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 15 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 24 16
Rank change year-on-year -22 -8 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 166 150 185
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.35% 6.84% 7.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.26% 7.72% 9.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 102 102 102
10th Percentile £358 £356 £279
25th Percentile £400 £411 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -
75th Percentile £543 £607 £550
90th Percentile £600 £686 £614
England median daily rate £525 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 14 19
10th Percentile £21.00 £28.23 £20.18
25th Percentile £28.87 £38.52 £25.33
Median hourly rate £33.75 £60.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.75% +71.43% -
75th Percentile £70.15 £77.19 £41.88
90th Percentile £71.45 £80.33 £56.23
England median hourly rate £43.83 £41.06 £38.12
% change year-on-year +6.73% +7.71% -4.70%

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 3,157 1,944 2,027
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.77% 88.65% 84.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,843 1,257 1,215
10th Percentile £280 £280 £311
25th Percentile £400 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £599 £575 £588
90th Percentile £679 £667 £678
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 332 125 172
10th Percentile £16.06 £13.50 £10.95
25th Percentile £24.72 £18.87 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.00 £27.00 £34.61
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -21.98% +12.52%
75th Percentile £72.18 £58.27 £51.91
90th Percentile £85.00 £74.50 £70.90
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.61%

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 15 August 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 15 August 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 15 August 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 -23 87 £450 -5.26% 153
Cheshire -14 38 £463 +2.78% 44
Lancashire +4 18 £594 +21.17% 38
Merseyside -12 13 £525 -16.00% 29
Cumbria -15 9 £487 +0.66% 8
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 11 (6.63%) Confluence
2 10 (6.02%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.60%) SAS
Applications
1 12 (7.23%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (6.02%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (4.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (3.61%) MS Visio
5 5 (3.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 8 (4.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (3.01%) Primavera
3 4 (2.41%) SAP MM
4 3 (1.81%) SAP HCM
5 2 (1.20%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.60%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.60%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 15 (9.04%) Power Platform
2 11 (6.63%) Azure
3 8 (4.82%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (4.22%) Google Workspace
5 4 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
5 4 (2.41%) Google Sheets
5 4 (2.41%) Power Automate
5 4 (2.41%) PowerApps
5 4 (2.41%) SaaS
6 3 (1.81%) Asana
6 3 (1.81%) AWS
6 3 (1.81%) GCP
6 3 (1.81%) Google Drive
6 3 (1.81%) IBM Blueworks
6 3 (1.81%) OneDrive
6 3 (1.81%) Smartsheet
6 3 (1.81%) Snowflake
7 2 (1.20%) Azure Data Factory
7 2 (1.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 2 (1.20%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.41%) BGP
1 4 (2.41%) DNS
1 4 (2.41%) Network Security
1 4 (2.41%) SSH
1 4 (2.41%) TCP/IP
2 3 (1.81%) DKIM
2 3 (1.81%) DMARC
3 1 (0.60%) Cisco Nexus
3 1 (0.60%) DHCP
3 1 (0.60%) Ethernet VPN
3 1 (0.60%) Firewall
3 1 (0.60%) MPLS
3 1 (0.60%) OSPF
3 1 (0.60%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.60%) Software-Defined Networking
3 1 (0.60%) VPN
3 1 (0.60%) VXLAN
3 1 (0.60%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.43%) Power BI
2 6 (3.61%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (2.41%) Data Lake
4 3 (1.81%) SAP HANA
5 2 (1.20%) Power Query
5 2 (1.20%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.60%) Big Data
6 1 (0.60%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.60%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.60%) Metadata
6 1 (0.60%) MySQL
6 1 (0.60%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 16 (9.64%) JIRA
2 2 (1.20%) Git
3 1 (0.60%) GitLab
3 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 78 (46.99%) Social Skills
2 74 (44.58%) Finance
3 37 (22.29%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (9.64%) Banking
5 15 (9.04%) Retail
6 14 (8.43%) Manufacturing
7 12 (7.23%) Public Sector
8 11 (6.63%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (5.42%) Telecoms
10 7 (4.22%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (3.61%) Legal
12 3 (1.81%) Aviation
13 2 (1.20%) Automotive
13 2 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (1.20%) Financial Institution
13 2 (1.20%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.60%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.60%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.60%) Local Government
14 1 (0.60%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 71 (42.77%) Project Manager
2 14 (8.43%) Lead
2 14 (8.43%) Senior
3 13 (7.83%) Senior Manager
4 12 (7.23%) IT Manager
4 12 (7.23%) IT Project Manager
4 12 (7.23%) Senior Project Manager
5 11 (6.63%) Finance Manager
6 10 (6.02%) Accountant
6 10 (6.02%) Finance Project Manager
6 10 (6.02%) Systems Accountant
7 9 (5.42%) Consultant
8 8 (4.82%) Analyst
8 8 (4.82%) Engagement Manager
9 7 (4.22%) Programme Manager
9 7 (4.22%) SAP Consultant
9 7 (4.22%) Security Manager
9 7 (4.22%) Security Project Manager
10 6 (3.61%) Agile Project Manager
10 6 (3.61%) Migration Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.41%) OAuth
2 2 (1.20%) REST
3 1 (0.60%) JSON
3 1 (0.60%) LangChain
3 1 (0.60%) LangGraph
3 1 (0.60%) Middleware
3 1 (0.60%) SAML
3 1 (0.60%) SOAP
3 1 (0.60%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (9.04%) Management Information System
2 8 (4.82%) Product Ownership
3 7 (4.22%) Credit Risk
3 7 (4.22%) Mobile App
4 6 (3.61%) Distributed Systems
4 6 (3.61%) EPoS
4 6 (3.61%) Taxonomies
5 5 (3.01%) Freedom of Information
5 5 (3.01%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.01%) PKI
6 4 (2.41%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (2.41%) Low-Code
6 4 (2.41%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.81%) PMI
7 3 (1.81%) Tandem
8 2 (1.20%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.20%) Client/Server
8 2 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.60%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 6 (3.61%) Windows
2 5 (3.01%) Unix
3 2 (1.20%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.60%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (42.17%) Stakeholder Management
2 44 (26.51%) Agile
3 37 (22.29%) Project Delivery
4 36 (21.69%) Change Management
5 34 (20.48%) Migration
6 32 (19.28%) Problem-Solving
7 25 (15.06%) PRINCE2
8 23 (13.86%) Continuous Improvement
9 22 (13.25%) Risk Management
10 20 (12.05%) AI
11 19 (11.45%) ERP
11 19 (11.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 18 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
12 18 (10.84%) Workshop Facilitation
13 16 (9.64%) Business Intelligence
13 16 (9.64%) Project Governance
13 16 (9.64%) Project Planning
14 15 (9.04%) Data Migration
14 15 (9.04%) Decision-Making
14 15 (9.04%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 7 (4.22%) Python
1 7 (4.22%) SQL
2 2 (1.20%) ABAP
3 1 (0.60%) Bash
3 1 (0.60%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.60%) MATLAB
3 1 (0.60%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 18 (10.84%) Security Cleared
2 15 (9.04%) Degree
3 10 (6.02%) ACCA
3 10 (6.02%) CIMA
3 10 (6.02%) CIPFA
3 10 (6.02%) SC Cleared
4 9 (5.42%) PMI Certification
5 7 (4.22%) PMP
6 4 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (1.81%) PRINCE2 Certification
8 2 (1.20%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.20%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.20%) CISA
8 2 (1.20%) CISM
8 2 (1.20%) CISSP
8 2 (1.20%) CRISC
8 2 (1.20%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.60%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.60%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.22%) PMO
2 6 (3.61%) Data Quality
3 4 (2.41%) SLA
4 3 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.81%) NIST
5 2 (1.20%) GDPR
5 2 (1.20%) GRC
5 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27005
5 2 (1.20%) QA
6 1 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 5 (3.01%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.60%) Docker
2 1 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.41%) Ansible
2 3 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.60%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.60%) Progress Chef
3 1 (0.60%) Puppet
3 1 (0.60%) Terraform
Vendors
1 22 (13.25%) Microsoft
1 22 (13.25%) SAP
2 7 (4.22%) Google
3 6 (3.61%) Databricks
4 4 (2.41%) Cisco
4 4 (2.41%) Concur
4 4 (2.41%) DocuSign
4 4 (2.41%) Gemalto
4 4 (2.41%) Oracle
4 4 (2.41%) Sage
4 4 (2.41%) Salesforce
4 4 (2.41%) ServiceNow
4 4 (2.41%) Thales
5 3 (1.81%) Alteryx
5 3 (1.81%) Arista
5 3 (1.81%) IBM
6 2 (1.20%) Atlassian
6 2 (1.20%) Infor
6 2 (1.20%) Teradata
7 1 (0.60%) Veeam