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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,053 1,004 1,097
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 8.20% 19.15% 14.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.26% 21.40% 18.47%
Number of salaries quoted 759 494 374
10th Percentile £26,650 £26,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £32,940 £33,125 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £60,000 £54,720 £58,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £67,500 £72,125
England median annual salary £46,000 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.22% -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 9,353 4,691 5,939
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.84% 89.47% 79.92%
Number of salaries quoted 6,966 2,204 3,130
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,975
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,309
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.61% -8.53%
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% -1.64%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -5 596 £47,500 +5.56% 538
Merseyside +1 174 £42,500 -19.81% 103
Cheshire -7 155 £47,500 -10.38% 113
Lancashire +9 94 £42,500 -10.87% 102
Cumbria -5 22 £30,000 -16.33% 20
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 85 (8.07%) SharePoint
2 52 (4.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.23%) IIS
4 7 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (0.66%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.47%) Confluence
6 4 (0.38%) Apache
7 3 (0.28%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.19%) CMS
8 2 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.19%) nginx
8 2 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
9 1 (0.095%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.095%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.095%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.095%) WebSphere
Applications
1 67 (6.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (5.89%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.33%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Windchill
8 1 (0.095%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.095%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.095%) Revit
8 1 (0.095%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 18 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.66%) SAP ERP
4 4 (0.38%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.38%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.28%) Oracle Cash Management
5 3 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 3 (0.28%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.28%) SAP PP
6 2 (0.19%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.095%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.095%) Odoo
7 1 (0.095%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.095%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 191 (18.14%) Azure
2 161 (15.29%) Microsoft 365
3 113 (10.73%) AWS
4 104 (9.88%) Power Platform
5 48 (4.56%) Entra ID
5 48 (4.56%) PowerApps
6 41 (3.89%) SaaS
7 38 (3.61%) Microsoft Copilot
8 37 (3.51%) GCP
9 36 (3.42%) OneDrive
10 35 (3.32%) Power Automate
11 34 (3.23%) GitHub
12 24 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
13 19 (1.80%) Microsoft Purview
13 19 (1.80%) Serverless
14 17 (1.61%) Copilot Studio
14 17 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
15 12 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
16 11 (1.04%) IaaS
17 10 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 71 (6.74%) DNS
2 57 (5.41%) DHCP
3 54 (5.13%) Firewall
4 40 (3.80%) VPN
5 37 (3.51%) TCP/IP
6 28 (2.66%) Wireless
7 25 (2.37%) Network Security
7 25 (2.37%) VLAN
8 22 (2.09%) VoIP
9 21 (1.99%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.71%) LAN
11 16 (1.52%) WAN
12 13 (1.23%) Broadband
13 12 (1.14%) Unified Communications
14 10 (0.95%) BGP
14 10 (0.95%) SD-WAN
15 8 (0.76%) SNMP
16 7 (0.66%) OSPF
17 6 (0.57%) Cisco Firepower
17 6 (0.57%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (5.60%) Power BI
2 53 (5.03%) SQL Server
3 23 (2.18%) MySQL
4 22 (2.09%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 14 (1.33%) BigQuery
7 11 (1.04%) NoSQL
7 11 (1.04%) Power Query
8 10 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
8 10 (0.95%) Big Data
9 8 (0.76%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.76%) Redis
10 7 (0.66%) Data Lake
10 7 (0.66%) Electronic Patient Records
10 7 (0.66%) Looker
10 7 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.66%) Relational Database
11 6 (0.57%) MariaDB
11 6 (0.57%) Metadata
11 6 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 39 (3.70%) Git
2 36 (3.42%) JIRA
3 16 (1.52%) GitLab
4 15 (1.42%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.76%) Cypress.io
6 6 (0.57%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.47%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.38%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.38%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.38%) Selenium
9 3 (0.28%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.28%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.19%) Vagrant
11 1 (0.095%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.095%) gulp
11 1 (0.095%) Maven
11 1 (0.095%) Rational DOORS
11 1 (0.095%) Rational Rhapsody
11 1 (0.095%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.095%) webpack
General
1 418 (39.70%) Social Skills
2 320 (30.39%) Analytical Skills
3 199 (18.90%) Finance
4 88 (8.36%) Law
5 87 (8.26%) Manufacturing
6 83 (7.88%) Retail
7 78 (7.41%) Organisational Skills
8 71 (6.74%) Legal
9 62 (5.89%) Telecoms
10 53 (5.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 36 (3.42%) Marketing
12 30 (2.85%) Public Sector
13 27 (2.56%) Military
14 18 (1.71%) Aerospace
14 18 (1.71%) Electronics
15 17 (1.61%) Automotive
15 17 (1.61%) Banking
15 17 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
16 15 (1.42%) Billing
17 14 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 155 (14.72%) Analyst
2 135 (12.82%) Senior
3 115 (10.92%) Developer
4 67 (6.36%) IT Support
5 52 (4.94%) Support Engineer
6 50 (4.75%) Support Analyst
7 46 (4.37%) Lead
8 43 (4.08%) Senior Developer
9 41 (3.89%) Consultant
10 38 (3.61%) Software Engineer
11 33 (3.13%) Administrator
12 28 (2.66%) IT Engineer
12 28 (2.66%) Junior
13 25 (2.37%) Data Engineer
13 25 (2.37%) IT Manager
13 25 (2.37%) IT Support Engineer
14 24 (2.28%) Architect
14 24 (2.28%) Support Technician
15 23 (2.18%) Applications Support
15 23 (2.18%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (4.65%) .NET
2 44 (4.18%) React
3 41 (3.89%) HTML
4 36 (3.42%) REST
5 31 (2.94%) Terraform
6 21 (1.99%) Middleware
7 20 (1.90%) CSS
8 19 (1.80%) Vue
9 16 (1.52%) AngularJS
9 16 (1.52%) Kafka
9 16 (1.52%) Spring
10 15 (1.42%) Node.js
11 14 (1.33%) Spring Boot
11 14 (1.33%) XML
12 12 (1.14%) SOAP
12 12 (1.14%) Web Services
13 11 (1.04%) Next.js
14 10 (0.95%) EDI
14 10 (0.95%) JSON
14 10 (0.95%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 91 (8.64%) Driving Licence
2 70 (6.65%) Onboarding
3 50 (4.75%) Self-Motivation
4 39 (3.70%) Management Information System
4 39 (3.70%) Product Ownership
5 34 (3.23%) Cloud Native
6 26 (2.47%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 22 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
8 20 (1.90%) IoT
9 19 (1.80%) Security Posture
10 18 (1.71%) Distributed Systems
10 18 (1.71%) FMCG
10 18 (1.71%) NHS
11 14 (1.33%) Data Centre
11 14 (1.33%) Replication
12 13 (1.23%) Public Cloud
13 12 (1.14%) Mobile App
14 10 (0.95%) Low-Code
15 9 (0.85%) Data Structures
16 8 (0.76%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 131 (12.44%) Windows
2 57 (5.41%) Windows Server
3 39 (3.70%) Linux
4 21 (1.99%) Windows 10
5 14 (1.33%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.85%) Mac OS
6 9 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (0.76%) Android
8 7 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.28%) Unix
10 1 (0.095%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.095%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.095%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.095%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 317 (30.10%) Continuous Improvement
2 194 (18.42%) Customer Service
3 159 (15.10%) Agile
4 158 (15.00%) AI
5 145 (13.77%) Stakeholder Management
6 138 (13.11%) Mentoring
7 119 (11.30%) Decision-Making
8 118 (11.21%) CI/CD
9 104 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 98 (9.31%) Analytics
11 95 (9.02%) ERP
12 94 (8.93%) CRM
12 94 (8.93%) DevOps
13 93 (8.83%) Collaborative Working
14 92 (8.74%) Software Engineering
15 85 (8.07%) Project Delivery
16 80 (7.60%) Roadmaps
17 75 (7.12%) User Acceptance Testing
18 74 (7.03%) Workflow
19 72 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 165 (15.67%) SQL
2 126 (11.97%) Python
3 68 (6.46%) JavaScript
4 62 (5.89%) C#
5 49 (4.65%) Java
6 47 (4.46%) PowerShell
7 31 (2.94%) TypeScript
8 22 (2.09%) Bash
9 18 (1.71%) PHP
10 13 (1.23%) Shell Script
11 12 (1.14%) C++
12 11 (1.04%) T-SQL
13 8 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 8 (0.76%) Go
13 8 (0.76%) Ruby
14 7 (0.66%) C
15 6 (0.57%) R
16 5 (0.47%) ActionScript
16 5 (0.47%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.47%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 144 (13.68%) Degree
2 67 (6.36%) Security Cleared
3 42 (3.99%) SC Cleared
4 37 (3.51%) HNC
5 35 (3.32%) DBS Check
6 25 (2.37%) DV Cleared
7 24 (2.28%) Microsoft Certification
8 21 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.42%) Master's Degree
10 14 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 14 (1.33%) CCNP
10 14 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
11 13 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (1.23%) HND
12 9 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
13 8 (0.76%) ACCA
13 8 (0.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.66%) CIMA
14 7 (0.66%) Postgraduate
15 6 (0.57%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (5.22%) Data Quality
2 49 (4.65%) Accessibility
3 41 (3.89%) QA
4 35 (3.32%) GDPR
5 18 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.14%) SLA
7 9 (0.85%) NIST
8 7 (0.66%) TickIT
9 6 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.47%) NEBOSH
10 5 (0.47%) PMO
11 4 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 14443
11 4 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 7816
12 3 (0.28%) IFRS
13 2 (0.19%) Good Clinical Practice
13 2 (0.19%) ISO 9001
13 2 (0.19%) WCAG
14 1 (0.095%) GxP
14 1 (0.095%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 102 (9.69%) Active Directory
2 47 (4.46%) Docker
3 26 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.80%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.47%) Firmware
6 5 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.095%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 40 (3.80%) Kubernetes
2 36 (3.42%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (2.85%) BMC PATROL
4 14 (1.33%) FortiGate
5 12 (1.14%) Grafana
5 12 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (0.85%) Prometheus
7 7 (0.66%) Ansible
8 5 (0.47%) Argo
9 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
10 2 (0.19%) Nagios
10 2 (0.19%) Nessus
10 2 (0.19%) Packer
10 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.19%) SCCM
10 2 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 1 (0.095%) Istio
11 1 (0.095%) linkerd
11 1 (0.095%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 1 (0.095%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 338 (32.10%) Microsoft
2 41 (3.89%) SAP
3 40 (3.80%) VMware
4 29 (2.75%) Google
5 24 (2.28%) Cisco
6 22 (2.09%) Sage
7 21 (1.99%) YouTube
8 16 (1.52%) Aruba
8 16 (1.52%) Oracle
8 16 (1.52%) Salesforce
8 16 (1.52%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.42%) Civica
10 12 (1.14%) iManage
11 10 (0.95%) Databricks
11 10 (0.95%) Juniper
12 9 (0.85%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.76%) Aderant
13 8 (0.76%) Fortinet
13 8 (0.76%) HubSpot
13 8 (0.76%) Tanium