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

6 months to
20 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 2,023 2,236 2,946
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.81% 7.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.53% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,247 1,360 1,740
10th Percentile £312 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £619 £617
90th Percentile £725 £725 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.33% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 123 217
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.23 £27.51 £27.00
Median hourly rate £42.65 £37.02 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +15.21% -2.89% -4.70%
75th Percentile £63.04 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £82.95 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.11% +6.24% -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 45,331 29,700 33,127
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.46% 85.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,838 18,524 21,130
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 2,836 1,729 1,767
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.31 £17.33 £18.14
Median hourly rate £41.63 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.54% -38.57% -0.24%
75th Percentile £67.99 £49.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +83.17% -43.53% +17.65%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 1,788 £519 +0.83% 1,393
UK excluding London -34 966 £500 +6.33% 1,101
London -28 868 £550 +2.80% 470
Work from Home -26 627 £500 +3.90% 569
North of England -35 261 £475 -3.46% 261
South East -27 247 £500 - 334
North West -19 160 £475 -1.30% 144
Midlands -45 143 £530 +17.78% 191
South West -19 142 £438 -2.78% 147
West Midlands -58 95 £550 +17.27% 117
Yorkshire -38 94 £475 -5.00% 88
East of England -5 85 £515 -1.90% 114
Scotland -42 66 £465 +3.33% 45
East Midlands -22 48 £500 +18.41% 74
Northern Ireland +1 17 £430 -18.14% 11
Wales -22 13 £400 - 33
North East -39 9 £420 -12.95% 31
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
1 112 (5.54%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.79%) 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%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) SAS
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) IIS
Applications
1 191 (9.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 171 (8.45%) Microsoft Project
3 157 (7.76%) Microsoft Office
4 119 (5.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 44 (2.17%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.49%) 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 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
3 12 (0.59%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) 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
9 4 (0.20%) SAP ERP
9 4 (0.20%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 174 (8.60%) Azure
2 130 (6.43%) Power Platform
3 95 (4.70%) SaaS
4 81 (4.00%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.66%) AWS
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 25 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (1.09%) Entra ID
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 17 (0.84%) GCP
12 17 (0.84%) GitHub
13 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
14 13 (0.64%) PowerApps
15 12 (0.59%) OCI
15 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
16 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
16 11 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 27 (1.33%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.04%) Firewall
6 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) VPN
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
1 118 (5.83%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) Metadata
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
5 10 (0.49%) Power Query
5 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
8 7 (0.35%) Big Data
8 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
9 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.15%) Looker
12 3 (0.15%) QlikView
12 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
12 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 252 (12.46%) 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%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.049%) Snyk
10 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 891 (44.04%) Social Skills
2 752 (37.17%) Finance
3 343 (16.96%) Analytical Skills
4 200 (9.89%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.70%) Public Sector
6 171 (8.45%) Banking
7 139 (6.87%) Marketing
8 120 (5.93%) Retail
9 78 (3.86%) Manufacturing
10 71 (3.51%) Telecoms
11 70 (3.46%) Influencing Skills
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%) Financial Institution
14 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
15 29 (1.43%) Front Office
15 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 27 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 813 (40.19%) Project Manager
2 198 (9.79%) Senior
3 172 (8.50%) Lead
4 163 (8.06%) Analyst
5 147 (7.27%) Senior Manager
6 116 (5.73%) Senior Project Manager
7 111 (5.49%) IT Manager
8 89 (4.40%) Programme Manager
9 88 (4.35%) IT Project Manager
10 84 (4.15%) Business Analyst
11 71 (3.51%) Technical Manager
12 67 (3.31%) Delivery Manager
13 64 (3.16%) Consultant
14 58 (2.87%) Technical Project Manager
15 51 (2.52%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.08%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 40 (1.98%) Project Officer
18 39 (1.93%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 38 (1.88%) Developer
20 37 (1.83%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) 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
6 10 (0.49%) .NET
6 10 (0.49%) OAuth
6 10 (0.49%) SOAP
7 9 (0.44%) React
8 8 (0.40%) CSS
8 8 (0.40%) RESTful
9 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
9 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
9 6 (0.30%) Terraform
9 6 (0.30%) XML
10 5 (0.25%) FHIR
10 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.34%) Management Information System
2 87 (4.30%) Onboarding
2 87 (4.30%) Product Ownership
3 66 (3.26%) Data Centre
4 51 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
5 50 (2.47%) PMI
6 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
7 32 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
9 27 (1.33%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.24%) FMCG
11 24 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.19%) Social Media
12 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
13 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
14 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.94%) Life Science
15 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 16 (0.79%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.87%) Windows
2 48 (2.37%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 19 (0.94%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.15%) Android
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
1 851 (42.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 779 (38.51%) Agile
3 572 (28.27%) Project Delivery
4 467 (23.08%) PRINCE2
5 348 (17.20%) Problem-Solving
6 338 (16.71%) Continuous Improvement
7 337 (16.66%) Change Management
8 298 (14.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 293 (14.48%) Migration
10 260 (12.85%) Decision-Making
11 249 (12.31%) Risk Management
12 246 (12.16%) Waterfall
13 200 (9.89%) Scrum
14 191 (9.44%) AI
15 168 (8.30%) Project Governance
16 158 (7.81%) Roadmaps
17 151 (7.46%) Analytics
17 151 (7.46%) ITIL
18 144 (7.12%) Project Planning
19 142 (7.02%) Change Control
Programming Languages
1 83 (4.10%) SQL
2 69 (3.41%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 15 (0.74%) Java
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
7 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) ABAP
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%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) R
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 323 (15.97%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.57%) Degree
3 313 (15.47%) PMP
4 271 (13.40%) PMI Certification
5 220 (10.87%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.76%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.48%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) 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 14 (0.69%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (12.26%) PMO
2 99 (4.89%) QA
3 62 (3.06%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 30 (1.48%) SLA
6 25 (1.24%) GRC
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
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%) 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%) WCAG
14 4 (0.20%) GxP
System Software
1 39 (1.93%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.09%) 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 12 (0.59%) 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%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 342 (16.91%) Microsoft
2 162 (8.01%) SAP
3 113 (5.59%) ServiceNow
4 86 (4.25%) Oracle
5 57 (2.82%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.72%) Google
7 46 (2.27%) Adobe
8 36 (1.78%) VMware
9 31 (1.53%) 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
14 18 (0.89%) Databricks
15 14 (0.69%) IBM
16 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.54%) IFS
17 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
18 10 (0.49%) Murex