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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 3
Rank change year-on-year -5 -1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,090 6,511 8,250
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.61% 18.85% 14.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.25% 21.80% 18.94%
Number of salaries quoted 5,042 3,559 3,513
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,684 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,750 £40,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.88% -15.79% -1.04%
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £71,250 £79,398
UK median annual salary £47,166 £45,000 £51,350
% change year-on-year +4.81% -12.37% -6.64%

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 57,891 29,871 43,561
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.31% 86.49% 78.09%
Number of salaries quoted 41,062 16,204 24,205
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £67,250
90th Percentile £88,148 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 9 September 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 9 September 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 1,781 £45,000 +7.14% 1,375
South East -4 1,689 £42,500 - 1,452
Midlands -7 1,286 £42,500 +11.84% 1,034
North West -5 930 £45,000 -5.26% 759
South West -4 886 £45,000 +28.57% 801
East of England -2 719 £42,500 +21.43% 708
West Midlands -8 711 £42,500 -3.41% 649
East Midlands -9 573 £41,000 +17.14% 387
Yorkshire -8 569 £42,500 +21.43% 446
Scotland +2 309 £33,500 -21.18% 545
North East -2 282 £48,250 +33.10% 193
Northern Ireland 0 234 £70,000 +18.64% 330
Wales -18 200 £42,500 -11.68% 160
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 - 7
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
1 432 (6.09%) SharePoint
2 347 (4.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 65 (0.92%) Confluence
4 61 (0.86%) CMS
5 54 (0.76%) IIS
6 31 (0.44%) WordPress
7 30 (0.42%) Apache
8 27 (0.38%) Sitecore CMS
9 26 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
10 16 (0.23%) Apache Spark
11 13 (0.18%) SAS
12 10 (0.14%) WebSphere
13 9 (0.13%) nginx
13 9 (0.13%) WebLogic
14 8 (0.11%) Jupyter
15 7 (0.099%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
16 5 (0.071%) CICS
16 5 (0.071%) Skype for Business
17 4 (0.056%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 485 (6.84%) Microsoft Office
2 451 (6.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 67 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 56 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 37 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
7 30 (0.42%) Simulink
8 29 (0.41%) AutoCAD
9 22 (0.31%) Revit
10 10 (0.14%) EPLAN
11 8 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 8 (0.11%) Chatbot
11 8 (0.11%) Fusion 360
11 8 (0.11%) Navisworks
12 7 (0.099%) Adobe Illustrator
12 7 (0.099%) SOLIDWORKS
13 6 (0.085%) Adobe XD
13 6 (0.085%) Sketch
14 5 (0.071%) Lightworks
14 5 (0.071%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 73 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 61 (0.86%) NetSuite
3 48 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
4 31 (0.44%) Shopify
5 19 (0.27%) Dynamics NAV
6 17 (0.24%) SAP Business One
6 17 (0.24%) Workday HCM
7 16 (0.23%) Magento
7 16 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
8 14 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.20%) SAP ERP
9 13 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
10 11 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
11 10 (0.14%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.14%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
12 9 (0.13%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
13 8 (0.11%) Primavera
14 7 (0.099%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,366 (19.27%) Azure
2 1,191 (16.80%) Microsoft 365
3 690 (9.73%) AWS
4 580 (8.18%) Power Platform
5 362 (5.11%) Entra ID
6 256 (3.61%) SaaS
7 234 (3.30%) GCP
8 175 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
9 150 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
9 150 (2.12%) PowerApps
10 138 (1.95%) GitHub
11 134 (1.89%) Power Automate
12 123 (1.73%) Serverless
13 97 (1.37%) OneDrive
14 85 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
15 61 (0.86%) Amazon S3
15 61 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
16 60 (0.85%) Google Workspace
17 58 (0.82%) AWS CloudFormation
18 56 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 433 (6.11%) Firewall
2 415 (5.85%) DNS
3 355 (5.01%) DHCP
4 271 (3.82%) VPN
5 233 (3.29%) TCP/IP
6 193 (2.72%) WAN
7 189 (2.67%) Wi-Fi
8 183 (2.58%) LAN
9 168 (2.37%) Wireless
10 144 (2.03%) VLAN
11 118 (1.66%) Network Security
12 112 (1.58%) VoIP
13 72 (1.02%) Broadband
14 48 (0.68%) Internet
15 31 (0.44%) SSL
16 27 (0.38%) SAN
17 26 (0.37%) HTTP
17 26 (0.37%) SD-WAN
18 24 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
19 23 (0.32%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 465 (6.56%) Power BI
2 329 (4.64%) SQL Server
3 135 (1.90%) MySQL
4 119 (1.68%) Amazon RDS
5 116 (1.64%) Relational Database
6 104 (1.47%) Data Warehouse
7 92 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
8 82 (1.16%) NoSQL
9 80 (1.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 71 (1.00%) Tableau
11 61 (0.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 51 (0.72%) MongoDB
13 47 (0.66%) Electronic Patient Records
13 47 (0.66%) Power Query
14 46 (0.65%) Big Data
14 46 (0.65%) Data Lake
15 44 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
16 29 (0.41%) DynamoDB
16 29 (0.41%) Metadata
17 26 (0.37%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 297 (4.19%) Git
2 236 (3.33%) JIRA
3 77 (1.09%) GitLab
4 75 (1.06%) Jenkins
5 38 (0.54%) Eclipse
6 33 (0.47%) Subversion
7 29 (0.41%) Selenium
8 28 (0.39%) Cucumber
9 26 (0.37%) JUnit
10 25 (0.35%) Claude Code
11 23 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
12 22 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
13 21 (0.30%) Bitbucket
13 21 (0.30%) Postman
14 18 (0.25%) Cypress.io
15 14 (0.20%) SonarQube
16 13 (0.18%) Burp Suite
17 12 (0.17%) LabVIEW
17 12 (0.17%) Visual Studio
18 11 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 3,455 (48.73%) Social Skills
2 1,970 (27.79%) Analytical Skills
3 1,120 (15.80%) Finance
4 695 (9.80%) Manufacturing
5 484 (6.83%) Organisational Skills
6 392 (5.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 335 (4.72%) Law
8 316 (4.46%) Public Sector
9 315 (4.44%) Retail
10 298 (4.20%) Legal
11 268 (3.78%) Marketing
12 267 (3.77%) Electronics
13 248 (3.50%) Aerospace
14 173 (2.44%) Telecoms
15 144 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
16 134 (1.89%) Banking
17 112 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
18 99 (1.40%) Automotive
19 93 (1.31%) Military
20 81 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 931 (13.13%) Analyst
2 748 (10.55%) Senior
3 707 (9.97%) Developer
4 703 (9.92%) IT Support
5 553 (7.80%) Support Engineer
6 388 (5.47%) Lead
7 374 (5.28%) IT Engineer
8 360 (5.08%) Support Analyst
9 329 (4.64%) Consultant
10 279 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
11 268 (3.78%) Support Technician
12 267 (3.77%) Technical Support
13 234 (3.30%) Systems Engineer
14 233 (3.29%) Architect
15 229 (3.23%) Technical Engineer
16 228 (3.22%) IT Technician
17 224 (3.16%) Software Engineer
18 207 (2.92%) Technical Support Engineer
19 197 (2.78%) Senior Developer
20 181 (2.55%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 354 (4.99%) .NET
2 269 (3.79%) Terraform
3 215 (3.03%) React
4 197 (2.78%) REST
5 194 (2.74%) HTML
6 141 (1.99%) CSS
7 131 (1.85%) RESTful
8 99 (1.40%) SOAP
9 94 (1.33%) Node.js
10 83 (1.17%) ASP.NET
10 83 (1.17%) Web Services
11 81 (1.14%) Vue
12 80 (1.13%) Middleware
12 80 (1.13%) XML
13 78 (1.10%) AngularJS
14 77 (1.09%) JSON
15 74 (1.04%) Spring
16 67 (0.94%) Spring Boot
17 54 (0.76%) Kafka
17 54 (0.76%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 598 (8.43%) Driving Licence
2 472 (6.66%) Onboarding
3 373 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
4 315 (4.44%) Management Information System
5 195 (2.75%) Cloud Native
6 178 (2.51%) Product Ownership
7 149 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
8 126 (1.78%) Enterprise Software
9 124 (1.75%) Data Centre
10 102 (1.44%) Robotics
11 98 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
12 88 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
13 87 (1.23%) NHS
14 81 (1.14%) Security Posture
15 73 (1.03%) Virtual Team
16 72 (1.02%) Cyber Threat
16 72 (1.02%) Mobile App
17 69 (0.97%) Social Media
18 68 (0.96%) IoT
19 66 (0.93%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 1,140 (16.08%) Windows
2 511 (7.21%) Windows Server
3 456 (6.43%) Linux
4 127 (1.79%) Windows 10
5 102 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
6 88 (1.24%) Android
6 88 (1.24%) Apple iOS
7 77 (1.09%) Mac OS
8 43 (0.61%) Unix
9 42 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.42%) Ubuntu
11 18 (0.25%) VMS
12 17 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 15 (0.21%) Debian
14 12 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
15 11 (0.16%) CentOS
16 9 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
17 7 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
18 6 (0.085%) Rocky
19 5 (0.071%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,917 (27.04%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,303 (18.38%) Customer Service
3 1,046 (14.75%) Agile
4 784 (11.06%) Decision-Making
5 719 (10.14%) Mentoring
6 704 (9.93%) CI/CD
7 698 (9.84%) AI
8 692 (9.76%) Stakeholder Management
9 594 (8.38%) Project Delivery
10 586 (8.27%) DevOps
11 581 (8.19%) Analytics
12 571 (8.05%) Collaborative Working
13 570 (8.04%) Software Engineering
14 568 (8.01%) ITIL
15 545 (7.69%) ERP
16 541 (7.63%) Cybersecurity
17 500 (7.05%) Business Intelligence
18 492 (6.94%) Project Management
19 450 (6.35%) CRM
20 435 (6.14%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,065 (15.02%) SQL
2 735 (10.37%) Python
3 438 (6.18%) C#
4 435 (6.14%) JavaScript
5 315 (4.44%) Java
6 292 (4.12%) PowerShell
7 195 (2.75%) C++
8 193 (2.72%) TypeScript
9 123 (1.73%) Bash
10 78 (1.10%) C
11 71 (1.00%) PHP
12 64 (0.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 58 (0.82%) T-SQL
14 47 (0.66%) Ruby
15 46 (0.65%) Shell Script
16 42 (0.59%) Perl
17 40 (0.56%) PL/SQL
18 38 (0.54%) MATLAB
19 37 (0.52%) Go
20 36 (0.51%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,138 (16.05%) Degree
2 656 (9.25%) Security Cleared
3 461 (6.50%) SC Cleared
4 207 (2.92%) DBS Check
5 202 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 182 (2.57%) Microsoft Certification
7 177 (2.50%) DV Cleared
8 167 (2.36%) HNC
9 151 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
10 149 (2.10%) HND
11 126 (1.78%) Azure Certification
12 92 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
13 81 (1.14%) Chartered Engineer
14 80 (1.13%) PMI Certification
15 70 (0.99%) CISSP
16 68 (0.96%) A+ Certification
17 64 (0.90%) Master's Degree
18 61 (0.86%) CCNA
19 59 (0.83%) PMP
20 52 (0.73%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 466 (6.57%) QA
2 286 (4.03%) Data Quality
3 216 (3.05%) GDPR
4 177 (2.50%) Accessibility
5 174 (2.45%) SLA
6 166 (2.34%) Cyber Essentials
7 131 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 106 (1.50%) PCI DSS
9 89 (1.26%) NIST
10 36 (0.51%) ISO 9001
11 34 (0.48%) PMO
12 32 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 18 (0.25%) DO-254
13 18 (0.25%) GMP
13 18 (0.25%) Good Clinical Practice
14 15 (0.21%) GRC
14 15 (0.21%) NCSC
15 13 (0.18%) GxP
16 12 (0.17%) TickIT
16 12 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 791 (11.16%) Active Directory
2 287 (4.05%) Hyper-V
3 259 (3.65%) Docker
4 211 (2.98%) VMware Infrastructure
5 74 (1.04%) Firmware
6 72 (1.02%) Terminal Server
7 39 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 32 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
9 28 (0.39%) vSphere
10 26 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
12 7 (0.099%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.085%) KVM
14 5 (0.071%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.071%) Squid
15 4 (0.056%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.056%) XenApp
16 3 (0.042%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.042%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.042%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 244 (3.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 223 (3.15%) Kubernetes
3 107 (1.51%) Ansible
4 60 (0.85%) Grafana
5 53 (0.75%) SCCM
6 43 (0.61%) Prometheus
7 42 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (0.30%) FortiGate
9 20 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
10 19 (0.27%) BMC PATROL
11 17 (0.24%) Puppet
12 15 (0.21%) Functional Safety
13 11 (0.16%) Kibana
13 11 (0.16%) Nagios
13 11 (0.16%) Nmap
14 10 (0.14%) logstash
14 10 (0.14%) Podman
14 10 (0.14%) Proxmox
15 9 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
15 9 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2,150 (30.32%) Microsoft
2 336 (4.74%) VMware
3 201 (2.83%) SAP
4 191 (2.69%) Google
5 166 (2.34%) Oracle
6 137 (1.93%) Workday
7 136 (1.92%) Cisco
8 133 (1.88%) Veeam
9 119 (1.68%) Splunk
10 116 (1.64%) ServiceNow
11 99 (1.40%) Salesforce
12 94 (1.33%) Sage
13 93 (1.31%) SolarWinds
14 81 (1.14%) Databricks
15 80 (1.13%) Tanium
16 73 (1.03%) Nimble Storage
17 72 (1.02%) Brocade
18 71 (1.00%) Fortinet
19 60 (0.85%) Apple
20 56 (0.79%) SonicWALL