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 28 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 27 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -5 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,020 2,162 2,943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.76% 6.61% 7.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.44% 7.31% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,231 1,317 1,728
10th Percentile £310 £308 £308
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £523
Median % change year-on-year +2.20% -4.31% -0.48%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £613
90th Percentile £725 £726 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 116 194
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.28 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £25.63 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £35.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +27.66% -6.00% -6.83%
75th Percentile £63.88 £57.69 £48.75
90th Percentile £82.95 £74.38 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £37.02 £38.12
% change year-on-year +22.23% -2.89% -4.16%

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 45,469 29,582 33,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.43% 85.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,813 18,412 20,921
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,891 1,754 1,674
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.85 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.92 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.80% -46.07% +6.25%

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 28 August 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 28 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Top 18 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 28 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 -30 1,777 £520 +0.92% 3,107
UK excluding London -35 976 £500 +6.61% 1,818
London -31 855 £550 +0.46% 1,670
Work from Home -26 615 £500 +4.17% 1,425
North of England -38 260 £475 -3.46% 396
South East -21 254 £500 +1.27% 470
North West -23 157 £475 - 227
Midlands -46 147 £530 +16.16% 248
South West -19 134 £444 -1.39% 291
Yorkshire -35 96 £475 -5.00% 116
West Midlands -56 96 £550 +17.27% 148
East of England -11 83 £520 -1.52% 188
Scotland -29 77 £488 +11.17% 149
East Midlands -19 51 £500 +12.42% 100
Northern Ireland -2 17 £430 -18.14% 67
Wales -26 12 £400 - 42
North East -39 9 £420 -4.55% 59
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 118 (5.84%) SharePoint
2 99 (4.90%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 30 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.89%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.050%) Appian
12 1 (0.050%) Camunda
12 1 (0.050%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 193 (9.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 176 (8.71%) Microsoft Project
3 160 (7.92%) Microsoft Office
4 124 (6.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 42 (2.08%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.050%) CATIA
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 66 (3.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
4 12 (0.59%) Magento
5 10 (0.50%) SAP CO
5 10 (0.50%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.50%) SAP PS
6 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.45%) NetSuite
6 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
7 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
9 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
9 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
9 6 (0.30%) Shopify
9 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
10 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
10 5 (0.25%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 172 (8.51%) Azure
2 135 (6.68%) Power Platform
3 91 (4.50%) SaaS
4 87 (4.31%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.51%) AWS
6 64 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 29 (1.44%) Entra ID
10 25 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 19 (0.94%) GCP
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
16 12 (0.59%) OCI
16 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.98%) Network Security
2 31 (1.53%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) Firewall
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
3 24 (1.19%) TCP/IP
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
5 19 (0.94%) Structured Cabling
6 16 (0.79%) Internet
6 16 (0.79%) VPN
6 16 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) BGP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 10 (0.50%) SAN
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (6.09%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.50%) Power Query
8 9 (0.45%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.40%) GIS
10 7 (0.35%) Big Data
11 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.15%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 254 (12.57%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Hudson
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.050%) Capybara
10 1 (0.050%) Gradle
10 1 (0.050%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.050%) Maven
10 1 (0.050%) RSpec
10 1 (0.050%) Selenium
10 1 (0.050%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.050%) TestDirector
General
1 897 (44.41%) Social Skills
2 763 (37.77%) Finance
3 345 (17.08%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.85%) Organisational Skills
5 178 (8.81%) Public Sector
6 169 (8.37%) Banking
7 135 (6.68%) Marketing
8 118 (5.84%) Retail
9 77 (3.81%) Influencing Skills
10 74 (3.66%) Telecoms
11 72 (3.56%) Manufacturing
12 69 (3.42%) Legal
13 55 (2.72%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.93%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
16 30 (1.49%) Front Office
17 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 28 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
18 28 (1.39%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 799 (39.55%) Project Manager
2 189 (9.36%) Senior
3 181 (8.96%) Lead
4 161 (7.97%) Analyst
5 140 (6.93%) Senior Manager
6 112 (5.54%) IT Manager
7 110 (5.45%) Senior Project Manager
8 85 (4.21%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.16%) Programme Manager
10 83 (4.11%) Business Analyst
11 73 (3.61%) Technical Manager
12 72 (3.56%) Consultant
13 67 (3.32%) Delivery Manager
14 61 (3.02%) Technical Project Manager
15 49 (2.43%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.08%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 38 (1.88%) Coordinator
17 38 (1.88%) Project Officer
18 37 (1.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 36 (1.78%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.19%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 16 (0.79%) HTML
4 16 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 10 (0.50%) OAuth
8 9 (0.45%) .NET
8 9 (0.45%) React
8 9 (0.45%) SOAP
9 8 (0.40%) CSS
10 7 (0.35%) RESTful
11 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.30%) Terraform
11 6 (0.30%) XML
12 5 (0.25%) FHIR
13 4 (0.20%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 110 (5.45%) Management Information System
2 92 (4.55%) Product Ownership
3 90 (4.46%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.22%) Data Centre
5 53 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
6 47 (2.33%) PMI
7 45 (2.23%) Virtual Team
8 29 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.34%) FMCG
10 27 (1.34%) Operational Technology
11 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
12 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
12 25 (1.24%) Social Media
13 21 (1.04%) Credit Risk
14 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
14 20 (0.99%) Life Science
15 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 64 (3.17%) Windows
2 53 (2.62%) Linux
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.09%) Unix
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) zOS
8 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.20%) Android
9 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 872 (43.17%) Stakeholder Management
2 776 (38.42%) Agile
3 578 (28.61%) Project Delivery
4 456 (22.57%) PRINCE2
5 346 (17.13%) Problem-Solving
6 337 (16.68%) Change Management
7 335 (16.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 295 (14.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 292 (14.46%) Migration
10 265 (13.12%) Decision-Making
11 257 (12.72%) Risk Management
12 247 (12.23%) Waterfall
13 201 (9.95%) AI
14 196 (9.70%) Scrum
15 174 (8.61%) Project Governance
16 165 (8.17%) Roadmaps
17 154 (7.62%) Analytics
18 152 (7.52%) ITIL
19 147 (7.28%) Programme Management
20 145 (7.18%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 76 (3.76%) SQL
2 69 (3.42%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.45%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.35%) Ada
8 7 (0.35%) C
9 5 (0.25%) Bash
9 5 (0.25%) Korn
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 328 (16.24%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.64%) Degree
3 293 (14.50%) PMP
4 257 (12.72%) PMI Certification
5 224 (11.09%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.76%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 28 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
8 28 (1.39%) Master's Degree
9 22 (1.09%) ACCA
9 22 (1.09%) CIMA
10 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
11 17 (0.84%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
13 14 (0.69%) APMP
14 12 (0.59%) CISSP
15 11 (0.54%) ISTQB
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.50%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 250 (12.38%) PMO
2 102 (5.05%) QA
3 57 (2.82%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.88%) GDPR
5 25 (1.24%) GRC
5 25 (1.24%) SLA
6 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
6 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (0.99%) NIST
8 9 (0.45%) P3O
9 8 (0.40%) EMIR
10 7 (0.35%) FINREP
10 7 (0.35%) GMP
10 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) MiFID
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (2.13%) Active Directory
2 24 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
6 4 (0.20%) vSphere
7 2 (0.099%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) ACF2
8 1 (0.050%) IAG
8 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.050%) RACF
8 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.050%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
7 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.050%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Nessus
9 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.050%) Perfmon
9 1 (0.050%) SCOM
9 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 355 (17.57%) Microsoft
2 160 (7.92%) SAP
3 111 (5.50%) ServiceNow
4 81 (4.01%) Oracle
5 56 (2.77%) Salesforce
6 53 (2.62%) Google
7 48 (2.38%) Adobe
8 40 (1.98%) VMware
9 30 (1.49%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Atlassian
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) Ariba
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Databricks
14 15 (0.74%) IBM
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) IFS
17 10 (0.50%) F5
17 10 (0.50%) Planview