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

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -10 +4 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 712 679 619
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 10.47% 19.68% 12.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.45% 21.91% 15.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 423 398 348
10th Percentile £297 £254 £247
25th Percentile £360 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £478
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -0.52% -4.50%
75th Percentile £537 £561 £550
90th Percentile £611 £659 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 57 71
10th Percentile £14.62 £13.95 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £21.24 £10.95
Median hourly rate £32.23 £25.00 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.90% +85.19% -55.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £43.39 £34.83
90th Percentile £141.65 £63.40 £62.50
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.39 £16.23
% change year-on-year -0.19% +31.79% -69.03%

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 5,721 3,099 4,068
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 84.14% 89.83% 83.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,482 2,000 2,415
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £400 £377 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £465 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.23% -7.00% -
75th Percentile £585 £550 £585
90th Percentile £675 £650 £669
England median daily rate £516 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.77% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 392 158 398
10th Percentile £16.28 £12.82 £11.10
25th Percentile £22.68 £17.93 £12.55
Median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £21.75
Median % change year-on-year +98.81% +15.63% -13.00%
75th Percentile £71.60 £51.50 £46.18
90th Percentile £80.90 £76.63 £63.75
England median hourly rate £47.00 £27.53 £37.50
% change year-on-year +70.72% -26.59% +5.63%

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 14 June 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 14 June 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 14 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
North West -10 342 £433 -8.95% 332
Yorkshire -6 329 £451 -5.16% 183
North East -18 47 £373 -17.22% 86
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 45 (6.32%) Confluence
2 19 (2.67%) Apache Spark
3 15 (2.11%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
5 7 (0.98%) Apache Airflow
6 6 (0.84%) Apache
7 4 (0.56%) Jupyter
8 3 (0.42%) CICS
9 2 (0.28%) Camunda
9 2 (0.28%) CMS
9 2 (0.28%) JBoss
9 2 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.28%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.14%) Mule
10 1 (0.14%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.14%) nginx
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 35 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (2.95%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.40%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.70%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.56%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.42%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 36 (5.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.42%) Oracle EBS
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 BPC
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
1 128 (17.98%) Azure
2 94 (13.20%) AWS
3 53 (7.44%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (6.74%) Power Platform
5 45 (6.32%) GCP
6 39 (5.48%) GitHub
6 39 (5.48%) OpenShift
7 22 (3.09%) Entra ID
8 16 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
8 16 (2.25%) SaaS
9 13 (1.83%) Serverless
10 11 (1.54%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 10 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.26%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.12%) Power Automate
14 7 (0.98%) Azure Functions
14 7 (0.98%) Azure Monitor
14 7 (0.98%) Azure Storage
14 7 (0.98%) Google Workspace
15 6 (0.84%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 30 (4.21%) DNS
2 26 (3.65%) Firewall
3 18 (2.53%) WAN
4 15 (2.11%) LAN
4 15 (2.11%) TCP/IP
5 13 (1.83%) Network Security
5 13 (1.83%) Wi-Fi
6 11 (1.54%) SAN
7 10 (1.40%) VLAN
7 10 (1.40%) VPN
8 7 (0.98%) DHCP
8 7 (0.98%) Kerberos
8 7 (0.98%) Wireless
9 5 (0.70%) VoIP
10 4 (0.56%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.56%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 4 (0.56%) NAS
10 4 (0.56%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.42%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 3 (0.42%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (5.48%) Power BI
2 30 (4.21%) MongoDB
3 27 (3.79%) SQL Server
4 23 (3.23%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (3.09%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (2.11%) Relational Database
7 13 (1.83%) NoSQL
8 12 (1.69%) Tableau
9 11 (1.54%) Big Data
9 11 (1.54%) Hadoop
10 9 (1.26%) Metadata
11 8 (1.12%) MySQL
12 7 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 6 (0.84%) Db2
13 6 (0.84%) Power Query
14 5 (0.70%) DataStage
14 5 (0.70%) Snowflake Schema
15 4 (0.56%) Data Vault
15 4 (0.56%) Neo4j
16 3 (0.42%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 111 (15.59%) JIRA
2 44 (6.18%) Jenkins
3 32 (4.49%) Git
4 26 (3.65%) GitLab
5 14 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (1.54%) Mockito
7 10 (1.40%) Postman
7 10 (1.40%) Selenium
8 7 (0.98%) Cucumber
8 7 (0.98%) JUnit
8 7 (0.98%) REST Assured
9 5 (0.70%) Gatling
10 3 (0.42%) Gradle
10 3 (0.42%) MSI
10 3 (0.42%) Serenity BDD
11 2 (0.28%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.28%) JMeter
11 2 (0.28%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.28%) Maven
11 2 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
General
1 358 (50.28%) Social Skills
2 298 (41.85%) Analytical Skills
3 216 (30.34%) Finance
4 90 (12.64%) Banking
5 54 (7.58%) Public Sector
6 37 (5.20%) Documentation Skills
7 28 (3.93%) Legal
8 25 (3.51%) Influencing Skills
9 21 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
10 16 (2.25%) Retail
11 15 (2.11%) Law
11 15 (2.11%) Manufacturing
11 15 (2.11%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.98%) Retail Banking
15 6 (0.84%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.70%) Automotive
16 5 (0.70%) Local Government
17 4 (0.56%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 144 (20.22%) Analyst
2 83 (11.66%) Developer
3 61 (8.57%) Lead
4 54 (7.58%) Business Analyst
5 43 (6.04%) Senior
6 36 (5.06%) Architect
7 34 (4.78%) Consultant
8 28 (3.93%) Project Manager
9 26 (3.65%) Java Developer
10 25 (3.51%) Data Engineer
11 24 (3.37%) Administrator
11 24 (3.37%) IT Support
12 21 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
12 21 (2.95%) Python Developer
13 19 (2.67%) Data Analyst
14 17 (2.39%) IT Engineer
14 17 (2.39%) Technical Analyst
15 16 (2.25%) IT Analyst
15 16 (2.25%) Support Analyst
16 14 (1.97%) SAP Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.34%) REST
2 36 (5.06%) Kafka
3 32 (4.49%) OpenTelemetry
4 28 (3.93%) Spring
5 23 (3.23%) Spring Boot
6 21 (2.95%) React
7 19 (2.67%) FastAPI
7 19 (2.67%) RESTful
8 18 (2.53%) JSON
9 16 (2.25%) SOAP
10 14 (1.97%) XML
11 13 (1.83%) HTML
12 12 (1.69%) .NET
12 12 (1.69%) CSS
12 12 (1.69%) LDAP
13 11 (1.54%) Swagger
13 11 (1.54%) YAML
14 10 (1.40%) OAuth
15 9 (1.26%) Node.js
15 9 (1.26%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 60 (8.43%) Product Ownership
2 39 (5.48%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.49%) Data Protection Act
4 30 (4.21%) Onboarding
5 25 (3.51%) Legacy Systems
6 21 (2.95%) Data Centre
6 21 (2.95%) Management Information System
7 20 (2.81%) Analytical Mindset
8 18 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
9 16 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
9 16 (2.25%) Mainframe
10 13 (1.83%) AI Agents
10 13 (1.83%) Driving Licence
11 11 (1.54%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.40%) Data Structures
12 10 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
12 10 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (1.40%) Mobile App
13 9 (1.26%) Public Cloud
14 8 (1.12%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 71 (9.97%) Windows
2 48 (6.74%) Linux
3 20 (2.81%) Windows 10
4 19 (2.67%) Unix
5 16 (2.25%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.97%) Mac OS
7 13 (1.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (1.54%) Android
9 9 (1.26%) Ubuntu
9 9 (1.26%) Windows Server
10 8 (1.12%) CentOS
11 6 (0.84%) Mac OS X
11 6 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.28%) AIX
13 2 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.28%) HPUX
13 2 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.28%) Solaris
13 2 (0.28%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (27.25%) Agile
2 153 (21.49%) CI/CD
3 138 (19.38%) Continuous Improvement
3 138 (19.38%) DevOps
4 104 (14.61%) Stakeholder Management
5 102 (14.33%) Migration
6 86 (12.08%) Project Management
7 82 (11.52%) Change Management
8 72 (10.11%) Analytics
9 68 (9.55%) Validation
10 64 (8.99%) ITIL
11 63 (8.85%) Containerisation
11 63 (8.85%) Test Automation
12 62 (8.71%) Customer Service
13 61 (8.57%) ERP
14 60 (8.43%) Decision-Making
15 56 (7.87%) Workshop Facilitation
16 54 (7.58%) AI
16 54 (7.58%) Microservices
17 53 (7.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 131 (18.40%) Python
2 97 (13.62%) SQL
3 61 (8.57%) Java
4 52 (7.30%) PowerShell
5 32 (4.49%) Bash
6 27 (3.79%) JavaScript
7 16 (2.25%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.26%) C#
8 9 (1.26%) Perl
8 9 (1.26%) R
8 9 (1.26%) Ruby
8 9 (1.26%) Shell Script
9 8 (1.12%) COBOL
9 8 (1.12%) Go
9 8 (1.12%) PL/SQL
10 6 (0.84%) Bicep
10 6 (0.84%) JCL
10 6 (0.84%) Kotlin
10 6 (0.84%) VBA
11 5 (0.70%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 72 (10.11%) Degree
2 71 (9.97%) Security Cleared
3 45 (6.32%) SC Cleared
4 41 (5.76%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (4.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (3.65%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (2.39%) A+ Certification
9 16 (2.25%) CISSP
9 16 (2.25%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.25%) PMP
10 14 (1.97%) CCNA
11 12 (1.69%) PMI Certification
12 10 (1.40%) RHCE
13 8 (1.12%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.12%) Azure Certification
13 8 (1.12%) CCNP
13 8 (1.12%) CompTIA Security+
14 7 (0.98%) MCSE
15 6 (0.84%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (5.34%) Data Quality
2 21 (2.95%) QA
3 17 (2.39%) GDPR
4 13 (1.83%) Accessibility
5 12 (1.69%) PMO
6 10 (1.40%) SLA
7 9 (1.26%) GRC
7 9 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (1.26%) NIST
7 9 (1.26%) PSD2
8 7 (0.98%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.70%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.56%) ISO 8583
10 4 (0.56%) SEPA
11 3 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.28%) HL7
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 62 (8.71%) Docker
2 48 (6.74%) Active Directory
3 24 (3.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.53%) vSphere
5 15 (2.11%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.12%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.98%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.84%) Firmware
9 5 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.56%) ACF2
10 4 (0.56%) RACF
11 3 (0.42%) Time Sharing Option
12 2 (0.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.28%) NFS
12 2 (0.28%) SRDF
12 2 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 83 (11.66%) Kubernetes
2 55 (7.72%) Terraform
3 53 (7.44%) Ansible
4 42 (5.90%) Grafana
5 32 (4.49%) Prometheus
6 17 (2.39%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (2.11%) Argo
7 15 (2.11%) Control-M
7 15 (2.11%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.97%) IBM Guardium
8 14 (1.97%) Nessus
9 9 (1.26%) SCCM
10 8 (1.12%) Puppet
11 5 (0.70%) CA Endevor
11 5 (0.70%) Kustomize
12 4 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.42%) Istio
13 3 (0.42%) Kibana
13 3 (0.42%) Tivoli
13 3 (0.42%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 116 (16.29%) Microsoft
2 61 (8.57%) SAP
3 47 (6.60%) Splunk
4 39 (5.48%) ServiceNow
5 30 (4.21%) Oracle
6 29 (4.07%) VMware
7 26 (3.65%) Red Hat
8 24 (3.37%) Google
9 19 (2.67%) Cisco
9 19 (2.67%) Workday
10 15 (2.11%) Pure Storage
11 14 (1.97%) Sage
11 14 (1.97%) Tenable
12 12 (1.69%) Dell
13 9 (1.26%) F5
13 9 (1.26%) Veeam
14 8 (1.12%) Salesforce
14 8 (1.12%) Sonatype
15 7 (0.98%) Apple
15 7 (0.98%) IBM