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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -29 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,033 2,271 2,943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.81% 6.89% 7.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.49% 7.61% 8.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,250 1,395 1,752
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 £616 £611
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £500
% change year-on-year +5.70% -5.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 121 229
10th Percentile £20.72 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.50 £26.50 £27.26
Median hourly rate £43.83 £36.48 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +20.13% -4.30% -5.88%
75th Percentile £65.06 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.15 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +12.42% +5.59% -3.62%

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 45,292 29,826 33,298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.48% 85.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,883 18,657 21,289
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £423 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
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 2,827 1,696 1,836
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.80 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.08
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.77% -1.96%
75th Percentile £68.00 £47.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.51 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.84 £42.50
% change year-on-year +92.47% -46.26% +17.24%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -27 1,797 £525 +2.44% 3,144
UK excluding London -36 976 £500 +5.70% 1,886
London -25 878 £550 +2.33% 1,646
Work from Home -24 629 £500 +3.90% 1,344
North of England -31 268 £475 -3.01% 425
South East -25 250 £500 - 464
North West -20 166 £475 - 240
Midlands -48 142 £540 +20.00% 283
South West -17 140 £435 -3.33% 260
West Midlands -58 97 £550 +15.79% 180
Yorkshire -37 95 £500 - 126
East of England -9 86 £525 -0.57% 175
Scotland -43 68 £475 +5.56% 169
East Midlands -16 45 £494 +22.82% 103
Northern Ireland +1 17 £430 -18.14% 86
Wales -16 13 £400 -5.88% 50
North East -42 9 £420 -12.95% 65

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
1 108 (5.31%) SharePoint
2 106 (5.21%) Confluence
3 35 (1.72%) CMS
4 23 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) Sitecore CMS
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.30%) Apache
7 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.30%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) JBoss
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.098%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.098%) SAS
11 1 (0.049%) CICS
11 1 (0.049%) IIS
Applications
1 183 (9.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 170 (8.36%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.58%) Microsoft Office
4 116 (5.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 45 (2.21%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.08%) 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 (0.098%) Houdini
12 2 (0.098%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) CATIA
13 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 69 (3.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.18%) Primavera
3 11 (0.54%) Adobe Campaign
3 11 (0.54%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
6 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
7 6 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.20%) SAP ERP
9 4 (0.20%) SAP HCM
9 4 (0.20%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 180 (8.85%) Azure
2 118 (5.80%) Power Platform
3 93 (4.57%) SaaS
4 77 (3.79%) Microsoft 365
5 76 (3.74%) AWS
6 65 (3.20%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (1.77%) Smartsheet
8 29 (1.43%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (1.03%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.98%) Asana
11 20 (0.98%) GCP
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%) Snowflake
15 10 (0.49%) OCI
15 10 (0.49%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 34 (1.67%) Network Security
2 24 (1.18%) WAN
3 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.08%) DNS
5 21 (1.03%) LAN
6 20 (0.98%) Structured Cabling
7 18 (0.89%) Firewall
8 14 (0.69%) Internet
8 14 (0.69%) Intranet
8 14 (0.69%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) VPN
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
12 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
12 8 (0.39%) Wireless
13 7 (0.34%) DKIM
13 7 (0.34%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (5.21%) Power BI
2 18 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) Data Lake
3 15 (0.74%) SQL Server
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 13 (0.64%) Metadata
5 9 (0.44%) Power Query
5 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
6 8 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.39%) GIS
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
7 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
8 6 (0.30%) Big Data
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 4 (0.20%) SAP HANA
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) QlikView
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 249 (12.25%) JIRA
2 28 (1.38%) Git
3 22 (1.08%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.34%) GitLab
6 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.098%) Hudson
7 2 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.098%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.098%) 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
1 881 (43.33%) Social Skills
2 745 (36.65%) Finance
3 341 (16.77%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (10.08%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.66%) Public Sector
6 156 (7.67%) Banking
7 143 (7.03%) Marketing
8 116 (5.71%) Retail
9 73 (3.59%) Influencing Skills
9 73 (3.59%) Legal
9 73 (3.59%) Manufacturing
10 66 (3.25%) Telecoms
11 47 (2.31%) Presentation Skills
12 38 (1.87%) Investment Banking
13 32 (1.57%) Financial Institution
14 31 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
14 31 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.48%) Aerospace
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
17 27 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 820 (40.33%) Project Manager
2 205 (10.08%) Senior
3 174 (8.56%) Lead
4 166 (8.17%) Analyst
5 151 (7.43%) Senior Manager
6 124 (6.10%) Senior Project Manager
7 116 (5.71%) IT Manager
8 93 (4.57%) IT Project Manager
9 91 (4.48%) Programme Manager
10 86 (4.23%) Business Analyst
11 71 (3.49%) Technical Manager
12 63 (3.10%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.05%) Consultant
14 56 (2.75%) Technical Project Manager
15 55 (2.71%) Infrastructure Manager
16 43 (2.12%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 42 (2.07%) Project Officer
17 42 (2.07%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 37 (1.82%) Developer
19 36 (1.77%) Data Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 21 (1.03%) REST
3 15 (0.74%) ADO
3 15 (0.74%) HTML
4 14 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) SOAP
6 11 (0.54%) Web Services
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 7 (0.34%) CSS
11 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.30%) SailPoint
11 6 (0.30%) XML
12 5 (0.25%) FHIR
12 5 (0.25%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.31%) Management Information System
2 85 (4.18%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.08%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.34%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
5 54 (2.66%) PMI
6 47 (2.31%) Virtual Team
7 34 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
10 25 (1.23%) Social Media
11 24 (1.18%) FMCG
12 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.98%) Life Science
13 19 (0.93%) AI Agents
14 18 (0.89%) Credit Risk
15 16 (0.79%) EPoS
15 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 59 (2.90%) Windows
2 43 (2.12%) Linux
3 20 (0.98%) Unix
4 18 (0.89%) Windows Server
5 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Android
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 819 (40.29%) Stakeholder Management
2 757 (37.24%) Agile
3 557 (27.40%) Project Delivery
4 457 (22.48%) PRINCE2
5 351 (17.27%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
7 335 (16.48%) Change Management
8 304 (14.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 297 (14.61%) Migration
10 257 (12.64%) Decision-Making
10 257 (12.64%) Risk Management
11 244 (12.00%) Waterfall
12 197 (9.69%) Scrum
13 191 (9.39%) AI
14 155 (7.62%) Project Governance
15 154 (7.58%) Roadmaps
16 151 (7.43%) ITIL
17 147 (7.23%) ERP
18 143 (7.03%) Analytics
18 143 (7.03%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 81 (3.98%) SQL
2 65 (3.20%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
5 13 (0.64%) VBA
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.34%) 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
1 323 (15.89%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.54%) Degree
3 310 (15.25%) PMP
4 272 (13.38%) PMI Certification
5 221 (10.87%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.79%) DV Cleared
7 69 (3.39%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 27 (1.33%) ACCA
10 27 (1.33%) CIMA
11 20 (0.98%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 19 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
13 16 (0.79%) APMP
13 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
14 15 (0.74%) CISSP
15 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
16 11 (0.54%) CISM
17 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
17 10 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (12.05%) PMO
2 98 (4.82%) QA
3 56 (2.75%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.77%) GDPR
5 33 (1.62%) SLA
6 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.28%) GRC
8 25 (1.23%) NIST
9 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.44%) P3O
11 8 (0.39%) EMIR
11 8 (0.39%) MiFID
12 7 (0.34%) FINREP
12 7 (0.34%) GMP
12 7 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.30%) COREP
13 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 38 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 20 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.34%) 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 (0.098%) Firmware
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 20 (0.98%) Ansible
2 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Terraform
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Puppet
6 4 (0.20%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
Vendors
1 336 (16.53%) Microsoft
2 170 (8.36%) SAP
3 119 (5.85%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.03%) Oracle
5 56 (2.75%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.71%) Google
7 44 (2.16%) Adobe
8 33 (1.62%) VMware
9 31 (1.52%) Cisco
10 24 (1.18%) Workday
11 23 (1.13%) Sitecore
12 21 (1.03%) Atlassian
13 19 (0.93%) Databricks
13 19 (0.93%) NEC
14 15 (0.74%) Ariba
15 14 (0.69%) IBM
16 11 (0.54%) IFS
16 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 10 (0.49%) Alteryx
17 10 (0.49%) F5