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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 750 683 587
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 10.38% 17.81% 13.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.38% 20.12% 15.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 429 382 344
10th Percentile £288 £263 £250
25th Percentile £363 £371 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £483
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.55% -5.85%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £550
90th Percentile £613 £656 £638
England median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 72 53
10th Percentile £15.38 £12.86 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.48 £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 £32.13 £26.39
90th Percentile £87.88 £63.40 £63.50
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.25 £16.23
% change year-on-year +0.49% +30.90% -69.09%

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 6,057 3,395 3,734
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 83.82% 88.55% 83.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,614 2,166 2,265
10th Percentile £313 £268 £300
25th Percentile £403 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £469 £495
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -5.25% -1.08%
75th Percentile £588 £556 £581
90th Percentile £675 £650 £663
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 451 202 301
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.82 £11.13
25th Percentile £22.63 £17.48 £13.31
Median hourly rate £45.00 £22.63 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +98.85% +0.58% -18.18%
75th Percentile £71.91 £44.61 £46.18
90th Percentile £83.75 £72.40 £67.50
England median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -37.13% -6.43%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -10 371 £450 -8.07% 352
Yorkshire -7 328 £450 -5.26% 224
North East -15 57 £370 -17.78% 108
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 36 (4.80%) Confluence
2 22 (2.93%) Apache Spark
3 19 (2.53%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.47%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (1.20%) Apache
6 8 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
7 6 (0.80%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.67%) CMS
9 3 (0.40%) CICS
10 2 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.27%) Camunda
10 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.27%) WordPress
11 1 (0.13%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.13%) Mule
11 1 (0.13%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.13%) nginx
11 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 35 (4.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (3.60%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.47%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.80%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.40%) Acrobat
7 3 (0.40%) CATIA
7 3 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.13%) EngageOne
Business Applications
1 33 (4.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.20%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.40%) SAP HCM
4 3 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
5 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.27%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) Actimize
6 1 (0.13%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.13%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.13%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.13%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 127 (16.93%) Azure
2 94 (12.53%) AWS
3 68 (9.07%) Microsoft 365
4 55 (7.33%) Power Platform
5 41 (5.47%) GCP
6 39 (5.20%) GitHub
7 38 (5.07%) OpenShift
8 26 (3.47%) Entra ID
9 16 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (1.60%) Microsoft Copilot
10 12 (1.60%) Serverless
11 11 (1.47%) Power Automate
11 11 (1.47%) SaaS
12 10 (1.33%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (1.33%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 9 (1.20%) PowerApps
14 8 (1.07%) Copilot Studio
15 6 (0.80%) Azure Monitor
15 6 (0.80%) Google Workspace
16 5 (0.67%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 35 (4.67%) DNS
2 34 (4.53%) Firewall
2 34 (4.53%) VPN
3 19 (2.53%) WAN
4 18 (2.40%) LAN
5 17 (2.27%) Network Security
5 17 (2.27%) TCP/IP
6 16 (2.13%) VLAN
6 16 (2.13%) Wireless
7 15 (2.00%) DHCP
8 14 (1.87%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (1.33%) VoIP
10 9 (1.20%) BGP
10 9 (1.20%) Cisco Nexus
10 9 (1.20%) SAN
11 8 (1.07%) OSPF
11 8 (1.07%) WLAN
12 7 (0.93%) Kerberos
13 6 (0.80%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.67%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (5.60%) Power BI
2 36 (4.80%) SQL Server
3 34 (4.53%) MongoDB
4 24 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
5 23 (3.07%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (2.13%) NoSQL
7 15 (2.00%) Relational Database
7 15 (2.00%) Tableau
8 13 (1.73%) Big Data
9 11 (1.47%) Hadoop
10 10 (1.33%) Metadata
10 10 (1.33%) MySQL
11 8 (1.07%) Db2
11 8 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 6 (0.80%) DataStage
12 6 (0.80%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.67%) Data Lake
13 5 (0.67%) Snowflake Schema
14 4 (0.53%) Data Vault
14 4 (0.53%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 94 (12.53%) JIRA
2 43 (5.73%) Jenkins
3 35 (4.67%) Git
4 26 (3.47%) GitLab
5 12 (1.60%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (1.47%) Selenium
7 10 (1.33%) Mockito
8 8 (1.07%) REST Assured
9 7 (0.93%) Postman
10 6 (0.80%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.67%) Gatling
12 4 (0.53%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.53%) JUnit
13 3 (0.40%) Claude Code
13 3 (0.40%) Gradle
13 3 (0.40%) Maven
13 3 (0.40%) MSI
13 3 (0.40%) Serenity BDD
13 3 (0.40%) Subversion
14 2 (0.27%) SonarQube
General
1 348 (46.40%) Social Skills
2 316 (42.13%) Analytical Skills
3 206 (27.47%) Finance
4 79 (10.53%) Banking
5 66 (8.80%) Public Sector
6 33 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
7 28 (3.73%) Influencing Skills
7 28 (3.73%) Organisational Skills
8 27 (3.60%) Legal
9 18 (2.40%) Manufacturing
10 17 (2.27%) Retail
11 15 (2.00%) Law
12 10 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (1.20%) Financial Institution
14 8 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (1.07%) Telecoms
15 7 (0.93%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.93%) Marketing
16 6 (0.80%) Automotive
17 5 (0.67%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 139 (18.53%) Analyst
2 88 (11.73%) Developer
3 65 (8.67%) Lead
4 57 (7.60%) Senior
5 45 (6.00%) Architect
6 37 (4.93%) Business Analyst
7 31 (4.13%) Consultant
8 30 (4.00%) IT Support
9 28 (3.73%) Java Developer
10 27 (3.60%) Data Engineer
11 25 (3.33%) Administrator
12 23 (3.07%) Project Manager
12 23 (3.07%) Python Developer
13 22 (2.93%) Data Analyst
13 22 (2.93%) DevOps Engineer
14 21 (2.80%) Network Engineer
15 19 (2.53%) IT Engineer
16 18 (2.40%) Support Engineer
17 16 (2.13%) Service Analyst
18 15 (2.00%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (5.20%) Kafka
2 32 (4.27%) OpenTelemetry
2 32 (4.27%) REST
3 30 (4.00%) Spring
4 25 (3.33%) Spring Boot
5 20 (2.67%) FastAPI
5 20 (2.67%) React
6 16 (2.13%) RESTful
7 14 (1.87%) HTML
7 14 (1.87%) JSON
7 14 (1.87%) Playwright
8 13 (1.73%) CSS
8 13 (1.73%) Node.js
9 12 (1.60%) .NET
10 10 (1.33%) LDAP
10 10 (1.33%) OAuth
10 10 (1.33%) XML
11 9 (1.20%) JAX-RS
12 8 (1.07%) AngularJS
12 8 (1.07%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 54 (7.20%) Product Ownership
2 44 (5.87%) Cloud Native
3 33 (4.40%) Data Protection Act
4 32 (4.27%) Onboarding
5 25 (3.33%) Data Centre
6 24 (3.20%) Self-Motivation
7 22 (2.93%) Analytical Mindset
7 22 (2.93%) Legacy Systems
8 18 (2.40%) Driving Licence
8 18 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (2.40%) Hybrid Cloud
9 16 (2.13%) Management Information System
10 15 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
11 14 (1.87%) Data Structures
11 14 (1.87%) Mainframe
12 12 (1.60%) AI Agents
12 12 (1.60%) PKI
12 12 (1.60%) Virtual Team
13 11 (1.47%) Replication
14 9 (1.20%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 82 (10.93%) Windows
2 42 (5.60%) Linux
3 26 (3.47%) Windows 10
4 20 (2.67%) Unix
5 16 (2.13%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.87%) Windows Server
7 12 (1.60%) Mac OS
8 11 (1.47%) Android
9 7 (0.93%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.40%) Solaris
11 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.40%) zOS
12 2 (0.27%) AIX
12 2 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.27%) HPUX
12 2 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.27%) SUSE
12 2 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.13%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (25.73%) Agile
2 161 (21.47%) Continuous Improvement
3 160 (21.33%) CI/CD
4 135 (18.00%) DevOps
5 116 (15.47%) Stakeholder Management
6 96 (12.80%) Migration
7 77 (10.27%) Project Management
8 76 (10.13%) Analytics
9 74 (9.87%) Change Management
10 73 (9.73%) AI
11 72 (9.60%) Test Automation
12 70 (9.33%) ITIL
13 68 (9.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 66 (8.80%) Containerisation
15 61 (8.13%) Validation
16 60 (8.00%) Customer Service
16 60 (8.00%) Decision-Making
17 58 (7.73%) Data Protection
17 58 (7.73%) Microservices
18 55 (7.33%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 131 (17.47%) Python
2 102 (13.60%) SQL
3 59 (7.87%) Java
3 59 (7.87%) PowerShell
4 32 (4.27%) Bash
5 25 (3.33%) JavaScript
6 12 (1.60%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.33%) PL/SQL
8 9 (1.20%) R
9 8 (1.07%) C#
9 8 (1.07%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.93%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.80%) ABAP
11 6 (0.80%) Bicep
11 6 (0.80%) Kotlin
12 5 (0.67%) COBOL
12 5 (0.67%) Go
13 4 (0.53%) JCL
13 4 (0.53%) VBA
14 3 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 99 (13.20%) Security Cleared
2 70 (9.33%) SC Cleared
3 69 (9.20%) Degree
4 32 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (3.07%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.40%) CISSP
9 15 (2.00%) PMP
10 13 (1.73%) CCNA
10 13 (1.73%) CCNP
10 13 (1.73%) PMI Certification
11 12 (1.60%) A+ Certification
12 11 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
13 9 (1.20%) CompTIA Security+
14 8 (1.07%) AWS Certification
14 8 (1.07%) Azure Certification
15 7 (0.93%) CEH
16 6 (0.80%) CISM
16 6 (0.80%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (6.80%) Data Quality
2 28 (3.73%) QA
3 23 (3.07%) Accessibility
4 14 (1.87%) GDPR
4 14 (1.87%) SLA
5 11 (1.47%) GRC
6 10 (1.33%) NIST
7 9 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (1.20%) PMO
8 4 (0.53%) PCI DSS
8 4 (0.53%) WCAG
9 3 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.40%) PSD2
9 3 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.27%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.27%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.27%) SEPA
11 1 (0.13%) GxP
System Software
1 65 (8.67%) Docker
2 57 (7.60%) Active Directory
3 22 (2.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.27%) vSphere
5 15 (2.00%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.07%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.93%) Firmware
8 5 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.40%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.27%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 2 (0.27%) KVM
10 2 (0.27%) NFS
10 2 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.27%) SRDF
10 2 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.13%) ACF2
11 1 (0.13%) RACF
11 1 (0.13%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.13%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 85 (11.33%) Kubernetes
2 60 (8.00%) Terraform
3 46 (6.13%) Ansible
4 45 (6.00%) Grafana
5 37 (4.93%) Prometheus
6 16 (2.13%) Control-M
7 15 (2.00%) Argo
7 15 (2.00%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.87%) IBM Guardium
8 14 (1.87%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (1.87%) Nessus
9 10 (1.33%) SCCM
10 5 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.53%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.40%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.40%) Istio
12 3 (0.40%) McAfee ePO
12 3 (0.40%) WMI
13 2 (0.27%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 133 (17.73%) Microsoft
2 60 (8.00%) SAP
3 58 (7.73%) ServiceNow
4 45 (6.00%) Splunk
5 36 (4.80%) Oracle
6 28 (3.73%) Cisco
7 25 (3.33%) VMware
8 21 (2.80%) Google
9 18 (2.40%) Red Hat
9 18 (2.40%) Workday
10 15 (2.00%) Pure Storage
11 14 (1.87%) Tenable
12 12 (1.60%) Concur
13 11 (1.47%) Palo Alto
13 11 (1.47%) Sage
14 10 (1.33%) F5
14 10 (1.33%) IBM
15 9 (1.20%) Dell
15 9 (1.20%) Remedy
16 8 (1.07%) CheckPoint