Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Problem Solving
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -11 +3 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 726 696 624
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 10.32% 18.66% 13.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.25% 20.91% 15.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 401 351
10th Percentile £297 £256 £275
25th Percentile £363 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.89% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £563 £550
90th Percentile £616 £656 £638
England median daily rate £493 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 66 66
10th Percentile £15.59 £12.49 -
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.99 £10.95
Median hourly rate £32.23 £22.14 £11.50
Median % change year-on-year +45.55% +92.52% -58.18%
75th Percentile £74.26 £37.03 £28.16
90th Percentile £107.55 £63.40 £62.50
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.27 £16.23
% change year-on-year +0.40% +31.02% -68.02%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North of England

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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,926 3,328 4,036
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 84.20% 89.22% 84.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,553 2,150 2,403
10th Percentile £313 £268 £298
25th Percentile £402 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £466 £495
Median % change year-on-year +4.61% -5.86% -1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £556 £580
90th Percentile £675 £650 £665
England median daily rate £523 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.55% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 430 185 381
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.82 £11.11
25th Percentile £22.63 £17.44 £12.55
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.00 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +80.00% +13.64% -4.97%
75th Percentile £71.50 £50.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £80.00 £77.00 £66.61
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% +1.65%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the North of England

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the North of England over the 6 months to 5 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the North of England

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in the North of England over the 6 months to 5 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the North of England

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

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 North of England region over the 6 months to 5 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
North West -12 359 £447 -6.88% 383
Yorkshire -7 326 £450 -5.26% 219
North East -21 47 £356 -20.83% 110
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 39 (5.37%) Confluence
2 21 (2.89%) Apache Spark
3 17 (2.34%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.10%) Apache
5 8 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
6 6 (0.83%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.41%) CICS
7 3 (0.41%) CMS
8 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.28%) Camunda
8 2 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.14%) JBoss
9 1 (0.14%) Mule
9 1 (0.14%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.14%) nginx
9 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 35 (4.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (3.44%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.38%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.69%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.41%) CATIA
7 3 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 37 (5.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.10%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.28%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) Actimize
6 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.14%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.14%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.14%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.14%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 125 (17.22%) Azure
2 87 (11.98%) AWS
3 57 (7.85%) Microsoft 365
4 55 (7.58%) Power Platform
5 42 (5.79%) GCP
6 39 (5.37%) OpenShift
7 37 (5.10%) GitHub
8 24 (3.31%) Entra ID
9 16 (2.20%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (1.65%) Serverless
11 11 (1.52%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 11 (1.52%) Microsoft Copilot
11 11 (1.52%) SaaS
12 10 (1.38%) Power Automate
13 9 (1.24%) PowerApps
14 8 (1.10%) Azure Monitor
14 8 (1.10%) Copilot Studio
14 8 (1.10%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (0.96%) Azure Storage
15 7 (0.96%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 29 (3.99%) DNS
2 26 (3.58%) Firewall
3 21 (2.89%) VPN
4 17 (2.34%) WAN
5 14 (1.93%) LAN
5 14 (1.93%) Network Security
6 13 (1.79%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.65%) VLAN
8 11 (1.52%) SAN
8 11 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (1.38%) Wireless
10 9 (1.24%) DHCP
11 7 (0.96%) Kerberos
11 7 (0.96%) VoIP
12 6 (0.83%) Cisco Nexus
13 5 (0.69%) BGP
13 5 (0.69%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.69%) WLAN
14 4 (0.55%) OSPF
14 4 (0.55%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (5.92%) Power BI
2 33 (4.55%) MongoDB
2 33 (4.55%) SQL Server
3 23 (3.17%) PostgreSQL
4 20 (2.75%) Data Warehouse
5 15 (2.07%) Relational Database
6 14 (1.93%) Tableau
7 13 (1.79%) NoSQL
8 12 (1.65%) Big Data
9 11 (1.52%) Hadoop
10 10 (1.38%) MySQL
11 9 (1.24%) Metadata
12 8 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 7 (0.96%) Db2
14 5 (0.69%) DataStage
14 5 (0.69%) Snowflake Schema
15 4 (0.55%) Data Vault
15 4 (0.55%) Neo4j
15 4 (0.55%) Oracle Database
15 4 (0.55%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 104 (14.33%) JIRA
2 42 (5.79%) Jenkins
3 33 (4.55%) Git
4 27 (3.72%) GitLab
5 14 (1.93%) Sonatype Nexus
6 12 (1.65%) Mockito
7 11 (1.52%) Selenium
8 9 (1.24%) Postman
9 8 (1.10%) REST Assured
10 6 (0.83%) Cucumber
10 6 (0.83%) JUnit
11 5 (0.69%) Gatling
12 3 (0.41%) Cypress.io
12 3 (0.41%) Gradle
12 3 (0.41%) MSI
12 3 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
13 2 (0.28%) JMeter
13 2 (0.28%) LoadRunner
13 2 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
13 2 (0.28%) Zephyr
General
1 346 (47.66%) Social Skills
2 309 (42.56%) Analytical Skills
3 213 (29.34%) Finance
4 80 (11.02%) Banking
5 58 (7.99%) Public Sector
6 34 (4.68%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (3.58%) Influencing Skills
7 26 (3.58%) Legal
8 24 (3.31%) Organisational Skills
9 16 (2.20%) Manufacturing
9 16 (2.20%) Retail
10 13 (1.79%) Law
11 10 (1.38%) Telecoms
12 8 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.96%) Automotive
13 7 (0.96%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 4 (0.55%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.55%) Billing
15 4 (0.55%) Military
Job Titles
1 137 (18.87%) Analyst
2 89 (12.26%) Developer
3 62 (8.54%) Lead
4 46 (6.34%) Senior
5 44 (6.06%) Architect
5 44 (6.06%) Business Analyst
6 30 (4.13%) Consultant
7 29 (3.99%) Administrator
7 29 (3.99%) IT Support
8 28 (3.86%) Java Developer
8 28 (3.86%) Project Manager
9 25 (3.44%) Data Engineer
10 24 (3.31%) Python Developer
11 21 (2.89%) Data Analyst
11 21 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
12 20 (2.75%) IT Engineer
13 17 (2.34%) IT Analyst
14 16 (2.20%) Support Analyst
14 16 (2.20%) Support Engineer
15 15 (2.07%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (5.10%) Kafka
2 36 (4.96%) REST
3 33 (4.55%) OpenTelemetry
4 30 (4.13%) Spring
5 25 (3.44%) Spring Boot
6 21 (2.89%) FastAPI
7 18 (2.48%) React
7 18 (2.48%) RESTful
8 15 (2.07%) JSON
9 12 (1.65%) .NET
9 12 (1.65%) Playwright
10 11 (1.52%) LDAP
10 11 (1.52%) SOAP
10 11 (1.52%) XML
11 10 (1.38%) HTML
12 9 (1.24%) CSS
12 9 (1.24%) JAX-RS
12 9 (1.24%) Node.js
12 9 (1.24%) OAuth
13 8 (1.10%) ActiveMQ
Miscellaneous
1 55 (7.58%) Product Ownership
2 45 (6.20%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.41%) Data Protection Act
4 31 (4.27%) Onboarding
5 24 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
6 23 (3.17%) Data Centre
7 22 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
8 20 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
9 18 (2.48%) Management Information System
10 17 (2.34%) Hybrid Cloud
10 17 (2.34%) Mainframe
11 15 (2.07%) AI Agents
11 15 (2.07%) Driving Licence
12 14 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.65%) Data Structures
13 12 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
14 11 (1.52%) Virtual Team
15 9 (1.24%) Mobile App
15 9 (1.24%) PKI
15 9 (1.24%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 76 (10.47%) Windows
2 43 (5.92%) Linux
3 25 (3.44%) Windows 10
4 18 (2.48%) Unix
5 16 (2.20%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.79%) Mac OS
7 11 (1.52%) Android
8 10 (1.38%) Windows Server
9 7 (0.96%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.41%) Solaris
11 3 (0.41%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.41%) zOS
12 2 (0.28%) AIX
12 2 (0.28%) CentOS
12 2 (0.28%) HPUX
12 2 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.28%) SUSE
12 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (26.31%) Agile
2 149 (20.52%) CI/CD
3 141 (19.42%) Continuous Improvement
4 132 (18.18%) DevOps
5 104 (14.33%) Migration
5 104 (14.33%) Stakeholder Management
6 80 (11.02%) Project Management
7 76 (10.47%) Change Management
8 74 (10.19%) Analytics
9 71 (9.78%) ITIL
10 68 (9.37%) Test Automation
11 64 (8.82%) AI
11 64 (8.82%) Containerisation
11 64 (8.82%) Validation
12 62 (8.54%) Customer Service
12 62 (8.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 61 (8.40%) ERP
14 56 (7.71%) Data Protection
14 56 (7.71%) Decision-Making
15 55 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 127 (17.49%) Python
2 98 (13.50%) SQL
3 61 (8.40%) Java
4 56 (7.71%) PowerShell
5 32 (4.41%) Bash
6 21 (2.89%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.65%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.24%) C#
8 9 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 9 (1.24%) R
9 8 (1.10%) COBOL
10 7 (0.96%) Bicep
10 7 (0.96%) JCL
10 7 (0.96%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.83%) Kotlin
11 6 (0.83%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.69%) Go
12 5 (0.69%) VBA
13 4 (0.55%) ABAP
13 4 (0.55%) REXX
Qualifications
1 87 (11.98%) Security Cleared
2 68 (9.37%) Degree
3 60 (8.26%) SC Cleared
4 38 (5.23%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (3.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (2.89%) Cisco Certification
7 17 (2.34%) A+ Certification
7 17 (2.34%) PMP
8 16 (2.20%) CISSP
8 16 (2.20%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.07%) CCNA
10 13 (1.79%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.38%) CCNP
12 8 (1.10%) CompTIA Security+
13 7 (0.96%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.96%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.96%) MCSE
14 6 (0.83%) CISM
15 5 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (6.20%) Data Quality
2 23 (3.17%) QA
3 15 (2.07%) Accessibility
3 15 (2.07%) GDPR
4 13 (1.79%) SLA
5 10 (1.38%) GRC
5 10 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.38%) NIST
5 10 (1.38%) PMO
6 7 (0.96%) PSD2
7 6 (0.83%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.55%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.55%) SEPA
10 3 (0.41%) ISO 8583
10 3 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.14%) GxP
System Software
1 63 (8.68%) Docker
2 55 (7.58%) Active Directory
3 22 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.34%) vSphere
5 14 (1.93%) VMware NSX
6 10 (1.38%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.96%) Firmware
8 4 (0.55%) ACF2
8 4 (0.55%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.55%) RACF
8 4 (0.55%) Time Sharing Option
8 4 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
9 2 (0.28%) KVM
9 2 (0.28%) NFS
9 2 (0.28%) SRDF
9 2 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.14%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 82 (11.29%) Kubernetes
2 55 (7.58%) Terraform
3 49 (6.75%) Ansible
4 44 (6.06%) Grafana
5 35 (4.82%) Prometheus
6 17 (2.34%) Control-M
7 15 (2.07%) Argo
7 15 (2.07%) IBM Guardium
7 15 (2.07%) Nessus
7 15 (2.07%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
9 11 (1.52%) SCCM
10 5 (0.69%) CA Endevor
10 5 (0.69%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.41%) Istio
11 3 (0.41%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.41%) Tivoli
11 3 (0.41%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 126 (17.36%) Microsoft
2 63 (8.68%) SAP
3 52 (7.16%) ServiceNow
4 46 (6.34%) Splunk
5 32 (4.41%) Oracle
6 26 (3.58%) VMware
7 24 (3.31%) Google
8 21 (2.89%) Workday
9 20 (2.75%) Red Hat
10 19 (2.62%) Cisco
11 15 (2.07%) Pure Storage
11 15 (2.07%) Tenable
12 13 (1.79%) Sage
13 11 (1.52%) Concur
13 11 (1.52%) Dell
14 8 (1.10%) IBM
14 8 (1.10%) Remedy
14 8 (1.10%) Salesforce
14 8 (1.10%) Sonatype
15 7 (0.96%) Apple