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

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,342 7,613 11,109
As % of all permanent jobs in England 9.95% 18.68% 15.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.70% 19.93% 17.40%
Number of salaries quoted 4,441 4,212 7,964
10th Percentile £26,750 £29,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £38,750 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,250 £76,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -10.71%

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 49,934 38,207 63,844
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.35% 93.75% 87.63%
Number of salaries quoted 30,759 20,355 50,144
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £29,040
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 8 March 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 8 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
London -2 1,887 £67,500 +3.85% 957
North of England -16 1,328 £42,500 -10.53% 608
South East -5 1,196 £42,500 -17.48% 839
Midlands -17 853 £37,500 -25.00% 444
North West -16 697 £45,000 -10.00% 330
South West -3 562 £42,750 -14.50% 305
West Midlands -21 506 £41,750 -24.09% 254
Yorkshire -5 495 £34,000 -20.00% 208
East of England -8 415 £40,000 -20.00% 314
East Midlands -1 344 £35,000 -5.41% 189
North East -7 136 £45,000 - 83
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
1 333 (5.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 281 (4.43%) SharePoint
3 81 (1.28%) Confluence
4 59 (0.93%) Apache
5 53 (0.84%) CMS
6 47 (0.74%) IIS
7 45 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
8 41 (0.65%) Apache Spark
9 31 (0.49%) WordPress
10 16 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
11 12 (0.19%) SAS
12 11 (0.17%) nginx
13 8 (0.13%) Drupal
13 8 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
14 7 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2007
14 7 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
14 7 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
15 4 (0.063%) Headless CMS
15 4 (0.063%) Totara
Applications
1 445 (7.02%) Microsoft Office
2 346 (5.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 73 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 31 (0.49%) MS Visio
6 27 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 18 (0.28%) AutoCAD
7 18 (0.28%) Maya
8 13 (0.20%) Photoshop
9 11 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
10 9 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
11 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 8 (0.13%) Chatbot
12 5 (0.079%) Adobe XD
13 4 (0.063%) CATIA
13 4 (0.063%) Fusion 360
13 4 (0.063%) Trello
14 3 (0.047%) Elementor
14 3 (0.047%) InDesign
14 3 (0.047%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 61 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 53 (0.84%) SAP S/4HANA
3 32 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
5 17 (0.27%) Endur
5 17 (0.27%) SAP CO
6 16 (0.25%) Shopify
7 14 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
8 10 (0.16%) iTrent
8 10 (0.16%) Maximo
8 10 (0.16%) Workday HCM
9 9 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
9 9 (0.14%) SAP ERP
10 8 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 8 (0.13%) SAP Business One
10 8 (0.13%) SAP FI
10 8 (0.13%) SAP FI/CO
11 7 (0.11%) Oracle Assets
11 7 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
11 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 1,362 (21.48%) Azure
2 983 (15.50%) Microsoft 365
3 755 (11.90%) AWS
4 454 (7.16%) Power Platform
5 369 (5.82%) SaaS
6 284 (4.48%) Entra ID
7 257 (4.05%) GCP
8 170 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
9 163 (2.57%) GitHub
10 158 (2.49%) Serverless
11 127 (2.00%) Power Automate
12 104 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
13 96 (1.51%) Google Workspace
14 89 (1.40%) Amazon S3
15 84 (1.32%) PowerApps
16 81 (1.28%) AWS Lambda
17 79 (1.25%) AWS CloudFormation
18 70 (1.10%) GitHub Actions
19 68 (1.07%) PaaS
20 65 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 416 (6.56%) DNS
2 371 (5.85%) Firewall
3 352 (5.55%) DHCP
4 238 (3.75%) VPN
5 213 (3.36%) TCP/IP
6 209 (3.30%) WAN
7 202 (3.19%) Wi-Fi
8 175 (2.76%) LAN
9 145 (2.29%) Broadband
10 126 (1.99%) VLAN
11 91 (1.43%) Wireless
12 90 (1.42%) VoIP
13 67 (1.06%) SD-WAN
14 51 (0.80%) Remote Desktop
15 49 (0.77%) Network Security
16 48 (0.76%) Internet
17 44 (0.69%) SAN
18 33 (0.52%) Structured Cabling
19 29 (0.46%) Unified Communications
20 28 (0.44%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 371 (5.85%) Power BI
2 279 (4.40%) SQL Server
3 140 (2.21%) Data Warehouse
4 126 (1.99%) Tableau
5 123 (1.94%) Relational Database
6 118 (1.86%) NoSQL
7 106 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
8 98 (1.55%) Amazon RDS
9 92 (1.45%) MySQL
10 66 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 55 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
11 55 (0.87%) MongoDB
12 51 (0.80%) Metadata
13 47 (0.74%) Data Lake
14 46 (0.73%) DynamoDB
14 46 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 43 (0.68%) Power Query
16 41 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
17 39 (0.61%) Big Data
18 26 (0.41%) Redis
Development Applications
1 280 (4.42%) Git
2 232 (3.66%) JIRA
3 101 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 93 (1.47%) GitLab
5 51 (0.80%) Selenium
6 28 (0.44%) Visual Studio
7 22 (0.35%) Cypress.io
8 19 (0.30%) Burp Suite
8 19 (0.30%) LabVIEW
8 19 (0.30%) Maven
8 19 (0.30%) Metasploit
8 19 (0.30%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.28%) Robot Framework
10 16 (0.25%) Bitbucket
10 16 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
11 15 (0.24%) Cucumber
11 15 (0.24%) JUnit
11 15 (0.24%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.22%) CircleCI
12 14 (0.22%) Snyk
General
1 3,198 (50.43%) Social Skills
2 1,926 (30.37%) Analytical Skills
3 1,418 (22.36%) Finance
4 437 (6.89%) Organisational Skills
5 348 (5.49%) Marketing
6 312 (4.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 312 (4.92%) Retail
7 302 (4.76%) Law
8 293 (4.62%) Legal
9 286 (4.51%) Banking
10 284 (4.48%) Public Sector
11 272 (4.29%) Manufacturing
12 170 (2.68%) Presentation Skills
12 170 (2.68%) Telecoms
13 133 (2.10%) Electronics
14 103 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
14 103 (1.62%) Games
15 88 (1.39%) Automotive
16 87 (1.37%) Financial Institution
17 81 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 958 (15.11%) Analyst
2 758 (11.95%) IT Support
3 741 (11.68%) Senior
4 653 (10.30%) Support Engineer
5 581 (9.16%) Developer
6 367 (5.79%) Lead
7 361 (5.69%) IT Engineer
8 327 (5.16%) Support Analyst
9 306 (4.82%) IT Support Engineer
10 240 (3.78%) Consultant
11 231 (3.64%) Technical Support
12 221 (3.48%) Business Analyst
13 209 (3.30%) Architect
13 209 (3.30%) Support Technician
14 199 (3.14%) 2nd Line Support
15 168 (2.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 165 (2.60%) Technical Engineer
17 160 (2.52%) IT Analyst
17 160 (2.52%) Software Engineer
18 158 (2.49%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 263 (4.15%) .NET
2 253 (3.99%) React
3 220 (3.47%) HTML
4 173 (2.73%) CSS
5 149 (2.35%) Node.js
6 128 (2.02%) REST
7 111 (1.75%) RESTful
8 78 (1.23%) AngularJS
9 70 (1.10%) Middleware
10 67 (1.06%) Vue
11 66 (1.04%) Spring
12 63 (0.99%) Kafka
13 61 (0.96%) SOAP
14 60 (0.95%) JSON
15 55 (0.87%) XML
16 53 (0.84%) Django
17 48 (0.76%) Flask
18 47 (0.74%) .NET Framework
19 45 (0.71%) Spring Boot
20 43 (0.68%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 511 (8.06%) Driving Licence
2 462 (7.28%) Onboarding
3 406 (6.40%) Self-Motivation
4 206 (3.25%) Management Information System
5 168 (2.65%) Cloud Native
6 155 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
7 144 (2.27%) Legacy Systems
8 134 (2.11%) Product Ownership
9 123 (1.94%) Data Centre
10 113 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
11 105 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
12 93 (1.47%) Mobile App
13 83 (1.31%) Social Media
14 75 (1.18%) Data Structures
15 70 (1.10%) Low-Code
16 60 (0.95%) Algorithms
17 57 (0.90%) Security Posture
18 53 (0.84%) Virtual Team
19 50 (0.79%) EPoS
20 46 (0.73%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 1,121 (17.68%) Windows
2 437 (6.89%) Windows Server
3 397 (6.26%) Linux
4 170 (2.68%) Windows 10
5 121 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 111 (1.75%) Android
7 95 (1.50%) Mac OS
8 80 (1.26%) Apple iOS
9 60 (0.95%) Unix
10 55 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
11 35 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
12 34 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 25 (0.39%) CentOS
13 25 (0.39%) Windows 7
14 18 (0.28%) Ubuntu
15 16 (0.25%) VMS
16 11 (0.17%) Windows 8
17 9 (0.14%) Mac OS X
18 7 (0.11%) Debian
19 5 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,136 (17.91%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,017 (16.04%) Agile
3 956 (15.07%) Customer Service
4 657 (10.36%) Mentoring
5 631 (9.95%) Analytics
6 624 (9.84%) AI
7 623 (9.82%) Decision-Making
8 610 (9.62%) CI/CD
9 595 (9.38%) DevOps
10 562 (8.86%) Project Management
11 555 (8.75%) ITIL
12 526 (8.29%) Business Intelligence
13 496 (7.82%) Computer Science
14 478 (7.54%) Stakeholder Management
15 445 (7.02%) Cybersecurity
16 408 (6.43%) Software Engineering
17 365 (5.76%) Change Management
17 365 (5.76%) Process Improvement
18 362 (5.71%) CRM
19 355 (5.60%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 941 (14.84%) Python
2 910 (14.35%) SQL
3 422 (6.65%) JavaScript
4 325 (5.12%) PowerShell
5 308 (4.86%) Java
6 287 (4.53%) C#
7 174 (2.74%) TypeScript
8 151 (2.38%) Bash
9 92 (1.45%) PHP
10 78 (1.23%) C++
11 67 (1.06%) Go
12 65 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 50 (0.79%) Scala
14 45 (0.71%) T-SQL
15 42 (0.66%) C
16 37 (0.58%) R
17 32 (0.50%) Apex Code
17 32 (0.50%) Kotlin
18 27 (0.43%) Bicep
19 25 (0.39%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,313 (20.70%) Degree
2 499 (7.87%) Security Cleared
3 318 (5.01%) SC Cleared
4 236 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 185 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 173 (2.73%) DBS Check
7 128 (2.02%) Master's Degree
8 112 (1.77%) DV Cleared
9 103 (1.62%) CISSP
10 99 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
11 83 (1.31%) Cisco Certification
12 82 (1.29%) ACCA
13 81 (1.28%) A+ Certification
14 72 (1.14%) CIMA
15 64 (1.01%) Network+ Certification
16 62 (0.98%) PMI Certification
17 57 (0.90%) CCNA
18 54 (0.85%) AWS Certification
19 50 (0.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
20 48 (0.76%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 300 (4.73%) QA
2 254 (4.01%) Data Quality
3 221 (3.48%) GDPR
4 168 (2.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 167 (2.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 134 (2.11%) SLA
7 126 (1.99%) Accessibility
8 123 (1.94%) PCI DSS
9 105 (1.66%) NIST
10 49 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 33 (0.52%) ISO 9001
12 28 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
13 25 (0.39%) SOC 2
14 21 (0.33%) PMO
15 20 (0.32%) GRC
16 19 (0.30%) COBIT
17 13 (0.20%) GMP
18 11 (0.17%) WCAG
19 10 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
20 9 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 760 (11.98%) Active Directory
2 290 (4.57%) Docker
3 239 (3.77%) Hyper-V
4 161 (2.54%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (1.10%) Terminal Server
6 27 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
7 25 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
8 24 (0.38%) Firmware
9 16 (0.25%) vSphere
10 12 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
11 11 (0.17%) KVM
12 10 (0.16%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.11%) IAG
14 6 (0.095%) Virtual Servers
15 5 (0.079%) XenApp
16 4 (0.063%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 2 (0.032%) Postfix
17 2 (0.032%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 2 (0.032%) vCloud
17 2 (0.032%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 278 (4.38%) Terraform
2 273 (4.30%) Microsoft Intune
3 219 (3.45%) Kubernetes
4 147 (2.32%) Ansible
5 82 (1.29%) Grafana
6 77 (1.21%) SCCM
7 56 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.66%) BMC PATROL
9 27 (0.43%) Nagios
10 26 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
11 22 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.24%) Argo
13 15 (0.24%) Cisco CUCM
14 13 (0.20%) vCenter Server
15 12 (0.19%) Autotask
15 12 (0.19%) Kibana
15 12 (0.19%) ZABBIX
16 11 (0.17%) Nessus
17 10 (0.16%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,681 (26.51%) Microsoft
2 280 (4.42%) VMware
3 221 (3.48%) Oracle
4 210 (3.31%) SAP
5 162 (2.55%) Google
6 146 (2.30%) Cisco
7 145 (2.29%) Salesforce
8 137 (2.16%) Veeam
9 127 (2.00%) SolarWinds
10 123 (1.94%) ServiceNow
10 123 (1.94%) Splunk
11 101 (1.59%) Databricks
12 92 (1.45%) Adobe
13 84 (1.32%) Apple
14 71 (1.12%) Tanium
15 70 (1.10%) Brocade
15 70 (1.10%) Nimble Storage
16 56 (0.88%) Dell
16 56 (0.88%) Sage
17 49 (0.77%) HubSpot