Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in the North West

Problem Solving
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 7 13
Rank change year-on-year 0 +6 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 363 298 277
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.02% 12.54% 10.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.12% 15.00% 11.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 168 155
10th Percentile £258 £246 £326
25th Percentile £351 £356 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £463 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.08% -7.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £579
90th Percentile £644 £600 £700
England median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 7 18
10th Percentile £13.03 £14.34 £16.85
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.58 £19.51
Median hourly rate £20.26 £27.50 £35.94
Median % change year-on-year -26.35% -23.48% +20.48%
75th Percentile £59.33 £52.59 £46.18
90th Percentile £72.21 £78.11 £61.15
England median hourly rate £19.25 £16.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +16.67% -64.27% +59.68%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,120 1,987 2,445
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 87.71% 83.59% 88.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,392 1,080 1,684
10th Percentile £215 £294 £271
25th Percentile £360 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £591
90th Percentile £678 £656 £673
England median daily rate £509 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.05% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 111 168
10th Percentile £15.18 £16.50 £15.75
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.75
Median hourly rate £29.44 £40.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.41% +14.29% +45.83%
75th Percentile £45.46 £55.79 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.14 £70.90 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -32.93% -15.73% +27.14%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the North West

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the North West over the 6 months to 7 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the North West

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in the North West over the 6 months to 7 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the North West

Problem-Solving
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 Problem-Solving within the North West region over the 6 months to 7 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
Cheshire 0 145 £450 -10.00% 196
Manchester -5 145 £454 +0.83% 453
Lancashire +7 38 £550 +29.41% 245
Merseyside +2 27 £475 +90.00% 70
Cumbria +3 5 £200 -55.01% 21
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
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 19 (5.23%) SharePoint
2 18 (4.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (4.13%) Confluence
4 10 (2.75%) Skype for Business
5 7 (1.93%) Exchange Server 2013
6 6 (1.65%) JBoss
6 6 (1.65%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.83%) Mattermost
8 2 (0.55%) Apache
8 2 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.55%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.55%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.55%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.28%) CMS
9 1 (0.28%) EPiServer
9 1 (0.28%) Moodle
9 1 (0.28%) Mule
9 1 (0.28%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 36 (9.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (6.61%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (5.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (4.96%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.55%) Simulink
7 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 27 (7.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.10%) ContrOCC
2 4 (1.10%) SAP EHS
2 4 (1.10%) SAP EWM
3 3 (0.83%) Kondor
3 3 (0.83%) Maximo
4 2 (0.55%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.55%) iTrent
4 2 (0.55%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.28%) Advent Geneva
5 1 (0.28%) Finacle
5 1 (0.28%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 1 (0.28%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.28%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 57 (15.70%) Azure
2 50 (13.77%) AWS
3 36 (9.92%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (7.44%) Power Platform
5 20 (5.51%) GitHub
6 18 (4.96%) GCP
7 12 (3.31%) Serverless
8 11 (3.03%) Amazon ECS
8 11 (3.03%) SaaS
9 10 (2.75%) AWS Lambda
9 10 (2.75%) Datadog
10 9 (2.48%) Amazon SQS
10 9 (2.48%) OneDrive
11 8 (2.20%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (1.93%) Amazon EventBridge
12 7 (1.93%) Entra ID
13 6 (1.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (1.65%) Apigee
13 6 (1.65%) AWS Fargate
13 6 (1.65%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.75%) Network Security
1 10 (2.75%) Skype
2 8 (2.20%) Firewall
2 8 (2.20%) LAN
2 8 (2.20%) WAN
2 8 (2.20%) WebEx
3 7 (1.93%) BGP
3 7 (1.93%) VLAN
4 6 (1.65%) Software-Defined Networking
5 5 (1.38%) DNS
6 3 (0.83%) DMZ
6 3 (0.83%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 3 (0.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 3 (0.83%) Softphone
6 3 (0.83%) Unified Communications
7 2 (0.55%) Calico
7 2 (0.55%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.55%) VSAN
8 1 (0.28%) Internet
8 1 (0.28%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.51%) Power BI
2 11 (3.03%) NoSQL
3 10 (2.75%) DynamoDB
4 9 (2.48%) MySQL
4 9 (2.48%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.20%) Amazon Aurora
5 8 (2.20%) Relational Database
5 8 (2.20%) SQL Server
5 8 (2.20%) Tableau
6 7 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (1.93%) BigQuery
7 6 (1.65%) RDBMS
7 6 (1.65%) Redis
8 5 (1.38%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (1.10%) MS Access
9 4 (1.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.83%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.83%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.83%) Power Query
11 2 (0.55%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 43 (11.85%) JIRA
2 32 (8.82%) Git
3 27 (7.44%) Jenkins
4 16 (4.41%) GitLab
5 13 (3.58%) JUnit
5 13 (3.58%) Maven
6 11 (3.03%) Gradle
7 8 (2.20%) SonarQube
8 7 (1.93%) Selenium
9 6 (1.65%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.38%) SonarLint
10 5 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
11 3 (0.83%) Cypress.io
11 3 (0.83%) TestRail
12 2 (0.55%) Grunt
12 2 (0.55%) gulp
12 2 (0.55%) Rational DOORS
13 1 (0.28%) Artifactory
13 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
13 1 (0.28%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 195 (53.72%) Social Skills
2 153 (42.15%) Analytical Skills
3 88 (24.24%) Finance
4 40 (11.02%) Banking
5 24 (6.61%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.86%) Legal
7 10 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.75%) Local Government
8 9 (2.48%) Law
8 9 (2.48%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.48%) Pharmaceutical
9 6 (1.65%) Retail
10 5 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.38%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.38%) Police
11 4 (1.10%) Aerospace
11 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.10%) Games
11 4 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.10%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 60 (16.53%) Analyst
2 50 (13.77%) Developer
3 29 (7.99%) Consultant
4 27 (7.44%) Architect
5 21 (5.79%) Senior
6 18 (4.96%) Business Analyst
7 17 (4.68%) Java Developer
7 17 (4.68%) Platform Engineer
8 15 (4.13%) Administrator
8 15 (4.13%) Lead
9 12 (3.31%) SAP Consultant
10 11 (3.03%) Support Analyst
11 10 (2.75%) Operational Support Analyst
11 10 (2.75%) Operations Analyst
11 10 (2.75%) Operations Support Analyst
12 9 (2.48%) Service Analyst
13 8 (2.20%) Software Engineer
13 8 (2.20%) Technical Architect
13 8 (2.20%) Technical Manager
14 7 (1.93%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (8.54%) REST
2 26 (7.16%) Spring Boot
3 23 (6.34%) Spring
4 15 (4.13%) React
5 14 (3.86%) RESTful
6 13 (3.58%) HTML
7 12 (3.31%) Kafka
7 12 (3.31%) SOAP
8 11 (3.03%) AngularJS
8 11 (3.03%) CSS
9 10 (2.75%) JSON
10 8 (2.20%) .NET
10 8 (2.20%) J2EE
10 8 (2.20%) JWT
10 8 (2.20%) XML
10 8 (2.20%) XMPP
11 7 (1.93%) JMS
12 6 (1.65%) Dropwizard
12 6 (1.65%) Micronaut
13 5 (1.38%) Celery
Miscellaneous
1 29 (7.99%) Product Ownership
2 15 (4.13%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.31%) Management Information System
3 12 (3.31%) Onboarding
4 10 (2.75%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 8 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (2.20%) Virtual Team
6 7 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
6 7 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.65%) N-Tier
8 5 (1.38%) Data Centre
8 5 (1.38%) Data Structures
9 4 (1.10%) Cyberattack
9 4 (1.10%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.10%) Mobile App
10 3 (0.83%) CMDB
10 3 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.83%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 2 (0.55%) Fat Client
Operating Systems
1 35 (9.64%) Windows
2 27 (7.44%) Linux
3 12 (3.31%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.75%) Android
4 10 (2.75%) Apple iOS
4 10 (2.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (2.48%) Unix
5 9 (2.48%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.28%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (22.31%) Agile
2 56 (15.43%) CI/CD
3 55 (15.15%) Continuous Improvement
4 49 (13.50%) Stakeholder Management
5 43 (11.85%) Analytics
6 41 (11.29%) Change Management
6 41 (11.29%) Project Management
7 36 (9.92%) DevOps
7 36 (9.92%) Migration
8 35 (9.64%) ITIL
9 29 (7.99%) Containerisation
9 29 (7.99%) Microservices
9 29 (7.99%) Requirements Gathering
10 28 (7.71%) ITSM
11 27 (7.44%) Test Automation
12 26 (7.16%) Business Intelligence
12 26 (7.16%) Roadmaps
13 25 (6.89%) User Acceptance Testing
14 24 (6.61%) AI
14 24 (6.61%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 47 (12.95%) Java
2 45 (12.40%) SQL
3 43 (11.85%) Python
4 22 (6.06%) JavaScript
4 22 (6.06%) PowerShell
5 17 (4.68%) Bash
6 8 (2.20%) C#
6 8 (2.20%) Perl
6 8 (2.20%) TypeScript
7 7 (1.93%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.10%) Go
9 4 (1.10%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.55%) Groovy
10 2 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.55%) VBA
10 2 (0.55%) X++
11 1 (0.28%) C
11 1 (0.28%) Korn
11 1 (0.28%) Scala
Qualifications
1 62 (17.08%) Security Cleared
2 54 (14.88%) Degree
3 49 (13.50%) SC Cleared
4 20 (5.51%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.03%) Six Sigma Green Belt
7 9 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (2.20%) CCDP
8 8 (2.20%) CCNP
9 7 (1.93%) CCNA
9 7 (1.93%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.38%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.38%) PMP
11 4 (1.10%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.10%) Azure Certification
11 4 (1.10%) CBAP
11 4 (1.10%) CISSP
11 4 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.51%) QA
2 11 (3.03%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.03%) SEPA
3 10 (2.75%) Accessibility
4 9 (2.48%) GDPR
5 8 (2.20%) ISO 20022
6 6 (1.65%) PSD2
7 4 (1.10%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.55%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.55%) COBIT
8 2 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.55%) NIST
8 2 (0.55%) PMO
8 2 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.28%) GRC
9 1 (0.28%) HL7
9 1 (0.28%) ISO 26262
9 1 (0.28%) PMBOK
9 1 (0.28%) SLA
System Software
1 30 (8.26%) Docker
2 24 (6.61%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.38%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.55%) vSphere
6 1 (0.28%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 30 (8.26%) Kubernetes
2 18 (4.96%) Terraform
3 17 (4.68%) SCCM
4 11 (3.03%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (1.38%) Grafana
5 5 (1.38%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (1.10%) Norton AntiVirus
7 3 (0.83%) HP ALM
7 3 (0.83%) SCOM
7 3 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.55%) Istio
8 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.55%) QRadar
8 2 (0.55%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 1 (0.28%) Ansible
9 1 (0.28%) Argo
9 1 (0.28%) Autotask
9 1 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 98 (27.00%) Microsoft
2 46 (12.67%) SAP
3 21 (5.79%) Oracle
4 20 (5.51%) ServiceNow
5 13 (3.58%) Red Hat
5 13 (3.58%) VMware
6 11 (3.03%) Cisco
7 8 (2.20%) Citrix
7 8 (2.20%) Google
8 7 (1.93%) IBM
9 6 (1.65%) Splunk
10 5 (1.38%) Gigya
10 5 (1.38%) Workday
11 4 (1.10%) F5
11 4 (1.10%) Liquidlogic
11 4 (1.10%) McAfee
11 4 (1.10%) Symantec
12 3 (0.83%) Bloomberg
12 3 (0.83%) Computacenter
12 3 (0.83%) HP