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

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 5 13
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 +7
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 383 343 282
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 13.69% 16.63% 10.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.86% 18.68% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 223 161
10th Percentile £213 £203 £319
25th Percentile £330 £356 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £424 £473 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.32% -5.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £507 £550 £583
90th Percentile £575 £655 £700
England median daily rate £492 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -1.60% -1.96% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 23 28
10th Percentile £15.18 £17.22 £12.58
25th Percentile £16.00 £23.74 £15.70
Median hourly rate £41.86 £27.50 £26.39
Median % change year-on-year +52.20% +4.21% -38.10%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.37 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.33 £51.80 £52.78
England median hourly rate £19.25 £25.43 £21.01
% change year-on-year -24.30% +21.04% -42.13%

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 2,415 1,836 2,414
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 86.34% 89.00% 87.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,554 1,113 1,579
10th Percentile £215 £275 £304
25th Percentile £358 £385 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £572 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 106 232
10th Percentile £17.00 £18.07 £12.75
25th Percentile £22.93 £23.11 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.00 £31.64 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.23% +21.69% -30.67%
75th Percentile £63.50 £55.76 £46.18
90th Percentile £76.30 £79.04 £55.01
England median hourly rate £28.50 £35.00 £34.23
% change year-on-year -18.57% +2.25% -2.20%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -7 159 £450 - 160
Cheshire -3 116 £402 -17.79% 56
Lancashire +2 50 £550 +5.26% 39
Merseyside -9 41 £225 -10.00% 24
Cumbria +4 13 £494 +19.70% 13
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 (6.53%) Confluence
2 19 (4.96%) SharePoint
3 17 (4.44%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.83%) Apache
5 4 (1.04%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.04%) Exchange Server 2013
5 4 (1.04%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.78%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 2 (0.52%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.26%) CMS
8 1 (0.26%) JBoss
8 1 (0.26%) Moodle
8 1 (0.26%) nginx
8 1 (0.26%) SAS
8 1 (0.26%) Tomcat
Applications
1 27 (7.05%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (5.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (3.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (3.66%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.78%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.26%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 39 (10.18%) 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%) NetSuite
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 71 (18.54%) Azure
2 58 (15.14%) AWS
3 37 (9.66%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (6.27%) Power Platform
5 17 (4.44%) Entra ID
5 17 (4.44%) GCP
6 15 (3.92%) GitHub
7 10 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (2.35%) Serverless
9 8 (2.09%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (2.09%) SaaS
10 6 (1.57%) Apigee
10 6 (1.57%) Kong
10 6 (1.57%) OneDrive
11 5 (1.31%) Amazon ECS
11 5 (1.31%) Amazon S3
11 5 (1.31%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.31%) Power Automate
12 4 (1.04%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (1.04%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.79%) Firewall
2 19 (4.96%) DNS
3 14 (3.66%) Network Security
4 10 (2.61%) LAN
4 10 (2.61%) VLAN
4 10 (2.61%) WAN
5 9 (2.35%) DHCP
6 8 (2.09%) BGP
6 8 (2.09%) WebEx
7 7 (1.83%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 6 (1.57%) Kerberos
8 6 (1.57%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (1.31%) DMZ
9 5 (1.31%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 5 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (1.04%) HTTP
10 4 (1.04%) NetScaler
10 4 (1.04%) Skype
10 4 (1.04%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.92%) Power BI
2 14 (3.66%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.39%) Relational Database
4 10 (2.61%) MongoDB
4 10 (2.61%) NoSQL
5 8 (2.09%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.09%) MySQL
6 7 (1.83%) DynamoDB
7 5 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.04%) MS Access
8 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.78%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (0.78%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.78%) Metadata
9 3 (0.78%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.78%) Power Query
9 3 (0.78%) SAP HANA
9 3 (0.78%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.52%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 41 (10.70%) JIRA
2 25 (6.53%) Git
3 15 (3.92%) GitLab
4 8 (2.09%) Mockito
4 8 (2.09%) Postman
5 7 (1.83%) Jenkins
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%) MLflow
9 1 (0.26%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 171 (44.65%) Social Skills
2 147 (38.38%) Analytical Skills
3 124 (32.38%) Finance
4 42 (10.97%) Banking
5 39 (10.18%) Public Sector
6 17 (4.44%) Legal
7 14 (3.66%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.35%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.09%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.83%) Retail Banking
11 6 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.31%) Law
13 4 (1.04%) Local Government
13 4 (1.04%) Retail
13 4 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.78%) Automotive
14 3 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.52%) Games
Job Titles
1 71 (18.54%) Analyst
2 66 (17.23%) Developer
3 36 (9.40%) Business Analyst
4 28 (7.31%) Senior
5 26 (6.79%) Administrator
5 26 (6.79%) Consultant
6 19 (4.96%) Lead
6 19 (4.96%) SAP Consultant
7 18 (4.70%) Platform Engineer
8 17 (4.44%) Java Developer
9 16 (4.18%) Architect
10 15 (3.92%) Project Manager
11 14 (3.66%) IT Support
12 12 (3.13%) Full-Stack Developer
12 12 (3.13%) Support Analyst
13 11 (2.87%) Data Engineer
13 11 (2.87%) Finance Manager
13 11 (2.87%) Senior Analyst
13 11 (2.87%) Software Engineer
13 11 (2.87%) Transformation Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (7.83%) REST
2 27 (7.05%) Spring
2 27 (7.05%) Spring Boot
3 22 (5.74%) RESTful
4 19 (4.96%) SOAP
5 18 (4.70%) JSON
6 17 (4.44%) Kafka
7 15 (3.92%) XML
8 14 (3.66%) HTML
9 13 (3.39%) OAuth
9 13 (3.39%) React
9 13 (3.39%) Swagger
10 12 (3.13%) CSS
11 10 (2.61%) .NET
11 10 (2.61%) AngularJS
12 9 (2.35%) ISPF
12 9 (2.35%) OpenAPI
13 8 (2.09%) CSS3
13 8 (2.09%) HTML5
13 8 (2.09%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 35 (9.14%) Product Ownership
2 16 (4.18%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.13%) Cloud Native
4 10 (2.61%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.35%) Mainframe
5 9 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (2.35%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 7 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.57%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.57%) Data Structures
7 6 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.57%) Mobile App
8 5 (1.31%) Private Cloud
8 5 (1.31%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.04%) CMDB
9 4 (1.04%) Digital Wallet
9 4 (1.04%) Fat Client
9 4 (1.04%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 46 (12.01%) Windows
2 29 (7.57%) Linux
3 19 (4.96%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.70%) Windows 10
5 13 (3.39%) Unix
6 12 (3.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (2.87%) Android
8 8 (2.09%) Apple iOS
9 7 (1.83%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (1.31%) Mac OS X
11 4 (1.04%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.78%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (27.15%) Agile
2 69 (18.02%) Change Management
3 67 (17.49%) Continuous Improvement
4 57 (14.88%) Stakeholder Management
5 55 (14.36%) CI/CD
6 54 (14.10%) Migration
7 50 (13.05%) Validation
8 49 (12.79%) DevOps
9 48 (12.53%) Project Management
10 47 (12.27%) Workshop Facilitation
11 42 (10.97%) Microservices
12 40 (10.44%) ERP
13 39 (10.18%) Requirements Gathering
13 39 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 36 (9.40%) Test Automation
15 34 (8.88%) Customer Service
16 32 (8.36%) Containerisation
17 31 (8.09%) Data Migration
18 30 (7.83%) Analytics
18 30 (7.83%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 57 (14.88%) SQL
2 48 (12.53%) Java
3 34 (8.88%) PowerShell
3 34 (8.88%) Python
4 19 (4.96%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.18%) Bash
5 16 (4.18%) TypeScript
6 10 (2.61%) C#
7 9 (2.35%) CLIST
7 9 (2.35%) COBOL
7 9 (2.35%) JCL
7 9 (2.35%) REXX
8 8 (2.09%) Perl
9 5 (1.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (1.31%) Go
9 5 (1.31%) Kotlin
9 5 (1.31%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.78%) ABAP
10 3 (0.78%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 66 (17.23%) Security Cleared
2 51 (13.32%) Degree
3 47 (12.27%) SC Cleared
4 29 (7.57%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (6.53%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (3.66%) CCNA
6 14 (3.66%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (2.87%) CCNP
8 8 (2.09%) CCDP
9 7 (1.83%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 5 (1.31%) A+ Certification
10 5 (1.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (1.31%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (0.78%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.78%) Azure Certification
11 3 (0.78%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.78%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.78%) PMP
12 2 (0.52%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 2 (0.52%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.22%) QA
2 18 (4.70%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.13%) PSD2
4 8 (2.09%) ISO 20022
5 7 (1.83%) 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 41 (10.70%) Active Directory
2 34 (8.88%) Docker
3 11 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.35%) ACF2
4 9 (2.35%) RACF
4 9 (2.35%) Time Sharing Option
5 7 (1.83%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.57%) vSphere
7 5 (1.31%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.78%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.78%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 36 (9.40%) Kubernetes
2 19 (4.96%) SCCM
3 16 (4.18%) Terraform
4 12 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (2.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 9 (2.35%) CA Endevor
5 9 (2.35%) Tivoli
5 9 (2.35%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 6 (1.57%) Grafana
6 6 (1.57%) Norton AntiVirus
7 5 (1.31%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.52%) Ansible
8 2 (0.52%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.26%) Autotask
9 1 (0.26%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 81 (21.15%) Microsoft
2 51 (13.32%) SAP
3 22 (5.74%) Oracle
3 22 (5.74%) VMware
4 14 (3.66%) ServiceNow
5 12 (3.13%) Citrix
5 12 (3.13%) Sage
6 11 (2.87%) Red Hat
7 10 (2.61%) F5
8 9 (2.35%) Cisco
9 7 (1.83%) Databricks
9 7 (1.83%) Symantec
9 7 (1.83%) Workday
10 6 (1.57%) Google
10 6 (1.57%) McAfee
10 6 (1.57%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.31%) Computacenter
11 5 (1.31%) Splunk
12 4 (1.04%) Aruba
12 4 (1.04%) Veeam