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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -32 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,059 2,125 2,920
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.49% 7.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.18% 8.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,264 1,276 1,690
10th Percentile £312 £311 £313
25th Percentile £413 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £511 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.03% -2.67% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £619
90th Percentile £725 £738 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 118 169
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.00 £25.75 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.25 £34.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.16% -8.00% -8.54%
75th Percentile £62.83 £58.06 £53.75
90th Percentile £83.03 £74.13 £67.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £37.02 £38.12
% change year-on-year +28.31% -2.89% -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 46,106 29,609 32,588
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.64% 90.43% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,135 18,363 20,196
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £403 £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 £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 2,994 1,772 1,501
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.60 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £40.03 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.17% -41.51% +1.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.86 £22.60 £43.00
% change year-on-year +85.18% -47.44% +7.50%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -29 1,809 £519 -0.24% 3,460
UK excluding London -35 983 £500 +6.61% 2,020
London -31 880 £550 - 1,873
Work from Home -22 633 £500 +3.09% 1,824
North of England -35 265 £475 -3.46% 412
South East -21 262 £500 - 528
North West -20 163 £475 -3.46% 239
Midlands -46 144 £550 +18.92% 300
South West -25 133 £469 +4.22% 272
Yorkshire -28 94 £475 -5.00% 131
West Midlands -59 94 £550 +17.27% 188
East of England -11 82 £525 - 209
Scotland -33 78 £478 +6.11% 184
East Midlands -18 50 £525 +17.45% 112
Northern Ireland -7 14 £447 -10.60% 92
Wales -23 12 £400 -1.54% 48
North East -44 10 £420 +3.07% 45
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 1

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
1 123 (5.97%) SharePoint
2 104 (5.05%) Confluence
3 36 (1.75%) CMS
4 30 (1.46%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.87%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.29%) Apache
8 6 (0.29%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.29%) JBoss
8 6 (0.29%) WordPress
9 5 (0.24%) Moodle
9 5 (0.24%) SAS
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.097%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 197 (9.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 177 (8.60%) Microsoft Project
3 163 (7.92%) Microsoft Office
4 128 (6.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.09%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.87%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.68%) Trello
8 11 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.29%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.19%) Simulink
11 4 (0.19%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.097%) Houdini
13 2 (0.097%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 64 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.21%) Primavera
3 13 (0.63%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.63%) Magento
4 10 (0.49%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.49%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.49%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.29%) Shopify
8 6 (0.29%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.24%) Oracle General Ledger
9 5 (0.24%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.24%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 186 (9.03%) Azure
2 142 (6.90%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.47%) Microsoft 365
3 92 (4.47%) SaaS
4 76 (3.69%) AWS
5 70 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
6 38 (1.85%) Smartsheet
7 30 (1.46%) Entra ID
7 30 (1.46%) Google Workspace
8 26 (1.26%) Dynamics 365
9 21 (1.02%) GCP
10 19 (0.92%) Asana
11 18 (0.87%) OneDrive
12 17 (0.83%) GitHub
13 16 (0.78%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.73%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (0.73%) Power Automate
15 13 (0.63%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.58%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.53%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.94%) Network Security
2 29 (1.41%) WAN
3 26 (1.26%) Firewall
4 25 (1.21%) DNS
5 24 (1.17%) LAN
5 24 (1.17%) TCP/IP
6 18 (0.87%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.73%) VPN
8 14 (0.68%) DHCP
8 14 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.63%) Internet
9 13 (0.63%) Intranet
9 13 (0.63%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.58%) BGP
10 12 (0.58%) Wireless
11 10 (0.49%) SAN
12 9 (0.44%) Radio Access Network
13 8 (0.39%) 5G
13 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
13 8 (0.39%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.22%) Power BI
2 21 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.87%) Metadata
4 17 (0.83%) Tableau
5 14 (0.68%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.63%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.49%) Power Query
7 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.39%) GIS
9 7 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (0.34%) Big Data
10 6 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (0.24%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.24%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.24%) Looker
11 5 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
12 4 (0.19%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.19%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) BigQuery
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 266 (12.92%) JIRA
2 29 (1.41%) Git
3 21 (1.02%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
6 6 (0.29%) GitLab
7 5 (0.24%) Rational Rhapsody
8 4 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.097%) Zephyr
11 1 (0.049%) git-flow
11 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.049%) minitest
11 1 (0.049%) Postman
11 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.049%) Snyk
11 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 901 (43.76%) Social Skills
2 781 (37.93%) Finance
3 345 (16.76%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (9.96%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.60%) Banking
5 177 (8.60%) Public Sector
6 134 (6.51%) Marketing
7 120 (5.83%) Retail
8 82 (3.98%) Influencing Skills
9 77 (3.74%) Telecoms
10 72 (3.50%) Manufacturing
11 71 (3.45%) Legal
12 58 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
13 42 (2.04%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.55%) Pharmaceutical
15 31 (1.51%) Front Office
16 29 (1.41%) Aerospace
16 29 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.41%) Local Government
17 28 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 818 (39.73%) Project Manager
2 191 (9.28%) Senior
3 179 (8.69%) Lead
4 158 (7.67%) Analyst
5 141 (6.85%) Senior Manager
6 115 (5.59%) IT Manager
7 111 (5.39%) Senior Project Manager
8 85 (4.13%) Business Analyst
8 85 (4.13%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.08%) Programme Manager
10 78 (3.79%) Technical Manager
11 75 (3.64%) Consultant
12 73 (3.55%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.01%) Technical Project Manager
14 48 (2.33%) Infrastructure Manager
15 42 (2.04%) Coordinator
16 41 (1.99%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 36 (1.75%) Developer
17 36 (1.75%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 36 (1.75%) Project Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.17%) Middleware
2 20 (0.97%) REST
3 17 (0.83%) ADO
4 15 (0.73%) HTML
4 15 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.63%) VML
5 13 (0.63%) Web Services
6 11 (0.53%) JSON
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.44%) React
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 7 (0.34%) AngularJS
9 7 (0.34%) CSS
9 7 (0.34%) pytest
9 7 (0.34%) RESTful
10 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.29%) Terraform
10 6 (0.29%) XML
11 5 (0.24%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 117 (5.68%) Management Information System
2 101 (4.91%) Product Ownership
3 95 (4.61%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.16%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.33%) Virtual Team
7 45 (2.19%) PMI
8 29 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
9 28 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
9 28 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
10 27 (1.31%) FMCG
10 27 (1.31%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.21%) Social Media
12 24 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
13 22 (1.07%) Credit Risk
13 22 (1.07%) Life Science
14 20 (0.97%) AI Agents
15 19 (0.92%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.78%) Marketing Technology
16 16 (0.78%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.21%) Windows
2 59 (2.87%) Linux
3 24 (1.17%) Unix
3 24 (1.17%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.34%) zOS
7 5 (0.24%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.19%) Android
8 4 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.097%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.097%) Solaris
9 2 (0.097%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.097%) 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
1 906 (44.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 792 (38.47%) Agile
3 597 (28.99%) Project Delivery
4 460 (22.34%) PRINCE2
5 350 (17.00%) Problem-Solving
6 345 (16.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 338 (16.42%) Change Management
8 297 (14.42%) Migration
9 296 (14.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 271 (13.16%) Decision-Making
11 255 (12.38%) Risk Management
11 255 (12.38%) Waterfall
12 214 (10.39%) AI
13 209 (10.15%) Scrum
14 189 (9.18%) Project Governance
15 167 (8.11%) Roadmaps
16 160 (7.77%) Analytics
17 157 (7.63%) ITIL
17 157 (7.63%) Programme Management
18 153 (7.43%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 79 (3.84%) SQL
2 71 (3.45%) Python
3 18 (0.87%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.78%) Java
4 16 (0.78%) VBA
5 13 (0.63%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.34%) Ada
8 7 (0.34%) Bash
8 7 (0.34%) C
9 5 (0.24%) Korn
9 5 (0.24%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.24%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.19%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.19%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.097%) R
Qualifications
1 329 (15.98%) Security Cleared
2 317 (15.40%) Degree
3 297 (14.42%) PMP
4 261 (12.68%) PMI Certification
5 228 (11.07%) SC Cleared
6 74 (3.59%) DV Cleared
6 74 (3.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 33 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.31%) Master's Degree
9 21 (1.02%) ACCA
9 21 (1.02%) CIMA
10 18 (0.87%) ITIL Certification
11 16 (0.78%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 15 (0.73%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (0.68%) ISTQB
14 13 (0.63%) APMP
15 12 (0.58%) CISSP
16 11 (0.53%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (12.68%) PMO
2 103 (5.00%) QA
3 54 (2.62%) Data Quality
4 39 (1.89%) GDPR
5 25 (1.21%) SLA
6 24 (1.17%) GRC
7 23 (1.12%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 20 (0.97%) NIST
9 9 (0.44%) P3O
10 7 (0.34%) EMIR
10 7 (0.34%) FINREP
10 7 (0.34%) GMP
11 6 (0.29%) COREP
11 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.29%) ISO 9001
11 6 (0.29%) MiFID
11 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.24%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.24%) WCAG
System Software
1 45 (2.19%) Active Directory
2 27 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.29%) vSphere
6 5 (0.24%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.19%) NFS
7 4 (0.19%) Time Sharing Option
8 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.097%) Docker
9 2 (0.097%) Firmware
10 1 (0.049%) ACF2
10 1 (0.049%) IAG
10 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.049%) RACF
10 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.07%) Ansible
2 14 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.29%) Puppet
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.24%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.24%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.19%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.19%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.097%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.097%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.097%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.097%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 369 (17.92%) Microsoft
2 159 (7.72%) SAP
3 111 (5.39%) ServiceNow
4 82 (3.98%) Oracle
5 58 (2.82%) Salesforce
6 51 (2.48%) Google
7 46 (2.23%) Adobe
8 43 (2.09%) VMware
9 30 (1.46%) Cisco
10 24 (1.17%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.02%) Atlassian
12 20 (0.97%) Ariba
12 20 (0.97%) Workday
13 18 (0.87%) Databricks
13 18 (0.87%) NEC
14 16 (0.78%) IBM
15 14 (0.68%) Planview
16 12 (0.58%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.53%) Dell
18 10 (0.49%) F5