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

6 months to
24 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 2 13
Rank change year-on-year -6 +11 -5
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 90 135 50
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.16% 28.01% 9.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.23% 28.91% 11.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 93 25
10th Percentile £313 £230 £300
25th Percentile £350 £402 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £417 £505 £450
Median % change year-on-year -17.52% +12.22% -
75th Percentile £509 £585 £550
90th Percentile £605 £712 £635
North West median daily rate £434 £490 £493
% change year-on-year -11.43% -0.61% +6.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 7
10th Percentile - £39.40 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.99 £44.50 £27.63
Median hourly rate £34.02 £53.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -36.41% +25.88% +67.82%
75th Percentile £49.37 £62.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £71.35 £66.80 -
North West median hourly rate £38.75 £28.75 £11.20
% change year-on-year +34.78% +156.81% -72.42%

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 591 467 434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 86.40% 96.89% 83.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 391 330 286
10th Percentile £325 £313 £303
25th Percentile £400 £358 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £447 £483
Median % change year-on-year +1.79% -7.50% -3.35%
75th Percentile £582 £539 £580
90th Percentile £653 £638 £638
North West median daily rate £471 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -0.95% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 26 33
10th Percentile £13.47 £12.82 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £20.12 £16.79
Median hourly rate £35.41 £35.20 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.60% +0.57% +14.60%
75th Percentile £85.00 £81.44 £43.75
90th Percentile - £86.00 -
North West median hourly rate £55.00 £31.76 £26.00
% change year-on-year +73.17% +22.15% -25.71%

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 24 May 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 24 May 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 24 May 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 -6 56 £402 -16.08% 2
Chester -8 18 £550 -22.81% 12
Warrington -12 9 £394 +71.20% 15
Crewe +1 4 - - 4
Alderley Edge 0 1 £400 - 5
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 18 (20.00%) Confluence
2 2 (2.22%) JBoss
3 1 (1.11%) Camunda
3 1 (1.11%) Mule
3 1 (1.11%) Mule ESB
3 1 (1.11%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.11%) Tomcat
3 1 (1.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (4.44%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (3.33%) CATIA
3 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (1.11%) MS Visio
3 1 (1.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (4.44%) Payment Gateway
1 4 (4.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.11%) SAP HCM
2 1 (1.11%) SAP Payroll
2 1 (1.11%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 33 (36.67%) Azure
2 31 (34.44%) AWS
3 11 (12.22%) GCP
4 8 (8.89%) Entra ID
5 6 (6.67%) Power Platform
6 4 (4.44%) Apigee
6 4 (4.44%) Kong
7 3 (3.33%) OpenShift
8 2 (2.22%) AWS KMS
8 2 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (2.22%) Azure Key Vault
8 2 (2.22%) GitHub
8 2 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (2.22%) SaaS
9 1 (1.11%) Akamai
9 1 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (1.11%) AWS Step Functions
9 1 (1.11%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (1.11%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (7.78%) DNS
2 5 (5.56%) Firewall
2 5 (5.56%) Kerberos
3 4 (4.44%) DMZ
3 4 (4.44%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 4 (4.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 4 (4.44%) Network Security
4 3 (3.33%) SAN
5 1 (1.11%) DHCP
5 1 (1.11%) FlexRay
5 1 (1.11%) HTTP
5 1 (1.11%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.11%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.44%) Power BI
2 3 (3.33%) Relational Database
3 2 (2.22%) SQL Server
4 1 (1.11%) SAP HANA
4 1 (1.11%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 27 (30.00%) JIRA
2 7 (7.78%) Git
3 6 (6.67%) JUnit
4 5 (5.56%) GitLab
5 4 (4.44%) Postman
6 3 (3.33%) Jenkins
6 3 (3.33%) Mockito
7 2 (2.22%) Zephyr
8 1 (1.11%) CANoe
8 1 (1.11%) Cucumber
8 1 (1.11%) Eclipse
8 1 (1.11%) Gradle
8 1 (1.11%) IntelliJ
8 1 (1.11%) Maven
8 1 (1.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 52 (57.78%) Analytical Skills
2 39 (43.33%) Social Skills
3 37 (41.11%) Finance
4 29 (32.22%) Banking
5 7 (7.78%) Retail Banking
6 6 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (5.56%) Manufacturing
8 3 (3.33%) Aerospace
8 3 (3.33%) Automotive
8 3 (3.33%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (2.22%) Billing
9 2 (2.22%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (2.22%) Public Sector
10 1 (1.11%) Financial Institution
10 1 (1.11%) Investment Banking
10 1 (1.11%) Legal
10 1 (1.11%) Retail
Job Titles
1 22 (24.44%) Analyst
2 17 (18.89%) Business Analyst
3 15 (16.67%) Developer
4 7 (7.78%) Architect
4 7 (7.78%) Java Developer
5 5 (5.56%) Full-Stack Developer
5 5 (5.56%) Security Engineer
6 4 (4.44%) Applications Architect
6 4 (4.44%) Automation Engineer
6 4 (4.44%) Consultant
6 4 (4.44%) Lead
6 4 (4.44%) Payments Analyst
6 4 (4.44%) Payments Business Analyst
6 4 (4.44%) React Developer
7 3 (3.33%) Field Engineer
7 3 (3.33%) Field Service Engineer
7 3 (3.33%) Programmer
7 3 (3.33%) Risk Analyst
7 3 (3.33%) Technical Analyst
7 3 (3.33%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (21.11%) REST
2 12 (13.33%) JSON
3 10 (11.11%) SOAP
3 10 (11.11%) Swagger
4 8 (8.89%) XML
5 7 (7.78%) HTML
5 7 (7.78%) RESTful
5 7 (7.78%) Spring
6 6 (6.67%) CSS
6 6 (6.67%) OAuth
6 6 (6.67%) OpenAPI
6 6 (6.67%) React
6 6 (6.67%) Spring Boot
7 5 (5.56%) HTML5
7 5 (5.56%) LDAP
7 5 (5.56%) Middleware
8 4 (4.44%) CSS3
8 4 (4.44%) JMS
8 4 (4.44%) JWT
8 4 (4.44%) MobX
Miscellaneous
1 13 (14.44%) Product Ownership
2 7 (7.78%) Analytical Mindset
2 7 (7.78%) Cloud Native
2 7 (7.78%) Management Information System
3 5 (5.56%) Data Centre
3 5 (5.56%) Onboarding
3 5 (5.56%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 4 (4.44%) Cyber Threat
4 4 (4.44%) Digital Wallet
5 2 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (2.22%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (2.22%) PKI
5 2 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (2.22%) Virtual Team
6 1 (1.11%) Augmented Reality
6 1 (1.11%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (1.11%) Online Banking
6 1 (1.11%) Replication
6 1 (1.11%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 10 (11.11%) Windows
2 9 (10.00%) Linux
3 4 (4.44%) Apple iOS
3 4 (4.44%) Mac OS
3 4 (4.44%) Unix
4 3 (3.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (2.22%) AIX
5 2 (2.22%) HPUX
5 2 (2.22%) Oracle Linux
5 2 (2.22%) Solaris
5 2 (2.22%) SUSE
6 1 (1.11%) Android
6 1 (1.11%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (43.33%) Agile
2 26 (28.89%) Stakeholder Management
3 21 (23.33%) CI/CD
4 20 (22.22%) Change Management
5 17 (18.89%) Continuous Improvement
6 15 (16.67%) Requirements Gathering
7 14 (15.56%) DevOps
8 13 (14.44%) Integration Patterns
8 13 (14.44%) Migration
8 13 (14.44%) User Acceptance Testing
9 12 (13.33%) Scrum
10 11 (12.22%) ITIL
11 10 (11.11%) Computer Science
11 10 (11.11%) Microservices
11 10 (11.11%) Risk Management
11 10 (11.11%) Sprint Planning
11 10 (11.11%) Test Automation
12 9 (10.00%) API Design
12 9 (10.00%) Unit Testing
12 9 (10.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 15 (16.67%) Java
2 12 (13.33%) Python
3 11 (12.22%) PowerShell
4 9 (10.00%) SQL
5 7 (7.78%) JavaScript
5 7 (7.78%) TypeScript
6 3 (3.33%) Apex Code
7 2 (2.22%) Bash
7 2 (2.22%) Shell Script
8 1 (1.11%) ABAP
8 1 (1.11%) Bicep
8 1 (1.11%) C#
8 1 (1.11%) Korn
8 1 (1.11%) PL/SQL
8 1 (1.11%) SOQL
8 1 (1.11%) SOSL
8 1 (1.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 17 (18.89%) Degree
2 15 (16.67%) BPSS Clearance
3 11 (12.22%) CISSP
4 9 (10.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (6.67%) AWS Certification
6 5 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (5.56%) CompTIA Security+
6 5 (5.56%) Security Cleared
7 4 (4.44%) Azure Certification
7 4 (4.44%) CEH
7 4 (4.44%) CISM
7 4 (4.44%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (3.33%) A+ Certification
8 3 (3.33%) CCNA
8 3 (3.33%) CISA
8 3 (3.33%) CRISC
8 3 (3.33%) HNC
8 3 (3.33%) MCSE
8 3 (3.33%) Network+ Certification
8 3 (3.33%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (11.11%) PSD2
2 8 (8.89%) NIST
3 7 (7.78%) QA
4 6 (6.67%) GRC
4 6 (6.67%) ISO 20022
4 6 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (5.56%) PCI DSS
5 5 (5.56%) SEPA
6 3 (3.33%) ISO 8583
6 3 (3.33%) SLA
7 2 (2.22%) Data Quality
7 2 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 1 (1.11%) GDPR
8 1 (1.11%) PMO
System Software
1 8 (8.89%) Active Directory
1 8 (8.89%) Docker
2 5 (5.56%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.11%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (8.89%) Kubernetes
2 3 (3.33%) Ansible
2 3 (3.33%) Terraform
3 2 (2.22%) Argo
3 2 (2.22%) Grafana
3 2 (2.22%) HP ALM
3 2 (2.22%) SCCM
4 1 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (1.11%) CA Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.11%) Functional Safety
4 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.11%) Norton AntiVirus
4 1 (1.11%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 13 (14.44%) Microsoft
2 10 (11.11%) Oracle
3 8 (8.89%) ServiceNow
4 7 (7.78%) Splunk
5 5 (5.56%) SAP
5 5 (5.56%) VMware
6 4 (4.44%) BeyondTrust
6 4 (4.44%) Computacenter
6 4 (4.44%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (4.44%) F5
6 4 (4.44%) HP
6 4 (4.44%) MuleSoft
6 4 (4.44%) Remedy
7 3 (3.33%) Dell
7 3 (3.33%) Red Hat
7 3 (3.33%) Salesforce
8 2 (2.22%) Google
9 1 (1.11%) Apple
9 1 (1.11%) McAfee
9 1 (1.11%) Symantec