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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -30 -4 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,011 2,306 2,928
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.81% 7.01% 7.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.48% 7.75% 8.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,231 1,413 1,746
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £609
90th Percentile £725 £725 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.50% -6.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 131 126 232
10th Percentile £18.32 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.00 £26.75 £27.44
Median hourly rate £42.30 £37.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +13.86% -2.54% -8.14%
75th Percentile £65.13 £59.69 £48.81
90th Percentile £85.22 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.65 £40.78 £38.12
% change year-on-year +4.59% +6.98% -4.70%

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 44,879 29,748 33,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 90.41% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,704 18,653 21,488
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
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 2,741 1,659 1,873
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.30 £18.14
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.05 £40.94
% change year-on-year +90.72% -43.70% +3.38%

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 4 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 4 August 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 4 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 -27 1,786 £520 +1.46% 1,923
UK excluding London -33 980 £500 +6.50% 1,268
London -27 855 £550 +4.76% 855
Work from Home -23 624 £500 +5.26% 794
North of England -31 271 £475 -2.56% 305
South East -24 259 £500 +3.09% 355
North West -15 172 £475 - 159
Midlands -52 140 £538 +19.44% 208
South West -24 138 £438 -2.78% 157
Yorkshire -40 93 £500 - 104
West Midlands -62 93 £550 +17.27% 126
East of England -6 89 £525 +0.48% 127
Scotland -43 64 £500 +11.11% 65
East Midlands -11 47 £488 +24.68% 82
Northern Ireland -3 16 £447 -14.86% 46
Wales -21 12 £400 -8.57% 38
North East -41 8 £420 -12.95% 49

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
1 107 (5.32%) Confluence
2 105 (5.22%) SharePoint
3 33 (1.64%) CMS
4 22 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.70%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.30%) Apache
7 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.30%) Sitecore CMS
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) JBoss
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.099%) SAS
12 1 (0.050%) CICS
12 1 (0.050%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 186 (9.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 175 (8.70%) Microsoft Project
3 149 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
4 115 (5.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.14%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.75%) Trello
8 9 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
11 3 (0.15%) InDesign
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.099%) Houdini
12 2 (0.099%) NUKE
13 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.050%) Notion
13 1 (0.050%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 74 (3.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 10 (0.50%) Magento
4 9 (0.45%) Adobe Campaign
5 8 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.35%) SAP CO
6 7 (0.35%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
6 7 (0.35%) SAP HCM
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
7 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.25%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 178 (8.85%) Azure
2 117 (5.82%) Power Platform
3 93 (4.62%) SaaS
4 75 (3.73%) AWS
5 74 (3.68%) Microsoft 365
6 64 (3.18%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.74%) Smartsheet
8 29 (1.44%) Google Workspace
9 26 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (1.04%) GCP
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
11 20 (0.99%) Entra ID
12 18 (0.90%) GitHub
13 13 (0.65%) SuccessFactors
14 12 (0.60%) Google Sheets
14 12 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
15 11 (0.55%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.55%) OCI
15 11 (0.55%) Snowflake
16 9 (0.45%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.59%) Network Security
2 24 (1.19%) WAN
3 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.09%) DNS
5 20 (0.99%) LAN
5 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (0.90%) Firewall
7 15 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (0.65%) DHCP
8 13 (0.65%) Intranet
8 13 (0.65%) SD-WAN
8 13 (0.65%) VPN
9 12 (0.60%) Internet
9 12 (0.60%) MPLS
10 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
11 8 (0.40%) SAN
11 8 (0.40%) Wireless
12 7 (0.35%) DKIM
12 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (5.27%) Power BI
2 16 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
2 16 (0.80%) Tableau
3 15 (0.75%) SQL Server
4 13 (0.65%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.65%) Metadata
5 10 (0.50%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Power Query
8 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
8 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.20%) Big Data
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 248 (12.33%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 22 (1.09%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.099%) Hudson
7 2 (0.099%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.050%) Appium
8 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.050%) Capybara
8 1 (0.050%) git-flow
8 1 (0.050%) Gradle
8 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 877 (43.61%) Social Skills
2 741 (36.85%) Finance
3 335 (16.66%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (9.85%) Organisational Skills
5 172 (8.55%) Public Sector
6 142 (7.06%) Banking
7 140 (6.96%) Marketing
8 111 (5.52%) Retail
9 73 (3.63%) Manufacturing
10 72 (3.58%) Legal
11 71 (3.53%) Influencing Skills
12 59 (2.93%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
14 36 (1.79%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
15 31 (1.54%) Financial Institution
16 30 (1.49%) Aerospace
17 29 (1.44%) Pharmaceutical
18 27 (1.34%) Front Office
19 26 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 796 (39.58%) Project Manager
2 203 (10.09%) Senior
3 177 (8.80%) Analyst
4 174 (8.65%) Lead
5 149 (7.41%) Senior Manager
6 127 (6.32%) Senior Project Manager
7 112 (5.57%) IT Manager
8 89 (4.43%) IT Project Manager
8 89 (4.43%) Programme Manager
9 85 (4.23%) Business Analyst
10 65 (3.23%) Consultant
11 64 (3.18%) Technical Manager
12 57 (2.83%) Delivery Manager
13 54 (2.69%) Infrastructure Manager
14 52 (2.59%) Technical Project Manager
15 42 (2.09%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 42 (2.09%) Project Officer
16 40 (1.99%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 37 (1.84%) Data Manager
17 37 (1.84%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 22 (1.09%) REST
3 16 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (0.75%) ADO
4 15 (0.75%) HTML
5 13 (0.65%) VML
6 12 (0.60%) SOAP
7 11 (0.55%) JSON
8 10 (0.50%) .NET
8 10 (0.50%) OAuth
9 9 (0.45%) React
10 8 (0.40%) CSS
10 8 (0.40%) RESTful
10 8 (0.40%) Web Services
11 7 (0.35%) XML
12 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.30%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.25%) FHIR
13 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.37%) Management Information System
2 84 (4.18%) Onboarding
3 82 (4.08%) Product Ownership
4 69 (3.43%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.69%) PMI
6 53 (2.64%) Data Protection Act
7 46 (2.29%) Virtual Team
8 33 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.24%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.24%) Social Media
12 24 (1.19%) FMCG
13 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.94%) AI Agents
14 19 (0.94%) Life Science
15 16 (0.80%) EPoS
16 15 (0.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 15 (0.75%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 55 (2.73%) Windows
2 40 (1.99%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 17 (0.85%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.15%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Android
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.050%) AIX
11 1 (0.050%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 795 (39.53%) Stakeholder Management
2 735 (36.55%) Agile
3 549 (27.30%) Project Delivery
4 443 (22.03%) PRINCE2
5 358 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
6 333 (16.56%) Change Management
7 331 (16.46%) Continuous Improvement
8 300 (14.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 297 (14.77%) Migration
10 257 (12.78%) Decision-Making
11 255 (12.68%) Risk Management
12 241 (11.98%) Waterfall
13 192 (9.55%) Scrum
14 190 (9.45%) AI
15 154 (7.66%) ERP
16 144 (7.16%) Budget Management
17 143 (7.11%) Analytics
17 143 (7.11%) ITIL
17 143 (7.11%) Roadmaps
18 141 (7.01%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.08%) SQL
2 65 (3.23%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.75%) Java
5 12 (0.60%) VBA
6 10 (0.50%) C#
6 10 (0.50%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.50%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.35%) ABAP
7 7 (0.35%) C
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
10 3 (0.15%) Bash
10 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 326 (16.21%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.66%) Degree
3 306 (15.22%) PMP
4 268 (13.33%) PMI Certification
5 225 (11.19%) SC Cleared
6 79 (3.93%) DV Cleared
7 65 (3.23%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.49%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.39%) ACCA
9 28 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
9 28 (1.39%) CIMA
10 20 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.90%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 16 (0.80%) CISSP
12 16 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
13 14 (0.70%) APMP
13 14 (0.70%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.60%) CISM
15 10 (0.50%) CIPFA
15 10 (0.50%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (12.13%) PMO
2 100 (4.97%) QA
3 57 (2.83%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.84%) SLA
5 36 (1.79%) GDPR
6 28 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.34%) GRC
8 25 (1.24%) NIST
9 24 (1.19%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
10 8 (0.40%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) MiFID
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) GMP
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (1.84%) Active Directory
2 17 (0.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
7 2 (0.099%) Hyper-V
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 18 (0.90%) Ansible
2 12 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
4 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
4 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
4 4 (0.20%) Terraform
5 3 (0.15%) Puppet
5 3 (0.15%) SCCM
6 2 (0.099%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (0.099%) Red Hat Satellite
6 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.050%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.050%) Nagios
7 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.050%) SCOM
7 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 326 (16.21%) Microsoft
2 178 (8.85%) SAP
3 118 (5.87%) ServiceNow
4 85 (4.23%) Oracle
5 55 (2.73%) Salesforce
6 54 (2.69%) Google
7 42 (2.09%) Adobe
8 29 (1.44%) VMware
9 28 (1.39%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Workday
11 22 (1.09%) Sitecore
12 19 (0.94%) Atlassian
13 18 (0.90%) Databricks
13 18 (0.90%) NEC
14 16 (0.80%) Ariba
15 15 (0.75%) IBM
16 11 (0.55%) IFS
16 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
17 10 (0.50%) Alteryx
17 10 (0.50%) F5