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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -30 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,025 2,235 2,943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.81% 7.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.53% 8.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,255 1,357 1,734
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.20% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £622 £619 £616
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 123 218
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £27.51 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £37.02 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +21.56% -2.89% -4.70%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.00 £48.56
90th Percentile £85.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £40.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.73% +6.24% -4.16%

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 45,377 29,691 33,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.71% 90.48% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,881 18,495 21,183
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,839 1,731 1,775
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.38 £17.30 £18.15
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -38.57% +0.61%
75th Percentile £68.00 £49.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.30 £42.50
% change year-on-year +88.67% -45.18% +18.88%

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 19 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 19 August 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 19 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 -28 1,788 £523 +1.46% 2,741
UK excluding London -37 965 £500 +5.26% 1,801
London -27 872 £550 +2.80% 1,323
Work from Home -24 626 £500 +4.17% 1,245
North of England -38 262 £475 -3.46% 415
South East -26 248 £500 - 436
North West -23 161 £475 - 244
Midlands -48 142 £528 +17.22% 264
South West -22 141 £438 -2.78% 260
West Midlands -64 95 £550 +16.53% 165
Yorkshire -35 94 £475 -5.00% 123
East of England -13 83 £525 - 169
Scotland -41 66 £470 +4.44% 172
East Midlands -19 47 £500 +18.41% 99
Northern Ireland +1 17 £430 -18.14% 67
Wales -21 14 £400 - 50
North East -39 9 £420 -12.95% 53
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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 (5.43%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.84%) Confluence
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 26 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.35%) Sitecore CMS
6 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.30%) JBoss
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Apache
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.099%) SAS
11 1 (0.049%) CICS
11 1 (0.049%) IIS
11 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 191 (9.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 173 (8.54%) Microsoft Project
3 157 (7.75%) Microsoft Office
4 120 (5.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 44 (2.17%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.49%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 66 (3.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.23%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
4 11 (0.54%) Magento
5 10 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) SAP CO
7 7 (0.35%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.35%) SAP PS
8 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
9 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
10 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 174 (8.59%) Azure
2 128 (6.32%) Power Platform
3 95 (4.69%) SaaS
4 80 (3.95%) Microsoft 365
5 75 (3.70%) AWS
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (1.09%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) GitHub
13 17 (0.84%) GCP
14 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
15 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
15 13 (0.64%) PowerApps
15 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
16 11 (0.54%) OneDrive
16 11 (0.54%) Power Automate
16 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 27 (1.33%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.04%) Firewall
6 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) VPN
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 10 (0.49%) Wireless
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) SAN
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.73%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 14 (0.69%) Data Lake
4 14 (0.69%) Metadata
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.49%) Power Query
6 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.35%) Big Data
8 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
9 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.25%) Amazon Redshift
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) QlikView
11 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 252 (12.44%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Hudson
9 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.049%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.049%) minitest
10 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.049%) Snyk
10 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 884 (43.65%) Social Skills
2 748 (36.94%) Finance
3 343 (16.94%) Analytical Skills
4 202 (9.98%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.74%) Public Sector
6 168 (8.30%) Banking
7 139 (6.86%) Marketing
8 120 (5.93%) Retail
9 79 (3.90%) Manufacturing
10 71 (3.51%) Legal
11 69 (3.41%) Influencing Skills
11 69 (3.41%) Telecoms
12 50 (2.47%) Presentation Skills
13 36 (1.78%) Investment Banking
14 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
14 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.48%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
16 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 27 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 811 (40.05%) Project Manager
2 199 (9.83%) Senior
3 171 (8.44%) Lead
4 165 (8.15%) Analyst
5 147 (7.26%) Senior Manager
6 116 (5.73%) Senior Project Manager
7 111 (5.48%) IT Manager
8 90 (4.44%) Programme Manager
9 88 (4.35%) IT Project Manager
10 85 (4.20%) Business Analyst
11 72 (3.56%) Technical Manager
12 68 (3.36%) Delivery Manager
13 63 (3.11%) Consultant
14 59 (2.91%) Technical Project Manager
15 51 (2.52%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.07%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 41 (2.02%) Project Officer
18 39 (1.93%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 38 (1.88%) Developer
20 37 (1.83%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) ADO
3 16 (0.79%) HTML
4 14 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
7 10 (0.49%) SOAP
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.40%) CSS
9 8 (0.40%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) pytest
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.38%) Management Information System
2 87 (4.30%) Onboarding
3 86 (4.25%) Product Ownership
4 67 (3.31%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
6 50 (2.47%) PMI
7 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
8 32 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (1.33%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.23%) FMCG
12 24 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 24 (1.19%) Social Media
13 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
13 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
14 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.94%) Life Science
15 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 15 (0.74%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.86%) Windows
2 48 (2.37%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 19 (0.94%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.15%) Android
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 843 (41.63%) Stakeholder Management
2 777 (38.37%) Agile
3 571 (28.20%) Project Delivery
4 463 (22.86%) PRINCE2
5 348 (17.19%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.74%) Change Management
6 339 (16.74%) Continuous Improvement
7 298 (14.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 295 (14.57%) Migration
9 260 (12.84%) Decision-Making
10 249 (12.30%) Risk Management
11 248 (12.25%) Waterfall
12 202 (9.98%) Scrum
13 189 (9.33%) AI
14 166 (8.20%) Project Governance
15 160 (7.90%) Roadmaps
16 152 (7.51%) ITIL
17 149 (7.36%) Analytics
18 144 (7.11%) Project Planning
19 142 (7.01%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.15%) SQL
2 69 (3.41%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 15 (0.74%) Java
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
7 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) ABAP
10 5 (0.25%) Bash
10 5 (0.25%) Korn
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) R
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 324 (16.00%) Security Cleared
2 318 (15.70%) Degree
3 311 (15.36%) PMP
4 270 (13.33%) PMI Certification
5 221 (10.91%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.75%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.48%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 24 (1.19%) ACCA
10 24 (1.19%) CIMA
11 19 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 16 (0.79%) APMP
13 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
14 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
15 14 (0.69%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 249 (12.30%) PMO
2 100 (4.94%) QA
3 61 (3.01%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.83%) GDPR
5 29 (1.43%) SLA
6 25 (1.23%) GRC
7 24 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
9 21 (1.04%) NIST
10 9 (0.44%) P3O
11 8 (0.40%) EMIR
12 7 (0.35%) FINREP
12 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 7 (0.35%) MiFID
12 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.30%) COREP
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.25%) WCAG
15 4 (0.20%) GxP
System Software
1 39 (1.93%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
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
8 1 (0.049%) ACF2
8 1 (0.049%) IAG
8 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.049%) RACF
8 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (0.99%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 6 (0.30%) Terraform
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 343 (16.94%) Microsoft
2 166 (8.20%) SAP
3 114 (5.63%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.15%) Oracle
5 56 (2.77%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.72%) Google
7 46 (2.27%) Adobe
8 36 (1.78%) VMware
9 31 (1.53%) Cisco
10 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
11 22 (1.09%) Atlassian
11 22 (1.09%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) Databricks
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 18 (0.89%) Ariba
14 14 (0.69%) IBM
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) IFS
16 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 10 (0.49%) Murex