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

6 months to
9 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 26 21
Rank change year-on-year -30 -5 +3
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,035 2,286 2,936
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.80% 6.90% 7.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.63% 8.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,249 1,400 1,757
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 £610
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 120 232
10th Percentile £19.97 £21.39 £21.33
25th Percentile £28.50 £26.46 £27.67
Median hourly rate £43.83 £36.24 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +20.93% -4.93% -8.80%
75th Percentile £66.00 £58.69 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.24 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +12.42% +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 45,550 29,973 33,247
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.00% 90.45% 85.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,063 18,757 21,325
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% -4.02%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £730 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,827 1,692 1,840
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.30 £18.25
Median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +72.96% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.27
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.47% +12.73%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -25 1,804 £525 +2.44% 1,947
UK excluding London -35 980 £500 +6.38% 1,253
London -26 879 £550 +2.80% 872
Work from Home -23 631 £500 +4.17% 732
North of England -37 267 £475 -3.01% 293
South East -23 252 £500 - 358
North West -17 168 £475 - 154
Midlands -50 144 £540 +20.00% 215
South West -21 140 £435 -3.33% 148
West Midlands -57 96 £550 +16.53% 128
Yorkshire -38 93 £500 - 97
East of England -3 89 £525 +0.48% 139
Scotland -38 66 £500 +11.11% 62
East Midlands -15 48 £488 +21.27% 87
Northern Ireland 0 17 £430 -18.14% 29
Wales -22 13 £400 -5.88% 37
North East -44 8 £420 -12.95% 49

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
1 107 (5.26%) Confluence
2 106 (5.21%) SharePoint
3 36 (1.77%) CMS
4 23 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) Sitecore CMS
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.29%) Apache
7 6 (0.29%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.29%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) JBoss
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.098%) SAS
12 1 (0.049%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 186 (9.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 175 (8.60%) Microsoft Project
3 153 (7.52%) Microsoft Office
4 116 (5.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 44 (2.16%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.13%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 9 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.29%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.29%) 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 (0.098%) Houdini
12 2 (0.098%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) Notion
13 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 72 (3.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.18%) 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%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
6 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
6 7 (0.34%) SAP HCM
7 6 (0.29%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.29%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.29%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle Cash Management
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 178 (8.75%) Azure
2 119 (5.85%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.52%) SaaS
4 75 (3.69%) AWS
4 75 (3.69%) Microsoft 365
5 64 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (1.77%) Smartsheet
7 29 (1.43%) Google Workspace
8 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
9 21 (1.03%) Entra ID
10 20 (0.98%) Asana
10 20 (0.98%) GCP
11 18 (0.88%) 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 (1.62%) Network Security
2 24 (1.18%) WAN
3 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.08%) DNS
5 21 (1.03%) LAN
5 21 (1.03%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (0.88%) 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 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
12 8 (0.39%) Wireless
13 7 (0.34%) DKIM
13 7 (0.34%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 107 (5.26%) Power BI
2 18 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (0.74%) Data Lake
3 15 (0.74%) SQL Server
3 15 (0.74%) Tableau
4 13 (0.64%) Metadata
5 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
5 9 (0.44%) Power Query
5 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
6 8 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.39%) GIS
7 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
7 7 (0.34%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.29%) Big Data
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.20%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) QlikView
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 251 (12.33%) JIRA
2 28 (1.38%) Git
3 22 (1.08%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.34%) GitLab
6 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.098%) Hudson
7 2 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.098%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.049%) Appium
8 1 (0.049%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) minitest
8 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.049%) Snyk
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 889 (43.69%) Social Skills
2 745 (36.61%) Finance
3 341 (16.76%) Analytical Skills
4 204 (10.02%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.70%) Public Sector
6 152 (7.47%) Banking
7 144 (7.08%) Marketing
8 114 (5.60%) Retail
9 75 (3.69%) Legal
9 75 (3.69%) Manufacturing
10 70 (3.44%) Influencing Skills
11 64 (3.14%) Telecoms
12 46 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
13 37 (1.82%) Investment Banking
14 32 (1.57%) Financial Institution
15 31 (1.52%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
16 30 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
17 28 (1.38%) Front Office
18 27 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 816 (40.10%) Project Manager
2 206 (10.12%) Senior
3 175 (8.60%) Lead
4 167 (8.21%) Analyst
5 152 (7.47%) Senior Manager
6 126 (6.19%) Senior Project Manager
7 114 (5.60%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.47%) IT Project Manager
8 91 (4.47%) Programme Manager
9 82 (4.03%) Business Analyst
10 71 (3.49%) Technical Manager
11 66 (3.24%) Consultant
12 63 (3.10%) Delivery Manager
13 56 (2.75%) Technical Project Manager
14 55 (2.70%) Infrastructure Manager
15 43 (2.11%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 43 (2.11%) Project Officer
16 40 (1.97%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 37 (1.82%) Data Manager
17 37 (1.82%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 22 (1.08%) 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 (0.39%) RESTful
11 7 (0.34%) CSS
11 7 (0.34%) XML
12 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.29%) SailPoint
13 5 (0.25%) FHIR
13 5 (0.25%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.36%) Management Information System
2 85 (4.18%) Onboarding
2 85 (4.18%) Product Ownership
3 70 (3.44%) Data Centre
4 54 (2.65%) PMI
5 53 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
6 46 (2.26%) Virtual Team
7 34 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
9 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.23%) Social Media
11 24 (1.18%) FMCG
12 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.98%) Life Science
13 18 (0.88%) AI Agents
14 17 (0.84%) Credit Risk
15 16 (0.79%) EPoS
16 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 56 (2.75%) Windows
2 43 (2.11%) Linux
3 20 (0.98%) Unix
4 17 (0.84%) Windows Server
5 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 3 (0.15%) Android
8 3 (0.15%) Solaris
9 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.049%) AIX
10 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 811 (39.85%) Stakeholder Management
2 754 (37.05%) Agile
3 561 (27.57%) Project Delivery
4 458 (22.51%) PRINCE2
5 356 (17.49%) Problem-Solving
6 342 (16.81%) Continuous Improvement
7 333 (16.36%) Change Management
8 305 (14.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 296 (14.55%) Migration
10 256 (12.58%) Risk Management
11 255 (12.53%) Decision-Making
12 242 (11.89%) Waterfall
13 198 (9.73%) Scrum
14 190 (9.34%) AI
15 152 (7.47%) Project Governance
16 150 (7.37%) ITIL
17 149 (7.32%) ERP
18 148 (7.27%) Roadmaps
19 143 (7.03%) Analytics
20 142 (6.98%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.03%) SQL
2 65 (3.19%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
5 13 (0.64%) VBA
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.34%) ABAP
7 7 (0.34%) C
8 5 (0.25%) Korn
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%) Bash
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 327 (16.07%) Security Cleared
2 319 (15.68%) Degree
3 312 (15.33%) PMP
4 274 (13.46%) PMI Certification
5 223 (10.96%) SC Cleared
6 80 (3.93%) DV Cleared
7 69 (3.39%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.47%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) ACCA
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
9 28 (1.38%) CIMA
10 20 (0.98%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 19 (0.93%) 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
1 248 (12.19%) PMO
2 97 (4.77%) QA
3 56 (2.75%) Data Quality
4 35 (1.72%) GDPR
4 35 (1.72%) SLA
5 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 27 (1.33%) GRC
7 25 (1.23%) NIST
8 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
9 8 (0.39%) EMIR
9 8 (0.39%) MiFID
9 8 (0.39%) P3O
10 7 (0.34%) FINREP
10 7 (0.34%) GMP
11 6 (0.29%) COREP
11 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 38 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 19 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.34%) 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 (0.098%) Firmware
7 2 (0.098%) 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 (0.93%) Ansible
2 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 5 (0.25%) Puppet
4 5 (0.25%) Terraform
5 4 (0.20%) Failover Clustering
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
5 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Satellite
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Nessus
8 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
Vendors
1 331 (16.27%) Microsoft
2 177 (8.70%) SAP
3 117 (5.75%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.13%) Oracle
5 56 (2.75%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.70%) Google
7 44 (2.16%) Adobe
8 32 (1.57%) VMware
9 30 (1.47%) Cisco
10 24 (1.18%) Workday
11 23 (1.13%) Sitecore
12 21 (1.03%) Atlassian
13 19 (0.93%) Databricks
13 19 (0.93%) NEC
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