Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Problem Solving
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 11
Rank change year-on-year -2 +4 +13
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 255 275 247
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 13.69% 14.75% 10.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.39% 16.05% 11.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 164 178
10th Percentile £325 £341 £318
25th Percentile £405 £457 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £643 £675
90th Percentile £755 £738 £816
Central London median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 3 1
10th Percentile £31.62 £33.60 -
25th Percentile £39.44 £63.00 £46.75
Median hourly rate £41.26 £112.00 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -63.17% +130.93% -7.62%
75th Percentile £45.08 - £50.25
90th Percentile £50.00 - -
Central London median hourly rate £41.02 £112.00 £48.50
% change year-on-year -63.38% +130.93% -7.62%

All Process & Methodology Skills
City of London

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 the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,657 1,713 2,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 88.99% 91.90% 89.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,163 1,043 1,572
10th Percentile £350 £364 £355
25th Percentile £425 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £575 £574
Median % change year-on-year -7.83% +0.22% -3.57%
75th Percentile £675 £684 £688
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
Central London median daily rate £540 £575 £565
% change year-on-year -6.09% +1.77% -3.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 9 13
10th Percentile £19.98 £13.45 £17.00
25th Percentile £20.66 £22.00 £18.93
Median hourly rate £31.00 £32.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% +18.18% -18.52%
75th Percentile £42.65 £43.75 £46.75
90th Percentile £49.83 £112.00 £69.05
Central London median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £27.81
% change year-on-year -25.40% +25.85% -14.43%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the City of London

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the City of London over the 6 months to 26 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the City of London

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in the City of London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in the City of London over the 6 months to 26 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the City of London

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 14 (5.49%) Confluence
2 5 (1.96%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (1.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.78%) Apache
5 2 (0.78%) CMS
6 1 (0.39%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.39%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (10.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (5.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (3.53%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (2.35%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.39%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (1.18%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.78%) Aladdin
2 2 (0.78%) Summit
3 1 (0.39%) BASE24
3 1 (0.39%) Bloomberg AIM
3 1 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.39%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.39%) ION MarketView
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.39%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.39%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 52 (20.39%) Azure
2 37 (14.51%) AWS
3 25 (9.80%) Power Platform
4 19 (7.45%) GCP
5 12 (4.71%) Microsoft 365
6 11 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
7 9 (3.53%) Snowflake
8 7 (2.75%) SaaS
9 6 (2.35%) GitHub
10 5 (1.96%) Dynamics 365
10 5 (1.96%) IaaS
10 5 (1.96%) PaaS
11 3 (1.18%) Amazon S3
11 3 (1.18%) Entra ID
11 3 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.18%) Google Gemini
11 3 (1.18%) Google Workspace
11 3 (1.18%) Serverless
11 3 (1.18%) SuccessFactors
12 2 (0.78%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.75%) DNS
2 4 (1.57%) Network Security
2 4 (1.57%) VPN
3 3 (1.18%) Cisco IPT
3 3 (1.18%) DHCP
3 3 (1.18%) Firewall
3 3 (1.18%) IP Telephony
3 3 (1.18%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.78%) Internet
4 2 (0.78%) NAS
4 2 (0.78%) SAN
4 2 (0.78%) SSL
5 1 (0.39%) BGP
5 1 (0.39%) Broadband
5 1 (0.39%) HTTP
5 1 (0.39%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.39%) LAN
5 1 (0.39%) OSPF
5 1 (0.39%) WAN
5 1 (0.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (7.84%) Power BI
2 14 (5.49%) Relational Database
3 11 (4.31%) Tableau
4 10 (3.92%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (3.14%) SQL Server
6 7 (2.75%) Metadata
7 6 (2.35%) MySQL
8 3 (1.18%) NoSQL
8 3 (1.18%) Snowflake Schema
9 2 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.78%) Big Data
9 2 (0.78%) Data Vault
9 2 (0.78%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.78%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.78%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.78%) SQLite
10 1 (0.39%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.39%) Redis
Development Applications
1 28 (10.98%) JIRA
2 19 (7.45%) Git
3 7 (2.75%) Jenkins
3 7 (2.75%) Selenium
4 4 (1.57%) Cucumber
4 4 (1.57%) Postman
5 3 (1.18%) Bitbucket
5 3 (1.18%) GitLab
5 3 (1.18%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.78%) CocoaPods
6 2 (0.78%) Crashlytics
6 2 (0.78%) fastlane
6 2 (0.78%) SoapUI
6 2 (0.78%) Xcode
7 1 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.39%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.39%) ERwin
7 1 (0.39%) JUnit
7 1 (0.39%) TestRail
7 1 (0.39%) Toad
General
1 141 (55.29%) Social Skills
2 105 (41.18%) Analytical Skills
3 97 (38.04%) Finance
4 35 (13.73%) Banking
5 26 (10.20%) Front Office
6 17 (6.67%) Public Sector
7 11 (4.31%) Investment Banking
7 11 (4.31%) Presentation Skills
8 10 (3.92%) Legal
9 9 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (3.53%) Financial Institution
10 8 (3.14%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.75%) Marketing
12 6 (2.35%) Back Office
12 6 (2.35%) Retail
13 5 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (1.18%) French Language
15 2 (0.78%) Retail Banking
15 2 (0.78%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 49 (19.22%) Analyst
2 39 (15.29%) Developer
3 25 (9.80%) Senior
4 23 (9.02%) Business Analyst
5 17 (6.67%) Lead
6 15 (5.88%) Project Manager
7 13 (5.10%) Architect
8 11 (4.31%) Consultant
9 9 (3.53%) Data Analyst
9 9 (3.53%) Java Developer
10 8 (3.14%) Data Engineer
10 8 (3.14%) Programme Manager
11 6 (2.35%) Python Engineer
12 5 (1.96%) Data Scientist
12 5 (1.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 5 (1.96%) Product Manager
12 5 (1.96%) Senior Developer
12 5 (1.96%) Technical Leader
12 5 (1.96%) Test Engineer
13 4 (1.57%) Salesforce Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.10%) REST
2 12 (4.71%) .NET
3 11 (4.31%) CSS
3 11 (4.31%) HTML
3 11 (4.31%) RESTful
4 7 (2.75%) SOAP
5 5 (1.96%) LangChain
5 5 (1.96%) Lightning Web Components
6 4 (1.57%) HTML5
6 4 (1.57%) LangGraph
6 4 (1.57%) Node.js
6 4 (1.57%) Oracle Fusion
6 4 (1.57%) Spring
6 4 (1.57%) Web Services
6 4 (1.57%) XML
7 3 (1.18%) jQuery
7 3 (1.18%) Middleware
7 3 (1.18%) PyTorch
7 3 (1.18%) Visualforce
7 3 (1.18%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.45%) Product Ownership
2 15 (5.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 12 (4.71%) Virtual Team
4 11 (4.31%) Algorithms
4 11 (4.31%) Data Structures
5 9 (3.53%) Fixed Income
5 9 (3.53%) Management Information System
5 9 (3.53%) Onboarding
6 7 (2.75%) Derivative
7 6 (2.35%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.35%) Equities
7 6 (2.35%) PMI
8 5 (1.96%) AI Agents
8 5 (1.96%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.57%) CMDB
9 4 (1.57%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.57%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (1.57%) Video Conferencing
10 3 (1.18%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 19 (7.45%) Windows
2 6 (2.35%) Unix
3 5 (1.96%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.57%) Linux
5 3 (1.18%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.18%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.39%) Solaris
6 1 (0.39%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (27.06%) Agile
2 42 (16.47%) Stakeholder Management
3 40 (15.69%) Continuous Improvement
4 39 (15.29%) Analytics
5 36 (14.12%) CI/CD
6 34 (13.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 28 (10.98%) Migration
8 26 (10.20%) Scrum
9 25 (9.80%) Computer Science
10 24 (9.41%) Decision-Making
10 24 (9.41%) Project Management
10 24 (9.41%) Test Automation
11 23 (9.02%) Business Intelligence
11 23 (9.02%) Data Modelling
11 23 (9.02%) DevOps
12 22 (8.63%) Data Analysis
12 22 (8.63%) Process Improvement
12 22 (8.63%) User Acceptance Testing
13 20 (7.84%) AI
13 20 (7.84%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 52 (20.39%) SQL
2 48 (18.82%) Python
3 25 (9.80%) Java
4 19 (7.45%) C#
5 14 (5.49%) JavaScript
6 8 (3.14%) PowerShell
7 6 (2.35%) C++
8 4 (1.57%) Apex Code
9 3 (1.18%) Bash
9 3 (1.18%) PHP
9 3 (1.18%) R
9 3 (1.18%) Swift
9 3 (1.18%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.78%) Go
10 2 (0.78%) Korn
10 2 (0.78%) Objective-C
10 2 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.78%) RPG
10 2 (0.78%) VB.NET
10 2 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 37 (14.51%) Degree
2 27 (10.59%) Security Cleared
3 21 (8.24%) SC Cleared
4 17 (6.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (3.92%) PMI Certification
6 6 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (1.96%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.57%) CISSP
8 4 (1.57%) PMP
9 3 (1.18%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.18%) CBAP
9 3 (1.18%) CISM
9 3 (1.18%) CRISC
10 2 (0.78%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.78%) CASP
10 2 (0.78%) CFA
10 2 (0.78%) GSEC
10 2 (0.78%) ISTQB
10 2 (0.78%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.39%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (9.80%) QA
2 17 (6.67%) Data Quality
3 6 (2.35%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.96%) PMO
5 4 (1.57%) GDPR
6 3 (1.18%) GRC
6 3 (1.18%) ISO 8583
6 3 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.18%) MiFID
6 3 (1.18%) PSD2
7 2 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.78%) EMIR
7 2 (0.78%) IFRS
7 2 (0.78%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.78%) WCAG
8 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.39%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.39%) NEBOSH
8 1 (0.39%) SEPA
System Software
1 15 (5.88%) Docker
2 12 (4.71%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.39%) NFS
4 1 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.39%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.39%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (5.49%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.53%) Ansible
3 7 (2.75%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (2.35%) Terraform
5 3 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.18%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
6 2 (0.78%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.78%) SCCM
7 1 (0.39%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.39%) Grafana
7 1 (0.39%) logstash
7 1 (0.39%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.39%) RSA Archer
7 1 (0.39%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.39%) vMotion
7 1 (0.39%) vRealize
7 1 (0.39%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 51 (20.00%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.24%) Oracle
3 14 (5.49%) Google
4 11 (4.31%) VMware
5 10 (3.92%) Salesforce
6 8 (3.14%) Databricks
7 7 (2.75%) ServiceNow
8 5 (1.96%) Cisco
8 5 (1.96%) Informatica
8 5 (1.96%) SAP
9 4 (1.57%) Citrix
9 4 (1.57%) Murex
9 4 (1.57%) Symantec
10 3 (1.18%) Adobe
10 3 (1.18%) Altiris
10 3 (1.18%) Bloomberg
10 3 (1.18%) Charles River
10 3 (1.18%) HP
10 3 (1.18%) Ivanti
10 3 (1.18%) Palo Alto