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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 21 19
Rank change year-on-year -17 -2 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,010 2,622 3,543
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.33% 8.33% 8.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.09% 9.36% 9.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,251 1,458 2,288
10th Percentile £313 £275 £320
25th Percentile £413 £409 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £519 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% -1.14% -
75th Percentile £606 £611 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 105 114 172
10th Percentile £16.10 £21.25 £19.77
25th Percentile £22.50 £26.27 £25.85
Median hourly rate £43.50 £33.00 £41.15
Median % change year-on-year +31.82% -19.81% -5.68%
75th Percentile £63.75 £48.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £65.21 £65.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £33.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +37.76% -22.35% -14.14%

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 33,018 28,000 37,979
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.63% 88.93% 87.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,947 16,996 25,071
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 2,000 892 1,828
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £17.10
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -13.33% +17.19%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £69.37 £74.99 £75.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.55 £30.78 £40.00
% change year-on-year -20.24% -23.05% +53.85%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -16 1,743 £520 -0.95% 1,433
UK excluding London -17 1,032 £500 - 1,392
London -19 805 £525 -4.55% 292
Work from Home -14 586 £510 +0.99% 450
South East -11 265 £525 +0.96% 429
North of England -21 261 £480 +6.67% 253
Midlands -18 214 £489 -6.90% 238
North West -15 148 £496 +10.22% 108
West Midlands -21 144 £496 -13.51% 130
South West -23 110 £450 -10.00% 171
Yorkshire -18 104 £480 +6.67% 106
Scotland -8 96 £450 +5.88% 64
East Midlands -12 72 £450 +8.70% 107
East of England -35 57 £450 -10.00% 190
Wales -1 29 £308 -42.79% 55
Northern Ireland -3 18 £425 -10.53% 32
North East -30 11 £450 -21.74% 44

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
1 168 (8.36%) Confluence
2 112 (5.57%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.04%) 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 (0.100%) MS Project Server
11 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
11 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.050%) Moodle
11 1 (0.050%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 1 (0.050%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
11 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 218 (10.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 209 (10.40%) Microsoft Project
3 169 (8.41%) Microsoft Office
4 128 (6.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 68 (3.38%) MS Visio
6 25 (1.24%) 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 (0.100%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.100%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.100%) InDesign
11 2 (0.100%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.100%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 53 (2.64%) 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 11 (0.55%) Loan IQ
6 10 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
7 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 9 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
8 8 (0.40%) Shopify
9 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
9 6 (0.30%) SAP PM
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
1 171 (8.51%) Azure
2 106 (5.27%) Power Platform
3 98 (4.88%) AWS
4 68 (3.38%) Microsoft 365
5 48 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
6 45 (2.24%) SaaS
7 28 (1.39%) GCP
8 24 (1.19%) Asana
9 22 (1.09%) Smartsheet
10 20 (1.00%) 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 (1.99%) Firewall
2 25 (1.24%) 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 (4.83%) Power BI
2 29 (1.44%) Tableau
3 24 (1.19%) 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
1 330 (16.42%) JIRA
2 21 (1.04%) 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%) Gradle
7 1 (0.050%) JUnit
7 1 (0.050%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.050%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.050%) Travis CI
7 1 (0.050%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio
General
1 987 (49.10%) Social Skills
2 718 (35.72%) Finance
3 341 (16.97%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (10.20%) Public Sector
5 185 (9.20%) Organisational Skills
6 178 (8.86%) Banking
7 92 (4.58%) Retail
8 88 (4.38%) Legal
9 86 (4.28%) Marketing
10 82 (4.08%) Manufacturing
11 73 (3.63%) Influencing Skills
12 50 (2.49%) Telecoms
13 49 (2.44%) Presentation Skills
14 47 (2.34%) Investment Banking
15 39 (1.94%) Local Government
16 35 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 32 (1.59%) Front Office
18 28 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
19 26 (1.29%) Financial Institution
20 23 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 755 (37.56%) Project Manager
2 247 (12.29%) Analyst
3 171 (8.51%) Lead
4 150 (7.46%) Senior
5 131 (6.52%) Business Analyst
6 103 (5.12%) IT Manager
7 97 (4.83%) Senior Manager
8 90 (4.48%) IT Project Manager
9 85 (4.23%) Consultant
10 77 (3.83%) Senior Project Manager
11 60 (2.99%) Delivery Manager
11 60 (2.99%) Technical Manager
12 52 (2.59%) Infrastructure Manager
13 51 (2.54%) Programme Manager
14 48 (2.39%) Coordinator
15 44 (2.19%) Developer
16 43 (2.14%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 42 (2.09%) SAP Manager
18 41 (2.04%) Technical Project Manager
19 39 (1.94%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Oracle Fusion
2 23 (1.14%) 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%) Ajax
Miscellaneous
1 121 (6.02%) Onboarding
2 107 (5.32%) Management Information System
3 66 (3.28%) PMI
4 63 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
5 59 (2.94%) Data Centre
6 55 (2.74%) Product Ownership
7 49 (2.44%) Virtual Team
8 46 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
9 41 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.29%) NHS
11 25 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.24%) Operational Technology
12 23 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
13 20 (1.00%) CMDB
14 19 (0.95%) SCADA
15 15 (0.75%) Life Science
15 15 (0.75%) Social Media
16 13 (0.65%) Cloud Native
16 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
17 12 (0.60%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 73 (3.63%) 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 (0.100%) AIX
7 2 (0.100%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.100%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.100%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.100%) 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
1 762 (37.91%) Agile
2 661 (32.89%) Stakeholder Management
3 489 (24.33%) Project Delivery
4 488 (24.28%) Problem-Solving
5 417 (20.75%) PRINCE2
6 360 (17.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 337 (16.77%) Change Management
8 276 (13.73%) Migration
9 248 (12.34%) Continuous Improvement
10 234 (11.64%) Waterfall
11 216 (10.75%) Decision-Making
12 210 (10.45%) Risk Management
13 189 (9.40%) Scrum
14 167 (8.31%) Budget Management
15 156 (7.76%) ITIL
16 155 (7.71%) ERP
16 155 (7.71%) Project Governance
17 154 (7.66%) DevOps
18 142 (7.06%) Cybersecurity
19 134 (6.67%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 88 (4.38%) SQL
2 43 (2.14%) 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 (0.100%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.050%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 368 (18.31%) Degree
2 278 (13.83%) PMP
3 268 (13.33%) PMI Certification
4 265 (13.18%) Security Cleared
5 190 (9.45%) SC Cleared
6 57 (2.84%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.24%) Master's Degree
8 42 (2.09%) APMP
8 42 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 31 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
10 28 (1.39%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 27 (1.34%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 23 (1.14%) CISSP
13 21 (1.04%) CISM
14 20 (1.00%) MBA
15 11 (0.55%) CBAP
16 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
16 10 (0.50%) IIBA
16 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 225 (11.19%) PMO
2 126 (6.27%) QA
3 63 (3.13%) Data Quality
4 62 (3.08%) GDPR
5 50 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (1.54%) NIST
7 23 (1.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 17 (0.85%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.80%) GRC
10 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.65%) P3O
12 12 (0.60%) SLA
13 11 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
14 9 (0.45%) Basel III
15 8 (0.40%) GxP
16 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
16 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
16 7 (0.35%) PSD2
16 7 (0.35%) WCAG
17 6 (0.30%) NCSC
System Software
1 39 (1.94%) 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%) 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
1 316 (15.72%) Microsoft
2 170 (8.46%) SAP
3 90 (4.48%) Oracle
4 88 (4.38%) ServiceNow
5 68 (3.38%) Salesforce
6 35 (1.74%) Google
7 32 (1.59%) Cisco
8 25 (1.24%) Adobe
8 25 (1.24%) Workday
9 20 (1.00%) Atlassian
9 20 (1.00%) Planview
10 19 (0.95%) VMware
11 18 (0.90%) Databricks
12 17 (0.85%) IBM
13 13 (0.65%) CyberArk
13 13 (0.65%) Palo Alto
14 12 (0.60%) Ariba
15 9 (0.45%) Juniper
15 9 (0.45%) Sage
16 8 (0.40%) CheckPoint