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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 22 19
Rank change year-on-year -17 -3 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,004 2,625 3,688
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.17% 8.35% 8.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.93% 9.37% 9.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,470 2,369
10th Percentile £313 £275 £324
25th Percentile £413 £406 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.02% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £495 £500
% change year-on-year +1.11% -1.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 103 114 193
10th Percentile £15.60 £21.25 £18.92
25th Percentile £21.17 £28.68 £26.00
Median hourly rate £40.50 £34.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.39% -13.75% -16.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 £55.81 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.23 £65.00 £65.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £34.77 £42.50
% change year-on-year +30.74% -18.19% -15.00%

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 33,821 28,022 39,068
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.29% 89.12% 87.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,401 17,008 25,726
10th Percentile £305 £307 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,033 874 2,031
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.60 £21.00 £16.78
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -9.62% +12.38%
75th Percentile £58.00 £62.50 £62.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.62 £36.50
% change year-on-year -19.29% -16.12% +31.77%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 31 January 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 -18 1,731 £525 - 1,124
UK excluding London -19 1,026 £500 +1.11% 1,066
London -18 807 £540 -1.82% 306
Work from Home -18 574 £525 +5.00% 333
South East -11 272 £525 +0.96% 346
North of England -28 254 £484 +7.50% 194
Midlands -24 200 £492 -6.29% 196
North West -22 143 £492 +9.33% 87
West Midlands -26 140 £500 -9.09% 120
South West -27 107 £450 -10.00% 116
Yorkshire -20 102 £490 +8.83% 77
Scotland -11 97 £444 +4.41% 51
East Midlands -13 62 £450 +8.70% 76
East of England -28 61 £425 -15.00% 137
Wales +4 32 £300 -44.44% 36
Northern Ireland -1 20 £450 +9.09% 19
North East -33 12 £430 -25.22% 35

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
1 166 (8.28%) Confluence
2 104 (5.19%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.15%) CMS
4 13 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Apache
8 5 (0.25%) nginx
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.100%) SAS
11 1 (0.050%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.050%) IIS
11 1 (0.050%) Moodle
11 1 (0.050%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
11 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 214 (10.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 206 (10.28%) Microsoft Project
3 165 (8.23%) Microsoft Office
4 121 (6.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 60 (2.99%) MS Visio
6 24 (1.20%) Trello
7 16 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 3 (0.15%) AutoCAD
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.100%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.100%) InDesign
11 2 (0.100%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.100%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 50 (2.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.85%) Primavera
3 15 (0.75%) Oracle EBS
4 13 (0.65%) Loan IQ
4 13 (0.65%) Oracle Payables
5 11 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
5 11 (0.55%) Oracle ERP
6 9 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
7 8 (0.40%) Shopify
8 7 (0.35%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
9 6 (0.30%) SAP PM
10 5 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
10 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
10 5 (0.25%) SAP ERP
10 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
10 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 169 (8.43%) Azure
2 99 (4.94%) AWS
3 95 (4.74%) Power Platform
4 69 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
6 46 (2.30%) SaaS
7 26 (1.30%) GCP
8 23 (1.15%) Asana
9 22 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
10 19 (0.95%) Smartsheet
11 18 (0.90%) OpenShift
12 17 (0.85%) GitHub
13 16 (0.80%) Google Workspace
14 15 (0.75%) OneDrive
15 14 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
16 11 (0.55%) Entra ID
16 11 (0.55%) Figma
16 11 (0.55%) Microsoft Copilot
16 11 (0.55%) Serverless
17 10 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (2.05%) Firewall
2 27 (1.35%) WAN
3 19 (0.95%) LAN
4 17 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
5 16 (0.80%) DNS
5 16 (0.80%) Network Security
6 15 (0.75%) SD-WAN
7 14 (0.70%) Structured Cabling
8 12 (0.60%) VPN
9 11 (0.55%) SSH
10 10 (0.50%) HTTP
11 9 (0.45%) Internet
11 9 (0.45%) Skype
11 9 (0.45%) TCP/IP
12 8 (0.40%) BGP
12 8 (0.40%) MPLS
13 7 (0.35%) SSL
14 6 (0.30%) Broadband
14 6 (0.30%) DHCP
15 5 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (4.39%) Power BI
2 31 (1.55%) Tableau
3 24 (1.20%) SQL Server
4 19 (0.95%) Metadata
5 17 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
7 8 (0.40%) SAP HANA
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
9 6 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
10 5 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.25%) GIS
10 5 (0.25%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.20%) Power Query
12 3 (0.15%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 322 (16.07%) JIRA
2 21 (1.05%) Git
3 10 (0.50%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) GitLab
5 4 (0.20%) Selenium
5 4 (0.20%) SpecFlow
6 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
6 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.15%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.050%) Ant
7 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.050%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.050%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.050%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.050%) Gradle
7 1 (0.050%) JUnit
7 1 (0.050%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.050%) Travis CI
7 1 (0.050%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio
General
1 993 (49.55%) Social Skills
2 726 (36.23%) Finance
3 340 (16.97%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.13%) Public Sector
5 199 (9.93%) Organisational Skills
6 188 (9.38%) Banking
7 95 (4.74%) Retail
8 85 (4.24%) Legal
9 82 (4.09%) Marketing
10 80 (3.99%) Influencing Skills
11 72 (3.59%) Manufacturing
12 52 (2.59%) Telecoms
13 51 (2.54%) Presentation Skills
14 49 (2.45%) Investment Banking
15 39 (1.95%) Local Government
16 34 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 33 (1.65%) Front Office
18 27 (1.35%) Financial Institution
19 26 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
20 19 (0.95%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 760 (37.92%) Project Manager
2 251 (12.52%) Analyst
3 173 (8.63%) Lead
4 155 (7.73%) Senior
5 134 (6.69%) Business Analyst
6 100 (4.99%) Senior Manager
7 99 (4.94%) IT Manager
8 87 (4.34%) IT Project Manager
9 82 (4.09%) Consultant
10 81 (4.04%) Senior Project Manager
11 65 (3.24%) Technical Manager
12 60 (2.99%) Delivery Manager
13 52 (2.59%) Infrastructure Manager
14 50 (2.50%) Programme Manager
15 49 (2.45%) Coordinator
16 47 (2.35%) Developer
17 45 (2.25%) Technical Project Manager
18 44 (2.20%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 41 (2.05%) Architect
20 39 (1.95%) Project Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.15%) Oracle Fusion
2 22 (1.10%) Middleware
3 14 (0.70%) .NET
3 14 (0.70%) REST
4 13 (0.65%) SOAP
5 12 (0.60%) EDI
6 10 (0.50%) ADO
6 10 (0.50%) Web Services
6 10 (0.50%) XML
7 9 (0.45%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.45%) CSS
7 9 (0.45%) HTML
7 9 (0.45%) LDAP
8 8 (0.40%) React
9 7 (0.35%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) .NET Framework
10 6 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (0.30%) LangChain
11 5 (0.25%) Entity Framework
11 5 (0.25%) LlamaIndex
Miscellaneous
1 119 (5.94%) Onboarding
2 108 (5.39%) Management Information System
3 73 (3.64%) Data Protection Act
4 62 (3.09%) PMI
5 61 (3.04%) Data Centre
6 54 (2.69%) Product Ownership
7 50 (2.50%) Virtual Team
8 41 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
9 40 (2.00%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.35%) NHS
11 25 (1.25%) Enterprise Software
12 24 (1.20%) Operational Technology
13 23 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
14 21 (1.05%) CMDB
15 17 (0.85%) SCADA
15 17 (0.85%) Social Media
16 14 (0.70%) Cloud Native
17 13 (0.65%) Derivative
17 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
18 12 (0.60%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 70 (3.49%) Windows
2 18 (0.90%) Linux
3 14 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.60%) Unix
5 11 (0.55%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.100%) AIX
7 2 (0.100%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.100%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.100%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.050%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.050%) Solaris
8 1 (0.050%) VMS
8 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 770 (38.42%) Agile
2 648 (32.34%) Stakeholder Management
3 485 (24.20%) Problem-Solving
4 475 (23.70%) Project Delivery
5 412 (20.56%) PRINCE2
6 364 (18.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 326 (16.27%) Change Management
8 287 (14.32%) Migration
9 245 (12.23%) Continuous Improvement
10 233 (11.63%) Waterfall
11 217 (10.83%) Decision-Making
12 208 (10.38%) Risk Management
13 198 (9.88%) Scrum
14 171 (8.53%) Budget Management
15 155 (7.73%) ITIL
16 154 (7.68%) DevOps
17 147 (7.34%) ERP
18 146 (7.29%) Project Governance
19 144 (7.19%) Cybersecurity
20 139 (6.94%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 89 (4.44%) SQL
2 44 (2.20%) Python
3 16 (0.80%) Java
4 15 (0.75%) C#
5 14 (0.70%) JavaScript
6 9 (0.45%) ABAP
7 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.25%) Perl
8 5 (0.25%) T-SQL
8 5 (0.25%) VBA
9 4 (0.20%) C++
9 4 (0.20%) Go
9 4 (0.20%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.20%) R
9 4 (0.20%) Ruby
10 3 (0.15%) C
10 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.100%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.100%) VB
Qualifications
1 365 (18.21%) Degree
2 277 (13.82%) PMP
3 268 (13.37%) Security Cleared
4 262 (13.07%) PMI Certification
5 193 (9.63%) SC Cleared
6 59 (2.94%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.25%) Master's Degree
8 42 (2.10%) APMP
9 28 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
10 27 (1.35%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 26 (1.30%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 23 (1.15%) CISSP
13 20 (1.00%) CISM
13 20 (1.00%) MBA
14 16 (0.80%) CBAP
15 15 (0.75%) IIBA
16 11 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
17 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (10.73%) PMO
2 130 (6.49%) QA
3 68 (3.39%) Data Quality
4 58 (2.89%) GDPR
5 48 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (1.55%) NIST
7 20 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 17 (0.85%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.80%) GRC
10 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
11 12 (0.60%) SLA
12 11 (0.55%) P3O
13 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
14 9 (0.45%) Basel III
15 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
15 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
15 7 (0.35%) PSD2
15 7 (0.35%) WCAG
16 6 (0.30%) MiFID
16 6 (0.30%) NCSC
System Software
1 39 (1.95%) Active Directory
2 14 (0.70%) Docker
3 13 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.100%) RACF
8 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.050%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.050%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (0.80%) Kubernetes
2 14 (0.70%) Terraform
3 13 (0.65%) SCCM
4 11 (0.55%) Ansible
4 11 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.30%) Kibana
6 6 (0.30%) logstash
7 4 (0.20%) Consul
7 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.20%) Packer
8 3 (0.15%) Grafana
8 3 (0.15%) Puppet
8 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
8 3 (0.15%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.050%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.050%) Argo
9 1 (0.050%) CASB
9 1 (0.050%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.050%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 321 (16.02%) Microsoft
2 163 (8.13%) SAP
3 95 (4.74%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.19%) Oracle
5 65 (3.24%) Salesforce
6 34 (1.70%) Google
7 32 (1.60%) Cisco
8 27 (1.35%) Adobe
9 22 (1.10%) Workday
10 20 (1.00%) Atlassian
10 20 (1.00%) VMware
11 19 (0.95%) Planview
12 17 (0.85%) Databricks
13 14 (0.70%) IBM
14 13 (0.65%) Ariba
14 13 (0.65%) CyberArk
14 13 (0.65%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.55%) Sage
16 10 (0.50%) Juniper
17 8 (0.40%) CheckPoint