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

6 months to
27 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 883 1,010 1,123
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.23% 19.33% 13.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.02% 21.50% 17.21%
Number of salaries quoted 675 489 516
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,070 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £61,110
90th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £76,875
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -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 8,809 4,697 6,526
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.17% 89.89% 77.26%
Number of salaries quoted 6,697 2,276 4,232
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,742
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £51,238
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -2.42% -6.84%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -10.40%

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 27 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 27 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 -9 475 £50,000 - 481
Cheshire -10 151 £41,750 -1.76% 114
Merseyside -5 147 £42,500 -7.61% 66
Lancashire -1 71 £42,500 +26.06% 149
Cumbria -5 32 £32,500 -8.96% 15
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 79 (8.95%) SharePoint
2 56 (6.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.57%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.45%) Confluence
6 3 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.23%) Apache
7 2 (0.23%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.23%) CMS
7 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.23%) nginx
8 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
8 1 (0.11%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 45 (5.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (4.98%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.70%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.23%) Windchill
8 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 19 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.13%) SAP ERP
3 5 (0.57%) Magento
4 4 (0.45%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.45%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.11%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.11%) Odoo
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.11%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 195 (22.08%) Azure
2 164 (18.57%) Microsoft 365
3 107 (12.12%) Power Platform
4 102 (11.55%) AWS
5 47 (5.32%) PowerApps
6 41 (4.64%) GCP
7 36 (4.08%) Entra ID
7 36 (4.08%) SaaS
8 34 (3.85%) Power Automate
9 30 (3.40%) GitHub
10 29 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
10 29 (3.28%) Microsoft Copilot
10 29 (3.28%) OneDrive
11 28 (3.17%) Dynamics 365
12 21 (2.38%) Microsoft Purview
13 16 (1.81%) Serverless
14 12 (1.36%) Boomi
14 12 (1.36%) Google Analytics
15 11 (1.25%) Snowflake
16 10 (1.13%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 62 (7.02%) Firewall
2 56 (6.34%) DNS
3 52 (5.89%) DHCP
4 42 (4.76%) TCP/IP
5 39 (4.42%) VPN
6 32 (3.62%) Wireless
7 31 (3.51%) VLAN
8 28 (3.17%) VoIP
9 24 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
10 21 (2.38%) Network Security
11 20 (2.27%) LAN
12 17 (1.93%) WAN
13 15 (1.70%) Broadband
14 10 (1.13%) Unified Communications
15 8 (0.91%) SD-WAN
15 8 (0.91%) Structured Cabling
16 7 (0.79%) BGP
16 7 (0.79%) OSPF
17 6 (0.68%) IP Telephony
17 6 (0.68%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (7.59%) Power BI
2 53 (6.00%) SQL Server
3 28 (3.17%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.72%) MySQL
5 20 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.25%) BigQuery
6 11 (1.25%) NoSQL
7 10 (1.13%) Big Data
7 10 (1.13%) Looker
8 9 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 7 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
9 7 (0.79%) MongoDB
9 7 (0.79%) Power Query
9 7 (0.79%) Redis
10 6 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
11 5 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.57%) MariaDB
11 5 (0.57%) Tableau
12 4 (0.45%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 38 (4.30%) Git
2 34 (3.85%) JIRA
3 10 (1.13%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.79%) Bitbucket
5 6 (0.68%) GitLab
6 5 (0.57%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.45%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.45%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.34%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.11%) gulp
10 1 (0.11%) LabVIEW
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.11%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.11%) Selenium
10 1 (0.11%) webpack
General
1 358 (40.54%) Social Skills
2 267 (30.24%) Analytical Skills
3 131 (14.84%) Finance
4 67 (7.59%) Law
4 67 (7.59%) Manufacturing
5 58 (6.57%) Organisational Skills
6 56 (6.34%) Legal
7 45 (5.10%) Retail
8 34 (3.85%) Marketing
9 30 (3.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 26 (2.94%) Telecoms
11 21 (2.38%) Public Sector
12 16 (1.81%) Banking
13 15 (1.70%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.47%) Games
15 11 (1.25%) Documentation Skills
16 10 (1.13%) Electronics
16 10 (1.13%) German Language
17 9 (1.02%) Billing
17 9 (1.02%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 122 (13.82%) Analyst
2 119 (13.48%) Developer
2 119 (13.48%) Senior
3 66 (7.47%) IT Support
4 57 (6.46%) Support Engineer
5 48 (5.44%) Lead
6 42 (4.76%) Senior Developer
6 42 (4.76%) Software Engineer
7 41 (4.64%) Consultant
8 38 (4.30%) Support Technician
9 34 (3.85%) Support Analyst
10 30 (3.40%) IT Engineer
11 28 (3.17%) Administrator
11 28 (3.17%) IT Technician
12 27 (3.06%) IT Support Engineer
13 24 (2.72%) IT Support Technician
13 24 (2.72%) Junior
14 21 (2.38%) Technical Analyst
14 21 (2.38%) Technical Support
15 20 (2.27%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (6.00%) .NET
2 45 (5.10%) HTML
3 43 (4.87%) React
4 38 (4.30%) REST
5 24 (2.72%) AngularJS
5 24 (2.72%) CSS
5 24 (2.72%) Middleware
6 23 (2.60%) Terraform
7 22 (2.49%) Spring
7 22 (2.49%) Vue
8 20 (2.27%) Spring Boot
9 18 (2.04%) XML
10 17 (1.93%) SOAP
11 16 (1.81%) EDI
12 14 (1.59%) Node.js
13 13 (1.47%) JSON
14 11 (1.25%) Next.js
15 10 (1.13%) Laravel
15 10 (1.13%) React Native
15 10 (1.13%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 65 (7.36%) Driving Licence
2 54 (6.12%) Onboarding
3 36 (4.08%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.62%) Cloud Native
5 31 (3.51%) Self-Motivation
6 21 (2.38%) Management Information System
7 20 (2.27%) Distributed Systems
8 17 (1.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 14 (1.59%) Replication
9 14 (1.59%) Security Posture
10 13 (1.47%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.25%) IoT
11 11 (1.25%) NHS
12 10 (1.13%) CCTV
12 10 (1.13%) Enterprise Software
13 9 (1.02%) Data Centre
13 9 (1.02%) Enterprise Cloud
13 9 (1.02%) Low-Code
14 8 (0.91%) AI Agents
14 8 (0.91%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 136 (15.40%) Windows
2 64 (7.25%) Windows Server
3 35 (3.96%) Linux
4 31 (3.51%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.93%) Apple iOS
6 11 (1.25%) Mac OS
7 9 (1.02%) Android
8 7 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.57%) Unix
10 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.23%) Solaris
12 1 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.11%) VME
12 1 (0.11%) VMS
12 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.11%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (27.29%) Continuous Improvement
2 192 (21.74%) Customer Service
3 115 (13.02%) Mentoring
4 114 (12.91%) Agile
5 110 (12.46%) AI
5 110 (12.46%) Stakeholder Management
6 103 (11.66%) Decision-Making
7 96 (10.87%) CI/CD
8 95 (10.76%) CRM
9 85 (9.63%) Roadmaps
10 83 (9.40%) DevOps
10 83 (9.40%) Software Engineering
11 80 (9.06%) Analytics
12 72 (8.15%) ERP
13 64 (7.25%) User Experience
14 63 (7.13%) Collaborative Working
15 62 (7.02%) Business Intelligence
16 56 (6.34%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (6.23%) Project Delivery
17 55 (6.23%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 172 (19.48%) SQL
2 111 (12.57%) Python
3 66 (7.47%) C#
4 63 (7.13%) JavaScript
5 48 (5.44%) Java
6 34 (3.85%) PowerShell
7 23 (2.60%) TypeScript
8 20 (2.27%) PHP
9 16 (1.81%) Bash
9 16 (1.81%) C++
10 13 (1.47%) Shell Script
11 10 (1.13%) T-SQL
12 8 (0.91%) C
12 8 (0.91%) Ruby
13 7 (0.79%) Go
14 6 (0.68%) R
15 5 (0.57%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.57%) Bicep
15 5 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 3 (0.34%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 111 (12.57%) Degree
2 47 (5.32%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.94%) Microsoft Certification
4 25 (2.83%) HNC
5 24 (2.72%) SC Cleared
6 23 (2.60%) DBS Check
7 18 (2.04%) DV Cleared
8 17 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
10 15 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 13 (1.47%) CCNP
12 11 (1.25%) Azure Certification
13 9 (1.02%) HND
14 8 (0.91%) CCNA
14 8 (0.91%) Master's Degree
15 7 (0.79%) MCSA
15 7 (0.79%) Postgraduate
16 6 (0.68%) ACCA
16 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
16 6 (0.68%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.21%) Data Quality
2 39 (4.42%) QA
3 33 (3.74%) GDPR
4 32 (3.62%) Accessibility
5 21 (2.38%) SLA
6 12 (1.36%) TickIT
7 10 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (0.91%) NIST
9 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 14443
9 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 7816
10 2 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.23%) PMO
10 2 (0.23%) WCAG
11 1 (0.11%) DICOM
11 1 (0.11%) IFRS
11 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 97 (10.99%) Active Directory
2 43 (4.87%) Docker
3 33 (3.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (2.49%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.23%) Firmware
8 1 (0.11%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 34 (3.85%) Kubernetes
2 33 (3.74%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (1.47%) Grafana
4 11 (1.25%) FortiGate
5 10 (1.13%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.02%) Ansible
7 7 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.45%) Argo
8 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
8 4 (0.45%) SCCM
9 3 (0.34%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.23%) Autotask
10 2 (0.23%) Nagios
10 2 (0.23%) Nessus
10 2 (0.23%) Podman
11 1 (0.11%) Istio
11 1 (0.11%) linkerd
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 304 (34.43%) Microsoft
2 42 (4.76%) VMware
3 35 (3.96%) SAP
4 27 (3.06%) Google
5 19 (2.15%) Cisco
6 15 (1.70%) Salesforce
6 15 (1.70%) ServiceNow
7 13 (1.47%) Aruba
8 12 (1.36%) iManage
8 12 (1.36%) Oracle
9 10 (1.13%) Adobe
10 9 (1.02%) HubSpot
11 8 (0.91%) Juniper
11 8 (0.91%) Meraki
11 8 (0.91%) OpenAI
11 8 (0.91%) SonicWALL
11 8 (0.91%) Sophos
11 8 (0.91%) Tanium
11 8 (0.91%) YouTube
12 7 (0.79%) Aderant