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 15 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 4 10
Rank change year-on-year -2 +6 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 678 539 553
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.83% 13.51% 11.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.72% 15.94% 12.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 417 293 307
10th Percentile £226 £264 £231
25th Percentile £351 £375 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £587
90th Percentile £631 £600 £700
England median daily rate £483 £500 £515
% change year-on-year -3.50% -2.91% -5.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 13 23
10th Percentile £13.85 £11.80 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.25 £17.16
Median hourly rate £20.26 £27.13 £23.61
Median % change year-on-year -25.33% +14.89% +4.93%
75th Percentile £44.94 £40.91 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.08 £62.84 £53.24
England median hourly rate £19.00 £17.00 £46.12
% change year-on-year +11.76% -63.14% +56.33%

All Process and 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 4,055 3,381 4,301
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.69% 84.74% 88.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,684 1,847 2,885
10th Percentile £215 £288 £275
25th Percentile £363 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £464 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.37% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £653 £663 £675
England median daily rate £507 £525 £546
% change year-on-year -3.43% -3.85% -0.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 263 181 201
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.69 £15.75
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.13 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £28.30
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% +14.84% +34.76%
75th Percentile £45.46 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.13 £70.00 £61.99
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -32.03% -16.85% +27.14%

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025. 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 +1 377 £452 -2.22% 529
Yorkshire -6 262 £486 +1.78% 266
North East -6 44 £450 - 105
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 33 (4.87%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.72%) Confluence
3 29 (4.28%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.33%) Skype for Business
5 8 (1.18%) Apache Spark
6 7 (1.03%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (0.88%) Apache
8 5 (0.74%) JBoss
8 5 (0.74%) Tomcat
9 4 (0.59%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.44%) IIS
10 3 (0.44%) WebSphere
10 3 (0.44%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.29%) CICS
11 2 (0.29%) Mattermost
12 1 (0.15%) EPiServer
12 1 (0.15%) Moodle
12 1 (0.15%) Mule
12 1 (0.15%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 60 (8.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 42 (6.19%) Microsoft Office
3 29 (4.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 23 (3.39%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.29%) Simulink
7 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.15%) Maple
7 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 32 (4.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.59%) ContrOCC
3 4 (0.59%) SAP EHS
3 4 (0.59%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.44%) iTrent
4 3 (0.44%) Kondor
4 3 (0.44%) Maximo
5 2 (0.29%) Advent Geneva
5 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.29%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.15%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.15%) Finacle
6 1 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
6 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 100 (14.75%) Azure
2 89 (13.13%) AWS
3 55 (8.11%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (7.52%) Power Platform
5 46 (6.78%) GCP
6 34 (5.01%) GitHub
7 19 (2.80%) Serverless
8 16 (2.36%) SaaS
9 15 (2.21%) Amazon ECS
9 15 (2.21%) AWS Lambda
10 14 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (2.06%) Entra ID
10 14 (2.06%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (1.62%) Amazon S3
11 11 (1.62%) Amazon SQS
11 11 (1.62%) Datadog
11 11 (1.62%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (1.62%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.62%) Power Automate
12 10 (1.47%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (3.98%) Firewall
2 25 (3.69%) Network Security
3 12 (1.77%) DNS
4 10 (1.47%) LAN
4 10 (1.47%) WAN
5 9 (1.33%) Skype
5 9 (1.33%) WebEx
6 8 (1.18%) VLAN
7 7 (1.03%) BGP
7 7 (1.03%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.88%) Software-Defined Networking
9 3 (0.44%) DMZ
9 3 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 3 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 3 (0.44%) HTTP
9 3 (0.44%) Internet
9 3 (0.44%) SAN
9 3 (0.44%) SSL
9 3 (0.44%) VPN
9 3 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (5.90%) Power BI
2 25 (3.69%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (3.69%) SQL Server
3 19 (2.80%) MongoDB
3 19 (2.80%) NoSQL
4 17 (2.51%) Oracle Database
5 16 (2.36%) Relational Database
6 14 (2.06%) DynamoDB
7 13 (1.92%) BigQuery
8 12 (1.77%) MySQL
8 12 (1.77%) Tableau
9 11 (1.62%) Amazon RDS
9 11 (1.62%) Power Query
10 8 (1.18%) Amazon Aurora
10 8 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
11 7 (1.03%) RDBMS
12 6 (0.88%) Redis
13 5 (0.74%) DB2
13 5 (0.74%) PowerPivot
13 5 (0.74%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 87 (12.83%) JIRA
2 62 (9.14%) Git
3 52 (7.67%) Jenkins
4 30 (4.42%) GitLab
5 13 (1.92%) Cucumber
5 13 (1.92%) JUnit
5 13 (1.92%) Maven
6 12 (1.77%) Selenium
7 11 (1.62%) Gradle
8 10 (1.47%) Postman
8 10 (1.47%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (1.18%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.03%) Cypress.io
10 7 (1.03%) SoapUI
11 5 (0.74%) SonarLint
12 4 (0.59%) Mockito
12 4 (0.59%) TestRail
13 3 (0.44%) JMeter
13 3 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
14 2 (0.29%) Artifactory
General
1 377 (55.60%) Social Skills
2 251 (37.02%) Analytical Skills
3 183 (26.99%) Finance
4 72 (10.62%) Banking
5 62 (9.14%) Public Sector
6 20 (2.95%) Legal
7 17 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
8 16 (2.36%) Police
9 13 (1.92%) Manufacturing
9 13 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
10 11 (1.62%) Law
10 11 (1.62%) Local Government
11 10 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
11 10 (1.47%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.03%) Marketing
12 7 (1.03%) Retail
13 6 (0.88%) Electronics
14 5 (0.74%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 123 (18.14%) Analyst
2 91 (13.42%) Developer
3 46 (6.78%) Senior
4 40 (5.90%) Architect
4 40 (5.90%) Business Analyst
5 36 (5.31%) Consultant
6 33 (4.87%) Lead
7 31 (4.57%) IT Support
8 29 (4.28%) Administrator
9 26 (3.83%) Support Analyst
10 24 (3.54%) Project Manager
11 22 (3.24%) Java Developer
12 20 (2.95%) Software Engineer
13 19 (2.80%) Support Engineer
14 18 (2.65%) Platform Engineer
15 16 (2.36%) Automation Engineer
16 15 (2.21%) IT Engineer
17 14 (2.06%) Technical Analyst
18 13 (1.92%) IT Support Engineer
18 13 (1.92%) SAP Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (5.31%) REST
2 27 (3.98%) Spring Boot
3 26 (3.83%) Kafka
4 25 (3.69%) Spring
5 22 (3.24%) FastAPI
5 22 (3.24%) RESTful
6 20 (2.95%) .NET
7 19 (2.80%) React
8 17 (2.51%) HTML
9 15 (2.21%) CSS
10 14 (2.06%) SOAP
11 13 (1.92%) JSON
12 12 (1.77%) AngularJS
13 10 (1.47%) Node.js
13 10 (1.47%) OpenTelemetry
13 10 (1.47%) XML
14 9 (1.33%) XMPP
15 8 (1.18%) J2EE
15 8 (1.18%) JMS
15 8 (1.18%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 47 (6.93%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.39%) Cloud Native
3 22 (3.24%) Onboarding
4 19 (2.80%) Data Protection Act
5 18 (2.65%) Management Information System
6 15 (2.21%) Data Structures
7 14 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
8 13 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
9 11 (1.62%) Data Centre
10 10 (1.47%) Algorithms
10 10 (1.47%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 10 (1.47%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.33%) Mainframe
11 9 (1.33%) N-Tier
12 6 (0.88%) CMDB
12 6 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (0.88%) NHS
13 5 (0.74%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 68 (10.03%) Windows
2 66 (9.73%) Linux
3 18 (2.65%) Unix
4 17 (2.51%) Windows 10
4 17 (2.51%) Windows Server
5 15 (2.21%) Android
6 12 (1.77%) Apple iOS
6 12 (1.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.88%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.44%) VMS
9 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 197 (29.06%) Agile
2 121 (17.85%) CI/CD
3 101 (14.90%) Stakeholder Management
4 98 (14.45%) Continuous Improvement
5 85 (12.54%) DevOps
6 72 (10.62%) Decision-Making
7 70 (10.32%) Project Management
8 65 (9.59%) Analytics
8 65 (9.59%) Test Automation
9 64 (9.44%) Migration
10 60 (8.85%) Containerisation
11 58 (8.55%) Business Intelligence
12 56 (8.26%) Mentoring
13 55 (8.11%) Change Management
14 52 (7.67%) Scrum
15 50 (7.37%) ITIL
15 50 (7.37%) ITSM
15 50 (7.37%) Roadmaps
15 50 (7.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 46 (6.78%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 108 (15.93%) Python
2 71 (10.47%) SQL
3 68 (10.03%) Java
4 37 (5.46%) PowerShell
5 33 (4.87%) JavaScript
6 28 (4.13%) Bash
7 26 (3.83%) Shell Script
8 21 (3.10%) TypeScript
9 19 (2.80%) C#
10 13 (1.92%) Perl
11 9 (1.33%) VBA
12 7 (1.03%) COBOL
12 7 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 7 (1.03%) Go
12 7 (1.03%) Groovy
12 7 (1.03%) JCL
12 7 (1.03%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.88%) CLIST
13 6 (0.88%) REXX
14 3 (0.44%) Scala
Qualifications
1 86 (12.68%) Security Cleared
2 74 (10.91%) Degree
3 64 (9.44%) SC Cleared
4 29 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (3.83%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (2.21%) CISSP
7 13 (1.92%) PMP
8 12 (1.77%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.77%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 11 (1.62%) AWS Certification
10 9 (1.33%) CCDP
10 9 (1.33%) CCNP
10 9 (1.33%) CISM
10 9 (1.33%) DBS Check
11 8 (1.18%) CCNA
12 7 (1.03%) ISTQB
12 7 (1.03%) PMI Certification
13 6 (0.88%) Azure Certification
14 4 (0.59%) CBAP
14 4 (0.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.31%) QA
2 33 (4.87%) GDPR
3 24 (3.54%) Data Quality
4 23 (3.39%) Accessibility
5 14 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 14 (2.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 13 (1.92%) NIST
6 13 (1.92%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.77%) SLA
8 11 (1.62%) SEPA
9 8 (1.18%) ISO 20022
9 8 (1.18%) PMO
9 8 (1.18%) PSD2
10 5 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.59%) WCAG
12 3 (0.44%) HL7
12 3 (0.44%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 2 (0.29%) COBIT
14 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
System Software
1 63 (9.29%) Docker
2 39 (5.75%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.47%) Oracle RAC
4 8 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.03%) RACF
5 7 (1.03%) Time Sharing Option
5 7 (1.03%) VMware NSX
6 6 (0.88%) ACF2
7 4 (0.59%) vSphere
8 2 (0.29%) Firmware
8 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.15%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 63 (9.29%) Kubernetes
2 35 (5.16%) Terraform
3 30 (4.42%) Ansible
4 23 (3.39%) Grafana
5 20 (2.95%) Prometheus
6 19 (2.80%) SCCM
7 16 (2.36%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (1.47%) Control-M
8 10 (1.47%) Data Guard
8 10 (1.47%) yum
9 9 (1.33%) IBM Guardium
9 9 (1.33%) Nessus
10 6 (0.88%) CA Endevor
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 5 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.74%) Norton AntiVirus
12 4 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
12 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.44%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 178 (26.25%) Microsoft
2 63 (9.29%) SAP
3 45 (6.64%) ServiceNow
4 42 (6.19%) Oracle
5 33 (4.87%) Google
6 23 (3.39%) VMware
7 18 (2.65%) Splunk
8 16 (2.36%) Red Hat
9 14 (2.06%) Cisco
10 10 (1.47%) Citrix
10 10 (1.47%) Databricks
10 10 (1.47%) IBM
11 9 (1.33%) Tenable
12 7 (1.03%) BeyondTrust
12 7 (1.03%) CyberArk
12 7 (1.03%) Thycotic
13 6 (0.88%) Brio
13 6 (0.88%) Computacenter
13 6 (0.88%) F5
13 6 (0.88%) Workday