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 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 10
Rank change year-on-year -4 +6 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 384 374 307
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 12.55% 18.48% 10.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.75% 20.43% 12.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 234 179
10th Percentile £214 £208 £313
25th Percentile £350 £363 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £511 £584 £579
90th Percentile £575 £675 £688
England median daily rate £489 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.25% - -7.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 26 50
10th Percentile £15.18 £19.20 -
25th Percentile £17.06 £24.88 £10.95
Median hourly rate £41.86 £28.75 £11.20
Median % change year-on-year +45.58% +156.81% -73.44%
75th Percentile £74.26 £36.28 £43.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £61.71 £46.75
England median hourly rate £20.53 £24.76 £18.25
% change year-on-year -17.07% +35.67% -55.04%

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 2,604 1,831 2,444
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 85.10% 90.46% 86.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,636 1,152 1,589
10th Percentile £220 £276 £311
25th Percentile £370 £391 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.21% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £574 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £686
England median daily rate £504 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.05% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 115 258
10th Percentile £17.46 £16.95 £10.99
25th Percentile £25.15 £23.23 £13.50
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.00 £23.86
Median % change year-on-year +40.63% +34.14% -36.39%
75th Percentile £69.25 £60.00 £45.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £78.25 £52.78
England median hourly rate £35.00 £33.26 £32.50
% change year-on-year +5.25% +2.32% -13.33%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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 23 March 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 -6 170 £450 -2.70% 221
Cheshire -9 101 £400 -19.52% 55
Lancashire -3 55 £550 +5.77% 87
Merseyside -9 40 £225 -10.00% 38
Cumbria +3 15 £494 +17.91% 14
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 27 (7.03%) Confluence
2 15 (3.91%) SharePoint
3 14 (3.65%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (1.56%) Apache
5 3 (0.78%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.78%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.26%) CMS
7 1 (0.26%) JBoss
7 1 (0.26%) Moodle
7 1 (0.26%) nginx
7 1 (0.26%) SAS
7 1 (0.26%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (5.21%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (2.86%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.78%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.52%) CATIA
7 2 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.26%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 34 (8.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.04%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.78%) iTrent
3 3 (0.78%) SAP Payroll
3 3 (0.78%) SAP SCM
4 2 (0.52%) Advent Geneva
4 2 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.52%) Kondor
4 2 (0.52%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.26%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.26%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.26%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.26%) SAP EHS
5 1 (0.26%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.26%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 76 (19.79%) Azure
2 64 (16.67%) AWS
3 32 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (7.29%) Power Platform
5 19 (4.95%) Entra ID
5 19 (4.95%) GCP
6 18 (4.69%) GitHub
7 12 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (2.60%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (2.08%) Serverless
10 7 (1.82%) Power Automate
10 7 (1.82%) SaaS
11 6 (1.56%) Apigee
11 6 (1.56%) Kong
12 5 (1.30%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (1.30%) dbt
12 5 (1.30%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (1.04%) Azure Monitor
13 4 (1.04%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 4 (1.04%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.77%) Firewall
2 22 (5.73%) DNS
3 14 (3.65%) Network Security
4 10 (2.60%) VLAN
5 9 (2.34%) DHCP
5 9 (2.34%) LAN
5 9 (2.34%) WAN
5 9 (2.34%) WebEx
6 8 (2.08%) BGP
7 7 (1.82%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.56%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 6 (1.56%) Kerberos
8 6 (1.56%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (1.30%) DMZ
9 5 (1.30%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 5 (1.30%) HTTP
9 5 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (1.04%) NetScaler
10 4 (1.04%) Wireless
11 2 (0.52%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (4.95%) Power BI
2 16 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 14 (3.65%) Relational Database
4 12 (3.13%) MongoDB
5 11 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (2.60%) MySQL
7 9 (2.34%) NoSQL
8 8 (2.08%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (1.30%) DynamoDB
10 4 (1.04%) Big Data
10 4 (1.04%) Metadata
10 4 (1.04%) MS Access
10 4 (1.04%) Power Query
10 4 (1.04%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.78%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.78%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.78%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.78%) SAP HANA
11 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 45 (11.72%) JIRA
2 28 (7.29%) Git
3 15 (3.91%) GitLab
4 9 (2.34%) Mockito
5 8 (2.08%) Jenkins
5 8 (2.08%) Postman
6 4 (1.04%) JUnit
6 4 (1.04%) Selenium
7 3 (0.78%) Jasmine
8 2 (0.52%) JMeter
8 2 (0.52%) SoapUI
8 2 (0.52%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.26%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.26%) Gradle
9 1 (0.26%) Maven
9 1 (0.26%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 164 (42.71%) Social Skills
2 142 (36.98%) Analytical Skills
3 129 (33.59%) Finance
4 45 (11.72%) Banking
5 40 (10.42%) Public Sector
6 18 (4.69%) Legal
7 11 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
7 11 (2.86%) Manufacturing
8 10 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.82%) Retail Banking
11 6 (1.56%) Law
12 5 (1.30%) Retail
13 4 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.04%) Local Government
14 3 (0.78%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.78%) Automotive
14 3 (0.78%) Telecoms
15 2 (0.52%) Games
Job Titles
1 69 (17.97%) Developer
2 64 (16.67%) Analyst
3 32 (8.33%) Business Analyst
4 28 (7.29%) Senior
5 25 (6.51%) Administrator
6 24 (6.25%) Consultant
7 21 (5.47%) Java Developer
7 21 (5.47%) Lead
8 19 (4.95%) SAP Consultant
9 18 (4.69%) Platform Engineer
9 18 (4.69%) Project Manager
10 16 (4.17%) Architect
11 14 (3.65%) Data Engineer
12 13 (3.39%) Finance Manager
12 13 (3.39%) Finance Project Manager
12 13 (3.39%) IT Support
12 13 (3.39%) Transformation Consultant
13 11 (2.86%) Software Engineer
14 10 (2.60%) Full-Stack Developer
14 10 (2.60%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (7.81%) Spring
2 29 (7.55%) REST
2 29 (7.55%) Spring Boot
3 22 (5.73%) RESTful
4 19 (4.95%) SOAP
5 18 (4.69%) JSON
6 17 (4.43%) XML
7 16 (4.17%) Kafka
7 16 (4.17%) OAuth
8 14 (3.65%) HTML
9 13 (3.39%) CSS
9 13 (3.39%) Swagger
10 11 (2.86%) .NET
10 11 (2.86%) React
11 10 (2.60%) OAuth2
12 9 (2.34%) AngularJS
12 9 (2.34%) ISPF
12 9 (2.34%) OpenAPI
12 9 (2.34%) XMPP
13 8 (2.08%) CSS3
Miscellaneous
1 37 (9.64%) Product Ownership
2 16 (4.17%) Onboarding
3 14 (3.65%) Management Information System
4 13 (3.39%) Cloud Native
5 10 (2.60%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 9 (2.34%) Mainframe
6 9 (2.34%) Mobile App
7 8 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (1.82%) Data Structures
8 7 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.56%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.56%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (1.30%) CMDB
10 5 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.30%) Fat Client
10 5 (1.30%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.30%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.30%) Thin Client
11 4 (1.04%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 42 (10.94%) Windows
2 30 (7.81%) Linux
3 19 (4.95%) Windows Server
4 15 (3.91%) Windows 10
5 14 (3.65%) Unix
6 12 (3.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (2.60%) Android
8 7 (1.82%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.82%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.30%) Mac OS X
10 4 (1.04%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.78%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (28.13%) Agile
2 72 (18.75%) Change Management
3 68 (17.71%) Continuous Improvement
4 63 (16.41%) CI/CD
5 57 (14.84%) Stakeholder Management
6 53 (13.80%) DevOps
7 52 (13.54%) Migration
7 52 (13.54%) Project Management
8 50 (13.02%) Validation
9 46 (11.98%) Workshop Facilitation
10 44 (11.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 43 (11.20%) Microservices
12 42 (10.94%) Requirements Gathering
13 40 (10.42%) Test Automation
14 37 (9.64%) Data Migration
14 37 (9.64%) ERP
15 32 (8.33%) Analytics
15 32 (8.33%) Computer Science
15 32 (8.33%) Containerisation
15 32 (8.33%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 62 (16.15%) SQL
2 51 (13.28%) Java
3 39 (10.16%) Python
4 38 (9.90%) PowerShell
5 21 (5.47%) JavaScript
6 18 (4.69%) Bash
7 16 (4.17%) TypeScript
8 9 (2.34%) C#
8 9 (2.34%) CLIST
8 9 (2.34%) COBOL
8 9 (2.34%) JCL
8 9 (2.34%) REXX
9 8 (2.08%) Kotlin
9 8 (2.08%) Perl
10 6 (1.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 6 (1.56%) T-SQL
11 5 (1.30%) Go
12 3 (0.78%) ABAP
12 3 (0.78%) Bicep
12 3 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 65 (16.93%) Security Cleared
2 47 (12.24%) Degree
3 44 (11.46%) SC Cleared
4 32 (8.33%) BPSS Clearance
5 26 (6.77%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (3.65%) CCNA
6 14 (3.65%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (2.86%) CCNP
8 8 (2.08%) CCDP
9 6 (1.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (1.30%) A+ Certification
10 5 (1.30%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.30%) Network+ Certification
11 4 (1.04%) Azure Certification
11 4 (1.04%) PMI Certification
11 4 (1.04%) PMP
12 3 (0.78%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.78%) CISM
12 3 (0.78%) CISSP
13 2 (0.52%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.25%) Data Quality
2 19 (4.95%) QA
3 13 (3.39%) PSD2
4 9 (2.34%) ISO 20022
5 8 (2.08%) SEPA
6 6 (1.56%) GDPR
7 5 (1.30%) NIST
8 4 (1.04%) GRC
8 4 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (1.04%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.04%) PMO
9 3 (0.78%) ISO 8583
10 2 (0.52%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.26%) SLA
11 1 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (10.68%) Active Directory
2 36 (9.38%) Docker
3 12 (3.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.34%) ACF2
4 9 (2.34%) RACF
4 9 (2.34%) Time Sharing Option
5 8 (2.08%) VMware NSX
6 7 (1.82%) vSphere
7 5 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.78%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.78%) ISA Server
8 3 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 39 (10.16%) Kubernetes
2 19 (4.95%) Terraform
3 13 (3.39%) SCCM
4 9 (2.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 9 (2.34%) CA Endevor
4 9 (2.34%) Tivoli
4 9 (2.34%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 8 (2.08%) Grafana
5 8 (2.08%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (1.56%) Prometheus
7 4 (1.04%) Ansible
7 4 (1.04%) Norton AntiVirus
8 2 (0.52%) Argo
8 2 (0.52%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.26%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.26%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 73 (19.01%) Microsoft
2 48 (12.50%) SAP
3 25 (6.51%) Oracle
4 23 (5.99%) VMware
5 15 (3.91%) ServiceNow
6 14 (3.65%) Sage
7 13 (3.39%) Citrix
8 12 (3.13%) Red Hat
9 10 (2.60%) Cisco
9 10 (2.60%) F5
10 8 (2.08%) Workday
11 7 (1.82%) Databricks
11 7 (1.82%) Google
11 7 (1.82%) Splunk
12 6 (1.56%) MuleSoft
13 5 (1.30%) Computacenter
13 5 (1.30%) Symantec
14 4 (1.04%) Adobe
14 4 (1.04%) CheckPoint
14 4 (1.04%) McAfee