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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -31 -4 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,026 2,189 2,947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.69% 7.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.40% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,332 1,733
10th Percentile £310 £308 £302
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.23% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 121 199
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £27.52 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £37.02 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +21.56% -1.28% -6.83%
75th Percentile £64.19 £60.00 £48.88
90th Percentile £83.03 £75.00 £65.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.50 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +13.04% +5.59% -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 45,367 29,590 33,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.58% 90.44% 85.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,794 18,422 20,982
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% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,879 1,766 1,695
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.97 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.26% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +6.25%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -29 1,780 £520 +0.97% 1,156
UK excluding London -34 979 £500 +6.38% 786
London -30 855 £550 +1.85% 470
Work from Home -23 616 £500 +2.56% 547
North of England -40 261 £475 -3.46% 167
South East -23 254 £500 - 188
North West -27 157 £475 - 92
Midlands -44 145 £534 +18.61% 129
South West -24 137 £444 -1.39% 173
Yorkshire -34 97 £475 -5.00% 56
West Midlands -59 96 £550 +17.27% 80
East of England -13 83 £520 -0.95% 91
Scotland -33 78 £488 +9.06% 33
East Midlands -20 49 £500 +12.42% 49
Northern Ireland -4 17 £430 -21.86% 10
Wales -22 12 £400 - 26
North East -41 9 £420 -4.55% 22
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
1 116 (5.73%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.84%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 29 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 190 (9.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 173 (8.54%) Microsoft Project
3 158 (7.80%) Microsoft Office
4 120 (5.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) 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 63 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.23%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
3 12 (0.59%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
5 8 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.39%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.39%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.39%) SAP PS
6 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
6 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.30%) SAP MM
6 6 (0.30%) Shopify
6 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
7 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
7 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 175 (8.64%) Azure
2 134 (6.61%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.54%) SaaS
4 85 (4.20%) Microsoft 365
5 72 (3.55%) AWS
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.38%) Entra ID
10 26 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
11 19 (0.94%) GCP
12 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 15 (0.74%) PowerApps
14 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 14 (0.69%) OneDrive
14 14 (0.69%) Power Automate
15 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
15 13 (0.64%) OCI
16 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 39 (1.92%) Network Security
2 31 (1.53%) WAN
3 24 (1.18%) Firewall
3 24 (1.18%) LAN
3 24 (1.18%) TCP/IP
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
5 18 (0.89%) Structured Cabling
6 16 (0.79%) Internet
6 16 (0.79%) VPN
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 15 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 12 (0.59%) BGP
11 11 (0.54%) MPLS
12 10 (0.49%) SAN
12 10 (0.49%) Wireless
13 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
14 7 (0.35%) DKIM
14 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (5.97%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Metadata
3 17 (0.84%) Tableau
4 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
5 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.44%) Power Query
6 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.39%) GIS
8 7 (0.35%) Big Data
9 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 5 (0.25%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
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%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.049%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.049%) minitest
10 1 (0.049%) Postman
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
1 899 (44.37%) Social Skills
2 756 (37.31%) Finance
3 348 (17.18%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (9.77%) Organisational Skills
5 178 (8.79%) Public Sector
6 172 (8.49%) Banking
7 135 (6.66%) Marketing
8 120 (5.92%) Retail
9 77 (3.80%) Influencing Skills
10 76 (3.75%) Manufacturing
11 74 (3.65%) Telecoms
12 70 (3.46%) Legal
13 54 (2.67%) Presentation Skills
14 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
16 30 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 29 (1.43%) Financial Institution
17 29 (1.43%) Front Office
17 29 (1.43%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 803 (39.63%) Project Manager
2 191 (9.43%) Senior
3 179 (8.84%) Lead
4 161 (7.95%) Analyst
5 142 (7.01%) Senior Manager
6 112 (5.53%) IT Manager
6 112 (5.53%) Senior Project Manager
7 86 (4.24%) Programme Manager
8 85 (4.20%) Business Analyst
8 85 (4.20%) IT Project Manager
9 72 (3.55%) Technical Manager
10 69 (3.41%) Consultant
11 67 (3.31%) Delivery Manager
12 60 (2.96%) Technical Project Manager
13 50 (2.47%) Infrastructure Manager
14 43 (2.12%) SC Cleared Project Manager
15 38 (1.88%) Project Officer
16 37 (1.83%) Coordinator
16 37 (1.83%) Developer
16 37 (1.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 18 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
4 16 (0.79%) ADO
4 16 (0.79%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) OAuth
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) SOAP
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.39%) CSS
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) Terraform
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 110 (5.43%) Management Information System
2 91 (4.49%) Product Ownership
3 88 (4.34%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.21%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
6 46 (2.27%) PMI
7 45 (2.22%) Virtual Team
8 30 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.28%) FMCG
10 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.23%) Social Media
12 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
12 21 (1.04%) Credit Risk
13 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
13 19 (0.94%) Life Science
14 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 63 (3.11%) Windows
2 53 (2.62%) Linux
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.09%) Unix
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.30%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 864 (42.65%) Stakeholder Management
2 775 (38.25%) Agile
3 581 (28.68%) Project Delivery
4 457 (22.56%) PRINCE2
5 347 (17.13%) Problem-Solving
6 340 (16.78%) Continuous Improvement
7 337 (16.63%) Change Management
8 294 (14.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 292 (14.41%) Migration
10 264 (13.03%) Decision-Making
11 257 (12.69%) Risk Management
12 246 (12.14%) Waterfall
13 199 (9.82%) AI
14 195 (9.62%) Scrum
15 171 (8.44%) Project Governance
16 165 (8.14%) Roadmaps
17 153 (7.55%) ITIL
18 151 (7.45%) Analytics
19 146 (7.21%) Project Planning
20 144 (7.11%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 79 (3.90%) SQL
2 70 (3.46%) Python
3 19 (0.94%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.84%) Java
5 16 (0.79%) VBA
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%) Bash
10 5 (0.25%) Korn
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) ABAP
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 332 (16.39%) Security Cleared
2 314 (15.50%) Degree
3 297 (14.66%) PMP
4 258 (12.73%) PMI Certification
5 228 (11.25%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.80%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.50%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (1.09%) ACCA
10 22 (1.09%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
12 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) APMP
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.59%) CISSP
15 11 (0.54%) ISTQB
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (12.24%) PMO
2 102 (5.03%) QA
3 59 (2.91%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.83%) GDPR
5 29 (1.43%) SLA
6 26 (1.28%) GRC
7 24 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
9 21 (1.04%) NIST
10 9 (0.44%) P3O
11 8 (0.39%) EMIR
12 7 (0.35%) FINREP
12 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.30%) COREP
13 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.30%) MiFID
14 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (2.12%) Active Directory
2 24 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
6 4 (0.20%) vSphere
7 3 (0.15%) Docker
8 2 (0.099%) Firmware
9 1 (0.049%) ACF2
9 1 (0.049%) IAG
9 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.049%) RACF
9 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
9 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
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%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.049%) BMC Performance Manager
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 350 (17.28%) Microsoft
2 156 (7.70%) SAP
3 113 (5.58%) ServiceNow
4 86 (4.24%) Oracle
5 56 (2.76%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.71%) Google
7 47 (2.32%) Adobe
8 40 (1.97%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 24 (1.18%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
11 23 (1.14%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 18 (0.89%) Ariba
14 16 (0.79%) Databricks
15 15 (0.74%) IBM
16 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.54%) IFS
18 10 (0.49%) F5
18 10 (0.49%) Murex