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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 30 22
Rank change year-on-year -33 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,019 2,050 2,878
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.68% 6.20% 7.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.35% 6.84% 8.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,233 1,245 1,632
10th Percentile £308 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £513 £523
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.08% -0.31%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £613
90th Percentile £725 £738 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 119 135
10th Percentile £21.00 £20.24 £21.25
25th Percentile £31.30 £24.00 £26.55
Median hourly rate £50.00 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.06% -2.86% -22.22%
75th Percentile £64.38 £56.50 £54.38
90th Percentile £79.50 £65.00 £66.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £33.67 £35.00
% change year-on-year +61.87% -3.80% -22.22%

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 46,382 29,970 32,481
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.48% 90.66% 85.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,008 18,622 19,630
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
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 £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £733 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,245 1,858 1,349
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.32 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.07% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.64 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.01% -48.10% +1.18%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1,771 £525 - 4,481
UK excluding London -34 946 £500 +5.26% 2,642
London -27 868 £550 - 2,216
Work from Home -22 622 £500 +2.09% 1,723
North of England -29 260 £469 -6.25% 562
South East -29 248 £500 - 742
North West -27 149 £475 -3.01% 310
Midlands -52 141 £544 +14.47% 402
South West -24 131 £450 - 293
Yorkshire -13 105 £465 -9.27% 192
West Midlands -52 95 £550 +11.79% 239
Scotland -34 75 £500 +11.48% 213
East of England -22 73 £510 -2.39% 274
East Midlands -20 46 £525 +16.67% 163
Wales -25 13 £400 +18.52% 81
Northern Ireland -8 12 £413 -21.43% 113
North East -39 8 £420 +3.07% 63
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 2

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
1 131 (6.49%) SharePoint
2 96 (4.75%) Confluence
3 34 (1.68%) CMS
4 25 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (1.09%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) 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 (0.099%) FactoryTalk
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.099%) WinCC
12 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.050%) nginx
Applications
1 199 (9.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 168 (8.32%) Microsoft Project
3 156 (7.73%) Microsoft Office
4 123 (6.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 37 (1.83%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 9 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Windchill
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
13 2 (0.099%) Adobe Illustrator
13 2 (0.099%) AutoCAD
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) InDesign
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) CATIA
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 58 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) 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 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Teamcenter
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 176 (8.72%) Azure
2 142 (7.03%) Power Platform
3 88 (4.36%) SaaS
4 86 (4.26%) Microsoft 365
5 68 (3.37%) Azure DevOps
6 66 (3.27%) AWS
7 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
8 34 (1.68%) Google Workspace
9 29 (1.44%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (1.34%) Entra ID
11 26 (1.29%) GCP
12 20 (0.99%) Asana
13 17 (0.84%) PowerApps
14 16 (0.79%) GitHub
14 16 (0.79%) Microsoft Copilot
14 16 (0.79%) OneDrive
15 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
16 14 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
17 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
18 10 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (1.88%) Network Security
2 25 (1.24%) DNS
3 24 (1.19%) Firewall
3 24 (1.19%) WAN
4 20 (0.99%) LAN
5 19 (0.94%) TCP/IP
6 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.59%) VPN
9 11 (0.54%) DHCP
9 11 (0.54%) Intranet
9 11 (0.54%) Wireless
10 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 9 (0.45%) Internet
11 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.40%) 3GPP
12 8 (0.40%) 4G
12 8 (0.40%) 5G
12 8 (0.40%) LTE
12 8 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.34%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Metadata
3 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.79%) Tableau
5 15 (0.74%) Data Lake
6 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Power Query
8 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.30%) Big Data
9 6 (0.30%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 5 (0.25%) Looker
10 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (0.25%) Qlik Sense
11 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.20%) EDMS
12 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 258 (12.78%) JIRA
2 29 (1.44%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Rational DOORS
5 8 (0.40%) Subversion
6 6 (0.30%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.20%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Selenium
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.050%) Capybara
10 1 (0.050%) git-flow
10 1 (0.050%) Gradle
10 1 (0.050%) Hudson
10 1 (0.050%) Maven
10 1 (0.050%) RSpec
10 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.050%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 892 (44.18%) Social Skills
2 786 (38.93%) Finance
3 310 (15.35%) Analytical Skills
4 216 (10.70%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.72%) Banking
6 172 (8.52%) Public Sector
7 130 (6.44%) Marketing
8 113 (5.60%) Retail
9 102 (5.05%) Influencing Skills
10 82 (4.06%) Manufacturing
11 71 (3.52%) Legal
12 67 (3.32%) Telecoms
13 57 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
14 38 (1.88%) Aerospace
15 37 (1.83%) Investment Banking
16 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.44%) Local Government
17 28 (1.39%) Front Office
17 28 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
18 22 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 814 (40.32%) Project Manager
2 186 (9.21%) Senior
3 171 (8.47%) Lead
4 141 (6.98%) Senior Manager
5 126 (6.24%) Analyst
6 120 (5.94%) IT Manager
7 107 (5.30%) Senior Project Manager
8 93 (4.61%) IT Project Manager
9 88 (4.36%) Programme Manager
10 78 (3.86%) Delivery Manager
11 76 (3.76%) Technical Manager
12 74 (3.67%) Consultant
13 69 (3.42%) Business Analyst
14 58 (2.87%) Technical Project Manager
15 48 (2.38%) Project Officer
16 43 (2.13%) Coordinator
17 41 (2.03%) Infrastructure Manager
18 38 (1.88%) Project Coordinator
19 37 (1.83%) SC Cleared Project Manager
19 37 (1.83%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.14%) Middleware
2 17 (0.84%) ADO
3 13 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.59%) HTML
4 12 (0.59%) REST
5 10 (0.50%) OAuth
5 10 (0.50%) VML
6 9 (0.45%) .NET
6 9 (0.45%) JSON
6 9 (0.45%) Web Services
7 8 (0.40%) pytest
7 8 (0.40%) SOAP
7 8 (0.40%) Terraform
8 7 (0.35%) React
9 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 5 (0.25%) CSS
10 5 (0.25%) DAO
10 5 (0.25%) XML
11 4 (0.20%) EDI
11 4 (0.20%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 116 (5.75%) Management Information System
2 100 (4.95%) Onboarding
3 94 (4.66%) Product Ownership
4 64 (3.17%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.38%) Virtual Team
7 42 (2.08%) PMI
8 31 (1.54%) Operational Technology
9 30 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
10 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (1.29%) Life Science
12 25 (1.24%) FMCG
13 24 (1.19%) Social Media
14 21 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
15 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
15 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
16 18 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
17 17 (0.84%) Fixed Income
17 17 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
18 16 (0.79%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.87%) Linux
2 54 (2.67%) Windows
3 23 (1.14%) Unix
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 10 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) zOS
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) AIX
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.050%) Rocky
10 1 (0.050%) Solaris
10 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 915 (45.32%) Stakeholder Management
2 767 (37.99%) Agile
3 594 (29.42%) Project Delivery
4 459 (22.73%) PRINCE2
5 343 (16.99%) Problem-Solving
6 332 (16.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 325 (16.10%) Change Management
8 301 (14.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 285 (14.12%) Decision-Making
10 272 (13.47%) Migration
11 261 (12.93%) Risk Management
12 245 (12.13%) Waterfall
13 219 (10.85%) AI
14 214 (10.60%) Scrum
15 212 (10.50%) Project Governance
16 172 (8.52%) Roadmaps
17 171 (8.47%) Project Planning
18 170 (8.42%) Change Control
19 162 (8.02%) Programme Management
20 147 (7.28%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 77 (3.81%) SQL
2 67 (3.32%) Python
3 16 (0.79%) Java
4 13 (0.64%) C++
4 13 (0.64%) JavaScript
4 13 (0.64%) VBA
5 10 (0.50%) C#
6 9 (0.45%) Bash
7 8 (0.40%) Ada
7 8 (0.40%) Korn
7 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
8 6 (0.30%) C
8 6 (0.30%) TypeScript
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) R
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 319 (15.80%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.60%) Degree
3 299 (14.81%) PMP
4 260 (12.88%) PMI Certification
5 222 (11.00%) SC Cleared
6 81 (4.01%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 77 (3.81%) DV Cleared
8 35 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
9 22 (1.09%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.79%) ISTQB
11 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
12 15 (0.74%) ACCA
12 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.74%) CIMA
13 13 (0.64%) APMP
13 13 (0.64%) CISSP
13 13 (0.64%) DBS Check
14 10 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
14 10 (0.50%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 256 (12.68%) PMO
2 94 (4.66%) QA
3 56 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 31 (1.54%) GDPR
5 27 (1.34%) GRC
6 22 (1.09%) Accessibility
7 21 (1.04%) SLA
8 17 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (0.69%) NIST
10 8 (0.40%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.25%) EMIR
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) MiFID
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
14 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 35 (1.73%) Active Directory
2 30 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (0.59%) vSphere
4 9 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.15%) NFS
8 3 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
9 2 (0.099%) Docker
9 2 (0.099%) Firmware
10 1 (0.050%) ACF2
10 1 (0.050%) IAG
10 1 (0.050%) RACF
10 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 19 (0.94%) Ansible
2 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.35%) Puppet
4 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
4 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
4 5 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.099%) BMC PATROL
7 2 (0.099%) BMC Performance Manager
7 2 (0.099%) Perfmon
7 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.050%) Functional Safety
8 1 (0.050%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.050%) Nagios
8 1 (0.050%) Nessus
8 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 367 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 163 (8.07%) SAP
3 95 (4.71%) ServiceNow
4 75 (3.71%) Oracle
5 51 (2.53%) Salesforce
6 47 (2.33%) Google
7 43 (2.13%) VMware
8 42 (2.08%) Adobe
9 29 (1.44%) Cisco
10 21 (1.04%) Ariba
10 21 (1.04%) Atlassian
11 20 (0.99%) IBM
11 20 (0.99%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
12 19 (0.94%) Sitecore
13 18 (0.89%) Databricks
14 15 (0.74%) Planview
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 9 (0.45%) Murex