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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 3 7
Rank change year-on-year -12 +4 +10
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 355 398 310
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.02% 17.86% 12.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.90% 20.13% 15.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 221 180
10th Percentile £236 £270 £240
25th Percentile £335 £390 £362
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -6.32% -1.04% +0.52%
75th Percentile £538 £580 £541
90th Percentile £615 £688 £600
England median daily rate £500 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +1.63% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 41 31
10th Percentile £14.62 £12.21 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 -
Median hourly rate £36.66 £20.26 £10.95
Median % change year-on-year +80.99% +84.98% -74.02%
75th Percentile £75.00 £47.12 £11.32
90th Percentile £178.75 £70.00 £62.50
England median hourly rate £20.52 £19.00 £16.23
% change year-on-year +7.97% +17.07% -70.49%

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 3,257 1,977 2,048
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.79% 88.69% 84.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,908 1,283 1,224
10th Percentile £293 £300 £310
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £591 £575 £588
90th Percentile £680 £669 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 134 147
10th Percentile £16.50 £13.50 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.44 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.50 £25.15 £35.36
Median % change year-on-year +80.91% -28.87% +1.03%
75th Percentile £72.28 £52.50 £53.25
90th Percentile £84.50 £72.50 £70.90
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -

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 27 August 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 27 August 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 27 August 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 -14 174 £450 -5.21% 482
Cheshire -3 116 £445 -7.29% 113
Lancashire -11 32 £350 -22.22% 150
Cumbria -8 15 £420 +34.40% 17
Merseyside -24 11 £408 -18.50% 68
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 12 (3.38%) Confluence
2 11 (3.10%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.56%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.56%) Camunda
4 2 (0.56%) CMS
5 1 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.28%) JBoss
5 1 (0.28%) Mule
5 1 (0.28%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.28%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 27 (7.61%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (4.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.97%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.85%) Acrobat
5 3 (0.85%) CATIA
6 2 (0.56%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 14 (3.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (3.10%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.85%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.56%) SAP HCM
4 2 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
4 2 (0.56%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.28%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.28%) ResourceLink
5 1 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 66 (18.59%) Azure
2 57 (16.06%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (15.49%) AWS
4 26 (7.32%) Power Platform
5 17 (4.79%) GCP
6 14 (3.94%) Entra ID
7 12 (3.38%) Power Automate
8 9 (2.54%) GitHub
9 7 (1.97%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (1.69%) OpenShift
11 4 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
11 4 (1.13%) Google Sheets
11 4 (1.13%) Google Workspace
11 4 (1.13%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.85%) Anthropic Claude
12 3 (0.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 3 (0.85%) ChatGPT
12 3 (0.85%) dbt
12 3 (0.85%) n8n
12 3 (0.85%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 33 (9.30%) VPN
2 14 (3.94%) DNS
2 14 (3.94%) Firewall
3 13 (3.66%) WAN
4 10 (2.82%) LAN
5 9 (2.54%) Wireless
6 7 (1.97%) DHCP
6 7 (1.97%) Network Security
7 6 (1.69%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (1.41%) SD-WAN
8 5 (1.41%) TCP/IP
9 4 (1.13%) SSL
9 4 (1.13%) VLAN
10 3 (0.85%) BGP
10 3 (0.85%) BIG-IP
10 3 (0.85%) DMZ
10 3 (0.85%) MPLS
10 3 (0.85%) OSPF
10 3 (0.85%) SAN
10 3 (0.85%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (6.20%) Power BI
2 16 (4.51%) SQL Server
3 15 (4.23%) Data Warehouse
4 12 (3.38%) Relational Database
5 7 (1.97%) DataStage
5 7 (1.97%) MongoDB
5 7 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.69%) Db2
6 6 (1.69%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.41%) MySQL
8 4 (1.13%) Big Data
8 4 (1.13%) Snowflake Schema
9 3 (0.85%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.85%) Power Query
9 3 (0.85%) Tableau
10 2 (0.56%) Data Vault
10 2 (0.56%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.56%) Metadata
10 2 (0.56%) SAP HANA
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 29 (8.17%) JIRA
2 14 (3.94%) Git
3 10 (2.82%) Jenkins
4 8 (2.25%) GitLab
5 5 (1.41%) Cucumber
6 4 (1.13%) Gatling
6 4 (1.13%) MSI
6 4 (1.13%) REST Assured
6 4 (1.13%) Selenium
6 4 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.85%) JUnit
7 3 (0.85%) Mockito
7 3 (0.85%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.56%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.56%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.56%) Gradle
8 2 (0.56%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.56%) Maven
8 2 (0.56%) Serenity BDD
8 2 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 184 (51.83%) Social Skills
2 146 (41.13%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (23.66%) Finance
4 39 (10.99%) Banking
5 29 (8.17%) Manufacturing
6 20 (5.63%) Organisational Skills
7 18 (5.07%) Legal
8 11 (3.10%) Law
8 11 (3.10%) Public Sector
9 10 (2.82%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (2.54%) Aerospace
10 9 (2.54%) Automotive
11 7 (1.97%) Retail
11 7 (1.97%) Telecoms
12 4 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.13%) Investment Banking
12 4 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.85%) Games
13 3 (0.85%) Marketing
14 2 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 58 (16.34%) Analyst
2 31 (8.73%) Developer
2 31 (8.73%) IT Support
3 23 (6.48%) Lead
4 21 (5.92%) Architect
4 21 (5.92%) Support Engineer
5 20 (5.63%) Senior
6 18 (5.07%) Consultant
7 16 (4.51%) Administrator
7 16 (4.51%) IT Analyst
8 15 (4.23%) IT Engineer
8 15 (4.23%) Support Analyst
9 14 (3.94%) Java Developer
9 14 (3.94%) Service Analyst
10 13 (3.66%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.38%) IT Support Analyst
11 12 (3.38%) IT Support Engineer
11 12 (3.38%) Service Desk Analyst
12 11 (3.10%) Security Engineer
13 10 (2.82%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.35%) Spring
2 17 (4.79%) Spring Boot
3 15 (4.23%) REST
3 15 (4.23%) Terraform
4 12 (3.38%) Kafka
4 12 (3.38%) React
5 9 (2.54%) OAuth
6 8 (2.25%) HTML
6 8 (2.25%) XML
7 6 (1.69%) JSON
7 6 (1.69%) Playwright
8 5 (1.41%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.41%) CSS
8 5 (1.41%) Node.js
8 5 (1.41%) RESTful
9 4 (1.13%) Middleware
9 4 (1.13%) OAuth2
9 4 (1.13%) OpenID
9 4 (1.13%) SailPoint
9 4 (1.13%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 29 (8.17%) Onboarding
2 16 (4.51%) Driving Licence
3 14 (3.94%) Data Protection Act
3 14 (3.94%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.38%) Analytical Mindset
4 12 (3.38%) Cloud Native
4 12 (3.38%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (3.38%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.82%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.82%) Data Structures
5 10 (2.82%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.97%) CMDB
8 6 (1.69%) PKI
9 5 (1.41%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.41%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.13%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.13%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.13%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 81 (22.82%) Windows
2 25 (7.04%) Windows 10
3 19 (5.35%) Linux
4 15 (4.23%) Unix
5 13 (3.66%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.82%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.25%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.13%) Solaris
9 2 (0.56%) AIX
9 2 (0.56%) Android
9 2 (0.56%) HPUX
9 2 (0.56%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.56%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.56%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (23.66%) Continuous Improvement
2 69 (19.44%) Stakeholder Management
3 55 (15.49%) ITIL
4 51 (14.37%) Agile
5 50 (14.08%) CI/CD
6 49 (13.80%) Customer Service
7 39 (10.99%) Migration
8 36 (10.14%) AI
9 35 (9.86%) Change Management
10 33 (9.30%) DevOps
11 32 (9.01%) Analytics
12 30 (8.45%) Data Protection
12 30 (8.45%) Root Cause Analysis
13 29 (8.17%) Computer Science
13 29 (8.17%) Data Modelling
14 28 (7.89%) Project Management
14 28 (7.89%) Validation
15 26 (7.32%) ERP
15 26 (7.32%) Service Management
15 26 (7.32%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 48 (13.52%) SQL
2 46 (12.96%) Python
3 33 (9.30%) PowerShell
4 32 (9.01%) Java
5 10 (2.82%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.25%) Bash
6 8 (2.25%) Shell Script
7 7 (1.97%) PL/SQL
8 6 (1.69%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.13%) Apex Code
9 4 (1.13%) Bicep
9 4 (1.13%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.85%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.56%) ABAP
11 2 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.56%) Go
11 2 (0.56%) Korn
12 1 (0.28%) Assembly Language
12 1 (0.28%) C#
12 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 49 (13.80%) Security Cleared
2 42 (11.83%) Degree
3 34 (9.58%) SC Cleared
4 21 (5.92%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (5.07%) BPSS Clearance
6 16 (4.51%) CISSP
7 14 (3.94%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (3.38%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (3.10%) A+ Certification
10 10 (2.82%) Network+ Certification
11 8 (2.25%) AWS Certification
12 7 (1.97%) CompTIA Security+
12 7 (1.97%) HNC
13 6 (1.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 5 (1.41%) CCNA
14 5 (1.41%) CCNP
14 5 (1.41%) CEH
14 5 (1.41%) CISM
14 5 (1.41%) PMI Certification
14 5 (1.41%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (10.14%) Data Quality
2 16 (4.51%) SLA
3 13 (3.66%) GRC
3 13 (3.66%) NIST
4 9 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (2.25%) QA
6 4 (1.13%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.13%) GDPR
6 4 (1.13%) PMO
7 3 (0.85%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.28%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.28%) NCSC
9 1 (0.28%) PSD2
9 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.28%) SEPA
9 1 (0.28%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 48 (13.52%) Active Directory
2 17 (4.79%) Docker
3 13 (3.66%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.25%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.41%) Firmware
5 5 (1.41%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.56%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 2 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.56%) vSphere
7 2 (0.56%) XenApp
7 2 (0.56%) XenDesktop
8 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 21 (5.92%) Kubernetes
2 18 (5.07%) SCCM
3 13 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (2.25%) Ansible
4 8 (2.25%) Grafana
5 6 (1.69%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.85%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.85%) McAfee ePO
8 2 (0.56%) Argo
8 2 (0.56%) Istio
8 2 (0.56%) WMI
9 1 (0.28%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.28%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.28%) Puppet
9 1 (0.28%) SCOM
9 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.28%) WSUS
Vendors
1 94 (26.48%) Microsoft
2 47 (13.24%) ServiceNow
3 35 (9.86%) SAP
4 21 (5.92%) Oracle
5 17 (4.79%) Splunk
6 14 (3.94%) Cisco
6 14 (3.94%) VMware
7 12 (3.38%) Workday
8 11 (3.10%) Remedy
9 9 (2.54%) Google
9 9 (2.54%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.97%) BeyondTrust
10 7 (1.97%) F5
10 7 (1.97%) IBM
11 6 (1.69%) Bomgar
11 6 (1.69%) CrowdStrike
11 6 (1.69%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.69%) Teradata
12 5 (1.41%) Adobe
12 5 (1.41%) Citrix