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 7 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 858 1,031 1,158
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.30% 20.03% 13.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.18% 22.07% 17.76%
Number of salaries quoted 672 509 569
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% +2.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -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 8,432 4,672 6,522
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.70% 90.77% 77.52%
Number of salaries quoted 6,452 2,275 4,424
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,250 £65,603
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 7 August 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 7 August 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 -10 454 £50,000 - 255
Merseyside -6 153 £42,500 -7.61% 54
Cheshire -9 141 £41,750 +11.33% 102
Lancashire 0 73 £40,000 +18.64% 77
Cumbria -11 30 £32,500 -8.96% 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 73 (8.51%) SharePoint
2 56 (6.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.28%) IIS
4 5 (0.58%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.58%) Confluence
5 2 (0.23%) Apache
5 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.23%) Moodle
5 2 (0.23%) nginx
5 2 (0.23%) Totara
5 2 (0.23%) WordPress
6 1 (0.12%) CMS
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.12%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 50 (5.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (4.55%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.86%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.23%) Windchill
7 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.12%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 22 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.52%) SAP ERP
3 8 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.70%) Magento
5 4 (0.47%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.47%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.47%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.35%) Shopify
7 2 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.12%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.12%) Odoo
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.12%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 192 (22.38%) Azure
2 166 (19.35%) Microsoft 365
3 101 (11.77%) Power Platform
4 100 (11.66%) AWS
5 44 (5.13%) PowerApps
6 37 (4.31%) GCP
7 35 (4.08%) Power Automate
8 32 (3.73%) SaaS
9 29 (3.38%) Azure DevOps
9 29 (3.38%) Dynamics 365
9 29 (3.38%) Entra ID
9 29 (3.38%) Microsoft Copilot
10 28 (3.26%) GitHub
11 27 (3.15%) OneDrive
12 22 (2.56%) Microsoft Purview
13 15 (1.75%) Serverless
14 12 (1.40%) Boomi
15 11 (1.28%) Snowflake
16 10 (1.17%) Copilot Studio
17 9 (1.05%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 66 (7.69%) Firewall
2 52 (6.06%) DNS
3 48 (5.59%) DHCP
4 39 (4.55%) TCP/IP
5 36 (4.20%) VPN
6 30 (3.50%) VLAN
6 30 (3.50%) Wireless
7 26 (3.03%) VoIP
7 26 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
8 22 (2.56%) Network Security
9 19 (2.21%) LAN
9 19 (2.21%) WAN
10 17 (1.98%) Broadband
11 11 (1.28%) SD-WAN
12 10 (1.17%) Structured Cabling
13 7 (0.82%) Unified Communications
14 6 (0.70%) BGP
14 6 (0.70%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.70%) OSPF
14 6 (0.70%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (7.11%) Power BI
2 49 (5.71%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.61%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 22 (2.56%) MySQL
5 20 (2.33%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.28%) NoSQL
7 10 (1.17%) Big Data
7 10 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (0.93%) BigQuery
10 7 (0.82%) Looker
10 7 (0.82%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.82%) Redis
11 6 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
11 6 (0.70%) Electronic Patient Records
11 6 (0.70%) Tableau
12 5 (0.58%) MariaDB
12 5 (0.58%) Power Query
13 4 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
13 4 (0.47%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 35 (4.08%) Git
2 31 (3.61%) JIRA
3 10 (1.17%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.82%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.58%) GitLab
6 4 (0.47%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.47%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.47%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.35%) Claude Code
7 3 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.23%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.12%) gulp
9 1 (0.12%) LabVIEW
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.12%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 334 (38.93%) Social Skills
2 251 (29.25%) Analytical Skills
3 124 (14.45%) Finance
4 70 (8.16%) Manufacturing
5 66 (7.69%) Law
6 57 (6.64%) Organisational Skills
7 52 (6.06%) Legal
8 41 (4.78%) Retail
9 35 (4.08%) Marketing
10 25 (2.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 23 (2.68%) Public Sector
11 23 (2.68%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.75%) Banking
13 14 (1.63%) Games
14 13 (1.52%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
15 9 (1.05%) Billing
15 9 (1.05%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.93%) Automotive
16 8 (0.93%) Military
Job Titles
1 121 (14.10%) Senior
2 117 (13.64%) Developer
3 114 (13.29%) Analyst
4 73 (8.51%) IT Support
5 65 (7.58%) Support Engineer
6 47 (5.48%) Lead
7 44 (5.13%) Consultant
7 44 (5.13%) Senior Developer
8 41 (4.78%) Software Engineer
9 38 (4.43%) IT Engineer
9 38 (4.43%) Support Technician
10 35 (4.08%) IT Support Engineer
11 32 (3.73%) Support Analyst
12 27 (3.15%) Administrator
13 25 (2.91%) IT Technician
14 23 (2.68%) Junior
15 22 (2.56%) IT Support Technician
16 21 (2.45%) Technical Analyst
17 19 (2.21%) IT Manager
17 19 (2.21%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (6.06%) .NET
2 44 (5.13%) HTML
3 43 (5.01%) React
4 35 (4.08%) REST
5 24 (2.80%) AngularJS
5 24 (2.80%) Middleware
6 23 (2.68%) CSS
6 23 (2.68%) Vue
7 22 (2.56%) Spring
8 20 (2.33%) Spring Boot
9 18 (2.10%) XML
10 17 (1.98%) EDI
10 17 (1.98%) SOAP
11 13 (1.52%) JSON
11 13 (1.52%) Node.js
12 11 (1.28%) Next.js
12 11 (1.28%) Web Services
13 10 (1.17%) Laravel
13 10 (1.17%) React Native
13 10 (1.17%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 64 (7.46%) Driving Licence
2 49 (5.71%) Onboarding
3 35 (4.08%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.73%) Cloud Native
5 29 (3.38%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (2.21%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (1.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 15 (1.75%) Management Information System
8 14 (1.63%) Mobile App
9 13 (1.52%) Replication
9 13 (1.52%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.40%) Data Centre
11 11 (1.28%) CCTV
12 10 (1.17%) NHS
13 9 (1.05%) Enterprise Cloud
14 8 (0.93%) AI Agents
14 8 (0.93%) CMDB
14 8 (0.93%) Cyberattack
14 8 (0.93%) IoT
15 7 (0.82%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 139 (16.20%) Windows
2 65 (7.58%) Windows Server
3 36 (4.20%) Windows 10
4 33 (3.85%) Linux
5 17 (1.98%) Apple iOS
6 12 (1.40%) Android
7 9 (1.05%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.47%) Unix
9 4 (0.47%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.47%) Windows 8
10 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.23%) Solaris
12 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.12%) VME
12 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 225 (26.22%) Continuous Improvement
2 187 (21.79%) Customer Service
3 116 (13.52%) Mentoring
4 109 (12.70%) Agile
5 108 (12.59%) Stakeholder Management
6 99 (11.54%) Decision-Making
7 96 (11.19%) CI/CD
8 95 (11.07%) AI
9 90 (10.49%) CRM
10 83 (9.67%) DevOps
11 82 (9.56%) Roadmaps
12 78 (9.09%) Software Engineering
13 75 (8.74%) ERP
14 74 (8.62%) Analytics
15 69 (8.04%) User Experience
16 62 (7.23%) Collaborative Working
17 56 (6.53%) Business Intelligence
18 51 (5.94%) Test Automation
19 50 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
20 47 (5.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 160 (18.65%) SQL
2 106 (12.35%) Python
3 66 (7.69%) C#
4 59 (6.88%) JavaScript
5 43 (5.01%) Java
6 28 (3.26%) PowerShell
7 20 (2.33%) TypeScript
8 19 (2.21%) PHP
9 15 (1.75%) Bash
9 15 (1.75%) C++
10 12 (1.40%) Shell Script
11 10 (1.17%) T-SQL
12 8 (0.93%) Ruby
13 7 (0.82%) C
14 6 (0.70%) Go
14 6 (0.70%) R
15 5 (0.58%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.58%) Bicep
15 5 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 5 (0.58%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 101 (11.77%) Degree
2 47 (5.48%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.80%) SC Cleared
4 23 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
5 19 (2.21%) DBS Check
6 17 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (1.98%) Cisco Certification
6 17 (1.98%) DV Cleared
6 17 (1.98%) HNC
7 15 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (1.52%) CCNP
9 11 (1.28%) Azure Certification
10 9 (1.05%) Master's Degree
11 8 (0.93%) CCNA
12 7 (0.82%) MCSA
12 7 (0.82%) Postgraduate
13 6 (0.70%) ACCA
13 6 (0.70%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.58%) CIMA
14 5 (0.58%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (5.13%) Data Quality
2 37 (4.31%) QA
3 34 (3.96%) GDPR
4 30 (3.50%) Accessibility
5 26 (3.03%) SLA
6 14 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.40%) TickIT
8 8 (0.93%) NIST
9 4 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 14443
9 4 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 3 (0.35%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.23%) PMO
11 2 (0.23%) WCAG
12 1 (0.12%) DICOM
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) IFRS
12 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.12%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 98 (11.42%) Active Directory
2 41 (4.78%) Docker
3 37 (4.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 23 (2.68%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.47%) VMware Workstation
7 3 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 33 (3.85%) Kubernetes
2 32 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 23 (2.68%) Terraform
4 14 (1.63%) Grafana
5 12 (1.40%) FortiGate
6 11 (1.28%) Prometheus
6 11 (1.28%) SCCM
7 9 (1.05%) Ansible
8 5 (0.58%) Autotask
9 4 (0.47%) Argo
9 4 (0.47%) Microsoft Clustering
9 4 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.23%) Nagios
11 2 (0.23%) Nessus
11 2 (0.23%) Podman
12 1 (0.12%) Istio
12 1 (0.12%) linkerd
12 1 (0.12%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.12%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 300 (34.97%) Microsoft
2 43 (5.01%) VMware
3 31 (3.61%) SAP
4 26 (3.03%) Google
5 17 (1.98%) Cisco
6 15 (1.75%) ServiceNow
7 14 (1.63%) Salesforce
8 13 (1.52%) iManage
9 12 (1.40%) Aruba
10 11 (1.28%) Oracle
11 10 (1.17%) Adobe
12 9 (1.05%) HubSpot
12 9 (1.05%) SonicWALL
12 9 (1.05%) Sophos
13 8 (0.93%) Aderant
13 8 (0.93%) Juniper
13 8 (0.93%) Meraki
13 8 (0.93%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.93%) Tanium
14 6 (0.70%) Intapp