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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 2 14
Rank change year-on-year -3 +12 -5
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 117 117 55
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 17.38% 26.96% 10.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.60% 29.03% 12.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 85 74 30
10th Percentile £308 £230 £456
25th Percentile £350 £365 £495
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £494 £510
Median % change year-on-year -18.68% -3.08% +2.72%
75th Percentile £488 £584 £574
90th Percentile £560 £707 £586
North West median daily rate £424 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -10.66% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 8
10th Percentile £32.40 £39.40 £14.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £44.50 £21.21
Median hourly rate £86.00 £53.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.75% +25.88% +83.59%
75th Percentile - £62.00 £43.75
90th Percentile - £66.80 -
North West median hourly rate £41.86 £27.50 £22.11
% change year-on-year +52.20% +24.38% -48.14%

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 597 403 458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 88.71% 92.86% 87.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 432 243 300
10th Percentile £312 £291 £265
25th Percentile £358 £356 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £568 £560
90th Percentile £684 £670 £610
North West median daily rate £451 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.05% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 31 35
10th Percentile £15.50 £19.00 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.47 £24.09 £16.97
Median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £23.61
Median % change year-on-year -29.69% +37.65% +21.64%
75th Percentile £42.25 £81.75 £39.00
90th Percentile £86.00 £86.00 £43.75
North West median hourly rate £45.00 £31.76 £25.60
% change year-on-year +41.69% +24.06% -31.73%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 -9 58 £375 -23.31% 8
Chester +1 23 £475 -33.33% 21
Warrington -8 14 £425 +84.78% 26
Macclesfield +1 10 £500 +1.42% 1
Crewe -4 5 £325 +11.68% 6
Alderley Edge 0 1 £400 - 3
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 16 (13.68%) Confluence
2 6 (5.13%) SharePoint
3 4 (3.42%) Exchange Server 2013
3 4 (3.42%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (3.42%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.85%) Apache
4 1 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.85%) CMS
4 1 (0.85%) JBoss
4 1 (0.85%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (11.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (10.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (6.84%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (6.84%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 13 (11.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (3.42%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (2.56%) SAP EHS
4 2 (1.71%) SAP HCM
4 2 (1.71%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 33 (28.21%) Azure
2 29 (24.79%) AWS
3 17 (14.53%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (6.84%) Entra ID
4 8 (6.84%) GCP
5 6 (5.13%) Apigee
5 6 (5.13%) Kong
6 5 (4.27%) GitHub
6 5 (4.27%) Power Platform
7 4 (3.42%) GitHub Copilot
7 4 (3.42%) OneDrive
8 3 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (2.56%) SaaS
9 1 (0.85%) Akamai
9 1 (0.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (0.85%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.85%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.85%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.85%) IaaS
9 1 (0.85%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (5.98%) DNS
2 6 (5.13%) Firewall
2 6 (5.13%) Network Security
3 5 (4.27%) DMZ
3 5 (4.27%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 5 (4.27%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 5 (4.27%) Kerberos
4 4 (3.42%) LAN
4 4 (3.42%) Skype
4 4 (3.42%) WAN
5 2 (1.71%) HTTP
6 1 (0.85%) DHCP
6 1 (0.85%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.98%) Relational Database
2 4 (3.42%) MS Access
2 4 (3.42%) MySQL
2 4 (3.42%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.71%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.85%) Big Data
4 1 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.85%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.85%) Metadata
4 1 (0.85%) Power BI
4 1 (0.85%) Power Query
4 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.85%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 28 (23.93%) JIRA
2 16 (13.68%) Git
3 9 (7.69%) GitLab
4 4 (3.42%) Jenkins
4 4 (3.42%) JUnit
4 4 (3.42%) Postman
5 3 (2.56%) Mockito
6 2 (1.71%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.85%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.85%) Gradle
7 1 (0.85%) Maven
7 1 (0.85%) MLflow
7 1 (0.85%) Selenium
7 1 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 53 (45.30%) Analytical Skills
2 52 (44.44%) Social Skills
3 50 (42.74%) Finance
4 33 (28.21%) Banking
5 8 (6.84%) Public Sector
6 7 (5.98%) Retail Banking
7 6 (5.13%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (5.13%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (3.42%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.56%) Automotive
9 3 (2.56%) Manufacturing
9 3 (2.56%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (1.71%) Legal
10 2 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.71%) Retail
11 1 (0.85%) Billing
11 1 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 32 (27.35%) Analyst
2 21 (17.95%) Business Analyst
3 20 (17.09%) Developer
4 9 (7.69%) Java Developer
5 8 (6.84%) Architect
6 7 (5.98%) Administrator
6 7 (5.98%) Consultant
6 7 (5.98%) Technical Analyst
7 6 (5.13%) SAP Consultant
7 6 (5.13%) Technical Business Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) Automation Engineer
9 4 (3.42%) Applications Architect
9 4 (3.42%) Operational Support Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) Operations Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) Operations Support Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) Payments Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) Payments Business Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) React Developer
9 4 (3.42%) Service Analyst
9 4 (3.42%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (21.37%) REST
2 15 (12.82%) JSON
3 14 (11.97%) SOAP
4 13 (11.11%) Swagger
5 12 (10.26%) RESTful
5 12 (10.26%) Spring
5 12 (10.26%) Spring Boot
6 11 (9.40%) XML
7 9 (7.69%) HTML
7 9 (7.69%) OpenAPI
8 7 (5.98%) CSS
8 7 (5.98%) JMS
9 6 (5.13%) JWT
9 6 (5.13%) OAuth
10 5 (4.27%) LDAP
10 5 (4.27%) React
11 4 (3.42%) CSS3
11 4 (3.42%) Hibernate
11 4 (3.42%) Spring MVC
11 4 (3.42%) Spring Security
Miscellaneous
1 13 (11.11%) Product Ownership
2 9 (7.69%) Cloud Native
3 8 (6.84%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 5 (4.27%) Management Information System
6 4 (3.42%) Digital Wallet
7 3 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.71%) Mobile Banking
9 1 (0.85%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.85%) CMDB
9 1 (0.85%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (0.85%) Graphic Design
9 1 (0.85%) Online Banking
9 1 (0.85%) Video Editing
Operating Systems
1 9 (7.69%) Windows
2 5 (4.27%) Linux
2 5 (4.27%) Windows 10
3 2 (1.71%) Unix
4 1 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (48.72%) Agile
2 33 (28.21%) CI/CD
3 27 (23.08%) Stakeholder Management
4 24 (20.51%) Change Management
5 21 (17.95%) Continuous Improvement
5 21 (17.95%) Requirements Gathering
6 20 (17.09%) DevOps
6 20 (17.09%) Validation
7 19 (16.24%) Workshop Facilitation
8 18 (15.38%) Migration
9 17 (14.53%) Integration Patterns
9 17 (14.53%) Microservices
9 17 (14.53%) User Acceptance Testing
10 16 (13.68%) Computer Science
11 14 (11.97%) Scrum
11 14 (11.97%) Six Sigma
11 14 (11.97%) Test Automation
12 13 (11.11%) API Design
12 13 (11.11%) Roadmaps
12 13 (11.11%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 20 (17.09%) Java
2 14 (11.97%) SQL
3 9 (7.69%) Python
4 8 (6.84%) JavaScript
4 8 (6.84%) PowerShell
5 6 (5.13%) TypeScript
6 3 (2.56%) Apex Code
7 2 (1.71%) ABAP
7 2 (1.71%) Bash
8 1 (0.85%) C#
8 1 (0.85%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.85%) SOQL
8 1 (0.85%) SOSL
8 1 (0.85%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.85%) VBA
Qualifications
1 24 (20.51%) Degree
2 17 (14.53%) Security Cleared
3 16 (13.68%) Computer Science Degree
4 13 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (9.40%) SC Cleared
6 7 (5.98%) Six Sigma Green Belt
7 3 (2.56%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.71%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.71%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 2 (1.71%) PMI Certification
8 2 (1.71%) PMP
8 2 (1.71%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (0.85%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.85%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (10.26%) PSD2
2 11 (9.40%) QA
3 8 (6.84%) ISO 20022
4 7 (5.98%) SEPA
5 4 (3.42%) PCI DSS
6 3 (2.56%) Data Quality
6 3 (2.56%) ISO 8583
7 2 (1.71%) GDPR
8 1 (0.85%) PMO
8 1 (0.85%) SLA
System Software
1 13 (11.11%) Active Directory
1 13 (11.11%) Docker
2 5 (4.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 14 (11.97%) Kubernetes
2 10 (8.55%) SCCM
3 6 (5.13%) Norton AntiVirus
4 4 (3.42%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (2.56%) Terraform
6 2 (1.71%) Ansible
6 2 (1.71%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.85%) Autotask
7 1 (0.85%) CA Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.85%) Grafana
7 1 (0.85%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 31 (26.50%) Microsoft
2 17 (14.53%) SAP
3 11 (9.40%) Oracle
4 7 (5.98%) ServiceNow
5 6 (5.13%) McAfee
5 6 (5.13%) MuleSoft
5 6 (5.13%) Symantec
6 5 (4.27%) Computacenter
6 5 (4.27%) F5
6 5 (4.27%) VMware
7 4 (3.42%) Salesforce
8 3 (2.56%) Google
8 3 (2.56%) Snow
8 3 (2.56%) Workday
9 2 (1.71%) HP
10 1 (0.85%) Informatica
10 1 (0.85%) Sage
10 1 (0.85%) Splunk