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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -32 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,025 2,220 2,950
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.73% 7.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.46% 7.44% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,353 1,735
10th Percentile £312 £308 £303
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +2.10% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £617 £620 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 123 202
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.96 £27.00 £27.00
Median hourly rate £43.83 £36.48 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +20.13% -4.30% -5.88%
75th Percentile £63.77 £59.13 £48.75
90th Percentile £83.03 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.25 £38.12
% change year-on-year +11.80% +5.59% -4.16%

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 45,360 29,849 33,165
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.48% 85.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,797 18,603 21,010
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £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 2,875 1,763 1,706
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.27 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +7.39%

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 24 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 24 August 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 24 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 -29 1,785 £520 +0.97% 1,374
UK excluding London -32 978 £500 +5.26% 1,123
London -29 857 £550 +2.80% 462
Work from Home -26 623 £500 +4.17% 556
North of England -35 264 £475 -5.00% 259
South East -25 251 £500 - 336
North West -20 161 £474 -2.77% 142
Midlands -44 147 £534 +18.61% 181
South West -25 137 £444 -1.39% 174
West Midlands -52 98 £550 +17.27% 106
Yorkshire -31 96 £495 -1.00% 85
East of England -10 85 £515 -1.90% 119
Scotland -40 72 £475 +5.91% 45
East Midlands -16 49 £500 +12.42% 75
Northern Ireland -2 17 £430 -20.05% 13
Wales -23 13 £400 - 34
North East -40 9 £420 -12.95% 37
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 117 (5.78%) SharePoint
2 97 (4.79%) Confluence
3 36 (1.78%) CMS
4 28 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 190 (9.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 172 (8.49%) Microsoft Project
3 158 (7.80%) Microsoft Office
4 122 (6.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
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 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 65 (3.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.23%) Primavera
3 12 (0.59%) Adobe Campaign
3 12 (0.59%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.40%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.40%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.40%) SAP PS
6 6 (0.30%) ProductWriter
6 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.30%) SAP MM
6 6 (0.30%) Shopify
7 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
7 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 169 (8.35%) Azure
2 133 (6.57%) Power Platform
3 95 (4.69%) SaaS
4 85 (4.20%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.51%) AWS
6 63 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 26 (1.28%) Entra ID
10 25 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) GCP
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
14 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 14 (0.69%) PowerApps
15 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
15 13 (0.64%) OCI
15 13 (0.64%) OneDrive
15 13 (0.64%) Power Automate
16 12 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.78%) Network Security
2 29 (1.43%) WAN
3 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 23 (1.14%) DNS
4 23 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 21 (1.04%) Firewall
6 19 (0.94%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
7 15 (0.74%) VPN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 10 (0.49%) Wireless
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.40%) SAN
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (5.98%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.84%) Tableau
4 16 (0.79%) Metadata
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
7 9 (0.44%) Power Query
7 9 (0.44%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.40%) GIS
9 7 (0.35%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 4 (0.20%) Looker
13 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.15%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 251 (12.40%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Hudson
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.049%) Capybara
10 1 (0.049%) Gradle
10 1 (0.049%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.049%) Maven
10 1 (0.049%) RSpec
10 1 (0.049%) Selenium
10 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.049%) TestDirector
General
1 893 (44.10%) Social Skills
2 755 (37.28%) Finance
3 348 (17.19%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (9.83%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.74%) Public Sector
6 171 (8.44%) Banking
7 138 (6.81%) Marketing
8 119 (5.88%) Retail
9 78 (3.85%) Manufacturing
10 75 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
11 72 (3.56%) Legal
11 72 (3.56%) Telecoms
12 51 (2.52%) Presentation Skills
13 38 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 31 (1.53%) Aerospace
14 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.43%) Financial Institution
16 29 (1.43%) Front Office
17 28 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 813 (40.15%) Project Manager
2 195 (9.63%) Senior
3 176 (8.69%) Lead
4 161 (7.95%) Analyst
5 145 (7.16%) Senior Manager
6 114 (5.63%) Senior Project Manager
7 111 (5.48%) IT Manager
8 87 (4.30%) IT Project Manager
8 87 (4.30%) Programme Manager
9 84 (4.15%) Business Analyst
10 72 (3.56%) Technical Manager
11 67 (3.31%) Delivery Manager
12 66 (3.26%) Consultant
13 59 (2.91%) Technical Project Manager
14 50 (2.47%) Infrastructure Manager
15 44 (2.17%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 39 (1.93%) Project Officer
17 38 (1.88%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Coordinator
18 37 (1.83%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 21 (1.04%) REST
3 18 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
4 16 (0.79%) ADO
4 16 (0.79%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) OAuth
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) SOAP
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.40%) CSS
9 8 (0.40%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) Terraform
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 89 (4.40%) Product Ownership
3 88 (4.35%) Onboarding
4 65 (3.21%) Data Centre
5 51 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 49 (2.42%) PMI
7 46 (2.27%) Virtual Team
8 31 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.33%) Operational Technology
11 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
11 26 (1.28%) FMCG
12 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
13 24 (1.19%) Social Media
14 21 (1.04%) AI Agents
15 20 (0.99%) Credit Risk
16 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 19 (0.94%) Life Science
17 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
18 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 59 (2.91%) Windows
2 51 (2.52%) Linux
3 21 (1.04%) Unix
4 20 (0.99%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.25%) zOS
9 4 (0.20%) Android
9 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 859 (42.42%) Stakeholder Management
2 778 (38.42%) Agile
3 578 (28.54%) Project Delivery
4 461 (22.77%) PRINCE2
5 348 (17.19%) Problem-Solving
6 341 (16.84%) Change Management
7 340 (16.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 297 (14.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 288 (14.22%) Migration
10 260 (12.84%) Decision-Making
11 249 (12.30%) Risk Management
12 248 (12.25%) Waterfall
13 199 (9.83%) Scrum
14 196 (9.68%) AI
15 170 (8.40%) Project Governance
16 162 (8.00%) Roadmaps
17 153 (7.56%) ITIL
18 152 (7.51%) Analytics
19 144 (7.11%) Programme Management
19 144 (7.11%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 79 (3.90%) SQL
2 70 (3.46%) Python
3 19 (0.94%) JavaScript
4 17 (0.84%) Java
5 16 (0.79%) VBA
6 13 (0.64%) C++
7 10 (0.49%) C#
7 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.35%) Ada
9 7 (0.35%) C
10 5 (0.25%) Bash
10 5 (0.25%) Korn
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) ABAP
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 327 (16.15%) Security Cleared
2 316 (15.60%) Degree
3 307 (15.16%) PMP
4 267 (13.19%) PMI Certification
5 223 (11.01%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.75%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 23 (1.14%) ACCA
10 23 (1.14%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (0.84%) ITIL Certification
12 17 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) APMP
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.64%) CISSP
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.49%) CISM
16 10 (0.49%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (12.10%) PMO
2 102 (5.04%) QA
3 59 (2.91%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.78%) GDPR
5 29 (1.43%) SLA
6 26 (1.28%) GRC
7 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 20 (0.99%) NIST
9 9 (0.44%) P3O
10 8 (0.40%) EMIR
11 7 (0.35%) FINREP
11 7 (0.35%) GMP
11 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.30%) COREP
12 6 (0.30%) MiFID
13 5 (0.25%) HL7
13 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
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
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 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) BMC PATROL
9 1 (0.049%) BMC Performance Manager
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%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 346 (17.09%) Microsoft
2 160 (7.90%) SAP
3 112 (5.53%) ServiceNow
4 90 (4.44%) Oracle
5 57 (2.81%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.72%) Google
7 47 (2.32%) Adobe
8 37 (1.83%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 23 (1.14%) Atlassian
12 22 (1.09%) Workday
13 19 (0.94%) NEC
14 17 (0.84%) Ariba
15 16 (0.79%) Databricks
16 14 (0.69%) IBM
17 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
18 11 (0.54%) IFS
19 10 (0.49%) F5
19 10 (0.49%) Murex