Project Manager Contract Job Trends

Project Manager
UK

The median Project Manager daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 58 35 32
Rank change year-on-year -23 -3 -4
Contract jobs requiring a Project Manager 1,516 1,813 2,567
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.11% 5.32% 5.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.52% 5.73% 6.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,028 1,107 1,833
10th Percentile £390 £350 £378
25th Percentile £450 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -0.94% +0.95%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £630
90th Percentile £700 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 57 49
10th Percentile £24.15 £21.90 £21.90
25th Percentile £36.14 £31.12 £33.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.43% -36.36% -15.38%
75th Percentile £69.36 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £85.50 £70.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.25 £41.94 £58.25
% change year-on-year +38.89% -28.00% -10.38%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,545 31,624 41,095
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.80% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,197 19,461 27,642
10th Percentile £293 £300 £288
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £643
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 989 1,457
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.60 £15.14
25th Percentile £18.08 £21.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.93% -25.56% +50.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.44 £72.55 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +82.48%

Project Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Project Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Project Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Project Manager
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK

Project Manager
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Manager over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Project Manager in the UK

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the UK

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Manager over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Manager in the UK

Project Manager
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 Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 20 December 2025. 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 -23 1,323 £550 +4.76% 414
UK excluding London -20 758 £513 +2.50% 394
London -21 618 £575 +4.55% 104
Work from Home -25 416 £525 - 161
South East +7 211 £550 +7.84% 114
North of England -35 177 £500 - 119
Midlands -22 162 £525 - 65
West Midlands -21 108 £550 -4.35% 35
Yorkshire -18 87 £500 +0.05% 44
North West -38 87 £475 -0.42% 70
South West -36 64 £475 -5.00% 36
Scotland -19 58 £450 -5.26% 11
East of England -22 57 £550 +10.00% 42
East Midlands -13 55 £500 +42.86% 30
Wales +10 25 £325 -9.72% 14
Northern Ireland -4 14 £500 -9.09% 3
North East -24 6 £430 -14.00% 9
Channel Islands - 1 - -

Project Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 December 2025, Project Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Project Manager in the job title.

1 726 (47.89%) Project Management
2 592 (39.05%) Stakeholder Management
3 496 (32.72%) Agile
4 411 (27.11%) Project Delivery
5 293 (19.33%) PRINCE2
6 268 (17.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 250 (16.49%) Migration
8 225 (14.84%) PMP
9 218 (14.38%) PMI Certification
10 203 (13.39%) Problem-Solving
11 201 (13.26%) Change Management
12 195 (12.86%) JIRA
13 170 (11.21%) Waterfall
14 166 (10.95%) Degree
15 160 (10.55%) Microsoft
15 160 (10.55%) Risk Management
16 147 (9.70%) SAP
17 136 (8.97%) Microsoft Project
18 135 (8.91%) Scrum
19 133 (8.77%) Project Governance
20 124 (8.18%) Security Cleared
21 123 (8.11%) ERP
22 122 (8.05%) Budget Management
23 110 (7.26%) Azure
24 105 (6.93%) Cybersecurity
25 104 (6.86%) Continuous Improvement
26 96 (6.33%) Confluence
26 96 (6.33%) Decision-Making
27 92 (6.07%) Data Migration
27 92 (6.07%) Project Planning

Project Manager Skill Set
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 96 (6.33%) Confluence
2 44 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 15 (0.99%) CMS
4 4 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
6 1 (0.066%) Documentum
6 1 (0.066%) Moodle
6 1 (0.066%) SAS
6 1 (0.066%) Umbraco
Applications
1 136 (8.97%) Microsoft Project
2 68 (4.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 54 (3.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
5 21 (1.39%) Trello
6 11 (0.73%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.20%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.20%) Revit
8 1 (0.066%) Notion
8 1 (0.066%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 58 (3.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (0.92%) Oracle EBS
3 10 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
4 9 (0.59%) SAP ERP
5 5 (0.33%) SAP IBP
5 5 (0.33%) SAP MM
5 5 (0.33%) Workday HCM
6 4 (0.26%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.26%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.26%) Primavera
6 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.26%) SAP PP
6 4 (0.26%) Workfront
7 3 (0.20%) NetSuite
7 3 (0.20%) Oracle EBS R12
7 3 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
7 3 (0.20%) SAP EWM
7 3 (0.20%) SAP FI
7 3 (0.20%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 110 (7.26%) Azure
2 50 (3.30%) Power Platform
3 46 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
4 44 (2.90%) AWS
5 40 (2.64%) SaaS
6 33 (2.18%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (1.72%) GCP
8 23 (1.52%) Asana
9 21 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
9 21 (1.39%) OCI
10 20 (1.32%) SuccessFactors
11 17 (1.12%) Smartsheet
12 14 (0.92%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (0.66%) OpenShift
14 7 (0.46%) Google Workspace
14 7 (0.46%) Miro
14 7 (0.46%) OneDrive
15 5 (0.33%) Azure Data Factory
15 5 (0.33%) Entra ID
15 5 (0.33%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.78%) Firewall
2 20 (1.32%) WAN
3 19 (1.25%) LAN
4 15 (0.99%) Network Security
5 14 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
6 12 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
7 10 (0.66%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.40%) Unified Communications
9 5 (0.33%) Broadband
10 4 (0.26%) VPN
10 4 (0.26%) Wireless
11 3 (0.20%) Internet
11 3 (0.20%) PSTN
11 3 (0.20%) VoIP
12 2 (0.13%) 5G
12 2 (0.13%) DNS
12 2 (0.13%) ISDN
12 2 (0.13%) SMS
12 2 (0.13%) WLAN
13 1 (0.066%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (2.84%) Power BI
2 9 (0.59%) Data Lake
2 9 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
2 9 (0.59%) Oracle Reports
3 7 (0.46%) Electronic Patient Records
4 6 (0.40%) Metadata
5 5 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 4 (0.26%) SAP HANA
6 4 (0.26%) Tableau
7 3 (0.20%) EDMS
7 3 (0.20%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.13%) GIS
8 2 (0.13%) Looker
9 1 (0.066%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.066%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.066%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.066%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.066%) SAP Data Services
9 1 (0.066%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 195 (12.86%) JIRA
2 2 (0.13%) Git
2 2 (0.13%) LSMW
3 1 (0.066%) Cypress.io
3 1 (0.066%) Eclipse
3 1 (0.066%) Hudson
3 1 (0.066%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.066%) Subversion
3 1 (0.066%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 586 (38.65%) Social Skills
2 559 (36.87%) Finance
3 145 (9.56%) Banking
4 113 (7.45%) Public Sector
5 111 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
6 88 (5.80%) Retail
7 87 (5.74%) Organisational Skills
8 73 (4.82%) Manufacturing
9 67 (4.42%) Legal
10 49 (3.23%) Telecoms
11 42 (2.77%) Marketing
12 39 (2.57%) Influencing Skills
13 34 (2.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 26 (1.72%) Investment Banking
15 24 (1.58%) Law
16 21 (1.39%) Local Government
16 21 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
16 21 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
17 19 (1.25%) Automotive
17 19 (1.25%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (1.39%) Oracle Fusion
2 14 (0.92%) Middleware
3 6 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
4 4 (0.26%) ADO
4 4 (0.26%) EDI
5 3 (0.20%) .NET
5 3 (0.20%) React
6 2 (0.13%) ModSecurity
7 1 (0.066%) FastAPI
7 1 (0.066%) LangGraph
7 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.066%) NLTK
7 1 (0.066%) OpenID
7 1 (0.066%) Pandas
7 1 (0.066%) Playwright
7 1 (0.066%) RESTful
7 1 (0.066%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.066%) SpaCy
7 1 (0.066%) VML
7 1 (0.066%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 68 (4.49%) Data Centre
2 46 (3.03%) PMI
3 42 (2.77%) Virtual Team
4 40 (2.64%) Onboarding
5 38 (2.51%) Product Ownership
6 37 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
7 36 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
8 26 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (1.52%) Management Information System
9 23 (1.52%) NHS
10 20 (1.32%) Operational Technology
11 18 (1.19%) Life Science
12 17 (1.12%) Renewable Energy
13 16 (1.06%) Mobile App
14 14 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.86%) CMDB
16 11 (0.73%) Fixed Income
16 11 (0.73%) FMCG
17 10 (0.66%) Robotics
17 10 (0.66%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 34 (2.24%) Windows
2 8 (0.53%) Linux
3 6 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 6 (0.40%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.33%) OpenVMS
5 4 (0.26%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.20%) VMS
7 2 (0.13%) Unix
8 1 (0.066%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 726 (47.89%) Project Management
2 592 (39.05%) Stakeholder Management
3 496 (32.72%) Agile
4 411 (27.11%) Project Delivery
5 293 (19.33%) PRINCE2
6 268 (17.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 250 (16.49%) Migration
8 203 (13.39%) Problem-Solving
9 201 (13.26%) Change Management
10 170 (11.21%) Waterfall
11 160 (10.55%) Risk Management
12 135 (8.91%) Scrum
13 133 (8.77%) Project Governance
14 123 (8.11%) ERP
15 122 (8.05%) Budget Management
16 105 (6.93%) Cybersecurity
17 104 (6.86%) Continuous Improvement
18 96 (6.33%) Decision-Making
19 92 (6.07%) Data Migration
19 92 (6.07%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 19 (1.25%) SQL
2 10 (0.66%) Python
3 4 (0.26%) Java
4 3 (0.20%) ABAP
4 3 (0.20%) C#
5 2 (0.13%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.13%) Korn
6 1 (0.066%) C++
6 1 (0.066%) PHP
6 1 (0.066%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.066%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 225 (14.84%) PMP
2 218 (14.38%) PMI Certification
3 166 (10.95%) Degree
4 124 (8.18%) Security Cleared
5 78 (5.15%) SC Cleared
6 35 (2.31%) DV Cleared
7 19 (1.25%) Master's Degree
8 18 (1.19%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 16 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 11 (0.73%) APMP
10 11 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (0.59%) CISSP
12 7 (0.46%) CISM
12 7 (0.46%) MBA
13 5 (0.33%) SAFe Agilist
14 4 (0.26%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.26%) MAPM
14 4 (0.26%) SAP Certification
15 3 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (5.87%) PMO
2 62 (4.09%) QA
3 29 (1.91%) GDPR
4 23 (1.52%) Data Quality
5 17 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (0.66%) GRC
6 10 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 9 (0.59%) NIST
8 8 (0.53%) Accessibility
8 8 (0.53%) MiFID
9 7 (0.46%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (0.40%) GMP
11 5 (0.33%) COBIT
12 4 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.20%) Basel III
13 3 (0.20%) EMIR
13 3 (0.20%) GxP
13 3 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 17025
13 3 (0.20%) PMBOK
System Software
1 15 (0.99%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.066%) Docker
5 1 (0.066%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (0.26%) Ansible
2 4 (0.26%) Terraform
3 3 (0.20%) Kubernetes
3 3 (0.20%) PingFederate
3 3 (0.20%) RSA Archer
4 2 (0.13%) HP ALM
4 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.13%) SCCM
5 1 (0.066%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 160 (10.55%) Microsoft
2 147 (9.70%) SAP
3 84 (5.54%) Oracle
4 41 (2.70%) ServiceNow
5 36 (2.37%) Salesforce
6 24 (1.58%) Workday
7 20 (1.32%) Google
8 19 (1.25%) Cisco
9 17 (1.12%) Ariba
10 13 (0.86%) CyberArk
11 12 (0.79%) Databricks
12 8 (0.53%) Planview
13 7 (0.46%) CheckPoint
13 7 (0.46%) Remedy
14 6 (0.40%) HP
14 6 (0.40%) MuleSoft
14 6 (0.40%) Red Hat
15 5 (0.33%) Arista
15 5 (0.33%) Dell
15 5 (0.33%) Juniper