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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,026 1,009 1,099
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.93% 19.42% 14.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.87% 21.74% 18.25%
Number of salaries quoted 746 494 399
10th Percentile £26,606 £26,288 £26,950
25th Percentile £32,500 £33,125 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £48,720 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.64% +8.27% -5.26%
75th Percentile £61,125 £54,948 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £74,000
England median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -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 9,438 4,642 6,022
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.95% 89.32% 78.98%
Number of salaries quoted 7,055 2,201 3,302
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,688 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.99% -8.18%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,800
% change year-on-year +9.09% -6.46% -5.66%

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 26 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 26 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 -4 575 £47,500 +5.56% 587
Merseyside -4 169 £42,500 -19.81% 106
Cheshire -10 154 £43,750 -17.45% 119
Lancashire +3 89 £42,500 -10.87% 117
Cumbria -3 27 £32,500 -9.35% 24
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 82 (7.99%) SharePoint
2 52 (5.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.17%) IIS
4 6 (0.58%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.29%) Apache
6 3 (0.29%) CMS
6 3 (0.29%) Confluence
6 3 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.19%) nginx
7 2 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
8 1 (0.097%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.097%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.097%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.097%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.097%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.097%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.097%) WordPress
Applications
1 59 (5.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 57 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.56%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.19%) Windchill
7 1 (0.097%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.097%) Revit
7 1 (0.097%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 18 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 4 (0.39%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.39%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.29%) Magento
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 3 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.19%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.097%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.097%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.097%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 197 (19.20%) Azure
2 157 (15.30%) Microsoft 365
3 114 (11.11%) AWS
3 114 (11.11%) Power Platform
4 49 (4.78%) PowerApps
5 43 (4.19%) Entra ID
6 42 (4.09%) GitHub
7 39 (3.80%) SaaS
8 36 (3.51%) GCP
8 36 (3.51%) Power Automate
9 35 (3.41%) Microsoft Copilot
10 33 (3.22%) OneDrive
11 31 (3.02%) Azure DevOps
12 25 (2.44%) Dynamics 365
13 20 (1.95%) Serverless
14 19 (1.85%) Microsoft Purview
15 14 (1.36%) Copilot Studio
16 13 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
17 12 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
17 12 (1.17%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 66 (6.43%) DNS
2 56 (5.46%) DHCP
3 55 (5.36%) Firewall
4 40 (3.90%) VPN
5 38 (3.70%) TCP/IP
6 30 (2.92%) Wireless
7 25 (2.44%) VLAN
8 23 (2.24%) Network Security
9 22 (2.14%) VoIP
10 21 (2.05%) Wi-Fi
11 18 (1.75%) LAN
12 15 (1.46%) WAN
13 12 (1.17%) Broadband
13 12 (1.17%) Unified Communications
14 9 (0.88%) BGP
14 9 (0.88%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.68%) OSPF
15 7 (0.68%) SNMP
16 6 (0.58%) SAN
17 5 (0.49%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (6.82%) Power BI
2 54 (5.26%) SQL Server
3 25 (2.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.34%) MySQL
5 22 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (1.27%) BigQuery
7 11 (1.07%) Power Query
8 10 (0.97%) Big Data
9 9 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 9 (0.88%) Looker
9 9 (0.88%) NoSQL
10 8 (0.78%) MongoDB
10 8 (0.78%) Redis
10 8 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.68%) Electronic Patient Records
11 7 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
11 7 (0.68%) Relational Database
12 6 (0.58%) Data Lake
12 6 (0.58%) MariaDB
12 6 (0.58%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 40 (3.90%) Git
2 36 (3.51%) JIRA
3 15 (1.46%) Jenkins
4 12 (1.17%) GitLab
5 7 (0.68%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.68%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.49%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.39%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.39%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.29%) Selenium
8 3 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.19%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.19%) Vagrant
10 1 (0.097%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.097%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.097%) gulp
10 1 (0.097%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.097%) webpack
General
1 421 (41.03%) Social Skills
2 321 (31.29%) Analytical Skills
3 170 (16.57%) Finance
4 86 (8.38%) Law
5 80 (7.80%) Manufacturing
6 73 (7.12%) Organisational Skills
7 69 (6.73%) Legal
8 62 (6.04%) Retail
9 58 (5.65%) Telecoms
10 45 (4.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 38 (3.70%) Marketing
12 32 (3.12%) Public Sector
13 23 (2.24%) Military
14 19 (1.85%) Aerospace
14 19 (1.85%) Banking
15 16 (1.56%) Electronics
16 15 (1.46%) Billing
16 15 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
17 14 (1.36%) Automotive
18 10 (0.97%) German Language
Job Titles
1 150 (14.62%) Analyst
2 138 (13.45%) Senior
3 122 (11.89%) Developer
4 66 (6.43%) IT Support
5 54 (5.26%) Support Engineer
6 48 (4.68%) Lead
7 47 (4.58%) Senior Developer
8 46 (4.48%) Support Analyst
9 44 (4.29%) Consultant
10 42 (4.09%) Software Engineer
11 35 (3.41%) Administrator
12 29 (2.83%) IT Engineer
12 29 (2.83%) Support Technician
13 27 (2.63%) Junior
14 25 (2.44%) IT Support Engineer
15 24 (2.34%) Applications Support
15 24 (2.34%) IT Technician
16 23 (2.24%) Architect
16 23 (2.24%) Business Analyst
16 23 (2.24%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (4.97%) .NET
2 50 (4.87%) React
3 45 (4.39%) REST
4 42 (4.09%) HTML
5 31 (3.02%) Terraform
6 26 (2.53%) Middleware
7 21 (2.05%) AngularJS
7 21 (2.05%) Spring
8 20 (1.95%) CSS
9 19 (1.85%) Spring Boot
9 19 (1.85%) Vue
9 19 (1.85%) XML
10 17 (1.66%) SOAP
11 16 (1.56%) EDI
12 15 (1.46%) JSON
12 15 (1.46%) Node.js
13 14 (1.36%) Kafka
14 11 (1.07%) Next.js
15 10 (0.97%) Microsoft Graph
15 10 (0.97%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 74 (7.21%) Driving Licence
2 65 (6.34%) Onboarding
3 44 (4.29%) Self-Motivation
4 38 (3.70%) Product Ownership
5 37 (3.61%) Cloud Native
5 37 (3.61%) Management Information System
6 23 (2.24%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 20 (1.95%) IoT
8 19 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
8 19 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (1.66%) NHS
10 16 (1.56%) Security Posture
11 14 (1.36%) FMCG
11 14 (1.36%) Replication
12 12 (1.17%) Data Centre
12 12 (1.17%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.07%) Low-Code
13 11 (1.07%) Public Cloud
14 9 (0.88%) AI Agents
14 9 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 129 (12.57%) Windows
2 57 (5.56%) Windows Server
3 38 (3.70%) Linux
4 21 (2.05%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.56%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.88%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.78%) Android
8 7 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.49%) Unix
9 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.097%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.097%) Solaris
11 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.097%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 299 (29.14%) Continuous Improvement
2 193 (18.81%) Customer Service
3 150 (14.62%) Agile
4 147 (14.33%) AI
5 144 (14.04%) Mentoring
6 142 (13.84%) Stakeholder Management
7 115 (11.21%) CI/CD
7 115 (11.21%) Decision-Making
8 99 (9.65%) Analytics
9 97 (9.45%) DevOps
9 97 (9.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 96 (9.36%) Collaborative Working
10 96 (9.36%) Software Engineering
11 95 (9.26%) CRM
11 95 (9.26%) ERP
12 86 (8.38%) Project Delivery
13 83 (8.09%) Roadmaps
14 72 (7.02%) User Acceptance Testing
15 66 (6.43%) Process Improvement
15 66 (6.43%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 178 (17.35%) SQL
2 127 (12.38%) Python
3 70 (6.82%) JavaScript
4 65 (6.34%) C#
5 52 (5.07%) Java
6 48 (4.68%) PowerShell
7 31 (3.02%) TypeScript
8 22 (2.14%) Bash
9 19 (1.85%) PHP
10 15 (1.46%) C++
11 13 (1.27%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.07%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.78%) C
13 8 (0.78%) Ruby
14 7 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.68%) Go
15 6 (0.58%) Bicep
15 6 (0.58%) R
16 5 (0.49%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 135 (13.16%) Degree
2 64 (6.24%) Security Cleared
3 40 (3.90%) SC Cleared
4 36 (3.51%) HNC
5 33 (3.22%) DBS Check
6 24 (2.34%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.05%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (1.36%) CCNP
9 14 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
10 13 (1.27%) Azure Certification
10 13 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
11 12 (1.17%) HND
12 10 (0.97%) Master's Degree
13 9 (0.88%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.78%) ACCA
14 8 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.68%) CIMA
15 7 (0.68%) Postgraduate
16 6 (0.58%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (5.17%) Data Quality
2 47 (4.58%) Accessibility
3 40 (3.90%) QA
4 35 (3.41%) GDPR
5 15 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.17%) TickIT
7 11 (1.07%) SLA
8 9 (0.88%) NIST
9 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.49%) PMO
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 4 (0.39%) NEBOSH
11 3 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.29%) IFRS
12 2 (0.19%) WCAG
13 1 (0.097%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.097%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.097%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.097%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 100 (9.75%) Active Directory
2 50 (4.87%) Docker
3 27 (2.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (1.75%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.49%) Firmware
7 4 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 42 (4.09%) Kubernetes
2 32 (3.12%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (1.36%) Grafana
4 11 (1.07%) FortiGate
4 11 (1.07%) Prometheus
5 10 (0.97%) BMC PATROL
5 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.88%) Ansible
7 5 (0.49%) Argo
8 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.19%) Nagios
9 2 (0.19%) Nessus
9 2 (0.19%) Packer
9 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.19%) SCCM
9 2 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.097%) Functional Safety
10 1 (0.097%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.097%) Podman
10 1 (0.097%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 333 (32.46%) Microsoft
2 40 (3.90%) VMware
3 38 (3.70%) SAP
4 30 (2.92%) Google
5 22 (2.14%) Cisco
5 22 (2.14%) Sage
6 18 (1.75%) YouTube
7 16 (1.56%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.46%) Civica
8 15 (1.46%) Oracle
8 15 (1.46%) Salesforce
9 14 (1.36%) Aruba
10 13 (1.27%) iManage
11 10 (0.97%) Juniper
12 9 (0.88%) Aderant
12 9 (0.88%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.78%) Adobe
13 8 (0.78%) Databricks
13 8 (0.78%) HubSpot
13 8 (0.78%) Tanium