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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -32 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,026 2,110 2,920
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.49% 7.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.18% 8.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,245 1,271 1,712
10th Percentile £312 £313 £311
25th Percentile £413 £406 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £619 £625 £616
90th Percentile £725 £728 £711
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.50% -6.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 116 184
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.28 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.00 £25.63 £26.92
Median hourly rate £45.50 £34.50 £37.39
Median % change year-on-year +31.88% -7.73% -6.53%
75th Percentile £63.88 £57.69 £49.25
90th Percentile £82.95 £74.38 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £36.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +31.94% -5.56% -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 45,377 29,398 32,720
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,769 18,279 20,543
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.49%
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 2,906 1,760 1,592
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.73 £17.30 £18.69
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.03 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.58 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +88.14% -47.37% +14.67%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -29 1,781 £525 +0.96% 3,525
UK excluding London -32 971 £500 +6.50% 2,082
London -29 863 £550 - 1,907
Work from Home -21 621 £500 +3.63% 1,517
South East -18 260 £500 - 508
North of England -39 258 £475 -3.46% 440
North West -27 158 £475 -3.01% 257
Midlands -46 143 £550 +22.22% 288
South West -23 134 £450 - 316
Yorkshire -32 93 £475 -5.00% 133
West Midlands -62 93 £550 +17.27% 177
East of England -9 80 £525 - 205
Scotland -33 78 £480 +6.67% 194
East Midlands -20 50 £525 +18.04% 111
Northern Ireland -6 14 £447 -14.86% 111
Wales -22 12 £400 -3.03% 49
North East -41 9 £420 +3.07% 55
Channel Islands - 2 £575 - 1

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
1 119 (5.87%) SharePoint
2 102 (5.03%) Confluence
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 30 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.89%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) 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%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 194 (9.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 177 (8.74%) Microsoft Project
3 161 (7.95%) Microsoft Office
4 126 (6.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) Photoshop
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 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 63 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.18%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 10 (0.49%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.49%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.49%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
9 5 (0.25%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.25%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 179 (8.84%) Azure
2 141 (6.96%) Power Platform
3 91 (4.49%) Microsoft 365
3 91 (4.49%) SaaS
4 71 (3.50%) AWS
5 69 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (1.83%) Smartsheet
7 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
8 29 (1.43%) Entra ID
9 25 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (0.99%) GCP
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.54%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 41 (2.02%) Network Security
2 30 (1.48%) WAN
3 24 (1.18%) DNS
3 24 (1.18%) Firewall
4 23 (1.14%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 18 (0.89%) Structured Cabling
6 15 (0.74%) Internet
6 15 (0.74%) VPN
7 14 (0.69%) DHCP
7 14 (0.69%) SD-WAN
7 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 12 (0.59%) BGP
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 10 (0.49%) SAN
12 9 (0.44%) MPLS
13 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
13 8 (0.39%) Radio Access Network
14 7 (0.35%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (6.27%) Power BI
2 21 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
6 12 (0.59%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.49%) Power Query
8 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.39%) GIS
10 7 (0.35%) Big Data
11 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 4 (0.20%) EDMS
14 3 (0.15%) QlikView
14 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
14 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 262 (12.93%) JIRA
2 29 (1.43%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
6 6 (0.30%) GitLab
7 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
8 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
11 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.049%) Capybara
11 1 (0.049%) git-flow
11 1 (0.049%) Gradle
11 1 (0.049%) Hudson
11 1 (0.049%) RSpec
11 1 (0.049%) Selenium
11 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 894 (44.13%) Social Skills
2 772 (38.10%) Finance
3 341 (16.83%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (9.77%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.74%) Public Sector
6 174 (8.59%) Banking
7 134 (6.61%) Marketing
8 119 (5.87%) Retail
9 79 (3.90%) Influencing Skills
10 75 (3.70%) Telecoms
11 70 (3.46%) Manufacturing
12 69 (3.41%) Legal
13 56 (2.76%) Presentation Skills
14 40 (1.97%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.48%) Front Office
15 30 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 30 (1.48%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (1.43%) Local Government
17 28 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
18 27 (1.33%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 810 (39.98%) Project Manager
2 189 (9.33%) Senior
3 179 (8.84%) Lead
4 157 (7.75%) Analyst
5 141 (6.96%) Senior Manager
6 115 (5.68%) IT Manager
7 111 (5.48%) Senior Project Manager
8 85 (4.20%) Business Analyst
9 84 (4.15%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.15%) Programme Manager
10 75 (3.70%) Technical Manager
11 71 (3.50%) Consultant
12 70 (3.46%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.06%) Technical Project Manager
14 48 (2.37%) Infrastructure Manager
15 43 (2.12%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 40 (1.97%) Coordinator
17 37 (1.83%) Project Officer
18 36 (1.78%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 35 (1.73%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.18%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
4 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.44%) .NET
8 9 (0.44%) React
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 7 (0.35%) CSS
9 7 (0.35%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) pytest
10 6 (0.30%) Terraform
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 115 (5.68%) Management Information System
2 98 (4.84%) Product Ownership
3 91 (4.49%) Onboarding
4 63 (3.11%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.37%) Virtual Team
7 45 (2.22%) PMI
8 28 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
8 28 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
9 27 (1.33%) FMCG
9 27 (1.33%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.18%) Social Media
12 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
13 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
13 20 (0.99%) Life Science
14 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
15 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 16 (0.79%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.26%) Windows
2 58 (2.86%) Linux
3 24 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.14%) Unix
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) zOS
8 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.20%) Android
9 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 895 (44.18%) Stakeholder Management
2 784 (38.70%) Agile
3 592 (29.22%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.36%) PRINCE2
5 342 (16.88%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 331 (16.34%) Change Management
8 295 (14.56%) Migration
9 294 (14.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 267 (13.18%) Decision-Making
11 252 (12.44%) Waterfall
12 250 (12.34%) Risk Management
13 209 (10.32%) AI
14 202 (9.97%) Scrum
15 186 (9.18%) Project Governance
16 166 (8.19%) Roadmaps
17 158 (7.80%) Analytics
18 157 (7.75%) ITIL
19 151 (7.45%) Project Planning
20 150 (7.40%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 78 (3.85%) SQL
2 71 (3.50%) Python
3 17 (0.84%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.44%) C#
7 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.35%) Ada
8 7 (0.35%) Bash
8 7 (0.35%) C
9 5 (0.25%) Korn
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 329 (16.24%) Security Cleared
2 310 (15.30%) Degree
3 293 (14.46%) PMP
4 258 (12.73%) PMI Certification
5 228 (11.25%) SC Cleared
6 75 (3.70%) DV Cleared
7 72 (3.55%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
9 27 (1.33%) Master's Degree
10 21 (1.04%) ACCA
10 21 (1.04%) CIMA
11 19 (0.94%) ITIL Certification
12 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.64%) APMP
14 13 (0.64%) ISTQB
15 12 (0.59%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 259 (12.78%) PMO
2 101 (4.99%) QA
3 55 (2.71%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.88%) GDPR
5 25 (1.23%) GRC
5 25 (1.23%) SLA
6 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
6 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (0.99%) NIST
8 9 (0.44%) P3O
9 7 (0.35%) EMIR
9 7 (0.35%) FINREP
9 7 (0.35%) GMP
10 6 (0.30%) COREP
10 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (0.30%) MiFID
10 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (0.25%) HL7
11 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
11 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (2.12%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.25%) vSphere
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.099%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
7 2 (0.099%) VMware ESXi
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
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
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
7 3 (0.15%) 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 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 362 (17.87%) Microsoft
2 157 (7.75%) SAP
3 109 (5.38%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.05%) Oracle
5 58 (2.86%) Salesforce
6 51 (2.52%) Google
7 46 (2.27%) Adobe
8 42 (2.07%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 24 (1.18%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.04%) Atlassian
12 20 (0.99%) Ariba
12 20 (0.99%) Workday
13 18 (0.89%) NEC
14 17 (0.84%) Databricks
15 15 (0.74%) IBM
16 14 (0.69%) Planview
17 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
18 10 (0.49%) Dell
18 10 (0.49%) F5