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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 28 21
Rank change year-on-year -32 -7 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,019 2,076 2,941
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.71% 6.30% 7.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.39% 6.96% 8.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,238 1,241 1,689
10th Percentile £309 £313 £307
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% -2.88% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £613
90th Percentile £725 £738 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 121 156
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.30 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.30 £25.25 £26.61
Median hourly rate £50.00 £34.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.93% -1.43% -16.27%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.25 £54.06
90th Percentile £82.80 £65.14 £66.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.73 £36.00 £36.72
% change year-on-year +49.25% -1.97% -10.21%

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 45,960 29,830 33,021
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.47% 90.53% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,897 18,534 20,247
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
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 3,123 1,812 1,459
10th Percentile £13.84 £14.23 £14.96
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.56 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.69% -47.67% +1.18%

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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 -31 1,776 £525 +0.86% 3,927
UK excluding London -37 950 £500 +5.26% 2,360
London -30 868 £550 - 1,890
Work from Home -20 624 £500 +2.56% 1,461
North of England -39 253 £475 -5.10% 507
South East -26 250 £500 - 693
North West -23 153 £475 -3.46% 273
Midlands -49 141 £538 +14.61% 365
South West -21 136 £475 +5.56% 268
Yorkshire -25 93 £475 -5.00% 169
West Midlands -54 93 £550 +15.79% 213
Scotland -33 77 £500 +11.48% 175
East of England -22 75 £513 -1.91% 236
East Midlands -19 48 £525 +17.45% 152
Northern Ireland -11 12 £444 -15.48% 81
Wales -24 11 £400 +6.67% 65
North East -47 9 £420 +3.07% 69
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 3

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
1 127 (6.29%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.85%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 27 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (0.94%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) Apache
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) SAS
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.050%) CICS
12 1 (0.050%) nginx
12 1 (0.050%) Oracle Coherence
12 1 (0.050%) Tomcat
Applications
1 202 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 167 (8.27%) Microsoft Project
3 157 (7.78%) Microsoft Office
4 127 (6.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 40 (1.98%) MS Visio
6 20 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
7 13 (0.64%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Windchill
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
14 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 58 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 11 (0.54%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.54%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.54%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
8 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Shopify
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 176 (8.72%) Azure
2 141 (6.98%) Power Platform
3 88 (4.36%) SaaS
4 87 (4.31%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.67%) AWS
6 67 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.73%) Smartsheet
8 33 (1.63%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (1.34%) Entra ID
11 22 (1.09%) GCP
12 19 (0.94%) Asana
13 16 (0.79%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) GitHub
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
15 14 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 25 (1.24%) DNS
3 24 (1.19%) WAN
4 22 (1.09%) Firewall
4 22 (1.09%) TCP/IP
5 20 (0.99%) LAN
6 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.64%) DHCP
7 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.59%) VPN
9 11 (0.54%) Internet
9 11 (0.54%) Intranet
9 11 (0.54%) Wireless
10 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.40%) 3GPP
12 8 (0.40%) 4G
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) LTE
12 8 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.29%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Metadata
3 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.79%) Tableau
5 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.50%) Power Query
7 10 (0.50%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
9 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.30%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
12 4 (0.20%) EDMS
12 4 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 256 (12.68%) JIRA
2 28 (1.39%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Rational DOORS
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.20%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Selenium
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.050%) Capybara
10 1 (0.050%) git-flow
10 1 (0.050%) Gradle
10 1 (0.050%) Hudson
10 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.050%) TestRail
10 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 900 (44.58%) Social Skills
2 773 (38.29%) Finance
3 325 (16.10%) Analytical Skills
4 207 (10.25%) Organisational Skills
5 174 (8.62%) Public Sector
6 173 (8.57%) Banking
7 130 (6.44%) Marketing
8 117 (5.79%) Retail
9 94 (4.66%) Influencing Skills
10 76 (3.76%) Legal
10 76 (3.76%) Manufacturing
11 71 (3.52%) Telecoms
12 57 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
13 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.58%) Aerospace
15 30 (1.49%) Front Office
16 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.44%) Local Government
16 29 (1.44%) Pharmaceutical
17 27 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 794 (39.33%) Project Manager
2 188 (9.31%) Senior
3 185 (9.16%) Lead
4 141 (6.98%) Analyst
5 140 (6.93%) Senior Manager
6 115 (5.70%) IT Manager
7 106 (5.25%) Senior Project Manager
8 87 (4.31%) IT Project Manager
9 81 (4.01%) Programme Manager
10 78 (3.86%) Business Analyst
11 77 (3.81%) Technical Manager
12 76 (3.76%) Delivery Manager
13 73 (3.62%) Consultant
14 60 (2.97%) Technical Project Manager
15 44 (2.18%) Infrastructure Manager
15 44 (2.18%) Project Officer
16 40 (1.98%) Coordinator
17 38 (1.88%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 36 (1.78%) Project Coordinator
19 34 (1.68%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (1.04%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 14 (0.69%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 12 (0.59%) VML
7 11 (0.54%) .NET
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 10 (0.50%) OAuth
8 10 (0.50%) React
9 9 (0.45%) SOAP
10 7 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 7 (0.35%) pytest
10 7 (0.35%) RESTful
11 6 (0.30%) CSS
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.30%) Terraform
12 5 (0.25%) XML
13 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 117 (5.79%) Management Information System
2 97 (4.80%) Product Ownership
3 95 (4.71%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.07%) Data Centre
5 49 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.38%) Virtual Team
7 42 (2.08%) PMI
8 32 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.44%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (1.29%) FMCG
11 26 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
12 25 (1.24%) Social Media
13 24 (1.19%) Life Science
14 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
15 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
16 20 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
17 17 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
18 16 (0.79%) NHS
19 15 (0.74%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 59 (2.92%) Windows
2 57 (2.82%) Linux
3 24 (1.19%) Unix
3 24 (1.19%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) zOS
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 910 (45.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 762 (37.74%) Agile
3 589 (29.17%) Project Delivery
4 448 (22.19%) PRINCE2
5 337 (16.69%) Continuous Improvement
6 334 (16.54%) Change Management
7 333 (16.49%) Problem-Solving
8 300 (14.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 283 (14.02%) Decision-Making
10 276 (13.67%) Migration
11 250 (12.38%) Risk Management
12 243 (12.04%) Waterfall
13 217 (10.75%) AI
14 206 (10.20%) Scrum
15 202 (10.00%) Project Governance
16 168 (8.32%) Roadmaps
17 165 (8.17%) Project Planning
18 160 (7.92%) Change Control
19 158 (7.83%) Programme Management
20 152 (7.53%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 74 (3.67%) SQL
2 69 (3.42%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) Java
3 18 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
8 8 (0.40%) Korn
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) Bash
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 3 (0.15%) ABAP
12 3 (0.15%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 326 (16.15%) Security Cleared
2 314 (15.55%) Degree
3 296 (14.66%) PMP
4 257 (12.73%) PMI Certification
5 225 (11.14%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.86%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 76 (3.76%) DV Cleared
8 34 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
9 25 (1.24%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.89%) ACCA
10 18 (0.89%) CIMA
11 17 (0.84%) Azure Certification
11 17 (0.84%) ITIL Certification
12 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 14 (0.69%) APMP
14 14 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (0.69%) ISTQB
15 12 (0.59%) CISM
16 11 (0.54%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 252 (12.48%) PMO
2 97 (4.80%) QA
3 56 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 35 (1.73%) GDPR
5 25 (1.24%) GRC
6 23 (1.14%) SLA
7 22 (1.09%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 19 (0.94%) NIST
9 8 (0.40%) P3O
10 7 (0.35%) FINREP
10 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) EMIR
11 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.25%) MiFID
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 28 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (0.45%) vSphere
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.15%) NFS
7 3 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
8 2 (0.099%) Docker
8 2 (0.099%) Firmware
9 1 (0.050%) ACF2
9 1 (0.050%) IAG
9 1 (0.050%) RACF
9 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.09%) Ansible
2 11 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
5 5 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.099%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.099%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.050%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Nessus
9 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 368 (18.23%) Microsoft
2 157 (7.78%) SAP
3 107 (5.30%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.06%) Oracle
5 52 (2.58%) Salesforce
6 49 (2.43%) Google
7 45 (2.23%) Adobe
8 43 (2.13%) VMware
9 29 (1.44%) Cisco
10 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
11 20 (0.99%) Atlassian
11 20 (0.99%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) Ariba
12 19 (0.94%) IBM
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 18 (0.89%) Databricks
14 15 (0.74%) Planview
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 10 (0.50%) Dell