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

 6 months to
14 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -3 +3 -1
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 106 143 65
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.12% 23.25% 13.21%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.36% 25.27% 15.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 107 42
10th Percentile £240 £294 £301
25th Percentile £325 £365 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £480 £523
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -8.13% +10.58%
75th Percentile £538 £564 £567
90th Percentile £588 £706 £585
North West median daily rate £450 £480 £493
% change year-on-year -6.25% -2.64% +2.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 2 0
10th Percentile £15.56 £26.85 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £27.38 -
Median hourly rate £17.50 £30.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -42.62% - -
75th Percentile £37.16 £33.38 -
90th Percentile £74.03 £33.75 -
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £26.19 £10.95
% change year-on-year +43.20% +139.16% -68.56%

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 690 566 422
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 85.40% 92.03% 85.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 406 429 283
10th Percentile £313 £307 £311
25th Percentile £408 £358 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £437 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.05% -8.00% -5.00%
75th Percentile £582 £520 £575
90th Percentile £649 £646 £640
North West median daily rate £500 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 21 17
10th Percentile £14.90 - £11.15
25th Percentile £17.25 £12.82 £16.25
Median hourly rate £32.23 £32.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.70% -8.57% +14.60%
75th Percentile £85.00 £50.00 £43.75
90th Percentile - £67.25 £47.50
North West median hourly rate £45.00 £27.19 £35.00
% change year-on-year +65.52% -22.32% +2.94%

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 August 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 14 August 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 14 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
Knutsford -11 30 £445 -2.09% 12
Chester -7 24 £550 -21.43% 20
Warrington -3 18 £273 +45.33% 16
Crewe +3 9 £325 +26.21% 7
Northwich - 3 £300 - 3
Macclesfield -4 2 £525 +6.06% 4
Widnes - 1 - - 4
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 7 (6.60%) Confluence
2 2 (1.89%) Camunda
3 1 (0.94%) JBoss
3 1 (0.94%) Mule
3 1 (0.94%) Mule ESB
3 1 (0.94%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.94%) WebLogic
Applications
1 13 (12.26%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (3.77%) MS Visio
3 3 (2.83%) CATIA
3 3 (2.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.94%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (8.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.89%) SAP HCM
2 2 (1.89%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.94%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 23 (21.70%) Azure
2 20 (18.87%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (17.92%) AWS
4 8 (7.55%) GCP
4 8 (7.55%) Power Platform
5 5 (4.72%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.89%) AWS KMS
6 2 (1.89%) Azure Key Vault
6 2 (1.89%) GitHub
6 2 (1.89%) OpenShift
6 2 (1.89%) Power Automate
6 2 (1.89%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.94%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (0.94%) AWS Step Functions
7 1 (0.94%) Azure API Management
7 1 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.94%) OCI
7 1 (0.94%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.21%) VPN
2 5 (4.72%) DNS
2 5 (4.72%) LAN
2 5 (4.72%) WAN
3 3 (2.83%) BIG-IP
3 3 (2.83%) DMZ
3 3 (2.83%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 3 (2.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 3 (2.83%) Firewall
3 3 (2.83%) SAN
3 3 (2.83%) SSL
4 2 (1.89%) BGP
4 2 (1.89%) Cisco Nexus
4 2 (1.89%) MPLS
4 2 (1.89%) OSPF
4 2 (1.89%) VLAN
4 2 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (1.89%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.94%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (0.94%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.66%) Power BI
2 4 (3.77%) SQL Server
3 3 (2.83%) Relational Database
4 2 (1.89%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.94%) Metadata
5 1 (0.94%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.94%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.94%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 7 (6.60%) JIRA
2 5 (4.72%) GitLab
3 4 (3.77%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.83%) Git
5 2 (1.89%) Cucumber
5 2 (1.89%) JUnit
6 1 (0.94%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.94%) CANoe
6 1 (0.94%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.94%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.94%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.94%) Maven
6 1 (0.94%) Postman
6 1 (0.94%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.94%) Selenium
6 1 (0.94%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 54 (50.94%) Analytical Skills
2 52 (49.06%) Social Skills
3 31 (29.25%) Finance
4 16 (15.09%) Banking
5 10 (9.43%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.72%) Aerospace
6 5 (4.72%) Automotive
6 5 (4.72%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.83%) Legal
7 3 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.94%) Aviation
9 1 (0.94%) Billing
9 1 (0.94%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.94%) German Language
9 1 (0.94%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.94%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 21 (19.81%) Analyst
2 10 (9.43%) IT Support
3 9 (8.49%) Lead
4 7 (6.60%) Operations Analyst
4 7 (6.60%) Security Engineer
5 6 (5.66%) IT Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) IT Operations Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) Operational Support Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) Operations Support Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) Service Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) Service Desk Analyst
5 6 (5.66%) Support Analyst
6 5 (4.72%) Architect
6 5 (4.72%) Consultant
6 5 (4.72%) Developer
6 5 (4.72%) IT Engineer
6 5 (4.72%) IT Support Analyst
7 4 (3.77%) Business Analyst
7 4 (3.77%) Service Management Analyst
7 4 (3.77%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (5.66%) REST
2 5 (4.72%) JSON
2 5 (4.72%) OAuth
3 4 (3.77%) Middleware
3 4 (3.77%) XML
4 3 (2.83%) OpenID
4 3 (2.83%) Spring
5 2 (1.89%) HTML
5 2 (1.89%) JPA
5 2 (1.89%) Kafka
5 2 (1.89%) SailPoint
5 2 (1.89%) SAML
5 2 (1.89%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.94%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.94%) Jest
6 1 (0.94%) JWT
6 1 (0.94%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.94%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.94%) Playwright
6 1 (0.94%) React
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.38%) Analytical Mindset
2 8 (7.55%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (5.66%) Product Ownership
4 5 (4.72%) Data Centre
5 4 (3.77%) Cloud Native
5 4 (3.77%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (3.77%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (3.77%) Onboarding
5 4 (3.77%) PKI
5 4 (3.77%) Virtual Team
6 3 (2.83%) CMDB
6 3 (2.83%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.83%) Data Structures
6 3 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (2.83%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.89%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.89%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.89%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.94%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 29 (27.36%) Windows
2 7 (6.60%) Linux
2 7 (6.60%) Mac OS
3 5 (4.72%) Apple iOS
4 3 (2.83%) Unix
4 3 (2.83%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.89%) AIX
5 2 (1.89%) Android
5 2 (1.89%) HPUX
5 2 (1.89%) Oracle Linux
5 2 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.89%) Solaris
5 2 (1.89%) SUSE
5 2 (1.89%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (33.02%) Continuous Improvement
2 26 (24.53%) Stakeholder Management
3 23 (21.70%) ITIL
4 20 (18.87%) Customer Service
5 15 (14.15%) Data Protection
6 14 (13.21%) Agile
6 14 (13.21%) Risk Management
7 13 (12.26%) AI
7 13 (12.26%) ITSM
8 12 (11.32%) Change Management
8 12 (11.32%) CI/CD
8 12 (11.32%) Cybersecurity
8 12 (11.32%) DevOps
8 12 (11.32%) Incident Management
9 11 (10.38%) Computer Science
9 11 (10.38%) Mentoring
9 11 (10.38%) Migration
10 10 (9.43%) Project Management
11 9 (8.49%) Root Cause Analysis
11 9 (8.49%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 14 (13.21%) Python
2 11 (10.38%) PowerShell
3 6 (5.66%) Java
3 6 (5.66%) SQL
4 3 (2.83%) Bash
5 2 (1.89%) ABAP
5 2 (1.89%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.94%) Assembly Language
6 1 (0.94%) Bicep
6 1 (0.94%) C#
6 1 (0.94%) Korn
6 1 (0.94%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.94%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.94%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 19 (17.92%) Degree
2 11 (10.38%) CISSP
3 9 (8.49%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (7.55%) Security Cleared
5 7 (6.60%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (5.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 5 (4.72%) AWS Certification
7 5 (4.72%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (4.72%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (3.77%) Azure Certification
8 4 (3.77%) CEH
8 4 (3.77%) CISM
8 4 (3.77%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (2.83%) A+ Certification
9 3 (2.83%) CCNA
9 3 (2.83%) CISA
9 3 (2.83%) HNC
9 3 (2.83%) MCSE
9 3 (2.83%) PMI Certification
9 3 (2.83%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (10.38%) SLA
2 9 (8.49%) GRC
2 9 (8.49%) NIST
3 7 (6.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (2.83%) QA
5 2 (1.89%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.89%) GDPR
5 2 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.94%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.94%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.94%) PSD2
6 1 (0.94%) SEPA
6 1 (0.94%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 13 (12.26%) Active Directory
2 6 (5.66%) Docker
3 5 (4.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (3.77%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.89%) Firmware
5 2 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.89%) vSphere
6 1 (0.94%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.94%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 6 (5.66%) Kubernetes
1 6 (5.66%) Microsoft Intune
1 6 (5.66%) SCCM
2 5 (4.72%) Ansible
3 4 (3.77%) Grafana
4 3 (2.83%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.89%) Argo
5 2 (1.89%) Terraform
5 2 (1.89%) WMI
6 1 (0.94%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.94%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 26 (24.53%) Microsoft
2 20 (18.87%) ServiceNow
3 9 (8.49%) Remedy
4 8 (7.55%) Workday
5 7 (6.60%) SAP
6 6 (5.66%) Bomgar
6 6 (5.66%) Oracle
6 6 (5.66%) Splunk
7 5 (4.72%) F5
7 5 (4.72%) VMware
8 4 (3.77%) BeyondTrust
8 4 (3.77%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (3.77%) HP
9 3 (2.83%) Cisco
9 3 (2.83%) Dell
9 3 (2.83%) Red Hat
10 2 (1.89%) Atlassian
10 2 (1.89%) Forcepoint
10 2 (1.89%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.89%) Juniper
91 Problem-Solving jobs in Cheshire