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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -2 +4 +9
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 698 528 561
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.34% 15.81% 11.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.28% 17.98% 13.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 465 307 319
10th Percentile £208 £211 £223
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 37 24 33
10th Percentile £15.18 £12.51 £11.83
25th Percentile £16.17 £15.74 £16.25
Median hourly rate £20.04 £25.43 £17.64
Median % change year-on-year -21.20% +44.16% -25.73%
75th Percentile £45.46 £37.25 £45.88
90th Percentile £71.37 £64.30 £51.46
England median hourly rate £18.50 £21.48 £25.50
% change year-on-year -13.87% -15.76% -22.73%

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 4,288 2,937 4,184
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.09% 87.93% 87.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,862 1,684 2,726
10th Percentile £250 £263 £286
25th Percentile £363 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £642 £665 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 249 135 250
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.16 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.00 £27.39 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.72% -8.72% +34.83%
75th Percentile £56.69 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.25 £71.41 £61.33
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -12.50% +14.29%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -2 357 £428 -7.57% 381
Yorkshire -5 288 £487 -2.60% 322
North East -2 60 £450 -18.18% 133
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 (5.87%) SharePoint
2 35 (5.01%) Confluence
3 32 (4.58%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.29%) Apache
5 7 (1.00%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (1.00%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.86%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.29%) JBoss
9 2 (0.29%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.14%) CICS
10 1 (0.14%) CMS
10 1 (0.14%) Moodle
10 1 (0.14%) Mule
10 1 (0.14%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.14%) SAS
10 1 (0.14%) WebLogic
Applications
1 47 (6.73%) Microsoft Office
2 46 (6.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 28 (4.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (2.44%) MS Visio
5 7 (1.00%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.72%) Acrobat
7 2 (0.29%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.14%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 38 (5.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.72%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.57%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.43%) iTrent
4 3 (0.43%) Kondor
4 3 (0.43%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.43%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.29%) Advent Geneva
5 2 (0.29%) ContrOCC
5 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.29%) Elite 3E
5 2 (0.29%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.14%) Finacle
6 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.14%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
6 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 127 (18.19%) Azure
2 110 (15.76%) AWS
3 71 (10.17%) Microsoft 365
4 52 (7.45%) GCP
5 40 (5.73%) Power Platform
6 35 (5.01%) GitHub
7 25 (3.58%) Serverless
8 20 (2.87%) OpenShift
8 20 (2.87%) SaaS
9 18 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (2.44%) Entra ID
11 14 (2.01%) Amazon ECS
11 14 (2.01%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.01%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (2.01%) Google Workspace
12 13 (1.86%) Apigee
13 11 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
14 10 (1.43%) Datadog
14 10 (1.43%) OneDrive
14 10 (1.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 31 (4.44%) Firewall
2 26 (3.72%) Network Security
3 18 (2.58%) DNS
4 15 (2.15%) TCP/IP
5 14 (2.01%) LAN
5 14 (2.01%) WAN
6 8 (1.15%) BGP
6 8 (1.15%) DHCP
6 8 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (1.00%) Skype
7 7 (1.00%) VLAN
7 7 (1.00%) WebEx
8 6 (0.86%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (0.72%) HTTP
10 4 (0.57%) SAN
10 4 (0.57%) VPN
11 3 (0.43%) DMZ
11 3 (0.43%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 3 (0.43%) Internet
11 3 (0.43%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.44%) Power BI
2 28 (4.01%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.15%) SQL Server
4 19 (2.72%) MongoDB
5 18 (2.58%) NoSQL
6 17 (2.44%) Relational Database
7 16 (2.29%) Oracle Database
8 15 (2.15%) DynamoDB
9 13 (1.86%) MySQL
10 12 (1.72%) BigQuery
10 12 (1.72%) Power Query
11 10 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (1.15%) Amazon Aurora
12 8 (1.15%) PowerPivot
13 7 (1.00%) Amazon RDS
14 6 (0.86%) Oracle Reports
14 6 (0.86%) RDBMS
14 6 (0.86%) Redis
15 5 (0.72%) DB2
16 4 (0.57%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 82 (11.75%) JIRA
2 53 (7.59%) Git
3 45 (6.45%) Jenkins
4 30 (4.30%) GitLab
5 11 (1.58%) Cucumber
6 10 (1.43%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (1.29%) Selenium
8 7 (1.00%) Cypress.io
8 7 (1.00%) Maven
8 7 (1.00%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.86%) Gradle
10 5 (0.72%) SonarLint
11 4 (0.57%) CircleCI
11 4 (0.57%) Mockito
11 4 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
11 4 (0.57%) TestRail
12 3 (0.43%) Jasmine
12 3 (0.43%) JMeter
12 3 (0.43%) REST Assured
13 2 (0.29%) Postman
General
1 386 (55.30%) Social Skills
2 237 (33.95%) Analytical Skills
3 193 (27.65%) Finance
4 88 (12.61%) Banking
5 79 (11.32%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.30%) Legal
7 16 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
7 16 (2.29%) Telecoms
8 13 (1.86%) Manufacturing
9 12 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (1.29%) Law
11 8 (1.15%) Military
11 8 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.00%) Local Government
13 6 (0.86%) Electronics
13 6 (0.86%) Health Technology
13 6 (0.86%) Marketing
14 5 (0.72%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 112 (16.05%) Analyst
2 104 (14.90%) Developer
3 54 (7.74%) Business Analyst
4 47 (6.73%) Senior
5 41 (5.87%) Lead
6 37 (5.30%) Consultant
6 37 (5.30%) IT Support
7 32 (4.58%) Project Manager
8 29 (4.15%) Administrator
8 29 (4.15%) Architect
9 22 (3.15%) Java Developer
10 21 (3.01%) Software Engineer
10 21 (3.01%) Support Analyst
11 20 (2.87%) IT Engineer
12 19 (2.72%) Automation Engineer
13 18 (2.58%) Data Engineer
13 18 (2.58%) Platform Engineer
13 18 (2.58%) Support Engineer
13 18 (2.58%) Technical Analyst
14 16 (2.29%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (5.59%) Spring Boot
2 37 (5.30%) REST
3 36 (5.16%) Spring
4 24 (3.44%) RESTful
5 22 (3.15%) Kafka
6 20 (2.87%) FastAPI
7 17 (2.44%) JSON
7 17 (2.44%) React
8 15 (2.15%) Node.js
8 15 (2.15%) SOAP
8 15 (2.15%) XML
9 14 (2.01%) .NET
9 14 (2.01%) OAuth
10 13 (1.86%) JWT
11 12 (1.72%) Elastic Stack
12 11 (1.58%) AngularJS
12 11 (1.58%) JMS
13 10 (1.43%) HTML
13 10 (1.43%) OpenTelemetry
14 9 (1.29%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 65 (9.31%) Product Ownership
2 34 (4.87%) Onboarding
3 28 (4.01%) Cloud Native
4 18 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
5 16 (2.29%) Data Structures
6 15 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
6 15 (2.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 14 (2.01%) Data Centre
7 14 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (1.86%) CMDB
9 12 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.58%) Mainframe
10 11 (1.58%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.43%) Algorithms
11 10 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.29%) NHS
13 7 (1.00%) Mobile App
14 6 (0.86%) N-Tier
14 6 (0.86%) Public Cloud
14 6 (0.86%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 85 (12.18%) Windows
2 74 (10.60%) Linux
3 23 (3.30%) Windows 10
4 21 (3.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (2.87%) Windows Server
6 17 (2.44%) Unix
7 13 (1.86%) Android
8 11 (1.58%) Apple iOS
9 8 (1.15%) CentOS
9 8 (1.15%) Ubuntu
10 7 (1.00%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.86%) Mac OS X
12 5 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.43%) VMS
14 2 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (29.80%) Agile
2 143 (20.49%) CI/CD
3 124 (17.77%) Continuous Improvement
4 120 (17.19%) DevOps
5 108 (15.47%) Stakeholder Management
6 80 (11.46%) Project Management
7 72 (10.32%) Containerisation
8 67 (9.60%) Test Automation
9 65 (9.31%) Migration
10 64 (9.17%) Microservices
11 59 (8.45%) Change Management
12 57 (8.17%) Decision-Making
12 57 (8.17%) Mentoring
13 56 (8.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 55 (7.88%) Customer Service
15 54 (7.74%) SDLC
16 52 (7.45%) Analytics
16 52 (7.45%) ITIL
17 51 (7.31%) AI
18 50 (7.16%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 111 (15.90%) Python
2 82 (11.75%) Java
3 80 (11.46%) SQL
4 34 (4.87%) Bash
4 34 (4.87%) PowerShell
5 26 (3.72%) TypeScript
6 21 (3.01%) JavaScript
6 21 (3.01%) Perl
7 18 (2.58%) Shell Script
8 17 (2.44%) C#
9 9 (1.29%) CLIST
9 9 (1.29%) COBOL
9 9 (1.29%) Go
9 9 (1.29%) Groovy
9 9 (1.29%) JCL
9 9 (1.29%) REXX
9 9 (1.29%) Ruby
9 9 (1.29%) VBA
10 8 (1.15%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 86 (12.32%) Security Cleared
2 73 (10.46%) Degree
3 57 (8.17%) SC Cleared
4 33 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (4.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
7 13 (1.86%) CCNA
7 13 (1.86%) PMP
8 11 (1.58%) CCNP
9 9 (1.29%) AWS Certification
9 9 (1.29%) CCDP
9 9 (1.29%) CISSP
10 8 (1.15%) RHCE
10 8 (1.15%) Six Sigma Green Belt
11 7 (1.00%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.00%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (1.00%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.72%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.72%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.72%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (6.73%) QA
2 25 (3.58%) Data Quality
3 20 (2.87%) GDPR
4 19 (2.72%) Accessibility
5 15 (2.15%) PSD2
6 14 (2.01%) ISO 20022
7 12 (1.72%) SEPA
8 10 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 9 (1.29%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.86%) HL7
10 6 (0.86%) PMO
10 6 (0.86%) SLA
11 5 (0.72%) NIST
12 4 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.57%) WCAG
13 3 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
15 1 (0.14%) IEC 61508
15 1 (0.14%) ISO 26262
15 1 (0.14%) PMBOK
System Software
1 76 (10.89%) Docker
2 46 (6.59%) Active Directory
3 14 (2.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.43%) Oracle RAC
5 9 (1.29%) ACF2
5 9 (1.29%) RACF
5 9 (1.29%) Time Sharing Option
6 7 (1.00%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.72%) VMware NSX
8 4 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.57%) vSphere
9 3 (0.43%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.14%) Firmware
10 1 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 83 (11.89%) Kubernetes
2 47 (6.73%) Terraform
3 44 (6.30%) Ansible
4 30 (4.30%) Grafana
5 25 (3.58%) SCCM
6 23 (3.30%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (3.30%) Prometheus
7 10 (1.43%) Control-M
7 10 (1.43%) Data Guard
7 10 (1.43%) Puppet
7 10 (1.43%) yum
8 9 (1.29%) CA Endevor
8 9 (1.29%) IBM Guardium
8 9 (1.29%) Nessus
8 9 (1.29%) Tivoli
8 9 (1.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 7 (1.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.86%) Norton AntiVirus
11 5 (0.72%) Kibana
12 4 (0.57%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 156 (22.35%) Microsoft
2 65 (9.31%) SAP
3 48 (6.88%) Oracle
4 32 (4.58%) ServiceNow
5 27 (3.87%) VMware
6 25 (3.58%) Google
7 21 (3.01%) Splunk
8 20 (2.87%) Red Hat
9 17 (2.44%) Cisco
10 11 (1.58%) Databricks
10 11 (1.58%) Workday
11 10 (1.43%) Citrix
12 9 (1.29%) Adobe
12 9 (1.29%) Tenable
13 8 (1.15%) Brio
13 8 (1.15%) IFS
13 8 (1.15%) Veeam
14 7 (1.00%) MuleSoft
14 7 (1.00%) Sonatype
14 7 (1.00%) Symantec