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

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 7 13
Rank change year-on-year 0 +6 +6
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 368 292 282
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.12% 12.58% 10.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.17% 14.88% 11.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 163 166
10th Percentile £239 £250 £317
25th Percentile £338 £356 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £460 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% -8.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £586
90th Percentile £628 £600 £700
England median daily rate £478 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -4.50% -1.96% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 9 18
10th Percentile £14.12 £13.36 £16.85
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.90 £19.51
Median hourly rate £20.26 £27.13 £35.94
Median % change year-on-year -25.33% -24.53% +24.27%
75th Percentile £55.44 £37.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £73.14 £61.15
England median hourly rate £19.00 £18.97 £45.97
% change year-on-year +0.16% -58.73% +55.82%

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 2,143 1,962 2,402
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.04% 84.50% 88.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,424 1,056 1,650
10th Percentile £213 £294 £270
25th Percentile £358 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £651 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 119 155
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.21 £16.10
25th Percentile £19.12 £22.94 £18.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.43% - +45.83%
75th Percentile £46.71 £51.89 £46.53
90th Percentile £70.81 £69.98 £64.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -30.14% -20.00% +25.00%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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
Manchester -1 152 £450 +0.11% 249
Cheshire 0 144 £447 -10.60% 87
Merseyside +5 34 £225 -10.00% 64
Lancashire +2 33 £550 +10.00% 183
Cumbria +1 2 £475 +15.15% 15
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 (5.16%) Microsoft Exchange
1 19 (5.16%) SharePoint
2 15 (4.08%) Confluence
3 7 (1.90%) Apache
3 7 (1.90%) Exchange Server 2013
3 7 (1.90%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.36%) JBoss
4 5 (1.36%) Tomcat
5 3 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.54%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.54%) CMS
6 2 (0.54%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.54%) WebSphere Application Server
7 1 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.27%) EPiServer
7 1 (0.27%) Moodle
7 1 (0.27%) Mule
7 1 (0.27%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.27%) SAS
7 1 (0.27%) WebLogic
Applications
1 32 (8.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (7.88%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (4.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (4.08%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.36%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.54%) Simulink
7 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 28 (7.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.09%) ContrOCC
2 4 (1.09%) SAP EHS
2 4 (1.09%) SAP EWM
3 3 (0.82%) iTrent
3 3 (0.82%) Kondor
3 3 (0.82%) Maximo
4 2 (0.54%) Advent Geneva
4 2 (0.54%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.54%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.27%) Finacle
5 1 (0.27%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 1 (0.27%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.27%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.27%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.27%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 55 (14.95%) Azure
2 52 (14.13%) AWS
3 36 (9.78%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (6.52%) GitHub
4 24 (6.52%) Power Platform
5 21 (5.71%) GCP
6 13 (3.53%) Serverless
7 11 (2.99%) Amazon ECS
7 11 (2.99%) SaaS
8 10 (2.72%) AWS Lambda
8 10 (2.72%) Datadog
9 9 (2.45%) Amazon SQS
9 9 (2.45%) OneDrive
10 8 (2.17%) Apigee
10 8 (2.17%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (1.90%) Amazon EventBridge
11 7 (1.90%) Entra ID
12 6 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (1.63%) AWS Fargate
12 6 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (3.80%) Network Security
2 12 (3.26%) Firewall
3 8 (2.17%) LAN
3 8 (2.17%) WAN
4 7 (1.90%) BGP
4 7 (1.90%) Skype
4 7 (1.90%) VLAN
5 6 (1.63%) DNS
5 6 (1.63%) Software-Defined Networking
5 6 (1.63%) WebEx
6 4 (1.09%) HTTP
7 3 (0.82%) DMZ
7 3 (0.82%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 3 (0.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 2 (0.54%) Calico
8 2 (0.54%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.54%) VoIP
8 2 (0.54%) VSAN
9 1 (0.27%) SAN
9 1 (0.27%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (4.89%) Power BI
2 14 (3.80%) MySQL
3 13 (3.53%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (3.53%) Relational Database
4 11 (2.99%) DynamoDB
4 11 (2.99%) NoSQL
5 9 (2.45%) BigQuery
5 9 (2.45%) SQL Server
6 8 (2.17%) Amazon Aurora
7 7 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.63%) Redis
9 5 (1.36%) RDBMS
9 5 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (1.09%) MS Access
10 4 (1.09%) Power Query
10 4 (1.09%) Tableau
11 3 (0.82%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.82%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.54%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 45 (12.23%) JIRA
2 37 (10.05%) Git
3 26 (7.07%) Jenkins
4 18 (4.89%) GitLab
5 12 (3.26%) JUnit
5 12 (3.26%) Maven
6 10 (2.72%) Gradle
7 8 (2.17%) SonarQube
8 7 (1.90%) Selenium
9 6 (1.63%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.36%) SonarLint
11 4 (1.09%) Sonatype Nexus
12 3 (0.82%) Cypress.io
12 3 (0.82%) TestRail
13 2 (0.54%) Grunt
13 2 (0.54%) gulp
13 2 (0.54%) Rational DOORS
14 1 (0.27%) Appium
14 1 (0.27%) Artifactory
14 1 (0.27%) Zephyr
General
1 196 (53.26%) Social Skills
2 143 (38.86%) Analytical Skills
3 104 (28.26%) Finance
4 39 (10.60%) Banking
5 33 (8.97%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.80%) Legal
7 10 (2.72%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.72%) Local Government
7 10 (2.72%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.45%) Pharmaceutical
9 8 (2.17%) Law
10 5 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.09%) Aerospace
11 4 (1.09%) Automotive
11 4 (1.09%) Games
11 4 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.09%) Police
11 4 (1.09%) Retail
11 4 (1.09%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.82%) Military
Job Titles
1 58 (15.76%) Developer
2 53 (14.40%) Analyst
3 30 (8.15%) Consultant
4 23 (6.25%) Administrator
5 22 (5.98%) Architect
6 20 (5.43%) Java Developer
7 19 (5.16%) Senior
8 17 (4.62%) Business Analyst
8 17 (4.62%) Lead
8 17 (4.62%) Platform Engineer
9 13 (3.53%) SAP Consultant
10 11 (2.99%) Service Analyst
11 10 (2.72%) IT Support
12 8 (2.17%) Project Manager
12 8 (2.17%) Service Desk Analyst
12 8 (2.17%) Software Engineer
12 8 (2.17%) Support Analyst
12 8 (2.17%) Technical Architect
12 8 (2.17%) Technical Manager
13 7 (1.90%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (9.24%) REST
2 32 (8.70%) Spring Boot
3 29 (7.88%) Spring
4 19 (5.16%) RESTful
5 14 (3.80%) Kafka
6 13 (3.53%) React
6 13 (3.53%) SOAP
7 12 (3.26%) JSON
8 11 (2.99%) HTML
9 10 (2.72%) JWT
9 10 (2.72%) XML
10 9 (2.45%) JMS
11 8 (2.17%) .NET
11 8 (2.17%) AngularJS
11 8 (2.17%) CSS
11 8 (2.17%) J2EE
12 7 (1.90%) Hibernate
13 6 (1.63%) ISPF
13 6 (1.63%) OAuth
13 6 (1.63%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.42%) Product Ownership
2 17 (4.62%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.26%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.26%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 8 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
5 7 (1.90%) Data Structures
5 7 (1.90%) Mainframe
5 7 (1.90%) Management Information System
5 7 (1.90%) Virtual Team
6 6 (1.63%) N-Tier
7 5 (1.36%) Data Centre
8 4 (1.09%) Cyberattack
8 4 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.09%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.82%) Fat Client
9 3 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.82%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 41 (11.14%) Windows
2 27 (7.34%) Linux
3 14 (3.80%) Windows 10
4 13 (3.53%) Android
5 12 (3.26%) Unix
5 12 (3.26%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.72%) Apple iOS
6 10 (2.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.27%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.27%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (24.46%) Agile
2 60 (16.30%) CI/CD
3 55 (14.95%) Continuous Improvement
4 52 (14.13%) Stakeholder Management
5 47 (12.77%) Change Management
6 42 (11.41%) Project Management
7 41 (11.14%) Analytics
8 40 (10.87%) DevOps
9 37 (10.05%) Containerisation
10 36 (9.78%) Migration
11 35 (9.51%) Microservices
12 33 (8.97%) Requirements Gathering
13 30 (8.15%) Test Automation
14 29 (7.88%) Computer Science
14 29 (7.88%) ITIL
15 28 (7.61%) AI
16 27 (7.34%) Roadmaps
16 27 (7.34%) User Acceptance Testing
17 25 (6.79%) Decision-Making
17 25 (6.79%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 52 (14.13%) Java
2 48 (13.04%) SQL
3 44 (11.96%) Python
4 20 (5.43%) PowerShell
5 18 (4.89%) JavaScript
6 17 (4.62%) Bash
7 8 (2.17%) C#
7 8 (2.17%) Perl
8 6 (1.63%) CLIST
8 6 (1.63%) COBOL
8 6 (1.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.63%) JCL
8 6 (1.63%) REXX
8 6 (1.63%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.36%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.36%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.09%) Go
11 2 (0.54%) ABAP
11 2 (0.54%) Groovy
11 2 (0.54%) VBA
Qualifications
1 68 (18.48%) Security Cleared
2 60 (16.30%) Degree
3 51 (13.86%) SC Cleared
4 22 (5.98%) BPSS Clearance
4 22 (5.98%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (2.99%) Six Sigma Green Belt
6 9 (2.45%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (2.17%) CCDP
7 8 (2.17%) CCNP
8 7 (1.90%) CCNA
9 6 (1.63%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.36%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.36%) PMP
11 4 (1.09%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.09%) CBAP
11 4 (1.09%) CISSP
12 3 (0.82%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (6.79%) QA
2 13 (3.53%) Data Quality
3 10 (2.72%) ISO 20022
3 10 (2.72%) SEPA
4 9 (2.45%) GDPR
5 8 (2.17%) PSD2
6 6 (1.63%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.09%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.54%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.54%) COBIT
8 2 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.54%) NIST
8 2 (0.54%) PMO
8 2 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.27%) GRC
9 1 (0.27%) HL7
9 1 (0.27%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.27%) ISO 26262
9 1 (0.27%) PMBOK
9 1 (0.27%) SLA
System Software
1 36 (9.78%) Docker
2 22 (5.98%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.63%) ACF2
3 6 (1.63%) RACF
3 6 (1.63%) Time Sharing Option
4 5 (1.36%) VMware NSX
5 4 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.54%) vSphere
7 1 (0.27%) Firmware
7 1 (0.27%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 38 (10.33%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.43%) Terraform
3 17 (4.62%) SCCM
4 11 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (1.63%) CA Endevor
5 6 (1.63%) Tivoli
5 6 (1.63%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 5 (1.36%) Grafana
6 5 (1.36%) Norton AntiVirus
6 5 (1.36%) Prometheus
7 4 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.82%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.54%) Istio
9 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.54%) QRadar
10 1 (0.27%) Ansible
10 1 (0.27%) Argo
10 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.27%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 101 (27.45%) Microsoft
2 50 (13.59%) SAP
3 25 (6.79%) Oracle
4 18 (4.89%) ServiceNow
5 13 (3.53%) VMware
6 11 (2.99%) Google
7 10 (2.72%) Red Hat
8 9 (2.45%) Cisco
8 9 (2.45%) Citrix
9 7 (1.90%) IBM
10 6 (1.63%) Workday
11 5 (1.36%) Gigya
11 5 (1.36%) McAfee
11 5 (1.36%) Symantec
12 4 (1.09%) F5
12 4 (1.09%) Liquidlogic
12 4 (1.09%) MuleSoft
12 4 (1.09%) Splunk
13 3 (0.82%) Bloomberg
13 3 (0.82%) Snow