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

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -9 +3 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,826 5,207 10,441
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.44% 19.32% 15.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.32% 21.18% 18.33%
Number of salaries quoted 3,482 3,150 6,881
10th Percentile £26,252 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,750 £32,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £63,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £79,000 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -9.09%

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 46,768 24,580 56,973
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 72.12% 91.19% 83.98%
Number of salaries quoted 28,644 13,847 40,931
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £68,568 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -11.29%

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 27 April 2026.

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 27 April 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
North of England -19 1,287 £42,500 -7.61% 551
South East -7 1,162 £45,000 -10.00% 712
Midlands -22 888 £40,000 -11.11% 424
North West -15 667 £42,500 -14.14% 305
South West -8 554 £43,500 -3.33% 267
West Midlands -24 530 £42,500 -15.00% 239
Yorkshire -12 490 £40,000 -4.76% 170
East of England -10 458 £40,000 -20.00% 248
East Midlands -6 355 £35,000 -9.09% 185
Scotland -5 303 £36,000 -28.00% 103
North East -14 130 £48,500 +7.78% 85
Wales -12 116 £42,500 -15.66% 50
Northern Ireland -7 85 £35,000 -36.36% 54
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +64.47% 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
1 280 (5.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 253 (5.24%) SharePoint
3 40 (0.83%) CMS
4 37 (0.77%) Confluence
5 23 (0.48%) IIS
5 23 (0.48%) WordPress
6 17 (0.35%) Apache
7 15 (0.31%) Apache Spark
8 13 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
9 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 11 (0.23%) SAS
10 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2007
10 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2010
11 8 (0.17%) nginx
12 7 (0.15%) Drupal
13 5 (0.10%) OpenStack
13 5 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
14 4 (0.083%) Moodle
14 4 (0.083%) Totara
Applications
1 313 (6.49%) Microsoft Office
2 305 (6.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 46 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 36 (0.75%) MS Visio
5 33 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
7 10 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
8 9 (0.19%) Fusion 360
9 8 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 7 (0.15%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.083%) AutoCAD
11 4 (0.083%) Simulink
12 3 (0.062%) Trello
13 2 (0.041%) Elementor
13 2 (0.041%) Sketch
13 2 (0.041%) Weka
14 1 (0.021%) Abaqus
14 1 (0.021%) Adobe XD
14 1 (0.021%) CANalyzer
14 1 (0.021%) Notion
Business Applications
1 45 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.54%) NetSuite
4 17 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
5 15 (0.31%) Sage X3
5 15 (0.31%) SAP ERP
5 15 (0.31%) Shopify
6 14 (0.29%) Magento
7 13 (0.27%) iTrent
7 13 (0.27%) SAP CO
8 9 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
9 7 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
9 7 (0.15%) SAP Business One
9 7 (0.15%) Workday HCM
10 5 (0.10%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 5 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
11 4 (0.083%) Dynamics GP
11 4 (0.083%) SAP FI
11 4 (0.083%) SAP FI/CO
11 4 (0.083%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 968 (20.06%) Azure
2 824 (17.07%) Microsoft 365
3 463 (9.59%) AWS
4 344 (7.13%) Power Platform
5 222 (4.60%) Entra ID
6 202 (4.19%) SaaS
7 134 (2.78%) GCP
8 121 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
9 114 (2.36%) Serverless
10 106 (2.20%) GitHub
11 81 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
12 73 (1.51%) Azure Data Factory
13 70 (1.45%) Power Automate
14 66 (1.37%) Amazon S3
15 63 (1.31%) AWS Lambda
16 59 (1.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 57 (1.18%) Google Workspace
18 54 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
19 48 (0.99%) IaaS
20 47 (0.97%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 313 (6.49%) DNS
2 292 (6.05%) Firewall
3 261 (5.41%) DHCP
4 164 (3.40%) WAN
5 157 (3.25%) VPN
6 126 (2.61%) LAN
6 126 (2.61%) Wi-Fi
7 115 (2.38%) TCP/IP
8 107 (2.22%) Broadband
9 90 (1.86%) Wireless
10 82 (1.70%) VLAN
11 68 (1.41%) VoIP
12 59 (1.22%) Network Security
13 43 (0.89%) SD-WAN
14 34 (0.70%) Internet
15 31 (0.64%) SAN
16 23 (0.48%) Unified Communications
17 22 (0.46%) HTTP
17 22 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
18 19 (0.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 289 (5.99%) Power BI
2 210 (4.35%) SQL Server
3 77 (1.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 73 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
5 70 (1.45%) NoSQL
6 68 (1.41%) Amazon RDS
7 64 (1.33%) MySQL
8 59 (1.22%) Relational Database
9 58 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
10 49 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 45 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
12 43 (0.89%) Power Query
13 41 (0.85%) DynamoDB
13 41 (0.85%) Tableau
14 35 (0.73%) MongoDB
15 24 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
16 23 (0.48%) Data Lake
17 22 (0.46%) Big Data
17 22 (0.46%) Metadata
18 18 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 188 (3.90%) Git
2 145 (3.00%) JIRA
3 70 (1.45%) GitLab
4 53 (1.10%) Jenkins
5 23 (0.48%) Rational DOORS
6 20 (0.41%) Selenium
7 18 (0.37%) Cucumber
8 17 (0.35%) Maven
9 16 (0.33%) SonarQube
10 14 (0.29%) Bitbucket
10 14 (0.29%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.27%) LabVIEW
12 9 (0.19%) JUnit
12 9 (0.19%) Visual Studio
13 8 (0.17%) Burp Suite
13 8 (0.17%) Metasploit
14 7 (0.15%) CircleCI
15 6 (0.12%) JMeter
15 6 (0.12%) Postman
15 6 (0.12%) Subversion
General
1 2,358 (48.86%) Social Skills
2 1,367 (28.33%) Analytical Skills
3 876 (18.15%) Finance
4 319 (6.61%) Organisational Skills
5 300 (6.22%) Manufacturing
6 225 (4.66%) Public Sector
7 205 (4.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 194 (4.02%) Marketing
9 188 (3.90%) Retail
10 181 (3.75%) Legal
11 152 (3.15%) Law
12 140 (2.90%) Banking
13 128 (2.65%) Telecoms
14 124 (2.57%) Electronics
15 91 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
16 85 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
17 74 (1.53%) Automotive
18 72 (1.49%) Games
19 59 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
20 55 (1.14%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 731 (15.15%) Analyst
2 623 (12.91%) IT Support
3 563 (11.67%) Support Engineer
4 522 (10.82%) Senior
5 368 (7.63%) Developer
6 347 (7.19%) IT Engineer
7 277 (5.74%) IT Support Engineer
8 254 (5.26%) Lead
9 217 (4.50%) Support Analyst
10 201 (4.16%) Support Technician
11 167 (3.46%) Systems Engineer
12 166 (3.44%) Architect
13 163 (3.38%) Technical Support
14 159 (3.29%) Business Analyst
14 159 (3.29%) IT Technician
15 148 (3.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 144 (2.98%) 2nd Line Support
17 141 (2.92%) Consultant
18 137 (2.84%) IT Support Technician
19 132 (2.74%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (3.36%) .NET
2 154 (3.19%) React
3 132 (2.74%) HTML
4 103 (2.13%) CSS
5 102 (2.11%) REST
6 83 (1.72%) Node.js
7 61 (1.26%) SOAP
8 57 (1.18%) RESTful
9 52 (1.08%) Middleware
10 49 (1.02%) XML
11 48 (0.99%) JSON
12 45 (0.93%) Vue
13 44 (0.91%) AngularJS
14 43 (0.89%) Spring
15 39 (0.81%) OAuth
15 39 (0.81%) Spring Boot
16 33 (0.68%) ASP.NET
17 30 (0.62%) EDI
17 30 (0.62%) GraphQL
18 27 (0.56%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 380 (7.87%) Driving Licence
2 298 (6.17%) Onboarding
3 259 (5.37%) Self-Motivation
4 166 (3.44%) Management Information System
5 135 (2.80%) Analytical Mindset
6 114 (2.36%) Product Ownership
7 103 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
8 102 (2.11%) Cloud Native
9 84 (1.74%) Data Centre
10 78 (1.62%) Social Media
11 66 (1.37%) Distributed Systems
12 62 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
13 55 (1.14%) Mobile App
14 52 (1.08%) Low-Code
15 38 (0.79%) Data Structures
16 35 (0.73%) Virtual Team
17 33 (0.68%) IoT
17 33 (0.68%) Life Science
18 31 (0.64%) CCTV
18 31 (0.64%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 833 (17.26%) Windows
2 368 (7.63%) Windows Server
3 294 (6.09%) Linux
4 129 (2.67%) Windows 10
5 105 (2.18%) Android
6 97 (2.01%) Windows Server 2016
7 68 (1.41%) Apple iOS
8 53 (1.10%) Mac OS
9 37 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.64%) Unix
11 25 (0.52%) CentOS
11 25 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 20 (0.41%) Ubuntu
12 20 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
13 14 (0.29%) VMS
13 14 (0.29%) Windows 7
14 10 (0.21%) Debian
15 9 (0.19%) Windows 8
16 7 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.083%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,004 (20.80%) Continuous Improvement
2 863 (17.88%) Customer Service
3 635 (13.16%) Agile
4 493 (10.22%) Decision-Making
5 433 (8.97%) Mentoring
6 422 (8.74%) ITIL
7 399 (8.27%) CI/CD
8 398 (8.25%) DevOps
9 394 (8.16%) Analytics
10 366 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
11 362 (7.50%) Project Management
12 342 (7.09%) AI
13 322 (6.67%) Coaching
14 312 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
15 295 (6.11%) Stakeholder Management
16 291 (6.03%) ERP
17 279 (5.78%) Computer Science
17 279 (5.78%) Software Engineering
18 274 (5.68%) Collaborative Working
18 274 (5.68%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 630 (13.05%) SQL
2 508 (10.53%) Python
3 274 (5.68%) JavaScript
4 211 (4.37%) PowerShell
5 188 (3.90%) Java
6 177 (3.67%) C#
7 106 (2.20%) TypeScript
8 82 (1.70%) Bash
9 71 (1.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 64 (1.33%) PHP
11 61 (1.26%) C++
12 48 (0.99%) C
13 34 (0.70%) T-SQL
14 28 (0.58%) PL/SQL
15 26 (0.54%) Kotlin
16 25 (0.52%) Bicep
17 24 (0.50%) Go
18 23 (0.48%) R
19 20 (0.41%) Scala
20 17 (0.35%) Rust
Qualifications
1 781 (16.18%) Degree
2 314 (6.51%) Security Cleared
3 208 (4.31%) SC Cleared
4 192 (3.98%) DBS Check
5 146 (3.03%) Microsoft Certification
6 127 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 88 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
8 73 (1.51%) A+ Certification
9 72 (1.49%) ACCA
10 66 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
11 64 (1.33%) CIMA
12 56 (1.16%) DV Cleared
13 54 (1.12%) CCNA
14 48 (0.99%) Master's Degree
15 47 (0.97%) CISSP
16 44 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
16 44 (0.91%) PMI Certification
17 42 (0.87%) HNC
18 40 (0.83%) AWS Certification
19 39 (0.81%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 251 (5.20%) QA
2 225 (4.66%) Data Quality
3 144 (2.98%) GDPR
4 119 (2.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 114 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 108 (2.24%) SLA
7 88 (1.82%) PCI DSS
8 79 (1.64%) NIST
9 48 (0.99%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.79%) ISO 9001
11 30 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
12 21 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 16 (0.33%) SOC 2
14 14 (0.29%) GMP
15 11 (0.23%) GRC
15 11 (0.23%) TickIT
16 9 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 8 (0.17%) ISO 14001
17 8 (0.17%) PMO
18 6 (0.12%) HIPAA
System Software
1 590 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 183 (3.79%) Hyper-V
3 177 (3.67%) Docker
4 131 (2.71%) VMware Infrastructure
5 56 (1.16%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (0.50%) Firmware
8 17 (0.35%) vSphere
9 16 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
10 10 (0.21%) KVM
10 10 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
11 9 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.12%) XenApp
13 5 (0.10%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.083%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.083%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 4 (0.083%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.021%) Lustre
16 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 202 (4.19%) Terraform
2 167 (3.46%) Microsoft Intune
3 141 (2.92%) Kubernetes
4 86 (1.78%) Ansible
5 58 (1.20%) SCCM
6 54 (1.12%) Grafana
7 31 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.41%) BMC PATROL
9 17 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.33%) Nagios
11 11 (0.23%) Autotask
12 10 (0.21%) Kibana
12 10 (0.21%) Puppet
12 10 (0.21%) vCenter Server
13 9 (0.19%) FortiGate
13 9 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
14 8 (0.17%) Cisco CUCM
14 8 (0.17%) HP Fortify
14 8 (0.17%) logstash
14 8 (0.17%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,334 (27.64%) Microsoft
2 214 (4.43%) VMware
3 141 (2.92%) Oracle
4 114 (2.36%) SAP
5 108 (2.24%) Veeam
6 98 (2.03%) Google
7 97 (2.01%) Cisco
8 87 (1.80%) SolarWinds
9 86 (1.78%) Splunk
10 77 (1.60%) Databricks
10 77 (1.60%) ServiceNow
11 66 (1.37%) Apple
12 62 (1.28%) Salesforce
13 59 (1.22%) Adobe
14 57 (1.18%) Tanium
15 56 (1.16%) Brocade
15 56 (1.16%) Nimble Storage
16 50 (1.04%) Sage
17 47 (0.97%) Dell
18 37 (0.77%) HubSpot