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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,516 6,560 8,589
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.39% 18.87% 14.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.90% 21.60% 18.44%
Number of salaries quoted 4,668 3,671 4,378
10th Percentile £26,750 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -13.04% -8.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £47,500 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -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 54,749 30,366 46,589
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.48% 87.37% 78.45%
Number of salaries quoted 38,485 16,544 29,228
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 August 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 August 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 1,658 £45,000 +5.88% 938
South East -3 1,570 £43,500 +2.35% 1,145
Midlands -8 1,195 £42,500 +10.39% 671
North West -4 871 £45,250 +0.56% 484
South West -4 803 £45,000 +25.00% 510
West Midlands -9 664 £42,500 -4.00% 411
East of England -3 656 £42,500 +21.43% 405
Yorkshire -8 547 £42,500 +21.43% 329
East Midlands -9 528 £41,000 +17.14% 261
Scotland -3 287 £33,500 -21.18% 235
North East -7 240 £48,500 +25.00% 139
Northern Ireland -3 196 £45,000 -23.73% 177
Wales -23 167 £45,000 -6.49% 100
Isle of Man 0 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
1 375 (5.76%) SharePoint
2 348 (5.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 68 (1.04%) Confluence
4 56 (0.86%) CMS
5 49 (0.75%) IIS
6 33 (0.51%) WordPress
7 30 (0.46%) Apache
8 24 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.25%) Apache Spark
10 15 (0.23%) SAS
11 14 (0.21%) Sitecore CMS
12 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
13 9 (0.14%) nginx
13 9 (0.14%) WebLogic
14 7 (0.11%) Jupyter
14 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
15 5 (0.077%) Exchange Server 2013
15 5 (0.077%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.061%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.061%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 417 (6.40%) Microsoft Office
2 397 (6.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 52 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 49 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 30 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 21 (0.32%) AutoCAD
7 21 (0.32%) Simulink
8 13 (0.20%) Revit
9 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 8 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
10 6 (0.092%) Adobe XD
10 6 (0.092%) EPLAN
10 6 (0.092%) Fusion 360
10 6 (0.092%) Navisworks
10 6 (0.092%) Sketch
11 5 (0.077%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.077%) SOLIDWORKS
11 5 (0.077%) Trello
Business Applications
1 58 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 54 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 36 (0.55%) NetSuite
4 25 (0.38%) Shopify
5 18 (0.28%) Magento
5 18 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 16 (0.25%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
7 15 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 13 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
9 12 (0.18%) Workday HCM
10 11 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
11 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.14%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.12%) Primavera
14 7 (0.11%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
15 6 (0.092%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 1,327 (20.37%) Azure
2 1,124 (17.25%) Microsoft 365
3 662 (10.16%) AWS
4 532 (8.16%) Power Platform
5 330 (5.06%) Entra ID
6 224 (3.44%) GCP
6 224 (3.44%) SaaS
7 162 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
8 140 (2.15%) Dynamics 365
9 128 (1.96%) PowerApps
10 126 (1.93%) GitHub
11 124 (1.90%) Serverless
12 121 (1.86%) Power Automate
13 81 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
14 80 (1.23%) OneDrive
15 59 (0.91%) Amazon S3
16 56 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
17 53 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
18 52 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
19 50 (0.77%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 416 (6.38%) Firewall
2 393 (6.03%) DNS
3 335 (5.14%) DHCP
4 236 (3.62%) VPN
5 219 (3.36%) TCP/IP
6 189 (2.90%) WAN
7 175 (2.69%) LAN
8 160 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 152 (2.33%) Wireless
10 127 (1.95%) VLAN
11 111 (1.70%) Network Security
12 103 (1.58%) VoIP
13 96 (1.47%) Broadband
14 41 (0.63%) Internet
15 31 (0.48%) SAN
16 30 (0.46%) HTTP
16 30 (0.46%) SSL
17 27 (0.41%) SD-WAN
18 22 (0.34%) MQTT
18 22 (0.34%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 416 (6.38%) Power BI
2 323 (4.96%) SQL Server
3 133 (2.04%) MySQL
4 124 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
5 106 (1.63%) Relational Database
6 102 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
7 95 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
8 85 (1.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 79 (1.21%) NoSQL
10 71 (1.09%) Tableau
11 64 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 47 (0.72%) Electronic Patient Records
13 46 (0.71%) MongoDB
14 44 (0.68%) Big Data
15 42 (0.64%) Power Query
16 41 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
17 39 (0.60%) Data Lake
18 32 (0.49%) DynamoDB
19 25 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
20 23 (0.35%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 287 (4.40%) Git
2 225 (3.45%) JIRA
3 81 (1.24%) GitLab
4 69 (1.06%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.48%) Eclipse
5 31 (0.48%) Subversion
6 26 (0.40%) Cucumber
6 26 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
7 25 (0.38%) JUnit
7 25 (0.38%) Selenium
8 21 (0.32%) Postman
9 20 (0.31%) Claude Code
10 18 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
11 17 (0.26%) Cypress.io
12 15 (0.23%) Bitbucket
13 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
14 13 (0.20%) Burp Suite
15 12 (0.18%) Visual Studio
16 11 (0.17%) Maven
16 11 (0.17%) Metasploit
General
1 3,118 (47.85%) Social Skills
2 1,825 (28.01%) Analytical Skills
3 1,020 (15.65%) Finance
4 595 (9.13%) Manufacturing
5 401 (6.15%) Organisational Skills
6 375 (5.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 302 (4.63%) Law
8 292 (4.48%) Public Sector
9 278 (4.27%) Legal
10 273 (4.19%) Retail
11 226 (3.47%) Marketing
12 217 (3.33%) Electronics
13 203 (3.12%) Aerospace
14 156 (2.39%) Telecoms
15 131 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
16 128 (1.96%) Banking
17 112 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
18 74 (1.14%) Games
18 74 (1.14%) Military
19 69 (1.06%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 855 (13.12%) Analyst
2 707 (10.85%) Senior
3 696 (10.68%) Developer
4 659 (10.11%) IT Support
5 547 (8.39%) Support Engineer
6 365 (5.60%) IT Engineer
7 362 (5.56%) Lead
8 301 (4.62%) Support Analyst
9 287 (4.40%) Consultant
10 268 (4.11%) IT Support Engineer
11 263 (4.04%) Support Technician
12 245 (3.76%) Technical Support
13 236 (3.62%) Systems Engineer
14 227 (3.48%) IT Technician
15 218 (3.35%) Architect
16 213 (3.27%) Software Engineer
17 209 (3.21%) Technical Engineer
18 199 (3.05%) Senior Developer
19 187 (2.87%) Technical Support Engineer
20 175 (2.69%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 342 (5.25%) .NET
2 222 (3.41%) React
3 199 (3.05%) HTML
4 190 (2.92%) REST
5 146 (2.24%) CSS
6 122 (1.87%) RESTful
7 99 (1.52%) Node.js
8 93 (1.43%) SOAP
9 82 (1.26%) Vue
10 79 (1.21%) AngularJS
10 79 (1.21%) Middleware
11 77 (1.18%) ASP.NET
12 72 (1.10%) JSON
13 69 (1.06%) XML
14 66 (1.01%) Web Services
15 62 (0.95%) Spring
16 58 (0.89%) OAuth
17 57 (0.87%) Spring Boot
18 47 (0.72%) ASP.NET Core
18 47 (0.72%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 521 (8.00%) Driving Licence
2 393 (6.03%) Onboarding
3 321 (4.93%) Self-Motivation
4 284 (4.36%) Management Information System
5 186 (2.85%) Cloud Native
6 168 (2.58%) Product Ownership
7 153 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
8 110 (1.69%) Data Centre
9 99 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
10 97 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
11 87 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
12 86 (1.32%) NHS
13 80 (1.23%) Security Posture
14 77 (1.18%) Social Media
15 71 (1.09%) Mobile App
15 71 (1.09%) Robotics
16 64 (0.98%) IoT
16 64 (0.98%) Virtual Team
17 61 (0.94%) Cyber Threat
18 58 (0.89%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1,074 (16.48%) Windows
2 498 (7.64%) Windows Server
3 458 (7.03%) Linux
4 135 (2.07%) Windows 10
5 109 (1.67%) Windows Server 2016
6 100 (1.53%) Android
7 79 (1.21%) Apple iOS
8 76 (1.17%) Mac OS
9 40 (0.61%) Unix
10 39 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 30 (0.46%) Ubuntu
12 23 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 19 (0.29%) CentOS
14 18 (0.28%) VMS
15 14 (0.21%) Debian
16 9 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
16 9 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
17 8 (0.12%) Windows 7
18 5 (0.077%) OpenVMS
18 5 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,737 (26.66%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,160 (17.80%) Customer Service
3 999 (15.33%) Agile
4 738 (11.33%) Decision-Making
5 683 (10.48%) CI/CD
6 674 (10.34%) Mentoring
7 647 (9.93%) AI
8 589 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
9 569 (8.73%) DevOps
10 558 (8.56%) ITIL
11 549 (8.43%) Analytics
12 527 (8.09%) Software Engineering
13 522 (8.01%) Cybersecurity
14 511 (7.84%) Collaborative Working
15 504 (7.73%) Project Delivery
16 481 (7.38%) ERP
17 463 (7.11%) Business Intelligence
18 411 (6.31%) Project Management
19 384 (5.89%) CRM
19 384 (5.89%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 1,008 (15.47%) SQL
2 712 (10.93%) Python
3 429 (6.58%) JavaScript
4 425 (6.52%) C#
5 292 (4.48%) Java
6 254 (3.90%) PowerShell
7 188 (2.89%) TypeScript
8 182 (2.79%) C++
9 122 (1.87%) Bash
10 76 (1.17%) PHP
11 71 (1.09%) C
12 60 (0.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 54 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 47 (0.72%) Shell Script
15 42 (0.64%) Perl
16 38 (0.58%) Ruby
17 36 (0.55%) Go
18 33 (0.51%) PL/SQL
19 32 (0.49%) Rust
20 28 (0.43%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 1,013 (15.55%) Degree
2 607 (9.32%) Security Cleared
3 436 (6.69%) SC Cleared
4 195 (2.99%) DBS Check
5 194 (2.98%) Computer Science Degree
6 178 (2.73%) Microsoft Certification
7 162 (2.49%) DV Cleared
8 150 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
9 115 (1.76%) HNC
10 111 (1.70%) Azure Certification
11 95 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
12 88 (1.35%) HND
13 77 (1.18%) PMI Certification
14 71 (1.09%) CISSP
15 66 (1.01%) CCNA
16 63 (0.97%) Master's Degree
17 58 (0.89%) A+ Certification
18 56 (0.86%) Chartered Engineer
18 56 (0.86%) PMP
19 49 (0.75%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 427 (6.55%) QA
2 264 (4.05%) Data Quality
3 187 (2.87%) GDPR
4 178 (2.73%) Cyber Essentials
5 171 (2.62%) SLA
6 164 (2.52%) Accessibility
7 127 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.75%) PCI DSS
9 91 (1.40%) NIST
10 35 (0.54%) ISO 9001
11 33 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.46%) PMO
13 25 (0.38%) GMP
14 18 (0.28%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.25%) GRC
16 14 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
17 12 (0.18%) DO-254
17 12 (0.18%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.18%) TickIT
17 12 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 748 (11.48%) Active Directory
2 281 (4.31%) Hyper-V
3 253 (3.88%) Docker
4 203 (3.12%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.23%) Terminal Server
6 66 (1.01%) Firmware
7 33 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.45%) vSphere
9 25 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
10 19 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
12 9 (0.14%) KVM
13 6 (0.092%) XenApp
14 5 (0.077%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.077%) Squid
14 5 (0.077%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.046%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.046%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 262 (4.02%) Terraform
2 231 (3.55%) Microsoft Intune
3 218 (3.35%) Kubernetes
4 109 (1.67%) Ansible
5 60 (0.92%) SCCM
6 58 (0.89%) Grafana
7 42 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 30 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
9 21 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.28%) Puppet
11 16 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 15 (0.23%) Nagios
13 12 (0.18%) Functional Safety
14 11 (0.17%) Kibana
14 11 (0.17%) Nmap
14 11 (0.17%) Proxmox
15 10 (0.15%) logstash
15 10 (0.15%) Podman
16 9 (0.14%) QRadar
16 9 (0.14%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 1,955 (30.00%) Microsoft
2 324 (4.97%) VMware
3 164 (2.52%) SAP
4 161 (2.47%) Google
5 153 (2.35%) Oracle
6 140 (2.15%) Veeam
7 137 (2.10%) Cisco
8 125 (1.92%) Splunk
9 113 (1.73%) ServiceNow
10 104 (1.60%) SolarWinds
11 88 (1.35%) Salesforce
11 88 (1.35%) Tanium
12 84 (1.29%) Workday
13 81 (1.24%) Nimble Storage
14 80 (1.23%) Brocade
15 79 (1.21%) Databricks
16 65 (1.00%) Sage
17 60 (0.92%) Apple
17 60 (0.92%) Fortinet
18 49 (0.75%) SonicWALL