Problem-Solving Job Trends in England

Problem Solving
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,894 8,363 10,646
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.53% 19.19% 14.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.56% 21.42% 17.94%
Number of salaries quoted 5,582 4,767 5,699
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £33,000 £31,500 £35,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

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 England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 68,259 39,039 59,330
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.77% 89.57% 81.31%
Number of salaries quoted 48,144 22,613 39,487
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in England

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in England over the 6 months to 5 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in England

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the England region over the 6 months to 5 August 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
London -6 2,178 £65,000 - 2,452
North of England -9 1,596 £45,000 +5.88% 933
South East -3 1,513 £45,000 +5.88% 1,146
Midlands -9 1,152 £42,000 +5.00% 692
North West -6 842 £45,000 -2.17% 503
South West -6 761 £44,500 +18.67% 506
West Midlands -10 635 £42,500 -5.56% 402
East of England -5 615 £42,500 +21.43% 430
Yorkshire -8 536 £42,500 +21.43% 310
East Midlands -9 514 £40,000 +12.68% 290
North East -15 218 £50,000 +34.23% 130
Problem-Solving
UK

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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
1 437 (5.54%) SharePoint
2 406 (5.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 91 (1.15%) Confluence
4 60 (0.76%) CMS
5 50 (0.63%) Apache
6 45 (0.57%) IIS
7 40 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
8 38 (0.48%) WordPress
9 37 (0.47%) Apache Spark
10 20 (0.25%) SAS
11 13 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
12 11 (0.14%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.14%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.13%) nginx
14 9 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
14 9 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 7 (0.089%) Exchange Server 2007
15 7 (0.089%) Exchange Server 2010
15 7 (0.089%) Jupyter
15 7 (0.089%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 509 (6.45%) Microsoft Office
2 471 (5.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 86 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.61%) MS Visio
5 47 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
6 39 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
7 25 (0.32%) AutoCAD
8 15 (0.19%) Chatbot
9 10 (0.13%) Simulink
9 10 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
10 9 (0.11%) Revit
10 9 (0.11%) Trello
11 8 (0.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 8 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
12 5 (0.063%) Fusion 360
12 5 (0.063%) Lightworks
12 5 (0.063%) Photoshop
13 3 (0.038%) Baselight
13 3 (0.038%) Civil 3D
13 3 (0.038%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 83 (1.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 74 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
3 52 (0.66%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.27%) Shopify
5 20 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
6 18 (0.23%) Magento
7 15 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 15 (0.19%) SAP Business One
8 14 (0.18%) Elite 3E
8 14 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.18%) SAP ERP
9 11 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
9 11 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
10 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
10 10 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
11 9 (0.11%) Sage 50
11 9 (0.11%) Sage X3
12 8 (0.10%) Dynamics NAV
12 8 (0.10%) iTrent
12 8 (0.10%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 1,667 (21.12%) Azure
2 1,256 (15.91%) Microsoft 365
3 1,011 (12.81%) AWS
4 655 (8.30%) Power Platform
5 377 (4.78%) Entra ID
6 360 (4.56%) SaaS
7 354 (4.48%) GCP
8 188 (2.38%) GitHub
8 188 (2.38%) Serverless
9 187 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
10 172 (2.18%) Dynamics 365
11 161 (2.04%) Power Automate
12 141 (1.79%) PowerApps
13 110 (1.39%) OneDrive
14 106 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
15 97 (1.23%) Amazon S3
16 92 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
17 87 (1.10%) AWS Lambda
18 76 (0.96%) AWS CloudFormation
19 75 (0.95%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 498 (6.31%) Firewall
2 446 (5.65%) DNS
3 376 (4.76%) DHCP
4 308 (3.90%) VPN
5 275 (3.48%) TCP/IP
6 225 (2.85%) WAN
7 215 (2.72%) LAN
8 203 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
9 165 (2.09%) Wireless
10 153 (1.94%) VLAN
11 148 (1.87%) Broadband
12 141 (1.79%) Network Security
13 106 (1.34%) VoIP
14 47 (0.60%) Internet
14 47 (0.60%) SD-WAN
15 45 (0.57%) HTTP
16 42 (0.53%) SAN
17 41 (0.52%) OSPF
18 40 (0.51%) BGP
19 33 (0.42%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 508 (6.44%) Power BI
2 386 (4.89%) SQL Server
3 147 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
4 131 (1.66%) MySQL
5 129 (1.63%) Amazon RDS
6 122 (1.55%) Relational Database
7 120 (1.52%) Tableau
8 117 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
9 109 (1.38%) NoSQL
10 98 (1.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 88 (1.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 63 (0.80%) MongoDB
13 58 (0.73%) Big Data
13 58 (0.73%) Power Query
14 52 (0.66%) Data Lake
15 51 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
16 43 (0.54%) Metadata
17 42 (0.53%) DynamoDB
18 34 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
19 29 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 352 (4.46%) Git
2 274 (3.47%) JIRA
3 126 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 115 (1.46%) GitLab
5 36 (0.46%) Selenium
6 29 (0.37%) Claude Code
6 29 (0.37%) Eclipse
7 28 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 28 (0.35%) Subversion
8 27 (0.34%) JUnit
8 27 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
9 24 (0.30%) Cypress.io
10 23 (0.29%) Postman
11 20 (0.25%) Visual Studio
12 18 (0.23%) Bitbucket
13 17 (0.22%) Chocolatey
13 17 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
13 17 (0.22%) SonarQube
14 14 (0.18%) Maven
14 14 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 3,796 (48.09%) Social Skills
2 2,367 (29.98%) Analytical Skills
3 1,547 (19.60%) Finance
4 553 (7.01%) Manufacturing
5 490 (6.21%) Organisational Skills
6 455 (5.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 446 (5.65%) Law
8 377 (4.78%) Retail
9 339 (4.29%) Marketing
10 309 (3.91%) Public Sector
11 304 (3.85%) Banking
12 300 (3.80%) Legal
13 189 (2.39%) Telecoms
14 183 (2.32%) Electronics
15 158 (2.00%) Aerospace
16 155 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
17 146 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
18 116 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
19 95 (1.20%) Advertising
20 89 (1.13%) Games
Job Titles
1 1,029 (13.04%) Analyst
2 911 (11.54%) Senior
3 786 (9.96%) Developer
4 714 (9.04%) IT Support
5 584 (7.40%) Support Engineer
6 485 (6.14%) Lead
7 406 (5.14%) IT Engineer
8 389 (4.93%) Consultant
9 315 (3.99%) Support Analyst
10 311 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
11 300 (3.80%) Software Engineer
12 264 (3.34%) Architect
13 255 (3.23%) Support Technician
13 255 (3.23%) Systems Engineer
14 243 (3.08%) Technical Support
15 214 (2.71%) IT Technician
16 202 (2.56%) Technical Engineer
17 198 (2.51%) Data Engineer
18 180 (2.28%) Technical Support Engineer
19 171 (2.17%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 345 (4.37%) .NET
2 308 (3.90%) React
3 251 (3.18%) REST
4 247 (3.13%) HTML
5 196 (2.48%) CSS
6 168 (2.13%) RESTful
7 152 (1.93%) Node.js
8 115 (1.46%) SOAP
9 105 (1.33%) Spring
10 100 (1.27%) AngularJS
11 96 (1.22%) JSON
12 93 (1.18%) Middleware
12 93 (1.18%) Vue
13 86 (1.09%) Kafka
14 83 (1.05%) ASP.NET
15 76 (0.96%) Web Services
16 75 (0.95%) OAuth
17 73 (0.92%) XML
18 68 (0.86%) Spring Boot
19 51 (0.65%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 498 (6.31%) Driving Licence
2 491 (6.22%) Onboarding
3 400 (5.07%) Self-Motivation
4 314 (3.98%) Management Information System
5 300 (3.80%) Cloud Native
6 214 (2.71%) Product Ownership
7 178 (2.25%) Data Centre
8 174 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
9 171 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
10 124 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
11 123 (1.56%) Analytical Mindset
12 111 (1.41%) Data Structures
13 110 (1.39%) Security Posture
14 99 (1.25%) Algorithms
15 89 (1.13%) NHS
15 89 (1.13%) Social Media
16 80 (1.01%) AI Agents
17 79 (1.00%) Cyber Threat
17 79 (1.00%) IoT
18 78 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1,230 (15.58%) Windows
2 553 (7.01%) Linux
3 531 (6.73%) Windows Server
4 168 (2.13%) Windows 10
5 114 (1.44%) Android
5 114 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
6 104 (1.32%) Mac OS
7 100 (1.27%) Apple iOS
8 50 (0.63%) Unix
9 48 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
10 40 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 35 (0.44%) Ubuntu
12 27 (0.34%) VMS
13 25 (0.32%) CentOS
14 14 (0.18%) Mac OS X
14 14 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
15 13 (0.16%) Debian
16 12 (0.15%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
18 8 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,878 (23.79%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,290 (16.34%) Agile
3 1,161 (14.71%) Customer Service
4 996 (12.62%) AI
5 906 (11.48%) Decision-Making
6 899 (11.39%) CI/CD
7 857 (10.86%) Mentoring
8 805 (10.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 744 (9.42%) DevOps
10 741 (9.39%) Software Engineering
11 736 (9.32%) Analytics
12 669 (8.47%) ITIL
13 642 (8.13%) Cybersecurity
14 619 (7.84%) Roadmaps
15 587 (7.44%) Business Intelligence
16 575 (7.28%) Computer Science
17 560 (7.09%) Project Management
18 549 (6.95%) Project Delivery
19 514 (6.51%) Collaborative Working
20 508 (6.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,250 (15.83%) SQL
2 1,168 (14.80%) Python
3 554 (7.02%) JavaScript
4 449 (5.69%) C#
5 409 (5.18%) Java
6 343 (4.35%) PowerShell
7 252 (3.19%) TypeScript
8 217 (2.75%) C++
9 171 (2.17%) Bash
10 95 (1.20%) PHP
11 88 (1.11%) Go
12 85 (1.08%) C
13 69 (0.87%) T-SQL
14 65 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 49 (0.62%) Scala
16 45 (0.57%) Rust
16 45 (0.57%) Shell Script
17 42 (0.53%) Perl
17 42 (0.53%) R
18 39 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,327 (16.81%) Degree
2 699 (8.85%) Security Cleared
3 482 (6.11%) SC Cleared
4 301 (3.81%) Computer Science Degree
5 222 (2.81%) DBS Check
6 204 (2.58%) Microsoft Certification
7 159 (2.01%) DV Cleared
8 149 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
9 144 (1.82%) Azure Certification
10 136 (1.72%) CISSP
11 120 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
12 112 (1.42%) Master's Degree
13 97 (1.23%) PMI Certification
14 91 (1.15%) HNC
15 82 (1.04%) PMP
16 81 (1.03%) CCNA
17 79 (1.00%) CCNP
18 73 (0.92%) CISM
19 69 (0.87%) ACCA
20 68 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 453 (5.74%) QA
2 396 (5.02%) Data Quality
3 324 (4.10%) GDPR
4 231 (2.93%) SLA
5 214 (2.71%) Accessibility
6 211 (2.67%) Cyber Essentials
7 195 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 157 (1.99%) NIST
9 152 (1.93%) PCI DSS
10 64 (0.81%) PMO
11 58 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 38 (0.48%) GRC
13 36 (0.46%) ISO 9001
14 29 (0.37%) SOC 2
15 25 (0.32%) COBIT
15 25 (0.32%) GMP
16 22 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
17 20 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 20 (0.25%) WCAG
18 18 (0.23%) Good Clinical Practice
System Software
1 813 (10.30%) Active Directory
2 371 (4.70%) Docker
3 277 (3.51%) Hyper-V
4 256 (3.24%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (0.89%) Terminal Server
6 50 (0.63%) Firmware
6 50 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 37 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
8 34 (0.43%) vSphere
9 18 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
10 16 (0.20%) KVM
11 15 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
12 10 (0.13%) IAG
13 7 (0.089%) XenApp
14 6 (0.076%) VMware NSX
15 5 (0.063%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.063%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 5 (0.063%) Squid
16 4 (0.051%) VMware Workstation
17 3 (0.038%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 361 (4.57%) Terraform
2 327 (4.14%) Kubernetes
3 291 (3.69%) Microsoft Intune
4 159 (2.01%) Ansible
5 102 (1.29%) Grafana
6 83 (1.05%) SCCM
7 62 (0.79%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
9 31 (0.39%) Nagios
10 25 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 23 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
12 21 (0.27%) Puppet
13 16 (0.20%) Argo
14 14 (0.18%) Autotask
15 13 (0.16%) Kibana
15 13 (0.16%) Proxmox
16 11 (0.14%) Docker Swarm
16 11 (0.14%) Functional Safety
16 11 (0.14%) logstash
16 11 (0.14%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,280 (28.88%) Microsoft
2 366 (4.64%) VMware
3 222 (2.81%) Oracle
4 210 (2.66%) Google
5 209 (2.65%) SAP
6 175 (2.22%) Cisco
7 164 (2.08%) ServiceNow
8 156 (1.98%) Salesforce
9 131 (1.66%) Veeam
10 124 (1.57%) SolarWinds
10 124 (1.57%) Splunk
11 120 (1.52%) Databricks
12 85 (1.08%) Apple
13 78 (0.99%) Tanium
14 71 (0.90%) Nimble Storage
15 70 (0.89%) Brocade
16 67 (0.85%) Sage
17 60 (0.76%) Dell
18 58 (0.73%) Fortinet
18 58 (0.73%) Palo Alto