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

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 28 21
Rank change year-on-year -33 -7 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,033 2,092 2,930
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.72% 6.35% 7.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.40% 7.02% 8.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,250 1,251 1,680
10th Percentile £312 £309 £308
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £623 £638 £613
90th Percentile £725 £738 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £500
% change year-on-year +5.70% -5.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 120 160
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.30 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.30 £25.25 £26.68
Median hourly rate £48.00 £34.50 £35.52
Median % change year-on-year +39.13% -2.86% -14.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.69 £55.06
90th Percentile £82.80 £65.63 £68.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.73 £36.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +49.25% -5.56% -4.70%

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 46,183 29,816 32,769
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.50% 90.52% 85.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,080 18,531 20,147
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
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 £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,092 1,799 1,460
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.25 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.68 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.31% -47.37% +5.81%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 1,791 £525 +0.91% 4,335
UK excluding London -36 962 £500 +5.70% 2,486
London -30 874 £550 - 2,173
Work from Home -20 624 £500 +2.56% 1,590
South East -23 255 £500 - 697
North of England -38 254 £475 -3.46% 549
North West -20 154 £475 -3.46% 288
Midlands -50 143 £534 +13.81% 391
South West -19 137 £463 +2.78% 271
West Midlands -56 95 £550 +15.79% 234
Yorkshire -34 92 £475 -5.00% 186
East of England -18 79 £525 - 254
Scotland -35 77 £500 +11.86% 197
East Midlands -13 48 £525 +17.45% 157
Northern Ireland -11 12 £444 -11.25% 89
Wales -22 12 £400 +6.67% 68
North East -41 10 £420 +3.07% 78
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 3

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
1 125 (6.15%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.77%) Confluence
3 36 (1.77%) CMS
4 27 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (0.93%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.34%) 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 (0.098%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
12 1 (0.049%) Oracle Coherence
12 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 199 (9.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 168 (8.26%) Microsoft Project
3 155 (7.62%) Microsoft Office
4 126 (6.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 41 (2.02%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Windchill
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
13 2 (0.098%) Houdini
13 2 (0.098%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 60 (2.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.13%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 11 (0.54%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.54%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.54%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 7 (0.34%) NEC Housing
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
7 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
7 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
8 5 (0.25%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 181 (8.90%) Azure
2 140 (6.89%) Power Platform
3 90 (4.43%) SaaS
4 89 (4.38%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.64%) AWS
6 68 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.72%) Smartsheet
8 33 (1.62%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.38%) Entra ID
10 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
11 22 (1.08%) GCP
12 19 (0.93%) Asana
13 17 (0.84%) OneDrive
14 16 (0.79%) GitHub
14 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
15 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
16 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
16 14 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
17 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
18 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.77%) Network Security
2 25 (1.23%) DNS
2 25 (1.23%) WAN
3 23 (1.13%) Firewall
3 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 21 (1.03%) LAN
5 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
6 13 (0.64%) DHCP
6 13 (0.64%) VPN
6 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (0.59%) Intranet
8 11 (0.54%) BGP
8 11 (0.54%) Internet
8 11 (0.54%) Wireless
9 9 (0.44%) Radio Access Network
10 8 (0.39%) 4G
10 8 (0.39%) 5G
10 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
10 8 (0.39%) LTE
10 8 (0.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 126 (6.20%) Power BI
2 20 (0.98%) Metadata
3 19 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.79%) Tableau
5 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 9 (0.44%) Power Query
9 8 (0.39%) GIS
10 7 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
10 7 (0.34%) Big Data
11 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.25%) Looker
13 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
13 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
13 4 (0.20%) EDMS
13 4 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
14 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 257 (12.64%) JIRA
2 28 (1.38%) Git
3 20 (0.98%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
6 5 (0.25%) Bitbucket
6 5 (0.25%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.098%) Selenium
8 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.049%) Capybara
9 1 (0.049%) git-flow
9 1 (0.049%) Gradle
9 1 (0.049%) Hudson
9 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.049%) TestRail
9 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 905 (44.52%) Social Skills
2 777 (38.22%) Finance
3 327 (16.08%) Analytical Skills
4 209 (10.28%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.71%) Public Sector
6 172 (8.46%) Banking
7 130 (6.39%) Marketing
8 116 (5.71%) Retail
9 93 (4.57%) Influencing Skills
10 77 (3.79%) Manufacturing
11 74 (3.64%) Legal
12 72 (3.54%) Telecoms
13 56 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.92%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.57%) Aerospace
16 31 (1.52%) Front Office
17 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 29 (1.43%) Local Government
17 29 (1.43%) Pharmaceutical
18 28 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 810 (39.84%) Project Manager
2 189 (9.30%) Senior
3 185 (9.10%) Lead
4 142 (6.98%) Analyst
5 141 (6.94%) Senior Manager
6 117 (5.76%) IT Manager
7 109 (5.36%) Senior Project Manager
8 89 (4.38%) IT Project Manager
9 82 (4.03%) Programme Manager
10 79 (3.89%) Business Analyst
11 78 (3.84%) Technical Manager
12 75 (3.69%) Delivery Manager
13 74 (3.64%) Consultant
14 61 (3.00%) Technical Project Manager
15 44 (2.16%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.07%) Project Officer
17 40 (1.97%) Coordinator
17 40 (1.97%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 36 (1.77%) Project Coordinator
19 34 (1.67%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.13%) Middleware
2 19 (0.93%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 12 (0.59%) VML
7 11 (0.54%) .NET
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 10 (0.49%) OAuth
9 9 (0.44%) React
9 9 (0.44%) SOAP
10 7 (0.34%) CSS
10 7 (0.34%) pytest
10 7 (0.34%) RESTful
11 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.30%) Terraform
12 5 (0.25%) XML
13 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 118 (5.80%) Management Information System
2 99 (4.87%) Product Ownership
3 91 (4.48%) Onboarding
4 63 (3.10%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.51%) Data Protection Act
6 49 (2.41%) Virtual Team
7 43 (2.12%) PMI
8 32 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (1.43%) Operational Technology
10 27 (1.33%) FMCG
11 26 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
12 25 (1.23%) Social Media
13 22 (1.08%) Credit Risk
13 22 (1.08%) Life Science
14 21 (1.03%) AI Agents
15 20 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) Fixed Income
17 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 61 (3.00%) Windows
2 57 (2.80%) Linux
3 24 (1.18%) Unix
3 24 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.34%) 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 (0.098%) Solaris
9 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.049%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 911 (44.81%) Stakeholder Management
2 775 (38.12%) Agile
3 601 (29.56%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.28%) PRINCE2
5 339 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 339 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
6 333 (16.38%) Change Management
7 300 (14.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 285 (14.02%) Migration
9 283 (13.92%) Decision-Making
10 255 (12.54%) Risk Management
11 247 (12.15%) Waterfall
12 217 (10.67%) AI
13 209 (10.28%) Scrum
14 203 (9.99%) Project Governance
15 167 (8.21%) Roadmaps
16 166 (8.17%) Project Planning
17 161 (7.92%) Change Control
17 161 (7.92%) Programme Management
18 157 (7.72%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 74 (3.64%) SQL
2 68 (3.34%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.84%) Java
5 16 (0.79%) VBA
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
8 9 (0.44%) PowerShell
9 8 (0.39%) Korn
9 8 (0.39%) TypeScript
10 7 (0.34%) Ada
10 7 (0.34%) Bash
10 7 (0.34%) 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%) REXX
14 2 (0.098%) R
Qualifications
1 331 (16.28%) Security Cleared
2 314 (15.45%) Degree
3 300 (14.76%) PMP
4 260 (12.79%) PMI Certification
5 228 (11.21%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.84%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 76 (3.74%) DV Cleared
8 34 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
9 25 (1.23%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.89%) ACCA
10 18 (0.89%) CIMA
11 17 (0.84%) Azure Certification
11 17 (0.84%) ITIL Certification
12 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 14 (0.69%) APMP
14 14 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (0.69%) ISTQB
15 12 (0.59%) CISM
16 11 (0.54%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (12.44%) PMO
2 98 (4.82%) QA
3 55 (2.71%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.87%) GDPR
5 25 (1.23%) GRC
6 24 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.13%) SLA
8 20 (0.98%) NIST
9 8 (0.39%) P3O
10 7 (0.34%) FINREP
10 7 (0.34%) GMP
10 7 (0.34%) SOC 2
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) EMIR
11 6 (0.30%) ISO 9001
11 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.25%) MiFID
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 39 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 28 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (0.44%) vSphere
4 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.15%) NFS
7 3 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
8 2 (0.098%) Docker
8 2 (0.098%) Firmware
9 1 (0.049%) ACF2
9 1 (0.049%) IAG
9 1 (0.049%) RACF
9 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.08%) Ansible
2 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) 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%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.098%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.098%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.098%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 370 (18.20%) Microsoft
2 161 (7.92%) SAP
3 108 (5.31%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.13%) Oracle
5 54 (2.66%) Salesforce
6 49 (2.41%) Google
7 45 (2.21%) Adobe
8 43 (2.12%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 23 (1.13%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.03%) Workday
12 20 (0.98%) Ariba
12 20 (0.98%) Atlassian
13 19 (0.93%) IBM
13 19 (0.93%) NEC
14 18 (0.89%) Databricks
15 15 (0.74%) Planview
16 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
18 10 (0.49%) Dell