Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in Preston

Problem Solving
Lancashire > Preston

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Preston requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 9 11 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 -4
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 10 4 12
As % of all contract jobs in Preston 10.75% 11.11% 18.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.35% 12.50% 18.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 1 3
10th Percentile £530 - £113
25th Percentile - - £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £475 £363
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% +31.03% +108.63%
75th Percentile - - £372
90th Percentile - - £374
Lancashire median daily rate £550 £500 £375
% change year-on-year +10.00% +33.33% +57.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 8
10th Percentile £45.63 £28.22 £21.04
25th Percentile £45.88 £33.42 £39.75
Median hourly rate £46.29 £44.27 £46.03
Median % change year-on-year +4.56% -3.82% +1.10%
75th Percentile £46.71 £57.32 £46.18
90th Percentile £46.95 £63.84 £56.08
Lancashire median hourly rate £64.63 £27.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +135.02% -40.45% +1.43%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Preston

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 Preston.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 81 32 65
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Preston 87.10% 88.89% 98.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 10 22
10th Percentile £250 £200 £328
25th Percentile £405 £350 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +11.76% +13.33%
75th Percentile £576 £543 £498
90th Percentile £680 £570 £500
Lancashire median daily rate £478 £493 £623
% change year-on-year -3.14% -20.80% +17.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 7 39
10th Percentile £27.73 £24.32 £20.52
25th Percentile - £25.03 £20.97
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.52 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +33.06% -31.75% +15.39%
75th Percentile £46.71 £52.25 £50.88
90th Percentile £72.41 £67.77 £74.37
Lancashire median hourly rate £45.46 £44.59 £46.18
% change year-on-year +1.95% -3.44% +15.45%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Preston

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Preston.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Preston

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in Preston

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Preston citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Preston citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in Preston

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Preston citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Preston citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Preston 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 3 (30.00%) SharePoint
2 2 (20.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (10.00%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (10.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 2 (20.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (10.00%) Azure
2 1 (10.00%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (10.00%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 4 (40.00%) BGP
1 4 (40.00%) Firewall
1 4 (40.00%) Software-Defined Networking
1 4 (40.00%) VLAN
2 2 (20.00%) Network Security
2 2 (20.00%) WebEx
Development Applications
1 1 (10.00%) JIRA
General
1 9 (90.00%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (60.00%) Social Skills
3 2 (20.00%) Legal
4 1 (10.00%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (10.00%) Local Government
4 1 (10.00%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 6 (60.00%) Platform Engineer
2 2 (20.00%) Developer
2 2 (20.00%) Lead
2 2 (20.00%) Software Engineer
3 1 (10.00%) Automation Developer
3 1 (10.00%) SharePoint Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (20.00%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 6 (60.00%) Product Ownership
2 2 (20.00%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (20.00%) Data Centre
3 1 (10.00%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 6 (60.00%) Linux
1 6 (60.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1 6 (60.00%) Windows
1 6 (60.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (70.00%) Change Control
1 7 (70.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 6 (60.00%) ITSM
2 6 (60.00%) Platform Engineering
3 5 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
3 5 (50.00%) Service Management
4 4 (40.00%) Containerisation
4 4 (40.00%) Knowledge Management
5 3 (30.00%) Agile
5 3 (30.00%) Change Management
5 3 (30.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 3 (30.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 2 (20.00%) Acceptance Criteria
6 2 (20.00%) Computer Science
6 2 (20.00%) High Availability
6 2 (20.00%) ITIL
6 2 (20.00%) Service Delivery
6 2 (20.00%) Software Engineering
6 2 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 2 (20.00%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 6 (60.00%) Bash
1 6 (60.00%) PowerShell
2 4 (40.00%) Perl
2 4 (40.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (80.00%) Security Cleared
2 6 (60.00%) SC Cleared
3 4 (40.00%) CCDP
3 4 (40.00%) CCNA
3 4 (40.00%) CCNP
3 4 (40.00%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (30.00%) Degree
5 1 (10.00%) APMG
5 1 (10.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (10.00%) CISM
5 1 (10.00%) CISSP
5 1 (10.00%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (10.00%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (10.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (10.00%) NIST
1 1 (10.00%) QA
System Software
1 4 (40.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (20.00%) Docker
2 2 (20.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (20.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
1 2 (20.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (60.00%) Red Hat
2 4 (40.00%) Citrix
2 4 (40.00%) VMware
3 3 (30.00%) Microsoft
4 2 (20.00%) Cisco
5 1 (10.00%) Automation Anywhere
5 1 (10.00%) Nintex