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

6 months to
27 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 2,025 2,190 2,952
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 6.69% 7.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.39% 8.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,236 1,328 1,736
10th Percentile £311 £308 £303
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.10% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 123 200
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.32 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £26.13 £26.93
Median hourly rate £45.00 £36.48 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.36% -2.72% -6.83%
75th Percentile £63.88 £59.13 £48.81
90th Percentile £82.95 £75.00 £65.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.50 £40.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +16.25% +4.93% -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 45,399 29,629 33,143
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.55% 90.46% 85.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,782 18,436 20,950
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 2,881 1,773 1,687
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.87 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +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 27 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 27 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 27 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 1,780 £519 +0.34% 2,256
UK excluding London -34 981 £500 +6.61% 1,361
London -30 855 £550 - 1,155
Work from Home -25 613 £500 +3.63% 1,128
North of England -37 262 £475 -3.46% 305
South East -22 254 £500 - 276
North West -24 158 £475 - 184
Midlands -47 145 £528 +17.22% 185
South West -21 137 £444 -1.39% 263
Yorkshire -38 97 £475 -5.00% 87
West Midlands -54 95 £550 +17.27% 118
East of England -15 83 £520 -1.52% 138
Scotland -30 79 £500 +11.86% 133
East Midlands -19 50 £500 +12.42% 67
Northern Ireland -4 17 £430 -20.05% 58
Wales -22 12 £400 - 35
North East -41 9 £420 -4.55% 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
1 118 (5.83%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.84%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 30 (1.48%) 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%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 191 (9.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 175 (8.64%) Microsoft Project
3 159 (7.85%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (6.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 41 (2.02%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) 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 65 (3.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.19%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
3 12 (0.59%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.44%) SAP CO
4 9 (0.44%) SAP FI
4 9 (0.44%) SAP PS
5 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.35%) SAP MM
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
7 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 174 (8.59%) Azure
2 134 (6.62%) Power Platform
3 91 (4.49%) SaaS
4 87 (4.30%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.51%) AWS
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 29 (1.43%) Entra ID
10 26 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 19 (0.94%) GCP
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
16 12 (0.59%) OCI
16 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.98%) Network Security
2 31 (1.53%) WAN
3 25 (1.23%) Firewall
4 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 24 (1.19%) TCP/IP
5 23 (1.14%) DNS
6 19 (0.94%) Structured Cabling
7 16 (0.79%) Internet
7 16 (0.79%) VPN
7 16 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
9 14 (0.69%) DHCP
10 13 (0.64%) BGP
10 13 (0.64%) Intranet
11 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 11 (0.54%) Wireless
12 10 (0.49%) SAN
13 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
14 7 (0.35%) DKIM
14 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (6.02%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.44%) Power Query
7 9 (0.44%) 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
11 5 (0.25%) Looker
11 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.15%) EDMS
12 3 (0.15%) QlikView
12 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
12 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 252 (12.44%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) 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%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.049%) minitest
10 1 (0.049%) Postman
10 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.049%) Snyk
10 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 899 (44.40%) Social Skills
2 760 (37.53%) Finance
3 345 (17.04%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.83%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.74%) Public Sector
6 168 (8.30%) Banking
7 134 (6.62%) Marketing
8 119 (5.88%) Retail
9 77 (3.80%) Influencing Skills
10 74 (3.65%) Manufacturing
10 74 (3.65%) Telecoms
11 69 (3.41%) Legal
12 55 (2.72%) 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%) Documentation Skills
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
17 28 (1.38%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 802 (39.60%) Project Manager
2 190 (9.38%) Senior
3 179 (8.84%) Lead
4 160 (7.90%) Analyst
5 141 (6.96%) Senior Manager
6 111 (5.48%) IT Manager
6 111 (5.48%) Senior Project Manager
7 85 (4.20%) Business Analyst
8 84 (4.15%) IT Project Manager
8 84 (4.15%) Programme Manager
9 73 (3.60%) Technical Manager
10 70 (3.46%) Consultant
11 67 (3.31%) Delivery Manager
12 61 (3.01%) Technical Project Manager
13 49 (2.42%) Infrastructure Manager
14 42 (2.07%) SC Cleared Project Manager
15 38 (1.88%) Coordinator
15 38 (1.88%) Project Officer
16 37 (1.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 36 (1.78%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) ADO
3 16 (0.79%) HTML
3 16 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
4 13 (0.64%) VML
4 13 (0.64%) Web Services
5 11 (0.54%) JSON
5 11 (0.54%) OAuth
6 10 (0.49%) SOAP
7 9 (0.44%) .NET
7 9 (0.44%) React
8 8 (0.40%) CSS
9 7 (0.35%) 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
1 109 (5.38%) Management Information System
2 91 (4.49%) Product Ownership
3 90 (4.44%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.21%) Data Centre
5 53 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
6 47 (2.32%) PMI
7 45 (2.22%) Virtual Team
8 29 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.33%) FMCG
11 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
11 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
12 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
12 25 (1.23%) Social Media
13 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
13 21 (1.04%) Credit Risk
14 20 (0.99%) Life Science
15 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 64 (3.16%) Windows
2 53 (2.62%) Linux
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.09%) Unix
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) zOS
8 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
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 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 868 (42.86%) Stakeholder Management
2 775 (38.27%) Agile
3 581 (28.69%) Project Delivery
4 459 (22.67%) PRINCE2
5 346 (17.09%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.74%) Change Management
7 338 (16.69%) Continuous Improvement
8 295 (14.57%) Migration
8 295 (14.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 265 (13.09%) Decision-Making
10 258 (12.74%) Risk Management
11 247 (12.20%) Waterfall
12 202 (9.98%) AI
13 194 (9.58%) Scrum
14 173 (8.54%) Project Governance
15 165 (8.15%) Roadmaps
16 153 (7.56%) Analytics
16 153 (7.56%) ITIL
17 147 (7.26%) Programme Management
18 145 (7.16%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 77 (3.80%) SQL
2 69 (3.41%) Python
3 19 (0.94%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.44%) C#
7 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.35%) Ada
8 7 (0.35%) C
9 5 (0.25%) Bash
9 5 (0.25%) Korn
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) ABAP
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 331 (16.35%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.60%) Degree
3 296 (14.62%) PMP
4 260 (12.84%) PMI Certification
5 226 (11.16%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.75%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (1.09%) ACCA
10 22 (1.09%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
12 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 14 (0.69%) APMP
15 12 (0.59%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) ISTQB
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 249 (12.30%) PMO
2 102 (5.04%) QA
3 58 (2.86%) Data Quality
4 39 (1.93%) GDPR
5 25 (1.23%) GRC
5 25 (1.23%) SLA
6 24 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
8 21 (1.04%) NIST
9 9 (0.44%) P3O
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) MiFID
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 43 (2.12%) Active Directory
2 24 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
6 4 (0.20%) vSphere
7 2 (0.099%) 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 21 (1.04%) 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
7 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.049%) BMC Performance Manager
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%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 352 (17.38%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.80%) SAP
3 113 (5.58%) ServiceNow
4 81 (4.00%) Oracle
5 57 (2.81%) Salesforce
6 53 (2.62%) Google
7 47 (2.32%) Adobe
8 40 (1.98%) VMware
9 31 (1.53%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
11 23 (1.14%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) Ariba
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Databricks
14 15 (0.74%) IBM
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) IFS
17 10 (0.49%) F5
17 10 (0.49%) Murex