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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,960 6,721 5,513
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 11.70% 18.71% 15.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.90% 21.01% 18.02%
Number of salaries quoted 3,422 2,693 3,565
10th Percentile £26,050 £28,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £32,092
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,029 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £71,250 £82,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £45,497 £55,000 £52,603
% change year-on-year -17.28% +4.56% -8.35%

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 33,283 31,985 30,588
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 78.49% 89.04% 88.64%
Number of salaries quoted 19,187 14,363 22,780
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £33,500 £41,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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
South East -3 1,325 £41,500 -20.95% 1,220
North of England -16 1,235 £45,000 -5.26% 753
Midlands -13 882 £38,500 -23.00% 510
North West -13 681 £47,842 -3.32% 347
South West 0 581 £40,000 -27.27% 461
West Midlands -17 520 £42,500 -22.73% 254
Yorkshire -4 436 £37,000 -14.94% 288
East of England -7 409 £35,000 -31.33% 473
East Midlands +1 361 £35,000 - 250
Scotland -3 346 £33,500 -33.00% 138
Wales +5 150 £47,500 -5.00% 142
North East -1 118 £33,500 -33.00% 129
Northern Ireland 0 56 £50,000 -16.67% 63
Isle of Man +1 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 273 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 209 (4.21%) SharePoint
3 49 (0.99%) IIS
4 46 (0.93%) Confluence
5 22 (0.44%) WordPress
6 21 (0.42%) Apache
6 21 (0.42%) Apache Spark
6 21 (0.42%) CMS
7 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
8 9 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 8 (0.16%) nginx
10 6 (0.12%) Drupal
10 6 (0.12%) HCL Notes
11 5 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (0.10%) SAS
12 4 (0.081%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.081%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.081%) Camunda
13 3 (0.060%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.060%) govService
Applications
1 414 (8.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 408 (8.23%) Microsoft Office
3 67 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
5 25 (0.50%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.38%) AutoCAD
7 15 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
7 15 (0.30%) Photoshop
8 13 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 12 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
10 11 (0.22%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
12 5 (0.10%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.10%) Simulink
13 4 (0.081%) Adobe XD
13 4 (0.081%) Autodesk Inventor
13 4 (0.081%) CATIA
13 4 (0.081%) Fusion 360
13 4 (0.081%) Oracle Smart View
13 4 (0.081%) Trello
Business Applications
1 90 (1.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 57 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.36%) SAP CO
6 17 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
7 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
8 14 (0.28%) SAP FI
9 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
10 11 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 10 (0.20%) SAP Business One
12 8 (0.16%) iTrent
12 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
12 8 (0.16%) Shopify
13 7 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
13 7 (0.14%) Sage 200
14 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
Cloud Services
1 1,073 (21.63%) Azure
2 785 (15.83%) Microsoft 365
3 399 (8.04%) AWS
4 353 (7.12%) Power Platform
5 283 (5.71%) SaaS
6 221 (4.46%) Entra ID
7 144 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
8 112 (2.26%) GCP
9 100 (2.02%) GitHub
10 78 (1.57%) Serverless
11 69 (1.39%) Power Automate
12 52 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
13 51 (1.03%) Dynamics 365
14 49 (0.99%) Amazon S3
14 49 (0.99%) AWS Lambda
15 43 (0.87%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 42 (0.85%) AWS CloudFormation
17 41 (0.83%) OneDrive
17 41 (0.83%) PaaS
17 41 (0.83%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 355 (7.16%) DNS
2 307 (6.19%) DHCP
3 237 (4.78%) Firewall
4 148 (2.98%) TCP/IP
5 140 (2.82%) VPN
6 136 (2.74%) Wi-Fi
7 116 (2.34%) WAN
8 108 (2.18%) LAN
9 90 (1.81%) VLAN
10 83 (1.67%) VoIP
11 80 (1.61%) Broadband
12 63 (1.27%) Wireless
13 57 (1.15%) Remote Desktop
14 47 (0.95%) Network Security
15 38 (0.77%) SAN
16 35 (0.71%) Internet
17 30 (0.60%) SD-WAN
17 30 (0.60%) Unified Communications
18 24 (0.48%) Ethernet
19 17 (0.34%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 304 (6.13%) Power BI
2 224 (4.52%) SQL Server
3 120 (2.42%) Amazon RDS
4 95 (1.92%) Relational Database
5 86 (1.73%) MySQL
5 86 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
6 81 (1.63%) Data Lake
7 64 (1.29%) SAP BW
7 64 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 60 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
9 59 (1.19%) NoSQL
10 44 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 42 (0.85%) Tableau
12 35 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
13 32 (0.65%) MongoDB
14 31 (0.63%) GIS
15 30 (0.60%) DynamoDB
15 30 (0.60%) Metadata
16 29 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
17 26 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 180 (3.63%) Git
2 161 (3.25%) JIRA
3 49 (0.99%) GitLab
4 42 (0.85%) Jenkins
5 32 (0.65%) Selenium
6 19 (0.38%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.34%) LabVIEW
8 15 (0.30%) Bitbucket
8 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
9 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 14 (0.28%) SonarQube
10 13 (0.26%) TeamCity
11 12 (0.24%) JUnit
11 12 (0.24%) Maven
11 12 (0.24%) Octopus Deploy
12 11 (0.22%) Cypress.io
13 9 (0.18%) Burp Suite
13 9 (0.18%) Cucumber
13 9 (0.18%) Metasploit
13 9 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
General
1 2,670 (53.83%) Social Skills
2 1,377 (27.76%) Analytical Skills
3 1,064 (21.45%) Finance
4 314 (6.33%) Manufacturing
5 307 (6.19%) Retail
6 259 (5.22%) Marketing
7 250 (5.04%) Organisational Skills
8 187 (3.77%) Public Sector
9 166 (3.35%) Legal
10 160 (3.23%) Law
11 140 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 138 (2.78%) Telecoms
13 128 (2.58%) Electronics
14 115 (2.32%) Banking
15 110 (2.22%) Presentation Skills
16 82 (1.65%) Automotive
17 77 (1.55%) Games
18 63 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
19 60 (1.21%) Aerospace
20 59 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 866 (17.46%) Analyst
2 647 (13.04%) IT Support
3 550 (11.09%) Senior
4 519 (10.46%) Support Engineer
5 379 (7.64%) Developer
6 331 (6.67%) Lead
7 311 (6.27%) Support Analyst
8 262 (5.28%) Technical Support
9 241 (4.86%) IT Engineer
10 212 (4.27%) Business Analyst
11 210 (4.23%) IT Support Engineer
12 177 (3.57%) Technical Engineer
13 175 (3.53%) Systems Engineer
14 174 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support
15 166 (3.35%) Support Technician
16 163 (3.29%) Technical Support Engineer
17 137 (2.76%) IT Analyst
18 136 (2.74%) Applications Support
19 135 (2.72%) Architect
20 132 (2.66%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 202 (4.07%) .NET
2 157 (3.17%) HTML
3 148 (2.98%) React
4 123 (2.48%) CSS
5 97 (1.96%) REST
6 62 (1.25%) RESTful
7 54 (1.09%) Node.js
8 53 (1.07%) ASP.NET
8 53 (1.07%) JSON
8 53 (1.07%) SOAP
9 50 (1.01%) AngularJS
10 47 (0.95%) XML
11 40 (0.81%) Vue
12 37 (0.75%) .NET Framework
12 37 (0.75%) Django
13 35 (0.71%) Spring
14 31 (0.63%) EDI
15 25 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
16 24 (0.48%) Entity Framework
16 24 (0.48%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 482 (9.72%) Driving Licence
2 386 (7.78%) Onboarding
3 314 (6.33%) Self-Motivation
4 170 (3.43%) Management Information System
5 162 (3.27%) Analytical Mindset
6 153 (3.08%) Legacy Systems
7 98 (1.98%) Product Ownership
8 85 (1.71%) Data Centre
9 72 (1.45%) Cloud Native
10 61 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
11 55 (1.11%) FMCG
12 51 (1.03%) Virtual Team
13 43 (0.87%) e-Learning
14 40 (0.81%) Mobile App
14 40 (0.81%) Social Media
15 39 (0.79%) EPoS
16 36 (0.73%) Video Conferencing
17 34 (0.69%) IoT
18 33 (0.67%) Data Structures
19 32 (0.65%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 924 (18.63%) Windows
2 391 (7.88%) Windows Server
3 317 (6.39%) Linux
4 120 (2.42%) Windows 10
5 113 (2.28%) Windows Server 2016
6 68 (1.37%) Android
7 56 (1.13%) Mac OS
8 54 (1.09%) Apple iOS
9 38 (0.77%) Unix
10 29 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
11 22 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
12 15 (0.30%) Windows 7
13 14 (0.28%) VMS
14 11 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 6 (0.12%) CentOS
16 5 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.081%) Ubuntu
17 4 (0.081%) Windows 8
18 3 (0.060%) Mac OS X
19 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 919 (18.53%) Continuous Improvement
2 915 (18.45%) Customer Service
3 663 (13.37%) Agile
4 489 (9.86%) Project Management
5 447 (9.01%) Mentoring
6 433 (8.73%) Analytics
7 424 (8.55%) Decision-Making
8 412 (8.31%) Business Intelligence
9 391 (7.88%) ITIL
10 379 (7.64%) ERP
11 368 (7.42%) DevOps
12 343 (6.92%) Change Management
13 317 (6.39%) CI/CD
14 301 (6.07%) Cybersecurity
15 300 (6.05%) Stakeholder Management
16 296 (5.97%) Computer Science
16 296 (5.97%) CRM
17 288 (5.81%) AI
18 285 (5.75%) Process Improvement
19 256 (5.16%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 756 (15.24%) SQL
2 450 (9.07%) Python
3 264 (5.32%) JavaScript
4 258 (5.20%) C#
5 256 (5.16%) PowerShell
6 157 (3.17%) Java
7 77 (1.55%) PHP
8 62 (1.25%) C++
9 61 (1.23%) TypeScript
10 50 (1.01%) Bash
10 50 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 49 (0.99%) T-SQL
12 37 (0.75%) C
13 27 (0.54%) MATLAB
14 20 (0.40%) PL/SQL
15 19 (0.38%) Perl
16 18 (0.36%) Go
16 18 (0.36%) R
16 18 (0.36%) VBA
17 15 (0.30%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,157 (23.33%) Degree
2 422 (8.51%) Security Cleared
3 290 (5.85%) SC Cleared
4 151 (3.04%) DBS Check
5 144 (2.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 132 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 108 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
8 80 (1.61%) DV Cleared
9 73 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
9 73 (1.47%) Master's Degree
10 60 (1.21%) ACCA
11 59 (1.19%) A+ Certification
11 59 (1.19%) HND
12 57 (1.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 53 (1.07%) CCNA
14 52 (1.05%) CIMA
15 47 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
16 44 (0.89%) AWS Certification
17 40 (0.81%) HNC
18 36 (0.73%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (5.36%) QA
2 224 (4.52%) Data Quality
3 162 (3.27%) Cyber Essentials
4 120 (2.42%) GDPR
5 115 (2.32%) PCI DSS
6 102 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.65%) Accessibility
8 72 (1.45%) SLA
9 41 (0.83%) NIST
10 32 (0.65%) ISO 9001
11 26 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 25 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
13 16 (0.32%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
15 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 7 (0.14%) WCAG
17 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 6 (0.12%) SOC 2
17 6 (0.12%) Software Quality Assurance
18 5 (0.10%) GLBA
System Software
1 635 (12.80%) Active Directory
2 218 (4.40%) Hyper-V
3 163 (3.29%) Docker
4 113 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.94%) Terminal Server
6 32 (0.65%) Firmware
7 24 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
8 19 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
9 17 (0.34%) vSphere
10 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
11 6 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.12%) KVM
11 6 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
12 3 (0.060%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.040%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.040%) RHEV
13 2 (0.040%) Xen
14 1 (0.020%) HDFS
14 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.020%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 196 (3.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 181 (3.65%) Terraform
3 111 (2.24%) Kubernetes
4 62 (1.25%) Ansible
5 48 (0.97%) SCCM
6 42 (0.85%) BMC PATROL
7 37 (0.75%) Grafana
8 27 (0.54%) Prometheus
9 23 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
10 17 (0.34%) vCenter Server
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
12 13 (0.26%) Nagios
13 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
14 9 (0.18%) Nmap
14 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
15 8 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 8 (0.16%) Control-M
16 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
17 5 (0.10%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,358 (27.38%) Microsoft
2 322 (6.49%) SAP
3 245 (4.94%) VMware
4 190 (3.83%) Oracle
5 150 (3.02%) Veeam
6 147 (2.96%) Cisco
7 123 (2.48%) SolarWinds
8 117 (2.36%) Splunk
9 98 (1.98%) Tanium
10 96 (1.94%) Brocade
10 96 (1.94%) Nimble Storage
11 94 (1.90%) Google
12 83 (1.67%) Salesforce
13 79 (1.59%) ServiceNow
14 70 (1.41%) Sage
15 62 (1.25%) Databricks
16 61 (1.23%) Apple
17 58 (1.17%) Adobe
18 56 (1.13%) BT
19 46 (0.93%) HubSpot