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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,142 5,996 11,457
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.66% 20.14% 14.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.00% 22.09% 18.18%
Number of salaries quoted 3,821 3,166 6,994
10th Percentile £26,400 £25,750 £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 £73,750 £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 46,733 27,143 63,006
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.63% 91.16% 79.93%
Number of salaries quoted 32,679 13,759 43,887
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -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 16 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 16 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 -9 1,389 £42,500 - 662
South East -5 1,239 £45,000 +5.88% 835
Midlands -9 952 £42,000 -2.33% 456
North West -7 714 £45,000 -3.23% 380
South West -5 614 £44,000 +10.00% 352
West Midlands -9 542 £42,500 -5.56% 266
East of England -3 519 £45,000 +28.57% 298
Yorkshire -12 509 £40,500 +15.71% 198
East Midlands -10 407 £35,000 -6.67% 191
Scotland -3 263 £34,000 -30.12% 133
North East -14 166 £48,472 +21.18% 95
Wales -15 115 £45,000 -10.00% 51
Northern Ireland -9 71 £38,500 -30.00% 97
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 4
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
1 328 (6.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 310 (6.03%) SharePoint
3 49 (0.95%) CMS
4 48 (0.93%) Confluence
5 29 (0.56%) IIS
6 24 (0.47%) WordPress
7 23 (0.45%) Apache
8 19 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.27%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.23%) SAS
11 11 (0.21%) 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 6 (0.12%) WebSphere
15 5 (0.097%) nginx
15 5 (0.097%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.078%) Moodle
16 4 (0.078%) OpenStack
Applications
1 315 (6.13%) Microsoft Office
2 305 (5.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 42 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
5 33 (0.64%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.14%) Fusion 360
9 7 (0.14%) Simulink
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
11 5 (0.097%) Photoshop
12 4 (0.078%) Chatbot
12 4 (0.078%) Trello
13 3 (0.058%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.039%) Adobe XD
14 2 (0.039%) Lightworks
14 2 (0.039%) Sketch
14 2 (0.039%) SOLIDWORKS
14 2 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 48 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.37%) Shopify
6 16 (0.31%) Magento
7 14 (0.27%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
9 11 (0.21%) iTrent
10 9 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
11 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 8 (0.16%) SAP CO
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.097%) Q-Pulse
14 4 (0.078%) Dynamics GP
14 4 (0.078%) Line 50
14 4 (0.078%) Sage X3
14 4 (0.078%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,065 (20.71%) Azure
2 928 (18.05%) Microsoft 365
3 536 (10.42%) AWS
4 384 (7.47%) Power Platform
5 238 (4.63%) Entra ID
6 171 (3.33%) SaaS
7 153 (2.98%) GCP
8 119 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
9 112 (2.18%) Dynamics 365
10 111 (2.16%) Serverless
11 86 (1.67%) GitHub
12 81 (1.58%) Power Automate
13 73 (1.42%) PowerApps
14 68 (1.32%) OneDrive
15 57 (1.11%) Amazon S3
16 51 (0.99%) Google Workspace
17 49 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
18 44 (0.86%) IaaS
19 43 (0.84%) PaaS
20 42 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 357 (6.94%) Firewall
2 334 (6.50%) DNS
3 288 (5.60%) DHCP
4 187 (3.64%) VPN
5 176 (3.42%) WAN
6 143 (2.78%) LAN
7 140 (2.72%) TCP/IP
8 133 (2.59%) Wi-Fi
9 110 (2.14%) Broadband
10 106 (2.06%) Wireless
11 101 (1.96%) VLAN
12 84 (1.63%) Network Security
12 84 (1.63%) VoIP
13 43 (0.84%) SD-WAN
14 40 (0.78%) Internet
15 32 (0.62%) SAN
16 20 (0.39%) HTTP
17 19 (0.37%) Remote Desktop
18 17 (0.33%) SSL
18 17 (0.33%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 308 (5.99%) Power BI
2 214 (4.16%) SQL Server
3 104 (2.02%) Amazon RDS
4 75 (1.46%) MySQL
5 74 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
6 69 (1.34%) NoSQL
7 68 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
7 68 (1.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 60 (1.17%) Tableau
9 56 (1.09%) Relational Database
10 53 (1.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 45 (0.88%) Power Query
12 37 (0.72%) MongoDB
13 36 (0.70%) Big Data
14 30 (0.58%) Data Lake
15 29 (0.56%) DynamoDB
16 28 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
17 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
18 22 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
18 22 (0.43%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 190 (3.70%) Git
2 144 (2.80%) JIRA
3 65 (1.26%) GitLab
4 41 (0.80%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.31%) Cucumber
6 16 (0.31%) JUnit
6 16 (0.31%) Selenium
7 15 (0.29%) Subversion
8 14 (0.27%) Maven
9 13 (0.25%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.21%) Eclipse
10 11 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
10 11 (0.21%) SonarQube
11 10 (0.19%) LabVIEW
12 9 (0.18%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.18%) Burp Suite
12 9 (0.18%) Postman
13 8 (0.16%) Metasploit
13 8 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,461 (47.86%) Social Skills
2 1,437 (27.95%) Analytical Skills
3 830 (16.14%) Finance
4 365 (7.10%) Manufacturing
5 329 (6.40%) Organisational Skills
6 235 (4.57%) Public Sector
7 225 (4.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 197 (3.83%) Legal
9 192 (3.73%) Law
10 187 (3.64%) Retail
11 179 (3.48%) Marketing
12 137 (2.66%) Telecoms
13 136 (2.64%) Banking
14 135 (2.63%) Electronics
15 103 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
16 93 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
17 74 (1.44%) Aerospace
18 71 (1.38%) Games
19 56 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
20 54 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 742 (14.43%) Analyst
2 629 (12.23%) IT Support
3 546 (10.62%) Support Engineer
4 538 (10.46%) Senior
5 451 (8.77%) Developer
6 369 (7.18%) IT Engineer
7 283 (5.50%) IT Support Engineer
8 269 (5.23%) Lead
9 237 (4.61%) Support Technician
10 212 (4.12%) Systems Engineer
11 208 (4.05%) Support Analyst
12 186 (3.62%) IT Technician
13 175 (3.40%) Technical Support
14 174 (3.38%) Architect
15 173 (3.36%) Consultant
16 162 (3.15%) Software Engineer
17 150 (2.92%) IT Support Technician
18 143 (2.78%) Technical Engineer
19 140 (2.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
20 137 (2.66%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 191 (3.71%) .NET
2 184 (3.58%) React
3 152 (2.96%) HTML
4 132 (2.57%) REST
5 116 (2.26%) CSS
6 93 (1.81%) Node.js
7 76 (1.48%) SOAP
8 72 (1.40%) RESTful
9 66 (1.28%) JSON
10 63 (1.23%) Middleware
10 63 (1.23%) Vue
11 61 (1.19%) AngularJS
12 58 (1.13%) XML
13 42 (0.82%) Spring
14 41 (0.80%) ASP.NET
15 38 (0.74%) OAuth
15 38 (0.74%) Spring Boot
15 38 (0.74%) Web Services
16 34 (0.66%) EDI
17 28 (0.54%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 386 (7.51%) Driving Licence
2 276 (5.37%) Onboarding
3 232 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 201 (3.91%) Management Information System
5 134 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
6 131 (2.55%) Cloud Native
7 127 (2.47%) Product Ownership
8 101 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
9 98 (1.91%) Data Centre
10 75 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
11 72 (1.40%) Social Media
12 65 (1.26%) Mobile App
13 53 (1.03%) Security Posture
14 51 (0.99%) Low-Code
15 49 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
16 47 (0.91%) Virtual Team
17 45 (0.88%) Data Structures
18 38 (0.74%) Algorithms
19 37 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
19 37 (0.72%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 882 (17.15%) Windows
2 431 (8.38%) Windows Server
3 354 (6.88%) Linux
4 138 (2.68%) Windows 10
5 125 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 102 (1.98%) Android
7 66 (1.28%) Apple iOS
8 56 (1.09%) Mac OS
9 52 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.60%) Unix
11 26 (0.51%) CentOS
11 26 (0.51%) Ubuntu
12 25 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 19 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
14 16 (0.31%) VMS
15 13 (0.25%) Windows 7
16 11 (0.21%) Debian
17 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
18 5 (0.097%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,149 (22.35%) Continuous Improvement
2 928 (18.05%) Customer Service
3 682 (13.26%) Agile
4 519 (10.09%) Decision-Making
5 511 (9.94%) Mentoring
6 441 (8.58%) AI
7 437 (8.50%) CI/CD
8 430 (8.36%) Analytics
9 412 (8.01%) ITIL
10 405 (7.88%) DevOps
11 382 (7.43%) Collaborative Working
12 365 (7.10%) Cybersecurity
13 358 (6.96%) Business Intelligence
14 349 (6.79%) ERP
15 347 (6.75%) Software Engineering
16 330 (6.42%) Stakeholder Management
17 317 (6.16%) Coaching
17 317 (6.16%) Computer Science
18 315 (6.13%) Project Management
19 294 (5.72%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 756 (14.70%) SQL
2 584 (11.36%) Python
3 323 (6.28%) JavaScript
4 253 (4.92%) C#
5 222 (4.32%) Java
6 204 (3.97%) PowerShell
7 137 (2.66%) TypeScript
8 110 (2.14%) C++
9 95 (1.85%) Bash
10 71 (1.38%) PHP
11 52 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 50 (0.97%) C
13 44 (0.86%) PL/SQL
14 40 (0.78%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.58%) Kotlin
16 28 (0.54%) R
17 27 (0.53%) Perl
18 24 (0.47%) Go
18 24 (0.47%) Ruby
18 24 (0.47%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 766 (14.90%) Degree
2 412 (8.01%) Security Cleared
3 299 (5.81%) SC Cleared
4 205 (3.99%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 147 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 84 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
8 79 (1.54%) Cisco Certification
9 69 (1.34%) DV Cleared
10 68 (1.32%) A+ Certification
11 63 (1.23%) ACCA
12 62 (1.21%) CCNA
13 59 (1.15%) CIMA
14 54 (1.05%) HNC
15 52 (1.01%) PMI Certification
16 50 (0.97%) Azure Certification
17 47 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
18 46 (0.89%) Master's Degree
19 43 (0.84%) CISSP
19 43 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 297 (5.78%) QA
2 236 (4.59%) Data Quality
3 162 (3.15%) Cyber Essentials
4 145 (2.82%) GDPR
5 129 (2.51%) SLA
6 119 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 113 (2.20%) PCI DSS
8 87 (1.69%) Accessibility
9 78 (1.52%) NIST
10 39 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 23 (0.45%) PMO
12 22 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 19 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
14 18 (0.35%) GMP
15 14 (0.27%) GRC
16 13 (0.25%) ISO 14001
17 12 (0.23%) Good Clinical Practice
17 12 (0.23%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.23%) TickIT
18 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 640 (12.45%) Active Directory
2 240 (4.67%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.42%) Docker
4 168 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.56%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.58%) Firmware
6 30 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 19 (0.37%) vSphere
8 16 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.19%) KVM
11 8 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 5 (0.097%) ClearTrust
15 4 (0.078%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.078%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.058%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.058%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.039%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 193 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 188 (3.66%) Terraform
3 169 (3.29%) Kubernetes
4 89 (1.73%) Ansible
5 55 (1.07%) SCCM
6 51 (0.99%) Grafana
7 35 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.41%) Nagios
9 15 (0.29%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.25%) vCenter Server
11 12 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.18%) Autotask
12 9 (0.18%) Functional Safety
12 9 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.18%) Kibana
12 9 (0.18%) Puppet
12 9 (0.18%) QRadar
12 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.16%) logstash
13 8 (0.16%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,491 (29.00%) Microsoft
2 280 (5.45%) VMware
3 137 (2.66%) Veeam
4 132 (2.57%) Oracle
5 115 (2.24%) Splunk
6 110 (2.14%) SolarWinds
7 109 (2.12%) Google
7 109 (2.12%) SAP
8 107 (2.08%) Cisco
9 82 (1.59%) Tanium
10 81 (1.58%) Nimble Storage
11 80 (1.56%) Brocade
12 72 (1.40%) Salesforce
13 65 (1.26%) Databricks
14 62 (1.21%) ServiceNow
15 61 (1.19%) Apple
16 51 (0.99%) Adobe
17 45 (0.88%) Sage
18 44 (0.86%) Dell
19 37 (0.72%) Meraki