The numbers are stark. By 2035, the world will need 30 million additional project professionals to meet global demand. Yet while organisations scramble to fill gaps, most are still relying on outdated resourcing models that simply don’t work in 2025.
The Talent Shortage Isn’t Getting Better—It’s Evolving
Remember when the biggest problem was just finding enough candidates? That was the tip of the iceberg.
Today’s reality is more complex. With 40 million project management professionals worldwide, you’d think there would be enough talent to go around. But here’s what’s really happening.
Project professionals are discovering their transferable skills. According to the Association for Project Management’s Golden Thread study, four in ten UK businesses cite limited opportunities for project professionals to move between sectors as a barrier to growth—precisely because talent is increasingly recognising, they can leverage their skills across industries. They’re moving from IT into professional services, media, PR, and the growing green economy sector, where 63% of organisations view it as a positive enabler of growth.
The talent you trained? They’re now being poached by industries with deeper pockets and more diverse opportunities.
The cost spiral is unsustainable. Advertised contractor roles continue to show upward market trends. These figures don’t even account for recruitment fees (typically 15–25%), onboarding time and productivity lag, knowledge drain when contracts end, constant renegotiations as market rates climb, or the IR35 compliance headaches and increased costs that plague contractor arrangements.
Budget predictability? Forget about it. With contractors, you’re exposed to market volatility, rate inflation, and the perpetual risk of losing critical resources mid-project when a competitor offers more attractive terms.
The data shows concerning trends: while job vacancies for project managers fell by nearly 42% year-on-year, indicating fewer opportunities, applications per vacancy still declined dramatically—from 82.91 in August 2023 to 59.19 by December 2023. This creates a perfect storm where fewer candidates chase fewer roles, yet rates remain elevated because the talent with the right skills can be highly selective.
The Traditional Contractor Model: Built for Yesterday’s Problems
The contractor approach in 2025 delivers a series of interconnected problems that compound over time. There’s no continuity—knowledge walks out the door every 6–12 months, requiring constant onboarding and retraining.
Hidden costs accumulate rapidly: recruitment fees, onboarding overhead, IR35 compliance requirements, and management time all add layers of expense that weren’t in the original budget.
The flexibility promised by contractors often proves illusory. You’re locked into individual contracts with notice periods, making it difficult to scale resources up or down as project needs evolve. Each new contractor represents a quality lottery—a gamble on capabilities, working style, and culture fit. And for CFOs trying to forecast budgets, contractor-dependent models turn financial planning into educated guesswork.
One HR Director I spoke with put it bluntly:
“We maxed out budgets trying to retain talent. Then maxed them out, training new talent. Then maxed them out trying to lure talent from competitors. Eventually, the CFO had enough. That’s when I realised, I was asking the wrong question.”
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Find out more about PMaaS at www.Stoneseed.co.uk
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The Right Question Changes Everything
Stop asking: “How can I hire more contractors to fill project roles?”
Start asking: “How can I resource my projects with predictable costs and reliable outcomes?”
That reframe opens up a completely different solution space.
Project Management as a Service (PMaaS): The 2025 Solution
PMaaS isn’t just “managed contractors.” It’s a fundamental shift in how you approach project resourcing.
While the project management industry has seen impressive growth—adding 190,000 UK full-time equivalent jobs since 2019 to reach 2.32 million employees, with annual project management gross value-added growing by 19% to add £30.3bn—the talent gap persists. PMaaS addresses this paradox by fundamentally changing the resourcing model.
Contractors vs PMaaS: The Real Comparison
Cost Structure and Predictability: The contractor model operates on fluctuating daily rates, plus recruitment fees and IR35 considerations. In contrast, PMaaS provides predictable monthly rate cards with transparent pricing and no hidden costs.
Flexibility and Scalability: Contractors come with rigid notice periods and contractual constraints. PMaaS works differently: turn it on, turn it off, scale it up, or scale it down—within days rather than months.
Risk Management and Accountability: With contractors, you carry all the risk. With PMaaS, the provider owns delivery outcomes, manages knowledge continuity, and replaces unavailable staff seamlessly.
Quality Assurance and Consistency: Contractors are hired individually, each a gamble. PMaaS providers maintain pre-vetted pools with consistent standards and outcome accountability built in.
Knowledge Continuity and Organisational Learning: Contractor turnover leads to knowledge drain. PMaaS ensures continuity and handover, embedding knowledge within the provider.
Breadth of Capability and Service Integration: Contractors = individual specialists. PMaaS = an integrated service portfolio spanning Business Analysis, Technical Advisory, PMO Services, and Programme & Project Delivery.
What PMaaS Actually Delivers: At Stoneseed, our PMaaS model provides immediate access to professionals who’ve already delivered across multiple technology solutions, sectors, and industries.
This addresses a critical finding from APM research: project professionals increasingly need to move between sectors, with Dr. Andrew Schuster—co-author of the Golden Thread report—actively encouraging professionals to think of project and programme management as a profession that opens doors to any industry.
The on-demand model means resources align to your delivery schedule rather than market availability. Forecast-driven capacity planning, transparent rate cards, and flexible billing remove recruitment fees and IR35 complexity.
For CFOs, which means predictable costs, reduced overhead, and better cash flow management—a critical advantage when over half of UK businesses predict growth in project-based activity and 45% anticipate budget increases.
For delivery teams, it means breadth of skills, maintained knowledge, and scalable resourcing.
The Bottom Line
With 2 million project management roles needing to be filled annually just to keep pace with demand, the traditional contractor model cannot scale.
The APM’s research shows 56% of businesses anticipate difficulties in attracting new talent, and over a third cite training and education accessibility as a barrier to growth.
The talent crisis isn’t going away. As project professionals realise their skills open doors across industries, the competition will only intensify.
The organisations that thrive won’t be the ones fighting over the same contractor pool. They’ll be the ones reframing the question—and resourcing through models like PMaaS.
At Stoneseed, we’ve already built the bench. Our project professionals are ready to deliver—today.
More about Project Management as a Service from Stoneseed
Sources
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2025). Global Project Management Talent Gap Report. Available at: PMI Talent Gap Report
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2025). A Clear Call to Action: Why Organizations Must Upskill Project Professionals Now. TechRepublic. Available at: TechRepublic article
Association for Project Management (APM), PwC Research & Academic Advisory Group. (2024). The Golden Thread: A Study of the Contribution of Project Management and Projects in the UK Economy. Available at: APM Golden Thread
IT Jobs Watch. (2025). Project Manager Contract Job Trends, Contractor Rates & Skill Sets. Available at: IT Jobs Watch – Project Manager
IT Jobs Watch. (2025). Senior Project Manager and Programme Manager Contract Rates. Available at: IT Jobs Watch – Senior PM and Programme Manager
APSCo & Broadbean. (2024). IT Sector Report – Concerns Over Brain Drain in IT as Application Levels Tumble. Available at: APSCo resource
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2025). Shortage of Project Talent Endangers Global Growth. Press Release. Available at: PMI Press Release
