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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 19 20
Rank change year-on-year -12 +1 +4
Contract jobs citing Project Management 145 167 198
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.87% 8.08% 7.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.69% 9.21% 8.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 72 139
10th Percentile £333 £301 £265
25th Percentile £412 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.33% -5.26% -2.01%
75th Percentile £563 £552 £556
90th Percentile £658 £586 £628
England median daily rate £520 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -0.95% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 23 20
10th Percentile £29.48 £23.74 £20.07
25th Percentile - £29.99 £29.17
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £37.98
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -14.42% -38.28%
75th Percentile £47.85 £33.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £66.10 £59.65 £51.00
England median hourly rate £44.50 £34.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +30.88% -20.00% +5.49%

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 2,167 1,813 2,344
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 87.77% 87.75% 87.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,409 1,030 1,587
10th Percentile £213 £275 £306
25th Percentile £358 £390 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £663 £681
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 90 159
10th Percentile £16.33 £16.00 £14.18
25th Percentile £21.65 £21.05 £18.25
Median hourly rate £41.68 £30.95 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +34.67% -22.63% +11.11%
75th Percentile £57.50 £49.80 £46.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.68 £64.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £42.50
% change year-on-year -27.63% -18.24% +21.43%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -13 44 £470 +4.44% 25
Manchester -31 42 £455 +1.05% 40
Lancashire +7 31 £500 - 29
Cumbria +3 17 £500 +25.00% 6
Merseyside -15 8 £625 -6.02% 11
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 (12.41%) Confluence
2 16 (11.03%) SharePoint
3 8 (5.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.83%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.83%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.69%) CMS
5 1 (0.69%) IIS
5 1 (0.69%) Moodle
Applications
1 19 (13.10%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (9.66%) MS Visio
3 10 (6.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (6.90%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (6.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (6.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (3.45%) SAP Payroll
3 2 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.69%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.69%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.69%) Primavera
4 1 (0.69%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.69%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 14 (9.66%) Azure
2 12 (8.28%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (5.52%) OneDrive
4 5 (3.45%) Power Platform
4 5 (3.45%) Smartsheet
5 4 (2.76%) AWS
5 4 (2.76%) SuccessFactors
6 3 (2.07%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.38%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (1.38%) Serverless
8 1 (0.69%) Amazon Cognito
8 1 (0.69%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.69%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 1 (0.69%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.69%) IaaS
8 1 (0.69%) Lucidchart
8 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.69%) OCI
8 1 (0.69%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.83%) Skype
2 6 (4.14%) SSH
3 1 (0.69%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.69%) DNS
3 1 (0.69%) Firewall
3 1 (0.69%) Internet
3 1 (0.69%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.69%) SSL
3 1 (0.69%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.69%) WAN
3 1 (0.69%) WebEx
3 1 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.69%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.07%) Power BI
2 2 (1.38%) SAP HANA
3 1 (0.69%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.69%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.69%) Looker
3 1 (0.69%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.69%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 26 (17.93%) JIRA
2 1 (0.69%) Appium
2 1 (0.69%) Git
2 1 (0.69%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.69%) Selenium
General
1 90 (62.07%) Social Skills
2 44 (30.34%) Finance
3 27 (18.62%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (10.34%) Banking
5 9 (6.21%) Public Sector
6 8 (5.52%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (5.52%) Retail
7 5 (3.45%) Legal
7 5 (3.45%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.76%) Investment Banking
8 4 (2.76%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (2.07%) Local Government
9 3 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.38%) Automotive
10 2 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.38%) Marketing
10 2 (1.38%) Social Housing
11 1 (0.69%) Brand Awareness
11 1 (0.69%) Dutch Language
11 1 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 35 (24.14%) Project Manager
2 25 (17.24%) Analyst
2 25 (17.24%) Lead
3 12 (8.28%) Engagement Manager
4 10 (6.90%) Senior
5 9 (6.21%) Consultant
6 8 (5.52%) Business Analyst
6 8 (5.52%) Support Analyst
7 7 (4.83%) Operational Support Analyst
7 7 (4.83%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (4.83%) Operations Support Analyst
8 6 (4.14%) Programme Manager
8 6 (4.14%) Technical Manager
9 5 (3.45%) Migration Manager
9 5 (3.45%) SAP Consultant
10 4 (2.76%) IT Manager
10 4 (2.76%) Senior Manager
10 4 (2.76%) Senior Project Manager
10 4 (2.76%) Service Transition Manager
10 4 (2.76%) Technical Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.69%) REST
1 1 (0.69%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.66%) Virtual Team
2 6 (4.14%) Tandem
3 5 (3.45%) Management Information System
4 4 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (2.76%) PMI
4 4 (2.76%) Product Ownership
5 3 (2.07%) Learning Management System
5 3 (2.07%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.38%) EPoS
6 2 (1.38%) Life Science
6 2 (1.38%) Security Operations Centre
6 2 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.69%) Blackberry
7 1 (0.69%) Data Fabric
7 1 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.69%) Housing Association
7 1 (0.69%) NHS
7 1 (0.69%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 8 (5.52%) Windows
2 6 (4.14%) Unix
3 2 (1.38%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.69%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (41.38%) Agile
2 50 (34.48%) Change Management
3 44 (30.34%) Project Delivery
4 42 (28.97%) Stakeholder Management
5 39 (26.90%) ITIL
6 37 (25.52%) Problem-Solving
7 31 (21.38%) Migration
8 28 (19.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 28 (19.31%) PRINCE2
9 23 (15.86%) Six Sigma
9 23 (15.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 22 (15.17%) Cybersecurity
11 20 (13.79%) Service Delivery
11 20 (13.79%) Waterfall
12 19 (13.10%) Budget Management
13 18 (12.41%) DevOps
13 18 (12.41%) ERP
13 18 (12.41%) Validation
14 16 (11.03%) Agile Project Management
14 16 (11.03%) Lean Six Sigma
Programming Languages
1 9 (6.21%) SQL
2 5 (3.45%) Python
3 2 (1.38%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.69%) ABAP
4 1 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (0.69%) Java
Qualifications
1 46 (31.72%) Degree
2 21 (14.48%) Security Cleared
3 15 (10.34%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
3 15 (10.34%) SC Cleared
4 11 (7.59%) PMI Certification
4 11 (7.59%) PMP
5 8 (5.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (5.52%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (3.45%) Master's Degree
6 5 (3.45%) MBA
7 3 (2.07%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.38%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 1 (0.69%) ACCA
9 1 (0.69%) CIMA
9 1 (0.69%) CISM
9 1 (0.69%) CISSP
9 1 (0.69%) MCSA
9 1 (0.69%) MCSE
9 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.69%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (8.28%) PMO
2 8 (5.52%) QA
3 4 (2.76%) P3O
4 2 (1.38%) PMBOK
5 1 (0.69%) Basel III
5 1 (0.69%) EU AI Act
5 1 (0.69%) GDPR
5 1 (0.69%) GRC
5 1 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.69%) NIST
5 1 (0.69%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.69%) SOC 2
System Software
1 8 (5.52%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.69%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (5.52%) Microsoft Intune
1 8 (5.52%) SCCM
2 1 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.69%) Terraform
Vendors
1 35 (24.14%) Microsoft
2 16 (11.03%) SAP
3 6 (4.14%) IBM
4 4 (2.76%) Cisco
4 4 (2.76%) Google
4 4 (2.76%) ServiceNow
5 3 (2.07%) Citrix
5 3 (2.07%) Gemalto
5 3 (2.07%) Oracle
5 3 (2.07%) Palo Alto
5 3 (2.07%) Planview
5 3 (2.07%) Sage
5 3 (2.07%) Thales
6 2 (1.38%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.38%) Snow
6 2 (1.38%) Workday
7 1 (0.69%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.69%) Databricks
7 1 (0.69%) Ekahau
7 1 (0.69%) UiPath