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

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,028 5,932 11,177
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.61% 20.13% 14.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.94% 22.06% 18.14%
Number of salaries quoted 3,725 3,119 6,977
10th Percentile £26,265 £26,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,900 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £48,900
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.25% -11.09%

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 45,972 26,895 61,608
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.59% 91.29% 80.59%
Number of salaries quoted 31,834 13,584 43,167
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £33,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,055 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.89% +0.11% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 -8 1,364 £42,500 -3.41% 602
South East -5 1,196 £45,000 +3.72% 757
Midlands -9 936 £40,000 -11.11% 387
North West -6 697 £45,000 -3.23% 338
South West -6 596 £43,500 +8.75% 291
West Midlands -9 534 £42,500 -10.53% 231
Yorkshire -11 507 £40,500 +15.71% 195
East of England -3 502 £45,000 +28.57% 273
East Midlands -8 399 £35,000 -6.67% 158
Scotland -4 265 £35,000 -28.28% 109
North East -13 160 £48,445 +7.65% 79
Wales -13 115 £43,750 -12.50% 48
Northern Ireland -6 72 £38,500 -30.00% 66
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 1
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
1 312 (6.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 303 (6.03%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.95%) CMS
4 46 (0.91%) Confluence
5 31 (0.62%) IIS
6 23 (0.46%) Apache
7 21 (0.42%) WordPress
8 19 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.28%) Apache Spark
10 13 (0.26%) SAS
11 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
13 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 5 (0.099%) nginx
14 5 (0.099%) Skype for Business
14 5 (0.099%) WebSphere
15 4 (0.080%) Moodle
15 4 (0.080%) OpenStack
Applications
1 306 (6.09%) Microsoft Office
2 301 (5.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 45 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.70%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 8 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
7 8 (0.16%) Fusion 360
8 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
8 6 (0.12%) Simulink
9 5 (0.099%) Photoshop
9 5 (0.099%) Trello
10 4 (0.080%) Chatbot
11 3 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.060%) Sketch
12 2 (0.040%) Adobe XD
12 2 (0.040%) SOLIDWORKS
12 2 (0.040%) Windchill
13 1 (0.020%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 47 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 25 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.42%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.38%) Shopify
6 16 (0.32%) Magento
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 11 (0.22%) iTrent
10 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
10 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
10 8 (0.16%) SAP CO
11 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 5 (0.099%) Salesforce CRM
13 4 (0.080%) Line 50
13 4 (0.080%) Sage 200
13 4 (0.080%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 1,027 (20.43%) Azure
2 895 (17.80%) Microsoft 365
3 511 (10.16%) AWS
4 369 (7.34%) Power Platform
5 234 (4.65%) Entra ID
6 168 (3.34%) SaaS
7 143 (2.84%) GCP
8 119 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
9 111 (2.21%) Serverless
10 109 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
11 81 (1.61%) GitHub
12 77 (1.53%) Power Automate
13 69 (1.37%) PowerApps
14 63 (1.25%) OneDrive
15 59 (1.17%) Amazon S3
16 52 (1.03%) Google Workspace
17 51 (1.01%) AWS Lambda
18 44 (0.88%) IaaS
19 43 (0.86%) PaaS
20 40 (0.80%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 335 (6.66%) Firewall
2 322 (6.40%) DNS
3 274 (5.45%) DHCP
4 174 (3.46%) VPN
5 171 (3.40%) WAN
6 135 (2.68%) LAN
7 130 (2.59%) TCP/IP
8 126 (2.51%) Wi-Fi
9 109 (2.17%) Broadband
10 101 (2.01%) Wireless
11 100 (1.99%) VLAN
12 81 (1.61%) VoIP
13 76 (1.51%) Network Security
14 42 (0.84%) SD-WAN
15 35 (0.70%) Internet
16 33 (0.66%) SAN
17 19 (0.38%) HTTP
18 17 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
19 15 (0.30%) Structured Cabling
19 15 (0.30%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 291 (5.79%) Power BI
2 210 (4.18%) SQL Server
3 92 (1.83%) Amazon RDS
4 74 (1.47%) MySQL
5 73 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
6 72 (1.43%) NoSQL
7 70 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
8 67 (1.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 60 (1.19%) Tableau
10 55 (1.09%) Relational Database
11 52 (1.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 44 (0.88%) Power Query
13 38 (0.76%) Big Data
14 35 (0.70%) MongoDB
15 32 (0.64%) DynamoDB
16 29 (0.58%) Data Lake
17 25 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
18 23 (0.46%) Metadata
19 22 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
20 21 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 191 (3.80%) Git
2 143 (2.84%) JIRA
3 68 (1.35%) GitLab
4 41 (0.82%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.60%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) Cucumber
6 16 (0.32%) Selenium
7 15 (0.30%) JUnit
7 15 (0.30%) Maven
8 13 (0.26%) Subversion
9 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
9 12 (0.24%) LabVIEW
9 12 (0.24%) SonarQube
10 11 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
11 9 (0.18%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.16%) Burp Suite
12 8 (0.16%) Eclipse
12 8 (0.16%) Metasploit
13 7 (0.14%) Mockito
13 7 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 2,407 (47.87%) Social Skills
2 1,415 (28.14%) Analytical Skills
3 818 (16.27%) Finance
4 343 (6.82%) Manufacturing
5 320 (6.36%) Organisational Skills
6 226 (4.49%) Public Sector
7 220 (4.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 188 (3.74%) Law
9 187 (3.72%) Legal
10 183 (3.64%) Marketing
11 178 (3.54%) Retail
12 140 (2.78%) Telecoms
13 136 (2.70%) Electronics
14 132 (2.63%) Banking
15 102 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
16 88 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
17 74 (1.47%) Aerospace
18 70 (1.39%) Games
19 55 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
20 52 (1.03%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 728 (14.48%) Analyst
2 615 (12.23%) IT Support
3 539 (10.72%) Senior
4 533 (10.60%) Support Engineer
5 420 (8.35%) Developer
6 363 (7.22%) IT Engineer
7 276 (5.49%) IT Support Engineer
8 260 (5.17%) Lead
9 234 (4.65%) Support Technician
10 209 (4.16%) Support Analyst
11 205 (4.08%) Systems Engineer
12 184 (3.66%) IT Technician
13 175 (3.48%) Architect
14 171 (3.40%) Consultant
15 163 (3.24%) Technical Support
16 155 (3.08%) Software Engineer
17 148 (2.94%) IT Support Technician
18 145 (2.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 132 (2.63%) Technical Engineer
20 126 (2.51%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 183 (3.64%) .NET
2 171 (3.40%) React
3 148 (2.94%) HTML
4 124 (2.47%) REST
5 116 (2.31%) CSS
6 85 (1.69%) Node.js
7 71 (1.41%) SOAP
8 65 (1.29%) JSON
8 65 (1.29%) RESTful
9 58 (1.15%) Middleware
10 57 (1.13%) XML
11 56 (1.11%) AngularJS
11 56 (1.11%) Vue
12 39 (0.78%) Spring
13 37 (0.74%) OAuth
14 36 (0.72%) EDI
15 35 (0.70%) Spring Boot
16 34 (0.68%) ASP.NET
17 33 (0.66%) Web Services
18 30 (0.60%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 384 (7.64%) Driving Licence
2 272 (5.41%) Onboarding
3 222 (4.42%) Self-Motivation
4 195 (3.88%) Management Information System
5 125 (2.49%) Product Ownership
6 124 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
7 123 (2.45%) Cloud Native
8 104 (2.07%) Analytical Mindset
9 97 (1.93%) Data Centre
10 75 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
11 74 (1.47%) Social Media
12 63 (1.25%) Mobile App
13 52 (1.03%) Low-Code
14 47 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
15 45 (0.89%) Virtual Team
16 44 (0.88%) Security Posture
17 43 (0.86%) Data Structures
18 38 (0.76%) Algorithms
19 36 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
19 36 (0.72%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 843 (16.77%) Windows
2 410 (8.15%) Windows Server
3 337 (6.70%) Linux
4 134 (2.67%) Windows 10
5 118 (2.35%) Windows Server 2016
6 99 (1.97%) Android
7 62 (1.23%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
9 51 (1.01%) Mac OS
10 32 (0.64%) Unix
11 26 (0.52%) CentOS
11 26 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 24 (0.48%) Ubuntu
13 20 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
14 14 (0.28%) VMS
15 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
16 9 (0.18%) Debian
17 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.080%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,085 (21.58%) Continuous Improvement
2 907 (18.04%) Customer Service
3 668 (13.29%) Agile
4 505 (10.04%) Decision-Making
5 494 (9.82%) Mentoring
6 424 (8.43%) Analytics
7 421 (8.37%) AI
7 421 (8.37%) CI/CD
8 407 (8.09%) ITIL
9 395 (7.86%) DevOps
10 362 (7.20%) Collaborative Working
11 343 (6.82%) ERP
12 340 (6.76%) Business Intelligence
13 336 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
14 334 (6.64%) Software Engineering
15 326 (6.48%) Project Management
16 324 (6.44%) Stakeholder Management
17 321 (6.38%) Coaching
18 311 (6.19%) Computer Science
19 294 (5.85%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 728 (14.48%) SQL
2 574 (11.42%) Python
3 308 (6.13%) JavaScript
4 238 (4.73%) C#
5 213 (4.24%) Java
6 199 (3.96%) PowerShell
7 127 (2.53%) TypeScript
8 100 (1.99%) C++
9 89 (1.77%) Bash
10 70 (1.39%) PHP
11 50 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.93%) C
13 43 (0.86%) PL/SQL
14 41 (0.82%) T-SQL
15 31 (0.62%) R
16 28 (0.56%) Kotlin
17 26 (0.52%) Perl
18 24 (0.48%) Go
18 24 (0.48%) Shell Script
19 21 (0.42%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 758 (15.08%) Degree
2 393 (7.82%) Security Cleared
3 288 (5.73%) SC Cleared
4 210 (4.18%) DBS Check
5 154 (3.06%) Microsoft Certification
6 146 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 76 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
9 69 (1.37%) A+ Certification
10 67 (1.33%) DV Cleared
11 62 (1.23%) ACCA
12 60 (1.19%) CCNA
13 58 (1.15%) CIMA
14 53 (1.05%) PMI Certification
15 52 (1.03%) HNC
16 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 47 (0.93%) Master's Degree
18 43 (0.86%) Azure Certification
18 43 (0.86%) CISSP
19 41 (0.82%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 288 (5.73%) QA
2 237 (4.71%) Data Quality
3 155 (3.08%) Cyber Essentials
4 143 (2.84%) GDPR
5 130 (2.59%) SLA
6 118 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 102 (2.03%) PCI DSS
8 82 (1.63%) NIST
9 79 (1.57%) Accessibility
10 39 (0.78%) ISO 9001
11 21 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
11 21 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 21 (0.42%) PMO
12 16 (0.32%) GMP
13 13 (0.26%) GRC
13 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
14 12 (0.24%) SOC 2
14 12 (0.24%) TickIT
15 9 (0.18%) Good Clinical Practice
16 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 615 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 228 (4.53%) Hyper-V
3 164 (3.26%) Docker
4 161 (3.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.43%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.60%) Firmware
7 27 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.34%) vSphere
9 13 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.20%) KVM
11 7 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
11 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.12%) XenApp
13 4 (0.080%) ClearTrust
13 4 (0.080%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 4 (0.080%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.060%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 3 (0.060%) Terminal Services
15 2 (0.040%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 187 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 186 (3.70%) Terraform
3 157 (3.12%) Kubernetes
4 84 (1.67%) Ansible
5 55 (1.09%) SCCM
6 46 (0.91%) Grafana
7 31 (0.62%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.44%) Nagios
9 13 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.24%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.18%) Autotask
11 9 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (0.18%) Kibana
11 9 (0.18%) Puppet
11 9 (0.18%) QRadar
11 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
12 8 (0.16%) Functional Safety
12 8 (0.16%) Podman
12 8 (0.16%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 1,435 (28.54%) Microsoft
2 264 (5.25%) VMware
3 132 (2.63%) Oracle
4 131 (2.61%) Veeam
5 109 (2.17%) SAP
6 107 (2.13%) Splunk
7 105 (2.09%) Google
8 104 (2.07%) Cisco
9 103 (2.05%) SolarWinds
10 74 (1.47%) Tanium
11 73 (1.45%) Nimble Storage
12 72 (1.43%) Brocade
13 70 (1.39%) Salesforce
14 69 (1.37%) Databricks
15 63 (1.25%) ServiceNow
16 62 (1.23%) Apple
17 49 (0.97%) Adobe
18 45 (0.89%) Dell
18 45 (0.89%) Sage
19 40 (0.80%) Meraki