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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 8 7
Rank change year-on-year -6 -1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 887 965 1,078
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.23% 18.95% 13.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.00% 21.16% 17.58%
Number of salaries quoted 664 453 456
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,087 £27,000
25th Percentile £31,813 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,125 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.28% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £59,250 £61,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £72,250 £78,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £51,350
% change year-on-year +5.56% -12.37% -6.64%

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 8,874 4,560 6,133
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.35% 89.53% 77.12%
Number of salaries quoted 6,736 2,176 3,782
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -1.96% -7.27%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%

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 4 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 4 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 -10 486 £50,000 +5.26% 526
Cheshire -10 147 £42,500 - 118
Merseyside -6 144 £44,000 -16.19% 60
Lancashire -4 71 £42,500 +23.70% 129
Cumbria -7 32 £32,500 -9.35% 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 77 (8.68%) SharePoint
2 52 (5.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.24%) IIS
4 5 (0.56%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.23%) Apache
6 2 (0.23%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.23%) CMS
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.23%) nginx
7 1 (0.11%) Confluence
7 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
7 1 (0.11%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 46 (5.19%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (4.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.69%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.23%) Windchill
7 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 16 (1.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.90%) SAP ERP
4 5 (0.56%) Magento
5 4 (0.45%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.45%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.34%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.11%) Odoo
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.11%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 194 (21.87%) Azure
2 154 (17.36%) Microsoft 365
3 108 (12.18%) AWS
4 107 (12.06%) Power Platform
5 48 (5.41%) PowerApps
6 40 (4.51%) GCP
7 38 (4.28%) SaaS
8 35 (3.95%) Entra ID
9 33 (3.72%) Power Automate
10 32 (3.61%) GitHub
11 30 (3.38%) Azure DevOps
11 30 (3.38%) OneDrive
12 29 (3.27%) Microsoft Copilot
13 26 (2.93%) Dynamics 365
14 19 (2.14%) Microsoft Purview
15 16 (1.80%) Serverless
16 12 (1.35%) Boomi
16 12 (1.35%) Google Analytics
17 11 (1.24%) Copilot Studio
18 10 (1.13%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (6.76%) DNS
2 58 (6.54%) Firewall
3 54 (6.09%) DHCP
4 41 (4.62%) TCP/IP
4 41 (4.62%) VPN
5 32 (3.61%) Wireless
6 29 (3.27%) VLAN
7 26 (2.93%) VoIP
8 23 (2.59%) Wi-Fi
9 20 (2.25%) Network Security
10 19 (2.14%) LAN
11 16 (1.80%) WAN
12 12 (1.35%) Broadband
13 10 (1.13%) Unified Communications
14 8 (0.90%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.79%) BGP
15 7 (0.79%) OSPF
15 7 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
16 6 (0.68%) SAN
16 6 (0.68%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (7.67%) Power BI
2 53 (5.98%) SQL Server
3 28 (3.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.71%) MySQL
5 20 (2.25%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.24%) BigQuery
6 11 (1.24%) NoSQL
7 10 (1.13%) Big Data
7 10 (1.13%) Looker
8 9 (1.01%) Power Query
8 9 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (0.90%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (0.90%) Redis
10 7 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
11 6 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
12 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.56%) MariaDB
12 5 (0.56%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 38 (4.28%) Git
2 32 (3.61%) JIRA
3 11 (1.24%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.79%) Bitbucket
4 7 (0.79%) GitLab
5 5 (0.56%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.45%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.45%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.34%) Claude Code
7 3 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.11%) gulp
9 1 (0.11%) Maven
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.11%) Selenium
9 1 (0.11%) webpack
General
1 370 (41.71%) Social Skills
2 277 (31.23%) Analytical Skills
3 129 (14.54%) Finance
4 71 (8.00%) Law
5 63 (7.10%) Manufacturing
6 61 (6.88%) Legal
7 56 (6.31%) Organisational Skills
8 45 (5.07%) Retail
9 35 (3.95%) Marketing
10 30 (3.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 26 (2.93%) Telecoms
12 24 (2.71%) Public Sector
13 15 (1.69%) Aerospace
14 14 (1.58%) Banking
15 11 (1.24%) Billing
15 11 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
16 10 (1.13%) Games
16 10 (1.13%) German Language
17 9 (1.01%) Electronics
17 9 (1.01%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 124 (13.98%) Analyst
2 121 (13.64%) Senior
3 118 (13.30%) Developer
4 63 (7.10%) IT Support
5 54 (6.09%) Support Engineer
6 48 (5.41%) Lead
7 43 (4.85%) Senior Developer
7 43 (4.85%) Software Engineer
8 41 (4.62%) Consultant
9 37 (4.17%) Support Technician
10 35 (3.95%) Support Analyst
11 28 (3.16%) Administrator
11 28 (3.16%) IT Engineer
12 27 (3.04%) IT Technician
13 25 (2.82%) IT Support Engineer
14 24 (2.71%) Junior
15 23 (2.59%) IT Support Technician
16 21 (2.37%) Applications Support
16 21 (2.37%) Technical Analyst
16 21 (2.37%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (5.75%) .NET
2 45 (5.07%) HTML
3 43 (4.85%) React
4 39 (4.40%) REST
5 24 (2.71%) Middleware
5 24 (2.71%) Terraform
6 23 (2.59%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.59%) CSS
7 22 (2.48%) Spring
8 21 (2.37%) Vue
9 20 (2.25%) Spring Boot
10 19 (2.14%) XML
11 17 (1.92%) SOAP
12 16 (1.80%) EDI
13 15 (1.69%) Node.js
14 13 (1.47%) JSON
15 11 (1.24%) Next.js
15 11 (1.24%) Web Services
16 10 (1.13%) Kafka
16 10 (1.13%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 65 (7.33%) Driving Licence
2 56 (6.31%) Onboarding
3 35 (3.95%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.83%) Self-Motivation
5 33 (3.72%) Cloud Native
6 26 (2.93%) Management Information System
7 20 (2.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 19 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
9 17 (1.92%) Security Posture
10 14 (1.58%) Replication
11 13 (1.47%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.35%) NHS
13 11 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.24%) IoT
13 11 (1.24%) Low-Code
14 9 (1.01%) CCTV
14 9 (1.01%) Data Centre
14 9 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
14 9 (1.01%) FMCG
15 8 (0.90%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 133 (14.99%) Windows
2 63 (7.10%) Windows Server
3 38 (4.28%) Linux
4 25 (2.82%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.92%) Apple iOS
6 10 (1.13%) Mac OS
7 9 (1.01%) Android
8 8 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.68%) Unix
10 5 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.23%) Solaris
12 1 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.11%) VME
12 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 254 (28.64%) Continuous Improvement
2 191 (21.53%) Customer Service
3 123 (13.87%) AI
4 121 (13.64%) Mentoring
5 116 (13.08%) Agile
6 114 (12.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (11.84%) Decision-Making
8 98 (11.05%) CI/CD
9 96 (10.82%) CRM
10 85 (9.58%) DevOps
10 85 (9.58%) Software Engineering
11 83 (9.36%) Roadmaps
12 79 (8.91%) Analytics
13 71 (8.00%) ERP
14 65 (7.33%) Collaborative Working
15 63 (7.10%) User Experience
16 62 (6.99%) Business Intelligence
17 59 (6.65%) Cybersecurity
18 58 (6.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 57 (6.43%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 173 (19.50%) SQL
2 114 (12.85%) Python
3 65 (7.33%) JavaScript
4 64 (7.22%) C#
5 49 (5.52%) Java
6 39 (4.40%) PowerShell
7 25 (2.82%) TypeScript
8 20 (2.25%) PHP
9 19 (2.14%) Bash
10 16 (1.80%) C++
11 13 (1.47%) Shell Script
12 10 (1.13%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.90%) C
13 8 (0.90%) Ruby
14 7 (0.79%) Go
15 6 (0.68%) R
16 5 (0.56%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.56%) Bicep
16 5 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.34%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 114 (12.85%) Degree
2 48 (5.41%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.93%) SC Cleared
4 24 (2.71%) HNC
4 24 (2.71%) Microsoft Certification
5 22 (2.48%) DBS Check
6 20 (2.25%) DV Cleared
7 16 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
8 13 (1.47%) CCNP
9 12 (1.35%) Azure Certification
10 10 (1.13%) HND
11 8 (0.90%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.79%) CCNA
12 7 (0.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 7 (0.79%) Postgraduate
13 6 (0.68%) ACCA
13 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
13 6 (0.68%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.19%) Data Quality
2 39 (4.40%) QA
3 35 (3.95%) Accessibility
4 33 (3.72%) GDPR
5 18 (2.03%) SLA
6 12 (1.35%) TickIT
7 9 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (0.90%) NIST
9 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 14443
9 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 2 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.23%) PMO
10 2 (0.23%) WCAG
11 1 (0.11%) DICOM
11 1 (0.11%) GMP
11 1 (0.11%) IFRS
11 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.11%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 97 (10.94%) Active Directory
2 46 (5.19%) Docker
3 32 (3.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (2.37%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 36 (4.06%) Kubernetes
2 31 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (1.47%) Grafana
4 11 (1.24%) FortiGate
4 11 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.13%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.01%) Ansible
7 4 (0.45%) Argo
7 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.23%) Nagios
8 2 (0.23%) Nessus
8 2 (0.23%) Podman
8 2 (0.23%) SCCM
9 1 (0.11%) Autotask
9 1 (0.11%) Istio
9 1 (0.11%) linkerd
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 302 (34.05%) Microsoft
2 43 (4.85%) VMware
3 34 (3.83%) SAP
4 28 (3.16%) Google
5 18 (2.03%) Cisco
6 16 (1.80%) ServiceNow
6 16 (1.80%) YouTube
7 15 (1.69%) Salesforce
8 14 (1.58%) Oracle
9 13 (1.47%) Aruba
9 13 (1.47%) iManage
10 10 (1.13%) Adobe
11 9 (1.01%) HubSpot
12 8 (0.90%) Aderant
12 8 (0.90%) Juniper
12 8 (0.90%) OpenAI
12 8 (0.90%) Tanium
13 7 (0.79%) Sage
13 7 (0.79%) SonicWALL
13 7 (0.79%) Sophos