Problem-Solving Job Trends in the South West

Problem Solving
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 4 12
Rank change year-on-year 0 +8 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 577 717 633
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 11.40% 17.25% 13.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.94% 20.20% 14.83%
Number of salaries quoted 356 339 472
10th Percentile £26,000 £30,500 £25,625
25th Percentile £29,750 £37,500 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £54,321 £48,328
Median % change year-on-year -26.36% +12.40% +7.40%
75th Percentile £57,500 £71,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £71,250 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

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 the South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,620 3,550 4,269
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 71.51% 85.42% 89.53%
Number of salaries quoted 2,491 1,780 3,234
10th Percentile £28,000 £30,450 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,875 £40,236 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,439 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.15% +3.69% +2.94%
75th Percentile £67,500 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £81,100
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the South West

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the South West over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the South West

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the South West region over the 6 months to 13 January 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
Bristol -7 151 £45,000 -8.16% 100
Wiltshire -2 100 £36,000 -37.39% 53
Somerset +11 91 £36,051 -46.59% 80
Devon +1 84 £40,000 - 59
Gloucestershire +11 73 £42,500 -34.62% 71
Dorset -7 39 £36,500 -25.13% 57
Cornwall -2 28 £32,000 -33.33% 14
Avon - 1 £52,500 - 49
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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
1 120 (20.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (7.45%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.91%) Confluence
4 4 (0.69%) CMS
5 2 (0.35%) Apache
5 2 (0.35%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.17%) IIS
6 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 40 (6.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (6.41%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.69%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.69%) Fusion 360
5 3 (0.52%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.35%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.35%) Shopify
3 1 (0.17%) Infor CloudSuite
3 1 (0.17%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 1 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.17%) Sage 200
3 1 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 168 (29.12%) Microsoft 365
2 159 (27.56%) Azure
3 55 (9.53%) AWS
4 34 (5.89%) Power Platform
5 23 (3.99%) Entra ID
6 20 (3.47%) SaaS
7 15 (2.60%) GitHub
8 10 (1.73%) OneDrive
9 8 (1.39%) Power Automate
10 7 (1.21%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.21%) GCP
10 7 (1.21%) Serverless
11 6 (1.04%) PowerApps
12 5 (0.87%) Amazon ECS
13 4 (0.69%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (0.69%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.69%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (0.69%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.69%) Intacct
13 4 (0.69%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 109 (18.89%) DNS
2 98 (16.98%) DHCP
3 39 (6.76%) Firewall
4 27 (4.68%) Wi-Fi
5 24 (4.16%) WAN
6 16 (2.77%) LAN
6 16 (2.77%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.08%) 5G
7 12 (2.08%) VLAN
8 11 (1.91%) SD-WAN
8 11 (1.91%) VPN
9 10 (1.73%) VoIP
10 9 (1.56%) DKIM
10 9 (1.56%) DMARC
11 8 (1.39%) Network Security
12 7 (1.21%) Structured Cabling
13 6 (1.04%) HTTP
14 5 (0.87%) LTE
14 5 (0.87%) SAN
15 4 (0.69%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (15.08%) Amazon RDS
2 31 (5.37%) Power BI
3 21 (3.64%) MySQL
4 15 (2.60%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (2.60%) SQL Server
5 12 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (1.21%) MongoDB
7 6 (1.04%) Metadata
7 6 (1.04%) NoSQL
7 6 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 6 (1.04%) Tableau
8 5 (0.87%) Geospatial Data
8 5 (0.87%) Metadata Repository
8 5 (0.87%) Power Query
9 4 (0.69%) Big Data
9 4 (0.69%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.52%) OLAP
11 2 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.35%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 35 (6.07%) Git
2 24 (4.16%) JIRA
3 10 (1.73%) LabVIEW
4 7 (1.21%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.21%) Visual Studio
5 6 (1.04%) GitLab
5 6 (1.04%) Xcode
6 4 (0.69%) IDA Disassembler
7 3 (0.52%) Balsamiq
8 2 (0.35%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.35%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.35%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.35%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.17%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.17%) Gatling
9 1 (0.17%) JMeter
9 1 (0.17%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.17%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 331 (57.37%) Social Skills
2 226 (39.17%) Analytical Skills
3 104 (18.02%) Finance
4 45 (7.80%) Organisational Skills
5 30 (5.20%) Public Sector
6 22 (3.81%) Manufacturing
7 21 (3.64%) Presentation Skills
8 20 (3.47%) Retail
9 19 (3.29%) Electronics
9 19 (3.29%) Telecoms
10 15 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (2.43%) Marketing
12 13 (2.25%) Military
13 12 (2.08%) Legal
14 11 (1.91%) Police
15 10 (1.73%) Aerospace
15 10 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (1.39%) Arabic Language
16 8 (1.39%) Banking
17 6 (1.04%) Avionics
Job Titles
1 102 (17.68%) Systems Engineer
2 84 (14.56%) Analyst
3 47 (8.15%) Senior
4 46 (7.97%) Developer
5 45 (7.80%) Support Engineer
6 42 (7.28%) IT Support
6 42 (7.28%) Support Analyst
7 32 (5.55%) Technical Support
8 28 (4.85%) Business Analyst
9 21 (3.64%) 1st Line Support
9 21 (3.64%) Software Engineer
10 20 (3.47%) 2nd Line Support
11 18 (3.12%) Technical Engineer
12 17 (2.95%) IT Analyst
12 17 (2.95%) Test Engineer
13 16 (2.77%) IT Engineer
14 15 (2.60%) IT Support Analyst
14 15 (2.60%) Trainee
14 15 (2.60%) Trainee Analyst
14 15 (2.60%) Trainee Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.47%) .NET
2 17 (2.95%) React
3 14 (2.43%) RESTful
4 13 (2.25%) CSS
5 12 (2.08%) HTML
6 10 (1.73%) pytest
7 9 (1.56%) Node.js
8 7 (1.21%) .NET Framework
8 7 (1.21%) Flutter
8 7 (1.21%) React Native
8 7 (1.21%) Spring
9 6 (1.04%) AngularJS
9 6 (1.04%) Entity Framework
9 6 (1.04%) Vue
10 5 (0.87%) .NET Core
10 5 (0.87%) Blazor
10 5 (0.87%) Oracle Fusion
11 4 (0.69%) Autofac
11 4 (0.69%) PySpark
11 4 (0.69%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 91 (15.77%) Legacy Systems
2 58 (10.05%) Driving Licence
3 40 (6.93%) Self-Motivation
4 29 (5.03%) Onboarding
5 24 (4.16%) Satnav
6 20 (3.47%) GNSS
7 16 (2.77%) e-Learning
8 12 (2.08%) Mobile App
8 12 (2.08%) Product Ownership
9 11 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.73%) Self-Driving Car
11 8 (1.39%) Cloud Native
11 8 (1.39%) Digital Signage
12 7 (1.21%) Algorithms
13 6 (1.04%) EPoS
13 6 (1.04%) Life Science
13 6 (1.04%) PMI
13 6 (1.04%) Video Conferencing
14 5 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (0.87%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 186 (32.24%) Windows
2 131 (22.70%) Windows Server
3 120 (20.80%) Linux
4 84 (14.56%) Windows Server 2016
5 19 (3.29%) Apple iOS
6 16 (2.77%) Windows 10
7 13 (2.25%) Mac OS
8 12 (2.08%) Unix
9 11 (1.91%) Android
10 3 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.17%) Debian
12 1 (0.17%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (29.64%) Customer Service
2 100 (17.33%) Migration
3 98 (16.98%) Customer Experience
3 98 (16.98%) Kalman Filter
4 87 (15.08%) Web Filtering
5 85 (14.73%) Vulnerability Remediation
6 84 (14.56%) Email Filtering
6 84 (14.56%) Vulnerability Scanning
7 70 (12.13%) Agile
8 67 (11.61%) Continuous Improvement
9 57 (9.88%) Project Management
10 52 (9.01%) Test Automation
11 49 (8.49%) ITIL
12 47 (8.15%) Service Delivery
13 46 (7.97%) Decision-Making
14 45 (7.80%) B2B
14 45 (7.80%) Mentoring
15 43 (7.45%) Business Intelligence
16 38 (6.59%) DevOps
17 37 (6.41%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 67 (11.61%) Python
2 58 (10.05%) SQL
3 40 (6.93%) PowerShell
4 25 (4.33%) C#
5 20 (3.47%) JavaScript
6 17 (2.95%) C++
7 14 (2.43%) Bash
7 14 (2.43%) Java
8 13 (2.25%) MATLAB
9 12 (2.08%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.39%) C
11 7 (1.21%) Swift
12 4 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 3 (0.52%) Go
13 3 (0.52%) Google Apps Script
13 3 (0.52%) PHP
13 3 (0.52%) Tcl
13 3 (0.52%) VBScript
14 2 (0.35%) R
14 2 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 168 (29.12%) Security Cleared
2 133 (23.05%) SC Cleared
3 120 (20.80%) Degree
4 35 (6.07%) DV Cleared
5 22 (3.81%) Network+ Certification
6 20 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 20 (3.47%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (3.12%) HND
8 13 (2.25%) A+ Certification
9 12 (2.08%) CCNA
9 12 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.73%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 7 (1.21%) MCITP
11 7 (1.21%) PMI Certification
12 6 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (1.04%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.87%) CREST Certified
14 4 (0.69%) MCP
15 3 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
15 3 (0.52%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (15.77%) Cyber Essentials
2 86 (14.90%) PCI DSS
3 16 (2.77%) SLA
4 10 (1.73%) Accessibility
4 10 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.39%) ISO 9001
6 7 (1.21%) QA
7 6 (1.04%) GDPR
7 6 (1.04%) NIST
8 5 (0.87%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.69%) ISO 13485
9 4 (0.69%) PMO
10 2 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.17%) COBIT
11 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.17%) P3O
11 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 145 (25.13%) Active Directory
2 105 (18.20%) Hyper-V
3 84 (14.56%) Terminal Server
4 19 (3.29%) VMware Infrastructure
5 13 (2.25%) Docker
6 4 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.17%) Firmware
7 1 (0.17%) iptables
7 1 (0.17%) KVM
7 1 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (3.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (2.08%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.73%) Terraform
4 8 (1.39%) Ansible
5 7 (1.21%) Jamf Pro
6 6 (1.04%) SCCM
7 5 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.52%) Grafana
9 2 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.35%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.35%) Nagios
9 2 (0.35%) Nmap
9 2 (0.35%) PaperCut
10 1 (0.17%) CASB
10 1 (0.17%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 1 (0.17%) Kibana
10 1 (0.17%) logstash
10 1 (0.17%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.17%) Podman
10 1 (0.17%) QRadar
Vendors
1 215 (37.26%) Microsoft
2 108 (18.72%) VMware
3 93 (16.12%) Veeam
4 88 (15.25%) Splunk
5 86 (14.90%) SolarWinds
6 84 (14.56%) Brocade
6 84 (14.56%) Nimble Storage
6 84 (14.56%) Tanium
7 27 (4.68%) Apple
8 22 (3.81%) Cisco
9 16 (2.77%) Oracle
10 13 (2.25%) Progress
11 9 (1.56%) Salesforce
12 7 (1.21%) Google
12 7 (1.21%) ServiceNow
13 6 (1.04%) arcserve
13 6 (1.04%) Databricks
13 6 (1.04%) Xamarin
14 5 (0.87%) Sage
14 5 (0.87%) SAP