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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -16 +4 +16
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 728 803 1,007
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 9.13% 18.96% 13.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.88% 20.10% 15.67%
Number of salaries quoted 563 501 744
10th Percentile £27,250 £30,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,780 £37,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,497 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.01% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £53,000 £65,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £65,000 £80,000 £72,750
England median annual salary £46,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -16.36% +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 6,127 3,996 6,428
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 76.80% 94.36% 85.50%
Number of salaries quoted 3,327 2,149 5,207
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,748 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,928 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.28% +7.86% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,500 £68,119 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,070
England median annual salary £55,000 £61,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -9.84% +10.91% -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 March 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 March 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 -20 299 £47,500 -9.52% 183
Merseyside +2 135 £40,500 +24.62% 32
Cheshire -10 135 £48,720 +14.64% 74
Lancashire -11 112 £40,000 -23.81% 74
Cumbria +5 46 £45,000 +11.11% 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 48 (6.59%) SharePoint
2 28 (3.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.51%) Confluence
4 5 (0.69%) WordPress
5 4 (0.55%) Moodle
5 4 (0.55%) Totara
6 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
Applications
1 41 (5.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (3.30%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.41%) Simulink
4 2 (0.27%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.27%) Revit
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.14%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (1.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.82%) Workday HCM
3 5 (0.69%) SAP Business One
3 5 (0.69%) SAP ERP
3 5 (0.69%) Shopify
4 2 (0.27%) Magento
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.14%) Primavera
5 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 138 (18.96%) Azure
2 119 (16.35%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (8.79%) AWS
4 52 (7.14%) Entra ID
5 50 (6.87%) Power Platform
6 33 (4.53%) GCP
7 31 (4.26%) SaaS
8 14 (1.92%) Microsoft Purview
9 13 (1.79%) OneDrive
9 13 (1.79%) Serverless
10 12 (1.65%) Power Automate
11 11 (1.51%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.37%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (1.24%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
14 8 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
14 8 (1.10%) PaaS
14 8 (1.10%) PowerApps
15 7 (0.96%) Adobe Analytics
15 7 (0.96%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 50 (6.87%) Firewall
2 34 (4.67%) DNS
3 32 (4.40%) DHCP
4 24 (3.30%) VLAN
5 22 (3.02%) VPN
5 22 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
6 19 (2.61%) VoIP
7 18 (2.47%) TCP/IP
7 18 (2.47%) WAN
8 16 (2.20%) Unified Communications
9 14 (1.92%) Telepresence
9 14 (1.92%) WebEx
10 13 (1.79%) Wireless
11 12 (1.65%) Broadband
11 12 (1.65%) Structured Cabling
12 11 (1.51%) SD-WAN
13 8 (1.10%) LAN
14 5 (0.69%) Ethernet
15 4 (0.55%) Internet
15 4 (0.55%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (4.95%) Power BI
2 18 (2.47%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.06%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 10 (1.37%) MongoDB
5 10 (1.37%) Tableau
6 7 (0.96%) MySQL
7 5 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.69%) Crystal Reports
7 5 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
7 5 (0.69%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (0.55%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.27%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.27%) Apache Iceberg
10 2 (0.27%) Data Mart
10 2 (0.27%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.27%) Looker
Development Applications
1 23 (3.16%) Git
2 14 (1.92%) JIRA
3 7 (0.96%) GitLab
4 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.14%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.14%) TeamCity
General
1 302 (41.48%) Social Skills
2 171 (23.49%) Analytical Skills
3 146 (20.05%) Finance
4 60 (8.24%) Organisational Skills
5 45 (6.18%) Automotive
6 31 (4.26%) Manufacturing
7 28 (3.85%) Legal
7 28 (3.85%) Public Sector
8 24 (3.30%) Telecoms
9 23 (3.16%) Presentation Skills
9 23 (3.16%) Retail
10 22 (3.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (2.47%) Banking
12 17 (2.34%) Electronics
13 14 (1.92%) Law
13 14 (1.92%) Marketing
14 12 (1.65%) Advertising
15 11 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
15 11 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
16 10 (1.37%) Games
Job Titles
1 94 (12.91%) Analyst
2 89 (12.23%) IT Support
2 89 (12.23%) Support Engineer
3 69 (9.48%) Senior
4 47 (6.46%) IT Engineer
4 47 (6.46%) IT Support Engineer
5 36 (4.95%) Lead
6 34 (4.67%) Business Analyst
7 32 (4.40%) Developer
8 27 (3.71%) Support Technician
9 25 (3.43%) Trainee
10 24 (3.30%) Trainee Analyst
10 24 (3.30%) Trainee Business Analyst
11 23 (3.16%) Architect
11 23 (3.16%) Consultant
12 20 (2.75%) Solutions Architect
13 19 (2.61%) 1st Line Support
14 18 (2.47%) Technical Engineer
14 18 (2.47%) Technical Support
14 18 (2.47%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (2.75%) React
2 14 (1.92%) .NET
2 14 (1.92%) HTML
3 12 (1.65%) CSS
3 12 (1.65%) RESTful
3 12 (1.65%) Spring
3 12 (1.65%) Spring Boot
4 10 (1.37%) Vue
5 8 (1.10%) Node.js
6 7 (0.96%) Hibernate
7 6 (0.82%) Django
7 6 (0.82%) EDI
7 6 (0.82%) FastAPI
8 5 (0.69%) AngularJS
8 5 (0.69%) Celery
8 5 (0.69%) Flask
8 5 (0.69%) Laravel
9 4 (0.55%) OAuth
9 4 (0.55%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 190 (26.10%) Driving Licence
2 51 (7.01%) Onboarding
3 26 (3.57%) Self-Motivation
4 22 (3.02%) EPoS
5 21 (2.88%) Analytical Mindset
6 18 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
7 16 (2.20%) CCTV
7 16 (2.20%) Data Centre
8 14 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
9 12 (1.65%) Product Ownership
10 11 (1.51%) Cloud Native
11 10 (1.37%) Social Media
12 8 (1.10%) CMDB
12 8 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.10%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.10%) Renewable Energy
13 7 (0.96%) Virtual Team
14 6 (0.82%) Home Automation
14 6 (0.82%) IoT
14 6 (0.82%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 118 (16.21%) Windows
2 48 (6.59%) Windows Server
3 31 (4.26%) Windows 10
4 21 (2.88%) Linux
5 16 (2.20%) Android
6 15 (2.06%) Apple iOS
7 11 (1.51%) Windows 7
7 11 (1.51%) Windows 8
8 9 (1.24%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.27%) Unix
12 1 (0.14%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (15.38%) Customer Service
2 103 (14.15%) Continuous Improvement
3 94 (12.91%) Decision-Making
4 86 (11.81%) Agile
5 82 (11.26%) Mentoring
6 75 (10.30%) Stakeholder Management
7 67 (9.20%) AI
8 62 (8.52%) Project Management
9 55 (7.55%) Cybersecurity
10 50 (6.87%) Coaching
11 45 (6.18%) CI/CD
12 44 (6.04%) ITIL
13 43 (5.91%) Analytics
14 40 (5.49%) Business Intelligence
14 40 (5.49%) Service Delivery
15 38 (5.22%) DevOps
15 38 (5.22%) User Experience
15 38 (5.22%) Visualisation
16 37 (5.08%) Process Improvement
17 36 (4.95%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.38%) SQL
2 45 (6.18%) Python
3 22 (3.02%) Java
4 19 (2.61%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.92%) C#
6 10 (1.37%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.24%) PowerShell
8 8 (1.10%) Kotlin
8 8 (1.10%) PHP
9 4 (0.55%) Bash
9 4 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.55%) MATLAB
10 3 (0.41%) Go
10 3 (0.41%) Ladder Logic
11 2 (0.27%) Bicep
11 2 (0.27%) C
11 2 (0.27%) R
11 2 (0.27%) Scala
11 2 (0.27%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.27%) Swift
Qualifications
1 120 (16.48%) Degree
2 33 (4.53%) DBS Check
3 25 (3.43%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (2.20%) Security Cleared
5 14 (1.92%) Master's Degree
6 13 (1.79%) HNC
7 10 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (1.24%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.24%) SC Cleared
9 8 (1.10%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (0.96%) NVQ Level 4
11 6 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.69%) HND
13 4 (0.55%) ACCA
13 4 (0.55%) CCNA
13 4 (0.55%) CIMA
13 4 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
13 4 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.41%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.57%) QA
2 19 (2.61%) GDPR
3 17 (2.34%) Data Quality
4 15 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.06%) SLA
5 12 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.10%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.10%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.41%) GLBA
8 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.14%) NIST
9 1 (0.14%) PMO
System Software
1 82 (11.26%) Active Directory
2 22 (3.02%) Docker
2 22 (3.02%) Hyper-V
3 14 (1.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.37%) VMware Workstation
5 3 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.27%) Firmware
7 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 42 (5.77%) BMC PATROL
2 38 (5.22%) Microsoft Intune
3 26 (3.57%) Terraform
4 22 (3.02%) Kubernetes
5 21 (2.88%) SCCM
6 14 (1.92%) Cisco CUCM
7 11 (1.51%) Autotask
8 10 (1.37%) Ansible
8 10 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.41%) cPanel
9 3 (0.41%) FortiGate
9 3 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.41%) Plesk
9 3 (0.41%) Rancher
10 2 (0.27%) Grafana
10 2 (0.27%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.14%) Argo
11 1 (0.14%) McAfee ePO
11 1 (0.14%) Podman
11 1 (0.14%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 164 (22.53%) Microsoft
2 23 (3.16%) Oracle
3 21 (2.88%) SAP
4 18 (2.47%) Cisco
5 17 (2.34%) VMware
6 15 (2.06%) Google
6 15 (2.06%) Workday
7 11 (1.51%) ESET
8 8 (1.10%) Apple
8 8 (1.10%) HubSpot
8 8 (1.10%) New Relic
8 8 (1.10%) ServiceNow
8 8 (1.10%) Siemens
8 8 (1.10%) Splunk
9 7 (0.96%) Adobe
9 7 (0.96%) Qualtrics
10 6 (0.82%) BiZZdesign
10 6 (0.82%) BT
11 5 (0.69%) Epicor
11 5 (0.69%) iManage