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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 4
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,744 6,599 8,511
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.38% 18.89% 14.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.93% 21.78% 18.67%
Number of salaries quoted 4,804 3,658 3,983
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -15.79% -3.06%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £47,085 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.63% -10.00% -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 56,526 30,294 45,583
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.25% 86.72% 78.30%
Number of salaries quoted 40,015 16,650 26,994
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -6.86% -7.07%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -6.67%

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 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 31 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 -8 1,690 £45,000 +7.14% 979
South East -4 1,609 £42,500 - 1,160
Midlands -7 1,226 £42,500 +10.39% 737
North West -6 881 £45,000 -2.17% 501
South West -4 832 £45,000 +25.00% 639
East of England -5 688 £42,500 +21.43% 449
West Midlands -9 686 £42,500 -0.55% 439
Yorkshire -9 546 £42,500 +21.43% 333
East Midlands -9 538 £41,000 +17.14% 297
Scotland +2 310 £33,500 -25.67% 261
North East -5 263 £48,250 +25.32% 164
Northern Ireland -1 218 £60,000 +1.69% 131
Wales -21 185 £43,000 -10.64% 109
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 8
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
1 411 (6.09%) SharePoint
2 349 (5.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 63 (0.93%) CMS
3 63 (0.93%) Confluence
4 53 (0.79%) IIS
5 30 (0.44%) WordPress
6 29 (0.43%) Apache
7 27 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
8 26 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.24%) Apache Spark
10 15 (0.22%) SAS
11 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.13%) nginx
12 9 (0.13%) WebLogic
13 8 (0.12%) Jupyter
14 7 (0.10%) OpenEdge
15 5 (0.074%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.059%) Exchange Server 2013
16 4 (0.059%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.059%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 439 (6.51%) Microsoft Office
2 423 (6.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 55 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
5 39 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 31 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 27 (0.40%) Simulink
8 24 (0.36%) AutoCAD
9 15 (0.22%) Revit
10 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
10 8 (0.12%) EPLAN
11 7 (0.10%) Fusion 360
12 6 (0.089%) Adobe Illustrator
12 6 (0.089%) Adobe XD
12 6 (0.089%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.089%) Sketch
12 6 (0.089%) SOLIDWORKS
13 5 (0.074%) Lightworks
14 4 (0.059%) Trello
Business Applications
1 73 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 51 (0.76%) NetSuite
2 51 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 30 (0.44%) Shopify
4 17 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
4 17 (0.25%) Magento
4 17 (0.25%) SAP Business One
5 16 (0.24%) SAP ERP
6 15 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 14 (0.21%) Workday HCM
8 12 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
8 12 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
9 11 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
10 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
10 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
11 9 (0.13%) Sage 50
12 8 (0.12%) Primavera
13 7 (0.10%) NEC Housing
13 7 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
14 6 (0.089%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 1,341 (19.88%) Azure
2 1,156 (17.14%) Microsoft 365
3 676 (10.02%) AWS
4 553 (8.20%) Power Platform
5 349 (5.17%) Entra ID
6 236 (3.50%) SaaS
7 227 (3.37%) GCP
8 167 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
9 146 (2.16%) PowerApps
10 143 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
11 132 (1.96%) GitHub
12 128 (1.90%) Power Automate
13 122 (1.81%) Serverless
14 86 (1.28%) OneDrive
15 83 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
16 58 (0.86%) Amazon S3
17 57 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
18 55 (0.82%) AWS CloudFormation
18 55 (0.82%) Google Workspace
19 54 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 428 (6.35%) Firewall
2 408 (6.05%) DNS
3 349 (5.17%) DHCP
4 255 (3.78%) VPN
5 228 (3.38%) TCP/IP
6 189 (2.80%) WAN
7 179 (2.65%) LAN
8 173 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
9 163 (2.42%) Wireless
10 137 (2.03%) VLAN
11 117 (1.73%) Network Security
12 111 (1.65%) VoIP
13 78 (1.16%) Broadband
14 45 (0.67%) Internet
15 31 (0.46%) SSL
16 27 (0.40%) HTTP
16 27 (0.40%) SAN
17 25 (0.37%) SD-WAN
18 23 (0.34%) MQTT
19 21 (0.31%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 440 (6.52%) Power BI
2 326 (4.83%) SQL Server
3 136 (2.02%) MySQL
4 127 (1.88%) Amazon RDS
5 111 (1.65%) Relational Database
6 103 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
7 91 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
8 80 (1.19%) NoSQL
8 80 (1.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 68 (1.01%) Tableau
10 60 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 48 (0.71%) MongoDB
12 47 (0.70%) Electronic Patient Records
13 45 (0.67%) Big Data
14 43 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
14 43 (0.64%) Power Query
15 40 (0.59%) Data Lake
16 29 (0.43%) DynamoDB
17 27 (0.40%) Metadata
18 25 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 291 (4.31%) Git
2 228 (3.38%) JIRA
3 76 (1.13%) GitLab
4 71 (1.05%) Jenkins
5 36 (0.53%) Eclipse
6 33 (0.49%) Subversion
7 29 (0.43%) Selenium
8 28 (0.42%) Cucumber
9 26 (0.39%) JUnit
10 24 (0.36%) Claude Code
10 24 (0.36%) Rational DOORS
11 21 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
11 21 (0.31%) Postman
12 19 (0.28%) Bitbucket
13 18 (0.27%) Cypress.io
14 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
15 13 (0.19%) Burp Suite
16 12 (0.18%) LabVIEW
16 12 (0.18%) Visual Studio
17 11 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 3,264 (48.40%) Social Skills
2 1,889 (28.01%) Analytical Skills
3 1,069 (15.85%) Finance
4 636 (9.43%) Manufacturing
5 432 (6.41%) Organisational Skills
6 377 (5.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 315 (4.67%) Law
8 294 (4.36%) Retail
9 292 (4.33%) Public Sector
10 283 (4.20%) Legal
11 251 (3.72%) Marketing
12 239 (3.54%) Electronics
13 225 (3.34%) Aerospace
14 156 (2.31%) Telecoms
15 141 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
16 133 (1.97%) Banking
17 106 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
18 79 (1.17%) Automotive
19 78 (1.16%) Military
20 74 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 882 (13.08%) Analyst
2 716 (10.62%) Senior
3 699 (10.36%) Developer
4 679 (10.07%) IT Support
5 553 (8.20%) Support Engineer
6 373 (5.53%) Lead
7 367 (5.44%) IT Engineer
8 328 (4.86%) Support Analyst
9 306 (4.54%) Consultant
10 275 (4.08%) IT Support Engineer
11 260 (3.86%) Technical Support
12 258 (3.83%) Support Technician
13 239 (3.54%) Systems Engineer
14 226 (3.35%) Architect
15 222 (3.29%) IT Technician
15 222 (3.29%) Technical Engineer
16 220 (3.26%) Software Engineer
17 199 (2.95%) Technical Support Engineer
18 193 (2.86%) Senior Developer
19 174 (2.58%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 351 (5.20%) .NET
2 263 (3.90%) Terraform
3 216 (3.20%) React
4 195 (2.89%) HTML
4 195 (2.89%) REST
5 144 (2.14%) CSS
6 128 (1.90%) RESTful
7 96 (1.42%) SOAP
8 95 (1.41%) Node.js
9 82 (1.22%) ASP.NET
9 82 (1.22%) Vue
10 79 (1.17%) Middleware
11 78 (1.16%) AngularJS
12 75 (1.11%) JSON
13 74 (1.10%) Web Services
14 72 (1.07%) XML
15 69 (1.02%) Spring
16 62 (0.92%) Spring Boot
17 54 (0.80%) OAuth
18 51 (0.76%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 550 (8.16%) Driving Licence
2 434 (6.44%) Onboarding
3 340 (5.04%) Self-Motivation
4 302 (4.48%) Management Information System
5 188 (2.79%) Cloud Native
6 174 (2.58%) Product Ownership
7 156 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
8 114 (1.69%) Data Centre
9 111 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
10 93 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
11 88 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
12 84 (1.25%) NHS
12 84 (1.25%) Robotics
13 81 (1.20%) Security Posture
14 73 (1.08%) Cyber Threat
15 70 (1.04%) Virtual Team
16 68 (1.01%) Mobile App
17 66 (0.98%) Social Media
18 62 (0.92%) IoT
19 60 (0.89%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,103 (16.36%) Windows
2 509 (7.55%) Windows Server
3 457 (6.78%) Linux
4 129 (1.91%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.65%) Windows Server 2016
6 86 (1.28%) Android
7 84 (1.25%) Apple iOS
8 75 (1.11%) Mac OS
9 41 (0.61%) Unix
10 40 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
11 28 (0.42%) Ubuntu
12 18 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 18 (0.27%) VMS
13 15 (0.22%) Debian
14 13 (0.19%) CentOS
15 9 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
15 9 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
16 8 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
17 5 (0.074%) OpenVMS
17 5 (0.074%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,807 (26.79%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,229 (18.22%) Customer Service
3 1,024 (15.18%) Agile
4 766 (11.36%) Decision-Making
5 690 (10.23%) CI/CD
6 687 (10.19%) Mentoring
7 660 (9.79%) AI
8 633 (9.39%) Stakeholder Management
9 576 (8.54%) DevOps
10 563 (8.35%) Analytics
11 561 (8.32%) ITIL
12 554 (8.21%) Software Engineering
13 545 (8.08%) Project Delivery
14 544 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
15 532 (7.89%) Collaborative Working
16 503 (7.46%) ERP
17 472 (7.00%) Business Intelligence
18 448 (6.64%) Project Management
19 424 (6.29%) CRM
20 399 (5.92%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,023 (15.17%) SQL
2 720 (10.68%) Python
3 434 (6.44%) C#
4 432 (6.41%) JavaScript
5 298 (4.42%) Java
6 273 (4.05%) PowerShell
7 192 (2.85%) TypeScript
8 186 (2.76%) C++
9 121 (1.79%) Bash
10 73 (1.08%) C
10 73 (1.08%) PHP
11 60 (0.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 54 (0.80%) T-SQL
13 46 (0.68%) Shell Script
14 44 (0.65%) Ruby
15 43 (0.64%) Perl
16 37 (0.55%) Go
16 37 (0.55%) Rust
17 34 (0.50%) MATLAB
18 33 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,066 (15.81%) Degree
2 635 (9.42%) Security Cleared
3 450 (6.67%) SC Cleared
4 203 (3.01%) DBS Check
5 199 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
6 183 (2.71%) Microsoft Certification
7 172 (2.55%) DV Cleared
8 148 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
9 138 (2.05%) HNC
10 121 (1.79%) Azure Certification
11 117 (1.73%) HND
12 93 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
13 79 (1.17%) PMI Certification
14 77 (1.14%) CISSP
15 70 (1.04%) Chartered Engineer
16 63 (0.93%) CCNA
16 63 (0.93%) Master's Degree
17 58 (0.86%) A+ Certification
17 58 (0.86%) PMP
18 50 (0.74%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 451 (6.69%) QA
2 266 (3.94%) Data Quality
3 202 (3.00%) GDPR
4 174 (2.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 168 (2.49%) Accessibility
6 162 (2.40%) SLA
7 134 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.69%) PCI DSS
9 99 (1.47%) NIST
10 35 (0.52%) ISO 9001
11 32 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 31 (0.46%) PMO
13 19 (0.28%) GMP
14 18 (0.27%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.24%) GRC
16 14 (0.21%) DO-254
16 14 (0.21%) NCSC
17 12 (0.18%) GxP
17 12 (0.18%) TickIT
17 12 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 766 (11.36%) Active Directory
2 291 (4.31%) Hyper-V
3 250 (3.71%) Docker
4 206 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.19%) Terminal Server
6 68 (1.01%) Firmware
7 37 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 28 (0.42%) vSphere
10 23 (0.34%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 7 (0.10%) KVM
13 6 (0.089%) Virtual Servers
14 5 (0.074%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.074%) Squid
14 5 (0.074%) XenApp
15 4 (0.059%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.044%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.044%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 232 (3.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 218 (3.23%) Kubernetes
3 106 (1.57%) Ansible
4 56 (0.83%) Grafana
5 55 (0.82%) SCCM
6 39 (0.58%) Prometheus
7 38 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (0.31%) FortiGate
9 19 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
10 17 (0.25%) Puppet
11 14 (0.21%) Functional Safety
12 11 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
12 11 (0.16%) Kibana
12 11 (0.16%) Nagios
12 11 (0.16%) Nmap
13 10 (0.15%) logstash
13 10 (0.15%) Podman
13 10 (0.15%) Proxmox
14 9 (0.13%) QRadar
14 9 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2,041 (30.26%) Microsoft
2 332 (4.92%) VMware
3 189 (2.80%) SAP
4 178 (2.64%) Google
5 159 (2.36%) Oracle
6 139 (2.06%) Veeam
7 135 (2.00%) Cisco
8 124 (1.84%) Splunk
9 115 (1.71%) ServiceNow
10 106 (1.57%) Workday
11 101 (1.50%) SolarWinds
12 95 (1.41%) Salesforce
13 88 (1.30%) Tanium
14 81 (1.20%) Nimble Storage
15 80 (1.19%) Brocade
16 77 (1.14%) Databricks
17 74 (1.10%) Sage
18 66 (0.98%) Fortinet
19 58 (0.86%) Apple
20 54 (0.80%) SonicWALL