Project Management Contract Job Trends in the North West

Project Management
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Project Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 23 21
Rank change year-on-year -14 -2 -5
Contract jobs citing Project Management 162 150 193
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.08% 7.62% 7.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.05% 8.45% 8.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 75 120
10th Percentile £331 £255 £313
25th Percentile £400 £358 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £505
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% -5.94% +1.00%
75th Percentile £518 £573 £593
90th Percentile £650 £671 £651
England median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 21 23
10th Percentile £21.00 £24.76 £24.09
25th Percentile £26.44 £31.25 £30.63
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -9.60% +2.71%
75th Percentile - £60.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £65.38 £76.25 £57.80
England median hourly rate £37.54 £44.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year -15.64% +16.74% -22.20%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

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 in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,677 1,776 2,352
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 83.92% 90.24% 86.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,659 1,148 1,497
10th Percentile £275 £300 £306
25th Percentile £375 £394 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £593
90th Percentile £656 £662 £689
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.95% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 227 104 248
10th Percentile £19.63 £16.02 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £22.72 £13.45
Median hourly rate £52.78 £32.25 £22.31
Median % change year-on-year +63.64% +44.59% -37.17%
75th Percentile £74.26 £60.00 £45.22
90th Percentile £85.00 £84.70 £57.50
England median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £36.00
% change year-on-year +50.00% -16.67% -3.59%

Project Management
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Project Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Project Management job vacancy trend in the North West

Project Management
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Project Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Project Management

Project Management
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Management in the North West over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Project Management in the North West

Project Management
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Project Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Project Management

Project Management
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Management in the North West over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the North West

Project Management
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 3 May 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
Manchester -28 64 £451 -2.49% 67
Lancashire +13 43 £550 -3.51% 32
Cheshire -8 36 £469 +27.72% 20
Cumbria -4 10 £463 -0.49%
Merseyside -23 8 £425 -2.86% 21
Project Management
England

Project Management
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 14 (8.64%) Confluence
2 5 (3.09%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.62%) CMS
4 1 (0.62%) IIS
4 1 (0.62%) SAS
Applications
1 13 (8.02%) Microsoft Project
2 8 (4.94%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (4.94%) MS Visio
3 7 (4.32%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 26 (16.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (2.47%) SAP Payroll
3 3 (1.85%) Primavera
3 3 (1.85%) SAP HCM
3 3 (1.85%) SAP MM
4 2 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.62%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 11 (6.79%) Azure
2 7 (4.32%) Power Platform
3 5 (3.09%) SuccessFactors
4 4 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (2.47%) Google Workspace
5 3 (1.85%) GCP
5 3 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (1.85%) SaaS
5 3 (1.85%) Smartsheet
6 2 (1.23%) Asana
6 2 (1.23%) AWS
6 2 (1.23%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (1.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 2 (1.23%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.23%) Google Drive
6 2 (1.23%) Snowflake
7 1 (0.62%) Cohesity
7 1 (0.62%) IBM Blueworks
7 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.62%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.85%) DNS
1 3 (1.85%) Network Security
2 2 (1.23%) DKIM
2 2 (1.23%) DMARC
3 1 (0.62%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.62%) Firewall
3 1 (0.62%) Internet
3 1 (0.62%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.62%) SSL
3 1 (0.62%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.62%) WAN
3 1 (0.62%) WebEx
3 1 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.62%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.32%) Power BI
2 4 (2.47%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (1.85%) SAP HANA
4 2 (1.23%) Data Lake
4 2 (1.23%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.62%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.62%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.62%) GIS
5 1 (0.62%) Looker
5 1 (0.62%) Metadata
5 1 (0.62%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 22 (13.58%) JIRA
2 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
General
1 77 (47.53%) Finance
1 77 (47.53%) Social Skills
2 32 (19.75%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (9.88%) Banking
4 14 (8.64%) Retail
5 10 (6.17%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.17%) Telecoms
6 9 (5.56%) Manufacturing
7 8 (4.94%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.47%) Legal
10 3 (1.85%) Corporate Banking
10 3 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.85%) Retail Banking
11 2 (1.23%) Marketing
12 1 (0.62%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.62%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.62%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.62%) Law
12 1 (0.62%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 60 (37.04%) Project Manager
2 21 (12.96%) Lead
3 19 (11.73%) Consultant
4 16 (9.88%) Analyst
4 16 (9.88%) SAP Consultant
5 13 (8.02%) Finance Manager
5 13 (8.02%) Finance Project Manager
5 13 (8.02%) Transformation Consultant
6 12 (7.41%) Senior
7 11 (6.79%) Senior Manager
7 11 (6.79%) Senior Project Manager
8 9 (5.56%) Engagement Manager
9 7 (4.32%) Business Analyst
10 6 (3.70%) Accountant
10 6 (3.70%) Systems Accountant
11 4 (2.47%) Banking Analyst
11 4 (2.47%) Banking Business Analyst
11 4 (2.47%) Digital Project Manager
11 4 (2.47%) IT Manager
11 4 (2.47%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.85%) OAuth
2 1 (0.62%) Middleware
2 1 (0.62%) REST
2 1 (0.62%) SailPoint
2 1 (0.62%) SAML
2 1 (0.62%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.56%) Management Information System
2 8 (4.94%) Virtual Team
3 6 (3.70%) EPoS
4 4 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (2.47%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (1.85%) Freedom of Information
5 3 (1.85%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.85%) PMI
5 3 (1.85%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.23%) AI Agents
6 2 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.23%) SCADA
7 1 (0.62%) CMDB
7 1 (0.62%) Credit Risk
7 1 (0.62%) Data Structures
7 1 (0.62%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.62%) Life Science
7 1 (0.62%) Marketing Technology
7 1 (0.62%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 3 (1.85%) Windows
2 2 (1.23%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.62%) Unix
3 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (30.86%) Change Management
2 49 (30.25%) Agile
3 48 (29.63%) Migration
4 45 (27.78%) Stakeholder Management
5 43 (26.54%) Problem-Solving
6 40 (24.69%) ERP
7 36 (22.22%) Project Delivery
8 34 (20.99%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (19.75%) Validation
10 31 (19.14%) Data Migration
10 31 (19.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 28 (17.28%) Workshop Facilitation
12 27 (16.67%) Business Transformation
13 22 (13.58%) ITIL
14 21 (12.96%) Visualisation
15 20 (12.35%) PRINCE2
16 18 (11.11%) Budget Management
17 17 (10.49%) Cybersecurity
18 16 (9.88%) Waterfall
19 14 (8.64%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.94%) SQL
2 1 (0.62%) ABAP
2 1 (0.62%) JavaScript
2 1 (0.62%) Python
2 1 (0.62%) VBA
Qualifications
1 26 (16.05%) Degree
2 22 (13.58%) Security Cleared
3 13 (8.02%) SC Cleared
4 10 (6.17%) PMP
5 9 (5.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 8 (4.94%) PMI Certification
7 7 (4.32%) Master's Degree
8 6 (3.70%) ACCA
8 6 (3.70%) CIMA
8 6 (3.70%) CIPFA
8 6 (3.70%) MBA
9 5 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.23%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.23%) Azure Certification
10 2 (1.23%) CISA
10 2 (1.23%) CISM
10 2 (1.23%) CISSP
10 2 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (1.23%) CRISC
10 2 (1.23%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.32%) PMO
2 5 (3.09%) QA
2 5 (3.09%) SLA
3 3 (1.85%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.85%) GRC
4 2 (1.23%) Basel III
4 2 (1.23%) GDPR
4 2 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 2 (1.23%) NEBOSH
4 2 (1.23%) NIST
System Software
1 4 (2.47%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.62%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 3 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.62%) SCCM
Vendors
1 42 (25.93%) SAP
2 20 (12.35%) Microsoft
3 13 (8.02%) Sage
4 4 (2.47%) Google
5 3 (1.85%) Databricks
5 3 (1.85%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.23%) Citrix
6 2 (1.23%) Oracle
7 1 (0.62%) Cisco
7 1 (0.62%) Commvault
7 1 (0.62%) Epicor
7 1 (0.62%) Fortinet
7 1 (0.62%) Infor
7 1 (0.62%) Juniper
7 1 (0.62%) Qualys
7 1 (0.62%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.62%) SolarWinds
7 1 (0.62%) Teradata
7 1 (0.62%) Veeam
7 1 (0.62%) VMware