Critical Thinking Contract Job Trends in the South East

Critical Thinking
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Critical Thinking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 172 143 188
Rank change year-on-year -29 +45 +20
Contract jobs citing Critical Thinking 22 23 15
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.50% 0.62% 0.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.59% 0.71% 0.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 17 10
10th Percentile - £206 £182
25th Percentile £153 £238 £214
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £240 £350 £450
Median % change year-on-year -31.43% -22.22% +12.50%
75th Percentile £519 £415 £545
90th Percentile £624 £430 £580
England median daily rate £600 £525 £531
% change year-on-year +14.29% -1.18% +1.19%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Critical Thinking 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,747 3,262 4,456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 84.66% 88.45% 89.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,453 2,041 2,858
10th Percentile £222 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £518
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -1.54% +1.07%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.67% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 120 234
10th Percentile £14.75 £20.00 £18.95
25th Percentile £17.05 £26.81 £27.50
Median hourly rate £22.50 £50.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.00% -9.09% +41.94%
75th Percentile £48.75 £63.51 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +22.56%

Critical Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Critical Thinking relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Critical Thinking job vacancy trend in the South East

Critical Thinking
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Critical Thinking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Critical Thinking in the South East over the 6 months to 25 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Critical Thinking in the South East

Critical Thinking
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Critical Thinking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Critical Thinking within the South East region over the 6 months to 25 December 2025. 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
Thames Valley -16 9 £185 -53.46% 43
Hampshire -12 5 £613 +85.33% 19
Oxfordshire - 4 - - 6
West Sussex - 4 £185 - 6
Berkshire -8 3 £475 - 25
East Sussex +8 2 £448 +49.17% 7
Buckinghamshire -7 2 £183 -54.09% 12
Surrey - 2 £475 - 10
Critical Thinking
England

Critical Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (13.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (4.55%) Confluence
2 1 (4.55%) MS Project Server
2 1 (4.55%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (9.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (4.55%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (4.55%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (13.64%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 2 (9.09%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 4 (18.18%) Azure
1 4 (18.18%) Entra ID
2 3 (13.64%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (9.09%) Azure API Management
3 2 (9.09%) Azure Functions
3 2 (9.09%) Azure Monitor
3 2 (9.09%) GitHub
3 2 (9.09%) GitHub Actions
3 2 (9.09%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (9.09%) Serverless
4 1 (4.55%) Figma
4 1 (4.55%) Power Platform
4 1 (4.55%) SaaS
4 1 (4.55%) Viva Engage
Communications & Networking
1 2 (9.09%) SSL
2 1 (4.55%) DHCP
2 1 (4.55%) DNS
2 1 (4.55%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.55%) Power BI
1 1 (4.55%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 2 (9.09%) Jenkins
2 1 (4.55%) JIRA
General
1 14 (63.64%) Social Skills
2 7 (31.82%) Finance
2 7 (31.82%) Organisational Skills
3 6 (27.27%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (18.18%) Manufacturing
5 3 (13.64%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (4.55%) Billing
6 1 (4.55%) Marketing
6 1 (4.55%) Military
6 1 (4.55%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3 (13.64%) Analyst
2 2 (9.09%) Active Directory Engineer
2 2 (9.09%) Azure DevOps Engineer
2 2 (9.09%) Azure Engineer
2 2 (9.09%) DevOps Engineer
2 2 (9.09%) Project Manager
2 2 (9.09%) Project Manager - SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (9.09%) Senior
2 2 (9.09%) Service Analyst
2 2 (9.09%) Service Desk Analyst
3 1 (4.55%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
3 1 (4.55%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 1 (4.55%) Head of Strategy
3 1 (4.55%) Lead
3 1 (4.55%) Product Designer
3 1 (4.55%) Senior Active Directory Engineer
3 1 (4.55%) Senior DevOps
3 1 (4.55%) Senior Project Planner
3 1 (4.55%) Service Desk Support
3 1 (4.55%) Service Desk Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (9.09%) .NET
1 2 (9.09%) .NET Core
1 2 (9.09%) .NET Framework
1 2 (9.09%) ARM Templates
1 2 (9.09%) ASP.NET
1 2 (9.09%) GraphQL
1 2 (9.09%) Microsoft Graph
1 2 (9.09%) OAuth
1 2 (9.09%) OAuth2
1 2 (9.09%) OpenID
1 2 (9.09%) REST
1 2 (9.09%) SAML
2 1 (4.55%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 5 (22.73%) Self-Motivation
2 4 (18.18%) Life Science
2 4 (18.18%) Renewable Energy
3 2 (9.09%) Linux Command Line
3 2 (9.09%) Management Information System
4 1 (4.55%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (4.55%) PKI
4 1 (4.55%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 3 (13.64%) Windows
2 2 (9.09%) Windows 10
3 1 (4.55%) Windows Server
3 1 (4.55%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (86.36%) Problem-Solving
2 8 (36.36%) Agile
3 7 (31.82%) Stakeholder Management
4 6 (27.27%) Creative Thinking
4 6 (27.27%) Strategic Thinking
4 6 (27.27%) Time Management
5 5 (22.73%) Analytics
6 4 (18.18%) AI
6 4 (18.18%) Data Governance
7 3 (13.64%) Analytical Thinking
7 3 (13.64%) DevOps
7 3 (13.64%) Migration
7 3 (13.64%) Project Planning
7 3 (13.64%) Root Cause Analysis
7 3 (13.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 3 (13.64%) User Experience
8 2 (9.09%) Collaborative Working
8 2 (9.09%) Data Science
8 2 (9.09%) DevSecOps
8 2 (9.09%) Systems Thinking
Programming Languages
1 3 (13.64%) Python
2 2 (9.09%) Bash
2 2 (9.09%) C#
2 2 (9.09%) Java
2 2 (9.09%) JavaScript
2 2 (9.09%) PHP
2 2 (9.09%) PowerShell
2 2 (9.09%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (27.27%) Degree
1 6 (27.27%) Security Cleared
2 5 (22.73%) SC Cleared
3 4 (18.18%) DBS Check
4 2 (9.09%) DV Cleared
4 2 (9.09%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 1 (4.55%) ACCA
5 1 (4.55%) CCNA
5 1 (4.55%) CIMA
5 1 (4.55%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (4.55%) MCSA
5 1 (4.55%) MCSE
5 1 (4.55%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (4.55%) Network+ Certification
5 1 (4.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (9.09%) Data Quality
1 2 (9.09%) PMBOK
1 2 (9.09%) SLA
2 1 (4.55%) PMO
System Software
1 5 (22.73%) Active Directory
2 1 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (9.09%) Terraform
2 1 (4.55%) Grafana
Vendors
1 9 (40.91%) Microsoft
2 4 (18.18%) SAP
3 3 (13.64%) ServiceNow
4 1 (4.55%) Oracle
4 1 (4.55%) Sage
4 1 (4.55%) Salesforce
4 1 (4.55%) VMware