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 12 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -31 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,045 2,115 2,955
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.75% 6.41% 7.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.43% 7.08% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,260 1,267 1,704
10th Percentile £312 £308 £310
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £616
90th Percentile £725 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 120 167
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.30 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.08 £25.25 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.25 £34.50 £37.28
Median % change year-on-year +31.16% -7.46% -9.07%
75th Percentile £62.83 £57.69 £54.38
90th Percentile £83.03 £73.88 £67.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.75 £36.51 £38.12
% change year-on-year +30.79% -4.22% -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 46,152 29,871 33,024
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.49% 85.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,085 18,553 20,430
10th Percentile £325 £300 £311
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
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 3,056 1,793 1,507
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.44 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.92%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.78 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.50 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.58 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.32% -47.50% +7.50%

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 12 September 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 12 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Top 18 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 12 September 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 -29 1,800 £520 -0.14% 2,608
UK excluding London -36 969 £500 +6.61% 1,543
London -29 878 £550 - 1,316
Work from Home -21 631 £500 +4.17% 1,162
North of England -36 261 £475 -3.46% 309
South East -20 259 £500 - 449
North West -22 161 £475 -3.46% 156
Midlands -51 142 £538 +16.22% 271
South West -25 134 £472 +4.89% 188
West Midlands -58 94 £550 +17.27% 160
Yorkshire -32 92 £475 -5.00% 109
East of England -9 79 £525 -0.57% 169
Scotland -35 76 £490 +14.62% 95
East Midlands -20 48 £525 +17.45% 111
Northern Ireland -8 13 £444 -11.25% 46
Wales -25 12 £400 - 43
North East -45 10 £420 +3.07% 47
Channel Islands - 3 £600 - 1

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
1 125 (6.11%) SharePoint
2 104 (5.09%) Confluence
3 35 (1.71%) CMS
4 29 (1.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.88%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.29%) Apache
8 6 (0.29%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.29%) JBoss
8 6 (0.29%) WordPress
9 5 (0.24%) Moodle
9 5 (0.24%) SAS
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.098%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) nginx
Applications
1 200 (9.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 173 (8.46%) Microsoft Project
3 163 (7.97%) Microsoft Office
4 129 (6.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.10%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.68%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.29%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.24%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.098%) Houdini
13 2 (0.098%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 60 (2.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.12%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 11 (0.54%) SAP CO
4 11 (0.54%) SAP FI
4 11 (0.54%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.29%) SAP SD
8 6 (0.29%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.24%) SAP PM
9 5 (0.24%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 185 (9.05%) Azure
2 138 (6.75%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.50%) SaaS
4 89 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
5 73 (3.57%) AWS
6 72 (3.52%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (1.81%) Smartsheet
8 32 (1.56%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.37%) Entra ID
10 26 (1.27%) Dynamics 365
11 19 (0.93%) Asana
11 19 (0.93%) GCP
12 17 (0.83%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.78%) GitHub
13 16 (0.78%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.73%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.68%) Microsoft Copilot
16 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
17 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
18 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 38 (1.86%) Network Security
2 27 (1.32%) WAN
3 25 (1.22%) DNS
4 24 (1.17%) Firewall
4 24 (1.17%) TCP/IP
5 22 (1.08%) LAN
6 18 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
7 14 (0.68%) DHCP
7 14 (0.68%) VPN
8 13 (0.64%) Intranet
8 13 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (0.59%) BGP
9 12 (0.59%) Internet
10 11 (0.54%) SD-WAN
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 9 (0.44%) Radio Access Network
11 9 (0.44%) SAN
12 8 (0.39%) 3GPP
12 8 (0.39%) LTE
12 8 (0.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (6.11%) Power BI
2 19 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
2 19 (0.93%) Metadata
3 17 (0.83%) Tableau
4 14 (0.68%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.44%) Power Query
8 8 (0.39%) GIS
9 7 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (0.34%) Big Data
10 6 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
10 6 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.24%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.24%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.24%) Looker
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) BigQuery
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 265 (12.96%) JIRA
2 29 (1.42%) Git
3 20 (0.98%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 6 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 5 (0.24%) GitLab
6 5 (0.24%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.098%) Selenium
9 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.049%) Capybara
10 1 (0.049%) git-flow
10 1 (0.049%) Gradle
10 1 (0.049%) Hudson
10 1 (0.049%) Maven
10 1 (0.049%) RSpec
10 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 901 (44.06%) Social Skills
2 776 (37.95%) Finance
3 337 (16.48%) Analytical Skills
4 208 (10.17%) Organisational Skills
5 181 (8.85%) Public Sector
6 173 (8.46%) Banking
7 130 (6.36%) Marketing
8 117 (5.72%) Retail
9 87 (4.25%) Influencing Skills
10 75 (3.67%) Telecoms
11 72 (3.52%) Manufacturing
12 70 (3.42%) Legal
13 58 (2.84%) Presentation Skills
14 39 (1.91%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.52%) Aerospace
15 31 (1.52%) Front Office
16 29 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.42%) Local Government
16 29 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
17 28 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 812 (39.71%) Project Manager
2 191 (9.34%) Senior
3 182 (8.90%) Lead
4 151 (7.38%) Analyst
5 140 (6.85%) Senior Manager
6 118 (5.77%) IT Manager
7 109 (5.33%) Senior Project Manager
8 88 (4.30%) IT Project Manager
9 83 (4.06%) Business Analyst
9 83 (4.06%) Programme Manager
10 79 (3.86%) Technical Manager
11 75 (3.67%) Consultant
12 72 (3.52%) Delivery Manager
13 63 (3.08%) Technical Project Manager
14 45 (2.20%) Infrastructure Manager
15 41 (2.00%) Coordinator
15 41 (2.00%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 38 (1.86%) Project Officer
17 36 (1.76%) Architect
17 36 (1.76%) Project Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.08%) Middleware
2 20 (0.98%) REST
3 17 (0.83%) ADO
4 15 (0.73%) HTML
5 14 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
6 13 (0.64%) Web Services
7 12 (0.59%) VML
8 11 (0.54%) .NET
8 11 (0.54%) JSON
9 10 (0.49%) OAuth
10 9 (0.44%) React
10 9 (0.44%) SOAP
11 7 (0.34%) CSS
11 7 (0.34%) pytest
11 7 (0.34%) RESTful
12 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.29%) Terraform
12 6 (0.29%) XML
13 5 (0.24%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 118 (5.77%) Management Information System
2 101 (4.94%) Product Ownership
3 91 (4.45%) Onboarding
4 63 (3.08%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.64%) Data Protection Act
6 49 (2.40%) Virtual Team
7 43 (2.10%) PMI
8 31 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.32%) FMCG
10 27 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
11 26 (1.27%) Operational Technology
12 25 (1.22%) Social Media
13 23 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
14 22 (1.08%) Credit Risk
14 22 (1.08%) Life Science
15 20 (0.98%) AI Agents
16 16 (0.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 16 (0.78%) Mobile App
17 15 (0.73%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 62 (3.03%) Windows
2 58 (2.84%) Linux
3 24 (1.17%) Unix
3 24 (1.17%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.34%) Windows 10
5 7 (0.34%) zOS
6 5 (0.24%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.20%) Android
7 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.098%) Solaris
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.049%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 911 (44.55%) Stakeholder Management
2 785 (38.39%) Agile
3 596 (29.14%) Project Delivery
4 455 (22.25%) PRINCE2
5 344 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
6 341 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
7 335 (16.38%) Change Management
8 296 (14.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 291 (14.23%) Migration
10 278 (13.59%) Decision-Making
11 258 (12.62%) Risk Management
12 253 (12.37%) Waterfall
13 216 (10.56%) AI
14 208 (10.17%) Scrum
15 194 (9.49%) Project Governance
16 165 (8.07%) Roadmaps
17 163 (7.97%) Programme Management
18 162 (7.92%) Project Planning
19 157 (7.68%) Analytics
20 152 (7.43%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 75 (3.67%) SQL
2 69 (3.37%) Python
3 18 (0.88%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.83%) Java
5 16 (0.78%) VBA
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
8 9 (0.44%) PowerShell
9 8 (0.39%) Korn
9 8 (0.39%) TypeScript
10 7 (0.34%) Ada
10 7 (0.34%) Bash
10 7 (0.34%) C
11 5 (0.24%) MATLAB
11 5 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.20%) JCL
13 3 (0.15%) ABAP
13 3 (0.15%) REXX
14 2 (0.098%) R
Qualifications
1 328 (16.04%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.40%) Degree
3 302 (14.77%) PMP
4 260 (12.71%) PMI Certification
5 225 (11.00%) SC Cleared
6 75 (3.67%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 73 (3.57%) DV Cleared
8 33 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
9 25 (1.22%) Master's Degree
10 20 (0.98%) ACCA
10 20 (0.98%) CIMA
11 17 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
12 15 (0.73%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.73%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 14 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (0.68%) ISTQB
14 13 (0.64%) APMP
14 13 (0.64%) CISSP
15 10 (0.49%) CISM
15 10 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (12.81%) PMO
2 104 (5.09%) QA
3 53 (2.59%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.81%) GDPR
5 24 (1.17%) Accessibility
5 24 (1.17%) GRC
5 24 (1.17%) SLA
6 22 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 19 (0.93%) NIST
8 9 (0.44%) P3O
9 7 (0.34%) FINREP
9 7 (0.34%) GMP
10 6 (0.29%) COREP
10 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (0.29%) EMIR
10 6 (0.29%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (0.24%) HL7
11 5 (0.24%) MiFID
11 5 (0.24%) WCAG
System Software
1 42 (2.05%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.29%) vSphere
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
6 4 (0.20%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.098%) Docker
8 2 (0.098%) Firmware
9 1 (0.049%) ACF2
9 1 (0.049%) IAG
9 1 (0.049%) RACF
9 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
9 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (1.08%) Ansible
2 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.29%) Puppet
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.24%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.24%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.098%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.098%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.098%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 370 (18.09%) Microsoft
2 157 (7.68%) SAP
3 109 (5.33%) ServiceNow
4 85 (4.16%) Oracle
5 55 (2.69%) Salesforce
6 48 (2.35%) Google
7 45 (2.20%) Adobe
8 41 (2.00%) VMware
9 29 (1.42%) Cisco
10 23 (1.12%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.03%) Atlassian
11 21 (1.03%) Workday
12 19 (0.93%) Ariba
12 19 (0.93%) NEC
13 18 (0.88%) Databricks
14 16 (0.78%) IBM
15 14 (0.68%) Planview
16 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.54%) Dell
17 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards