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 10 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 5 9
Rank change year-on-year -8 +4 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 149 151 182
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 11.43% 14.59% 11.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.95% 16.06% 13.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 115 117
10th Percentile £310 £200 £313
25th Percentile £350 £348 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -12.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £519 £513 £575
90th Percentile £604 £625 £700
North West median daily rate £425 £460 £500
% change year-on-year -7.61% -8.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 6
10th Percentile £14.56 £12.78 £13.64
25th Percentile £15.62 £13.95 £14.59
Median hourly rate £17.25 £15.90 £16.86
Median % change year-on-year +8.49% -5.69% -68.19%
75th Percentile £17.79 £26.45 £55.99
90th Percentile £45.37 £32.78 £79.44
North West median hourly rate £41.86 £27.13 £26.39
% change year-on-year +54.30% +2.79% -34.98%

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 1,151 940 1,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 88.27% 90.82% 86.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 788 595 980
10th Percentile £306 £294 £313
25th Percentile £375 £391 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £455 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.10% -9.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £638 £678 £675
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 31 72
10th Percentile £17.14 £15.90 £12.50
25th Percentile £25.81 £20.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £46.25 £32.50 £24.15
Median % change year-on-year +42.31% +34.60% -43.01%
75th Percentile £63.50 £33.75 £49.25
90th Percentile £77.50 £60.00 £72.44
North West median hourly rate £42.69 £30.95 £30.00
% change year-on-year +37.92% +3.17% -20.00%

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 10 February 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 10 February 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 10 February 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
Oldham +1 4 - - 3
Stockport +2 3 £155 -69.00% 10
Bolton 0 3 £185 +8.82% 11
Salford +7 2 - - 16
Cheadle - 1 £475 - 2
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 6 (4.03%) Apache
2 4 (2.68%) Confluence
3 3 (2.01%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 3 (2.01%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (2.01%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.67%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.67%) nginx
5 1 (0.67%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (2.68%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (2.68%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.34%) Chatbot
2 2 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (1.34%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.67%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (2.01%) Kondor
2 2 (1.34%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (1.34%) Dynamics AX
2 2 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.67%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.67%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.67%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.67%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.67%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.67%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 30 (20.13%) Azure
2 26 (17.45%) AWS
3 17 (11.41%) Power Platform
4 11 (7.38%) GCP
5 9 (6.04%) GitHub
6 8 (5.37%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (4.70%) Serverless
8 6 (4.03%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (3.36%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (3.36%) Power Automate
9 5 (3.36%) SaaS
10 4 (2.68%) Amazon S3
10 4 (2.68%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (2.68%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (2.68%) Datadog
10 4 (2.68%) Entra ID
10 4 (2.68%) Pulumi
11 3 (2.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 3 (2.01%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 6 (4.03%) Firewall
2 4 (2.68%) Network Security
3 3 (2.01%) HTTP
4 2 (1.34%) DNS
4 2 (1.34%) LAN
4 2 (1.34%) VPN
4 2 (1.34%) VSAN
4 2 (1.34%) WAN
4 2 (1.34%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.67%) BGP
5 1 (0.67%) DHCP
5 1 (0.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 1 (0.67%) IP Telephony
5 1 (0.67%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.67%) OSPF
5 1 (0.67%) Reverse Proxy
5 1 (0.67%) SAN
5 1 (0.67%) SSL
5 1 (0.67%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.67%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (8.72%) Power BI
2 9 (6.04%) NoSQL
3 7 (4.70%) SQL Server
4 6 (4.03%) DynamoDB
4 6 (4.03%) Relational Database
5 5 (3.36%) Data Warehouse
5 5 (3.36%) MongoDB
6 4 (2.68%) MySQL
6 4 (2.68%) Oracle Database
6 4 (2.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (2.01%) Amazon Aurora
7 3 (2.01%) BigQuery
8 2 (1.34%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 2 (1.34%) BusinessObjects
8 2 (1.34%) Data Lake
8 2 (1.34%) DB2
8 2 (1.34%) DocumentDB
8 2 (1.34%) Power Query
8 2 (1.34%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 8 (5.37%) GitLab
2 7 (4.70%) JIRA
3 5 (3.36%) Git
4 4 (2.68%) Jenkins
5 3 (2.01%) Jasmine
5 3 (2.01%) Selenium
6 2 (1.34%) JMeter
6 2 (1.34%) Postman
7 1 (0.67%) Rational DOORS
General
1 72 (48.32%) Social Skills
2 50 (33.56%) Analytical Skills
3 37 (24.83%) Finance
4 19 (12.75%) Public Sector
5 9 (6.04%) Banking
6 5 (3.36%) Law
6 5 (3.36%) Legal
6 5 (3.36%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.36%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.68%) Games
7 4 (2.68%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.01%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.34%) Electronics
9 2 (1.34%) Military
9 2 (1.34%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.67%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.67%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 34 (22.82%) Developer
2 23 (15.44%) Analyst
3 18 (12.08%) Senior
4 9 (6.04%) Administrator
4 9 (6.04%) Business Analyst
4 9 (6.04%) Data Engineer
4 9 (6.04%) Full-Stack Developer
5 7 (4.70%) Lead
6 6 (4.03%) Architect
6 6 (4.03%) Consultant
6 6 (4.03%) IT Analyst
6 6 (4.03%) IT Support
6 6 (4.03%) Software Engineer
7 5 (3.36%) Platform Engineer
7 5 (3.36%) Scrum Master
7 5 (3.36%) Support Analyst
8 4 (2.68%) Applications Support
8 4 (2.68%) Backend Developer
8 4 (2.68%) Senior Data Engineer
8 4 (2.68%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (10.07%) Spring
1 15 (10.07%) Spring Boot
2 10 (6.71%) Kafka
3 9 (6.04%) ISPF
4 8 (5.37%) AngularJS
5 7 (4.70%) React
5 7 (4.70%) RESTful
6 6 (4.03%) OAuth
6 6 (4.03%) OAuth2
7 5 (3.36%) .NET
7 5 (3.36%) CSS
7 5 (3.36%) HTML
8 4 (2.68%) CSS3
8 4 (2.68%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (2.68%) Hibernate
8 4 (2.68%) HTML5
8 4 (2.68%) Node.js
8 4 (2.68%) REST
9 3 (2.01%) Lambda Expressions
9 3 (2.01%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 10 (6.71%) Mainframe
2 8 (5.37%) Onboarding
3 6 (4.03%) Greenfield Project
3 6 (4.03%) Mobile App
3 6 (4.03%) Product Ownership
4 3 (2.01%) CMDB
4 3 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (2.01%) Data Structures
4 3 (2.01%) FMCG
4 3 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.01%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 2 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.34%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.67%) Algorithms
6 1 (0.67%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.67%) Public Cloud
6 1 (0.67%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 10 (6.71%) Linux
2 7 (4.70%) Unix
2 7 (4.70%) Windows
3 4 (2.68%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.34%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.34%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.67%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.67%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (22.82%) Agile
2 23 (15.44%) DevOps
3 21 (14.09%) Stakeholder Management
4 20 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
5 19 (12.75%) Microservices
6 18 (12.08%) Analytics
6 18 (12.08%) Change Management
6 18 (12.08%) CI/CD
7 16 (10.74%) Test Automation
8 15 (10.07%) Data Modelling
9 14 (9.40%) Business Intelligence
9 14 (9.40%) ETL
10 13 (8.72%) Containerisation
10 13 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 12 (8.05%) Collaborative Working
11 12 (8.05%) Decision-Making
11 12 (8.05%) Event-Driven
11 12 (8.05%) TDD
12 11 (7.38%) Data Pipeline
12 11 (7.38%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 32 (21.48%) SQL
2 24 (16.11%) Java
3 18 (12.08%) Python
4 9 (6.04%) CLIST
4 9 (6.04%) COBOL
4 9 (6.04%) JCL
4 9 (6.04%) REXX
4 9 (6.04%) TypeScript
5 8 (5.37%) JavaScript
6 6 (4.03%) C#
6 6 (4.03%) Go
7 5 (3.36%) Bash
7 5 (3.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 5 (3.36%) Kotlin
8 4 (2.68%) T-SQL
9 2 (1.34%) Groovy
9 2 (1.34%) PowerShell
9 2 (1.34%) VBA
9 2 (1.34%) X++
10 1 (0.67%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 18 (12.08%) Security Cleared
2 12 (8.05%) Degree
3 7 (4.70%) BPSS Clearance
4 6 (4.03%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (3.36%) SC Cleared
6 4 (2.68%) A+ Certification
6 4 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (2.68%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.34%) CCNA
7 2 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.34%) VCAP
7 2 (1.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.67%) CBAP
8 1 (0.67%) CCA
8 1 (0.67%) CISSP
8 1 (0.67%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.67%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.67%) IIBA
8 1 (0.67%) MCSE
8 1 (0.67%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.71%) Data Quality
2 7 (4.70%) QA
3 4 (2.68%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.34%) GDPR
5 1 (0.67%) GRC
5 1 (0.67%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.67%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.67%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.67%) PMO
5 1 (0.67%) WCAG
System Software
1 13 (8.72%) Docker
2 9 (6.04%) ACF2
2 9 (6.04%) RACF
2 9 (6.04%) Time Sharing Option
3 7 (4.70%) Active Directory
4 3 (2.01%) ISA Server
5 2 (1.34%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.34%) vSphere
6 1 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 15 (10.07%) Kubernetes
2 14 (9.40%) Terraform
3 9 (6.04%) CA Endevor
3 9 (6.04%) Tivoli
3 9 (6.04%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 7 (4.70%) Grafana
5 6 (4.03%) Prometheus
6 4 (2.68%) SCCM
7 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.67%) Argo
8 1 (0.67%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 26 (17.45%) Microsoft
2 7 (4.70%) SAP
3 6 (4.03%) Databricks
3 6 (4.03%) Oracle
4 4 (2.68%) Adobe
4 4 (2.68%) ServiceNow
4 4 (2.68%) Splunk
5 3 (2.01%) Bloomberg
5 3 (2.01%) CA Agile Central
6 2 (1.34%) Advent
6 2 (1.34%) Apple
6 2 (1.34%) Google
6 2 (1.34%) IFS
6 2 (1.34%) PagerDuty
6 2 (1.34%) VMware
7 1 (0.67%) Aruba
7 1 (0.67%) CheckPoint
7 1 (0.67%) Dell
7 1 (0.67%) F5
7 1 (0.67%) Reuters