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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 4 12
Rank change year-on-year -15 +8 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 186 159 150
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 9.56% 16.11% 10.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.45% 18.36% 12.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 94 92
10th Percentile £301 £297 £313
25th Percentile £375 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £543 £578 £553
90th Percentile £664 £703 £650
North West median daily rate £450 £490 £493
% change year-on-year -8.16% -0.61% +2.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 8 5
10th Percentile £15.19 £15.94 £30.95
25th Percentile £31.25 £17.30 £57.50
Median hourly rate £51.25 £20.26 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +153.02% -66.24% +198.47%
75th Percentile £82.50 £34.57 £68.88
90th Percentile £178.75 £70.75 £81.55
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £28.75 £11.07
% change year-on-year +30.43% +159.65% -59.74%

All Process & 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 1,625 866 1,200
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 83.50% 87.74% 86.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 986 576 782
10th Percentile £300 £303 £325
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.63% -9.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £700 £686
North West median daily rate £483 £450 £493
% change year-on-year +7.33% -8.72% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 43 78
10th Percentile £22.63 £14.78 £12.50
25th Percentile £30.00 £19.62 £15.92
Median hourly rate £60.50 £25.15 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.56% -6.85% +35.00%
75th Percentile £77.00 £66.88 £57.50
90th Percentile £87.00 £78.50 £72.50
North West median hourly rate £55.00 £29.64 £27.00
% change year-on-year +85.59% +9.76% -7.85%

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 15 July 2026.

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 15 July 2026.

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 15 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
Bolton +5 11 - - 24
Salford -3 2 £168 -73.20% 13
Bury -4 2 £634 - 7
Stockport 0 1 £140 - 15
Altrincham 0 1 - - 4
Rochdale - 1 - - 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 11 (5.91%) Confluence
2 3 (1.61%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.54%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.54%) CMS
4 1 (0.54%) nginx
4 1 (0.54%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (5.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (4.30%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.23%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.08%) Acrobat
4 2 (1.08%) Chatbot
4 2 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.08%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.54%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.54%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.54%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 31 (16.67%) Azure
2 25 (13.44%) AWS
3 18 (9.68%) Power Platform
4 16 (8.60%) Microsoft 365
5 10 (5.38%) GitHub
6 7 (3.76%) GCP
7 6 (3.23%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.23%) Power Automate
8 5 (2.69%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (2.15%) Azure AKS
9 4 (2.15%) dbt
9 4 (2.15%) Entra ID
9 4 (2.15%) GitHub Actions
9 4 (2.15%) Google Sheets
9 4 (2.15%) Google Workspace
9 4 (2.15%) OpenShift
10 3 (1.61%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (1.61%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.69%) VPN
2 4 (2.15%) Firewall
2 4 (2.15%) Wireless
3 2 (1.08%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.54%) DNS
4 1 (0.54%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 1 (0.54%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.54%) Network Security
4 1 (0.54%) Reverse Proxy
4 1 (0.54%) SAN
4 1 (0.54%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (9.14%) Power BI
2 13 (6.99%) Data Warehouse
2 13 (6.99%) MongoDB
2 13 (6.99%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.30%) Relational Database
4 7 (3.76%) MySQL
4 7 (3.76%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (3.23%) NoSQL
6 5 (2.69%) DataStage
7 4 (2.15%) Big Data
7 4 (2.15%) Db2
7 4 (2.15%) Snowflake Schema
8 3 (1.61%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 3 (1.61%) Data Vault
8 3 (1.61%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.61%) Metadata
8 3 (1.61%) Power Query
8 3 (1.61%) Tableau
9 2 (1.08%) Oracle Database
9 2 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 26 (13.98%) JIRA
2 14 (7.53%) Git
3 8 (4.30%) Mockito
4 6 (3.23%) GitLab
5 5 (2.69%) Jenkins
5 5 (2.69%) Selenium
6 4 (2.15%) Gatling
6 4 (2.15%) Postman
6 4 (2.15%) REST Assured
7 3 (1.61%) Cucumber
8 2 (1.08%) Burp Suite
8 2 (1.08%) Gradle
8 2 (1.08%) JMeter
8 2 (1.08%) LoadRunner
8 2 (1.08%) Serenity BDD
8 2 (1.08%) SoapUI
8 2 (1.08%) SonarQube
8 2 (1.08%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.54%) JUnit
9 1 (0.54%) Maven
General
1 85 (45.70%) Social Skills
2 79 (42.47%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (21.51%) Finance
4 21 (11.29%) Public Sector
5 16 (8.60%) Banking
6 11 (5.91%) Law
6 11 (5.91%) Manufacturing
7 10 (5.38%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.76%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (3.76%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.69%) Legal
10 4 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (2.15%) Retail
11 3 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (1.08%) Automotive
12 2 (1.08%) Games
12 2 (1.08%) Marketing
13 1 (0.54%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.54%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.54%) Military
Job Titles
1 43 (23.12%) Analyst
2 29 (15.59%) Developer
3 21 (11.29%) Senior
4 17 (9.14%) Lead
5 16 (8.60%) Java Developer
6 15 (8.06%) Architect
7 14 (7.53%) Data Engineer
8 11 (5.91%) Administrator
8 11 (5.91%) IT Support
9 10 (5.38%) Business Analyst
10 9 (4.84%) Support Analyst
11 8 (4.30%) IT Analyst
11 8 (4.30%) Senior Analyst
12 7 (3.76%) IT Support Analyst
12 7 (3.76%) Software Engineer
12 7 (3.76%) Technical Administrator
13 6 (3.23%) Senior Business Analyst
13 6 (3.23%) Test Engineer
14 5 (2.69%) Consultant
14 5 (2.69%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.14%) Kafka
2 15 (8.06%) Spring
3 14 (7.53%) Spring Boot
4 12 (6.45%) React
5 8 (4.30%) ActiveMQ
5 8 (4.30%) JAX-RS
5 8 (4.30%) RESTful
6 5 (2.69%) AngularJS
6 5 (2.69%) HTML
6 5 (2.69%) Node.js
6 5 (2.69%) Playwright
6 5 (2.69%) REST
7 4 (2.15%) ARM Templates
7 4 (2.15%) CSS
7 4 (2.15%) XML
8 3 (1.61%) .NET
8 3 (1.61%) EDI
8 3 (1.61%) EDIFACT
8 3 (1.61%) OAuth
8 3 (1.61%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.60%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.38%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (4.84%) Product Ownership
4 7 (3.76%) Cloud Native
5 6 (3.23%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.69%) AI Agents
6 5 (2.69%) Data Structures
6 5 (2.69%) Driving Licence
7 4 (2.15%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (2.15%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.61%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.61%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.61%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.08%) Blackberry
9 2 (1.08%) CMDB
9 2 (1.08%) Mainframe
9 2 (1.08%) PKI
9 2 (1.08%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 16 (8.60%) Windows
2 13 (6.99%) Linux
3 12 (6.45%) Unix
4 11 (5.91%) Windows 10
5 6 (3.23%) Mac OS X
6 2 (1.08%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.54%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (26.34%) Agile
2 37 (19.89%) Stakeholder Management
3 33 (17.74%) CI/CD
3 33 (17.74%) Continuous Improvement
4 26 (13.98%) Data Modelling
5 25 (13.44%) Microservices
5 25 (13.44%) Test Automation
6 23 (12.37%) DevOps
7 21 (11.29%) Analytics
8 20 (10.75%) Decision-Making
8 20 (10.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 18 (9.68%) Business Intelligence
10 17 (9.14%) ETL
10 17 (9.14%) ITIL
11 16 (8.60%) AI
11 16 (8.60%) Data Analysis
11 16 (8.60%) Data Pipeline
12 15 (8.06%) Change Management
12 15 (8.06%) Requirements Gathering
12 15 (8.06%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 38 (20.43%) SQL
2 27 (14.52%) Java
3 21 (11.29%) Python
4 11 (5.91%) JavaScript
5 8 (4.30%) PowerShell
6 6 (3.23%) TypeScript
7 5 (2.69%) Shell Script
8 4 (2.15%) Bash
8 4 (2.15%) PL/SQL
8 4 (2.15%) T-SQL
9 3 (1.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (1.61%) Kotlin
10 2 (1.08%) Bicep
10 2 (1.08%) Go
10 2 (1.08%) VBA
11 1 (0.54%) C#
11 1 (0.54%) COBOL
11 1 (0.54%) Groovy
11 1 (0.54%) JCL
11 1 (0.54%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 23 (12.37%) Security Cleared
2 19 (10.22%) Degree
3 14 (7.53%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (6.99%) SC Cleared
5 11 (5.91%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (4.30%) A+ Certification
6 8 (4.30%) Network+ Certification
7 7 (3.76%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.08%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.08%) CISM
8 2 (1.08%) CISSP
8 2 (1.08%) City & Guilds
8 2 (1.08%) CompTIA Security+
8 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.08%) PMI Certification
8 2 (1.08%) PMP
9 1 (0.54%) CCNA
9 1 (0.54%) HNC
9 1 (0.54%) HND
9 1 (0.54%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (14.52%) Data Quality
2 5 (2.69%) PMO
3 4 (2.15%) Accessibility
3 4 (2.15%) QA
4 3 (1.61%) GRC
5 2 (1.08%) GDPR
5 2 (1.08%) SLA
6 1 (0.54%) NIST
6 1 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (8.06%) Docker
2 14 (7.53%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.54%) ACF2
4 1 (0.54%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.54%) RACF
4 1 (0.54%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 16 (8.60%) Kubernetes
2 14 (7.53%) Terraform
3 7 (3.76%) Grafana
4 4 (2.15%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.61%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.08%) Ansible
6 2 (1.08%) Istio
6 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.54%) CA Endevor
7 1 (0.54%) Data Guard
7 1 (0.54%) SCOM
7 1 (0.54%) Tivoli
7 1 (0.54%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 32 (17.20%) Microsoft
2 16 (8.60%) SAP
2 16 (8.60%) ServiceNow
3 12 (6.45%) Oracle
4 7 (3.76%) Google
5 6 (3.23%) Splunk
6 5 (2.69%) DocuSign
6 5 (2.69%) IBM
7 4 (2.15%) Adobe
7 4 (2.15%) Concur
7 4 (2.15%) Dynatrace
7 4 (2.15%) Teradata
8 3 (1.61%) CyberArk
9 2 (1.08%) AppDynamics
9 2 (1.08%) Atlassian
9 2 (1.08%) CA Agile Central
9 2 (1.08%) iManage
9 2 (1.08%) Intapp
9 2 (1.08%) Moogsoft
9 2 (1.08%) PagerDuty