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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -14 -4 +6
Contract jobs citing Project Management 159 154 232
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.70% 7.48% 8.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.59% 8.40% 9.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 79 160
10th Percentile £338 £281 £265
25th Percentile £412 £356 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.33% -5.26% -2.01%
75th Percentile £550 £536 £576
90th Percentile £670 £575 £638
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 24 26
10th Percentile £29.55 £23.86 £25.06
25th Percentile - £30.37 £30.63
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £37.98
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -14.42% -38.28%
75th Percentile £48.47 £33.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £66.10 £60.00 £55.00
England median hourly rate £39.50 £39.02 £38.12
% change year-on-year +1.23% +2.36% -23.77%

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 2,413 1,834 2,400
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 86.46% 89.03% 87.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,557 1,108 1,571
10th Percentile £213 £274 £302
25th Percentile £358 £381 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £571 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £675
England median daily rate £503 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 200 106 228
10th Percentile £16.32 £18.07 £12.67
25th Percentile £22.85 £23.11 £16.05
Median hourly rate £45.00 £31.64 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.23% +21.69% -30.67%
75th Percentile £63.43 £55.76 £46.18
90th Percentile £76.00 £79.04 £53.07
England median hourly rate £28.00 £35.00 £34.21
% change year-on-year -20.00% +2.31% -2.26%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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 26 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
Manchester -31 50 £451 +6.00% 48
Lancashire +8 48 £525 -7.89% 18
Cheshire -17 38 £475 +29.43% 15
Cumbria +10 17 £503 +8.17% 2
Merseyside -22 4 £500 +14.29% 9
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 18 (11.32%) Confluence
2 10 (6.29%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.52%) Exchange Server 2013
3 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.52%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.63%) CMS
4 1 (0.63%) IIS
4 1 (0.63%) Moodle
4 1 (0.63%) SAS
Applications
1 15 (9.43%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (7.55%) MS Visio
3 11 (6.92%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (6.29%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (5.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 24 (15.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (3.77%) SAP Payroll
3 4 (2.52%) SAP HCM
4 3 (1.89%) Primavera
5 2 (1.26%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (1.26%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.63%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.63%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 13 (8.18%) Azure
2 8 (5.03%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (4.40%) Power Platform
4 5 (3.14%) SuccessFactors
5 4 (2.52%) OneDrive
6 3 (1.89%) AWS
6 3 (1.89%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (1.89%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 2 (1.26%) Entra ID
7 2 (1.26%) Serverless
8 1 (0.63%) Amazon Cognito
8 1 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.63%) Azure Data Factory
8 1 (0.63%) GCP
8 1 (0.63%) IaaS
8 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.63%) OCI
8 1 (0.63%) Smartsheet
8 1 (0.63%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.52%) Skype
2 3 (1.89%) SSH
3 1 (0.63%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.63%) DNS
3 1 (0.63%) Firewall
3 1 (0.63%) Internet
3 1 (0.63%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.63%) SSL
3 1 (0.63%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.63%) WAN
3 1 (0.63%) WebEx
3 1 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.63%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.14%) Power BI
1 5 (3.14%) SAP HANA
2 2 (1.26%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.63%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.63%) GIS
3 1 (0.63%) Looker
3 1 (0.63%) Metadata
3 1 (0.63%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.63%) Power Query
3 1 (0.63%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 24 (15.09%) JIRA
2 1 (0.63%) Git
2 1 (0.63%) Jenkins
General
1 92 (57.86%) Social Skills
2 60 (37.74%) Finance
3 34 (21.38%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.92%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.29%) Banking
6 8 (5.03%) Retail
7 7 (4.40%) Manufacturing
7 7 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (3.14%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.89%) Legal
9 3 (1.89%) Marketing
10 2 (1.26%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (1.26%) Local Government
10 2 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.26%) Retail Banking
10 2 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.63%) Brand Awareness
11 1 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.63%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 49 (30.82%) Project Manager
2 29 (18.24%) Lead
3 20 (12.58%) Analyst
3 20 (12.58%) Consultant
4 16 (10.06%) SAP Consultant
5 14 (8.81%) Senior
6 12 (7.55%) Senior Manager
6 12 (7.55%) Senior Project Manager
7 11 (6.92%) Engagement Manager
7 11 (6.92%) Finance Manager
7 11 (6.92%) Finance Project Manager
7 11 (6.92%) Transformation Consultant
8 6 (3.77%) Business Analyst
9 5 (3.14%) Project Leader
9 5 (3.14%) Support Analyst
10 4 (2.52%) Banking Analyst
10 4 (2.52%) Banking Business Analyst
10 4 (2.52%) Operations Analyst
10 4 (2.52%) Operations Support Analyst
10 4 (2.52%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.63%) REST
1 1 (0.63%) SailPoint
1 1 (0.63%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.81%) Virtual Team
2 6 (3.77%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (2.52%) Operational Technology
3 4 (2.52%) Product Ownership
4 3 (1.89%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.89%) PMI
4 3 (1.89%) Tandem
5 2 (1.26%) SCADA
6 1 (0.63%) Blackberry
6 1 (0.63%) Credit Risk
6 1 (0.63%) Data Fabric
6 1 (0.63%) EPoS
6 1 (0.63%) FMCG
6 1 (0.63%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.63%) Life Science
6 1 (0.63%) PKI
6 1 (0.63%) Social Media
6 1 (0.63%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 6 (3.77%) Windows
2 4 (2.52%) Unix
3 2 (1.26%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (37.11%) Change Management
2 54 (33.96%) Agile
3 48 (30.19%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (28.30%) Migration
5 41 (25.79%) Stakeholder Management
6 40 (25.16%) Continuous Improvement
7 38 (23.90%) Project Delivery
8 37 (23.27%) ERP
9 35 (22.01%) ITIL
10 32 (20.13%) Validation
11 28 (17.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 27 (16.98%) Data Migration
13 25 (15.72%) PRINCE2
13 25 (15.72%) Workshop Facilitation
14 22 (13.84%) Budget Management
14 22 (13.84%) Business Transformation
15 21 (13.21%) Six Sigma
16 20 (12.58%) DevOps
16 20 (12.58%) Visualisation
17 19 (11.95%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 10 (6.29%) SQL
2 5 (3.14%) Python
3 2 (1.26%) ABAP
4 1 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (0.63%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.63%) VBA
Qualifications
1 39 (24.53%) Degree
2 24 (15.09%) Security Cleared
3 16 (10.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
3 16 (10.06%) SC Cleared
4 11 (6.92%) PMP
5 9 (5.66%) PMI Certification
6 7 (4.40%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (3.77%) Master's Degree
7 6 (3.77%) MBA
8 5 (3.14%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.26%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 2 (1.26%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 2 (1.26%) SAFe Agilist
10 1 (0.63%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.63%) CISM
10 1 (0.63%) CISSP
10 1 (0.63%) MCSA
10 1 (0.63%) MCSE
10 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.40%) PMO
1 7 (4.40%) QA
2 2 (1.26%) Basel III
2 2 (1.26%) GDPR
2 2 (1.26%) NEBOSH
3 1 (0.63%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.63%) GRC
3 1 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.63%) NIST
3 1 (0.63%) P3O
3 1 (0.63%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.63%) SLA
3 1 (0.63%) SOC 2
System Software
1 5 (3.14%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.63%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (3.14%) Microsoft Intune
1 5 (3.14%) SCCM
2 1 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.63%) Terraform
Vendors
1 38 (23.90%) SAP
2 30 (18.87%) Microsoft
3 11 (6.92%) Sage
4 4 (2.52%) Cisco
4 4 (2.52%) Google
4 4 (2.52%) ServiceNow
5 3 (1.89%) Citrix
5 3 (1.89%) Gemalto
5 3 (1.89%) IBM
5 3 (1.89%) Oracle
5 3 (1.89%) Palo Alto
5 3 (1.89%) Thales
6 2 (1.26%) Databricks
6 2 (1.26%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.26%) Snow
6 2 (1.26%) Workday
7 1 (0.63%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.63%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.63%) Okta
7 1 (0.63%) Zoho