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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,696 6,593 8,760
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.37% 18.91% 14.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.92% 21.79% 18.71%
Number of salaries quoted 4,783 3,650 4,194
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 £47,143
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -15.15% -3.79%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £47,166 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.81% -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 56,164 30,256 46,827
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.23% 86.80% 78.12%
Number of salaries quoted 39,750 16,554 28,456
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 £50,055
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.10% -8.99%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 28 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 28 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 -7 1,681 £45,000 +5.88% 1,356
South East -4 1,597 £42,500 - 1,447
Midlands -7 1,218 £42,500 +10.39% 960
North West -7 878 £45,000 -2.17% 737
South West -4 827 £45,000 +25.00% 845
East of England -3 683 £42,500 +21.43% 685
West Midlands -9 682 £42,500 -2.42% 590
Yorkshire -9 548 £42,500 +21.43% 438
East Midlands -9 534 £41,000 +17.14% 372
Scotland +2 306 £33,500 -26.59% 481
North East -5 255 £48,250 +20.63% 204
Northern Ireland -3 216 £60,000 +1.69% 325
Wales -22 182 £45,000 -6.49% 151
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 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
1 402 (6.00%) SharePoint
2 344 (5.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 65 (0.97%) CMS
4 64 (0.96%) Confluence
5 53 (0.79%) IIS
6 31 (0.46%) WordPress
7 29 (0.43%) Apache
8 27 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
9 26 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
10 16 (0.24%) Apache Spark
11 15 (0.22%) SAS
12 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
13 9 (0.13%) nginx
13 9 (0.13%) WebLogic
14 8 (0.12%) Jupyter
15 7 (0.10%) OpenEdge
16 5 (0.075%) Skype for Business
17 4 (0.060%) Exchange Server 2013
17 4 (0.060%) OpenStack
17 4 (0.060%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 431 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 417 (6.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 39 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 31 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 26 (0.39%) 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%) Adobe Illustrator
11 7 (0.10%) Fusion 360
12 6 (0.090%) Adobe XD
12 6 (0.090%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.090%) Sketch
13 5 (0.075%) Lightworks
13 5 (0.075%) SOLIDWORKS
14 4 (0.060%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 72 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 51 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 49 (0.73%) NetSuite
4 30 (0.45%) Shopify
5 17 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
5 17 (0.25%) Magento
5 17 (0.25%) SAP Business One
6 16 (0.24%) SAP ERP
7 15 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.21%) Workday HCM
9 12 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
10 11 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
11 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.13%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.12%) Primavera
14 7 (0.10%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
15 6 (0.090%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 1,335 (19.94%) Azure
2 1,141 (17.04%) Microsoft 365
3 674 (10.07%) AWS
4 550 (8.21%) Power Platform
5 347 (5.18%) Entra ID
6 236 (3.52%) SaaS
7 227 (3.39%) GCP
8 167 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
9 145 (2.17%) PowerApps
10 141 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 132 (1.97%) GitHub
12 126 (1.88%) Power Automate
13 122 (1.82%) Serverless
14 83 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
14 83 (1.24%) OneDrive
15 58 (0.87%) Amazon S3
15 58 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
16 55 (0.82%) AWS CloudFormation
17 54 (0.81%) Microsoft Purview
18 53 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 423 (6.32%) Firewall
2 403 (6.02%) DNS
3 346 (5.17%) DHCP
4 250 (3.73%) VPN
5 226 (3.38%) TCP/IP
6 188 (2.81%) WAN
7 178 (2.66%) LAN
8 167 (2.49%) Wi-Fi
9 160 (2.39%) Wireless
10 133 (1.99%) VLAN
11 116 (1.73%) Network Security
12 108 (1.61%) VoIP
13 79 (1.18%) Broadband
14 45 (0.67%) Internet
15 30 (0.45%) 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%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 436 (6.51%) Power BI
2 326 (4.87%) SQL Server
3 137 (2.05%) MySQL
4 127 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
5 112 (1.67%) Relational Database
6 104 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
7 91 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
8 81 (1.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 80 (1.19%) NoSQL
10 67 (1.00%) Tableau
11 61 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 48 (0.72%) MongoDB
13 47 (0.70%) Electronic Patient Records
14 44 (0.66%) Big Data
15 43 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
15 43 (0.64%) Power Query
16 40 (0.60%) Data Lake
17 29 (0.43%) DynamoDB
18 27 (0.40%) Metadata
19 25 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 293 (4.38%) Git
2 226 (3.38%) JIRA
3 77 (1.15%) GitLab
4 71 (1.06%) Jenkins
5 35 (0.52%) 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%) Visual Studio
17 11 (0.16%) LabVIEW
17 11 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 3,231 (48.25%) Social Skills
2 1,879 (28.06%) Analytical Skills
3 1,061 (15.85%) Finance
4 624 (9.32%) Manufacturing
5 420 (6.27%) Organisational Skills
6 375 (5.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 314 (4.69%) Law
8 294 (4.39%) Retail
9 293 (4.38%) Public Sector
10 285 (4.26%) Legal
11 245 (3.66%) Marketing
12 236 (3.52%) Electronics
13 224 (3.35%) Aerospace
14 157 (2.34%) Telecoms
15 140 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
16 134 (2.00%) Banking
17 106 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
18 79 (1.18%) Automotive
18 79 (1.18%) Military
19 72 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 876 (13.08%) Analyst
2 718 (10.72%) Senior
3 698 (10.42%) Developer
4 666 (9.95%) IT Support
5 548 (8.18%) Support Engineer
6 369 (5.51%) Lead
7 362 (5.41%) IT Engineer
8 321 (4.79%) Support Analyst
9 307 (4.58%) Consultant
10 270 (4.03%) IT Support Engineer
11 258 (3.85%) Technical Support
12 256 (3.82%) Support Technician
13 237 (3.54%) Systems Engineer
14 227 (3.39%) Architect
15 222 (3.32%) IT Technician
16 219 (3.27%) Technical Engineer
17 217 (3.24%) Software Engineer
18 197 (2.94%) Technical Support Engineer
19 194 (2.90%) Senior Developer
20 173 (2.58%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 351 (5.24%) .NET
2 265 (3.96%) Terraform
3 216 (3.23%) React
4 196 (2.93%) HTML
5 195 (2.91%) REST
6 146 (2.18%) CSS
7 128 (1.91%) RESTful
8 96 (1.43%) SOAP
9 95 (1.42%) Node.js
10 82 (1.22%) ASP.NET
10 82 (1.22%) Vue
11 79 (1.18%) Middleware
12 78 (1.16%) AngularJS
13 75 (1.12%) JSON
14 74 (1.11%) Web Services
15 72 (1.08%) XML
16 69 (1.03%) Spring
17 62 (0.93%) Spring Boot
18 55 (0.82%) OAuth
19 51 (0.76%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 540 (8.06%) Driving Licence
2 423 (6.32%) Onboarding
3 336 (5.02%) Self-Motivation
4 299 (4.47%) Management Information System
5 188 (2.81%) Cloud Native
6 174 (2.60%) Product Ownership
7 155 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
8 114 (1.70%) Data Centre
9 110 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
10 91 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
11 88 (1.31%) Distributed Systems
12 84 (1.25%) NHS
13 80 (1.19%) Security Posture
14 79 (1.18%) Robotics
15 70 (1.05%) Cyber Threat
16 69 (1.03%) Virtual Team
17 67 (1.00%) Mobile App
18 66 (0.99%) Social Media
19 62 (0.93%) IoT
20 59 (0.88%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,092 (16.31%) Windows
2 508 (7.59%) Windows Server
3 457 (6.82%) Linux
4 128 (1.91%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
6 88 (1.31%) Android
7 83 (1.24%) Apple iOS
8 75 (1.12%) Mac OS
9 41 (0.61%) Unix
10 39 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
11 29 (0.43%) 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 (0.075%) OpenVMS
17 5 (0.075%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,788 (26.70%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,216 (18.16%) Customer Service
3 1,021 (15.25%) Agile
4 761 (11.36%) Decision-Making
5 691 (10.32%) CI/CD
6 687 (10.26%) Mentoring
7 652 (9.74%) AI
8 627 (9.36%) Stakeholder Management
9 575 (8.59%) DevOps
10 561 (8.38%) Analytics
11 559 (8.35%) ITIL
12 550 (8.21%) Software Engineering
13 535 (7.99%) Cybersecurity
14 534 (7.97%) Project Delivery
15 526 (7.86%) Collaborative Working
16 499 (7.45%) ERP
17 467 (6.97%) Business Intelligence
18 437 (6.53%) Project Management
19 416 (6.21%) CRM
20 397 (5.93%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,020 (15.23%) SQL
2 718 (10.72%) Python
3 434 (6.48%) C#
3 434 (6.48%) JavaScript
4 298 (4.45%) Java
5 270 (4.03%) PowerShell
6 192 (2.87%) TypeScript
7 186 (2.78%) C++
8 122 (1.82%) Bash
9 73 (1.09%) PHP
10 72 (1.08%) C
11 60 (0.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 53 (0.79%) T-SQL
13 46 (0.69%) Shell Script
14 43 (0.64%) Perl
15 42 (0.63%) Ruby
16 37 (0.55%) Go
17 34 (0.51%) Rust
18 33 (0.49%) MATLAB
18 33 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,052 (15.71%) Degree
2 631 (9.42%) Security Cleared
3 448 (6.69%) SC Cleared
4 202 (3.02%) DBS Check
5 196 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
6 180 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
7 171 (2.55%) DV Cleared
8 150 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
9 130 (1.94%) HNC
10 120 (1.79%) Azure Certification
11 109 (1.63%) HND
12 93 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
13 79 (1.18%) PMI Certification
14 77 (1.15%) CISSP
15 64 (0.96%) Chartered Engineer
16 63 (0.94%) CCNA
17 60 (0.90%) Master's Degree
18 58 (0.87%) PMP
19 57 (0.85%) A+ Certification
20 50 (0.75%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 449 (6.71%) QA
2 265 (3.96%) Data Quality
3 199 (2.97%) GDPR
4 174 (2.60%) Cyber Essentials
5 168 (2.51%) Accessibility
6 164 (2.45%) SLA
7 134 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.70%) PCI DSS
9 99 (1.48%) NIST
10 34 (0.51%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 31 (0.46%) PMO
12 21 (0.31%) GMP
13 18 (0.27%) Good Clinical Practice
14 16 (0.24%) GRC
15 14 (0.21%) DO-254
15 14 (0.21%) NCSC
16 12 (0.18%) GxP
16 12 (0.18%) TickIT
16 12 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 758 (11.32%) Active Directory
2 288 (4.30%) Hyper-V
3 252 (3.76%) Docker
4 202 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.19%) Terminal Server
6 67 (1.00%) Firmware
7 36 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 28 (0.42%) vSphere
10 22 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 7 (0.10%) KVM
13 5 (0.075%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.075%) Squid
13 5 (0.075%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.075%) XenApp
14 4 (0.060%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.045%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.045%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.045%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 230 (3.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 220 (3.29%) Kubernetes
3 107 (1.60%) Ansible
4 57 (0.85%) Grafana
5 55 (0.82%) SCCM
6 40 (0.60%) Prometheus
7 38 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (0.31%) FortiGate
9 18 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
10 17 (0.25%) Puppet
11 14 (0.21%) Functional Safety
12 12 (0.18%) Nagios
13 11 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
13 11 (0.16%) Kibana
13 11 (0.16%) Nmap
14 10 (0.15%) logstash
14 10 (0.15%) Podman
14 10 (0.15%) Proxmox
15 9 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
15 9 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2,016 (30.11%) Microsoft
2 327 (4.88%) VMware
3 185 (2.76%) SAP
4 173 (2.58%) Google
5 159 (2.37%) Oracle
6 138 (2.06%) Veeam
7 133 (1.99%) Cisco
8 125 (1.87%) Splunk
9 114 (1.70%) ServiceNow
10 104 (1.55%) Workday
11 102 (1.52%) SolarWinds
12 92 (1.37%) Salesforce
13 88 (1.31%) Tanium
14 81 (1.21%) Nimble Storage
15 80 (1.19%) Brocade
16 78 (1.16%) Databricks
17 72 (1.08%) Sage
18 65 (0.97%) Fortinet
19 57 (0.85%) Apple
20 53 (0.79%) SonicWALL