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 8 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 23 19
Rank change year-on-year -19 -4 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,066 2,459 3,592
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.87% 8.18% 8.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.65% 9.06% 9.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,288 1,448 2,262
10th Percentile £325 £275 £316
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.04% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £706 £703 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 123 113 246
10th Percentile £14.64 £22.51 £18.51
25th Percentile £20.79 £30.78 £26.24
Median hourly rate £39.50 £40.00 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -1.25% +4.93% -23.78%
75th Percentile £62.95 £60.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £62.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.88 £46.30 £38.12
% change year-on-year -7.40% +21.46% -32.57%

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 36,580 27,136 38,678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.31% 90.25% 86.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,208 17,123 25,158
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £611 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.94% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,181 914 2,335
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £28.50 £32.50 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year -12.31% +1.20% -8.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.46 £31.64 £31.50
% change year-on-year -19.54% +0.44% -10.00%

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 8 March 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 8 March 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 8 March 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 -18 1,814 £525 +5.00% 1,149
UK excluding London -21 1,055 £500 +5.26% 994
London -17 846 £550 +4.76% 352
Work from Home -19 583 £525 +5.00% 414
North of England -22 278 £480 +1.05% 209
South East -14 272 £525 - 313
Midlands -25 207 £500 +5.26% 163
North West -10 159 £488 +8.33% 106
West Midlands -25 146 £500 -4.76% 95
South West -19 117 £450 -10.00% 101
Yorkshire -31 110 £490 +3.11% 84
Scotland -16 88 £450 +0.56% 58
East of England -35 67 £450 -13.29% 131
East Midlands -16 63 £398 -0.53% 68
Wales +2 31 £325 -38.39% 35
Northern Ireland -7 15 £450 +16.13% 17
North East -16 13 £410 -23.72% 23

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
1 174 (8.42%) Confluence
2 89 (4.31%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.11%) CMS
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.29%) Apache
6 5 (0.24%) nginx
7 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.15%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
8 3 (0.15%) WordPress
9 2 (0.097%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.097%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 2 (0.097%) SAS
9 2 (0.097%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.048%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.048%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.048%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.048%) Orchard CMS
10 1 (0.048%) Umbraco
Applications
1 214 (10.36%) Microsoft Project
2 209 (10.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 146 (7.07%) Microsoft Office
4 115 (5.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 47 (2.27%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.06%) Spreadsheet
7 18 (0.87%) Trello
8 6 (0.29%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.19%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.19%) Adobe XD
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.097%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.097%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.097%) InDesign
12 1 (0.048%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.048%) Oracle Smart View
12 1 (0.048%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 67 (3.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.97%) Primavera
3 16 (0.77%) Oracle Payables
4 14 (0.68%) Loan IQ
5 13 (0.63%) Oracle EBS
5 13 (0.63%) Oracle ERP
6 11 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
6 11 (0.53%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 11 (0.53%) SAP Payroll
7 8 (0.39%) Oracle Assets
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
8 7 (0.34%) SAP HCM
9 6 (0.29%) NetSuite
9 6 (0.29%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
9 6 (0.29%) SAP ERP
9 6 (0.29%) SAP PM
10 5 (0.24%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 165 (7.99%) Azure
2 103 (4.99%) AWS
3 92 (4.45%) Power Platform
4 57 (2.76%) Microsoft 365
5 56 (2.71%) SaaS
6 47 (2.27%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (1.50%) GCP
8 24 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
9 21 (1.02%) Asana
10 20 (0.97%) OpenShift
11 19 (0.92%) Smartsheet
12 17 (0.82%) Google Workspace
13 15 (0.73%) GitHub
14 13 (0.63%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (0.63%) Serverless
15 12 (0.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 12 (0.58%) IaaS
16 11 (0.53%) Figma
16 11 (0.53%) PaaS
16 11 (0.53%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.79%) Firewall
2 32 (1.55%) WAN
3 21 (1.02%) LAN
4 18 (0.87%) Network Security
5 17 (0.82%) Structured Cabling
6 16 (0.77%) SD-WAN
7 15 (0.73%) DNS
7 15 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (0.63%) MPLS
8 13 (0.63%) VPN
9 12 (0.58%) Internet
10 11 (0.53%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.39%) BGP
11 8 (0.39%) SSH
11 8 (0.39%) SSL
12 7 (0.34%) DHCP
13 6 (0.29%) HTTP
13 6 (0.29%) IPsec
14 5 (0.24%) Kerberos
14 5 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (4.11%) Power BI
2 29 (1.40%) Tableau
3 20 (0.97%) SQL Server
4 18 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
4 18 (0.87%) Metadata
5 14 (0.68%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.48%) SAP HANA
7 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
9 6 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (0.29%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.19%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.19%) GIS
11 4 (0.19%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.19%) Power Query
11 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.15%) Big Data
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 325 (15.73%) JIRA
2 21 (1.02%) Git
3 10 (0.48%) GitLab
3 10 (0.48%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.19%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
5 3 (0.15%) Selenium
6 1 (0.048%) Ant
6 1 (0.048%) Appium
6 1 (0.048%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.048%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.048%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.048%) CircleCI
6 1 (0.048%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.048%) Hudson
6 1 (0.048%) JUnit
6 1 (0.048%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.048%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.048%) Travis CI
6 1 (0.048%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 1,021 (49.42%) Social Skills
2 774 (37.46%) Finance
3 341 (16.51%) Analytical Skills
4 211 (10.21%) Public Sector
5 202 (9.78%) Organisational Skills
6 178 (8.62%) Banking
7 101 (4.89%) Retail
8 86 (4.16%) Marketing
9 85 (4.11%) Manufacturing
10 84 (4.07%) Legal
11 81 (3.92%) Influencing Skills
12 56 (2.71%) Presentation Skills
13 47 (2.27%) Investment Banking
14 45 (2.18%) Telecoms
15 32 (1.55%) Financial Institution
16 31 (1.50%) Local Government
17 30 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
18 28 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 27 (1.31%) Front Office
20 24 (1.16%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 818 (39.59%) Project Manager
2 247 (11.96%) Analyst
3 180 (8.71%) Senior
4 166 (8.03%) Lead
5 130 (6.29%) Business Analyst
6 125 (6.05%) Senior Manager
7 105 (5.08%) Senior Project Manager
8 97 (4.70%) IT Manager
9 89 (4.31%) IT Project Manager
10 82 (3.97%) Consultant
11 68 (3.29%) Technical Manager
12 64 (3.10%) Delivery Manager
13 61 (2.95%) Infrastructure Manager
13 61 (2.95%) Programme Manager
14 52 (2.52%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 48 (2.32%) Project Officer
15 48 (2.32%) SAP Manager
16 46 (2.23%) Technical Project Manager
17 41 (1.98%) Coordinator
17 41 (1.98%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.21%) Oracle Fusion
2 23 (1.11%) Middleware
3 15 (0.73%) SOAP
4 14 (0.68%) REST
4 14 (0.68%) Web Services
5 11 (0.53%) EDI
5 11 (0.53%) XML
6 10 (0.48%) CSS
7 9 (0.44%) .NET
7 9 (0.44%) HTML
8 8 (0.39%) SailPoint
9 7 (0.34%) OAuth
10 6 (0.29%) ADO
10 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.29%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (0.29%) LDAP
10 6 (0.29%) OpenID
10 6 (0.29%) SAML
11 5 (0.24%) OAuth2
11 5 (0.24%) XACML
Miscellaneous
1 118 (5.71%) Onboarding
2 104 (5.03%) Management Information System
3 76 (3.68%) Data Centre
4 69 (3.34%) Data Protection Act
5 64 (3.10%) PMI
6 51 (2.47%) Product Ownership
7 48 (2.32%) Virtual Team
8 41 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
9 36 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
10 31 (1.50%) NHS
11 27 (1.31%) CMDB
12 26 (1.26%) Operational Technology
13 19 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
14 17 (0.82%) SCADA
15 16 (0.77%) Social Media
16 15 (0.73%) Cloud Native
16 15 (0.73%) Web Conferencing
17 12 (0.58%) Data Structures
17 12 (0.58%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 50 (2.42%) Windows
2 15 (0.73%) Linux
3 12 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Unix
5 7 (0.34%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.097%) AIX
6 2 (0.097%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.048%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.048%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.048%) Solaris
7 1 (0.048%) VMS
7 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.048%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 762 (36.88%) Agile
2 684 (33.11%) Stakeholder Management
3 497 (24.06%) Project Delivery
4 478 (23.14%) Problem-Solving
5 436 (21.10%) PRINCE2
6 355 (17.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 324 (15.68%) Change Management
8 304 (14.71%) Migration
9 286 (13.84%) Continuous Improvement
10 223 (10.79%) Decision-Making
10 223 (10.79%) Risk Management
11 220 (10.65%) Waterfall
12 213 (10.31%) Scrum
13 181 (8.76%) Budget Management
14 167 (8.08%) ERP
15 155 (7.50%) DevOps
16 147 (7.12%) Roadmaps
17 145 (7.02%) Project Governance
18 144 (6.97%) ITIL
19 143 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 92 (4.45%) SQL
2 39 (1.89%) Python
3 14 (0.68%) ABAP
3 14 (0.68%) Java
3 14 (0.68%) JavaScript
4 13 (0.63%) C#
5 6 (0.29%) VBA
6 5 (0.24%) Perl
6 5 (0.24%) PL/SQL
6 5 (0.24%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.24%) R
6 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
7 4 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (0.15%) C++
8 3 (0.15%) Korn
8 3 (0.15%) SOQL
8 3 (0.15%) VB
9 2 (0.097%) Go
9 2 (0.097%) Google Apps Script
9 2 (0.097%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 335 (16.21%) Degree
2 312 (15.10%) Security Cleared
3 302 (14.62%) PMP
4 280 (13.55%) PMI Certification
5 226 (10.94%) SC Cleared
6 62 (3.00%) DV Cleared
7 49 (2.37%) Master's Degree
8 44 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
9 39 (1.89%) APMP
10 34 (1.65%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 28 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 25 (1.21%) CISSP
12 25 (1.21%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 21 (1.02%) CISM
14 20 (0.97%) MBA
15 16 (0.77%) CBAP
16 15 (0.73%) ACCA
16 15 (0.73%) CIMA
16 15 (0.73%) IIBA
17 9 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 227 (10.99%) PMO
2 131 (6.34%) QA
3 67 (3.24%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.61%) GDPR
5 49 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 36 (1.74%) NIST
7 25 (1.21%) SLA
8 20 (0.97%) GRC
9 19 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 19 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 14 (0.68%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.48%) Basel III
11 10 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
12 8 (0.39%) MiFID
13 7 (0.34%) EMIR
13 7 (0.34%) WCAG
14 6 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
14 6 (0.29%) ISO 9001
14 6 (0.29%) JSP 440
14 6 (0.29%) P3O
System Software
1 28 (1.36%) Active Directory
2 14 (0.68%) Docker
3 11 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.24%) RACF
4 5 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.048%) PowerHA
6 1 (0.048%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.048%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (0.77%) Kubernetes
2 13 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
3 12 (0.58%) Terraform
4 9 (0.44%) Ansible
5 6 (0.29%) Kibana
5 6 (0.29%) logstash
6 4 (0.19%) Consul
6 4 (0.19%) FortiGate
6 4 (0.19%) Packer
6 4 (0.19%) RSA Archer
6 4 (0.19%) SCCM
7 3 (0.15%) Grafana
7 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.15%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.048%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.048%) Argo
8 1 (0.048%) CASB
8 1 (0.048%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.048%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.048%) SCOM
Vendors
1 302 (14.62%) Microsoft
2 196 (9.49%) SAP
3 111 (5.37%) ServiceNow
4 81 (3.92%) Oracle
5 68 (3.29%) Salesforce
6 35 (1.69%) Cisco
7 32 (1.55%) Google
8 29 (1.40%) Adobe
9 26 (1.26%) Workday
10 24 (1.16%) Atlassian
11 21 (1.02%) Databricks
12 19 (0.92%) VMware
13 17 (0.82%) CyberArk
14 16 (0.77%) Ariba
14 16 (0.77%) Sage
15 15 (0.73%) Planview
16 14 (0.68%) IBM
17 13 (0.63%) Palo Alto
18 10 (0.48%) Juniper
19 8 (0.39%) CheckPoint