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

6 months to
31 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 6,600 7,963 12,834
As % of all permanent jobs in England 7.94% 20.41% 14.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.72% 21.88% 17.42%
Number of salaries quoted 4,673 4,430 8,518
10th Percentile £27,500 £27,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £32,000 £33,000 £32,500
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 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £88,000 £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 61,595 36,399 73,671
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 74.07% 93.30% 83.66%
Number of salaries quoted 41,041 19,603 54,687
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £41,250 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% +7.27% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%

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 31 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 31 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 1,953 £70,000 +7.69% 466
North of England -8 1,377 £42,500 -5.56% 477
South East -6 1,191 £45,000 - 639
Midlands -19 919 £42,000 -6.67% 302
North West -16 703 £45,000 -4.26% 262
South West -7 575 £43,500 +8.75% 196
West Midlands -25 536 £42,500 -10.53% 185
Yorkshire -10 520 £40,500 +8.00% 152
East of England -7 500 £45,000 +11.11% 214
East Midlands -10 379 £35,000 -9.09% 119
North East -14 154 £48,222 +7.16% 75
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
1 344 (5.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 343 (5.20%) SharePoint
3 74 (1.12%) Confluence
4 64 (0.97%) CMS
5 54 (0.82%) Apache
6 39 (0.59%) Apache Airflow
7 35 (0.53%) IIS
8 32 (0.48%) Apache Spark
9 26 (0.39%) WordPress
10 18 (0.27%) 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
1 401 (6.08%) Microsoft Office
2 347 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 60 (0.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
5 39 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.42%) 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 (0.045%) Acrobat
12 3 (0.045%) Autodesk Inventor
13 2 (0.030%) Adobe XD
13 2 (0.030%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 64 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.33%) 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 1,399 (21.20%) Azure
2 1,021 (15.47%) Microsoft 365
3 839 (12.71%) AWS
4 499 (7.56%) Power Platform
5 324 (4.91%) SaaS
6 287 (4.35%) GCP
7 280 (4.24%) Entra ID
8 174 (2.64%) Serverless
9 172 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
10 146 (2.21%) GitHub
11 130 (1.97%) Dynamics 365
12 117 (1.77%) Power Automate
13 97 (1.47%) PowerApps
14 91 (1.38%) Amazon S3
15 87 (1.32%) Google Workspace
16 78 (1.18%) OneDrive
17 76 (1.15%) PaaS
18 73 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
19 72 (1.09%) IaaS
20 71 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 407 (6.17%) Firewall
2 372 (5.64%) DNS
3 311 (4.71%) DHCP
4 256 (3.88%) VPN
5 227 (3.44%) WAN
6 199 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
7 197 (2.98%) LAN
8 193 (2.92%) TCP/IP
9 178 (2.70%) Broadband
10 127 (1.92%) VLAN
11 123 (1.86%) Wireless
12 103 (1.56%) VoIP
13 83 (1.26%) Network Security
14 68 (1.03%) SD-WAN
15 49 (0.74%) SAN
16 44 (0.67%) BGP
17 43 (0.65%) Internet
17 43 (0.65%) OSPF
18 35 (0.53%) HTTP
19 32 (0.48%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 395 (5.98%) Power BI
2 289 (4.38%) SQL Server
3 129 (1.95%) Data Warehouse
4 110 (1.67%) Tableau
5 107 (1.62%) NoSQL
6 97 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
7 85 (1.29%) MySQL
8 80 (1.21%) Amazon RDS
8 80 (1.21%) Relational Database
9 78 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 67 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 58 (0.88%) Big Data
12 53 (0.80%) Power Query
13 49 (0.74%) MongoDB
14 46 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
15 41 (0.62%) DynamoDB
16 39 (0.59%) Metadata
17 38 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
17 38 (0.58%) Data Lake
18 27 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 287 (4.35%) Git
2 212 (3.21%) JIRA
3 99 (1.50%) Jenkins
4 98 (1.48%) GitLab
5 29 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
6 27 (0.41%) Selenium
7 21 (0.32%) 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 16 (0.24%) Burp Suite
12 16 (0.24%) Metasploit
13 15 (0.23%) SonarQube
14 14 (0.21%) Subversion
15 13 (0.20%) Bitbucket
15 13 (0.20%) LabVIEW
15 13 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 3,062 (46.39%) Social Skills
2 1,946 (29.48%) Analytical Skills
3 1,349 (20.44%) Finance
4 426 (6.45%) Organisational Skills
5 361 (5.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 358 (5.42%) Manufacturing
7 338 (5.12%) Law
8 322 (4.88%) Marketing
9 282 (4.27%) Retail
10 276 (4.18%) Legal
10 276 (4.18%) Public Sector
11 263 (3.98%) Banking
12 165 (2.50%) Telecoms
13 142 (2.15%) Electronics
14 137 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
15 106 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
16 104 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
17 86 (1.30%) Advertising
18 85 (1.29%) Aerospace
19 79 (1.20%) Games
Job Titles
1 865 (13.11%) Analyst
2 817 (12.38%) Senior
3 677 (10.26%) IT Support
4 634 (9.61%) Developer
5 582 (8.82%) Support Engineer
6 410 (6.21%) IT Engineer
7 401 (6.08%) Lead
8 321 (4.86%) IT Support Engineer
9 293 (4.44%) Consultant
10 245 (3.71%) Support Analyst
11 242 (3.67%) Support Technician
12 233 (3.53%) Architect
13 224 (3.39%) Software Engineer
14 211 (3.20%) Systems Engineer
15 190 (2.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 180 (2.73%) IT Technician
17 174 (2.64%) Technical Support
18 170 (2.58%) Business Analyst
19 163 (2.47%) 2nd Line Support
20 158 (2.39%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 267 (4.05%) .NET
2 253 (3.83%) React
3 213 (3.23%) HTML
4 182 (2.76%) CSS
5 173 (2.62%) REST
6 135 (2.05%) Node.js
7 126 (1.91%) RESTful
8 96 (1.45%) SOAP
9 86 (1.30%) Middleware
10 82 (1.24%) JSON
11 79 (1.20%) Spring
12 69 (1.05%) XML
13 68 (1.03%) Vue
14 66 (1.00%) AngularJS
15 64 (0.97%) Kafka
16 61 (0.92%) OAuth
17 56 (0.85%) gRPC
18 54 (0.82%) Web Services
19 52 (0.79%) EDI
19 52 (0.79%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 404 (6.12%) Driving Licence
2 383 (5.80%) Onboarding
3 308 (4.67%) Self-Motivation
4 230 (3.48%) Management Information System
5 215 (3.26%) Cloud Native
6 190 (2.88%) Product Ownership
7 166 (2.52%) Data Centre
8 154 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
9 132 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 127 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
11 98 (1.48%) Mobile App
12 91 (1.38%) Social Media
13 86 (1.30%) Data Structures
13 86 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
14 71 (1.08%) Low-Code
15 70 (1.06%) Algorithms
16 67 (1.02%) Security Posture
17 66 (1.00%) Virtual Team
18 60 (0.91%) Video\Live Streaming
19 56 (0.85%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,017 (15.41%) Windows
2 423 (6.41%) Windows Server
3 418 (6.33%) Linux
4 165 (2.50%) Windows 10
5 110 (1.67%) Windows Server 2016
6 108 (1.64%) Android
7 85 (1.29%) Apple iOS
8 82 (1.24%) Mac OS
9 66 (1.00%) Windows Server 2019
10 46 (0.70%) Unix
11 40 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 32 (0.48%) CentOS
12 32 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (0.44%) Ubuntu
14 24 (0.36%) VMS
15 16 (0.24%) Windows 7
16 14 (0.21%) Mac OS X
17 10 (0.15%) Debian
18 7 (0.11%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,264 (19.15%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,053 (15.95%) Agile
3 949 (14.38%) Customer Service
4 736 (11.15%) AI
5 728 (11.03%) Mentoring
6 719 (10.89%) CI/CD
7 700 (10.61%) Decision-Making
8 631 (9.56%) DevOps
9 630 (9.55%) Analytics
10 553 (8.38%) Software Engineering
11 546 (8.27%) ITIL
12 545 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
13 508 (7.70%) Computer Science
14 507 (7.68%) Roadmaps
15 489 (7.41%) Project Management
16 469 (7.11%) Business Intelligence
17 462 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
18 444 (6.73%) Coaching
19 412 (6.24%) Collaborative Working
20 378 (5.73%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 1,013 (15.35%) Python
2 960 (14.55%) SQL
3 452 (6.85%) JavaScript
4 335 (5.08%) Java
5 328 (4.97%) C#
6 296 (4.48%) PowerShell
7 198 (3.00%) TypeScript
8 157 (2.38%) Bash
9 133 (2.02%) C++
10 92 (1.39%) PHP
11 86 (1.30%) Go
12 63 (0.95%) Scala
13 58 (0.88%) C
13 58 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 49 (0.74%) T-SQL
15 45 (0.68%) PL/SQL
16 44 (0.67%) R
17 41 (0.62%) Rust
18 37 (0.56%) Apex Code
19 35 (0.53%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 1,133 (17.17%) Degree
2 503 (7.62%) Security Cleared
3 339 (5.14%) SC Cleared
4 257 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
5 226 (3.42%) DBS Check
6 188 (2.85%) Microsoft Certification
7 117 (1.77%) DV Cleared
8 115 (1.74%) Master's Degree
9 111 (1.68%) Cisco Certification
9 111 (1.68%) CISSP
10 85 (1.29%) Azure Certification
11 84 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
11 84 (1.27%) PMI Certification
12 82 (1.24%) A+ Certification
13 70 (1.06%) CCNA
13 70 (1.06%) PMP
14 65 (0.98%) ACCA
15 60 (0.91%) CIMA
16 58 (0.88%) Network+ Certification
17 54 (0.82%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 347 (5.26%) QA
2 313 (4.74%) Data Quality
3 265 (4.02%) GDPR
4 194 (2.94%) SLA
5 164 (2.48%) Cyber Essentials
6 154 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 142 (2.15%) Accessibility
8 139 (2.11%) NIST
9 115 (1.74%) PCI DSS
10 47 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 37 (0.56%) PMO
12 34 (0.52%) ISO 9001
13 30 (0.45%) SOC 2
14 28 (0.42%) GRC
15 24 (0.36%) COBIT
16 22 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
17 16 (0.24%) GMP
18 13 (0.20%) IFRS
19 12 (0.18%) TickIT
20 11 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 685 (10.38%) Active Directory
2 288 (4.36%) Docker
3 210 (3.18%) Hyper-V
4 201 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
5 49 (0.74%) Terminal Server
6 44 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 38 (0.58%) 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 (0.045%) ClearTrust
Systems Management
1 296 (4.48%) Terraform
2 246 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 242 (3.67%) Kubernetes
4 144 (2.18%) Ansible
5 91 (1.38%) Grafana
6 82 (1.24%) SCCM
7 55 (0.83%) Prometheus
8 37 (0.56%) Nagios
9 32 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
10 21 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.27%) Kibana
12 14 (0.21%) Autotask
12 14 (0.21%) vCenter Server
13 13 (0.20%) FortiGate
13 13 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
14 12 (0.18%) Puppet
15 11 (0.17%) Argo
15 11 (0.17%) Nessus
16 10 (0.15%) Kubeflow
16 10 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,744 (26.42%) Microsoft
2 290 (4.39%) VMware
3 189 (2.86%) Oracle
4 172 (2.61%) Google
5 161 (2.44%) SAP
6 155 (2.35%) Cisco
7 138 (2.09%) Salesforce
8 129 (1.95%) ServiceNow
9 118 (1.79%) SolarWinds
10 111 (1.68%) Veeam
11 108 (1.64%) Databricks
12 99 (1.50%) Splunk
13 79 (1.20%) Apple
14 66 (1.00%) Adobe
15 58 (0.88%) Dell
16 53 (0.80%) Meraki
17 51 (0.77%) Red Hat
18 50 (0.76%) Nimble Storage
19 49 (0.74%) Brocade
19 49 (0.74%) Fortinet