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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -9 +1 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 735 704 543
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 10.11% 17.91% 13.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.11% 20.18% 15.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 418 394 318
10th Percentile £275 £263 £300
25th Percentile £363 £368 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -2.56% -2.60%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £567
90th Percentile £600 £650 £640
England median daily rate £494 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -0.30% -1.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 73 40
10th Percentile £14.11 £12.96 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.48 £10.95
Median hourly rate £29.00 £22.14 £11.07
Median % change year-on-year +30.98% +99.95% -63.09%
75th Percentile £74.26 £30.63 £31.79
90th Percentile £86.38 £63.40 £63.75
England median hourly rate £21.00 £20.50 £16.23
% change year-on-year +2.44% +26.31% -69.76%

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 6,070 3,488 3,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 83.53% 88.73% 84.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,588 2,218 2,115
10th Percentile £313 £268 £300
25th Percentile £402 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £466 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.64% -6.85% -0.15%
75th Percentile £588 £553 £585
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 484 205 248
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.82 £11.07
25th Percentile £22.63 £17.48 £14.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £25.45
Median % change year-on-year +94.26% -11.08% -13.14%
75th Percentile £70.00 £44.09 £48.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £70.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +78.93% -40.82% -

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -12 347 £450 -7.98% 484
Yorkshire -7 334 £450 -5.26% 301
North East -17 59 £375 -16.67% 124
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 31 (4.22%) Confluence
2 21 (2.86%) Apache Spark
3 20 (2.72%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.36%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (1.22%) Apache
5 9 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 6 (0.82%) CMS
6 6 (0.82%) Jupyter
7 4 (0.54%) CICS
8 3 (0.41%) WordPress
9 2 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.27%) Camunda
9 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.14%) JBoss
10 1 (0.14%) Mule
10 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 36 (4.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.95%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 9 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.82%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.41%) Acrobat
8 3 (0.41%) CATIA
9 1 (0.14%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.14%) EngageOne
9 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 29 (3.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.50%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.27%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.27%) SAP HCM
4 2 (0.27%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.14%) Actimize
5 1 (0.14%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.14%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
5 1 (0.14%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 120 (16.33%) Azure
2 96 (13.06%) AWS
3 74 (10.07%) Microsoft 365
4 57 (7.76%) Power Platform
5 44 (5.99%) GCP
6 32 (4.35%) OpenShift
7 31 (4.22%) GitHub
8 23 (3.13%) Entra ID
9 17 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
10 15 (2.04%) Serverless
11 13 (1.77%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (1.63%) Power Automate
12 12 (1.63%) SaaS
13 9 (1.22%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (1.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 9 (1.22%) PowerApps
14 8 (1.09%) Copilot Studio
15 7 (0.95%) Google Workspace
16 6 (0.82%) AWS Lambda
16 6 (0.82%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 37 (5.03%) VPN
2 30 (4.08%) DNS
2 30 (4.08%) Firewall
3 21 (2.86%) LAN
3 21 (2.86%) WAN
4 17 (2.31%) VLAN
5 16 (2.18%) Wireless
6 15 (2.04%) Network Security
6 15 (2.04%) TCP/IP
7 14 (1.90%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (1.77%) DHCP
9 11 (1.50%) VoIP
10 9 (1.22%) BGP
10 9 (1.22%) Cisco Nexus
10 9 (1.22%) SAN
11 8 (1.09%) OSPF
11 8 (1.09%) WLAN
12 6 (0.82%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.68%) Cisco Firepower
13 5 (0.68%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (5.85%) Power BI
2 34 (4.63%) SQL Server
3 32 (4.35%) MongoDB
4 23 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (2.59%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (2.04%) NoSQL
7 14 (1.90%) Tableau
8 12 (1.63%) Big Data
8 12 (1.63%) Relational Database
9 9 (1.22%) Db2
9 9 (1.22%) Hadoop
10 8 (1.09%) Metadata
11 7 (0.95%) MySQL
12 6 (0.82%) DataStage
12 6 (0.82%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (0.68%) Neo4j
13 5 (0.68%) Snowflake Schema
14 4 (0.54%) Data Lake
14 4 (0.54%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 80 (10.88%) JIRA
2 36 (4.90%) Jenkins
3 34 (4.63%) Git
4 21 (2.86%) GitLab
5 9 (1.22%) Mockito
5 9 (1.22%) Selenium
6 8 (1.09%) REST Assured
6 8 (1.09%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (0.82%) Cucumber
7 6 (0.82%) Gatling
8 4 (0.54%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.54%) Postman
9 3 (0.41%) Claude Code
9 3 (0.41%) Gradle
9 3 (0.41%) JUnit
9 3 (0.41%) LoadRunner
9 3 (0.41%) Maven
9 3 (0.41%) MSI
9 3 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
9 3 (0.41%) Subversion
General
1 344 (46.80%) Social Skills
2 310 (42.18%) Analytical Skills
3 196 (26.67%) Finance
4 81 (11.02%) Banking
5 73 (9.93%) Public Sector
6 31 (4.22%) Organisational Skills
7 30 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (3.95%) Legal
9 23 (3.13%) Influencing Skills
10 22 (2.99%) Manufacturing
11 19 (2.59%) Retail
12 16 (2.18%) Law
13 15 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 9 (1.22%) Financial Institution
15 8 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.95%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.95%) Marketing
16 7 (0.95%) Telecoms
17 6 (0.82%) Automotive
18 5 (0.68%) Games
Job Titles
1 135 (18.37%) Analyst
2 92 (12.52%) Developer
3 70 (9.52%) Lead
4 58 (7.89%) Senior
5 41 (5.58%) Architect
6 33 (4.49%) IT Support
7 30 (4.08%) Business Analyst
8 29 (3.95%) Java Developer
9 28 (3.81%) Consultant
10 26 (3.54%) Data Engineer
11 25 (3.40%) Administrator
12 23 (3.13%) Python Developer
13 21 (2.86%) Data Analyst
13 21 (2.86%) DevOps Engineer
13 21 (2.86%) Network Engineer
14 20 (2.72%) IT Engineer
14 20 (2.72%) Support Engineer
15 19 (2.59%) Project Manager
16 18 (2.45%) Service Analyst
17 15 (2.04%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.17%) Kafka
2 35 (4.76%) REST
3 28 (3.81%) Spring
4 26 (3.54%) OpenTelemetry
5 23 (3.13%) Spring Boot
6 21 (2.86%) React
7 18 (2.45%) FastAPI
8 17 (2.31%) HTML
9 16 (2.18%) CSS
10 15 (2.04%) Node.js
11 14 (1.90%) Playwright
12 13 (1.77%) .NET
12 13 (1.77%) RESTful
13 12 (1.63%) JSON
13 12 (1.63%) OAuth
14 9 (1.22%) ActiveMQ
14 9 (1.22%) JAX-RS
14 9 (1.22%) XML
15 8 (1.09%) AngularJS
15 8 (1.09%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 53 (7.21%) Product Ownership
2 47 (6.39%) Cloud Native
3 33 (4.49%) Data Protection Act
4 30 (4.08%) Onboarding
5 25 (3.40%) Data Centre
6 23 (3.13%) Analytical Mindset
6 23 (3.13%) Enterprise Software
6 23 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.72%) Driving Licence
8 19 (2.59%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (2.18%) Distributed Systems
10 15 (2.04%) Data Structures
10 15 (2.04%) Mainframe
10 15 (2.04%) Management Information System
11 14 (1.90%) AI Agents
11 14 (1.90%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (1.77%) PKI
13 12 (1.63%) Virtual Team
14 11 (1.50%) Mobile App
15 10 (1.36%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 87 (11.84%) Windows
2 38 (5.17%) Linux
3 27 (3.67%) Windows 10
4 20 (2.72%) Unix
5 19 (2.59%) Apple iOS
6 15 (2.04%) Android
6 15 (2.04%) Windows Server
7 13 (1.77%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.95%) Mac OS X
9 4 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.54%) Solaris
9 4 (0.54%) zOS
10 2 (0.27%) AIX
10 2 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.27%) HPUX
10 2 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.27%) SUSE
11 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.14%) VMS
11 1 (0.14%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (25.71%) Agile
2 166 (22.59%) Continuous Improvement
3 156 (21.22%) CI/CD
4 129 (17.55%) DevOps
5 111 (15.10%) Stakeholder Management
6 85 (11.56%) Migration
7 76 (10.34%) Analytics
8 74 (10.07%) AI
9 72 (9.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 71 (9.66%) Test Automation
11 66 (8.98%) Project Management
12 65 (8.84%) Change Management
12 65 (8.84%) Containerisation
13 64 (8.71%) Customer Service
13 64 (8.71%) ITIL
14 61 (8.30%) Data Protection
14 61 (8.30%) Microservices
15 59 (8.03%) Decision-Making
15 59 (8.03%) Validation
16 56 (7.62%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 129 (17.55%) Python
2 104 (14.15%) SQL
3 60 (8.16%) Java
4 47 (6.39%) PowerShell
5 27 (3.67%) Bash
6 26 (3.54%) JavaScript
7 10 (1.36%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.22%) C#
8 9 (1.22%) PL/SQL
8 9 (1.22%) R
9 8 (1.09%) T-SQL
10 7 (0.95%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.82%) Bicep
11 6 (0.82%) COBOL
11 6 (0.82%) Kotlin
12 5 (0.68%) ABAP
13 4 (0.54%) JCL
14 3 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.41%) PHP
14 3 (0.41%) VBA
Qualifications
1 97 (13.20%) Security Cleared
2 72 (9.80%) SC Cleared
3 71 (9.66%) Degree
4 30 (4.08%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.99%) Cisco Certification
6 22 (2.99%) Microsoft Certification
7 17 (2.31%) CISSP
8 13 (1.77%) CCNP
8 13 (1.77%) PMP
9 12 (1.63%) CCNA
10 11 (1.50%) A+ Certification
10 11 (1.50%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.36%) Network+ Certification
12 9 (1.22%) CompTIA Security+
13 8 (1.09%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.09%) Azure Certification
14 7 (0.95%) HNC
14 7 (0.95%) OCP
14 7 (0.95%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (6.80%) Data Quality
2 28 (3.81%) QA
3 25 (3.40%) Accessibility
4 15 (2.04%) SLA
5 14 (1.90%) GDPR
6 12 (1.63%) GRC
7 10 (1.36%) NIST
8 9 (1.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.95%) PMO
10 6 (0.82%) WCAG
11 3 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.41%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.27%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.14%) COSHH
13 1 (0.14%) GxP
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.14%) SEPA
System Software
1 64 (8.71%) Docker
2 55 (7.48%) Active Directory
3 19 (2.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.77%) vSphere
5 12 (1.63%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.95%) Firmware
8 4 (0.54%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.54%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.27%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 2 (0.27%) KVM
10 2 (0.27%) NFS
10 2 (0.27%) SRDF
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 (10.75%) Kubernetes
2 58 (7.89%) Terraform
3 39 (5.31%) Grafana
4 37 (5.03%) Ansible
5 33 (4.49%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.90%) Control-M
7 13 (1.77%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (1.77%) vCenter Server
8 12 (1.63%) Argo
8 12 (1.63%) IBM Guardium
8 12 (1.63%) Nessus
9 8 (1.09%) SCCM
10 4 (0.54%) Data Guard
10 4 (0.54%) Kustomize
10 4 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.41%) CA Endevor
11 3 (0.41%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.41%) Istio
11 3 (0.41%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 142 (19.32%) Microsoft
2 61 (8.30%) ServiceNow
3 57 (7.76%) SAP
4 37 (5.03%) Splunk
5 35 (4.76%) Oracle
6 29 (3.95%) Cisco
7 24 (3.27%) Google
8 21 (2.86%) VMware
9 18 (2.45%) Workday
10 15 (2.04%) Red Hat
11 12 (1.63%) Concur
11 12 (1.63%) Palo Alto
11 12 (1.63%) Pure Storage
11 12 (1.63%) Tenable
12 11 (1.50%) IBM
12 11 (1.50%) Remedy
13 9 (1.22%) Dell
13 9 (1.22%) Sage
14 8 (1.09%) CheckPoint
14 8 (1.09%) Salesforce