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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -29 -4 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,025 2,289 2,922
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.80% 6.95% 7.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.69% 8.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,404 1,739
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 125 233
10th Percentile £18.32 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.09 £27.50 £27.26
Median hourly rate £42.30 £37.28 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +13.47% -2.20% -8.14%
75th Percentile £65.19 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.22 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.83 £41.06 £38.12
% change year-on-year +6.73% +7.71% -4.70%

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 45,262 29,771 33,475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.91% 90.46% 85.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,917 18,660 21,435
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
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 2,788 1,660 1,878
10th Percentile £14.46 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £18.15
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.63% -5.12%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £64.13
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.30 £40.94
% change year-on-year +88.67% -43.09% +3.38%

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 6 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 6 August 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 6 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 -25 1,796 £525 +2.44% 1,932
UK excluding London -34 980 £500 +6.38% 1,260
London -25 870 £550 +4.76% 853
Work from Home -22 626 £500 +4.71% 739
North of England -38 268 £475 -2.56% 291
South East -25 254 £500 +1.27% 360
North West -19 169 £475 -0.11% 152
Midlands -50 143 £539 +19.72% 216
South West -25 140 £436 -3.06% 156
West Midlands -59 96 £550 +17.27% 124
Yorkshire -40 93 £500 - 97
East of England -6 89 £525 +0.96% 135
Scotland -32 67 £500 +11.11% 62
East Midlands -16 47 £488 +24.68% 92
Northern Ireland -3 16 £447 -14.86% 29
Wales -17 12 £400 -7.25% 42
North East -41 8 £420 -12.95% 47

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
1 110 (5.43%) Confluence
2 105 (5.19%) SharePoint
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 22 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.69%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.35%) Sitecore CMS
6 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.30%) Apache
7 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) JBoss
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.099%) SAS
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 186 (9.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 177 (8.74%) Microsoft Project
3 151 (7.46%) Microsoft Office
4 114 (5.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 24 (1.19%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 9 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
11 3 (0.15%) InDesign
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.099%) Houdini
12 2 (0.099%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) Notion
13 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 74 (3.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 11 (0.54%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Adobe Campaign
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.35%) SAP CO
6 7 (0.35%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
6 7 (0.35%) SAP HCM
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
7 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 182 (8.99%) Azure
2 118 (5.83%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.54%) SaaS
4 77 (3.80%) AWS
5 74 (3.65%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.73%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (1.04%) GCP
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
11 20 (0.99%) Entra ID
12 18 (0.89%) GitHub
13 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
13 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
13 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
14 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
14 11 (0.54%) OCI
14 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
15 9 (0.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 33 (1.63%) Network Security
2 25 (1.23%) WAN
3 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.09%) DNS
5 21 (1.04%) LAN
6 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
7 18 (0.89%) Firewall
8 15 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
9 14 (0.69%) SD-WAN
10 13 (0.64%) DHCP
10 13 (0.64%) Internet
10 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 13 (0.64%) VPN
11 12 (0.59%) MPLS
12 10 (0.49%) BGP
13 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
13 8 (0.40%) SAN
13 8 (0.40%) Wireless
14 7 (0.35%) DKIM
14 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (5.23%) Power BI
2 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
2 16 (0.79%) Tableau
3 15 (0.74%) SQL Server
4 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.64%) Metadata
5 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
7 8 (0.40%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Power Query
8 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
8 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.20%) Big Data
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.15%) QlikView
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 253 (12.49%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 22 (1.09%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.099%) Hudson
7 2 (0.099%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.049%) Appium
8 1 (0.049%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) minitest
8 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.049%) Snyk
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 884 (43.65%) Social Skills
2 749 (36.99%) Finance
3 334 (16.49%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.02%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.69%) Public Sector
6 149 (7.36%) Banking
7 141 (6.96%) Marketing
8 111 (5.48%) Retail
9 74 (3.65%) Legal
10 73 (3.60%) Manufacturing
11 70 (3.46%) Influencing Skills
12 60 (2.96%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
14 36 (1.78%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.58%) Financial Institution
16 30 (1.48%) Aerospace
16 30 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
16 30 (1.48%) Pharmaceutical
17 28 (1.38%) Front Office
18 26 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 806 (39.80%) Project Manager
2 206 (10.17%) Senior
3 176 (8.69%) Analyst
4 171 (8.44%) Lead
5 152 (7.51%) Senior Manager
6 127 (6.27%) Senior Project Manager
7 112 (5.53%) IT Manager
8 90 (4.44%) Programme Manager
9 89 (4.40%) IT Project Manager
10 84 (4.15%) Business Analyst
11 68 (3.36%) Technical Manager
12 66 (3.26%) Consultant
13 61 (3.01%) Delivery Manager
14 55 (2.72%) Infrastructure Manager
15 54 (2.67%) Technical Project Manager
16 43 (2.12%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 43 (2.12%) Project Officer
17 41 (2.02%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Data Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 22 (1.09%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (0.74%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) VML
6 12 (0.59%) SOAP
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 10 (0.49%) .NET
8 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 10 (0.49%) Web Services
9 9 (0.44%) React
10 8 (0.40%) RESTful
11 7 (0.35%) CSS
11 7 (0.35%) XML
12 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.30%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.25%) FHIR
13 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.38%) Management Information System
2 86 (4.25%) Onboarding
3 85 (4.20%) Product Ownership
4 69 (3.41%) Data Centre
5 55 (2.72%) PMI
6 53 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
7 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
8 35 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
11 26 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
11 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
12 25 (1.23%) Social Media
13 24 (1.19%) FMCG
14 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
14 20 (0.99%) Life Science
15 18 (0.89%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.84%) Credit Risk
17 16 (0.79%) EPoS
18 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 56 (2.77%) Windows
2 40 (1.98%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 17 (0.84%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.15%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Android
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) AIX
11 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 802 (39.60%) Stakeholder Management
2 748 (36.94%) Agile
3 556 (27.46%) Project Delivery
4 454 (22.42%) PRINCE2
5 356 (17.58%) Problem-Solving
6 336 (16.59%) Change Management
7 334 (16.49%) Continuous Improvement
8 304 (15.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 297 (14.67%) Migration
10 256 (12.64%) Decision-Making
11 255 (12.59%) Risk Management
12 243 (12.00%) Waterfall
13 198 (9.78%) Scrum
14 188 (9.28%) AI
15 152 (7.51%) ERP
16 151 (7.46%) Project Governance
17 146 (7.21%) ITIL
18 145 (7.16%) Roadmaps
19 144 (7.11%) Budget Management
20 143 (7.06%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 80 (3.95%) SQL
2 64 (3.16%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.74%) Java
5 12 (0.59%) VBA
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.35%) ABAP
7 7 (0.35%) C
8 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.20%) Ada
9 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
9 4 (0.20%) Korn
10 3 (0.15%) Bash
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 328 (16.20%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.56%) Degree
3 312 (15.41%) PMP
4 272 (13.43%) PMI Certification
5 226 (11.16%) SC Cleared
6 79 (3.90%) DV Cleared
7 67 (3.31%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.48%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) ACCA
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
9 28 (1.38%) CIMA
10 20 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.79%) APMP
11 16 (0.79%) CISSP
11 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
12 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
13 12 (0.59%) CISM
14 11 (0.54%) MBA
15 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (12.20%) PMO
2 99 (4.89%) QA
3 56 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.83%) SLA
5 36 (1.78%) GDPR
6 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.33%) GRC
8 25 (1.23%) NIST
9 24 (1.19%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
10 8 (0.40%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) MiFID
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (1.83%) Active Directory
2 17 (0.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
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
7 2 (0.099%) Hyper-V
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 19 (0.94%) Ansible
2 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 5 (0.25%) Terraform
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) Puppet
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.099%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.099%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 330 (16.30%) Microsoft
2 180 (8.89%) SAP
3 118 (5.83%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.15%) Oracle
5 55 (2.72%) Google
5 55 (2.72%) Salesforce
6 42 (2.07%) Adobe
7 30 (1.48%) VMware
8 28 (1.38%) Cisco
9 24 (1.19%) Workday
10 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
11 20 (0.99%) Atlassian
12 18 (0.89%) Databricks
12 18 (0.89%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Ariba
14 15 (0.74%) IBM
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Alteryx
16 10 (0.49%) F5