Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Problem Solving
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 8 7 11
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 +16
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 152 147 173
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 13.68% 12.61% 10.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.31% 14.29% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 84 108
10th Percentile £310 £245 £332
25th Percentile £377 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% -10.10% +11.11%
75th Percentile £569 £509 £614
90th Percentile £668 £618 £700
North West median daily rate £450 £460 £500
% change year-on-year -2.17% -8.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 4 7
10th Percentile - £13.17 £15.36
25th Percentile £17.30 £14.93 £16.68
Median hourly rate £20.26 £26.45 £17.46
Median % change year-on-year -23.42% +51.49% -5.93%
75th Percentile £21.77 £51.00 £37.38
90th Percentile £46.95 £76.20 £63.20
North West median hourly rate £20.26 £27.13 £35.94
% change year-on-year -25.33% -24.53% +24.27%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 993 1,029 1,423
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 89.38% 88.25% 88.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 671 586 1,029
10th Percentile £300 £300 £270
25th Percentile £364 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 41 53
10th Percentile £16.96 £16.00 £15.73
25th Percentile £19.07 £22.00 £17.11
Median hourly rate £22.32 £32.50 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +66.67% -11.36%
75th Percentile £31.40 £47.50 £49.00
90th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £72.25
North West median hourly rate £29.60 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -15.43% - +45.83%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Manchester

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Manchester over the 6 months to 25 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Manchester

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in Manchester

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in Manchester over the 6 months to 25 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Manchester

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

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 Manchester region over the 6 months to 25 November 2025. 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
Salford +8 8 £800 +77.78% 7
Oldham +1 5 - - 2
Bury -1 3 - - 4
Bolton -7 3 £185 - 10
Stockport - 2 £600 - 19
Cheadle - 1 £475 - 4
Problem-Solving
North West

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 7 (4.61%) Confluence
2 5 (3.29%) Apache
3 2 (1.32%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.32%) WebSphere
3 2 (1.32%) WebSphere Application Server
4 1 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.66%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.66%) SAS
Applications
1 12 (7.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (4.61%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.66%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.66%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (3.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (2.63%) ContrOCC
3 3 (1.97%) Kondor
4 2 (1.32%) Advent Geneva
4 2 (1.32%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.32%) Maximo
5 1 (0.66%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.66%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.66%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.66%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 26 (17.11%) Azure
2 25 (16.45%) AWS
3 16 (10.53%) Power Platform
4 15 (9.87%) GCP
5 14 (9.21%) GitHub
6 12 (7.89%) Serverless
7 10 (6.58%) Amazon ECS
8 9 (5.92%) Amazon SQS
8 9 (5.92%) AWS Lambda
8 9 (5.92%) Datadog
8 9 (5.92%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (5.92%) SaaS
9 7 (4.61%) Amazon EventBridge
9 7 (4.61%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (3.95%) Amazon EC2
10 6 (3.95%) AWS Fargate
11 5 (3.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 5 (3.29%) Amazon EMR
11 5 (3.29%) Apigee
11 5 (3.29%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.63%) Network Security
2 3 (1.97%) Firewall
2 3 (1.97%) HTTP
3 2 (1.32%) Calico
3 2 (1.32%) VSAN
4 1 (0.66%) IP Telephony
4 1 (0.66%) LAN
4 1 (0.66%) VoIP
4 1 (0.66%) WAN
4 1 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (8.55%) Power BI
2 10 (6.58%) DynamoDB
2 10 (6.58%) NoSQL
3 9 (5.92%) MySQL
3 9 (5.92%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (5.26%) Amazon Aurora
4 8 (5.26%) BigQuery
4 8 (5.26%) Relational Database
5 7 (4.61%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (4.61%) SQL Server
6 6 (3.95%) Redis
7 5 (3.29%) RDBMS
8 4 (2.63%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (2.63%) Tableau
9 3 (1.97%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.97%) MongoDB
10 2 (1.32%) DB2
10 2 (1.32%) DocumentDB
10 2 (1.32%) Oracle Database
11 1 (0.66%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 13 (8.55%) Jenkins
2 12 (7.89%) JIRA
3 11 (7.24%) Git
4 8 (5.26%) Maven
5 7 (4.61%) GitLab
6 6 (3.95%) Gradle
6 6 (3.95%) SonarQube
7 5 (3.29%) SonarLint
8 2 (1.32%) JUnit
8 2 (1.32%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (1.32%) Selenium
9 1 (0.66%) Ant
9 1 (0.66%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.66%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.66%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.66%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.66%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.66%) Jasmine
9 1 (0.66%) NUnit
9 1 (0.66%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 85 (55.92%) Social Skills
2 47 (30.92%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (30.26%) Finance
4 19 (12.50%) Public Sector
5 14 (9.21%) Banking
6 7 (4.61%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.63%) Games
7 4 (2.63%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.97%) Retail
8 3 (1.97%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.32%) Electronics
9 2 (1.32%) Law
9 2 (1.32%) Legal
9 2 (1.32%) Military
10 1 (0.66%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.66%) Automotive
10 1 (0.66%) Marketing
10 1 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 26 (17.11%) Developer
2 20 (13.16%) Analyst
3 15 (9.87%) Administrator
4 13 (8.55%) Architect
4 13 (8.55%) Consultant
5 11 (7.24%) Senior
6 10 (6.58%) Lead
7 8 (5.26%) Technical Architect
8 6 (3.95%) Installation Technician
8 6 (3.95%) Java Architect
8 6 (3.95%) Java Technical Architect
8 6 (3.95%) Platform Engineer
9 5 (3.29%) Business Analyst
9 5 (3.29%) Project Manager
9 5 (3.29%) SAP Administrator
9 5 (3.29%) SAP Consultant
9 5 (3.29%) SAP Support
10 4 (2.63%) Senior Developer
10 4 (2.63%) Software Engineer
10 4 (2.63%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.58%) Spring Boot
2 7 (4.61%) J2EE
2 7 (4.61%) RESTful
2 7 (4.61%) Spring
3 6 (3.95%) .NET
3 6 (3.95%) Dropwizard
3 6 (3.95%) ISPF
3 6 (3.95%) JWT
3 6 (3.95%) Kafka
3 6 (3.95%) Micronaut
4 5 (3.29%) Celery
4 5 (3.29%) React
5 4 (2.63%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (2.63%) GraphQL
5 4 (2.63%) REST
6 3 (1.97%) AngularJS
6 3 (1.97%) Hibernate
6 3 (1.97%) JSON
6 3 (1.97%) Node.js
6 3 (1.97%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (5.26%) Cloud Native
1 8 (5.26%) Product Ownership
2 7 (4.61%) Mainframe
3 6 (3.95%) N-Tier
4 5 (3.29%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.63%) Data Structures
5 4 (2.63%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.97%) FMCG
6 3 (1.97%) Greenfield Project
6 3 (1.97%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.97%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 2 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.32%) Clustering
7 2 (1.32%) Data Centre
8 1 (0.66%) Data Fabric
8 1 (0.66%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.66%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.66%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.66%) Video Editing
8 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 11 (7.24%) Linux
2 9 (5.92%) Windows
3 7 (4.61%) Unix
4 3 (1.97%) Android
4 3 (1.97%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.32%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.66%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.66%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (24.34%) Agile
2 25 (16.45%) Change Management
3 24 (15.79%) CI/CD
4 21 (13.82%) Stakeholder Management
5 20 (13.16%) Analytics
5 20 (13.16%) DevOps
6 16 (10.53%) Containerisation
6 16 (10.53%) Project Management
7 14 (9.21%) Business Intelligence
8 13 (8.55%) Mentoring
9 12 (7.89%) Decision-Making
9 12 (7.89%) Microservices
10 11 (7.24%) Collaborative Working
11 10 (6.58%) AI
11 10 (6.58%) Event-Driven
11 10 (6.58%) Requirements Gathering
11 10 (6.58%) TDD
12 9 (5.92%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 9 (5.92%) Risk Management
12 9 (5.92%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 21 (13.82%) Java
1 21 (13.82%) Python
1 21 (13.82%) SQL
2 7 (4.61%) JavaScript
3 6 (3.95%) C#
3 6 (3.95%) CLIST
3 6 (3.95%) COBOL
3 6 (3.95%) JCL
3 6 (3.95%) REXX
4 4 (2.63%) Bash
4 4 (2.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 4 (2.63%) Go
4 4 (2.63%) TypeScript
5 3 (1.97%) T-SQL
6 2 (1.32%) Groovy
6 2 (1.32%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (1.32%) PowerShell
6 2 (1.32%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.32%) X++
7 1 (0.66%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 17 (11.18%) Security Cleared
2 15 (9.87%) Degree
3 9 (5.92%) SC Cleared
4 6 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.97%) PMI Certification
6 3 (1.97%) PMP
7 2 (1.32%) GCIA
7 2 (1.32%) GCIH
7 2 (1.32%) VCAP
7 2 (1.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.66%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.66%) CISA
8 1 (0.66%) CISSP
8 1 (0.66%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.66%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.66%) GSEC
8 1 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.66%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.66%) PCI QSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.26%) Data Quality
2 5 (3.29%) QA
3 3 (1.97%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.32%) GDPR
4 2 (1.32%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.32%) PMO
5 1 (0.66%) GRC
5 1 (0.66%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.66%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.66%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.66%) NIST
5 1 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 19 (12.50%) Docker
2 6 (3.95%) ACF2
2 6 (3.95%) RACF
2 6 (3.95%) Time Sharing Option
3 2 (1.32%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.32%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.32%) vSphere
4 1 (0.66%) Firmware
4 1 (0.66%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 19 (12.50%) Kubernetes
2 18 (11.84%) Terraform
3 6 (3.95%) CA Endevor
3 6 (3.95%) Tivoli
3 6 (3.95%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 4 (2.63%) Grafana
4 4 (2.63%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.32%) Istio
5 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Clustering
5 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.66%) Argo
6 1 (0.66%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.66%) QRadar
6 1 (0.66%) SCCM
Vendors
1 43 (28.29%) Microsoft
2 17 (11.18%) SAP
3 6 (3.95%) Google
4 5 (3.29%) Gigya
4 5 (3.29%) IBM
5 4 (2.63%) Liquidlogic
5 4 (2.63%) Oracle
6 3 (1.97%) Bloomberg
6 3 (1.97%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.32%) Adobe
7 2 (1.32%) Advent
7 2 (1.32%) Apple
7 2 (1.32%) Databricks
7 2 (1.32%) Splunk
7 2 (1.32%) VMware
8 1 (0.66%) ArcSight
8 1 (0.66%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.66%) BMC
8 1 (0.66%) Kronos
8 1 (0.66%) Salesforce