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 29 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -8 +4 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,563 7,805 12,729
As % of all permanent jobs in England 7.89% 20.38% 14.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.66% 21.83% 17.43%
Number of salaries quoted 4,636 4,337 8,472
10th Percentile £27,500 £27,500 £26,043
25th Percentile £31,750 £33,125 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £67,804
90th Percentile £87,500 £88,750 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 61,543 35,746 73,041
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.98% 93.34% 83.87%
Number of salaries quoted 40,915 19,176 54,395
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £79,313 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -9.84%

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 29 May 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 29 May 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 -5 1,945 £70,000 +7.69% 507
North of England -9 1,367 £42,500 -5.56% 503
South East -8 1,180 £45,000 -0.55% 642
Midlands -21 916 £42,000 -6.67% 319
North West -16 700 £45,000 -4.26% 273
South West -7 574 £43,500 +8.75% 212
West Midlands -25 535 £42,500 -10.53% 195
Yorkshire -10 516 £41,000 +9.33% 163
East of England -6 498 £45,000 +11.11% 218
East Midlands -10 377 £35,000 -9.09% 126
North East -14 151 £48,000 +6.67% 78
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
1 343 (5.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 334 (5.09%) SharePoint
3 74 (1.13%) Confluence
4 64 (0.98%) CMS
5 53 (0.81%) Apache
6 37 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
7 34 (0.52%) IIS
8 30 (0.46%) Apache Spark
9 26 (0.40%) WordPress
10 17 (0.26%) SAS
11 14 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
12 10 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2013
13 9 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
14 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
15 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
16 6 (0.091%) Drupal
16 6 (0.091%) Moodle
16 6 (0.091%) nginx
17 5 (0.076%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 399 (6.08%) Microsoft Office
2 344 (5.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 56 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
5 40 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 16 (0.24%) Chatbot
8 9 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 9 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
8 9 (0.14%) AutoCAD
8 9 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
9 8 (0.12%) Fusion 360
10 6 (0.091%) Photoshop
10 6 (0.091%) Simulink
10 6 (0.091%) Trello
11 5 (0.076%) Maya
12 3 (0.046%) Acrobat
12 3 (0.046%) Autodesk Inventor
13 2 (0.030%) Adobe XD
13 2 (0.030%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 64 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
5 20 (0.30%) Shopify
6 17 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
7 16 (0.24%) Magento
8 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
9 14 (0.21%) SAP CO
9 14 (0.21%) SAP ERP
10 12 (0.18%) iTrent
11 11 (0.17%) Maximo
12 10 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
13 9 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
13 9 (0.14%) Endur
14 8 (0.12%) Sage 50
15 7 (0.11%) Elite 3E
15 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
15 7 (0.11%) SAP Business One
15 7 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,391 (21.19%) Azure
2 1,011 (15.40%) Microsoft 365
3 831 (12.66%) AWS
4 496 (7.56%) Power Platform
5 321 (4.89%) SaaS
6 287 (4.37%) GCP
7 276 (4.21%) Entra ID
8 172 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
8 172 (2.62%) Serverless
9 145 (2.21%) GitHub
10 128 (1.95%) Dynamics 365
11 115 (1.75%) Power Automate
12 95 (1.45%) PowerApps
13 89 (1.36%) Amazon S3
14 86 (1.31%) Google Workspace
15 76 (1.16%) PaaS
16 75 (1.14%) OneDrive
17 73 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
18 72 (1.10%) IaaS
19 70 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 405 (6.17%) Firewall
2 369 (5.62%) DNS
3 308 (4.69%) DHCP
4 258 (3.93%) VPN
5 227 (3.46%) WAN
6 198 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
7 197 (3.00%) LAN
8 194 (2.96%) TCP/IP
9 177 (2.70%) Broadband
10 124 (1.89%) VLAN
11 122 (1.86%) Wireless
12 100 (1.52%) VoIP
13 84 (1.28%) Network Security
14 69 (1.05%) SD-WAN
15 49 (0.75%) SAN
16 44 (0.67%) BGP
17 43 (0.66%) Internet
17 43 (0.66%) OSPF
18 35 (0.53%) HTTP
19 32 (0.49%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 392 (5.97%) Power BI
2 289 (4.40%) SQL Server
3 130 (1.98%) Data Warehouse
4 109 (1.66%) Tableau
5 107 (1.63%) NoSQL
6 96 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
7 83 (1.26%) MySQL
8 80 (1.22%) Relational Database
9 79 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
10 78 (1.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 67 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 56 (0.85%) Big Data
13 53 (0.81%) Power Query
14 48 (0.73%) MongoDB
15 45 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
16 40 (0.61%) DynamoDB
17 39 (0.59%) Metadata
18 38 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
19 36 (0.55%) Data Lake
20 27 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 288 (4.39%) Git
2 211 (3.21%) JIRA
3 99 (1.51%) Jenkins
4 98 (1.49%) GitLab
5 29 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
6 27 (0.41%) Selenium
7 22 (0.34%) Visual Studio
8 20 (0.30%) Chocolatey
8 20 (0.30%) Maven
9 19 (0.29%) Cypress.io
9 19 (0.29%) JUnit
10 18 (0.27%) Cucumber
11 17 (0.26%) CircleCI
12 15 (0.23%) Burp Suite
12 15 (0.23%) Metasploit
12 15 (0.23%) SonarQube
13 14 (0.21%) Subversion
14 13 (0.20%) Bitbucket
14 13 (0.20%) LabVIEW
14 13 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 3,030 (46.17%) Social Skills
2 1,932 (29.44%) Analytical Skills
3 1,347 (20.52%) Finance
4 421 (6.41%) Organisational Skills
5 364 (5.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 357 (5.44%) Manufacturing
7 336 (5.12%) Law
8 321 (4.89%) Marketing
9 276 (4.21%) Legal
9 276 (4.21%) Public Sector
9 276 (4.21%) Retail
10 259 (3.95%) Banking
11 163 (2.48%) Telecoms
12 142 (2.16%) Electronics
13 134 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
14 105 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
15 99 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
16 86 (1.31%) Advertising
17 85 (1.30%) Aerospace
18 80 (1.22%) Games
Job Titles
1 864 (13.16%) Analyst
2 820 (12.49%) Senior
3 673 (10.25%) IT Support
4 630 (9.60%) Developer
5 576 (8.78%) Support Engineer
6 406 (6.19%) IT Engineer
7 399 (6.08%) Lead
8 317 (4.83%) IT Support Engineer
9 291 (4.43%) Consultant
10 246 (3.75%) Support Analyst
11 237 (3.61%) Support Technician
12 229 (3.49%) Architect
13 224 (3.41%) Software Engineer
14 210 (3.20%) Systems Engineer
15 193 (2.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 177 (2.70%) IT Technician
17 172 (2.62%) Technical Support
18 167 (2.54%) Business Analyst
19 163 (2.48%) 2nd Line Support
20 157 (2.39%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 264 (4.02%) .NET
2 250 (3.81%) React
3 210 (3.20%) HTML
4 180 (2.74%) CSS
5 173 (2.64%) REST
6 135 (2.06%) Node.js
7 123 (1.87%) RESTful
8 96 (1.46%) SOAP
9 85 (1.30%) Middleware
10 81 (1.23%) JSON
11 78 (1.19%) Spring
12 69 (1.05%) XML
13 67 (1.02%) Vue
14 64 (0.98%) AngularJS
15 63 (0.96%) Kafka
16 62 (0.94%) OAuth
17 56 (0.85%) gRPC
18 54 (0.82%) Web Services
19 51 (0.78%) EDI
19 51 (0.78%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 402 (6.13%) Driving Licence
2 382 (5.82%) Onboarding
3 300 (4.57%) Self-Motivation
4 223 (3.40%) Management Information System
5 211 (3.21%) Cloud Native
6 190 (2.90%) Product Ownership
7 166 (2.53%) Data Centre
8 151 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
9 133 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
10 126 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
11 98 (1.49%) Mobile App
12 90 (1.37%) Social Media
13 86 (1.31%) Data Structures
13 86 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
14 70 (1.07%) Algorithms
14 70 (1.07%) Low-Code
15 66 (1.01%) Security Posture
15 66 (1.01%) Virtual Team
16 60 (0.91%) Video\Live Streaming
17 56 (0.85%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,016 (15.48%) Windows
2 420 (6.40%) Windows Server
3 417 (6.35%) Linux
4 166 (2.53%) Windows 10
5 110 (1.68%) Android
5 110 (1.68%) Windows Server 2016
6 85 (1.30%) Apple iOS
7 83 (1.26%) Mac OS
8 64 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
9 45 (0.69%) Unix
10 40 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 32 (0.49%) CentOS
11 32 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (0.46%) Ubuntu
13 25 (0.38%) VMS
14 16 (0.24%) Windows 7
15 14 (0.21%) Mac OS X
16 10 (0.15%) Debian
17 7 (0.11%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,260 (19.20%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,044 (15.91%) Agile
3 940 (14.32%) Customer Service
4 729 (11.11%) AI
5 726 (11.06%) Mentoring
6 715 (10.89%) CI/CD
7 686 (10.45%) Decision-Making
8 628 (9.57%) Analytics
9 627 (9.55%) DevOps
10 545 (8.30%) Software Engineering
11 541 (8.24%) ITIL
12 539 (8.21%) Stakeholder Management
13 506 (7.71%) Computer Science
14 504 (7.68%) Roadmaps
15 481 (7.33%) Project Management
16 466 (7.10%) Business Intelligence
17 458 (6.98%) Cybersecurity
18 446 (6.80%) Coaching
19 406 (6.19%) Collaborative Working
20 379 (5.77%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 1,009 (15.37%) Python
2 949 (14.46%) SQL
3 448 (6.83%) JavaScript
4 334 (5.09%) Java
5 326 (4.97%) C#
6 296 (4.51%) PowerShell
7 197 (3.00%) TypeScript
8 156 (2.38%) Bash
9 133 (2.03%) C++
10 90 (1.37%) PHP
11 86 (1.31%) Go
12 63 (0.96%) Scala
13 58 (0.88%) C
14 57 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 49 (0.75%) T-SQL
16 45 (0.69%) PL/SQL
17 43 (0.66%) R
18 41 (0.62%) Rust
19 37 (0.56%) Apex Code
20 34 (0.52%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 1,127 (17.17%) Degree
2 498 (7.59%) Security Cleared
3 332 (5.06%) SC Cleared
4 257 (3.92%) Computer Science Degree
5 222 (3.38%) DBS Check
6 189 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
7 116 (1.77%) DV Cleared
8 115 (1.75%) Master's Degree
9 111 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
10 110 (1.68%) CISSP
11 85 (1.30%) Azure Certification
12 84 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
13 83 (1.26%) A+ Certification
14 82 (1.25%) PMI Certification
15 70 (1.07%) CCNA
16 68 (1.04%) PMP
17 65 (0.99%) ACCA
18 60 (0.91%) CIMA
19 57 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
20 54 (0.82%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 343 (5.23%) QA
2 313 (4.77%) Data Quality
3 264 (4.02%) GDPR
4 196 (2.99%) SLA
5 159 (2.42%) Cyber Essentials
6 152 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 141 (2.15%) Accessibility
8 138 (2.10%) NIST
9 115 (1.75%) PCI DSS
10 43 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 34 (0.52%) ISO 9001
11 34 (0.52%) PMO
12 30 (0.46%) SOC 2
13 27 (0.41%) GRC
14 24 (0.37%) COBIT
15 22 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
16 16 (0.24%) GMP
17 12 (0.18%) IFRS
17 12 (0.18%) TickIT
18 11 (0.17%) PERC
System Software
1 683 (10.41%) Active Directory
2 286 (4.36%) Docker
3 208 (3.17%) Hyper-V
4 198 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 49 (0.75%) Terminal Server
6 44 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 37 (0.56%) Firmware
8 25 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
9 21 (0.32%) vSphere
10 15 (0.23%) KVM
11 14 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.15%) IAG
13 7 (0.11%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.11%) XenApp
14 5 (0.076%) Embedded Firmware
14 5 (0.076%) VMware NSX
15 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.061%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 4 (0.061%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.046%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 296 (4.51%) Terraform
2 243 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
3 242 (3.69%) Kubernetes
4 145 (2.21%) Ansible
5 92 (1.40%) Grafana
6 81 (1.23%) SCCM
7 56 (0.85%) Prometheus
8 37 (0.56%) Nagios
9 33 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
10 22 (0.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.27%) Kibana
12 14 (0.21%) Autotask
12 14 (0.21%) vCenter Server
13 12 (0.18%) Argo
13 12 (0.18%) FortiGate
13 12 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
13 12 (0.18%) Puppet
14 11 (0.17%) Nessus
15 10 (0.15%) Kubeflow
15 10 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,726 (26.30%) Microsoft
2 287 (4.37%) VMware
3 188 (2.86%) Oracle
4 171 (2.61%) Google
5 161 (2.45%) SAP
6 155 (2.36%) Cisco
7 138 (2.10%) Salesforce
8 129 (1.97%) ServiceNow
9 118 (1.80%) SolarWinds
10 110 (1.68%) Veeam
11 108 (1.65%) Databricks
12 99 (1.51%) Splunk
13 78 (1.19%) Apple
14 65 (0.99%) Adobe
15 58 (0.88%) Dell
16 53 (0.81%) Meraki
17 51 (0.78%) Red Hat
18 50 (0.76%) Nimble Storage
19 49 (0.75%) Brocade
19 49 (0.75%) Tanium