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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -33 -4 -1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,021 2,201 2,947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 6.72% 7.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.45% 7.43% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,345 1,733
10th Percentile £312 £308 £302
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.23% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £620 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 113 121 200
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £27.52 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £37.02 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +21.56% -2.89% -5.29%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.00 £48.81
90th Percentile £83.10 £75.00 £65.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +12.42% +5.59% -4.16%

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 45,365 29,616 33,160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.47% 85.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,789 18,444 20,998
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% -3.67%
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 2,884 1,758 1,700
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.00 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.99 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +6.25%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 1,778 £523 +1.46% 2,314
UK excluding London -34 974 £500 +5.26% 1,381
London -29 856 £550 +2.33% 1,195
Work from Home -24 618 £500 +3.63% 1,150
North of England -35 259 £475 -5.00% 311
South East -22 253 £500 - 283
North West -26 157 £475 -2.56% 191
Midlands -47 146 £538 +19.44% 183
South West -24 136 £438 -2.78% 265
West Midlands -53 97 £550 +17.27% 110
Yorkshire -32 95 £475 -5.00% 85
East of England -13 84 £515 -1.90% 138
Scotland -30 75 £475 +5.91% 132
East Midlands -19 49 £500 +12.42% 73
Northern Ireland -3 17 £430 -20.05% 61
Wales -22 12 £400 - 37
North East -40 9 £420 -12.95% 38
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
1 116 (5.74%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.80%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 28 (1.39%) 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
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 190 (9.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 172 (8.51%) Microsoft Project
3 158 (7.82%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (6.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.13%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) 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 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 64 (3.17%) 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%) Oracle ERP
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.40%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.40%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.40%) SAP PS
6 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
6 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.30%) SAP MM
6 6 (0.30%) Shopify
7 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
7 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 172 (8.51%) Azure
2 134 (6.63%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.65%) SaaS
4 84 (4.16%) Microsoft 365
5 72 (3.56%) AWS
6 64 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 26 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (1.29%) Entra ID
10 19 (0.94%) Asana
11 18 (0.89%) GCP
12 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
13 14 (0.69%) PowerApps
14 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
14 13 (0.64%) OCI
14 13 (0.64%) OneDrive
14 13 (0.64%) Power Automate
15 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 30 (1.48%) 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 (0.49%) BGP
11 10 (0.49%) 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
1 121 (5.99%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Tableau
4 16 (0.79%) Metadata
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.45%) Power Query
7 9 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
8 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
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
1 250 (12.37%) 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 (0.049%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.049%) Capybara
10 1 (0.049%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) Gradle
10 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 893 (44.19%) Social Skills
2 752 (37.21%) Finance
3 345 (17.07%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.85%) Organisational Skills
5 178 (8.81%) Public Sector
6 170 (8.41%) Banking
7 136 (6.73%) Marketing
8 118 (5.84%) Retail
9 77 (3.81%) Influencing Skills
9 77 (3.81%) Manufacturing
10 73 (3.61%) Telecoms
11 70 (3.46%) Legal
12 52 (2.57%) Presentation Skills
13 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
14 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.43%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
16 29 (1.43%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 803 (39.73%) Project Manager
2 192 (9.50%) Senior
3 179 (8.86%) Lead
4 160 (7.92%) Analyst
5 142 (7.03%) Senior Manager
6 112 (5.54%) Senior Project Manager
7 111 (5.49%) IT Manager
8 87 (4.30%) Programme Manager
9 86 (4.26%) IT Project Manager
10 84 (4.16%) Business Analyst
11 72 (3.56%) Technical Manager
12 68 (3.36%) Consultant
13 67 (3.32%) Delivery Manager
14 59 (2.92%) Technical Project Manager
15 49 (2.42%) Infrastructure Manager
16 44 (2.18%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 38 (1.88%) Project Officer
18 37 (1.83%) Coordinator
18 37 (1.83%) Developer
18 37 (1.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 18 (0.89%) 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 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) 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
1 110 (5.44%) Management Information System
2 91 (4.50%) Product Ownership
3 88 (4.35%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.22%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.38%) PMI
7 46 (2.28%) Virtual Team
8 30 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.29%) FMCG
10 26 (1.29%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
12 24 (1.19%) Social Media
13 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
14 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
15 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.94%) Life Science
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 60 (2.97%) Windows
2 51 (2.52%) Linux
3 21 (1.04%) Unix
3 21 (1.04%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.099%) 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
1 861 (42.60%) Stakeholder Management
2 775 (38.35%) Agile
3 580 (28.70%) Project Delivery
4 459 (22.71%) PRINCE2
5 343 (16.97%) Problem-Solving
6 341 (16.87%) Continuous Improvement
7 337 (16.67%) Change Management
8 295 (14.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 286 (14.15%) Migration
10 262 (12.96%) Decision-Making
11 250 (12.37%) Risk Management
12 245 (12.12%) Waterfall
13 198 (9.80%) AI
14 197 (9.75%) Scrum
15 169 (8.36%) Project Governance
16 163 (8.07%) Roadmaps
17 153 (7.57%) ITIL
18 150 (7.42%) Analytics
19 144 (7.13%) Programme Management
19 144 (7.13%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 79 (3.91%) SQL
2 70 (3.46%) Python
3 19 (0.94%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.84%) Java
5 16 (0.79%) VBA
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
7 10 (0.49%) 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%) REXX
13 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 331 (16.38%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.59%) Degree
3 300 (14.84%) PMP
4 261 (12.91%) PMI Certification
5 227 (11.23%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.81%) DV Cleared
7 70 (3.46%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
10 23 (1.14%) ACCA
10 23 (1.14%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
12 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) APMP
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.59%) CISSP
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
16 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (12.12%) PMO
2 102 (5.05%) QA
3 59 (2.92%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 29 (1.43%) SLA
6 26 (1.29%) 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
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) MiFID
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (2.03%) 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 (0.049%) ACF2
8 1 (0.049%) IAG
8 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.049%) RACF
8 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (0.99%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) 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 (0.049%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
Vendors
1 348 (17.22%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.82%) SAP
3 113 (5.59%) ServiceNow
4 88 (4.35%) Oracle
5 56 (2.77%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.72%) Google
7 47 (2.33%) Adobe
8 38 (1.88%) VMware
9 29 (1.43%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
12 22 (1.09%) Workday
13 19 (0.94%) NEC
14 18 (0.89%) Ariba
15 16 (0.79%) Databricks
16 14 (0.69%) IBM
17 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
18 11 (0.54%) IFS
19 10 (0.49%) F5
19 10 (0.49%) Murex