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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,032 1,007 1,090
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.98% 19.44% 14.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.93% 21.70% 18.26%
Number of salaries quoted 745 490 388
10th Percentile £26,597 £26,363 £26,925
25th Percentile £32,500 £33,125 £32,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £48,720 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.64% +8.27% -5.26%
75th Percentile £61,250 £54,793 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £73,750
England median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% -4.55%

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 9,440 4,641 5,969
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 73.00% 89.61% 79.17%
Number of salaries quoted 7,048 2,171 3,218
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.99% -8.18%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -3 576 £47,500 +5.56% 513
Merseyside -3 172 £42,500 -19.81% 102
Cheshire -9 157 £45,000 -15.09% 113
Lancashire +5 90 £42,500 -10.53% 93
Cumbria -3 25 £32,500 -9.35% 22
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 82 (7.95%) SharePoint
2 52 (5.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.16%) IIS
4 6 (0.58%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.39%) Confluence
7 3 (0.29%) Apache
7 3 (0.29%) CMS
7 3 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.19%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.19%) nginx
8 2 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.097%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.097%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.097%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.097%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.097%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.097%) WordPress
Applications
1 61 (5.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (5.81%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.55%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.19%) Windchill
6 1 (0.097%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.097%) Revit
6 1 (0.097%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 18 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 4 (0.39%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.39%) SAP PP
5 3 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 3 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.19%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.19%) Magento
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.097%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.097%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.097%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 199 (19.28%) Azure
2 157 (15.21%) Microsoft 365
3 114 (11.05%) AWS
3 114 (11.05%) Power Platform
4 49 (4.75%) PowerApps
5 44 (4.26%) Entra ID
6 42 (4.07%) GitHub
7 39 (3.78%) SaaS
8 36 (3.49%) GCP
8 36 (3.49%) Power Automate
9 35 (3.39%) Microsoft Copilot
10 33 (3.20%) OneDrive
11 31 (3.00%) Azure DevOps
12 25 (2.42%) Dynamics 365
13 20 (1.94%) Serverless
14 19 (1.84%) Microsoft Purview
15 14 (1.36%) Copilot Studio
16 13 (1.26%) GitHub Actions
17 12 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
17 12 (1.16%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 68 (6.59%) DNS
2 57 (5.52%) DHCP
3 55 (5.33%) Firewall
4 41 (3.97%) VPN
5 38 (3.68%) TCP/IP
6 30 (2.91%) Wireless
7 25 (2.42%) VLAN
8 23 (2.23%) Network Security
9 22 (2.13%) VoIP
10 21 (2.03%) Wi-Fi
11 18 (1.74%) LAN
12 15 (1.45%) WAN
13 12 (1.16%) Broadband
13 12 (1.16%) Unified Communications
14 9 (0.87%) BGP
14 9 (0.87%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.68%) OSPF
15 7 (0.68%) SNMP
16 6 (0.58%) SAN
17 5 (0.48%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (6.78%) Power BI
2 54 (5.23%) SQL Server
3 25 (2.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 24 (2.33%) MySQL
5 22 (2.13%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (1.26%) BigQuery
7 11 (1.07%) Power Query
8 10 (0.97%) Big Data
9 9 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
9 9 (0.87%) NoSQL
10 8 (0.78%) Looker
10 8 (0.78%) MongoDB
10 8 (0.78%) Redis
10 8 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.68%) Electronic Patient Records
11 7 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
11 7 (0.68%) Relational Database
12 6 (0.58%) Data Lake
12 6 (0.58%) MariaDB
12 6 (0.58%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 40 (3.88%) Git
2 37 (3.59%) JIRA
3 15 (1.45%) Jenkins
4 13 (1.26%) GitLab
5 7 (0.68%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.68%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.48%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.39%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.39%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.29%) Selenium
8 3 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.19%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.19%) Vagrant
10 1 (0.097%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.097%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.097%) gulp
10 1 (0.097%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
10 1 (0.097%) webpack
General
1 423 (40.99%) Social Skills
2 324 (31.40%) Analytical Skills
3 175 (16.96%) Finance
4 87 (8.43%) Law
5 82 (7.95%) Manufacturing
6 76 (7.36%) Organisational Skills
7 69 (6.69%) Legal
8 63 (6.10%) Retail
9 58 (5.62%) Telecoms
10 45 (4.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 37 (3.59%) Marketing
12 31 (3.00%) Public Sector
13 23 (2.23%) Military
14 19 (1.84%) Banking
15 18 (1.74%) Aerospace
16 16 (1.55%) Electronics
17 15 (1.45%) Automotive
17 15 (1.45%) Billing
17 15 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
18 10 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 152 (14.73%) Analyst
2 140 (13.57%) Senior
3 121 (11.72%) Developer
4 66 (6.40%) IT Support
5 53 (5.14%) Support Engineer
6 48 (4.65%) Lead
7 47 (4.55%) Senior Developer
7 47 (4.55%) Support Analyst
8 43 (4.17%) Consultant
9 42 (4.07%) Software Engineer
10 34 (3.29%) Administrator
11 29 (2.81%) IT Engineer
11 29 (2.81%) Support Technician
12 27 (2.62%) Junior
13 25 (2.42%) Applications Support
13 25 (2.42%) IT Support Engineer
14 24 (2.33%) Data Engineer
14 24 (2.33%) IT Manager
14 24 (2.33%) IT Technician
15 23 (2.23%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (4.94%) .NET
2 50 (4.84%) React
3 45 (4.36%) REST
4 41 (3.97%) HTML
5 31 (3.00%) Terraform
6 26 (2.52%) Middleware
7 21 (2.03%) AngularJS
7 21 (2.03%) Spring
8 20 (1.94%) CSS
9 19 (1.84%) Spring Boot
9 19 (1.84%) Vue
9 19 (1.84%) XML
10 17 (1.65%) SOAP
11 16 (1.55%) EDI
12 15 (1.45%) JSON
12 15 (1.45%) Node.js
13 14 (1.36%) Kafka
14 11 (1.07%) Next.js
15 10 (0.97%) Microsoft Graph
15 10 (0.97%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 72 (6.98%) Driving Licence
2 65 (6.30%) Onboarding
3 45 (4.36%) Self-Motivation
4 39 (3.78%) Product Ownership
5 37 (3.59%) Cloud Native
5 37 (3.59%) Management Information System
6 23 (2.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 20 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
7 20 (1.94%) IoT
8 19 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (1.65%) NHS
9 17 (1.65%) Security Posture
10 14 (1.36%) Replication
11 13 (1.26%) FMCG
12 12 (1.16%) Data Centre
12 12 (1.16%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.07%) Low-Code
13 11 (1.07%) Public Cloud
14 9 (0.87%) AI Agents
14 9 (0.87%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 131 (12.69%) Windows
2 58 (5.62%) Windows Server
3 39 (3.78%) Linux
4 21 (2.03%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.55%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.87%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.78%) Android
8 7 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.48%) Unix
9 5 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.097%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.097%) Solaris
11 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.097%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (29.46%) Continuous Improvement
2 195 (18.90%) Customer Service
3 151 (14.63%) Agile
3 151 (14.63%) AI
4 145 (14.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 144 (13.95%) Mentoring
6 116 (11.24%) CI/CD
7 115 (11.14%) Decision-Making
8 99 (9.59%) ERP
9 98 (9.50%) Analytics
9 98 (9.50%) DevOps
9 98 (9.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 96 (9.30%) CRM
10 96 (9.30%) Software Engineering
11 95 (9.21%) Collaborative Working
12 87 (8.43%) Project Delivery
13 84 (8.14%) Roadmaps
14 74 (7.17%) User Acceptance Testing
15 67 (6.49%) Process Improvement
16 66 (6.40%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 179 (17.34%) SQL
2 128 (12.40%) Python
3 69 (6.69%) JavaScript
4 64 (6.20%) C#
5 53 (5.14%) Java
6 49 (4.75%) PowerShell
7 31 (3.00%) TypeScript
8 23 (2.23%) Bash
9 19 (1.84%) PHP
10 14 (1.36%) C++
11 13 (1.26%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.07%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.78%) C
13 8 (0.78%) Ruby
14 7 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.68%) Go
15 6 (0.58%) Bicep
15 6 (0.58%) R
16 5 (0.48%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.48%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 137 (13.28%) Degree
2 64 (6.20%) Security Cleared
3 40 (3.88%) SC Cleared
4 37 (3.59%) HNC
5 33 (3.20%) DBS Check
6 24 (2.33%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (1.36%) CCNP
9 14 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
10 13 (1.26%) Azure Certification
10 13 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
10 13 (1.26%) HND
11 10 (0.97%) Master's Degree
12 9 (0.87%) ITIL Certification
13 8 (0.78%) ACCA
13 8 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.68%) CIMA
14 7 (0.68%) Postgraduate
15 6 (0.58%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (5.23%) Data Quality
2 47 (4.55%) Accessibility
3 40 (3.88%) QA
4 35 (3.39%) GDPR
5 15 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.16%) TickIT
7 11 (1.07%) SLA
8 9 (0.87%) NIST
9 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.48%) NEBOSH
9 5 (0.48%) PMO
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 14443
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 7816
11 3 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.29%) IFRS
12 2 (0.19%) WCAG
13 1 (0.097%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.097%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.097%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.097%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 101 (9.79%) Active Directory
2 50 (4.84%) Docker
3 27 (2.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (1.74%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.48%) Firmware
7 4 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 42 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 32 (3.10%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (1.36%) Grafana
4 11 (1.07%) FortiGate
4 11 (1.07%) Prometheus
5 10 (0.97%) BMC PATROL
5 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.87%) Ansible
7 5 (0.48%) Argo
8 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.19%) Nagios
9 2 (0.19%) Nessus
9 2 (0.19%) Packer
9 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.19%) SCCM
9 2 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.097%) Istio
10 1 (0.097%) linkerd
10 1 (0.097%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.097%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 338 (32.75%) Microsoft
2 41 (3.97%) VMware
3 39 (3.78%) SAP
4 29 (2.81%) Google
5 22 (2.13%) Cisco
5 22 (2.13%) Sage
6 19 (1.84%) YouTube
7 16 (1.55%) Oracle
7 16 (1.55%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.45%) Civica
8 15 (1.45%) Salesforce
9 14 (1.36%) Aruba
10 13 (1.26%) iManage
11 10 (0.97%) Juniper
12 9 (0.87%) Aderant
12 9 (0.87%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.78%) Databricks
13 8 (0.78%) HubSpot
13 8 (0.78%) Tanium
14 7 (0.68%) Adobe