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

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 8 8
Rank change year-on-year -15 0 +15
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 666 719 1,236
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 6.54% 17.28% 13.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.84% 18.18% 16.25%
Number of salaries quoted 500 544 897
10th Percentile £27,250 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,750 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £49,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.14% +10.00% -5.26%
75th Percentile £59,063 £65,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £70,000 £79,625 £77,900
England median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +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 7,533 3,954 7,604
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 74.00% 95.00% 82.37%
Number of salaries quoted 4,444 2,154 6,051
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.18% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £71,250 £65,875
90th Percentile £87,500 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £59,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.67% +9.09% -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 26 April 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 26 April 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 -24 314 £50,000 -4.31% 160
Merseyside -1 118 £37,500 +15.38% 34
Cheshire -19 103 £42,500 +14.86% 61
Lancashire -4 77 £36,500 -23.96% 86
Cumbria +4 51 £42,500 +8.28% 10
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 (7.21%) SharePoint
2 39 (5.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.20%) Confluence
4 4 (0.60%) Moodle
4 4 (0.60%) Totara
5 3 (0.45%) WordPress
6 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.30%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.30%) CMS
7 1 (0.15%) Umbraco
Applications
1 43 (6.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (4.20%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.75%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.45%) Simulink
4 3 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.15%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.15%) Revit
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 24 (3.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.80%) SAP ERP
3 7 (1.05%) Magento
4 6 (0.90%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.60%) SAP PP
5 4 (0.60%) Shopify
6 3 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 154 (23.12%) Azure
2 130 (19.52%) Microsoft 365
3 68 (10.21%) Power Platform
4 62 (9.31%) AWS
5 42 (6.31%) Entra ID
6 30 (4.50%) GCP
7 26 (3.90%) SaaS
8 25 (3.75%) Dynamics 365
8 25 (3.75%) GitHub
9 19 (2.85%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (2.70%) Power Automate
11 16 (2.40%) Microsoft Purview
11 16 (2.40%) PowerApps
12 14 (2.10%) Serverless
13 11 (1.65%) Azure Monitor
13 11 (1.65%) Boomi
14 10 (1.50%) OneDrive
15 9 (1.35%) Google Workspace
16 8 (1.20%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 60 (9.01%) Firewall
2 38 (5.71%) DNS
3 36 (5.41%) DHCP
4 30 (4.50%) VLAN
5 29 (4.35%) VPN
6 25 (3.75%) Wi-Fi
7 22 (3.30%) TCP/IP
7 22 (3.30%) Wireless
8 20 (3.00%) WAN
9 19 (2.85%) VoIP
10 13 (1.95%) LAN
10 13 (1.95%) Structured Cabling
10 13 (1.95%) Unified Communications
11 11 (1.65%) Broadband
11 11 (1.65%) SD-WAN
12 9 (1.35%) Telepresence
12 9 (1.35%) WebEx
13 8 (1.20%) Network Security
14 6 (0.90%) IP Telephony
15 5 (0.75%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (7.51%) Power BI
2 27 (4.05%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 17 (2.55%) SQL Server
4 12 (1.80%) NoSQL
5 10 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.35%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.20%) MySQL
8 7 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.60%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.60%) Looker
9 4 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.45%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.45%) SAP HANA
11 2 (0.30%) Big Data
11 2 (0.30%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.30%) Power Query
11 2 (0.30%) Tableau
12 1 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
12 1 (0.15%) DB2
Development Applications
1 29 (4.35%) Git
2 25 (3.75%) JIRA
3 7 (1.05%) Bitbucket
3 7 (1.05%) GitLab
4 3 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.15%) gulp
5 1 (0.15%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.15%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.15%) webpack
General
1 309 (46.40%) Social Skills
2 180 (27.03%) Analytical Skills
3 119 (17.87%) Finance
4 59 (8.86%) Organisational Skills
5 50 (7.51%) Manufacturing
6 36 (5.41%) Retail
7 33 (4.95%) Public Sector
8 29 (4.35%) Marketing
9 27 (4.05%) Law
10 26 (3.90%) Legal
11 25 (3.75%) Automotive
12 19 (2.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 19 (2.85%) Telecoms
13 14 (2.10%) Advertising
13 14 (2.10%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (1.95%) Banking
15 10 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
16 9 (1.35%) Electronics
16 9 (1.35%) French Language
16 9 (1.35%) Games
Job Titles
1 86 (12.91%) Analyst
2 83 (12.46%) Support Engineer
3 78 (11.71%) IT Support
4 75 (11.26%) Senior
5 55 (8.26%) Developer
6 46 (6.91%) IT Engineer
7 44 (6.61%) IT Support Engineer
8 34 (5.11%) Support Technician
9 33 (4.95%) Lead
10 32 (4.80%) Consultant
11 30 (4.50%) Business Analyst
12 24 (3.60%) Senior Developer
13 21 (3.15%) Architect
14 20 (3.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 19 (2.85%) 2nd Line Support
15 19 (2.85%) Technical Engineer
15 19 (2.85%) Technical Support
15 19 (2.85%) Technical Support Engineer
16 18 (2.70%) IT Support Technician
16 18 (2.70%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (4.05%) React
2 24 (3.60%) .NET
2 24 (3.60%) HTML
3 21 (3.15%) REST
4 20 (3.00%) EDI
5 19 (2.85%) Spring
5 19 (2.85%) Spring Boot
6 16 (2.40%) CSS
7 13 (1.95%) AngularJS
7 13 (1.95%) XML
8 12 (1.80%) SOAP
9 11 (1.65%) JSON
9 11 (1.65%) Middleware
9 11 (1.65%) RESTful
9 11 (1.65%) SAP Fiori
9 11 (1.65%) Vue
10 9 (1.35%) Node.js
11 7 (1.05%) OAuth
11 7 (1.05%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.05%) SAP Core Interface
Miscellaneous
1 89 (13.36%) Driving Licence
2 50 (7.51%) Onboarding
3 24 (3.60%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (3.15%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (2.40%) CCTV
5 16 (2.40%) Distributed Systems
6 15 (2.25%) Data Centre
7 13 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.95%) Product Ownership
8 12 (1.80%) Cloud Native
8 12 (1.80%) EPoS
9 11 (1.65%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.65%) Social Media
10 9 (1.35%) CMDB
11 8 (1.20%) Enterprise Cloud
12 7 (1.05%) FMCG
12 7 (1.05%) Renewable Energy
12 7 (1.05%) Security Posture
13 6 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.90%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 122 (18.32%) Windows
2 53 (7.96%) Windows Server
3 33 (4.95%) Windows 10
4 22 (3.30%) Apple iOS
5 20 (3.00%) Linux
6 14 (2.10%) Android
7 9 (1.35%) Windows 7
7 9 (1.35%) Windows 8
8 8 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (1.05%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.60%) Unix
12 3 (0.45%) Solaris
13 1 (0.15%) CentOS
13 1 (0.15%) CoreOS
13 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (20.72%) Customer Service
2 119 (17.87%) Continuous Improvement
3 91 (13.66%) Mentoring
4 86 (12.91%) Decision-Making
5 81 (12.16%) Stakeholder Management
6 70 (10.51%) Agile
7 64 (9.61%) AI
8 53 (7.96%) CI/CD
8 53 (7.96%) Project Management
9 52 (7.81%) DevOps
10 51 (7.66%) Collaborative Working
11 47 (7.06%) ERP
11 47 (7.06%) Roadmaps
12 45 (6.76%) Business Intelligence
12 45 (6.76%) Cybersecurity
13 44 (6.61%) CRM
14 43 (6.46%) Analytics
14 43 (6.46%) Coaching
15 42 (6.31%) User Experience
16 41 (6.16%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 85 (12.76%) SQL
2 48 (7.21%) Python
3 32 (4.80%) JavaScript
4 29 (4.35%) C#
5 27 (4.05%) Java
6 14 (2.10%) PowerShell
7 11 (1.65%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.35%) Kotlin
9 7 (1.05%) Bash
10 6 (0.90%) PHP
11 5 (0.75%) Bicep
11 5 (0.75%) C++
12 4 (0.60%) C
12 4 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 3 (0.45%) Go
13 3 (0.45%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.45%) Swift
13 3 (0.45%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.30%) Ladder Logic
14 2 (0.30%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 84 (12.61%) Degree
2 26 (3.90%) DBS Check
3 20 (3.00%) BPSS Clearance
4 15 (2.25%) Security Cleared
5 12 (1.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.35%) HNC
8 8 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (1.20%) Network+ Certification
9 7 (1.05%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.90%) CCNA
10 6 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (0.90%) SC Cleared
11 5 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.60%) HND
12 4 (0.60%) Master's Degree
12 4 (0.60%) MCSA
13 3 (0.45%) CCNP
13 3 (0.45%) PMI Certification
13 3 (0.45%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.95%) QA
2 26 (3.90%) SLA
3 23 (3.45%) Data Quality
4 19 (2.85%) GDPR
5 12 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 11 (1.65%) TickIT
7 9 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.20%) ISO 9001
9 4 (0.60%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.15%) DICOM
11 1 (0.15%) GMP
11 1 (0.15%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.15%) PMO
System Software
1 92 (13.81%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.75%) Hyper-V
3 23 (3.45%) Docker
4 21 (3.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 9 (1.35%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.30%) Firmware
8 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 33 (4.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (4.65%) Terraform
3 22 (3.30%) Kubernetes
4 21 (3.15%) SCCM
5 20 (3.00%) BMC PATROL
6 12 (1.80%) Ansible
7 10 (1.50%) Autotask
7 10 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (1.35%) Cisco CUCM
9 5 (0.75%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.60%) Grafana
10 4 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
10 4 (0.60%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.45%) Podman
11 3 (0.45%) Rancher
12 2 (0.30%) cPanel
12 2 (0.30%) Plesk
13 1 (0.15%) McAfee ePO
13 1 (0.15%) Nagios
13 1 (0.15%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 210 (31.53%) Microsoft
2 27 (4.05%) SAP
3 23 (3.45%) VMware
4 18 (2.70%) Google
5 17 (2.55%) Oracle
6 15 (2.25%) Cisco
7 11 (1.65%) Apple
7 11 (1.65%) ServiceNow
7 11 (1.65%) Workday
8 9 (1.35%) ESET
8 9 (1.35%) iManage
9 8 (1.20%) New Relic
9 8 (1.20%) Splunk
10 7 (1.05%) Aruba
10 7 (1.05%) Meraki
11 6 (0.90%) Siemens
12 5 (0.75%) Adobe
12 5 (0.75%) BiZZdesign
13 4 (0.60%) Aderant
13 4 (0.60%) Intapp