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 1 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -6 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,431 6,132 11,215
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.80% 19.41% 14.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.11% 21.61% 18.26%
Number of salaries quoted 4,079 3,316 6,877
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% -6.67% -9.76%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £76,545 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £49,800 £49,000
% change year-on-year -4.62% +1.63% -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 48,876 28,376 61,417
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.22% 89.80% 80.12%
Number of salaries quoted 34,424 14,819 42,730
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,171 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.34% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.09%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 1,464 £44,000 +3.53% 718
South East -4 1,343 £45,000 +5.88% 871
Midlands -8 996 £42,000 -1.18% 481
North West -7 767 £45,000 -2.17% 389
South West -6 643 £44,000 +17.33% 347
West Midlands -9 568 £42,500 -5.56% 268
East of England -3 557 £44,500 +27.14% 300
Yorkshire -12 513 £42,500 +21.43% 237
East Midlands -10 425 £35,000 -4.11% 214
Scotland -4 252 £33,000 -27.69% 141
North East -13 184 £50,000 +25.00% 111
Wales -22 124 £43,750 -7.89% 113
Northern Ireland -7 72 £38,500 -30.00% 85
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 5
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
1 339 (6.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 335 (6.17%) SharePoint
3 53 (0.98%) Confluence
4 52 (0.96%) CMS
5 33 (0.61%) IIS
6 28 (0.52%) WordPress
7 25 (0.46%) Apache
8 20 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 15 (0.28%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.22%) SAS
11 11 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
11 11 (0.20%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
13 8 (0.15%) WebLogic
14 7 (0.13%) OpenEdge
15 6 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
16 5 (0.092%) Skype for Business
17 4 (0.074%) nginx
17 4 (0.074%) OpenStack
Applications
1 350 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 330 (6.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 47 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 29 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 15 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 10 (0.18%) Simulink
8 8 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.11%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.092%) Fusion 360
10 5 (0.092%) Lightworks
10 5 (0.092%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.092%) Trello
11 4 (0.074%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.074%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.074%) Sketch
12 3 (0.055%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.055%) Windchill
13 2 (0.037%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 52 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
3 29 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.35%) Shopify
6 16 (0.29%) Magento
7 15 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
10 10 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 10 (0.18%) iTrent
11 9 (0.17%) SAP Business One
12 8 (0.15%) Sage 50
13 7 (0.13%) Workday HCM
14 6 (0.11%) JDE EnterpriseOne
14 6 (0.11%) Raiser’s Edge
14 6 (0.11%) SAP CO
15 5 (0.092%) Q-Pulse
16 4 (0.074%) Dynamics GP
16 4 (0.074%) Line 50
Cloud Services
1 1,145 (21.08%) Azure
2 1,004 (18.49%) Microsoft 365
3 573 (10.55%) AWS
4 417 (7.68%) Power Platform
5 269 (4.95%) Entra ID
6 186 (3.42%) SaaS
7 181 (3.33%) GCP
8 126 (2.32%) Azure DevOps
9 115 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
10 112 (2.06%) Serverless
11 93 (1.71%) Power Automate
12 91 (1.68%) GitHub
13 87 (1.60%) PowerApps
14 72 (1.33%) OneDrive
15 54 (0.99%) Amazon S3
16 51 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
17 47 (0.87%) Google Workspace
17 47 (0.87%) IaaS
18 46 (0.85%) PaaS
19 45 (0.83%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 404 (7.44%) Firewall
2 362 (6.67%) DNS
3 311 (5.73%) DHCP
4 218 (4.01%) VPN
5 193 (3.55%) WAN
6 169 (3.11%) TCP/IP
7 166 (3.06%) LAN
8 159 (2.93%) Wi-Fi
9 123 (2.26%) Wireless
10 116 (2.14%) VLAN
11 106 (1.95%) Broadband
12 93 (1.71%) Network Security
13 86 (1.58%) VoIP
14 43 (0.79%) Internet
15 37 (0.68%) SD-WAN
16 29 (0.53%) SAN
17 25 (0.46%) HTTP
18 21 (0.39%) Remote Desktop
18 21 (0.39%) SSL
18 21 (0.39%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 339 (6.24%) Power BI
2 243 (4.47%) SQL Server
3 98 (1.80%) Amazon RDS
4 91 (1.68%) MySQL
5 83 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
6 76 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
7 74 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 67 (1.23%) Relational Database
9 62 (1.14%) NoSQL
9 62 (1.14%) Tableau
10 59 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 46 (0.85%) Power Query
12 39 (0.72%) MongoDB
13 36 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
14 35 (0.64%) Big Data
15 32 (0.59%) Data Lake
16 28 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
17 24 (0.44%) DynamoDB
18 23 (0.42%) Amazon Redshift
19 18 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 209 (3.85%) Git
2 156 (2.87%) JIRA
3 73 (1.34%) GitLab
4 46 (0.85%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.53%) Rational DOORS
6 21 (0.39%) Cucumber
7 19 (0.35%) Subversion
8 17 (0.31%) Eclipse
9 16 (0.29%) JUnit
10 15 (0.28%) SonarQube
11 14 (0.26%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.26%) Selenium
12 12 (0.22%) Maven
13 11 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
14 10 (0.18%) Bitbucket
14 10 (0.18%) Postman
15 8 (0.15%) Burp Suite
15 8 (0.15%) Claude Code
15 8 (0.15%) MLflow
15 8 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,594 (47.76%) Social Skills
2 1,462 (26.92%) Analytical Skills
3 855 (15.74%) Finance
4 420 (7.73%) Manufacturing
5 359 (6.61%) Organisational Skills
6 253 (4.66%) Public Sector
7 237 (4.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 217 (4.00%) Retail
9 211 (3.89%) Law
10 206 (3.79%) Legal
11 178 (3.28%) Marketing
12 134 (2.47%) Telecoms
13 133 (2.45%) Electronics
14 125 (2.30%) Banking
15 113 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
16 102 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
17 80 (1.47%) Aerospace
18 74 (1.36%) Games
19 58 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
20 56 (1.03%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 758 (13.96%) Analyst
2 667 (12.28%) IT Support
3 581 (10.70%) Support Engineer
4 564 (10.38%) Senior
5 497 (9.15%) Developer
6 397 (7.31%) IT Engineer
7 301 (5.54%) IT Support Engineer
8 286 (5.27%) Lead
9 249 (4.58%) Support Technician
10 233 (4.29%) Support Analyst
11 218 (4.01%) Systems Engineer
12 204 (3.76%) IT Technician
13 200 (3.68%) Technical Support
14 181 (3.33%) Software Engineer
15 179 (3.30%) Consultant
16 170 (3.13%) Architect
17 167 (3.07%) Technical Engineer
18 160 (2.95%) IT Support Technician
19 159 (2.93%) Technical Support Engineer
20 137 (2.52%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 207 (3.81%) .NET
2 191 (3.52%) React
3 160 (2.95%) HTML
4 144 (2.65%) REST
5 120 (2.21%) CSS
6 98 (1.80%) Node.js
7 85 (1.57%) RESTful
8 78 (1.44%) SOAP
9 74 (1.36%) Middleware
10 71 (1.31%) JSON
11 69 (1.27%) Vue
12 66 (1.22%) AngularJS
13 61 (1.12%) XML
14 45 (0.83%) Spring
15 43 (0.79%) Web Services
16 42 (0.77%) Spring Boot
17 41 (0.75%) ASP.NET
18 39 (0.72%) EDI
18 39 (0.72%) OAuth
19 29 (0.53%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 422 (7.77%) Driving Licence
2 317 (5.84%) Onboarding
3 250 (4.60%) Self-Motivation
4 196 (3.61%) Management Information System
5 151 (2.78%) Cloud Native
6 134 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
7 128 (2.36%) Product Ownership
8 100 (1.84%) Data Centre
9 98 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
10 79 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
11 67 (1.23%) Social Media
12 65 (1.20%) Mobile App
12 65 (1.20%) Security Posture
13 52 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
14 50 (0.92%) Virtual Team
15 48 (0.88%) Low-Code
16 45 (0.83%) IoT
17 44 (0.81%) Algorithms
18 43 (0.79%) CCTV
18 43 (0.79%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 951 (17.51%) Windows
2 458 (8.43%) Windows Server
3 380 (7.00%) Linux
4 150 (2.76%) Windows 10
5 118 (2.17%) Windows Server 2016
6 109 (2.01%) Android
7 71 (1.31%) Apple iOS
8 68 (1.25%) Mac OS
9 52 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.57%) Unix
11 28 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 26 (0.48%) CentOS
12 26 (0.48%) Ubuntu
13 17 (0.31%) VMS
14 15 (0.28%) Windows 7
14 15 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
15 14 (0.26%) Debian
16 7 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
16 7 (0.13%) Windows 8
17 6 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,247 (22.96%) Continuous Improvement
2 982 (18.08%) Customer Service
3 709 (13.05%) Agile
4 556 (10.24%) Mentoring
5 551 (10.15%) Decision-Making
6 487 (8.97%) AI
7 476 (8.76%) CI/CD
8 464 (8.54%) Analytics
9 455 (8.38%) ITIL
10 441 (8.12%) DevOps
11 429 (7.90%) Cybersecurity
12 422 (7.77%) Collaborative Working
13 393 (7.24%) Business Intelligence
14 389 (7.16%) ERP
15 387 (7.13%) Software Engineering
16 373 (6.87%) Stakeholder Management
17 327 (6.02%) Computer Science
18 324 (5.97%) Project Delivery
19 314 (5.78%) Service Delivery
20 311 (5.73%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 846 (15.58%) SQL
2 628 (11.56%) Python
3 342 (6.30%) JavaScript
4 284 (5.23%) C#
5 240 (4.42%) PowerShell
6 236 (4.35%) Java
7 154 (2.84%) TypeScript
8 137 (2.52%) C++
9 107 (1.97%) Bash
10 75 (1.38%) PHP
11 56 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 55 (1.01%) C
13 46 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 38 (0.70%) PL/SQL
15 31 (0.57%) Perl
16 30 (0.55%) Go
16 30 (0.55%) Kotlin
16 30 (0.55%) Shell Script
17 27 (0.50%) R
18 26 (0.48%) Rust
Qualifications
1 772 (14.21%) Degree
2 432 (7.95%) Security Cleared
3 305 (5.62%) SC Cleared
4 206 (3.79%) DBS Check
5 162 (2.98%) Microsoft Certification
6 154 (2.84%) Computer Science Degree
7 86 (1.58%) BPSS Clearance
8 80 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
9 74 (1.36%) DV Cleared
10 65 (1.20%) A+ Certification
11 63 (1.16%) ACCA
11 63 (1.16%) Azure Certification
12 62 (1.14%) CCNA
13 59 (1.09%) CIMA
14 57 (1.05%) HNC
15 48 (0.88%) CISSP
15 48 (0.88%) PMI Certification
16 45 (0.83%) Network+ Certification
17 44 (0.81%) CompTIA Security+
17 44 (0.81%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 304 (5.60%) QA
2 242 (4.46%) Data Quality
3 164 (3.02%) Cyber Essentials
4 156 (2.87%) GDPR
5 137 (2.52%) SLA
6 133 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 111 (2.04%) PCI DSS
8 98 (1.80%) Accessibility
9 84 (1.55%) NIST
10 41 (0.75%) ISO 9001
11 26 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 24 (0.44%) PMO
13 19 (0.35%) GMP
14 15 (0.28%) GRC
15 14 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
15 14 (0.26%) Good Clinical Practice
16 13 (0.24%) ISO 14001
17 12 (0.22%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.22%) TickIT
18 8 (0.15%) Def Stans
System Software
1 689 (12.69%) Active Directory
2 256 (4.71%) Hyper-V
3 192 (3.54%) Docker
4 182 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.33%) Terminal Server
6 34 (0.63%) Firmware
7 32 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
8 27 (0.50%) vSphere
9 20 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
10 12 (0.22%) Embedded Firmware
11 11 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.18%) KVM
13 7 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.11%) XenApp
15 5 (0.092%) ClearTrust
16 4 (0.074%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 4 (0.074%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.055%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 3 (0.055%) Terminal Services
17 3 (0.055%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 208 (3.83%) Terraform
2 202 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
3 188 (3.46%) Kubernetes
4 103 (1.90%) Ansible
5 58 (1.07%) Grafana
6 56 (1.03%) SCCM
7 37 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.39%) Nagios
9 18 (0.33%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.22%) Kibana
11 11 (0.20%) logstash
11 11 (0.20%) Puppet
11 11 (0.20%) vCenter Server
12 10 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.18%) Podman
13 9 (0.17%) Autotask
13 9 (0.17%) Failover Clustering
13 9 (0.17%) Functional Safety
13 9 (0.17%) QRadar
13 9 (0.17%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,639 (30.18%) Microsoft
2 290 (5.34%) VMware
3 128 (2.36%) Veeam
4 122 (2.25%) Google
5 119 (2.19%) Oracle
6 117 (2.15%) SAP
7 107 (1.97%) Splunk
8 105 (1.93%) Cisco
9 99 (1.82%) SolarWinds
10 79 (1.45%) Salesforce
11 76 (1.40%) Tanium
12 75 (1.38%) ServiceNow
13 73 (1.34%) Nimble Storage
14 72 (1.33%) Brocade
15 68 (1.25%) Databricks
16 59 (1.09%) Apple
17 53 (0.98%) Sage
18 51 (0.94%) Adobe
19 47 (0.87%) Dell
20 40 (0.74%) Fortinet