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 24 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 29 22
Rank change year-on-year -33 -7 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,026 2,067 2,893
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.69% 6.27% 7.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.37% 6.93% 8.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,237 1,246 1,649
10th Percentile £308 £313 £308
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £624 £638 £613
90th Percentile £725 £738 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 118 146
10th Percentile £21.00 £20.32 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.50 £24.74 £26.29
Median hourly rate £47.75 £34.42 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.73% -1.66% -17.65%
75th Percentile £64.44 £55.37 £53.75
90th Percentile £82.00 £65.00 £66.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.73 £34.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +55.74% -1.43% -17.65%

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 46,342 29,835 32,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.41% 90.50% 85.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,074 18,533 19,873
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,192 1,836 1,405
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.31 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.32 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 1,779 £525 - 3,955
UK excluding London -39 949 £500 +5.26% 2,356
London -28 873 £550 - 1,920
Work from Home -24 624 £500 +1.63% 1,611
North of England -34 253 £475 -5.10% 519
South East -27 249 £500 - 652
North West -25 149 £475 -3.56% 293
Midlands -51 141 £534 +12.37% 359
South West -22 134 £475 +5.56% 259
Yorkshire -19 98 £475 -9.52% 166
West Midlands -52 95 £550 +12.02% 206
Scotland -39 77 £500 +11.11% 194
East of England -22 76 £513 -1.44% 226
East Midlands -24 46 £525 +17.45% 153
Northern Ireland -11 12 £444 -15.48% 115
Wales -20 12 £400 +21.67% 63
North East -46 8 £420 +3.07% 65
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 2

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
1 127 (6.27%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.84%) Confluence
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 26 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
5 20 (0.99%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) Apache
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) SAS
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.099%) FactoryTalk
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.099%) WinCC
12 1 (0.049%) Oracle Coherence
12 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 199 (9.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 165 (8.14%) Microsoft Project
3 156 (7.70%) Microsoft Office
4 127 (6.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 38 (1.88%) MS Visio
6 20 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 9 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.30%) Windchill
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
12 2 (0.099%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.099%) AutoCAD
12 2 (0.099%) Houdini
12 2 (0.099%) InDesign
12 2 (0.099%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) CATIA
13 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 58 (2.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 11 (0.54%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.54%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.54%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Teamcenter
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 171 (8.44%) Azure
2 141 (6.96%) Power Platform
3 89 (4.39%) SaaS
4 85 (4.20%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.65%) AWS
6 63 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
7 34 (1.68%) Smartsheet
8 33 (1.63%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (1.33%) Entra ID
11 25 (1.23%) GCP
12 20 (0.99%) Asana
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) GitHub
14 15 (0.74%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
15 14 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
16 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
17 10 (0.49%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.83%) Network Security
2 26 (1.28%) DNS
3 25 (1.23%) WAN
4 24 (1.18%) Firewall
5 21 (1.04%) LAN
5 21 (1.04%) TCP/IP
6 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.64%) DHCP
7 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.59%) VPN
9 11 (0.54%) Internet
9 11 (0.54%) Intranet
9 11 (0.54%) Wireless
10 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 9 (0.44%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.39%) 4G
12 8 (0.39%) 5G
12 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) LTE
12 8 (0.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.27%) Power BI
2 21 (1.04%) Metadata
3 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.79%) Tableau
5 14 (0.69%) Data Lake
6 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
7 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.39%) GIS
8 8 (0.39%) Power Query
9 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.30%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
12 4 (0.20%) EDMS
12 4 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
12 4 (0.20%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 253 (12.49%) JIRA
2 28 (1.38%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
4 8 (0.39%) Subversion
5 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
6 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.20%) GitLab
7 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.099%) Hudson
8 2 (0.099%) Selenium
8 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.049%) Capybara
9 1 (0.049%) git-flow
9 1 (0.049%) Gradle
9 1 (0.049%) RSpec
9 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 900 (44.42%) Social Skills
2 780 (38.50%) Finance
3 320 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (10.17%) Organisational Skills
5 175 (8.64%) Banking
6 173 (8.54%) Public Sector
7 130 (6.42%) Marketing
8 117 (5.77%) Retail
9 100 (4.94%) Influencing Skills
10 81 (4.00%) Manufacturing
11 76 (3.75%) Legal
12 70 (3.46%) Telecoms
13 58 (2.86%) Presentation Skills
14 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
15 36 (1.78%) Aerospace
16 30 (1.48%) Front Office
16 30 (1.48%) Local Government
17 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 26 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
19 25 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 796 (39.29%) Project Manager
2 187 (9.23%) Senior
3 183 (9.03%) Lead
4 141 (6.96%) Senior Manager
5 134 (6.61%) Analyst
6 116 (5.73%) IT Manager
7 106 (5.23%) Senior Project Manager
8 88 (4.34%) IT Project Manager
9 83 (4.10%) Programme Manager
10 81 (4.00%) Delivery Manager
11 78 (3.85%) Technical Manager
12 74 (3.65%) Business Analyst
13 73 (3.60%) Consultant
14 59 (2.91%) Technical Project Manager
15 47 (2.32%) Project Officer
16 43 (2.12%) Infrastructure Manager
17 41 (2.02%) Coordinator
18 37 (1.83%) Project Coordinator
18 37 (1.83%) SC Cleared Project Manager
19 34 (1.68%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.14%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 13 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
4 13 (0.64%) Web Services
5 12 (0.59%) HTML
6 11 (0.54%) .NET
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) VML
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
7 10 (0.49%) React
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 8 (0.39%) pytest
9 8 (0.39%) Terraform
10 7 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 7 (0.35%) RESTful
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 5 (0.25%) CSS
12 5 (0.25%) XML
13 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 119 (5.87%) Management Information System
2 98 (4.84%) Product Ownership
3 95 (4.69%) Onboarding
4 64 (3.16%) Data Centre
5 49 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
6 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
7 43 (2.12%) PMI
8 30 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.43%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
11 25 (1.23%) FMCG
11 25 (1.23%) Social Media
12 23 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
13 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
14 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
14 21 (1.04%) Life Science
15 20 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
16 17 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 17 (0.84%) NHS
17 16 (0.79%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.86%) Linux
2 57 (2.81%) Windows
3 24 (1.18%) Unix
3 24 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) zOS
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.049%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 919 (45.36%) Stakeholder Management
2 765 (37.76%) Agile
3 590 (29.12%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.36%) PRINCE2
5 336 (16.58%) Problem-Solving
6 334 (16.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 332 (16.39%) Change Management
8 296 (14.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 284 (14.02%) Decision-Making
10 276 (13.62%) Migration
11 258 (12.73%) Risk Management
12 241 (11.90%) Waterfall
13 220 (10.86%) AI
14 209 (10.32%) Scrum
15 208 (10.27%) Project Governance
16 171 (8.44%) Roadmaps
17 167 (8.24%) Project Planning
18 164 (8.09%) Change Control
18 164 (8.09%) Programme Management
19 150 (7.40%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (3.75%) SQL
2 69 (3.41%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) JavaScript
5 14 (0.69%) VBA
6 12 (0.59%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
8 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.39%) Bash
9 8 (0.39%) Korn
9 8 (0.39%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.35%) Ada
11 6 (0.30%) C
12 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
12 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
14 3 (0.15%) ABAP
14 3 (0.15%) JCL
14 3 (0.15%) R
14 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 323 (15.94%) Security Cleared
2 319 (15.75%) Degree
3 300 (14.81%) PMP
4 261 (12.88%) PMI Certification
5 224 (11.06%) SC Cleared
6 79 (3.90%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 75 (3.70%) DV Cleared
8 38 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 26 (1.28%) Master's Degree
10 17 (0.84%) ACCA
10 17 (0.84%) CIMA
10 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.79%) Azure Certification
11 16 (0.79%) CISSP
11 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
12 15 (0.74%) ISTQB
13 14 (0.69%) APMP
13 14 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.64%) CISM
15 12 (0.59%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (12.19%) PMO
2 94 (4.64%) QA
3 57 (2.81%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 26 (1.28%) GRC
6 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.09%) SLA
8 20 (0.99%) Accessibility
8 20 (0.99%) NIST
9 8 (0.39%) P3O
10 7 (0.35%) FINREP
10 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) EMIR
11 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.25%) MiFID
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 36 (1.78%) Active Directory
2 29 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.54%) vSphere
4 9 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.15%) NFS
8 3 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
9 2 (0.099%) Docker
9 2 (0.099%) Firmware
10 1 (0.049%) ACF2
10 1 (0.049%) IAG
10 1 (0.049%) RACF
10 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.09%) Ansible
2 11 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
5 5 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.099%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.099%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.049%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) RSA Archer
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 364 (17.97%) Microsoft
2 161 (7.95%) SAP
3 103 (5.08%) ServiceNow
4 79 (3.90%) Oracle
5 49 (2.42%) Salesforce
6 47 (2.32%) Google
7 44 (2.17%) VMware
8 42 (2.07%) Adobe
9 29 (1.43%) Cisco
10 20 (0.99%) Ariba
10 20 (0.99%) Atlassian
10 20 (0.99%) IBM
10 20 (0.99%) Sitecore
10 20 (0.99%) Workday
11 19 (0.94%) NEC
12 18 (0.89%) Databricks
13 15 (0.74%) Planview
14 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) F5