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 18 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 5 13
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 +4
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 351 309 280
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.53% 12.89% 9.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.42% 15.42% 11.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 183 154
10th Percentile £258 £250 £338
25th Percentile £350 £356 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £460 £495
Median % change year-on-year -0.54% -7.07% +10.00%
75th Percentile £545 £550 £587
90th Percentile £668 £588 £700
England median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 9 19
10th Percentile £12.21 £23.40 £16.55
25th Percentile £17.30 £26.25 £18.36
Median hourly rate £20.26 £60.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -66.24% +130.77% -35.00%
75th Percentile £51.09 £68.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.02 £81.94 £74.50
England median hourly rate £18.86 £16.23 £51.24
% change year-on-year +16.20% -68.32% +74.84%

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 2,015 2,004 2,543
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 89.16% 83.60% 88.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,337 1,092 1,741
10th Percentile £251 £300 £274
25th Percentile £363 £400 £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 £678 £653 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 154 111 175
10th Percentile £14.13 £19.18 £15.85
25th Percentile £17.30 £27.38 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.33 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.64% +15.21% +40.00%
75th Percentile £44.61 £62.50 £46.18
90th Percentile £65.18 £71.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -5.56% +28.57%

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 18 October 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 18 October 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 18 October 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 0 155 £450 -10.00% 147
Manchester -2 140 £465 +6.41% 348
Lancashire +6 24 £450 - 205
Merseyside +2 24 £488 +95.00% 49
Cumbria -5 5 £200 -59.43% 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 (4.27%) Skype for Business
2 14 (3.99%) Confluence
3 12 (3.42%) SharePoint
4 10 (2.85%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (2.28%) Mattermost
6 7 (1.99%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (1.71%) JBoss
7 6 (1.71%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.85%) CICS
9 2 (0.57%) Apache
9 2 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.57%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.57%) WebSphere Application Server
10 1 (0.28%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.28%) CMS
10 1 (0.28%) EPiServer
10 1 (0.28%) Moodle
10 1 (0.28%) Mule
10 1 (0.28%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 36 (10.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (5.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (5.70%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (4.84%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.57%) Simulink
7 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 27 (7.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.14%) ContrOCC
2 4 (1.14%) SAP EHS
2 4 (1.14%) SAP EWM
3 3 (0.85%) Kondor
3 3 (0.85%) Maximo
4 2 (0.57%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.57%) SAP Payroll
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 51 (14.53%) AWS
2 50 (14.25%) Azure
3 26 (7.41%) Microsoft 365
4 22 (6.27%) Power Platform
5 21 (5.98%) GCP
6 19 (5.41%) GitHub
7 13 (3.70%) Serverless
8 11 (3.13%) AWS Lambda
9 10 (2.85%) Amazon ECS
9 10 (2.85%) Datadog
9 10 (2.85%) SaaS
10 8 (2.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 8 (2.28%) Amazon SQS
10 8 (2.28%) OneDrive
11 7 (1.99%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.71%) Amazon EventBridge
12 6 (1.71%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.71%) AWS Fargate
12 6 (1.71%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.27%) Skype
2 8 (2.28%) Network Security
2 8 (2.28%) Softphone
2 8 (2.28%) Unified Communications
2 8 (2.28%) WebEx
3 7 (1.99%) LAN
3 7 (1.99%) WAN
4 5 (1.42%) DNS
5 3 (0.85%) DMZ
5 3 (0.85%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 3 (0.85%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (0.85%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.57%) Calico
6 2 (0.57%) Firewall
6 2 (0.57%) VoIP
7 1 (0.28%) DHCP
7 1 (0.28%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.28%) NX-OS
7 1 (0.28%) Wireless
7 1 (0.28%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.70%) Power BI
2 11 (3.13%) DynamoDB
3 9 (2.56%) NoSQL
3 9 (2.56%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.28%) MySQL
4 8 (2.28%) Tableau
5 7 (1.99%) Amazon Aurora
5 7 (1.99%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (1.99%) BigQuery
5 7 (1.99%) Relational Database
5 7 (1.99%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.71%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.71%) RDBMS
6 6 (1.71%) Redis
7 4 (1.14%) MS Access
8 3 (0.85%) Power Query
8 3 (0.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.57%) Big Data
9 2 (0.57%) Qlik Sense
9 2 (0.57%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 41 (11.68%) JIRA
2 31 (8.83%) Git
3 29 (8.26%) Jenkins
4 16 (4.56%) GitLab
5 13 (3.70%) JUnit
5 13 (3.70%) Maven
6 11 (3.13%) Gradle
7 8 (2.28%) SonarQube
8 6 (1.71%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.42%) Selenium
9 5 (1.42%) SonarLint
9 5 (1.42%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.85%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.85%) TestRail
11 2 (0.57%) Grunt
11 2 (0.57%) gulp
11 2 (0.57%) Rational DOORS
12 1 (0.28%) Appium
12 1 (0.28%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.28%) Zephyr
General
1 190 (54.13%) Social Skills
2 143 (40.74%) Analytical Skills
3 88 (25.07%) Finance
4 42 (11.97%) Banking
5 20 (5.70%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.42%) Legal
7 11 (3.13%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.13%) Pharmaceutical
8 9 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.56%) Law
9 7 (1.99%) Local Government
9 7 (1.99%) Retail
10 6 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.42%) Police
12 4 (1.14%) Aerospace
12 4 (1.14%) Automotive
12 4 (1.14%) Games
12 4 (1.14%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.85%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 65 (18.52%) Analyst
2 45 (12.82%) Developer
3 32 (9.12%) Architect
4 29 (8.26%) Consultant
5 19 (5.41%) Senior
6 17 (4.84%) Business Analyst
6 17 (4.84%) Java Developer
7 14 (3.99%) Operational Support Analyst
7 14 (3.99%) Operations Analyst
7 14 (3.99%) Operations Support Analyst
7 14 (3.99%) Support Analyst
8 13 (3.70%) Administrator
9 12 (3.42%) Lead
9 12 (3.42%) SAP Consultant
10 11 (3.13%) Service Analyst
11 10 (2.85%) Support Engineer
12 9 (2.56%) Security Architect
12 9 (2.56%) Solutions Architect
13 8 (2.28%) Service Desk Analyst
13 8 (2.28%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (8.55%) REST
2 26 (7.41%) Spring Boot
3 23 (6.55%) Spring
4 15 (4.27%) React
4 15 (4.27%) RESTful
5 13 (3.70%) HTML
5 13 (3.70%) Kafka
6 11 (3.13%) AngularJS
6 11 (3.13%) CSS
7 10 (2.85%) SOAP
8 8 (2.28%) J2EE
8 8 (2.28%) JSON
8 8 (2.28%) XMPP
9 7 (1.99%) JMS
9 7 (1.99%) Web Services
10 6 (1.71%) Dropwizard
10 6 (1.71%) JWT
10 6 (1.71%) Micronaut
10 6 (1.71%) XML
11 5 (1.42%) Celery
Miscellaneous
1 18 (5.13%) Management Information System
1 18 (5.13%) Product Ownership
2 14 (3.99%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.13%) Onboarding
4 10 (2.85%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 7 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (1.99%) Virtual Team
6 6 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (1.71%) N-Tier
7 5 (1.42%) Data Structures
8 4 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (1.14%) Cyberattack
8 4 (1.14%) Mainframe
8 4 (1.14%) Mobile App
8 4 (1.14%) Public Cloud
9 3 (0.85%) CMDB
9 3 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.85%) VSAM
10 2 (0.57%) Clustering
10 2 (0.57%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 23 (6.55%) Windows
2 22 (6.27%) Linux
3 10 (2.85%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.56%) Android
4 9 (2.56%) Unix
5 7 (1.99%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.57%) zOS
7 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.28%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (20.80%) Agile
2 50 (14.25%) CI/CD
3 46 (13.11%) Continuous Improvement
4 44 (12.54%) Analytics
4 44 (12.54%) Stakeholder Management
5 42 (11.97%) ITIL
6 40 (11.40%) Project Management
7 37 (10.54%) Migration
8 34 (9.69%) Change Management
9 30 (8.55%) DevOps
10 28 (7.98%) AI
10 28 (7.98%) Decision-Making
11 27 (7.69%) Microservices
11 27 (7.69%) Requirements Gathering
11 27 (7.69%) SDLC
12 26 (7.41%) Business Intelligence
12 26 (7.41%) Test Automation
13 25 (7.12%) User Acceptance Testing
14 24 (6.84%) Containerisation
14 24 (6.84%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 46 (13.11%) Java
2 45 (12.82%) SQL
3 33 (9.40%) Python
4 19 (5.41%) JavaScript
5 15 (4.27%) PowerShell
6 7 (1.99%) Bash
6 7 (1.99%) Shell Script
6 7 (1.99%) TypeScript
7 5 (1.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (1.14%) C#
8 4 (1.14%) Go
9 3 (0.85%) COBOL
9 3 (0.85%) JCL
9 3 (0.85%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.57%) VBA
10 2 (0.57%) X++
11 1 (0.28%) ABAP
11 1 (0.28%) Perl
11 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 51 (14.53%) Degree
2 45 (12.82%) Security Cleared
3 33 (9.40%) SC Cleared
4 17 (4.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (3.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.13%) Six Sigma Green Belt
7 10 (2.85%) ITIL Certification
8 7 (1.99%) DBS Check
9 4 (1.14%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.14%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.14%) CBAP
9 4 (1.14%) CISSP
9 4 (1.14%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 3 (0.85%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.85%) PMP
10 3 (0.85%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.57%) A+ Certification
11 2 (0.57%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.57%) CSPO
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.55%) QA
2 12 (3.42%) GDPR
3 11 (3.13%) Data Quality
3 11 (3.13%) SEPA
4 10 (2.85%) Accessibility
5 8 (2.28%) ISO 20022
6 6 (1.71%) PSD2
7 5 (1.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 4 (1.14%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.57%) COBIT
9 2 (0.57%) GRC
9 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.57%) NIST
9 2 (0.57%) PMO
9 2 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.28%) ISO 26262
10 1 (0.28%) PMBOK
10 1 (0.28%) SLA
System Software
1 27 (7.69%) Docker
2 20 (5.70%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.28%) Firmware
4 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (7.41%) Kubernetes
2 17 (4.84%) Terraform
3 14 (3.99%) SCCM
4 8 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (2.28%) SCOM
5 5 (1.42%) Grafana
5 5 (1.42%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.85%) HP ALM
6 3 (0.85%) Norton AntiVirus
6 3 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.85%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.57%) Istio
7 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
7 2 (0.57%) QRadar
8 1 (0.28%) Ansible
8 1 (0.28%) Argo
8 1 (0.28%) Autotask
8 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 89 (25.36%) Microsoft
2 46 (13.11%) SAP
3 18 (5.13%) ServiceNow
4 17 (4.84%) Oracle
5 11 (3.13%) Cisco
5 11 (3.13%) Splunk
6 9 (2.56%) Google
7 8 (2.28%) Red Hat
8 7 (1.99%) IBM
9 5 (1.42%) F5
9 5 (1.42%) Gigya
9 5 (1.42%) VMware
10 4 (1.14%) Liquidlogic
11 3 (0.85%) Bloomberg
11 3 (0.85%) Computacenter
11 3 (0.85%) HP
11 3 (0.85%) McAfee
11 3 (0.85%) Symantec
12 2 (0.57%) Apple
12 2 (0.57%) MathWorks