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 29 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -9 +1 +11
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 724 695 559
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 10.03% 17.80% 13.06%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.00% 20.03% 15.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 413 388 323
10th Percentile £282 £261 £242
25th Percentile £363 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £564
90th Percentile £600 £651 £638
England median daily rate £495 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +0.61% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 74 45
10th Percentile £14.75 £13.06 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.48 £10.95
Median hourly rate £32.23 £22.14 £11.20
Median % change year-on-year +45.55% +97.77% -62.68%
75th Percentile £74.26 £30.63 £28.75
90th Percentile £86.75 £63.40 £63.25
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.10 £16.23
% change year-on-year +1.18% +30.01% -69.09%

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 6,032 3,470 3,599
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 83.55% 88.86% 84.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,585 2,217 2,181
10th Percentile £313 £268 £300
25th Percentile £405 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £469 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -6.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £556 £585
90th Percentile £675 £650 £670
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 468 202 266
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.82 £11.26
25th Percentile £22.65 £17.48 £13.59
Median hourly rate £44.48 £22.60 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +96.79% -5.03% -14.94%
75th Percentile £71.45 £43.39 £48.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.40 £69.32
England median hourly rate £46.62 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +85.35% -39.40% -2.35%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -11 347 £450 -7.12% 356
Yorkshire -7 323 £450 -5.26% 263
North East -17 59 £370 -17.78% 128
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 28 (3.87%) Confluence
2 22 (3.04%) Apache Spark
3 20 (2.76%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (1.24%) Apache
6 8 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
7 6 (0.83%) Jupyter
8 5 (0.69%) CMS
9 3 (0.41%) CICS
10 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.28%) Camunda
10 2 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.28%) WordPress
11 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.14%) Mule
11 1 (0.14%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.14%) nginx
11 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 33 (4.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (3.59%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.38%) MS Visio
4 8 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.83%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.41%) Acrobat
8 3 (0.41%) CATIA
9 1 (0.14%) EngageOne
Business Applications
1 31 (4.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.24%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.41%) SAP HCM
4 3 (0.41%) SAP Payroll
5 2 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.14%) Actimize
6 1 (0.14%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.14%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.14%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 121 (16.71%) Azure
2 95 (13.12%) AWS
3 70 (9.67%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (7.73%) Power Platform
5 42 (5.80%) GCP
6 35 (4.83%) OpenShift
7 32 (4.42%) GitHub
8 22 (3.04%) Entra ID
9 16 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (1.93%) Serverless
11 12 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
12 11 (1.52%) Power Automate
13 10 (1.38%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (1.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 10 (1.38%) SaaS
14 9 (1.24%) PowerApps
15 8 (1.10%) Copilot Studio
16 7 (0.97%) Google Workspace
17 6 (0.83%) Azure Monitor
18 5 (0.69%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (4.56%) VPN
2 29 (4.01%) DNS
3 28 (3.87%) Firewall
4 19 (2.62%) WAN
5 18 (2.49%) LAN
6 16 (2.21%) VLAN
6 16 (2.21%) Wireless
7 15 (2.07%) TCP/IP
8 14 (1.93%) Network Security
8 14 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (1.80%) DHCP
10 10 (1.38%) VoIP
11 9 (1.24%) BGP
12 8 (1.10%) Cisco Nexus
12 8 (1.10%) OSPF
12 8 (1.10%) SAN
12 8 (1.10%) WLAN
13 6 (0.83%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.69%) Cisco ASA
14 5 (0.69%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (5.94%) Power BI
2 34 (4.70%) SQL Server
3 31 (4.28%) MongoDB
4 24 (3.31%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (2.07%) NoSQL
6 15 (2.07%) Tableau
7 14 (1.93%) Relational Database
8 13 (1.80%) Big Data
9 11 (1.52%) Hadoop
10 10 (1.38%) Metadata
11 8 (1.10%) Db2
11 8 (1.10%) MySQL
12 6 (0.83%) DataStage
12 6 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (0.69%) Data Lake
13 5 (0.69%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.69%) Snowflake Schema
14 4 (0.55%) Data Vault
14 4 (0.55%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 79 (10.91%) JIRA
2 38 (5.25%) Jenkins
3 33 (4.56%) Git
4 22 (3.04%) GitLab
5 9 (1.24%) Mockito
5 9 (1.24%) Selenium
6 8 (1.10%) REST Assured
7 7 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.83%) Cucumber
9 5 (0.69%) Gatling
10 4 (0.55%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.55%) Postman
11 3 (0.41%) Claude Code
11 3 (0.41%) Gradle
11 3 (0.41%) JUnit
11 3 (0.41%) Maven
11 3 (0.41%) MSI
11 3 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
11 3 (0.41%) Subversion
12 2 (0.28%) Ant
General
1 336 (46.41%) Social Skills
2 306 (42.27%) Analytical Skills
3 199 (27.49%) Finance
4 77 (10.64%) Banking
5 68 (9.39%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (4.01%) Organisational Skills
8 27 (3.73%) Legal
9 25 (3.45%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (2.49%) Manufacturing
11 17 (2.35%) Retail
12 16 (2.21%) Law
13 11 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.10%) Financial Institution
14 8 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (1.10%) Telecoms
15 7 (0.97%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.97%) Marketing
16 6 (0.83%) Automotive
17 5 (0.69%) Games
Job Titles
1 134 (18.51%) Analyst
2 88 (12.15%) Developer
3 69 (9.53%) Lead
4 56 (7.73%) Senior
5 43 (5.94%) Architect
6 31 (4.28%) Business Analyst
6 31 (4.28%) IT Support
7 30 (4.14%) Consultant
8 28 (3.87%) Java Developer
9 26 (3.59%) Administrator
9 26 (3.59%) Data Engineer
10 22 (3.04%) Data Analyst
10 22 (3.04%) Python Developer
11 21 (2.90%) Project Manager
12 20 (2.76%) DevOps Engineer
12 20 (2.76%) Network Engineer
13 19 (2.62%) IT Engineer
13 19 (2.62%) Support Engineer
14 16 (2.21%) Service Analyst
15 15 (2.07%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.25%) Kafka
2 33 (4.56%) REST
3 28 (3.87%) Spring
4 27 (3.73%) OpenTelemetry
5 23 (3.18%) Spring Boot
6 20 (2.76%) React
7 17 (2.35%) FastAPI
7 17 (2.35%) HTML
8 16 (2.21%) CSS
9 14 (1.93%) Node.js
9 14 (1.93%) Playwright
9 14 (1.93%) RESTful
10 13 (1.80%) .NET
11 12 (1.66%) JSON
11 12 (1.66%) OAuth
12 9 (1.24%) ActiveMQ
12 9 (1.24%) AngularJS
12 9 (1.24%) JAX-RS
12 9 (1.24%) XML
13 7 (0.97%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 52 (7.18%) Product Ownership
2 46 (6.35%) Cloud Native
3 31 (4.28%) Data Protection Act
4 30 (4.14%) Onboarding
5 24 (3.31%) Data Centre
6 23 (3.18%) Self-Motivation
7 21 (2.90%) Analytical Mindset
8 20 (2.76%) Enterprise Software
8 20 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
9 18 (2.49%) Driving Licence
10 16 (2.21%) Hybrid Cloud
10 16 (2.21%) Management Information System
11 15 (2.07%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.93%) AI Agents
12 14 (1.93%) Data Structures
12 14 (1.93%) Mainframe
13 12 (1.66%) PKI
13 12 (1.66%) Virtual Team
14 9 (1.24%) NHS
14 9 (1.24%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 83 (11.46%) Windows
2 38 (5.25%) Linux
3 27 (3.73%) Windows 10
4 20 (2.76%) Unix
5 17 (2.35%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.93%) Windows Server
7 13 (1.80%) Android
8 12 (1.66%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.97%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.55%) Solaris
11 3 (0.41%) zOS
12 2 (0.28%) AIX
12 2 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.28%) HPUX
12 2 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.28%) SUSE
12 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (25.00%) Agile
2 158 (21.82%) Continuous Improvement
3 151 (20.86%) CI/CD
4 129 (17.82%) DevOps
5 107 (14.78%) Stakeholder Management
6 88 (12.15%) Migration
7 76 (10.50%) Analytics
8 73 (10.08%) AI
9 71 (9.81%) Project Management
10 70 (9.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 70 (9.67%) Test Automation
11 66 (9.12%) Containerisation
12 65 (8.98%) Change Management
13 64 (8.84%) ITIL
14 61 (8.43%) Customer Service
15 60 (8.29%) Decision-Making
16 59 (8.15%) Data Protection
16 59 (8.15%) Microservices
17 58 (8.01%) Validation
18 56 (7.73%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 130 (17.96%) Python
2 102 (14.09%) SQL
3 58 (8.01%) Java
4 49 (6.77%) PowerShell
5 31 (4.28%) Bash
6 26 (3.59%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.52%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.24%) C#
8 9 (1.24%) PL/SQL
8 9 (1.24%) R
9 8 (1.10%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.97%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.83%) ABAP
11 6 (0.83%) Bicep
11 6 (0.83%) Kotlin
12 5 (0.69%) COBOL
13 4 (0.55%) JCL
14 3 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.41%) Go
14 3 (0.41%) VBA
Qualifications
1 97 (13.40%) Security Cleared
2 71 (9.81%) SC Cleared
3 68 (9.39%) Degree
4 30 (4.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (3.04%) Microsoft Certification
7 21 (2.90%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (2.49%) CISSP
9 15 (2.07%) PMP
10 13 (1.80%) PMI Certification
11 12 (1.66%) CCNP
12 11 (1.52%) A+ Certification
12 11 (1.52%) CCNA
13 10 (1.38%) Network+ Certification
14 9 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
15 8 (1.10%) AWS Certification
15 8 (1.10%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.97%) CEH
17 6 (0.83%) CISM
17 6 (0.83%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (7.04%) Data Quality
2 28 (3.87%) QA
3 23 (3.18%) Accessibility
4 14 (1.93%) GDPR
5 13 (1.80%) SLA
6 11 (1.52%) GRC
7 10 (1.38%) NIST
8 9 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 8 (1.10%) PMO
10 4 (0.55%) WCAG
11 3 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.41%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.14%) GxP
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.14%) MiFID
13 1 (0.14%) SEPA
System Software
1 64 (8.84%) Docker
2 51 (7.04%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (2.07%) vSphere
5 13 (1.80%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.97%) Firmware
8 4 (0.55%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 2 (0.28%) KVM
10 2 (0.28%) NFS
10 2 (0.28%) SRDF
10 2 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.14%) ACF2
11 1 (0.14%) RACF
11 1 (0.14%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.14%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 79 (10.91%) Kubernetes
2 59 (8.15%) Terraform
3 39 (5.39%) Grafana
4 38 (5.25%) Ansible
5 31 (4.28%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.93%) Argo
6 14 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (1.93%) vCenter Server
7 13 (1.80%) Control-M
8 11 (1.52%) IBM Guardium
8 11 (1.52%) Nessus
9 9 (1.24%) SCCM
10 4 (0.55%) Kustomize
10 4 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.41%) Data Guard
11 3 (0.41%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.41%) Istio
11 3 (0.41%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.41%) WMI
12 2 (0.28%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 136 (18.78%) Microsoft
2 58 (8.01%) SAP
2 58 (8.01%) ServiceNow
3 39 (5.39%) Splunk
4 35 (4.83%) Oracle
5 28 (3.87%) Cisco
6 23 (3.18%) Google
7 22 (3.04%) VMware
8 18 (2.49%) Workday
9 17 (2.35%) Red Hat
10 14 (1.93%) Pure Storage
11 12 (1.66%) Concur
11 12 (1.66%) Palo Alto
12 11 (1.52%) Tenable
13 10 (1.38%) IBM
13 10 (1.38%) Sage
14 9 (1.24%) Remedy
15 8 (1.10%) CheckPoint
15 8 (1.10%) Databricks
15 8 (1.10%) Dell