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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -32 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,021 2,125 2,953
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 6.53% 7.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.23% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,286 1,733
10th Percentile £312 £313 £310
25th Percentile £413 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £625 £619
90th Percentile £725 £727 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 116 185
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.28 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.98 £25.63 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £34.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% -8.00% -6.25%
75th Percentile £63.88 £57.69 £49.00
90th Percentile £82.95 £74.38 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £36.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +31.94% -5.56% -3.62%

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 45,329 29,411 32,997
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.42% 85.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,714 18,306 20,733
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% -3.54%
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 2,913 1,754 1,602
10th Percentile £14.07 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.30 £18.79
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -29 1,775 £520 -0.05% 3,493
UK excluding London -33 971 £500 +6.61% 2,058
London -32 858 £550 - 1,884
Work from Home -24 620 £500 +3.09% 1,525
South East -21 258 £500 - 508
North of England -37 257 £475 -3.01% 437
North West -25 156 £475 -1.30% 258
Midlands -46 144 £550 +22.22% 280
South West -23 134 £450 - 309
West Midlands -57 95 £550 +17.27% 169
Yorkshire -34 94 £475 -5.00% 131
East of England -9 81 £525 -0.57% 213
Scotland -36 79 £478 +6.11% 188
East Midlands -16 49 £513 +15.23% 111
Northern Ireland -6 14 £447 -14.86% 99
Wales -22 12 £400 -3.03% 52
North East -44 9 £420 +3.07% 54
Channel Islands - 2 £575 - 1

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
1 119 (5.89%) SharePoint
2 103 (5.10%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 30 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.89%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 192 (9.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 175 (8.66%) Microsoft Project
3 161 (7.97%) Microsoft Office
4 123 (6.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.13%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) Photoshop
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 64 (3.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 10 (0.49%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.49%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.49%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.25%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 178 (8.81%) Azure
2 139 (6.88%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.55%) SaaS
4 91 (4.50%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.51%) AWS
6 69 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 29 (1.43%) Entra ID
10 26 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
11 19 (0.94%) GCP
12 18 (0.89%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.54%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 41 (2.03%) Network Security
2 31 (1.53%) WAN
3 25 (1.24%) Firewall
4 24 (1.19%) DNS
4 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 24 (1.19%) TCP/IP
5 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
6 16 (0.79%) VPN
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) BGP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 10 (0.49%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) SAN
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) Radio Access Network
13 7 (0.35%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (6.19%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.49%) Power Query
8 9 (0.45%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.40%) GIS
10 7 (0.35%) Big Data
11 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 260 (12.86%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.049%) Capybara
10 1 (0.049%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) Gradle
10 1 (0.049%) Hudson
10 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.049%) RSpec
10 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 891 (44.09%) Social Skills
2 770 (38.10%) Finance
3 341 (16.87%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.85%) Organisational Skills
5 178 (8.81%) Public Sector
6 171 (8.46%) Banking
7 135 (6.68%) Marketing
8 120 (5.94%) Retail
9 80 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
10 75 (3.71%) Telecoms
11 70 (3.46%) Manufacturing
12 69 (3.41%) Legal
13 56 (2.77%) Presentation Skills
14 40 (1.98%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.48%) Front Office
15 30 (1.48%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 28 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
17 28 (1.39%) Local Government
18 26 (1.29%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 802 (39.68%) Project Manager
2 192 (9.50%) Senior
3 181 (8.96%) Lead
4 161 (7.97%) Analyst
5 143 (7.08%) Senior Manager
6 116 (5.74%) IT Manager
7 113 (5.59%) Senior Project Manager
8 86 (4.26%) Business Analyst
9 85 (4.21%) IT Project Manager
9 85 (4.21%) Programme Manager
10 73 (3.61%) Technical Manager
11 71 (3.51%) Consultant
12 67 (3.32%) Delivery Manager
13 61 (3.02%) Technical Project Manager
14 49 (2.42%) Infrastructure Manager
15 43 (2.13%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 38 (1.88%) Coordinator
17 37 (1.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 37 (1.83%) Project Officer
18 35 (1.73%) Digital Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.19%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
4 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.45%) .NET
8 9 (0.45%) React
8 9 (0.45%) SOAP
9 7 (0.35%) CSS
9 7 (0.35%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) Terraform
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
12 4 (0.20%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 112 (5.54%) Management Information System
2 98 (4.85%) Product Ownership
3 90 (4.45%) Onboarding
4 61 (3.02%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.38%) Virtual Team
7 45 (2.23%) PMI
8 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
8 28 (1.39%) Operational Technology
8 28 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
9 27 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
9 27 (1.34%) FMCG
10 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
10 25 (1.24%) Social Media
11 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
12 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
12 20 (0.99%) Life Science
13 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
14 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 16 (0.79%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.27%) Windows
2 55 (2.72%) Linux
3 24 (1.19%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.14%) Unix
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) 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 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 890 (44.04%) Stakeholder Management
2 782 (38.69%) Agile
3 587 (29.05%) Project Delivery
4 450 (22.27%) PRINCE2
5 340 (16.82%) Problem-Solving
6 336 (16.63%) Continuous Improvement
7 331 (16.38%) Change Management
8 294 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 289 (14.30%) Migration
10 269 (13.31%) Decision-Making
11 251 (12.42%) Risk Management
12 248 (12.27%) Waterfall
13 207 (10.24%) AI
14 203 (10.04%) Scrum
15 181 (8.96%) Project Governance
16 165 (8.16%) Roadmaps
17 158 (7.82%) Analytics
18 155 (7.67%) ITIL
19 151 (7.47%) Programme Management
20 149 (7.37%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 77 (3.81%) SQL
2 69 (3.41%) Python
3 17 (0.84%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.45%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.35%) Ada
8 7 (0.35%) C
9 5 (0.25%) Bash
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
10 4 (0.20%) Korn
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 329 (16.28%) Security Cleared
2 312 (15.44%) Degree
3 292 (14.45%) PMP
4 255 (12.62%) PMI Certification
5 227 (11.23%) SC Cleared
6 75 (3.71%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 27 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.34%) Master's Degree
9 21 (1.04%) ACCA
9 21 (1.04%) CIMA
10 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
11 16 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.64%) APMP
13 13 (0.64%) ISTQB
14 12 (0.59%) CISSP
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (12.52%) PMO
2 101 (5.00%) QA
3 56 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 39 (1.93%) GDPR
5 26 (1.29%) GRC
6 25 (1.24%) SLA
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 20 (0.99%) NIST
9 9 (0.45%) P3O
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) MiFID
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 43 (2.13%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.25%) vSphere
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.099%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
7 2 (0.099%) VMware ESXi
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
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
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
7 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.099%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.099%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 361 (17.86%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.82%) SAP
3 110 (5.44%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.06%) Oracle
5 58 (2.87%) Salesforce
6 52 (2.57%) Google
7 47 (2.33%) Adobe
8 42 (2.08%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 22 (1.09%) Atlassian
12 20 (0.99%) Ariba
12 20 (0.99%) Workday
13 19 (0.94%) NEC
14 16 (0.79%) Databricks
15 15 (0.74%) IBM
16 14 (0.69%) Planview
17 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
18 10 (0.49%) F5
18 10 (0.49%) IFS