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 4 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 9
Rank change year-on-year -8 +6 +8
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 337 385 295
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.04% 19.71% 10.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.06% 21.96% 12.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 228 177
10th Percentile £275 £211 £300
25th Percentile £358 £391 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £489 £488
Median % change year-on-year -9.41% +0.31% +1.56%
75th Percentile £523 £568 £550
90th Percentile £626 £691 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 32 50
10th Percentile £13.95 £17.44 -
25th Percentile £17.35 £22.66 £10.95
Median hourly rate £37.50 £28.75 £11.20
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% +156.81% -67.12%
75th Percentile £75.00 £50.17 £43.75
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £53.75
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.39 £16.23
% change year-on-year -0.19% +31.79% -68.96%

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 2,794 1,753 2,317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 83.25% 89.76% 85.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,666 1,150 1,440
10th Percentile £300 £300 £307
25th Percentile £400 £391 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -6.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £555 £588
90th Percentile £675 £663 £675
England median daily rate £515 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -1.55% -0.36% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 242 94 268
10th Percentile £17.13 £13.50 £11.00
25th Percentile £25.38 £22.72 £14.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £31.88 £26.83
Median % change year-on-year +72.52% +18.82% -23.34%
75th Percentile £75.00 £63.40 £46.18
90th Percentile £85.00 £85.03 £66.61
England median hourly rate £47.00 £28.53 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.77% -23.93% +0.54%

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 4 June 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 4 June 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 4 June 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 -12 168 £450 -2.70% 264
Cheshire -5 90 £417 -17.52% 66
Lancashire -6 34 £588 +12.51% 67
Cumbria -3 21 £495 +147.50% 16
Merseyside -24 16 £200 -57.89% 24
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 29 (8.61%) Confluence
2 5 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.19%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.89%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.59%) Camunda
5 2 (0.59%) CMS
5 2 (0.59%) JBoss
6 1 (0.30%) Mule
6 1 (0.30%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.30%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.30%) nginx
6 1 (0.30%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.30%) WebLogic
Applications
1 16 (4.75%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.78%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.89%) CATIA
4 3 (0.89%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.30%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 33 (9.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.78%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (1.19%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.89%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.30%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.30%) ResourceLink
6 1 (0.30%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.30%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.30%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 75 (22.26%) Azure
2 61 (18.10%) AWS
3 25 (7.42%) Power Platform
4 24 (7.12%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (5.93%) GCP
6 14 (4.15%) Entra ID
7 12 (3.56%) GitHub
8 7 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.78%) Power Automate
9 6 (1.78%) SaaS
10 5 (1.48%) dbt
10 5 (1.48%) GitHub Actions
10 5 (1.48%) OpenShift
11 4 (1.19%) Apigee
11 4 (1.19%) Azure AKS
11 4 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (1.19%) Google Sheets
11 4 (1.19%) Google Workspace
11 4 (1.19%) Kong
11 4 (1.19%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 19 (5.64%) Firewall
2 18 (5.34%) DNS
3 9 (2.67%) DHCP
4 8 (2.37%) WAN
4 8 (2.37%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (2.08%) Kerberos
5 7 (2.08%) TCP/IP
6 6 (1.78%) LAN
6 6 (1.78%) Network Security
6 6 (1.78%) VLAN
6 6 (1.78%) VPN
6 6 (1.78%) Wireless
7 4 (1.19%) BGP
7 4 (1.19%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 4 (1.19%) NetScaler
7 4 (1.19%) SAN
7 4 (1.19%) SSL
8 3 (0.89%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 3 (0.89%) OSPF
8 3 (0.89%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.93%) Power BI
2 16 (4.75%) SQL Server
3 12 (3.56%) MongoDB
4 11 (3.26%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (3.26%) Relational Database
5 6 (1.78%) MySQL
5 6 (1.78%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.78%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (1.19%) Big Data
6 4 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 3 (0.89%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.89%) Data Vault
7 3 (0.89%) DataStage
7 3 (0.89%) Hadoop
7 3 (0.89%) Metadata
7 3 (0.89%) Power Query
7 3 (0.89%) Snowflake Schema
8 2 (0.59%) BusinessObjects
8 2 (0.59%) DB2
8 2 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (15.13%) JIRA
2 21 (6.23%) Git
3 12 (3.56%) GitLab
4 10 (2.97%) Mockito
5 9 (2.67%) Postman
6 8 (2.37%) Jenkins
7 7 (2.08%) JUnit
8 6 (1.78%) Selenium
9 4 (1.19%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.89%) Gatling
10 3 (0.89%) MSI
10 3 (0.89%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.89%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.59%) Gradle
11 2 (0.59%) JMeter
11 2 (0.59%) Maven
11 2 (0.59%) Serenity BDD
11 2 (0.59%) SoapUI
11 2 (0.59%) Zephyr
12 1 (0.30%) Cypress.io
General
1 154 (45.70%) Social Skills
2 148 (43.92%) Analytical Skills
3 111 (32.94%) Finance
4 42 (12.46%) Banking
5 26 (7.72%) Public Sector
6 14 (4.15%) Manufacturing
7 13 (3.86%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (3.56%) Legal
9 10 (2.97%) Law
10 9 (2.67%) Telecoms
11 8 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (2.37%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (2.08%) Retail Banking
13 6 (1.78%) Retail
14 4 (1.19%) Automotive
15 3 (0.89%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.89%) Investment Banking
15 3 (0.89%) Presentation Skills
16 2 (0.59%) Billing
16 2 (0.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 68 (20.18%) Analyst
2 42 (12.46%) Developer
3 29 (8.61%) Business Analyst
4 24 (7.12%) Senior
5 21 (6.23%) Administrator
5 21 (6.23%) Consultant
6 20 (5.93%) Java Developer
6 20 (5.93%) Lead
7 18 (5.34%) Architect
8 16 (4.75%) Project Manager
9 15 (4.45%) IT Analyst
9 15 (4.45%) IT Support
9 15 (4.45%) SAP Consultant
9 15 (4.45%) Support Analyst
10 13 (3.86%) Data Engineer
10 13 (3.86%) Finance Manager
10 13 (3.86%) Finance Project Manager
10 13 (3.86%) Transformation Consultant
11 12 (3.56%) IT Support Analyst
12 9 (2.67%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.82%) REST
2 20 (5.93%) Spring
3 18 (5.34%) Spring Boot
4 17 (5.04%) React
4 17 (5.04%) RESTful
5 16 (4.75%) Kafka
6 14 (4.15%) HTML
7 13 (3.86%) JSON
7 13 (3.86%) SOAP
7 13 (3.86%) XML
8 12 (3.56%) CSS
9 10 (2.97%) OAuth
9 10 (2.97%) Swagger
10 8 (2.37%) AngularJS
11 7 (2.08%) ActiveMQ
11 7 (2.08%) HTML5
11 7 (2.08%) JAX-RS
11 7 (2.08%) LDAP
12 6 (1.78%) .NET
12 6 (1.78%) CSS3
Miscellaneous
1 29 (8.61%) Product Ownership
2 19 (5.64%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.75%) Management Information System
4 12 (3.56%) Cloud Native
5 11 (3.26%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (2.67%) Data Centre
6 9 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (2.37%) Driving Licence
8 7 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (2.08%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.78%) AI Agents
9 6 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.78%) PKI
9 6 (1.78%) Private Cloud
9 6 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.48%) Data Structures
10 5 (1.48%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.19%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.19%) Digital Wallet
11 4 (1.19%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 40 (11.87%) Windows
2 22 (6.53%) Linux
3 13 (3.86%) Unix
4 12 (3.56%) Windows 10
5 9 (2.67%) Apple iOS
5 9 (2.67%) Mac OS
6 8 (2.37%) Windows Server
7 7 (2.08%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.48%) Mac OS X
9 4 (1.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (1.19%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.89%) Android
11 2 (0.59%) AIX
11 2 (0.59%) HPUX
11 2 (0.59%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.59%) Solaris
11 2 (0.59%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (24.63%) Agile
2 59 (17.51%) Change Management
3 58 (17.21%) Continuous Improvement
4 57 (16.91%) Stakeholder Management
5 56 (16.62%) Migration
6 52 (15.43%) CI/CD
7 47 (13.95%) Validation
8 46 (13.65%) Project Management
9 43 (12.76%) Workshop Facilitation
10 40 (11.87%) DevOps
10 40 (11.87%) ERP
11 37 (10.98%) Data Migration
11 37 (10.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 36 (10.68%) ITIL
13 35 (10.39%) Microservices
14 34 (10.09%) Test Automation
15 29 (8.61%) Computer Science
16 27 (8.01%) Analytics
16 27 (8.01%) Business Transformation
16 27 (8.01%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 44 (13.06%) SQL
2 43 (12.76%) Java
3 34 (10.09%) PowerShell
4 33 (9.79%) Python
5 21 (6.23%) JavaScript
6 14 (4.15%) TypeScript
7 6 (1.78%) Bash
8 5 (1.48%) Go
8 5 (1.48%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.19%) C#
9 4 (1.19%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.89%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.89%) CLIST
10 3 (0.89%) COBOL
10 3 (0.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.89%) JCL
10 3 (0.89%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.89%) REXX
10 3 (0.89%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.89%) VBA
Qualifications
1 50 (14.84%) Degree
2 46 (13.65%) Security Cleared
3 30 (8.90%) BPSS Clearance
3 30 (8.90%) SC Cleared
4 26 (7.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (4.45%) CISSP
5 15 (4.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (4.15%) A+ Certification
7 13 (3.86%) Cisco Certification
7 13 (3.86%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (2.67%) CCNA
9 8 (2.37%) AWS Certification
10 7 (2.08%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (1.78%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.78%) CCNP
11 6 (1.78%) CISM
12 5 (1.48%) CEH
13 4 (1.19%) MCSE
14 3 (0.89%) HNC
14 3 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.12%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.26%) QA
3 9 (2.67%) NIST
3 9 (2.67%) PSD2
4 8 (2.37%) GRC
5 6 (1.78%) GDPR
5 6 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.48%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.48%) ISO 20022
6 5 (1.48%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.48%) PMO
7 4 (1.19%) SEPA
7 4 (1.19%) SLA
8 3 (0.89%) ISO 8583
9 2 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 36 (10.68%) Active Directory
2 25 (7.42%) Docker
3 9 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.78%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.48%) vSphere
6 4 (1.19%) Firmware
6 4 (1.19%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.89%) ACF2
7 3 (0.89%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.89%) RACF
7 3 (0.89%) Time Sharing Option
7 3 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.30%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 26 (7.72%) Kubernetes
2 14 (4.15%) Terraform
3 9 (2.67%) SCCM
4 8 (2.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (2.08%) Grafana
6 5 (1.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.48%) Prometheus
7 4 (1.19%) Ansible
8 3 (0.89%) CA Endevor
8 3 (0.89%) Tivoli
8 3 (0.89%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 2 (0.59%) Argo
9 2 (0.59%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.59%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.30%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.30%) Functional Safety
10 1 (0.30%) Istio
10 1 (0.30%) Norton AntiVirus
10 1 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.30%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 55 (16.32%) Microsoft
2 50 (14.84%) SAP
3 20 (5.93%) ServiceNow
4 19 (5.64%) Oracle
5 15 (4.45%) Splunk
6 14 (4.15%) Sage
7 12 (3.56%) VMware
8 10 (2.97%) F5
9 9 (2.67%) Cisco
9 9 (2.67%) Google
10 6 (1.78%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (1.78%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (1.78%) HP
10 6 (1.78%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.78%) Remedy
11 5 (1.48%) Dell
11 5 (1.48%) DocuSign
11 5 (1.48%) Red Hat
11 5 (1.48%) Salesforce
12 4 (1.19%) Citrix