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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 31 22
Rank change year-on-year -35 -9 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,014 2,006 2,899
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.64% 6.04% 7.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.30% 6.68% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,224 1,240 1,642
10th Percentile £312 £313 £300
25th Percentile £418 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £515 £520
Median % change year-on-year -0.24% -0.97% -0.95%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £608
90th Percentile £725 £727 £706
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 128 132
10th Percentile £22.20 £20.22 £21.25
25th Percentile £31.75 £23.50 £26.61
Median hourly rate £47.50 £34.00 £34.22
Median % change year-on-year +39.71% -0.63% -23.97%
75th Percentile £63.75 £58.69 £49.81
90th Percentile £79.50 £65.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.73 £33.09 £35.00
% change year-on-year +62.40% -5.47% -17.65%

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 46,870 30,047 32,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 90.49% 86.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,156 18,700 19,515
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,444 1,888 1,247
10th Percentile £13.53 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.94 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.18 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 -28 1,768 £525 - 781
UK excluding London -36 971 £500 +4.17% 483
London -32 841 £550 - 369
Work from Home -25 615 £510 +2.00% 371
North of England -28 271 £475 -5.00% 99
South East -24 263 £513 +1.49% 156
North West -29 157 £500 +1.63% 49
Midlands -53 144 £550 +15.79% 79
South West -22 128 £475 +5.56% 59
Yorkshire -9 108 £473 -5.50% 42
West Midlands -58 93 £550 +10.89% 55
Scotland -34 80 £490 +8.89% 25
East of England -26 71 £510 - 58
East Midlands -17 51 £538 +19.44% 24
Wales -25 12 £475 +26.67% 8
Northern Ireland -11 9 £394 -28.41% 8
North East -38 8 £420 +12.00% 10
Channel Islands - 3 £600 -

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
1 125 (6.21%) SharePoint
2 105 (5.21%) Confluence
3 31 (1.54%) CMS
4 23 (1.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 21 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) SAS
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
10 4 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.099%) FactoryTalk
12 2 (0.099%) WinCC
13 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
13 1 (0.050%) CICS
13 1 (0.050%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 202 (10.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 177 (8.79%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.65%) Microsoft Office
4 120 (5.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 38 (1.89%) MS Visio
6 24 (1.19%) Spreadsheet
7 12 (0.60%) Trello
8 9 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Windchill
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) AutoCAD
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) InDesign
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) Navisworks
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 56 (2.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 14 (0.70%) Adobe Campaign
4 13 (0.65%) Magento
5 12 (0.60%) SAP PS
6 11 (0.55%) SAP CO
6 11 (0.55%) SAP FI
7 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 8 (0.40%) Teamcenter
9 7 (0.35%) NetSuite
9 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
10 6 (0.30%) NEC Housing
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
10 6 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
10 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
10 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
10 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
11 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
11 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 181 (8.99%) Azure
2 136 (6.75%) Power Platform
3 83 (4.12%) SaaS
4 79 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
5 77 (3.82%) Azure DevOps
6 67 (3.33%) AWS
7 33 (1.64%) Google Workspace
7 33 (1.64%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.54%) Entra ID
9 29 (1.44%) Dynamics 365
10 25 (1.24%) GCP
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
13 17 (0.84%) PowerApps
14 16 (0.79%) GitHub
15 14 (0.70%) OneDrive
15 14 (0.70%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.70%) SuccessFactors
16 11 (0.55%) Amazon S3
17 10 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.79%) Network Security
2 26 (1.29%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) DNS
3 24 (1.19%) Firewall
4 20 (0.99%) LAN
5 18 (0.89%) TCP/IP
6 15 (0.74%) Structured Cabling
7 14 (0.70%) VPN
8 12 (0.60%) BGP
8 12 (0.60%) Wireless
9 11 (0.55%) Internet
9 11 (0.55%) Intranet
9 11 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (0.50%) DHCP
11 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
11 9 (0.45%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.45%) VLAN
12 8 (0.40%) 4G
12 8 (0.40%) 5G
12 8 (0.40%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (6.01%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
2 20 (0.99%) Metadata
3 14 (0.70%) Tableau
4 13 (0.65%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.65%) SQL Server
5 9 (0.45%) GIS
5 9 (0.45%) Power Query
6 8 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.40%) Relational Database
7 6 (0.30%) Big Data
7 6 (0.30%) Qlik Sense
8 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
8 5 (0.25%) Looker
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.20%) EDMS
10 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 271 (13.46%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.55%) Rational DOORS
5 8 (0.40%) Subversion
6 7 (0.35%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.099%) ScriptRunner
9 2 (0.099%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.050%) git-flow
10 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.050%) Postman
10 1 (0.050%) Snyk
10 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.050%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.050%) TestRail
10 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 914 (45.38%) Social Skills
2 784 (38.93%) Finance
3 315 (15.64%) Analytical Skills
4 217 (10.77%) Organisational Skills
5 185 (9.19%) Banking
6 176 (8.74%) Public Sector
7 116 (5.76%) Marketing
8 109 (5.41%) Influencing Skills
9 98 (4.87%) Retail
10 86 (4.27%) Manufacturing
11 69 (3.43%) Legal
12 67 (3.33%) Telecoms
13 61 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
14 43 (2.14%) Aerospace
15 35 (1.74%) Investment Banking
16 34 (1.69%) Local Government
17 30 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 27 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
19 26 (1.29%) Front Office
20 25 (1.24%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 828 (41.11%) Project Manager
2 179 (8.89%) Senior
3 167 (8.29%) Lead
4 135 (6.70%) Senior Manager
5 119 (5.91%) Analyst
6 116 (5.76%) IT Manager
7 101 (5.01%) Senior Project Manager
8 96 (4.77%) Programme Manager
9 92 (4.57%) Delivery Manager
10 90 (4.47%) Technical Manager
11 89 (4.42%) IT Project Manager
12 74 (3.67%) Consultant
13 69 (3.43%) Technical Project Manager
14 64 (3.18%) Business Analyst
15 45 (2.23%) Coordinator
15 45 (2.23%) Project Officer
16 42 (2.09%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 39 (1.94%) Project Coordinator
18 38 (1.89%) Transformation Manager
19 37 (1.84%) Infrastructure Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 19 (0.94%) ADO
3 13 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
4 11 (0.55%) OAuth
4 11 (0.55%) REST
5 9 (0.45%) .NET
5 9 (0.45%) HTML
5 9 (0.45%) pytest
6 8 (0.40%) JSON
6 8 (0.40%) Terraform
6 8 (0.40%) VML
6 8 (0.40%) Web Services
7 7 (0.35%) SOAP
8 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
8 6 (0.30%) React
9 5 (0.25%) AngularJS
9 5 (0.25%) DAO
10 4 (0.20%) EDI
10 4 (0.20%) SAP Fiori
10 4 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 124 (6.16%) Management Information System
2 102 (5.06%) Onboarding
3 96 (4.77%) Product Ownership
4 66 (3.28%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
6 49 (2.43%) Virtual Team
7 37 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
8 35 (1.74%) Operational Technology
9 34 (1.69%) PMI
10 27 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (1.29%) Life Science
12 23 (1.14%) AI Agents
12 23 (1.14%) FMCG
12 23 (1.14%) Social Media
13 21 (1.04%) Credit Risk
13 21 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
14 18 (0.89%) Fixed Income
14 18 (0.89%) NHS
15 17 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 60 (2.98%) Linux
2 52 (2.58%) Windows
3 23 (1.14%) Unix
3 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.20%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.15%) Android
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) AIX
10 1 (0.050%) macOS
10 1 (0.050%) Rocky
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 959 (47.62%) Stakeholder Management
2 765 (37.98%) Agile
3 616 (30.59%) Project Delivery
4 462 (22.94%) PRINCE2
5 349 (17.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 343 (17.03%) Problem-Solving
7 319 (15.84%) Change Management
8 309 (15.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 289 (14.35%) Decision-Making
10 275 (13.65%) Migration
11 264 (13.11%) Risk Management
12 238 (11.82%) Waterfall
13 232 (11.52%) AI
14 225 (11.17%) Project Governance
15 218 (10.82%) Scrum
16 184 (9.14%) Roadmaps
17 170 (8.44%) Project Planning
18 163 (8.09%) Change Control
18 163 (8.09%) Programme Management
19 150 (7.45%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (3.77%) SQL
2 67 (3.33%) Python
3 15 (0.74%) Java
4 13 (0.65%) C++
4 13 (0.65%) VBA
5 11 (0.55%) JavaScript
6 10 (0.50%) Bash
7 8 (0.40%) Ada
7 8 (0.40%) C#
7 8 (0.40%) Korn
7 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
8 6 (0.30%) TypeScript
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) C
10 4 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) JCL
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 330 (16.39%) Security Cleared
2 307 (15.24%) Degree
3 294 (14.60%) PMP
4 259 (12.86%) PMI Certification
5 226 (11.22%) SC Cleared
6 82 (4.07%) DV Cleared
7 75 (3.72%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 40 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
9 22 (1.09%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.79%) DBS Check
11 16 (0.79%) ISTQB
11 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
12 14 (0.70%) Azure Certification
13 12 (0.60%) APMP
13 12 (0.60%) CISSP
14 11 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
15 10 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
16 9 (0.45%) PgMP
16 9 (0.45%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 257 (12.76%) PMO
2 88 (4.37%) QA
3 53 (2.63%) Data Quality
4 32 (1.59%) GDPR
5 26 (1.29%) GRC
6 22 (1.09%) Accessibility
7 17 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (0.84%) SLA
8 15 (0.74%) NIST
9 12 (0.60%) P3O
10 8 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) FINREP
12 5 (0.25%) COREP
12 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.25%) GMP
12 5 (0.25%) MISRA
12 5 (0.25%) MISRA C
12 5 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
13 3 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 36 (1.79%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (1.69%) Active Directory
3 12 (0.60%) vSphere
4 11 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.15%) KVM
9 2 (0.099%) Docker
9 2 (0.099%) Firmware
9 2 (0.099%) NFS
9 2 (0.099%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.050%) ACF2
10 1 (0.050%) IAG
10 1 (0.050%) RACF
10 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (0.89%) Ansible
2 11 (0.55%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.35%) Puppet
6 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
6 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
7 4 (0.20%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.20%) BMC Performance Manager
7 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
7 4 (0.20%) Perfmon
8 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 3 (0.15%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.050%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.050%) Nagios
10 1 (0.050%) Nessus
10 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
10 1 (0.050%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 375 (18.62%) Microsoft
2 159 (7.89%) SAP
3 81 (4.02%) ServiceNow
4 76 (3.77%) Oracle
5 52 (2.58%) Salesforce
6 51 (2.53%) VMware
7 44 (2.18%) Google
8 42 (2.09%) Adobe
9 31 (1.54%) Cisco
10 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
11 22 (1.09%) IBM
12 21 (1.04%) Ariba
13 19 (0.94%) Workday
14 16 (0.79%) Planview
15 15 (0.74%) NEC
15 15 (0.74%) Sitecore
16 14 (0.70%) Databricks
17 12 (0.60%) Alteryx
18 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
19 9 (0.45%) Murex