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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 12
Rank change year-on-year -5 +9 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 106 140 60
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.93% 24.01% 10.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.01% 25.83% 12.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 103 35
10th Percentile £295 £269 £304
25th Percentile £357 £388 £379
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £446 £492 £520
Median % change year-on-year -9.30% -5.38% +8.33%
75th Percentile £546 £583 £566
90th Percentile £620 £698 £585
North West median daily rate £449 £485 £493
% change year-on-year -7.43% -1.72% +2.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 6
10th Percentile - £31.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £33.00 £20.81
Median hourly rate £32.23 £37.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.91% -12.94% +67.82%
75th Percentile £37.16 £54.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £83.53 £63.60 -
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £28.75 £11.20
% change year-on-year +30.43% +156.81% -59.29%

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 662 542 476
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 86.99% 92.97% 86.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 402 323
10th Percentile £325 £313 £311
25th Percentile £405 £358 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £438 £478
Median % change year-on-year +7.49% -8.38% -7.82%
75th Percentile £588 £537 £576
90th Percentile £651 £640 £638
North West median daily rate £477 £450 £493
% change year-on-year +6.00% -8.72% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 25 30
10th Percentile £14.74 £12.82 £13.70
25th Percentile £17.25 £19.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £35.82 £37.00 £35.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.19% +3.50% +17.06%
75th Percentile £85.00 £70.00 £43.75
90th Percentile - £86.00 £44.13
North West median hourly rate £50.00 £29.90 £28.00
% change year-on-year +67.22% +6.79% -6.67%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -7 48 £417 -10.81% 7
Chester -10 18 £550 -15.38% 17
Warrington -8 15 £438 +90.22% 13
Crewe +1 5 £550 +54.93% 4
Northwich - 2 - - 4
Macclesfield 0 1 £525 -4.55% 5
Alderley Edge -1 1 £400 - 1
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 13 (12.26%) Confluence
2 2 (1.89%) Camunda
2 2 (1.89%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.94%) JBoss
3 1 (0.94%) Mule
3 1 (0.94%) Mule ESB
3 1 (0.94%) WebLogic
Applications
1 8 (7.55%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.83%) CATIA
3 1 (0.94%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.94%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (5.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (2.83%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (1.89%) SAP HCM
3 2 (1.89%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 33 (31.13%) Azure
2 22 (20.75%) AWS
3 12 (11.32%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (10.38%) Entra ID
5 9 (8.49%) GCP
5 9 (8.49%) Power Platform
6 2 (1.89%) AWS KMS
6 2 (1.89%) Azure DevOps
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
6 2 (1.89%) SaaS
7 1 (0.94%) Akamai
7 1 (0.94%) Azure API Management
7 1 (0.94%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.94%) OCI
7 1 (0.94%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (8.49%) VPN
2 7 (6.60%) Firewall
3 6 (5.66%) DNS
4 5 (4.72%) Kerberos
5 3 (2.83%) DMZ
5 3 (2.83%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 3 (2.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (2.83%) SAN
5 3 (2.83%) SSL
6 2 (1.89%) BGP
6 2 (1.89%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (1.89%) LAN
6 2 (1.89%) MPLS
6 2 (1.89%) Network Security
6 2 (1.89%) OSPF
6 2 (1.89%) VLAN
6 2 (1.89%) WAN
6 2 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.89%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.94%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.66%) Power BI
2 4 (3.77%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.83%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.89%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.94%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.94%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 19 (17.92%) JIRA
2 7 (6.60%) GitLab
3 6 (5.66%) Git
4 5 (4.72%) JUnit
5 4 (3.77%) Postman
6 3 (2.83%) Jenkins
6 3 (2.83%) Mockito
7 2 (1.89%) Cucumber
7 2 (1.89%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.94%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.94%) CANoe
8 1 (0.94%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.94%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.94%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.94%) Selenium
8 1 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 54 (50.94%) Analytical Skills
2 52 (49.06%) Social Skills
3 33 (31.13%) Finance
4 22 (20.75%) Banking
5 6 (5.66%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (5.66%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.72%) Automotive
7 4 (3.77%) Aerospace
8 3 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.83%) Legal
8 3 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (2.83%) Retail Banking
9 2 (1.89%) Billing
9 2 (1.89%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.94%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.94%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.94%) Retail
Job Titles
1 23 (21.70%) Analyst
2 12 (11.32%) Developer
3 10 (9.43%) Business Analyst
4 9 (8.49%) Architect
5 7 (6.60%) Lead
6 6 (5.66%) Security Engineer
7 5 (4.72%) Consultant
7 5 (4.72%) Full-Stack Developer
7 5 (4.72%) IT Analyst
7 5 (4.72%) IT Operations Analyst
7 5 (4.72%) IT Support
7 5 (4.72%) Java Developer
7 5 (4.72%) Operations Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) IT Engineer
8 4 (3.77%) IT Support Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) Operational Support Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) Operations Support Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) Service Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) Service Desk Analyst
8 4 (3.77%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (14.15%) REST
2 9 (8.49%) JSON
3 6 (5.66%) Swagger
3 6 (5.66%) XML
4 5 (4.72%) HTML
4 5 (4.72%) LDAP
4 5 (4.72%) OAuth
4 5 (4.72%) RESTful
4 5 (4.72%) SOAP
4 5 (4.72%) Spring
5 4 (3.77%) CSS
5 4 (3.77%) Middleware
5 4 (3.77%) Spring Boot
6 3 (2.83%) HTML5
6 3 (2.83%) JMS
6 3 (2.83%) OpenAPI
6 3 (2.83%) OpenID
6 3 (2.83%) React
6 3 (2.83%) Visualforce
6 3 (2.83%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.43%) Product Ownership
2 9 (8.49%) Analytical Mindset
3 6 (5.66%) Cloud Native
3 6 (5.66%) Management Information System
3 6 (5.66%) Onboarding
4 5 (4.72%) Data Centre
5 4 (3.77%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (3.77%) PKI
5 4 (3.77%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 3 (2.83%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.83%) Digital Wallet
6 3 (2.83%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.89%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.89%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.89%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.89%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.89%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.94%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.92%) Windows
2 8 (7.55%) Linux
3 5 (4.72%) Apple iOS
3 5 (4.72%) Mac OS
4 3 (2.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (2.83%) Unix
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%) Solaris
5 2 (1.89%) SUSE
5 2 (1.89%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.94%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (27.36%) Agile
2 24 (22.64%) Continuous Improvement
3 23 (21.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 22 (20.75%) ITIL
5 18 (16.98%) Change Management
6 16 (15.09%) CI/CD
7 14 (13.21%) Data Protection
8 13 (12.26%) Customer Service
8 13 (12.26%) Migration
9 12 (11.32%) AI
10 11 (10.38%) Computer Science
10 11 (10.38%) DevOps
10 11 (10.38%) ITSM
10 11 (10.38%) Risk Management
10 11 (10.38%) User Acceptance Testing
11 10 (9.43%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (9.43%) Root Cause Analysis
11 10 (9.43%) Test Automation
12 9 (8.49%) Scrum
12 9 (8.49%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 15 (14.15%) PowerShell
2 13 (12.26%) Java
3 12 (11.32%) Python
4 7 (6.60%) SQL
5 5 (4.72%) JavaScript
6 4 (3.77%) TypeScript
7 3 (2.83%) Apex Code
7 3 (2.83%) Bash
8 2 (1.89%) ABAP
9 1 (0.94%) Bicep
9 1 (0.94%) C#
9 1 (0.94%) Korn
9 1 (0.94%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.94%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.94%) SOQL
9 1 (0.94%) SOSL
9 1 (0.94%) VBA
Qualifications
1 20 (18.87%) Degree
2 12 (11.32%) BPSS Clearance
3 11 (10.38%) CISSP
4 10 (9.43%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (6.60%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (6.60%) Security Cleared
6 5 (4.72%) AWS Certification
6 5 (4.72%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (3.77%) CEH
7 4 (3.77%) CISM
7 4 (3.77%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (2.83%) A+ Certification
8 3 (2.83%) CCNA
8 3 (2.83%) CISA
8 3 (2.83%) HNC
8 3 (2.83%) MCSE
8 3 (2.83%) Network+ Certification
8 3 (2.83%) NVQ Level 4
8 3 (2.83%) PMI Certification
8 3 (2.83%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.49%) NIST
2 7 (6.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (6.60%) PSD2
3 6 (5.66%) GRC
3 6 (5.66%) QA
3 6 (5.66%) SLA
4 4 (3.77%) ISO 20022
4 4 (3.77%) PCI DSS
4 4 (3.77%) SEPA
5 2 (1.89%) GDPR
5 2 (1.89%) ISO 8583
5 2 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.94%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.94%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (13.21%) Active Directory
2 6 (5.66%) Docker
3 4 (3.77%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.89%) Firmware
4 2 (1.89%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.94%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (5.66%) Ansible
1 6 (5.66%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.77%) Grafana
3 3 (2.83%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.83%) Prometheus
3 3 (2.83%) SCCM
3 3 (2.83%) Terraform
4 2 (1.89%) Argo
4 2 (1.89%) HP ALM
4 2 (1.89%) WMI
5 1 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.94%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.94%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.94%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.94%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 17 (16.04%) Microsoft
2 16 (15.09%) ServiceNow
3 8 (7.55%) Oracle
3 8 (7.55%) Workday
4 7 (6.60%) SAP
5 6 (5.66%) HP
5 6 (5.66%) Remedy
5 6 (5.66%) Splunk
6 5 (4.72%) Bomgar
6 5 (4.72%) F5
7 4 (3.77%) BeyondTrust
7 4 (3.77%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (3.77%) VMware
8 3 (2.83%) Dell
8 3 (2.83%) Red Hat
8 3 (2.83%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.89%) Cisco
9 2 (1.89%) Computacenter
9 2 (1.89%) Google
9 2 (1.89%) Juniper