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

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 9
Rank change year-on-year -3 +5 +8
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 693 545 587
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.19% 16.33% 11.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.15% 18.53% 13.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 460 328 332
10th Percentile £205 £208 £233
25th Percentile £350 £356 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £582
90th Percentile £618 £625 £688
England median daily rate £498 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -0.50% -2.44% -5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 26 37
10th Percentile £15.18 £12.85 £11.30
25th Percentile £15.76 £16.19 £15.00
Median hourly rate £19.65 £26.28 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.24% +50.16% -30.00%
75th Percentile £52.62 £36.28 £43.75
90th Percentile £72.82 £61.71 £46.18
England median hourly rate £18.50 £22.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -15.91% -12.00% -19.74%

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 4,292 2,941 4,286
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 87.88% 88.11% 87.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,862 1,706 2,770
10th Percentile £232 £263 £280
25th Percentile £364 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £645 £656 £675
England median daily rate £503 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.29% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 140 277
10th Percentile £15.40 £15.00 £11.79
25th Percentile £20.82 £17.25 £15.00
Median hourly rate £41.68 £27.50 £26.39
Median % change year-on-year +51.56% +4.21% +17.29%
75th Percentile £57.25 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.25 £73.68 £55.06
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.06 £36.50
% change year-on-year -26.15% -6.70% +7.35%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -3 360 £425 -8.11% 392
Yorkshire -5 280 £490 -2.10% 334
North East -3 60 £450 -15.29% 134
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 (5.63%) SharePoint
2 37 (5.34%) Confluence
3 31 (4.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.30%) Apache
5 7 (1.01%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (1.01%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.87%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.58%) 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 50 (7.22%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (6.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (3.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (2.60%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.87%) 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 40 (5.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.58%) SAP EHS
3 3 (0.43%) iTrent
3 3 (0.43%) Kondor
3 3 (0.43%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.43%) SAP EWM
3 3 (0.43%) SAP SCM
4 2 (0.29%) Advent Geneva
4 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.29%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.29%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.14%) Finacle
5 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.14%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.14%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 129 (18.61%) Azure
2 112 (16.16%) AWS
3 73 (10.53%) Microsoft 365
4 54 (7.79%) GCP
5 40 (5.77%) Power Platform
6 38 (5.48%) GitHub
7 26 (3.75%) Serverless
8 20 (2.89%) OpenShift
8 20 (2.89%) SaaS
9 19 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (2.60%) Entra ID
11 14 (2.02%) Amazon ECS
11 14 (2.02%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.02%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (2.02%) Google Workspace
12 13 (1.88%) Apigee
13 11 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
14 10 (1.44%) Datadog
14 10 (1.44%) OneDrive
14 10 (1.44%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 34 (4.91%) Firewall
2 28 (4.04%) Network Security
3 21 (3.03%) DNS
4 17 (2.45%) TCP/IP
5 15 (2.16%) LAN
5 15 (2.16%) WAN
6 9 (1.30%) DHCP
7 8 (1.15%) BGP
7 8 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (1.01%) Skype
8 7 (1.01%) VLAN
8 7 (1.01%) WebEx
9 6 (0.87%) Software-Defined Networking
10 5 (0.72%) HTTP
10 5 (0.72%) VPN
11 4 (0.58%) DMZ
11 4 (0.58%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 4 (0.58%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 4 (0.58%) SAN
12 3 (0.43%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.47%) Power BI
2 29 (4.18%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.03%) MongoDB
4 20 (2.89%) NoSQL
5 19 (2.74%) Relational Database
6 16 (2.31%) SQL Server
7 15 (2.16%) DynamoDB
7 15 (2.16%) MySQL
8 12 (1.73%) BigQuery
8 12 (1.73%) Power Query
9 10 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
9 10 (1.44%) Oracle Database
10 8 (1.15%) Amazon Aurora
10 8 (1.15%) PowerPivot
11 7 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.87%) Oracle Reports
12 6 (0.87%) RDBMS
12 6 (0.87%) Redis
13 5 (0.72%) DB2
14 4 (0.58%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 81 (11.69%) JIRA
2 49 (7.07%) Git
3 46 (6.64%) Jenkins
4 35 (5.05%) GitLab
5 12 (1.73%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (1.59%) Cucumber
6 11 (1.59%) Selenium
7 7 (1.01%) Cypress.io
7 7 (1.01%) Maven
7 7 (1.01%) Mockito
7 7 (1.01%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.87%) Gradle
8 6 (0.87%) Postman
9 5 (0.72%) JMeter
9 5 (0.72%) JUnit
9 5 (0.72%) SonarLint
10 4 (0.58%) CircleCI
10 4 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
11 3 (0.43%) Jasmine
11 3 (0.43%) REST Assured
General
1 376 (54.26%) Social Skills
2 234 (33.77%) Analytical Skills
3 196 (28.28%) Finance
4 87 (12.55%) Banking
5 79 (11.40%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.33%) Legal
7 17 (2.45%) Telecoms
8 14 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
9 13 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
9 13 (1.88%) Manufacturing
9 13 (1.88%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (1.30%) Law
12 8 (1.15%) Military
12 8 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.01%) Local Government
14 6 (0.87%) Electronics
14 6 (0.87%) Health Technology
14 6 (0.87%) Marketing
15 5 (0.72%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 114 (16.45%) Analyst
2 108 (15.58%) Developer
3 57 (8.23%) Business Analyst
4 50 (7.22%) Senior
5 41 (5.92%) Lead
6 37 (5.34%) Consultant
6 37 (5.34%) IT Support
7 34 (4.91%) Project Manager
8 28 (4.04%) Architect
9 27 (3.90%) Administrator
10 23 (3.32%) Software Engineer
11 21 (3.03%) Java Developer
11 21 (3.03%) Support Analyst
12 19 (2.74%) IT Engineer
12 19 (2.74%) Platform Engineer
13 18 (2.60%) Data Engineer
14 17 (2.45%) Support Engineer
15 16 (2.31%) Technical Analyst
16 15 (2.16%) Service Analyst
16 15 (2.16%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (5.92%) REST
1 41 (5.92%) Spring Boot
2 37 (5.34%) Spring
3 30 (4.33%) RESTful
4 24 (3.46%) Kafka
5 20 (2.89%) JSON
5 20 (2.89%) React
6 19 (2.74%) SOAP
7 17 (2.45%) XML
8 15 (2.16%) FastAPI
8 15 (2.16%) Node.js
9 14 (2.02%) .NET
9 14 (2.02%) OAuth
10 13 (1.88%) HTML
10 13 (1.88%) JWT
11 12 (1.73%) Elastic Stack
11 12 (1.73%) Swagger
11 12 (1.73%) YAML
12 11 (1.59%) AngularJS
12 11 (1.59%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 66 (9.52%) Product Ownership
2 34 (4.91%) Onboarding
3 28 (4.04%) Cloud Native
4 18 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
5 16 (2.31%) Data Structures
6 15 (2.16%) Data Centre
6 15 (2.16%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 14 (2.02%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.88%) CMDB
8 13 (1.88%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.88%) Management Information System
8 13 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
9 11 (1.59%) Mainframe
10 10 (1.44%) Algorithms
11 9 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.30%) NHS
12 7 (1.01%) Mobile App
13 6 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
13 6 (0.87%) N-Tier
13 6 (0.87%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 86 (12.41%) Windows
2 67 (9.67%) Linux
3 24 (3.46%) Windows 10
4 21 (3.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (3.03%) Windows Server
5 17 (2.45%) Unix
6 13 (1.88%) Android
7 11 (1.59%) Apple iOS
8 8 (1.15%) CentOS
8 8 (1.15%) Ubuntu
9 7 (1.01%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.87%) Mac OS X
10 6 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.43%) VMS
11 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (30.16%) Agile
2 150 (21.65%) CI/CD
3 122 (17.60%) Continuous Improvement
4 114 (16.45%) DevOps
5 106 (15.30%) Stakeholder Management
6 79 (11.40%) Project Management
7 73 (10.53%) Containerisation
8 69 (9.96%) Test Automation
9 67 (9.67%) Migration
10 66 (9.52%) Microservices
11 61 (8.80%) Change Management
12 58 (8.37%) Mentoring
13 56 (8.08%) Decision-Making
13 56 (8.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 55 (7.94%) Customer Service
15 54 (7.79%) Analytics
15 54 (7.79%) ITIL
16 51 (7.36%) Roadmaps
16 51 (7.36%) Validation
17 50 (7.22%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 106 (15.30%) Python
2 86 (12.41%) Java
3 80 (11.54%) SQL
4 36 (5.19%) PowerShell
5 34 (4.91%) Bash
6 30 (4.33%) TypeScript
7 26 (3.75%) JavaScript
8 21 (3.03%) Perl
9 17 (2.45%) C#
10 12 (1.73%) Shell Script
11 11 (1.59%) Go
12 10 (1.44%) VBA
13 9 (1.30%) CLIST
13 9 (1.30%) COBOL
13 9 (1.30%) Groovy
13 9 (1.30%) JCL
13 9 (1.30%) REXX
13 9 (1.30%) Ruby
14 8 (1.15%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 86 (12.41%) Security Cleared
2 73 (10.53%) Degree
3 58 (8.37%) SC Cleared
4 33 (4.76%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (4.62%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (2.60%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (2.02%) CCNA
8 13 (1.88%) PMP
9 12 (1.73%) CCNP
10 9 (1.30%) CCDP
11 8 (1.15%) A+ Certification
11 8 (1.15%) AWS Certification
11 8 (1.15%) CISSP
11 8 (1.15%) Microsoft Certification
11 8 (1.15%) RHCE
11 8 (1.15%) Six Sigma Green Belt
12 7 (1.01%) PMI Certification
13 6 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
14 5 (0.72%) DBS Check
15 4 (0.58%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (6.78%) QA
2 24 (3.46%) Data Quality
3 19 (2.74%) Accessibility
3 19 (2.74%) GDPR
4 17 (2.45%) PSD2
5 14 (2.02%) ISO 20022
6 12 (1.73%) SEPA
7 11 (1.59%) PCI DSS
8 10 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.87%) HL7
9 6 (0.87%) PMO
10 5 (0.72%) NIST
10 5 (0.72%) SLA
11 4 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.58%) WCAG
12 3 (0.43%) ISO 8583
13 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.14%) IEC 61508
14 1 (0.14%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 78 (11.26%) Docker
2 48 (6.93%) Active Directory
3 15 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.30%) ACF2
4 9 (1.30%) RACF
4 9 (1.30%) Time Sharing Option
5 7 (1.01%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.87%) VMware NSX
7 5 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.72%) vSphere
8 4 (0.58%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.43%) ISA Server
10 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.14%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 87 (12.55%) Kubernetes
2 49 (7.07%) Terraform
3 39 (5.63%) Ansible
4 33 (4.76%) Grafana
5 26 (3.75%) Prometheus
5 26 (3.75%) SCCM
6 24 (3.46%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.59%) Control-M
8 10 (1.44%) IBM Guardium
8 10 (1.44%) Nessus
8 10 (1.44%) Puppet
9 9 (1.30%) CA Endevor
9 9 (1.30%) Tivoli
9 9 (1.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.87%) Norton AntiVirus
12 5 (0.72%) Kibana
13 4 (0.58%) Data Guard
13 4 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
13 4 (0.58%) yum
Vendors
1 157 (22.66%) Microsoft
2 67 (9.67%) SAP
3 42 (6.06%) Oracle
4 32 (4.62%) ServiceNow
5 28 (4.04%) VMware
6 26 (3.75%) Google
7 23 (3.32%) Splunk
8 20 (2.89%) Red Hat
9 18 (2.60%) Cisco
10 12 (1.73%) Workday
11 10 (1.44%) Citrix
11 10 (1.44%) Databricks
11 10 (1.44%) Tenable
12 9 (1.30%) Adobe
12 9 (1.30%) Veeam
13 8 (1.15%) Brio
13 8 (1.15%) F5
13 8 (1.15%) IFS
13 8 (1.15%) Sonatype
14 7 (1.01%) Symantec