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 14 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 3 11
Rank change year-on-year 0 +8 -4
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 132 87 62
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 20.12% 19.29% 15.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 22.68% 21.64% 16.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 50 37
10th Percentile £265 £291 £328
25th Percentile £356 £358 £495
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £496 £510
Median % change year-on-year -9.90% -2.72% +2.72%
75th Percentile £500 £575 £550
90th Percentile £598 £601 £582
North West median daily rate £450 £458 £500
% change year-on-year -1.64% -8.50% +12.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 2
10th Percentile £21.25 - £23.80
25th Percentile £24.63 - £24.08
Median hourly rate £30.50 - £24.81
75th Percentile £47.00 - £25.78
90th Percentile £70.40 - £26.21
North West median hourly rate £20.26 £26.28 £45.88
% change year-on-year -22.92% -42.73% +65.87%

All Process and 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 582 402 365
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 88.72% 89.14% 91.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 420 234 236
10th Percentile £268 £311 £265
25th Percentile £358 £373 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.89% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £527 £574 £550
90th Percentile £686 £639 £588
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 23 22
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.00 £16.60
25th Percentile £18.87 £19.00 £17.37
Median hourly rate £23.18 £24.18 £24.81
Median % change year-on-year -4.16% -2.52% +83.00%
75th Percentile £40.00 £33.75 £35.56
90th Percentile £70.55 £84.30 £40.00
North West median hourly rate £34.50 £32.01 £35.50
% change year-on-year +7.78% -9.83% +37.54%

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 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
Knutsford -5 49 £435 -13.00% 3
Chester +9 33 £521 -7.38% 27
Macclesfield -2 15 £500 +4.06% 6
Warrington -9 14 £425 +13.33% 46
Crewe 0 7 £243 -16.67% 12
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 9 (6.82%) SharePoint
2 8 (6.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (5.30%) Exchange Server 2013
3 7 (5.30%) Skype for Business
4 5 (3.79%) Confluence
5 2 (1.52%) Apache
6 1 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.76%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.76%) CMS
6 1 (0.76%) JBoss
6 1 (0.76%) Mule
6 1 (0.76%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.76%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.76%) WebLogic
Applications
1 17 (12.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (10.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (9.09%) MS Visio
4 10 (7.58%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 23 (17.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (3.03%) SAP EHS
3 3 (2.27%) SAP EWM
4 1 (0.76%) Finacle
4 1 (0.76%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.76%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 27 (20.45%) Azure
2 24 (18.18%) AWS
3 21 (15.91%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (7.58%) GitHub
5 8 (6.06%) OneDrive
6 5 (3.79%) GCP
7 4 (3.03%) GitHub Copilot
7 4 (3.03%) Power Platform
8 3 (2.27%) Apigee
8 3 (2.27%) Kong
9 2 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.52%) npm
10 1 (0.76%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.76%) Amazon Kinesis
10 1 (0.76%) Amazon SageMaker
10 1 (0.76%) AWS CodeBuild
10 1 (0.76%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.76%) Datadog
10 1 (0.76%) Entra ID
10 1 (0.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (5.30%) Network Security
1 7 (5.30%) Skype
2 5 (3.79%) DNS
2 5 (3.79%) LAN
2 5 (3.79%) WAN
3 4 (3.03%) DMZ
3 4 (3.03%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 4 (3.03%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 3 (2.27%) Firewall
5 2 (1.52%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.76%) BGP
6 1 (0.76%) Cisco IOS
6 1 (0.76%) HTTP
6 1 (0.76%) Internet
6 1 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.76%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.76%) SAN
6 1 (0.76%) VLAN
6 1 (0.76%) Wireless
6 1 (0.76%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.79%) MySQL
1 5 (3.79%) Relational Database
2 4 (3.03%) MS Access
2 4 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.52%) Big Data
4 1 (0.76%) Apache Hive
4 1 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.76%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.76%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.76%) Metadata
4 1 (0.76%) Power BI
4 1 (0.76%) Power Query
4 1 (0.76%) SAP Data Services
4 1 (0.76%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.76%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.76%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 25 (18.94%) JIRA
2 22 (16.67%) Git
3 11 (8.33%) GitLab
4 9 (6.82%) Jenkins
5 6 (4.55%) Cucumber
5 6 (4.55%) JUnit
6 3 (2.27%) TestRail
7 2 (1.52%) Cypress.io
7 2 (1.52%) Grunt
7 2 (1.52%) gulp
7 2 (1.52%) Selenium
7 2 (1.52%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.76%) Appium
8 1 (0.76%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.76%) LSMW
8 1 (0.76%) MLflow
General
1 58 (43.94%) Social Skills
2 57 (43.18%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (37.88%) Finance
4 24 (18.18%) Banking
5 8 (6.06%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (5.30%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.79%) Legal
7 5 (3.79%) Pharmaceutical
8 4 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.27%) Automotive
10 2 (1.52%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.76%) Electronics
11 1 (0.76%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.76%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.76%) Marketing
11 1 (0.76%) Retail
11 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 28 (21.21%) Analyst
2 22 (16.67%) Developer
3 14 (10.61%) Consultant
4 13 (9.85%) Java Developer
5 10 (7.58%) Business Analyst
6 7 (5.30%) Operational Support Analyst
6 7 (5.30%) Operations Analyst
6 7 (5.30%) Operations Support Analyst
6 7 (5.30%) SAP Consultant
6 7 (5.30%) Support Analyst
7 6 (4.55%) Administrator
7 6 (4.55%) Management Consultant
8 5 (3.79%) Automation Engineer
8 5 (3.79%) Governance Manager
8 5 (3.79%) Programme Manager
8 5 (3.79%) Service Analyst
9 4 (3.03%) Architect
9 4 (3.03%) Service Desk Analyst
9 4 (3.03%) Technical Analyst
9 4 (3.03%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (16.67%) REST
2 19 (14.39%) Spring
2 19 (14.39%) Spring Boot
3 10 (7.58%) RESTful
4 9 (6.82%) JMS
5 8 (6.06%) Kafka
6 7 (5.30%) JSON
6 7 (5.30%) React
6 7 (5.30%) XML
7 5 (3.79%) HTML
8 4 (3.03%) Hibernate
8 4 (3.03%) SAP Fiori
8 4 (3.03%) SOAP
8 4 (3.03%) Spring MVC
8 4 (3.03%) Spring Security
9 3 (2.27%) CSS
9 3 (2.27%) JWT
9 3 (2.27%) OAuth
9 3 (2.27%) OpenAPI
9 3 (2.27%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 10 (7.58%) Cloud Native
1 10 (7.58%) SWIFT Messaging Network
2 9 (6.82%) Onboarding
3 4 (3.03%) Product Ownership
4 3 (2.27%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.52%) CMDB
5 2 (1.52%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.52%) Public Cloud
5 2 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.76%) Blackberry
6 1 (0.76%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.76%) Graphic Design
6 1 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.76%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.76%) Mobile Banking
6 1 (0.76%) Replication
6 1 (0.76%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.76%) Video Editing
Operating Systems
1 10 (7.58%) Windows
2 5 (3.79%) Windows 10
3 2 (1.52%) Linux
4 1 (0.76%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.76%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (31.82%) Agile
2 27 (20.45%) Continuous Improvement
3 26 (19.70%) CI/CD
4 24 (18.18%) Stakeholder Management
4 24 (18.18%) User Acceptance Testing
5 23 (17.42%) Migration
6 21 (15.91%) Six Sigma
7 20 (15.15%) SDLC
8 18 (13.64%) AI
8 18 (13.64%) DevOps
8 18 (13.64%) Microservices
9 17 (12.88%) Project Management
9 17 (12.88%) Requirements Gathering
9 17 (12.88%) Validation
10 16 (12.12%) Process Improvement
10 16 (12.12%) Roadmaps
10 16 (12.12%) Test Automation
10 16 (12.12%) Workshop Facilitation
11 15 (11.36%) Containerisation
11 15 (11.36%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 23 (17.42%) Java
2 19 (14.39%) SQL
3 13 (9.85%) Python
4 6 (4.55%) JavaScript
5 4 (3.03%) PowerShell
6 3 (2.27%) Bash
7 1 (0.76%) ABAP
7 1 (0.76%) Perl
7 1 (0.76%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.76%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 26 (19.70%) Degree
2 25 (18.94%) Security Cleared
3 18 (13.64%) SC Cleared
4 11 (8.33%) Computer Science Degree
4 11 (8.33%) Six Sigma Green Belt
5 9 (6.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.27%) AWS Certification
6 3 (2.27%) Azure Certification
6 3 (2.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.52%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.52%) BC Cleared
7 2 (1.52%) CBAP
7 2 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.52%) CISSP
7 2 (1.52%) CSPO
7 2 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.52%) PMI Certification
7 2 (1.52%) PMP
8 1 (0.76%) CCNP
8 1 (0.76%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (12.88%) QA
2 11 (8.33%) ISO 20022
3 10 (7.58%) SEPA
4 9 (6.82%) PSD2
5 6 (4.55%) GDPR
6 4 (3.03%) Data Quality
7 2 (1.52%) Accessibility
7 2 (1.52%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.76%) PMBOK
8 1 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 14 (10.61%) Docker
2 11 (8.33%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.03%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 16 (12.12%) Kubernetes
2 14 (10.61%) SCCM
3 7 (5.30%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (3.79%) Norton AntiVirus
5 3 (2.27%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.52%) Terraform
7 1 (0.76%) Ansible
7 1 (0.76%) Autotask
7 1 (0.76%) Grafana
7 1 (0.76%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.76%) QRadar
7 1 (0.76%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 36 (27.27%) Microsoft
2 29 (21.97%) SAP
3 13 (9.85%) Oracle
4 7 (5.30%) ServiceNow
5 5 (3.79%) F5
5 5 (3.79%) McAfee
5 5 (3.79%) Symantec
5 5 (3.79%) VMware
6 4 (3.03%) Computacenter
6 4 (3.03%) MuleSoft
7 3 (2.27%) Cisco
7 3 (2.27%) HP
7 3 (2.27%) Snow
7 3 (2.27%) Splunk
7 3 (2.27%) Workday
8 2 (1.52%) Google
8 2 (1.52%) IBM
8 2 (1.52%) IBM Sterling
8 2 (1.52%) Perforce
8 2 (1.52%) SolarWinds