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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,018 2,252 2,938
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 6.80% 7.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.45% 7.52% 8.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,245 1,367 1,736
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -3.62% -1.19%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £615
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 124 222
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.50 £27.25 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £36.75 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +22.45% -3.59% -4.70%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.00 £46.94
90th Percentile £85.09 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.80% +5.59% -4.16%

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 45,350 29,954 33,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.75% 90.50% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,857 18,668 21,203
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £424 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.31%
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 2,845 1,726 1,796
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.03
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.31 £18.23
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.97
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.61% -1.28%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +13.33%

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 17 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 17 August 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 17 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 -29 1,783 £525 +1.55% 2,731
UK excluding London -35 969 £500 +5.26% 1,799
London -25 868 £550 +2.56% 1,298
Work from Home -25 621 £500 +4.17% 1,247
North of England -34 268 £475 -5.00% 431
South East -27 248 £500 - 427
North West -14 166 £475 - 249
Midlands -49 141 £538 +15.41% 259
South West -19 139 £435 -3.33% 265
Yorkshire -34 95 £495 -1.00% 130
West Midlands -58 95 £550 +15.79% 162
East of England -9 83 £525 -1.13% 168
Scotland -39 67 £470 +4.44% 164
East Midlands -20 46 £500 +18.41% 97
Northern Ireland 0 17 £430 -18.14% 71
Wales -20 14 £400 - 43
North East -42 9 £420 -12.95% 57
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 109 (5.40%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.86%) Confluence
3 34 (1.68%) CMS
4 25 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.84%) 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%) JBoss
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.099%) SAS
11 1 (0.050%) Appian
11 1 (0.050%) Camunda
11 1 (0.050%) nginx
Applications
1 186 (9.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 171 (8.47%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.63%) Microsoft Office
4 118 (5.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 44 (2.18%) MS Visio
6 20 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.50%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.050%) CATIA
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 66 (3.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
4 11 (0.55%) Magento
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) SAP CO
7 7 (0.35%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.35%) SAP PS
8 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
9 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
10 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 177 (8.77%) Azure
2 126 (6.24%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.66%) SaaS
4 79 (3.91%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.67%) AWS
6 65 (3.22%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.49%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.34%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (1.09%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) GCP
12 18 (0.89%) GitHub
13 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
13 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
13 13 (0.64%) PowerApps
13 13 (0.64%) Snowflake
13 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
14 11 (0.55%) OneDrive
14 11 (0.55%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 35 (1.73%) Network Security
2 27 (1.34%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 22 (1.09%) DNS
6 20 (0.99%) Firewall
6 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 13 (0.64%) VPN
10 11 (0.55%) MPLS
11 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 10 (0.50%) Wireless
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) SAN
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (5.65%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Data Lake
4 16 (0.79%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.74%) Metadata
5 15 (0.74%) Tableau
6 10 (0.50%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.45%) Power Query
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
8 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
9 7 (0.35%) Big Data
9 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
10 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) SAP HANA
13 3 (0.15%) Looker
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 247 (12.24%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) 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 (0.050%) git-flow
8 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.050%) minitest
8 1 (0.050%) Postman
8 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.050%) Snyk
8 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.050%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 880 (43.61%) Social Skills
2 745 (36.92%) Finance
3 341 (16.90%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.06%) Organisational Skills
5 174 (8.62%) Public Sector
6 163 (8.08%) Banking
7 142 (7.04%) Marketing
8 118 (5.85%) Retail
9 76 (3.77%) Manufacturing
10 73 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
10 73 (3.62%) Legal
11 68 (3.37%) Telecoms
12 47 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
13 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.59%) Financial Institution
15 31 (1.54%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
16 30 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
16 30 (1.49%) Front Office
17 28 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 810 (40.14%) Project Manager
2 205 (10.16%) Senior
3 169 (8.37%) Lead
4 160 (7.93%) Analyst
5 151 (7.48%) Senior Manager
6 121 (6.00%) Senior Project Manager
7 112 (5.55%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.51%) Programme Manager
9 88 (4.36%) IT Project Manager
10 84 (4.16%) Business Analyst
11 74 (3.67%) Technical Manager
12 65 (3.22%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.07%) Consultant
14 61 (3.02%) Technical Project Manager
15 51 (2.53%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.08%) Project Officer
16 42 (2.08%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 39 (1.93%) Developer
17 39 (1.93%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 36 (1.78%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.19%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) ADO
3 16 (0.79%) HTML
4 14 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.55%) JSON
6 11 (0.55%) SOAP
7 10 (0.50%) .NET
7 10 (0.50%) OAuth
8 9 (0.45%) React
9 8 (0.40%) CSS
9 8 (0.40%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) pytest
11 5 (0.25%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 107 (5.30%) Management Information System
2 86 (4.26%) Onboarding
2 86 (4.26%) Product Ownership
3 67 (3.32%) Data Centre
4 52 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
5 51 (2.53%) PMI
6 47 (2.33%) Virtual Team
7 34 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.29%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.19%) FMCG
11 24 (1.19%) Social Media
12 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
13 19 (0.94%) AI Agents
13 19 (0.94%) Credit Risk
13 19 (0.94%) Life Science
14 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.74%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 57 (2.82%) Windows
2 44 (2.18%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 18 (0.89%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 3 (0.15%) Android
9 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 836 (41.43%) Stakeholder Management
2 764 (37.86%) Agile
3 564 (27.95%) Project Delivery
4 458 (22.70%) PRINCE2
5 349 (17.29%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 336 (16.65%) Change Management
8 301 (14.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 298 (14.77%) Migration
10 258 (12.78%) Decision-Making
11 253 (12.54%) Risk Management
12 244 (12.09%) Waterfall
13 198 (9.81%) Scrum
14 188 (9.32%) AI
15 163 (8.08%) Project Governance
16 161 (7.98%) Roadmaps
17 155 (7.68%) ITIL
18 146 (7.23%) Analytics
19 145 (7.19%) ERP
20 143 (7.09%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.06%) SQL
2 64 (3.17%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 10 (0.50%) C#
5 10 (0.50%) C++
5 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
6 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.35%) C
8 5 (0.25%) ABAP
8 5 (0.25%) Korn
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%) Bash
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 321 (15.91%) Security Cleared
2 317 (15.71%) Degree
3 310 (15.36%) PMP
4 270 (13.38%) PMI Certification
5 219 (10.85%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.77%) DV Cleared
7 70 (3.47%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.49%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
10 25 (1.24%) ACCA
10 25 (1.24%) CIMA
11 19 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (0.94%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 16 (0.79%) APMP
12 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
15 11 (0.55%) CISM
15 11 (0.55%) MBA
16 10 (0.50%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (12.14%) PMO
2 101 (5.00%) QA
3 57 (2.82%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.88%) GDPR
5 30 (1.49%) SLA
6 26 (1.29%) GRC
6 26 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.14%) NIST
8 9 (0.45%) P3O
9 8 (0.40%) EMIR
9 8 (0.40%) MiFID
10 7 (0.35%) FINREP
10 7 (0.35%) GMP
10 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 21 (1.04%) 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
6 3 (0.15%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
8 1 (0.050%) ACF2
8 1 (0.050%) IAG
8 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.050%) RACF
8 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.050%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (0.99%) Ansible
2 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 6 (0.30%) Terraform
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.050%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.050%) SCOM
9 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 342 (16.95%) Microsoft
2 167 (8.28%) SAP
3 116 (5.75%) ServiceNow
4 83 (4.11%) Oracle
5 55 (2.73%) Salesforce
6 54 (2.68%) Google
7 46 (2.28%) Adobe
8 35 (1.73%) VMware
9 32 (1.59%) Cisco
10 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
10 23 (1.14%) Workday
11 21 (1.04%) Atlassian
11 21 (1.04%) Databricks
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Ariba
14 14 (0.69%) IBM
15 11 (0.55%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.55%) IFS
15 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.50%) Guidewire