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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 +1
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 124 152 81
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 15.70% 23.10% 15.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.42% 25.63% 17.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 109 46
10th Percentile £254 £266 £325
25th Percentile £313 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £444 £456 £509
Median % change year-on-year -2.74% -10.37% +2.78%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £565
90th Percentile £568 £671 £581
North West median daily rate £445 £472 £463
% change year-on-year -5.72% +2.05% -3.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 2 0
10th Percentile £15.98 £26.85 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £27.38 -
Median hourly rate £18.49 £30.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -39.38% - -
75th Percentile £37.16 £33.38 -
90th Percentile £79.05 £33.75 -
North West median hourly rate £35.82 £20.26 £48.56
% change year-on-year +76.85% -58.29% +76.58%

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 673 593 453
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 85.19% 90.12% 85.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 353 445 280
10th Percentile £300 £302 £323
25th Percentile £400 £358 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £446 £475
Median % change year-on-year +6.28% -6.11% -5.00%
75th Percentile £563 £520 £575
90th Percentile £624 £688 £650
North West median daily rate £500 £454 £493
% change year-on-year +10.25% -8.01% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 23 17
10th Percentile £16.01 - £16.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £12.82 -
Median hourly rate £35.82 £17.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +101.80% -49.29% +14.60%
75th Percentile £85.00 £35.38 £43.75
90th Percentile £111.25 £67.25 £47.50
North West median hourly rate £47.12 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +87.36% -40.82% +21.43%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 -5 30 £444 +1.37% 15
Chester -4 28 £538 -10.53% 20
Warrington +3 20 £325 +7.44% 36
Crewe -1 15 £313 +21.55% 8
Macclesfield -1 6 £525 +5.00% 9
Northwich - 3 £300 - 1
Congleton - 2 - - 1
Widnes - 1 - - 2
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 (7.26%) Confluence
2 3 (2.42%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.61%) Camunda
4 1 (0.81%) JBoss
4 1 (0.81%) Mule
4 1 (0.81%) Mule ESB
4 1 (0.81%) WebLogic
Applications
1 14 (11.29%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (2.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (2.42%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.61%) CATIA
5 1 (0.81%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (7.26%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (2.42%) Teamcenter
3 2 (1.61%) SAP HCM
3 2 (1.61%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.81%) ENOVIA
Cloud Services
1 27 (21.77%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (17.74%) Azure
3 19 (15.32%) AWS
4 8 (6.45%) Power Platform
5 7 (5.65%) Entra ID
6 5 (4.03%) GCP
7 2 (1.61%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (1.61%) AWS KMS
7 2 (1.61%) Azure Key Vault
7 2 (1.61%) Power Automate
7 2 (1.61%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.61%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.81%) Apigee
8 1 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.81%) AWS Step Functions
8 1 (0.81%) Azure API Management
8 1 (0.81%) Kong
8 1 (0.81%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 14 (11.29%) VPN
2 6 (4.84%) WAN
3 5 (4.03%) LAN
4 3 (2.42%) BIG-IP
4 3 (2.42%) DMZ
4 3 (2.42%) DNS
4 3 (2.42%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 3 (2.42%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 3 (2.42%) Firewall
4 3 (2.42%) SAN
4 3 (2.42%) SSL
5 2 (1.61%) BGP
5 2 (1.61%) Cisco Nexus
5 2 (1.61%) MPLS
5 2 (1.61%) OSPF
5 2 (1.61%) Remote Desktop
5 2 (1.61%) VLAN
5 2 (1.61%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.61%) Wireless
5 2 (1.61%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.84%) Power BI
2 3 (2.42%) Relational Database
2 3 (2.42%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.61%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.81%) Metadata
4 1 (0.81%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.81%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (7.26%) JIRA
2 4 (3.23%) GitLab
3 3 (2.42%) Git
4 2 (1.61%) Cucumber
4 2 (1.61%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.61%) JUnit
5 1 (0.81%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.81%) CANoe
5 1 (0.81%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.81%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.81%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.81%) Maven
5 1 (0.81%) Postman
5 1 (0.81%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.81%) Selenium
5 1 (0.81%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.81%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 61 (49.19%) Social Skills
2 56 (45.16%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (24.19%) Finance
4 17 (13.71%) Manufacturing
5 16 (12.90%) Banking
6 7 (5.65%) Automotive
7 6 (4.84%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (3.23%) Aerospace
8 4 (3.23%) Legal
8 4 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Aviation
9 1 (0.81%) Billing
9 1 (0.81%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.81%) German Language
9 1 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 23 (18.55%) Analyst
2 14 (11.29%) IT Support
3 10 (8.06%) Support Engineer
4 8 (6.45%) Lead
4 8 (6.45%) Service Analyst
4 8 (6.45%) Service Desk Analyst
5 7 (5.65%) Desktop Engineer
5 7 (5.65%) Desktop Support
5 7 (5.65%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 7 (5.65%) Operations Analyst
6 6 (4.84%) Developer
6 6 (4.84%) IT Analyst
6 6 (4.84%) IT Operations Analyst
6 6 (4.84%) Operational Support Analyst
6 6 (4.84%) Operations Support Analyst
6 6 (4.84%) Security Engineer
6 6 (4.84%) Support Analyst
7 5 (4.03%) Consultant
7 5 (4.03%) IT Engineer
7 5 (4.03%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.84%) REST
2 5 (4.03%) JSON
2 5 (4.03%) OAuth
3 4 (3.23%) Middleware
3 4 (3.23%) XML
4 3 (2.42%) OpenID
4 3 (2.42%) Spring
5 2 (1.61%) HTML
5 2 (1.61%) JPA
5 2 (1.61%) Kafka
5 2 (1.61%) SailPoint
5 2 (1.61%) SAML
5 2 (1.61%) Spring Boot
5 2 (1.61%) Terraform
6 1 (0.81%) Jakarta EE
6 1 (0.81%) Jest
6 1 (0.81%) Spring MVC
6 1 (0.81%) Spring Security
6 1 (0.81%) Web Services
6 1 (0.81%) XML Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (8.87%) Analytical Mindset
2 9 (7.26%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (6.45%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.65%) CMDB
4 7 (5.65%) Product Ownership
5 6 (4.84%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (4.03%) Data Centre
6 5 (4.03%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (3.23%) Cloud Native
7 4 (3.23%) Cyber Threat
7 4 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.23%) Management Information System
7 4 (3.23%) PKI
7 4 (3.23%) Virtual Team
8 3 (2.42%) Client/Server
8 3 (2.42%) Data Structures
8 3 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (1.61%) Algorithms
9 2 (1.61%) Industry 4.0
9 2 (1.61%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 40 (32.26%) Windows
2 9 (7.26%) Linux
3 7 (5.65%) Mac OS
4 5 (4.03%) Apple iOS
5 3 (2.42%) Windows Server
6 2 (1.61%) AIX
6 2 (1.61%) Android
6 2 (1.61%) HPUX
6 2 (1.61%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (1.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.61%) Solaris
6 2 (1.61%) SUSE
6 2 (1.61%) Unix
6 2 (1.61%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (33.06%) Continuous Improvement
2 34 (27.42%) Stakeholder Management
3 28 (22.58%) ITIL
4 26 (20.97%) Customer Service
5 17 (13.71%) AI
6 16 (12.90%) Agile
6 16 (12.90%) Data Protection
7 15 (12.10%) Incident Management
8 14 (11.29%) Cybersecurity
8 14 (11.29%) ITSM
8 14 (11.29%) Process Improvement
8 14 (11.29%) Risk Management
9 13 (10.48%) Change Management
9 13 (10.48%) Mentoring
10 12 (9.68%) CI/CD
10 12 (9.68%) Computer Science
10 12 (9.68%) Generative AI
10 12 (9.68%) Project Delivery
10 12 (9.68%) Project Management
10 12 (9.68%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 17 (13.71%) PowerShell
2 15 (12.10%) Python
3 10 (8.06%) SQL
4 7 (5.65%) Java
5 2 (1.61%) ABAP
5 2 (1.61%) C#
5 2 (1.61%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.81%) Assembly Language
6 1 (0.81%) Bash
6 1 (0.81%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.81%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 20 (16.13%) Degree
2 11 (8.87%) CISSP
3 10 (8.06%) Security Cleared
4 8 (6.45%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (6.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (5.65%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (4.84%) AWS Certification
6 6 (4.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 5 (4.03%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (4.03%) HNC
8 4 (3.23%) Azure Certification
8 4 (3.23%) CEH
8 4 (3.23%) CISM
8 4 (3.23%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (2.42%) A+ Certification
9 3 (2.42%) CISA
9 3 (2.42%) Network+ Certification
9 3 (2.42%) PMI Certification
9 3 (2.42%) PMP
9 3 (2.42%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (12.90%) SLA
2 9 (7.26%) GRC
2 9 (7.26%) NIST
3 7 (5.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (4.03%) Data Quality
5 3 (2.42%) QA
6 2 (1.61%) GDPR
6 2 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.81%) IEC 61508
7 1 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.81%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 17 (13.71%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.23%) Docker
3 4 (3.23%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (2.42%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.61%) Firmware
5 2 (1.61%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.81%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.81%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (11.29%) SCCM
2 10 (8.06%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.42%) Ansible
3 3 (2.42%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.61%) Functional Safety
4 2 (1.61%) Grafana
4 2 (1.61%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.61%) WMI
Vendors
1 38 (30.65%) Microsoft
2 23 (18.55%) ServiceNow
3 9 (7.26%) Remedy
4 8 (6.45%) Workday
5 7 (5.65%) Splunk
5 7 (5.65%) VMware
6 6 (4.84%) Bomgar
7 5 (4.03%) F5
7 5 (4.03%) SAP
8 4 (3.23%) Atlassian
8 4 (3.23%) BeyondTrust
8 4 (3.23%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (3.23%) HP
8 4 (3.23%) Oracle
8 4 (3.23%) Siemens
9 3 (2.42%) Cisco
9 3 (2.42%) Dell
10 2 (1.61%) Forcepoint
10 2 (1.61%) Juniper
10 2 (1.61%) Red Hat