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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,020 1,015 1,098
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.89% 19.58% 14.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.82% 21.91% 18.21%
Number of salaries quoted 741 502 402
10th Percentile £26,561 £26,263 £27,000
25th Percentile £32,500 £33,125 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £48,720 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.64% +8.27% -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £74,875
England median annual salary £46,772 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.94% -14.29% -4.55%

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 9,423 4,632 6,028
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.87% 89.33% 78.62%
Number of salaries quoted 7,053 2,204 3,325
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.99% -8.18%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -5.98% -6.40%

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 25 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 25 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 -6 566 £47,500 +5.56% 562
Merseyside -3 173 £42,500 -19.81% 109
Cheshire -10 154 £42,500 -19.81% 131
Lancashire +2 88 £42,500 -10.87% 120
Cumbria -4 27 £32,500 -9.35% 24
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 81 (7.94%) SharePoint
2 52 (5.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.18%) IIS
4 5 (0.49%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.29%) Confluence
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.20%) Apache
6 2 (0.20%) CMS
6 2 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.20%) nginx
7 1 (0.098%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.098%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.098%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.098%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.098%) Sitecore CMS
7 1 (0.098%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.098%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.098%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.098%) WordPress
Applications
1 59 (5.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 57 (5.59%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.57%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.20%) Windchill
7 1 (0.098%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.098%) Revit
7 1 (0.098%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 17 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.69%) SAP ERP
4 4 (0.39%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.39%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.29%) Magento
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 3 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.20%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.098%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.098%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.098%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 198 (19.41%) Azure
2 157 (15.39%) Microsoft 365
3 114 (11.18%) AWS
4 113 (11.08%) Power Platform
5 50 (4.90%) PowerApps
6 43 (4.22%) Entra ID
7 39 (3.82%) GitHub
7 39 (3.82%) SaaS
8 37 (3.63%) GCP
8 37 (3.63%) Power Automate
9 34 (3.33%) Microsoft Copilot
10 33 (3.24%) OneDrive
11 31 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
12 26 (2.55%) Dynamics 365
13 19 (1.86%) Microsoft Purview
13 19 (1.86%) Serverless
14 14 (1.37%) Copilot Studio
15 13 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
16 12 (1.18%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (1.18%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 65 (6.37%) DNS
2 56 (5.49%) DHCP
3 53 (5.20%) Firewall
4 40 (3.92%) VPN
5 38 (3.73%) TCP/IP
6 30 (2.94%) Wireless
7 25 (2.45%) VLAN
8 22 (2.16%) Network Security
8 22 (2.16%) VoIP
9 21 (2.06%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.76%) LAN
11 15 (1.47%) WAN
12 12 (1.18%) Broadband
12 12 (1.18%) Unified Communications
13 9 (0.88%) SD-WAN
14 8 (0.78%) BGP
15 7 (0.69%) OSPF
15 7 (0.69%) SNMP
16 6 (0.59%) SAN
17 5 (0.49%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (6.86%) Power BI
2 54 (5.29%) SQL Server
3 25 (2.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.35%) MySQL
5 21 (2.06%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (1.27%) BigQuery
7 10 (0.98%) Big Data
7 10 (0.98%) Power Query
8 9 (0.88%) Looker
8 9 (0.88%) NoSQL
9 8 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (0.78%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.78%) Redis
9 8 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 7 (0.69%) Electronic Patient Records
10 7 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.69%) Relational Database
11 6 (0.59%) Data Lake
11 6 (0.59%) MariaDB
11 6 (0.59%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 39 (3.82%) Git
2 35 (3.43%) JIRA
3 14 (1.37%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.98%) GitLab
5 7 (0.69%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.69%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.49%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.39%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.39%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.29%) Selenium
8 3 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.20%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.20%) Vagrant
10 1 (0.098%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.098%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.098%) gulp
10 1 (0.098%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.098%) webpack
General
1 418 (40.98%) Social Skills
2 320 (31.37%) Analytical Skills
3 169 (16.57%) Finance
4 85 (8.33%) Law
5 78 (7.65%) Manufacturing
6 72 (7.06%) Organisational Skills
7 68 (6.67%) Legal
8 62 (6.08%) Retail
9 58 (5.69%) Telecoms
10 44 (4.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 38 (3.73%) Marketing
12 29 (2.84%) Public Sector
13 23 (2.25%) Military
14 19 (1.86%) Aerospace
14 19 (1.86%) Banking
15 15 (1.47%) Billing
15 15 (1.47%) Electronics
16 14 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
17 13 (1.27%) Automotive
18 10 (0.98%) German Language
Job Titles
1 148 (14.51%) Analyst
2 137 (13.43%) Senior
3 123 (12.06%) Developer
4 66 (6.47%) IT Support
5 54 (5.29%) Support Engineer
6 47 (4.61%) Lead
6 47 (4.61%) Senior Developer
7 46 (4.51%) Support Analyst
8 44 (4.31%) Consultant
9 42 (4.12%) Software Engineer
10 35 (3.43%) Administrator
11 29 (2.84%) IT Engineer
11 29 (2.84%) Support Technician
12 27 (2.65%) Junior
13 25 (2.45%) Applications Support
13 25 (2.45%) IT Support Engineer
14 24 (2.35%) IT Technician
15 23 (2.25%) IT Manager
15 23 (2.25%) Technical Analyst
16 22 (2.16%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (5.10%) .NET
2 50 (4.90%) React
3 45 (4.41%) REST
4 42 (4.12%) HTML
5 31 (3.04%) Terraform
6 26 (2.55%) Middleware
7 21 (2.06%) AngularJS
7 21 (2.06%) Spring
8 20 (1.96%) CSS
9 19 (1.86%) Spring Boot
9 19 (1.86%) Vue
9 19 (1.86%) XML
10 17 (1.67%) SOAP
11 16 (1.57%) EDI
12 15 (1.47%) JSON
12 15 (1.47%) Node.js
13 13 (1.27%) Kafka
14 11 (1.08%) Next.js
15 10 (0.98%) Laravel
15 10 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 74 (7.25%) Driving Licence
2 65 (6.37%) Onboarding
3 44 (4.31%) Self-Motivation
4 37 (3.63%) Cloud Native
4 37 (3.63%) Management Information System
4 37 (3.63%) Product Ownership
5 23 (2.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 20 (1.96%) IoT
7 19 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
8 17 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
8 17 (1.67%) NHS
9 16 (1.57%) Security Posture
10 14 (1.37%) Replication
11 13 (1.27%) FMCG
12 12 (1.18%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.08%) Data Centre
13 11 (1.08%) Low-Code
14 10 (0.98%) Public Cloud
15 9 (0.88%) Data Structures
15 9 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 130 (12.75%) Windows
2 58 (5.69%) Windows Server
3 39 (3.82%) Linux
4 21 (2.06%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.57%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.88%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.78%) Android
8 7 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.59%) Unix
10 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 2 (0.20%) Solaris
13 1 (0.098%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.098%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.098%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 295 (28.92%) Continuous Improvement
2 193 (18.92%) Customer Service
3 147 (14.41%) AI
4 146 (14.31%) Agile
5 142 (13.92%) Mentoring
6 140 (13.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 115 (11.27%) Decision-Making
8 112 (10.98%) CI/CD
9 98 (9.61%) Analytics
10 96 (9.41%) Software Engineering
11 95 (9.31%) Collaborative Working
11 95 (9.31%) CRM
11 95 (9.31%) DevOps
12 94 (9.22%) ERP
12 94 (9.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 86 (8.43%) Project Delivery
14 82 (8.04%) Roadmaps
15 70 (6.86%) User Acceptance Testing
16 65 (6.37%) Process Improvement
16 65 (6.37%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 178 (17.45%) SQL
2 126 (12.35%) Python
3 70 (6.86%) JavaScript
4 66 (6.47%) C#
5 52 (5.10%) Java
6 48 (4.71%) PowerShell
7 31 (3.04%) TypeScript
8 22 (2.16%) Bash
9 19 (1.86%) PHP
10 15 (1.47%) C++
11 13 (1.27%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.08%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.78%) C
13 8 (0.78%) Ruby
14 7 (0.69%) Go
15 6 (0.59%) Bicep
15 6 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 6 (0.59%) R
16 5 (0.49%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 134 (13.14%) Degree
2 64 (6.27%) Security Cleared
3 40 (3.92%) SC Cleared
4 36 (3.53%) HNC
5 33 (3.24%) DBS Check
6 24 (2.35%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.06%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (1.37%) CCNP
9 14 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
10 13 (1.27%) Azure Certification
10 13 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
11 12 (1.18%) HND
12 10 (0.98%) Master's Degree
13 9 (0.88%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.78%) ACCA
14 8 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.69%) CIMA
15 7 (0.69%) Postgraduate
16 6 (0.59%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (5.10%) Data Quality
2 46 (4.51%) Accessibility
3 40 (3.92%) QA
4 35 (3.43%) GDPR
5 15 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.18%) TickIT
7 11 (1.08%) SLA
8 9 (0.88%) NIST
9 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.49%) PMO
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 4 (0.39%) NEBOSH
11 3 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.20%) IFRS
12 2 (0.20%) WCAG
13 1 (0.098%) DICOM
13 1 (0.098%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.098%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.098%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 100 (9.80%) Active Directory
2 50 (4.90%) Docker
3 29 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.86%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.39%) Firmware
6 4 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 40 (3.92%) Kubernetes
2 32 (3.14%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (1.37%) Grafana
4 11 (1.08%) Prometheus
5 10 (0.98%) Ansible
5 10 (0.98%) BMC PATROL
5 10 (0.98%) FortiGate
5 10 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.49%) Argo
7 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.20%) Nagios
8 2 (0.20%) Nessus
8 2 (0.20%) Packer
8 2 (0.20%) Podman
8 2 (0.20%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.20%) SCCM
8 2 (0.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 1 (0.098%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.098%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 1 (0.098%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 333 (32.65%) Microsoft
2 42 (4.12%) VMware
3 37 (3.63%) SAP
4 31 (3.04%) Google
5 22 (2.16%) Sage
6 21 (2.06%) Cisco
7 18 (1.76%) YouTube
8 16 (1.57%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.47%) Civica
9 15 (1.47%) Oracle
9 15 (1.47%) Salesforce
10 14 (1.37%) Aruba
11 13 (1.27%) iManage
12 10 (0.98%) Juniper
13 9 (0.88%) Aderant
13 9 (0.88%) OpenAI
14 8 (0.78%) Adobe
14 8 (0.78%) HubSpot
14 8 (0.78%) Tanium
15 7 (0.69%) Databricks