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 8 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 4 9
Rank change year-on-year -3 +5 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 658 550 538
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.50% 13.78% 11.07%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.40% 16.32% 12.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 400 303 300
10th Percentile £229 £268 £259
25th Percentile £356 £375 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.93%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £587
90th Percentile £630 £600 £700
England median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 12 22
10th Percentile £13.85 £11.78 £16.32
25th Percentile £17.30 £14.44 £17.28
Median hourly rate £20.26 £22.88 £24.81
Median % change year-on-year -11.47% -7.76% +10.24%
75th Percentile £44.94 £37.98 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.72 £65.45 £54.12
England median hourly rate £19.25 £16.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +16.67% -64.27% +58.64%

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 4,011 3,371 4,287
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 88.37% 84.47% 88.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,654 1,844 2,885
10th Percentile £220 £294 £275
25th Percentile £363 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.95% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £559 £575 £600
90th Percentile £668 £655 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 173 206
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.54 £15.75
25th Percentile £18.87 £17.75 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £28.30
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% +14.84% +33.18%
75th Percentile £45.46 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.03 £69.44 £59.74
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -32.03% -16.85% +27.14%

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 8 November 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 8 November 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 8 November 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 -1 365 £467 +0.97% 818
Yorkshire -5 258 £492 +1.44% 374
North East -6 40 £452 +0.44% 172
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 33 (5.02%) Confluence
2 32 (4.86%) SharePoint
3 27 (4.10%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.37%) Skype for Business
5 8 (1.22%) Apache Spark
6 7 (1.06%) Exchange Server 2013
7 5 (0.76%) JBoss
7 5 (0.76%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.46%) Apache
9 3 (0.46%) IIS
9 3 (0.46%) WebSphere
9 3 (0.46%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.30%) CICS
10 2 (0.30%) Mattermost
11 1 (0.15%) CMS
11 1 (0.15%) Mule
11 1 (0.15%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.15%) WebLogic
Applications
1 60 (9.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (5.93%) Microsoft Office
3 32 (4.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 24 (3.65%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.30%) Simulink
7 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.15%) Maple
7 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 32 (4.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.61%) ContrOCC
3 4 (0.61%) SAP EHS
3 4 (0.61%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.46%) iTrent
4 3 (0.46%) Kondor
4 3 (0.46%) Maximo
5 2 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.15%) Advent Geneva
6 1 (0.15%) Finacle
6 1 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.15%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 100 (15.20%) Azure
2 93 (14.13%) AWS
3 54 (8.21%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (7.29%) Power Platform
5 45 (6.84%) GCP
6 34 (5.17%) GitHub
7 20 (3.04%) Serverless
8 16 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
8 16 (2.43%) SaaS
9 15 (2.28%) Amazon ECS
10 14 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 14 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (1.82%) Amazon S3
12 12 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
13 11 (1.67%) Amazon SQS
13 11 (1.67%) Datadog
13 11 (1.67%) Power Automate
14 10 (1.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 10 (1.52%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 23 (3.50%) Firewall
2 21 (3.19%) Network Security
3 11 (1.67%) DNS
4 10 (1.52%) LAN
4 10 (1.52%) WAN
5 9 (1.37%) Skype
6 8 (1.22%) VLAN
6 8 (1.22%) WebEx
7 7 (1.06%) BGP
7 7 (1.06%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.91%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.61%) Internet
10 3 (0.46%) DMZ
10 3 (0.46%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 3 (0.46%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 3 (0.46%) SAN
10 3 (0.46%) SSL
10 3 (0.46%) VPN
10 3 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
11 2 (0.30%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.62%) Power BI
2 25 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (3.65%) SQL Server
4 20 (3.04%) MongoDB
5 19 (2.89%) NoSQL
6 16 (2.43%) Oracle Database
7 14 (2.13%) DynamoDB
7 14 (2.13%) Relational Database
8 12 (1.82%) Tableau
9 11 (1.67%) Amazon RDS
9 11 (1.67%) BigQuery
9 11 (1.67%) MySQL
10 9 (1.37%) Power Query
11 8 (1.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 8 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
12 7 (1.06%) RDBMS
13 6 (0.91%) Redis
14 5 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
15 4 (0.61%) DB2
15 4 (0.61%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 87 (13.22%) JIRA
2 61 (9.27%) Git
3 52 (7.90%) Jenkins
4 29 (4.41%) GitLab
5 13 (1.98%) Cucumber
5 13 (1.98%) JUnit
5 13 (1.98%) Maven
6 12 (1.82%) Selenium
7 11 (1.67%) Gradle
8 10 (1.52%) Postman
8 10 (1.52%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (1.22%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.06%) Cypress.io
10 7 (1.06%) SoapUI
11 5 (0.76%) SonarLint
12 4 (0.61%) Mockito
12 4 (0.61%) TestRail
13 3 (0.46%) JMeter
13 3 (0.46%) Oracle Forms
14 2 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
General
1 359 (54.56%) Social Skills
2 242 (36.78%) Analytical Skills
3 172 (26.14%) Finance
4 65 (9.88%) Banking
5 59 (8.97%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.74%) Influencing Skills
7 17 (2.58%) Legal
8 16 (2.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 15 (2.28%) Police
10 13 (1.98%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (1.67%) Law
11 11 (1.67%) Local Government
12 10 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
12 10 (1.52%) Telecoms
13 9 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.06%) Marketing
14 7 (1.06%) Retail
15 6 (0.91%) Electronics
15 6 (0.91%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 119 (18.09%) Analyst
2 90 (13.68%) Developer
3 45 (6.84%) Senior
4 39 (5.93%) Architect
4 39 (5.93%) Business Analyst
5 36 (5.47%) Consultant
6 34 (5.17%) Lead
7 29 (4.41%) IT Support
8 26 (3.95%) Support Analyst
9 23 (3.50%) Project Manager
10 21 (3.19%) Administrator
10 21 (3.19%) Java Developer
11 20 (3.04%) Software Engineer
12 18 (2.74%) Platform Engineer
12 18 (2.74%) Support Engineer
13 16 (2.43%) Automation Engineer
14 14 (2.13%) IT Engineer
15 13 (1.98%) Service Analyst
15 13 (1.98%) Technical Analyst
15 13 (1.98%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (5.47%) REST
2 26 (3.95%) Spring Boot
3 24 (3.65%) Kafka
3 24 (3.65%) Spring
4 22 (3.34%) FastAPI
5 21 (3.19%) RESTful
6 20 (3.04%) React
7 19 (2.89%) .NET
8 17 (2.58%) HTML
9 15 (2.28%) CSS
10 14 (2.13%) SOAP
11 13 (1.98%) JSON
12 12 (1.82%) AngularJS
13 11 (1.67%) Node.js
14 10 (1.52%) OpenTelemetry
14 10 (1.52%) XML
15 8 (1.22%) GraphQL
15 8 (1.22%) J2EE
15 8 (1.22%) JMS
15 8 (1.22%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 46 (6.99%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.50%) Cloud Native
3 21 (3.19%) Management Information System
4 20 (3.04%) Onboarding
5 18 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
6 14 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
6 14 (2.13%) Data Structures
7 13 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (1.52%) Algorithms
8 10 (1.52%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 10 (1.52%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.37%) N-Tier
10 8 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (1.06%) CMDB
11 7 (1.06%) NHS
12 6 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (0.91%) Public Cloud
13 4 (0.61%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 63 (9.57%) Windows
2 62 (9.42%) Linux
3 17 (2.58%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.28%) Unix
5 14 (2.13%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.98%) Android
7 12 (1.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (1.67%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.91%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.30%) VMS
11 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 196 (29.79%) Agile
2 118 (17.93%) CI/CD
3 98 (14.89%) Continuous Improvement
4 93 (14.13%) Stakeholder Management
5 83 (12.61%) DevOps
6 70 (10.64%) Decision-Making
7 69 (10.49%) Project Management
8 64 (9.73%) Test Automation
9 63 (9.57%) Migration
10 61 (9.27%) Analytics
11 57 (8.66%) Business Intelligence
11 57 (8.66%) Containerisation
12 56 (8.51%) Mentoring
13 51 (7.75%) ITIL
13 51 (7.75%) ITSM
13 51 (7.75%) Roadmaps
13 51 (7.75%) Scrum
14 49 (7.45%) Change Management
15 46 (6.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 45 (6.84%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 107 (16.26%) Python
2 67 (10.18%) Java
2 67 (10.18%) SQL
3 36 (5.47%) PowerShell
4 33 (5.02%) JavaScript
5 28 (4.26%) Bash
6 26 (3.95%) Shell Script
7 22 (3.34%) TypeScript
8 19 (2.89%) C#
9 13 (1.98%) Perl
10 7 (1.06%) Go
10 7 (1.06%) Groovy
10 7 (1.06%) T-SQL
10 7 (1.06%) VBA
11 6 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.46%) ABAP
12 3 (0.46%) Scala
12 3 (0.46%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.30%) PHP
13 2 (0.30%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 81 (12.31%) Security Cleared
2 73 (11.09%) Degree
3 60 (9.12%) SC Cleared
4 27 (4.10%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (3.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (2.28%) CISSP
7 12 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (1.82%) PMP
7 12 (1.82%) Six Sigma Green Belt
8 11 (1.67%) AWS Certification
9 9 (1.37%) CCDP
9 9 (1.37%) CCNP
9 9 (1.37%) CISM
9 9 (1.37%) DBS Check
10 8 (1.22%) CCNA
11 7 (1.06%) ISTQB
12 6 (0.91%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.91%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.61%) CBAP
13 4 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (5.17%) QA
2 32 (4.86%) GDPR
3 23 (3.50%) Accessibility
4 22 (3.34%) Data Quality
5 14 (2.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 13 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.98%) NIST
6 13 (1.98%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.82%) SLA
8 11 (1.67%) SEPA
9 8 (1.22%) ISO 20022
9 8 (1.22%) PSD2
10 7 (1.06%) PMO
11 5 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.61%) WCAG
13 3 (0.46%) HL7
13 3 (0.46%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 2 (0.30%) COBIT
15 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
System Software
1 61 (9.27%) Docker
2 37 (5.62%) Active Directory
3 10 (1.52%) Oracle RAC
4 8 (1.22%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.06%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.61%) vSphere
7 2 (0.30%) Firmware
7 2 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.15%) Job Entry Subsystem
8 1 (0.15%) RACF
8 1 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 59 (8.97%) Kubernetes
2 33 (5.02%) Terraform
3 31 (4.71%) Ansible
4 23 (3.50%) Grafana
5 20 (3.04%) Prometheus
6 18 (2.74%) SCCM
7 17 (2.58%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (1.52%) Data Guard
8 10 (1.52%) yum
9 9 (1.37%) Control-M
9 9 (1.37%) IBM Guardium
9 9 (1.37%) Nessus
10 5 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.61%) Norton AntiVirus
11 4 (0.61%) SCOM
11 4 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.61%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.46%) EMC NetWorker
12 3 (0.46%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.46%) Istio
Vendors
1 169 (25.68%) Microsoft
2 62 (9.42%) SAP
3 47 (7.14%) ServiceNow
4 41 (6.23%) Oracle
5 30 (4.56%) Google
6 23 (3.50%) VMware
7 18 (2.74%) Splunk
8 16 (2.43%) Red Hat
9 14 (2.13%) Cisco
10 11 (1.67%) IBM
11 10 (1.52%) Citrix
11 10 (1.52%) Databricks
12 9 (1.37%) Tenable
13 7 (1.06%) BeyondTrust
13 7 (1.06%) Brio
13 7 (1.06%) CyberArk
13 7 (1.06%) Thycotic
14 6 (0.91%) Computacenter
14 6 (0.91%) F5
14 6 (0.91%) Workday