Problem-Solving Job Trends in the North West

Problem Solving
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -17 +4 +15
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 660 767 1,088
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 8.01% 19.60% 13.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.50% 20.69% 15.91%
Number of salaries quoted 499 529 787
10th Percentile £27,000 £30,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £53,000 £66,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £68,666 £80,250 £75,000
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.09%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 6,288 3,707 6,839
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 76.31% 94.71% 84.65%
Number of salaries quoted 3,453 2,169 5,508
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,620 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.75% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £68,666 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the North West

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the North West over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the North West

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the North West region over the 6 months to 16 March 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -20 296 £50,000 -9.09% 191
Merseyside -2 110 £32,500 - 29
Cheshire -11 110 £45,000 +12.50% 60
Lancashire -12 97 £36,500 -29.39% 87
Cumbria +6 46 £45,000 +12.50% 12
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 47 (7.12%) SharePoint
2 31 (4.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.67%) Confluence
4 4 (0.61%) Moodle
4 4 (0.61%) Totara
5 3 (0.45%) WordPress
6 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.15%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.15%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.15%) CMS
Applications
1 40 (6.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (3.64%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.45%) Simulink
4 2 (0.30%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.30%) Revit
5 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.91%) SAP ERP
2 6 (0.91%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.76%) Shopify
4 3 (0.45%) Magento
4 3 (0.45%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 137 (20.76%) Azure
2 123 (18.64%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (9.09%) AWS
4 50 (7.58%) Entra ID
5 47 (7.12%) Power Platform
6 32 (4.85%) GCP
7 31 (4.70%) SaaS
8 16 (2.42%) Microsoft Purview
9 13 (1.97%) Serverless
10 11 (1.67%) Google Workspace
10 11 (1.67%) OneDrive
10 11 (1.67%) Power Automate
11 10 (1.52%) Azure Monitor
12 9 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (1.36%) PowerApps
13 8 (1.21%) PaaS
14 7 (1.06%) Adobe Analytics
14 7 (1.06%) Figma
14 7 (1.06%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 55 (8.33%) Firewall
2 35 (5.30%) DNS
3 33 (5.00%) DHCP
4 28 (4.24%) VLAN
5 24 (3.64%) VPN
5 24 (3.64%) Wi-Fi
6 22 (3.33%) VoIP
7 21 (3.18%) WAN
8 20 (3.03%) TCP/IP
9 16 (2.42%) Unified Communications
9 16 (2.42%) Wireless
10 14 (2.12%) Telepresence
10 14 (2.12%) WebEx
11 13 (1.97%) Structured Cabling
12 11 (1.67%) Broadband
12 11 (1.67%) LAN
12 11 (1.67%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.76%) Ethernet
13 5 (0.76%) Network Security
14 4 (0.61%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.00%) Power BI
2 18 (2.73%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.12%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.52%) MongoDB
5 10 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 9 (1.36%) Tableau
7 7 (1.06%) MySQL
8 5 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (0.61%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.61%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.45%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.30%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.30%) Big Data
11 2 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.30%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.30%) Looker
Development Applications
1 23 (3.48%) Git
2 14 (2.12%) JIRA
3 7 (1.06%) GitLab
4 3 (0.45%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.15%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.15%) TeamCity
General
1 297 (45.00%) Social Skills
2 164 (24.85%) Analytical Skills
3 138 (20.91%) Finance
4 59 (8.94%) Organisational Skills
5 35 (5.30%) Automotive
6 33 (5.00%) Manufacturing
7 29 (4.39%) Public Sector
8 25 (3.79%) Legal
9 23 (3.48%) Retail
10 22 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (3.33%) Telecoms
11 21 (3.18%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (2.27%) Banking
13 14 (2.12%) Electronics
14 13 (1.97%) Marketing
15 12 (1.82%) Law
16 11 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
16 11 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (1.52%) Advertising
18 9 (1.36%) French Language
Job Titles
1 90 (13.64%) Analyst
1 90 (13.64%) Support Engineer
2 87 (13.18%) IT Support
3 67 (10.15%) Senior
4 48 (7.27%) IT Engineer
4 48 (7.27%) IT Support Engineer
5 38 (5.76%) Lead
6 35 (5.30%) Business Analyst
7 31 (4.70%) Developer
8 30 (4.55%) Support Technician
9 25 (3.79%) Trainee
9 25 (3.79%) Trainee Analyst
9 25 (3.79%) Trainee Business Analyst
10 23 (3.48%) Architect
11 22 (3.33%) Consultant
12 20 (3.03%) Solutions Architect
13 18 (2.73%) IT Support Technician
13 18 (2.73%) IT Technician
14 17 (2.58%) Technical Engineer
14 17 (2.58%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (2.73%) React
2 14 (2.12%) .NET
3 13 (1.97%) Spring
3 13 (1.97%) Spring Boot
4 12 (1.82%) RESTful
5 11 (1.67%) CSS
5 11 (1.67%) HTML
5 11 (1.67%) Vue
6 10 (1.52%) Node.js
7 7 (1.06%) Hibernate
8 6 (0.91%) Django
8 6 (0.91%) EDI
8 6 (0.91%) FastAPI
9 5 (0.76%) Celery
9 5 (0.76%) Flask
9 5 (0.76%) Laravel
9 5 (0.76%) OAuth
9 5 (0.76%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.61%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.61%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 130 (19.70%) Driving Licence
2 51 (7.73%) Onboarding
3 26 (3.94%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (3.18%) EPoS
5 20 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
6 17 (2.58%) CCTV
7 16 (2.42%) Data Centre
7 16 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
8 14 (2.12%) Distributed Systems
9 12 (1.82%) Product Ownership
10 11 (1.67%) Social Media
11 10 (1.52%) Cloud Native
11 10 (1.52%) Management Information System
12 9 (1.36%) CMDB
13 8 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (1.21%) Renewable Energy
14 7 (1.06%) Mobile App
14 7 (1.06%) Security Posture
14 7 (1.06%) Virtual Team
15 6 (0.91%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 123 (18.64%) Windows
2 53 (8.03%) Windows Server
3 32 (4.85%) Windows 10
4 21 (3.18%) Linux
5 17 (2.58%) Apple iOS
6 16 (2.42%) Android
7 11 (1.67%) Windows 7
7 11 (1.67%) Windows 8
8 10 (1.52%) Mac OS
9 8 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.30%) Unix
12 1 (0.15%) CentOS
12 1 (0.15%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.15%) Solaris
12 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (17.73%) Customer Service
2 107 (16.21%) Continuous Improvement
3 91 (13.79%) Decision-Making
4 83 (12.58%) Mentoring
5 82 (12.42%) Agile
6 78 (11.82%) Stakeholder Management
7 64 (9.70%) AI
8 62 (9.39%) Project Management
9 55 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
10 51 (7.73%) Coaching
11 47 (7.12%) ITIL
12 44 (6.67%) CI/CD
13 42 (6.36%) Analytics
13 42 (6.36%) Service Delivery
14 39 (5.91%) User Experience
15 38 (5.76%) Business Intelligence
16 37 (5.61%) Change Management
16 37 (5.61%) Customer Experience
17 36 (5.45%) Collaborative Culture
17 36 (5.45%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 58 (8.79%) SQL
2 43 (6.52%) Python
3 23 (3.48%) Java
4 18 (2.73%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.12%) C#
6 10 (1.52%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.36%) Kotlin
7 9 (1.36%) PowerShell
8 8 (1.21%) PHP
9 4 (0.61%) Bash
9 4 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.61%) MATLAB
10 3 (0.45%) Go
10 3 (0.45%) Ladder Logic
11 2 (0.30%) Bicep
11 2 (0.30%) C
11 2 (0.30%) R
11 2 (0.30%) Scala
11 2 (0.30%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.30%) VBA
Qualifications
1 117 (17.73%) Degree
2 32 (4.85%) DBS Check
3 23 (3.48%) BPSS Clearance
4 17 (2.58%) Security Cleared
5 14 (2.12%) HNC
6 13 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (1.67%) Master's Degree
8 10 (1.52%) SC Cleared
9 9 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.21%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.21%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (1.06%) CCNA
11 7 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (1.06%) NVQ Level 4
12 6 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
13 5 (0.76%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.61%) HND
14 4 (0.61%) MCSA
15 3 (0.45%) DV Cleared
16 2 (0.30%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.09%) QA
2 20 (3.03%) GDPR
2 20 (3.03%) SLA
3 17 (2.58%) Data Quality
4 14 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.21%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.21%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.45%) GLBA
8 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.15%) NIST
9 1 (0.15%) PMO
System Software
1 85 (12.88%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.48%) Hyper-V
3 21 (3.18%) Docker
4 15 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (1.52%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.30%) Firmware
8 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 36 (5.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (4.85%) BMC PATROL
3 25 (3.79%) Terraform
4 22 (3.33%) SCCM
5 21 (3.18%) Kubernetes
6 14 (2.12%) Cisco CUCM
7 12 (1.82%) Autotask
8 10 (1.52%) Ansible
8 10 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (0.76%) Jamf Pro
10 4 (0.61%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.45%) cPanel
11 3 (0.45%) Plesk
11 3 (0.45%) Rancher
12 1 (0.15%) Argo
12 1 (0.15%) AWS Copilot
12 1 (0.15%) Grafana
12 1 (0.15%) McAfee ePO
12 1 (0.15%) Podman
12 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 170 (25.76%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.64%) Oracle
3 20 (3.03%) Cisco
3 20 (3.03%) SAP
4 18 (2.73%) VMware
5 15 (2.27%) Google
5 15 (2.27%) Workday
6 11 (1.67%) ESET
7 10 (1.52%) Apple
8 8 (1.21%) Adobe
8 8 (1.21%) New Relic
8 8 (1.21%) ServiceNow
8 8 (1.21%) Splunk
9 7 (1.06%) HubSpot
9 7 (1.06%) Qualtrics
9 7 (1.06%) Siemens
10 6 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
10 6 (0.91%) Meraki
11 5 (0.76%) Facebook
11 5 (0.76%) iManage