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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -31 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,028 2,257 2,947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.80% 6.85% 7.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.48% 7.57% 8.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,254 1,378 1,750
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £613
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 119 122 230
10th Percentile £20.35 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.44 £26.75 £27.32
Median hourly rate £42.65 £36.75 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +16.05% -3.59% -5.88%
75th Percentile £64.75 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.04 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.80% +5.59% -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 45,250 29,801 33,299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.81% 90.48% 85.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,843 18,616 21,279
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £423 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
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 2,819 1,703 1,838
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.31 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -39.40% -1.55%
75th Percentile £68.00 £47.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.38 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +13.33%

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 13 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 13 August 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 13 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 -27 1,792 £525 +1.94% 1,823
UK excluding London -35 972 £500 +5.26% 1,210
London -25 874 £550 +2.33% 816
Work from Home -25 626 £500 +3.90% 707
North of England -35 266 £475 -2.56% 278
South East -22 250 £500 - 348
North West -19 165 £475 - 145
Midlands -51 142 £540 +16.76% 212
South West -20 138 £436 -3.06% 158
West Midlands -58 96 £550 +15.79% 129
Yorkshire -43 94 £498 -0.50% 95
East of England -9 86 £525 -0.57% 123
Scotland -38 68 £470 +4.44% 61
East Midlands -18 46 £500 +18.41% 83
Northern Ireland +1 17 £430 -18.14% 26
Wales -18 13 £400 -3.03% 31
North East -42 9 £420 -12.95% 41

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
1 108 (5.33%) SharePoint
2 105 (5.18%) Confluence
3 34 (1.68%) CMS
4 23 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (0.79%) 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%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) JBoss
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.099%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.099%) SAS
11 1 (0.049%) CICS
11 1 (0.049%) IIS
Applications
1 181 (8.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 169 (8.33%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.59%) Microsoft Office
4 116 (5.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 45 (2.22%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.49%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
11 3 (0.15%) InDesign
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.099%) Houdini
12 2 (0.099%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) CATIA
13 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 69 (3.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.23%) Primavera
3 11 (0.54%) Adobe Campaign
3 11 (0.54%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.39%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.39%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
6 7 (0.35%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.25%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
9 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 180 (8.88%) Azure
2 119 (5.87%) Power Platform
3 95 (4.68%) SaaS
4 77 (3.80%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.65%) AWS
6 65 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (1.78%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (1.04%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 19 (0.94%) GCP
13 18 (0.89%) GitHub
14 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
14 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (0.64%) Snowflake
14 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
15 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
16 10 (0.49%) OCI
16 10 (0.49%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 35 (1.73%) Network Security
2 25 (1.23%) WAN
3 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.08%) DNS
4 22 (1.08%) LAN
5 20 (0.99%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (0.89%) Firewall
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) Intranet
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) VPN
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
12 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
12 8 (0.39%) Wireless
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 107 (5.28%) Power BI
2 20 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Data Lake
4 16 (0.79%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.74%) Tableau
6 13 (0.64%) Metadata
7 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 9 (0.44%) Power Query
9 8 (0.39%) GIS
9 8 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
10 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
11 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.30%) Big Data
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
13 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
13 4 (0.20%) Hadoop
13 4 (0.20%) SAP HANA
14 3 (0.15%) EDMS
14 3 (0.15%) Looker
14 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 249 (12.28%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 22 (1.08%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) 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%) Appium
8 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.049%) Capybara
8 1 (0.049%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) Gradle
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 879 (43.34%) Social Skills
2 745 (36.74%) Finance
3 338 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.01%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.68%) Public Sector
6 157 (7.74%) Banking
7 142 (7.00%) Marketing
8 117 (5.77%) Retail
9 78 (3.85%) Manufacturing
10 73 (3.60%) Influencing Skills
10 73 (3.60%) Legal
11 66 (3.25%) Telecoms
12 45 (2.22%) Presentation Skills
13 39 (1.92%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.58%) Financial Institution
15 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
15 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
16 30 (1.48%) Front Office
17 28 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 818 (40.34%) Project Manager
2 208 (10.26%) Senior
3 173 (8.53%) Lead
4 165 (8.14%) Analyst
5 153 (7.54%) Senior Manager
6 124 (6.11%) Senior Project Manager
7 114 (5.62%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.49%) IT Project Manager
9 90 (4.44%) Programme Manager
10 86 (4.24%) Business Analyst
11 70 (3.45%) Technical Manager
12 64 (3.16%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.06%) Consultant
14 57 (2.81%) Technical Project Manager
15 55 (2.71%) Infrastructure Manager
16 43 (2.12%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 42 (2.07%) Project Officer
17 42 (2.07%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 38 (1.87%) Developer
19 36 (1.78%) Data Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (1.28%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 15 (0.74%) ADO
3 15 (0.74%) HTML
3 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
4 13 (0.64%) VML
4 13 (0.64%) Web Services
5 11 (0.54%) .NET
5 11 (0.54%) JSON
5 11 (0.54%) SOAP
6 10 (0.49%) OAuth
7 9 (0.44%) React
8 8 (0.39%) RESTful
9 7 (0.35%) CSS
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) SailPoint
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 107 (5.28%) Management Information System
2 85 (4.19%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.09%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.35%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
6 53 (2.61%) PMI
7 47 (2.32%) Virtual Team
8 34 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.23%) Operational Technology
11 25 (1.23%) Social Media
12 24 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
12 24 (1.18%) FMCG
13 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
13 20 (0.99%) Life Science
14 19 (0.94%) AI Agents
15 18 (0.89%) Credit Risk
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.74%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 59 (2.91%) Windows
2 44 (2.17%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 18 (0.89%) Windows Server
5 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Android
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 823 (40.58%) Stakeholder Management
2 760 (37.48%) Agile
3 556 (27.42%) Project Delivery
4 457 (22.53%) PRINCE2
5 349 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
6 339 (16.72%) Continuous Improvement
7 332 (16.37%) Change Management
8 301 (14.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 297 (14.64%) Migration
10 256 (12.62%) Decision-Making
11 255 (12.57%) Risk Management
12 244 (12.03%) Waterfall
13 198 (9.76%) Scrum
14 189 (9.32%) AI
15 159 (7.84%) Roadmaps
16 155 (7.64%) Project Governance
17 153 (7.54%) ITIL
18 145 (7.15%) Analytics
18 145 (7.15%) ERP
19 144 (7.10%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.04%) SQL
2 64 (3.16%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
5 13 (0.64%) VBA
6 11 (0.54%) C#
7 10 (0.49%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) ABAP
10 5 (0.25%) Korn
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Ada
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) Bash
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.15%) R
Qualifications
1 322 (15.88%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.58%) Degree
3 309 (15.24%) PMP
4 271 (13.36%) PMI Certification
5 220 (10.85%) SC Cleared
6 77 (3.80%) DV Cleared
7 69 (3.40%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.48%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 26 (1.28%) ACCA
10 26 (1.28%) CIMA
11 20 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 19 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
13 16 (0.79%) APMP
13 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
14 15 (0.74%) CISSP
15 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
16 11 (0.54%) CISM
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (12.03%) PMO
2 98 (4.83%) QA
3 56 (2.76%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 33 (1.63%) SLA
6 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.28%) GRC
8 24 (1.18%) NIST
9 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.44%) P3O
11 8 (0.39%) EMIR
11 8 (0.39%) MiFID
12 7 (0.35%) FINREP
12 7 (0.35%) GMP
12 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.30%) COREP
13 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 20 (0.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
6 3 (0.15%) Hyper-V
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 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Terraform
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Puppet
6 4 (0.20%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Satellite
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
1 336 (16.57%) Microsoft
2 169 (8.33%) SAP
3 117 (5.77%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.14%) Oracle
5 54 (2.66%) Google
5 54 (2.66%) Salesforce
6 45 (2.22%) Adobe
7 34 (1.68%) VMware
8 31 (1.53%) Cisco
9 24 (1.18%) Workday
10 23 (1.13%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.04%) Atlassian
11 21 (1.04%) Databricks
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 15 (0.74%) Ariba
14 14 (0.69%) IBM
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Alteryx
16 10 (0.49%) F5