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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -7 0 +8
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 795 1,031 1,253
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.97% 20.07% 13.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.76% 22.01% 17.75%
Number of salaries quoted 627 510 677
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £46,000 £46,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% -1.08% -2.11%
75th Percentile £61,250 £61,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £73,750
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 8,145 4,685 7,061
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.37% 91.20% 78.54%
Number of salaries quoted 6,237 2,288 5,008
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,055 £50,687
Median % change year-on-year +9.88% -1.25% -7.84%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,603
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,475 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -11.29%

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 July 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 July 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 -12 420 £50,000 - 170
Cheshire -9 134 £41,000 +9.33% 73
Merseyside -7 133 £42,500 -2.30% 43
Lancashire +1 71 £40,000 +16.42% 71
Cumbria -9 31 £32,500 -0.31% 7
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 72 (9.06%) SharePoint
2 54 (6.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.38%) IIS
4 5 (0.63%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.63%) Confluence
5 4 (0.50%) Moodle
5 4 (0.50%) Totara
6 2 (0.25%) Apache
6 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.25%) nginx
6 2 (0.25%) WordPress
7 1 (0.13%) CMS
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.13%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.13%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 48 (6.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.89%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.25%) Windchill
7 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.13%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 23 (2.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.64%) SAP ERP
3 7 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.75%) Magento
5 4 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.50%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.38%) Shopify
7 2 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.25%) NEC Housing
8 1 (0.13%) Odoo
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.13%) SAP ECC
8 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 183 (23.02%) Azure
2 163 (20.50%) Microsoft 365
3 95 (11.95%) Power Platform
4 94 (11.82%) AWS
5 43 (5.41%) PowerApps
6 33 (4.15%) Power Automate
7 31 (3.90%) SaaS
8 29 (3.65%) GCP
9 28 (3.52%) Dynamics 365
10 27 (3.40%) Entra ID
10 27 (3.40%) GitHub
10 27 (3.40%) Microsoft Copilot
11 26 (3.27%) Azure DevOps
12 24 (3.02%) OneDrive
13 21 (2.64%) Microsoft Purview
14 16 (2.01%) Serverless
15 12 (1.51%) Boomi
16 10 (1.26%) Copilot Studio
17 9 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
17 9 (1.13%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 67 (8.43%) Firewall
2 50 (6.29%) DNS
3 46 (5.79%) DHCP
4 37 (4.65%) TCP/IP
5 36 (4.53%) VPN
6 31 (3.90%) VLAN
7 27 (3.40%) Wi-Fi
7 27 (3.40%) Wireless
8 25 (3.14%) VoIP
9 21 (2.64%) Network Security
10 18 (2.26%) WAN
11 17 (2.14%) LAN
12 16 (2.01%) Broadband
13 11 (1.38%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.38%) Structured Cabling
14 6 (0.75%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.75%) SAN
15 5 (0.63%) BGP
15 5 (0.63%) OSPF
15 5 (0.63%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (7.17%) Power BI
2 45 (5.66%) SQL Server
3 32 (4.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 18 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
4 18 (2.26%) MySQL
5 10 (1.26%) Big Data
5 10 (1.26%) NoSQL
5 10 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (0.75%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.75%) Tableau
8 5 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
8 5 (0.63%) Power Query
8 5 (0.63%) Redis
9 4 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (0.50%) Looker
9 4 (0.50%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.38%) Electronic Patient Records
10 3 (0.38%) PowerPivot
10 3 (0.38%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 28 (3.52%) Git
1 28 (3.52%) JIRA
2 9 (1.13%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.75%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.63%) GitLab
5 4 (0.50%) Cucumber
5 4 (0.50%) Cypress.io
5 4 (0.50%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.38%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.13%) gulp
8 1 (0.13%) LabVIEW
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
8 1 (0.13%) webpack
General
1 313 (39.37%) Social Skills
2 221 (27.80%) Analytical Skills
3 119 (14.97%) Finance
4 67 (8.43%) Manufacturing
5 62 (7.80%) Law
6 54 (6.79%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (5.79%) Legal
8 37 (4.65%) Retail
9 32 (4.03%) Marketing
10 26 (3.27%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 17 (2.14%) Telecoms
13 15 (1.89%) Banking
14 14 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
15 13 (1.64%) Games
16 10 (1.26%) Aerospace
17 9 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (1.13%) Investment Banking
18 7 (0.88%) Advertising
18 7 (0.88%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 112 (14.09%) Senior
2 108 (13.58%) Developer
3 102 (12.83%) Analyst
4 76 (9.56%) IT Support
5 66 (8.30%) Support Engineer
6 44 (5.53%) Lead
7 42 (5.28%) IT Engineer
8 41 (5.16%) Consultant
8 41 (5.16%) Senior Developer
9 40 (5.03%) IT Support Engineer
10 39 (4.91%) Software Engineer
11 37 (4.65%) Support Technician
12 25 (3.14%) Support Analyst
13 21 (2.64%) IT Technician
13 21 (2.64%) Technical Analyst
14 20 (2.52%) Administrator
15 19 (2.39%) Business Analyst
15 19 (2.39%) IT Support Technician
16 18 (2.26%) Architect
16 18 (2.26%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (6.16%) .NET
2 42 (5.28%) React
3 41 (5.16%) HTML
4 33 (4.15%) REST
5 24 (3.02%) AngularJS
6 23 (2.89%) Middleware
6 23 (2.89%) Spring
7 22 (2.77%) CSS
8 21 (2.64%) Spring Boot
8 21 (2.64%) Vue
9 17 (2.14%) EDI
10 16 (2.01%) SOAP
10 16 (2.01%) XML
11 13 (1.64%) JSON
11 13 (1.64%) Node.js
12 11 (1.38%) Next.js
12 11 (1.38%) Web Services
13 10 (1.26%) React Native
14 9 (1.13%) RESTful
15 8 (1.01%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 61 (7.67%) Driving Licence
2 47 (5.91%) Onboarding
3 33 (4.15%) Product Ownership
4 32 (4.03%) Cloud Native
5 24 (3.02%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.52%) Distributed Systems
7 16 (2.01%) Data Centre
8 15 (1.89%) Mobile App
9 14 (1.76%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 14 (1.76%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.51%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.38%) CCTV
12 10 (1.26%) Replication
13 9 (1.13%) Enterprise Cloud
14 8 (1.01%) AI Agents
14 8 (1.01%) Analytical Mindset
15 7 (0.88%) Low-Code
15 7 (0.88%) Social Media
16 6 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
16 6 (0.75%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 134 (16.86%) Windows
2 65 (8.18%) Windows Server
3 39 (4.91%) Windows 10
4 28 (3.52%) Linux
5 18 (2.26%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.64%) Android
7 6 (0.75%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.63%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.63%) Windows 8
8 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.50%) Unix
10 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.25%) Solaris
12 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.13%) VME
12 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (25.91%) Continuous Improvement
2 178 (22.39%) Customer Service
3 107 (13.46%) Mentoring
4 99 (12.45%) Stakeholder Management
5 98 (12.33%) Agile
6 90 (11.32%) CI/CD
7 88 (11.07%) AI
7 88 (11.07%) Decision-Making
8 80 (10.06%) CRM
9 79 (9.94%) Roadmaps
10 75 (9.43%) DevOps
11 73 (9.18%) Software Engineering
12 68 (8.55%) Analytics
12 68 (8.55%) ERP
13 66 (8.30%) User Experience
14 56 (7.04%) Collaborative Working
15 51 (6.42%) Test Automation
16 50 (6.29%) Business Intelligence
17 48 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
18 47 (5.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 144 (18.11%) SQL
2 96 (12.08%) Python
3 63 (7.92%) C#
4 54 (6.79%) JavaScript
5 41 (5.16%) Java
6 28 (3.52%) PowerShell
7 18 (2.26%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.89%) Bash
8 15 (1.89%) PHP
9 13 (1.64%) C++
10 10 (1.26%) T-SQL
11 9 (1.13%) Shell Script
12 8 (1.01%) Ruby
13 6 (0.75%) C
13 6 (0.75%) Kotlin
13 6 (0.75%) R
14 5 (0.63%) Bicep
14 5 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.50%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.50%) Go
Qualifications
1 93 (11.70%) Degree
2 44 (5.53%) Security Cleared
3 23 (2.89%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
5 16 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (2.01%) DBS Check
5 16 (2.01%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.51%) CCNP
7 12 (1.51%) HNC
8 10 (1.26%) Azure Certification
9 9 (1.13%) Master's Degree
10 8 (1.01%) CCNA
11 7 (0.88%) MCSA
11 7 (0.88%) Postgraduate
12 5 (0.63%) ACCA
12 5 (0.63%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.50%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (5.28%) Data Quality
2 34 (4.28%) QA
3 33 (4.15%) GDPR
4 29 (3.65%) Accessibility
5 27 (3.40%) SLA
6 18 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.51%) TickIT
8 8 (1.01%) NIST
9 7 (0.88%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 14443
11 4 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 7816
12 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.25%) PMO
12 2 (0.25%) WCAG
13 1 (0.13%) DICOM
13 1 (0.13%) GMP
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 95 (11.95%) Active Directory
2 36 (4.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (4.40%) Docker
4 23 (2.89%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.63%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.25%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (4.03%) Kubernetes
2 31 (3.90%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (2.64%) Terraform
4 14 (1.76%) Grafana
5 13 (1.64%) SCCM
6 11 (1.38%) FortiGate
6 11 (1.38%) Prometheus
7 9 (1.13%) Ansible
8 6 (0.75%) Autotask
9 4 (0.50%) Argo
9 4 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.25%) Nagios
11 2 (0.25%) Podman
12 1 (0.13%) linkerd
12 1 (0.13%) Nessus
12 1 (0.13%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 1 (0.13%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.13%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 288 (36.23%) Microsoft
2 41 (5.16%) VMware
3 29 (3.65%) SAP
4 17 (2.14%) Google
5 15 (1.89%) Cisco
6 13 (1.64%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.51%) iManage
8 10 (1.26%) Adobe
8 10 (1.26%) Aruba
8 10 (1.26%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.13%) HubSpot
9 9 (1.13%) Oracle
9 9 (1.13%) SonicWALL
9 9 (1.13%) Sophos
10 8 (1.01%) Meraki
10 8 (1.01%) Tanium
11 7 (0.88%) Aderant
11 7 (0.88%) Juniper
12 6 (0.75%) Apple
12 6 (0.75%) Intapp