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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 10
Rank change year-on-year -7 +7 +9
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 353 380 292
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.79% 19.33% 10.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.94% 21.47% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 226 178
10th Percentile £191 £205 £300
25th Percentile £350 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £424 £490 £493
Median % change year-on-year -13.43% -0.71% +9.56%
75th Percentile £513 £584 £550
90th Percentile £600 £694 £641
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 30 50
10th Percentile £13.95 £17.44 -
25th Percentile £17.35 £22.72 £10.95
Median hourly rate £62.50 £28.75 £11.20
Median % change year-on-year +117.39% +156.81% -72.42%
75th Percentile £75.00 £42.04 £43.75
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £53.75
England median hourly rate £22.00 £22.07 £16.50
% change year-on-year -0.32% +33.76% -65.91%

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 2,727 1,770 2,303
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 83.37% 90.03% 86.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,667 1,153 1,459
10th Percentile £296 £300 £311
25th Percentile £381 £388 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £581 £575 £594
90th Percentile £653 £663 £689
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 104 255
10th Percentile £17.13 £15.23 £10.97
25th Percentile £25.38 £22.74 £13.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £31.88 £25.60
Median % change year-on-year +72.52% +24.53% -27.92%
75th Percentile £74.26 £63.10 £46.03
90th Percentile £85.00 £85.03 £62.50
England median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +62.07% -20.55% +0.69%

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 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -9 173 £450 -2.70% 214
Cheshire -6 93 £402 -20.40% 67
Lancashire -6 36 £435 -16.75% 78
Merseyside -22 25 £175 -62.16% 39
Cumbria -6 19 £488 +59.18% 8
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 26 (7.37%) Confluence
2 8 (2.27%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.85%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (0.85%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.57%) Apache
5 2 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.57%) CMS
5 2 (0.57%) JBoss
6 1 (0.28%) Camunda
6 1 (0.28%) Mule
6 1 (0.28%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.28%) nginx
6 1 (0.28%) SAS
6 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 18 (5.10%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.70%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.85%) CATIA
4 3 (0.85%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.28%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 32 (9.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.70%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (1.13%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.85%) SAP SCM
5 1 (0.28%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.28%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.28%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.28%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.28%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.28%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 75 (21.25%) Azure
2 73 (20.68%) AWS
3 26 (7.37%) Power Platform
4 25 (7.08%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (5.38%) GCP
6 14 (3.97%) Entra ID
7 13 (3.68%) GitHub
8 7 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.70%) dbt
9 6 (1.70%) Power Automate
10 5 (1.42%) Apigee
10 5 (1.42%) Azure Data Factory
10 5 (1.42%) GitHub Actions
10 5 (1.42%) Kong
10 5 (1.42%) SaaS
10 5 (1.42%) Serverless
11 4 (1.13%) Azure AKS
11 4 (1.13%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 4 (1.13%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 19 (5.38%) DNS
2 17 (4.82%) Firewall
3 9 (2.55%) DHCP
4 7 (1.98%) Kerberos
4 7 (1.98%) TCP/IP
5 6 (1.70%) Network Security
5 6 (1.70%) WAN
6 5 (1.42%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 5 (1.42%) SAN
6 5 (1.42%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (1.13%) DMZ
7 4 (1.13%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 4 (1.13%) LAN
7 4 (1.13%) NetScaler
7 4 (1.13%) VLAN
7 4 (1.13%) Wireless
8 3 (0.85%) WebEx
9 2 (0.57%) BGP
9 2 (0.57%) SD-WAN
9 2 (0.57%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (5.95%) Power BI
2 15 (4.25%) SQL Server
3 14 (3.97%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (3.68%) Relational Database
5 12 (3.40%) MongoDB
6 8 (2.27%) NoSQL
7 7 (1.98%) MySQL
7 7 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.13%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 4 (1.13%) Big Data
8 4 (1.13%) Power Query
8 4 (1.13%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.85%) Data Vault
9 3 (0.85%) DataStage
9 3 (0.85%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.85%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.85%) Metadata
10 2 (0.57%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 49 (13.88%) JIRA
2 24 (6.80%) Git
3 12 (3.40%) GitLab
4 10 (2.83%) Mockito
5 8 (2.27%) Postman
6 7 (1.98%) Jenkins
6 7 (1.98%) JUnit
7 5 (1.42%) Selenium
8 3 (0.85%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.85%) Gatling
8 3 (0.85%) Jasmine
8 3 (0.85%) MSI
8 3 (0.85%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.57%) Gradle
9 2 (0.57%) JMeter
9 2 (0.57%) Serenity BDD
9 2 (0.57%) SoapUI
9 2 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.57%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.28%) Cypress.io
General
1 152 (43.06%) Social Skills
2 146 (41.36%) Analytical Skills
3 118 (33.43%) Finance
4 42 (11.90%) Banking
5 33 (9.35%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.97%) Manufacturing
7 12 (3.40%) Organisational Skills
8 11 (3.12%) Law
8 11 (3.12%) Legal
9 9 (2.55%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (2.55%) Telecoms
10 8 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.98%) Retail Banking
12 5 (1.42%) Retail
13 3 (0.85%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.85%) Automotive
13 3 (0.85%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.57%) Billing
14 2 (0.57%) Military
Job Titles
1 68 (19.26%) Analyst
2 60 (17.00%) Developer
3 31 (8.78%) Business Analyst
4 26 (7.37%) Senior
5 23 (6.52%) Java Developer
6 20 (5.67%) Administrator
7 19 (5.38%) Lead
8 18 (5.10%) Consultant
9 15 (4.25%) Architect
9 15 (4.25%) IT Support
9 15 (4.25%) Project Manager
9 15 (4.25%) SAP Consultant
10 14 (3.97%) Data Engineer
10 14 (3.97%) IT Analyst
11 13 (3.68%) Finance Manager
11 13 (3.68%) Finance Project Manager
11 13 (3.68%) Support Analyst
11 13 (3.68%) Transformation Consultant
12 12 (3.40%) Full-Stack Developer
12 12 (3.40%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.07%) Spring
2 30 (8.50%) Spring Boot
3 27 (7.65%) REST
4 20 (5.67%) RESTful
5 17 (4.82%) HTML
5 17 (4.82%) Kafka
5 17 (4.82%) React
6 16 (4.53%) OAuth
7 14 (3.97%) CSS
7 14 (3.97%) JSON
7 14 (3.97%) SOAP
7 14 (3.97%) XML
8 12 (3.40%) AngularJS
9 11 (3.12%) Swagger
10 9 (2.55%) HTML5
10 9 (2.55%) OAuth2
11 8 (2.27%) CSS3
12 7 (1.98%) ActiveMQ
12 7 (1.98%) JAX-RS
12 7 (1.98%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 30 (8.50%) Product Ownership
2 20 (5.67%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.53%) Management Information System
4 13 (3.68%) Cloud Native
5 12 (3.40%) Analytical Mindset
6 10 (2.83%) Data Centre
7 9 (2.55%) Mobile App
8 7 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.98%) Driving Licence
8 7 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 6 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.42%) AI Agents
10 5 (1.42%) Data Structures
10 5 (1.42%) Public Cloud
11 4 (1.13%) Digital Wallet
11 4 (1.13%) Mainframe
11 4 (1.13%) Private Cloud
11 4 (1.13%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 39 (11.05%) Windows
2 18 (5.10%) Linux
3 14 (3.97%) Windows 10
4 13 (3.68%) Unix
5 11 (3.12%) Apple iOS
6 10 (2.83%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.27%) Windows Server
8 7 (1.98%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (1.70%) Android
10 5 (1.42%) Mac OS X
11 4 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (1.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.57%) AIX
12 2 (0.57%) HPUX
12 2 (0.57%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.57%) Solaris
12 2 (0.57%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (26.35%) Agile
2 62 (17.56%) Continuous Improvement
3 60 (17.00%) Change Management
4 56 (15.86%) Migration
5 54 (15.30%) CI/CD
6 51 (14.45%) Stakeholder Management
7 46 (13.03%) Validation
8 44 (12.46%) Workshop Facilitation
9 43 (12.18%) Microservices
10 42 (11.90%) Project Management
11 40 (11.33%) DevOps
11 40 (11.33%) Test Automation
12 38 (10.76%) ERP
13 37 (10.48%) Data Migration
13 37 (10.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 36 (10.20%) Requirements Gathering
15 32 (9.07%) ITIL
16 31 (8.78%) Customer Service
17 29 (8.22%) Computer Science
18 28 (7.93%) Business Transformation
Programming Languages
1 57 (16.15%) SQL
2 54 (15.30%) Java
3 33 (9.35%) PowerShell
4 32 (9.07%) Python
5 20 (5.67%) JavaScript
6 16 (4.53%) TypeScript
7 8 (2.27%) Kotlin
8 5 (1.42%) Bash
8 5 (1.42%) Go
8 5 (1.42%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.42%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.13%) C#
9 4 (1.13%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.85%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.85%) Bicep
10 3 (0.85%) CLIST
10 3 (0.85%) COBOL
10 3 (0.85%) JCL
10 3 (0.85%) REXX
10 3 (0.85%) VBA
Qualifications
1 50 (14.16%) Security Cleared
2 46 (13.03%) Degree
3 30 (8.50%) BPSS Clearance
4 29 (8.22%) SC Cleared
5 27 (7.65%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (4.53%) Microsoft Certification
7 15 (4.25%) A+ Certification
8 14 (3.97%) Network+ Certification
9 12 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (3.40%) CISSP
10 10 (2.83%) CCNA
11 8 (2.27%) AWS Certification
12 6 (1.70%) Azure Certification
13 5 (1.42%) MCSE
14 4 (1.13%) CCNP
14 4 (1.13%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (0.85%) CRISC
15 3 (0.85%) DBS Check
15 3 (0.85%) NVQ Level 4
15 3 (0.85%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (7.37%) Data Quality
2 16 (4.53%) QA
3 12 (3.40%) PSD2
4 9 (2.55%) NIST
5 8 (2.27%) GRC
5 8 (2.27%) ISO 20022
6 7 (1.98%) SEPA
7 6 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (1.42%) GDPR
8 5 (1.42%) PCI DSS
8 5 (1.42%) PMO
9 4 (1.13%) Accessibility
9 4 (1.13%) SLA
10 3 (0.85%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 36 (10.20%) Active Directory
2 27 (7.65%) Docker
3 9 (2.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.42%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.42%) vSphere
6 3 (0.85%) ACF2
6 3 (0.85%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.85%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.85%) RACF
6 3 (0.85%) Time Sharing Option
6 3 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.57%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 28 (7.93%) Kubernetes
2 12 (3.40%) SCCM
3 11 (3.12%) Terraform
4 7 (1.98%) Grafana
4 7 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (1.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (1.42%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.13%) Ansible
7 3 (0.85%) CA Endevor
7 3 (0.85%) Tivoli
7 3 (0.85%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 2 (0.57%) Argo
8 2 (0.57%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.57%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.28%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.28%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.28%) Istio
9 1 (0.28%) Norton AntiVirus
9 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 60 (17.00%) Microsoft
2 46 (13.03%) SAP
3 23 (6.52%) Oracle
4 19 (5.38%) ServiceNow
5 15 (4.25%) Splunk
6 14 (3.97%) Sage
7 13 (3.68%) VMware
8 9 (2.55%) F5
9 7 (1.98%) Cisco
10 6 (1.70%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (1.70%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (1.70%) Dell
10 6 (1.70%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.70%) Remedy
11 5 (1.42%) Databricks
11 5 (1.42%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.42%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.13%) Atlassian
12 4 (1.13%) Computacenter
12 4 (1.13%) Veeam