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 13 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 24 21
Rank change year-on-year -20 -3 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,099 2,259 3,349
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.45% 7.80% 7.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.27% 8.57% 9.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,311 1,371 2,050
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £621
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 103 114 266
10th Percentile £14.64 £22.27 £18.35
25th Percentile £21.00 £31.25 £26.48
Median hourly rate £35.50 £45.59 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -22.13% +19.60% -21.40%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £49.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £61.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.94 £54.76 £38.12
% change year-on-year -36.19% +43.64% -21.40%

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 39,805 26,361 36,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.33% 90.96% 86.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,996 16,941 23,723
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.13% -1.71% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £479 £500
% change year-on-year +2.71% -4.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,368 1,073 2,431
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.41 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.90 £18.38 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.60 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.60% -21.64% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.31 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.78 £38.00
% change year-on-year +74.59% -32.17% +8.57%

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 13 May 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 13 May 2026.

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 13 May 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 -21 1,870 £525 +5.00% 1,252
UK excluding London -20 1,055 £500 +5.26% 997
London -18 878 £550 +4.76% 435
Work from Home -19 621 £500 - 498
South East -12 282 £525 +10.29% 297
North of England -20 280 £474 -1.51% 247
Midlands -29 189 £500 +6.61% 139
North West -13 156 £463 -2.63% 139
South West -17 147 £450 -4.05% 106
West Midlands -34 127 £500 - 82
Yorkshire -33 116 £480 +1.05% 78
East of England -28 74 £525 +5.00% 140
Scotland -23 73 £458 +1.67% 41
East Midlands -14 64 £394 -4.43% 57
Wales -2 17 £256 -48.10% 33
Northern Ireland -1 15 £513 +20.59% 22
North East -19 13 £410 -20.00% 31

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
1 148 (7.05%) Confluence
2 85 (4.05%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.00%) CMS
4 16 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.43%) Oracle Workflow
6 8 (0.38%) Apache
7 4 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 3 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.14%) Moodle
8 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
9 2 (0.095%) SAS
9 2 (0.095%) WordPress
10 1 (0.048%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.048%) nginx
10 1 (0.048%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.048%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.048%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.048%) Umbraco
Applications
1 202 (9.62%) Microsoft Project
2 185 (8.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 145 (6.91%) Microsoft Office
4 119 (5.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 45 (2.14%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.67%) Trello
8 8 (0.38%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 2 (0.095%) Adobe After Effects
11 2 (0.095%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.095%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.095%) InDesign
11 2 (0.095%) Simulink
11 2 (0.095%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.095%) Windchill
12 1 (0.048%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.048%) InVision
12 1 (0.048%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 89 (4.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.71%) Primavera
3 11 (0.52%) Loan IQ
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
4 10 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
4 10 (0.48%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 10 (0.48%) Shopify
5 9 (0.43%) Oracle Assets
6 8 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 6 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
7 6 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.29%) SAP CO
7 6 (0.29%) SAP FI
7 6 (0.29%) SAP MM
7 6 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
7 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
8 5 (0.24%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 153 (7.29%) Azure
2 93 (4.43%) Power Platform
3 84 (4.00%) SaaS
4 82 (3.91%) AWS
5 75 (3.57%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (1.38%) Smartsheet
8 27 (1.29%) GCP
9 25 (1.19%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (1.19%) Google Workspace
10 22 (1.05%) Asana
11 15 (0.71%) Entra ID
12 14 (0.67%) Microsoft Copilot
13 13 (0.62%) OpenShift
14 12 (0.57%) OCI
15 11 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
15 11 (0.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 11 (0.52%) GitHub
16 10 (0.48%) Cloud Computing
16 10 (0.48%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.33%) WAN
2 25 (1.19%) Firewall
2 25 (1.19%) Network Security
3 22 (1.05%) TCP/IP
4 20 (0.95%) DNS
5 18 (0.86%) LAN
5 18 (0.86%) SD-WAN
6 15 (0.71%) MPLS
6 15 (0.71%) Structured Cabling
6 15 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
7 14 (0.67%) Internet
8 12 (0.57%) BGP
8 12 (0.57%) VPN
9 10 (0.48%) DHCP
10 7 (0.33%) BIG-IP
11 6 (0.29%) DKIM
11 6 (0.29%) Intranet
11 6 (0.29%) IPsec
11 6 (0.29%) SAN
11 6 (0.29%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (4.24%) Power BI
2 19 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
2 19 (0.91%) Metadata
3 18 (0.86%) Tableau
4 14 (0.67%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.62%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.48%) Electronic Patient Records
6 10 (0.48%) Oracle Reports
7 9 (0.43%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.29%) SAP HANA
9 4 (0.19%) Big Data
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 4 (0.19%) Power Query
9 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.14%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.14%) GIS
10 3 (0.14%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.095%) DataStage
Development Applications
1 301 (14.34%) JIRA
2 21 (1.00%) Git
3 13 (0.62%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.48%) GitLab
5 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.19%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.19%) Subversion
7 3 (0.14%) Selenium
8 2 (0.095%) Hudson
8 2 (0.095%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.095%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.095%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.048%) Appium
9 1 (0.048%) Capybara
9 1 (0.048%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.048%) git-flow
9 1 (0.048%) Gradle
9 1 (0.048%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.048%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.048%) Travis CI
General
1 931 (44.35%) Social Skills
2 799 (38.07%) Finance
3 355 (16.91%) Analytical Skills
4 213 (10.15%) Organisational Skills
5 185 (8.81%) Public Sector
6 154 (7.34%) Banking
7 113 (5.38%) Marketing
8 112 (5.34%) Retail
9 80 (3.81%) Legal
10 78 (3.72%) Manufacturing
11 76 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
12 57 (2.72%) Telecoms
13 48 (2.29%) Presentation Skills
14 38 (1.81%) Investment Banking
15 34 (1.62%) Financial Institution
16 30 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
17 28 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
18 26 (1.24%) Front Office
19 24 (1.14%) Local Government
20 23 (1.10%) Military
Job Titles
1 833 (39.69%) Project Manager
2 246 (11.72%) Analyst
3 205 (9.77%) Senior
4 156 (7.43%) Lead
5 141 (6.72%) Senior Manager
6 122 (5.81%) Business Analyst
6 122 (5.81%) Senior Project Manager
7 103 (4.91%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.34%) IT Project Manager
9 79 (3.76%) Programme Manager
10 70 (3.33%) Consultant
11 66 (3.14%) Technical Manager
12 62 (2.95%) Delivery Manager
13 57 (2.72%) Architect
14 55 (2.62%) Infrastructure Manager
15 50 (2.38%) Technical Project Manager
16 48 (2.29%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 44 (2.10%) Project Officer
17 44 (2.10%) SAP Manager
18 42 (2.00%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.19%) Middleware
2 23 (1.10%) REST
3 19 (0.91%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (0.71%) SOAP
4 15 (0.71%) Web Services
5 14 (0.67%) OAuth
6 13 (0.62%) HTML
7 12 (0.57%) VML
8 11 (0.52%) ADO
8 11 (0.52%) CSS
9 9 (0.43%) .NET
10 8 (0.38%) JSON
10 8 (0.38%) RESTful
10 8 (0.38%) SailPoint
10 8 (0.38%) SAML
10 8 (0.38%) XML
11 7 (0.33%) OpenID
12 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.29%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.24%) React
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.19%) Management Information System
2 95 (4.53%) Onboarding
3 73 (3.48%) Data Centre
4 71 (3.38%) PMI
5 65 (3.10%) Data Protection Act
6 61 (2.91%) Product Ownership
7 43 (2.05%) Virtual Team
8 40 (1.91%) Self-Motivation
9 36 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.10%) Operational Technology
11 22 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
12 20 (0.95%) CMDB
12 20 (0.95%) Social Media
13 19 (0.91%) Data Structures
13 19 (0.91%) Life Science
14 18 (0.86%) NHS
15 17 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
16 16 (0.76%) EPoS
17 14 (0.67%) FMCG
18 13 (0.62%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 52 (2.48%) Windows
2 29 (1.38%) Linux
3 13 (0.62%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.57%) Unix
5 9 (0.43%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.24%) zOS
7 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.14%) Solaris
7 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.095%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.095%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.095%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.095%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.048%) AIX
9 1 (0.048%) Android
9 1 (0.048%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.048%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.048%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 762 (36.30%) Agile
2 709 (33.78%) Stakeholder Management
3 547 (26.06%) Project Delivery
4 454 (21.63%) Problem-Solving
5 391 (18.63%) PRINCE2
6 325 (15.48%) Migration
7 324 (15.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 313 (14.91%) Change Management
9 309 (14.72%) Continuous Improvement
10 263 (12.53%) Decision-Making
11 257 (12.24%) Waterfall
12 240 (11.43%) Risk Management
13 195 (9.29%) Scrum
14 191 (9.10%) ERP
15 176 (8.38%) Budget Management
16 148 (7.05%) Roadmaps
17 143 (6.81%) AI
18 138 (6.57%) Project Planning
19 136 (6.48%) Validation
20 135 (6.43%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 88 (4.19%) SQL
2 49 (2.33%) Python
3 18 (0.86%) Java
4 17 (0.81%) JavaScript
5 13 (0.62%) C#
6 12 (0.57%) VBA
7 11 (0.52%) C++
8 8 (0.38%) C
8 8 (0.38%) PowerShell
9 6 (0.29%) ABAP
9 6 (0.29%) R
9 6 (0.29%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.19%) Ada
10 4 (0.19%) PL/SQL
10 4 (0.19%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.14%) JCL
11 3 (0.14%) Perl
11 3 (0.14%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.14%) SOQL
12 2 (0.095%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 351 (16.72%) Security Cleared
2 333 (15.86%) Degree
3 301 (14.34%) PMP
4 271 (12.91%) PMI Certification
5 257 (12.24%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.67%) DV Cleared
7 49 (2.33%) Master's Degree
8 40 (1.91%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 37 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
10 34 (1.62%) APMP
11 32 (1.52%) ACCA
11 32 (1.52%) CIMA
12 27 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
13 23 (1.10%) MBA
14 21 (1.00%) CISSP
15 19 (0.91%) CISM
16 17 (0.81%) CBAP
17 16 (0.76%) PRINCE2 Certification
18 12 (0.57%) IIBA
19 11 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 267 (12.72%) PMO
2 136 (6.48%) QA
3 73 (3.48%) Data Quality
4 52 (2.48%) GDPR
5 45 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 35 (1.67%) SLA
7 33 (1.57%) NIST
8 16 (0.76%) Accessibility
9 13 (0.62%) GRC
10 11 (0.52%) Basel III
11 10 (0.48%) EMIR
11 10 (0.48%) ISO 9001
12 9 (0.43%) MiFID
13 8 (0.38%) PCI DSS
13 8 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 7 (0.33%) GMP
15 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 31 (1.48%) Active Directory
2 9 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.24%) Docker
3 5 (0.24%) RACF
4 3 (0.14%) NFS
4 3 (0.14%) Time Sharing Option
4 3 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.095%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.095%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.048%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.048%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.048%) PowerHA
6 1 (0.048%) Sendmail
6 1 (0.048%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.048%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
2 15 (0.71%) Ansible
3 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (0.38%) Kubernetes
5 5 (0.24%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 4 (0.19%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.14%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.14%) SCCM
7 3 (0.14%) Terraform
7 3 (0.14%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.095%) Grafana
8 2 (0.095%) logstash
8 2 (0.095%) SCOM
9 1 (0.048%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.048%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.048%) ITRS Geneos
9 1 (0.048%) Kibana
9 1 (0.048%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.048%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.048%) vRealize
Vendors
1 303 (14.44%) Microsoft
2 195 (9.29%) SAP
3 112 (5.34%) ServiceNow
4 75 (3.57%) Oracle
5 53 (2.53%) Salesforce
6 42 (2.00%) Google
7 33 (1.57%) Cisco
8 29 (1.38%) Adobe
8 29 (1.38%) Workday
9 21 (1.00%) Databricks
10 19 (0.91%) Ariba
10 19 (0.91%) VMware
11 18 (0.86%) Atlassian
12 17 (0.81%) CyberArk
13 15 (0.71%) Sitecore
14 14 (0.67%) Sage
15 12 (0.57%) IBM
15 12 (0.57%) NEC
16 10 (0.48%) IFS
16 10 (0.48%) Juniper