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

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,000 6,030 10,726
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.42% 20.69% 14.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.44% 22.51% 18.08%
Number of salaries quoted 3,713 3,103 6,953
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.49% -1.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £61,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 47,912 26,786 59,320
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.11% 91.90% 81.73%
Number of salaries quoted 31,345 13,282 42,145
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,117
25th Percentile £38,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £51,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +2.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%

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 31 May 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 31 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
North of England -8 1,377 £42,500 -5.56% 479
South East -6 1,191 £45,000 - 640
Midlands -19 919 £42,000 -6.67% 309
North West -16 703 £45,000 -4.26% 265
South West -7 575 £43,500 +8.75% 195
West Midlands -25 536 £42,500 -10.53% 188
Yorkshire -10 520 £40,500 +8.00% 150
East of England -7 500 £45,000 +11.11% 213
East Midlands -10 379 £35,000 -9.09% 123
Scotland -4 277 £35,000 -29.15% 74
North East -14 154 £48,222 +7.16% 76
Wales -14 112 £42,500 -15.00% 44
Northern Ireland -10 69 £38,500 -30.00% 13
Isle of Man +3 3 £35,000 +1.45%
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
1 298 (5.96%) SharePoint
2 296 (5.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 47 (0.94%) CMS
4 41 (0.82%) Confluence
5 30 (0.60%) IIS
6 23 (0.46%) Apache
7 21 (0.42%) WordPress
8 17 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.28%) Apache Spark
9 14 (0.28%) SAS
10 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
12 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
12 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
14 4 (0.080%) Moodle
14 4 (0.080%) nginx
14 4 (0.080%) OpenStack
14 4 (0.080%) Totara
Applications
1 301 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 294 (5.88%) Microsoft Excel
3 41 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.70%) MS Visio
6 11 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.16%) Fusion 360
9 7 (0.14%) Simulink
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.10%) Trello
12 4 (0.080%) Chatbot
13 3 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.040%) Acrobat
14 2 (0.040%) Sketch
14 2 (0.040%) SOLIDWORKS
14 2 (0.040%) Windchill
15 1 (0.020%) Weka
Business Applications
1 48 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.68%) 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%) iTrent
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 10 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 10 (0.20%) SAP CO
10 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
11 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
11 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 5 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
13 4 (0.080%) Line 50
13 4 (0.080%) Sage 200
13 4 (0.080%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 1,000 (20.00%) Azure
2 875 (17.50%) Microsoft 365
3 505 (10.10%) AWS
4 376 (7.52%) Power Platform
5 228 (4.56%) Entra ID
6 174 (3.48%) SaaS
7 142 (2.84%) GCP
8 122 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
9 109 (2.18%) Serverless
10 104 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
11 85 (1.70%) GitHub
12 75 (1.50%) Power Automate
13 66 (1.32%) PowerApps
14 59 (1.18%) Amazon S3
15 57 (1.14%) OneDrive
16 55 (1.10%) Google Workspace
17 51 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
18 46 (0.92%) IaaS
19 44 (0.88%) Azure Data Factory
19 44 (0.88%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 322 (6.44%) Firewall
2 305 (6.10%) DNS
3 254 (5.08%) DHCP
4 174 (3.48%) WAN
5 168 (3.36%) VPN
6 134 (2.68%) LAN
7 125 (2.50%) TCP/IP
8 123 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 108 (2.16%) Broadband
10 103 (2.06%) Wireless
11 96 (1.92%) VLAN
12 79 (1.58%) VoIP
13 77 (1.54%) Network Security
14 44 (0.88%) SD-WAN
15 36 (0.72%) Internet
16 34 (0.68%) SAN
17 21 (0.42%) HTTP
18 19 (0.38%) Unified Communications
19 17 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
20 15 (0.30%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 298 (5.96%) Power BI
2 210 (4.20%) SQL Server
3 75 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
4 74 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
5 70 (1.40%) MySQL
5 70 (1.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 69 (1.38%) PostgreSQL
7 68 (1.36%) NoSQL
8 60 (1.20%) Tableau
9 53 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 52 (1.04%) Relational Database
11 44 (0.88%) Power Query
12 38 (0.76%) Big Data
13 33 (0.66%) DynamoDB
14 31 (0.62%) MongoDB
15 29 (0.58%) Data Lake
16 25 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
17 24 (0.48%) Oracle Reports
18 22 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
18 22 (0.44%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 194 (3.88%) Git
2 143 (2.86%) JIRA
3 67 (1.34%) GitLab
4 44 (0.88%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Selenium
8 14 (0.28%) Cucumber
8 14 (0.28%) JUnit
9 13 (0.26%) LabVIEW
9 13 (0.26%) SonarQube
9 13 (0.26%) Subversion
10 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
11 10 (0.20%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
12 9 (0.18%) Visual Studio
13 8 (0.16%) MLflow
14 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.14%) Metasploit
14 7 (0.14%) Mockito
General
1 2,377 (47.54%) Social Skills
2 1,404 (28.08%) Analytical Skills
3 838 (16.76%) Finance
4 342 (6.84%) Manufacturing
5 318 (6.36%) Organisational Skills
6 227 (4.54%) Public Sector
7 211 (4.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 191 (3.82%) Law
9 183 (3.66%) Marketing
10 182 (3.64%) Legal
11 174 (3.48%) Retail
12 145 (2.90%) Telecoms
13 135 (2.70%) Electronics
14 130 (2.60%) Banking
15 98 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
16 77 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
17 71 (1.42%) Games
18 70 (1.40%) Aerospace
19 57 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
20 53 (1.06%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 719 (14.38%) Analyst
2 623 (12.46%) IT Support
3 542 (10.84%) Support Engineer
4 538 (10.76%) Senior
5 433 (8.66%) Developer
6 361 (7.22%) IT Engineer
7 280 (5.60%) IT Support Engineer
8 256 (5.12%) Lead
9 236 (4.72%) Support Technician
10 207 (4.14%) Support Analyst
11 192 (3.84%) Systems Engineer
12 185 (3.70%) IT Technician
13 174 (3.48%) Architect
14 168 (3.36%) Consultant
15 161 (3.22%) Technical Support
16 156 (3.12%) Software Engineer
17 150 (3.00%) IT Support Technician
18 149 (2.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 131 (2.62%) Business Analyst
20 129 (2.58%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 184 (3.68%) .NET
2 168 (3.36%) React
3 146 (2.92%) HTML
4 124 (2.48%) REST
5 113 (2.26%) CSS
6 82 (1.64%) Node.js
7 72 (1.44%) SOAP
8 64 (1.28%) JSON
8 64 (1.28%) RESTful
9 57 (1.14%) XML
10 56 (1.12%) Middleware
11 54 (1.08%) Vue
12 52 (1.04%) AngularJS
13 40 (0.80%) Spring
14 38 (0.76%) OAuth
15 36 (0.72%) Spring Boot
16 35 (0.70%) EDI
17 34 (0.68%) ASP.NET
18 30 (0.60%) Laravel
18 30 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 384 (7.68%) Driving Licence
2 267 (5.34%) Onboarding
3 225 (4.50%) Self-Motivation
4 191 (3.82%) Management Information System
5 126 (2.52%) Product Ownership
6 119 (2.38%) Cloud Native
7 110 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
8 107 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
9 97 (1.94%) Data Centre
10 76 (1.52%) Social Media
11 74 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
12 63 (1.26%) Mobile App
13 57 (1.14%) Low-Code
14 51 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
15 45 (0.90%) Virtual Team
16 43 (0.86%) Data Structures
17 38 (0.76%) Security Posture
18 36 (0.72%) Algorithms
18 36 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
18 36 (0.72%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 836 (16.72%) Windows
2 396 (7.92%) Windows Server
3 324 (6.48%) Linux
4 131 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 105 (2.10%) Android
6 101 (2.02%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.26%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.04%) Mac OS
9 50 (1.00%) Windows Server 2019
10 32 (0.64%) Unix
11 26 (0.52%) CentOS
12 25 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 24 (0.48%) Ubuntu
14 20 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
15 15 (0.30%) VMS
16 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.18%) Debian
18 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
19 4 (0.080%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,059 (21.18%) Continuous Improvement
2 885 (17.70%) Customer Service
3 666 (13.32%) Agile
4 491 (9.82%) Mentoring
5 489 (9.78%) Decision-Making
6 425 (8.50%) CI/CD
7 420 (8.40%) AI
8 415 (8.30%) Analytics
9 410 (8.20%) ITIL
10 402 (8.04%) DevOps
11 351 (7.02%) Business Intelligence
12 336 (6.72%) Collaborative Working
13 333 (6.66%) ERP
14 332 (6.64%) Software Engineering
15 329 (6.58%) Cybersecurity
16 327 (6.54%) Project Management
17 321 (6.42%) Coaching
18 314 (6.28%) Stakeholder Management
19 308 (6.16%) Computer Science
20 288 (5.76%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 705 (14.10%) SQL
2 574 (11.48%) Python
3 315 (6.30%) JavaScript
4 239 (4.78%) C#
5 211 (4.22%) Java
6 199 (3.98%) PowerShell
7 124 (2.48%) TypeScript
8 102 (2.04%) C++
9 93 (1.86%) Bash
10 70 (1.40%) PHP
11 52 (1.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 48 (0.96%) C
13 43 (0.86%) PL/SQL
14 40 (0.80%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.60%) R
16 27 (0.54%) Kotlin
17 26 (0.52%) Perl
18 23 (0.46%) Go
18 23 (0.46%) Shell Script
19 22 (0.44%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 768 (15.36%) Degree
2 375 (7.50%) Security Cleared
3 269 (5.38%) SC Cleared
4 209 (4.18%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 145 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.74%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
9 73 (1.46%) A+ Certification
10 69 (1.38%) DV Cleared
11 61 (1.22%) ACCA
12 59 (1.18%) CCNA
13 57 (1.14%) CIMA
14 51 (1.02%) HNC
15 50 (1.00%) PMI Certification
16 47 (0.94%) Master's Degree
16 47 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
17 45 (0.90%) CISSP
18 40 (0.80%) Azure Certification
19 39 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 281 (5.62%) QA
2 238 (4.76%) Data Quality
3 151 (3.02%) GDPR
4 134 (2.68%) Cyber Essentials
5 127 (2.54%) SLA
6 112 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 88 (1.76%) PCI DSS
8 83 (1.66%) NIST
9 68 (1.36%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 20 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 19 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 17 (0.34%) PMO
14 14 (0.28%) GMP
14 14 (0.28%) SOC 2
15 13 (0.26%) GRC
15 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
16 12 (0.24%) TickIT
17 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 7 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 594 (11.88%) Active Directory
2 201 (4.02%) Hyper-V
3 167 (3.34%) Docker
4 159 (3.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 56 (1.12%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.60%) Firmware
7 27 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.34%) vSphere
9 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.20%) KVM
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 5 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.080%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.080%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 4 (0.080%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.060%) ClearTrust
16 3 (0.060%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.040%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 188 (3.76%) Terraform
2 181 (3.62%) Microsoft Intune
3 157 (3.14%) Kubernetes
4 88 (1.76%) Ansible
5 56 (1.12%) SCCM
6 49 (0.98%) Grafana
7 32 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.44%) Nagios
9 14 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
11 11 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 9 (0.18%) Autotask
12 9 (0.18%) Kibana
12 9 (0.18%) Puppet
12 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 8 (0.16%) Functional Safety
13 8 (0.16%) Jamf Pro
13 8 (0.16%) logstash
13 8 (0.16%) QRadar
Vendors
1 1,409 (28.18%) Microsoft
2 245 (4.90%) VMware
3 139 (2.78%) Oracle
4 116 (2.32%) Veeam
5 113 (2.26%) SAP
6 109 (2.18%) Cisco
7 104 (2.08%) Google
8 88 (1.76%) SolarWinds
8 88 (1.76%) Splunk
9 69 (1.38%) Databricks
10 66 (1.32%) Salesforce
11 64 (1.28%) Apple
11 64 (1.28%) ServiceNow
12 57 (1.14%) Nimble Storage
13 56 (1.12%) Brocade
13 56 (1.12%) Tanium
14 51 (1.02%) Adobe
15 47 (0.94%) Dell
16 44 (0.88%) Sage
17 38 (0.76%) Meraki