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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +3 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,931 5,659 8,888
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.55% 18.88% 15.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.61% 20.48% 18.50%
Number of salaries quoted 3,514 2,851 6,105
10th Percentile £26,250 £27,384 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £33,751 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,500 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -19.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £72,500 £82,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -10.71%

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 39,109 27,634 48,048
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 75.71% 92.20% 86.40%
Number of salaries quoted 23,201 13,546 36,192
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 7 March 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 7 March 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 -16 1,363 £42,500 -10.53% 647
South East -5 1,228 £42,500 -17.48% 913
Midlands -16 851 £37,500 -25.00% 469
North West -16 728 £45,497 -9.01% 348
South West -3 564 £43,125 -17.86% 338
West Midlands -21 500 £42,500 -22.73% 265
Yorkshire -6 497 £35,000 -17.65% 222
East of England -7 420 £40,000 -20.00% 373
East Midlands -1 348 £35,000 -6.67% 201
Scotland -6 326 £33,500 -33.00% 148
North East -6 138 £45,000 - 90
Wales -2 119 £41,750 -30.42% 86
Northern Ireland 0 87 £35,000 -41.39% 19
Isle of Man -3 1 £62,500 +81.16% 9
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
1 293 (5.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 235 (4.77%) SharePoint
3 51 (1.03%) Confluence
4 42 (0.85%) CMS
4 42 (0.85%) IIS
5 25 (0.51%) WordPress
6 24 (0.49%) Apache
7 19 (0.39%) Apache Spark
8 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
10 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2007
10 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2010
11 8 (0.16%) nginx
12 7 (0.14%) Drupal
12 7 (0.14%) SAS
13 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.081%) Headless CMS
14 4 (0.081%) Moodle
14 4 (0.081%) Totara
14 4 (0.081%) WebSphere
Applications
1 361 (7.32%) Microsoft Office
2 294 (5.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 59 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 29 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 26 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
6 14 (0.28%) AutoCAD
6 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 12 (0.24%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 8 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
10 4 (0.081%) CATIA
10 4 (0.081%) Fusion 360
10 4 (0.081%) Simulink
10 4 (0.081%) Trello
11 3 (0.061%) Adobe XD
11 3 (0.061%) Elementor
11 3 (0.061%) InDesign
12 2 (0.041%) Revit
12 2 (0.041%) Weka
Business Applications
1 58 (1.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (0.83%) Dynamics CRM
3 25 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 14 (0.28%) SAP CO
5 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
6 12 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
6 12 (0.24%) Shopify
7 10 (0.20%) iTrent
7 10 (0.20%) SAP ERP
8 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
8 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
9 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
9 6 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
9 6 (0.12%) SAP Business One
10 5 (0.10%) Oracle Assets
10 5 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
10 5 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
10 5 (0.10%) SAP FI
10 5 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
10 5 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 1,006 (20.40%) Azure
2 858 (17.40%) Microsoft 365
3 440 (8.92%) AWS
4 305 (6.19%) Power Platform
5 245 (4.97%) Entra ID
6 244 (4.95%) SaaS
7 135 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
8 131 (2.66%) GCP
9 99 (2.01%) GitHub
10 94 (1.91%) Serverless
11 75 (1.52%) Power Automate
12 68 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
13 65 (1.32%) Google Workspace
14 60 (1.22%) Azure Data Factory
15 57 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
16 56 (1.14%) Amazon S3
17 50 (1.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 49 (0.99%) PowerApps
19 47 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
20 46 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 366 (7.42%) DNS
2 309 (6.27%) DHCP
3 278 (5.64%) Firewall
4 156 (3.16%) TCP/IP
4 156 (3.16%) VPN
5 148 (3.00%) WAN
6 145 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
7 125 (2.53%) LAN
8 115 (2.33%) Broadband
9 96 (1.95%) VLAN
10 80 (1.62%) VoIP
11 71 (1.44%) Wireless
12 53 (1.07%) Remote Desktop
13 51 (1.03%) Network Security
14 43 (0.87%) Internet
14 43 (0.87%) SD-WAN
15 31 (0.63%) SAN
16 29 (0.59%) Unified Communications
17 23 (0.47%) Wireshark
18 20 (0.41%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 246 (4.99%) Power BI
2 198 (4.02%) SQL Server
3 100 (2.03%) Amazon RDS
4 78 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
5 77 (1.56%) Relational Database
6 70 (1.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 68 (1.38%) NoSQL
8 66 (1.34%) Data Warehouse
9 64 (1.30%) MySQL
10 44 (0.89%) Tableau
11 38 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 35 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
12 35 (0.71%) Power Query
13 33 (0.67%) DynamoDB
14 32 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
15 30 (0.61%) MongoDB
16 28 (0.57%) Metadata
17 24 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
18 22 (0.45%) Data Lake
19 19 (0.39%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 191 (3.87%) Git
2 162 (3.29%) JIRA
3 61 (1.24%) GitLab
4 44 (0.89%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.63%) Selenium
6 17 (0.34%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.30%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
7 15 (0.30%) Visual Studio
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 12 (0.24%) Cucumber
9 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
9 12 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
9 12 (0.24%) SonarQube
10 11 (0.22%) JUnit
11 10 (0.20%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
12 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
13 6 (0.12%) Postman
General
1 2,544 (51.59%) Social Skills
2 1,378 (27.95%) Analytical Skills
3 958 (19.43%) Finance
4 340 (6.90%) Organisational Skills
5 269 (5.46%) Manufacturing
6 265 (5.37%) Retail
7 218 (4.42%) Public Sector
8 216 (4.38%) Marketing
9 191 (3.87%) Legal
10 163 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 155 (3.14%) Law
11 155 (3.14%) Telecoms
12 121 (2.45%) Banking
13 119 (2.41%) Electronics
14 107 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
15 95 (1.93%) Games
16 84 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
17 82 (1.66%) Automotive
18 54 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
19 51 (1.03%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 767 (15.55%) Analyst
2 710 (14.40%) IT Support
3 604 (12.25%) Support Engineer
4 526 (10.67%) Senior
5 380 (7.71%) Developer
6 336 (6.81%) IT Engineer
7 290 (5.88%) IT Support Engineer
8 263 (5.33%) Support Analyst
9 245 (4.97%) Lead
10 210 (4.26%) Technical Support
11 189 (3.83%) Business Analyst
12 186 (3.77%) Support Technician
13 181 (3.67%) 2nd Line Support
14 150 (3.04%) Technical Engineer
15 144 (2.92%) Architect
15 144 (2.92%) Systems Engineer
16 143 (2.90%) Consultant
17 141 (2.86%) Technical Support Engineer
18 137 (2.78%) IT Technician
19 129 (2.62%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (3.57%) .NET
2 157 (3.18%) React
3 145 (2.94%) HTML
4 109 (2.21%) CSS
5 78 (1.58%) Node.js
6 76 (1.54%) REST
7 57 (1.16%) RESTful
8 49 (0.99%) Vue
9 47 (0.95%) AngularJS
10 41 (0.83%) SOAP
11 39 (0.79%) JSON
12 36 (0.73%) ASP.NET
13 35 (0.71%) Spring
13 35 (0.71%) XML
14 34 (0.69%) Django
15 32 (0.65%) .NET Framework
16 31 (0.63%) Spring Boot
17 30 (0.61%) Laravel
18 27 (0.55%) Middleware
19 26 (0.53%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 514 (10.42%) Driving Licence
2 342 (6.94%) Onboarding
3 300 (6.08%) Self-Motivation
4 168 (3.41%) Management Information System
5 135 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
6 131 (2.66%) Analytical Mindset
7 97 (1.97%) Data Centre
8 94 (1.91%) Product Ownership
9 86 (1.74%) Cloud Native
10 77 (1.56%) Social Media
11 65 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 56 (1.14%) Mobile App
13 48 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
13 48 (0.97%) Low-Code
14 40 (0.81%) EPoS
15 39 (0.79%) FMCG
16 38 (0.77%) NHS
17 36 (0.73%) IoT
17 36 (0.73%) Life Science
17 36 (0.73%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 954 (19.35%) Windows
2 410 (8.31%) Windows Server
3 310 (6.29%) Linux
4 130 (2.64%) Windows 10
5 118 (2.39%) Windows Server 2016
6 108 (2.19%) Android
7 63 (1.28%) Mac OS
8 61 (1.24%) Apple iOS
9 37 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
10 35 (0.71%) Unix
11 25 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
12 20 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 20 (0.41%) Windows 7
13 18 (0.37%) CentOS
14 11 (0.22%) Ubuntu
14 11 (0.22%) Windows 8
15 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
16 8 (0.16%) VMS
17 6 (0.12%) Debian
18 3 (0.061%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 940 (19.06%) Continuous Improvement
2 911 (18.47%) Customer Service
3 632 (12.82%) Agile
4 454 (9.21%) Decision-Making
5 452 (9.17%) Mentoring
6 450 (9.13%) Project Management
7 400 (8.11%) ITIL
8 373 (7.56%) DevOps
9 364 (7.38%) Analytics
10 351 (7.12%) CI/CD
11 347 (7.04%) Business Intelligence
12 323 (6.55%) AI
13 305 (6.19%) Cybersecurity
14 301 (6.10%) Change Management
15 292 (5.92%) Computer Science
16 290 (5.88%) ERP
17 286 (5.80%) Process Improvement
18 283 (5.74%) Stakeholder Management
19 279 (5.66%) CRM
20 276 (5.60%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 648 (13.14%) SQL
2 496 (10.06%) Python
3 285 (5.78%) JavaScript
4 249 (5.05%) PowerShell
5 207 (4.20%) C#
6 160 (3.24%) Java
7 87 (1.76%) TypeScript
8 73 (1.48%) Bash
9 69 (1.40%) PHP
10 61 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 58 (1.18%) C++
12 42 (0.85%) T-SQL
13 40 (0.81%) C
14 27 (0.55%) R
15 26 (0.53%) PL/SQL
16 21 (0.43%) MATLAB
17 20 (0.41%) Go
18 19 (0.39%) Bicep
18 19 (0.39%) Kotlin
19 17 (0.34%) VBA
Qualifications
1 961 (19.49%) Degree
2 374 (7.58%) Security Cleared
3 251 (5.09%) SC Cleared
4 162 (3.29%) DBS Check
5 147 (2.98%) Microsoft Certification
6 118 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
7 108 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
8 69 (1.40%) ACCA
9 68 (1.38%) A+ Certification
10 64 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
11 61 (1.24%) CIMA
12 60 (1.22%) DV Cleared
13 56 (1.14%) Master's Degree
14 54 (1.10%) HNC
15 50 (1.01%) CCNA
15 50 (1.01%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 43 (0.87%) HND
16 43 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
17 42 (0.85%) AWS Certification
18 37 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 249 (5.05%) QA
2 163 (3.31%) Data Quality
3 150 (3.04%) Cyber Essentials
4 141 (2.86%) GDPR
5 110 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 108 (2.19%) PCI DSS
7 76 (1.54%) SLA
8 69 (1.40%) Accessibility
9 48 (0.97%) NIST
10 36 (0.73%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
12 27 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 13 (0.26%) GMP
14 11 (0.22%) PMO
15 9 (0.18%) SOC 2
16 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.12%) ISO 13485
17 6 (0.12%) WCAG
18 5 (0.10%) COSHH
18 5 (0.10%) GRC
System Software
1 649 (13.16%) Active Directory
2 222 (4.50%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.57%) Docker
4 127 (2.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.62%) Terminal Server
6 23 (0.47%) Firmware
7 21 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.30%) vSphere
10 12 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.20%) VMware Workstation
12 9 (0.18%) KVM
13 6 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
14 5 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.081%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.081%) XenApp
16 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
17 1 (0.020%) iptables
17 1 (0.020%) Lustre
17 1 (0.020%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 200 (4.06%) Terraform
2 198 (4.02%) Microsoft Intune
3 125 (2.53%) Kubernetes
4 82 (1.66%) Ansible
5 58 (1.18%) SCCM
6 47 (0.95%) Grafana
7 42 (0.85%) BMC PATROL
8 30 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 19 (0.39%) Nagios
10 18 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
13 12 (0.24%) Autotask
13 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
14 11 (0.22%) ZABBIX
15 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
15 10 (0.20%) Nmap
16 8 (0.16%) Control-M
17 7 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 7 (0.14%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,352 (27.42%) Microsoft
2 240 (4.87%) VMware
3 172 (3.49%) SAP
4 158 (3.20%) Oracle
5 145 (2.94%) Veeam
6 121 (2.45%) Cisco
7 118 (2.39%) Google
8 110 (2.23%) SolarWinds
9 109 (2.21%) Splunk
10 81 (1.64%) Tanium
11 80 (1.62%) Brocade
11 80 (1.62%) Nimble Storage
12 70 (1.42%) ServiceNow
13 68 (1.38%) Salesforce
14 66 (1.34%) Adobe
15 64 (1.30%) Apple
16 61 (1.24%) Databricks
16 61 (1.24%) Sage
17 58 (1.18%) BT
18 45 (0.91%) HubSpot