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

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 24 21
Rank change year-on-year -19 -3 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,126 2,281 3,319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.42% 7.76% 7.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.24% 8.54% 9.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,331 1,390 2,026
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £619
90th Percentile £725 £713 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 115 269
10th Percentile £14.64 £22.27 £18.35
25th Percentile £21.00 £31.25 £26.42
Median hourly rate £35.53 £45.00 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -21.04% +18.05% -21.40%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £50.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £75.00 £61.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.53 £54.76 £38.12
% change year-on-year -35.11% +43.64% -21.40%

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 40,590 26,723 36,687
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.97% 86.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,485 17,182 23,610
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,403 1,090 2,438
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.39 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.72 £18.21 £15.96
Median hourly rate £42.30 £28.30 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year +49.50% -21.50% +1.11%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.43 £37.50
% change year-on-year +76.96% -32.19% +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 17 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 17 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 17 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 1,896 £525 +5.00% 1,211
UK excluding London -21 1,070 £500 +6.38% 976
London -18 890 £550 +3.77% 413
Work from Home -19 631 £500 - 436
North of England -21 284 £474 -2.77% 237
South East -12 281 £525 +10.53% 283
Midlands -30 192 £500 +6.61% 138
North West -12 159 £465 -2.11% 131
South West -11 151 £450 -7.12% 106
West Midlands -37 128 £500 - 89
Yorkshire -35 117 £480 +1.05% 76
East of England -23 79 £518 +1.57% 134
Scotland -29 73 £458 +1.67% 49
East Midlands -11 66 £393 -4.52% 49
Wales -3 17 £256 -48.10% 34
Northern Ireland -3 16 £475 +11.76% 24
North East -19 13 £410 -20.96% 33

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
1 149 (7.01%) Confluence
2 90 (4.23%) SharePoint
3 21 (0.99%) CMS
4 17 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.42%) Oracle Workflow
6 8 (0.38%) Apache
7 5 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 4 (0.19%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 3 (0.14%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.14%) Moodle
9 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.094%) SAS
10 2 (0.094%) WordPress
11 1 (0.047%) IBM HTTP Server
11 1 (0.047%) nginx
11 1 (0.047%) Sitecore CMS
11 1 (0.047%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.047%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.047%) WebSphere
Applications
1 204 (9.60%) Microsoft Project
2 183 (8.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 146 (6.87%) Microsoft Office
4 117 (5.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 46 (2.16%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.66%) Trello
8 8 (0.38%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 2 (0.094%) Adobe After Effects
11 2 (0.094%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.094%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.094%) InDesign
11 2 (0.094%) Simulink
11 2 (0.094%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.094%) Windchill
12 1 (0.047%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.047%) InVision
12 1 (0.047%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 88 (4.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.71%) Primavera
3 11 (0.52%) Loan IQ
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
4 10 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
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%) ProductWriter
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 (0.24%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 153 (7.20%) Azure
2 95 (4.47%) Power Platform
3 83 (3.90%) SaaS
4 81 (3.81%) AWS
5 78 (3.67%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (1.32%) Smartsheet
8 27 (1.27%) Google Workspace
9 26 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (1.22%) GCP
10 22 (1.03%) Asana
11 15 (0.71%) Entra ID
12 14 (0.66%) Microsoft Copilot
12 14 (0.66%) OpenShift
13 12 (0.56%) GitHub
14 11 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (0.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 10 (0.47%) BigCommerce
15 10 (0.47%) OCI
15 10 (0.47%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 29 (1.36%) WAN
2 23 (1.08%) Firewall
2 23 (1.08%) Network Security
3 22 (1.03%) TCP/IP
4 21 (0.99%) DNS
5 19 (0.89%) LAN
6 18 (0.85%) SD-WAN
7 15 (0.71%) MPLS
7 15 (0.71%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.56%) BGP
8 12 (0.56%) Internet
8 12 (0.56%) VPN
9 10 (0.47%) DHCP
10 7 (0.33%) BIG-IP
10 7 (0.33%) DKIM
10 7 (0.33%) DMARC
10 7 (0.33%) SAN
11 6 (0.28%) Intranet
11 6 (0.28%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (4.23%) Power BI
2 19 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
2 19 (0.89%) Metadata
3 18 (0.85%) Tableau
4 14 (0.66%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.61%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.47%) Electronic Patient Records
6 10 (0.47%) Oracle Reports
7 9 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.28%) SAP HANA
9 4 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.19%) Big Data
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 4 (0.19%) Power Query
9 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.14%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.14%) GIS
10 3 (0.14%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.094%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 305 (14.35%) JIRA
2 21 (0.99%) Git
3 14 (0.66%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.52%) GitLab
5 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.19%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.19%) Subversion
7 3 (0.14%) Selenium
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%) Axure RP
9 1 (0.047%) Capybara
9 1 (0.047%) git-flow
9 1 (0.047%) Gradle
9 1 (0.047%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.047%) RSpec
9 1 (0.047%) Travis CI
General
1 941 (44.26%) Social Skills
2 805 (37.86%) Finance
3 358 (16.84%) Analytical Skills
4 218 (10.25%) Organisational Skills
5 184 (8.65%) Public Sector
6 156 (7.34%) Banking
7 115 (5.41%) Retail
8 114 (5.36%) Marketing
9 82 (3.86%) Legal
10 77 (3.62%) Manufacturing
11 76 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
12 57 (2.68%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.83%) Investment Banking
15 34 (1.60%) Financial Institution
16 32 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
17 29 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
18 26 (1.22%) Front Office
19 24 (1.13%) Local Government
20 23 (1.08%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 844 (39.70%) Project Manager
2 248 (11.67%) Analyst
3 213 (10.02%) Senior
4 162 (7.62%) Lead
5 146 (6.87%) Senior Manager
6 125 (5.88%) Senior Project Manager
7 124 (5.83%) Business Analyst
8 103 (4.84%) IT Manager
9 91 (4.28%) IT Project Manager
10 79 (3.72%) Programme Manager
11 70 (3.29%) Consultant
12 66 (3.10%) Technical Manager
13 61 (2.87%) Delivery Manager
14 57 (2.68%) Architect
15 55 (2.59%) Infrastructure Manager
16 50 (2.35%) Technical Project Manager
17 48 (2.26%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 44 (2.07%) Developer
18 44 (2.07%) Project Officer
18 44 (2.07%) SAP Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.18%) Middleware
2 23 (1.08%) REST
3 18 (0.85%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (0.71%) OAuth
4 15 (0.71%) SOAP
4 15 (0.71%) Web Services
5 13 (0.61%) HTML
6 12 (0.56%) VML
7 11 (0.52%) CSS
8 10 (0.47%) ADO
9 9 (0.42%) .NET
10 8 (0.38%) JSON
10 8 (0.38%) RESTful
10 8 (0.38%) SailPoint
10 8 (0.38%) SAML
10 8 (0.38%) XML
11 7 (0.33%) OpenID
12 6 (0.28%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.28%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.24%) React
Miscellaneous
1 110 (5.17%) Management Information System
2 93 (4.37%) Onboarding
3 71 (3.34%) Data Centre
3 71 (3.34%) PMI
4 66 (3.10%) Data Protection Act
5 62 (2.92%) Product Ownership
6 43 (2.02%) Virtual Team
7 40 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
8 36 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
9 23 (1.08%) Operational Technology
10 22 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
11 21 (0.99%) Social Media
12 20 (0.94%) CMDB
13 19 (0.89%) Data Structures
13 19 (0.89%) Life Science
14 18 (0.85%) NHS
15 17 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
16 16 (0.75%) EPoS
17 15 (0.71%) FMCG
18 13 (0.61%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 53 (2.49%) Windows
2 30 (1.41%) Linux
3 14 (0.66%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.61%) Unix
5 9 (0.42%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.24%) zOS
7 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.14%) Solaris
7 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.094%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.094%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.094%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.047%) AIX
9 1 (0.047%) Android
9 1 (0.047%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.047%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.047%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.047%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.047%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 773 (36.36%) Agile
2 722 (33.96%) Stakeholder Management
3 552 (25.96%) Project Delivery
4 457 (21.50%) Problem-Solving
5 396 (18.63%) PRINCE2
6 328 (15.43%) Migration
7 321 (15.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 317 (14.91%) Change Management
9 316 (14.86%) Continuous Improvement
10 266 (12.51%) Decision-Making
11 260 (12.23%) Waterfall
12 244 (11.48%) Risk Management
13 199 (9.36%) Scrum
14 192 (9.03%) ERP
15 179 (8.42%) Budget Management
16 148 (6.96%) Roadmaps
17 146 (6.87%) AI
18 139 (6.54%) Project Planning
19 138 (6.49%) Validation
20 136 (6.40%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 88 (4.14%) SQL
2 50 (2.35%) Python
3 18 (0.85%) Java
4 17 (0.80%) JavaScript
5 13 (0.61%) C#
6 12 (0.56%) VBA
7 11 (0.52%) C++
8 8 (0.38%) C
8 8 (0.38%) PowerShell
9 6 (0.28%) ABAP
9 6 (0.28%) R
9 6 (0.28%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.19%) Ada
10 4 (0.19%) PL/SQL
10 4 (0.19%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.14%) JCL
11 3 (0.14%) Perl
11 3 (0.14%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.14%) SOQL
12 2 (0.094%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 348 (16.37%) Security Cleared
2 334 (15.71%) Degree
3 304 (14.30%) PMP
4 272 (12.79%) PMI Certification
5 259 (12.18%) SC Cleared
6 71 (3.34%) DV Cleared
7 49 (2.30%) Master's Degree
8 40 (1.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 37 (1.74%) BPSS Clearance
10 34 (1.60%) APMP
11 32 (1.51%) ACCA
11 32 (1.51%) CIMA
12 26 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
13 23 (1.08%) MBA
14 21 (0.99%) CISSP
15 19 (0.89%) CISM
16 17 (0.80%) CBAP
17 15 (0.71%) PRINCE2 Certification
18 12 (0.56%) IIBA
19 11 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (12.70%) PMO
2 135 (6.35%) QA
3 74 (3.48%) Data Quality
4 52 (2.45%) GDPR
5 45 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 35 (1.65%) SLA
7 33 (1.55%) NIST
8 16 (0.75%) Accessibility
9 13 (0.61%) GRC
10 11 (0.52%) Basel III
11 10 (0.47%) ISO 9001
12 9 (0.42%) EMIR
13 8 (0.38%) PCI DSS
13 8 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 7 (0.33%) GMP
14 7 (0.33%) MiFID
15 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 32 (1.51%) Active Directory
2 10 (0.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.24%) Docker
3 5 (0.24%) RACF
4 3 (0.14%) NFS
4 3 (0.14%) Time Sharing Option
4 3 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.094%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.047%) Firmware
6 1 (0.047%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.047%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.047%) PowerHA
6 1 (0.047%) Sendmail
6 1 (0.047%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.047%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.047%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
2 15 (0.71%) Ansible
3 9 (0.42%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.42%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (0.24%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.19%) RSA Archer
5 4 (0.19%) Terraform
6 3 (0.14%) FortiGate
6 3 (0.14%) SCCM
6 3 (0.14%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.094%) Grafana
7 2 (0.094%) logstash
7 2 (0.094%) SCOM
8 1 (0.047%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.047%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.047%) ITRS Geneos
8 1 (0.047%) Kibana
8 1 (0.047%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.047%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.047%) vRealize
Vendors
1 303 (14.25%) Microsoft
2 195 (9.17%) SAP
3 114 (5.36%) ServiceNow
4 74 (3.48%) Oracle
5 52 (2.45%) Salesforce
6 44 (2.07%) Google
7 32 (1.51%) Cisco
8 30 (1.41%) Adobe
9 28 (1.32%) Workday
10 21 (0.99%) Databricks
11 20 (0.94%) VMware
12 19 (0.89%) Ariba
13 18 (0.85%) Atlassian
14 17 (0.80%) CyberArk
15 15 (0.71%) Sitecore
16 14 (0.66%) Sage
17 13 (0.61%) NEC
18 12 (0.56%) IBM
19 10 (0.47%) IFS
20 9 (0.42%) F5