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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 7 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 -1 +9
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 789 1,029 1,268
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.94% 20.11% 13.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.75% 22.01% 17.51%
Number of salaries quoted 623 511 700
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £46,375
Median % change year-on-year - -2.96% -2.37%
75th Percentile £61,250 £61,250 £61,563
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £73,750
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -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 8,095 4,675 7,243
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.21% 91.36% 78.66%
Number of salaries quoted 6,201 2,281 5,181
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £28,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,055 £50,055
Median % change year-on-year +9.88% - -8.99%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,603
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,250 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 July 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 July 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 -11 419 £50,000 - 202
Cheshire -10 132 £41,000 +9.33% 86
Merseyside -7 131 £42,500 +1.80% 46
Lancashire -1 70 £39,000 +11.43% 84
Cumbria -10 31 £32,500 -0.31% 7
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 70 (8.87%) SharePoint
2 55 (6.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.39%) IIS
4 5 (0.63%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.63%) Confluence
5 4 (0.51%) Moodle
5 4 (0.51%) Totara
6 2 (0.25%) Apache
6 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.25%) nginx
6 2 (0.25%) WordPress
7 1 (0.13%) CMS
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.13%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 47 (5.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (4.06%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.77%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.25%) Windchill
7 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.13%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 23 (2.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.65%) SAP ERP
3 6 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.76%) Magento
4 4 (0.51%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.51%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.38%) Shopify
6 2 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.25%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.13%) Odoo
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.13%) SAP ECC
7 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 183 (23.19%) Azure
2 163 (20.66%) Microsoft 365
3 94 (11.91%) Power Platform
4 93 (11.79%) AWS
5 42 (5.32%) PowerApps
6 32 (4.06%) Power Automate
7 31 (3.93%) SaaS
8 28 (3.55%) Dynamics 365
9 27 (3.42%) Entra ID
9 27 (3.42%) GCP
10 26 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
10 26 (3.30%) GitHub
10 26 (3.30%) Microsoft Copilot
11 23 (2.92%) OneDrive
12 21 (2.66%) Microsoft Purview
13 16 (2.03%) Serverless
14 12 (1.52%) Boomi
15 10 (1.27%) Copilot Studio
16 9 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
16 9 (1.14%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 67 (8.49%) Firewall
2 51 (6.46%) DNS
3 47 (5.96%) DHCP
4 37 (4.69%) TCP/IP
5 36 (4.56%) VPN
6 32 (4.06%) VLAN
7 29 (3.68%) Wi-Fi
8 26 (3.30%) Wireless
9 25 (3.17%) VoIP
10 21 (2.66%) Network Security
11 18 (2.28%) WAN
12 16 (2.03%) Broadband
12 16 (2.03%) LAN
13 12 (1.52%) SD-WAN
13 12 (1.52%) Structured Cabling
14 6 (0.76%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.76%) SAN
15 5 (0.63%) Unified Communications
16 4 (0.51%) BGP
16 4 (0.51%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (7.22%) Power BI
2 44 (5.58%) SQL Server
3 32 (4.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 18 (2.28%) Data Warehouse
5 17 (2.15%) MySQL
6 10 (1.27%) Big Data
6 10 (1.27%) NoSQL
6 10 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (1.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (0.76%) MongoDB
8 6 (0.76%) Tableau
9 5 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
9 5 (0.63%) Power Query
9 5 (0.63%) Redis
10 4 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (0.51%) Looker
10 4 (0.51%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (0.38%) PowerPivot
11 3 (0.38%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 27 (3.42%) Git
1 27 (3.42%) JIRA
2 9 (1.14%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.76%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.63%) GitLab
5 4 (0.51%) Cucumber
5 4 (0.51%) Cypress.io
5 4 (0.51%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.38%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.13%) gulp
8 1 (0.13%) LabVIEW
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
8 1 (0.13%) webpack
General
1 310 (39.29%) Social Skills
2 215 (27.25%) Analytical Skills
3 116 (14.70%) Finance
4 67 (8.49%) Manufacturing
5 60 (7.60%) Law
6 56 (7.10%) Organisational Skills
7 45 (5.70%) Legal
8 37 (4.69%) Retail
9 32 (4.06%) Marketing
10 26 (3.30%) Public Sector
11 17 (2.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (2.15%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
13 14 (1.77%) Banking
14 13 (1.65%) Games
15 10 (1.27%) Aerospace
16 9 (1.14%) Investment Banking
17 8 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
18 7 (0.89%) Electronics
19 6 (0.76%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 110 (13.94%) Senior
2 107 (13.56%) Developer
3 101 (12.80%) Analyst
4 77 (9.76%) IT Support
5 68 (8.62%) Support Engineer
6 44 (5.58%) Lead
7 43 (5.45%) IT Engineer
8 41 (5.20%) IT Support Engineer
9 40 (5.07%) Consultant
9 40 (5.07%) Senior Developer
10 37 (4.69%) Software Engineer
11 36 (4.56%) Support Technician
12 23 (2.92%) Support Analyst
13 21 (2.66%) Technical Analyst
14 20 (2.53%) Administrator
14 20 (2.53%) IT Technician
15 19 (2.41%) Business Analyst
15 19 (2.41%) Senior Analyst
16 18 (2.28%) Architect
16 18 (2.28%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (6.21%) .NET
2 41 (5.20%) React
3 40 (5.07%) HTML
4 33 (4.18%) REST
5 24 (3.04%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.92%) Middleware
6 23 (2.92%) Spring
7 21 (2.66%) CSS
7 21 (2.66%) Spring Boot
7 21 (2.66%) Vue
8 17 (2.15%) EDI
9 16 (2.03%) SOAP
9 16 (2.03%) XML
10 13 (1.65%) JSON
10 13 (1.65%) Node.js
11 11 (1.39%) Next.js
11 11 (1.39%) Web Services
12 10 (1.27%) React Native
13 9 (1.14%) RESTful
14 8 (1.01%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 63 (7.98%) Driving Licence
2 48 (6.08%) Onboarding
3 32 (4.06%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.06%) Product Ownership
4 25 (3.17%) Self-Motivation
5 20 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (2.03%) Data Centre
7 15 (1.90%) Mobile App
8 14 (1.77%) Security Posture
9 13 (1.65%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 12 (1.52%) CCTV
10 12 (1.52%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.14%) Enterprise Cloud
11 9 (1.14%) Replication
12 8 (1.01%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.01%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.01%) Social Media
13 7 (0.89%) Low-Code
14 6 (0.76%) Cyberattack
14 6 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 138 (17.49%) Windows
2 66 (8.37%) Windows Server
3 42 (5.32%) Windows 10
4 25 (3.17%) Linux
5 19 (2.41%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.77%) Android
7 6 (0.76%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.76%) Windows 7
7 6 (0.76%) Windows 8
8 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.51%) Unix
10 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.25%) Solaris
12 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.13%) VME
12 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (25.60%) Continuous Improvement
2 181 (22.94%) Customer Service
3 108 (13.69%) Mentoring
4 96 (12.17%) Stakeholder Management
5 95 (12.04%) Agile
6 89 (11.28%) CI/CD
6 89 (11.28%) Decision-Making
7 87 (11.03%) AI
8 80 (10.14%) Roadmaps
9 78 (9.89%) CRM
10 74 (9.38%) DevOps
11 70 (8.87%) Software Engineering
12 68 (8.62%) Analytics
13 65 (8.24%) ERP
13 65 (8.24%) User Experience
14 57 (7.22%) Collaborative Working
15 51 (6.46%) Test Automation
16 50 (6.34%) Business Intelligence
17 48 (6.08%) Cybersecurity
18 46 (5.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 141 (17.87%) SQL
2 94 (11.91%) Python
3 62 (7.86%) C#
4 52 (6.59%) JavaScript
5 41 (5.20%) Java
6 28 (3.55%) PowerShell
7 17 (2.15%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.90%) Bash
8 15 (1.90%) PHP
9 13 (1.65%) C++
10 10 (1.27%) T-SQL
11 8 (1.01%) Ruby
12 7 (0.89%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.76%) C
13 6 (0.76%) Kotlin
13 6 (0.76%) R
14 5 (0.63%) Bicep
14 5 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.51%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.38%) Go
Qualifications
1 92 (11.66%) Degree
2 43 (5.45%) Security Cleared
3 23 (2.92%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (2.15%) DBS Check
6 16 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 15 (1.90%) DV Cleared
8 12 (1.52%) CCNP
8 12 (1.52%) HNC
9 10 (1.27%) Azure Certification
10 9 (1.14%) Master's Degree
11 8 (1.01%) CCNA
12 7 (0.89%) MCSA
12 7 (0.89%) Postgraduate
13 5 (0.63%) ACCA
13 5 (0.63%) PMI Certification
14 4 (0.51%) CIMA
14 4 (0.51%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (5.32%) Data Quality
2 33 (4.18%) QA
3 32 (4.06%) GDPR
4 29 (3.68%) Accessibility
5 27 (3.42%) SLA
6 18 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.52%) TickIT
8 8 (1.01%) NIST
9 7 (0.89%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 14443
11 4 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 7816
12 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.25%) PMO
12 2 (0.25%) WCAG
13 1 (0.13%) DICOM
13 1 (0.13%) GMP
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS
13 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.13%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 98 (12.42%) Active Directory
2 37 (4.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (4.44%) Docker
4 24 (3.04%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.76%) VMware Workstation
6 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.25%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (4.06%) Kubernetes
1 32 (4.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (2.66%) Terraform
3 15 (1.90%) SCCM
4 14 (1.77%) Grafana
5 11 (1.39%) FortiGate
5 11 (1.39%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.14%) Ansible
7 7 (0.89%) Autotask
8 4 (0.51%) Argo
8 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.25%) Nagios
10 2 (0.25%) Podman
11 1 (0.13%) Istio
11 1 (0.13%) linkerd
11 1 (0.13%) Nessus
11 1 (0.13%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.13%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 289 (36.63%) Microsoft
2 42 (5.32%) VMware
3 29 (3.68%) SAP
4 17 (2.15%) Google
5 14 (1.77%) Cisco
6 13 (1.65%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.52%) iManage
8 10 (1.27%) Adobe
8 10 (1.27%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.14%) Aruba
9 9 (1.14%) HubSpot
9 9 (1.14%) SonicWALL
9 9 (1.14%) Sophos
10 8 (1.01%) Meraki
10 8 (1.01%) Oracle
10 8 (1.01%) Tanium
11 7 (0.89%) Aderant
11 7 (0.89%) Juniper
11 7 (0.89%) OpenAI
12 6 (0.76%) Intapp