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

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -16 +4 +16
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 735 786 974
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 9.25% 18.76% 13.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.03% 19.90% 15.66%
Number of salaries quoted 568 480 722
10th Percentile £27,000 £30,725 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,780 £37,188 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £53,000 £65,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £65,000 £80,000 £72,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +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 6,111 3,950 6,221
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 76.95% 94.27% 85.42%
Number of salaries quoted 3,311 2,085 5,034
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,620 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,500 £68,119 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,435
England median annual salary £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -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 6 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 6 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 -19 303 £47,500 -9.52% 196
Merseyside +2 136 £41,000 +26.15% 35
Cheshire -11 135 £48,720 +21.80% 72
Lancashire -11 114 £40,000 -23.81% 76
Cumbria +5 46 £45,000 +11.11% 15
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 49 (6.67%) SharePoint
2 26 (3.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.36%) Confluence
4 6 (0.82%) WordPress
5 4 (0.54%) Moodle
5 4 (0.54%) Totara
6 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
Applications
1 42 (5.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (3.40%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.41%) Simulink
4 2 (0.27%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.27%) Revit
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.14%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.82%) SAP Business One
2 6 (0.82%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.68%) SAP ERP
3 5 (0.68%) Shopify
4 2 (0.27%) Magento
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.14%) Primavera
5 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 141 (19.18%) Azure
2 120 (16.33%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (8.98%) AWS
4 55 (7.48%) Entra ID
5 52 (7.07%) Power Platform
6 34 (4.63%) GCP
7 32 (4.35%) SaaS
8 14 (1.90%) OneDrive
8 14 (1.90%) Power Automate
9 13 (1.77%) Microsoft Purview
9 13 (1.77%) Serverless
10 11 (1.50%) Google Workspace
11 10 (1.36%) Azure Monitor
12 9 (1.22%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
13 8 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.09%) PaaS
13 8 (1.09%) PowerApps
14 7 (0.95%) IaaS
14 7 (0.95%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 50 (6.80%) Firewall
2 33 (4.49%) DNS
3 31 (4.22%) DHCP
4 23 (3.13%) VLAN
5 22 (2.99%) VPN
6 21 (2.86%) Wi-Fi
7 18 (2.45%) VoIP
7 18 (2.45%) WAN
8 17 (2.31%) TCP/IP
9 16 (2.18%) Unified Communications
10 14 (1.90%) Telepresence
10 14 (1.90%) WebEx
11 13 (1.77%) Wireless
12 12 (1.63%) Broadband
13 11 (1.50%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.50%) Structured Cabling
14 8 (1.09%) LAN
15 5 (0.68%) Ethernet
16 4 (0.54%) Internet
16 4 (0.54%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (5.17%) Power BI
2 18 (2.45%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.04%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 11 (1.50%) Tableau
5 10 (1.36%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.95%) MySQL
7 6 (0.82%) Crystal Reports
8 5 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
8 5 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.68%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.54%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.41%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.41%) Looker
11 2 (0.27%) Apache Iceberg
11 2 (0.27%) Data Mart
11 2 (0.27%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 23 (3.13%) Git
2 13 (1.77%) JIRA
3 7 (0.95%) GitLab
4 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.14%) TeamCity
General
1 308 (41.90%) Social Skills
2 174 (23.67%) Analytical Skills
3 149 (20.27%) Finance
4 59 (8.03%) Organisational Skills
5 45 (6.12%) Automotive
6 29 (3.95%) Legal
6 29 (3.95%) Manufacturing
7 28 (3.81%) Public Sector
8 24 (3.27%) Retail
8 24 (3.27%) Telecoms
9 22 (2.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.99%) Presentation Skills
10 18 (2.45%) Banking
11 16 (2.18%) Electronics
12 15 (2.04%) Law
13 14 (1.90%) Marketing
14 12 (1.63%) Advertising
15 11 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
15 11 (1.50%) Influencing Skills
16 10 (1.36%) Games
Job Titles
1 96 (13.06%) Analyst
2 91 (12.38%) IT Support
3 90 (12.24%) Support Engineer
4 70 (9.52%) Senior
5 47 (6.39%) IT Engineer
5 47 (6.39%) IT Support Engineer
6 36 (4.90%) Lead
7 34 (4.63%) Business Analyst
8 32 (4.35%) Developer
9 26 (3.54%) Support Technician
9 26 (3.54%) Trainee
10 24 (3.27%) Consultant
10 24 (3.27%) Trainee Analyst
10 24 (3.27%) Trainee Business Analyst
11 23 (3.13%) Architect
12 20 (2.72%) 1st Line Support
12 20 (2.72%) Solutions Architect
13 19 (2.59%) Technical Engineer
13 19 (2.59%) Technical Support
13 19 (2.59%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (2.72%) React
2 15 (2.04%) .NET
2 15 (2.04%) HTML
3 12 (1.63%) CSS
3 12 (1.63%) RESTful
3 12 (1.63%) Spring
3 12 (1.63%) Spring Boot
4 10 (1.36%) Vue
5 8 (1.09%) Node.js
6 7 (0.95%) Hibernate
7 6 (0.82%) Django
7 6 (0.82%) EDI
7 6 (0.82%) FastAPI
8 5 (0.68%) AngularJS
8 5 (0.68%) Celery
8 5 (0.68%) Flask
8 5 (0.68%) Laravel
9 4 (0.54%) OAuth
9 4 (0.54%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.54%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 190 (25.85%) Driving Licence
2 52 (7.07%) Onboarding
3 28 (3.81%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.13%) EPoS
5 22 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
6 19 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
7 16 (2.18%) Data Centre
8 15 (2.04%) CCTV
9 14 (1.90%) Distributed Systems
10 12 (1.63%) Cloud Native
10 12 (1.63%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.36%) Social Media
12 8 (1.09%) CMDB
12 8 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.09%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.09%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (0.95%) Virtual Team
14 6 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
14 6 (0.82%) Mobile App
14 6 (0.82%) Solar Energy
Operating Systems
1 118 (16.05%) Windows
2 47 (6.39%) Windows Server
3 31 (4.22%) Windows 10
4 21 (2.86%) Linux
5 16 (2.18%) Android
6 15 (2.04%) Apple iOS
7 11 (1.50%) Windows 7
7 11 (1.50%) Windows 8
8 9 (1.22%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.27%) Unix
12 1 (0.14%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (15.24%) Customer Service
2 103 (14.01%) Continuous Improvement
3 94 (12.79%) Decision-Making
4 86 (11.70%) Agile
5 84 (11.43%) Mentoring
6 75 (10.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 66 (8.98%) AI
8 61 (8.30%) Project Management
9 57 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
10 52 (7.07%) Coaching
11 45 (6.12%) CI/CD
12 44 (5.99%) ITIL
13 43 (5.85%) Analytics
14 42 (5.71%) Business Intelligence
15 41 (5.58%) Service Delivery
16 39 (5.31%) DevOps
16 39 (5.31%) Visualisation
17 38 (5.17%) Process Improvement
18 37 (5.03%) User Experience
19 36 (4.90%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.57%) SQL
2 45 (6.12%) Python
3 22 (2.99%) Java
4 19 (2.59%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.04%) C#
6 10 (1.36%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.36%) TypeScript
7 8 (1.09%) Kotlin
7 8 (1.09%) PHP
8 4 (0.54%) Bash
8 4 (0.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.54%) MATLAB
9 3 (0.41%) Go
9 3 (0.41%) Ladder Logic
10 2 (0.27%) Bicep
10 2 (0.27%) C
10 2 (0.27%) R
10 2 (0.27%) Scala
10 2 (0.27%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.27%) Swift
Qualifications
1 124 (16.87%) Degree
2 33 (4.49%) DBS Check
3 24 (3.27%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (2.18%) Security Cleared
5 15 (2.04%) Master's Degree
6 13 (1.77%) HNC
7 10 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (1.22%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.22%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (1.22%) SC Cleared
9 8 (1.09%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (0.95%) NVQ Level 4
11 6 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.68%) HND
13 4 (0.54%) A+ Certification
13 4 (0.54%) ACCA
13 4 (0.54%) CCNA
13 4 (0.54%) CIMA
13 4 (0.54%) Cisco Certification
13 4 (0.54%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.54%) QA
2 20 (2.72%) GDPR
3 17 (2.31%) Data Quality
4 16 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (2.04%) SLA
6 13 (1.77%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (1.09%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.09%) ISO 9001
8 4 (0.54%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 4 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (0.54%) GLBA
9 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.14%) NIST
10 1 (0.14%) PMO
System Software
1 83 (11.29%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.13%) Hyper-V
3 22 (2.99%) Docker
4 13 (1.77%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (1.36%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.27%) Firmware
8 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 42 (5.71%) BMC PATROL
2 41 (5.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 26 (3.54%) Terraform
4 22 (2.99%) Kubernetes
5 21 (2.86%) SCCM
6 14 (1.90%) Cisco CUCM
7 11 (1.50%) Autotask
8 10 (1.36%) Ansible
8 10 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.41%) cPanel
9 3 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.41%) Plesk
9 3 (0.41%) Rancher
10 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.27%) Grafana
10 2 (0.27%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.14%) Argo
11 1 (0.14%) AWS Copilot
11 1 (0.14%) McAfee ePO
11 1 (0.14%) Podman
Vendors
1 165 (22.45%) Microsoft
2 23 (3.13%) Oracle
3 21 (2.86%) SAP
4 18 (2.45%) Cisco
5 16 (2.18%) Google
5 16 (2.18%) VMware
6 15 (2.04%) Workday
7 11 (1.50%) ESET
8 9 (1.22%) HubSpot
9 8 (1.09%) Apple
9 8 (1.09%) New Relic
9 8 (1.09%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.09%) Siemens
9 8 (1.09%) Splunk
10 7 (0.95%) Adobe
10 7 (0.95%) Qualtrics
11 6 (0.82%) BiZZdesign
11 6 (0.82%) BT
11 6 (0.82%) iManage
12 5 (0.68%) Epicor