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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 65 31 22
Rank change year-on-year -34 -9 -1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 1,986 2,004 2,924
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.64% 6.04% 7.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.31% 6.68% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,203 1,235 1,650
10th Percentile £308 £313 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -1.44% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £612
90th Percentile £725 £727 £714
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 126 136
10th Percentile £21.00 £20.21 £21.25
25th Percentile £33.16 £23.50 £26.61
Median hourly rate £50.00 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.06% -2.86% -17.65%
75th Percentile £64.44 £58.06 £50.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £65.00 £66.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £33.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year +61.46% -3.56% -17.65%

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 46,102 30,004 32,672
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.46% 86.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,718 18,629 19,703
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,326 1,885 1,303
10th Percentile £13.58 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -8.31%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.52 £65.00 £73.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £41.25
% change year-on-year +68.43% -46.02% -2.94%

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 October 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 October 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 9 October 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 1,745 £525 - 4,256
UK excluding London -38 951 £500 +5.26% 2,289
London -31 832 £550 - 2,181
Work from Home -22 606 £500 +1.63% 1,562
South East -22 259 £500 - 598
North of England -30 259 £475 -5.00% 502
North West -27 147 £500 +1.63% 269
Midlands -48 143 £544 +14.47% 342
South West -19 129 £475 +5.56% 249
Yorkshire -6 106 £473 -5.50% 187
West Midlands -58 93 £550 +11.79% 206
East of England -20 74 £510 -1.92% 272
Scotland -39 74 £480 +7.02% 185
East Midlands -22 50 £538 +19.44% 136
Wales -23 11 £475 +26.67% 62
Northern Ireland -10 9 £394 -28.41% 116
North East -43 8 £420 +3.07% 48
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
1 122 (6.14%) SharePoint
2 96 (4.83%) Confluence
3 32 (1.61%) CMS
4 23 (1.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 22 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
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%) SAS
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
10 4 (0.20%) Moodle
11 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.10%) FactoryTalk
12 2 (0.10%) WinCC
13 1 (0.050%) Apache Spark
13 1 (0.050%) Appian
13 1 (0.050%) Camunda
Applications
1 197 (9.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 168 (8.46%) Microsoft Project
3 155 (7.80%) Microsoft Office
4 117 (5.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 37 (1.86%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
7 12 (0.60%) Trello
8 9 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Windchill
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) AutoCAD
12 3 (0.15%) Photoshop
13 2 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
13 2 (0.10%) Houdini
13 2 (0.10%) InDesign
13 2 (0.10%) NUKE
14 1 (0.050%) Navisworks
14 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 57 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.16%) Primavera
3 14 (0.70%) Adobe Campaign
4 13 (0.65%) Magento
5 12 (0.60%) SAP PS
6 11 (0.55%) SAP CO
6 11 (0.55%) SAP FI
7 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 8 (0.40%) NetSuite
8 8 (0.40%) Teamcenter
9 7 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
10 6 (0.30%) NEC Housing
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
10 6 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
10 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
10 6 (0.30%) SAP SD
10 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
11 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
11 5 (0.25%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 178 (8.96%) Azure
2 133 (6.70%) Power Platform
3 83 (4.18%) SaaS
4 79 (3.98%) Microsoft 365
5 73 (3.68%) Azure DevOps
6 65 (3.27%) AWS
7 35 (1.76%) Smartsheet
8 34 (1.71%) Google Workspace
9 28 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
9 28 (1.41%) Entra ID
10 25 (1.26%) GCP
11 19 (0.96%) Asana
12 17 (0.86%) PowerApps
13 16 (0.81%) GitHub
13 16 (0.81%) Microsoft Copilot
14 14 (0.70%) OneDrive
14 14 (0.70%) Power Automate
14 14 (0.70%) SuccessFactors
15 10 (0.50%) Amazon S3
15 10 (0.50%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.86%) Network Security
2 25 (1.26%) WAN
3 24 (1.21%) DNS
3 24 (1.21%) Firewall
4 20 (1.01%) LAN
5 18 (0.91%) TCP/IP
6 17 (0.86%) Structured Cabling
7 13 (0.65%) VPN
7 13 (0.65%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.60%) Wireless
9 11 (0.55%) BGP
9 11 (0.55%) Internet
9 11 (0.55%) Intranet
10 10 (0.50%) DHCP
11 9 (0.45%) Radio Access Network
12 8 (0.40%) 4G
12 8 (0.40%) 5G
12 8 (0.40%) LTE
12 8 (0.40%) VLAN
12 8 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (5.99%) Power BI
2 19 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.91%) Metadata
4 15 (0.76%) Tableau
5 14 (0.70%) Data Lake
5 14 (0.70%) SQL Server
6 9 (0.45%) GIS
7 8 (0.40%) Power Query
8 7 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
8 7 (0.35%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.30%) Big Data
9 6 (0.30%) Qlik Sense
10 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 5 (0.25%) Looker
11 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.20%) EDMS
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 260 (13.09%) JIRA
2 29 (1.46%) Git
3 19 (0.96%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.55%) Rational DOORS
5 8 (0.40%) Subversion
6 7 (0.35%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.20%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.10%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.050%) Hudson
10 1 (0.050%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.050%) Postman
10 1 (0.050%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.050%) Snyk
10 1 (0.050%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.050%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.050%) TestRail
General
1 897 (45.17%) Social Skills
2 772 (38.87%) Finance
3 311 (15.66%) Analytical Skills
4 214 (10.78%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.91%) Banking
6 172 (8.66%) Public Sector
7 119 (5.99%) Marketing
8 105 (5.29%) Influencing Skills
9 104 (5.24%) Retail
10 86 (4.33%) Manufacturing
11 67 (3.37%) Legal
11 67 (3.37%) Telecoms
12 59 (2.97%) Presentation Skills
13 43 (2.17%) Aerospace
14 35 (1.76%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.51%) Local Government
16 29 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 27 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
18 25 (1.26%) Aviation
18 25 (1.26%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 808 (40.68%) Project Manager
2 178 (8.96%) Senior
3 169 (8.51%) Lead
4 136 (6.85%) Senior Manager
5 120 (6.04%) Analyst
6 114 (5.74%) IT Manager
7 102 (5.14%) Senior Project Manager
8 89 (4.48%) Programme Manager
9 86 (4.33%) IT Project Manager
10 85 (4.28%) Delivery Manager
11 84 (4.23%) Technical Manager
12 74 (3.73%) Consultant
13 65 (3.27%) Business Analyst
13 65 (3.27%) Technical Project Manager
14 45 (2.27%) Coordinator
14 45 (2.27%) Project Officer
15 40 (2.01%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 39 (1.96%) Project Coordinator
17 38 (1.91%) Infrastructure Manager
17 38 (1.91%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.16%) Middleware
2 18 (0.91%) ADO
3 13 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
4 12 (0.60%) REST
5 10 (0.50%) .NET
5 10 (0.50%) HTML
5 10 (0.50%) OAuth
6 9 (0.45%) pytest
6 9 (0.45%) VML
6 9 (0.45%) Web Services
7 8 (0.40%) JSON
7 8 (0.40%) Terraform
8 7 (0.35%) React
8 7 (0.35%) SOAP
9 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 5 (0.25%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.25%) DAO
10 5 (0.25%) XML
11 4 (0.20%) CSS
11 4 (0.20%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 119 (5.99%) Management Information System
2 99 (4.98%) Onboarding
3 95 (4.78%) Product Ownership
4 66 (3.32%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.72%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.42%) Virtual Team
7 36 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
8 33 (1.66%) Operational Technology
8 33 (1.66%) PMI
9 28 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.31%) Life Science
11 24 (1.21%) Social Media
12 23 (1.16%) AI Agents
12 23 (1.16%) FMCG
13 21 (1.06%) Credit Risk
13 21 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (0.86%) Fixed Income
14 17 (0.86%) NHS
15 16 (0.81%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.92%) Linux
2 51 (2.57%) Windows
3 23 (1.16%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.11%) Unix
5 11 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.25%) zOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.050%) AIX
10 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.050%) Rocky
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 928 (46.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 759 (38.22%) Agile
3 595 (29.96%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.81%) PRINCE2
5 347 (17.47%) Problem-Solving
6 336 (16.92%) Continuous Improvement
7 317 (15.96%) Change Management
8 301 (15.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 282 (14.20%) Decision-Making
10 270 (13.60%) Migration
11 264 (13.29%) Risk Management
12 239 (12.03%) Waterfall
13 227 (11.43%) AI
14 215 (10.83%) Scrum
15 214 (10.78%) Project Governance
16 176 (8.86%) Roadmaps
17 171 (8.61%) Project Planning
18 164 (8.26%) Programme Management
19 162 (8.16%) Change Control
20 148 (7.45%) Budget Management
Programming Languages
1 78 (3.93%) SQL
2 68 (3.42%) Python
3 16 (0.81%) Java
4 13 (0.65%) C++
5 12 (0.60%) JavaScript
5 12 (0.60%) VBA
6 10 (0.50%) Bash
6 10 (0.50%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) Ada
8 8 (0.40%) Korn
8 8 (0.40%) PowerShell
9 6 (0.30%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.25%) C
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 3 (0.15%) ABAP
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.10%) JCL
13 2 (0.10%) R
Qualifications
1 325 (16.36%) Security Cleared
2 302 (15.21%) Degree
3 286 (14.40%) PMP
4 249 (12.54%) PMI Certification
5 224 (11.28%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.93%) DV Cleared
7 75 (3.78%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 38 (1.91%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (1.06%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.91%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 16 (0.81%) ISTQB
11 16 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
12 14 (0.70%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.70%) DBS Check
13 13 (0.65%) APMP
14 12 (0.60%) CISSP
15 11 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
16 10 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
17 9 (0.45%) ACCA
17 9 (0.45%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 254 (12.79%) PMO
2 87 (4.38%) QA
3 54 (2.72%) Data Quality
4 31 (1.56%) GDPR
5 27 (1.36%) GRC
6 22 (1.11%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.91%) SLA
8 16 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (0.70%) NIST
10 10 (0.50%) P3O
11 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.30%) FINREP
12 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.25%) COREP
13 5 (0.25%) GMP
13 5 (0.25%) MISRA
13 5 (0.25%) MISRA C
13 5 (0.25%) WCAG
14 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.20%) ITGC
System Software
1 35 (1.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (1.71%) Active Directory
3 12 (0.60%) vSphere
4 9 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.10%) Docker
8 2 (0.10%) Firmware
8 2 (0.10%) NFS
8 2 (0.10%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.050%) ACF2
9 1 (0.050%) IAG
9 1 (0.050%) KVM
9 1 (0.050%) RACF
9 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (0.91%) Ansible
2 10 (0.50%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.35%) Puppet
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Tivoli Storage Manager
7 3 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
7 3 (0.15%) BMC Performance Manager
7 3 (0.15%) Perfmon
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.10%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.050%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.050%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.050%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Nessus
9 1 (0.050%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 362 (18.23%) Microsoft
2 162 (8.16%) SAP
3 85 (4.28%) ServiceNow
4 75 (3.78%) Oracle
5 52 (2.62%) Salesforce
6 50 (2.52%) VMware
7 45 (2.27%) Google
8 42 (2.11%) Adobe
9 30 (1.51%) Cisco
10 23 (1.16%) Ariba
11 22 (1.11%) Atlassian
12 21 (1.06%) IBM
13 20 (1.01%) Workday
14 17 (0.86%) Databricks
14 17 (0.86%) Sitecore
15 15 (0.76%) NEC
15 15 (0.76%) Planview
16 12 (0.60%) Alteryx
17 11 (0.55%) JD Edwards
18 9 (0.45%) Murex