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 4 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -12 0 +8
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 713 646 543
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 9.42% 16.48% 13.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.33% 18.53% 15.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 363 316
10th Percentile £263 £268 £270
25th Percentile £353 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.74% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £550
90th Percentile £600 £642 £622
England median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 58 23
10th Percentile £13.96 £13.82 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.44 £10.95
Median hourly rate £19.00 £20.26 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year -6.20% -2.34% -24.58%
75th Percentile £40.00 £31.28 £57.20
90th Percentile £85.80 £63.40 £63.75
England median hourly rate £20.00 £19.00 £16.23
% change year-on-year +5.26% +17.07% -70.01%

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 6,294 3,486 3,446
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 83.15% 88.95% 84.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,731 2,247 2,045
10th Percentile £313 £268 £313
25th Percentile £405 £375 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £460 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.70% -8.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £550 £588
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 510 199 197
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.26 £12.15
25th Percentile £21.17 £17.44 £15.92
Median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +94.26% -35.34% +27.27%
75th Percentile £70.00 £36.38 £51.88
90th Percentile £77.63 £71.66 £69.85
England median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +73.20% -41.51% +1.18%

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 4 September 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 4 September 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 4 September 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 -8 359 £444 -6.63% 791
Yorkshire -9 290 £450 -5.26% 441
North East -12 66 £375 -16.67% 212
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 25 (3.51%) SharePoint
2 21 (2.95%) Confluence
3 12 (1.68%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.12%) Apache
6 7 (0.98%) CMS
7 6 (0.84%) Jupyter
7 6 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.56%) CICS
9 3 (0.42%) WordPress
10 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.28%) Camunda
10 2 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.14%) JBoss
11 1 (0.14%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 38 (5.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 36 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.26%) MS Visio
5 8 (1.12%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.56%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.42%) Acrobat
8 3 (0.42%) CATIA
9 2 (0.28%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.28%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.28%) Revit
10 1 (0.14%) EngageOne
Business Applications
1 20 (2.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.54%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.56%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.42%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.42%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.28%) SAP HCM
5 2 (0.28%) SAP Payroll
5 2 (0.28%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.14%) Actimize
6 1 (0.14%) CA PPM
6 1 (0.14%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.14%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.14%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 124 (17.39%) Azure
2 99 (13.88%) AWS
3 96 (13.46%) Microsoft 365
4 59 (8.27%) Power Platform
5 41 (5.75%) GCP
6 29 (4.07%) Entra ID
7 21 (2.95%) GitHub
8 19 (2.66%) OpenShift
9 17 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (1.96%) Power Automate
10 14 (1.96%) Serverless
11 13 (1.82%) Microsoft Copilot
12 10 (1.40%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 10 (1.40%) PowerApps
13 9 (1.26%) SaaS
14 8 (1.12%) Copilot Studio
15 7 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
15 7 (0.98%) OneDrive
16 6 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
16 6 (0.84%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 44 (6.17%) VPN
2 30 (4.21%) Firewall
3 27 (3.79%) DNS
4 24 (3.37%) LAN
4 24 (3.37%) WAN
5 19 (2.66%) Network Security
6 18 (2.52%) Wireless
7 17 (2.38%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (2.10%) DHCP
8 15 (2.10%) VLAN
9 14 (1.96%) TCP/IP
9 14 (1.96%) VoIP
10 11 (1.54%) Cisco Nexus
11 10 (1.40%) BGP
11 10 (1.40%) OSPF
12 9 (1.26%) WLAN
13 8 (1.12%) Cisco ASA
14 7 (0.98%) IPsec
14 7 (0.98%) SAN
15 6 (0.84%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (6.03%) Power BI
2 30 (4.21%) SQL Server
3 27 (3.79%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (2.81%) MongoDB
5 15 (2.10%) Relational Database
6 14 (1.96%) Tableau
7 13 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
8 11 (1.54%) Db2
9 10 (1.40%) Big Data
10 9 (1.26%) NoSQL
11 8 (1.12%) DataStage
11 8 (1.12%) Metadata
12 7 (0.98%) MySQL
13 6 (0.84%) Oracle Database
14 5 (0.70%) Neo4j
15 4 (0.56%) Data Lake
15 4 (0.56%) Power Query
15 4 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
16 3 (0.42%) Amazon Athena
16 3 (0.42%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 57 (7.99%) JIRA
2 34 (4.77%) Git
3 30 (4.21%) Jenkins
4 21 (2.95%) GitLab
5 8 (1.12%) REST Assured
5 8 (1.12%) Selenium
6 7 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (0.84%) Cucumber
7 6 (0.84%) Gatling
8 5 (0.70%) Maven
9 4 (0.56%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.56%) Gradle
9 4 (0.56%) MSI
10 3 (0.42%) Claude Code
10 3 (0.42%) JUnit
10 3 (0.42%) LoadRunner
10 3 (0.42%) Serenity BDD
10 3 (0.42%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.28%) Ant
11 2 (0.28%) Postman
General
1 348 (48.81%) Social Skills
2 285 (39.97%) Analytical Skills
3 175 (24.54%) Finance
4 83 (11.64%) Banking
5 60 (8.42%) Public Sector
6 40 (5.61%) Manufacturing
7 36 (5.05%) Organisational Skills
8 29 (4.07%) Legal
9 28 (3.93%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (2.81%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 17 (2.38%) Law
13 16 (2.24%) Retail
14 10 (1.40%) Aerospace
14 10 (1.40%) Automotive
15 9 (1.26%) Financial Institution
15 9 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (1.26%) Telecoms
16 8 (1.12%) Marketing
17 6 (0.84%) Police
Job Titles
1 114 (15.99%) Analyst
2 85 (11.92%) Developer
3 55 (7.71%) Senior
4 54 (7.57%) Lead
5 47 (6.59%) IT Support
6 41 (5.75%) Architect
7 33 (4.63%) Support Engineer
8 26 (3.65%) IT Engineer
9 24 (3.37%) Business Analyst
9 24 (3.37%) Java Developer
10 22 (3.09%) Consultant
10 22 (3.09%) Network Engineer
11 21 (2.95%) Data Analyst
11 21 (2.95%) IT Support Engineer
12 19 (2.66%) Administrator
13 18 (2.52%) Service Analyst
13 18 (2.52%) Support Analyst
14 17 (2.38%) Data Engineer
14 17 (2.38%) IT Analyst
15 16 (2.24%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (6.87%) Terraform
2 41 (5.75%) REST
3 32 (4.49%) Spring
4 27 (3.79%) Spring Boot
5 26 (3.65%) Kafka
6 20 (2.81%) React
7 18 (2.52%) HTML
8 16 (2.24%) CSS
8 16 (2.24%) Node.js
9 14 (1.96%) OAuth
9 14 (1.96%) OpenTelemetry
9 14 (1.96%) Playwright
10 13 (1.82%) .NET
10 13 (1.82%) RESTful
11 10 (1.40%) FastAPI
11 10 (1.40%) XML
12 9 (1.26%) SOAP
13 8 (1.12%) AngularJS
13 8 (1.12%) OAuth2
13 8 (1.12%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 48 (6.73%) Product Ownership
2 47 (6.59%) Cloud Native
3 36 (5.05%) Onboarding
4 33 (4.63%) Data Protection Act
5 28 (3.93%) Self-Motivation
6 27 (3.79%) Enterprise Software
7 25 (3.51%) Data Centre
8 23 (3.23%) Driving Licence
9 22 (3.09%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (2.81%) Data Structures
11 18 (2.52%) Distributed Systems
11 18 (2.52%) Management Information System
12 15 (2.10%) Mainframe
12 15 (2.10%) PKI
13 14 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (1.82%) AI Agents
15 12 (1.68%) NHS
16 11 (1.54%) Mobile App
17 10 (1.40%) CMDB
18 9 (1.26%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 120 (16.83%) Windows
2 31 (4.35%) Windows 10
3 30 (4.21%) Linux
4 24 (3.37%) Windows Server
5 22 (3.09%) Apple iOS
6 19 (2.66%) Android
7 15 (2.10%) Unix
8 12 (1.68%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.56%) Solaris
9 4 (0.56%) zOS
10 3 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.28%) AIX
11 2 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.28%) HPUX
11 2 (0.28%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.28%) SUSE
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.14%) VMS
12 1 (0.14%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (25.39%) Continuous Improvement
2 153 (21.46%) Agile
3 137 (19.21%) CI/CD
4 123 (17.25%) Stakeholder Management
5 111 (15.57%) DevOps
6 82 (11.50%) Customer Service
7 81 (11.36%) AI
8 76 (10.66%) ITIL
9 75 (10.52%) Migration
10 64 (8.98%) Data Protection
10 64 (8.98%) Test Automation
11 62 (8.70%) Analytics
11 62 (8.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 58 (8.13%) Validation
13 57 (7.99%) Change Management
14 56 (7.85%) Microservices
15 54 (7.57%) Decision-Making
16 52 (7.29%) Project Management
17 49 (6.87%) Containerisation
17 49 (6.87%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 105 (14.73%) SQL
2 104 (14.59%) Python
3 60 (8.42%) Java
4 48 (6.73%) PowerShell
5 23 (3.23%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.66%) Bash
7 11 (1.54%) C#
7 11 (1.54%) PL/SQL
8 9 (1.26%) R
8 9 (1.26%) Shell Script
8 9 (1.26%) TypeScript
9 8 (1.12%) T-SQL
10 7 (0.98%) Kotlin
11 6 (0.84%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.84%) COBOL
12 5 (0.70%) ABAP
13 4 (0.56%) JCL
14 3 (0.42%) Go
14 3 (0.42%) PHP
14 3 (0.42%) Scala
Qualifications
1 93 (13.04%) Security Cleared
2 70 (9.82%) SC Cleared
3 67 (9.40%) Degree
4 30 (4.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (3.37%) BPSS Clearance
6 22 (3.09%) Microsoft Certification
7 20 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (2.52%) CISSP
9 13 (1.82%) CCNP
10 12 (1.68%) PMP
11 11 (1.54%) A+ Certification
11 11 (1.54%) PMI Certification
12 10 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
13 9 (1.26%) AWS Certification
14 8 (1.12%) CompTIA Security+
14 8 (1.12%) HNC
15 7 (0.98%) Azure Certification
15 7 (0.98%) CEH
15 7 (0.98%) DBS Check
16 6 (0.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (7.85%) Data Quality
2 26 (3.65%) Accessibility
2 26 (3.65%) QA
3 23 (3.23%) SLA
4 14 (1.96%) GDPR
4 14 (1.96%) GRC
5 13 (1.82%) NIST
6 11 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (0.98%) PMO
8 6 (0.84%) WCAG
9 4 (0.56%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.28%) COSHH
11 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.28%) MiFID
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.14%) PSD2
System Software
1 69 (9.68%) Active Directory
2 53 (7.43%) Docker
3 27 (3.79%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.54%) Hyper-V
5 10 (1.40%) vSphere
6 9 (1.26%) VMware NSX
7 8 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.84%) Firmware
9 5 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.56%) Oracle RAC
11 3 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 3 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
11 3 (0.42%) XenApp
11 3 (0.42%) XenDesktop
12 2 (0.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.28%) KVM
12 2 (0.28%) NFS
12 2 (0.28%) SRDF
13 1 (0.14%) RACF
13 1 (0.14%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 60 (8.42%) Kubernetes
2 29 (4.07%) Grafana
3 28 (3.93%) Ansible
4 23 (3.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (3.23%) Prometheus
5 22 (3.09%) SCCM
6 9 (1.26%) Control-M
6 9 (1.26%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.12%) Argo
8 7 (0.98%) IBM Guardium
8 7 (0.98%) Nessus
9 4 (0.56%) Data Guard
9 4 (0.56%) Kustomize
9 4 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.42%) CA Endevor
10 3 (0.42%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.42%) Istio
10 3 (0.42%) McAfee ePO
10 3 (0.42%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.42%) WMI
Vendors
1 170 (23.84%) Microsoft
2 69 (9.68%) ServiceNow
3 53 (7.43%) SAP
4 41 (5.75%) Oracle
5 30 (4.21%) Cisco
6 28 (3.93%) VMware
7 25 (3.51%) Splunk
8 19 (2.66%) Google
9 14 (1.96%) Workday
10 13 (1.82%) IBM
10 13 (1.82%) Salesforce
11 12 (1.68%) Palo Alto
12 11 (1.54%) Concur
12 11 (1.54%) Remedy
13 10 (1.40%) F5
13 10 (1.40%) Red Hat
14 8 (1.12%) Apple
14 8 (1.12%) CheckPoint
14 8 (1.12%) CrowdStrike
14 8 (1.12%) Pure Storage