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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,019 2,223 2,963
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 6.78% 7.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.45% 7.49% 8.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,238 1,351 1,749
10th Percentile £312 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.10% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £618 £619 £618
90th Percentile £725 £725 £717
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 125 215
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.87 £27.52 £27.00
Median hourly rate £42.48 £37.28 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +13.94% -2.20% -5.88%
75th Percentile £63.77 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £83.03 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £41.06 £38.12
% change year-on-year +9.60% +7.71% -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 45,356 29,667 33,233
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.68% 90.51% 85.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,834 18,495 21,131
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% -3.58%
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 2,855 1,741 1,763
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.31 £17.33 £18.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -37.90% -1.22%
75th Percentile £67.94 £49.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year +83.17% -42.17% +12.54%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 1,783 £523 +1.46% 1,369
UK excluding London -34 969 £500 +5.26% 1,100
London -30 861 £550 +2.80% 452
Work from Home -26 626 £500 +4.17% 554
North of England -36 261 £475 -5.00% 261
South East -26 248 £500 - 332
North West -20 159 £475 -3.01% 147
Midlands -42 146 £534 +18.61% 187
South West -24 139 £450 - 146
West Midlands -57 98 £550 +17.27% 114
Yorkshire -35 95 £485 -3.00% 84
East of England -5 85 £515 -1.90% 115
Scotland -41 68 £470 +4.44% 48
East Midlands -19 48 £500 +12.42% 72
Northern Ireland -2 17 £430 -20.05% 12
Wales -23 13 £400 - 34
North East -37 9 £420 -12.95% 32
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
1 114 (5.65%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.85%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 26 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) 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
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) SAS
12 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.050%) CICS
12 1 (0.050%) IIS
12 1 (0.050%) Tomcat
Applications
1 191 (9.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 170 (8.42%) Microsoft Project
3 158 (7.83%) Microsoft Office
4 121 (5.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.13%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.50%) 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 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.050%) CATIA
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 65 (3.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
3 12 (0.59%) Magento
4 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.40%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.40%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.40%) SAP PS
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.30%) SAP MM
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.20%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 169 (8.37%) Azure
2 131 (6.49%) Power Platform
3 96 (4.75%) SaaS
4 83 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.52%) AWS
6 64 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.49%) Google Workspace
9 25 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
10 23 (1.14%) Entra ID
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) GCP
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
14 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
15 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
15 13 (0.64%) OCI
16 12 (0.59%) PowerApps
16 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
17 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 28 (1.39%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.04%) Firewall
6 19 (0.94%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 15 (0.74%) VPN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 10 (0.50%) Wireless
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) SAN
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (5.89%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Tableau
4 15 (0.74%) Metadata
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 12 (0.59%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
7 9 (0.45%) Power Query
7 9 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
9 7 (0.35%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 4 (0.20%) Looker
13 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.15%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 249 (12.33%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) 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 (0.050%) git-flow
10 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.050%) minitest
10 1 (0.050%) Postman
10 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.050%) Snyk
10 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.050%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 886 (43.88%) Social Skills
2 755 (37.39%) Finance
3 346 (17.14%) Analytical Skills
4 201 (9.96%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.72%) Public Sector
6 171 (8.47%) Banking
7 139 (6.88%) Marketing
8 119 (5.89%) Retail
9 78 (3.86%) Manufacturing
10 73 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
11 71 (3.52%) Legal
11 71 (3.52%) Telecoms
12 51 (2.53%) Presentation Skills
13 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 31 (1.54%) Aerospace
14 31 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.49%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.44%) Front Office
16 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 27 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 809 (40.07%) Project Manager
2 195 (9.66%) Senior
3 174 (8.62%) Lead
4 161 (7.97%) Analyst
5 145 (7.18%) Senior Manager
6 114 (5.65%) Senior Project Manager
7 110 (5.45%) IT Manager
8 87 (4.31%) IT Project Manager
8 87 (4.31%) Programme Manager
9 83 (4.11%) Business Analyst
10 70 (3.47%) Technical Manager
11 67 (3.32%) Delivery Manager
12 66 (3.27%) Consultant
13 57 (2.82%) Technical Project Manager
14 51 (2.53%) Infrastructure Manager
15 42 (2.08%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 39 (1.93%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 39 (1.93%) Project Officer
17 38 (1.88%) Coordinator
17 38 (1.88%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) 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 (0.50%) .NET
7 10 (0.50%) SOAP
8 9 (0.45%) React
9 8 (0.40%) CSS
9 8 (0.40%) 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
1 107 (5.30%) Management Information System
2 88 (4.36%) Product Ownership
3 86 (4.26%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.22%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
6 49 (2.43%) PMI
7 46 (2.28%) Virtual Team
8 32 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.34%) Operational Technology
11 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
11 26 (1.29%) FMCG
12 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
13 24 (1.19%) Social Media
14 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
15 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
16 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 19 (0.94%) Life Science
17 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
18 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.87%) Windows
2 49 (2.43%) Linux
3 21 (1.04%) Unix
4 19 (0.94%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.25%) zOS
9 4 (0.20%) Android
9 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 852 (42.20%) Stakeholder Management
2 775 (38.39%) Agile
3 575 (28.48%) Project Delivery
4 459 (22.73%) PRINCE2
5 349 (17.29%) Problem-Solving
6 340 (16.84%) Continuous Improvement
7 338 (16.74%) Change Management
8 298 (14.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 287 (14.21%) Migration
10 259 (12.83%) Decision-Making
11 249 (12.33%) Risk Management
12 246 (12.18%) Waterfall
13 200 (9.91%) Scrum
14 194 (9.61%) AI
15 170 (8.42%) Project Governance
16 159 (7.88%) Roadmaps
17 152 (7.53%) ITIL
18 151 (7.48%) Analytics
19 143 (7.08%) Change Control
19 143 (7.08%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 80 (3.96%) SQL
2 70 (3.47%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.84%) Java
5 16 (0.79%) VBA
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.50%) C#
7 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.45%) 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%) R
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 323 (16.00%) Security Cleared
2 317 (15.70%) Degree
3 309 (15.30%) PMP
4 267 (13.22%) PMI Certification
5 219 (10.85%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.76%) DV Cleared
7 70 (3.47%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.49%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
10 23 (1.14%) ACCA
10 23 (1.14%) CIMA
11 19 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 16 (0.79%) APMP
13 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
14 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
15 13 (0.64%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.50%) CIPFA
17 10 (0.50%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (12.28%) PMO
2 101 (5.00%) QA
3 60 (2.97%) Data Quality
4 35 (1.73%) GDPR
5 29 (1.44%) SLA
6 25 (1.24%) GRC
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 20 (0.99%) NIST
9 9 (0.45%) P3O
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) MiFID
11 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 40 (1.98%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) ACF2
8 1 (0.050%) IAG
8 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.050%) RACF
8 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.050%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (0.99%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (0.54%) 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 (0.050%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.050%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.050%) Perfmon
9 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.050%) SCOM
9 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 342 (16.94%) Microsoft
2 160 (7.92%) SAP
3 112 (5.55%) ServiceNow
4 89 (4.41%) Oracle
5 58 (2.87%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.72%) Google
7 46 (2.28%) Adobe
8 36 (1.78%) VMware
9 31 (1.54%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
12 22 (1.09%) Workday
13 19 (0.94%) NEC
14 17 (0.84%) Ariba
15 15 (0.74%) Databricks
16 14 (0.69%) IBM
17 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
18 11 (0.54%) IFS
19 10 (0.50%) F5
19 10 (0.50%) Murex