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

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 25 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -3 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,023 2,275 2,923
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.79% 6.92% 7.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.65% 8.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,240 1,397 1,742
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 £613 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 120 231
10th Percentile £18.93 £21.39 £22.00
25th Percentile £28.19 £26.46 £27.86
Median hourly rate £42.30 £36.24 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +16.72% -4.93% -8.80%
75th Percentile £65.75 £58.69 £48.88
90th Percentile £85.23 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.80% +5.59% -4.70%

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 45,370 29,720 33,385
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 90.44% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,958 18,627 21,372
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £729 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,804 1,656 1,869
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.33 £18.13
Median hourly rate £42.68 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +69.69% -37.63% -5.12%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.51
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.30 £40.94
% change year-on-year +88.67% -43.09% +2.35%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -26 1,795 £525 +2.44% 1,906
UK excluding London -36 977 £500 +6.38% 1,231
London -26 872 £550 +4.27% 844
Work from Home -23 628 £500 +4.17% 718
North of England -36 267 £475 -3.46% 284
South East -27 251 £500 - 350
North West -16 169 £475 - 146
Midlands -51 143 £539 +19.72% 216
South West -21 140 £436 -3.06% 150
West Midlands -66 95 £550 +17.27% 126
Yorkshire -39 92 £500 - 99
East of England -10 89 £525 +0.96% 137
Scotland -38 66 £500 +11.11% 60
East Midlands -17 48 £488 +27.28% 90
Northern Ireland -2 16 £447 -14.86% 29
Wales -14 13 £400 -5.88% 37
North East -43 8 £420 -12.95% 45

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 (5.34%) Confluence
2 104 (5.14%) SharePoint
3 35 (1.73%) CMS
4 22 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (0.74%) 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%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) JBoss
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.099%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.099%) SAS
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 184 (9.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 175 (8.65%) Microsoft Project
3 152 (7.51%) Microsoft Office
4 114 (5.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.13%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 9 (0.44%) 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%) Notion
13 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 74 (3.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.14%) Primavera
3 11 (0.54%) Magento
4 10 (0.49%) Adobe Campaign
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
7 7 (0.35%) SAP CO
7 7 (0.35%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
7 7 (0.35%) SAP HCM
8 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
8 6 (0.30%) SAP PS
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle Cash Management
9 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 178 (8.80%) Azure
2 116 (5.73%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.55%) SaaS
4 76 (3.76%) AWS
5 74 (3.66%) Microsoft 365
6 64 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (1.78%) Smartsheet
8 29 (1.43%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (0.99%) Asana
10 20 (0.99%) Entra ID
10 20 (0.99%) GCP
11 18 (0.89%) GitHub
12 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
12 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
12 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
13 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
13 11 (0.54%) OCI
13 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
14 9 (0.44%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 33 (1.63%) Network Security
2 25 (1.24%) WAN
3 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.09%) DNS
5 21 (1.04%) LAN
5 21 (1.04%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (0.89%) Firewall
7 15 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
8 14 (0.69%) Internet
8 14 (0.69%) SD-WAN
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 13 (0.64%) VPN
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) SAN
12 8 (0.40%) Wireless
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (5.14%) Power BI
2 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) SQL Server
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.64%) Metadata
5 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
5 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
6 8 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.40%) GIS
6 8 (0.40%) Power Query
7 7 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
7 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
8 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.20%) Big Data
10 3 (0.15%) EDMS
10 3 (0.15%) Looker
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 3 (0.15%) QlikView
10 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 251 (12.41%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 22 (1.09%) 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%) Selenium
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 884 (43.70%) Social Skills
2 745 (36.83%) Finance
3 335 (16.56%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (10.03%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.75%) Public Sector
6 147 (7.27%) Banking
7 141 (6.97%) Marketing
8 110 (5.44%) Retail
9 74 (3.66%) Legal
10 73 (3.61%) Manufacturing
11 69 (3.41%) Influencing Skills
12 63 (3.11%) Telecoms
13 46 (2.27%) Presentation Skills
14 36 (1.78%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.58%) Financial Institution
16 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
17 30 (1.48%) Aerospace
17 30 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
18 27 (1.33%) Front Office
18 27 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 810 (40.04%) Project Manager
2 205 (10.13%) Senior
3 172 (8.50%) Lead
4 169 (8.35%) Analyst
5 152 (7.51%) Senior Manager
6 126 (6.23%) Senior Project Manager
7 113 (5.59%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.50%) Programme Manager
9 90 (4.45%) IT Project Manager
10 82 (4.05%) Business Analyst
11 70 (3.46%) Technical Manager
12 66 (3.26%) Consultant
13 63 (3.11%) Delivery Manager
14 55 (2.72%) Infrastructure Manager
14 55 (2.72%) Technical Project Manager
15 43 (2.13%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 42 (2.08%) Project Officer
17 41 (2.03%) SC Cleared Project Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Data Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.24%) Middleware
2 22 (1.09%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (0.74%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) VML
6 12 (0.59%) SOAP
6 12 (0.59%) Web Services
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 10 (0.49%) .NET
8 10 (0.49%) OAuth
9 9 (0.44%) React
10 8 (0.40%) RESTful
11 7 (0.35%) CSS
11 7 (0.35%) XML
12 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.30%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.25%) FHIR
13 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 111 (5.49%) Management Information System
2 85 (4.20%) Onboarding
3 84 (4.15%) Product Ownership
4 70 (3.46%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.67%) PMI
6 53 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
7 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
8 35 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.29%) Operational Technology
11 24 (1.19%) FMCG
11 24 (1.19%) Social Media
12 20 (0.99%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.99%) Life Science
13 18 (0.89%) AI Agents
14 17 (0.84%) Credit Risk
15 16 (0.79%) EPoS
16 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 56 (2.77%) Windows
2 40 (1.98%) Linux
3 20 (0.99%) Unix
4 17 (0.84%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.35%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.15%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Android
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) AIX
11 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 802 (39.64%) Stakeholder Management
2 746 (36.88%) Agile
3 555 (27.43%) Project Delivery
4 456 (22.54%) PRINCE2
5 356 (17.60%) Problem-Solving
6 338 (16.71%) Continuous Improvement
7 333 (16.46%) Change Management
8 305 (15.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 296 (14.63%) Migration
10 255 (12.61%) Decision-Making
10 255 (12.61%) Risk Management
11 240 (11.86%) Waterfall
12 197 (9.74%) Scrum
13 189 (9.34%) AI
14 152 (7.51%) ERP
15 151 (7.46%) Project Governance
16 148 (7.32%) ITIL
16 148 (7.32%) Roadmaps
17 142 (7.02%) Budget Management
18 140 (6.92%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 78 (3.86%) SQL
2 63 (3.11%) Python
3 20 (0.99%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.74%) Java
5 12 (0.59%) VBA
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.35%) ABAP
7 7 (0.35%) C
8 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.20%) Ada
9 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
9 4 (0.20%) Korn
10 3 (0.15%) Bash
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 328 (16.21%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.62%) Degree
3 313 (15.47%) PMP
4 273 (13.49%) PMI Certification
5 224 (11.07%) SC Cleared
6 80 (3.95%) DV Cleared
7 68 (3.36%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) ACCA
8 29 (1.43%) CIMA
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 20 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 19 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (0.79%) APMP
12 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
15 11 (0.54%) CISM
16 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
16 10 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 246 (12.16%) PMO
2 97 (4.79%) QA
3 56 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) SLA
5 35 (1.73%) GDPR
6 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.33%) GRC
8 25 (1.24%) NIST
9 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
10 8 (0.40%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) MiFID
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (1.83%) Active Directory
2 17 (0.84%) 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
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
7 2 (0.099%) Hyper-V
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 19 (0.94%) Ansible
2 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 5 (0.25%) Terraform
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) Puppet
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.099%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.099%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 328 (16.21%) Microsoft
2 179 (8.85%) SAP
3 117 (5.78%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.15%) Oracle
5 55 (2.72%) Google
5 55 (2.72%) Salesforce
6 43 (2.13%) Adobe
7 30 (1.48%) VMware
8 28 (1.38%) Cisco
9 24 (1.19%) Workday
10 23 (1.14%) Sitecore
11 20 (0.99%) Atlassian
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 17 (0.84%) Databricks
14 16 (0.79%) Ariba
15 15 (0.74%) IBM
16 11 (0.54%) IFS
16 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 10 (0.49%) Alteryx
17 10 (0.49%) F5