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

6 months to
7 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 775 1,026 1,434
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.91% 20.33% 13.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.75% 22.01% 17.08%
Number of salaries quoted 617 517 862
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,052 £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 £62,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £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 7,952 4,662 8,396
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 70.93% 92.37% 79.10%
Number of salaries quoted 6,112 2,240 6,246
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,975 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,750 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,890 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.08% +1.78% -9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 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 7 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 -12 413 £50,000 - 236
Cheshire -10 125 £41,000 +9.33% 81
Merseyside -8 122 £42,500 +1.80% 35
Lancashire +2 74 £41,500 +21.68% 81
Cumbria -8 35 £32,500 +0.62% 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 66 (8.52%) SharePoint
2 56 (7.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.42%) IIS
4 6 (0.77%) Confluence
5 5 (0.65%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.52%) Moodle
6 4 (0.52%) Totara
7 2 (0.26%) Apache
7 2 (0.26%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.26%) nginx
7 2 (0.26%) WordPress
8 1 (0.13%) CMS
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.13%) Umbraco
Applications
1 48 (6.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.29%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.26%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.26%) Windchill
7 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.13%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 24 (3.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.68%) SAP ERP
3 7 (0.90%) Magento
4 6 (0.77%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.52%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.52%) SAP PP
6 4 (0.52%) Shopify
7 2 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
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
Cloud Services
1 182 (23.48%) Azure
2 159 (20.52%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (12.52%) AWS
4 84 (10.84%) Power Platform
5 36 (4.65%) PowerApps
6 29 (3.74%) Power Automate
7 28 (3.61%) Dynamics 365
8 27 (3.48%) GCP
9 26 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
9 26 (3.35%) GitHub
10 25 (3.23%) SaaS
11 23 (2.97%) Entra ID
11 23 (2.97%) Microsoft Copilot
12 20 (2.58%) OneDrive
13 17 (2.19%) Microsoft Purview
14 16 (2.06%) Serverless
15 12 (1.55%) Boomi
16 9 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
16 9 (1.16%) Copilot Studio
17 8 (1.03%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 79 (10.19%) Firewall
2 56 (7.23%) DNS
3 52 (6.71%) DHCP
4 42 (5.42%) VPN
5 40 (5.16%) TCP/IP
6 37 (4.77%) VLAN
7 36 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
8 25 (3.23%) VoIP
9 22 (2.84%) Wireless
10 19 (2.45%) Network Security
11 16 (2.06%) WAN
12 15 (1.94%) LAN
13 14 (1.81%) Structured Cabling
14 11 (1.42%) Broadband
14 11 (1.42%) SD-WAN
15 6 (0.77%) IP Telephony
15 6 (0.77%) SAN
15 6 (0.77%) Wireshark
16 5 (0.65%) Unified Communications
17 4 (0.52%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (6.97%) Power BI
2 41 (5.29%) SQL Server
3 31 (4.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 15 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
4 15 (1.94%) MySQL
5 13 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 9 (1.16%) Big Data
7 9 (1.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (0.77%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.65%) Power Query
9 5 (0.65%) Tableau
10 4 (0.52%) Looker
10 4 (0.52%) Neo4j
10 4 (0.52%) Redis
11 3 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (0.39%) PowerPivot
11 3 (0.39%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 31 (4.00%) Git
2 26 (3.35%) JIRA
3 7 (0.90%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.77%) GitLab
5 5 (0.65%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.52%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.52%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.52%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.39%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.13%) gulp
9 1 (0.13%) LabVIEW
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.13%) webpack
General
1 304 (39.23%) Social Skills
2 216 (27.87%) Analytical Skills
3 111 (14.32%) Finance
4 67 (8.65%) Manufacturing
5 63 (8.13%) Organisational Skills
6 55 (7.10%) Law
7 42 (5.42%) Retail
8 38 (4.90%) Legal
9 33 (4.26%) Marketing
10 32 (4.13%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 17 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.94%) Banking
14 13 (1.68%) Telecoms
15 12 (1.55%) Games
16 9 (1.16%) Investment Banking
17 8 (1.03%) Aerospace
17 8 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
18 7 (0.90%) Electronics
18 7 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 104 (13.42%) Senior
2 99 (12.77%) Developer
3 88 (11.35%) Analyst
4 85 (10.97%) IT Support
5 79 (10.19%) Support Engineer
6 52 (6.71%) IT Engineer
7 50 (6.45%) IT Support Engineer
8 44 (5.68%) Lead
9 38 (4.90%) Consultant
10 37 (4.77%) Software Engineer
11 35 (4.52%) Senior Developer
12 34 (4.39%) Support Technician
13 19 (2.45%) Administrator
14 18 (2.32%) Business Analyst
14 18 (2.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (2.19%) 2nd Line Support
15 17 (2.19%) Senior Analyst
15 17 (2.19%) Support Analyst
16 16 (2.06%) 1st Line Support
16 16 (2.06%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (5.94%) .NET
2 43 (5.55%) React
3 39 (5.03%) HTML
4 33 (4.26%) REST
5 24 (3.10%) AngularJS
5 24 (3.10%) Spring
6 23 (2.97%) CSS
6 23 (2.97%) Middleware
7 22 (2.84%) EDI
7 22 (2.84%) Spring Boot
7 22 (2.84%) Vue
8 16 (2.06%) SOAP
9 14 (1.81%) XML
10 13 (1.68%) JSON
10 13 (1.68%) Node.js
11 11 (1.42%) Next.js
11 11 (1.42%) RESTful
11 11 (1.42%) Web Services
12 10 (1.29%) React Native
13 9 (1.16%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 72 (9.29%) Driving Licence
2 54 (6.97%) Onboarding
3 36 (4.65%) Cloud Native
4 35 (4.52%) Product Ownership
5 24 (3.10%) Data Centre
6 21 (2.71%) Distributed Systems
6 21 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (1.94%) Mobile App
8 14 (1.81%) CCTV
9 12 (1.55%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 11 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
10 11 (1.42%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.29%) Management Information System
12 9 (1.16%) Enterprise Cloud
12 9 (1.16%) Social Media
13 8 (1.03%) AI Agents
14 7 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.90%) Low-Code
14 7 (0.90%) Replication
15 6 (0.77%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 142 (18.32%) Windows
2 69 (8.90%) Windows Server
3 49 (6.32%) Windows 10
4 25 (3.23%) Apple iOS
5 24 (3.10%) Linux
6 20 (2.58%) Android
7 7 (0.90%) Windows 7
7 7 (0.90%) Windows 8
7 7 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.77%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.39%) Unix
11 2 (0.26%) Solaris
12 1 (0.13%) CentOS
12 1 (0.13%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.13%) VME
12 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (24.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 171 (22.06%) Customer Service
3 115 (14.84%) Mentoring
4 92 (11.87%) Agile
5 90 (11.61%) AI
5 90 (11.61%) Decision-Making
6 87 (11.23%) CI/CD
7 85 (10.97%) Stakeholder Management
8 78 (10.06%) Roadmaps
9 73 (9.42%) Analytics
9 73 (9.42%) CRM
10 72 (9.29%) Software Engineering
11 69 (8.90%) DevOps
12 61 (7.87%) User Experience
13 60 (7.74%) ERP
14 56 (7.23%) Collaborative Working
15 52 (6.71%) Test Automation
16 46 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
17 45 (5.81%) Business Intelligence
17 45 (5.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 135 (17.42%) SQL
2 100 (12.90%) Python
3 55 (7.10%) C#
4 52 (6.71%) JavaScript
5 39 (5.03%) Java
6 27 (3.48%) PowerShell
7 17 (2.19%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.94%) Bash
9 13 (1.68%) PHP
10 12 (1.55%) C++
11 10 (1.29%) T-SQL
12 8 (1.03%) Ruby
13 6 (0.77%) Kotlin
13 6 (0.77%) R
13 6 (0.77%) Shell Script
14 5 (0.65%) Bicep
14 5 (0.65%) C
14 5 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.52%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.39%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 89 (11.48%) Degree
2 41 (5.29%) Security Cleared
3 26 (3.35%) DBS Check
4 23 (2.97%) SC Cleared
5 20 (2.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 14 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.55%) DV Cleared
8 12 (1.55%) HNC
9 10 (1.29%) CCNP
10 8 (1.03%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.03%) CCNA
10 8 (1.03%) Master's Degree
11 7 (0.90%) MCSA
11 7 (0.90%) Postgraduate
12 5 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.65%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.52%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (5.29%) Data Quality
2 32 (4.13%) QA
3 28 (3.61%) GDPR
4 27 (3.48%) SLA
5 25 (3.23%) Accessibility
6 16 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 12 (1.55%) TickIT
8 8 (1.03%) ISO 9001
9 6 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.65%) NIST
11 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 14443
11 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 7816
12 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.26%) WCAG
13 1 (0.13%) DICOM
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.13%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.13%) PMO
System Software
1 97 (12.52%) Active Directory
2 36 (4.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (4.39%) Docker
4 24 (3.10%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.90%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.26%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 34 (4.39%) Kubernetes
2 29 (3.74%) Microsoft Intune
3 25 (3.23%) Terraform
4 17 (2.19%) SCCM
5 12 (1.55%) Ansible
5 12 (1.55%) Grafana
6 11 (1.42%) Prometheus
7 9 (1.16%) FortiGate
8 8 (1.03%) Autotask
9 4 (0.52%) Argo
9 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.39%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.26%) Nagios
11 2 (0.26%) Podman
12 1 (0.13%) Istio
12 1 (0.13%) McAfee ePO
12 1 (0.13%) Rancher
12 1 (0.13%) SCVMM
12 1 (0.13%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.13%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 275 (35.48%) Microsoft
2 40 (5.16%) VMware
3 30 (3.87%) SAP
4 17 (2.19%) Google
5 12 (1.55%) Cisco
5 12 (1.55%) HubSpot
5 12 (1.55%) ServiceNow
6 11 (1.42%) Aruba
7 10 (1.29%) Adobe
7 10 (1.29%) iManage
7 10 (1.29%) Salesforce
8 9 (1.16%) SonicWALL
8 9 (1.16%) Sophos
9 8 (1.03%) Meraki
10 7 (0.90%) ESET
10 7 (0.90%) Juniper
10 7 (0.90%) Oracle
11 6 (0.77%) Apple
11 6 (0.77%) OpenAI
11 6 (0.77%) Workday