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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 20 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -1 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,989 2,601 3,525
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.34% 8.32% 8.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.09% 9.35% 9.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,240 1,443 2,276
10th Percentile £313 £275 £318
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £519 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% -1.14% -
75th Percentile £606 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 114 170
10th Percentile £16.89 £21.25 £20.04
25th Percentile £22.50 £26.27 £26.24
Median hourly rate £42.00 £33.00 £42.40
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% -22.17% -5.77%
75th Percentile £63.75 £48.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.22 £65.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £33.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +37.76% -22.35% -14.48%

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 32,673 27,807 37,942
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.64% 88.90% 87.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,708 16,856 25,065
10th Percentile £305 £306 £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 £645
90th Percentile £720 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,982 890 1,770
10th Percentile £14.55 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £17.16
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -14.47% +16.92%
75th Percentile £57.25 £62.50 £63.29
90th Percentile £69.25 £75.00 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.41 £30.88 £40.13
% change year-on-year -20.96% -23.05% +54.33%

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 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 20 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 20 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 -17 1,722 £520 -0.95% 1,415
UK excluding London -17 1,023 £500 - 1,369
London -18 793 £525 -4.55% 299
Work from Home -13 575 £510 +1.63% 449
South East -9 266 £525 - 424
North of England -27 256 £480 +5.21% 239
Midlands -18 210 £489 -6.90% 242
North West -17 144 £492 +9.33% 104
West Midlands -23 142 £492 -14.02% 134
South West -24 109 £450 -10.00% 169
Yorkshire -17 103 £480 +6.67% 100
Scotland -10 96 £450 +5.88% 66
East Midlands -13 70 £450 +8.70% 108
East of England -32 57 £450 -10.00% 187
Wales -5 29 £308 -42.79% 53
Northern Ireland -2 18 £425 -10.53% 29
North East -28 11 £450 -21.74% 41

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 (8.35%) Confluence
2 111 (5.58%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.06%) 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%) nginx
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
9 4 (0.20%) Apache
10 2 (0.10%) MS Project Server
11 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
11 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.050%) IIS
11 1 (0.050%) Moodle
11 1 (0.050%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 1 (0.050%) SAS
11 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 216 (10.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 207 (10.41%) Microsoft Project
3 168 (8.45%) Microsoft Office
4 126 (6.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 68 (3.42%) MS Visio
6 25 (1.26%) Trello
7 15 (0.75%) 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%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.10%) InDesign
11 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 51 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (0.80%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (0.80%) Primavera
3 14 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
4 13 (0.65%) Oracle Payables
5 10 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
6 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.45%) Loan IQ
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
7 8 (0.40%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.30%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
9 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.25%) SAP ERP
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 171 (8.60%) Azure
2 106 (5.33%) Power Platform
3 98 (4.93%) AWS
4 68 (3.42%) Microsoft 365
5 48 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
6 45 (2.26%) SaaS
7 28 (1.41%) GCP
8 24 (1.21%) Asana
9 22 (1.11%) Smartsheet
10 20 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
11 18 (0.90%) OpenShift
12 17 (0.85%) GitHub
13 16 (0.80%) Google Workspace
14 15 (0.75%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.75%) SuccessFactors
15 14 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
16 10 (0.50%) Entra ID
16 10 (0.50%) Figma
16 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Copilot
16 10 (0.50%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 40 (2.01%) Firewall
2 25 (1.26%) WAN
3 18 (0.90%) LAN
4 16 (0.80%) DNS
4 16 (0.80%) Network Security
5 14 (0.70%) SSH
5 14 (0.70%) Structured Cabling
5 14 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (0.65%) SD-WAN
7 11 (0.55%) VPN
8 10 (0.50%) HTTP
9 9 (0.45%) Skype
10 8 (0.40%) Internet
10 8 (0.40%) TCP/IP
11 7 (0.35%) BGP
12 6 (0.30%) DHCP
12 6 (0.30%) MPLS
12 6 (0.30%) SSL
13 5 (0.25%) Broadband
13 5 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 97 (4.88%) Power BI
2 29 (1.46%) Tableau
3 24 (1.21%) SQL Server
4 18 (0.90%) Metadata
5 16 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (0.55%) SAP HANA
7 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
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%) Big Data
12 3 (0.15%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 326 (16.39%) JIRA
2 21 (1.06%) 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%) Appium
7 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.050%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.050%) CircleCI
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
1 979 (49.22%) Social Skills
2 704 (35.39%) Finance
3 339 (17.04%) Analytical Skills
4 202 (10.16%) Public Sector
5 183 (9.20%) Organisational Skills
6 175 (8.80%) Banking
7 92 (4.63%) Retail
8 88 (4.42%) Legal
9 86 (4.32%) Marketing
10 81 (4.07%) Manufacturing
11 73 (3.67%) Influencing Skills
12 50 (2.51%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
14 46 (2.31%) Investment Banking
15 40 (2.01%) Local Government
16 34 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 31 (1.56%) Front Office
18 27 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
19 26 (1.31%) Financial Institution
20 23 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 742 (37.31%) Project Manager
2 245 (12.32%) Analyst
3 168 (8.45%) Lead
4 151 (7.59%) Senior
5 130 (6.54%) Business Analyst
6 103 (5.18%) IT Manager
7 97 (4.88%) Senior Manager
8 90 (4.52%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.22%) Consultant
10 77 (3.87%) Senior Project Manager
11 60 (3.02%) Technical Manager
12 58 (2.92%) Delivery Manager
13 52 (2.61%) Infrastructure Manager
14 50 (2.51%) Programme Manager
15 48 (2.41%) Coordinator
16 44 (2.21%) Developer
17 43 (2.16%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 42 (2.11%) SAP Manager
19 41 (2.06%) Technical Project Manager
20 39 (1.96%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.26%) Oracle Fusion
2 20 (1.01%) 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%) XML
7 9 (0.45%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.45%) HTML
7 9 (0.45%) LDAP
7 9 (0.45%) Web Services
8 8 (0.40%) React
9 7 (0.35%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) .NET Framework
10 6 (0.30%) CSS
10 6 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (0.30%) LangChain
11 5 (0.25%) Entity Framework
12 4 (0.20%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 120 (6.03%) Onboarding
2 107 (5.38%) Management Information System
3 65 (3.27%) PMI
4 62 (3.12%) Data Protection Act
5 59 (2.97%) Data Centre
6 54 (2.71%) Product Ownership
7 49 (2.46%) Virtual Team
8 47 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
9 39 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.31%) NHS
11 24 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
11 24 (1.21%) Operational Technology
12 23 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
13 20 (1.01%) CMDB
14 19 (0.96%) SCADA
15 15 (0.75%) Social Media
16 14 (0.70%) Life Science
17 13 (0.65%) Cloud Native
17 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
18 12 (0.60%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 72 (3.62%) Windows
2 17 (0.85%) Linux
3 14 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.65%) Unix
5 11 (0.55%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.10%) AIX
7 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.10%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.050%) Android
8 1 (0.050%) Solaris
8 1 (0.050%) VMS
8 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 752 (37.81%) Agile
2 648 (32.58%) Stakeholder Management
3 485 (24.38%) Problem-Solving
4 483 (24.28%) Project Delivery
5 416 (20.92%) PRINCE2
6 354 (17.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 333 (16.74%) Change Management
8 269 (13.52%) Migration
9 244 (12.27%) Continuous Improvement
10 231 (11.61%) Waterfall
11 214 (10.76%) Decision-Making
12 208 (10.46%) Risk Management
13 186 (9.35%) Scrum
14 165 (8.30%) Budget Management
15 156 (7.84%) ITIL
16 155 (7.79%) Project Governance
17 153 (7.69%) DevOps
18 148 (7.44%) ERP
19 142 (7.14%) Cybersecurity
20 133 (6.69%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 88 (4.42%) SQL
2 43 (2.16%) Python
3 17 (0.85%) Java
4 15 (0.75%) JavaScript
5 14 (0.70%) C#
6 9 (0.45%) ABAP
7 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.35%) VBA
9 5 (0.25%) Perl
9 5 (0.25%) PL/SQL
10 4 (0.20%) Go
10 4 (0.20%) R
10 4 (0.20%) Ruby
10 4 (0.20%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.15%) C++
11 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.15%) Korn
11 3 (0.15%) VB
12 2 (0.10%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.050%) X++
Qualifications
1 365 (18.35%) Degree
2 275 (13.83%) PMP
3 265 (13.32%) PMI Certification
4 263 (13.22%) Security Cleared
5 190 (9.55%) SC Cleared
6 57 (2.87%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.26%) Master's Degree
8 42 (2.11%) APMP
9 40 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
10 31 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
11 28 (1.41%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 27 (1.36%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 23 (1.16%) CISSP
14 21 (1.06%) CISM
15 20 (1.01%) MBA
16 11 (0.55%) CBAP
17 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
17 10 (0.50%) IIBA
17 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
18 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 223 (11.21%) PMO
2 122 (6.13%) QA
3 62 (3.12%) Data Quality
4 59 (2.97%) GDPR
5 50 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (1.56%) NIST
7 23 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 17 (0.85%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
9 15 (0.75%) GRC
10 13 (0.65%) P3O
11 12 (0.60%) SLA
12 11 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
13 9 (0.45%) Basel III
14 7 (0.35%) GxP
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
14 7 (0.35%) PSD2
14 7 (0.35%) WCAG
15 6 (0.30%) NCSC
System Software
1 39 (1.96%) 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 (0.10%) Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) PowerHA
8 1 (0.050%) RACF
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
5 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.30%) Kibana
7 5 (0.25%) logstash
8 4 (0.20%) Consul
8 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
8 4 (0.20%) Packer
9 3 (0.15%) Grafana
9 3 (0.15%) Puppet
9 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
9 3 (0.15%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.050%) Cisco UCCX
10 1 (0.050%) ITRS Geneos
10 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.050%) SCOM
10 1 (0.050%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 313 (15.74%) Microsoft
2 165 (8.30%) SAP
3 87 (4.37%) Oracle
3 87 (4.37%) ServiceNow
4 66 (3.32%) Salesforce
5 35 (1.76%) Google
6 32 (1.61%) Cisco
7 25 (1.26%) Adobe
7 25 (1.26%) Workday
8 20 (1.01%) Atlassian
8 20 (1.01%) Planview
9 19 (0.96%) VMware
10 18 (0.90%) Databricks
11 17 (0.85%) IBM
12 13 (0.65%) CyberArk
12 13 (0.65%) Palo Alto
13 12 (0.60%) Ariba
14 9 (0.45%) Juniper
15 8 (0.40%) CheckPoint
15 8 (0.40%) Sage