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 11 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 4 10
Rank change year-on-year -3 +6 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 682 538 546
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.79% 14.20% 11.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.63% 16.53% 13.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 439 293 309
10th Percentile £213 £250 £252
25th Percentile £350 £363 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £587
90th Percentile £625 £614 £700
England median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 20 23
10th Percentile £14.12 £11.98 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.74 £17.02
Median hourly rate £20.26 £25.10 £21.36
Median % change year-on-year -19.29% +17.49% -5.07%
75th Percentile £44.94 £44.94 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.41 £93.90 £53.24
England median hourly rate £18.87 £19.50 £42.31
% change year-on-year -3.23% -53.91% +42.20%

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 4,102 3,255 4,200
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.96% 85.93% 88.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,734 1,824 2,801
10th Percentile £213 £263 £281
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 £650 £663 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 252 170 190
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £15.98
25th Percentile £19.05 £17.44 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £28.30
Median % change year-on-year -13.28% +2.47% +31.63%
75th Percentile £45.88 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.25 £68.33 £61.99
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +18.67%

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 11 December 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 11 December 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 11 December 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 0 375 £450 -2.70% 404
Yorkshire -7 262 £480 -1.03% 273
North East -1 52 £450 -18.18% 113
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 39 (5.72%) SharePoint
2 31 (4.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (3.96%) Confluence
4 9 (1.32%) Apache
5 7 (1.03%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (1.03%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.88%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.59%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.29%) CICS
8 2 (0.29%) CMS
9 1 (0.15%) EPiServer
9 1 (0.15%) JBoss
9 1 (0.15%) Moodle
9 1 (0.15%) Mule
9 1 (0.15%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.15%) SAS
9 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.15%) WebLogic
Applications
1 49 (7.18%) Microsoft Excel
1 49 (7.18%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (3.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (2.64%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.03%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.15%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 32 (4.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.59%) ContrOCC
3 4 (0.59%) SAP EHS
3 4 (0.59%) 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%) 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
1 104 (15.25%) Azure
2 101 (14.81%) AWS
3 59 (8.65%) Microsoft 365
4 50 (7.33%) GCP
5 42 (6.16%) Power Platform
6 35 (5.13%) GitHub
7 22 (3.23%) Serverless
8 16 (2.35%) SaaS
9 15 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
10 14 (2.05%) Amazon ECS
10 14 (2.05%) Entra ID
10 14 (2.05%) Google Workspace
11 13 (1.91%) OpenShift
12 12 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (1.61%) Amazon S3
13 11 (1.61%) Datadog
13 11 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
13 11 (1.61%) OneDrive
14 10 (1.47%) Amazon SQS
14 10 (1.47%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.11%) Firewall
2 26 (3.81%) Network Security
3 13 (1.91%) DNS
4 9 (1.32%) LAN
4 9 (1.32%) WAN
5 8 (1.17%) VLAN
6 7 (1.03%) BGP
6 7 (1.03%) Skype
6 7 (1.03%) WebEx
7 6 (0.88%) Software-Defined Networking
7 6 (0.88%) TCP/IP
8 5 (0.73%) HTTP
9 4 (0.59%) DMZ
9 4 (0.59%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 4 (0.59%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 4 (0.59%) SAN
9 4 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.44%) Internet
10 3 (0.44%) VoIP
10 3 (0.44%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (4.99%) Power BI
2 28 (4.11%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (2.93%) NoSQL
4 19 (2.79%) MongoDB
4 19 (2.79%) SQL Server
5 18 (2.64%) Relational Database
6 15 (2.20%) DynamoDB
6 15 (2.20%) Oracle Database
7 13 (1.91%) BigQuery
7 13 (1.91%) MySQL
8 12 (1.76%) Power Query
9 8 (1.17%) Amazon Aurora
9 8 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
9 8 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.88%) DB2
10 6 (0.88%) PowerPivot
10 6 (0.88%) Redis
10 6 (0.88%) Tableau
11 5 (0.73%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.73%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 83 (12.17%) JIRA
2 59 (8.65%) Git
3 46 (6.74%) Jenkins
4 33 (4.84%) GitLab
5 14 (2.05%) Cucumber
6 11 (1.61%) Selenium
7 9 (1.32%) Postman
8 8 (1.17%) Cypress.io
8 8 (1.17%) SonarQube
9 7 (1.03%) JUnit
9 7 (1.03%) SoapUI
10 6 (0.88%) Maven
10 6 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
11 5 (0.73%) Gradle
11 5 (0.73%) SonarLint
12 4 (0.59%) Mockito
12 4 (0.59%) TestRail
13 3 (0.44%) JMeter
13 3 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
14 2 (0.29%) Jasmine
General
1 361 (52.93%) Social Skills
2 235 (34.46%) Analytical Skills
3 190 (27.86%) Finance
4 71 (10.41%) Public Sector
5 65 (9.53%) Banking
6 21 (3.08%) Legal
7 15 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
8 13 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (1.91%) Manufacturing
9 11 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (1.47%) Police
10 10 (1.47%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.32%) Law
11 9 (1.32%) Local Government
11 9 (1.32%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.03%) Military
13 6 (0.88%) Electronics
14 5 (0.73%) Health Technology
14 5 (0.73%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 109 (15.98%) Analyst
2 108 (15.84%) Developer
3 46 (6.74%) Senior
4 38 (5.57%) Business Analyst
5 35 (5.13%) Consultant
5 35 (5.13%) IT Support
6 34 (4.99%) Architect
7 31 (4.55%) Lead
8 30 (4.40%) Administrator
8 30 (4.40%) Project Manager
9 25 (3.67%) Java Developer
10 21 (3.08%) Support Analyst
11 20 (2.93%) Automation Engineer
11 20 (2.93%) Software Engineer
12 19 (2.79%) Support Engineer
13 18 (2.64%) IT Engineer
14 16 (2.35%) Platform Engineer
15 15 (2.20%) IT Support Engineer
15 15 (2.20%) Service Analyst
16 14 (2.05%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (5.72%) REST
1 39 (5.72%) Spring Boot
2 37 (5.43%) Spring
3 27 (3.96%) RESTful
4 26 (3.81%) Kafka
5 22 (3.23%) FastAPI
6 20 (2.93%) React
7 16 (2.35%) .NET
7 16 (2.35%) JSON
8 15 (2.20%) HTML
8 15 (2.20%) Node.js
9 13 (1.91%) AngularJS
9 13 (1.91%) XML
10 12 (1.76%) CSS
10 12 (1.76%) SOAP
11 11 (1.61%) OAuth
12 10 (1.47%) Elastic Stack
12 10 (1.47%) JMS
12 10 (1.47%) JWT
12 10 (1.47%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 57 (8.36%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.81%) Cloud Native
3 23 (3.37%) Onboarding
4 18 (2.64%) Data Protection Act
5 16 (2.35%) Data Structures
5 16 (2.35%) Management Information System
5 16 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
6 14 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
7 13 (1.91%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 11 (1.61%) Data Centre
9 10 (1.47%) Algorithms
10 9 (1.32%) CMDB
10 9 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (1.32%) Mainframe
10 9 (1.32%) Mobile App
11 8 (1.17%) Virtual Team
12 7 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
12 7 (1.03%) NHS
13 6 (0.88%) N-Tier
Operating Systems
1 78 (11.44%) Windows
2 62 (9.09%) Linux
3 21 (3.08%) Windows 10
4 17 (2.49%) Windows Server
5 14 (2.05%) Unix
6 13 (1.91%) Android
7 12 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (1.61%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.88%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.59%) VMS
11 2 (0.29%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 199 (29.18%) Agile
2 131 (19.21%) CI/CD
3 104 (15.25%) Continuous Improvement
4 98 (14.37%) Stakeholder Management
5 93 (13.64%) DevOps
6 70 (10.26%) Test Automation
7 68 (9.97%) Containerisation
8 66 (9.68%) Project Management
9 65 (9.53%) Decision-Making
10 61 (8.94%) Migration
11 60 (8.80%) Microservices
12 58 (8.50%) Analytics
13 57 (8.36%) Mentoring
14 52 (7.62%) AI
14 52 (7.62%) Business Intelligence
14 52 (7.62%) Scrum
15 51 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 50 (7.33%) SDLC
17 47 (6.89%) Change Management
17 47 (6.89%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 109 (15.98%) Python
2 82 (12.02%) Java
3 77 (11.29%) SQL
4 36 (5.28%) PowerShell
5 33 (4.84%) Bash
6 27 (3.96%) JavaScript
7 22 (3.23%) TypeScript
8 18 (2.64%) C#
9 17 (2.49%) Shell Script
10 13 (1.91%) Perl
11 9 (1.32%) Groovy
11 9 (1.32%) VBA
12 8 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 7 (1.03%) COBOL
13 7 (1.03%) Go
13 7 (1.03%) JCL
14 6 (0.88%) CLIST
14 6 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 6 (0.88%) REXX
15 5 (0.73%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 87 (12.76%) Security Cleared
2 81 (11.88%) Degree
3 60 (8.80%) SC Cleared
4 34 (4.99%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (4.11%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (2.20%) CISSP
7 13 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.76%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 9 (1.32%) CCDP
9 9 (1.32%) CCNA
9 9 (1.32%) CCNP
9 9 (1.32%) CISM
9 9 (1.32%) PMP
10 8 (1.17%) AWS Certification
10 8 (1.17%) DBS Check
11 7 (1.03%) ISTQB
12 6 (0.88%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.73%) Azure Certification
14 4 (0.59%) CBAP
14 4 (0.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (6.74%) QA
2 31 (4.55%) GDPR
3 26 (3.81%) Data Quality
4 19 (2.79%) Accessibility
5 14 (2.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 13 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.91%) PCI DSS
7 11 (1.61%) ISO 20022
7 11 (1.61%) NIST
7 11 (1.61%) PSD2
8 10 (1.47%) SEPA
9 9 (1.32%) SLA
10 8 (1.17%) PMO
11 4 (0.59%) HL7
12 3 (0.44%) WCAG
13 2 (0.29%) COBIT
13 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.15%) IEC 61508
14 1 (0.15%) ISO 26262
14 1 (0.15%) PMBOK
System Software
1 69 (10.12%) Docker
2 38 (5.57%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.47%) Oracle RAC
4 8 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.17%) VMware NSX
5 7 (1.03%) RACF
5 7 (1.03%) Time Sharing Option
6 6 (0.88%) ACF2
7 4 (0.59%) vSphere
8 2 (0.29%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.15%) Firmware
9 1 (0.15%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 74 (10.85%) Kubernetes
2 40 (5.87%) Terraform
3 32 (4.69%) Ansible
4 26 (3.81%) Grafana
5 22 (3.23%) SCCM
6 21 (3.08%) Prometheus
7 16 (2.35%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (1.47%) Control-M
8 10 (1.47%) Data Guard
8 10 (1.47%) yum
9 9 (1.32%) IBM Guardium
9 9 (1.32%) Nessus
10 6 (0.88%) CA Endevor
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli
10 6 (0.88%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 5 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.73%) Norton AntiVirus
12 4 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.44%) Kibana
13 3 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 168 (24.63%) Microsoft
2 63 (9.24%) SAP
3 46 (6.74%) ServiceNow
4 42 (6.16%) Oracle
5 31 (4.55%) Google
6 24 (3.52%) VMware
7 18 (2.64%) Splunk
8 12 (1.76%) Cisco
8 12 (1.76%) Red Hat
9 10 (1.47%) Citrix
10 9 (1.32%) Databricks
10 9 (1.32%) Tenable
11 8 (1.17%) IFS
12 7 (1.03%) BeyondTrust
12 7 (1.03%) Brio
12 7 (1.03%) Computacenter
12 7 (1.03%) CyberArk
12 7 (1.03%) F5
12 7 (1.03%) Thycotic
13 6 (0.88%) Workday