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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 30 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,017 2,034 2,859
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.67% 6.19% 7.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.35% 6.83% 8.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,229 1,233 1,620
10th Percentile £308 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £513 £523
Median % change year-on-year +0.39% -2.08% -0.31%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £611
90th Percentile £725 £738 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 118 134
10th Percentile £21.00 £20.24 £21.25
25th Percentile £31.20 £23.75 £26.48
Median hourly rate £49.00 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.12% -2.86% -20.45%
75th Percentile £64.25 £57.00 £54.69
90th Percentile £80.00 £65.00 £66.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.12 £33.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +63.98% -5.71% -20.45%

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 46,343 29,774 32,275
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.43% 90.67% 85.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,026 18,502 19,486
10th Percentile £325 £296 £308
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 £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,222 1,849 1,345
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.29 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.86 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.51% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.27 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +75.98% -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 30 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 30 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 30 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 1,768 £525 - 3,573
UK excluding London -37 945 £500 +5.26% 2,170
London -29 867 £550 - 1,637
Work from Home -24 615 £500 +2.09% 1,415
North of England -29 259 £474 -5.20% 468
South East -28 248 £500 - 568
North West -24 148 £478 -2.50% 249
Midlands -47 142 £538 +13.16% 353
South West -26 130 £450 - 244
Yorkshire -16 105 £474 -7.56% 167
West Midlands -57 96 £550 +11.79% 219
Scotland -32 76 £500 +11.48% 176
East of England -19 71 £510 -1.92% 217
East Midlands -19 46 £525 +16.67% 134
Northern Ireland -10 13 £444 -15.48% 121
Wales -23 13 £400 +18.52% 55
North East -41 8 £420 +3.07% 54
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
1 130 (6.45%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.81%) Confluence
3 34 (1.69%) CMS
4 25 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (1.09%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) 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 (0.050%) Drupal
12 1 (0.050%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 197 (9.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 163 (8.08%) Microsoft Project
3 155 (7.68%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (6.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 36 (1.78%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 9 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Windchill
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
13 2 (0.099%) Adobe Illustrator
13 2 (0.099%) AutoCAD
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) InDesign
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) CATIA
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 58 (2.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 11 (0.55%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.55%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.55%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) 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%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 173 (8.58%) Azure
2 142 (7.04%) Power Platform
3 87 (4.31%) SaaS
4 86 (4.26%) Microsoft 365
5 68 (3.37%) AWS
6 64 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
8 34 (1.69%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (1.34%) Entra ID
11 26 (1.29%) GCP
12 20 (0.99%) Asana
13 17 (0.84%) PowerApps
14 16 (0.79%) GitHub
14 16 (0.79%) Microsoft Copilot
14 16 (0.79%) OneDrive
15 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
16 14 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
17 11 (0.55%) Snowflake
18 10 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (1.88%) Network Security
2 26 (1.29%) DNS
3 25 (1.24%) WAN
4 23 (1.14%) Firewall
5 21 (1.04%) TCP/IP
6 20 (0.99%) LAN
7 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
8 13 (0.64%) DHCP
8 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (0.59%) VPN
10 11 (0.55%) Intranet
10 11 (0.55%) Wireless
11 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 10 (0.50%) Internet
12 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
13 8 (0.40%) 3GPP
13 8 (0.40%) 5G
13 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
13 8 (0.40%) LTE
13 8 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.35%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Metadata
3 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.79%) Tableau
5 15 (0.74%) Data Lake
6 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Power Query
8 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.30%) Big Data
9 6 (0.30%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 5 (0.25%) Looker
10 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (0.25%) Qlik Sense
11 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.20%) EDMS
12 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 255 (12.64%) JIRA
2 29 (1.44%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
4 8 (0.40%) 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 (0.050%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.050%) git-flow
9 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.050%) TestRail
9 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 893 (44.27%) Social Skills
2 782 (38.77%) Finance
3 312 (15.47%) Analytical Skills
4 212 (10.51%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.78%) Banking
6 171 (8.48%) Public Sector
7 130 (6.45%) Marketing
8 112 (5.55%) Retail
9 101 (5.01%) Influencing Skills
10 83 (4.12%) Manufacturing
11 72 (3.57%) Legal
12 69 (3.42%) Telecoms
13 57 (2.83%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.83%) Aerospace
14 37 (1.83%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.49%) Local Government
16 28 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 28 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
17 27 (1.34%) Front Office
18 22 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 810 (40.16%) Project Manager
2 182 (9.02%) Senior
3 179 (8.87%) Lead
4 137 (6.79%) Senior Manager
5 126 (6.25%) Analyst
6 116 (5.75%) IT Manager
7 103 (5.11%) Senior Project Manager
8 88 (4.36%) IT Project Manager
9 83 (4.12%) Programme Manager
10 78 (3.87%) Delivery Manager
10 78 (3.87%) Technical Manager
11 73 (3.62%) Consultant
12 69 (3.42%) Business Analyst
13 60 (2.97%) Technical Project Manager
14 48 (2.38%) Project Officer
15 41 (2.03%) Coordinator
15 41 (2.03%) Infrastructure Manager
16 37 (1.83%) Project Coordinator
16 37 (1.83%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 34 (1.69%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.14%) Middleware
2 17 (0.84%) ADO
3 13 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
3 13 (0.64%) REST
4 12 (0.59%) HTML
5 11 (0.55%) JSON
6 10 (0.50%) .NET
6 10 (0.50%) OAuth
6 10 (0.50%) VML
7 9 (0.45%) Web Services
8 8 (0.40%) pytest
8 8 (0.40%) React
8 8 (0.40%) SOAP
8 8 (0.40%) Terraform
9 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 5 (0.25%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.25%) CSS
10 5 (0.25%) DAO
10 5 (0.25%) XML
11 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 114 (5.65%) Management Information System
2 101 (5.01%) Onboarding
3 94 (4.66%) Product Ownership
4 64 (3.17%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.38%) Virtual Team
7 42 (2.08%) PMI
8 30 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
8 30 (1.49%) Operational Technology
9 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.29%) FMCG
10 26 (1.29%) Life Science
11 24 (1.19%) Social Media
12 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
13 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
13 20 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
14 19 (0.94%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (0.84%) Fixed Income
15 17 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 16 (0.79%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 57 (2.83%) Linux
2 54 (2.68%) Windows
3 23 (1.14%) Unix
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 10 (0.50%) 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%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) AIX
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.050%) Rocky
10 1 (0.050%) Solaris
10 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 918 (45.51%) Stakeholder Management
2 763 (37.83%) Agile
3 590 (29.25%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.46%) PRINCE2
5 341 (16.91%) Problem-Solving
6 333 (16.51%) Change Management
7 329 (16.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 294 (14.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 280 (13.88%) Decision-Making
10 274 (13.58%) Migration
11 262 (12.99%) Risk Management
12 242 (12.00%) Waterfall
13 220 (10.91%) AI
14 215 (10.66%) Scrum
15 212 (10.51%) Project Governance
16 172 (8.53%) Roadmaps
17 167 (8.28%) Change Control
17 167 (8.28%) Project Planning
18 161 (7.98%) Programme Management
19 152 (7.54%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 77 (3.82%) SQL
2 68 (3.37%) Python
3 17 (0.84%) Java
4 15 (0.74%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.74%) VBA
5 12 (0.59%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) Bash
8 8 (0.40%) Korn
8 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.30%) C
11 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
11 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.15%) ABAP
13 3 (0.15%) JCL
13 3 (0.15%) R
13 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 314 (15.57%) Degree
1 314 (15.57%) Security Cleared
2 295 (14.63%) PMP
3 256 (12.69%) PMI Certification
4 217 (10.76%) SC Cleared
5 79 (3.92%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 74 (3.67%) DV Cleared
7 36 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
8 22 (1.09%) Master's Degree
9 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 16 (0.79%) ISTQB
10 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
11 15 (0.74%) ACCA
11 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
11 15 (0.74%) CIMA
12 13 (0.64%) APMP
12 13 (0.64%) CISSP
12 13 (0.64%) DBS Check
13 10 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
13 10 (0.50%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (12.54%) PMO
2 94 (4.66%) QA
3 56 (2.78%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 25 (1.24%) GRC
6 21 (1.04%) Accessibility
6 21 (1.04%) SLA
7 20 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 18 (0.89%) NIST
9 8 (0.40%) 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 35 (1.74%) Active Directory
2 29 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (0.55%) vSphere
4 9 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.40%) 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 (0.050%) ACF2
10 1 (0.050%) IAG
10 1 (0.050%) RACF
10 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 11 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.35%) 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 (0.050%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.050%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Nessus
9 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
Vendors
1 365 (18.10%) Microsoft
2 160 (7.93%) SAP
3 99 (4.91%) ServiceNow
4 76 (3.77%) Oracle
5 50 (2.48%) Salesforce
6 48 (2.38%) Google
7 42 (2.08%) Adobe
7 42 (2.08%) VMware
8 29 (1.44%) Cisco
9 21 (1.04%) Ariba
9 21 (1.04%) Atlassian
10 20 (0.99%) IBM
10 20 (0.99%) Workday
11 19 (0.94%) NEC
11 19 (0.94%) Sitecore
12 18 (0.89%) Databricks
13 15 (0.74%) Planview
14 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.50%) F5