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

6 months to
19 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 6,297 7,164 11,371
As % of all permanent jobs in England 9.48% 18.80% 15.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.19% 20.09% 17.49%
Number of salaries quoted 4,372 4,265 8,064
10th Percentile £27,000 £29,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £38,000 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,249 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.73% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,500 £76,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.30%

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 51,670 35,658 65,018
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 77.78% 93.55% 87.00%
Number of salaries quoted 32,008 20,224 50,768
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £29,000
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% -11.29%

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 19 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 19 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 -3 1,933 £67,500 +3.85% 1,023
North of England -18 1,276 £41,000 -12.77% 653
South East -5 1,184 £45,000 -11.71% 848
Midlands -18 844 £37,750 -21.35% 455
North West -17 646 £42,500 -15.00% 351
South West -3 531 £43,500 -13.00% 305
Yorkshire -6 501 £35,000 -19.54% 225
West Midlands -21 498 £42,500 -22.73% 269
East of England -10 423 £40,000 -20.00% 271
East Midlands -2 343 £35,000 -6.67% 186
North East -8 129 £45,000 - 91
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
1 323 (5.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 282 (4.48%) SharePoint
3 79 (1.25%) Confluence
4 58 (0.92%) CMS
5 54 (0.86%) Apache
6 45 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
7 39 (0.62%) IIS
8 37 (0.59%) Apache Spark
9 29 (0.46%) WordPress
10 19 (0.30%) Palantir Foundry
11 15 (0.24%) SAS
12 11 (0.17%) nginx
13 9 (0.14%) Drupal
14 8 (0.13%) Anypoint
14 8 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2007
14 8 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2010
14 8 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2013
14 8 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 4 (0.064%) Headless CMS
15 4 (0.064%) Totara
Applications
1 442 (7.02%) Microsoft Office
2 336 (5.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 72 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 35 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
5 33 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
7 18 (0.29%) Maya
8 17 (0.27%) AutoCAD
9 13 (0.21%) Photoshop
10 10 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.14%) Chatbot
11 9 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
12 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 6 (0.095%) Adobe XD
14 4 (0.064%) Fusion 360
14 4 (0.064%) Trello
15 3 (0.048%) Elementor
15 3 (0.048%) InDesign
15 3 (0.048%) Simulink
16 2 (0.032%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 62 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 39 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
3 32 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 17 (0.27%) Endur
5 17 (0.27%) SAP CO
5 17 (0.27%) Shopify
6 14 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
7 10 (0.16%) iTrent
7 10 (0.16%) Maximo
7 10 (0.16%) Workday HCM
8 9 (0.14%) SAP ERP
9 8 (0.13%) SAP FI
9 8 (0.13%) SAP FI/CO
10 7 (0.11%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 7 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
10 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
10 7 (0.11%) Sage 200
11 6 (0.095%) Oracle Receivables
11 6 (0.095%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 1,367 (21.71%) Azure
2 967 (15.36%) Microsoft 365
3 773 (12.28%) AWS
4 447 (7.10%) Power Platform
5 373 (5.92%) SaaS
6 276 (4.38%) GCP
7 271 (4.30%) Entra ID
8 170 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
9 165 (2.62%) GitHub
10 162 (2.57%) Serverless
11 126 (2.00%) Power Automate
12 102 (1.62%) Dynamics 365
13 92 (1.46%) Google Workspace
14 87 (1.38%) Amazon S3
15 82 (1.30%) PowerApps
16 80 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
16 80 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
17 76 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
18 71 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
18 71 (1.13%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 403 (6.40%) DNS
2 374 (5.94%) Firewall
3 342 (5.43%) DHCP
4 239 (3.80%) VPN
5 211 (3.35%) WAN
6 209 (3.32%) TCP/IP
7 202 (3.21%) Wi-Fi
8 178 (2.83%) Broadband
9 176 (2.79%) LAN
10 126 (2.00%) VLAN
11 97 (1.54%) Wireless
12 86 (1.37%) VoIP
13 68 (1.08%) SD-WAN
14 52 (0.83%) Network Security
15 44 (0.70%) Remote Desktop
16 41 (0.65%) SAN
17 40 (0.64%) Internet
18 32 (0.51%) Structured Cabling
19 28 (0.44%) BGP
19 28 (0.44%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 368 (5.84%) Power BI
2 272 (4.32%) SQL Server
3 130 (2.06%) Data Warehouse
4 123 (1.95%) Tableau
5 118 (1.87%) NoSQL
6 110 (1.75%) Relational Database
7 109 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
8 93 (1.48%) Amazon RDS
9 90 (1.43%) MySQL
10 65 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 54 (0.86%) MongoDB
12 48 (0.76%) Amazon Redshift
12 48 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 47 (0.75%) DynamoDB
14 46 (0.73%) Metadata
14 46 (0.73%) Power Query
15 44 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
16 42 (0.67%) Data Lake
17 39 (0.62%) Big Data
18 26 (0.41%) Redis
Development Applications
1 280 (4.45%) Git
2 231 (3.67%) JIRA
3 108 (1.72%) Jenkins
4 98 (1.56%) GitLab
5 52 (0.83%) Selenium
6 31 (0.49%) Visual Studio
7 23 (0.37%) 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 (0.29%) Robot Framework
10 17 (0.27%) CircleCI
11 16 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
12 15 (0.24%) Bitbucket
12 15 (0.24%) Cucumber
12 15 (0.24%) JUnit
13 14 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
13 14 (0.22%) SonarQube
General
1 3,124 (49.61%) Social Skills
2 1,916 (30.43%) Analytical Skills
3 1,393 (22.12%) Finance
4 440 (6.99%) Organisational Skills
5 359 (5.70%) Marketing
6 333 (5.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 302 (4.80%) Retail
8 300 (4.76%) Banking
8 300 (4.76%) Law
9 289 (4.59%) Legal
10 287 (4.56%) Public Sector
11 259 (4.11%) Manufacturing
12 168 (2.67%) Presentation Skills
13 162 (2.57%) Telecoms
14 134 (2.13%) Electronics
15 104 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
15 104 (1.65%) Games
16 85 (1.35%) Financial Institution
17 80 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
18 68 (1.08%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 931 (14.78%) Analyst
2 744 (11.82%) IT Support
3 738 (11.72%) Senior
4 640 (10.16%) Support Engineer
5 587 (9.32%) Developer
6 371 (5.89%) Lead
7 368 (5.84%) IT Engineer
8 311 (4.94%) IT Support Engineer
9 308 (4.89%) Support Analyst
10 249 (3.95%) Consultant
11 213 (3.38%) Business Analyst
12 210 (3.33%) Architect
13 208 (3.30%) Technical Support
14 204 (3.24%) Support Technician
15 195 (3.10%) 2nd Line Support
16 171 (2.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 169 (2.68%) Software Engineer
18 154 (2.45%) IT Analyst
18 154 (2.45%) Technical Engineer
19 152 (2.41%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 253 (4.02%) .NET
1 253 (4.02%) React
2 213 (3.38%) HTML
3 170 (2.70%) CSS
4 159 (2.53%) Node.js
5 120 (1.91%) REST
6 110 (1.75%) RESTful
7 71 (1.13%) AngularJS
8 66 (1.05%) Kafka
8 66 (1.05%) Middleware
8 66 (1.05%) Spring
9 65 (1.03%) Vue
10 59 (0.94%) Django
11 58 (0.92%) SOAP
12 56 (0.89%) JSON
13 54 (0.86%) XML
14 50 (0.79%) Flask
15 46 (0.73%) Spring Boot
16 44 (0.70%) .NET Framework
16 44 (0.70%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 463 (7.35%) Driving Licence
2 443 (7.04%) Onboarding
3 393 (6.24%) Self-Motivation
4 202 (3.21%) Management Information System
5 174 (2.76%) Cloud Native
6 153 (2.43%) Analytical Mindset
7 144 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 134 (2.13%) Product Ownership
9 131 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
10 121 (1.92%) Data Centre
11 108 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
12 99 (1.57%) Mobile App
13 93 (1.48%) Social Media
14 84 (1.33%) Data Structures
15 69 (1.10%) Low-Code
16 60 (0.95%) Security Posture
17 57 (0.91%) Algorithms
18 54 (0.86%) Virtual Team
19 50 (0.79%) EPoS
20 48 (0.76%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 1,099 (17.45%) Windows
2 422 (6.70%) Windows Server
3 403 (6.40%) Linux
4 168 (2.67%) Windows 10
5 120 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 112 (1.78%) Android
7 90 (1.43%) Mac OS
8 80 (1.27%) Apple iOS
9 61 (0.97%) Unix
10 56 (0.89%) Windows Server 2019
11 35 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 35 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
12 26 (0.41%) CentOS
13 23 (0.37%) Windows 7
14 20 (0.32%) Ubuntu
15 16 (0.25%) VMS
16 11 (0.17%) Windows 8
17 10 (0.16%) Mac OS X
18 8 (0.13%) Debian
19 6 (0.095%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,160 (18.42%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,046 (16.61%) Agile
3 946 (15.02%) Customer Service
4 683 (10.85%) Mentoring
5 661 (10.50%) AI
6 645 (10.24%) Decision-Making
7 641 (10.18%) CI/CD
8 629 (9.99%) Analytics
9 598 (9.50%) DevOps
10 571 (9.07%) ITIL
11 546 (8.67%) Project Management
12 515 (8.18%) Business Intelligence
13 495 (7.86%) Computer Science
14 479 (7.61%) Stakeholder Management
15 431 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
16 426 (6.77%) Software Engineering
17 378 (6.00%) Coaching
18 372 (5.91%) Roadmaps
19 367 (5.83%) Process Improvement
20 359 (5.70%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 964 (15.31%) Python
2 881 (13.99%) SQL
3 423 (6.72%) JavaScript
4 315 (5.00%) PowerShell
5 311 (4.94%) Java
6 277 (4.40%) C#
7 180 (2.86%) TypeScript
8 154 (2.45%) Bash
9 86 (1.37%) PHP
10 78 (1.24%) C++
10 78 (1.24%) Go
11 65 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 58 (0.92%) Scala
13 45 (0.71%) C
14 44 (0.70%) T-SQL
15 40 (0.64%) Kotlin
16 35 (0.56%) R
17 34 (0.54%) Apex Code
18 27 (0.43%) Rust
19 26 (0.41%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,289 (20.47%) Degree
2 479 (7.61%) Security Cleared
3 294 (4.67%) SC Cleared
4 242 (3.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 187 (2.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 182 (2.89%) DBS Check
7 124 (1.97%) Master's Degree
8 118 (1.87%) DV Cleared
9 105 (1.67%) CISSP
10 90 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
11 84 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
12 81 (1.29%) ACCA
13 79 (1.25%) A+ Certification
14 73 (1.16%) CIMA
15 65 (1.03%) CCNA
15 65 (1.03%) PMI Certification
16 60 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 55 (0.87%) AWS Certification
18 51 (0.81%) PMP
19 48 (0.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 301 (4.78%) QA
2 257 (4.08%) Data Quality
3 232 (3.68%) GDPR
4 159 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 156 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 138 (2.19%) SLA
7 127 (2.02%) Accessibility
8 124 (1.97%) PCI DSS
9 110 (1.75%) NIST
10 49 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 32 (0.51%) ISO 9001
12 29 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
12 29 (0.46%) SOC 2
13 23 (0.37%) PMO
14 21 (0.33%) COBIT
15 19 (0.30%) GRC
16 13 (0.21%) GMP
17 11 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 10 (0.16%) ITGC
19 9 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 733 (11.64%) Active Directory
2 299 (4.75%) Docker
3 228 (3.62%) Hyper-V
4 159 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
5 63 (1.00%) Terminal Server
6 31 (0.49%) Firmware
7 30 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
8 28 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.22%) KVM
9 14 (0.22%) vSphere
10 10 (0.16%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.16%) VMware Workstation
11 7 (0.11%) IAG
11 7 (0.11%) XenApp
12 6 (0.095%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.064%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.048%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.032%) BitLocker
15 2 (0.032%) vCloud
15 2 (0.032%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 282 (4.48%) Terraform
2 265 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 221 (3.51%) Kubernetes
4 152 (2.41%) Ansible
5 92 (1.46%) Grafana
6 78 (1.24%) SCCM
7 60 (0.95%) Prometheus
8 29 (0.46%) Nagios
9 26 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
10 23 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 22 (0.35%) BMC PATROL
12 20 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.24%) Argo
13 15 (0.24%) Cisco CUCM
14 14 (0.22%) Autotask
15 13 (0.21%) ZABBIX
16 12 (0.19%) FortiGate
16 12 (0.19%) Kibana
16 12 (0.19%) vCenter Server
17 11 (0.17%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,653 (26.25%) Microsoft
2 266 (4.22%) VMware
3 207 (3.29%) Oracle
4 176 (2.79%) SAP
5 157 (2.49%) Google
6 148 (2.35%) Salesforce
7 145 (2.30%) Cisco
8 130 (2.06%) ServiceNow
9 125 (1.99%) Veeam
10 120 (1.91%) SolarWinds
11 118 (1.87%) Splunk
12 108 (1.72%) Databricks
13 92 (1.46%) Adobe
14 81 (1.29%) Apple
15 64 (1.02%) Tanium
16 63 (1.00%) Brocade
16 63 (1.00%) Nimble Storage
17 59 (0.94%) Dell
18 52 (0.83%) Sage
19 49 (0.78%) Red Hat