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 10 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 +13
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 698 988 1,469
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.59% 21.04% 13.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.54% 22.17% 17.11%
Number of salaries quoted 552 488 895
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £46,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +3.33% -5.26%
75th Percentile £61,250 £63,563 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,919
% change year-on-year -5.00% +0.16% -9.24%

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 7,316 4,457 8,584
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 69.03% 94.91% 79.06%
Number of salaries quoted 5,573 2,031 6,513
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £84,250 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -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 10 June 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 10 June 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 -14 368 £50,007 +0.01% 207
Merseyside -5 116 £42,500 +6.25% 19
Cheshire -12 107 £41,000 +10.81% 57
Lancashire +4 71 £40,000 +15.94% 66
Cumbria -10 31 £33,750 +3.53% 19
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 61 (8.74%) SharePoint
2 48 (6.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.86%) Confluence
4 4 (0.57%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.57%) IIS
4 4 (0.57%) Moodle
4 4 (0.57%) Totara
5 2 (0.29%) Apache
5 2 (0.29%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.29%) nginx
5 2 (0.29%) WordPress
6 1 (0.14%) CMS
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.14%) Umbraco
Applications
1 44 (6.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (3.58%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (1.29%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.29%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.14%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Simulink
6 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 24 (3.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.86%) SAP ERP
3 7 (1.00%) Magento
4 6 (0.86%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.72%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.57%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.57%) SAP PP
6 4 (0.57%) Shopify
7 2 (0.29%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.14%) Odoo
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 164 (23.50%) Azure
2 141 (20.20%) Microsoft 365
3 80 (11.46%) Power Platform
4 79 (11.32%) AWS
5 29 (4.15%) Entra ID
5 29 (4.15%) PowerApps
6 28 (4.01%) Dynamics 365
6 28 (4.01%) SaaS
7 25 (3.58%) Azure DevOps
7 25 (3.58%) GCP
8 24 (3.44%) GitHub
9 23 (3.30%) Power Automate
10 20 (2.87%) Microsoft Purview
11 15 (2.15%) OneDrive
11 15 (2.15%) Serverless
12 14 (2.01%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (1.72%) Boomi
14 8 (1.15%) Azure Logic Apps
15 7 (1.00%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (1.00%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 61 (8.74%) Firewall
2 38 (5.44%) DNS
3 35 (5.01%) DHCP
4 33 (4.73%) VLAN
5 28 (4.01%) VPN
6 26 (3.72%) Wi-Fi
7 23 (3.30%) VoIP
8 22 (3.15%) TCP/IP
9 19 (2.72%) Wireless
10 14 (2.01%) Network Security
11 13 (1.86%) WAN
12 11 (1.58%) LAN
12 11 (1.58%) Structured Cabling
13 10 (1.43%) Broadband
14 9 (1.29%) Unified Communications
15 8 (1.15%) SD-WAN
16 6 (0.86%) IP Telephony
16 6 (0.86%) SAN
17 4 (0.57%) Telepresence
17 4 (0.57%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (7.59%) Power BI
2 31 (4.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 28 (4.01%) SQL Server
4 12 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
5 11 (1.58%) MySQL
5 11 (1.58%) NoSQL
6 9 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.15%) Big Data
8 5 (0.72%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.72%) Power Query
8 5 (0.72%) Tableau
9 4 (0.57%) Looker
10 3 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.43%) PowerPivot
10 3 (0.43%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.43%) SAP HANA
10 3 (0.43%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 30 (4.30%) Git
2 26 (3.72%) JIRA
3 7 (1.00%) GitLab
4 6 (0.86%) Bitbucket
4 6 (0.86%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.29%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.14%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.14%) gulp
6 1 (0.14%) LabVIEW
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.14%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.14%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 286 (40.97%) Social Skills
2 204 (29.23%) Analytical Skills
3 114 (16.33%) Finance
4 58 (8.31%) Manufacturing
5 54 (7.74%) Organisational Skills
6 47 (6.73%) Law
7 36 (5.16%) Legal
7 36 (5.16%) Retail
8 31 (4.44%) Marketing
9 30 (4.30%) Public Sector
10 20 (2.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 16 (2.29%) Telecoms
12 15 (2.15%) Banking
13 12 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (1.43%) French Language
14 10 (1.43%) Games
14 10 (1.43%) Investment Banking
15 7 (1.00%) Advertising
15 7 (1.00%) Electronics
15 7 (1.00%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 91 (13.04%) Senior
2 83 (11.89%) Developer
3 82 (11.75%) Analyst
4 78 (11.17%) IT Support
5 75 (10.74%) Support Engineer
6 51 (7.31%) IT Engineer
7 49 (7.02%) IT Support Engineer
8 42 (6.02%) Consultant
9 36 (5.16%) Lead
10 33 (4.73%) Software Engineer
10 33 (4.73%) Support Technician
11 31 (4.44%) Senior Developer
12 24 (3.44%) Business Analyst
13 18 (2.58%) Administrator
13 18 (2.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 17 (2.44%) Technical Analyst
15 15 (2.15%) IT Support Technician
15 15 (2.15%) IT Technician
16 14 (2.01%) 1st Line Support
16 14 (2.01%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.44%) .NET
2 34 (4.87%) React
3 33 (4.73%) REST
4 31 (4.44%) HTML
5 23 (3.30%) Spring
5 23 (3.30%) Spring Boot
6 22 (3.15%) EDI
7 21 (3.01%) CSS
8 19 (2.72%) AngularJS
9 17 (2.44%) Middleware
10 16 (2.29%) SOAP
10 16 (2.29%) Vue
11 14 (2.01%) XML
12 13 (1.86%) JSON
13 12 (1.72%) Node.js
14 11 (1.58%) RESTful
15 10 (1.43%) SAP Fiori
16 9 (1.29%) Web Services
17 8 (1.15%) React Native
17 8 (1.15%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 61 (8.74%) Driving Licence
2 50 (7.16%) Onboarding
3 32 (4.58%) Product Ownership
4 27 (3.87%) Cloud Native
5 21 (3.01%) Data Centre
6 19 (2.72%) Distributed Systems
7 18 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
8 15 (2.15%) Mobile App
9 14 (2.01%) Analytical Mindset
10 12 (1.72%) CCTV
11 9 (1.29%) Enterprise Cloud
11 9 (1.29%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.29%) Social Media
12 8 (1.15%) Security Posture
13 7 (1.00%) AI Agents
13 7 (1.00%) FMCG
13 7 (1.00%) Low-Code
14 6 (0.86%) CMDB
14 6 (0.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 6 (0.86%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 118 (16.91%) Windows
2 56 (8.02%) Windows Server
3 40 (5.73%) Windows 10
4 22 (3.15%) Apple iOS
5 19 (2.72%) Linux
6 14 (2.01%) Android
7 7 (1.00%) Windows 7
7 7 (1.00%) Windows 8
7 7 (1.00%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.86%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.43%) Unix
11 2 (0.29%) Solaris
12 1 (0.14%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.14%) VME
12 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (21.92%) Continuous Improvement
2 152 (21.78%) Customer Service
3 108 (15.47%) Mentoring
4 85 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
5 81 (11.60%) Decision-Making
6 79 (11.32%) Agile
7 78 (11.17%) AI
8 72 (10.32%) CI/CD
9 67 (9.60%) Roadmaps
10 66 (9.46%) CRM
11 65 (9.31%) DevOps
12 59 (8.45%) Analytics
13 57 (8.17%) Software Engineering
13 57 (8.17%) User Experience
14 55 (7.88%) ERP
15 50 (7.16%) Collaborative Working
16 48 (6.88%) Test Automation
17 44 (6.30%) Business Intelligence
18 43 (6.16%) Project Management
19 41 (5.87%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 114 (16.33%) SQL
2 83 (11.89%) Python
3 47 (6.73%) C#
4 41 (5.87%) JavaScript
5 38 (5.44%) Java
6 17 (2.44%) PowerShell
7 12 (1.72%) C++
8 10 (1.43%) Bash
8 10 (1.43%) PHP
8 10 (1.43%) TypeScript
9 9 (1.29%) T-SQL
10 8 (1.15%) Kotlin
10 8 (1.15%) Ruby
11 5 (0.72%) C
11 5 (0.72%) R
12 4 (0.57%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.57%) Bicep
12 4 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.57%) Scala
12 4 (0.57%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 76 (10.89%) Degree
2 32 (4.58%) Security Cleared
3 22 (3.15%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.87%) DBS Check
5 15 (2.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.58%) HNC
8 10 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.29%) DV Cleared
10 7 (1.00%) Azure Certification
10 7 (1.00%) MCSA
10 7 (1.00%) Network+ Certification
11 6 (0.86%) CCNP
12 5 (0.72%) CCNA
12 5 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (0.57%) ACCA
13 4 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.57%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.57%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (5.44%) Data Quality
2 27 (3.87%) SLA
3 25 (3.58%) GDPR
3 25 (3.58%) QA
4 15 (2.15%) Accessibility
5 13 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.72%) TickIT
7 9 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.15%) ISO 9001
9 4 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 14443
9 4 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 2 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.29%) NIST
10 2 (0.29%) WCAG
11 1 (0.14%) DICOM
11 1 (0.14%) IFRS
11 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.14%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.14%) PMO
11 1 (0.14%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 89 (12.75%) Active Directory
2 27 (3.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.58%) Docker
4 18 (2.58%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.00%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.29%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (4.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (3.87%) Terraform
3 25 (3.58%) Kubernetes
4 17 (2.44%) SCCM
5 9 (1.29%) Ansible
6 8 (1.15%) Autotask
6 8 (1.15%) Grafana
6 8 (1.15%) Prometheus
7 6 (0.86%) FortiGate
8 5 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.57%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.29%) Argo
11 2 (0.29%) Nagios
11 2 (0.29%) Podman
11 2 (0.29%) Rancher
12 1 (0.14%) SCVMM
12 1 (0.14%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 235 (33.67%) Microsoft
2 30 (4.30%) SAP
2 30 (4.30%) VMware
3 16 (2.29%) Google
4 14 (2.01%) Cisco
5 12 (1.72%) Oracle
6 10 (1.43%) Aruba
6 10 (1.43%) HubSpot
6 10 (1.43%) iManage
6 10 (1.43%) ServiceNow
7 9 (1.29%) Apple
7 9 (1.29%) Workday
8 8 (1.15%) Adobe
8 8 (1.15%) Meraki
9 7 (1.00%) ESET
9 7 (1.00%) Salesforce
10 6 (0.86%) Intapp
10 6 (0.86%) Juniper
10 6 (0.86%) SonicWALL
10 6 (0.86%) Sophos