Critical Thinking Contracts

Critical Thinking
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Critical Thinking skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Critical Thinking over the 6 months leading up to 13 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 363 367 405
Rank change year-on-year +4 +38 +62
Contract jobs citing Critical Thinking 155 224 311
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.53% 0.52% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.59% 0.60% 0.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 147 216
10th Percentile £301 £255 £361
25th Percentile £407 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £613 £625 £600
90th Percentile £713 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £525 £480
% change year-on-year +4.76% +9.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 8 19
10th Percentile - £24.27 £19.98
25th Percentile - £25.29 £20.22
Median hourly rate £95.00 £26.00 £21.67
Median % change year-on-year +265.38% +19.98% -63.75%
75th Percentile - £35.00 £41.56
90th Percentile - £50.00 £50.42
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £35.00 £20.71
% change year-on-year - +69.04% -70.01%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,416 37,097 52,247
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.93% 86.26% 89.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,973 23,888 36,212
10th Percentile £306 £300 £325
25th Percentile £410 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £627 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.40% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,082 2,438 1,719
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.15 £16.00 £16.23
Median hourly rate £28.30 £36.50 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.48% +1.39% +40.19%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.23 £38.06 £35.00
% change year-on-year -33.72% +8.74% +75.00%

Critical Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Critical Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Critical Thinking in the UK

Critical Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Critical Thinking.

Daily rate trend for Critical Thinking in the UK

Critical Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Critical Thinking over the 6 months to 13 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Critical Thinking in the UK

Critical Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Critical Thinking.

Hourly rate trend for Critical Thinking in the UK

Critical Thinking
Top 16 Contract Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 13 May 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
England +13 129 £550 +4.76% 592
UK excluding London +23 101 £550 +4.76% 326
Work from Home +45 62 £525 +10.53% 307
London +4 47 £450 -20.88% 340
South West +70 43 £569 +5.81% 35
Scotland +17 19 £490 +8.89% 26
South East +40 13 £563 +4.65% 102
North of England +9 9 £507 -12.44% 85
East of England +22 8 £500 - 36
Yorkshire +17 6 £507 -22.00% 16
Midlands -4 5 £463 +69.72% 37
West Midlands +11 3 £463 -23.81% 24
North West +5 3 £544 -0.73% 62
Northern Ireland -6 3 £675 +107.69% 4
East Midlands -7 2 - - 12
Wales -7 1 £413 -31.25% 11

Critical Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Application Platforms
1 24 (15.48%) Confluence
2 9 (5.81%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (4.52%) SAS
4 6 (3.87%) SharePoint
5 4 (2.58%) Skype for Business
6 2 (1.29%) Apache
6 2 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.65%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.65%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.65%) CMS
7 1 (0.65%) JBoss
7 1 (0.65%) nginx
7 1 (0.65%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.65%) WebSphere
Applications
1 27 (17.42%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (8.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (7.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (4.52%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (1.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (5.16%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 7 (4.52%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.29%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.65%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.65%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.65%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.65%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.65%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 18 (11.61%) Azure
2 15 (9.68%) AWS
2 15 (9.68%) Cloud Computing
2 15 (9.68%) Power Platform
3 9 (5.81%) GCP
4 7 (4.52%) Adobe Analytics
5 5 (3.23%) GitHub
6 4 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (2.58%) Power Automate
7 3 (1.94%) Azure AKS
7 3 (1.94%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.94%) dbt
8 2 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
8 2 (1.29%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 2 (1.29%) Copilot Studio
8 2 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (1.29%) Microsoft Copilot
8 2 (1.29%) PowerApps
8 2 (1.29%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.45%) Skype
2 8 (5.16%) DNS
2 8 (5.16%) VPN
3 7 (4.52%) Firewall
4 6 (3.87%) DHCP
5 5 (3.23%) Unified Communications
6 3 (1.94%) BGP
6 3 (1.94%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (1.94%) Wireless
7 2 (1.29%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (1.29%) FTP
7 2 (1.29%) HTTP
7 2 (1.29%) iSCSI
7 2 (1.29%) OSPF
7 2 (1.29%) SAN
7 2 (1.29%) SMTP
7 2 (1.29%) SSL
7 2 (1.29%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.65%) Cisco Nexus
8 1 (0.65%) SWIFTNet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (9.68%) Power BI
2 12 (7.74%) Relational Database
3 11 (7.10%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (3.23%) Metadata
5 2 (1.29%) Data Vault
5 2 (1.29%) NoSQL
5 2 (1.29%) Tableau
6 1 (0.65%) Big Data
6 1 (0.65%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.65%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.65%) GIS
6 1 (0.65%) Hadoop
6 1 (0.65%) KDB
6 1 (0.65%) Looker
6 1 (0.65%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.65%) SAP BW
6 1 (0.65%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.65%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 26 (16.77%) JIRA
2 6 (3.87%) Bitbucket
2 6 (3.87%) Git
3 3 (1.94%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.29%) GitLab
5 1 (0.65%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.65%) Gradle
5 1 (0.65%) Hudson
5 1 (0.65%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.65%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.65%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.65%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.65%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.65%) webpack
General
1 112 (72.26%) Social Skills
2 76 (49.03%) Finance
3 61 (39.35%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (19.35%) Banking
5 26 (16.77%) Public Sector
6 15 (9.68%) Marketing
7 14 (9.03%) Investment Banking
8 12 (7.74%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (7.10%) Presentation Skills
10 10 (6.45%) Manufacturing
11 8 (5.16%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (4.52%) Front Office
13 4 (2.58%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (1.94%) Financial Institution
14 3 (1.94%) German Language
15 2 (1.29%) Advertising
15 2 (1.29%) Electronics
15 2 (1.29%) French Language
15 2 (1.29%) Italian Language
15 2 (1.29%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 20 (12.90%) Analyst
2 14 (9.03%) Lead
3 13 (8.39%) Senior
4 12 (7.74%) Virtualisation Engineer
5 11 (7.10%) Business Analyst
6 10 (6.45%) Architect
6 10 (6.45%) Coordinator
7 9 (5.81%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 9 (5.81%) JavaScript Engineer
7 9 (5.81%) Project Manager
7 9 (5.81%) Python Engineer
8 7 (4.52%) Analytics Manager
8 7 (4.52%) Data Analytics Manager
8 7 (4.52%) Data Manager
8 7 (4.52%) Developer
8 7 (4.52%) Insight Manager
8 7 (4.52%) Security Assurance Coordinator
8 7 (4.52%) Strategy Manager
9 6 (3.87%) Consultant
9 6 (3.87%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.74%) Flash
2 4 (2.58%) AngularJS
2 4 (2.58%) CSS
2 4 (2.58%) HTML
2 4 (2.58%) PySpark
2 4 (2.58%) YAML
3 3 (1.94%) JSON
3 3 (1.94%) REST
3 3 (1.94%) Spring
4 2 (1.29%) .NET
4 2 (1.29%) Ajax
4 2 (1.29%) JMS
4 2 (1.29%) Kafka
4 2 (1.29%) Middleware
4 2 (1.29%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.29%) React
4 2 (1.29%) RESTful
4 2 (1.29%) Web Services
5 1 (0.65%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.65%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.84%) Management Information System
2 22 (14.19%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (7.74%) Clustering
4 11 (7.10%) PKI
5 10 (6.45%) Data Centre
6 9 (5.81%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (5.16%) Life Science
7 8 (5.16%) Renewable Energy
8 7 (4.52%) Cloud Native
9 6 (3.87%) Data Structures
10 5 (3.23%) Algorithms
10 5 (3.23%) PMI
11 4 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (2.58%) e-Learning
11 4 (2.58%) Hedge funds
11 4 (2.58%) Learning Management System
11 4 (2.58%) Onboarding
11 4 (2.58%) Product Ownership
12 3 (1.94%) Educational Technology
12 3 (1.94%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 14 (9.03%) Windows
2 13 (8.39%) Windows Server
3 9 (5.81%) Windows Server 2012
4 8 (5.16%) Windows 10
5 7 (4.52%) Linux
6 3 (1.94%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (1.29%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (54.19%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (43.87%) Agile
3 37 (23.87%) Project Management
4 31 (20.00%) Analytics
4 31 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
4 31 (20.00%) Waterfall
5 30 (19.35%) Computer Science
6 25 (16.13%) Decision-Making
7 23 (14.84%) Artificial Intelligence
7 23 (14.84%) Service Management
8 21 (13.55%) Risk Management
8 21 (13.55%) System Testing
9 20 (12.90%) Machine Learning
10 19 (12.26%) Continuous Improvement
10 19 (12.26%) Data Security
11 18 (11.61%) Change Management
11 18 (11.61%) NsoIT
11 18 (11.61%) Time Management
12 17 (10.97%) Data Science
12 17 (10.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 30 (19.35%) SQL
2 28 (18.06%) Python
3 20 (12.90%) Java
4 16 (10.32%) JavaScript
5 14 (9.03%) TypeScript
6 13 (8.39%) PowerShell
7 8 (5.16%) R
8 4 (2.58%) Bicep
8 4 (2.58%) C++
9 2 (1.29%) C#
9 2 (1.29%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.65%) JCL
10 1 (0.65%) REXX
Qualifications
1 55 (35.48%) Degree
2 33 (21.29%) Security Cleared
3 32 (20.65%) SC Cleared
4 22 (14.19%) Master's Degree
5 16 (10.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 15 (9.68%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (9.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (7.74%) CCNA
9 11 (7.10%) DV Cleared
10 10 (6.45%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (6.45%) PMI Certification
11 9 (5.81%) MCSE
12 8 (5.16%) AWS Certification
13 6 (3.87%) CISSP
13 6 (3.87%) MCSA
14 5 (3.23%) Azure Certification
14 5 (3.23%) PMP
15 4 (2.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 4 (2.58%) CCNP
15 4 (2.58%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (7.74%) PMO
2 8 (5.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (4.52%) JSP 440
3 7 (4.52%) RMADS
4 5 (3.23%) Data Quality
4 5 (3.23%) NIST
5 4 (2.58%) GDPR
5 4 (2.58%) PMBOK
6 3 (1.94%) GRC
7 2 (1.29%) Accessibility
7 2 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 2 (1.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.65%) COBIT
8 1 (0.65%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.65%) P3O
8 1 (0.65%) QA
8 1 (0.65%) SLA
8 1 (0.65%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (10.32%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.74%) VMware ESXi
2 12 (7.74%) VMware NSX
3 10 (6.45%) Active Directory
4 3 (1.94%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.94%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 3 (1.94%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (1.29%) Docker
6 1 (0.65%) IAG
6 1 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (8.39%) vCenter Server
2 7 (4.52%) WSUS
3 5 (3.23%) Terraform
4 3 (1.94%) Ansible
4 3 (1.94%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.29%) Grafana
5 2 (1.29%) SCOM
6 1 (0.65%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.65%) PowerCLI
6 1 (0.65%) Puppet
Vendors
1 36 (23.23%) Microsoft
2 18 (11.61%) Atlassian
3 17 (10.97%) Cisco
4 16 (10.32%) VMware
5 11 (7.10%) SAP
6 8 (5.16%) Adobe
7 7 (4.52%) Teradata
8 5 (3.23%) Salesforce
9 4 (2.58%) Fortinet
9 4 (2.58%) SolarWinds
9 4 (2.58%) Veeam
10 3 (1.94%) Sybase
11 2 (1.29%) Infoblox
11 2 (1.29%) Oracle
11 2 (1.29%) Planview
11 2 (1.29%) Wrike
12 1 (0.65%) Avaloq
12 1 (0.65%) Checkmarx
12 1 (0.65%) F5
12 1 (0.65%) Sitecore