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 1 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 883 993 1,106
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.22% 19.11% 13.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.00% 21.30% 17.45%
Number of salaries quoted 665 481 486
10th Percentile £26,700 £25,087 £27,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £61,083
90th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -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 8,832 4,663 6,337
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.25% 89.74% 77.42%
Number of salaries quoted 6,704 2,269 3,980
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -1.96% -7.27%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £79,263
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 -9 481 £50,000 - 544
Cheshire -10 149 £41,750 -4.57% 118
Merseyside -5 143 £42,500 -19.05% 60
Lancashire -3 71 £42,500 +21.43% 140
Cumbria -8 32 £32,500 -9.35% 15
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 77 (8.72%) SharePoint
2 54 (6.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.57%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.23%) Apache
6 2 (0.23%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.23%) CMS
6 2 (0.23%) Confluence
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.23%) nginx
7 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
7 1 (0.11%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 46 (5.21%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (4.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.70%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.23%) Windchill
7 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 18 (2.04%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (1.02%) SAP ERP
4 5 (0.57%) Magento
5 4 (0.45%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.45%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.34%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.11%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.11%) Odoo
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.11%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 194 (21.97%) Azure
2 157 (17.78%) Microsoft 365
3 107 (12.12%) Power Platform
4 106 (12.00%) AWS
5 48 (5.44%) PowerApps
6 40 (4.53%) GCP
7 37 (4.19%) SaaS
8 34 (3.85%) Power Automate
9 32 (3.62%) Entra ID
10 31 (3.51%) GitHub
11 30 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
12 29 (3.28%) Microsoft Copilot
12 29 (3.28%) OneDrive
13 28 (3.17%) Dynamics 365
14 20 (2.27%) Microsoft Purview
15 16 (1.81%) Serverless
16 12 (1.36%) Boomi
16 12 (1.36%) Google Analytics
17 10 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
17 10 (1.13%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (6.80%) Firewall
2 57 (6.46%) DNS
3 52 (5.89%) DHCP
4 42 (4.76%) TCP/IP
5 40 (4.53%) VPN
6 32 (3.62%) Wireless
7 30 (3.40%) VLAN
8 27 (3.06%) VoIP
9 24 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
10 21 (2.38%) Network Security
11 19 (2.15%) LAN
12 16 (1.81%) WAN
13 15 (1.70%) Broadband
14 10 (1.13%) Unified Communications
15 8 (0.91%) SD-WAN
15 8 (0.91%) Structured Cabling
16 7 (0.79%) BGP
16 7 (0.79%) OSPF
17 6 (0.68%) IP Telephony
17 6 (0.68%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (7.70%) Power BI
2 53 (6.00%) SQL Server
3 28 (3.17%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 23 (2.60%) MySQL
5 20 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.25%) BigQuery
7 10 (1.13%) Big Data
7 10 (1.13%) Looker
7 10 (1.13%) NoSQL
8 9 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (0.91%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (0.91%) Power Query
10 7 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
10 7 (0.79%) Redis
11 6 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
12 5 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.57%) MariaDB
12 5 (0.57%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 37 (4.19%) Git
2 33 (3.74%) JIRA
3 10 (1.13%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.79%) Bitbucket
5 6 (0.68%) GitLab
6 5 (0.57%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.45%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.45%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.34%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.11%) gulp
10 1 (0.11%) LabVIEW
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.11%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.11%) Selenium
10 1 (0.11%) webpack
General
1 366 (41.45%) Social Skills
2 271 (30.69%) Analytical Skills
3 128 (14.50%) Finance
4 69 (7.81%) Law
5 65 (7.36%) Manufacturing
6 59 (6.68%) Legal
7 58 (6.57%) Organisational Skills
8 45 (5.10%) Retail
9 35 (3.96%) Marketing
10 30 (3.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 26 (2.94%) Telecoms
12 22 (2.49%) Public Sector
13 16 (1.81%) Banking
14 15 (1.70%) Aerospace
15 13 (1.47%) Games
16 11 (1.25%) Billing
16 11 (1.25%) Documentation Skills
17 10 (1.13%) Electronics
17 10 (1.13%) German Language
18 9 (1.02%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 120 (13.59%) Analyst
2 119 (13.48%) Developer
3 118 (13.36%) Senior
4 65 (7.36%) IT Support
5 55 (6.23%) Support Engineer
6 48 (5.44%) Lead
7 42 (4.76%) Senior Developer
7 42 (4.76%) Software Engineer
8 41 (4.64%) Consultant
9 38 (4.30%) Support Technician
10 35 (3.96%) Support Analyst
11 29 (3.28%) IT Engineer
12 28 (3.17%) Administrator
12 28 (3.17%) IT Technician
13 26 (2.94%) IT Support Engineer
14 24 (2.72%) IT Support Technician
14 24 (2.72%) Junior
15 21 (2.38%) Applications Support
15 21 (2.38%) Technical Analyst
15 21 (2.38%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (6.00%) .NET
2 44 (4.98%) HTML
3 42 (4.76%) React
4 38 (4.30%) REST
5 24 (2.72%) Middleware
5 24 (2.72%) Terraform
6 23 (2.60%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.60%) CSS
7 21 (2.38%) Spring
7 21 (2.38%) Vue
8 19 (2.15%) Spring Boot
9 18 (2.04%) XML
10 17 (1.93%) SOAP
11 16 (1.81%) EDI
12 14 (1.59%) Node.js
13 13 (1.47%) JSON
14 11 (1.25%) Next.js
15 10 (1.13%) Laravel
15 10 (1.13%) React Native
15 10 (1.13%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 65 (7.36%) Driving Licence
2 56 (6.34%) Onboarding
3 35 (3.96%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.85%) Self-Motivation
5 32 (3.62%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.60%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.04%) Distributed Systems
7 18 (2.04%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 16 (1.81%) Security Posture
9 14 (1.59%) Replication
10 13 (1.47%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.25%) IoT
11 11 (1.25%) NHS
12 10 (1.13%) CCTV
12 10 (1.13%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (1.13%) Low-Code
13 9 (1.02%) Data Centre
13 9 (1.02%) Enterprise Cloud
13 9 (1.02%) FMCG
14 8 (0.91%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 131 (14.84%) Windows
2 63 (7.13%) Windows Server
3 36 (4.08%) Linux
4 27 (3.06%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.93%) Apple iOS
6 10 (1.13%) Mac OS
7 9 (1.02%) Android
8 6 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.57%) Unix
10 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.23%) Solaris
12 1 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.11%) VME
12 1 (0.11%) VMS
12 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.11%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (27.86%) Continuous Improvement
2 191 (21.63%) Customer Service
3 117 (13.25%) AI
3 117 (13.25%) Mentoring
4 114 (12.91%) Agile
5 112 (12.68%) Stakeholder Management
6 103 (11.66%) Decision-Making
7 96 (10.87%) CI/CD
7 96 (10.87%) CRM
8 85 (9.63%) DevOps
9 83 (9.40%) Roadmaps
10 82 (9.29%) Software Engineering
11 79 (8.95%) Analytics
12 73 (8.27%) ERP
13 64 (7.25%) User Experience
14 63 (7.13%) Collaborative Working
15 62 (7.02%) Business Intelligence
16 58 (6.57%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (6.23%) Project Delivery
17 55 (6.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 173 (19.59%) SQL
2 113 (12.80%) Python
3 66 (7.47%) C#
4 63 (7.13%) JavaScript
5 47 (5.32%) Java
6 38 (4.30%) PowerShell
7 23 (2.60%) TypeScript
8 20 (2.27%) PHP
9 18 (2.04%) Bash
10 16 (1.81%) C++
11 13 (1.47%) Shell Script
12 10 (1.13%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.91%) C
13 8 (0.91%) Ruby
14 7 (0.79%) Go
15 6 (0.68%) R
16 5 (0.57%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.57%) Bicep
16 5 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.34%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 113 (12.80%) Degree
2 48 (5.44%) Security Cleared
3 25 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
3 25 (2.83%) SC Cleared
4 24 (2.72%) HNC
5 22 (2.49%) DBS Check
6 19 (2.15%) DV Cleared
7 16 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
8 15 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 13 (1.47%) CCNP
10 11 (1.25%) Azure Certification
11 9 (1.02%) HND
12 8 (0.91%) Master's Degree
13 7 (0.79%) CCNA
13 7 (0.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 7 (0.79%) Postgraduate
14 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
14 6 (0.68%) MCSA
14 6 (0.68%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (5.10%) Data Quality
2 39 (4.42%) QA
3 33 (3.74%) Accessibility
3 33 (3.74%) GDPR
4 18 (2.04%) SLA
5 12 (1.36%) TickIT
6 10 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 8 (0.91%) NIST
8 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 14443
8 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 7816
9 2 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.23%) PMO
9 2 (0.23%) WCAG
10 1 (0.11%) DICOM
10 1 (0.11%) GMP
10 1 (0.11%) IFRS
10 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 95 (10.76%) Active Directory
2 44 (4.98%) Docker
3 33 (3.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (2.38%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.23%) Firmware
8 1 (0.11%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 35 (3.96%) Kubernetes
2 30 (3.40%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (1.47%) Grafana
4 11 (1.25%) FortiGate
5 10 (1.13%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.02%) Ansible
6 9 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.45%) Argo
7 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
8 3 (0.34%) SCCM
9 2 (0.23%) Autotask
9 2 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.23%) Nagios
9 2 (0.23%) Nessus
9 2 (0.23%) Podman
10 1 (0.11%) Istio
10 1 (0.11%) linkerd
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 301 (34.09%) Microsoft
2 42 (4.76%) VMware
3 36 (4.08%) SAP
4 29 (3.28%) Google
5 18 (2.04%) Cisco
6 16 (1.81%) ServiceNow
7 15 (1.70%) Salesforce
8 13 (1.47%) Aruba
9 12 (1.36%) iManage
9 12 (1.36%) Oracle
10 11 (1.25%) YouTube
11 10 (1.13%) Adobe
12 9 (1.02%) HubSpot
13 8 (0.91%) Juniper
13 8 (0.91%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.91%) SonicWALL
13 8 (0.91%) Sophos
13 8 (0.91%) Tanium
14 7 (0.79%) Aderant
14 7 (0.79%) Sage