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

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 20 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,988 2,782 3,535
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.37% 8.24% 8.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.08% 9.33% 9.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,253 1,548 2,306
10th Percentile £313 £275 £325
25th Percentile £413 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.10% -1.71% -
75th Percentile £613 £613 £638
90th Percentile £715 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 127 146
10th Percentile £18.27 £21.25 £21.57
25th Percentile £23.50 £26.37 £31.53
Median hourly rate £37.58 £33.54 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.05% -31.55% +22.50%
75th Percentile £61.25 £56.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.00 £69.15 £72.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £35.03 £49.00
% change year-on-year +29.77% -28.51% -2.00%

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 32,672 29,808 38,411
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.28% 88.28% 88.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,566 18,179 25,645
10th Percentile £300 £307 £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 £616 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £743 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.70% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,089 966 1,478
10th Percentile £14.60 £15.62 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.97% +25.43%
75th Percentile £51.02 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.88 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.40% -30.00% +40.63%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 1,712 £520 -0.95% 2,465
UK excluding London -19 999 £500 - 2,175
London -18 802 £526 -4.45% 565
Work from Home -13 580 £500 - 1,095
South East -9 262 £525 - 607
North of England -24 260 £500 +5.26% 503
Midlands -21 192 £492 -6.29% 408
North West -17 151 £496 +10.22% 243
West Midlands -22 132 £500 -9.09% 226
Yorkshire -23 101 £500 +5.26% 223
South West -25 98 £475 +1.06% 237
Scotland -13 96 £438 -2.78% 101
East Midlands -10 62 £468 +17.00% 169
East of England -38 59 £450 - 287
Wales -5 32 £325 -38.10% 57
Northern Ireland -8 19 £388 -18.42% 25
North East -27 10 £410 -28.70% 44

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
1 158 (7.95%) Confluence
2 123 (6.19%) SharePoint
3 30 (1.51%) 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
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.050%) IIS
9 1 (0.050%) Moodle
9 1 (0.050%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
Applications
1 217 (10.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 195 (9.81%) Microsoft Project
3 165 (8.30%) Microsoft Office
4 131 (6.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 60 (3.02%) MS Visio
6 29 (1.46%) Trello
7 17 (0.86%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
10 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.20%) Revit
11 3 (0.15%) InDesign
11 3 (0.15%) InVision
11 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
11 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
11 3 (0.15%) Sketch
12 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
12 2 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 51 (2.57%) 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
7 7 (0.35%) Workfront
8 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
9 5 (0.25%) ResourceLink
9 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.25%) SAP MDG
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 164 (8.25%) Azure
2 109 (5.48%) Power Platform
3 100 (5.03%) AWS
4 76 (3.82%) Microsoft 365
5 46 (2.31%) SaaS
6 45 (2.26%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (1.61%) GCP
8 29 (1.46%) Asana
9 26 (1.31%) SuccessFactors
10 24 (1.21%) Smartsheet
11 22 (1.11%) Google Workspace
12 19 (0.96%) Dynamics 365
13 18 (0.91%) GitHub
14 17 (0.86%) OpenShift
15 16 (0.80%) Microsoft Copilot
15 16 (0.80%) OneDrive
16 13 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
17 10 (0.50%) Entra ID
17 10 (0.50%) PowerApps
17 10 (0.50%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.26%) Firewall
2 21 (1.06%) WAN
3 18 (0.91%) Network Security
4 17 (0.86%) DNS
4 17 (0.86%) LAN
5 16 (0.80%) SSH
6 15 (0.75%) 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%) Wireless
12 7 (0.35%) DHCP
12 7 (0.35%) TCP/IP
13 6 (0.30%) Broadband
13 6 (0.30%) SSL
14 5 (0.25%) Cisco IOS
14 5 (0.25%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (4.93%) Power BI
2 31 (1.56%) Tableau
3 28 (1.41%) SQL Server
4 17 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
4 17 (0.86%) Metadata
5 16 (0.80%) SAP HANA
6 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 6 (0.30%) 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
1 319 (16.05%) JIRA
2 18 (0.91%) Git
3 13 (0.65%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.30%) GitLab
4 6 (0.30%) SpecFlow
5 4 (0.20%) Selenium
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 (48.94%) Social Skills
2 695 (34.96%) Finance
3 335 (16.85%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (9.91%) Public Sector
5 177 (8.90%) Banking
6 162 (8.15%) Organisational Skills
7 99 (4.98%) Marketing
8 95 (4.78%) Legal
9 87 (4.38%) Retail
10 82 (4.12%) Manufacturing
11 76 (3.82%) Influencing Skills
12 53 (2.67%) Telecoms
13 48 (2.41%) Investment Banking
13 48 (2.41%) Presentation Skills
14 45 (2.26%) Local Government
15 38 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 38 (1.91%) Pharmaceutical
16 35 (1.76%) Front Office
17 30 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
18 22 (1.11%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 730 (36.72%) Project Manager
2 231 (11.62%) Analyst
3 155 (7.80%) Lead
4 152 (7.65%) Senior
5 127 (6.39%) Business Analyst
6 106 (5.33%) IT Manager
7 95 (4.78%) Senior Manager
8 92 (4.63%) IT Project Manager
9 81 (4.07%) Consultant
10 73 (3.67%) Senior Project Manager
11 65 (3.27%) Technical Manager
12 57 (2.87%) Infrastructure Manager
13 56 (2.82%) Delivery Manager
14 55 (2.77%) Programme Manager
15 49 (2.46%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 48 (2.41%) Coordinator
17 45 (2.26%) Technical Project Manager
18 44 (2.21%) SAP Manager
19 42 (2.11%) Developer
19 42 (2.11%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (0.91%) Oracle Fusion
2 17 (0.86%) .NET
2 17 (0.86%) Middleware
3 13 (0.65%) EDI
3 13 (0.65%) HTML
4 12 (0.60%) AngularJS
5 10 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
5 10 (0.50%) RESTful
6 9 (0.45%) CSS
6 9 (0.45%) React
6 9 (0.45%) REST
6 9 (0.45%) Web Services
6 9 (0.45%) XML
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
8 7 (0.35%) .NET Framework
8 7 (0.35%) Entity Framework
8 7 (0.35%) LDAP
8 7 (0.35%) SOAP
9 6 (0.30%) ADO
9 6 (0.30%) NHibernate
Miscellaneous
1 112 (5.63%) Management Information System
2 109 (5.48%) Onboarding
3 60 (3.02%) Data Protection Act
4 59 (2.97%) PMI
5 53 (2.67%) Data Centre
6 52 (2.62%) Virtual Team
7 49 (2.46%) Product Ownership
8 45 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
9 43 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
10 27 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
11 24 (1.21%) NHS
12 20 (1.01%) CMDB
13 19 (0.96%) Operational Technology
14 18 (0.91%) Mobile App
14 18 (0.91%) Social Media
15 16 (0.80%) Cloud Native
15 16 (0.80%) Life Science
16 13 (0.65%) Derivative
16 13 (0.65%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 76 (3.82%) Windows
2 20 (1.01%) Linux
3 16 (0.80%) Unix
4 13 (0.65%) 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
1 756 (38.03%) Agile
2 607 (30.53%) Stakeholder Management
3 467 (23.49%) Problem-Solving
4 461 (23.19%) Project Delivery
5 410 (20.62%) PRINCE2
6 366 (18.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 347 (17.45%) Change Management
8 266 (13.38%) Migration
9 250 (12.58%) Continuous Improvement
10 236 (11.87%) Waterfall
11 214 (10.76%) Risk Management
12 211 (10.61%) Decision-Making
13 190 (9.56%) Scrum
14 163 (8.20%) ITIL
15 155 (7.80%) Project Governance
16 152 (7.65%) DevOps
17 151 (7.60%) Budget Management
18 140 (7.04%) Roadmaps
19 138 (6.94%) Cybersecurity
20 128 (6.44%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 85 (4.28%) SQL
2 51 (2.57%) Python
3 18 (0.91%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.80%) C#
5 15 (0.75%) Java
6 12 (0.60%) ABAP
6 12 (0.60%) PowerShell
7 5 (0.25%) Perl
7 5 (0.25%) VBA
8 4 (0.20%) C++
8 4 (0.20%) Go
8 4 (0.20%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.20%) R
8 4 (0.20%) Ruby
8 4 (0.20%) T-SQL
8 4 (0.20%) VB
9 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (0.15%) Korn
10 2 (0.10%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 385 (19.37%) Degree
2 268 (13.48%) PMP
3 263 (13.23%) PMI Certification
4 243 (12.22%) Security Cleared
5 169 (8.50%) SC Cleared
6 55 (2.77%) DV Cleared
7 42 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
8 35 (1.76%) APMP
8 35 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
8 35 (1.76%) Master's Degree
9 31 (1.56%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 27 (1.36%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 20 (1.01%) CISSP
12 17 (0.86%) CISM
13 12 (0.60%) MBA
14 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
14 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.45%) HND
15 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
16 8 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 199 (10.01%) PMO
2 120 (6.04%) QA
3 56 (2.82%) Data Quality
3 56 (2.82%) GDPR
4 45 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 30 (1.51%) NIST
6 22 (1.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 19 (0.96%) PCI DSS
8 17 (0.86%) GRC
9 16 (0.80%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.65%) P3O
11 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
12 7 (0.35%) GxP
12 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
13 6 (0.30%) Basel III
13 6 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 6 (0.30%) MiFID
13 6 (0.30%) SLA
13 6 (0.30%) WCAG
14 5 (0.25%) APQC
System Software
1 41 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 17 (0.86%) 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 20 (1.01%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.75%) Terraform
3 13 (0.65%) Ansible
3 13 (0.65%) SCCM
4 10 (0.50%) Kibana
4 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (0.45%) logstash
5 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.30%) ITRS Geneos
7 4 (0.20%) Consul
7 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.20%) Packer
8 3 (0.15%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.15%) Puppet
8 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
9 2 (0.10%) Grafana
9 2 (0.10%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.10%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 2 (0.10%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.050%) Docker Swarm
Vendors
1 338 (17.00%) Microsoft
2 177 (8.90%) SAP
3 87 (4.38%) ServiceNow
4 77 (3.87%) Oracle
5 69 (3.47%) Salesforce
6 52 (2.62%) Google
7 31 (1.56%) Cisco
8 27 (1.36%) Adobe
9 25 (1.26%) Workday
10 22 (1.11%) Planview
11 20 (1.01%) Atlassian
12 19 (0.96%) VMware
13 18 (0.91%) Ariba
13 18 (0.91%) IBM
14 16 (0.80%) Databricks
15 11 (0.55%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.55%) Remedy
16 10 (0.50%) Juniper
17 9 (0.45%) CyberArk
18 8 (0.40%) Splunk