Innovative Thinking Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Innovative Thinking
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Innovative Thinking skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 362 355 401
Rank change year-on-year -7 +46 +39
Contract jobs citing Innovative Thinking 11 20 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.072% 0.11% 0.042%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.081% 0.13% 0.047%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 14 5
10th Percentile £378 £174 £440
25th Percentile £400 £238 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £494 £515
Median % change year-on-year -3.80% -4.13% +3.00%
75th Percentile £575 £684 £523
90th Percentile £665 £738 £569
UK median daily rate £375 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -31.82% -2.22% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £42.50
25th Percentile - - £46.25
Median hourly rate - - £52.50
75th Percentile - - £58.75
90th Percentile - - £62.50
UK median hourly rate - - £52.50
% change year-on-year - - +303.85%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Innovative 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,662 14,926 19,029
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 89.12% 82.84% 88.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,207 8,802 12,656
10th Percentile £240 £250 £260
25th Percentile £368 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £653 £688 £695
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,393 1,334 1,222
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £16.64 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.63 £43.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.37% +14.67% +66.67%
75th Percentile £43.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £75.00 £76.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £41.50
% change year-on-year -40.82% +2.41% +49.66%

Innovative Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Innovative Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Innovative Thinking in the UK excluding London

Innovative Thinking
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Innovative Thinking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Innovative Thinking

Innovative Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Innovative Thinking in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Innovative Thinking in the UK excluding London

Innovative Thinking
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Innovative Thinking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Innovative Thinking

Innovative Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Innovative Thinking within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 September 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
Scotland +2 6 £475 +137.50% 2
North West -5 2 £700 -3.45% 4
North of England -10 2 £700 -3.45% 6
South West +23 1 - - 11
South East +18 1 £475 -8.21% 39
West Midlands -11 1 £375 -25.00% 4
Midlands -13 1 £375 -24.05% 11
Innovative Thinking
UK

Innovative Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 4 (36.36%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (18.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (9.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (9.09%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 1 (9.09%) Power Platform
1 1 (9.09%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (9.09%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (18.18%) LabVIEW
General
1 8 (72.73%) Social Skills
2 3 (27.27%) Finance
3 2 (18.18%) Banking
3 2 (18.18%) Electronics
3 2 (18.18%) Mandarin Language
3 2 (18.18%) Manufacturing
3 2 (18.18%) Public Sector
4 1 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (9.09%) Marketing
4 1 (9.09%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (18.18%) Analyst
1 2 (18.18%) Development Engineer
1 2 (18.18%) Lead
1 2 (18.18%) Technical Specialist
1 2 (18.18%) Test Development Engineer
1 2 (18.18%) Test Engineer
2 1 (9.09%) Administrator
2 1 (9.09%) Architect
2 1 (9.09%) Data Analyst
2 1 (9.09%) IT Analyst
2 1 (9.09%) Payments Architect
2 1 (9.09%) Payments Solutions Architect
2 1 (9.09%) Project Manager
2 1 (9.09%) Solutions Architect
2 1 (9.09%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (9.09%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 2 (18.18%) Analogue Electronics
2 1 (9.09%) Management Information System
2 1 (9.09%) Team-Oriented Environment
2 1 (9.09%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (54.55%) Problem-Solving
2 3 (27.27%) Agile
2 3 (27.27%) Computer Science
3 2 (18.18%) Conflict Resolution
3 2 (18.18%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (18.18%) Functional Testing
3 2 (18.18%) Project Management
3 2 (18.18%) Schematic Capture
3 2 (18.18%) Software Engineering
4 1 (9.09%) Architectural Design
4 1 (9.09%) Backlog Prioritisation
4 1 (9.09%) Business Strategy
4 1 (9.09%) Customer Experience
4 1 (9.09%) Emotional Intelligence
4 1 (9.09%) Line Management
4 1 (9.09%) Objectives and Key Results
4 1 (9.09%) Performance Management
4 1 (9.09%) Process Improvement
4 1 (9.09%) SDLC
4 1 (9.09%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 2 (18.18%) C#
Qualifications
1 6 (54.55%) Degree
2 3 (27.27%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (27.27%) Security Cleared
3 2 (18.18%) SC Cleared
4 1 (9.09%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (9.09%) PMO
Vendors
1 2 (18.18%) Mentor Graphics
1 2 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 1 (9.09%) Salesforce