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

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 23 19
Rank change year-on-year -18 -4 +5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,045 2,509 3,581
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.95% 8.24% 8.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.70% 9.16% 9.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,268 1,442 2,277
10th Percentile £319 £275 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £516 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.17% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £706 £712 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £476 £500
% change year-on-year +5.04% -4.80% +0.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 113 217
10th Percentile £14.64 £22.51 £18.67
25th Percentile £20.65 £30.25 £26.66
Median hourly rate £39.25 £38.11 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +2.99% -0.03% -23.76%
75th Percentile £63.49 £60.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £66.00 £64.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.75 £40.00 £39.06
% change year-on-year +4.38% +2.41% -21.90%

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 35,855 27,377 38,366
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.81% 89.88% 87.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,757 16,975 25,075
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.28% -1.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,138 862 2,184
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.94 £33.00 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year -21.39% -0.20% -5.53%
75th Percentile £61.18 £63.75 £59.93
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.23 £71.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.41% -8.57% -

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 25 February 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 25 February 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 25 February 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 -17 1,790 £525 +2.49% 1,024
UK excluding London -22 1,047 £500 +5.04% 943
London -20 833 £550 +4.76% 290
Work from Home -17 584 £525 +5.00% 358
North of England -20 280 £480 +6.67% 194
South East -11 273 £525 - 289
Midlands -21 203 £500 - 161
North West -12 162 £490 +10.37% 95
West Midlands -27 141 £500 -4.76% 87
South West -27 111 £450 -10.00% 108
Yorkshire -30 109 £484 +7.50% 84
Scotland -14 88 £450 +0.56% 43
East Midlands -16 64 £398 -3.43% 73
East of England -33 64 £450 -10.00% 119
Wales +7 31 £325 -38.68% 38
Northern Ireland -6 17 £425 +21.43% 16
North East -24 13 £410 -24.60% 20

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
1 174 (8.51%) Confluence
2 93 (4.55%) SharePoint
3 24 (1.17%) CMS
4 9 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.29%) Apache
5 6 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
6 5 (0.24%) nginx
6 5 (0.24%) Skype for Business
6 5 (0.24%) WordPress
7 3 (0.15%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.098%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 2 (0.098%) SAS
9 1 (0.049%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.049%) Moodle
9 1 (0.049%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.049%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.049%) WebSphere
Applications
1 216 (10.56%) Microsoft Project
2 215 (10.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 154 (7.53%) Microsoft Office
4 117 (5.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 49 (2.40%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.12%) Trello
7 21 (1.03%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.29%) Chatbot
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 3 (0.15%) InVision
10 3 (0.15%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.15%) Sketch
11 2 (0.098%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.098%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.098%) InDesign
11 2 (0.098%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.098%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 67 (3.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (0.88%) Primavera
3 15 (0.73%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.64%) Loan IQ
5 12 (0.59%) Oracle EBS
6 11 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
6 11 (0.54%) SAP Payroll
7 10 (0.49%) Oracle ERP
7 10 (0.49%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 7 (0.34%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
8 7 (0.34%) SAP HCM
8 7 (0.34%) Shopify
9 6 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
9 6 (0.29%) SAP CO
9 6 (0.29%) SAP ERP
9 6 (0.29%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 174 (8.51%) Azure
2 105 (5.13%) AWS
3 95 (4.65%) Power Platform
4 62 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (2.64%) SaaS
6 48 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (1.52%) GCP
8 23 (1.12%) Dynamics 365
9 22 (1.08%) Asana
10 20 (0.98%) OpenShift
11 17 (0.83%) Google Workspace
11 17 (0.83%) Smartsheet
12 16 (0.78%) GitHub
13 14 (0.68%) Serverless
14 13 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
14 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
15 12 (0.59%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 12 (0.59%) IaaS
16 11 (0.54%) PaaS
16 11 (0.54%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.81%) Firewall
2 29 (1.42%) WAN
3 20 (0.98%) LAN
4 18 (0.88%) Network Security
5 17 (0.83%) DNS
6 15 (0.73%) Structured Cabling
6 15 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (0.64%) SD-WAN
8 12 (0.59%) VPN
9 11 (0.54%) SSH
10 10 (0.49%) TCP/IP
11 9 (0.44%) Internet
11 9 (0.44%) MPLS
11 9 (0.44%) SSL
12 8 (0.39%) HTTP
13 7 (0.34%) BGP
13 7 (0.34%) DHCP
14 6 (0.29%) IPsec
15 5 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
15 5 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (4.30%) Power BI
2 29 (1.42%) Tableau
3 23 (1.12%) SQL Server
4 19 (0.93%) Metadata
5 18 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (0.73%) Data Lake
7 11 (0.54%) SAP HANA
8 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
8 7 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.34%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 4 (0.20%) GIS
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.20%) Power Query
11 4 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 329 (16.09%) JIRA
2 23 (1.12%) Git
3 10 (0.49%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) GitLab
5 4 (0.20%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.15%) Axure RP
6 3 (0.15%) Selenium
7 2 (0.098%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.049%) Ant
8 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.049%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.049%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.049%) ERwin
8 1 (0.049%) JUnit
8 1 (0.049%) LSMW
8 1 (0.049%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.049%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.049%) TestDirector
8 1 (0.049%) Toad
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio
General
1 1,020 (49.88%) Social Skills
2 760 (37.16%) Finance
3 343 (16.77%) Analytical Skills
4 211 (10.32%) Public Sector
5 201 (9.83%) Organisational Skills
6 178 (8.70%) Banking
7 105 (5.13%) Retail
8 88 (4.30%) Marketing
9 85 (4.16%) Legal
10 81 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
11 79 (3.86%) Manufacturing
12 58 (2.84%) Presentation Skills
13 45 (2.20%) Investment Banking
13 45 (2.20%) Telecoms
14 32 (1.56%) Local Government
15 30 (1.47%) Financial Institution
15 30 (1.47%) Front Office
16 29 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
17 27 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 20 (0.98%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 790 (38.63%) Project Manager
2 250 (12.22%) Analyst
3 173 (8.46%) Senior
4 169 (8.26%) Lead
5 131 (6.41%) Business Analyst
6 119 (5.82%) Senior Manager
7 100 (4.89%) Senior Project Manager
8 98 (4.79%) IT Manager
9 90 (4.40%) IT Project Manager
10 85 (4.16%) Consultant
11 64 (3.13%) Technical Manager
12 62 (3.03%) Delivery Manager
13 57 (2.79%) Infrastructure Manager
14 56 (2.74%) Programme Manager
15 49 (2.40%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 48 (2.35%) Project Officer
16 48 (2.35%) SAP Manager
17 45 (2.20%) Architect
17 45 (2.20%) Coordinator
18 43 (2.10%) Technical Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.08%) Middleware
1 22 (1.08%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (0.73%) Web Services
3 14 (0.68%) REST
3 14 (0.68%) SOAP
4 12 (0.59%) EDI
5 11 (0.54%) .NET
5 11 (0.54%) XML
6 9 (0.44%) CSS
7 8 (0.39%) AngularJS
7 8 (0.39%) HTML
7 8 (0.39%) LDAP
8 7 (0.34%) SailPoint
9 6 (0.29%) ADO
9 6 (0.29%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (0.29%) OAuth
9 6 (0.29%) OpenID
9 6 (0.29%) React
10 5 (0.24%) RESTful
10 5 (0.24%) XACML
Miscellaneous
1 118 (5.77%) Onboarding
2 104 (5.09%) Management Information System
3 71 (3.47%) Data Protection Act
4 69 (3.37%) Data Centre
5 64 (3.13%) PMI
6 50 (2.44%) Product Ownership
7 48 (2.35%) Virtual Team
8 41 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
9 37 (1.81%) Legacy Systems
10 31 (1.52%) NHS
11 25 (1.22%) CMDB
11 25 (1.22%) Operational Technology
12 21 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
13 19 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
14 17 (0.83%) SCADA
14 17 (0.83%) Social Media
15 15 (0.73%) Cloud Native
15 15 (0.73%) Web Conferencing
16 13 (0.64%) Derivative
17 12 (0.59%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 58 (2.84%) Windows
2 17 (0.83%) Linux
3 12 (0.59%) Unix
3 12 (0.59%) Windows Server
4 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.098%) AIX
5 2 (0.098%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.049%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.049%) Solaris
6 1 (0.049%) VMS
6 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.049%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 758 (37.07%) Agile
2 671 (32.81%) Stakeholder Management
3 484 (23.67%) Project Delivery
4 477 (23.33%) Problem-Solving
5 422 (20.64%) PRINCE2
6 355 (17.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 322 (15.75%) Change Management
8 307 (15.01%) Migration
9 273 (13.35%) Continuous Improvement
10 224 (10.95%) Decision-Making
11 222 (10.86%) Waterfall
12 218 (10.66%) Risk Management
13 202 (9.88%) Scrum
14 183 (8.95%) Budget Management
15 163 (7.97%) ERP
16 158 (7.73%) DevOps
17 149 (7.29%) ITIL
18 147 (7.19%) Cybersecurity
19 143 (6.99%) Project Governance
20 141 (6.89%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 91 (4.45%) SQL
2 43 (2.10%) Python
3 14 (0.68%) C#
3 14 (0.68%) Java
4 13 (0.64%) ABAP
4 13 (0.64%) JavaScript
5 7 (0.34%) PowerShell
6 6 (0.29%) VBA
7 5 (0.24%) Perl
7 5 (0.24%) PL/SQL
7 5 (0.24%) R
7 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
8 4 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.20%) Go
8 4 (0.20%) Ruby
9 3 (0.15%) C++
9 3 (0.15%) SOQL
9 3 (0.15%) VB
10 2 (0.098%) C
10 2 (0.098%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 341 (16.67%) Degree
2 293 (14.33%) Security Cleared
3 290 (14.18%) PMP
4 272 (13.30%) PMI Certification
5 212 (10.37%) SC Cleared
6 62 (3.03%) DV Cleared
7 48 (2.35%) Master's Degree
8 44 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.96%) APMP
10 31 (1.52%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 26 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
12 25 (1.22%) CISSP
12 25 (1.22%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 21 (1.03%) CISM
14 20 (0.98%) MBA
15 16 (0.78%) CBAP
16 15 (0.73%) IIBA
17 13 (0.64%) ACCA
17 13 (0.64%) CIMA
18 8 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 226 (11.05%) PMO
2 131 (6.41%) QA
3 62 (3.03%) Data Quality
4 58 (2.84%) GDPR
5 50 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 35 (1.71%) NIST
7 20 (0.98%) PCI DSS
7 20 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 20 (0.98%) SLA
8 17 (0.83%) GRC
9 14 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 10 (0.49%) Basel III
10 10 (0.49%) Disclosure Scotland
11 8 (0.39%) MiFID
12 7 (0.34%) ISO 19650
12 7 (0.34%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.34%) WCAG
13 6 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
13 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.29%) P3O
System Software
1 35 (1.71%) Active Directory
2 13 (0.64%) Docker
2 13 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.24%) RACF
3 5 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.098%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.049%) PowerHA
6 1 (0.049%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.049%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
2 15 (0.73%) Kubernetes
3 13 (0.64%) Terraform
4 11 (0.54%) Ansible
5 7 (0.34%) SCCM
6 6 (0.29%) Kibana
6 6 (0.29%) logstash
6 6 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.20%) Consul
7 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.20%) Packer
8 3 (0.15%) Grafana
8 3 (0.15%) Puppet
8 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
8 3 (0.15%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) Cisco UCCX
9 1 (0.049%) ITRS Geneos
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 316 (15.45%) Microsoft
2 195 (9.54%) SAP
3 107 (5.23%) ServiceNow
4 74 (3.62%) Oracle
5 68 (3.33%) Salesforce
6 33 (1.61%) Cisco
7 32 (1.56%) Google
8 27 (1.32%) Adobe
9 23 (1.12%) Workday
10 21 (1.03%) Databricks
10 21 (1.03%) VMware
11 19 (0.93%) Atlassian
12 16 (0.78%) Ariba
12 16 (0.78%) CyberArk
12 16 (0.78%) Planview
12 16 (0.78%) Sage
13 15 (0.73%) IBM
14 13 (0.64%) Palo Alto
15 10 (0.49%) Juniper
16 9 (0.44%) Splunk