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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 21 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -2 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,994 2,741 3,511
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.37% 8.26% 8.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.10% 9.35% 9.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,262 1,514 2,277
10th Percentile £315 £275 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -
75th Percentile £610 £615 £638
90th Percentile £708 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 127 154
10th Percentile £17.00 £21.25 £20.99
25th Percentile £23.38 £26.29 £30.00
Median hourly rate £40.78 £33.00 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.58% -32.65% +23.19%
75th Percentile £63.75 £56.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £66.10 £69.15 £72.23
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £35.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +29.89% -28.57% -0.79%

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 32,670 29,303 37,803
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.06% 88.34% 87.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,630 17,837 25,180
10th Percentile £304 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,024 946 1,523
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.98
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +27.14%
75th Percentile £52.72 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.25 £74.60 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £30.45 £45.21
% change year-on-year -22.58% -32.65% +44.86%

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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1,716 £520 -0.95% 1,246
UK excluding London -19 1,003 £500 - 981
London -17 805 £525 -4.55% 435
Work from Home -13 583 £500 - 470
North of England -25 261 £490 +3.11% 241
South East -10 260 £525 - 300
Midlands -23 195 £500 -4.76% 173
North West -14 146 £492 +9.33% 125
West Midlands -23 136 £500 -9.09% 116
Yorkshire -23 106 £488 +5.41% 104
South West -24 102 £450 -3.23% 102
Scotland -9 97 £438 -1.46% 51
East Midlands -12 61 £465 +16.31% 57
East of England -32 57 £456 -6.41% 102
Wales -2 32 £316 -39.76% 27
Northern Ireland -6 19 £388 -18.42% 13
North East -24 11 £450 -21.74% 17

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
1 162 (8.12%) Confluence
2 120 (6.02%) SharePoint
3 27 (1.35%) CMS
4 13 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.35%) WordPress
7 5 (0.25%) nginx
8 3 (0.15%) Apache
8 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.10%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.050%) IIS
10 1 (0.050%) Moodle
10 1 (0.050%) MS Project Server
10 1 (0.050%) SAS
10 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
10 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 222 (11.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 209 (10.48%) Microsoft Project
3 162 (8.12%) Microsoft Office
4 133 (6.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 63 (3.16%) MS Visio
6 27 (1.35%) Trello
7 16 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.10%) InDesign
11 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 51 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.75%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
3 14 (0.70%) Primavera
4 12 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
6 9 (0.45%) Oracle Payables
7 8 (0.40%) Loan IQ
7 8 (0.40%) SAP ERP
7 8 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
8 7 (0.35%) SAP PM
8 7 (0.35%) Shopify
9 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.30%) Workfront
10 5 (0.25%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
10 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
10 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
11 4 (0.20%) Eloqua
Cloud Services
1 167 (8.38%) Azure
2 115 (5.77%) Power Platform
3 96 (4.81%) AWS
4 78 (3.91%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (2.36%) SaaS
6 46 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (1.50%) GCP
8 26 (1.30%) Asana
9 25 (1.25%) Smartsheet
10 22 (1.10%) SuccessFactors
11 20 (1.00%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.00%) Google Workspace
12 17 (0.85%) GitHub
12 17 (0.85%) OpenShift
13 16 (0.80%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.75%) Cloud Computing
14 15 (0.75%) Microsoft Copilot
15 10 (0.50%) OCI
15 10 (0.50%) PaaS
15 10 (0.50%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.21%) Firewall
2 20 (1.00%) WAN
3 18 (0.90%) Network Security
4 16 (0.80%) DNS
4 16 (0.80%) SSH
5 15 (0.75%) LAN
6 14 (0.70%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.65%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 11 (0.55%) VPN
9 10 (0.50%) HTTP
10 9 (0.45%) Skype
11 8 (0.40%) Internet
11 8 (0.40%) TCP/IP
12 6 (0.30%) Broadband
12 6 (0.30%) DHCP
12 6 (0.30%) SSL
13 5 (0.25%) Multicast
13 5 (0.25%) Wireless
14 4 (0.20%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (5.22%) Power BI
2 32 (1.60%) Tableau
3 27 (1.35%) SQL Server
4 19 (0.95%) Metadata
5 17 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (0.75%) SAP HANA
7 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
8 8 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
9 7 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
10 6 (0.30%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (0.25%) Power Query
12 4 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 3 (0.15%) Big Data
13 3 (0.15%) GIS
13 3 (0.15%) MySQL
13 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
13 3 (0.15%) PostgreSQL
13 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 327 (16.40%) JIRA
2 20 (1.00%) Git
3 13 (0.65%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.35%) GitLab
5 4 (0.20%) Selenium
5 4 (0.20%) SpecFlow
6 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
6 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.15%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.10%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.050%) Appium
8 1 (0.050%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.050%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.050%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.050%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.050%) Gradle
8 1 (0.050%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.050%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.050%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 978 (49.05%) Social Skills
2 706 (35.41%) Finance
3 346 (17.35%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (10.33%) Public Sector
5 182 (9.13%) Banking
6 171 (8.58%) Organisational Skills
7 96 (4.81%) Legal
8 92 (4.61%) Marketing
8 92 (4.61%) Retail
9 80 (4.01%) Manufacturing
10 72 (3.61%) Influencing Skills
11 51 (2.56%) Telecoms
12 47 (2.36%) Local Government
12 47 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
13 46 (2.31%) Investment Banking
14 36 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 33 (1.65%) Front Office
16 32 (1.60%) Pharmaceutical
17 29 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
18 24 (1.20%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 737 (36.96%) Project Manager
2 239 (11.99%) Analyst
3 167 (8.38%) Lead
4 155 (7.77%) Senior
5 127 (6.37%) Business Analyst
6 106 (5.32%) IT Manager
7 98 (4.91%) Senior Manager
8 92 (4.61%) IT Project Manager
9 82 (4.11%) Consultant
10 76 (3.81%) Senior Project Manager
11 60 (3.01%) Technical Manager
12 55 (2.76%) Delivery Manager
13 54 (2.71%) Infrastructure Manager
14 53 (2.66%) Programme Manager
15 47 (2.36%) Coordinator
16 46 (2.31%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 43 (2.16%) SAP Manager
18 42 (2.11%) Developer
18 42 (2.11%) Technical Project Manager
19 40 (2.01%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.10%) Oracle Fusion
2 18 (0.90%) Middleware
3 13 (0.65%) .NET
3 13 (0.65%) HTML
4 12 (0.60%) EDI
5 11 (0.55%) REST
6 10 (0.50%) SOAP
6 10 (0.50%) XML
7 9 (0.45%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.45%) CSS
7 9 (0.45%) Web Services
8 8 (0.40%) ADO
8 8 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.40%) React
8 8 (0.40%) RESTful
8 8 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
9 7 (0.35%) LDAP
10 6 (0.30%) LangChain
11 5 (0.25%) .NET Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 113 (5.67%) Onboarding
2 112 (5.62%) Management Information System
3 64 (3.21%) PMI
4 58 (2.91%) Data Centre
4 58 (2.91%) Data Protection Act
5 51 (2.56%) Product Ownership
6 49 (2.46%) Virtual Team
7 47 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
8 38 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
10 25 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.20%) NHS
12 21 (1.05%) CMDB
13 19 (0.95%) Operational Technology
14 16 (0.80%) Life Science
14 16 (0.80%) Social Media
15 15 (0.75%) Mobile App
16 14 (0.70%) Cloud Native
17 13 (0.65%) Driving Licence
17 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 78 (3.91%) Windows
2 20 (1.00%) Linux
3 16 (0.80%) Unix
4 13 (0.65%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.60%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.10%) AIX
8 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.10%) VMS
8 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.050%) Android
9 1 (0.050%) Solaris
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.050%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 758 (38.01%) Agile
2 626 (31.39%) Stakeholder Management
3 492 (24.67%) Problem-Solving
4 469 (23.52%) Project Delivery
5 419 (21.01%) PRINCE2
6 359 (18.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 340 (17.05%) Change Management
8 261 (13.09%) Migration
9 247 (12.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 239 (11.99%) Waterfall
11 218 (10.93%) Decision-Making
12 216 (10.83%) Risk Management
13 187 (9.38%) Scrum
14 164 (8.22%) Budget Management
15 161 (8.07%) ITIL
16 156 (7.82%) Project Governance
17 151 (7.57%) DevOps
18 143 (7.17%) Roadmaps
19 138 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
20 137 (6.87%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.21%) SQL
2 44 (2.21%) Python
3 18 (0.90%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.85%) Java
5 12 (0.60%) C#
6 11 (0.55%) ABAP
7 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.25%) Perl
8 5 (0.25%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.25%) VBA
9 4 (0.20%) C++
9 4 (0.20%) Go
9 4 (0.20%) R
9 4 (0.20%) Ruby
9 4 (0.20%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.15%) Korn
10 3 (0.15%) VB
11 2 (0.10%) C
11 2 (0.10%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 378 (18.96%) Degree
2 272 (13.64%) PMP
3 270 (13.54%) PMI Certification
4 252 (12.64%) Security Cleared
5 178 (8.93%) SC Cleared
6 55 (2.76%) DV Cleared
7 44 (2.21%) Master's Degree
8 38 (1.91%) APMP
8 38 (1.91%) BPSS Clearance
9 37 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
10 29 (1.45%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 26 (1.30%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 22 (1.10%) CISSP
13 19 (0.95%) CISM
14 18 (0.90%) MBA
15 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
15 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
16 9 (0.45%) CBAP
16 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
17 8 (0.40%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (10.78%) PMO
2 121 (6.07%) QA
3 58 (2.91%) GDPR
4 56 (2.81%) Data Quality
5 46 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 32 (1.60%) NIST
7 23 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 19 (0.95%) PCI DSS
9 17 (0.85%) GRC
10 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.65%) P3O
12 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
12 10 (0.50%) SLA
13 9 (0.45%) Basel III
14 8 (0.40%) GxP
15 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
15 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
16 6 (0.30%) MiFID
16 6 (0.30%) WCAG
17 5 (0.25%) GMP
System Software
1 40 (2.01%) Active Directory
2 16 (0.80%) Docker
3 11 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.10%) Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.050%) IAG
7 1 (0.050%) PowerHA
7 1 (0.050%) RACF
7 1 (0.050%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.050%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (0.90%) Kubernetes
2 14 (0.70%) Terraform
3 13 (0.65%) Ansible
3 13 (0.65%) SCCM
4 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
4 9 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.40%) Kibana
6 7 (0.35%) logstash
7 4 (0.20%) Consul
7 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
7 4 (0.20%) Packer
8 3 (0.15%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.15%) Grafana
8 3 (0.15%) Puppet
8 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
9 2 (0.10%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.10%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.050%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.050%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 331 (16.60%) Microsoft
2 172 (8.63%) SAP
3 86 (4.31%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.11%) Oracle
5 71 (3.56%) Salesforce
6 46 (2.31%) Google
7 28 (1.40%) Cisco
8 26 (1.30%) Adobe
8 26 (1.30%) Workday
9 23 (1.15%) Planview
10 21 (1.05%) Atlassian
11 19 (0.95%) IBM
12 18 (0.90%) VMware
13 17 (0.85%) Ariba
14 16 (0.80%) Databricks
15 11 (0.55%) Palo Alto
16 10 (0.50%) CyberArk
17 9 (0.45%) Juniper
17 9 (0.45%) Splunk
18 8 (0.40%) Remedy