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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 20 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -1 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,987 2,687 3,527
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.40% 8.29% 8.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.13% 9.37% 9.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,254 1,481 2,282
10th Percentile £318 £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 £608 £613 £638
90th Percentile £700 £725 £711
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 124 159
10th Percentile £17.00 £21.25 £20.84
25th Percentile £23.13 £26.30 £27.63
Median hourly rate £42.28 £33.27 £47.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.08% -29.21% +18.16%
75th Percentile £63.75 £56.31 £60.00
90th Percentile £66.67 £70.20 £72.07
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £35.02 £48.00
% change year-on-year +29.83% -27.05% -2.81%

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 32,393 28,662 37,791
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.03% 88.45% 87.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,476 17,418 25,154
10th Percentile £304 £307 £305
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 £720 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,009 929 1,539
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.48 £18.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £55.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £44.50
% change year-on-year -21.76% -31.57% +39.45%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -19 1,713 £520 -0.95% 1,072
UK excluding London -18 1,001 £500 - 819
London -17 803 £525 -4.55% 412
Work from Home -12 582 £500 -0.42% 389
South East -9 260 £525 - 248
North of England -21 260 £480 +1.05% 197
Midlands -19 199 £496 -5.52% 147
North West -15 146 £492 +9.33% 91
West Midlands -23 139 £500 -9.09% 100
Yorkshire -19 105 £480 +3.78% 96
South West -24 104 £450 -6.49% 84
Scotland -15 95 £444 +0.62% 46
East Midlands -13 62 £463 +15.63% 47
East of England -27 55 £456 -8.75% 90
Wales -2 30 £308 -42.79% 23
Northern Ireland -7 19 £388 -18.42% 10
North East -28 11 £450 -21.74% 15

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
1 163 (8.20%) Confluence
2 119 (5.99%) SharePoint
3 24 (1.21%) 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 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.050%) Moodle
9 1 (0.050%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.050%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.050%) WebSphere
Applications
1 219 (11.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 210 (10.57%) Microsoft Project
3 164 (8.25%) Microsoft Office
4 135 (6.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 63 (3.17%) MS Visio
6 25 (1.26%) Trello
7 14 (0.70%) 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 (2.57%) 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 Payroll
8 7 (0.35%) SAP ERP
8 7 (0.35%) SAP PM
9 6 (0.30%) NetSuite
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.30%) Shopify
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
10 5 (0.25%) Workfront
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 167 (8.40%) Azure
2 112 (5.64%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.73%) AWS
4 76 (3.82%) Microsoft 365
5 48 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
6 46 (2.32%) SaaS
7 29 (1.46%) GCP
8 24 (1.21%) Asana
8 24 (1.21%) Smartsheet
9 21 (1.06%) SuccessFactors
10 20 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
11 19 (0.96%) Google Workspace
12 17 (0.86%) GitHub
12 17 (0.86%) OpenShift
13 16 (0.81%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.75%) Cloud Computing
15 14 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
16 10 (0.50%) Entra ID
16 10 (0.50%) OCI
16 10 (0.50%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.21%) Firewall
2 20 (1.01%) WAN
3 18 (0.91%) Network Security
4 16 (0.81%) DNS
5 15 (0.75%) LAN
5 15 (0.75%) SSH
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
1 101 (5.08%) Power BI
2 29 (1.46%) Tableau
3 27 (1.36%) SQL Server
4 19 (0.96%) Metadata
5 16 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (0.75%) SAP HANA
7 10 (0.50%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.35%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
9 6 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
9 6 (0.30%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.25%) Power Query
11 4 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
12 3 (0.15%) Big Data
12 3 (0.15%) GIS
12 3 (0.15%) MySQL
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.15%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 324 (16.31%) JIRA
2 20 (1.01%) Git
3 12 (0.60%) 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 (49.22%) Social Skills
2 702 (35.33%) Finance
3 345 (17.36%) Analytical Skills
4 209 (10.52%) Public Sector
5 184 (9.26%) Banking
6 170 (8.56%) Organisational Skills
7 93 (4.68%) Legal
8 89 (4.48%) Retail
9 88 (4.43%) Marketing
10 80 (4.03%) Manufacturing
11 73 (3.67%) Influencing Skills
12 51 (2.57%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.37%) Presentation Skills
14 44 (2.21%) Investment Banking
15 43 (2.16%) Local Government
16 35 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 31 (1.56%) Front Office
17 31 (1.56%) Pharmaceutical
18 30 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
19 25 (1.26%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 737 (37.09%) Project Manager
2 246 (12.38%) Analyst
3 169 (8.51%) Lead
4 156 (7.85%) Senior
5 132 (6.64%) Business Analyst
6 105 (5.28%) IT Manager
7 99 (4.98%) Senior Manager
8 91 (4.58%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.23%) Consultant
10 77 (3.88%) Senior Project Manager
11 61 (3.07%) Technical Manager
12 53 (2.67%) Delivery Manager
12 53 (2.67%) Infrastructure Manager
13 50 (2.52%) Programme Manager
14 47 (2.37%) Coordinator
15 45 (2.26%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 43 (2.16%) Technical Project Manager
17 42 (2.11%) Developer
17 42 (2.11%) SAP Manager
18 38 (1.91%) Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.11%) Oracle Fusion
2 18 (0.91%) 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%) ADO
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%) React
8 8 (0.40%) RESTful
8 8 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
9 7 (0.35%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (0.35%) LDAP
10 6 (0.30%) LangChain
11 5 (0.25%) .NET Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 114 (5.74%) Onboarding
2 109 (5.49%) Management Information System
3 66 (3.32%) PMI
4 61 (3.07%) Data Centre
5 58 (2.92%) Data Protection Act
6 53 (2.67%) Product Ownership
7 49 (2.47%) Virtual Team
8 48 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
9 38 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.26%) NHS
12 21 (1.06%) CMDB
13 19 (0.96%) Operational Technology
14 16 (0.81%) Life Science
14 16 (0.81%) Social Media
15 14 (0.70%) Mobile App
15 14 (0.70%) Public Cloud
16 13 (0.65%) Cloud Native
16 13 (0.65%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 77 (3.88%) Windows
2 19 (0.96%) Linux
3 15 (0.75%) 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
1 751 (37.80%) Agile
2 633 (31.86%) Stakeholder Management
3 487 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
4 467 (23.50%) Project Delivery
5 419 (21.09%) PRINCE2
6 357 (17.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 339 (17.06%) Change Management
8 264 (13.29%) Migration
9 244 (12.28%) Continuous Improvement
10 240 (12.08%) Waterfall
11 216 (10.87%) Decision-Making
12 213 (10.72%) Risk Management
13 183 (9.21%) Scrum
14 164 (8.25%) Budget Management
15 161 (8.10%) ITIL
16 156 (7.85%) Project Governance
17 152 (7.65%) DevOps
18 139 (7.00%) ERP
19 138 (6.95%) Cybersecurity
20 137 (6.89%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.23%) SQL
2 43 (2.16%) Python
3 18 (0.91%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.86%) Java
5 12 (0.60%) C#
6 11 (0.55%) ABAP
7 9 (0.45%) 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
1 377 (18.97%) Degree
2 272 (13.69%) PMP
3 270 (13.59%) PMI Certification
4 256 (12.88%) Security Cleared
5 183 (9.21%) SC Cleared
6 56 (2.82%) DV Cleared
7 46 (2.32%) Master's Degree
8 40 (2.01%) APMP
9 39 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
10 33 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
11 29 (1.46%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 26 (1.31%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 22 (1.11%) CISSP
14 20 (1.01%) MBA
15 19 (0.96%) CISM
16 12 (0.60%) CBAP
17 10 (0.50%) A+ Certification
17 10 (0.50%) IIBA
17 10 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
18 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (10.92%) PMO
2 116 (5.84%) QA
3 56 (2.82%) Data Quality
3 56 (2.82%) GDPR
4 45 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 32 (1.61%) NIST
6 23 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 19 (0.96%) PCI DSS
8 17 (0.86%) GRC
9 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.65%) P3O
11 10 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
12 9 (0.45%) Basel III
12 9 (0.45%) SLA
13 8 (0.40%) GxP
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 19650
14 7 (0.35%) ISO 9001
15 6 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
15 6 (0.30%) WCAG
16 5 (0.25%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 40 (2.01%) Active Directory
2 15 (0.75%) 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 17 (0.86%) 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 7 (0.35%) Kibana
6 6 (0.30%) logstash
7 4 (0.20%) Consul
7 4 (0.20%) Packer
8 3 (0.15%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.15%) Grafana
8 3 (0.15%) ITRS Geneos
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%) Cisco UCCE
10 1 (0.050%) Cisco UCCX
10 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 330 (16.61%) Microsoft
2 172 (8.66%) SAP
3 86 (4.33%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.13%) Oracle
5 69 (3.47%) Salesforce
6 43 (2.16%) Google
7 28 (1.41%) Cisco
8 26 (1.31%) Adobe
8 26 (1.31%) Workday
9 22 (1.11%) Atlassian
10 21 (1.06%) Planview
11 18 (0.91%) IBM
11 18 (0.91%) VMware
12 16 (0.81%) Ariba
13 15 (0.75%) Databricks
14 11 (0.55%) Palo Alto
15 10 (0.50%) CyberArk
16 9 (0.45%) Juniper
16 9 (0.45%) Splunk
17 8 (0.40%) Remedy