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

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 2 7
Rank change year-on-year -7 +5 +9
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 747 638 576
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 12.01% 19.26% 12.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.21% 21.41% 14.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 466 383 330
10th Percentile £270 £214 £251
25th Percentile £357 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £449 £489 £493
Median % change year-on-year -8.23% -0.81% -1.40%
75th Percentile £525 £575 £569
90th Percentile £611 £650 £645
England median daily rate £492 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -1.60% -2.44% -2.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 48 73
10th Percentile £15.84 £16.38 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £21.24 £10.95
Median hourly rate £35.82 £25.43 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year +40.86% +88.37% -66.50%
75th Percentile £75.00 £35.08 £26.39
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.12 £60.56
England median hourly rate £22.01 £22.07 £17.50
% change year-on-year -0.27% +26.11% -65.00%

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 5,258 2,980 3,997
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 84.55% 89.98% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,311 1,913 2,432
10th Percentile £313 £263 £300
25th Percentile £400 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £564 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
England median daily rate £511 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 158 364
10th Percentile £16.07 £13.64 £11.07
25th Percentile £22.68 £18.51 £12.50
Median hourly rate £54.00 £27.31 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +97.71% +54.13% -38.90%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.10 £45.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £83.74 £57.50
England median hourly rate £47.00 £29.07 £36.50
% change year-on-year +61.68% -20.36% -2.67%

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 May 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 11 May 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 11 May 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 -6 360 £410 -16.16% 346
Yorkshire -6 341 £460 -5.15% 187
North East -7 53 £425 -11.23% 69
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 44 (5.89%) Confluence
2 19 (2.54%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.87%) Apache Spark
4 9 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
5 5 (0.67%) Apache
6 4 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.40%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.27%) CMS
8 2 (0.27%) JBoss
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.27%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.13%) Camunda
9 1 (0.13%) Mule
9 1 (0.13%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.13%) nginx
9 1 (0.13%) SAS
9 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 33 (4.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.88%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.34%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.67%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.54%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.40%) CATIA
9 1 (0.13%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 38 (5.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.54%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.40%) SAP SCM
5 1 (0.13%) Actimize
5 1 (0.13%) Advent Geneva
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.13%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.13%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.13%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.13%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.13%) SystmOne
5 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.13%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 128 (17.14%) Azure
2 101 (13.52%) AWS
3 54 (7.23%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (6.83%) Power Platform
5 49 (6.56%) OpenShift
6 46 (6.16%) GCP
7 41 (5.49%) GitHub
8 22 (2.95%) Entra ID
9 17 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
9 17 (2.28%) SaaS
10 13 (1.74%) Serverless
11 10 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.20%) Apigee
13 8 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
13 8 (1.07%) Microsoft Copilot
14 7 (0.94%) Azure AKS
14 7 (0.94%) Azure Functions
14 7 (0.94%) Azure Monitor
14 7 (0.94%) Kong
14 7 (0.94%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 34 (4.55%) DNS
2 27 (3.61%) Firewall
3 17 (2.28%) TCP/IP
4 14 (1.87%) WAN
5 12 (1.61%) Network Security
6 11 (1.47%) LAN
6 11 (1.47%) SAN
7 10 (1.34%) Wi-Fi
8 9 (1.20%) DHCP
9 7 (0.94%) Kerberos
10 6 (0.80%) VLAN
10 6 (0.80%) VPN
11 5 (0.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 4 (0.54%) DMZ
12 4 (0.54%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 4 (0.54%) NetScaler
12 4 (0.54%) VoIP
12 4 (0.54%) Wireless
13 3 (0.40%) HTTP
13 3 (0.40%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (5.35%) Power BI
2 27 (3.61%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (3.48%) MongoDB
4 25 (3.35%) SQL Server
5 22 (2.95%) Data Warehouse
6 16 (2.14%) NoSQL
6 16 (2.14%) Relational Database
7 12 (1.61%) Tableau
8 11 (1.47%) Hadoop
8 11 (1.47%) MySQL
9 10 (1.34%) Metadata
10 9 (1.20%) Power Query
11 8 (1.07%) Big Data
12 7 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 6 (0.80%) BigQuery
14 5 (0.67%) PowerPivot
14 5 (0.67%) Snowflake Schema
15 4 (0.54%) DataStage
15 4 (0.54%) DB2
15 4 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 107 (14.32%) JIRA
2 44 (5.89%) Jenkins
3 34 (4.55%) Git
4 26 (3.48%) GitLab
5 11 (1.47%) Mockito
5 11 (1.47%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (1.20%) Postman
7 7 (0.94%) JUnit
7 7 (0.94%) Selenium
8 6 (0.80%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.40%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.40%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.40%) Jasmine
9 3 (0.40%) JMeter
9 3 (0.40%) MSI
9 3 (0.40%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.27%) Maven
10 2 (0.27%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.27%) SoapUI
10 2 (0.27%) Zephyr
General
1 370 (49.53%) Social Skills
2 289 (38.69%) Analytical Skills
3 228 (30.52%) Finance
4 91 (12.18%) Banking
5 74 (9.91%) Public Sector
6 29 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
7 28 (3.75%) Legal
8 22 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
9 21 (2.81%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.01%) Law
10 15 (2.01%) Retail
10 15 (2.01%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.87%) Manufacturing
12 9 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (0.94%) Retail Banking
15 5 (0.67%) Military
16 3 (0.40%) Aerospace
16 3 (0.40%) Automotive
16 3 (0.40%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 144 (19.28%) Analyst
2 105 (14.06%) Developer
3 59 (7.90%) Business Analyst
4 55 (7.36%) Lead
5 51 (6.83%) Senior
6 38 (5.09%) Project Manager
7 35 (4.69%) Architect
8 31 (4.15%) Consultant
9 30 (4.02%) Java Developer
10 29 (3.88%) Administrator
11 26 (3.48%) Data Engineer
12 25 (3.35%) IT Support
13 19 (2.54%) Python Developer
13 19 (2.54%) Technical Analyst
14 18 (2.41%) Data Analyst
15 17 (2.28%) IT Engineer
16 16 (2.14%) DevOps Engineer
17 15 (2.01%) IT Analyst
17 15 (2.01%) SAP Consultant
18 14 (1.87%) Risk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.95%) REST
2 36 (4.82%) Spring
3 32 (4.28%) OpenTelemetry
4 31 (4.15%) Kafka
4 31 (4.15%) Spring Boot
5 26 (3.48%) RESTful
6 21 (2.81%) JSON
7 19 (2.54%) FastAPI
7 19 (2.54%) React
8 17 (2.28%) HTML
8 17 (2.28%) OAuth
8 17 (2.28%) SOAP
8 17 (2.28%) XML
9 15 (2.01%) CSS
10 13 (1.74%) .NET
10 13 (1.74%) AngularJS
10 13 (1.74%) Swagger
11 12 (1.61%) LDAP
11 12 (1.61%) YAML
12 9 (1.20%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 65 (8.70%) Product Ownership
2 32 (4.28%) Onboarding
3 27 (3.61%) Cloud Native
4 24 (3.21%) Data Centre
4 24 (3.21%) Data Protection Act
5 23 (3.08%) Legacy Systems
6 19 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
7 17 (2.28%) Analytical Mindset
7 17 (2.28%) Mainframe
7 17 (2.28%) Management Information System
8 16 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (1.87%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.47%) AI Agents
10 11 (1.47%) Data Structures
11 10 (1.34%) Driving Licence
11 10 (1.34%) Virtual Team
12 9 (1.20%) CMDB
13 8 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
13 8 (1.07%) Public Cloud
14 7 (0.94%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 73 (9.77%) Windows
2 52 (6.96%) Linux
3 23 (3.08%) Windows 10
4 19 (2.54%) Apple iOS
5 18 (2.41%) Unix
6 16 (2.14%) Android
6 16 (2.14%) Mac OS
7 13 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.20%) Ubuntu
8 9 (1.20%) Windows Server
9 8 (1.07%) CentOS
10 7 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.80%) Mac OS X
12 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.40%) VMS
14 2 (0.27%) AIX
14 2 (0.27%) HPUX
14 2 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.27%) Solaris
14 2 (0.27%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (28.25%) Agile
2 155 (20.75%) CI/CD
3 139 (18.61%) Continuous Improvement
4 135 (18.07%) DevOps
5 102 (13.65%) Migration
6 101 (13.52%) Stakeholder Management
7 87 (11.65%) Project Management
8 77 (10.31%) Change Management
9 74 (9.91%) Analytics
9 74 (9.91%) Validation
10 66 (8.84%) Containerisation
10 66 (8.84%) Decision-Making
11 62 (8.30%) Customer Service
11 62 (8.30%) Test Automation
12 61 (8.17%) Workshop Facilitation
13 59 (7.90%) ITIL
14 58 (7.76%) AI
14 58 (7.76%) Microservices
15 57 (7.63%) ERP
16 54 (7.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 127 (17.00%) Python
2 107 (14.32%) SQL
3 68 (9.10%) Java
4 46 (6.16%) PowerShell
5 33 (4.42%) Bash
6 26 (3.48%) JavaScript
7 20 (2.68%) TypeScript
8 11 (1.47%) COBOL
8 11 (1.47%) JCL
9 10 (1.34%) C#
9 10 (1.34%) Kotlin
9 10 (1.34%) R
10 9 (1.20%) CLIST
10 9 (1.20%) Perl
10 9 (1.20%) REXX
10 9 (1.20%) Ruby
11 8 (1.07%) Go
11 8 (1.07%) PL/SQL
11 8 (1.07%) VBA
12 7 (0.94%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 77 (10.31%) Security Cleared
2 76 (10.17%) Degree
3 45 (6.02%) SC Cleared
4 41 (5.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 36 (4.82%) Computer Science Degree
6 25 (3.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (2.41%) A+ Certification
7 18 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (2.28%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.14%) CCNA
9 16 (2.14%) PMP
10 13 (1.74%) CISSP
11 10 (1.34%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.34%) RHCE
12 8 (1.07%) MCSE
13 7 (0.94%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.94%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.94%) CCNP
14 6 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
15 5 (0.67%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.82%) Data Quality
2 34 (4.55%) QA
3 16 (2.14%) GDPR
4 13 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 13 (1.74%) PMO
5 12 (1.61%) PSD2
6 9 (1.20%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.07%) GRC
7 8 (1.07%) ISO 20022
7 8 (1.07%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.07%) SLA
8 7 (0.94%) NIST
8 7 (0.94%) SEPA
9 5 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.54%) ISO 8583
11 3 (0.40%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.40%) HL7
11 3 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 58 (7.76%) Docker
2 46 (6.16%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.41%) vSphere
5 16 (2.14%) VMware NSX
6 9 (1.20%) ACF2
6 9 (1.20%) RACF
6 9 (1.20%) Time Sharing Option
7 8 (1.07%) Hyper-V
8 7 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.94%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.40%) Firmware
9 3 (0.40%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.13%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 1 (0.13%) NFS
10 1 (0.13%) SRDF
10 1 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 90 (12.05%) Kubernetes
2 55 (7.36%) Ansible
3 51 (6.83%) Terraform
4 41 (5.49%) Grafana
5 31 (4.15%) Prometheus
6 18 (2.41%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (1.87%) Argo
7 14 (1.87%) Control-M
7 14 (1.87%) IBM Guardium
7 14 (1.87%) Nessus
7 14 (1.87%) vCenter Server
8 12 (1.61%) SCCM
9 11 (1.47%) CA Endevor
10 10 (1.34%) Puppet
11 9 (1.20%) Tivoli
11 9 (1.20%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 5 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 4 (0.54%) Kibana
14 2 (0.27%) EMC NetWorker
14 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 128 (17.14%) Microsoft
2 61 (8.17%) SAP
3 47 (6.29%) Splunk
4 35 (4.69%) Oracle
5 31 (4.15%) VMware
6 30 (4.02%) ServiceNow
7 25 (3.35%) Red Hat
8 21 (2.81%) Google
9 16 (2.14%) Cisco
9 16 (2.14%) Workday
10 14 (1.87%) Pure Storage
10 14 (1.87%) Sage
10 14 (1.87%) Tenable
11 12 (1.61%) Dell
12 9 (1.20%) F5
12 9 (1.20%) Veeam
13 8 (1.07%) Adobe
13 8 (1.07%) Apple
13 8 (1.07%) IFS
13 8 (1.07%) Sonatype