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 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 20 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -1 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,993 2,790 3,538
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.37% 8.23% 8.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.09% 9.32% 9.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,259 1,546 2,303
10th Percentile £313 £275 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -
75th Percentile £610 £613 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 128 150
10th Percentile £18.27 £21.25 £21.64
25th Percentile £23.50 £26.30 £30.45
Median hourly rate £37.58 £33.27 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.95% -30.69% +20.68%
75th Percentile £61.25 £56.31 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.00 £68.80 £72.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £35.02 £49.00
% change year-on-year +29.83% -28.54% -0.79%

All Process and 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 32,705 29,929 38,262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.13% 88.30% 88.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,588 18,254 25,497
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,080 971 1,514
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.43
25th Percentile £17.54 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +27.14%
75th Percentile £50.19 £62.62 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.44 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.54 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.28% -30.00% +40.63%

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025. 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 -19 1,717 £519 -1.24% 2,655
UK excluding London -22 998 £500 - 2,394
London -16 808 £525 -4.55% 554
Work from Home -14 582 £500 - 1,181
South East -12 265 £525 - 627
North of England -23 260 £492 +3.58% 549
Midlands -22 191 £492 -6.29% 455
North West -19 148 £492 +9.33% 273
West Midlands -25 133 £500 -9.09% 258
Yorkshire -19 103 £492 +3.58% 238
South West -27 98 £450 -5.26% 267
Scotland -12 95 £431 -4.17% 105
East Midlands -12 60 £468 +17.00% 178
East of England -34 58 £450 - 339
Wales -4 31 £325 -38.10% 63
Northern Ireland -6 19 £388 -18.42% 35
North East -24 11 £430 -25.22% 44

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
1 159 (7.98%) Confluence
2 123 (6.17%) SharePoint
3 29 (1.46%) CMS
4 14 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.35%) WordPress
7 5 (0.25%) nginx
8 2 (0.10%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.050%) Apache
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.050%) IIS
9 1 (0.050%) Moodle
9 1 (0.050%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
Applications
1 220 (11.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 201 (10.09%) Microsoft Project
3 166 (8.33%) Microsoft Office
4 131 (6.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 61 (3.06%) MS Visio
6 29 (1.46%) Trello
7 17 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.10%) InDesign
11 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 51 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.75%) Oracle EBS
3 13 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (0.65%) Primavera
4 11 (0.55%) Oracle ERP
5 10 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
6 8 (0.40%) Loan IQ
6 8 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
7 7 (0.35%) SAP PM
7 7 (0.35%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Workfront
9 5 (0.25%) ResourceLink
9 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.25%) SAP MDG
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 165 (8.28%) Azure
2 111 (5.57%) Power Platform
3 100 (5.02%) AWS
4 77 (3.86%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (2.36%) SaaS
6 45 (2.26%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (1.61%) GCP
8 28 (1.40%) Asana
9 24 (1.20%) Smartsheet
9 24 (1.20%) SuccessFactors
10 21 (1.05%) Google Workspace
11 20 (1.00%) Dynamics 365
12 18 (0.90%) GitHub
13 17 (0.85%) OpenShift
14 16 (0.80%) OneDrive
15 15 (0.75%) Microsoft Copilot
16 14 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
17 10 (0.50%) Entra ID
17 10 (0.50%) Power Automate
17 10 (0.50%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.31%) Firewall
2 21 (1.05%) WAN
3 18 (0.90%) DNS
3 18 (0.90%) Network Security
4 17 (0.85%) LAN
5 16 (0.80%) SSH
6 15 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (0.65%) Structured Cabling
8 11 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 11 (0.55%) VPN
9 10 (0.50%) HTTP
10 9 (0.45%) Skype
11 8 (0.40%) Internet
11 8 (0.40%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.40%) Wireless
12 7 (0.35%) DHCP
13 6 (0.30%) Broadband
13 6 (0.30%) SSL
14 5 (0.25%) Cisco IOS
14 5 (0.25%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (5.02%) Power BI
2 31 (1.56%) Tableau
3 27 (1.35%) SQL Server
4 17 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
4 17 (0.85%) Metadata
5 15 (0.75%) SAP HANA
6 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
7 8 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.35%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
9 5 (0.25%) Power Query
10 4 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.15%) Big Data
11 3 (0.15%) GIS
11 3 (0.15%) MySQL
11 3 (0.15%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 320 (16.06%) JIRA
2 19 (0.95%) Git
3 13 (0.65%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.35%) GitLab
5 5 (0.25%) SpecFlow
6 4 (0.20%) Selenium
7 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
7 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.15%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.10%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.050%) Appium
9 1 (0.050%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.050%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.050%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.050%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.050%) Gradle
9 1 (0.050%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.050%) Travis CI
9 1 (0.050%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 972 (48.77%) Social Skills
2 699 (35.07%) Finance
3 344 (17.26%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.98%) Public Sector
5 177 (8.88%) Banking
6 166 (8.33%) Organisational Skills
7 100 (5.02%) Marketing
8 96 (4.82%) Legal
9 90 (4.52%) Retail
10 81 (4.06%) Manufacturing
11 75 (3.76%) Influencing Skills
12 52 (2.61%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
14 46 (2.31%) Investment Banking
14 46 (2.31%) Local Government
15 38 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 36 (1.81%) Pharmaceutical
17 35 (1.76%) Front Office
18 30 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
19 21 (1.05%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 731 (36.68%) Project Manager
2 232 (11.64%) Analyst
3 159 (7.98%) Lead
4 152 (7.63%) Senior
5 126 (6.32%) Business Analyst
6 105 (5.27%) IT Manager
7 96 (4.82%) Senior Manager
8 91 (4.57%) IT Project Manager
9 83 (4.16%) Consultant
10 74 (3.71%) Senior Project Manager
11 65 (3.26%) Technical Manager
12 58 (2.91%) Delivery Manager
13 56 (2.81%) Programme Manager
14 55 (2.76%) Infrastructure Manager
15 48 (2.41%) Coordinator
16 47 (2.36%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 45 (2.26%) Technical Project Manager
18 44 (2.21%) SAP Manager
19 41 (2.06%) Developer
20 40 (2.01%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (0.90%) Oracle Fusion
2 17 (0.85%) Middleware
3 16 (0.80%) .NET
4 13 (0.65%) EDI
4 13 (0.65%) HTML
5 11 (0.55%) AngularJS
6 9 (0.45%) CSS
6 9 (0.45%) React
6 9 (0.45%) REST
6 9 (0.45%) RESTful
6 9 (0.45%) Web Services
6 9 (0.45%) XML
7 8 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
8 7 (0.35%) LDAP
8 7 (0.35%) SOAP
9 6 (0.30%) .NET Framework
9 6 (0.30%) ADO
9 6 (0.30%) Entity Framework
9 6 (0.30%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 112 (5.62%) Management Information System
2 111 (5.57%) Onboarding
3 60 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
3 60 (3.01%) PMI
4 53 (2.66%) Virtual Team
5 51 (2.56%) Data Centre
6 49 (2.46%) Product Ownership
7 45 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
8 41 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.20%) NHS
12 20 (1.00%) CMDB
13 19 (0.95%) Operational Technology
14 18 (0.90%) Social Media
15 17 (0.85%) Mobile App
16 16 (0.80%) Life Science
17 14 (0.70%) Cloud Native
18 13 (0.65%) Derivative
18 13 (0.65%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 77 (3.86%) Windows
2 19 (0.95%) Linux
3 16 (0.80%) Unix
4 13 (0.65%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.60%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.15%) VMS
7 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.10%) AIX
8 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.050%) Android
9 1 (0.050%) Solaris
9 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 759 (38.08%) Agile
2 604 (30.31%) Stakeholder Management
3 481 (24.13%) Problem-Solving
4 467 (23.43%) Project Delivery
5 419 (21.02%) PRINCE2
6 365 (18.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 347 (17.41%) Change Management
8 263 (13.20%) Migration
9 253 (12.69%) Continuous Improvement
10 240 (12.04%) Waterfall
11 215 (10.79%) Decision-Making
11 215 (10.79%) Risk Management
12 189 (9.48%) Scrum
13 164 (8.23%) ITIL
14 156 (7.83%) Budget Management
14 156 (7.83%) Project Governance
15 149 (7.48%) DevOps
16 141 (7.07%) Roadmaps
17 138 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
18 128 (6.42%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.21%) SQL
2 47 (2.36%) Python
3 18 (0.90%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.80%) Java
5 15 (0.75%) C#
6 12 (0.60%) ABAP
7 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.25%) Perl
8 5 (0.25%) VBA
9 4 (0.20%) C++
9 4 (0.20%) Go
9 4 (0.20%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.20%) R
9 4 (0.20%) Ruby
9 4 (0.20%) T-SQL
9 4 (0.20%) VB
10 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.10%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 384 (19.27%) Degree
2 271 (13.60%) PMP
3 265 (13.30%) PMI Certification
4 247 (12.39%) Security Cleared
5 172 (8.63%) SC Cleared
6 55 (2.76%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (1.86%) Master's Degree
9 36 (1.81%) APMP
9 36 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
10 31 (1.56%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 27 (1.35%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 21 (1.05%) CISSP
13 18 (0.90%) CISM
14 14 (0.70%) MBA
15 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
15 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
16 9 (0.45%) HND
16 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
17 8 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 207 (10.39%) PMO
2 122 (6.12%) QA
3 57 (2.86%) GDPR
4 56 (2.81%) Data Quality
5 46 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (1.56%) NIST
7 22 (1.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 19 (0.95%) PCI DSS
9 17 (0.85%) GRC
10 16 (0.80%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.65%) P3O
12 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
13 7 (0.35%) Basel III
13 7 (0.35%) GxP
13 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
13 7 (0.35%) SLA
14 6 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 6 (0.30%) ISO 9001
14 6 (0.30%) MiFID
14 6 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 16 (0.80%) Docker
3 12 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.10%) Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) IAG
7 1 (0.050%) PowerHA
7 1 (0.050%) RACF
7 1 (0.050%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.050%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (0.90%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.75%) Terraform
3 14 (0.70%) Ansible
4 13 (0.65%) SCCM
5 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.40%) Kibana
8 7 (0.35%) logstash
9 4 (0.20%) Consul
9 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
9 4 (0.20%) Packer
10 3 (0.15%) Functional Safety
10 3 (0.15%) Grafana
10 3 (0.15%) Puppet
10 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
11 2 (0.10%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.10%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.10%) ZABBIX
12 1 (0.050%) CASB
Vendors
1 335 (16.81%) Microsoft
2 178 (8.93%) SAP
3 87 (4.37%) ServiceNow
4 78 (3.91%) Oracle
5 71 (3.56%) Salesforce
6 50 (2.51%) Google
7 31 (1.56%) Cisco
8 26 (1.30%) Adobe
9 25 (1.25%) Workday
10 22 (1.10%) Planview
11 20 (1.00%) Atlassian
12 19 (0.95%) VMware
13 18 (0.90%) Ariba
13 18 (0.90%) IBM
14 16 (0.80%) Databricks
15 11 (0.55%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.55%) Remedy
16 10 (0.50%) Juniper
17 9 (0.45%) CyberArk
17 9 (0.45%) Splunk