Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Problem Solving
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 12
Rank change year-on-year -4 +9 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 108 138 61
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.85% 23.67% 11.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.91% 25.79% 13.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 104 38
10th Percentile £282 £313 £308
25th Percentile £364 £391 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £449 £492 £523
Median % change year-on-year -8.84% -5.84% +8.85%
75th Percentile £550 £582 £573
90th Percentile £622 £696 £599
North West median daily rate £450 £492 £493
% change year-on-year -8.54% -0.20% +2.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 2 4
10th Percentile - £34.00 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £40.00 £14.00
Median hourly rate £32.23 £51.00 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year -36.81% +80.53% +11.55%
75th Percentile £37.16 £61.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £85.45 £66.40 -
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £28.75 £10.95
% change year-on-year +30.43% +162.56% -60.18%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Cheshire

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 Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 679 535 464
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 87.05% 91.77% 87.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 412 402 320
10th Percentile £350 £313 £311
25th Percentile £411 £358 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £443 £478
Median % change year-on-year +9.15% -7.38% -4.45%
75th Percentile £588 £537 £575
90th Percentile £653 £645 £638
North West median daily rate £486 £450 £493
% change year-on-year +7.90% -8.72% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 21 27
10th Percentile £14.27 - £12.80
25th Percentile £17.25 £12.82 £17.26
Median hourly rate £35.82 £33.40 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.25% -4.57% +14.60%
75th Percentile £85.00 £50.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £85.60 £85.25 £45.25
North West median hourly rate £55.00 £29.01 £27.00
% change year-on-year +89.59% +7.44% -7.85%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Cheshire over the 6 months to 18 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Cheshire

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in Cheshire over the 6 months to 18 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Cheshire

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

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 Cheshire region over the 6 months to 18 July 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
Knutsford -4 46 £434 -7.07% 11
Chester -7 22 £550 -15.38% 10
Warrington -6 15 £450 +95.65% 13
Crewe +1 4 £550 +54.93% 5
Northwich - 2 - - 4
Alderley Edge -1 1 £400 - 1
Macclesfield -1 1 £525 -4.55% 5
Problem-Solving
North West

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 14 (12.96%) Confluence
2 2 (1.85%) Camunda
2 2 (1.85%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.93%) JBoss
3 1 (0.93%) Mule
3 1 (0.93%) Mule ESB
3 1 (0.93%) WebLogic
Applications
1 11 (10.19%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.78%) CATIA
3 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.85%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.93%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (6.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (2.78%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (2.78%) SAP HCM
2 3 (2.78%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 29 (26.85%) Azure
2 18 (16.67%) AWS
3 13 (12.04%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (10.19%) Entra ID
5 9 (8.33%) Power Platform
6 7 (6.48%) GCP
7 2 (1.85%) AWS KMS
7 2 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (1.85%) Azure Key Vault
7 2 (1.85%) GitHub
7 2 (1.85%) OpenShift
7 2 (1.85%) Power Automate
7 2 (1.85%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.85%) SaaS
8 1 (0.93%) Akamai
8 1 (0.93%) Azure API Management
8 1 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.93%) IaaS
8 1 (0.93%) OCI
8 1 (0.93%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (11.11%) VPN
2 8 (7.41%) Firewall
3 6 (5.56%) DNS
4 5 (4.63%) Kerberos
5 3 (2.78%) DMZ
5 3 (2.78%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 3 (2.78%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (2.78%) LAN
5 3 (2.78%) Network Security
5 3 (2.78%) SAN
5 3 (2.78%) SSL
5 3 (2.78%) WAN
6 2 (1.85%) BGP
6 2 (1.85%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (1.85%) MPLS
6 2 (1.85%) OSPF
6 2 (1.85%) VLAN
6 2 (1.85%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.85%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.93%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.56%) Power BI
2 4 (3.70%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.78%) SAP HANA
3 3 (2.78%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.93%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.93%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 17 (15.74%) JIRA
2 7 (6.48%) GitLab
3 5 (4.63%) JUnit
4 4 (3.70%) Git
4 4 (3.70%) Postman
5 3 (2.78%) Jenkins
5 3 (2.78%) Mockito
6 2 (1.85%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.93%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.93%) CANoe
7 1 (0.93%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.93%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.93%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.93%) Selenium
7 1 (0.93%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.93%) Zephyr
General
1 56 (51.85%) Analytical Skills
2 53 (49.07%) Social Skills
3 33 (30.56%) Finance
4 20 (18.52%) Banking
5 7 (6.48%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (4.63%) Manufacturing
7 4 (3.70%) Aerospace
7 4 (3.70%) Automotive
8 3 (2.78%) Legal
8 3 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.85%) Billing
9 2 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.85%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.93%) Aviation
10 1 (0.93%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.93%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.93%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 24 (22.22%) Analyst
2 10 (9.26%) Developer
3 9 (8.33%) Business Analyst
4 7 (6.48%) Architect
4 7 (6.48%) Lead
4 7 (6.48%) Security Engineer
5 6 (5.56%) Consultant
5 6 (5.56%) IT Analyst
5 6 (5.56%) IT Operations Analyst
5 6 (5.56%) IT Support
5 6 (5.56%) Operations Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Full-Stack Developer
6 5 (4.63%) IT Support Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Operational Support Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Operations Support Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Service Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Service Desk Analyst
6 5 (4.63%) Support Analyst
7 4 (3.70%) IT Engineer
7 4 (3.70%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (10.19%) REST
2 9 (8.33%) JSON
3 6 (5.56%) Swagger
3 6 (5.56%) XML
4 5 (4.63%) HTML
4 5 (4.63%) LDAP
4 5 (4.63%) OAuth
4 5 (4.63%) RESTful
4 5 (4.63%) SOAP
5 4 (3.70%) CSS
5 4 (3.70%) Middleware
6 3 (2.78%) HTML5
6 3 (2.78%) Lightning Web Components
6 3 (2.78%) OpenAPI
6 3 (2.78%) OpenID
6 3 (2.78%) React
6 3 (2.78%) Spring
6 3 (2.78%) Visualforce
6 3 (2.78%) YAML
7 2 (1.85%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.26%) Analytical Mindset
2 9 (8.33%) Product Ownership
3 6 (5.56%) Management Information System
3 6 (5.56%) Onboarding
4 5 (4.63%) Data Centre
5 4 (3.70%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (3.70%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (3.70%) PKI
6 3 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.78%) Digital Wallet
6 3 (2.78%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.85%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.85%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.85%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.85%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.85%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.85%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 1 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 20 (18.52%) Windows
2 7 (6.48%) Linux
3 6 (5.56%) Mac OS
4 5 (4.63%) Apple iOS
5 3 (2.78%) Unix
6 2 (1.85%) AIX
6 2 (1.85%) Android
6 2 (1.85%) HPUX
6 2 (1.85%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (1.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.85%) Solaris
6 2 (1.85%) SUSE
6 2 (1.85%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.93%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (25.93%) Continuous Improvement
2 25 (23.15%) Agile
2 25 (23.15%) Stakeholder Management
3 24 (22.22%) ITIL
4 18 (16.67%) Change Management
5 17 (15.74%) Customer Service
6 16 (14.81%) CI/CD
7 14 (12.96%) Data Protection
8 13 (12.04%) Computer Science
9 12 (11.11%) AI
9 12 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
9 12 (11.11%) ITSM
9 12 (11.11%) Risk Management
10 11 (10.19%) DevOps
10 11 (10.19%) Migration
10 11 (10.19%) Project Management
10 11 (10.19%) Root Cause Analysis
11 10 (9.26%) Scrum
12 9 (8.33%) Incident Management
12 9 (8.33%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 15 (13.89%) PowerShell
2 10 (9.26%) Python
3 9 (8.33%) Java
4 5 (4.63%) JavaScript
4 5 (4.63%) SQL
5 4 (3.70%) TypeScript
6 3 (2.78%) ABAP
6 3 (2.78%) Apex Code
6 3 (2.78%) Bash
7 1 (0.93%) Bicep
7 1 (0.93%) C#
7 1 (0.93%) Korn
7 1 (0.93%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.93%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.93%) SOQL
7 1 (0.93%) SOSL
7 1 (0.93%) VBA
Qualifications
1 22 (20.37%) Degree
2 11 (10.19%) CISSP
2 11 (10.19%) Computer Science Degree
3 8 (7.41%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (6.48%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (5.56%) Security Cleared
6 5 (4.63%) AWS Certification
6 5 (4.63%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (3.70%) CEH
7 4 (3.70%) CISM
7 4 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (2.78%) A+ Certification
8 3 (2.78%) CCNA
8 3 (2.78%) CISA
8 3 (2.78%) CRISC
8 3 (2.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (2.78%) Network+ Certification
8 3 (2.78%) NVQ Level 4
8 3 (2.78%) PMI Certification
8 3 (2.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.33%) NIST
2 7 (6.48%) GRC
2 7 (6.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (6.48%) SLA
3 5 (4.63%) PSD2
4 4 (3.70%) PCI DSS
5 3 (2.78%) QA
6 2 (1.85%) GDPR
6 2 (1.85%) ISO 20022
6 2 (1.85%) ISO 8583
6 2 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 2 (1.85%) SEPA
7 1 (0.93%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.93%) PMO
System Software
1 15 (13.89%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.70%) Docker
2 4 (3.70%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.85%) Firmware
3 2 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.93%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (5.56%) Ansible
2 4 (3.70%) Grafana
2 4 (3.70%) Kubernetes
3 3 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.78%) Prometheus
3 3 (2.78%) Terraform
4 2 (1.85%) Argo
4 2 (1.85%) SCCM
4 2 (1.85%) WMI
5 1 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.93%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.93%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.93%) HP ALM
5 1 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.93%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 18 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 17 (15.74%) ServiceNow
3 8 (7.41%) SAP
3 8 (7.41%) Workday
4 7 (6.48%) Remedy
5 6 (5.56%) Bomgar
5 6 (5.56%) Oracle
5 6 (5.56%) Splunk
6 5 (4.63%) F5
6 5 (4.63%) HP
7 4 (3.70%) BeyondTrust
7 4 (3.70%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (3.70%) VMware
8 3 (2.78%) Cisco
8 3 (2.78%) Dell
8 3 (2.78%) Red Hat
8 3 (2.78%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.85%) Computacenter
9 2 (1.85%) Forcepoint
9 2 (1.85%) Juniper