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 18 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 25 22
Rank change year-on-year -26 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,056 2,327 3,143
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.89% 7.15% 7.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.57% 7.91% 8.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,262 1,430 1,893
10th Percentile £313 £308 £308
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £612 £608
90th Percentile £737 £725 £722
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £468 £500
% change year-on-year +6.78% -6.35% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 126 262
10th Percentile £17.57 £21.50 £20.50
25th Percentile £21.00 £29.00 £27.56
Median hourly rate £39.04 £42.07 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year -7.20% +10.36% -15.29%
75th Percentile £58.75 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £84.75 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £44.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year -14.77% +15.42% -15.29%

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 45,026 29,407 35,968
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.11% 90.34% 85.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,974 18,494 23,016
10th Percentile £325 £300 £301
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,654 1,554 2,302
10th Percentile £14.87 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.01 £17.37 £16.71
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.50 £51.55 £62.00
90th Percentile £82.46 £70.00 £73.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.33 £38.20
% change year-on-year +84.96% -36.30% -4.51%

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 18 July 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 18 July 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 18 July 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 -22 1,832 £525 +2.54% 1,034
UK excluding London -29 1,028 £500 +6.78% 798
London -25 862 £572 +5.90% 383
Work from Home -24 623 £500 +4.28% 349
North of England -26 297 £475 - 211
South East -21 262 £500 +4.17% 252
North West -11 189 £475 +5.56% 114
Midlands -40 158 £525 +16.67% 119
South West -24 133 £450 - 84
West Midlands -52 111 £550 +17.27% 73
Yorkshire -35 101 £498 -0.50% 77
East of England -6 92 £525 +5.00% 83
Scotland -43 65 £500 +11.11% 30
East Midlands -10 47 £488 +20.22% 46
Northern Ireland -5 18 £449 -14.57% 16
Wales -18 15 £400 -13.98% 22
North East -34 11 £420 -17.24% 21

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
1 112 (5.45%) Confluence
2 104 (5.06%) SharePoint
3 27 (1.31%) CMS
4 21 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
5 10 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.29%) WordPress
8 5 (0.24%) Apache
8 5 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 5 (0.24%) Moodle
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.097%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.097%) Sitecore CMS
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Superset
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 189 (9.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 172 (8.37%) Microsoft Project
3 148 (7.20%) Microsoft Office
4 124 (6.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.09%) MS Visio
6 22 (1.07%) Spreadsheet
7 12 (0.58%) Trello
8 7 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 7 (0.34%) Chatbot
9 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.19%) Simulink
10 4 (0.19%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.097%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.097%) Houdini
12 2 (0.097%) InDesign
12 2 (0.097%) NUKE
13 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.049%) AutoCAD
13 1 (0.049%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 84 (4.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.07%) Primavera
3 9 (0.44%) Magento
4 8 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.39%) SAP HCM
5 7 (0.34%) Adobe Campaign
5 7 (0.34%) Loan IQ
5 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
5 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
6 6 (0.29%) ProductWriter
6 6 (0.29%) SAP MM
6 6 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
6 6 (0.29%) Shopify
6 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
7 5 (0.24%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 175 (8.51%) Azure
2 110 (5.35%) Power Platform
3 88 (4.28%) SaaS
4 82 (3.99%) AWS
5 76 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
6 57 (2.77%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (1.51%) Smartsheet
8 27 (1.31%) Google Workspace
9 24 (1.17%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (1.07%) Entra ID
10 22 (1.07%) GCP
11 20 (0.97%) Asana
12 16 (0.78%) GitHub
13 12 (0.58%) IaaS
13 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
14 11 (0.54%) Google Sheets
14 11 (0.54%) OCI
15 10 (0.49%) Cloud Computing
15 10 (0.49%) Snowflake
15 10 (0.49%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 26 (1.26%) Network Security
2 23 (1.12%) TCP/IP
2 23 (1.12%) WAN
3 21 (1.02%) DNS
4 19 (0.92%) LAN
4 19 (0.92%) Structured Cabling
5 16 (0.78%) Firewall
6 14 (0.68%) Intranet
6 14 (0.68%) SD-WAN
6 14 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (0.63%) MPLS
8 12 (0.58%) DHCP
8 12 (0.58%) VPN
9 11 (0.54%) Internet
10 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 9 (0.44%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
13 7 (0.34%) DKIM
13 7 (0.34%) DMARC
13 7 (0.34%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (4.96%) Power BI
2 14 (0.68%) SQL Server
2 14 (0.68%) Tableau
3 13 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (0.63%) Metadata
4 12 (0.58%) Data Lake
5 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
5 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
6 8 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.39%) Power Query
6 8 (0.39%) SAP HANA
7 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
8 5 (0.24%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.24%) GIS
9 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.15%) EDMS
10 3 (0.15%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.15%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 253 (12.31%) JIRA
2 22 (1.07%) Git
3 19 (0.92%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.34%) GitLab
6 2 (0.097%) Hudson
6 2 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (0.097%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.097%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.097%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.049%) Capybara
7 1 (0.049%) Gradle
7 1 (0.049%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.049%) LSMW
7 1 (0.049%) MSI
7 1 (0.049%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.049%) RSpec
7 1 (0.049%) TestDirector
General
1 902 (43.87%) Social Skills
2 766 (37.26%) Finance
3 327 (15.90%) Analytical Skills
4 201 (9.78%) Organisational Skills
5 180 (8.75%) Public Sector
6 146 (7.10%) Banking
7 131 (6.37%) Marketing
8 115 (5.59%) Retail
9 79 (3.84%) Influencing Skills
9 79 (3.84%) Manufacturing
10 76 (3.70%) Legal
11 53 (2.58%) Presentation Skills
12 51 (2.48%) Telecoms
13 39 (1.90%) Investment Banking
14 33 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
15 32 (1.56%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.41%) Front Office
17 28 (1.36%) Aerospace
17 28 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
18 24 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 831 (40.42%) Project Manager
2 208 (10.12%) Senior
3 203 (9.87%) Analyst
4 166 (8.07%) Lead
5 151 (7.34%) Senior Manager
6 128 (6.23%) Senior Project Manager
7 108 (5.25%) IT Manager
8 103 (5.01%) Business Analyst
9 89 (4.33%) IT Project Manager
10 86 (4.18%) Programme Manager
11 66 (3.21%) Consultant
11 66 (3.21%) Technical Manager
12 57 (2.77%) Delivery Manager
13 56 (2.72%) Infrastructure Manager
14 53 (2.58%) Technical Project Manager
15 46 (2.24%) Architect
16 45 (2.19%) Project Officer
17 43 (2.09%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 39 (1.90%) SC Cleared Project Manager
19 37 (1.80%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (1.46%) Middleware
2 17 (0.83%) REST
3 15 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (0.68%) HTML
4 14 (0.68%) OAuth
5 13 (0.63%) ADO
5 13 (0.63%) VML
5 13 (0.63%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) CSS
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 9 (0.44%) React
7 9 (0.44%) SOAP
8 8 (0.39%) .NET
8 8 (0.39%) RESTful
9 7 (0.34%) SailPoint
9 7 (0.34%) SAML
9 7 (0.34%) XML
10 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
10 6 (0.29%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 109 (5.30%) Management Information System
2 89 (4.33%) Onboarding
3 78 (3.79%) Product Ownership
4 69 (3.36%) Data Centre
5 62 (3.02%) Data Protection Act
6 55 (2.68%) PMI
7 44 (2.14%) Virtual Team
8 33 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
10 28 (1.36%) FMCG
11 25 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
12 24 (1.17%) Operational Technology
12 24 (1.17%) Social Media
13 22 (1.07%) Life Science
14 20 (0.97%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.92%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.83%) EPoS
17 16 (0.78%) NHS
18 15 (0.73%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 52 (2.53%) Windows
2 32 (1.56%) Linux
3 21 (1.02%) Unix
4 14 (0.68%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.29%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.24%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.097%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.097%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) Android
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 770 (37.45%) Stakeholder Management
2 749 (36.43%) Agile
3 545 (26.51%) Project Delivery
4 414 (20.14%) PRINCE2
5 381 (18.53%) Problem-Solving
6 343 (16.68%) Change Management
7 338 (16.44%) Continuous Improvement
8 322 (15.66%) Migration
9 316 (15.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 261 (12.69%) Decision-Making
11 253 (12.31%) Risk Management
12 249 (12.11%) Waterfall
13 193 (9.39%) Scrum
14 192 (9.34%) AI
15 165 (8.03%) ERP
16 145 (7.05%) Budget Management
17 139 (6.76%) Roadmaps
18 135 (6.57%) Analytics
18 135 (6.57%) Data Migration
18 135 (6.57%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 80 (3.89%) SQL
2 63 (3.06%) Python
3 20 (0.97%) JavaScript
4 15 (0.73%) VBA
5 10 (0.49%) C++
5 10 (0.49%) Java
5 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
6 9 (0.44%) C#
7 8 (0.39%) ABAP
7 8 (0.39%) C
7 8 (0.39%) PowerShell
8 5 (0.24%) Apex Code
8 5 (0.24%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.24%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.19%) Ada
9 4 (0.19%) JCL
9 4 (0.19%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
10 3 (0.15%) SOQL
10 3 (0.15%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 310 (15.08%) Degree
2 306 (14.88%) Security Cleared
3 302 (14.69%) PMP
4 269 (13.08%) PMI Certification
5 214 (10.41%) SC Cleared
6 67 (3.26%) DV Cleared
7 59 (2.87%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 36 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
9 32 (1.56%) Master's Degree
10 31 (1.51%) ACCA
10 31 (1.51%) CIMA
11 19 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (0.88%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 17 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
14 16 (0.78%) CISSP
15 14 (0.68%) APMP
16 12 (0.58%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.54%) CISM
18 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
18 10 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 246 (11.96%) PMO
2 108 (5.25%) QA
3 59 (2.87%) Data Quality
4 40 (1.95%) GDPR
5 37 (1.80%) SLA
6 28 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.22%) NIST
8 22 (1.07%) GRC
9 21 (1.02%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.44%) EMIR
11 7 (0.34%) GMP
11 7 (0.34%) MiFID
12 6 (0.29%) FINREP
12 6 (0.29%) P3O
12 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.24%) COREP
13 5 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.24%) HL7
13 5 (0.24%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 37 (1.80%) Active Directory
2 13 (0.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.24%) RACF
5 4 (0.19%) NFS
5 4 (0.19%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.19%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.19%) vSphere
6 2 (0.097%) Docker
6 2 (0.097%) Firmware
7 1 (0.049%) ACF2
7 1 (0.049%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.049%) IAG
7 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (0.88%) Ansible
2 17 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.19%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.19%) RSA Archer
6 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
6 3 (0.15%) Terraform
7 2 (0.097%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) logstash
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Nessus
8 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 327 (15.90%) Microsoft
2 190 (9.24%) SAP
3 118 (5.74%) ServiceNow
4 80 (3.89%) Oracle
5 58 (2.82%) Salesforce
6 49 (2.38%) Google
7 38 (1.85%) Adobe
8 25 (1.22%) Cisco
8 25 (1.22%) VMware
9 19 (0.92%) Workday
10 18 (0.88%) Ariba
10 18 (0.88%) Sitecore
11 17 (0.83%) Databricks
12 15 (0.73%) Atlassian
12 15 (0.73%) IBM
13 14 (0.68%) NEC
14 11 (0.54%) F5
14 11 (0.54%) IFS
14 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
15 10 (0.49%) Alteryx