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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -3 +4 -1
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 101 138 63
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 12.53% 22.77% 13.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.64% 24.78% 15.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 59 104 40
10th Percentile £236 £313 £300
25th Percentile £335 £384 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £491 £523
Median % change year-on-year -8.35% -6.03% +16.11%
75th Percentile £538 £577 £569
90th Percentile £590 £711 £590
North West median daily rate £450 £491 £493
% change year-on-year -8.35% -0.41% +2.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 3 0
10th Percentile £15.56 £27.20 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £28.25 -
Median hourly rate £17.50 £32.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -45.31% - -
75th Percentile £37.16 £52.00 -
90th Percentile £74.03 £62.80 -
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £27.90 £10.95
% change year-on-year +34.40% +154.82% -74.02%

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 690 557 414
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 85.61% 91.91% 86.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 407 425 280
10th Percentile £313 £310 £311
25th Percentile £409 £358 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £445 £475
Median % change year-on-year +8.76% -6.32% -5.00%
75th Percentile £582 £525 £575
90th Percentile £651 £642 £638
North West median daily rate £495 £457 £500
% change year-on-year +8.37% -8.65% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 21 16
10th Percentile £14.80 - £13.50
25th Percentile £17.25 £12.82 £30.31
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 - £70.00 £47.50
North West median hourly rate £46.80 £28.43 £32.75
% change year-on-year +64.61% -13.19% -0.76%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -10 31 £444 -2.63% 16
Chester -7 21 £550 -21.43% 22
Warrington 0 17 £220 -4.35% 15
Crewe +1 8 £338 -4.93% 6
Northwich - 3 £300 - 5
Macclesfield -4 1 £525 +6.06% 6
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 9 (8.91%) Confluence
2 2 (1.98%) Camunda
3 1 (0.99%) JBoss
3 1 (0.99%) Mule
3 1 (0.99%) Mule ESB
3 1 (0.99%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.99%) WebLogic
Applications
1 12 (11.88%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.97%) CATIA
2 3 (2.97%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.99%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.99%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (8.91%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.98%) SAP HCM
2 2 (1.98%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 21 (20.79%) Azure
2 19 (18.81%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (16.83%) AWS
4 8 (7.92%) Power Platform
5 7 (6.93%) GCP
6 6 (5.94%) Entra ID
7 2 (1.98%) AWS KMS
7 2 (1.98%) Azure Key Vault
7 2 (1.98%) GitHub
7 2 (1.98%) OpenShift
7 2 (1.98%) Power Automate
7 2 (1.98%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.99%) Akamai
8 1 (0.99%) Apigee
8 1 (0.99%) AWS Step Functions
8 1 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.99%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.99%) Kong
8 1 (0.99%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.86%) VPN
2 4 (3.96%) DNS
2 4 (3.96%) LAN
2 4 (3.96%) WAN
3 3 (2.97%) Firewall
3 3 (2.97%) SAN
3 3 (2.97%) SSL
4 2 (1.98%) BGP
4 2 (1.98%) BIG-IP
4 2 (1.98%) Cisco Nexus
4 2 (1.98%) DMZ
4 2 (1.98%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 2 (1.98%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 2 (1.98%) MPLS
4 2 (1.98%) OSPF
4 2 (1.98%) VLAN
4 2 (1.98%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (1.98%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.99%) FlexRay
5 1 (0.99%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.94%) Power BI
2 3 (2.97%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.98%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.98%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.99%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.99%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 10 (9.90%) JIRA
2 4 (3.96%) GitLab
3 3 (2.97%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.98%) Cucumber
4 2 (1.98%) Git
4 2 (1.98%) JUnit
5 1 (0.99%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.99%) CANoe
5 1 (0.99%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.99%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.99%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.99%) Postman
5 1 (0.99%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.99%) Selenium
5 1 (0.99%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.99%) Zephyr
General
1 52 (51.49%) Analytical Skills
2 48 (47.52%) Social Skills
3 30 (29.70%) Finance
4 17 (16.83%) Banking
5 9 (8.91%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.95%) Aerospace
6 5 (4.95%) Automotive
7 3 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.97%) Legal
7 3 (2.97%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.98%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.99%) Aviation
9 1 (0.99%) Billing
9 1 (0.99%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.99%) German Language
9 1 (0.99%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 22 (21.78%) Analyst
2 9 (8.91%) IT Support
2 9 (8.91%) Lead
3 7 (6.93%) Security Engineer
3 7 (6.93%) Service Analyst
3 7 (6.93%) Service Desk Analyst
4 6 (5.94%) IT Analyst
4 6 (5.94%) IT Operations Analyst
4 6 (5.94%) Operations Analyst
5 5 (4.95%) Architect
5 5 (4.95%) Business Analyst
5 5 (4.95%) Consultant
5 5 (4.95%) IT Engineer
5 5 (4.95%) IT Support Analyst
5 5 (4.95%) Operational Support Analyst
5 5 (4.95%) Operations Support Analyst
5 5 (4.95%) Support Analyst
6 4 (3.96%) Developer
6 4 (3.96%) Service Management Analyst
7 3 (2.97%) Risk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.95%) OAuth
1 5 (4.95%) REST
2 4 (3.96%) JSON
2 4 (3.96%) Middleware
3 3 (2.97%) OpenID
3 3 (2.97%) XML
4 2 (1.98%) Kafka
4 2 (1.98%) SailPoint
4 2 (1.98%) SAML
4 2 (1.98%) Spring
5 1 (0.99%) .NET
5 1 (0.99%) AngularJS
5 1 (0.99%) HTML
5 1 (0.99%) HTML5
5 1 (0.99%) Jakarta EE
5 1 (0.99%) JPA
5 1 (0.99%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.99%) React
5 1 (0.99%) Spring Boot
5 1 (0.99%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.89%) Analytical Mindset
2 7 (6.93%) Enterprise Software
2 7 (6.93%) Product Ownership
3 5 (4.95%) Data Centre
4 4 (3.96%) Cyber Threat
4 4 (3.96%) Distributed Systems
4 4 (3.96%) Onboarding
4 4 (3.96%) PKI
4 4 (3.96%) Virtual Team
5 3 (2.97%) Cloud Native
5 3 (2.97%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.98%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.98%) Client/Server
6 2 (1.98%) CMDB
6 2 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.98%) Data Structures
6 2 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.98%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.99%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.99%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 26 (25.74%) Windows
2 7 (6.93%) Mac OS
3 6 (5.94%) Linux
4 5 (4.95%) Apple iOS
5 3 (2.97%) Unix
6 2 (1.98%) AIX
6 2 (1.98%) Android
6 2 (1.98%) HPUX
6 2 (1.98%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (1.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.98%) Solaris
6 2 (1.98%) SUSE
6 2 (1.98%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.98%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (31.68%) Continuous Improvement
2 24 (23.76%) Stakeholder Management
3 20 (19.80%) Customer Service
3 20 (19.80%) ITIL
4 15 (14.85%) Agile
5 14 (13.86%) Risk Management
6 13 (12.87%) AI
6 13 (12.87%) Data Protection
6 13 (12.87%) ITSM
7 12 (11.88%) Change Management
7 12 (11.88%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (10.89%) CI/CD
8 11 (10.89%) Computer Science
8 11 (10.89%) DevOps
8 11 (10.89%) Incident Management
8 11 (10.89%) Mentoring
9 10 (9.90%) Migration
9 10 (9.90%) Project Management
10 9 (8.91%) Root Cause Analysis
10 9 (8.91%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 13 (12.87%) Python
2 9 (8.91%) PowerShell
3 5 (4.95%) Java
4 4 (3.96%) SQL
5 3 (2.97%) Bash
6 2 (1.98%) ABAP
7 1 (0.99%) Assembly Language
7 1 (0.99%) Bicep
7 1 (0.99%) C#
7 1 (0.99%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.99%) Korn
7 1 (0.99%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.99%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.99%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 19 (18.81%) Degree
2 11 (10.89%) CISSP
3 9 (8.91%) Computer Science Degree
4 7 (6.93%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (6.93%) Security Cleared
5 5 (4.95%) AWS Certification
5 5 (4.95%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (4.95%) CompTIA Security+
5 5 (4.95%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 4 (3.96%) CEH
6 4 (3.96%) CISM
6 4 (3.96%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (2.97%) A+ Certification
7 3 (2.97%) CCNA
7 3 (2.97%) CISA
7 3 (2.97%) HNC
7 3 (2.97%) MCSE
7 3 (2.97%) Network+ Certification
7 3 (2.97%) PMI Certification
7 3 (2.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.91%) NIST
1 9 (8.91%) SLA
2 8 (7.92%) GRC
3 7 (6.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (3.96%) QA
5 2 (1.98%) GDPR
5 2 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.99%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.99%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.99%) PSD2
6 1 (0.99%) SEPA
6 1 (0.99%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 13 (12.87%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.95%) Docker
3 3 (2.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.97%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.98%) Firmware
4 2 (1.98%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.99%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (4.95%) Ansible
1 5 (4.95%) Kubernetes
1 5 (4.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (3.96%) Grafana
2 4 (3.96%) SCCM
3 3 (2.97%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.98%) Argo
4 2 (1.98%) Terraform
4 2 (1.98%) WMI
5 1 (0.99%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.99%) HP ALM
5 1 (0.99%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 22 (21.78%) Microsoft
2 20 (19.80%) ServiceNow
3 9 (8.91%) Remedy
4 8 (7.92%) Workday
5 7 (6.93%) SAP
6 6 (5.94%) Bomgar
6 6 (5.94%) Splunk
7 5 (4.95%) HP
7 5 (4.95%) Oracle
8 4 (3.96%) BeyondTrust
8 4 (3.96%) CrowdStrike
8 4 (3.96%) F5
9 3 (2.97%) Cisco
9 3 (2.97%) Dell
9 3 (2.97%) Red Hat
9 3 (2.97%) VMware
10 2 (1.98%) Atlassian
10 2 (1.98%) Forcepoint
10 2 (1.98%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.98%) Juniper