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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 5 12
Rank change year-on-year -11 +7 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 174 157 150
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 9.43% 17.07% 10.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.28% 19.22% 11.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 102 96
10th Percentile £259 £296 £313
25th Percentile £366 £394 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £441 £459 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.42% -
75th Percentile £525 £550 £575
90th Percentile £633 £700 £656
North West median daily rate £441 £475 £488
% change year-on-year -7.11% -2.56% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 3 5
10th Percentile £14.20 £23.71 £30.95
25th Percentile £30.00 £40.13 £57.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £70.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% +16.67% +221.50%
75th Percentile £85.00 £71.25 £68.88
90th Percentile £178.75 £72.00 £81.55
North West median hourly rate £37.50 £28.75 £11.20
% change year-on-year +30.43% +156.81% -59.29%

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 1,543 817 1,265
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 83.63% 88.80% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 939 559 833
10th Percentile £300 £310 £325
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £554 £588
90th Percentile £650 £672 £693
North West median daily rate £475 £460 £500
% change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 138 28 81
10th Percentile £21.00 £14.18 £12.50
25th Percentile £30.91 £23.14 £14.13
Median hourly rate £55.00 £60.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +130.77% +9.47%
75th Percentile £77.38 £74.06 £60.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £85.78 £72.50
North West median hourly rate £50.50 £31.88 £30.00
% change year-on-year +58.41% +6.27% -1.77%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 -1 9 - - 20
Stockport +2 4 £155 -69.00% 19
Salford +3 2 £168 -73.20% 26
Altrincham 0 1 - - 4
Rochdale - 1 - - 23
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 (6.32%) Confluence
2 3 (1.72%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.57%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.57%) CMS
4 1 (0.57%) nginx
4 1 (0.57%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (6.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (5.75%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.87%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.72%) Chatbot
5 2 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.57%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.57%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.57%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.57%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.57%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 30 (17.24%) Azure
2 23 (13.22%) AWS
3 16 (9.20%) Power Platform
4 15 (8.62%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (5.17%) GitHub
6 7 (4.02%) GCP
7 6 (3.45%) Power Automate
8 5 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (2.87%) dbt
9 4 (2.30%) Azure AKS
9 4 (2.30%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (2.30%) Entra ID
9 4 (2.30%) Google Sheets
9 4 (2.30%) Google Workspace
10 3 (1.72%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (1.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 3 (1.72%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (1.72%) OpenShift
10 3 (1.72%) SaaS
11 2 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.30%) Firewall
2 3 (1.72%) VPN
3 2 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (1.15%) Wireless
4 1 (0.57%) DNS
4 1 (0.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 1 (0.57%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.57%) Network Security
4 1 (0.57%) Reverse Proxy
4 1 (0.57%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (8.62%) Power BI
2 13 (7.47%) Data Warehouse
3 12 (6.90%) MongoDB
4 11 (6.32%) SQL Server
5 8 (4.60%) Relational Database
6 6 (3.45%) MySQL
6 6 (3.45%) NoSQL
6 6 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (2.30%) Big Data
7 4 (2.30%) DataStage
7 4 (2.30%) Snowflake Schema
8 3 (1.72%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 3 (1.72%) Data Vault
8 3 (1.72%) Db2
8 3 (1.72%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.72%) Metadata
8 3 (1.72%) Power Query
8 3 (1.72%) Tableau
9 2 (1.15%) BusinessObjects
10 1 (0.57%) DTS
Development Applications
1 25 (14.37%) JIRA
2 14 (8.05%) Git
3 7 (4.02%) Mockito
4 6 (3.45%) GitLab
5 5 (2.87%) Jenkins
5 5 (2.87%) Selenium
6 4 (2.30%) Gatling
6 4 (2.30%) Postman
6 4 (2.30%) REST Assured
7 3 (1.72%) Cucumber
8 2 (1.15%) Burp Suite
8 2 (1.15%) Gradle
8 2 (1.15%) JMeter
8 2 (1.15%) LoadRunner
8 2 (1.15%) Serenity BDD
8 2 (1.15%) SoapUI
8 2 (1.15%) SonarQube
8 2 (1.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.57%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.57%) JUnit
General
1 83 (47.70%) Social Skills
2 69 (39.66%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (21.84%) Finance
4 20 (11.49%) Public Sector
5 14 (8.05%) Banking
6 11 (6.32%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (5.17%) Law
7 9 (5.17%) Manufacturing
7 9 (5.17%) Telecoms
8 7 (4.02%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.30%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.30%) Legal
9 4 (2.30%) Retail
10 3 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.15%) Games
11 2 (1.15%) Marketing
12 1 (0.57%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.57%) Cantonese Language
12 1 (0.57%) Mandarin Language
12 1 (0.57%) Military
Job Titles
1 43 (24.71%) Analyst
2 27 (15.52%) Developer
3 19 (10.92%) Senior
4 15 (8.62%) Java Developer
5 14 (8.05%) Data Engineer
5 14 (8.05%) Lead
6 13 (7.47%) IT Support
7 12 (6.90%) Support Analyst
8 11 (6.32%) Architect
9 10 (5.75%) Administrator
9 10 (5.75%) Business Analyst
9 10 (5.75%) IT Analyst
10 9 (5.17%) IT Support Analyst
11 8 (4.60%) Senior Analyst
12 6 (3.45%) Senior Business Analyst
12 6 (3.45%) Software Engineer
12 6 (3.45%) Technical Administrator
13 5 (2.87%) Solutions Architect
13 5 (2.87%) Support Engineer
13 5 (2.87%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (9.20%) Kafka
2 15 (8.62%) Spring
3 14 (8.05%) Spring Boot
4 12 (6.90%) React
5 8 (4.60%) RESTful
6 7 (4.02%) ActiveMQ
6 7 (4.02%) JAX-RS
7 6 (3.45%) HTML
8 5 (2.87%) AngularJS
8 5 (2.87%) CSS
8 5 (2.87%) Node.js
8 5 (2.87%) Playwright
8 5 (2.87%) REST
8 5 (2.87%) XML
9 4 (2.30%) ARM Templates
10 3 (1.72%) OAuth
10 3 (1.72%) OAuth2
10 3 (1.72%) PySpark
10 3 (1.72%) SOAP
10 3 (1.72%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.62%) Onboarding
2 9 (5.17%) Product Ownership
3 8 (4.60%) Data Protection Act
4 6 (3.45%) Cloud Native
4 6 (3.45%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (3.45%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.87%) AI Agents
5 5 (2.87%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.30%) Data Structures
6 4 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (2.30%) Mainframe
6 4 (2.30%) Mobile App
6 4 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.72%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.72%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.15%) iPad
8 2 (1.15%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.15%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.15%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.62%) Windows
2 12 (6.90%) Linux
3 11 (6.32%) Windows 10
4 10 (5.75%) Unix
5 5 (2.87%) Mac OS X
6 2 (1.15%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (24.14%) Agile
2 31 (17.82%) CI/CD
2 31 (17.82%) Stakeholder Management
3 27 (15.52%) Continuous Improvement
4 24 (13.79%) Microservices
5 23 (13.22%) Data Modelling
5 23 (13.22%) Test Automation
6 20 (11.49%) Analytics
6 20 (11.49%) DevOps
7 19 (10.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 18 (10.34%) ITIL
9 17 (9.77%) Decision-Making
10 16 (9.20%) Business Intelligence
10 16 (9.20%) ETL
11 15 (8.62%) Customer Service
12 14 (8.05%) AI
12 14 (8.05%) Change Management
12 14 (8.05%) Data Pipeline
13 13 (7.47%) Data Analysis
13 13 (7.47%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 35 (20.11%) SQL
2 27 (15.52%) Java
3 18 (10.34%) Python
4 12 (6.90%) JavaScript
5 6 (3.45%) PowerShell
5 6 (3.45%) TypeScript
6 4 (2.30%) Shell Script
7 3 (1.72%) Bash
7 3 (1.72%) CLIST
7 3 (1.72%) COBOL
7 3 (1.72%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 3 (1.72%) JCL
7 3 (1.72%) Kotlin
7 3 (1.72%) PL/SQL
7 3 (1.72%) REXX
7 3 (1.72%) T-SQL
8 2 (1.15%) Bicep
8 2 (1.15%) Go
8 2 (1.15%) VBA
9 1 (0.57%) C#
Qualifications
1 20 (11.49%) Degree
2 18 (10.34%) Security Cleared
3 12 (6.90%) BPSS Clearance
3 12 (6.90%) Microsoft Certification
4 10 (5.75%) A+ Certification
4 10 (5.75%) Network+ Certification
5 9 (5.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (4.02%) SC Cleared
7 2 (1.15%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.15%) CISM
7 2 (1.15%) CISSP
7 2 (1.15%) City & Guilds
7 2 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
7 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.15%) PMI Certification
7 2 (1.15%) PMP
8 1 (0.57%) CCA
8 1 (0.57%) CCNA
8 1 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.57%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (13.22%) Data Quality
2 5 (2.87%) Accessibility
3 4 (2.30%) PMO
3 4 (2.30%) QA
4 2 (1.15%) GDPR
4 2 (1.15%) GRC
5 1 (0.57%) NIST
5 1 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.57%) SLA
5 1 (0.57%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (9.20%) Active Directory
2 14 (8.05%) Docker
3 3 (1.72%) ACF2
3 3 (1.72%) RACF
3 3 (1.72%) Time Sharing Option
3 3 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 15 (8.62%) Kubernetes
2 12 (6.90%) Terraform
3 6 (3.45%) Grafana
4 4 (2.30%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.72%) CA Endevor
5 3 (1.72%) Tivoli
5 3 (1.72%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (1.15%) Ansible
6 2 (1.15%) Istio
7 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 30 (17.24%) Microsoft
2 15 (8.62%) SAP
3 11 (6.32%) ServiceNow
4 10 (5.75%) Oracle
5 7 (4.02%) Google
6 5 (2.87%) DocuSign
6 5 (2.87%) Splunk
7 4 (2.30%) Concur
7 4 (2.30%) IBM
8 3 (1.72%) Databricks
8 3 (1.72%) Dynatrace
8 3 (1.72%) Teradata
9 2 (1.15%) Adobe
9 2 (1.15%) AppDynamics
9 2 (1.15%) Atlassian
9 2 (1.15%) CA Agile Central
9 2 (1.15%) Dell
9 2 (1.15%) Moogsoft
9 2 (1.15%) PagerDuty
9 2 (1.15%) Workday