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

6 months to
18 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 2,022 2,241 2,938
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.82% 7.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.54% 8.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,247 1,360 1,736
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year +2.26% -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 116 124 220
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.60 £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 £65.06 £60.00 £48.19
90th Percentile £85.11 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +12.42% +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 45,374 29,740 33,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.47% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,858 18,514 21,188
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% -3.58%
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 2,851 1,725 1,782
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% +0.86%
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% +19.72%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 1,786 £525 +1.94% 2,702
UK excluding London -35 969 £500 +5.26% 1,773
London -27 868 £550 +2.56% 1,296
Work from Home -22 625 £500 +5.26% 1,246
North of England -38 266 £475 -5.00% 414
South East -25 251 £500 - 432
North West -21 164 £475 - 242
Midlands -50 142 £534 +14.60% 262
South West -22 139 £435 -3.33% 262
Yorkshire -38 95 £475 -5.00% 123
West Midlands -57 95 £550 +15.79% 165
East of England -15 82 £525 - 161
Scotland -40 66 £470 +4.44% 157
East Midlands -20 47 £500 +18.41% 97
Northern Ireland 0 17 £430 -18.14% 68
Wales -23 14 £400 - 47
North East -39 9 £420 -12.95% 54
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
1 110 (5.44%) SharePoint
2 96 (4.75%) Confluence
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 26 (1.29%) 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 (0.049%) CICS
11 1 (0.049%) IIS
11 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 189 (9.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 172 (8.51%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.62%) Microsoft Office
4 121 (5.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 44 (2.18%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.49%) 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 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 67 (3.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
4 11 (0.54%) 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
1 174 (8.61%) Azure
2 126 (6.23%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.65%) SaaS
4 80 (3.96%) Microsoft 365
5 75 (3.71%) AWS
6 64 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 26 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
10 23 (1.14%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) GCP
12 18 (0.89%) GitHub
13 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
14 13 (0.64%) PowerApps
14 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
15 11 (0.54%) OneDrive
15 11 (0.54%) Power Automate
15 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 27 (1.34%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.04%) Firewall
6 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) VPN
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 10 (0.49%) 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 (5.64%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) Data Lake
3 15 (0.74%) Metadata
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
5 10 (0.49%) Power Query
5 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
6 8 (0.40%) GIS
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
7 7 (0.35%) Big Data
7 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
8 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.25%) Amazon Redshift
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
9 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 4 (0.20%) SAP HANA
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 246 (12.17%) JIRA
2 28 (1.38%) 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 (0.049%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) minitest
8 1 (0.049%) Postman
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
1 880 (43.52%) Social Skills
2 749 (37.04%) Finance
3 341 (16.86%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (10.14%) Organisational Skills
5 173 (8.56%) Public Sector
6 167 (8.26%) Banking
7 141 (6.97%) Marketing
8 120 (5.93%) Retail
9 78 (3.86%) Manufacturing
10 72 (3.56%) Legal
11 70 (3.46%) Influencing Skills
12 68 (3.36%) Telecoms
13 49 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.83%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.53%) Financial Institution
15 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
16 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 27 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 808 (39.96%) Project Manager
2 200 (9.89%) Senior
3 170 (8.41%) Lead
4 163 (8.06%) Analyst
5 147 (7.27%) Senior Manager
6 117 (5.79%) Senior Project Manager
7 112 (5.54%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.50%) Programme Manager
9 88 (4.35%) IT Project Manager
10 85 (4.20%) Business Analyst
11 72 (3.56%) Technical Manager
12 66 (3.26%) Delivery Manager
13 64 (3.17%) Consultant
14 59 (2.92%) Technical Project Manager
15 51 (2.52%) Infrastructure Manager
16 42 (2.08%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 41 (2.03%) Project Officer
18 39 (1.93%) Developer
18 39 (1.93%) Infrastructure Project Manager
19 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 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) SOAP
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) 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%) pytest
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.34%) Management Information System
2 87 (4.30%) Onboarding
2 87 (4.30%) Product Ownership
3 67 (3.31%) Data Centre
4 53 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
5 50 (2.47%) PMI
6 47 (2.32%) Virtual Team
7 34 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (1.34%) Operational Technology
10 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.24%) FMCG
12 24 (1.19%) Social Media
13 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.94%) AI Agents
14 19 (0.94%) Credit Risk
15 18 (0.89%) Life Science
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.87%) Windows
2 45 (2.23%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 19 (0.94%) 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 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 836 (41.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 773 (38.23%) Agile
3 566 (27.99%) Project Delivery
4 462 (22.85%) PRINCE2
5 348 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
6 340 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
7 339 (16.77%) Change Management
8 301 (14.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 295 (14.59%) Migration
10 260 (12.86%) Decision-Making
11 252 (12.46%) Risk Management
12 249 (12.31%) Waterfall
13 199 (9.84%) Scrum
14 187 (9.25%) AI
15 162 (8.01%) Project Governance
16 160 (7.91%) Roadmaps
17 154 (7.62%) ITIL
18 149 (7.37%) Analytics
19 144 (7.12%) ERP
20 141 (6.97%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 85 (4.20%) SQL
2 66 (3.26%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 10 (0.49%) C#
5 10 (0.49%) C++
5 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.35%) C
8 5 (0.25%) ABAP
8 5 (0.25%) Bash
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%) JCL
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 324 (16.02%) Security Cleared
2 318 (15.73%) Degree
3 311 (15.38%) PMP
4 272 (13.45%) PMI Certification
5 221 (10.93%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.76%) DV Cleared
7 70 (3.46%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.48%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) 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%) Azure Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 11 (0.54%) CISM
14 11 (0.54%) MBA
15 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 246 (12.17%) PMO
2 99 (4.90%) QA
3 59 (2.92%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.83%) GDPR
5 30 (1.48%) SLA
6 26 (1.29%) GRC
7 25 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
9 22 (1.09%) NIST
10 9 (0.45%) P3O
11 8 (0.40%) EMIR
12 7 (0.35%) FINREP
12 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 7 (0.35%) MiFID
12 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.30%) COREP
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 39 (1.93%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) 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 (0.99%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) 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 (0.049%) 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
1 343 (16.96%) Microsoft
2 169 (8.36%) SAP
3 116 (5.74%) ServiceNow
4 83 (4.10%) Oracle
5 55 (2.72%) Google
5 55 (2.72%) Salesforce
6 46 (2.27%) Adobe
7 36 (1.78%) VMware
8 32 (1.58%) Cisco
9 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
9 23 (1.14%) Workday
10 22 (1.09%) Atlassian
11 19 (0.94%) Databricks
11 19 (0.94%) NEC
12 18 (0.89%) Ariba
13 14 (0.69%) IBM
14 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Murex