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 2 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -17 +4 +16
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 653 690 1,140
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.34% 19.18% 13.23%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.78% 20.40% 15.86%
Number of salaries quoted 494 525 830
10th Percentile £27,075 £29,850 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £53,750 £66,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £68,750 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £47,085 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -14.39% +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 6,679 3,383 7,189
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 75.03% 94.02% 83.42%
Number of salaries quoted 3,817 2,119 5,743
10th Percentile £28,500 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £40,748 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £71,250 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £56,875 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -5.21% +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 2 April 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 2 April 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 -22 304 £50,000 -9.09% 221
Merseyside -1 106 £32,500 - 37
Cheshire -15 101 £41,000 +9.33% 56
Lancashire -14 86 £36,500 -27.68% 89
Cumbria +10 55 £45,000 +12.50% 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 46 (7.04%) SharePoint
2 35 (5.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.68%) Confluence
4 4 (0.61%) Moodle
4 4 (0.61%) Totara
5 3 (0.46%) WordPress
6 2 (0.31%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.15%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.15%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.15%) CMS
Applications
1 38 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (3.98%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.46%) Simulink
4 2 (0.31%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.31%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.31%) Revit
5 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.92%) SAP ERP
2 6 (0.92%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.77%) Magento
3 5 (0.77%) Shopify
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.31%) SAP Business One
5 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 148 (22.66%) Azure
2 129 (19.75%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (9.49%) AWS
4 55 (8.42%) Power Platform
5 46 (7.04%) Entra ID
6 35 (5.36%) GCP
7 28 (4.29%) SaaS
8 16 (2.45%) Microsoft Purview
9 15 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 14 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
11 13 (1.99%) PowerApps
11 13 (1.99%) Serverless
12 11 (1.68%) Google Workspace
13 10 (1.53%) Azure Monitor
13 10 (1.53%) OneDrive
14 8 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
14 8 (1.23%) PaaS
15 7 (1.07%) Azure DevOps
15 7 (1.07%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 60 (9.19%) Firewall
2 37 (5.67%) DNS
3 35 (5.36%) DHCP
4 29 (4.44%) VLAN
5 27 (4.13%) VPN
6 25 (3.83%) Wi-Fi
7 22 (3.37%) TCP/IP
7 22 (3.37%) VoIP
8 21 (3.22%) WAN
9 19 (2.91%) Wireless
10 15 (2.30%) Unified Communications
11 14 (2.14%) Structured Cabling
12 13 (1.99%) Telepresence
12 13 (1.99%) WebEx
13 11 (1.68%) LAN
13 11 (1.68%) SD-WAN
14 10 (1.53%) Broadband
15 6 (0.92%) Network Security
16 5 (0.77%) Ethernet
16 5 (0.77%) IP Telephony
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (6.28%) Power BI
2 20 (3.06%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 14 (2.14%) NoSQL
5 12 (1.84%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (1.53%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.23%) MySQL
8 7 (1.07%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.77%) Tableau
10 4 (0.61%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.61%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.46%) Looker
12 2 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.31%) Big Data
12 2 (0.31%) Crystal Reports
12 2 (0.31%) Hadoop
12 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 1 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
13 1 (0.15%) DB2
Development Applications
1 24 (3.68%) Git
2 19 (2.91%) JIRA
3 8 (1.23%) GitLab
4 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.31%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) LabVIEW
6 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.15%) TeamCity
General
1 311 (47.63%) Social Skills
2 162 (24.81%) Analytical Skills
3 136 (20.83%) Finance
4 61 (9.34%) Organisational Skills
5 37 (5.67%) Manufacturing
6 31 (4.75%) Public Sector
7 27 (4.13%) Retail
8 26 (3.98%) Legal
9 25 (3.83%) Automotive
10 21 (3.22%) Telecoms
11 20 (3.06%) Law
12 19 (2.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 17 (2.60%) Marketing
13 17 (2.60%) Presentation Skills
14 14 (2.14%) Advertising
14 14 (2.14%) Banking
15 13 (1.99%) Electronics
16 11 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
17 9 (1.38%) French Language
18 8 (1.23%) Games
Job Titles
1 90 (13.78%) Support Engineer
2 89 (13.63%) IT Support
3 83 (12.71%) Analyst
4 68 (10.41%) Senior
5 48 (7.35%) IT Engineer
6 47 (7.20%) IT Support Engineer
7 43 (6.58%) Lead
8 41 (6.28%) Developer
9 37 (5.67%) Support Technician
10 34 (5.21%) Business Analyst
11 24 (3.68%) Architect
11 24 (3.68%) Consultant
12 23 (3.52%) Trainee
12 23 (3.52%) Trainee Analyst
12 23 (3.52%) Trainee Business Analyst
13 21 (3.22%) IT Support Technician
13 21 (3.22%) IT Technician
13 21 (3.22%) Solutions Architect
14 19 (2.91%) Technical Engineer
14 19 (2.91%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.22%) React
2 20 (3.06%) .NET
3 18 (2.76%) HTML
3 18 (2.76%) Spring
3 18 (2.76%) Spring Boot
4 14 (2.14%) RESTful
5 13 (1.99%) CSS
6 12 (1.84%) Vue
7 9 (1.38%) AngularJS
7 9 (1.38%) EDI
7 9 (1.38%) Node.js
7 9 (1.38%) REST
8 7 (1.07%) XML
9 6 (0.92%) Django
9 6 (0.92%) FastAPI
9 6 (0.92%) Hibernate
9 6 (0.92%) OAuth
9 6 (0.92%) OAuth2
10 5 (0.77%) Flask
10 5 (0.77%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 99 (15.16%) Driving Licence
2 51 (7.81%) Onboarding
3 25 (3.83%) Self-Motivation
4 20 (3.06%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.06%) EPoS
5 19 (2.91%) CCTV
6 16 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.30%) Data Centre
8 14 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.99%) Product Ownership
10 11 (1.68%) Management Information System
10 11 (1.68%) Social Media
11 9 (1.38%) CMDB
12 8 (1.23%) Cloud Native
12 8 (1.23%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (1.07%) Security Posture
13 7 (1.07%) Virtual Team
14 6 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
14 6 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
14 6 (0.92%) Solar Energy
Operating Systems
1 133 (20.37%) Windows
2 59 (9.04%) Windows Server
3 33 (5.05%) Windows 10
4 22 (3.37%) Linux
5 21 (3.22%) Apple iOS
6 16 (2.45%) Android
7 11 (1.68%) Windows 7
7 11 (1.68%) Windows 8
8 9 (1.38%) Mac OS
9 8 (1.23%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.46%) Unix
12 2 (0.31%) Solaris
13 1 (0.15%) CentOS
13 1 (0.15%) CoreOS
13 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (19.91%) Customer Service
2 108 (16.54%) Continuous Improvement
3 87 (13.32%) Mentoring
4 85 (13.02%) Decision-Making
5 80 (12.25%) Stakeholder Management
6 77 (11.79%) Agile
7 63 (9.65%) AI
8 59 (9.04%) Project Management
9 52 (7.96%) Cybersecurity
10 48 (7.35%) Coaching
11 47 (7.20%) CI/CD
11 47 (7.20%) ITIL
12 44 (6.74%) Service Delivery
13 42 (6.43%) Business Intelligence
14 40 (6.13%) DevOps
15 39 (5.97%) Analytics
16 38 (5.82%) Roadmaps
17 37 (5.67%) CRM
17 37 (5.67%) Software Engineering
17 37 (5.67%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 69 (10.57%) SQL
2 46 (7.04%) Python
3 27 (4.13%) Java
4 25 (3.83%) JavaScript
5 21 (3.22%) C#
6 11 (1.68%) PowerShell
7 9 (1.38%) Kotlin
8 8 (1.23%) PHP
9 7 (1.07%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.92%) Bash
11 4 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.46%) C
12 3 (0.46%) C++
12 3 (0.46%) Go
12 3 (0.46%) Ladder Logic
12 3 (0.46%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.46%) Swift
13 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.31%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.31%) VBA
Qualifications
1 105 (16.08%) Degree
2 30 (4.59%) DBS Check
3 23 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (2.45%) Security Cleared
5 13 (1.99%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.38%) HNC
7 9 (1.38%) SC Cleared
8 8 (1.23%) Azure Certification
8 8 (1.23%) Master's Degree
8 8 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
9 6 (0.92%) CCNA
9 6 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.92%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.77%) NVQ Level 4
11 4 (0.61%) HND
11 4 (0.61%) MCSA
12 3 (0.46%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.46%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.59%) QA
2 25 (3.83%) SLA
3 20 (3.06%) Data Quality
3 20 (3.06%) GDPR
4 14 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.23%) ISO 9001
7 5 (0.77%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.46%) TickIT
9 2 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.15%) DICOM
10 1 (0.15%) GLBA
10 1 (0.15%) GMP
10 1 (0.15%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.15%) PMO
System Software
1 88 (13.48%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.83%) Hyper-V
3 22 (3.37%) Docker
4 20 (3.06%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (1.53%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.31%) Firmware
8 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 34 (5.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (4.44%) Terraform
3 22 (3.37%) BMC PATROL
3 22 (3.37%) Kubernetes
3 22 (3.37%) SCCM
4 13 (1.99%) Cisco CUCM
5 12 (1.84%) Ansible
5 12 (1.84%) Autotask
6 10 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.77%) FortiGate
7 5 (0.77%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.46%) cPanel
8 3 (0.46%) Plesk
8 3 (0.46%) Rancher
9 2 (0.31%) Grafana
9 2 (0.31%) Podman
9 2 (0.31%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.15%) Argo
10 1 (0.15%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.15%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 187 (28.64%) Microsoft
2 23 (3.52%) Oracle
3 22 (3.37%) VMware
4 19 (2.91%) Cisco
5 18 (2.76%) Google
5 18 (2.76%) SAP
6 13 (1.99%) Workday
7 11 (1.68%) Apple
7 11 (1.68%) ESET
8 9 (1.38%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.23%) New Relic
9 8 (1.23%) Splunk
10 7 (1.07%) Adobe
10 7 (1.07%) Siemens
11 6 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
11 6 (0.92%) Meraki
12 5 (0.77%) Aruba
12 5 (0.77%) Epicor
12 5 (0.77%) Facebook
12 5 (0.77%) iManage