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 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 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 648 723 1,108
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.61% 19.45% 13.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.04% 20.58% 15.77%
Number of salaries quoted 489 529 805
10th Percentile £27,000 £29,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% - -
75th Percentile £53,000 £65,775 £61,250
90th Percentile £68,750 £81,250 £76,250
England median annual salary £45,497 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -17.28% +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 6,455 3,513 7,028
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 75.82% 94.49% 84.16%
Number of salaries quoted 3,578 2,142 5,634
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,619 £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 £69,000 £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 24 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 24 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 -20 304 £50,000 -9.09% 215
Cheshire -13 102 £41,000 +5.81% 58
Merseyside -2 101 £32,500 - 39
Lancashire -12 90 £36,500 -28.28% 87
Cumbria +8 50 £45,000 +12.50% 14
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 48 (7.41%) SharePoint
2 33 (5.09%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.70%) Confluence
4 4 (0.62%) Moodle
4 4 (0.62%) Totara
5 3 (0.46%) WordPress
6 2 (0.31%) 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 38 (5.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (3.55%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.46%) Simulink
4 2 (0.31%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.31%) Revit
5 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.93%) SAP ERP
2 6 (0.93%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.77%) Shopify
4 4 (0.62%) Magento
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.31%) SAP Business One
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 140 (21.60%) Azure
2 125 (19.29%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (9.41%) AWS
4 49 (7.56%) Entra ID
5 48 (7.41%) Power Platform
6 34 (5.25%) GCP
7 29 (4.48%) SaaS
8 16 (2.47%) Microsoft Purview
9 13 (2.01%) Serverless
10 11 (1.70%) Google Workspace
10 11 (1.70%) OneDrive
10 11 (1.70%) Power Automate
11 10 (1.54%) Azure Monitor
12 9 (1.39%) PowerApps
13 8 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
13 8 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.23%) PaaS
14 7 (1.08%) Figma
14 7 (1.08%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 58 (8.95%) Firewall
2 36 (5.56%) DNS
3 34 (5.25%) DHCP
4 29 (4.48%) VLAN
5 25 (3.86%) VPN
5 25 (3.86%) Wi-Fi
6 23 (3.55%) VoIP
7 21 (3.24%) TCP/IP
7 21 (3.24%) WAN
8 17 (2.62%) Wireless
9 16 (2.47%) Unified Communications
10 14 (2.16%) Structured Cabling
10 14 (2.16%) Telepresence
10 14 (2.16%) WebEx
11 11 (1.70%) Broadband
11 11 (1.70%) LAN
11 11 (1.70%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.93%) Network Security
13 5 (0.77%) Ethernet
14 4 (0.62%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (5.25%) Power BI
2 21 (3.24%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.31%) NoSQL
4 12 (1.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 11 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (1.54%) MongoDB
7 7 (1.08%) MySQL
7 7 (1.08%) Tableau
8 6 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.77%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.62%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.31%) Big Data
11 2 (0.31%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.31%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.31%) Looker
12 1 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
12 1 (0.15%) GIS
12 1 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 24 (3.70%) Git
2 15 (2.31%) JIRA
3 7 (1.08%) GitLab
4 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.15%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.15%) TeamCity
General
1 302 (46.60%) Social Skills
2 165 (25.46%) Analytical Skills
3 139 (21.45%) Finance
4 63 (9.72%) Organisational Skills
5 33 (5.09%) Manufacturing
6 29 (4.48%) Public Sector
7 26 (4.01%) Legal
8 25 (3.86%) Automotive
9 24 (3.70%) Retail
10 22 (3.40%) Telecoms
11 21 (3.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 20 (3.09%) Law
13 19 (2.93%) Presentation Skills
14 15 (2.31%) Banking
15 14 (2.16%) Electronics
15 14 (2.16%) Marketing
16 11 (1.70%) Advertising
16 11 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
16 11 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (1.39%) French Language
Job Titles
1 90 (13.89%) Support Engineer
2 89 (13.73%) IT Support
3 86 (13.27%) Analyst
4 66 (10.19%) Senior
5 48 (7.41%) IT Engineer
5 48 (7.41%) IT Support Engineer
6 43 (6.64%) Lead
7 35 (5.40%) Developer
8 34 (5.25%) Support Technician
9 33 (5.09%) Business Analyst
10 24 (3.70%) Architect
11 23 (3.55%) Consultant
11 23 (3.55%) Trainee
11 23 (3.55%) Trainee Analyst
11 23 (3.55%) Trainee Business Analyst
12 21 (3.24%) Solutions Architect
13 20 (3.09%) IT Support Technician
13 20 (3.09%) IT Technician
14 18 (2.78%) Team Leader
15 17 (2.62%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.93%) React
2 18 (2.78%) .NET
3 16 (2.47%) HTML
4 14 (2.16%) Spring
4 14 (2.16%) Spring Boot
5 13 (2.01%) CSS
5 13 (2.01%) RESTful
6 12 (1.85%) Vue
7 10 (1.54%) Node.js
8 7 (1.08%) Hibernate
9 6 (0.93%) Django
9 6 (0.93%) EDI
9 6 (0.93%) FastAPI
10 5 (0.77%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.77%) Celery
10 5 (0.77%) Flask
10 5 (0.77%) Laravel
10 5 (0.77%) OAuth
10 5 (0.77%) OAuth2
11 4 (0.62%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 109 (16.82%) Driving Licence
2 52 (8.02%) Onboarding
3 27 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (3.24%) EPoS
5 19 (2.93%) Analytical Mindset
6 18 (2.78%) CCTV
7 15 (2.31%) Data Centre
7 15 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.85%) Product Ownership
9 11 (1.70%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.70%) Social Media
10 9 (1.39%) Cloud Native
10 9 (1.39%) CMDB
10 9 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (1.23%) Renewable Energy
12 7 (1.08%) Security Posture
12 7 (1.08%) Virtual Team
13 6 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
13 6 (0.93%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 130 (20.06%) Windows
2 56 (8.64%) Windows Server
3 33 (5.09%) Windows 10
4 22 (3.40%) Linux
5 19 (2.93%) Apple iOS
6 16 (2.47%) Android
7 11 (1.70%) Windows 7
7 11 (1.70%) Windows 8
8 10 (1.54%) Mac OS
9 8 (1.23%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.31%) Unix
12 1 (0.15%) CentOS
12 1 (0.15%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.15%) Solaris
12 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (19.44%) Customer Service
2 109 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
3 92 (14.20%) Decision-Making
4 83 (12.81%) Mentoring
5 81 (12.50%) Agile
5 81 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
6 63 (9.72%) AI
7 59 (9.10%) Project Management
8 53 (8.18%) Cybersecurity
9 50 (7.72%) Coaching
10 46 (7.10%) CI/CD
10 46 (7.10%) ITIL
11 43 (6.64%) Service Delivery
12 41 (6.33%) Analytics
13 40 (6.17%) User Experience
14 39 (6.02%) Business Intelligence
15 36 (5.56%) CRM
15 36 (5.56%) Customer Experience
15 36 (5.56%) DevOps
15 36 (5.56%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 63 (9.72%) SQL
2 44 (6.79%) Python
3 23 (3.55%) Java
4 22 (3.40%) JavaScript
5 18 (2.78%) C#
6 10 (1.54%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.39%) Kotlin
7 9 (1.39%) PHP
7 9 (1.39%) PowerShell
8 4 (0.62%) Bash
8 4 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (0.46%) C
9 3 (0.46%) Go
9 3 (0.46%) Ladder Logic
9 3 (0.46%) MATLAB
9 3 (0.46%) Swift
10 2 (0.31%) C++
10 2 (0.31%) Scala
10 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 112 (17.28%) Degree
2 31 (4.78%) DBS Check
3 23 (3.55%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (2.47%) Security Cleared
5 13 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (1.70%) HNC
7 10 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (1.54%) Master's Degree
8 9 (1.39%) SC Cleared
9 8 (1.23%) Azure Certification
9 8 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (1.08%) CCNA
10 7 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.08%) NVQ Level 4
11 6 (0.93%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.62%) HND
13 4 (0.62%) MCSA
14 3 (0.46%) DV Cleared
15 2 (0.31%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.17%) QA
2 22 (3.40%) SLA
3 21 (3.24%) Data Quality
3 21 (3.24%) GDPR
4 14 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.23%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.23%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.46%) GLBA
8 2 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.15%) PMO
System Software
1 89 (13.73%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.55%) Hyper-V
3 21 (3.24%) Docker
4 17 (2.62%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (1.54%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.31%) Firmware
8 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 35 (5.40%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (3.86%) Terraform
3 22 (3.40%) BMC PATROL
3 22 (3.40%) SCCM
4 21 (3.24%) Kubernetes
5 14 (2.16%) Cisco CUCM
6 12 (1.85%) Autotask
7 11 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (1.54%) Ansible
9 5 (0.77%) FortiGate
9 5 (0.77%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.46%) cPanel
10 3 (0.46%) Plesk
10 3 (0.46%) Rancher
11 1 (0.15%) Argo
11 1 (0.15%) AWS Copilot
11 1 (0.15%) Grafana
11 1 (0.15%) Podman
11 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.15%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 176 (27.16%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.70%) Oracle
3 20 (3.09%) Cisco
3 20 (3.09%) VMware
4 18 (2.78%) SAP
5 15 (2.31%) Google
6 14 (2.16%) Workday
7 11 (1.70%) Apple
7 11 (1.70%) ESET
8 9 (1.39%) Adobe
8 9 (1.39%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.23%) New Relic
9 8 (1.23%) Splunk
10 7 (1.08%) Qualtrics
10 7 (1.08%) Siemens
11 6 (0.93%) BiZZdesign
11 6 (0.93%) HubSpot
11 6 (0.93%) iManage
11 6 (0.93%) Meraki
12 5 (0.77%) Facebook