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

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,991 6,067 10,800
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.39% 20.74% 14.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.40% 22.56% 18.12%
Number of salaries quoted 3,707 3,127 6,961
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.41% -2.22% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,625 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £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 47,986 26,889 59,617
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.03% 91.90% 81.50%
Number of salaries quoted 31,403 13,347 42,267
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,117
25th Percentile £38,000 £34,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,967 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.01% +1.93% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,000 £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 1 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 1 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 -10 1,371 £42,500 -5.24% 584
South East -6 1,189 £45,000 - 703
Midlands -21 918 £40,000 -11.11% 362
North West -16 700 £45,000 -3.74% 322
South West -7 574 £43,500 +8.75% 283
West Midlands -24 534 £42,500 -10.53% 225
Yorkshire -10 517 £40,500 +11.72% 189
East of England -7 501 £44,500 +11.11% 275
East Midlands -10 380 £35,000 -9.09% 139
Scotland -4 277 £35,000 -29.15% 119
North East -14 154 £48,222 +7.16% 84
Wales -14 112 £42,500 -15.00% 50
Northern Ireland -8 69 £38,500 -30.00% 107
Isle of Man +3 3 £35,000 +1.45% 2
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 (5.97%) SharePoint
2 296 (5.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 47 (0.94%) CMS
4 40 (0.80%) 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
10 13 (0.26%) SAS
11 11 (0.22%) 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 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.080%) Moodle
15 4 (0.080%) nginx
15 4 (0.080%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.080%) Totara
Applications
1 302 (6.05%) Microsoft Office
2 294 (5.89%) Microsoft Excel
3 41 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.78%) 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 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
9 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.10%) Simulink
10 5 (0.10%) Trello
11 4 (0.080%) Chatbot
12 3 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
13 2 (0.040%) Acrobat
13 2 (0.040%) Sketch
13 2 (0.040%) SOLIDWORKS
13 2 (0.040%) Windchill
14 1 (0.020%) Lightworks
Business Applications
1 47 (0.94%) 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
1 997 (19.98%) Azure
2 879 (17.61%) Microsoft 365
3 501 (10.04%) AWS
4 373 (7.47%) Power Platform
5 230 (4.61%) Entra ID
6 174 (3.49%) SaaS
7 139 (2.79%) GCP
8 122 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
9 108 (2.16%) Serverless
10 104 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
11 82 (1.64%) 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
1 323 (6.47%) Firewall
2 307 (6.15%) DNS
3 256 (5.13%) DHCP
4 175 (3.51%) WAN
5 169 (3.39%) VPN
6 134 (2.68%) LAN
7 125 (2.50%) TCP/IP
8 123 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 108 (2.16%) Broadband
10 104 (2.08%) Wireless
11 97 (1.94%) VLAN
12 80 (1.60%) 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
1 295 (5.91%) Power BI
2 209 (4.19%) SQL Server
3 75 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
4 74 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
5 70 (1.40%) MySQL
6 69 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 68 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
8 67 (1.34%) NoSQL
9 60 (1.20%) Tableau
10 53 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 51 (1.02%) Relational Database
12 44 (0.88%) Power Query
13 38 (0.76%) Big Data
14 33 (0.66%) DynamoDB
15 31 (0.62%) MongoDB
16 29 (0.58%) Data Lake
17 25 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
18 24 (0.48%) Oracle Reports
19 22 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
19 22 (0.44%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 190 (3.81%) Git
2 142 (2.85%) JIRA
3 66 (1.32%) GitLab
4 42 (0.84%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.60%) 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%) Burp Suite
14 7 (0.14%) Metasploit
14 7 (0.14%) Mockito
General
1 2,369 (47.47%) Social Skills
2 1,396 (27.97%) Analytical Skills
3 834 (16.71%) Finance
4 343 (6.87%) Manufacturing
5 319 (6.39%) Organisational Skills
6 226 (4.53%) Public Sector
7 209 (4.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 191 (3.83%) Law
9 183 (3.67%) Marketing
10 182 (3.65%) Legal
11 175 (3.51%) Retail
12 145 (2.91%) Telecoms
13 136 (2.72%) Electronics
14 130 (2.60%) Banking
15 98 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
16 78 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
17 70 (1.40%) Aerospace
17 70 (1.40%) Games
18 57 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
19 53 (1.06%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 719 (14.41%) Analyst
2 627 (12.56%) IT Support
3 545 (10.92%) Support Engineer
4 538 (10.78%) Senior
5 429 (8.60%) Developer
6 363 (7.27%) IT Engineer
7 282 (5.65%) IT Support Engineer
8 255 (5.11%) Lead
9 237 (4.75%) Support Technician
10 209 (4.19%) Support Analyst
11 191 (3.83%) Systems Engineer
12 187 (3.75%) IT Technician
13 173 (3.47%) Architect
14 168 (3.37%) Consultant
15 163 (3.27%) Technical Support
16 156 (3.13%) Software Engineer
17 151 (3.03%) IT Support Technician
18 149 (2.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 130 (2.60%) Business Analyst
19 130 (2.60%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 183 (3.67%) .NET
2 167 (3.35%) React
3 146 (2.93%) HTML
4 123 (2.46%) REST
5 113 (2.26%) CSS
6 81 (1.62%) Node.js
7 72 (1.44%) SOAP
8 64 (1.28%) JSON
9 63 (1.26%) RESTful
10 57 (1.14%) XML
11 56 (1.12%) Middleware
12 54 (1.08%) Vue
13 52 (1.04%) AngularJS
14 40 (0.80%) Spring
15 38 (0.76%) OAuth
16 36 (0.72%) Spring Boot
17 35 (0.70%) EDI
18 34 (0.68%) ASP.NET
19 30 (0.60%) Laravel
19 30 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 383 (7.67%) Driving Licence
2 265 (5.31%) Onboarding
3 225 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 192 (3.85%) Management Information System
5 125 (2.50%) Product Ownership
6 119 (2.38%) Cloud Native
7 108 (2.16%) Analytical Mindset
8 107 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
9 96 (1.92%) 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 50 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
15 45 (0.90%) Virtual Team
16 42 (0.84%) 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
1 841 (16.85%) Windows
2 399 (7.99%) Windows Server
3 323 (6.47%) Linux
4 132 (2.64%) 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%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,056 (21.16%) Continuous Improvement
2 886 (17.75%) Customer Service
3 662 (13.26%) Agile
4 491 (9.84%) Mentoring
5 487 (9.76%) Decision-Making
6 421 (8.44%) CI/CD
7 420 (8.42%) AI
8 414 (8.29%) Analytics
9 409 (8.19%) ITIL
10 399 (7.99%) DevOps
11 348 (6.97%) Business Intelligence
12 338 (6.77%) Collaborative Working
13 335 (6.71%) ERP
14 332 (6.65%) Software Engineering
15 328 (6.57%) Cybersecurity
16 327 (6.55%) Project Management
17 321 (6.43%) Coaching
18 312 (6.25%) Stakeholder Management
19 308 (6.17%) Computer Science
20 286 (5.73%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 705 (14.13%) SQL
2 571 (11.44%) Python
3 315 (6.31%) JavaScript
4 238 (4.77%) C#
5 210 (4.21%) Java
6 198 (3.97%) PowerShell
7 123 (2.46%) TypeScript
8 100 (2.00%) C++
9 91 (1.82%) Bash
10 70 (1.40%) PHP
11 52 (1.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.94%) 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
1 762 (15.27%) Degree
2 373 (7.47%) Security Cleared
3 268 (5.37%) SC Cleared
4 209 (4.19%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 145 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 86 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
9 73 (1.46%) A+ Certification
10 68 (1.36%) DV Cleared
11 61 (1.22%) ACCA
12 59 (1.18%) CCNA
13 57 (1.14%) CIMA
14 51 (1.02%) HNC
15 49 (0.98%) PMI Certification
16 47 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
17 46 (0.92%) Master's Degree
18 45 (0.90%) CISSP
19 40 (0.80%) Azure Certification
20 38 (0.76%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 281 (5.63%) QA
2 239 (4.79%) Data Quality
3 148 (2.97%) GDPR
4 133 (2.66%) Cyber Essentials
5 128 (2.56%) SLA
6 111 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 88 (1.76%) PCI DSS
8 82 (1.64%) NIST
9 68 (1.36%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 20 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 18 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 17 (0.34%) PMO
14 14 (0.28%) GMP
15 13 (0.26%) GRC
15 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
15 13 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 12 (0.24%) TickIT
17 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 7 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 598 (11.98%) Active Directory
2 203 (4.07%) Hyper-V
3 164 (3.29%) Docker
4 159 (3.19%) 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
1 186 (3.73%) Terraform
2 183 (3.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 154 (3.09%) Kubernetes
4 87 (1.74%) Ansible
5 55 (1.10%) SCCM
6 47 (0.94%) Grafana
7 31 (0.62%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.42%) 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 1,410 (28.25%) Microsoft
2 245 (4.91%) VMware
3 138 (2.76%) Oracle
4 116 (2.32%) Veeam
5 112 (2.24%) 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 39 (0.78%) Meraki