Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Problem Solving
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Berkshire requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 4 10
Rank change year-on-year -9 +6 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 208 202 209
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 11.45% 16.48% 12.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.89% 18.08% 14.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 126 97
10th Percentile £308 £219 £292
25th Percentile £400 £375 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £483 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.63% -12.27% +22.22%
75th Percentile £577 £550 £619
90th Percentile £648 £650 £650
South East median daily rate £475 £450 £486
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.46% +2.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 5 17
10th Percentile £16.38 £18.10 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.00 £19.00 £20.75
Median hourly rate £32.50 £32.31 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +0.59% -44.58% +11.80%
75th Percentile £69.50 £38.42 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.50 - £67.06
South East median hourly rate £20.63 £18.00 £37.08
% change year-on-year +14.58% -51.46% -34.25%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Berkshire

Problem-Solving 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 Berkshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,498 1,117 1,450
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 82.44% 91.11% 87.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 920 698 749
10th Percentile £350 £313 £325
25th Percentile £425 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £650 £690
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 45 68
10th Percentile £16.38 £14.75 £19.35
25th Percentile £32.38 £17.50 £42.79
Median hourly rate £80.00 £37.28 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year +114.59% -39.38% +2.49%
75th Percentile £91.31 £58.00 £68.05
90th Percentile £104.00 £87.40 £79.72
South East median hourly rate £47.77 £22.35 £58.38
% change year-on-year +113.78% -61.72% +7.37%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Berkshire over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in Berkshire over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Berkshire region over the 6 months to 1 October 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
Reading -9 110 £500 - 148
Wokingham -3 50 £430 +2.38% 22
Bracknell 0 12 £675 +10.20% 29
Slough -5 9 £480 +6.67% 74
Windsor +6 7 £500 -4.76% 19
Maidenhead -4 6 - - 17
Problem-Solving
South East

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire 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 21 (10.10%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.92%) Confluence
3 2 (0.96%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.48%) Apache
4 1 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.48%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.48%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.48%) CICS
Applications
1 18 (8.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (3.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (3.37%) MS Visio
3 6 (2.88%) CPLEX
3 6 (2.88%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (3.37%) Workday HCM
2 5 (2.40%) iTrent
3 4 (1.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (1.92%) Teamcenter
4 3 (1.44%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.96%) Primavera
5 2 (0.96%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.48%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.48%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.48%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.48%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.48%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 72 (34.62%) Azure
2 45 (21.63%) AWS
3 30 (14.42%) GCP
4 21 (10.10%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (6.73%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (5.77%) Power Platform
7 11 (5.29%) OneDrive
8 8 (3.85%) SuccessFactors
9 7 (3.37%) Entra ID
10 6 (2.88%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.88%) Route 53
10 6 (2.88%) SaaS
11 5 (2.40%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (2.40%) Azure API Management
11 5 (2.40%) Smartsheet
12 4 (1.92%) Azure Data Factory
13 3 (1.44%) Apigee
13 3 (1.44%) Azure Logic Apps
13 3 (1.44%) GitHub
13 3 (1.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 24 (11.54%) DNS
2 21 (10.10%) DHCP
3 20 (9.62%) TCP/IP
4 10 (4.81%) Firewall
5 8 (3.85%) FTP
6 6 (2.88%) 2G
6 6 (2.88%) 3G
6 6 (2.88%) 4G
6 6 (2.88%) 5G
6 6 (2.88%) Diameter Protocol
6 6 (2.88%) DNSSEC
6 6 (2.88%) SIGTRAN
6 6 (2.88%) SS7
7 5 (2.40%) Network Security
8 4 (1.92%) VPN
9 3 (1.44%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (0.96%) LAN
10 2 (0.96%) PBX
10 2 (0.96%) SD-WAN
10 2 (0.96%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.29%) Power BI
2 9 (4.33%) NoSQL
3 6 (2.88%) MongoDB
3 6 (2.88%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (2.40%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.92%) Metadata
6 3 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.96%) Big Data
7 2 (0.96%) Parquet
7 2 (0.96%) Spark SQL
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.48%) GIS
8 1 (0.48%) QGIS
8 1 (0.48%) Tableau
8 1 (0.48%) Text Mining
Development Applications
1 19 (9.13%) Git
2 16 (7.69%) JIRA
3 7 (3.37%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.96%) HP UFT
5 1 (0.48%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.48%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.48%) Gradle
5 1 (0.48%) IBM UrbanCode
5 1 (0.48%) JMeter
5 1 (0.48%) Maven
5 1 (0.48%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.48%) Selenium
General
1 116 (55.77%) Social Skills
2 98 (47.12%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (9.13%) Finance
3 19 (9.13%) Telecoms
4 18 (8.65%) Documentation Skills
5 16 (7.69%) Aerospace
6 11 (5.29%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (4.81%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (3.37%) Manufacturing
8 7 (3.37%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.92%) Publishing
10 3 (1.44%) Legal
10 3 (1.44%) Retail
11 2 (0.96%) Banking
11 2 (0.96%) Marketing
11 2 (0.96%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.48%) Billing
12 1 (0.48%) Local Government
12 1 (0.48%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 30 (14.42%) Analyst
2 17 (8.17%) Lead
3 16 (7.69%) Architect
4 15 (7.21%) Consultant
4 15 (7.21%) Developer
5 14 (6.73%) IT Support
6 12 (5.77%) Data Engineer
7 11 (5.29%) Senior
8 10 (4.81%) Business Analyst
9 7 (3.37%) Data Analyst
9 7 (3.37%) Workday Consultant
10 6 (2.88%) Designer
10 6 (2.88%) Integration Consultant
10 6 (2.88%) Mobile Designer
10 6 (2.88%) Python Developer
10 6 (2.88%) Support Engineer
10 6 (2.88%) Technical Leader
10 6 (2.88%) Workday Integration Consultant
11 5 (2.40%) Service Analyst
11 5 (2.40%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (10.10%) Terraform
2 12 (5.77%) RESTful
3 9 (4.33%) OpenAPI
3 9 (4.33%) Swagger
4 8 (3.85%) REST
4 8 (3.85%) Web Services
5 7 (3.37%) PySpark
6 6 (2.88%) ARM Templates
6 6 (2.88%) Django
6 6 (2.88%) FastAPI
6 6 (2.88%) Flask
6 6 (2.88%) Kafka
6 6 (2.88%) NumPy
6 6 (2.88%) Pandas
6 6 (2.88%) pytest
6 6 (2.88%) RabbitMQ
6 6 (2.88%) XML
6 6 (2.88%) XSLT
7 5 (2.40%) LDAP
7 5 (2.40%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (6.73%) Data Centre
2 12 (5.77%) Cloud Native
2 12 (5.77%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (4.33%) Data Structures
4 6 (2.88%) Algorithms
4 6 (2.88%) Product Ownership
5 5 (2.40%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 5 (2.40%) Distributed Systems
5 5 (2.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (1.92%) Life Science
6 4 (1.92%) Management Information System
6 4 (1.92%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (0.96%) CMDB
8 2 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (0.96%) Distributed Computing
8 2 (0.96%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 31 (14.90%) Windows
2 15 (7.21%) Apple iOS
3 13 (6.25%) Linux
4 10 (4.81%) Mac OS
5 9 (4.33%) Windows Server
6 7 (3.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.48%) Rocky
7 1 (0.48%) Unix
7 1 (0.48%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.48%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (26.44%) Stakeholder Management
2 46 (22.12%) Agile
3 43 (20.67%) DevOps
4 42 (20.19%) Continuous Improvement
5 41 (19.71%) ITIL
6 39 (18.75%) Analytics
7 35 (16.83%) CI/CD
8 33 (15.87%) ITSM
9 27 (12.98%) Customer Service
10 25 (12.02%) Service Delivery
10 25 (12.02%) Technical Leadership
11 24 (11.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 21 (10.10%) AI
12 21 (10.10%) Decision-Making
12 21 (10.10%) Infrastructure as Code
13 20 (9.62%) Roadmaps
14 18 (8.65%) Process Improvement
14 18 (8.65%) Root Cause Analysis
15 17 (8.17%) DevSecOps
15 17 (8.17%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 47 (22.60%) Python
2 29 (13.94%) SQL
3 21 (10.10%) PowerShell
4 13 (6.25%) JavaScript
5 10 (4.81%) Bash
6 5 (2.40%) Bicep
6 5 (2.40%) Java
7 4 (1.92%) TypeScript
8 3 (1.44%) Go
9 2 (0.96%) C#
9 2 (0.96%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.96%) VBScript
10 1 (0.48%) COBOL
10 1 (0.48%) JCL
10 1 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.48%) R
Qualifications
1 72 (34.62%) Security Cleared
2 57 (27.40%) SC Cleared
3 34 (16.35%) Degree
4 9 (4.33%) Azure Certification
4 9 (4.33%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (4.33%) Microsoft Certification
5 7 (3.37%) AWS Certification
5 7 (3.37%) CISSP
5 7 (3.37%) PMI Certification
5 7 (3.37%) PMP
6 6 (2.88%) CISM
6 6 (2.88%) DV Cleared
7 5 (2.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (1.92%) DBS Check
8 4 (1.92%) MCITP
9 3 (1.44%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.96%) CISA
10 2 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.96%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.96%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.73%) Data Quality
2 9 (4.33%) NIST
3 8 (3.85%) GDPR
3 8 (3.85%) QA
4 6 (2.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.92%) PMO
6 3 (1.44%) SLA
7 2 (0.96%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.48%) BS7666
8 1 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.48%) GAAP
8 1 (0.48%) GMP
8 1 (0.48%) GRC
8 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.48%) ITGC
8 1 (0.48%) JTAG
8 1 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (7.21%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.25%) Docker
3 9 (4.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.88%) Hyper-V
5 5 (2.40%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.92%) vSphere
7 3 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.96%) IAG
9 1 (0.48%) RACF
9 1 (0.48%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 20 (9.62%) Kubernetes
2 18 (8.65%) Ansible
3 13 (6.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (4.81%) Jamf Pro
5 6 (2.88%) Red Hat Satellite
6 3 (1.44%) Istio
6 3 (1.44%) SCCM
6 3 (1.44%) SCOM
7 2 (0.96%) Avamar
7 2 (0.96%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.96%) Grafana
7 2 (0.96%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.48%) Check_MK
8 1 (0.48%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.48%) Podman
8 1 (0.48%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.48%) QRadar
8 1 (0.48%) vMotion
Vendors
1 65 (31.25%) Microsoft
2 27 (12.98%) ServiceNow
3 18 (8.65%) VMware
4 14 (6.73%) SAP
5 12 (5.77%) Databricks
5 12 (5.77%) Google
5 12 (5.77%) Red Hat
5 12 (5.77%) Workday
6 8 (3.85%) Oracle
7 7 (3.37%) Salesforce
8 6 (2.88%) Cisco
8 6 (2.88%) CyberArk
8 6 (2.88%) Infoblox
9 5 (2.40%) BeyondTrust
10 3 (1.44%) Citrix
10 3 (1.44%) MuleSoft
10 3 (1.44%) SolarWinds
11 2 (0.96%) Ariba
11 2 (0.96%) Juniper
11 2 (0.96%) Nokia