Continuous Improvement Contract Job Trends in the North West

Continual Improvement
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Continuous Improvement skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 29 60
Rank change year-on-year +13 +31 -1
Contract jobs citing Continuous Improvement 329 157 62
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 8.46% 7.16% 2.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.22% 8.06% 3.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 113 40
10th Percentile £308 £311 £363
25th Percentile £413 £358 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £447 £475
Median % change year-on-year +14.65% -5.89% -11.83%
75th Percentile £581 £500 £561
90th Percentile £675 £591 £650
England median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 7 2
10th Percentile £14.06 £25.55 £26.32
25th Percentile £24.00 £38.56 £27.76
Median hourly rate £47.50 £47.12 £30.76
Median % change year-on-year +0.81% +53.19% -59.66%
75th Percentile £77.00 £75.58 £33.17
90th Percentile £96.50 £81.00 £34.27
England median hourly rate £33.94 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +34.95% -47.05% -26.36%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

Continuous Improvement 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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,220 1,947 1,977
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.78% 88.82% 83.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,862 1,284 1,148
10th Percentile £295 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £677
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 333 131 107
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.51 £16.40
25th Percentile £24.72 £17.34 £27.38
Median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +88.90% -40.84% +21.43%
75th Percentile £73.25 £51.63 £57.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £71.45 £70.90
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -1.91%

Continuous Improvement
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Continuous Improvement relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Continuous Improvement job vacancy trend in the North West

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the North West over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the North West

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the North West over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the North West

Continuous Improvement
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Continuous Improvement within the North West region over the 6 months to 16 September 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
Manchester +7 164 £525 +25.07% 688
Cheshire +8 92 £474 +1.83% 142
Lancashire +3 42 £545 +36.37% 108
Merseyside -3 22 £500 +5.26% 99
Cumbria - 5 £510 - 21
Continuous Improvement
England

Continuous Improvement
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 24 (7.29%) SharePoint
2 14 (4.26%) Confluence
3 5 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (1.22%) SAS
5 1 (0.30%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.30%) CMS
5 1 (0.30%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.30%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 32 (9.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (4.26%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (3.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.91%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.91%) ProjectWise
5 2 (0.61%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.61%) CATIA
5 2 (0.61%) Navisworks
5 2 (0.61%) Revit
5 2 (0.61%) Trello
6 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 15 (4.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.52%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.91%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.61%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 2 (0.61%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.61%) SAP HCM
4 2 (0.61%) SAP Payroll
4 2 (0.61%) Unit4 Business World
5 1 (0.30%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.30%) ENOVIA
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.30%) Primavera
5 1 (0.30%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.30%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.30%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.30%) SAP MDG-F
5 1 (0.30%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.30%) SAP SD
5 1 (0.30%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 51 (15.50%) AWS
2 48 (14.59%) Azure
3 24 (7.29%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (7.29%) Power Platform
4 16 (4.86%) GitHub
5 13 (3.95%) Entra ID
5 13 (3.95%) GCP
6 11 (3.34%) GitHub Actions
7 9 (2.74%) Google Gemini
8 8 (2.43%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (2.13%) Microsoft Copilot
10 6 (1.82%) Anthropic Claude
10 6 (1.82%) GitHub Copilot
10 6 (1.82%) OCI
10 6 (1.82%) SaaS
11 5 (1.52%) Boomi
11 5 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.52%) Power Automate
11 5 (1.52%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.52%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.17%) VPN
2 14 (4.26%) DNS
3 11 (3.34%) WAN
4 10 (3.04%) Firewall
5 9 (2.74%) LAN
6 8 (2.43%) Network Security
7 6 (1.82%) TCP/IP
8 5 (1.52%) BGP
8 5 (1.52%) DHCP
8 5 (1.52%) OSPF
8 5 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (1.22%) MPLS
9 4 (1.22%) Wireless
10 3 (0.91%) BIG-IP
10 3 (0.91%) Cisco Nexus
10 3 (0.91%) DKIM
10 3 (0.91%) DMARC
10 3 (0.91%) DMZ
10 3 (0.91%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 3 (0.91%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (6.08%) Power BI
2 12 (3.65%) Relational Database
3 10 (3.04%) MongoDB
4 4 (1.22%) MySQL
4 4 (1.22%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.91%) Data Vault
5 3 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.91%) Metadata
5 3 (0.91%) Oracle Database
5 3 (0.91%) Oracle Exadata
5 3 (0.91%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.61%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.30%) Big Data
7 1 (0.30%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.30%) SAP BW
7 1 (0.30%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.30%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 29 (8.81%) JIRA
2 16 (4.86%) Git
3 11 (3.34%) Jenkins
4 10 (3.04%) Selenium
5 9 (2.74%) GitLab
6 8 (2.43%) Claude Code
7 7 (2.13%) Cucumber
8 5 (1.52%) REST Assured
9 4 (1.22%) JUnit
9 4 (1.22%) Postman
9 4 (1.22%) SonarQube
9 4 (1.22%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.91%) Gatling
10 3 (0.91%) Mockito
11 2 (0.61%) Hudson
11 2 (0.61%) Serenity BDD
11 2 (0.61%) WebDriver
11 2 (0.61%) Zephyr
12 1 (0.30%) Cypress.io
12 1 (0.30%) SpecFlow
General
1 142 (43.16%) Social Skills
2 72 (21.88%) Finance
3 58 (17.63%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (10.03%) Banking
5 32 (9.73%) Manufacturing
6 30 (9.12%) Public Sector
7 17 (5.17%) Organisational Skills
8 16 (4.86%) Retail
9 13 (3.95%) Military
10 10 (3.04%) Automotive
11 8 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (2.43%) Legal
12 6 (1.82%) Aerospace
12 6 (1.82%) Investment Banking
13 5 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.91%) Marketing
14 3 (0.91%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.61%) French Language
15 2 (0.61%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 33 (10.03%) Senior
2 28 (8.51%) Analyst
3 21 (6.38%) Developer
3 21 (6.38%) Lead
4 15 (4.56%) Architect
4 15 (4.56%) Consultant
4 15 (4.56%) Project Manager
5 11 (3.34%) Administrator
5 11 (3.34%) Software Engineer
6 9 (2.74%) Delivery Manager
6 9 (2.74%) Network Engineer
7 8 (2.43%) Service Analyst
7 8 (2.43%) Solutions Architect
7 8 (2.43%) Support Engineer
7 8 (2.43%) Test Engineer
8 7 (2.13%) Data Engineer
9 6 (1.82%) Automation Engineer
9 6 (1.82%) IT Engineer
9 6 (1.82%) Payments Architect
9 6 (1.82%) Payments Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.12%) Terraform
2 18 (5.47%) REST
3 17 (5.17%) Kafka
4 11 (3.34%) Spring
4 11 (3.34%) Spring Boot
5 10 (3.04%) Middleware
5 10 (3.04%) Node.js
6 9 (2.74%) React
7 8 (2.43%) SailPoint
8 7 (2.13%) RESTful
9 6 (1.82%) JSON
9 6 (1.82%) Next.js
9 6 (1.82%) OAuth
10 5 (1.52%) PySpark
10 5 (1.52%) XML
11 4 (1.22%) Pandas
11 4 (1.22%) Playwright
12 3 (0.91%) ActiveMQ
12 3 (0.91%) Great Expectations
12 3 (0.91%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 25 (7.60%) Management Information System
1 25 (7.60%) Onboarding
2 20 (6.08%) Product Ownership
3 18 (5.47%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (4.86%) Cloud Native
5 15 (4.56%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (3.34%) Operational Technology
7 10 (3.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 10 (3.04%) Driving Licence
8 9 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (2.74%) PKI
9 7 (2.13%) AI Agents
9 7 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.82%) Cyber Threat
10 6 (1.82%) Data Centre
10 6 (1.82%) Security Posture
10 6 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.52%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.52%) Replication
12 4 (1.22%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 31 (9.42%) Windows
2 21 (6.38%) Linux
3 12 (3.65%) Unix
4 7 (2.13%) AIX
4 7 (2.13%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.82%) Solaris
6 5 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (1.22%) HPUX
7 4 (1.22%) Mac OS
7 4 (1.22%) Oracle Linux
7 4 (1.22%) SUSE
7 4 (1.22%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.91%) Android
8 3 (0.91%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.61%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (26.75%) Stakeholder Management
2 87 (26.44%) Agile
3 82 (24.92%) Problem-Solving
4 65 (19.76%) Decision-Making
5 53 (16.11%) CI/CD
5 53 (16.11%) Cybersecurity
5 53 (16.11%) DevOps
6 51 (15.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 50 (15.20%) Roadmaps
8 47 (14.29%) Risk Management
9 46 (13.98%) AI
10 43 (13.07%) ITIL
11 37 (11.25%) Change Management
12 35 (10.64%) Software Engineering
13 34 (10.33%) Mentoring
13 34 (10.33%) Project Delivery
14 32 (9.73%) Analytics
14 32 (9.73%) Test Automation
15 29 (8.81%) Infrastructure as Code
15 29 (8.81%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 37 (11.25%) Python
2 28 (8.51%) Java
3 19 (5.78%) SQL
4 15 (4.56%) PowerShell
5 12 (3.65%) JavaScript
5 12 (3.65%) TypeScript
6 8 (2.43%) Bash
7 5 (1.52%) C#
7 5 (1.52%) Kotlin
8 4 (1.22%) ABAP
9 3 (0.91%) Rust
10 2 (0.61%) Bicep
10 2 (0.61%) Scala
11 1 (0.30%) BeanShell
11 1 (0.30%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.30%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.30%) Perl
11 1 (0.30%) Swift
Qualifications
1 70 (21.28%) Security Cleared
2 55 (16.72%) SC Cleared
3 27 (8.21%) Degree
4 16 (4.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (2.43%) CompTIA Security+
6 6 (1.82%) CCNP
6 6 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (1.82%) CISSP
6 6 (1.82%) HNC
7 5 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 5 (1.52%) PMI Certification
8 4 (1.22%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (1.22%) RHCE
9 3 (0.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.61%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.61%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.61%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (8.51%) QA
2 23 (6.99%) GRC
2 23 (6.99%) NIST
3 20 (6.08%) Data Quality
4 18 (5.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (5.17%) NCSC
6 12 (3.65%) SLA
7 10 (3.04%) Accessibility
8 7 (2.13%) PMO
9 5 (1.52%) NIST 800
10 4 (1.22%) GDPR
11 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.61%) ISO 19650
12 1 (0.30%) ISO 20022
12 1 (0.30%) PSD2
12 1 (0.30%) SEPA
12 1 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 27 (8.21%) Active Directory
2 24 (7.29%) Docker
3 7 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.22%) VMware NSX
5 3 (0.91%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.61%) Firmware
6 2 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 22 (6.69%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.95%) Ansible
3 9 (2.74%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (1.82%) Grafana
4 6 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (1.82%) Prometheus
5 5 (1.52%) SCCM
6 3 (0.91%) Data Guard
6 3 (0.91%) Istio
6 3 (0.91%) Oracle RMAN
6 3 (0.91%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.61%) WMI
8 1 (0.30%) Argo
8 1 (0.30%) Opsgenie
8 1 (0.30%) Puppet
8 1 (0.30%) QRadar
8 1 (0.30%) vRealize
8 1 (0.30%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 60 (18.24%) Microsoft
2 36 (10.94%) ServiceNow
3 32 (9.73%) SAP
4 12 (3.65%) Oracle
5 9 (2.74%) Google
6 8 (2.43%) CyberArk
7 7 (2.13%) Databricks
7 7 (2.13%) VMware
8 6 (1.82%) Cisco
8 6 (1.82%) F5
8 6 (1.82%) HP
8 6 (1.82%) Red Hat
9 5 (1.52%) Atlassian
9 5 (1.52%) Remedy
9 5 (1.52%) UiPath
10 4 (1.22%) BeyondTrust
10 4 (1.22%) Okta
10 4 (1.22%) OpenAI
10 4 (1.22%) Salesforce
10 4 (1.22%) Workday