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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 5 12
Rank change year-on-year -13 +7 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 188 155 145
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 9.67% 15.86% 10.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.56% 18.09% 12.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 88 89
10th Percentile £301 £299 £310
25th Percentile £379 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £488 £475
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £553 £601 £550
90th Percentile £664 £709 £651
North West median daily rate £450 £490 £493
% change year-on-year -8.16% -0.61% +2.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 10 5
10th Percentile £18.63 £16.85 £30.95
25th Percentile £35.63 £17.30 £57.50
Median hourly rate £66.25 £20.26 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +227.08% -66.24% +198.47%
75th Percentile £83.00 £22.43 £68.88
90th Percentile £178.75 £70.25 £83.35
North West median hourly rate £38.75 £28.75 £10.95
% change year-on-year +34.78% +162.56% -60.18%

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 1,626 857 1,143
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 83.60% 87.72% 86.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 988 559 741
10th Percentile £300 £300 £325
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £589 £581 £588
90th Percentile £675 £700 £688
North West median daily rate £488 £450 £493
% change year-on-year +8.33% -8.72% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 151 48 64
10th Percentile £22.63 £16.21 £13.37
25th Percentile £30.00 £19.35 £20.38
Median hourly rate £62.50 £23.63 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +164.55% -30.51% +74.36%
75th Percentile £77.00 £60.94 £62.50
90th Percentile £87.50 £77.88 £73.90
North West median hourly rate £55.72 £28.88 £28.00
% change year-on-year +92.97% +3.13% -4.44%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 +6 11 - - 13
Salford -2 2 £168 -79.06% 2
Bury -5 2 £634 - 3
Rochdale - 2 - - 2
Stockport 0 1 £140 - 6
Altrincham 0 1 - - 7
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 (5.85%) Confluence
2 3 (1.60%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.53%) CMS
4 1 (0.53%) nginx
4 1 (0.53%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (6.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (4.79%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.19%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.06%) Acrobat
4 2 (1.06%) Chatbot
4 2 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (2.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.06%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.53%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.53%) ResourceLink
Cloud Services
1 33 (17.55%) Azure
2 28 (14.89%) AWS
3 19 (10.11%) Microsoft 365
4 17 (9.04%) Power Platform
5 11 (5.85%) GitHub
6 8 (4.26%) GCP
7 7 (3.72%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (3.19%) Power Automate
9 5 (2.66%) Azure Monitor
9 5 (2.66%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (2.13%) Azure AKS
10 4 (2.13%) dbt
10 4 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 4 (2.13%) Google Sheets
10 4 (2.13%) Google Workspace
10 4 (2.13%) OpenShift
11 3 (1.60%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (1.60%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 2 (1.06%) Intacct
12 2 (1.06%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.72%) VPN
2 6 (3.19%) Firewall
3 4 (2.13%) Wireless
4 3 (1.60%) DNS
5 2 (1.06%) DHCP
5 2 (1.06%) Network Security
5 2 (1.06%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.53%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.53%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 1 (0.53%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.53%) LAN
6 1 (0.53%) MPLS
6 1 (0.53%) PABX
6 1 (0.53%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.53%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.53%) SSL
6 1 (0.53%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.53%) VLAN
6 1 (0.53%) VoIP
6 1 (0.53%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (7.98%) Power BI
2 13 (6.91%) Data Warehouse
2 13 (6.91%) MongoDB
2 13 (6.91%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.26%) Relational Database
4 7 (3.72%) MySQL
4 7 (3.72%) NoSQL
4 7 (3.72%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (2.66%) DataStage
6 4 (2.13%) Big Data
6 4 (2.13%) Db2
6 4 (2.13%) Snowflake Schema
6 4 (2.13%) Tableau
7 3 (1.60%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.60%) Data Vault
7 3 (1.60%) Hadoop
7 3 (1.60%) Metadata
8 2 (1.06%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.06%) Power Query
8 2 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 26 (13.83%) JIRA
2 15 (7.98%) Git
3 8 (4.26%) Mockito
4 7 (3.72%) GitLab
5 6 (3.19%) Jenkins
6 5 (2.66%) Selenium
7 4 (2.13%) Gatling
7 4 (2.13%) Postman
7 4 (2.13%) REST Assured
8 3 (1.60%) Cucumber
8 3 (1.60%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (1.06%) Burp Suite
9 2 (1.06%) Gradle
9 2 (1.06%) JMeter
9 2 (1.06%) LoadRunner
9 2 (1.06%) Serenity BDD
9 2 (1.06%) SoapUI
9 2 (1.06%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.53%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.53%) JUnit
General
1 85 (45.21%) Social Skills
2 80 (42.55%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (21.28%) Finance
4 21 (11.17%) Public Sector
5 16 (8.51%) Banking
6 11 (5.85%) Manufacturing
6 11 (5.85%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (5.32%) Law
8 7 (3.72%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (3.72%) Telecoms
9 4 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.13%) Legal
9 4 (2.13%) Retail
10 3 (1.60%) Games
10 3 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.06%) Automotive
11 2 (1.06%) Marketing
12 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.53%) Electronics
12 1 (0.53%) Military
Job Titles
1 41 (21.81%) Analyst
2 29 (15.43%) Developer
3 21 (11.17%) Senior
4 17 (9.04%) Lead
5 16 (8.51%) Architect
5 16 (8.51%) Java Developer
6 13 (6.91%) Data Engineer
7 12 (6.38%) IT Support
8 10 (5.32%) Administrator
9 9 (4.79%) Business Analyst
9 9 (4.79%) Support Analyst
10 8 (4.26%) IT Analyst
10 8 (4.26%) Software Engineer
11 7 (3.72%) IT Support Analyst
11 7 (3.72%) Senior Analyst
11 7 (3.72%) Technical Administrator
12 6 (3.19%) Data Analyst
12 6 (3.19%) Senior Business Analyst
12 6 (3.19%) Test Engineer
13 5 (2.66%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.04%) Kafka
2 16 (8.51%) Spring
3 15 (7.98%) Spring Boot
4 12 (6.38%) React
5 9 (4.79%) RESTful
6 8 (4.26%) ActiveMQ
6 8 (4.26%) JAX-RS
7 5 (2.66%) AngularJS
7 5 (2.66%) HTML
7 5 (2.66%) Node.js
7 5 (2.66%) Playwright
7 5 (2.66%) REST
8 4 (2.13%) ARM Templates
8 4 (2.13%) CSS
8 4 (2.13%) XML
9 3 (1.60%) .NET
9 3 (1.60%) EDI
9 3 (1.60%) EDIFACT
9 3 (1.60%) OAuth
9 3 (1.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 17 (9.04%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.32%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (4.79%) Product Ownership
4 7 (3.72%) Cloud Native
5 6 (3.19%) Driving Licence
5 6 (3.19%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.66%) AI Agents
6 5 (2.66%) Data Structures
6 5 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.13%) Management Information System
8 3 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.60%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.60%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.60%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.06%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.06%) Legacy Applications
9 2 (1.06%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.06%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 19 (10.11%) Windows
2 14 (7.45%) Linux
3 13 (6.91%) Unix
4 11 (5.85%) Windows 10
5 6 (3.19%) Mac OS X
6 4 (2.13%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.06%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (26.60%) Agile
2 37 (19.68%) Stakeholder Management
3 35 (18.62%) CI/CD
4 34 (18.09%) Continuous Improvement
5 26 (13.83%) Microservices
5 26 (13.83%) Test Automation
6 24 (12.77%) Data Modelling
6 24 (12.77%) DevOps
7 22 (11.70%) Analytics
8 20 (10.64%) Decision-Making
9 19 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 18 (9.57%) Data Analysis
10 18 (9.57%) ITIL
11 17 (9.04%) AI
12 16 (8.51%) Business Intelligence
12 16 (8.51%) ETL
13 15 (7.98%) Data Pipeline
13 15 (7.98%) Software Engineering
13 15 (7.98%) Validation
13 15 (7.98%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 39 (20.74%) SQL
2 28 (14.89%) Java
3 24 (12.77%) Python
4 11 (5.85%) JavaScript
5 10 (5.32%) PowerShell
6 6 (3.19%) TypeScript
7 5 (2.66%) Bash
7 5 (2.66%) Shell Script
7 5 (2.66%) T-SQL
8 4 (2.13%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.60%) Bicep
9 3 (1.60%) Kotlin
10 2 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (1.06%) Go
11 1 (0.53%) C#
11 1 (0.53%) Groovy
11 1 (0.53%) VBA
11 1 (0.53%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 24 (12.77%) Security Cleared
2 19 (10.11%) Degree
3 14 (7.45%) BPSS Clearance
3 14 (7.45%) SC Cleared
4 11 (5.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (4.26%) A+ Certification
5 8 (4.26%) Network+ Certification
6 7 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (1.60%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.06%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.06%) CCNA
8 2 (1.06%) CISM
8 2 (1.06%) CISSP
8 2 (1.06%) City & Guilds
8 2 (1.06%) CompTIA Security+
8 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.06%) PMI Certification
8 2 (1.06%) PMP
9 1 (0.53%) HNC
9 1 (0.53%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (13.83%) Data Quality
2 5 (2.66%) PMO
3 4 (2.13%) Accessibility
3 4 (2.13%) QA
4 3 (1.60%) GRC
5 2 (1.06%) GDPR
5 2 (1.06%) SLA
6 1 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.53%) NIST
6 1 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 16 (8.51%) Active Directory
1 16 (8.51%) Docker
2 4 (2.13%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.53%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.53%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 17 (9.04%) Kubernetes
2 16 (8.51%) Terraform
3 7 (3.72%) Grafana
4 4 (2.13%) Prometheus
4 4 (2.13%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.60%) Ansible
6 2 (1.06%) Istio
6 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.53%) Data Guard
7 1 (0.53%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.53%) Puppet
7 1 (0.53%) SCOM
Vendors
1 35 (18.62%) Microsoft
2 16 (8.51%) SAP
2 16 (8.51%) ServiceNow
3 13 (6.91%) Oracle
4 8 (4.26%) Google
5 6 (3.19%) Splunk
6 5 (2.66%) DocuSign
6 5 (2.66%) IBM
7 4 (2.13%) Adobe
7 4 (2.13%) Concur
7 4 (2.13%) CyberArk
7 4 (2.13%) Dynatrace
7 4 (2.13%) Teradata
8 3 (1.60%) Cisco
9 2 (1.06%) AppDynamics
9 2 (1.06%) CA Agile Central
9 2 (1.06%) Dell
9 2 (1.06%) iManage
9 2 (1.06%) PagerDuty
9 2 (1.06%) Sage