Critical Thinking Contract Job Trends in the North West

Critical Thinking
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Critical Thinking skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 118 113 111
Rank change year-on-year -5 -2 +66
Contract jobs citing Critical Thinking 7 10 32
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 0.32% 0.42% 1.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.36% 0.50% 1.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 8 29
10th Percentile £522 £444 £385
25th Percentile £532 £500 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £543 £486
Median % change year-on-year -1.01% +11.63% +0.99%
75th Percentile £541 £575 £556
90th Percentile £544 £609 £627
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -8.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £41.94 - -
England median hourly rate £47.00 £35.00 £32.25
% change year-on-year +34.29% +8.53% -51.14%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

Critical Thinking 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 1,927 2,006 2,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.44% 83.31% 87.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,278 1,114 1,710
10th Percentile £270 £294 £270
25th Percentile £375 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% -2.50% +1.01%
75th Percentile £575 £576 £595
90th Percentile £680 £675 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 109 164
10th Percentile £13.58 £16.45 £15.75
25th Percentile £17.30 £28.50 £17.74
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £31.77
Median % change year-on-year -40.82% +33.77% +41.20%
75th Percentile £47.12 £62.50 £46.18
90th Percentile £66.80 £72.10 £65.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -41.51% -2.27% +51.44%

Critical Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Critical Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Critical Thinking in the North West

Critical Thinking
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Critical Thinking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Critical Thinking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking
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 Critical Thinking within the North West region over the 6 months to 27 September 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
Cheshire -20 5 £537 +0.37% 6
Manchester -3 1 - - 7
Lancashire - 1 - - 5
Critical Thinking
England

Critical Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (28.57%) Confluence
2 1 (14.29%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (28.57%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (14.29%) Finacle
Cloud Services
1 1 (14.29%) AWS
1 1 (14.29%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 1 (14.29%) Firewall
1 1 (14.29%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (14.29%) Big Data
1 1 (14.29%) Data Mining
1 1 (14.29%) Data Vault
1 1 (14.29%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 2 (28.57%) JIRA
General
1 6 (85.71%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (42.86%) Banking
2 3 (42.86%) Social Skills
3 1 (14.29%) Finance
3 1 (14.29%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 2 (28.57%) Analyst
1 2 (28.57%) Architect
1 2 (28.57%) Business Analyst
1 2 (28.57%) Enterprise Architect
1 2 (28.57%) ServiceNow Business Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Data Engineer
2 1 (14.29%) Delivery Manager
2 1 (14.29%) Operations Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Payments Architect
2 1 (14.29%) Senior
2 1 (14.29%) Senior Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Senior Operations Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Senior Technical Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Service Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Technical Analyst
2 1 (14.29%) Technical Delivery Manager
2 1 (14.29%) Technical Manager
2 1 (14.29%) Technical Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (14.29%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 3 (42.86%) Onboarding
2 2 (28.57%) Management Information System
3 1 (14.29%) Cyber Threat
3 1 (14.29%) Product Ownership
3 1 (14.29%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (14.29%) Linux
1 1 (14.29%) Windows
1 1 (14.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (71.43%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (57.14%) Agile
3 3 (42.86%) Analytics
3 3 (42.86%) Data Modelling
3 3 (42.86%) Roadmaps
4 2 (28.57%) Biometrics
4 2 (28.57%) Business Strategy
4 2 (28.57%) Conflict Resolution
4 2 (28.57%) Dashboard Development
4 2 (28.57%) IT Asset Management
4 2 (28.57%) IT Strategy
4 2 (28.57%) ITIL
4 2 (28.57%) Low Latency
4 2 (28.57%) Mentoring
4 2 (28.57%) Project Management
4 2 (28.57%) Requirements Gathering
4 2 (28.57%) Software Delivery
4 2 (28.57%) Strategic Thinking
4 2 (28.57%) Technology Strategy
4 2 (28.57%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 2 (28.57%) Python
1 2 (28.57%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (28.57%) CBAP
1 2 (28.57%) Degree
1 2 (28.57%) TOGAF Certification
2 1 (14.29%) CISM
2 1 (14.29%) CISSP
2 1 (14.29%) CompTIA Security+
2 1 (14.29%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (14.29%) SC Cleared
2 1 (14.29%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (28.57%) COBIT
2 1 (14.29%) Accessibility
2 1 (14.29%) Data Quality
System Software
1 1 (14.29%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 2 (28.57%) ServiceNow