Project Management Contract Job Trends

Project Management
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Project Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -26 -4 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,032 2,324 3,063
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.85% 7.13% 7.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.54% 7.89% 8.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,248 1,429 1,832
10th Percentile £313 £308 £306
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £608
90th Percentile £737 £725 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.50% -6.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 129 258
10th Percentile £17.87 £21.48 £20.84
25th Percentile £21.19 £28.25 £28.00
Median hourly rate £39.27 £40.50 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -3.04% +6.24% -13.36%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £48.94
90th Percentile £84.88 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.27 £41.06 £38.12
% change year-on-year -6.79% +7.71% -13.36%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Project Management falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 44,806 29,445 35,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.36% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,768 18,486 22,647
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,649 1,571 2,189
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.20 £13.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.88 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +87.50% -40.00% -1.45%

Project Management
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Project Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Project Management job vacancy trend in the UK

Project Management
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management

Project Management
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Management over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management

Project Management
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Management over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Project Management within the UK over the 6 months to 21 July 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 -24 1,808 £525 +2.44% 1,350
UK excluding London -30 1,014 £500 +6.50% 931
London -26 851 £568 +5.28% 561
Work from Home -24 616 £500 +4.17% 495
North of England -27 290 £475 -2.56% 240
South East -25 263 £500 +2.83% 277
North West -13 184 £475 +5.56% 138
Midlands -41 151 £525 +16.67% 141
South West -21 134 £450 - 101
West Midlands -49 106 £550 +17.27% 86
Yorkshire -38 99 £500 - 79
East of England -9 91 £525 +5.00% 100
Scotland -49 64 £500 +11.11% 47
East Midlands -13 45 £488 +20.22% 55
Northern Ireland -5 18 £449 -14.57% 20
Wales -19 15 £400 -13.98% 26
North East -42 11 £420 -17.65% 25

Project Management
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
1 110 (5.41%) Confluence
2 104 (5.12%) SharePoint
3 29 (1.43%) CMS
4 21 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Apache
8 5 (0.25%) ArcGIS
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
10 3 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Superset
12 1 (0.049%) MS Project Server
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 186 (9.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 171 (8.42%) Microsoft Project
3 145 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (6.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.13%) Spreadsheet
7 13 (0.64%) Trello
8 7 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 7 (0.34%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.25%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.098%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.098%) Houdini
12 2 (0.098%) InDesign
12 2 (0.098%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) AutoCAD
13 1 (0.049%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 82 (4.04%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.08%) Primavera
3 9 (0.44%) Magento
4 8 (0.39%) Adobe Campaign
4 8 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.39%) SAP HCM
5 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
5 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.30%) Loan IQ
6 6 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
6 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
6 6 (0.30%) SAP MM
6 6 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
6 6 (0.30%) Shopify
6 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
7 5 (0.25%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 176 (8.66%) Azure
2 110 (5.41%) Power Platform
3 87 (4.28%) SaaS
4 82 (4.04%) AWS
5 76 (3.74%) Microsoft 365
6 57 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (1.57%) Smartsheet
8 27 (1.33%) Google Workspace
9 24 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
9 24 (1.18%) GCP
10 22 (1.08%) Entra ID
11 21 (1.03%) Asana
12 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 12 (0.59%) Google Sheets
13 12 (0.59%) IaaS
13 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
14 10 (0.49%) Cloud Computing
14 10 (0.49%) OCI
14 10 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.33%) Network Security
2 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
3 22 (1.08%) WAN
4 21 (1.03%) DNS
5 19 (0.94%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (0.89%) LAN
7 17 (0.84%) Firewall
8 14 (0.69%) Intranet
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) MPLS
9 13 (0.64%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.59%) DHCP
10 12 (0.59%) VPN
11 11 (0.54%) Internet
12 10 (0.49%) BGP
13 9 (0.44%) BIG-IP
14 8 (0.39%) SAN
15 7 (0.34%) DKIM
15 7 (0.34%) DMARC
15 7 (0.34%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (5.02%) Power BI
2 16 (0.79%) Tableau
3 15 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.64%) Metadata
6 12 (0.59%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
7 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
8 8 (0.39%) Power Query
8 8 (0.39%) SAP HANA
9 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) GIS
11 4 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.15%) EDMS
12 3 (0.15%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.15%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 251 (12.35%) JIRA
2 22 (1.08%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
6 6 (0.30%) GitLab
7 2 (0.098%) Hudson
7 2 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.098%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.098%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.049%) Appium
8 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.049%) Capybara
8 1 (0.049%) Gradle
8 1 (0.049%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.049%) LSMW
8 1 (0.049%) MSI
8 1 (0.049%) RSpec
8 1 (0.049%) TestDirector
General
1 895 (44.05%) Social Skills
2 752 (37.01%) Finance
3 326 (16.04%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (9.74%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.71%) Public Sector
6 142 (6.99%) Banking
7 134 (6.59%) Marketing
8 113 (5.56%) Retail
9 79 (3.89%) Influencing Skills
10 77 (3.79%) Manufacturing
11 76 (3.74%) Legal
12 51 (2.51%) Telecoms
13 50 (2.46%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.82%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
16 31 (1.53%) Financial Institution
17 29 (1.43%) Pharmaceutical
18 28 (1.38%) Aerospace
18 28 (1.38%) Front Office
19 24 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 813 (40.01%) Project Manager
2 207 (10.19%) Senior
3 197 (9.69%) Analyst
4 164 (8.07%) Lead
5 151 (7.43%) Senior Manager
6 128 (6.30%) Senior Project Manager
7 107 (5.27%) IT Manager
8 100 (4.92%) Business Analyst
9 88 (4.33%) IT Project Manager
10 86 (4.23%) Programme Manager
11 66 (3.25%) Technical Manager
12 65 (3.20%) Consultant
13 58 (2.85%) Delivery Manager
14 56 (2.76%) Infrastructure Manager
15 53 (2.61%) Technical Project Manager
16 45 (2.21%) Architect
16 45 (2.21%) Project Officer
17 43 (2.12%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 39 (1.92%) SC Cleared Project Manager
19 37 (1.82%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 17 (0.84%) REST
3 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (0.69%) HTML
4 14 (0.69%) OAuth
5 13 (0.64%) ADO
5 13 (0.64%) VML
6 12 (0.59%) Web Services
7 11 (0.54%) CSS
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 9 (0.44%) React
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 8 (0.39%) .NET
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 7 (0.34%) SailPoint
10 7 (0.34%) SAML
10 7 (0.34%) XML
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.30%) OpenID
12 5 (0.25%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.36%) Management Information System
2 86 (4.23%) Onboarding
3 80 (3.94%) Product Ownership
4 69 (3.40%) Data Centre
5 61 (3.00%) Data Protection Act
6 53 (2.61%) PMI
7 45 (2.21%) Virtual Team
8 33 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.38%) FMCG
9 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
10 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
11 24 (1.18%) Operational Technology
11 24 (1.18%) Social Media
12 21 (1.03%) Life Science
13 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
14 18 (0.89%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.84%) EPoS
16 16 (0.79%) NHS
17 15 (0.74%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 51 (2.51%) Windows
2 32 (1.57%) Linux
3 21 (1.03%) Unix
4 14 (0.69%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.30%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) Android
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 758 (37.30%) Stakeholder Management
2 744 (36.61%) Agile
3 535 (26.33%) Project Delivery
4 416 (20.47%) PRINCE2
5 376 (18.50%) Problem-Solving
6 338 (16.63%) Change Management
7 333 (16.39%) Continuous Improvement
8 315 (15.50%) Migration
9 308 (15.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 257 (12.65%) Decision-Making
11 252 (12.40%) Risk Management
12 245 (12.06%) Waterfall
13 193 (9.50%) AI
14 192 (9.45%) Scrum
15 157 (7.73%) ERP
16 142 (6.99%) Budget Management
17 141 (6.94%) Roadmaps
18 136 (6.69%) Analytics
18 136 (6.69%) ITIL
19 135 (6.64%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 81 (3.99%) SQL
2 65 (3.20%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 14 (0.69%) VBA
5 10 (0.49%) C++
5 10 (0.49%) Java
5 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
6 9 (0.44%) C#
7 8 (0.39%) ABAP
7 8 (0.39%) C
7 8 (0.39%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.20%) Ada
9 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
9 4 (0.20%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
10 3 (0.15%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.098%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 309 (15.21%) Security Cleared
2 308 (15.16%) Degree
3 299 (14.71%) PMP
4 264 (12.99%) PMI Certification
5 218 (10.73%) SC Cleared
6 68 (3.35%) DV Cleared
7 60 (2.95%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 34 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
9 32 (1.57%) Master's Degree
10 30 (1.48%) ACCA
10 30 (1.48%) CIMA
11 20 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 17 (0.84%) ITIL Certification
14 16 (0.79%) CISSP
15 14 (0.69%) APMP
16 12 (0.59%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.54%) CISM
18 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
18 10 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (12.16%) PMO
2 106 (5.22%) QA
3 58 (2.85%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.82%) SLA
5 36 (1.77%) GDPR
6 27 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 24 (1.18%) NIST
8 21 (1.03%) Accessibility
8 21 (1.03%) GRC
9 9 (0.44%) EMIR
10 7 (0.34%) MiFID
11 6 (0.30%) FINREP
11 6 (0.30%) GMP
11 6 (0.30%) P3O
11 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) COREP
12 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 38 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 13 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) RACF
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 2 (0.098%) Docker
6 2 (0.098%) Firmware
7 1 (0.049%) ACF2
7 1 (0.049%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.049%) IAG
7 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (0.89%) Ansible
2 17 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
6 3 (0.15%) Terraform
7 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) logstash
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Nessus
8 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 325 (15.99%) Microsoft
2 187 (9.20%) SAP
3 118 (5.81%) ServiceNow
4 78 (3.84%) Oracle
5 56 (2.76%) Salesforce
6 51 (2.51%) Google
7 39 (1.92%) Adobe
8 25 (1.23%) Cisco
8 25 (1.23%) VMware
9 21 (1.03%) Workday
10 19 (0.94%) Sitecore
11 18 (0.89%) Ariba
12 17 (0.84%) Databricks
13 15 (0.74%) Atlassian
13 15 (0.74%) IBM
14 14 (0.69%) NEC
15 11 (0.54%) F5
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Alteryx