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

6 months to
5 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 6,484 7,587 10,535
As % of all permanent jobs in England 10.22% 18.46% 15.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.01% 19.76% 17.33%
Number of salaries quoted 4,520 4,024 7,563
10th Percentile £26,863 £29,825 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £38,750 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,497 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.28% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,250 £76,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -10.71%

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 49,845 38,393 60,807
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.58% 93.42% 87.63%
Number of salaries quoted 30,636 19,938 47,774
10th Percentile £29,500 £32,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £46,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £103,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 5 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 5 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 -1 1,910 £67,500 +3.85% 1,010
North of England -17 1,372 £42,500 -9.57% 667
South East -5 1,244 £42,500 -19.05% 843
Midlands -16 861 £37,500 -25.00% 474
North West -16 732 £45,000 -10.00% 353
South West -3 571 £42,500 -19.05% 329
West Midlands -20 504 £42,500 -22.73% 269
Yorkshire -5 500 £35,000 -19.44% 244
East of England -6 421 £40,000 -20.00% 392
East Midlands -1 354 £35,000 -4.11% 202
North East -6 140 £45,000 - 84
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
1 326 (5.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 282 (4.35%) SharePoint
3 81 (1.25%) Confluence
4 59 (0.91%) Apache
5 54 (0.83%) CMS
6 48 (0.74%) IIS
7 45 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
8 42 (0.65%) Apache Spark
9 32 (0.49%) WordPress
10 16 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
11 11 (0.17%) nginx
12 10 (0.15%) SAS
13 8 (0.12%) Drupal
13 8 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
15 6 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2007
15 6 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2010
15 6 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2013
16 4 (0.062%) Apache Solr
16 4 (0.062%) Moodle
Applications
1 447 (6.89%) Microsoft Office
2 350 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 78 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 32 (0.49%) MS Visio
6 27 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
7 24 (0.37%) Maya
8 18 (0.28%) AutoCAD
9 13 (0.20%) Photoshop
10 11 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
11 10 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 10 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
13 5 (0.077%) Adobe XD
13 5 (0.077%) Trello
14 4 (0.062%) CATIA
14 4 (0.062%) Fusion 360
15 3 (0.046%) Adobe Premiere
15 3 (0.046%) Elementor
15 3 (0.046%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 78 (1.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 68 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
3 33 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 17 (0.26%) Endur
5 17 (0.26%) SAP CO
6 16 (0.25%) Shopify
7 14 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
8 10 (0.15%) iTrent
8 10 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
8 10 (0.15%) Workday HCM
9 9 (0.14%) Maximo
9 9 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 9 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
9 9 (0.14%) SAP Business One
10 8 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
10 8 (0.12%) SAP ERP
10 8 (0.12%) SAP FI
10 8 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
11 7 (0.11%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 1,385 (21.36%) Azure
2 990 (15.27%) Microsoft 365
3 764 (11.78%) AWS
4 465 (7.17%) Power Platform
5 373 (5.75%) SaaS
6 288 (4.44%) Entra ID
7 260 (4.01%) GCP
8 179 (2.76%) Azure DevOps
9 163 (2.51%) GitHub
10 160 (2.47%) Serverless
11 131 (2.02%) Power Automate
12 109 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
13 94 (1.45%) Google Workspace
14 88 (1.36%) Amazon S3
15 83 (1.28%) PowerApps
16 81 (1.25%) AWS CloudFormation
16 81 (1.25%) AWS Lambda
17 70 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
18 68 (1.05%) PaaS
19 65 (1.00%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 417 (6.43%) DNS
2 368 (5.68%) Firewall
3 356 (5.49%) DHCP
4 242 (3.73%) VPN
5 214 (3.30%) TCP/IP
6 208 (3.21%) WAN
7 202 (3.12%) Wi-Fi
8 175 (2.70%) LAN
9 142 (2.19%) Broadband
10 129 (1.99%) VLAN
11 93 (1.43%) VoIP
12 92 (1.42%) Wireless
13 66 (1.02%) SD-WAN
14 53 (0.82%) Remote Desktop
15 50 (0.77%) Internet
16 48 (0.74%) Network Security
17 47 (0.72%) SAN
18 33 (0.51%) Structured Cabling
19 29 (0.45%) BGP
19 29 (0.45%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 378 (5.83%) Power BI
2 283 (4.36%) SQL Server
3 146 (2.25%) Data Warehouse
4 131 (2.02%) Tableau
5 126 (1.94%) Relational Database
6 118 (1.82%) NoSQL
7 109 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
8 99 (1.53%) Amazon RDS
9 93 (1.43%) MySQL
10 67 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 56 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
11 56 (0.86%) MongoDB
12 52 (0.80%) Metadata
13 50 (0.77%) Data Lake
14 48 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 45 (0.69%) DynamoDB
16 43 (0.66%) Power Query
17 41 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
18 39 (0.60%) Big Data
19 27 (0.42%) Redis
Development Applications
1 277 (4.27%) Git
2 235 (3.62%) JIRA
3 104 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 92 (1.42%) GitLab
5 55 (0.85%) Selenium
6 27 (0.42%) Visual Studio
7 23 (0.35%) Cypress.io
8 19 (0.29%) Burp Suite
8 19 (0.29%) Maven
8 19 (0.29%) Metasploit
8 19 (0.29%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.28%) Bitbucket
9 18 (0.28%) LabVIEW
9 18 (0.28%) Robot Framework
10 16 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
11 15 (0.23%) Cucumber
11 15 (0.23%) JUnit
11 15 (0.23%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.22%) CircleCI
12 14 (0.22%) Snyk
General
1 3,293 (50.79%) Social Skills
2 1,977 (30.49%) Analytical Skills
3 1,474 (22.73%) Finance
4 440 (6.79%) Organisational Skills
5 365 (5.63%) Marketing
6 322 (4.97%) Retail
7 317 (4.89%) Law
8 309 (4.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 295 (4.55%) Legal
10 289 (4.46%) Public Sector
11 288 (4.44%) Manufacturing
12 281 (4.33%) Banking
13 176 (2.71%) Presentation Skills
13 176 (2.71%) Telecoms
14 136 (2.10%) Electronics
15 106 (1.63%) Games
16 103 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
17 89 (1.37%) Automotive
18 87 (1.34%) Financial Institution
19 83 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 975 (15.04%) Analyst
2 796 (12.28%) Senior
3 763 (11.77%) IT Support
4 654 (10.09%) Support Engineer
5 595 (9.18%) Developer
6 385 (5.94%) Lead
7 357 (5.51%) IT Engineer
8 334 (5.15%) Support Analyst
9 302 (4.66%) IT Support Engineer
10 242 (3.73%) Consultant
11 239 (3.69%) Technical Support
12 223 (3.44%) Business Analyst
13 217 (3.35%) Architect
14 208 (3.21%) Support Technician
15 199 (3.07%) 2nd Line Support
16 171 (2.64%) Technical Engineer
17 170 (2.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
18 164 (2.53%) IT Analyst
18 164 (2.53%) Technical Support Engineer
19 160 (2.47%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 273 (4.21%) .NET
2 255 (3.93%) React
3 226 (3.49%) HTML
4 180 (2.78%) CSS
5 149 (2.30%) Node.js
6 133 (2.05%) REST
7 111 (1.71%) RESTful
8 81 (1.25%) AngularJS
9 70 (1.08%) Middleware
9 70 (1.08%) Vue
10 66 (1.02%) Spring
11 65 (1.00%) Kafka
12 62 (0.96%) SOAP
13 60 (0.93%) JSON
14 56 (0.86%) XML
15 53 (0.82%) Django
16 48 (0.74%) .NET Framework
16 48 (0.74%) Flask
17 45 (0.69%) Spring Boot
18 43 (0.66%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 546 (8.42%) Driving Licence
2 480 (7.40%) Onboarding
3 417 (6.43%) Self-Motivation
4 212 (3.27%) Management Information System
5 183 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
6 172 (2.65%) Cloud Native
7 144 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
8 141 (2.17%) Product Ownership
9 139 (2.14%) Data Centre
10 112 (1.73%) Distributed Systems
10 112 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
11 93 (1.43%) Mobile App
12 83 (1.28%) Social Media
13 73 (1.13%) Data Structures
14 72 (1.11%) Low-Code
15 63 (0.97%) Algorithms
16 56 (0.86%) Security Posture
16 56 (0.86%) Virtual Team
17 52 (0.80%) EPoS
18 51 (0.79%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 1,132 (17.46%) Windows
2 438 (6.76%) Windows Server
3 400 (6.17%) Linux
4 168 (2.59%) Windows 10
5 119 (1.84%) Windows Server 2016
6 114 (1.76%) Android
7 98 (1.51%) Mac OS
8 81 (1.25%) Apple iOS
9 59 (0.91%) Unix
10 54 (0.83%) Windows Server 2019
11 33 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
12 32 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 25 (0.39%) Windows 7
14 23 (0.35%) CentOS
15 18 (0.28%) Ubuntu
16 16 (0.25%) VMS
17 10 (0.15%) Windows 8
18 9 (0.14%) Mac OS X
19 7 (0.11%) Debian
20 4 (0.062%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,164 (17.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,034 (15.95%) Agile
3 967 (14.91%) Customer Service
4 666 (10.27%) Mentoring
5 660 (10.18%) Analytics
6 634 (9.78%) Decision-Making
7 629 (9.70%) AI
8 615 (9.48%) CI/CD
9 607 (9.36%) DevOps
10 586 (9.04%) Project Management
11 555 (8.56%) ITIL
12 540 (8.33%) Business Intelligence
13 515 (7.94%) Computer Science
14 500 (7.71%) Stakeholder Management
15 460 (7.09%) Cybersecurity
16 412 (6.35%) Software Engineering
17 396 (6.11%) Change Management
18 381 (5.88%) CRM
19 369 (5.69%) ERP
19 369 (5.69%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 950 (14.65%) Python
2 932 (14.37%) SQL
3 423 (6.52%) JavaScript
4 330 (5.09%) PowerShell
5 318 (4.90%) Java
6 302 (4.66%) C#
7 174 (2.68%) TypeScript
8 150 (2.31%) Bash
9 94 (1.45%) PHP
10 78 (1.20%) C++
11 68 (1.05%) Go
12 65 (1.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 51 (0.79%) Scala
14 46 (0.71%) T-SQL
15 44 (0.68%) C
16 38 (0.59%) R
17 32 (0.49%) Apex Code
17 32 (0.49%) Kotlin
18 27 (0.42%) Bicep
19 25 (0.39%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,363 (21.02%) Degree
2 509 (7.85%) Security Cleared
3 324 (5.00%) SC Cleared
4 244 (3.76%) Computer Science Degree
5 187 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 166 (2.56%) DBS Check
7 136 (2.10%) Master's Degree
8 114 (1.76%) DV Cleared
9 104 (1.60%) CISSP
10 100 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
11 85 (1.31%) Cisco Certification
12 83 (1.28%) A+ Certification
12 83 (1.28%) ACCA
13 71 (1.10%) CIMA
14 66 (1.02%) Network+ Certification
15 63 (0.97%) PMI Certification
16 58 (0.89%) CCNA
17 54 (0.83%) AWS Certification
18 51 (0.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
19 50 (0.77%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 307 (4.73%) QA
2 255 (3.93%) Data Quality
3 224 (3.45%) GDPR
4 168 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 167 (2.58%) Cyber Essentials
6 139 (2.14%) SLA
7 131 (2.02%) Accessibility
8 122 (1.88%) PCI DSS
9 98 (1.51%) NIST
10 48 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 32 (0.49%) ISO 9001
12 28 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
13 25 (0.39%) SOC 2
14 22 (0.34%) PMO
15 20 (0.31%) GRC
16 19 (0.29%) COBIT
17 12 (0.19%) GMP
18 11 (0.17%) WCAG
19 10 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
20 9 (0.14%) ITGC
System Software
1 763 (11.77%) Active Directory
2 296 (4.57%) Docker
3 240 (3.70%) Hyper-V
4 159 (2.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (1.08%) Terminal Server
6 27 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (0.37%) Firmware
7 24 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.26%) vSphere
9 12 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.17%) KVM
11 9 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
12 7 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.093%) IAG
14 5 (0.077%) XenApp
15 4 (0.062%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) vCloud
16 3 (0.046%) VMware NSX
17 2 (0.031%) Postfix
17 2 (0.031%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 280 (4.32%) Terraform
2 279 (4.30%) Microsoft Intune
3 221 (3.41%) Kubernetes
4 148 (2.28%) Ansible
5 82 (1.26%) Grafana
6 74 (1.14%) SCCM
7 56 (0.86%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.65%) BMC PATROL
9 27 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
10 26 (0.40%) Nagios
11 21 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 18 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.23%) Argo
14 14 (0.22%) Cisco CUCM
15 13 (0.20%) vCenter Server
15 13 (0.20%) ZABBIX
16 12 (0.19%) Autotask
16 12 (0.19%) Kibana
17 11 (0.17%) Nessus
18 10 (0.15%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,700 (26.22%) Microsoft
2 279 (4.30%) VMware
3 250 (3.86%) SAP
4 232 (3.58%) Oracle
5 164 (2.53%) Google
6 153 (2.36%) Salesforce
7 148 (2.28%) Cisco
8 136 (2.10%) Veeam
9 125 (1.93%) SolarWinds
10 123 (1.90%) Splunk
11 122 (1.88%) ServiceNow
12 102 (1.57%) Databricks
13 98 (1.51%) Adobe
14 82 (1.26%) Apple
15 71 (1.10%) Tanium
16 70 (1.08%) Brocade
16 70 (1.08%) Nimble Storage
17 57 (0.88%) Dell
17 57 (0.88%) Sage
18 50 (0.77%) HubSpot