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 3 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +3 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,276 7,518 4,753
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 13.90% 17.09% 16.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.11% 20.37% 17.50%
Number of salaries quoted 3,597 2,938 3,276
10th Percentile £25,750 £27,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,000 £67,500 £64,813
90th Percentile £70,000 £82,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 30,834 36,907 27,154
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.23% 83.91% 93.84%
Number of salaries quoted 18,792 17,856 20,276
10th Percentile £27,250 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £54,793 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.31% +4.37% -0.94%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £82,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 3 December 2025.

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 3 December 2025. 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 -2 1,400 £40,000 -20.00% 1,089
North of England -3 1,320 £45,000 -5.26% 953
Midlands +2 944 £37,500 -25.00% 575
North West -2 718 £48,000 +0.66% 487
South West 0 589 £39,398 -28.37% 364
West Midlands -1 564 £42,500 -21.51% 335
Yorkshire -4 479 £35,000 -22.22% 375
East of England -2 459 £33,500 -36.19% 351
East Midlands +3 380 £32,500 -7.14% 237
Scotland -5 345 £33,500 -33.00% 124
Wales +5 181 £47,500 -5.00% 66
North East +2 123 £33,500 -33.00% 109
Northern Ireland +2 63 £55,000 -7.45% 29
Isle of Man +2 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 272 (5.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 210 (3.98%) SharePoint
3 52 (0.99%) Confluence
4 43 (0.82%) IIS
5 28 (0.53%) Apache Spark
6 25 (0.47%) WordPress
7 24 (0.45%) Apache
7 24 (0.45%) CMS
8 9 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
9 8 (0.15%) Camunda
10 7 (0.13%) nginx
11 6 (0.11%) Drupal
11 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
12 5 (0.095%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.076%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.076%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2013
13 4 (0.076%) Oracle Workflow
13 4 (0.076%) SAS
14 3 (0.057%) HCL Domino
Applications
1 462 (8.76%) Microsoft Office
2 458 (8.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 71 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 21 (0.40%) AutoCAD
4 21 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (0.40%) MS Visio
5 19 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
6 14 (0.27%) Photoshop
6 14 (0.27%) Simulink
7 13 (0.25%) SOLIDWORKS
8 12 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 11 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
10 9 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
11 5 (0.095%) Adobe After Effects
11 5 (0.095%) Mathcad
11 5 (0.095%) Trello
12 4 (0.076%) Autodesk Inventor
12 4 (0.076%) CATIA
12 4 (0.076%) Oracle Smart View
12 4 (0.076%) Revit
Business Applications
1 90 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 59 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
3 29 (0.55%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.30%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.28%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.25%) Sage X3
9 11 (0.21%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
9 11 (0.21%) Shopify
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
10 10 (0.19%) SAP WM
10 10 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
11 8 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
12 7 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
13 5 (0.095%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,113 (21.10%) Azure
2 800 (15.16%) Microsoft 365
3 417 (7.90%) AWS
4 361 (6.84%) Power Platform
5 277 (5.25%) SaaS
6 226 (4.28%) Entra ID
7 143 (2.71%) GCP
8 131 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
9 89 (1.69%) GitHub
10 68 (1.29%) Power Automate
11 66 (1.25%) Serverless
12 56 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
13 49 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
14 41 (0.78%) OneDrive
15 39 (0.74%) Amazon S3
15 39 (0.74%) AWS Lambda
15 39 (0.74%) PowerApps
16 38 (0.72%) PaaS
17 34 (0.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 34 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 328 (6.22%) DNS
2 287 (5.44%) DHCP
3 261 (4.95%) Firewall
4 160 (3.03%) TCP/IP
5 149 (2.82%) VPN
6 147 (2.79%) Wi-Fi
7 136 (2.58%) LAN
8 122 (2.31%) WAN
9 95 (1.80%) Broadband
10 89 (1.69%) VLAN
11 79 (1.50%) VoIP
12 61 (1.16%) Remote Desktop
13 52 (0.99%) Wireless
14 46 (0.87%) Network Security
15 37 (0.70%) SAN
16 32 (0.61%) Ethernet
17 29 (0.55%) Internet
18 23 (0.44%) SD-WAN
19 21 (0.40%) Unified Communications
20 17 (0.32%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 324 (6.14%) Power BI
2 246 (4.66%) SQL Server
3 115 (2.18%) Amazon RDS
4 106 (2.01%) Relational Database
5 103 (1.95%) MySQL
6 87 (1.65%) Data Lake
7 82 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
8 73 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.21%) SAP BW
10 57 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
11 46 (0.87%) Tableau
12 42 (0.80%) NoSQL
13 41 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 37 (0.70%) GIS
15 34 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
16 29 (0.55%) MongoDB
17 27 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
18 26 (0.49%) Metadata
19 24 (0.45%) Crystal Reports
19 24 (0.45%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 189 (3.58%) Git
2 170 (3.22%) JIRA
3 46 (0.87%) Jenkins
4 40 (0.76%) GitLab
5 31 (0.59%) Selenium
6 21 (0.40%) Octopus Deploy
6 21 (0.40%) Visual Studio
7 18 (0.34%) TeamCity
8 15 (0.28%) JUnit
9 14 (0.27%) Bitbucket
9 14 (0.27%) Maven
9 14 (0.27%) Robot Framework
10 13 (0.25%) Snyk
10 13 (0.25%) SonarQube
11 9 (0.17%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.17%) LabVIEW
11 9 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
11 9 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
12 8 (0.15%) Cucumber
13 7 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2,885 (54.68%) Social Skills
2 1,479 (28.03%) Analytical Skills
3 1,166 (22.10%) Finance
4 374 (7.09%) Retail
5 333 (6.31%) Manufacturing
6 315 (5.97%) Marketing
7 256 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
8 218 (4.13%) Law
9 189 (3.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 182 (3.45%) Public Sector
11 176 (3.34%) Legal
12 144 (2.73%) Telecoms
13 130 (2.46%) Electronics
14 126 (2.39%) Banking
15 101 (1.91%) Games
15 101 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
16 92 (1.74%) Automotive
17 67 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
18 66 (1.25%) Aerospace
19 55 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 857 (16.24%) Analyst
2 655 (12.41%) IT Support
3 590 (11.18%) Senior
4 507 (9.61%) Support Engineer
5 385 (7.30%) Lead
6 374 (7.09%) Developer
7 345 (6.54%) Support Analyst
8 300 (5.69%) Technical Support
9 213 (4.04%) 2nd Line Support
10 211 (4.00%) IT Engineer
11 208 (3.94%) Technical Engineer
12 193 (3.66%) Systems Engineer
12 193 (3.66%) Technical Support Engineer
13 184 (3.49%) IT Support Engineer
14 177 (3.35%) Business Analyst
15 175 (3.32%) Support Technician
16 150 (2.84%) Applications Support
17 144 (2.73%) IT Analyst
18 138 (2.62%) Architect
19 135 (2.56%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (4.08%) .NET
2 180 (3.41%) HTML
3 157 (2.98%) CSS
4 149 (2.82%) React
5 97 (1.84%) REST
6 77 (1.46%) RESTful
7 62 (1.18%) ASP.NET
8 61 (1.16%) Node.js
9 59 (1.12%) JSON
10 54 (1.02%) XML
11 47 (0.89%) AngularJS
11 47 (0.89%) Spring
12 41 (0.78%) Django
13 40 (0.76%) SOAP
14 39 (0.74%) .NET Framework
15 32 (0.61%) EDI
15 32 (0.61%) Spring Boot
15 32 (0.61%) Vue
16 29 (0.55%) Entity Framework
17 28 (0.53%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 506 (9.59%) Driving Licence
2 420 (7.96%) Onboarding
3 302 (5.72%) Self-Motivation
4 199 (3.77%) Management Information System
5 176 (3.34%) Analytical Mindset
6 140 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
7 95 (1.80%) Product Ownership
8 94 (1.78%) Data Centre
9 92 (1.74%) FMCG
10 69 (1.31%) Virtual Team
11 63 (1.19%) Operational Technology
12 60 (1.14%) Cloud Native
13 49 (0.93%) e-Learning
14 44 (0.83%) Algorithms
14 44 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
15 42 (0.80%) SCADA
16 41 (0.78%) EPoS
17 34 (0.64%) IoT
17 34 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
17 34 (0.64%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 959 (18.18%) Windows
2 385 (7.30%) Windows Server
3 280 (5.31%) Linux
4 148 (2.81%) Windows 10
5 100 (1.90%) Windows Server 2016
6 66 (1.25%) Mac OS
7 58 (1.10%) Android
8 47 (0.89%) Apple iOS
9 36 (0.68%) Unix
10 26 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 20 (0.38%) Windows 7
12 13 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
13 9 (0.17%) VMS
14 6 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 5 (0.095%) Mac OS X
15 5 (0.095%) Windows Server 2008
16 4 (0.076%) CentOS
16 4 (0.076%) Windows 8
17 3 (0.057%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.038%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,006 (19.07%) Customer Service
2 984 (18.65%) Continuous Improvement
3 720 (13.65%) Agile
4 485 (9.19%) Project Management
5 484 (9.17%) Analytics
6 470 (8.91%) Mentoring
7 441 (8.36%) Decision-Making
8 425 (8.06%) Business Intelligence
9 412 (7.81%) ERP
9 412 (7.81%) ITIL
10 374 (7.09%) DevOps
11 362 (6.86%) Cybersecurity
12 321 (6.08%) CI/CD
13 318 (6.03%) Change Management
14 314 (5.95%) CRM
15 310 (5.88%) Process Improvement
16 308 (5.84%) Stakeholder Management
17 291 (5.52%) AI
18 290 (5.50%) Project Delivery
19 286 (5.42%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 788 (14.94%) SQL
2 417 (7.90%) Python
3 275 (5.21%) C#
4 264 (5.00%) JavaScript
5 246 (4.66%) PowerShell
6 163 (3.09%) Java
7 83 (1.57%) C++
8 80 (1.52%) PHP
9 56 (1.06%) TypeScript
10 49 (0.93%) T-SQL
11 46 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 44 (0.83%) Bash
13 37 (0.70%) C
14 27 (0.51%) MATLAB
15 26 (0.49%) VBA
16 18 (0.34%) Go
16 18 (0.34%) R
17 17 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
18 15 (0.28%) Perl
19 14 (0.27%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,197 (22.69%) Degree
2 409 (7.75%) Security Cleared
3 283 (5.36%) SC Cleared
4 152 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 146 (2.77%) Computer Science Degree
6 117 (2.22%) DBS Check
7 105 (1.99%) Master's Degree
8 99 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 88 (1.67%) DV Cleared
10 82 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
11 74 (1.40%) HND
12 65 (1.23%) HNC
13 64 (1.21%) ACCA
14 60 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 56 (1.06%) A+ Certification
15 56 (1.06%) CCNA
15 56 (1.06%) CIMA
16 52 (0.99%) Network+ Certification
17 36 (0.68%) AWS Certification
18 34 (0.64%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 236 (4.47%) QA
2 205 (3.89%) Data Quality
3 147 (2.79%) Cyber Essentials
4 139 (2.63%) GDPR
5 103 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 101 (1.91%) PCI DSS
7 89 (1.69%) SLA
8 80 (1.52%) Accessibility
9 41 (0.78%) NIST
10 30 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 27 (0.51%) ISO 9001
12 21 (0.40%) PMO
13 18 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
14 9 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
15 7 (0.13%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.13%) WCAG
16 6 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.11%) HIPAA
16 6 (0.11%) SOC 2
17 5 (0.095%) GLBA
System Software
1 634 (12.02%) Active Directory
2 210 (3.98%) Hyper-V
3 173 (3.28%) Docker
4 111 (2.10%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.67%) Terminal Server
6 49 (0.93%) Firmware
7 23 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 17 (0.32%) vSphere
10 15 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 13 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
12 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.076%) HDFS
13 4 (0.076%) KVM
14 3 (0.057%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.057%) VMware Workstation
15 2 (0.038%) RHEV
15 2 (0.038%) Xen
15 2 (0.038%) XenApp
16 1 (0.019%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 211 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 180 (3.41%) Terraform
3 138 (2.62%) Kubernetes
4 58 (1.10%) Ansible
5 42 (0.80%) BMC PATROL
6 38 (0.72%) SCCM
7 37 (0.70%) Grafana
8 26 (0.49%) Prometheus
9 16 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.27%) vCenter Server
11 13 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.21%) Nagios
13 10 (0.19%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.19%) FortiGate
13 10 (0.19%) ZABBIX
14 8 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
15 7 (0.13%) PaperCut
15 7 (0.13%) QRadar
16 6 (0.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 5 (0.095%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,403 (26.59%) Microsoft
2 335 (6.35%) SAP
3 231 (4.38%) VMware
4 172 (3.26%) Cisco
5 165 (3.13%) Oracle
6 133 (2.52%) Veeam
7 114 (2.16%) Google
8 113 (2.14%) Splunk
9 107 (2.03%) SolarWinds
10 97 (1.84%) ServiceNow
11 96 (1.82%) Salesforce
12 90 (1.71%) Tanium
13 88 (1.67%) Brocade
13 88 (1.67%) Nimble Storage
14 70 (1.33%) BT
14 70 (1.33%) Sage
15 64 (1.21%) Databricks
16 57 (1.08%) Apple
17 52 (0.99%) Adobe
18 44 (0.83%) HubSpot