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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -7 0 +13
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 721 996 1,492
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.62% 21.05% 13.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.50% 22.24% 16.91%
Number of salaries quoted 578 497 908
10th Percentile £26,425 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £46,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +3.33% -5.26%
75th Percentile £61,250 £63,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £76,625
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% +1.01% -10.00%

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 7,588 4,478 8,824
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 69.67% 94.63% 78.64%
Number of salaries quoted 5,812 2,047 6,661
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £27,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £83,750 £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 19 June 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 19 June 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 -14 385 £50,000 - 194
Merseyside -7 115 £42,500 +6.25% 25
Cheshire -12 112 £41,000 +9.33% 56
Lancashire +3 70 £40,000 +15.94% 72
Cumbria -10 34 £32,500 +0.62% 18
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 64 (8.88%) SharePoint
2 51 (7.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (0.97%) IIS
4 6 (0.83%) Confluence
5 4 (0.55%) Moodle
5 4 (0.55%) Totara
6 3 (0.42%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.28%) Apache
7 2 (0.28%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.28%) nginx
7 2 (0.28%) WordPress
8 1 (0.14%) CMS
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.14%) Umbraco
Applications
1 45 (6.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (1.25%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.69%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.28%) Windchill
6 1 (0.14%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 23 (3.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.80%) SAP ERP
3 7 (0.97%) Magento
4 6 (0.83%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.55%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.55%) SAP PP
6 4 (0.55%) Shopify
7 2 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.14%) Odoo
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 165 (22.88%) Azure
2 149 (20.67%) Microsoft 365
3 83 (11.51%) AWS
4 80 (11.10%) Power Platform
5 32 (4.44%) PowerApps
6 28 (3.88%) Dynamics 365
7 26 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.61%) Entra ID
7 26 (3.61%) GitHub
7 26 (3.61%) Power Automate
8 24 (3.33%) SaaS
9 23 (3.19%) GCP
10 18 (2.50%) Microsoft Copilot
11 17 (2.36%) Microsoft Purview
11 17 (2.36%) OneDrive
12 15 (2.08%) Serverless
13 12 (1.66%) Boomi
14 8 (1.11%) Azure Logic Apps
14 8 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (0.97%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 69 (9.57%) Firewall
2 45 (6.24%) DNS
3 41 (5.69%) DHCP
4 35 (4.85%) VLAN
5 34 (4.72%) VPN
6 29 (4.02%) Wi-Fi
7 28 (3.88%) TCP/IP
8 22 (3.05%) VoIP
9 21 (2.91%) Wireless
10 15 (2.08%) Network Security
10 15 (2.08%) WAN
11 13 (1.80%) LAN
12 12 (1.66%) Structured Cabling
13 10 (1.39%) Broadband
13 10 (1.39%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.83%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.83%) SAN
14 6 (0.83%) Unified Communications
14 6 (0.83%) Wireshark
15 4 (0.55%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (7.35%) Power BI
2 31 (4.30%) SQL Server
2 31 (4.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 13 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
4 10 (1.39%) MySQL
4 10 (1.39%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 8 (1.11%) Big Data
6 8 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.69%) Power Query
7 5 (0.69%) Tableau
8 4 (0.55%) Looker
8 4 (0.55%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
9 3 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.42%) PowerPivot
9 3 (0.42%) Redis
9 3 (0.42%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.42%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 31 (4.30%) Git
2 26 (3.61%) JIRA
3 7 (0.97%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.83%) GitLab
5 5 (0.69%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.28%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.28%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.28%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.14%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.14%) gulp
7 1 (0.14%) LabVIEW
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.14%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 288 (39.94%) Social Skills
2 203 (28.16%) Analytical Skills
3 111 (15.40%) Finance
4 63 (8.74%) Manufacturing
5 56 (7.77%) Organisational Skills
6 49 (6.80%) Law
7 36 (4.99%) Retail
8 35 (4.85%) Legal
9 32 (4.44%) Marketing
10 30 (4.16%) Public Sector
11 17 (2.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (2.08%) Banking
13 14 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
14 13 (1.80%) Telecoms
15 10 (1.39%) Games
15 10 (1.39%) Investment Banking
16 9 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.97%) French Language
17 7 (0.97%) Italian Language
17 7 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 93 (12.90%) Senior
2 90 (12.48%) Developer
3 83 (11.51%) Analyst
4 81 (11.23%) IT Support
5 75 (10.40%) Support Engineer
6 51 (7.07%) IT Engineer
7 49 (6.80%) IT Support Engineer
8 42 (5.83%) Consultant
9 37 (5.13%) Lead
10 35 (4.85%) Support Technician
11 32 (4.44%) Senior Developer
11 32 (4.44%) Software Engineer
12 21 (2.91%) Business Analyst
13 19 (2.64%) Administrator
14 17 (2.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 17 (2.36%) IT Support Technician
14 17 (2.36%) IT Technician
15 16 (2.22%) Technical Analyst
16 15 (2.08%) 1st Line Support
16 15 (2.08%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (5.55%) .NET
2 37 (5.13%) React
3 35 (4.85%) HTML
4 34 (4.72%) REST
5 24 (3.33%) Spring
5 24 (3.33%) Spring Boot
6 22 (3.05%) CSS
6 22 (3.05%) EDI
7 21 (2.91%) AngularJS
8 19 (2.64%) Middleware
9 18 (2.50%) Vue
10 16 (2.22%) SOAP
11 14 (1.94%) XML
12 13 (1.80%) JSON
13 12 (1.66%) Node.js
14 10 (1.39%) RESTful
14 10 (1.39%) Web Services
15 9 (1.25%) SAP Fiori
16 8 (1.11%) React Native
16 8 (1.11%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 67 (9.29%) Driving Licence
2 50 (6.93%) Onboarding
3 34 (4.72%) Product Ownership
4 32 (4.44%) Cloud Native
5 24 (3.33%) Data Centre
6 20 (2.77%) Distributed Systems
7 19 (2.64%) Self-Motivation
8 15 (2.08%) Mobile App
9 12 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.66%) CCTV
10 10 (1.39%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.25%) Enterprise Cloud
11 9 (1.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 9 (1.25%) Security Posture
11 9 (1.25%) Social Media
12 7 (0.97%) AI Agents
12 7 (0.97%) Low-Code
13 6 (0.83%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.83%) IoT
13 6 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 129 (17.89%) Windows
2 62 (8.60%) Windows Server
3 43 (5.96%) Windows 10
4 23 (3.19%) Apple iOS
5 20 (2.77%) Linux
6 16 (2.22%) Android
7 7 (0.97%) Windows 7
7 7 (0.97%) Windows 8
7 7 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.42%) Unix
11 2 (0.28%) Solaris
12 1 (0.14%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.14%) VME
12 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (23.02%) Continuous Improvement
2 159 (22.05%) Customer Service
3 109 (15.12%) Mentoring
4 85 (11.79%) Stakeholder Management
5 83 (11.51%) Agile
6 80 (11.10%) Decision-Making
7 78 (10.82%) AI
8 76 (10.54%) CI/CD
9 72 (9.99%) Roadmaps
10 68 (9.43%) CRM
11 64 (8.88%) DevOps
12 63 (8.74%) Analytics
13 58 (8.04%) Software Engineering
14 57 (7.91%) ERP
15 56 (7.77%) User Experience
16 52 (7.21%) Collaborative Working
17 48 (6.66%) Test Automation
18 44 (6.10%) Business Intelligence
19 41 (5.69%) Cybersecurity
19 41 (5.69%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 118 (16.37%) SQL
2 90 (12.48%) Python
3 50 (6.93%) C#
4 45 (6.24%) JavaScript
5 39 (5.41%) Java
6 21 (2.91%) PowerShell
7 13 (1.80%) Bash
8 12 (1.66%) C++
8 12 (1.66%) PHP
9 11 (1.53%) TypeScript
10 10 (1.39%) T-SQL
11 8 (1.11%) Kotlin
11 8 (1.11%) Ruby
12 6 (0.83%) R
13 5 (0.69%) Bicep
13 5 (0.69%) C
14 4 (0.55%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.55%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.42%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 81 (11.23%) Degree
2 36 (4.99%) Security Cleared
3 23 (3.19%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.77%) DBS Check
5 17 (2.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (1.66%) HNC
8 11 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
9 10 (1.39%) DV Cleared
10 8 (1.11%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.11%) CCNP
11 7 (0.97%) CCNA
11 7 (0.97%) MCSA
12 6 (0.83%) Network+ Certification
13 5 (0.69%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.55%) Master's Degree
14 4 (0.55%) PMP
14 4 (0.55%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (5.55%) Data Quality
2 27 (3.74%) SLA
3 26 (3.61%) QA
4 24 (3.33%) GDPR
5 19 (2.64%) Accessibility
6 14 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.66%) TickIT
8 8 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.11%) ISO 9001
9 4 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 14443
9 4 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 3 (0.42%) NIST
11 2 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.28%) WCAG
12 1 (0.14%) DICOM
12 1 (0.14%) IFRS
12 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.14%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.14%) PMO
System Software
1 92 (12.76%) Active Directory
2 30 (4.16%) Docker
2 30 (4.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (2.77%) Hyper-V
4 7 (0.97%) VMware Workstation
5 4 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.28%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 30 (4.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (4.02%) Kubernetes
3 25 (3.47%) Terraform
4 17 (2.36%) SCCM
5 11 (1.53%) Ansible
6 10 (1.39%) Grafana
6 10 (1.39%) Prometheus
7 8 (1.11%) Autotask
8 7 (0.97%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.55%) Argo
9 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.28%) Nagios
11 2 (0.28%) Podman
11 2 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.14%) Istio
12 1 (0.14%) linkerd
12 1 (0.14%) Rancher
12 1 (0.14%) SCVMM
12 1 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 251 (34.81%) Microsoft
2 34 (4.72%) VMware
3 29 (4.02%) SAP
4 16 (2.22%) Google
5 11 (1.53%) Cisco
5 11 (1.53%) HubSpot
6 10 (1.39%) Aruba
6 10 (1.39%) iManage
6 10 (1.39%) Oracle
7 8 (1.11%) Adobe
7 8 (1.11%) Apple
7 8 (1.11%) Meraki
7 8 (1.11%) Salesforce
7 8 (1.11%) ServiceNow
8 7 (0.97%) ESET
8 7 (0.97%) SonicWALL
8 7 (0.97%) Sophos
9 6 (0.83%) Intapp
9 6 (0.83%) Juniper
9 6 (0.83%) Workday