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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -7 0 +8
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 794 1,025 1,301
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.97% 20.02% 13.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.80% 21.90% 17.39%
Number of salaries quoted 626 507 730
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,500 £45,000 £47,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.11% -4.26% -1.05%
75th Percentile £61,250 £61,125 £62,188
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £73,875
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.38% -4.63% -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 8,101 4,681 7,483
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.16% 91.43% 78.80%
Number of salaries quoted 6,213 2,271 5,385
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 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.88% +0.11% -9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,593
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £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 22 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 22 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 -11 422 £50,000 - 190
Cheshire -9 136 £41,000 +9.33% 75
Merseyside -8 127 £42,500 +1.80% 36
Lancashire 0 72 £40,000 +14.29% 62
Cumbria -9 31 £32,500 +0.62% 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 71 (8.94%) SharePoint
2 55 (6.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.39%) IIS
4 5 (0.63%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.63%) Confluence
5 4 (0.50%) Moodle
5 4 (0.50%) 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 46 (5.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.64%) 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 (2.90%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.64%) SAP ERP
3 6 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.76%) Magento
4 4 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.50%) 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
1 186 (23.43%) Azure
2 163 (20.53%) Microsoft 365
3 94 (11.84%) AWS
4 93 (11.71%) Power Platform
5 42 (5.29%) PowerApps
6 32 (4.03%) Power Automate
7 31 (3.90%) SaaS
8 28 (3.53%) Dynamics 365
9 27 (3.40%) Entra ID
9 27 (3.40%) GCP
10 26 (3.27%) Azure DevOps
10 26 (3.27%) GitHub
10 26 (3.27%) Microsoft Copilot
11 22 (2.77%) OneDrive
12 21 (2.64%) Microsoft Purview
13 16 (2.02%) Serverless
14 12 (1.51%) Boomi
15 10 (1.26%) Copilot Studio
16 9 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
17 8 (1.01%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 72 (9.07%) Firewall
2 52 (6.55%) DNS
3 48 (6.05%) DHCP
4 38 (4.79%) VPN
5 37 (4.66%) TCP/IP
6 34 (4.28%) VLAN
7 31 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
8 25 (3.15%) VoIP
8 25 (3.15%) Wireless
9 21 (2.64%) Network Security
10 17 (2.14%) Broadband
10 17 (2.14%) WAN
11 16 (2.02%) LAN
12 12 (1.51%) Structured Cabling
13 11 (1.39%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.76%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.76%) SAN
15 5 (0.63%) Unified Communications
16 4 (0.50%) OSPF
16 4 (0.50%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (7.05%) Power BI
2 43 (5.42%) SQL Server
3 32 (4.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 17 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (2.02%) MySQL
6 11 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (1.26%) Big Data
8 9 (1.13%) NoSQL
8 9 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.63%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.63%) Power Query
9 5 (0.63%) Redis
9 5 (0.63%) Tableau
10 4 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (0.50%) Looker
10 4 (0.50%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.38%) PowerPivot
11 3 (0.38%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.38%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 27 (3.40%) JIRA
2 26 (3.27%) Git
3 8 (1.01%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.63%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.63%) GitLab
5 4 (0.50%) Cucumber
5 4 (0.50%) Cypress.io
5 4 (0.50%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.38%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
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%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.13%) webpack
General
1 312 (39.29%) Social Skills
2 218 (27.46%) Analytical Skills
3 117 (14.74%) Finance
4 67 (8.44%) Manufacturing
5 60 (7.56%) Law
6 56 (7.05%) Organisational Skills
7 45 (5.67%) Legal
8 37 (4.66%) Retail
9 32 (4.03%) Marketing
10 29 (3.65%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.27%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.89%) Banking
12 15 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
12 15 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (1.51%) Games
14 10 (1.26%) Aerospace
15 9 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (1.13%) Investment Banking
16 7 (0.88%) Electronics
17 6 (0.76%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 111 (13.98%) Senior
2 108 (13.60%) Developer
3 96 (12.09%) Analyst
4 79 (9.95%) IT Support
5 71 (8.94%) Support Engineer
6 46 (5.79%) IT Engineer
7 44 (5.54%) IT Support Engineer
7 44 (5.54%) Lead
8 40 (5.04%) Senior Developer
9 39 (4.91%) Consultant
10 37 (4.66%) Software Engineer
11 35 (4.41%) Support Technician
12 21 (2.64%) Administrator
12 21 (2.64%) Support Analyst
13 20 (2.52%) Technical Analyst
14 19 (2.39%) Senior Analyst
15 18 (2.27%) Architect
15 18 (2.27%) Business Analyst
15 18 (2.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 18 (2.27%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (6.30%) .NET
2 42 (5.29%) React
3 41 (5.16%) HTML
4 33 (4.16%) REST
5 24 (3.02%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.90%) Middleware
6 23 (2.90%) Spring
7 22 (2.77%) CSS
8 21 (2.64%) Spring Boot
8 21 (2.64%) Vue
9 17 (2.14%) EDI
10 16 (2.02%) SOAP
10 16 (2.02%) XML
11 13 (1.64%) JSON
11 13 (1.64%) Node.js
12 11 (1.39%) Next.js
12 11 (1.39%) Web Services
13 10 (1.26%) React Native
14 9 (1.13%) RESTful
15 8 (1.01%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 65 (8.19%) Driving Licence
2 51 (6.42%) Onboarding
3 34 (4.28%) Cloud Native
4 33 (4.16%) Product Ownership
5 23 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.52%) Distributed Systems
7 19 (2.39%) Data Centre
8 15 (1.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 15 (1.89%) Mobile App
9 14 (1.76%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.51%) CCTV
10 12 (1.51%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.13%) Enterprise Cloud
12 8 (1.01%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.01%) Replication
12 8 (1.01%) Social Media
13 7 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
13 7 (0.88%) Low-Code
14 6 (0.76%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 139 (17.51%) Windows
2 67 (8.44%) Windows Server
3 43 (5.42%) Windows 10
4 26 (3.27%) Linux
5 20 (2.52%) Apple iOS
6 15 (1.89%) Android
7 7 (0.88%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.76%) Windows 7
8 6 (0.76%) Windows 8
8 6 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.50%) Unix
9 4 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.25%) Solaris
11 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.13%) VME
11 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (25.44%) Continuous Improvement
2 182 (22.92%) Customer Service
3 112 (14.11%) Mentoring
4 97 (12.22%) Agile
4 97 (12.22%) Stakeholder Management
5 90 (11.34%) CI/CD
6 88 (11.08%) AI
6 88 (11.08%) Decision-Making
7 81 (10.20%) Roadmaps
8 78 (9.82%) CRM
9 74 (9.32%) DevOps
10 71 (8.94%) Software Engineering
11 70 (8.82%) Analytics
12 66 (8.31%) User Experience
13 64 (8.06%) ERP
14 59 (7.43%) Collaborative Working
15 51 (6.42%) Test Automation
16 50 (6.30%) Cybersecurity
17 49 (6.17%) Business Intelligence
18 46 (5.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 138 (17.38%) SQL
2 96 (12.09%) Python
3 62 (7.81%) C#
4 53 (6.68%) JavaScript
5 41 (5.16%) Java
6 27 (3.40%) PowerShell
7 18 (2.27%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.89%) Bash
8 15 (1.89%) PHP
9 13 (1.64%) C++
10 10 (1.26%) T-SQL
11 8 (1.01%) Ruby
12 7 (0.88%) 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 (0.50%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.38%) Go
Qualifications
1 93 (11.71%) Degree
2 43 (5.42%) Security Cleared
3 23 (2.90%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (2.27%) DBS Check
6 16 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 15 (1.89%) DV Cleared
8 12 (1.51%) CCNP
8 12 (1.51%) HNC
9 9 (1.13%) Azure Certification
9 9 (1.13%) Master's Degree
10 8 (1.01%) CCNA
11 7 (0.88%) MCSA
11 7 (0.88%) Postgraduate
12 5 (0.63%) ACCA
12 5 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.63%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (5.42%) Data Quality
2 33 (4.16%) GDPR
2 33 (4.16%) QA
3 29 (3.65%) Accessibility
4 27 (3.40%) SLA
5 18 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.51%) TickIT
7 8 (1.01%) NIST
8 7 (0.88%) ISO 9001
9 6 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 7816
11 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.25%) WCAG
12 1 (0.13%) DICOM
12 1 (0.13%) GMP
12 1 (0.13%) IFRS
12 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.13%) PMO
System Software
1 97 (12.22%) Active Directory
2 36 (4.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (4.41%) Docker
4 23 (2.90%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.76%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.25%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (4.03%) Kubernetes
1 32 (4.03%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (3.02%) Terraform
3 15 (1.89%) SCCM
4 13 (1.64%) Grafana
5 11 (1.39%) Ansible
5 11 (1.39%) Prometheus
6 10 (1.26%) FortiGate
7 7 (0.88%) Autotask
8 4 (0.50%) Argo
8 4 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.25%) Nagios
10 2 (0.25%) Podman
10 2 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
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
1 288 (36.27%) Microsoft
2 41 (5.16%) VMware
3 29 (3.65%) SAP
4 18 (2.27%) Google
5 14 (1.76%) Cisco
6 13 (1.64%) ServiceNow
7 11 (1.39%) Adobe
7 11 (1.39%) Aruba
7 11 (1.39%) iManage
8 10 (1.26%) HubSpot
8 10 (1.26%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.13%) SonicWALL
9 9 (1.13%) Sophos
10 8 (1.01%) Meraki
10 8 (1.01%) Oracle
10 8 (1.01%) Tanium
11 7 (0.88%) Juniper
11 7 (0.88%) OpenAI
12 6 (0.76%) Apple
12 6 (0.76%) Intapp