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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -8 0 +8
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 378 355 307
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.35% 15.98% 12.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.28% 17.98% 15.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 205 181
10th Percentile £250 £258 £250
25th Percentile £349 £356 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £458 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.64% +1.67% -9.09%
75th Percentile £538 £545 £550
90th Percentile £638 £668 £588
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 40 9
10th Percentile £14.23 £12.21 £23.40
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £26.25
Median hourly rate £24.19 £20.26 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.43% -66.24% +130.77%
75th Percentile £72.75 £60.23 £68.18
90th Percentile £88.25 £70.02 £81.94
England median hourly rate £19.33 £18.96 £16.23
% change year-on-year +1.95% +16.82% -68.32%

All Process & 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 3,350 1,974 2,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.88% 88.88% 83.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,893 1,307 1,108
10th Percentile £300 £255 £294
25th Percentile £403 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £676 £679 £650
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 374 145 113
10th Percentile £14.33 £13.96 £17.32
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £26.25
Median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +88.90% -37.64% +15.21%
75th Percentile £72.73 £44.78 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £67.25 £71.38
England median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +53.96% -40.82% -5.56%

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 15 October 2026.

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 15 October 2026.

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 15 October 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 -13 175 £486 +4.57% 118
Cheshire -2 114 £411 -8.67% 31
Lancashire -7 42 £300 -33.33% 34
Cumbria -9 23 £413 +106.25% 10
Merseyside -20 14 £438 -12.40% 16
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 15 (3.97%) Confluence
2 13 (3.44%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.53%) CMS
5 1 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.26%) Apache
5 1 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.26%) Camunda
5 1 (0.26%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 33 (8.73%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (2.38%) MS Visio
4 5 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.79%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.53%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 9 (2.38%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (2.12%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.79%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.79%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.79%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.53%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.53%) SAP HCM
5 2 (0.53%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.26%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.26%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.26%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 1 (0.26%) Infor M3
6 1 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.26%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.26%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 60 (15.87%) Azure
2 56 (14.81%) Microsoft 365
3 39 (10.32%) AWS
4 25 (6.61%) Power Platform
5 19 (5.03%) Entra ID
6 13 (3.44%) GCP
7 11 (2.91%) GitHub
8 10 (2.65%) Power Automate
9 8 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.85%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.59%) IaaS
12 5 (1.32%) OpenShift
13 4 (1.06%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (1.06%) Serverless
14 3 (0.79%) Anthropic Claude
14 3 (0.79%) ChatGPT
14 3 (0.79%) Google Sheets
14 3 (0.79%) n8n
14 3 (0.79%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 37 (9.79%) VPN
2 20 (5.29%) Firewall
3 17 (4.50%) DNS
4 16 (4.23%) WAN
5 13 (3.44%) Network Security
6 11 (2.91%) LAN
7 10 (2.65%) Wireless
8 8 (2.12%) BIG-IP
8 8 (2.12%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 8 (2.12%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 7 (1.85%) DHCP
9 7 (1.85%) SD-WAN
9 7 (1.85%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (1.32%) NetScaler
10 5 (1.32%) TCP/IP
11 4 (1.06%) VLAN
12 3 (0.79%) Cisco Nexus
12 3 (0.79%) PABX
12 3 (0.79%) SSL
12 3 (0.79%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (5.03%) Power BI
2 15 (3.97%) SQL Server
3 12 (3.17%) Relational Database
4 11 (2.91%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.85%) DataStage
6 6 (1.59%) Db2
7 4 (1.06%) Metadata
7 4 (1.06%) MongoDB
7 4 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.79%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.79%) MySQL
8 3 (0.79%) Semantic Layer
8 3 (0.79%) Tableau
9 2 (0.53%) Big Data
9 2 (0.53%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.53%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.53%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.53%) Power Query
9 2 (0.53%) SAP HANA
10 1 (0.26%) Looker
Development Applications
1 25 (6.61%) JIRA
2 13 (3.44%) Git
2 13 (3.44%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.85%) GitLab
4 4 (1.06%) Cucumber
4 4 (1.06%) Gatling
4 4 (1.06%) MSI
4 4 (1.06%) REST Assured
4 4 (1.06%) Selenium
4 4 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.79%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.53%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.53%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.53%) Gradle
6 2 (0.53%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.53%) Maven
6 2 (0.53%) Serenity BDD
6 2 (0.53%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.26%) NUnit
7 1 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
General
1 200 (52.91%) Social Skills
2 150 (39.68%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (19.31%) Finance
4 38 (10.05%) Manufacturing
5 35 (9.26%) Banking
6 22 (5.82%) Organisational Skills
7 19 (5.03%) Legal
8 13 (3.44%) Aerospace
9 10 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (2.38%) Automotive
11 7 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.59%) Public Sector
12 6 (1.59%) Retail
12 6 (1.59%) Telecoms
13 5 (1.32%) Law
14 3 (0.79%) Games
14 3 (0.79%) Investment Banking
15 2 (0.53%) French Language
15 2 (0.53%) Italian Language
15 2 (0.53%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 49 (12.96%) Analyst
2 31 (8.20%) IT Support
3 27 (7.14%) Developer
4 25 (6.61%) Senior
4 25 (6.61%) Support Engineer
5 23 (6.08%) Lead
6 20 (5.29%) Administrator
7 17 (4.50%) Architect
7 17 (4.50%) Consultant
8 16 (4.23%) IT Engineer
9 14 (3.70%) IT Support Engineer
9 14 (3.70%) Service Analyst
10 13 (3.44%) Network Engineer
11 12 (3.17%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.17%) IT Analyst
11 12 (3.17%) Service Desk Analyst
12 11 (2.91%) Business Analyst
12 11 (2.91%) Support Analyst
13 10 (2.65%) Project Manager
13 10 (2.65%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.08%) REST
2 15 (3.97%) Terraform
3 13 (3.44%) Spring
4 12 (3.17%) Spring Boot
5 11 (2.91%) Kafka
6 9 (2.38%) React
7 6 (1.59%) Node.js
7 6 (1.59%) Playwright
8 5 (1.32%) HTML
8 5 (1.32%) JSON
8 5 (1.32%) Lightning Web Components
8 5 (1.32%) SOAP
9 4 (1.06%) .NET
9 4 (1.06%) Middleware
9 4 (1.06%) OAuth
9 4 (1.06%) XML
10 3 (0.79%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.79%) PySpark
10 3 (0.79%) RESTful
10 3 (0.79%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.20%) Onboarding
2 17 (4.50%) Driving Licence
3 16 (4.23%) Cloud Native
3 16 (4.23%) Product Ownership
4 15 (3.97%) Data Centre
4 15 (3.97%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (3.97%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
5 14 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
6 11 (2.91%) Management Information System
7 9 (2.38%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.38%) Public Cloud
8 8 (2.12%) CMDB
8 8 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.85%) Data Structures
10 4 (1.06%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.06%) PKI
10 4 (1.06%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.06%) Smartphone
10 4 (1.06%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 91 (24.07%) Windows
2 28 (7.41%) Windows 10
3 19 (5.03%) Linux
4 17 (4.50%) Windows Server
5 12 (3.17%) Unix
6 11 (2.91%) Apple iOS
7 8 (2.12%) macOS
8 5 (1.32%) Solaris
9 4 (1.06%) Android
10 2 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.26%) AIX
11 1 (0.26%) HPUX
11 1 (0.26%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.26%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (22.75%) Continuous Improvement
1 86 (22.75%) Stakeholder Management
2 64 (16.93%) Agile
3 57 (15.08%) Customer Service
4 56 (14.81%) ITIL
5 55 (14.55%) CI/CD
6 43 (11.38%) AI
7 35 (9.26%) DevOps
7 35 (9.26%) Migration
7 35 (9.26%) Root Cause Analysis
8 31 (8.20%) Decision-Making
8 31 (8.20%) Software Engineering
9 30 (7.94%) Change Management
10 29 (7.67%) Analytics
10 29 (7.67%) Data Modelling
11 28 (7.41%) Data Protection
11 28 (7.41%) Validation
12 26 (6.88%) Service Management
12 26 (6.88%) User Experience
13 25 (6.61%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 47 (12.43%) Python
2 45 (11.90%) SQL
3 33 (8.73%) PowerShell
4 24 (6.35%) Java
5 10 (2.65%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.85%) Shell Script
6 7 (1.85%) TypeScript
7 6 (1.59%) Bash
7 6 (1.59%) PL/SQL
8 5 (1.32%) ActionScript
8 5 (1.32%) Apex Code
8 5 (1.32%) C#
9 3 (0.79%) Assembly Language
9 3 (0.79%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.53%) ABAP
10 2 (0.53%) Bicep
10 2 (0.53%) Go
10 2 (0.53%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.53%) VBScript
11 1 (0.26%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 59 (15.61%) Security Cleared
2 44 (11.64%) SC Cleared
3 39 (10.32%) Degree
4 26 (6.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (2.65%) CISSP
7 9 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (2.38%) HNC
7 9 (2.38%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.59%) A+ Certification
8 6 (1.59%) HND
8 6 (1.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 5 (1.32%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.32%) CCNP
9 5 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (1.06%) ACCA
10 4 (1.06%) CCNA
10 4 (1.06%) CIMA
10 4 (1.06%) CISM
10 4 (1.06%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (9.52%) Data Quality
2 17 (4.50%) SLA
3 9 (2.38%) QA
4 7 (1.85%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.85%) GDPR
4 7 (1.85%) GRC
4 7 (1.85%) NIST
5 4 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.53%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.53%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.53%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.53%) PMO
7 1 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.26%) NCSC
7 1 (0.26%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 55 (14.55%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.17%) Docker
3 12 (3.17%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (1.85%) Firmware
4 7 (1.85%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.32%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 5 (1.32%) XenApp
5 5 (1.32%) XenDesktop
6 4 (1.06%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.26%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 23 (6.08%) SCCM
2 19 (5.03%) Kubernetes
2 19 (5.03%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (1.85%) Ansible
3 7 (1.85%) Grafana
4 5 (1.32%) FortiGate
4 5 (1.32%) Prometheus
5 4 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.79%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.53%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.53%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.53%) Istio
7 2 (0.53%) WMI
8 1 (0.26%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.26%) Puppet
8 1 (0.26%) SCOM
8 1 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 108 (28.57%) Microsoft
2 45 (11.90%) ServiceNow
3 25 (6.61%) SAP
4 18 (4.76%) Oracle
5 16 (4.23%) Cisco
5 16 (4.23%) VMware
6 13 (3.44%) F5
6 13 (3.44%) Splunk
7 12 (3.17%) Workday
8 10 (2.65%) Salesforce
9 9 (2.38%) Google
9 9 (2.38%) Palo Alto
9 9 (2.38%) Remedy
10 8 (2.12%) IBM
11 7 (1.85%) Apple
11 7 (1.85%) Citrix
11 7 (1.85%) Fortinet
12 6 (1.59%) Bomgar
12 6 (1.59%) Teradata
12 6 (1.59%) Zscaler