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

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 5 13
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 386 362 282
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 13.42% 17.25% 10.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.68% 19.33% 11.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 230 161
10th Percentile £213 £203 £313
25th Percentile £328 £359 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £424 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.79% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £504 £575 £583
90th Percentile £575 £665 £700
England median daily rate £492 £500 £505
% change year-on-year -1.60% -0.99% -6.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 24 35
10th Percentile £15.18 £17.88 £10.95
25th Percentile £17.17 £24.25 £11.04
Median hourly rate £41.86 £28.13 £22.11
Median % change year-on-year +48.82% +27.20% -51.44%
75th Percentile £74.26 £37.25 £43.75
90th Percentile £74.78 £64.30 £50.14
England median hourly rate £20.00 £25.43 £19.50
% change year-on-year -21.35% +30.41% -51.55%

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 2,461 1,873 2,435
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 85.54% 89.23% 86.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,560 1,140 1,590
10th Percentile £219 £280 £305
25th Percentile £360 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £663 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 110 246
10th Percentile £17.13 £17.83 £12.00
25th Percentile £24.45 £23.61 £15.50
Median hourly rate £44.00 £32.50 £25.30
Median % change year-on-year +35.38% +28.46% -32.53%
75th Percentile £63.69 £57.68 £45.88
90th Percentile £75.94 £80.87 £53.97
England median hourly rate £29.60 £35.00 £34.00
% change year-on-year -15.43% +2.94% -4.23%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -7 163 £450 -1.10% 197
Cheshire -4 112 £402 -18.97% 72
Lancashire 0 53 £550 +5.26% 74
Merseyside -8 41 £225 -10.00% 31
Cumbria +1 13 £494 +19.70% 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 25 (6.48%) Confluence
2 18 (4.66%) SharePoint
3 17 (4.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.81%) Apache
5 3 (0.78%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.78%) Exchange Server 2013
5 3 (0.78%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.52%) Apache Spark
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 26 (6.74%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (3.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (3.37%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.04%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.26%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 37 (9.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.04%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.78%) iTrent
3 3 (0.78%) SAP EHS
3 3 (0.78%) SAP Payroll
3 3 (0.78%) SAP SCM
4 2 (0.52%) Advent Geneva
4 2 (0.52%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.52%) Kondor
4 2 (0.52%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.26%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.26%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.26%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.26%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 73 (18.91%) Azure
2 59 (15.28%) AWS
3 36 (9.33%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (6.22%) Power Platform
5 19 (4.92%) GCP
6 18 (4.66%) Entra ID
7 17 (4.40%) GitHub
8 12 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (2.59%) GitHub Actions
9 10 (2.59%) Serverless
10 8 (2.07%) SaaS
11 6 (1.55%) Apigee
11 6 (1.55%) Kong
12 5 (1.30%) Amazon S3
12 5 (1.30%) Azure AKS
12 5 (1.30%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (1.30%) OneDrive
12 5 (1.30%) Power Automate
13 4 (1.04%) Azure Monitor
13 4 (1.04%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.74%) Firewall
2 21 (5.44%) DNS
3 14 (3.63%) Network Security
4 10 (2.59%) LAN
4 10 (2.59%) VLAN
4 10 (2.59%) WAN
5 9 (2.33%) DHCP
5 9 (2.33%) WebEx
6 8 (2.07%) BGP
7 7 (1.81%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.55%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 6 (1.55%) Kerberos
8 6 (1.55%) 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 3 (0.78%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.89%) Power BI
2 14 (3.63%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.37%) Relational Database
4 11 (2.85%) MongoDB
5 10 (2.59%) NoSQL
6 8 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (2.07%) MySQL
7 7 (1.81%) DynamoDB
8 5 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (1.04%) MS Access
9 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.78%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.78%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.78%) Metadata
10 3 (0.78%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.78%) Power Query
10 3 (0.78%) SAP HANA
10 3 (0.78%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.52%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 41 (10.62%) JIRA
2 27 (6.99%) Git
3 15 (3.89%) GitLab
4 9 (2.33%) Mockito
5 8 (2.07%) Postman
6 7 (1.81%) Jenkins
7 4 (1.04%) JUnit
7 4 (1.04%) Selenium
8 3 (0.78%) Jasmine
9 2 (0.52%) JMeter
9 2 (0.52%) SoapUI
9 2 (0.52%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.26%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.26%) Gradle
10 1 (0.26%) Maven
10 1 (0.26%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 169 (43.78%) Social Skills
2 146 (37.82%) Analytical Skills
3 123 (31.87%) Finance
4 42 (10.88%) Banking
5 40 (10.36%) Public Sector
6 18 (4.66%) Legal
7 14 (3.63%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.33%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.07%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.07%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.81%) Retail Banking
11 6 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.30%) Law
12 5 (1.30%) Retail
13 4 (1.04%) Local Government
13 4 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.78%) Automotive
14 3 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.52%) Games
Job Titles
1 71 (18.39%) Analyst
2 67 (17.36%) Developer
3 36 (9.33%) Business Analyst
4 28 (7.25%) Senior
5 27 (6.99%) Administrator
6 26 (6.74%) Consultant
7 20 (5.18%) SAP Consultant
8 19 (4.92%) Lead
9 18 (4.66%) Java Developer
9 18 (4.66%) Platform Engineer
10 16 (4.15%) Architect
10 16 (4.15%) Project Manager
11 14 (3.63%) IT Support
12 12 (3.11%) Data Engineer
12 12 (3.11%) Finance Manager
12 12 (3.11%) Finance Project Manager
12 12 (3.11%) Full-Stack Developer
12 12 (3.11%) Transformation Consultant
13 11 (2.85%) Software Engineer
13 11 (2.85%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (7.77%) REST
2 27 (6.99%) Spring
2 27 (6.99%) Spring Boot
3 21 (5.44%) RESTful
4 19 (4.92%) SOAP
5 18 (4.66%) JSON
5 18 (4.66%) Kafka
6 15 (3.89%) XML
7 13 (3.37%) HTML
7 13 (3.37%) OAuth
7 13 (3.37%) React
7 13 (3.37%) Swagger
8 12 (3.11%) CSS
9 10 (2.59%) .NET
9 10 (2.59%) AngularJS
10 9 (2.33%) ISPF
10 9 (2.33%) OpenAPI
10 9 (2.33%) XMPP
11 8 (2.07%) CSS3
11 8 (2.07%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 36 (9.33%) Product Ownership
2 16 (4.15%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.11%) Cloud Native
4 10 (2.59%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.33%) Mainframe
5 9 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (2.33%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 7 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.55%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.55%) Data Structures
7 6 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.55%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.55%) Mobile App
8 5 (1.30%) Fat Client
8 5 (1.30%) Private Cloud
8 5 (1.30%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.30%) Thin Client
9 4 (1.04%) CMDB
9 4 (1.04%) Digital Wallet
Operating Systems
1 46 (11.92%) Windows
2 30 (7.77%) Linux
3 19 (4.92%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.66%) Windows 10
5 14 (3.63%) Unix
6 12 (3.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (2.85%) Android
8 8 (2.07%) Apple iOS
9 7 (1.81%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (1.55%) Mac OS X
11 4 (1.04%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.78%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (27.46%) Agile
2 71 (18.39%) Change Management
3 64 (16.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 58 (15.03%) CI/CD
4 58 (15.03%) Stakeholder Management
5 53 (13.73%) Migration
6 51 (13.21%) DevOps
6 51 (13.21%) Validation
7 49 (12.69%) Project Management
8 46 (11.92%) Workshop Facilitation
9 43 (11.14%) Microservices
10 40 (10.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 39 (10.10%) Requirements Gathering
12 38 (9.84%) Test Automation
13 37 (9.59%) ERP
14 34 (8.81%) Containerisation
14 34 (8.81%) Customer Service
15 33 (8.55%) Data Migration
16 31 (8.03%) Analytics
17 30 (7.77%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 58 (15.03%) SQL
2 49 (12.69%) Java
3 37 (9.59%) PowerShell
3 37 (9.59%) Python
4 20 (5.18%) JavaScript
5 17 (4.40%) Bash
6 16 (4.15%) TypeScript
7 10 (2.59%) C#
8 9 (2.33%) CLIST
8 9 (2.33%) COBOL
8 9 (2.33%) JCL
8 9 (2.33%) REXX
9 8 (2.07%) Perl
10 5 (1.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (1.30%) Go
10 5 (1.30%) Kotlin
10 5 (1.30%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.78%) ABAP
11 3 (0.78%) Bicep
11 3 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 68 (17.62%) Security Cleared
2 50 (12.95%) Degree
3 49 (12.69%) SC Cleared
4 31 (8.03%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (6.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (3.63%) CCNA
6 14 (3.63%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (2.85%) CCNP
8 8 (2.07%) CCDP
9 5 (1.30%) A+ Certification
9 5 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.30%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (1.04%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.04%) Six Sigma Green Belt
11 3 (0.78%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.78%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.78%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.78%) PMP
12 2 (0.52%) CISSP
12 2 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.18%) QA
2 18 (4.66%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.11%) PSD2
4 8 (2.07%) ISO 20022
5 7 (1.81%) SEPA
6 4 (1.04%) GDPR
6 4 (1.04%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.78%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.78%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.52%) PMO
9 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.26%) NIST
9 1 (0.26%) SLA
9 1 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 42 (10.88%) Active Directory
2 35 (9.07%) Docker
3 11 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.33%) ACF2
4 9 (2.33%) RACF
4 9 (2.33%) Time Sharing Option
5 7 (1.81%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.55%) 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 37 (9.59%) Kubernetes
2 18 (4.66%) SCCM
2 18 (4.66%) Terraform
3 11 (2.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 9 (2.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 9 (2.33%) CA Endevor
4 9 (2.33%) Tivoli
4 9 (2.33%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 7 (1.81%) Grafana
6 6 (1.55%) Norton AntiVirus
6 6 (1.55%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.52%) Ansible
7 2 (0.52%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.26%) Argo
8 1 (0.26%) Autotask
8 1 (0.26%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 81 (20.98%) Microsoft
2 49 (12.69%) SAP
3 22 (5.70%) Oracle
3 22 (5.70%) VMware
4 14 (3.63%) ServiceNow
5 13 (3.37%) Citrix
5 13 (3.37%) Sage
6 11 (2.85%) Red Hat
7 10 (2.59%) Cisco
7 10 (2.59%) F5
8 7 (1.81%) Databricks
8 7 (1.81%) Google
8 7 (1.81%) Symantec
8 7 (1.81%) Workday
9 6 (1.55%) McAfee
9 6 (1.55%) MuleSoft
9 6 (1.55%) Splunk
10 5 (1.30%) Computacenter
11 4 (1.04%) CheckPoint
11 4 (1.04%) Salesforce