Project Manager Contract Job Trends in the North West

Project Manager
England > North West

The median Project Manager daily rate in the North West is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 62 28 34
Rank change year-on-year -34 +6 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Project Manager 84 132 142
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.31% 6.10% 5.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.63% 6.57% 5.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 76 111
10th Percentile £382 £305 £360
25th Percentile £414 £391 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £476 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -4.80% -
75th Percentile £550 £538 £565
90th Percentile £636 £575 £625
England median daily rate £548 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +4.29% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 19 3
10th Percentile £33.54 £30.45 £29.80
25th Percentile £37.73 £31.25 £31.00
Median hourly rate £47.44 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +45.95% -1.52% -21.43%
75th Percentile £59.13 £55.86 £34.00
90th Percentile £64.51 £58.61 £34.60
England median hourly rate £65.00 £35.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year +85.71% -20.00% -32.69%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North West. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the North West with a recognized job title 2,315 2,008 2,483
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.29% 92.75% 92.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,501 1,144 1,708
10th Percentile £213 £250 £306
25th Percentile £358 £380 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £566 £567 £600
90th Percentile £650 £656 £677
England median daily rate £505 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -3.81% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 111 183
10th Percentile £17.30 £15.36 £15.75
25th Percentile £21.36 £17.72 £17.72
Median hourly rate £31.50 £27.13 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +16.13% -23.59% +68.65%
75th Percentile £56.69 £46.18 £47.67
90th Percentile £69.45 £67.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £27.00 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.86% -22.22% +38.46%

Project Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Project Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Project Manager job vacancy trend in the North West

Project Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the North West

Project Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Manager in the North West over the 6 months to 27 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Project Manager in the North West

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Project Manager job vacancies in the North West

Project Manager
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Manager in the North West over the 6 months to 27 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Manager in the North West

Project Manager
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 Manager within the North West region over the 6 months to 27 December 2025. 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 -30 35 £475 -5.00% 56
Cheshire -19 28 £450 -4.96% 38
Lancashire -2 9 £500 -11.11% 29
Merseyside -19 9 £543 +69.53% 17
Cumbria -5 1 £475 -5.00% 4
Project Manager
England

Project Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 27 December 2025, Project Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the North West region featuring Project Manager in the job title.

1 35 (41.67%) Project Management
2 34 (40.48%) Stakeholder Management
3 24 (28.57%) Project Delivery
4 19 (22.62%) Migration
5 18 (21.43%) Agile
5 18 (21.43%) Change Management
6 14 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 12 (14.29%) JIRA
8 11 (13.10%) Budget Management
8 11 (13.10%) Resource Allocation
9 10 (11.90%) ERP
9 10 (11.90%) Problem-Solving
10 9 (10.71%) Microsoft
10 9 (10.71%) Microsoft Project
11 8 (9.52%) Project Planning
11 8 (9.52%) Risk Management
11 8 (9.52%) SAP
12 7 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
12 7 (8.33%) Degree
12 7 (8.33%) Logistics
12 7 (8.33%) Project Governance
12 7 (8.33%) Supplier Management
13 6 (7.14%) Continuous Improvement
13 6 (7.14%) Data Migration
13 6 (7.14%) Resource Management
13 6 (7.14%) Scrum
13 6 (7.14%) Waterfall
14 5 (5.95%) AWS
14 5 (5.95%) Business Case
14 5 (5.95%) Decision-Making

Project Manager Skill Set
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 4 (4.76%) Confluence
2 1 (1.19%) Moodle
Applications
1 9 (10.71%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.19%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (3.57%) SAP Payroll
2 2 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (1.19%) SAP ERP
3 1 (1.19%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 5 (5.95%) AWS
2 4 (4.76%) OCI
2 4 (4.76%) Power Platform
2 4 (4.76%) SuccessFactors
3 3 (3.57%) Boomi
4 2 (2.38%) Azure
4 2 (2.38%) Smartsheet
5 1 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (1.19%) Entra ID
5 1 (1.19%) IaaS
5 1 (1.19%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
5 1 (1.19%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.19%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.76%) Power BI
2 2 (2.38%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (1.19%) EDRMS
3 1 (1.19%) Looker
Development Applications
1 12 (14.29%) JIRA
2 1 (1.19%) Hudson
General
1 30 (35.71%) Finance
1 30 (35.71%) Social Skills
2 13 (15.48%) Banking
3 7 (8.33%) Public Sector
4 6 (7.14%) Legal
5 5 (5.95%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (5.95%) Manufacturing
6 4 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
6 4 (4.76%) Retail
7 2 (2.38%) Automotive
7 2 (2.38%) Corporate Banking
7 2 (2.38%) Local Government
7 2 (2.38%) Retail Banking
8 1 (1.19%) Dutch Language
8 1 (1.19%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.19%) French Language
8 1 (1.19%) German Language
8 1 (1.19%) Marketing
8 1 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.19%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.19%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 7 (8.33%) Product Ownership
2 2 (2.38%) Data Centre
2 2 (2.38%) Driving Licence
2 2 (2.38%) NHS
2 2 (2.38%) PMI
3 1 (1.19%) Cloud Native
3 1 (1.19%) CMDB
3 1 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (1.19%) Learning Management System
3 1 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (1.19%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.19%) Marketing Technology
3 1 (1.19%) Mobile App
3 1 (1.19%) Operational Technology
3 1 (1.19%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.19%) Taxonomies
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (41.67%) Project Management
2 34 (40.48%) Stakeholder Management
3 24 (28.57%) Project Delivery
4 19 (22.62%) Migration
5 18 (21.43%) Agile
5 18 (21.43%) Change Management
6 14 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 11 (13.10%) Budget Management
7 11 (13.10%) Resource Allocation
8 10 (11.90%) ERP
8 10 (11.90%) Problem-Solving
9 8 (9.52%) Project Planning
9 8 (9.52%) Risk Management
10 7 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
10 7 (8.33%) Logistics
10 7 (8.33%) Project Governance
10 7 (8.33%) Supplier Management
11 6 (7.14%) Continuous Improvement
11 6 (7.14%) Resource Management
11 6 (7.14%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 7 (8.33%) Degree
2 5 (5.95%) PMI Certification
2 5 (5.95%) PMP
3 4 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
3 4 (4.76%) Security Cleared
4 3 (3.57%) SC Cleared
5 2 (2.38%) Master's Degree
5 2 (2.38%) MBA
5 2 (2.38%) SAFe Agilist
6 1 (1.19%) BC Cleared
6 1 (1.19%) CISM
6 1 (1.19%) CISSP
6 1 (1.19%) PCI QSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.76%) QA
2 2 (2.38%) Basel III
2 2 (2.38%) Data Quality
2 2 (2.38%) GRC
2 2 (2.38%) PMO
3 1 (1.19%) EU AI Act
3 1 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.19%) NIST
3 1 (1.19%) PCI DSS
3 1 (1.19%) PMBOK
3 1 (1.19%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (1.19%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (1.19%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 9 (10.71%) Microsoft
2 8 (9.52%) SAP
3 5 (5.95%) Oracle
4 3 (3.57%) ServiceNow
5 2 (2.38%) NEC
6 1 (1.19%) Cisco
6 1 (1.19%) Saba
6 1 (1.19%) Workday