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

6 months to
19 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 4 10
Rank change year-on-year -2 +6 +6
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 685 526 556
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.95% 13.44% 11.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.83% 15.84% 13.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 425 284 311
10th Percentile £224 £254 £231
25th Percentile £351 £366 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.68% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £587
90th Percentile £629 £607 £700
England median daily rate £483 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -3.50% -2.44% -5.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 12 23
10th Percentile £13.85 £11.78 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £14.44 £17.16
Median hourly rate £20.26 £22.88 £23.61
Median % change year-on-year -11.47% -3.09% +4.93%
75th Percentile £44.94 £38.13 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.10 £65.51 £53.24
England median hourly rate £19.00 £17.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +11.76% -63.19% +56.54%

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 4,071 3,321 4,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.83% 84.85% 88.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,701 1,813 2,843
10th Percentile £215 £275 £275
25th Percentile £363 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £653 £668 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 262 176 197
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.60 £15.90
25th Percentile £18.87 £17.94 £18.00
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 £69.94 £69.88 £61.99
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +28.57%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +1 383 £450 -1.64% 1,264
Yorkshire -5 263 £478 -1.04% 836
North East -4 44 £450 -0.44% 385
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 34 (4.96%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.67%) Confluence
3 29 (4.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 8 (1.17%) Apache Spark
5 7 (1.02%) Apache
5 7 (1.02%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (1.02%) Skype for Business
6 5 (0.73%) JBoss
6 5 (0.73%) Tomcat
7 4 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.44%) IIS
8 3 (0.44%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.44%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.29%) CICS
10 1 (0.15%) CMS
10 1 (0.15%) EPiServer
10 1 (0.15%) Moodle
10 1 (0.15%) Mule
10 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.15%) WebLogic
Applications
1 60 (8.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (6.42%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (4.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 23 (3.36%) 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 (4.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.58%) ContrOCC
3 4 (0.58%) SAP EHS
3 4 (0.58%) 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
1 102 (14.89%) Azure
2 92 (13.43%) AWS
3 55 (8.03%) Microsoft 365
4 53 (7.74%) Power Platform
5 47 (6.86%) GCP
6 35 (5.11%) GitHub
7 18 (2.63%) Serverless
8 16 (2.34%) SaaS
9 14 (2.04%) Amazon ECS
9 14 (2.04%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
9 14 (2.04%) Entra ID
10 13 (1.90%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (1.90%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.61%) Amazon S3
11 11 (1.61%) Datadog
11 11 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (1.61%) Power Automate
12 10 (1.46%) OneDrive
12 10 (1.46%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.09%) Firewall
2 26 (3.80%) Network Security
3 11 (1.61%) DNS
4 10 (1.46%) LAN
4 10 (1.46%) WAN
5 8 (1.17%) VLAN
6 7 (1.02%) BGP
6 7 (1.02%) Skype
6 7 (1.02%) WebEx
7 6 (0.88%) Software-Defined Networking
7 6 (0.88%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.58%) HTTP
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%) Internet
9 3 (0.44%) SAN
9 3 (0.44%) VoIP
9 3 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (6.13%) Power BI
2 27 (3.94%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (3.80%) SQL Server
4 19 (2.77%) MongoDB
4 19 (2.77%) NoSQL
4 19 (2.77%) Relational Database
5 16 (2.34%) Oracle Database
6 14 (2.04%) MySQL
7 13 (1.90%) BigQuery
7 13 (1.90%) DynamoDB
7 13 (1.90%) Power Query
8 12 (1.75%) Tableau
9 10 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
10 9 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
11 8 (1.17%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (1.02%) RDBMS
13 6 (0.88%) PowerPivot
13 6 (0.88%) Redis
14 5 (0.73%) DB2
14 5 (0.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 90 (13.14%) JIRA
2 65 (9.49%) Git
3 51 (7.45%) Jenkins
4 31 (4.53%) GitLab
5 13 (1.90%) Cucumber
5 13 (1.90%) Maven
6 12 (1.75%) JUnit
6 12 (1.75%) Selenium
7 10 (1.46%) Gradle
7 10 (1.46%) Postman
7 10 (1.46%) Sonatype Nexus
8 8 (1.17%) SonarQube
9 7 (1.02%) Cypress.io
9 7 (1.02%) SoapUI
10 5 (0.73%) SonarLint
11 4 (0.58%) Mockito
11 4 (0.58%) TestRail
12 3 (0.44%) JMeter
12 3 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
13 2 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
General
1 378 (55.18%) Social Skills
2 253 (36.93%) Analytical Skills
3 193 (28.18%) Finance
4 73 (10.66%) Banking
5 65 (9.49%) Public Sector
6 20 (2.92%) Legal
7 17 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
8 16 (2.34%) Police
9 14 (2.04%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (1.61%) Law
11 11 (1.61%) Local Government
11 11 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (1.46%) Pharmaceutical
12 10 (1.46%) Telecoms
13 7 (1.02%) Marketing
13 7 (1.02%) Retail
14 6 (0.88%) Electronics
14 6 (0.88%) Military
Job Titles
1 125 (18.25%) Analyst
2 96 (14.01%) Developer
3 46 (6.72%) Senior
4 42 (6.13%) Business Analyst
5 38 (5.55%) Architect
6 36 (5.26%) Consultant
7 34 (4.96%) Lead
8 32 (4.67%) IT Support
9 29 (4.23%) Administrator
10 24 (3.50%) Java Developer
10 24 (3.50%) Project Manager
10 24 (3.50%) Support Analyst
11 20 (2.92%) Software Engineer
12 18 (2.63%) Platform Engineer
12 18 (2.63%) Support Engineer
13 16 (2.34%) Automation Engineer
13 16 (2.34%) IT Engineer
13 16 (2.34%) Technical Analyst
14 14 (2.04%) IT Support Engineer
14 14 (2.04%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (5.84%) REST
2 31 (4.53%) Spring Boot
3 29 (4.23%) Spring
4 26 (3.80%) Kafka
5 24 (3.50%) RESTful
6 22 (3.21%) FastAPI
7 20 (2.92%) .NET
8 19 (2.77%) React
9 17 (2.48%) HTML
10 16 (2.34%) SOAP
11 15 (2.19%) CSS
11 15 (2.19%) JSON
12 12 (1.75%) AngularJS
12 12 (1.75%) XML
13 10 (1.46%) JMS
13 10 (1.46%) JWT
13 10 (1.46%) Node.js
13 10 (1.46%) OpenTelemetry
14 8 (1.17%) Celery
14 8 (1.17%) J2EE
Miscellaneous
1 48 (7.01%) Product Ownership
2 25 (3.65%) Cloud Native
3 21 (3.07%) Onboarding
4 19 (2.77%) Data Protection Act
5 16 (2.34%) Data Structures
5 16 (2.34%) Management Information System
6 14 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 13 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (1.75%) Data Centre
8 12 (1.75%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 10 (1.46%) Algorithms
9 10 (1.46%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (1.31%) Mainframe
10 9 (1.31%) N-Tier
11 6 (0.88%) CMDB
11 6 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.88%) NHS
12 5 (0.73%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 70 (10.22%) Windows
2 66 (9.64%) Linux
3 19 (2.77%) Unix
4 17 (2.48%) Windows 10
4 17 (2.48%) Windows Server
5 14 (2.04%) Android
6 12 (1.75%) Apple iOS
6 12 (1.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.88%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.44%) VMS
9 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (30.22%) Agile
2 125 (18.25%) CI/CD
3 105 (15.33%) Stakeholder Management
4 99 (14.45%) Continuous Improvement
5 88 (12.85%) DevOps
6 73 (10.66%) Decision-Making
7 70 (10.22%) Project Management
8 68 (9.93%) Test Automation
9 66 (9.64%) Analytics
10 64 (9.34%) Migration
11 62 (9.05%) Containerisation
12 60 (8.76%) Business Intelligence
13 56 (8.18%) Mentoring
14 55 (8.03%) Change Management
15 54 (7.88%) Scrum
16 52 (7.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 50 (7.30%) Microservices
17 50 (7.30%) Roadmaps
18 49 (7.15%) ITSM
19 48 (7.01%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 107 (15.62%) Python
2 76 (11.09%) SQL
3 72 (10.51%) Java
4 35 (5.11%) PowerShell
5 33 (4.82%) JavaScript
6 28 (4.09%) Bash
7 24 (3.50%) Shell Script
8 21 (3.07%) TypeScript
9 19 (2.77%) C#
10 13 (1.90%) Perl
11 10 (1.46%) VBA
12 8 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 7 (1.02%) COBOL
13 7 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 7 (1.02%) Go
13 7 (1.02%) Groovy
13 7 (1.02%) JCL
14 6 (0.88%) CLIST
14 6 (0.88%) REXX
15 3 (0.44%) Scala
Qualifications
1 88 (12.85%) Security Cleared
2 78 (11.39%) Degree
3 64 (9.34%) SC Cleared
4 32 (4.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (3.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (2.19%) CISSP
7 13 (1.90%) PMP
8 12 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.75%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 10 (1.46%) AWS Certification
10 9 (1.31%) CCDP
10 9 (1.31%) CCNP
10 9 (1.31%) CISM
10 9 (1.31%) DBS Check
11 8 (1.17%) CCNA
12 7 (1.02%) ISTQB
12 7 (1.02%) PMI Certification
13 6 (0.88%) Azure Certification
14 4 (0.58%) CBAP
14 4 (0.58%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (5.69%) QA
2 32 (4.67%) GDPR
3 24 (3.50%) Data Quality
4 23 (3.36%) Accessibility
5 14 (2.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 13 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.90%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.75%) NIST
7 12 (1.75%) SEPA
7 12 (1.75%) SLA
8 10 (1.46%) ISO 20022
8 10 (1.46%) PSD2
9 9 (1.31%) PMO
10 4 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.58%) WCAG
11 3 (0.44%) HL7
12 2 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.29%) COBIT
12 2 (0.29%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.15%) GRC
System Software
1 65 (9.49%) Docker
2 37 (5.40%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.46%) Oracle RAC
4 8 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.02%) RACF
5 7 (1.02%) Time Sharing Option
5 7 (1.02%) VMware NSX
6 6 (0.88%) ACF2
7 4 (0.58%) 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 65 (9.49%) Kubernetes
2 34 (4.96%) Terraform
3 28 (4.09%) Ansible
4 22 (3.21%) Grafana
5 19 (2.77%) Prometheus
5 19 (2.77%) SCCM
6 16 (2.34%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (1.46%) Control-M
7 10 (1.46%) Data Guard
7 10 (1.46%) yum
8 9 (1.31%) IBM Guardium
8 9 (1.31%) Nessus
9 6 (0.88%) CA Endevor
9 6 (0.88%) Tivoli
9 6 (0.88%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 5 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (0.73%) Norton AntiVirus
11 4 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
11 4 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.44%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 179 (26.13%) Microsoft
2 64 (9.34%) SAP
3 44 (6.42%) Oracle
3 44 (6.42%) ServiceNow
4 35 (5.11%) Google
5 23 (3.36%) VMware
6 15 (2.19%) Splunk
7 14 (2.04%) Red Hat
8 12 (1.75%) Cisco
9 10 (1.46%) Citrix
9 10 (1.46%) Databricks
9 10 (1.46%) IBM
10 9 (1.31%) Tenable
11 7 (1.02%) BeyondTrust
11 7 (1.02%) CyberArk
11 7 (1.02%) Thycotic
12 6 (0.88%) Brio
12 6 (0.88%) Computacenter
12 6 (0.88%) F5
12 6 (0.88%) Workday