0.13%) .NET
5 1 (0.13%) SailPoint
5 1 (0.13%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 32 (4.25%) Data Centre
2 26 (3.45%) Virtual Team
3 24 (3.19%) PMI
4 23 (3.05%) Legacy Systems
5 22 (2.92%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.66%) Product Ownership
7 16 (2.12%) Management Information System
8 15 (1.99%) NHS
9 14 (1.86%) Mobile App
10 13 (1.73%) Onboarding
11 12 (1.59%) Operational Technology
12 9 (1.20%) Driving Licence
12 9 (1.20%) Robotics
12 9 (1.20%) SCADA
13 8 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
14 6 (0.80%) Cloud Native
14 6 (0.80%) CMDB
14 6 (0.80%) Life Science
15 5 (0.66%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 13 (1.73%) Windows
2 5 (0.66%) Linux
2 5 (0.66%) OpenVMS
2 5 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (0.40%) Windows 10
4 2 (0.27%) VMS
5 1 (0.13%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 347 (46.08%) Project Management
2 264 (35.06%) Stakeholder Management
3 245 (32.54%) Agile
4 222 (29.48%) Project Delivery
5 154 (20.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 145 (19.26%) PRINCE2
7 114 (15.14%) Migration
8 113 (15.01%) Problem-Solving
9 106 (14.08%) Change Management
10 96 (12.75%) Waterfall
11 85 (11.29%) ERP
12 71 (9.43%) Project Governance
13 65 (8.63%) Risk Management
14 60 (7.97%) Scrum
15 57 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
16 56 (7.44%) Budget Management
17 55 (7.30%) Continuous Improvement
18 50 (6.64%) Project Planning
19 41 (5.44%) Decision-Making
20 39 (5.18%) Business Case
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.13%) Korn
1 1 (0.13%) SQL
Qualifications
1 86 (11.42%) PMI Certification
1 86 (11.42%) PMP
2 81 (10.76%) Security Cleared
3 76 (10.09%) Degree
4 51 (6.77%) SC Cleared
5 28 (3.72%) DV Cleared
6 9 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (1.20%) Master's Degree
7 8 (1.06%) APMP
7 8 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 6 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.66%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 5 (0.66%) SAFe Agilist
10 4 (0.53%) CISM
10 4 (0.53%) CISSP
11 3 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.40%) MAPM
11 3 (0.40%) MBA
12 2 (0.27%) BC Cleared
12 2 (0.27%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (5.58%) PMO
2 34 (4.52%) QA
3 11 (1.46%) Data Quality
3 11 (1.46%) GDPR
4 7 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (0.80%) GRC
6 5 (0.66%) COBIT
6 5 (0.66%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.53%) NIST
8 3 (0.40%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.40%) Basel III
8 3 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.40%) MiFID
8 3 (0.40%) PMBOK
9 2 (0.27%) GMP
9 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.27%) NCSC
9 2 (0.27%) SLA
10 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.13%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 9 (1.20%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.13%) Firmware
3 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 4 (0.53%) Ansible
1 4 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
1 4 (0.53%) Terraform
2 3 (0.40%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.40%) PingFederate
3 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.27%) SCCM
4 1 (0.13%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 76 (10.09%) Microsoft
2 60 (7.97%) Oracle
3 46 (6.11%) SAP
4 25 (3.32%) ServiceNow
5 17 (2.26%) Salesforce
6 9 (1.20%) Workday
7 7 (0.93%) Remedy
8 6 (0.80%) CyberArk
8 6 (0.80%) Google
9 5 (0.66%) CheckPoint
9 5 (0.66%) Red Hat
10 4 (0.53%) Dell
10 4 (0.53%) Dynatrace
10 4 (0.53%) F5
10 4 (0.53%) HP
10 4 (0.53%) MuleSoft
10 4 (0.53%) Planview
10 4 (0.53%) Progress
11 3 (0.40%) Databricks
11 3 (0.40%) Freshdesk