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 27 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 37 21 19
Rank change year-on-year -16 -2 +4
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,992 2,769 3,562
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.36% 8.23% 8.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.09% 9.32% 9.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,254 1,535 2,317
10th Percentile £313 £275 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -
75th Percentile £610 £613 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 128 156
10th Percentile £17.00 £21.25 £21.00
25th Percentile £23.50 £26.30 £30.00
Median hourly rate £38.54 £33.27 £46.53
Median % change year-on-year +15.84% -28.49% +16.98%
75th Percentile £63.18 £56.31 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.01 £68.80 £72.17
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £35.02 £47.00
% change year-on-year +29.83% -25.50% -4.84%

All Process and 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 32,729 29,699 38,511
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.02% 88.28% 88.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,612 18,123 25,677
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.47% -4.09%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £738 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,069 965 1,551
10th Percentile £14.73 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £51.65 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.63 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £30.88 £44.50
% change year-on-year -23.64% -30.62% +48.33%

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 27 December 2025.

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 27 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Top 17 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 27 December 2025. 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 -18 1,715 £519 -1.19% 2,909
UK excluding London -20 999 £500 - 2,699
London -16 805 £525 -4.55% 534
Work from Home -14 582 £500 -0.10% 1,197
North of England -24 262 £492 +3.58% 602
South East -9 261 £525 - 722
Midlands -23 191 £496 -5.52% 512
North West -12 148 £492 +9.33% 302
West Midlands -23 133 £500 -9.09% 282
Yorkshire -16 105 £488 +4.00% 261
South West -25 101 £450 -6.49% 298
Scotland -12 95 £431 -4.17% 131
East Midlands -14 60 £468 +17.00% 206
East of England -31 59 £450 -5.26% 374
Wales -4 31 £325 -38.10% 72
Northern Ireland -7 19 £388 -18.42% 38
North East -23 11 £430 -25.22% 45

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
1 162 (8.13%) Confluence
2 125 (6.28%) SharePoint
3 28 (1.41%) CMS
4 14 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.35%) WordPress
7 5 (0.25%) nginx
8 2 (0.10%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.050%) Moodle
9 1 (0.050%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.050%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 223 (11.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 206 (10.34%) Microsoft Project
3 168 (8.43%) Microsoft Office
4 133 (6.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 62 (3.11%) MS Visio
6 28 (1.41%) Trello
7 17 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.10%) InDesign
11 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 52 (2.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.75%) Oracle EBS
3 13 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (0.65%) Primavera
4 11 (0.55%) Oracle ERP
5 10 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
6 8 (0.40%) Loan IQ
6 8 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
7 7 (0.35%) SAP PM
8 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) Workfront
9 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
10 4 (0.20%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.20%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 167 (8.38%) Azure
2 114 (5.72%) Power Platform
3 98 (4.92%) AWS
4 78 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
5 49 (2.46%) SaaS
6 47 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (1.61%) GCP
8 27 (1.36%) Asana
9 24 (1.20%) Smartsheet
9 24 (1.20%) SuccessFactors
10 22 (1.10%) Google Workspace
11 20 (1.00%) Dynamics 365
12 17 (0.85%) GitHub
12 17 (0.85%) OpenShift
13 16 (0.80%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.75%) Microsoft Copilot
15 14 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
16 10 (0.50%) Entra ID
16 10 (0.50%) OCI
16 10 (0.50%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.26%) Firewall
2 20 (1.00%) WAN
3 18 (0.90%) Network Security
4 17 (0.85%) DNS
5 16 (0.80%) LAN
5 16 (0.80%) SSH
6 14 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (0.65%) Structured Cabling
8 11 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 11 (0.55%) VPN
9 10 (0.50%) HTTP
10 9 (0.45%) Skype
11 8 (0.40%) Internet
11 8 (0.40%) TCP/IP
12 6 (0.30%) Broadband
12 6 (0.30%) DHCP
12 6 (0.30%) SSL
13 5 (0.25%) Multicast
13 5 (0.25%) Wireless
14 4 (0.20%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (5.17%) Power BI
2 32 (1.61%) Tableau
3 27 (1.36%) SQL Server
4 18 (0.90%) Data Warehouse
4 18 (0.90%) Metadata
5 15 (0.75%) SAP HANA
6 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
7 8 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.35%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
9 5 (0.25%) Power Query
10 4 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.15%) Big Data
11 3 (0.15%) GIS
11 3 (0.15%) MySQL
11 3 (0.15%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 325 (16.32%) JIRA
2 18 (0.90%) Git
3 12 (0.60%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.35%) GitLab
5 4 (0.20%) Selenium
5 4 (0.20%) SpecFlow
6 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
6 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.15%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.10%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.050%) Appium
8 1 (0.050%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.050%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.050%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.050%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.050%) Gradle
8 1 (0.050%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.050%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.050%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 973 (48.85%) Social Skills
2 705 (35.39%) Finance
3 343 (17.22%) Analytical Skills
4 204 (10.24%) Public Sector
5 179 (8.99%) Banking
6 167 (8.38%) Organisational Skills
7 97 (4.87%) Legal
8 96 (4.82%) Marketing
9 89 (4.47%) Retail
10 81 (4.07%) Manufacturing
11 77 (3.87%) Influencing Skills
12 51 (2.56%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.36%) Local Government
14 46 (2.31%) Investment Banking
14 46 (2.31%) Presentation Skills
15 37 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 35 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
17 34 (1.71%) Front Office
18 31 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
19 23 (1.15%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 732 (36.75%) Project Manager
2 235 (11.80%) Analyst
3 161 (8.08%) Lead
4 153 (7.68%) Senior
5 126 (6.33%) Business Analyst
6 104 (5.22%) IT Manager
7 97 (4.87%) Senior Manager
8 90 (4.52%) IT Project Manager
9 83 (4.17%) Consultant
10 75 (3.77%) Senior Project Manager
11 63 (3.16%) Technical Manager
12 56 (2.81%) Delivery Manager
12 56 (2.81%) Programme Manager
13 55 (2.76%) Infrastructure Manager
14 47 (2.36%) Coordinator
14 47 (2.36%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 44 (2.21%) SAP Manager
15 44 (2.21%) Technical Project Manager
16 40 (2.01%) Developer
16 40 (2.01%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (0.95%) Oracle Fusion
2 18 (0.90%) Middleware
3 14 (0.70%) .NET
4 13 (0.65%) EDI
4 13 (0.65%) HTML
5 10 (0.50%) XML
6 9 (0.45%) AngularJS
6 9 (0.45%) CSS
6 9 (0.45%) Web Services
7 8 (0.40%) ADO
7 8 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (0.40%) React
7 8 (0.40%) REST
7 8 (0.40%) RESTful
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
8 7 (0.35%) LDAP
8 7 (0.35%) SOAP
9 6 (0.30%) LangChain
10 5 (0.25%) Entity Framework
10 5 (0.25%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 113 (5.67%) Onboarding
2 112 (5.62%) Management Information System
3 61 (3.06%) PMI
4 60 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
5 55 (2.76%) Data Centre
6 51 (2.56%) Product Ownership
6 51 (2.56%) Virtual Team
7 46 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
8 39 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
10 25 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.20%) NHS
12 20 (1.00%) CMDB
13 18 (0.90%) Operational Technology
13 18 (0.90%) Social Media
14 16 (0.80%) Life Science
14 16 (0.80%) Mobile App
15 14 (0.70%) Cloud Native
16 13 (0.65%) Driving Licence
16 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 78 (3.92%) Windows
2 20 (1.00%) Linux
3 16 (0.80%) Unix
4 14 (0.70%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.60%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.15%) VMS
7 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.10%) AIX
8 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.050%) Android
9 1 (0.050%) Solaris
9 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 755 (37.90%) Agile
2 615 (30.87%) Stakeholder Management
3 480 (24.10%) Problem-Solving
4 467 (23.44%) Project Delivery
5 415 (20.83%) PRINCE2
6 362 (18.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 344 (17.27%) Change Management
8 268 (13.45%) Migration
9 250 (12.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 237 (11.90%) Waterfall
11 221 (11.09%) Decision-Making
12 213 (10.69%) Risk Management
13 186 (9.34%) Scrum
14 162 (8.13%) ITIL
15 158 (7.93%) Budget Management
16 153 (7.68%) DevOps
16 153 (7.68%) Project Governance
17 142 (7.13%) Roadmaps
18 139 (6.98%) Cybersecurity
19 129 (6.48%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.12%) SQL
2 44 (2.21%) Python
3 18 (0.90%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.75%) Java
5 12 (0.60%) C#
6 11 (0.55%) ABAP
7 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.25%) Perl
8 5 (0.25%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.25%) VBA
9 4 (0.20%) C++
9 4 (0.20%) Go
9 4 (0.20%) R
9 4 (0.20%) Ruby
9 4 (0.20%) T-SQL
9 4 (0.20%) VB
10 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.10%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.10%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 381 (19.13%) Degree
2 268 (13.45%) PMP
3 263 (13.20%) PMI Certification
4 252 (12.65%) Security Cleared
5 177 (8.89%) SC Cleared
6 56 (2.81%) DV Cleared
7 40 (2.01%) Master's Degree
8 39 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
9 38 (1.91%) APMP
10 37 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
11 29 (1.46%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 27 (1.36%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 21 (1.05%) CISSP
14 18 (0.90%) CISM
15 16 (0.80%) MBA
16 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
16 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.45%) HND
17 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
18 8 (0.40%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 210 (10.54%) PMO
2 121 (6.07%) QA
3 57 (2.86%) GDPR
4 56 (2.81%) Data Quality
5 45 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 30 (1.51%) NIST
7 23 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 19 (0.95%) PCI DSS
9 17 (0.85%) GRC
10 16 (0.80%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.65%) P3O
12 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
13 8 (0.40%) Basel III
14 7 (0.35%) GxP
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
14 7 (0.35%) SLA
15 6 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.30%) MiFID
15 6 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 16 (0.80%) Docker
3 12 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.10%) Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) IAG
7 1 (0.050%) PowerHA
7 1 (0.050%) RACF
7 1 (0.050%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.050%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (0.90%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.75%) Terraform
3 14 (0.70%) Ansible
4 13 (0.65%) SCCM
5 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.40%) Kibana
8 7 (0.35%) logstash
9 4 (0.20%) Consul
9 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
9 4 (0.20%) Packer
10 3 (0.15%) Functional Safety
10 3 (0.15%) Grafana
10 3 (0.15%) Puppet
10 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
11 2 (0.10%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.10%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.10%) ZABBIX
12 1 (0.050%) Control-M
Vendors
1 336 (16.87%) Microsoft
2 179 (8.99%) SAP
3 86 (4.32%) ServiceNow
4 80 (4.02%) Oracle
5 69 (3.46%) Salesforce
6 51 (2.56%) Google
7 30 (1.51%) Cisco
8 25 (1.26%) Adobe
8 25 (1.26%) Workday
9 22 (1.10%) Planview
10 21 (1.05%) Atlassian
11 19 (0.95%) IBM
11 19 (0.95%) VMware
12 18 (0.90%) Ariba
13 16 (0.80%) Databricks
14 11 (0.55%) Palo Alto
15 10 (0.50%) Juniper
16 9 (0.45%) CyberArk
16 9 (0.45%) Splunk
17 8 (0.40%) Remedy