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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 23 21
Rank change year-on-year -19 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,130 2,277 3,388
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.46% 7.81% 7.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.28% 8.58% 9.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,335 1,378 2,077
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £716 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 112 266
10th Percentile £14.64 £22.39 £18.35
25th Percentile £21.00 £31.25 £26.48
Median hourly rate £35.50 £46.24 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -23.23% +21.30% -22.20%
75th Percentile £63.75 £63.94 £49.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £61.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £56.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year -46.67% +47.56% -22.20%

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 40,321 26,530 37,209
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.49% 90.95% 86.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,358 17,078 23,948
10th Percentile £321 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% -1.00% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £479 £500
% change year-on-year +2.30% -4.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,401 1,077 2,439
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.47 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +46.09% -21.23% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.25 £61.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.00 £27.13 £37.50
% change year-on-year +62.21% -27.67% +7.14%

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 9 May 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 9 May 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 9 May 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 -21 1,891 £520 +4.00% 1,202
UK excluding London -20 1,071 £500 +5.26% 958
London -18 886 £550 +4.76% 422
Work from Home -17 623 £500 - 414
South East -13 284 £525 +9.38% 289
North of England -22 282 £474 -0.21% 227
Midlands -25 197 £496 +5.76% 155
North West -18 157 £463 -2.12% 131
South West -14 144 £450 -4.66% 101
West Midlands -31 131 £500 - 95
Yorkshire -32 116 £480 +1.05% 69
East of England -29 77 £510 -1.73% 125
Scotland -24 75 £450 - 37
East Midlands -11 68 £394 -4.89% 60
Wales -1 19 £213 -56.85% 33
Northern Ireland -3 15 £488 +14.71% 22
North East -18 14 £430 -17.11% 30

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
1 155 (7.28%) Confluence
2 86 (4.04%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.08%) CMS
4 15 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.42%) Oracle Workflow
6 8 (0.38%) Apache
7 4 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 3 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.14%) Moodle
8 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
9 2 (0.094%) SAS
9 2 (0.094%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.094%) WordPress
10 1 (0.047%) IIS
10 1 (0.047%) JBoss
10 1 (0.047%) nginx
10 1 (0.047%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.047%) Tomcat
Applications
1 210 (9.86%) Microsoft Project
2 190 (8.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 147 (6.90%) Microsoft Office
4 119 (5.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 46 (2.16%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 16 (0.75%) Trello
8 8 (0.38%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.23%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 3 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
12 2 (0.094%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.094%) Adobe XD
12 2 (0.094%) AutoCAD
12 2 (0.094%) InDesign
12 2 (0.094%) InVision
12 2 (0.094%) Sketch
12 2 (0.094%) Windchill
13 1 (0.047%) Camtasia
13 1 (0.047%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 88 (4.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.70%) Primavera
3 11 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.52%) Loan IQ
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
4 10 (0.47%) Oracle ERP
4 10 (0.47%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 10 (0.47%) Shopify
5 9 (0.42%) Oracle Assets
6 8 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 6 (0.28%) Oracle General Ledger
7 6 (0.28%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.28%) SAP CO
7 6 (0.28%) SAP FI
7 6 (0.28%) SAP MM
7 6 (0.28%) SAP Payroll
7 6 (0.28%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.23%) SAP FI/CO
8 5 (0.23%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 157 (7.37%) Azure
2 91 (4.27%) Power Platform
3 81 (3.80%) AWS
3 81 (3.80%) SaaS
4 76 (3.57%) Microsoft 365
5 51 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
6 27 (1.27%) GCP
6 27 (1.27%) Smartsheet
7 25 (1.17%) Dynamics 365
7 25 (1.17%) Google Workspace
8 23 (1.08%) Asana
9 15 (0.70%) Entra ID
10 14 (0.66%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (0.61%) GitHub
11 13 (0.61%) OpenShift
12 12 (0.56%) OCI
13 11 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
13 11 (0.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 11 (0.52%) Cloud Computing
14 10 (0.47%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.36%) WAN
2 25 (1.17%) Firewall
2 25 (1.17%) Network Security
3 20 (0.94%) TCP/IP
4 19 (0.89%) DNS
4 19 (0.89%) LAN
5 18 (0.85%) SD-WAN
6 16 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
7 15 (0.70%) Internet
7 15 (0.70%) MPLS
7 15 (0.70%) Structured Cabling
8 12 (0.56%) VPN
9 10 (0.47%) BGP
9 10 (0.47%) DHCP
10 7 (0.33%) BIG-IP
11 6 (0.28%) Intranet
11 6 (0.28%) IPsec
11 6 (0.28%) SAN
11 6 (0.28%) SSL
12 5 (0.23%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (4.08%) Power BI
2 19 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
2 19 (0.89%) Metadata
2 19 (0.89%) Tableau
3 15 (0.70%) SQL Server
4 13 (0.61%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.47%) Electronic Patient Records
5 10 (0.47%) Oracle Reports
6 9 (0.42%) Relational Database
7 6 (0.28%) SAP HANA
8 4 (0.19%) Big Data
8 4 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 4 (0.19%) Power Query
8 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.14%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.14%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 309 (14.51%) JIRA
2 21 (0.99%) Git
3 12 (0.56%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.47%) GitLab
5 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.19%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.14%) Selenium
7 3 (0.14%) Subversion
8 2 (0.094%) Axure RP
8 2 (0.094%) Hudson
8 2 (0.094%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.094%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.094%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.047%) Appium
9 1 (0.047%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.047%) git-flow
9 1 (0.047%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.047%) minitest
9 1 (0.047%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.047%) Travis CI
General
1 958 (44.98%) Social Skills
2 804 (37.75%) Finance
3 356 (16.71%) Analytical Skills
4 215 (10.09%) Organisational Skills
5 191 (8.97%) Public Sector
6 158 (7.42%) Banking
7 113 (5.31%) Retail
8 112 (5.26%) Marketing
9 84 (3.94%) Legal
10 77 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
11 75 (3.52%) Manufacturing
12 58 (2.72%) Telecoms
13 49 (2.30%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.74%) Investment Banking
15 34 (1.60%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
17 28 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
18 27 (1.27%) Local Government
19 24 (1.13%) Front Office
20 22 (1.03%) Military
Job Titles
1 848 (39.81%) Project Manager
2 248 (11.64%) Analyst
3 206 (9.67%) Senior
4 161 (7.56%) Lead
5 141 (6.62%) Senior Manager
6 123 (5.77%) Business Analyst
7 121 (5.68%) Senior Project Manager
8 106 (4.98%) IT Manager
9 94 (4.41%) IT Project Manager
10 81 (3.80%) Programme Manager
11 71 (3.33%) Consultant
12 66 (3.10%) Technical Manager
13 62 (2.91%) Delivery Manager
14 57 (2.68%) Architect
15 55 (2.58%) Infrastructure Manager
16 49 (2.30%) Project Officer
16 49 (2.30%) Technical Project Manager
17 47 (2.21%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 44 (2.07%) SAP Manager
19 43 (2.02%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.17%) Middleware
2 24 (1.13%) REST
3 20 (0.94%) Oracle Fusion
4 16 (0.75%) SOAP
5 15 (0.70%) Web Services
6 14 (0.66%) HTML
7 13 (0.61%) OAuth
8 12 (0.56%) CSS
9 11 (0.52%) ADO
9 11 (0.52%) VML
10 10 (0.47%) .NET
11 9 (0.42%) RESTful
11 9 (0.42%) XML
12 8 (0.38%) JSON
12 8 (0.38%) SailPoint
12 8 (0.38%) SAML
13 7 (0.33%) AngularJS
13 7 (0.33%) OpenID
14 6 (0.28%) OAuth2
14 6 (0.28%) React
Miscellaneous
1 113 (5.31%) Management Information System
2 95 (4.46%) Onboarding
3 75 (3.52%) Data Centre
4 72 (3.38%) PMI
5 67 (3.15%) Data Protection Act
6 62 (2.91%) Product Ownership
7 43 (2.02%) Virtual Team
8 41 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
9 35 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (1.08%) Operational Technology
11 21 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
11 21 (0.99%) CMDB
12 20 (0.94%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.94%) Social Media
13 19 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
13 19 (0.89%) Life Science
13 19 (0.89%) NHS
14 15 (0.70%) EPoS
15 14 (0.66%) Web Conferencing
16 13 (0.61%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 52 (2.44%) Windows
2 29 (1.36%) Linux
3 13 (0.61%) Unix
3 13 (0.61%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.42%) Windows 10
5 5 (0.23%) zOS
6 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.14%) Solaris
6 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.094%) AIX
7 2 (0.094%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.094%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.094%) Windows 7
7 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.047%) Android
8 1 (0.047%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.047%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.047%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 774 (36.34%) Agile
2 720 (33.80%) Stakeholder Management
3 552 (25.92%) Project Delivery
4 462 (21.69%) Problem-Solving
5 405 (19.01%) PRINCE2
6 331 (15.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 328 (15.40%) Migration
8 315 (14.79%) Change Management
9 308 (14.46%) Continuous Improvement
10 263 (12.35%) Decision-Making
11 259 (12.16%) Waterfall
12 248 (11.64%) Risk Management
13 196 (9.20%) Scrum
14 189 (8.87%) ERP
15 178 (8.36%) Budget Management
16 148 (6.95%) Roadmaps
17 145 (6.81%) AI
18 143 (6.71%) Project Planning
19 140 (6.57%) DevOps
20 136 (6.38%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 88 (4.13%) SQL
2 49 (2.30%) Python
3 19 (0.89%) Java
3 19 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 13 (0.61%) C#
5 12 (0.56%) VBA
6 11 (0.52%) C++
7 8 (0.38%) C
7 8 (0.38%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.33%) ABAP
9 6 (0.28%) R
9 6 (0.28%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.23%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.19%) Ada
11 4 (0.19%) Perl
11 4 (0.19%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
12 3 (0.14%) JCL
12 3 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.14%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 357 (16.76%) Security Cleared
2 335 (15.73%) Degree
3 306 (14.37%) PMP
4 276 (12.96%) PMI Certification
5 262 (12.30%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.66%) DV Cleared
7 49 (2.30%) Master's Degree
8 39 (1.83%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 38 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
10 37 (1.74%) APMP
11 32 (1.50%) ACCA
11 32 (1.50%) CIMA
12 27 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
13 23 (1.08%) MBA
14 21 (0.99%) CISSP
15 19 (0.89%) CISM
16 17 (0.80%) CBAP
16 17 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Certification
17 12 (0.56%) IIBA
18 11 (0.52%) APMG
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (12.68%) PMO
2 144 (6.76%) QA
3 74 (3.47%) Data Quality
4 53 (2.49%) GDPR
5 46 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 33 (1.55%) NIST
6 33 (1.55%) SLA
7 18 (0.85%) Accessibility
8 14 (0.66%) GRC
9 11 (0.52%) Basel III
10 10 (0.47%) ISO 9001
11 9 (0.42%) EMIR
11 9 (0.42%) MiFID
12 8 (0.38%) PCI DSS
12 8 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
13 7 (0.33%) GMP
14 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
14 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 30 (1.41%) Active Directory
2 9 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.33%) Docker
4 5 (0.23%) RACF
5 3 (0.14%) NFS
5 3 (0.14%) Time Sharing Option
5 3 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.094%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.094%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.047%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.047%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.047%) PowerHA
7 1 (0.047%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.047%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.047%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
2 13 (0.61%) Ansible
3 10 (0.47%) Kubernetes
4 9 (0.42%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.23%) RSA Archer
5 5 (0.23%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 4 (0.19%) logstash
7 3 (0.14%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.14%) Kibana
7 3 (0.14%) SCCM
7 3 (0.14%) Terraform
7 3 (0.14%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.094%) Grafana
8 2 (0.094%) SCOM
9 1 (0.047%) Control-M
9 1 (0.047%) ITRS Geneos
9 1 (0.047%) Nagios
9 1 (0.047%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.047%) Puppet
9 1 (0.047%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 308 (14.46%) Microsoft
2 199 (9.34%) SAP
3 115 (5.40%) ServiceNow
4 76 (3.57%) Oracle
5 53 (2.49%) Salesforce
6 41 (1.92%) Google
7 32 (1.50%) Adobe
8 31 (1.46%) Cisco
9 29 (1.36%) Workday
10 21 (0.99%) Databricks
11 20 (0.94%) Ariba
11 20 (0.94%) Atlassian
12 18 (0.85%) VMware
13 17 (0.80%) CyberArk
14 15 (0.70%) Sitecore
15 14 (0.66%) Sage
16 13 (0.61%) IBM
16 13 (0.61%) NEC
17 10 (0.47%) IFS
17 10 (0.47%) Juniper