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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -5 +4 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,804 7,961 13,769
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.14% 20.02% 14.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.14% 21.63% 17.64%
Number of salaries quoted 4,852 4,490 8,601
10th Percentile £27,255 £26,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £32,500 £32,500 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £50,000 £49,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +1.01% -10.00%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,500 £87,500 £84,964
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £48,793
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.47% -11.29%

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 61,081 36,808 78,076
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.11% 92.55% 81.88%
Number of salaries quoted 42,962 20,151 56,711
10th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 June 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 June 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 -7 1,956 £70,000 +7.69% 806
North of England -8 1,405 £42,500 -4.49% 608
South East -5 1,261 £45,000 +5.76% 759
Midlands -9 965 £42,000 -1.18% 416
North West -7 721 £45,000 -3.23% 345
South West -6 614 £44,000 +17.33% 290
West Midlands -9 550 £42,500 -5.56% 234
East of England -3 523 £45,000 +28.57% 235
Yorkshire -12 510 £41,500 +18.57% 184
East Midlands -9 412 £35,000 -6.67% 182
North East -11 174 £48,500 +21.25% 93
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
1 378 (5.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 369 (5.42%) SharePoint
3 79 (1.16%) Confluence
4 63 (0.93%) CMS
5 51 (0.75%) Apache
6 39 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
7 36 (0.53%) IIS
8 33 (0.49%) Apache Spark
9 30 (0.44%) WordPress
10 16 (0.24%) SAS
11 14 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
12 12 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 10 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2013
14 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
14 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
15 7 (0.10%) nginx
15 7 (0.10%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.10%) WebLogic
15 7 (0.10%) WebSphere
16 6 (0.088%) Moodle
Applications
1 420 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
2 372 (5.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 63 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 44 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.51%) MS Visio
6 32 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
7 14 (0.21%) Chatbot
8 9 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 9 (0.13%) AutoCAD
8 9 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
9 8 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.12%) Trello
10 6 (0.088%) Photoshop
10 6 (0.088%) Simulink
11 5 (0.073%) Fusion 360
12 3 (0.044%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.044%) Blender
12 3 (0.044%) Maya
12 3 (0.044%) Windchill
13 2 (0.029%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 70 (1.03%) SAP S/4HANA
2 64 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
3 39 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
4 20 (0.29%) Shopify
5 18 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 16 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
6 16 (0.24%) Magento
7 14 (0.21%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.19%) iTrent
9 11 (0.16%) Maximo
10 10 (0.15%) SAP CO
11 9 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 9 (0.13%) Workday HCM
12 8 (0.12%) Dynamics AX
12 8 (0.12%) Sage 50
12 8 (0.12%) SAP Business One
13 7 (0.10%) Elite 3E
13 7 (0.10%) Oracle Applications
14 6 (0.088%) Endur
Cloud Services
1 1,481 (21.77%) Azure
2 1,094 (16.08%) Microsoft 365
3 872 (12.82%) AWS
4 522 (7.67%) Power Platform
5 322 (4.73%) SaaS
6 304 (4.47%) Entra ID
7 293 (4.31%) GCP
8 176 (2.59%) Serverless
9 161 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
10 147 (2.16%) GitHub
11 139 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
12 125 (1.84%) Power Automate
13 105 (1.54%) PowerApps
14 89 (1.31%) OneDrive
15 87 (1.28%) Amazon S3
16 77 (1.13%) Google Workspace
17 74 (1.09%) PaaS
18 72 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
19 70 (1.03%) AWS Lambda
20 69 (1.01%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 452 (6.64%) Firewall
2 403 (5.92%) DNS
3 348 (5.11%) DHCP
4 284 (4.17%) VPN
5 232 (3.41%) WAN
6 212 (3.12%) TCP/IP
7 208 (3.06%) Wi-Fi
8 207 (3.04%) LAN
9 182 (2.67%) Broadband
10 134 (1.97%) VLAN
11 132 (1.94%) Wireless
12 104 (1.53%) VoIP
13 95 (1.40%) Network Security
14 62 (0.91%) SD-WAN
15 49 (0.72%) Internet
16 45 (0.66%) BGP
17 44 (0.65%) OSPF
17 44 (0.65%) SAN
18 37 (0.54%) HTTP
19 29 (0.43%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 416 (6.11%) Power BI
2 294 (4.32%) SQL Server
3 130 (1.91%) Data Warehouse
4 108 (1.59%) Tableau
5 105 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
5 105 (1.54%) NoSQL
6 93 (1.37%) MySQL
7 92 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
8 90 (1.32%) Relational Database
9 77 (1.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 67 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 55 (0.81%) MongoDB
11 55 (0.81%) Power Query
12 50 (0.73%) Big Data
13 49 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
14 41 (0.60%) Data Lake
15 39 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
16 38 (0.56%) Metadata
17 35 (0.51%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.37%) Db2
Development Applications
1 279 (4.10%) Git
2 207 (3.04%) JIRA
3 97 (1.43%) GitLab
3 97 (1.43%) Jenkins
4 29 (0.43%) Rational DOORS
5 24 (0.35%) Selenium
6 22 (0.32%) JUnit
7 21 (0.31%) Cucumber
8 19 (0.28%) Cypress.io
8 19 (0.28%) Visual Studio
9 18 (0.26%) Chocolatey
9 18 (0.26%) Maven
10 17 (0.25%) Subversion
11 16 (0.24%) Burp Suite
11 16 (0.24%) Metasploit
12 15 (0.22%) Claude Code
12 15 (0.22%) Eclipse
13 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
13 14 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 14 (0.21%) TeamCity
General
1 3,191 (46.90%) Social Skills
2 1,973 (29.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1,339 (19.68%) Finance
4 427 (6.28%) Organisational Skills
5 391 (5.75%) Manufacturing
6 366 (5.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 329 (4.84%) Law
8 305 (4.48%) Marketing
9 304 (4.47%) Retail
10 281 (4.13%) Legal
11 273 (4.01%) Public Sector
12 264 (3.88%) Banking
13 157 (2.31%) Telecoms
14 138 (2.03%) Presentation Skills
15 132 (1.94%) Electronics
16 130 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
17 111 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
18 91 (1.34%) Aerospace
19 85 (1.25%) Advertising
20 78 (1.15%) Games
Job Titles
1 888 (13.05%) Analyst
2 837 (12.30%) Senior
3 690 (10.14%) IT Support
4 664 (9.76%) Developer
5 587 (8.63%) Support Engineer
6 416 (6.11%) IT Engineer
7 412 (6.06%) Lead
8 327 (4.81%) IT Support Engineer
9 299 (4.39%) Consultant
10 244 (3.59%) Support Analyst
11 241 (3.54%) Support Technician
12 238 (3.50%) Architect
13 231 (3.40%) Software Engineer
14 230 (3.38%) Systems Engineer
15 189 (2.78%) Technical Support
16 184 (2.70%) IT Technician
17 180 (2.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
18 164 (2.41%) Senior Developer
19 163 (2.40%) Administrator
20 160 (2.35%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 274 (4.03%) .NET
2 266 (3.91%) React
3 218 (3.20%) HTML
4 191 (2.81%) REST
5 183 (2.69%) CSS
6 147 (2.16%) Node.js
7 131 (1.93%) RESTful
8 104 (1.53%) SOAP
9 97 (1.43%) Middleware
10 88 (1.29%) JSON
11 84 (1.23%) Spring
12 77 (1.13%) Vue
13 73 (1.07%) AngularJS
14 71 (1.04%) XML
15 65 (0.96%) Web Services
16 63 (0.93%) OAuth
17 62 (0.91%) Kafka
18 55 (0.81%) gRPC
19 53 (0.78%) Spring Boot
20 51 (0.75%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 414 (6.08%) Driving Licence
2 384 (5.64%) Onboarding
3 315 (4.63%) Self-Motivation
4 255 (3.75%) Management Information System
5 247 (3.63%) Cloud Native
6 190 (2.79%) Product Ownership
7 167 (2.45%) Data Centre
8 158 (2.32%) Distributed Systems
9 154 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
10 118 (1.73%) Analytical Mindset
11 97 (1.43%) Mobile App
12 96 (1.41%) Security Posture
13 86 (1.26%) Data Structures
14 84 (1.23%) Social Media
15 81 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
16 74 (1.09%) Algorithms
17 72 (1.06%) Low-Code
18 66 (0.97%) Public Cloud
19 65 (0.96%) Virtual Team
20 61 (0.90%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 1,091 (16.03%) Windows
2 478 (7.03%) Windows Server
3 455 (6.69%) Linux
4 166 (2.44%) Windows 10
5 130 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 107 (1.57%) Android
7 88 (1.29%) Apple iOS
7 88 (1.29%) Mac OS
8 66 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
9 42 (0.62%) Unix
10 41 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 31 (0.46%) CentOS
11 31 (0.46%) Ubuntu
12 29 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 26 (0.38%) VMS
14 14 (0.21%) Mac OS X
14 14 (0.21%) Windows 7
15 12 (0.18%) Debian
16 7 (0.10%) Windows 8
16 7 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,389 (20.41%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,071 (15.74%) Agile
3 995 (14.62%) Customer Service
4 761 (11.18%) Mentoring
5 755 (11.10%) AI
6 738 (10.85%) CI/CD
7 717 (10.54%) Decision-Making
8 643 (9.45%) Analytics
9 630 (9.26%) DevOps
10 595 (8.74%) Software Engineering
11 580 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
12 556 (8.17%) ITIL
13 533 (7.83%) Roadmaps
14 524 (7.70%) Computer Science
14 524 (7.70%) Cybersecurity
15 481 (7.07%) Business Intelligence
15 481 (7.07%) Project Management
16 444 (6.53%) Collaborative Working
17 439 (6.45%) Coaching
18 411 (6.04%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 1,038 (15.26%) Python
2 1,028 (15.11%) SQL
3 466 (6.85%) JavaScript
4 351 (5.16%) C#
5 348 (5.11%) Java
6 317 (4.66%) PowerShell
7 210 (3.09%) TypeScript
8 164 (2.41%) Bash
9 147 (2.16%) C++
10 95 (1.40%) PHP
11 88 (1.29%) Go
12 60 (0.88%) C
12 60 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 57 (0.84%) Scala
14 53 (0.78%) T-SQL
15 47 (0.69%) PL/SQL
16 43 (0.63%) R
17 40 (0.59%) Rust
18 38 (0.56%) Kotlin
19 34 (0.50%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 1,109 (16.30%) Degree
2 549 (8.07%) Security Cleared
3 379 (5.57%) SC Cleared
4 265 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
5 224 (3.29%) DBS Check
6 188 (2.76%) Microsoft Certification
7 121 (1.78%) CISSP
8 119 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
9 114 (1.68%) DV Cleared
10 111 (1.63%) Master's Degree
11 99 (1.46%) Azure Certification
12 81 (1.19%) BPSS Clearance
12 81 (1.19%) PMI Certification
13 75 (1.10%) CCNA
14 73 (1.07%) PMP
15 72 (1.06%) A+ Certification
16 71 (1.04%) ACCA
17 66 (0.97%) CIMA
18 60 (0.88%) CompTIA Security+
19 57 (0.84%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 372 (5.47%) QA
2 326 (4.79%) Data Quality
3 278 (4.09%) GDPR
4 199 (2.92%) Cyber Essentials
5 197 (2.90%) SLA
6 179 (2.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 160 (2.35%) Accessibility
8 150 (2.20%) PCI DSS
9 147 (2.16%) NIST
10 53 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 44 (0.65%) PMO
12 35 (0.51%) ISO 9001
13 30 (0.44%) GRC
13 30 (0.44%) SOC 2
14 24 (0.35%) COBIT
15 20 (0.29%) GMP
16 19 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
17 16 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 15 (0.22%) IFRS
19 12 (0.18%) PERC
System Software
1 746 (10.96%) Active Directory
2 304 (4.47%) Docker
3 250 (3.67%) Hyper-V
4 218 (3.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (1.03%) Terminal Server
6 48 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
7 34 (0.50%) Firmware
8 27 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
9 26 (0.38%) vSphere
10 16 (0.24%) KVM
10 16 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.15%) IAG
12 8 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
13 7 (0.10%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.10%) XenApp
14 6 (0.088%) VMware NSX
15 5 (0.073%) ClearTrust
16 4 (0.059%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 4 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.044%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 299 (4.39%) Terraform
2 261 (3.84%) Kubernetes
3 259 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 146 (2.15%) Ansible
5 94 (1.38%) Grafana
6 79 (1.16%) SCCM
7 58 (0.85%) Prometheus
8 34 (0.50%) Nagios
9 29 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
10 19 (0.28%) FortiGate
11 18 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.26%) Kibana
12 17 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.22%) vCenter Server
14 14 (0.21%) Argo
14 14 (0.21%) Autotask
15 12 (0.18%) Kubeflow
15 12 (0.18%) Puppet
16 11 (0.16%) Nessus
17 10 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,883 (27.67%) Microsoft
2 329 (4.84%) VMware
3 186 (2.73%) Oracle
4 172 (2.53%) Google
5 161 (2.37%) SAP
6 151 (2.22%) Cisco
7 143 (2.10%) Salesforce
8 137 (2.01%) SolarWinds
9 129 (1.90%) Veeam
10 125 (1.84%) ServiceNow
11 124 (1.82%) Splunk
12 103 (1.51%) Databricks
13 81 (1.19%) Apple
14 73 (1.07%) Tanium
15 71 (1.04%) Nimble Storage
16 70 (1.03%) Brocade
17 63 (0.93%) Adobe
18 55 (0.81%) Dell
19 52 (0.76%) Red Hat
19 52 (0.76%) Sage