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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,724 5,566 10,618
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.22% 19.37% 15.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.16% 21.04% 18.50%
Number of salaries quoted 3,481 3,208 6,903
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.61% +2.22% -10.00%
75th Percentile £59,375 £62,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £52,443 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.43% +4.89% -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 46,509 26,449 57,406
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.06% 92.02% 83.48%
Number of salaries quoted 29,799 13,959 41,086
10th Percentile £29,750 £27,500 £27,117
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -9.84%

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 12 May 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 12 May 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 1,277 £42,500 -5.56% 626
South East -8 1,135 £46,000 -8.00% 767
Midlands -22 862 £40,000 -11.11% 420
North West -16 663 £45,000 -5.26% 344
South West -8 543 £43,500 +2.35% 293
West Midlands -23 512 £42,500 -11.46% 259
Yorkshire -12 485 £40,500 +1.25% 206
East of England -8 464 £40,839 -14.02% 262
East Midlands -10 347 £35,000 -12.50% 162
Scotland -3 291 £35,500 -29.00% 102
North East -18 129 £48,500 +7.78% 84
Wales -13 109 £42,500 -15.00% 62
Northern Ireland -10 66 £40,000 -27.27% 26
Isle of Man +2 2 £35,000 -7.89% 1
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
1 280 (5.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 271 (5.74%) SharePoint
3 46 (0.97%) CMS
4 33 (0.70%) Confluence
5 25 (0.53%) IIS
6 24 (0.51%) WordPress
7 19 (0.40%) Apache
8 15 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.30%) Apache Spark
10 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
10 11 (0.23%) SAS
11 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2007
11 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2010
12 7 (0.15%) Drupal
13 6 (0.13%) nginx
14 5 (0.11%) OpenStack
14 5 (0.11%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.085%) Moodle
15 4 (0.085%) OpenEdge
15 4 (0.085%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 293 (6.20%) Microsoft Office
2 267 (5.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 38 (0.80%) MS Visio
4 37 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
5 33 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 11 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.19%) Fusion 360
8 6 (0.13%) Photoshop
9 5 (0.11%) Simulink
10 4 (0.085%) AutoCAD
11 3 (0.064%) Trello
12 2 (0.042%) Acrobat
12 2 (0.042%) Autodesk Inventor
12 2 (0.042%) Sketch
12 2 (0.042%) Weka
13 1 (0.021%) Abaqus
13 1 (0.021%) Chatbot
13 1 (0.021%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 46 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.72%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
4 19 (0.40%) Shopify
5 16 (0.34%) Magento
6 14 (0.30%) SAP ERP
7 13 (0.28%) iTrent
8 12 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
9 11 (0.23%) SAP CO
10 8 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
11 7 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.15%) SAP Business One
11 7 (0.15%) Workday HCM
12 6 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
13 4 (0.085%) Dynamics GP
13 4 (0.085%) Line 50
13 4 (0.085%) Sage 200
13 4 (0.085%) Sage 50
13 4 (0.085%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 937 (19.83%) Azure
2 820 (17.36%) Microsoft 365
3 464 (9.82%) AWS
4 343 (7.26%) Power Platform
5 214 (4.53%) Entra ID
6 177 (3.75%) SaaS
7 134 (2.84%) GCP
8 121 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
9 107 (2.27%) Serverless
10 94 (1.99%) Dynamics 365
11 91 (1.93%) GitHub
12 73 (1.55%) Power Automate
13 59 (1.25%) Amazon S3
14 57 (1.21%) AWS Lambda
15 54 (1.14%) Google Workspace
15 54 (1.14%) PowerApps
16 50 (1.06%) OneDrive
17 48 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
17 48 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
17 48 (1.02%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 290 (6.14%) Firewall
2 288 (6.10%) DNS
3 233 (4.93%) DHCP
4 162 (3.43%) WAN
5 158 (3.34%) VPN
6 122 (2.58%) LAN
7 115 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
8 108 (2.29%) TCP/IP
9 102 (2.16%) Broadband
10 94 (1.99%) Wireless
11 79 (1.67%) VLAN
12 66 (1.40%) VoIP
13 64 (1.35%) Network Security
14 42 (0.89%) SD-WAN
15 36 (0.76%) SAN
16 33 (0.70%) Internet
17 20 (0.42%) HTTP
18 19 (0.40%) Unified Communications
19 18 (0.38%) Wireshark
20 15 (0.32%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 278 (5.88%) Power BI
2 199 (4.21%) SQL Server
3 70 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
4 69 (1.46%) MySQL
5 66 (1.40%) NoSQL
6 64 (1.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 60 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
8 59 (1.25%) Amazon RDS
9 55 (1.16%) Relational Database
10 52 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 48 (1.02%) Tableau
12 43 (0.91%) Power Query
13 34 (0.72%) DynamoDB
14 31 (0.66%) MongoDB
15 26 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
16 25 (0.53%) Data Lake
17 23 (0.49%) Big Data
18 21 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
19 20 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
20 19 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 192 (4.06%) Git
2 134 (2.84%) JIRA
3 68 (1.44%) GitLab
4 47 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 24 (0.51%) Rational DOORS
6 18 (0.38%) Maven
7 16 (0.34%) Selenium
7 16 (0.34%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.30%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.28%) Bitbucket
9 13 (0.28%) Cucumber
9 13 (0.28%) LabVIEW
10 8 (0.17%) Visual Studio
11 7 (0.15%) CircleCI
11 7 (0.15%) JUnit
12 6 (0.13%) Burp Suite
12 6 (0.13%) MLflow
12 6 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
12 6 (0.13%) Postman
12 6 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,218 (46.95%) Social Skills
2 1,299 (27.50%) Analytical Skills
3 811 (17.17%) Finance
4 308 (6.52%) Manufacturing
5 303 (6.41%) Organisational Skills
6 217 (4.59%) Public Sector
7 213 (4.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 183 (3.87%) Marketing
9 168 (3.56%) Law
10 165 (3.49%) Legal
11 161 (3.41%) Retail
12 131 (2.77%) Telecoms
13 128 (2.71%) Electronics
14 124 (2.62%) Banking
15 86 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
16 71 (1.50%) Games
17 59 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
18 53 (1.12%) Aerospace
18 53 (1.12%) Automotive
19 52 (1.10%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 694 (14.69%) Analyst
2 586 (12.40%) IT Support
3 520 (11.01%) Support Engineer
4 518 (10.97%) Senior
5 385 (8.15%) Developer
6 339 (7.18%) IT Engineer
7 260 (5.50%) IT Support Engineer
8 256 (5.42%) Lead
9 206 (4.36%) Support Technician
10 198 (4.19%) Support Analyst
11 168 (3.56%) Systems Engineer
12 166 (3.51%) Architect
13 161 (3.41%) IT Technician
14 151 (3.20%) Technical Support
15 148 (3.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 142 (3.01%) Consultant
17 141 (2.98%) Business Analyst
18 133 (2.82%) IT Support Technician
19 129 (2.73%) Software Engineer
20 128 (2.71%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 158 (3.34%) .NET
2 154 (3.26%) React
3 138 (2.92%) HTML
4 109 (2.31%) CSS
4 109 (2.31%) REST
5 78 (1.65%) Node.js
6 66 (1.40%) SOAP
7 56 (1.19%) RESTful
8 55 (1.16%) Middleware
9 54 (1.14%) JSON
10 53 (1.12%) XML
11 44 (0.93%) AngularJS
12 42 (0.89%) Vue
13 41 (0.87%) Spring
14 39 (0.83%) OAuth
15 38 (0.80%) Spring Boot
16 32 (0.68%) EDI
17 28 (0.59%) ASP.NET
17 28 (0.59%) GraphQL
17 28 (0.59%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 364 (7.71%) Driving Licence
2 269 (5.69%) Onboarding
3 220 (4.66%) Self-Motivation
4 171 (3.62%) Management Information System
5 120 (2.54%) Product Ownership
6 111 (2.35%) Analytical Mindset
7 107 (2.27%) Cloud Native
8 94 (1.99%) Data Centre
9 92 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
10 75 (1.59%) Social Media
11 70 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
12 57 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
13 56 (1.19%) Mobile App
14 54 (1.14%) Low-Code
15 39 (0.83%) Data Structures
15 39 (0.83%) Virtual Team
16 35 (0.74%) IoT
17 34 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
18 33 (0.70%) CCTV
18 33 (0.70%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 796 (16.85%) Windows
2 356 (7.54%) Windows Server
3 292 (6.18%) Linux
4 124 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 102 (2.16%) Android
6 90 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
7 64 (1.35%) Apple iOS
8 51 (1.08%) Mac OS
9 40 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.66%) Unix
11 24 (0.51%) CentOS
11 24 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 21 (0.44%) Ubuntu
13 20 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 14 (0.30%) VMS
15 12 (0.25%) Windows 7
16 9 (0.19%) Debian
17 7 (0.15%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.085%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 964 (20.41%) Continuous Improvement
2 835 (17.68%) Customer Service
3 626 (13.25%) Agile
4 441 (9.34%) Decision-Making
5 436 (9.23%) Mentoring
6 401 (8.49%) CI/CD
7 394 (8.34%) ITIL
8 393 (8.32%) DevOps
9 371 (7.85%) Analytics
10 359 (7.60%) AI
11 335 (7.09%) Business Intelligence
12 324 (6.86%) Project Management
13 312 (6.60%) Coaching
14 298 (6.31%) ERP
15 291 (6.16%) Stakeholder Management
16 290 (6.14%) Cybersecurity
17 288 (6.10%) Collaborative Working
18 287 (6.08%) Computer Science
18 287 (6.08%) Software Engineering
19 261 (5.52%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 616 (13.04%) SQL
2 505 (10.69%) Python
3 279 (5.91%) JavaScript
4 193 (4.09%) PowerShell
5 190 (4.02%) C#
6 188 (3.98%) Java
7 111 (2.35%) TypeScript
8 85 (1.80%) Bash
9 78 (1.65%) C++
10 69 (1.46%) PHP
11 48 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.99%) C
13 36 (0.76%) PL/SQL
14 34 (0.72%) T-SQL
15 27 (0.57%) Kotlin
16 26 (0.55%) R
17 23 (0.49%) Shell Script
18 22 (0.47%) Bicep
19 21 (0.44%) Go
20 19 (0.40%) Scala
Qualifications
1 745 (15.77%) Degree
2 321 (6.80%) Security Cleared
3 221 (4.68%) SC Cleared
4 199 (4.21%) DBS Check
5 152 (3.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 139 (2.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 86 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
8 76 (1.61%) A+ Certification
9 69 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
10 68 (1.44%) ACCA
11 61 (1.29%) CIMA
11 61 (1.29%) DV Cleared
12 56 (1.19%) CCNA
13 45 (0.95%) Master's Degree
13 45 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
14 44 (0.93%) HNC
15 43 (0.91%) PMI Certification
16 42 (0.89%) CISSP
17 34 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
18 33 (0.70%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 264 (5.59%) QA
2 217 (4.59%) Data Quality
3 147 (3.11%) GDPR
4 114 (2.41%) SLA
5 112 (2.37%) Cyber Essentials
6 104 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.74%) PCI DSS
8 76 (1.61%) NIST
9 60 (1.27%) Accessibility
10 37 (0.78%) ISO 9001
11 17 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
11 17 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 16 (0.34%) SOC 2
13 14 (0.30%) GMP
14 12 (0.25%) GRC
14 12 (0.25%) TickIT
15 9 (0.19%) ISO 14001
16 8 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 7 (0.15%) PMO
18 6 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 563 (11.92%) Active Directory
2 168 (3.56%) Hyper-V
3 167 (3.54%) Docker
4 130 (2.75%) VMware Infrastructure
5 48 (1.02%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
7 25 (0.53%) Firmware
8 18 (0.38%) vSphere
9 13 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
11 10 (0.21%) KVM
12 7 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.13%) XenApp
14 4 (0.085%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.085%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.064%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.064%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.064%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
16 1 (0.021%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 195 (4.13%) Terraform
2 167 (3.54%) Microsoft Intune
3 149 (3.15%) Kubernetes
4 85 (1.80%) Ansible
5 57 (1.21%) SCCM
6 47 (0.99%) Grafana
7 30 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 18 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
9 17 (0.36%) Nagios
10 10 (0.21%) BMC PATROL
10 10 (0.21%) Puppet
10 10 (0.21%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 9 (0.19%) Autotask
12 8 (0.17%) FortiGate
12 8 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 8 (0.17%) Kibana
13 7 (0.15%) logstash
13 7 (0.15%) ZABBIX
14 6 (0.13%) QRadar
Vendors
1 1,313 (27.79%) Microsoft
2 207 (4.38%) VMware
3 135 (2.86%) Oracle
4 110 (2.33%) SAP
5 101 (2.14%) Veeam
6 97 (2.05%) Google
7 95 (2.01%) Cisco
8 80 (1.69%) Splunk
9 79 (1.67%) SolarWinds
10 67 (1.42%) Databricks
11 65 (1.38%) ServiceNow
12 63 (1.33%) Apple
13 59 (1.25%) Salesforce
14 55 (1.16%) Adobe
15 49 (1.04%) Dell
15 49 (1.04%) Tanium
16 48 (1.02%) Brocade
16 48 (1.02%) Nimble Storage
17 36 (0.76%) Sage
18 34 (0.72%) Red Hat