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

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,280 7,195 12,531
As % of all permanent jobs in England 7.76% 18.72% 15.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.39% 20.11% 17.56%
Number of salaries quoted 4,407 4,569 8,489
10th Percentile £27,500 £28,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £73,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £87,500 £90,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +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 60,455 35,779 71,352
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 74.68% 93.09% 85.50%
Number of salaries quoted 38,411 20,632 53,699
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,625 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £59,450 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -0.92% +9.09% -10.57%

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 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 5 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 -4 1,924 £70,000 +7.69% 1,032
North of England -19 1,270 £42,500 -7.61% 641
South East -8 1,135 £46,000 -8.00% 753
Midlands -22 870 £40,000 -11.11% 441
North West -16 665 £44,000 -8.03% 354
South West -8 536 £43,500 -2.44% 287
West Midlands -23 513 £42,500 -13.27% 272
Yorkshire -12 482 £40,000 - 214
East of England -10 455 £40,000 -15.79% 265
East Midlands -7 354 £35,000 -9.09% 170
North East -16 123 £48,500 +7.78% 80
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
1 329 (5.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 298 (4.75%) SharePoint
3 67 (1.07%) Confluence
4 56 (0.89%) Apache
5 54 (0.86%) CMS
6 44 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
7 33 (0.53%) Apache Spark
8 27 (0.43%) WordPress
9 25 (0.40%) IIS
10 15 (0.24%) SAS
11 13 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
12 11 (0.18%) nginx
13 10 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
14 8 (0.13%) Drupal
14 8 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2007
14 8 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2010
15 5 (0.080%) OpenStack
15 5 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 5 (0.080%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.064%) Moodle
Applications
1 415 (6.61%) Microsoft Office
2 329 (5.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 59 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 46 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
5 38 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 29 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 14 (0.22%) Chatbot
8 10 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
9 9 (0.14%) Fusion 360
9 9 (0.14%) Maya
10 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 7 (0.11%) AutoCAD
11 7 (0.11%) Photoshop
12 3 (0.048%) Adobe XD
12 3 (0.048%) Simulink
12 3 (0.048%) SOLIDWORKS
12 3 (0.048%) Trello
13 2 (0.032%) Elementor
13 2 (0.032%) Notion
13 2 (0.032%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 58 (0.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 54 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 32 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 14 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
5 14 (0.22%) Magento
5 14 (0.22%) SAP CO
5 14 (0.22%) Shopify
6 13 (0.21%) iTrent
6 13 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 12 (0.19%) Maximo
8 11 (0.18%) Endur
8 11 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
9 10 (0.16%) Workday HCM
10 9 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
11 8 (0.13%) Elite 3E
12 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
12 7 (0.11%) SAP Business One
13 6 (0.096%) IBM Planning Analytics
13 6 (0.096%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 1,299 (20.68%) Azure
2 943 (15.02%) Microsoft 365
3 787 (12.53%) AWS
4 470 (7.48%) Power Platform
5 329 (5.24%) SaaS
6 288 (4.59%) GCP
7 265 (4.22%) Entra ID
8 173 (2.75%) Serverless
9 165 (2.63%) GitHub
10 163 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
11 117 (1.86%) Power Automate
12 111 (1.77%) Dynamics 365
13 95 (1.51%) Amazon S3
14 86 (1.37%) Google Workspace
15 83 (1.32%) AWS Lambda
16 82 (1.31%) GitHub Actions
17 81 (1.29%) PowerApps
18 75 (1.19%) PaaS
19 73 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
20 72 (1.15%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 371 (5.91%) Firewall
2 361 (5.75%) DNS
3 300 (4.78%) DHCP
4 247 (3.93%) VPN
5 211 (3.36%) WAN
6 193 (3.07%) Wi-Fi
7 180 (2.87%) Broadband
7 180 (2.87%) LAN
8 176 (2.80%) TCP/IP
9 111 (1.77%) Wireless
10 109 (1.74%) VLAN
11 94 (1.50%) VoIP
12 65 (1.04%) SD-WAN
13 59 (0.94%) Network Security
14 51 (0.81%) SAN
15 38 (0.61%) Internet
16 34 (0.54%) HTTP
17 30 (0.48%) BGP
17 30 (0.48%) OSPF
18 28 (0.45%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 390 (6.21%) Power BI
2 277 (4.41%) SQL Server
3 122 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
4 112 (1.78%) NoSQL
5 109 (1.74%) Tableau
6 94 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
7 80 (1.27%) Relational Database
8 79 (1.26%) MySQL
9 67 (1.07%) Amazon RDS
10 66 (1.05%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 61 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 56 (0.89%) Power Query
13 52 (0.83%) MongoDB
14 47 (0.75%) DynamoDB
15 46 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
16 42 (0.67%) Data Lake
17 41 (0.65%) Big Data
18 39 (0.62%) Metadata
19 36 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
20 26 (0.41%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 269 (4.28%) Git
2 214 (3.41%) JIRA
3 113 (1.80%) Jenkins
4 107 (1.70%) GitLab
5 38 (0.61%) Selenium
6 24 (0.38%) Cucumber
7 23 (0.37%) Rational DOORS
7 23 (0.37%) Visual Studio
8 22 (0.35%) Maven
9 21 (0.33%) Cypress.io
10 20 (0.32%) Chocolatey
10 20 (0.32%) SonarQube
11 18 (0.29%) Bitbucket
12 17 (0.27%) CircleCI
13 16 (0.25%) Burp Suite
13 16 (0.25%) Metasploit
14 15 (0.24%) JUnit
14 15 (0.24%) TeamCity
15 13 (0.21%) LabVIEW
16 12 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,921 (46.51%) Social Skills
2 1,869 (29.76%) Analytical Skills
3 1,331 (21.19%) Finance
4 411 (6.54%) Organisational Skills
5 364 (5.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 335 (5.33%) Marketing
7 317 (5.05%) Manufacturing
8 297 (4.73%) Law
9 272 (4.33%) Banking
10 267 (4.25%) Public Sector
10 267 (4.25%) Retail
11 252 (4.01%) Legal
12 156 (2.48%) Telecoms
13 138 (2.20%) Electronics
13 138 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
14 103 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
15 85 (1.35%) Games
16 82 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
17 79 (1.26%) Advertising
18 77 (1.23%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 878 (13.98%) Analyst
2 778 (12.39%) Senior
3 655 (10.43%) IT Support
4 574 (9.14%) Support Engineer
5 560 (8.92%) Developer
6 393 (6.26%) Lead
7 382 (6.08%) IT Engineer
8 301 (4.79%) IT Support Engineer
9 264 (4.20%) Support Analyst
10 249 (3.96%) Consultant
11 219 (3.49%) Architect
12 210 (3.34%) Support Technician
13 191 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 190 (3.03%) Software Engineer
15 181 (2.88%) Business Analyst
16 173 (2.75%) Systems Engineer
17 171 (2.72%) 2nd Line Support
18 168 (2.68%) Technical Support
19 153 (2.44%) IT Technician
20 148 (2.36%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 232 (3.69%) .NET
2 231 (3.68%) React
3 205 (3.26%) HTML
4 173 (2.75%) CSS
5 151 (2.40%) REST
6 142 (2.26%) Node.js
7 117 (1.86%) RESTful
8 85 (1.35%) Middleware
9 82 (1.31%) SOAP
10 71 (1.13%) Spring
11 69 (1.10%) JSON
12 65 (1.04%) XML
13 64 (1.02%) Kafka
14 59 (0.94%) AngularJS
15 58 (0.92%) Vue
16 53 (0.84%) OAuth
16 53 (0.84%) Spring Boot
17 50 (0.80%) gRPC
18 49 (0.78%) Web Services
19 48 (0.76%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 403 (6.42%) Onboarding
2 399 (6.35%) Driving Licence
3 327 (5.21%) Self-Motivation
4 196 (3.12%) Management Information System
5 190 (3.03%) Cloud Native
6 169 (2.69%) Product Ownership
7 151 (2.40%) Distributed Systems
8 146 (2.32%) Data Centre
9 144 (2.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 113 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
11 100 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
12 91 (1.45%) Social Media
13 89 (1.42%) Mobile App
14 77 (1.23%) Data Structures
15 66 (1.05%) Low-Code
16 64 (1.02%) Algorithms
17 61 (0.97%) Security Posture
17 61 (0.97%) Virtual Team
18 58 (0.92%) Video\Live Streaming
19 52 (0.83%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 974 (15.51%) Windows
2 379 (6.04%) Linux
3 376 (5.99%) Windows Server
4 161 (2.56%) Windows 10
5 104 (1.66%) Android
6 97 (1.54%) Windows Server 2016
7 87 (1.39%) Apple iOS
8 84 (1.34%) Mac OS
9 52 (0.83%) Windows Server 2019
10 44 (0.70%) Unix
11 42 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 33 (0.53%) CentOS
12 33 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
13 27 (0.43%) Ubuntu
14 23 (0.37%) VMS
15 18 (0.29%) Windows 7
16 15 (0.24%) Mac OS X
17 11 (0.18%) Debian
18 8 (0.13%) Windows 8
19 7 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,150 (18.31%) Continuous Improvement
2 999 (15.91%) Agile
3 905 (14.41%) Customer Service
4 678 (10.80%) AI
4 678 (10.80%) CI/CD
5 647 (10.30%) Decision-Making
6 642 (10.22%) Mentoring
7 621 (9.89%) Analytics
8 611 (9.73%) DevOps
9 544 (8.66%) ITIL
10 512 (8.15%) Project Management
11 500 (7.96%) Stakeholder Management
12 492 (7.83%) Business Intelligence
13 487 (7.75%) Computer Science
14 478 (7.61%) Software Engineering
15 453 (7.21%) Roadmaps
16 420 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
17 414 (6.59%) Coaching
18 354 (5.64%) Collaborative Working
19 346 (5.51%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 959 (15.27%) Python
2 855 (13.61%) SQL
3 404 (6.43%) JavaScript
4 331 (5.27%) Java
5 284 (4.52%) PowerShell
6 256 (4.08%) C#
7 185 (2.95%) TypeScript
8 153 (2.44%) Bash
9 92 (1.46%) C++
10 89 (1.42%) Go
11 83 (1.32%) PHP
12 64 (1.02%) Scala
13 62 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 49 (0.78%) C
15 40 (0.64%) T-SQL
16 38 (0.61%) Rust
17 36 (0.57%) Kotlin
18 34 (0.54%) Bicep
19 33 (0.53%) PL/SQL
19 33 (0.53%) R
Qualifications
1 1,145 (18.23%) Degree
2 421 (6.70%) Security Cleared
3 258 (4.11%) SC Cleared
4 247 (3.93%) Computer Science Degree
5 212 (3.38%) DBS Check
6 179 (2.85%) Microsoft Certification
7 120 (1.91%) Master's Degree
8 110 (1.75%) CISSP
9 105 (1.67%) DV Cleared
10 96 (1.53%) Cisco Certification
11 89 (1.42%) A+ Certification
12 80 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
13 78 (1.24%) PMI Certification
14 75 (1.19%) ACCA
15 66 (1.05%) CCNA
15 66 (1.05%) CIMA
16 63 (1.00%) PMP
17 58 (0.92%) Azure Certification
18 57 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
19 52 (0.83%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 315 (5.02%) QA
2 294 (4.68%) Data Quality
3 253 (4.03%) GDPR
4 173 (2.75%) SLA
5 156 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 140 (2.23%) NIST
7 139 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials
8 112 (1.78%) PCI DSS
9 111 (1.77%) Accessibility
10 48 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 34 (0.54%) ISO 9001
11 34 (0.54%) SOC 2
12 28 (0.45%) PMO
13 27 (0.43%) GRC
14 26 (0.41%) COBIT
15 20 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
16 14 (0.22%) GMP
17 12 (0.19%) IFRS
17 12 (0.19%) TickIT
18 11 (0.18%) PERC
System Software
1 659 (10.49%) Active Directory
2 286 (4.55%) Docker
3 177 (2.82%) Hyper-V
4 160 (2.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 42 (0.67%) Terminal Server
6 41 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
7 34 (0.54%) Firmware
8 20 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 19 (0.30%) vSphere
10 15 (0.24%) KVM
11 10 (0.16%) IAG
12 9 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
13 8 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.096%) XenApp
15 4 (0.064%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.064%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 4 (0.064%) VMware NSX
16 3 (0.048%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.048%) Virtual Servers
17 2 (0.032%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 295 (4.70%) Terraform
2 234 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 231 (3.68%) Kubernetes
4 147 (2.34%) Ansible
5 91 (1.45%) Grafana
6 81 (1.29%) SCCM
7 49 (0.78%) Prometheus
8 31 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
9 30 (0.48%) Nagios
10 23 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 20 (0.32%) BMC PATROL
12 18 (0.29%) Kibana
13 15 (0.24%) Autotask
14 14 (0.22%) Argo
15 13 (0.21%) Puppet
16 12 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
16 12 (0.19%) Nessus
16 12 (0.19%) vCenter Server
17 10 (0.16%) WSUS
18 9 (0.14%) logstash
Vendors
1 1,627 (25.91%) Microsoft
2 242 (3.85%) VMware
3 186 (2.96%) Oracle
4 160 (2.55%) Google
5 156 (2.48%) SAP
6 133 (2.12%) ServiceNow
7 132 (2.10%) Salesforce
8 130 (2.07%) Cisco
9 111 (1.77%) Databricks
10 110 (1.75%) SolarWinds
11 93 (1.48%) Splunk
12 92 (1.46%) Veeam
13 80 (1.27%) Apple
14 72 (1.15%) Adobe
15 65 (1.04%) Dell
16 58 (0.92%) Red Hat
17 48 (0.76%) Dynatrace
18 47 (0.75%) Meraki
19 45 (0.72%) Typelevel
20 44 (0.70%) Fortinet