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 2 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,823 8,363 10,586
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.52% 19.16% 14.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.53% 21.39% 17.86%
Number of salaries quoted 5,543 4,787 5,720
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,250 £31,875 £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 £85,250 £87,700 £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 67,827 39,106 59,264
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.89% 89.61% 81.24%
Number of salaries quoted 47,864 22,714 39,792
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,750 £41,021
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -11.29%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 2 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 2 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 -5 2,164 £67,500 +3.85% 1,899
North of England -8 1,583 £45,000 +5.88% 834
South East -3 1,496 £45,000 +5.88% 1,000
Midlands -9 1,136 £42,000 +5.00% 568
North West -6 830 £45,125 -1.90% 440
South West -6 757 £44,500 +18.67% 447
West Midlands -10 632 £42,500 -5.56% 343
East of England -5 602 £42,500 +21.43% 358
Yorkshire -9 535 £42,500 +21.43% 281
East Midlands -10 500 £39,250 +10.56% 225
North East -14 218 £50,000 +34.23% 124
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
1 432 (5.52%) SharePoint
2 413 (5.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 91 (1.16%) Confluence
4 62 (0.79%) CMS
5 51 (0.65%) Apache
6 44 (0.56%) IIS
7 41 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
8 39 (0.50%) Apache Spark
9 36 (0.46%) WordPress
10 19 (0.24%) SAS
11 13 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
12 11 (0.14%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.14%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.13%) nginx
14 9 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
14 9 (0.12%) 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
1 494 (6.31%) Microsoft Office
2 470 (6.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 86 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 47 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 46 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
6 35 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
7 24 (0.31%) AutoCAD
8 16 (0.20%) Chatbot
9 10 (0.13%) Simulink
9 10 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
10 9 (0.12%) Trello
11 8 (0.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 8 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 8 (0.10%) Revit
12 5 (0.064%) Fusion 360
12 5 (0.064%) Lightworks
12 5 (0.064%) Photoshop
13 3 (0.038%) Autodesk Inventor
13 3 (0.038%) Civil 3D
13 3 (0.038%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 83 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 71 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 52 (0.66%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.26%) Shopify
5 19 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
6 18 (0.23%) Magento
7 14 (0.18%) Elite 3E
7 14 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 14 (0.18%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.17%) SAP Business One
9 11 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
10 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
10 10 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
11 9 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
11 9 (0.12%) Sage 50
11 9 (0.12%) Sage X3
12 8 (0.10%) iTrent
12 8 (0.10%) Maximo
13 7 (0.089%) Raiser’s Edge
13 7 (0.089%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,643 (21.00%) Azure
2 1,242 (15.88%) Microsoft 365
3 1,000 (12.78%) AWS
4 648 (8.28%) Power Platform
5 369 (4.72%) Entra ID
6 358 (4.58%) SaaS
7 347 (4.44%) GCP
8 186 (2.38%) Serverless
9 181 (2.31%) GitHub
10 178 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
11 169 (2.16%) Dynamics 365
12 158 (2.02%) Power Automate
13 141 (1.80%) PowerApps
14 106 (1.35%) OneDrive
15 100 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
16 98 (1.25%) Amazon S3
17 90 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
18 87 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
19 79 (1.01%) AWS CloudFormation
20 71 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 491 (6.28%) Firewall
2 442 (5.65%) DNS
3 375 (4.79%) DHCP
4 301 (3.85%) VPN
5 267 (3.41%) TCP/IP
6 224 (2.86%) WAN
7 215 (2.75%) LAN
8 204 (2.61%) Wi-Fi
9 168 (2.15%) Wireless
10 151 (1.93%) VLAN
11 150 (1.92%) Broadband
12 136 (1.74%) Network Security
13 106 (1.35%) VoIP
14 46 (0.59%) Internet
14 46 (0.59%) SD-WAN
15 45 (0.58%) HTTP
16 41 (0.52%) OSPF
17 40 (0.51%) BGP
17 40 (0.51%) SAN
18 33 (0.42%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 503 (6.43%) Power BI
2 377 (4.82%) SQL Server
3 147 (1.88%) Data Warehouse
4 137 (1.75%) Amazon RDS
5 130 (1.66%) MySQL
6 120 (1.53%) Tableau
7 119 (1.52%) Relational Database
8 115 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
9 109 (1.39%) NoSQL
10 97 (1.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 88 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 64 (0.82%) MongoDB
13 58 (0.74%) Big Data
14 57 (0.73%) Power Query
15 52 (0.66%) Data Lake
16 49 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
17 41 (0.52%) Metadata
18 40 (0.51%) DynamoDB
19 34 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
20 29 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 343 (4.38%) Git
2 268 (3.43%) JIRA
3 123 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 115 (1.47%) GitLab
5 37 (0.47%) Selenium
6 29 (0.37%) Eclipse
7 28 (0.36%) Claude Code
7 28 (0.36%) Cucumber
7 28 (0.36%) JUnit
7 28 (0.36%) Subversion
8 27 (0.35%) Rational DOORS
9 24 (0.31%) Cypress.io
10 23 (0.29%) Postman
11 20 (0.26%) Visual Studio
12 17 (0.22%) Bitbucket
13 16 (0.20%) Chocolatey
13 16 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
13 16 (0.20%) SonarQube
14 13 (0.17%) MLflow
14 13 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 3,768 (48.17%) Social Skills
2 2,344 (29.96%) Analytical Skills
3 1,539 (19.67%) Finance
4 536 (6.85%) Manufacturing
5 488 (6.24%) Organisational Skills
6 442 (5.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 441 (5.64%) Law
8 372 (4.76%) Retail
9 331 (4.23%) Marketing
10 303 (3.87%) Public Sector
11 302 (3.86%) Banking
12 300 (3.83%) Legal
13 189 (2.42%) Telecoms
14 176 (2.25%) Electronics
15 151 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
16 147 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
17 143 (1.83%) Aerospace
18 116 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
19 95 (1.21%) Advertising
20 91 (1.16%) Games
Job Titles
1 1,024 (13.09%) Analyst
2 912 (11.66%) Senior
3 780 (9.97%) Developer
4 705 (9.01%) IT Support
5 570 (7.29%) Support Engineer
6 478 (6.11%) Lead
7 403 (5.15%) IT Engineer
8 380 (4.86%) Consultant
9 310 (3.96%) Support Analyst
10 306 (3.91%) IT Support Engineer
11 293 (3.75%) Software Engineer
12 264 (3.37%) Architect
13 260 (3.32%) Systems Engineer
14 253 (3.23%) Support Technician
15 235 (3.00%) Technical Support
16 210 (2.68%) IT Technician
17 197 (2.52%) Data Engineer
18 194 (2.48%) Technical Engineer
19 174 (2.22%) Technical Support Engineer
20 172 (2.20%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 336 (4.30%) .NET
2 302 (3.86%) React
3 247 (3.16%) REST
4 245 (3.13%) HTML
5 195 (2.49%) CSS
6 169 (2.16%) RESTful
7 152 (1.94%) Node.js
8 115 (1.47%) SOAP
9 102 (1.30%) Spring
10 97 (1.24%) AngularJS
11 96 (1.23%) JSON
12 93 (1.19%) Middleware
13 91 (1.16%) Vue
14 86 (1.10%) Kafka
15 76 (0.97%) ASP.NET
16 75 (0.96%) Web Services
17 74 (0.95%) XML
18 72 (0.92%) OAuth
19 64 (0.82%) Spring Boot
20 50 (0.64%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 481 (6.15%) Driving Licence
2 477 (6.10%) Onboarding
3 397 (5.07%) Self-Motivation
4 313 (4.00%) Management Information System
5 297 (3.80%) Cloud Native
6 213 (2.72%) Product Ownership
7 183 (2.34%) Data Centre
8 180 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
9 172 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
10 124 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
11 123 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
12 111 (1.42%) Security Posture
13 108 (1.38%) Data Structures
14 96 (1.23%) Algorithms
15 85 (1.09%) Social Media
16 82 (1.05%) NHS
17 80 (1.02%) IoT
18 78 (1.00%) Virtual Team
19 77 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
20 75 (0.96%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 1,216 (15.54%) Windows
2 555 (7.09%) Linux
3 527 (6.74%) Windows Server
4 165 (2.11%) Windows 10
5 122 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
6 114 (1.46%) Android
7 101 (1.29%) Mac OS
8 97 (1.24%) Apple iOS
9 49 (0.63%) Unix
9 49 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
10 39 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 34 (0.43%) Ubuntu
12 27 (0.35%) VMS
13 25 (0.32%) CentOS
14 14 (0.18%) Mac OS X
14 14 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
15 13 (0.17%) Debian
16 12 (0.15%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
18 8 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,834 (23.44%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,271 (16.25%) Agile
3 1,151 (14.71%) Customer Service
4 985 (12.59%) AI
5 888 (11.35%) CI/CD
6 880 (11.25%) Decision-Making
7 845 (10.80%) Mentoring
8 793 (10.14%) Stakeholder Management
9 736 (9.41%) DevOps
10 729 (9.32%) Analytics
11 724 (9.25%) Software Engineering
12 667 (8.53%) ITIL
13 635 (8.12%) Cybersecurity
14 611 (7.81%) Roadmaps
15 584 (7.47%) Business Intelligence
16 570 (7.29%) Computer Science
17 552 (7.06%) Project Management
18 541 (6.92%) Project Delivery
19 512 (6.54%) Collaborative Working
20 501 (6.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,243 (15.89%) SQL
2 1,164 (14.88%) Python
3 547 (6.99%) JavaScript
4 440 (5.62%) C#
5 401 (5.13%) Java
6 337 (4.31%) PowerShell
7 249 (3.18%) TypeScript
8 214 (2.74%) C++
9 172 (2.20%) Bash
10 95 (1.21%) PHP
11 89 (1.14%) Go
12 82 (1.05%) C
13 68 (0.87%) T-SQL
14 67 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 49 (0.63%) Scala
16 45 (0.58%) Rust
17 43 (0.55%) R
17 43 (0.55%) Shell Script
18 41 (0.52%) Perl
18 41 (0.52%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,303 (16.66%) Degree
2 690 (8.82%) Security Cleared
3 479 (6.12%) SC Cleared
4 297 (3.80%) Computer Science Degree
5 220 (2.81%) DBS Check
6 202 (2.58%) Microsoft Certification
7 151 (1.93%) DV Cleared
8 147 (1.88%) Cisco Certification
9 135 (1.73%) Azure Certification
10 134 (1.71%) CISSP
11 114 (1.46%) Master's Degree
12 113 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
13 95 (1.21%) PMI Certification
14 85 (1.09%) HNC
15 82 (1.05%) PMP
16 80 (1.02%) CCNA
17 77 (0.98%) CCNP
18 71 (0.91%) CISM
19 70 (0.89%) ACCA
20 66 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 444 (5.68%) QA
2 391 (5.00%) Data Quality
3 317 (4.05%) GDPR
4 225 (2.88%) SLA
5 218 (2.79%) Cyber Essentials
6 206 (2.63%) Accessibility
7 197 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 161 (2.06%) PCI DSS
9 156 (1.99%) NIST
10 64 (0.82%) PMO
11 58 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 38 (0.49%) GRC
13 35 (0.45%) ISO 9001
14 30 (0.38%) SOC 2
15 25 (0.32%) COBIT
16 24 (0.31%) GMP
17 22 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
18 20 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
19 19 (0.24%) WCAG
20 18 (0.23%) Good Clinical Practice
System Software
1 808 (10.33%) Active Directory
2 370 (4.73%) Docker
3 275 (3.52%) Hyper-V
4 248 (3.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 77 (0.98%) Terminal Server
6 47 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
7 46 (0.59%) Firmware
8 35 (0.45%) vSphere
9 33 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 17 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
11 15 (0.19%) KVM
12 14 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
13 10 (0.13%) IAG
14 7 (0.089%) VMware NSX
14 7 (0.089%) XenApp
15 5 (0.064%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.064%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 5 (0.064%) Squid
16 4 (0.051%) VMware Workstation
17 3 (0.038%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 359 (4.59%) Terraform
2 324 (4.14%) Kubernetes
3 292 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
4 156 (1.99%) Ansible
5 103 (1.32%) Grafana
6 81 (1.04%) SCCM
7 63 (0.81%) Prometheus
8 39 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
9 31 (0.40%) Nagios
10 24 (0.31%) FortiGate
11 23 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
12 20 (0.26%) Puppet
13 16 (0.20%) Argo
14 14 (0.18%) Autotask
15 13 (0.17%) Kibana
15 13 (0.17%) Proxmox
16 11 (0.14%) Docker Swarm
16 11 (0.14%) logstash
16 11 (0.14%) vCenter Server
16 11 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 2,245 (28.70%) Microsoft
2 365 (4.67%) VMware
3 212 (2.71%) Oracle
4 205 (2.62%) SAP
5 199 (2.54%) Google
6 175 (2.24%) Cisco
7 162 (2.07%) ServiceNow
8 150 (1.92%) Salesforce
9 137 (1.75%) Veeam
10 133 (1.70%) SolarWinds
11 129 (1.65%) Splunk
12 120 (1.53%) Databricks
13 85 (1.09%) Tanium
14 84 (1.07%) Apple
15 78 (1.00%) Nimble Storage
16 77 (0.98%) Brocade
17 67 (0.86%) Sage
18 63 (0.81%) Dell
19 58 (0.74%) Fortinet
20 56 (0.72%) Palo Alto