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

6 months to
27 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 6,511 7,716 12,669
As % of all permanent jobs in England 7.85% 20.32% 14.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.61% 21.77% 17.45%
Number of salaries quoted 4,609 4,273 8,459
10th Percentile £27,500 £27,500 £26,043
25th Percentile £31,691 £33,250 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £50,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.94% +1.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £69,390 £71,250 £67,625
90th Percentile £87,500 £88,750 £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 61,348 35,444 72,599
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.96% 93.35% 84.02%
Number of salaries quoted 40,742 18,936 54,252
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £41,250 £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 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,375 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.78% +6.14% -9.84%

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 27 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 27 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 1,926 £70,000 +7.69% 1,197
North of England -8 1,356 £42,500 -5.56% 644
South East -8 1,174 £45,000 -3.23% 683
Midlands -22 910 £42,000 -6.67% 381
North West -15 695 £45,000 -4.26% 358
South West -8 569 £43,500 +8.75% 282
West Midlands -24 532 £42,500 -11.46% 245
Yorkshire -10 515 £41,500 +10.67% 214
East of England -7 490 £42,500 +5.98% 254
East Midlands -10 374 £35,000 -9.09% 137
North East -15 146 £48,222 +7.16% 83
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
1 339 (5.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 330 (5.07%) SharePoint
3 72 (1.11%) Confluence
4 64 (0.98%) CMS
5 54 (0.83%) Apache
6 36 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
7 35 (0.54%) IIS
8 29 (0.45%) Apache Spark
9 27 (0.41%) WordPress
10 16 (0.25%) SAS
11 14 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
12 10 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2013
13 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
13 8 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
14 7 (0.11%) Drupal
14 7 (0.11%) nginx
14 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
14 7 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 6 (0.092%) Moodle
16 5 (0.077%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 399 (6.13%) Microsoft Office
2 336 (5.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 55 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
5 40 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 16 (0.25%) 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 (0.092%) Photoshop
10 6 (0.092%) Simulink
11 5 (0.077%) Maya
11 5 (0.077%) Trello
12 3 (0.046%) Acrobat
12 3 (0.046%) Autodesk Inventor
13 2 (0.031%) Adobe XD
13 2 (0.031%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 61 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 59 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
5 20 (0.31%) Shopify
6 16 (0.25%) Magento
7 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
7 15 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
8 14 (0.22%) SAP CO
8 14 (0.22%) SAP ERP
9 11 (0.17%) iTrent
9 11 (0.17%) Maximo
10 9 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
10 9 (0.14%) Endur
10 9 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 8 (0.12%) Sage 50
12 7 (0.11%) Elite 3E
12 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
12 7 (0.11%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,380 (21.19%) Azure
2 1,006 (15.45%) Microsoft 365
3 829 (12.73%) AWS
4 486 (7.46%) Power Platform
5 317 (4.87%) SaaS
6 285 (4.38%) GCP
7 273 (4.19%) Entra ID
8 169 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
9 168 (2.58%) Serverless
10 147 (2.26%) GitHub
11 126 (1.94%) Dynamics 365
12 115 (1.77%) Power Automate
13 94 (1.44%) PowerApps
14 90 (1.38%) Amazon S3
15 87 (1.34%) Google Workspace
16 76 (1.17%) PaaS
17 75 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
18 74 (1.14%) OneDrive
19 73 (1.12%) IaaS
20 71 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 398 (6.11%) Firewall
2 375 (5.76%) DNS
3 309 (4.75%) DHCP
4 257 (3.95%) VPN
5 226 (3.47%) WAN
6 196 (3.01%) LAN
6 196 (3.01%) Wi-Fi
7 193 (2.96%) TCP/IP
8 177 (2.72%) Broadband
9 125 (1.92%) VLAN
10 124 (1.90%) Wireless
11 98 (1.51%) VoIP
12 77 (1.18%) Network Security
13 68 (1.04%) SD-WAN
14 52 (0.80%) SAN
15 43 (0.66%) Internet
16 42 (0.65%) BGP
17 41 (0.63%) OSPF
18 35 (0.54%) HTTP
19 32 (0.49%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 384 (5.90%) Power BI
2 285 (4.38%) SQL Server
3 126 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
4 110 (1.69%) Tableau
5 106 (1.63%) NoSQL
6 97 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
7 82 (1.26%) MySQL
8 79 (1.21%) Amazon RDS
8 79 (1.21%) Relational Database
9 75 (1.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 64 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 55 (0.84%) Big Data
12 53 (0.81%) Power Query
13 46 (0.71%) MongoDB
14 45 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
15 43 (0.66%) DynamoDB
16 38 (0.58%) Metadata
17 37 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
18 35 (0.54%) Data Lake
19 25 (0.38%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 287 (4.41%) Git
2 211 (3.24%) JIRA
3 105 (1.61%) GitLab
4 102 (1.57%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.45%) Rational DOORS
5 29 (0.45%) Selenium
6 21 (0.32%) Chocolatey
6 21 (0.32%) Visual Studio
7 20 (0.31%) Maven
8 19 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 19 (0.29%) Cypress.io
9 18 (0.28%) JUnit
10 17 (0.26%) CircleCI
11 15 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 15 (0.23%) Burp Suite
11 15 (0.23%) Metasploit
11 15 (0.23%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.22%) TeamCity
13 13 (0.20%) LabVIEW
13 13 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,994 (45.98%) Social Skills
2 1,917 (29.44%) Analytical Skills
3 1,334 (20.49%) Finance
4 418 (6.42%) Organisational Skills
5 365 (5.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 347 (5.33%) Manufacturing
7 335 (5.15%) Law
8 321 (4.93%) Marketing
9 277 (4.25%) Retail
10 275 (4.22%) Legal
11 274 (4.21%) Public Sector
12 262 (4.02%) Banking
13 160 (2.46%) Telecoms
14 144 (2.21%) Electronics
15 134 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
16 106 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
17 94 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
18 84 (1.29%) Advertising
19 83 (1.27%) Aerospace
20 79 (1.21%) Games
Job Titles
1 850 (13.05%) Analyst
2 814 (12.50%) Senior
3 673 (10.34%) IT Support
4 614 (9.43%) Developer
5 573 (8.80%) Support Engineer
6 405 (6.22%) Lead
7 402 (6.17%) IT Engineer
8 313 (4.81%) IT Support Engineer
9 285 (4.38%) Consultant
10 242 (3.72%) Support Analyst
11 238 (3.66%) Support Technician
12 226 (3.47%) Architect
13 220 (3.38%) Software Engineer
14 209 (3.21%) Systems Engineer
15 198 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 178 (2.73%) IT Technician
17 173 (2.66%) Technical Support
18 165 (2.53%) 2nd Line Support
18 165 (2.53%) Business Analyst
19 157 (2.41%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (4.01%) .NET
2 246 (3.78%) React
3 209 (3.21%) HTML
4 180 (2.76%) CSS
5 166 (2.55%) REST
6 130 (2.00%) Node.js
7 123 (1.89%) RESTful
8 94 (1.44%) SOAP
9 85 (1.31%) Middleware
10 79 (1.21%) Spring
11 78 (1.20%) JSON
12 69 (1.06%) XML
13 64 (0.98%) Vue
14 62 (0.95%) Kafka
15 61 (0.94%) AngularJS
15 61 (0.94%) OAuth
16 56 (0.86%) gRPC
17 53 (0.81%) Spring Boot
18 51 (0.78%) EDI
18 51 (0.78%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 398 (6.11%) Driving Licence
2 376 (5.77%) Onboarding
3 300 (4.61%) Self-Motivation
4 217 (3.33%) Management Information System
5 211 (3.24%) Cloud Native
6 188 (2.89%) Product Ownership
7 165 (2.53%) Data Centre
8 150 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
9 131 (2.01%) Analytical Mindset
10 123 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
11 95 (1.46%) Mobile App
12 90 (1.38%) Social Media
13 85 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
14 83 (1.27%) Data Structures
15 71 (1.09%) Low-Code
16 68 (1.04%) Algorithms
17 66 (1.01%) Virtual Team
18 63 (0.97%) Security Posture
19 60 (0.92%) Video\Live Streaming
20 55 (0.84%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,015 (15.59%) Windows
2 416 (6.39%) Windows Server
3 410 (6.30%) Linux
4 164 (2.52%) Windows 10
5 110 (1.69%) Windows Server 2016
6 109 (1.67%) Android
7 85 (1.31%) Apple iOS
8 81 (1.24%) Mac OS
9 63 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 44 (0.68%) Unix
11 41 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 33 (0.51%) CentOS
13 32 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
14 29 (0.45%) Ubuntu
15 24 (0.37%) VMS
16 16 (0.25%) Windows 7
17 14 (0.22%) Mac OS X
18 10 (0.15%) Debian
19 7 (0.11%) Windows 8
19 7 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,235 (18.97%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,041 (15.99%) Agile
3 933 (14.33%) Customer Service
4 720 (11.06%) AI
4 720 (11.06%) Mentoring
5 712 (10.94%) CI/CD
6 679 (10.43%) Decision-Making
7 623 (9.57%) Analytics
8 620 (9.52%) DevOps
9 535 (8.22%) ITIL
10 533 (8.19%) Stakeholder Management
11 530 (8.14%) Software Engineering
12 501 (7.69%) Roadmaps
13 495 (7.60%) Computer Science
14 477 (7.33%) Project Management
15 456 (7.00%) Business Intelligence
16 448 (6.88%) Cybersecurity
17 446 (6.85%) Coaching
18 399 (6.13%) Collaborative Working
19 372 (5.71%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 998 (15.33%) Python
2 924 (14.19%) SQL
3 439 (6.74%) JavaScript
4 334 (5.13%) Java
5 310 (4.76%) C#
6 293 (4.50%) PowerShell
7 194 (2.98%) TypeScript
8 155 (2.38%) Bash
9 127 (1.95%) C++
10 86 (1.32%) PHP
11 85 (1.31%) Go
12 63 (0.97%) Scala
13 58 (0.89%) C
14 56 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 46 (0.71%) T-SQL
16 43 (0.66%) PL/SQL
17 42 (0.65%) R
18 41 (0.63%) Rust
19 36 (0.55%) Apex Code
20 34 (0.52%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 1,127 (17.31%) Degree
2 501 (7.69%) Security Cleared
3 331 (5.08%) SC Cleared
4 253 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
5 222 (3.41%) DBS Check
6 187 (2.87%) Microsoft Certification
7 117 (1.80%) DV Cleared
8 114 (1.75%) Master's Degree
9 109 (1.67%) Cisco Certification
10 108 (1.66%) CISSP
11 85 (1.31%) A+ Certification
12 84 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 83 (1.27%) Azure Certification
13 83 (1.27%) PMI Certification
14 69 (1.06%) CCNA
14 69 (1.06%) PMP
15 65 (1.00%) ACCA
16 60 (0.92%) CIMA
17 57 (0.88%) Network+ Certification
18 54 (0.83%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 333 (5.11%) QA
2 304 (4.67%) Data Quality
3 260 (3.99%) GDPR
4 196 (3.01%) SLA
5 155 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials
6 148 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 139 (2.13%) Accessibility
8 137 (2.10%) NIST
9 116 (1.78%) PCI DSS
10 43 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 35 (0.54%) ISO 9001
12 32 (0.49%) PMO
13 30 (0.46%) SOC 2
14 26 (0.40%) GRC
15 24 (0.37%) COBIT
16 22 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
17 14 (0.22%) GMP
18 12 (0.18%) IFRS
18 12 (0.18%) TickIT
19 11 (0.17%) PERC
System Software
1 683 (10.49%) Active Directory
2 286 (4.39%) Docker
3 204 (3.13%) Hyper-V
4 190 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
5 49 (0.75%) Terminal Server
6 44 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 38 (0.58%) Firmware
8 26 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
9 20 (0.31%) vSphere
10 15 (0.23%) KVM
11 14 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.15%) IAG
13 7 (0.11%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.11%) XenApp
14 5 (0.077%) Embedded Firmware
14 5 (0.077%) VMware NSX
15 4 (0.061%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.046%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 303 (4.65%) Terraform
2 244 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
3 240 (3.69%) Kubernetes
4 149 (2.29%) Ansible
5 93 (1.43%) Grafana
6 84 (1.29%) SCCM
7 57 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 37 (0.57%) Nagios
9 32 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
10 22 (0.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.28%) Kibana
12 14 (0.22%) Autotask
13 13 (0.20%) vCenter Server
14 12 (0.18%) Argo
14 12 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
14 12 (0.18%) Puppet
15 11 (0.17%) FortiGate
15 11 (0.17%) Nessus
16 10 (0.15%) WSUS
16 10 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,712 (26.29%) Microsoft
2 281 (4.32%) VMware
3 184 (2.83%) Oracle
4 171 (2.63%) Google
5 157 (2.41%) SAP
6 154 (2.37%) Cisco
7 137 (2.10%) Salesforce
8 131 (2.01%) ServiceNow
9 118 (1.81%) SolarWinds
10 109 (1.67%) Veeam
11 107 (1.64%) Databricks
12 99 (1.52%) Splunk
13 78 (1.20%) Apple
14 65 (1.00%) Adobe
15 59 (0.91%) Dell
16 53 (0.81%) Red Hat
17 52 (0.80%) Meraki
18 51 (0.78%) Dynatrace
19 50 (0.77%) Tanium
20 49 (0.75%) Nimble Storage