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 31 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 16 17
Rank change year-on-year -22 +1 +8
Contract jobs citing Project Management 143 176 236
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.43% 8.36% 8.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.22% 9.46% 9.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 69 84 163
10th Percentile £331 £291 £265
25th Percentile £410 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.33% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £575
90th Percentile £678 £575 £638
England median daily rate £525 £525 £525
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 24 27
10th Percentile £30.53 £23.86 £22.10
25th Percentile - £30.37 £30.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -18.75% -36.77%
75th Percentile £55.63 £33.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £66.10 £60.00 £49.40
England median hourly rate £43.50 £35.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +24.29% -8.18% -21.40%

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 2,299 1,861 2,502
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 87.25% 88.41% 87.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,516 1,084 1,677
10th Percentile £213 £275 £306
25th Percentile £358 £385 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £551 £566 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £683
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 100 203
10th Percentile £16.28 £16.06 £12.55
25th Percentile £21.75 £22.35 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.95 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +35.51% -9.53% -8.53%
75th Percentile £57.50 £51.38 £46.18
90th Percentile £72.75 £75.03 £55.12
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.31 £36.42
% change year-on-year -26.69% -5.80% +4.05%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 31 January 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
Cheshire -16 42 £470 +16.63% 23
Manchester -33 42 £451 +0.11% 41
Lancashire +9 36 £500 -2.20% 27
Cumbria -5 13 £503 +25.75% 2
Merseyside -17 7 £625 +16.77% 13
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 (12.59%) Confluence
2 14 (9.79%) SharePoint
3 8 (5.59%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.90%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.90%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.70%) CMS
5 1 (0.70%) IIS
5 1 (0.70%) Moodle
5 1 (0.70%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (11.89%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (10.49%) MS Visio
3 12 (8.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (6.99%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 14 (9.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (3.50%) SAP Payroll
3 2 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.40%) Primavera
4 1 (0.70%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.70%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.70%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 15 (10.49%) Azure
2 12 (8.39%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (5.59%) OneDrive
4 5 (3.50%) Power Platform
5 4 (2.80%) AWS
5 4 (2.80%) SuccessFactors
6 3 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (2.10%) Google Workspace
6 3 (2.10%) Smartsheet
7 2 (1.40%) Serverless
8 1 (0.70%) Amazon Cognito
8 1 (0.70%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 1 (0.70%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.70%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.70%) IaaS
8 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.70%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.90%) Skype
2 3 (2.10%) SSH
3 1 (0.70%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.70%) DNS
3 1 (0.70%) Firewall
3 1 (0.70%) Internet
3 1 (0.70%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.70%) SSL
3 1 (0.70%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.70%) WAN
3 1 (0.70%) WebEx
3 1 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.70%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.10%) Power BI
2 2 (1.40%) SAP HANA
3 1 (0.70%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.70%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.70%) GIS
3 1 (0.70%) Looker
3 1 (0.70%) Metadata
3 1 (0.70%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.70%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.70%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 25 (17.48%) JIRA
2 1 (0.70%) Appium
2 1 (0.70%) Git
2 1 (0.70%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.70%) Selenium
General
1 77 (53.85%) Social Skills
2 51 (35.66%) Finance
3 31 (21.68%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (8.39%) Banking
5 8 (5.59%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (4.90%) Public Sector
7 6 (4.20%) Manufacturing
7 6 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (4.20%) Retail
8 5 (3.50%) Legal
9 3 (2.10%) Local Government
9 3 (2.10%) Marketing
10 2 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.40%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.70%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.70%) Automotive
11 1 (0.70%) Brand Awareness
11 1 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.70%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 39 (27.27%) Project Manager
2 27 (18.88%) Lead
3 23 (16.08%) Analyst
4 12 (8.39%) Consultant
5 9 (6.29%) Engagement Manager
6 8 (5.59%) SAP Consultant
6 8 (5.59%) Senior
6 8 (5.59%) Support Analyst
7 7 (4.90%) Business Analyst
7 7 (4.90%) Operational Support Analyst
7 7 (4.90%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (4.90%) Operations Support Analyst
8 6 (4.20%) Finance Manager
8 6 (4.20%) Finance Project Manager
8 6 (4.20%) Programme Manager
8 6 (4.20%) Transformation Consultant
9 5 (3.50%) Technical Manager
10 4 (2.80%) Project Leader
10 4 (2.80%) Senior Manager
10 4 (2.80%) Senior Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.70%) REST
1 1 (0.70%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.79%) Virtual Team
2 5 (3.50%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (2.80%) Product Ownership
4 3 (2.10%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (2.10%) EPoS
4 3 (2.10%) Learning Management System
4 3 (2.10%) Life Science
4 3 (2.10%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.10%) Operational Technology
4 3 (2.10%) Tandem
5 2 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.40%) PMI
5 2 (1.40%) Renewable Energy
5 2 (1.40%) SCADA
6 1 (0.70%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.70%) Marketing Technology
6 1 (0.70%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 6 (4.20%) Windows
2 4 (2.80%) Unix
3 2 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.70%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (41.26%) Agile
2 52 (36.36%) Change Management
3 43 (30.07%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (27.97%) Stakeholder Management
5 37 (25.87%) ITIL
6 36 (25.17%) Project Delivery
7 33 (23.08%) Migration
8 28 (19.58%) Continuous Improvement
9 26 (18.18%) PRINCE2
10 25 (17.48%) Validation
11 24 (16.78%) ERP
11 24 (16.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 23 (16.08%) Six Sigma
13 20 (13.99%) Cybersecurity
14 19 (13.29%) Budget Management
14 19 (13.29%) DevOps
14 19 (13.29%) Waterfall
15 18 (12.59%) Service Delivery
16 16 (11.19%) Data Migration
16 16 (11.19%) Lean Six Sigma
Programming Languages
1 10 (6.99%) SQL
2 6 (4.20%) Python
3 2 (1.40%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.70%) ABAP
4 1 (0.70%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (0.70%) Java
4 1 (0.70%) VBA
Qualifications
1 45 (31.47%) Degree
2 17 (11.89%) Security Cleared
3 15 (10.49%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
4 12 (8.39%) PMP
5 11 (7.69%) SC Cleared
6 10 (6.99%) PMI Certification
7 7 (4.90%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.50%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (3.50%) Master's Degree
8 5 (3.50%) MBA
9 3 (2.10%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (1.40%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (1.40%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 1 (0.70%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.70%) CISSP
11 1 (0.70%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.70%) MCSE
11 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.70%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.59%) PMO
1 8 (5.59%) QA
2 2 (1.40%) GDPR
2 2 (1.40%) GRC
2 2 (1.40%) NEBOSH
2 2 (1.40%) P3O
2 2 (1.40%) PMBOK
3 1 (0.70%) Basel III
3 1 (0.70%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.70%) EU AI Act
3 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.70%) NIST
3 1 (0.70%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.70%) SLA
3 1 (0.70%) SOC 2
System Software
1 8 (5.59%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (5.59%) Microsoft Intune
1 8 (5.59%) SCCM
2 1 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.70%) Terraform
Vendors
1 35 (24.48%) Microsoft
2 23 (16.08%) SAP
3 6 (4.20%) Sage
4 5 (3.50%) ServiceNow
5 4 (2.80%) Cisco
5 4 (2.80%) Google
6 3 (2.10%) Citrix
6 3 (2.10%) Gemalto
6 3 (2.10%) IBM
6 3 (2.10%) Oracle
6 3 (2.10%) Palo Alto
6 3 (2.10%) Thales
7 2 (1.40%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.40%) Snow
7 2 (1.40%) Workday
8 1 (0.70%) Avaya
8 1 (0.70%) Genesys
8 1 (0.70%) Juniper
8 1 (0.70%) NEC
8 1 (0.70%) Saba