Problem-Solving Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Problem Solving
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,077 6,891 4,934
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 12.07% 18.48% 16.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.15% 20.96% 17.67%
Number of salaries quoted 3,466 2,799 3,235
10th Percentile £26,000 £28,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £71,250 £82,500 £75,000
UK median annual salary £46,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -15.45% - -0.72%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 33,518 32,882 27,917
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 79.71% 88.16% 90.59%
Number of salaries quoted 19,196 15,153 20,782
10th Percentile £27,707 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -3.83%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,700 £80,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the UK excluding London

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 30 December 2025. 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
South East -3 1,359 £41,250 -21.05% 3,033
North of England -14 1,263 £45,000 -5.26% 2,625
Midlands -13 911 £38,500 -23.00% 2,047
North West -9 712 £47,683 - 1,327
South West -1 585 £40,000 -27.27% 1,309
West Midlands -16 542 £42,618 -22.51% 1,063
Yorkshire -4 440 £36,500 -16.09% 1,073
East of England -6 421 £35,000 -31.33% 1,747
East Midlands +1 368 £33,000 -9.59% 880
Scotland -4 339 £33,500 -33.00% 521
Wales +5 164 £47,811 -4.38% 308
North East -3 111 £33,500 -33.00% 238
Northern Ireland 0 59 £53,750 -10.42% 168
Isle of Man +2 1 £62,500 +150.00% 2
Problem-Solving
UK

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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
1 279 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 214 (4.22%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.95%) IIS
4 46 (0.91%) Confluence
5 23 (0.45%) WordPress
6 21 (0.41%) Apache
6 21 (0.41%) Apache Spark
6 21 (0.41%) CMS
7 12 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 8 (0.16%) nginx
9 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 6 (0.12%) Drupal
10 6 (0.12%) HCL Notes
11 5 (0.098%) SAS
12 4 (0.079%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.079%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.079%) Camunda
12 4 (0.079%) Exchange Server 2013
13 3 (0.059%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.059%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 443 (8.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 433 (8.53%) Microsoft Office
3 70 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 24 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.37%) AutoCAD
7 16 (0.32%) Photoshop
8 15 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
9 14 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 12 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
10 12 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
11 10 (0.20%) Simulink
12 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
13 5 (0.098%) Adobe After Effects
14 4 (0.079%) Autodesk Inventor
14 4 (0.079%) CATIA
14 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
14 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
14 4 (0.079%) Revit
14 4 (0.079%) Trello
Business Applications
1 89 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 60 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.67%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
7 15 (0.30%) SAP CO
7 15 (0.30%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
9 12 (0.24%) SAP Business One
10 11 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
10 11 (0.22%) Shopify
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
12 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
13 6 (0.12%) iTrent
13 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
13 6 (0.12%) Sage 200
14 5 (0.098%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 1,090 (21.47%) Azure
2 785 (15.46%) Microsoft 365
3 400 (7.88%) AWS
4 355 (6.99%) Power Platform
5 279 (5.50%) SaaS
6 222 (4.37%) Entra ID
7 145 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
8 126 (2.48%) GCP
9 95 (1.87%) GitHub
10 73 (1.44%) Serverless
11 68 (1.34%) Power Automate
12 52 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
12 52 (1.02%) Dynamics 365
13 45 (0.89%) Amazon S3
13 45 (0.89%) AWS Lambda
14 42 (0.83%) OneDrive
15 41 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
15 41 (0.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 41 (0.81%) Snowflake
16 40 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 349 (6.87%) DNS
2 305 (6.01%) DHCP
3 242 (4.77%) Firewall
4 154 (3.03%) TCP/IP
5 144 (2.84%) VPN
6 136 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
7 117 (2.30%) WAN
8 113 (2.23%) LAN
9 95 (1.87%) VLAN
10 83 (1.63%) VoIP
11 78 (1.54%) Broadband
12 65 (1.28%) Wireless
13 60 (1.18%) Remote Desktop
14 47 (0.93%) Network Security
15 38 (0.75%) SAN
16 36 (0.71%) Internet
17 30 (0.59%) Unified Communications
18 28 (0.55%) SD-WAN
19 27 (0.53%) Ethernet
20 16 (0.32%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 308 (6.07%) Power BI
2 232 (4.57%) SQL Server
3 119 (2.34%) Amazon RDS
4 99 (1.95%) Relational Database
5 95 (1.87%) MySQL
6 84 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
7 82 (1.62%) Data Lake
8 66 (1.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.26%) SAP BW
10 60 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
11 53 (1.04%) NoSQL
12 46 (0.91%) Tableau
13 43 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 35 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
14 35 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
15 33 (0.65%) GIS
16 31 (0.61%) MongoDB
17 28 (0.55%) DynamoDB
18 27 (0.53%) Metadata
19 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 193 (3.80%) Git
2 161 (3.17%) JIRA
3 50 (0.98%) GitLab
4 42 (0.83%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.61%) Selenium
6 21 (0.41%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 14 (0.28%) LabVIEW
8 14 (0.28%) Octopus Deploy
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
8 14 (0.28%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.28%) TeamCity
9 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
10 10 (0.20%) JUnit
10 10 (0.20%) Maven
11 9 (0.18%) Cucumber
11 9 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle Forms
13 7 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 2,754 (54.24%) Social Skills
2 1,411 (27.79%) Analytical Skills
3 1,100 (21.67%) Finance
4 343 (6.76%) Retail
5 312 (6.15%) Manufacturing
6 292 (5.75%) Marketing
7 244 (4.81%) Organisational Skills
8 184 (3.62%) Public Sector
9 176 (3.47%) Law
10 171 (3.37%) Legal
11 149 (2.93%) Telecoms
12 146 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 136 (2.68%) Electronics
14 106 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
15 104 (2.05%) Banking
16 84 (1.65%) Automotive
17 79 (1.56%) Games
18 62 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
19 61 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
20 60 (1.18%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 849 (16.72%) Analyst
2 635 (12.51%) IT Support
3 594 (11.70%) Senior
4 511 (10.06%) Support Engineer
5 390 (7.68%) Developer
6 335 (6.60%) Lead
7 319 (6.28%) Support Analyst
8 267 (5.26%) Technical Support
9 226 (4.45%) IT Engineer
10 200 (3.94%) Business Analyst
11 196 (3.86%) IT Support Engineer
12 183 (3.60%) 2nd Line Support
12 183 (3.60%) Technical Engineer
13 179 (3.53%) Systems Engineer
14 175 (3.45%) Support Technician
15 169 (3.33%) Technical Support Engineer
16 145 (2.86%) Applications Support
17 140 (2.76%) Consultant
18 134 (2.64%) Architect
19 130 (2.56%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 213 (4.20%) .NET
2 173 (3.41%) HTML
3 156 (3.07%) React
4 144 (2.84%) CSS
5 91 (1.79%) REST
6 77 (1.52%) RESTful
7 66 (1.30%) Node.js
8 57 (1.12%) ASP.NET
9 55 (1.08%) JSON
10 49 (0.97%) AngularJS
10 49 (0.97%) XML
11 48 (0.95%) SOAP
12 38 (0.75%) Django
12 38 (0.75%) Vue
13 37 (0.73%) .NET Framework
14 35 (0.69%) Spring
15 32 (0.63%) EDI
16 28 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
17 26 (0.51%) .NET Core
18 25 (0.49%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 491 (9.67%) Driving Licence
2 406 (8.00%) Onboarding
3 313 (6.17%) Self-Motivation
4 173 (3.41%) Management Information System
5 159 (3.13%) Analytical Mindset
6 151 (2.97%) Legacy Systems
7 94 (1.85%) Product Ownership
8 87 (1.71%) Data Centre
9 70 (1.38%) FMCG
10 65 (1.28%) Cloud Native
11 62 (1.22%) Virtual Team
12 58 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
13 44 (0.87%) e-Learning
14 38 (0.75%) EPoS
14 38 (0.75%) Video Conferencing
15 36 (0.71%) Mobile App
15 36 (0.71%) Social Media
16 34 (0.67%) IoT
17 32 (0.63%) SCADA
18 31 (0.61%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 927 (18.26%) Windows
2 389 (7.66%) Windows Server
3 309 (6.09%) Linux
4 125 (2.46%) Windows 10
5 109 (2.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 68 (1.34%) Android
7 56 (1.10%) Mac OS
8 55 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 34 (0.67%) Unix
10 27 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
11 18 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
12 15 (0.30%) Windows 7
13 12 (0.24%) VMS
14 9 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 5 (0.098%) Mac OS X
16 4 (0.079%) CentOS
16 4 (0.079%) Windows 8
16 4 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
17 3 (0.059%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.039%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 926 (18.24%) Customer Service
2 925 (18.22%) Continuous Improvement
3 685 (13.49%) Agile
4 497 (9.79%) Project Management
5 471 (9.28%) Analytics
6 454 (8.94%) Mentoring
7 439 (8.65%) Decision-Making
8 417 (8.21%) Business Intelligence
9 404 (7.96%) ITIL
10 389 (7.66%) ERP
11 378 (7.45%) DevOps
12 346 (6.82%) Change Management
13 324 (6.38%) CI/CD
14 319 (6.28%) Cybersecurity
15 309 (6.09%) CRM
16 305 (6.01%) Stakeholder Management
17 298 (5.87%) Process Improvement
18 289 (5.69%) Computer Science
19 285 (5.61%) AI
20 276 (5.44%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 765 (15.07%) SQL
2 430 (8.47%) Python
3 273 (5.38%) JavaScript
4 266 (5.24%) C#
5 254 (5.00%) PowerShell
6 156 (3.07%) Java
7 80 (1.58%) PHP
8 72 (1.42%) C++
9 59 (1.16%) TypeScript
10 50 (0.98%) T-SQL
11 48 (0.95%) Bash
11 48 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 37 (0.73%) C
13 27 (0.53%) MATLAB
14 25 (0.49%) VBA
15 23 (0.45%) R
16 18 (0.35%) Go
17 17 (0.33%) Perl
18 15 (0.30%) Bicep
18 15 (0.30%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,187 (23.38%) Degree
2 409 (8.06%) Security Cleared
3 288 (5.67%) SC Cleared
4 148 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
5 139 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 137 (2.70%) DBS Check
7 105 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
8 85 (1.67%) Master's Degree
9 83 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
10 76 (1.50%) DV Cleared
11 66 (1.30%) ACCA
12 64 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 58 (1.14%) CIMA
14 57 (1.12%) CCNA
15 56 (1.10%) HND
16 51 (1.00%) A+ Certification
17 47 (0.93%) Network+ Certification
18 42 (0.83%) AWS Certification
19 39 (0.77%) HNC
20 34 (0.67%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 256 (5.04%) QA
2 222 (4.37%) Data Quality
3 164 (3.23%) Cyber Essentials
4 130 (2.56%) GDPR
5 115 (2.27%) PCI DSS
6 103 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 85 (1.67%) Accessibility
8 74 (1.46%) SLA
9 42 (0.83%) NIST
10 30 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 30 (0.59%) ISO 9001
11 24 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
12 16 (0.32%) PMO
13 10 (0.20%) ISO 13485
14 7 (0.14%) Software Quality Assurance
14 7 (0.14%) WCAG
15 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.12%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.098%) GLBA
16 5 (0.098%) GRC
System Software
1 621 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 216 (4.25%) Hyper-V
3 179 (3.53%) Docker
4 114 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.89%) Terminal Server
6 41 (0.81%) Firmware
7 22 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 18 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
9 17 (0.33%) vSphere
10 8 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
11 5 (0.098%) Virtual Servers
12 4 (0.079%) KVM
13 3 (0.059%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.039%) RHEV
14 2 (0.039%) Xen
14 2 (0.039%) XenApp
15 1 (0.020%) HDFS
15 1 (0.020%) iptables
15 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 200 (3.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 181 (3.57%) Terraform
3 124 (2.44%) Kubernetes
4 59 (1.16%) Ansible
5 45 (0.89%) SCCM
6 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
7 37 (0.73%) Grafana
8 27 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 20 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
13 12 (0.24%) Nagios
14 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
14 10 (0.20%) ZABBIX
15 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
15 7 (0.14%) Nmap
16 6 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 6 (0.12%) Control-M
16 6 (0.12%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 1,373 (27.04%) Microsoft
2 327 (6.44%) SAP
3 245 (4.83%) VMware
4 182 (3.58%) Oracle
5 161 (3.17%) Cisco
6 147 (2.90%) Veeam
7 119 (2.34%) SolarWinds
8 116 (2.28%) Splunk
9 98 (1.93%) Tanium
10 96 (1.89%) Brocade
10 96 (1.89%) Google
10 96 (1.89%) Nimble Storage
11 94 (1.85%) ServiceNow
12 82 (1.62%) Salesforce
13 68 (1.34%) Sage
14 62 (1.22%) Apple
15 61 (1.20%) Databricks
16 60 (1.18%) BT
17 56 (1.10%) Adobe
18 47 (0.93%) Workday