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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -17 +4 +15
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 672 703 1,168
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.17% 19.63% 13.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.59% 20.88% 15.90%
Number of salaries quoted 507 542 852
10th Percentile £27,000 £29,525 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £56,175 £65,000 £61,563
90th Percentile £69,006 £80,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.64% +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 7,005 3,367 7,345
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 74.77% 94.02% 82.88%
Number of salaries quoted 4,057 2,139 5,864
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,000 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.92% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £71,250 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +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 9 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 9 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 -23 309 £50,000 -4.76% 221
Merseyside -1 111 £32,500 - 37
Cheshire -17 108 £41,750 +11.33% 56
Lancashire -14 87 £36,500 -27.08% 89
Cumbria +7 56 £45,000 +12.50% 14
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 46 (6.85%) SharePoint
2 36 (5.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.64%) Confluence
4 4 (0.60%) Moodle
4 4 (0.60%) Totara
4 4 (0.60%) WordPress
5 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.30%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.30%) CMS
6 1 (0.15%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.15%) Umbraco
Applications
1 42 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (4.17%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.45%) Simulink
5 2 (0.30%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.30%) Revit
5 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 14 (2.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.04%) Magento
2 7 (1.04%) SAP ERP
3 6 (0.89%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.74%) Shopify
5 2 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.30%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.30%) SAP PP
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 152 (22.62%) Azure
2 128 (19.05%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (9.52%) AWS
4 61 (9.08%) Power Platform
5 46 (6.85%) Entra ID
6 36 (5.36%) GCP
7 28 (4.17%) SaaS
8 16 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (2.38%) Microsoft Purview
8 16 (2.38%) Power Automate
9 15 (2.23%) Serverless
10 14 (2.08%) GitHub
10 14 (2.08%) PowerApps
11 11 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
12 10 (1.49%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.49%) OneDrive
13 8 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
14 7 (1.04%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 60 (8.93%) Firewall
2 38 (5.65%) DNS
3 36 (5.36%) DHCP
4 29 (4.32%) VLAN
5 28 (4.17%) VPN
6 25 (3.72%) Wi-Fi
7 21 (3.13%) TCP/IP
7 21 (3.13%) VoIP
7 21 (3.13%) WAN
8 20 (2.98%) Wireless
9 14 (2.08%) Structured Cabling
9 14 (2.08%) Unified Communications
10 12 (1.79%) Telepresence
10 12 (1.79%) WebEx
11 11 (1.64%) LAN
11 11 (1.64%) SD-WAN
12 10 (1.49%) Broadband
13 6 (0.89%) IP Telephony
13 6 (0.89%) Network Security
14 5 (0.74%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (6.85%) Power BI
2 19 (2.83%) SQL Server
2 19 (2.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 14 (2.08%) NoSQL
4 12 (1.79%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (1.64%) MongoDB
6 8 (1.19%) MySQL
7 7 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.74%) Tableau
9 4 (0.60%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.60%) Looker
9 4 (0.60%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.30%) Big Data
11 2 (0.30%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.30%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.30%) Power Query
12 1 (0.15%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
12 1 (0.15%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 26 (3.87%) Git
2 21 (3.13%) JIRA
3 8 (1.19%) GitLab
4 4 (0.60%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.45%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) gulp
6 1 (0.15%) LabVIEW
6 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.15%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.15%) webpack
General
1 322 (47.92%) Social Skills
2 177 (26.34%) Analytical Skills
3 134 (19.94%) Finance
4 60 (8.93%) Organisational Skills
5 40 (5.95%) Manufacturing
6 33 (4.91%) Public Sector
7 29 (4.32%) Retail
8 26 (3.87%) Legal
9 25 (3.72%) Automotive
10 21 (3.13%) Law
10 21 (3.13%) Marketing
11 20 (2.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 20 (2.98%) Telecoms
12 17 (2.53%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (2.23%) Banking
14 14 (2.08%) Advertising
15 13 (1.93%) Electronics
16 11 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
17 10 (1.49%) French Language
18 8 (1.19%) Games
Job Titles
1 89 (13.24%) Support Engineer
2 87 (12.95%) IT Support
3 86 (12.80%) Analyst
4 73 (10.86%) Senior
5 47 (6.99%) IT Engineer
6 46 (6.85%) IT Support Engineer
7 45 (6.70%) Developer
8 42 (6.25%) Lead
9 37 (5.51%) Support Technician
10 34 (5.06%) Business Analyst
11 27 (4.02%) Consultant
12 24 (3.57%) Architect
13 21 (3.13%) IT Support Technician
13 21 (3.13%) IT Technician
13 21 (3.13%) Solutions Architect
13 21 (3.13%) Trainee
13 21 (3.13%) Trainee Analyst
13 21 (3.13%) Trainee Business Analyst
14 20 (2.98%) Technical Engineer
14 20 (2.98%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.72%) React
2 22 (3.27%) .NET
3 21 (3.13%) HTML
4 18 (2.68%) Spring
4 18 (2.68%) Spring Boot
5 15 (2.23%) RESTful
6 14 (2.08%) CSS
7 13 (1.93%) Vue
8 12 (1.79%) EDI
8 12 (1.79%) REST
9 10 (1.49%) AngularJS
10 9 (1.34%) XML
11 8 (1.19%) Node.js
12 7 (1.04%) FastAPI
12 7 (1.04%) JSON
12 7 (1.04%) OAuth
12 7 (1.04%) OAuth2
13 6 (0.89%) Django
13 6 (0.89%) Flask
13 6 (0.89%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 96 (14.29%) Driving Licence
2 50 (7.44%) Onboarding
3 24 (3.57%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (3.13%) Analytical Mindset
5 18 (2.68%) CCTV
5 18 (2.68%) EPoS
6 17 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.23%) Data Centre
8 14 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.93%) Product Ownership
10 12 (1.79%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.64%) Social Media
12 10 (1.49%) Cloud Native
13 9 (1.34%) CMDB
14 8 (1.19%) Renewable Energy
15 7 (1.04%) Security Posture
15 7 (1.04%) Virtual Team
16 6 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
16 6 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
16 6 (0.89%) Solar Energy
Operating Systems
1 130 (19.35%) Windows
2 58 (8.63%) Windows Server
3 32 (4.76%) Windows 10
4 22 (3.27%) Apple iOS
4 22 (3.27%) Linux
5 15 (2.23%) Android
6 10 (1.49%) Windows 7
6 10 (1.49%) Windows 8
7 9 (1.34%) Mac OS
8 8 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.60%) Unix
11 3 (0.45%) Solaris
12 1 (0.15%) CentOS
12 1 (0.15%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (19.79%) Customer Service
2 112 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
3 90 (13.39%) Decision-Making
4 88 (13.10%) Mentoring
5 82 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
6 77 (11.46%) Agile
7 69 (10.27%) AI
8 59 (8.78%) Project Management
9 51 (7.59%) CI/CD
10 50 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
11 48 (7.14%) Coaching
12 47 (6.99%) ITIL
13 46 (6.85%) DevOps
14 45 (6.70%) Business Intelligence
15 44 (6.55%) Analytics
16 43 (6.40%) Service Delivery
16 43 (6.40%) User Experience
17 41 (6.10%) Roadmaps
18 40 (5.95%) CRM
18 40 (5.95%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 78 (11.61%) SQL
2 52 (7.74%) Python
3 29 (4.32%) JavaScript
4 27 (4.02%) Java
5 23 (3.42%) C#
6 14 (2.08%) PowerShell
7 9 (1.34%) Kotlin
8 8 (1.19%) PHP
8 8 (1.19%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.04%) Bash
10 5 (0.74%) Bicep
10 5 (0.74%) C++
11 4 (0.60%) C
11 4 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.45%) Go
12 3 (0.45%) Ladder Logic
12 3 (0.45%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.45%) Swift
12 3 (0.45%) VBA
13 2 (0.30%) Scala
Qualifications
1 104 (15.48%) Degree
2 29 (4.32%) DBS Check
3 24 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
4 15 (2.23%) Security Cleared
5 13 (1.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.34%) Azure Certification
7 9 (1.34%) HNC
8 8 (1.19%) Master's Degree
8 8 (1.19%) Network+ Certification
9 7 (1.04%) SC Cleared
10 6 (0.89%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (0.74%) CCNA
11 5 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (0.74%) NVQ Level 4
12 4 (0.60%) DV Cleared
12 4 (0.60%) HND
12 4 (0.60%) MCSA
13 3 (0.45%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.61%) QA
2 25 (3.72%) SLA
3 22 (3.27%) Data Quality
4 19 (2.83%) GDPR
5 14 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 9 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (1.19%) ISO 9001
8 7 (1.04%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.74%) TickIT
10 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
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 90 (13.39%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.72%) Docker
2 25 (3.72%) Hyper-V
3 22 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.49%) VMware Workstation
5 4 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.30%) Firmware
7 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 34 (5.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (4.46%) Terraform
3 25 (3.72%) Kubernetes
4 22 (3.27%) SCCM
5 21 (3.13%) BMC PATROL
6 12 (1.79%) Ansible
6 12 (1.79%) Cisco CUCM
7 11 (1.64%) Autotask
8 10 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (0.74%) FortiGate
9 5 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.45%) cPanel
10 3 (0.45%) Grafana
10 3 (0.45%) Plesk
10 3 (0.45%) Podman
10 3 (0.45%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.45%) Rancher
11 1 (0.15%) Argo
11 1 (0.15%) McAfee ePO
11 1 (0.15%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 196 (29.17%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.57%) VMware
3 22 (3.27%) Oracle
4 21 (3.13%) SAP
5 19 (2.83%) Google
6 18 (2.68%) Cisco
7 13 (1.93%) Workday
8 11 (1.64%) Apple
9 10 (1.49%) ESET
10 9 (1.34%) ServiceNow
11 8 (1.19%) Adobe
11 8 (1.19%) New Relic
11 8 (1.19%) Splunk
12 7 (1.04%) Siemens
13 6 (0.89%) BiZZdesign
13 6 (0.89%) Meraki
14 5 (0.74%) Aruba
14 5 (0.74%) Epicor
14 5 (0.74%) Facebook
14 5 (0.74%) iManage