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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -5 -2 +8
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 942 1,003 1,078
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.52% 19.46% 13.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.37% 21.78% 17.76%
Number of salaries quoted 701 489 429
10th Percentile £26,561 £26,250 £26,950
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,750 £78,800
England median annual salary £47,085 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.63% -14.29% -4.55%

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 9,082 4,606 6,070
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.47% 89.37% 77.61%
Number of salaries quoted 6,867 2,208 3,547
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,587 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,309
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.61% -8.53%
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 12 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 12 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 -6 520 £48,350 +8.65% 336
Merseyside -5 150 £42,500 -19.81% 61
Cheshire -9 150 £42,500 -19.05% 104
Lancashire 0 80 £42,500 +6.25% 92
Cumbria -6 33 £32,500 -9.35% 13
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 79 (8.39%) SharePoint
2 52 (5.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.17%) IIS
4 5 (0.53%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.21%) Apache
6 2 (0.21%) CMS
6 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.21%) nginx
7 1 (0.11%) ArcGIS
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 53 (5.63%) Microsoft Office
2 52 (5.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.21%) Windchill
7 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.11%) Revit
7 1 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 16 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.74%) SAP ERP
4 5 (0.53%) Magento
5 4 (0.42%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.42%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.42%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
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%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 194 (20.59%) Azure
2 156 (16.56%) Microsoft 365
3 112 (11.89%) AWS
4 107 (11.36%) Power Platform
5 47 (4.99%) PowerApps
6 40 (4.25%) GCP
7 39 (4.14%) SaaS
8 35 (3.72%) Entra ID
9 32 (3.40%) GitHub
9 32 (3.40%) Power Automate
10 30 (3.18%) Azure DevOps
10 30 (3.18%) Microsoft Copilot
10 30 (3.18%) OneDrive
11 26 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
12 19 (2.02%) Microsoft Purview
12 19 (2.02%) Serverless
13 12 (1.27%) Boomi
13 12 (1.27%) Google Analytics
14 11 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (1.17%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 62 (6.58%) DNS
2 56 (5.94%) DHCP
2 56 (5.94%) Firewall
3 43 (4.56%) VPN
4 40 (4.25%) TCP/IP
5 32 (3.40%) Wireless
6 28 (2.97%) VLAN
7 25 (2.65%) VoIP
8 23 (2.44%) Wi-Fi
9 21 (2.23%) Network Security
10 18 (1.91%) LAN
11 14 (1.49%) WAN
12 12 (1.27%) Broadband
13 11 (1.17%) Unified Communications
14 8 (0.85%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.74%) BGP
15 7 (0.74%) OSPF
15 7 (0.74%) Structured Cabling
16 6 (0.64%) SAN
16 6 (0.64%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (7.22%) Power BI
2 54 (5.73%) SQL Server
3 27 (2.87%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.55%) MySQL
5 20 (2.12%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.17%) BigQuery
6 11 (1.17%) NoSQL
7 10 (1.06%) Big Data
7 10 (1.06%) Looker
8 8 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
8 8 (0.85%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (0.85%) Power Query
8 8 (0.85%) Redis
8 8 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 7 (0.74%) Electronic Patient Records
10 5 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.53%) MariaDB
10 5 (0.53%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 40 (4.25%) Git
2 33 (3.50%) JIRA
3 11 (1.17%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.74%) Bitbucket
4 7 (0.74%) GitLab
5 6 (0.64%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.53%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.42%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.32%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.32%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.21%) Selenium
9 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.11%) Maven
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.11%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.11%) Vagrant
General
1 397 (42.14%) Social Skills
2 293 (31.10%) Analytical Skills
3 144 (15.29%) Finance
4 83 (8.81%) Law
5 71 (7.54%) Manufacturing
6 69 (7.32%) Organisational Skills
7 64 (6.79%) Legal
8 47 (4.99%) Retail
9 41 (4.35%) Telecoms
10 36 (3.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 36 (3.82%) Marketing
11 25 (2.65%) Public Sector
12 20 (2.12%) Military
13 17 (1.80%) Aerospace
14 14 (1.49%) Banking
15 12 (1.27%) Billing
15 12 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
15 12 (1.27%) Electronics
16 10 (1.06%) Automotive
16 10 (1.06%) Games
Job Titles
1 130 (13.80%) Analyst
2 129 (13.69%) Senior
3 120 (12.74%) Developer
4 62 (6.58%) IT Support
5 53 (5.63%) Support Engineer
6 47 (4.99%) Lead
7 45 (4.78%) Senior Developer
8 43 (4.56%) Consultant
8 43 (4.56%) Software Engineer
9 41 (4.35%) Support Analyst
10 37 (3.93%) Support Technician
11 35 (3.72%) Administrator
12 28 (2.97%) IT Engineer
12 28 (2.97%) IT Technician
13 27 (2.87%) Junior
14 24 (2.55%) Applications Support
14 24 (2.55%) IT Support Engineer
15 23 (2.44%) IT Support Technician
16 21 (2.23%) Technical Analyst
16 21 (2.23%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (5.41%) .NET
2 45 (4.78%) HTML
2 45 (4.78%) React
3 39 (4.14%) REST
4 25 (2.65%) Terraform
5 24 (2.55%) Middleware
6 23 (2.44%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.44%) CSS
6 23 (2.44%) Spring
7 21 (2.23%) Spring Boot
7 21 (2.23%) Vue
8 19 (2.02%) XML
9 17 (1.80%) SOAP
10 16 (1.70%) EDI
11 15 (1.59%) JSON
11 15 (1.59%) Node.js
12 11 (1.17%) Next.js
12 11 (1.17%) Web Services
13 10 (1.06%) Kafka
13 10 (1.06%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 67 (7.11%) Driving Licence
2 57 (6.05%) Onboarding
3 40 (4.25%) Self-Motivation
4 36 (3.82%) Cloud Native
5 35 (3.72%) Product Ownership
6 29 (3.08%) Management Information System
7 20 (2.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 19 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
9 15 (1.59%) NHS
9 15 (1.59%) Security Posture
10 14 (1.49%) IoT
10 14 (1.49%) Replication
11 13 (1.38%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.17%) Low-Code
13 10 (1.06%) FMCG
14 9 (0.96%) CCTV
14 9 (0.96%) Data Centre
14 9 (0.96%) Enterprise Cloud
15 8 (0.85%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 135 (14.33%) Windows
2 64 (6.79%) Windows Server
3 38 (4.03%) Linux
4 24 (2.55%) Windows 10
5 20 (2.12%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.96%) Android
6 9 (0.96%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.64%) Unix
8 6 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.21%) Solaris
10 1 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) VME
10 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 266 (28.24%) Continuous Improvement
2 198 (21.02%) Customer Service
3 133 (14.12%) Mentoring
4 132 (14.01%) AI
5 124 (13.16%) Agile
6 121 (12.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 106 (11.25%) Decision-Making
8 103 (10.93%) CI/CD
9 98 (10.40%) CRM
10 90 (9.55%) Software Engineering
11 88 (9.34%) DevOps
12 86 (9.13%) ERP
13 83 (8.81%) Analytics
13 83 (8.81%) Roadmaps
14 78 (8.28%) Collaborative Working
15 75 (7.96%) Project Delivery
16 73 (7.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 64 (6.79%) User Experience
18 61 (6.48%) Business Intelligence
19 60 (6.37%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 176 (18.68%) SQL
2 117 (12.42%) Python
3 68 (7.22%) JavaScript
4 65 (6.90%) C#
5 53 (5.63%) Java
6 41 (4.35%) PowerShell
7 26 (2.76%) TypeScript
8 20 (2.12%) PHP
9 19 (2.02%) Bash
10 17 (1.80%) C++
11 13 (1.38%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 9 (0.96%) C
14 8 (0.85%) Ruby
15 7 (0.74%) Go
16 6 (0.64%) R
17 5 (0.53%) Apex Code
17 5 (0.53%) Bicep
17 5 (0.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 3 (0.32%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 125 (13.27%) Degree
2 54 (5.73%) Security Cleared
3 32 (3.40%) SC Cleared
4 27 (2.87%) HNC
5 24 (2.55%) DBS Check
6 23 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
7 21 (2.23%) DV Cleared
8 16 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
10 14 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
10 14 (1.49%) CCNP
11 12 (1.27%) Azure Certification
12 11 (1.17%) HND
13 9 (0.96%) Master's Degree
14 8 (0.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
15 7 (0.74%) Postgraduate
16 6 (0.64%) ACCA
16 6 (0.64%) PMI Certification
17 5 (0.53%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (5.20%) Data Quality
2 40 (4.25%) Accessibility
2 40 (4.25%) QA
3 35 (3.72%) GDPR
4 17 (1.80%) SLA
5 12 (1.27%) TickIT
6 10 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 9 (0.96%) NIST
8 4 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 14443
8 4 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 7816
9 3 (0.32%) PMO
10 2 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.21%) NEBOSH
10 2 (0.21%) WCAG
11 1 (0.11%) DICOM
11 1 (0.11%) GMP
11 1 (0.11%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.11%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 100 (10.62%) Active Directory
2 47 (4.99%) Docker
3 32 (3.40%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (2.12%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.32%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 37 (3.93%) Kubernetes
2 30 (3.18%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (1.38%) Grafana
4 11 (1.17%) FortiGate
4 11 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.06%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.96%) Ansible
7 4 (0.42%) Argo
7 4 (0.42%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.21%) Nagios
8 2 (0.21%) Nessus
8 2 (0.21%) Podman
9 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.11%) linkerd
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 1 (0.11%) Packer
9 1 (0.11%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.11%) SCCM
9 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 315 (33.44%) Microsoft
2 44 (4.67%) VMware
3 35 (3.72%) SAP
4 29 (3.08%) Google
5 18 (1.91%) Cisco
5 18 (1.91%) Sage
5 18 (1.91%) YouTube
6 17 (1.80%) ServiceNow
7 15 (1.59%) Salesforce
8 13 (1.38%) Aruba
8 13 (1.38%) iManage
8 13 (1.38%) Oracle
9 10 (1.06%) Adobe
9 10 (1.06%) Civica
10 9 (0.96%) HubSpot
10 9 (0.96%) Juniper
11 8 (0.85%) Aderant
11 8 (0.85%) OpenAI
11 8 (0.85%) Tanium
12 7 (0.74%) Sophos