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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 7 7
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 823 1,035 1,203
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.10% 20.05% 13.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.93% 22.07% 17.77%
Number of salaries quoted 648 513 615
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,017 £27,000
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 £60,688 £61,250 £61,875
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £74,500
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 8,284 4,690 6,770
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.51% 90.84% 77.93%
Number of salaries quoted 6,335 2,293 4,704
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,720
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £51,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -2.91% -6.36%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £66,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -11.41%

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 1 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 1 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 -11 436 £50,000 - 265
Merseyside -6 141 £42,500 -7.61% 46
Cheshire -10 136 £41,000 +9.33% 91
Lancashire +2 73 £40,000 +18.64% 69
Cumbria -9 31 £32,500 -4.83% 12
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 (8.75%) SharePoint
2 56 (6.80%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.34%) IIS
4 5 (0.61%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.61%) Confluence
5 3 (0.36%) Moodle
5 3 (0.36%) Totara
6 2 (0.24%) Apache
6 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.24%) nginx
6 2 (0.24%) WordPress
7 1 (0.12%) CMS
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.12%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 49 (5.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (4.01%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.82%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.24%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.24%) Windchill
7 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.12%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 22 (2.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.58%) SAP ERP
3 7 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.73%) Magento
5 4 (0.49%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.49%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.36%) NEC Housing
6 3 (0.36%) Shopify
7 2 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
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%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.12%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 187 (22.72%) Azure
2 161 (19.56%) Microsoft 365
3 98 (11.91%) Power Platform
4 96 (11.66%) AWS
5 43 (5.22%) PowerApps
6 33 (4.01%) Power Automate
7 32 (3.89%) GCP
8 30 (3.65%) SaaS
9 28 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
9 28 (3.40%) Dynamics 365
9 28 (3.40%) Entra ID
10 27 (3.28%) GitHub
10 27 (3.28%) Microsoft Copilot
11 25 (3.04%) OneDrive
12 22 (2.67%) Microsoft Purview
13 15 (1.82%) Serverless
14 12 (1.46%) Boomi
15 11 (1.34%) Snowflake
16 10 (1.22%) Copilot Studio
17 9 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 65 (7.90%) Firewall
2 51 (6.20%) DNS
3 47 (5.71%) DHCP
4 38 (4.62%) TCP/IP
5 35 (4.25%) VPN
6 30 (3.65%) VLAN
7 28 (3.40%) Wireless
8 27 (3.28%) Wi-Fi
9 26 (3.16%) VoIP
10 21 (2.55%) Network Security
11 18 (2.19%) WAN
12 17 (2.07%) Broadband
12 17 (2.07%) LAN
13 11 (1.34%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.34%) Structured Cabling
14 6 (0.73%) IP Telephony
14 6 (0.73%) SAN
14 6 (0.73%) Unified Communications
15 5 (0.61%) BGP
15 5 (0.61%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (7.29%) Power BI
2 47 (5.71%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 20 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (2.43%) MySQL
5 11 (1.34%) NoSQL
6 10 (1.22%) Big Data
6 10 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.85%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (0.73%) BigQuery
9 6 (0.73%) Redis
9 6 (0.73%) Tableau
10 5 (0.61%) Looker
10 5 (0.61%) Power Query
11 4 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (0.49%) Electronic Patient Records
11 4 (0.49%) MariaDB
11 4 (0.49%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 32 (3.89%) Git
2 28 (3.40%) JIRA
3 10 (1.22%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.85%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.61%) GitLab
6 4 (0.49%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.49%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.49%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.36%) Claude Code
7 3 (0.36%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.24%) 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
1 319 (38.76%) Social Skills
2 238 (28.92%) Analytical Skills
3 122 (14.82%) Finance
4 68 (8.26%) Manufacturing
5 65 (7.90%) Law
6 58 (7.05%) Organisational Skills
7 49 (5.95%) Legal
8 39 (4.74%) Retail
9 33 (4.01%) Marketing
10 25 (3.04%) Public Sector
11 22 (2.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 21 (2.55%) Telecoms
13 15 (1.82%) Banking
14 14 (1.70%) Games
15 13 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
16 12 (1.46%) Aerospace
17 9 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (1.09%) Investment Banking
18 8 (0.97%) Billing
18 8 (0.97%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 116 (14.09%) Senior
2 111 (13.49%) Developer
3 106 (12.88%) Analyst
4 72 (8.75%) IT Support
5 62 (7.53%) Support Engineer
6 44 (5.35%) Lead
7 42 (5.10%) Consultant
7 42 (5.10%) Senior Developer
8 40 (4.86%) Software Engineer
9 39 (4.74%) IT Engineer
10 37 (4.50%) Support Technician
11 36 (4.37%) IT Support Engineer
12 26 (3.16%) Support Analyst
13 24 (2.92%) Administrator
14 23 (2.79%) IT Technician
15 22 (2.67%) Technical Analyst
16 20 (2.43%) IT Support Technician
17 19 (2.31%) Business Analyst
18 18 (2.19%) IT Manager
18 18 (2.19%) Junior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (6.08%) .NET
2 42 (5.10%) HTML
2 42 (5.10%) React
3 34 (4.13%) REST
4 24 (2.92%) AngularJS
4 24 (2.92%) Middleware
5 22 (2.67%) CSS
5 22 (2.67%) Spring
5 22 (2.67%) Vue
6 20 (2.43%) Spring Boot
7 17 (2.07%) EDI
7 17 (2.07%) SOAP
7 17 (2.07%) XML
8 13 (1.58%) JSON
8 13 (1.58%) Node.js
9 11 (1.34%) Next.js
9 11 (1.34%) Web Services
10 10 (1.22%) React Native
11 9 (1.09%) Laravel
11 9 (1.09%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 60 (7.29%) Driving Licence
2 49 (5.95%) Onboarding
3 33 (4.01%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.89%) Cloud Native
5 28 (3.40%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (1.82%) Management Information System
8 14 (1.70%) Data Centre
8 14 (1.70%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 14 (1.70%) Mobile App
9 13 (1.58%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.46%) Replication
11 11 (1.34%) CCTV
12 9 (1.09%) Enterprise Cloud
13 8 (0.97%) AI Agents
13 8 (0.97%) CMDB
13 8 (0.97%) IoT
13 8 (0.97%) NHS
14 7 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (0.85%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 135 (16.40%) Windows
2 65 (7.90%) Windows Server
3 37 (4.50%) Windows 10
4 29 (3.52%) Linux
5 17 (2.07%) Apple iOS
6 12 (1.46%) Android
7 8 (0.97%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.61%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.61%) Windows 8
8 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.49%) Unix
10 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.24%) Solaris
12 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.12%) VME
12 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (26.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 184 (22.36%) Customer Service
3 110 (13.37%) Mentoring
4 105 (12.76%) Agile
4 105 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
5 94 (11.42%) Decision-Making
6 93 (11.30%) CI/CD
7 91 (11.06%) AI
8 84 (10.21%) CRM
9 79 (9.60%) DevOps
9 79 (9.60%) Roadmaps
10 74 (8.99%) Software Engineering
11 71 (8.63%) Analytics
12 68 (8.26%) ERP
13 66 (8.02%) User Experience
14 59 (7.17%) Collaborative Working
15 55 (6.68%) Business Intelligence
16 50 (6.08%) Test Automation
17 48 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
18 45 (5.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 152 (18.47%) SQL
2 102 (12.39%) Python
3 63 (7.65%) C#
4 55 (6.68%) JavaScript
5 41 (4.98%) Java
6 28 (3.40%) PowerShell
7 18 (2.19%) TypeScript
8 17 (2.07%) PHP
9 15 (1.82%) Bash
10 13 (1.58%) C++
11 10 (1.22%) Shell Script
11 10 (1.22%) T-SQL
12 8 (0.97%) Ruby
13 6 (0.73%) C
13 6 (0.73%) R
14 5 (0.61%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.61%) Bicep
14 5 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.61%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.49%) Go
Qualifications
1 96 (11.66%) Degree
2 48 (5.83%) Security Cleared
3 25 (3.04%) SC Cleared
4 23 (2.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (2.19%) DBS Check
5 18 (2.19%) DV Cleared
6 17 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (1.94%) HNC
8 15 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
9 12 (1.46%) CCNP
10 10 (1.22%) Azure Certification
11 9 (1.09%) Master's Degree
12 8 (0.97%) CCNA
13 7 (0.85%) MCSA
13 7 (0.85%) Postgraduate
14 6 (0.73%) ACCA
14 6 (0.73%) PMI Certification
15 5 (0.61%) CIMA
16 4 (0.49%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (5.35%) Data Quality
2 35 (4.25%) QA
3 32 (3.89%) GDPR
4 30 (3.65%) Accessibility
5 26 (3.16%) SLA
6 16 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.46%) TickIT
8 8 (0.97%) NIST
9 5 (0.61%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 7816
11 2 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.24%) PMO
11 2 (0.24%) WCAG
12 1 (0.12%) DICOM
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) IFRS
12 1 (0.12%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 97 (11.79%) Active Directory
2 39 (4.74%) Docker
3 37 (4.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 23 (2.79%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.61%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.24%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (3.89%) Kubernetes
2 31 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
3 23 (2.79%) Terraform
4 14 (1.70%) Grafana
5 12 (1.46%) SCCM
6 11 (1.34%) FortiGate
6 11 (1.34%) Prometheus
7 9 (1.09%) Ansible
8 6 (0.73%) Autotask
9 4 (0.49%) Argo
9 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.36%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.24%) Nagios
11 2 (0.24%) Nessus
11 2 (0.24%) Podman
12 1 (0.12%) Istio
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 1 (0.12%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.12%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 293 (35.60%) Microsoft
2 43 (5.22%) VMware
3 29 (3.52%) SAP
4 23 (2.79%) Google
5 15 (1.82%) Cisco
5 15 (1.82%) ServiceNow
6 12 (1.46%) iManage
6 12 (1.46%) Salesforce
7 10 (1.22%) Adobe
7 10 (1.22%) Aruba
8 9 (1.09%) HubSpot
8 9 (1.09%) Oracle
8 9 (1.09%) SonicWALL
8 9 (1.09%) Sophos
9 8 (0.97%) Meraki
9 8 (0.97%) Tanium
10 7 (0.85%) Aderant
10 7 (0.85%) Juniper
10 7 (0.85%) OpenAI
11 6 (0.73%) Intapp