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 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 4 9
Rank change year-on-year -2 +5 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 685 509 554
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.40% 15.32% 11.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.36% 17.47% 13.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 295 317
10th Percentile £213 £228 £194
25th Percentile £350 £359 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £587
90th Percentile £618 £625 £688
England median daily rate £492 £500 £520
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -3.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 23 28
10th Percentile £15.18 £12.34 £12.52
25th Percentile £16.17 £15.58 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.25 £25.43 £19.88
Median % change year-on-year -24.30% +27.95% -11.67%
75th Percentile £44.94 £39.25 £45.96
90th Percentile £69.45 £88.04 £48.16
England median hourly rate £18.73 £21.46 £30.00
% change year-on-year -12.72% -28.47% -3.05%

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 4,188 2,914 4,118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.06% 87.69% 87.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,771 1,664 2,710
10th Percentile £225 £263 £285
25th Percentile £363 £382 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £593
90th Percentile £643 £675 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 134 211
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.63 £17.08 £17.18
Median hourly rate £35.00 £27.26 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.42% -22.13% +55.56%
75th Percentile £55.50 £46.18 £46.91
90th Percentile £68.79 £67.45 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -26.03% -20.00% +21.43%

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 13 January 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 13 January 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 13 January 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 -2 349 £438 -5.41% 321
Yorkshire -5 284 £482 -3.68% 271
North East -1 59 £450 -18.18% 123
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 41 (5.99%) SharePoint
2 35 (5.11%) Confluence
3 32 (4.67%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.31%) Apache
5 7 (1.02%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (1.02%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.88%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.29%) JBoss
9 2 (0.29%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.15%) CICS
10 1 (0.15%) CMS
10 1 (0.15%) Moodle
10 1 (0.15%) Mule
10 1 (0.15%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.15%) SAS
10 1 (0.15%) WebLogic
Applications
1 47 (6.86%) Microsoft Excel
1 47 (6.86%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (4.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (2.34%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.73%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.29%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.15%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 38 (5.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.58%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.44%) iTrent
4 3 (0.44%) Kondor
4 3 (0.44%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.44%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.29%) Advent Geneva
5 2 (0.29%) ContrOCC
5 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.29%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.15%) Finacle
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.15%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
6 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.15%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 120 (17.52%) Azure
2 105 (15.33%) AWS
3 72 (10.51%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (7.01%) GCP
5 38 (5.55%) Power Platform
6 34 (4.96%) GitHub
7 23 (3.36%) Serverless
8 20 (2.92%) SaaS
9 19 (2.77%) OpenShift
10 17 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (2.48%) Entra ID
11 14 (2.04%) Amazon ECS
11 14 (2.04%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (1.90%) Apigee
12 13 (1.90%) Google Workspace
13 10 (1.46%) Amazon S3
13 10 (1.46%) Amazon SQS
13 10 (1.46%) Datadog
13 10 (1.46%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 30 (4.38%) Firewall
2 25 (3.65%) Network Security
3 16 (2.34%) DNS
4 14 (2.04%) TCP/IP
5 13 (1.90%) LAN
5 13 (1.90%) WAN
6 8 (1.17%) BGP
6 8 (1.17%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (1.02%) DHCP
7 7 (1.02%) Skype
7 7 (1.02%) VLAN
7 7 (1.02%) WebEx
8 6 (0.88%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (0.73%) HTTP
10 3 (0.44%) DMZ
10 3 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 3 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 3 (0.44%) Internet
10 3 (0.44%) VPN
11 2 (0.29%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (4.23%) Power BI
2 28 (4.09%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.07%) SQL Server
4 20 (2.92%) Relational Database
5 19 (2.77%) MongoDB
6 18 (2.63%) NoSQL
7 16 (2.34%) Oracle Database
8 15 (2.19%) DynamoDB
9 13 (1.90%) MySQL
10 12 (1.75%) BigQuery
11 11 (1.61%) Power Query
12 10 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
13 8 (1.17%) Amazon Aurora
13 8 (1.17%) PowerPivot
14 7 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
15 6 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
15 6 (0.88%) RDBMS
15 6 (0.88%) Redis
16 5 (0.73%) DB2
17 4 (0.58%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 79 (11.53%) JIRA
2 53 (7.74%) Git
3 44 (6.42%) Jenkins
4 30 (4.38%) GitLab
5 11 (1.61%) Cucumber
6 9 (1.31%) Selenium
7 8 (1.17%) Sonatype Nexus
8 7 (1.02%) Cypress.io
8 7 (1.02%) Maven
8 7 (1.02%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.88%) Gradle
10 5 (0.73%) SonarLint
11 4 (0.58%) CircleCI
11 4 (0.58%) Mockito
11 4 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
11 4 (0.58%) TestRail
12 3 (0.44%) Jasmine
12 3 (0.44%) JMeter
12 3 (0.44%) Postman
12 3 (0.44%) REST Assured
General
1 379 (55.33%) Social Skills
2 228 (33.28%) Analytical Skills
3 192 (28.03%) Finance
4 83 (12.12%) Banking
5 78 (11.39%) Public Sector
6 27 (3.94%) Legal
7 15 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
7 15 (2.19%) Telecoms
8 13 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
9 12 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.75%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (1.17%) Law
11 8 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.02%) Local Government
12 7 (1.02%) Military
13 6 (0.88%) Electronics
13 6 (0.88%) Health Technology
13 6 (0.88%) Marketing
14 5 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 112 (16.35%) Analyst
2 104 (15.18%) Developer
3 53 (7.74%) Business Analyst
4 46 (6.72%) Senior
5 40 (5.84%) Lead
6 36 (5.26%) Consultant
7 35 (5.11%) IT Support
8 31 (4.53%) Project Manager
9 29 (4.23%) Architect
10 27 (3.94%) Administrator
11 22 (3.21%) Software Engineer
12 20 (2.92%) Java Developer
12 20 (2.92%) Support Analyst
13 19 (2.77%) Automation Engineer
14 18 (2.63%) Platform Engineer
15 17 (2.48%) Data Engineer
15 17 (2.48%) IT Engineer
15 17 (2.48%) Support Engineer
15 17 (2.48%) Technical Analyst
16 15 (2.19%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (5.40%) Spring Boot
2 34 (4.96%) Spring
3 32 (4.67%) REST
4 23 (3.36%) RESTful
5 21 (3.07%) Kafka
6 20 (2.92%) FastAPI
7 17 (2.48%) JSON
7 17 (2.48%) React
8 16 (2.34%) .NET
9 15 (2.19%) Node.js
9 15 (2.19%) XML
10 14 (2.04%) OAuth
10 14 (2.04%) SOAP
11 13 (1.90%) HTML
11 13 (1.90%) JWT
12 12 (1.75%) Elastic Stack
13 11 (1.61%) AngularJS
13 11 (1.61%) CSS
14 10 (1.46%) OpenTelemetry
15 9 (1.31%) JMS
Miscellaneous
1 62 (9.05%) Product Ownership
2 31 (4.53%) Onboarding
3 23 (3.36%) Cloud Native
4 17 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
4 17 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
5 16 (2.34%) Data Structures
6 15 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.04%) Management Information System
8 13 (1.90%) CMDB
8 13 (1.90%) Data Centre
8 13 (1.90%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 11 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.46%) Algorithms
11 9 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (1.31%) NHS
12 8 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.17%) Mainframe
13 7 (1.02%) Mobile App
13 7 (1.02%) Public Cloud
14 6 (0.88%) N-Tier
Operating Systems
1 83 (12.12%) Windows
2 72 (10.51%) Linux
3 22 (3.21%) Windows 10
4 19 (2.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (2.77%) Windows Server
5 17 (2.48%) Unix
6 12 (1.75%) Android
7 10 (1.46%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.02%) CentOS
8 7 (1.02%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.88%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.88%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.44%) VMS
12 2 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (29.49%) Agile
2 138 (20.15%) CI/CD
3 122 (17.81%) Continuous Improvement
4 118 (17.23%) DevOps
5 107 (15.62%) Stakeholder Management
6 77 (11.24%) Project Management
7 70 (10.22%) Containerisation
8 68 (9.93%) Test Automation
9 61 (8.91%) Microservices
9 61 (8.91%) Migration
10 57 (8.32%) Decision-Making
11 55 (8.03%) Change Management
11 55 (8.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 54 (7.88%) Mentoring
13 52 (7.59%) ITIL
13 52 (7.59%) SDLC
14 51 (7.45%) Customer Service
15 49 (7.15%) Analytics
15 49 (7.15%) Roadmaps
16 48 (7.01%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 108 (15.77%) Python
2 78 (11.39%) Java
3 77 (11.24%) SQL
4 34 (4.96%) Bash
4 34 (4.96%) PowerShell
5 26 (3.80%) TypeScript
6 24 (3.50%) JavaScript
7 20 (2.92%) Perl
8 19 (2.77%) C#
9 18 (2.63%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.46%) Go
11 9 (1.31%) Groovy
11 9 (1.31%) VBA
12 8 (1.17%) Ruby
12 8 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.88%) CLIST
13 6 (0.88%) COBOL
13 6 (0.88%) JCL
13 6 (0.88%) REXX
14 5 (0.73%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 84 (12.26%) Security Cleared
2 71 (10.36%) Degree
3 55 (8.03%) SC Cleared
4 31 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (3.94%) BPSS Clearance
6 14 (2.04%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (1.61%) Six Sigma Green Belt
8 10 (1.46%) CCNA
8 10 (1.46%) CCNP
8 10 (1.46%) PMP
9 9 (1.31%) AWS Certification
9 9 (1.31%) CCDP
9 9 (1.31%) CISSP
10 7 (1.02%) RHCE
11 6 (0.88%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.73%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.73%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.58%) A+ Certification
13 4 (0.58%) CBAP
13 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (6.13%) QA
2 25 (3.65%) Data Quality
3 20 (2.92%) GDPR
4 19 (2.77%) Accessibility
5 13 (1.90%) PSD2
6 12 (1.75%) ISO 20022
7 10 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (1.46%) SEPA
8 9 (1.31%) PCI DSS
9 7 (1.02%) SLA
10 6 (0.88%) HL7
11 5 (0.73%) NIST
11 5 (0.73%) PMO
12 4 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.58%) WCAG
13 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.15%) IEC 61508
14 1 (0.15%) ISO 26262
14 1 (0.15%) ISO 8583
14 1 (0.15%) PMBOK
System Software
1 73 (10.66%) Docker
2 44 (6.42%) Active Directory
3 13 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.46%) Oracle RAC
5 6 (0.88%) ACF2
5 6 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.88%) RACF
5 6 (0.88%) Time Sharing Option
6 5 (0.73%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.58%) vSphere
8 3 (0.44%) ISA Server
9 1 (0.15%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 81 (11.82%) Kubernetes
2 45 (6.57%) Terraform
3 41 (5.99%) Ansible
4 30 (4.38%) Grafana
5 24 (3.50%) SCCM
6 23 (3.36%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (3.36%) Prometheus
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
8 9 (1.31%) Puppet
9 7 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.88%) CA Endevor
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 5 (0.73%) Kibana
11 5 (0.73%) Norton AntiVirus
12 4 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 158 (23.07%) Microsoft
2 66 (9.64%) SAP
3 46 (6.72%) Oracle
4 34 (4.96%) ServiceNow
5 27 (3.94%) VMware
6 22 (3.21%) Google
7 21 (3.07%) Splunk
8 19 (2.77%) Red Hat
9 16 (2.34%) Cisco
10 11 (1.61%) Databricks
11 10 (1.46%) Citrix
11 10 (1.46%) Workday
12 9 (1.31%) Adobe
12 9 (1.31%) Tenable
13 8 (1.17%) Brio
13 8 (1.17%) IFS
13 8 (1.17%) Veeam
14 7 (1.02%) MuleSoft
15 6 (0.88%) Meraki
15 6 (0.88%) Sonatype