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 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 6 4
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,078 992 1,065
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 8.38% 19.42% 14.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.45% 21.82% 18.37%
Number of salaries quoted 764 495 344
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,500 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,544 £48,720 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.47% +2.57% -
75th Percentile £58,750 £53,750 £59,207
90th Percentile £73,750 £67,500 £72,500
England median annual salary £46,000 £45,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +2.22% -15.09% -3.64%

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 9,418 4,546 5,796
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 73.22% 89.00% 80.22%
Number of salaries quoted 6,976 2,204 2,986
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,073 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £34,938 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £51,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -2.91% -6.36%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.32%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 -4 607 £47,500 +5.56% 321
Merseyside +3 179 £44,000 -16.98% 45
Cheshire -7 157 £48,750 -8.02% 71
Lancashire +3 102 £42,500 -10.53% 45
Cumbria -6 21 £30,000 -16.33% 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 85 (7.88%) SharePoint
2 53 (4.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.21%) IIS
4 9 (0.83%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.74%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.46%) Apache
6 5 (0.46%) Confluence
7 3 (0.28%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.19%) CMS
8 2 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.19%) nginx
8 2 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.093%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.093%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.093%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.093%) WebSphere
Applications
1 70 (6.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 65 (6.03%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.30%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Windchill
8 1 (0.093%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.093%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.093%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.093%) Revit
8 1 (0.093%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 15 (1.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.56%) SAP ERP
4 5 (0.46%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.37%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.37%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.28%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
6 3 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.28%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.19%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.19%) SAP PP
8 1 (0.093%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.093%) Odoo
8 1 (0.093%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.093%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 196 (18.18%) Azure
2 165 (15.31%) Microsoft 365
3 113 (10.48%) AWS
4 106 (9.83%) Power Platform
5 50 (4.64%) Entra ID
6 48 (4.45%) PowerApps
7 41 (3.80%) SaaS
8 38 (3.53%) Microsoft Copilot
9 37 (3.43%) GCP
10 36 (3.34%) OneDrive
11 35 (3.25%) Power Automate
12 31 (2.88%) GitHub
13 20 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
13 20 (1.86%) Serverless
14 19 (1.76%) Microsoft Purview
15 17 (1.58%) Copilot Studio
15 17 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
16 12 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
17 11 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
17 11 (1.02%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (6.68%) DNS
2 58 (5.38%) DHCP
3 56 (5.19%) Firewall
4 40 (3.71%) VPN
5 37 (3.43%) TCP/IP
6 28 (2.60%) Wireless
7 25 (2.32%) Network Security
7 25 (2.32%) VLAN
8 23 (2.13%) VoIP
9 22 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
10 19 (1.76%) LAN
11 17 (1.58%) WAN
12 13 (1.21%) Broadband
13 12 (1.11%) Unified Communications
14 10 (0.93%) BGP
14 10 (0.93%) SD-WAN
15 8 (0.74%) SNMP
16 7 (0.65%) OSPF
17 6 (0.56%) Internet
17 6 (0.56%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (5.66%) Power BI
2 53 (4.92%) SQL Server
3 26 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
4 23 (2.13%) MySQL
5 16 (1.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 14 (1.30%) BigQuery
7 13 (1.21%) Power Query
8 11 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
9 10 (0.93%) Big Data
9 10 (0.93%) NoSQL
9 10 (0.93%) Relational Database
10 8 (0.74%) Data Lake
10 8 (0.74%) Redis
11 7 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
11 7 (0.65%) Electronic Patient Records
11 7 (0.65%) Looker
11 7 (0.65%) Metadata
11 7 (0.65%) MongoDB
12 6 (0.56%) MariaDB
12 6 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 40 (3.71%) Git
2 33 (3.06%) JIRA
3 18 (1.67%) GitLab
4 14 (1.30%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.83%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.46%) Bitbucket
6 5 (0.46%) Cucumber
6 5 (0.46%) Selenium
7 4 (0.37%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.37%) REST Assured
7 4 (0.37%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.28%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.19%) Vagrant
10 1 (0.093%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.093%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.093%) Maven
10 1 (0.093%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.093%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.093%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 425 (39.42%) Social Skills
2 330 (30.61%) Analytical Skills
3 217 (20.13%) Finance
4 91 (8.44%) Retail
5 88 (8.16%) Manufacturing
6 87 (8.07%) Law
7 81 (7.51%) Organisational Skills
8 73 (6.77%) Legal
9 65 (6.03%) Telecoms
10 56 (5.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 34 (3.15%) Marketing
12 30 (2.78%) Public Sector
13 27 (2.50%) Military
14 19 (1.76%) Aerospace
15 18 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.67%) Electronics
16 17 (1.58%) Automotive
16 17 (1.58%) Banking
17 15 (1.39%) Billing
18 14 (1.30%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 160 (14.84%) Analyst
2 130 (12.06%) Senior
3 111 (10.30%) Developer
4 70 (6.49%) IT Support
5 52 (4.82%) Support Engineer
6 51 (4.73%) Support Analyst
7 47 (4.36%) Lead
8 40 (3.71%) Senior Developer
9 39 (3.62%) Consultant
10 36 (3.34%) Software Engineer
11 32 (2.97%) Administrator
12 29 (2.69%) IT Engineer
12 29 (2.69%) Junior
13 28 (2.60%) Data Engineer
14 26 (2.41%) IT Manager
14 26 (2.41%) IT Support Engineer
15 25 (2.32%) Architect
16 23 (2.13%) IT Technician
16 23 (2.13%) Support Technician
17 22 (2.04%) Microsoft 365 Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (4.36%) .NET
2 44 (4.08%) React
3 39 (3.62%) HTML
4 37 (3.43%) REST
5 34 (3.15%) Terraform
6 20 (1.86%) Middleware
7 18 (1.67%) CSS
7 18 (1.67%) Kafka
8 17 (1.58%) Vue
9 16 (1.48%) Node.js
9 16 (1.48%) Spring
10 15 (1.39%) AngularJS
11 14 (1.30%) Spring Boot
12 12 (1.11%) Web Services
12 12 (1.11%) XML
13 11 (1.02%) Next.js
14 10 (0.93%) Microsoft Graph
14 10 (0.93%) React Native
14 10 (0.93%) SOAP
15 9 (0.83%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 107 (9.93%) Driving Licence
2 71 (6.59%) Onboarding
3 53 (4.92%) Self-Motivation
4 42 (3.90%) Management Information System
5 39 (3.62%) Product Ownership
6 32 (2.97%) Cloud Native
7 26 (2.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 22 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
8 22 (2.04%) IoT
9 19 (1.76%) FMCG
9 19 (1.76%) Security Posture
10 18 (1.67%) NHS
11 17 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.30%) Data Centre
12 14 (1.30%) Replication
13 13 (1.21%) Public Cloud
14 12 (1.11%) Mobile App
15 9 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
15 9 (0.83%) Data Structures
15 9 (0.83%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 135 (12.52%) Windows
2 60 (5.57%) Windows Server
3 41 (3.80%) Linux
4 21 (1.95%) Windows 10
5 14 (1.30%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.83%) macOS
6 9 (0.83%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (0.74%) Android
8 7 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.28%) Unix
10 1 (0.093%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.093%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.093%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.093%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 326 (30.24%) Continuous Improvement
2 197 (18.27%) Customer Service
3 169 (15.68%) Agile
4 163 (15.12%) AI
5 150 (13.91%) Stakeholder Management
6 139 (12.89%) Mentoring
7 120 (11.13%) Decision-Making
8 119 (11.04%) CI/CD
9 106 (9.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 100 (9.28%) Analytics
11 94 (8.72%) CRM
11 94 (8.72%) ERP
12 93 (8.63%) DevOps
13 91 (8.44%) Collaborative Working
14 90 (8.35%) Software Engineering
15 89 (8.26%) Project Delivery
16 84 (7.79%) Workflow
17 81 (7.51%) Roadmaps
18 75 (6.96%) Cybersecurity
19 74 (6.86%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 168 (15.58%) SQL
2 131 (12.15%) Python
3 68 (6.31%) JavaScript
4 60 (5.57%) C#
5 51 (4.73%) Java
6 47 (4.36%) PowerShell
7 32 (2.97%) TypeScript
8 23 (2.13%) Bash
9 18 (1.67%) PHP
10 13 (1.21%) Shell Script
11 12 (1.11%) C++
12 11 (1.02%) T-SQL
13 10 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 10 (0.93%) Go
14 8 (0.74%) Ruby
15 7 (0.65%) C
16 6 (0.56%) R
17 5 (0.46%) ActionScript
17 5 (0.46%) Apex Code
17 5 (0.46%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 152 (14.10%) Degree
2 70 (6.49%) Security Cleared
3 43 (3.99%) SC Cleared
4 42 (3.90%) HNC
5 38 (3.53%) DBS Check
6 26 (2.41%) DV Cleared
7 25 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
9 16 (1.48%) Master's Degree
10 15 (1.39%) Azure Certification
10 15 (1.39%) HND
11 14 (1.30%) CCNP
11 14 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
12 12 (1.11%) BPSS Clearance
13 9 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.74%) ACCA
14 8 (0.74%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.65%) Chartered Engineer
15 7 (0.65%) CIMA
15 7 (0.65%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (5.29%) Data Quality
2 51 (4.73%) Accessibility
3 43 (3.99%) QA
4 34 (3.15%) GDPR
5 19 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.21%) SLA
7 9 (0.83%) NIST
8 7 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (0.65%) PMO
9 5 (0.46%) NEBOSH
9 5 (0.46%) TickIT
10 4 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 7816
11 3 (0.28%) IFRS
11 3 (0.28%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.19%) Good Clinical Practice
12 2 (0.19%) WCAG
13 1 (0.093%) GMP
13 1 (0.093%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 107 (9.93%) Active Directory
2 47 (4.36%) Docker
3 27 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (1.86%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.56%) Firmware
6 6 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.093%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 41 (3.80%) Kubernetes
2 40 (3.71%) BMC PATROL
3 37 (3.43%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (1.39%) FortiGate
5 13 (1.21%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (1.02%) Grafana
7 8 (0.74%) Ansible
7 8 (0.74%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.46%) Argo
9 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.28%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.19%) Nagios
11 2 (0.19%) Nessus
11 2 (0.19%) Packer
11 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.19%) SCCM
12 1 (0.093%) Functional Safety
12 1 (0.093%) linkerd
12 1 (0.093%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 1 (0.093%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 344 (31.91%) Microsoft
2 41 (3.80%) SAP
2 41 (3.80%) VMware
3 30 (2.78%) Google
4 25 (2.32%) Cisco
5 23 (2.13%) YouTube
6 22 (2.04%) Sage
7 17 (1.58%) Aruba
7 17 (1.58%) Oracle
8 16 (1.48%) Salesforce
8 16 (1.48%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.39%) Civica
10 12 (1.11%) iManage
11 11 (1.02%) Databricks
12 10 (0.93%) Juniper
13 9 (0.83%) OpenAI
14 8 (0.74%) Aderant
14 8 (0.74%) Fortinet
14 8 (0.74%) HubSpot
14 8 (0.74%) Tanium