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 15 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -25 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,043 2,337 3,164
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.88% 7.20% 7.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.56% 7.97% 8.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,258 1,435 1,916
10th Percentile £313 £308 £306
25th Percentile £413 £406 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £610 £608
90th Percentile £732 £725 £718
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 134 130 268
10th Percentile £17.50 £21.50 £20.18
25th Percentile £21.00 £29.00 £27.67
Median hourly rate £37.50 £42.07 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -10.86% +10.36% -15.29%
75th Percentile £58.75 £60.00 £48.81
90th Percentile £84.63 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £45.09 £38.12
% change year-on-year -16.83% +18.28% -15.29%

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 44,765 29,340 36,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.42% 85.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,476 23,295
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £418 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,647 1,521 2,449
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -4.70%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.70 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £24.64 £38.12
% change year-on-year +83.64% -35.36% -0.99%

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 15 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 -23 1,820 £525 +2.44% 1,584
UK excluding London -29 1,030 £500 +6.61% 1,363
London -26 850 £568 +5.28% 515
Work from Home -25 614 £500 +4.17% 927
North of England -26 296 £475 -2.56% 341
South East -23 260 £500 +4.71% 364
North West -7 189 £475 +5.56% 183
Midlands -37 162 £525 +16.67% 192
South West -20 132 £450 - 135
West Midlands -51 113 £550 +17.27% 103
Yorkshire -41 101 £495 -1.00% 127
East of England -9 93 £525 +5.00% 143
Scotland -44 66 £500 +11.11% 118
East Midlands -9 49 £456 +11.42% 88
Northern Ireland -5 18 £449 -14.57% 48
Wales -16 15 £400 -13.98% 49
North East -41 10 £420 -17.24% 32

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
1 110 (5.38%) Confluence
2 105 (5.14%) SharePoint
3 25 (1.22%) CMS
4 21 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
5 10 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.29%) WordPress
8 5 (0.24%) Apache
8 5 (0.24%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.098%) Sitecore CMS
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Superset
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 184 (9.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 169 (8.27%) Microsoft Project
3 148 (7.24%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (5.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 42 (2.06%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
7 9 (0.44%) Trello
8 8 (0.39%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.29%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.098%) Adobe Illustrator
13 2 (0.098%) InDesign
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) AutoCAD
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Houdini
14 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 83 (4.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (1.03%) Primavera
3 8 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.39%) Loan IQ
3 8 (0.39%) Magento
3 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
3 8 (0.39%) SAP HCM
4 7 (0.34%) Adobe Campaign
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
4 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
4 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
4 7 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
5 6 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 6 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
5 6 (0.29%) ProductWriter
5 6 (0.29%) SAP MM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
5 6 (0.29%) Shopify
5 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 159 (7.78%) Azure
2 108 (5.29%) Power Platform
3 85 (4.16%) SaaS
4 80 (3.92%) AWS
5 73 (3.57%) Microsoft 365
6 50 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (1.32%) Google Workspace
7 27 (1.32%) Smartsheet
8 24 (1.17%) Dynamics 365
9 22 (1.08%) GCP
10 20 (0.98%) Asana
10 20 (0.98%) Entra ID
11 15 (0.73%) GitHub
12 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
13 11 (0.54%) Google Sheets
13 11 (0.54%) OCI
14 10 (0.49%) Snowflake
15 9 (0.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 9 (0.44%) Cloud Computing
15 9 (0.44%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.37%) Network Security
2 22 (1.08%) TCP/IP
2 22 (1.08%) WAN
3 20 (0.98%) DNS
4 18 (0.88%) LAN
4 18 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
5 17 (0.83%) Firewall
6 15 (0.73%) MPLS
7 14 (0.69%) SD-WAN
8 13 (0.64%) Intranet
8 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (0.59%) BGP
9 12 (0.59%) VPN
10 11 (0.54%) DHCP
10 11 (0.54%) Internet
11 9 (0.44%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
13 7 (0.34%) DKIM
13 7 (0.34%) DMARC
14 5 (0.24%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (4.94%) Power BI
2 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
2 14 (0.69%) Tableau
3 12 (0.59%) Data Lake
3 12 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (0.54%) Metadata
5 10 (0.49%) Oracle Reports
6 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.39%) Power Query
7 8 (0.39%) SAP HANA
8 7 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
8 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
9 5 (0.24%) GIS
10 4 (0.20%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.15%) QlikView
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 249 (12.19%) JIRA
2 21 (1.03%) Git
3 18 (0.88%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.39%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.34%) GitLab
6 2 (0.098%) Hudson
6 2 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (0.098%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.098%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.049%) Appium
7 1 (0.049%) git-flow
7 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
7 1 (0.049%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.049%) LSMW
7 1 (0.049%) Maven
7 1 (0.049%) MSI
7 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.049%) TestDirector
General
1 898 (43.95%) Social Skills
2 767 (37.54%) Finance
3 328 (16.05%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (10.03%) Organisational Skills
5 168 (8.22%) Public Sector
6 144 (7.05%) Banking
7 130 (6.36%) Marketing
8 111 (5.43%) Retail
9 81 (3.96%) Manufacturing
10 78 (3.82%) Influencing Skills
10 78 (3.82%) Legal
11 55 (2.69%) Presentation Skills
12 50 (2.45%) Telecoms
13 41 (2.01%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
15 31 (1.52%) Financial Institution
16 30 (1.47%) Front Office
17 29 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
18 28 (1.37%) Aerospace
19 22 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 826 (40.43%) Project Manager
2 209 (10.23%) Senior
3 205 (10.03%) Analyst
4 159 (7.78%) Lead
5 151 (7.39%) Senior Manager
6 128 (6.27%) Senior Project Manager
7 105 (5.14%) Business Analyst
8 104 (5.09%) IT Manager
9 86 (4.21%) IT Project Manager
10 80 (3.92%) Programme Manager
11 68 (3.33%) Consultant
12 64 (3.13%) Technical Manager
13 56 (2.74%) Infrastructure Manager
14 55 (2.69%) Delivery Manager
15 51 (2.50%) Technical Project Manager
16 46 (2.25%) Architect
16 46 (2.25%) Project Officer
17 44 (2.15%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 38 (1.86%) Change Manager
18 38 (1.86%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (1.37%) Middleware
2 17 (0.83%) REST
3 16 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (0.69%) HTML
4 14 (0.69%) OAuth
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 12 (0.59%) VML
7 11 (0.54%) ADO
7 11 (0.54%) CSS
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 9 (0.44%) .NET
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 8 (0.39%) React
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 7 (0.34%) SailPoint
10 7 (0.34%) SAML
10 7 (0.34%) XML
11 6 (0.29%) OpenID
12 5 (0.24%) AngularJS
12 5 (0.24%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 106 (5.19%) Management Information System
2 92 (4.50%) Onboarding
3 68 (3.33%) Product Ownership
4 67 (3.28%) Data Centre
5 64 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
6 51 (2.50%) PMI
7 43 (2.10%) Virtual Team
8 33 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.27%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.22%) FMCG
12 24 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
12 24 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
13 23 (1.13%) Social Media
14 22 (1.08%) Life Science
15 18 (0.88%) AI Agents
15 18 (0.88%) Data Structures
16 17 (0.83%) EPoS
17 16 (0.78%) NHS
18 14 (0.69%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 50 (2.45%) Windows
2 32 (1.57%) Linux
3 20 (0.98%) Unix
4 14 (0.69%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.29%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.24%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.098%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) Android
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 753 (36.86%) Stakeholder Management
2 741 (36.27%) Agile
3 533 (26.09%) Project Delivery
4 406 (19.87%) PRINCE2
5 380 (18.60%) Problem-Solving
6 333 (16.30%) Change Management
7 325 (15.91%) Continuous Improvement
8 319 (15.61%) Migration
9 308 (15.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 255 (12.48%) Decision-Making
11 253 (12.38%) Risk Management
12 242 (11.85%) Waterfall
13 189 (9.25%) AI
14 184 (9.01%) Scrum
15 158 (7.73%) ERP
16 143 (7.00%) Budget Management
17 136 (6.66%) Roadmaps
18 133 (6.51%) Data Migration
19 132 (6.46%) Analytics
20 131 (6.41%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 78 (3.82%) SQL
2 61 (2.99%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.73%) VBA
5 11 (0.54%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) Java
7 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
8 8 (0.39%) ABAP
8 8 (0.39%) C
8 8 (0.39%) PowerShell
9 5 (0.24%) MATLAB
10 4 (0.20%) Ada
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
10 4 (0.20%) R
10 4 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
11 3 (0.15%) SOQL
11 3 (0.15%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 307 (15.03%) Degree
2 304 (14.88%) Security Cleared
3 293 (14.34%) PMP
4 255 (12.48%) PMI Certification
5 215 (10.52%) SC Cleared
6 68 (3.33%) DV Cleared
7 55 (2.69%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 31 (1.52%) ACCA
8 31 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
8 31 (1.52%) CIMA
8 31 (1.52%) Master's Degree
9 19 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
10 18 (0.88%) CISSP
10 18 (0.88%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.78%) APMP
11 16 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (0.64%) CISM
13 12 (0.59%) Azure Certification
14 10 (0.49%) APMG
14 10 (0.49%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (12.14%) PMO
2 107 (5.24%) QA
3 60 (2.94%) Data Quality
4 40 (1.96%) GDPR
5 38 (1.86%) SLA
6 29 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.27%) NIST
8 19 (0.93%) Accessibility
9 17 (0.83%) GRC
10 9 (0.44%) EMIR
11 8 (0.39%) MiFID
12 7 (0.34%) GMP
12 7 (0.34%) P3O
13 6 (0.29%) PCI DSS
13 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.24%) GxP
14 5 (0.24%) HL7
14 5 (0.24%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 35 (1.71%) Active Directory
2 14 (0.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.24%) RACF
4 5 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.15%) vSphere
7 2 (0.098%) Docker
7 2 (0.098%) Firmware
8 1 (0.049%) ACF2
8 1 (0.049%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.049%) IAG
8 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (0.88%) Ansible
2 17 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) ITRS Geneos
6 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
6 3 (0.15%) Terraform
6 3 (0.15%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) logstash
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 324 (15.86%) Microsoft
2 186 (9.10%) SAP
3 115 (5.63%) ServiceNow
4 81 (3.96%) Oracle
5 58 (2.84%) Salesforce
6 49 (2.40%) Google
7 37 (1.81%) Adobe
8 28 (1.37%) Cisco
9 26 (1.27%) VMware
10 18 (0.88%) Ariba
10 18 (0.88%) Sitecore
10 18 (0.88%) Workday
11 17 (0.83%) Databricks
12 15 (0.73%) Atlassian
12 15 (0.73%) IBM
13 14 (0.69%) NEC
14 11 (0.54%) F5
14 11 (0.54%) IFS
14 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
14 11 (0.54%) Murex