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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 29 21
Rank change year-on-year -35 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,010 2,067 2,954
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.68% 6.28% 7.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.36% 6.94% 8.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,232 1,239 1,692
10th Percentile £308 £313 £307
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £620 £638 £613
90th Percentile £725 £738 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 121 155
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.25 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.70 £25.25 £26.55
Median hourly rate £48.00 £34.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.13% -1.43% -17.65%
75th Percentile £64.75 £58.25 £54.38
90th Percentile £82.65 £65.14 £66.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.73 £36.00 £36.17
% change year-on-year +49.25% -0.46% -14.20%

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 46,068 29,787 33,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.40% 90.53% 85.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,926 18,499 20,227
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,164 1,816 1,455
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.23 £14.90
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £67.48 £44.05 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.91% -47.67% +1.18%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -31 1,767 £525 - 4,049
UK excluding London -39 941 £500 +5.26% 2,355
London -28 869 £550 - 2,012
Work from Home -20 620 £500 +0.81% 1,526
South East -25 249 £500 - 674
North of England -43 249 £474 -5.20% 510
North West -27 149 £475 -3.56% 275
Midlands -52 138 £534 +12.37% 361
South West -21 135 £475 +5.56% 265
Yorkshire -29 93 £475 -9.52% 170
West Midlands -56 92 £550 +12.02% 209
Scotland -36 77 £500 +11.48% 185
East of England -22 75 £513 -1.44% 239
East Midlands -19 46 £525 +17.45% 152
Northern Ireland -10 12 £444 -15.48% 79
Wales -23 11 £400 +14.29% 65
North East -43 9 £420 +3.07% 67
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 2

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
1 126 (6.27%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.83%) Confluence
3 36 (1.79%) CMS
4 27 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (0.95%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) 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%) SAS
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.100%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.050%) Appian
12 1 (0.050%) Drupal
12 1 (0.050%) Oracle Coherence
12 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
Applications
1 200 (9.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 167 (8.31%) Microsoft Project
3 158 (7.86%) Microsoft Office
4 127 (6.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 38 (1.89%) MS Visio
6 21 (1.04%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.70%) Trello
8 10 (0.50%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) Windchill
11 4 (0.20%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.100%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.100%) Houdini
12 2 (0.100%) InDesign
12 2 (0.100%) NUKE
13 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.050%) Notion
13 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 58 (2.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 13 (0.65%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.65%) Magento
4 11 (0.55%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.55%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.55%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) NEC Housing
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
8 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 172 (8.56%) Azure
2 140 (6.97%) Power Platform
3 88 (4.38%) SaaS
4 86 (4.28%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.68%) AWS
6 64 (3.18%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.74%) Smartsheet
8 34 (1.69%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (1.34%) Entra ID
11 24 (1.19%) GCP
12 20 (1.00%) Asana
13 16 (0.80%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.80%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.75%) GitHub
14 15 (0.75%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
15 14 (0.70%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.55%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.79%) Network Security
2 25 (1.24%) DNS
3 24 (1.19%) WAN
4 22 (1.09%) Firewall
4 22 (1.09%) TCP/IP
5 20 (1.00%) LAN
6 17 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.65%) DHCP
7 13 (0.65%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.60%) VPN
9 11 (0.55%) Internet
9 11 (0.55%) Intranet
9 11 (0.55%) Wireless
10 10 (0.50%) BGP
11 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.40%) 4G
12 8 (0.40%) 5G
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) LTE
12 8 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 126 (6.27%) Power BI
2 21 (1.04%) Metadata
3 19 (0.95%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (0.80%) Tableau
5 13 (0.65%) Data Lake
5 13 (0.65%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.50%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.45%) Power Query
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
9 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.30%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
12 4 (0.20%) EDMS
12 4 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
12 4 (0.20%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 253 (12.59%) JIRA
2 28 (1.39%) Git
3 19 (0.95%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Rational DOORS
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.20%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.100%) Hudson
9 2 (0.100%) Selenium
9 2 (0.100%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.050%) git-flow
10 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.050%) TestRail
10 1 (0.050%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 897 (44.63%) Social Skills
2 773 (38.46%) Finance
3 321 (15.97%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.10%) Organisational Skills
5 173 (8.61%) Public Sector
6 172 (8.56%) Banking
7 130 (6.47%) Marketing
8 116 (5.77%) Retail
9 97 (4.83%) Influencing Skills
10 79 (3.93%) Manufacturing
11 75 (3.73%) Legal
12 71 (3.53%) Telecoms
13 57 (2.84%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.84%) Investment Banking
15 35 (1.74%) Aerospace
16 30 (1.49%) Front Office
17 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 29 (1.44%) Local Government
18 27 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
19 26 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 793 (39.45%) Project Manager
2 185 (9.20%) Senior
3 183 (9.10%) Lead
4 138 (6.87%) Senior Manager
5 136 (6.77%) Analyst
6 115 (5.72%) IT Manager
7 105 (5.22%) Senior Project Manager
8 87 (4.33%) IT Project Manager
9 81 (4.03%) Programme Manager
10 78 (3.88%) Technical Manager
11 76 (3.78%) Delivery Manager
12 74 (3.68%) Business Analyst
12 74 (3.68%) Consultant
13 60 (2.99%) Technical Project Manager
14 45 (2.24%) Project Officer
15 43 (2.14%) Infrastructure Manager
16 40 (1.99%) Coordinator
17 37 (1.84%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 36 (1.79%) Project Coordinator
19 34 (1.69%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.09%) Middleware
2 20 (1.00%) REST
3 17 (0.85%) ADO
4 14 (0.70%) HTML
5 13 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.65%) Web Services
6 11 (0.55%) .NET
6 11 (0.55%) JSON
6 11 (0.55%) VML
7 10 (0.50%) OAuth
7 10 (0.50%) React
8 9 (0.45%) SOAP
9 8 (0.40%) Terraform
10 7 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 7 (0.35%) pytest
10 7 (0.35%) RESTful
11 6 (0.30%) CSS
11 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 5 (0.25%) XML
13 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 120 (5.97%) Management Information System
2 97 (4.83%) Product Ownership
3 94 (4.68%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.08%) Data Centre
5 49 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.39%) Virtual Team
7 42 (2.09%) PMI
8 30 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.44%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (1.29%) FMCG
12 25 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
12 25 (1.24%) Social Media
13 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
13 22 (1.09%) Life Science
14 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
15 20 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
16 17 (0.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 17 (0.85%) NHS
17 15 (0.75%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 57 (2.84%) Windows
2 56 (2.79%) Linux
3 24 (1.19%) Unix
4 23 (1.14%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.35%) 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 (0.100%) Solaris
10 2 (0.100%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.050%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 909 (45.22%) Stakeholder Management
2 755 (37.56%) Agile
3 584 (29.05%) Project Delivery
4 449 (22.34%) PRINCE2
5 335 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
6 333 (16.57%) Change Management
7 332 (16.52%) Problem-Solving
8 298 (14.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 282 (14.03%) Decision-Making
10 274 (13.63%) Migration
11 251 (12.49%) Risk Management
12 239 (11.89%) Waterfall
13 214 (10.65%) AI
14 206 (10.25%) Scrum
15 202 (10.05%) Project Governance
16 169 (8.41%) Roadmaps
17 166 (8.26%) Project Planning
18 162 (8.06%) Programme Management
19 161 (8.01%) Change Control
20 150 (7.46%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 74 (3.68%) SQL
2 69 (3.43%) Python
3 18 (0.90%) Java
3 18 (0.90%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.75%) VBA
5 13 (0.65%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
8 8 (0.40%) Korn
8 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) Bash
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 3 (0.15%) ABAP
12 3 (0.15%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.100%) R
Qualifications
1 323 (16.07%) Degree
2 322 (16.02%) Security Cleared
3 298 (14.83%) PMP
4 260 (12.94%) PMI Certification
5 223 (11.09%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.83%) DV Cleared
6 77 (3.83%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 36 (1.79%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.29%) Master's Degree
9 18 (0.90%) ACCA
9 18 (0.90%) CIMA
10 17 (0.85%) Azure Certification
10 17 (0.85%) CISSP
10 17 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
10 17 (0.85%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 14 (0.70%) APMP
11 14 (0.70%) CISM
11 14 (0.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (0.70%) ISTQB
12 13 (0.65%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 250 (12.44%) PMO
2 96 (4.78%) QA
3 56 (2.79%) Data Quality
4 35 (1.74%) GDPR
5 25 (1.24%) GRC
6 24 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.14%) SLA
8 21 (1.04%) NIST
9 20 (1.00%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.40%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) EMIR
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) MiFID
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 36 (1.79%) Active Directory
2 27 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (0.45%) vSphere
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.15%) NFS
7 3 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
8 2 (0.100%) Docker
8 2 (0.100%) Firmware
9 1 (0.050%) ACF2
9 1 (0.050%) IAG
9 1 (0.050%) RACF
9 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.09%) Ansible
2 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
4 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
4 5 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.100%) BMC PATROL
7 2 (0.100%) BMC Performance Manager
7 2 (0.100%) Perfmon
7 2 (0.100%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.050%) Nagios
8 1 (0.050%) Nessus
8 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.050%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.050%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.050%) vRealize
Vendors
1 365 (18.16%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.86%) SAP
3 105 (5.22%) ServiceNow
4 80 (3.98%) Oracle
5 50 (2.49%) Google
6 49 (2.44%) Salesforce
7 43 (2.14%) Adobe
8 42 (2.09%) VMware
9 29 (1.44%) Cisco
10 20 (1.00%) Atlassian
10 20 (1.00%) Sitecore
10 20 (1.00%) Workday
11 19 (0.95%) Ariba
11 19 (0.95%) IBM
11 19 (0.95%) NEC
12 18 (0.90%) Databricks
13 15 (0.75%) Planview
14 12 (0.60%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.50%) Dell