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 19 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,730 6,398 10,183
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.94% 18.86% 14.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.26% 21.37% 18.12%
Number of salaries quoted 4,278 3,502 6,129
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £41,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.41% -7.78% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £73,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -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 50,904 29,941 56,207
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.51% 88.24% 79.83%
Number of salaries quoted 35,867 16,136 38,331
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,851 £36,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.19% +2.73% -8.72%

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 19 July 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 19 July 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 1,509 £45,000 +5.88% 581
South East -3 1,402 £45,000 +5.88% 695
Midlands -8 1,063 £42,000 +3.70% 345
North West -6 800 £46,000 - 300
South West -6 706 £44,000 +17.33% 277
West Midlands -9 596 £42,500 -5.56% 191
East of England -4 578 £42,500 +21.43% 229
Yorkshire -10 512 £42,500 +21.43% 197
East Midlands -10 463 £35,000 -2.78% 154
Scotland -8 234 £33,000 -25.42% 89
North East -15 197 £52,130 +33.32% 93
Wales -20 145 £42,500 -9.09% 51
Northern Ireland -15 113 £38,500 -30.00% 16
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 6
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
1 362 (6.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 346 (6.04%) SharePoint
3 55 (0.96%) Confluence
4 51 (0.89%) CMS
5 35 (0.61%) IIS
6 29 (0.51%) WordPress
7 27 (0.47%) Apache
8 20 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.23%) Apache Spark
9 13 (0.23%) SAS
10 11 (0.19%) WebSphere
11 10 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2013
12 8 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2007
12 8 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2010
12 8 (0.14%) WebLogic
13 7 (0.12%) nginx
13 7 (0.12%) OpenEdge
14 6 (0.10%) Jupyter
15 5 (0.087%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.070%) Moodle
Applications
1 370 (6.46%) Microsoft Office
2 361 (6.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 41 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
5 31 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
7 11 (0.19%) Simulink
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.12%) Chatbot
10 6 (0.10%) AutoCAD
11 5 (0.087%) Adobe XD
11 5 (0.087%) Fusion 360
11 5 (0.087%) Lightworks
11 5 (0.087%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.087%) Sketch
11 5 (0.087%) Trello
12 3 (0.052%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.052%) LaTeX
12 3 (0.052%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 56 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 32 (0.56%) NetSuite
3 18 (0.31%) Shopify
4 16 (0.28%) Magento
4 16 (0.28%) SAP ERP
5 15 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
6 14 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
7 13 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 11 (0.19%) SAP Business One
9 10 (0.17%) JDE EnterpriseOne
9 10 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
10 8 (0.14%) Sage 50
11 7 (0.12%) iTrent
11 7 (0.12%) Raiser’s Edge
11 7 (0.12%) Workday HCM
12 5 (0.087%) NEC Housing
12 5 (0.087%) Q-Pulse
12 5 (0.087%) Sage X3
12 5 (0.087%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 1,205 (21.03%) Azure
2 1,069 (18.66%) Microsoft 365
3 590 (10.30%) AWS
4 452 (7.89%) Power Platform
5 295 (5.15%) Entra ID
6 199 (3.47%) GCP
7 198 (3.46%) SaaS
8 133 (2.32%) Azure DevOps
9 119 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
10 109 (1.90%) Serverless
11 100 (1.75%) Power Automate
11 100 (1.75%) PowerApps
12 97 (1.69%) GitHub
13 76 (1.33%) OneDrive
14 61 (1.06%) Microsoft Copilot
15 50 (0.87%) Amazon S3
16 48 (0.84%) Microsoft Purview
17 45 (0.79%) IaaS
18 44 (0.77%) GitHub Actions
18 44 (0.77%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 417 (7.28%) Firewall
2 379 (6.61%) DNS
3 325 (5.67%) DHCP
4 213 (3.72%) VPN
5 201 (3.51%) WAN
6 193 (3.37%) TCP/IP
7 178 (3.11%) LAN
8 156 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
9 141 (2.46%) Wireless
10 119 (2.08%) VLAN
11 113 (1.97%) Broadband
12 97 (1.69%) Network Security
13 91 (1.59%) VoIP
14 39 (0.68%) Internet
15 32 (0.56%) SD-WAN
16 27 (0.47%) SAN
17 26 (0.45%) HTTP
18 23 (0.40%) SSL
19 22 (0.38%) WLAN
20 21 (0.37%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 361 (6.30%) Power BI
2 266 (4.64%) SQL Server
3 117 (2.04%) Amazon RDS
4 101 (1.76%) MySQL
5 89 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
6 83 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
6 83 (1.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 78 (1.36%) Relational Database
8 67 (1.17%) Tableau
9 64 (1.12%) NoSQL
9 64 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 46 (0.80%) Power Query
11 44 (0.77%) MongoDB
12 37 (0.65%) Big Data
13 35 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
14 33 (0.58%) Data Lake
15 26 (0.45%) DynamoDB
16 25 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
17 19 (0.33%) Star Schema
18 17 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 220 (3.84%) Git
2 174 (3.04%) JIRA
3 78 (1.36%) GitLab
4 46 (0.80%) Jenkins
5 27 (0.47%) Rational DOORS
6 24 (0.42%) Cucumber
7 22 (0.38%) Eclipse
7 22 (0.38%) Selenium
7 22 (0.38%) Subversion
8 17 (0.30%) Cypress.io
8 17 (0.30%) JUnit
9 15 (0.26%) Postman
10 14 (0.24%) SonarQube
11 12 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
12 11 (0.19%) Claude Code
13 9 (0.16%) Bitbucket
13 9 (0.16%) Visual Studio
14 8 (0.14%) Burp Suite
14 8 (0.14%) JMeter
14 8 (0.14%) Maven
General
1 2,749 (47.98%) Social Skills
2 1,550 (27.05%) Analytical Skills
3 878 (15.32%) Finance
4 456 (7.96%) Manufacturing
5 379 (6.61%) Organisational Skills
6 254 (4.43%) Legal
7 247 (4.31%) Law
7 247 (4.31%) Public Sector
8 243 (4.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 231 (4.03%) Retail
10 182 (3.18%) Marketing
11 152 (2.65%) Electronics
12 148 (2.58%) Telecoms
13 114 (1.99%) Banking
14 105 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
15 104 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
16 86 (1.50%) Aerospace
17 76 (1.33%) Games
18 59 (1.03%) Advertising
19 58 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 789 (13.77%) Analyst
2 673 (11.75%) IT Support
3 631 (11.01%) Senior
4 589 (10.28%) Developer
5 580 (10.12%) Support Engineer
6 394 (6.88%) IT Engineer
7 303 (5.29%) Lead
8 295 (5.15%) IT Support Engineer
9 260 (4.54%) Support Technician
10 257 (4.49%) Support Analyst
11 236 (4.12%) Systems Engineer
12 216 (3.77%) Technical Support
13 209 (3.65%) IT Technician
14 195 (3.40%) Software Engineer
15 191 (3.33%) Technical Engineer
16 190 (3.32%) Consultant
17 181 (3.16%) Architect
18 173 (3.02%) Technical Support Engineer
19 168 (2.93%) Senior Developer
20 164 (2.86%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 274 (4.78%) .NET
2 198 (3.46%) React
3 172 (3.00%) HTML
4 161 (2.81%) REST
5 127 (2.22%) CSS
6 100 (1.75%) Node.js
7 96 (1.68%) RESTful
8 84 (1.47%) SOAP
9 75 (1.31%) Middleware
10 74 (1.29%) Vue
11 73 (1.27%) JSON
12 69 (1.20%) AngularJS
13 64 (1.12%) XML
14 52 (0.91%) Spring
15 50 (0.87%) ASP.NET
16 48 (0.84%) Spring Boot
17 47 (0.82%) Web Services
18 43 (0.75%) OAuth
19 38 (0.66%) Kafka
20 37 (0.65%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 448 (7.82%) Driving Licence
2 337 (5.88%) Onboarding
3 268 (4.68%) Self-Motivation
4 219 (3.82%) Management Information System
5 153 (2.67%) Cloud Native
5 153 (2.67%) Legacy Systems
6 142 (2.48%) Product Ownership
7 101 (1.76%) Data Centre
8 96 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
9 88 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
10 74 (1.29%) Security Posture
11 65 (1.13%) Mobile App
11 65 (1.13%) Social Media
12 63 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
13 57 (0.99%) IoT
13 57 (0.99%) Virtual Team
14 48 (0.84%) Algorithms
15 46 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
15 46 (0.80%) Robotics
16 45 (0.79%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,015 (17.71%) Windows
2 484 (8.45%) Windows Server
3 419 (7.31%) Linux
4 144 (2.51%) Windows 10
5 127 (2.22%) Windows Server 2016
6 108 (1.88%) Android
7 74 (1.29%) Apple iOS
8 72 (1.26%) Mac OS
9 44 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.54%) Unix
11 27 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 27 (0.47%) Ubuntu
12 24 (0.42%) CentOS
13 16 (0.28%) VMS
14 14 (0.24%) Debian
14 14 (0.24%) Windows 7
15 10 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
16 9 (0.16%) FreeRTOS
17 7 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
18 6 (0.10%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,377 (24.03%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,050 (18.32%) Customer Service
3 811 (14.15%) Agile
4 580 (10.12%) Mentoring
5 570 (9.95%) Decision-Making
6 568 (9.91%) CI/CD
7 543 (9.48%) AI
8 505 (8.81%) ITIL
9 488 (8.52%) Analytics
10 483 (8.43%) DevOps
11 465 (8.12%) Cybersecurity
12 460 (8.03%) Software Engineering
13 451 (7.87%) Collaborative Working
14 426 (7.43%) Stakeholder Management
15 419 (7.31%) Business Intelligence
16 406 (7.09%) ERP
17 382 (6.67%) Project Delivery
18 346 (6.04%) Computer Science
18 346 (6.04%) Service Delivery
19 342 (5.97%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 891 (15.55%) SQL
2 649 (11.33%) Python
3 362 (6.32%) JavaScript
4 355 (6.20%) C#
5 254 (4.43%) Java
6 242 (4.22%) PowerShell
7 163 (2.84%) TypeScript
8 159 (2.77%) C++
9 108 (1.88%) Bash
10 75 (1.31%) PHP
11 62 (1.08%) C
12 58 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 48 (0.84%) T-SQL
14 34 (0.59%) Perl
14 34 (0.59%) PL/SQL
15 32 (0.56%) Go
15 32 (0.56%) Ruby
16 29 (0.51%) Kotlin
16 29 (0.51%) Shell Script
17 27 (0.47%) Rust
Qualifications
1 832 (14.52%) Degree
2 477 (8.32%) Security Cleared
3 347 (6.06%) SC Cleared
4 198 (3.46%) DBS Check
5 165 (2.88%) Computer Science Degree
6 164 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
7 88 (1.54%) Cisco Certification
8 85 (1.48%) DV Cleared
9 83 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
10 74 (1.29%) Azure Certification
11 63 (1.10%) CCNA
12 60 (1.05%) ACCA
13 59 (1.03%) HNC
14 56 (0.98%) A+ Certification
14 56 (0.98%) CIMA
14 56 (0.98%) PMI Certification
15 54 (0.94%) Master's Degree
16 49 (0.86%) PMP
17 48 (0.84%) CISSP
18 43 (0.75%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 345 (6.02%) QA
2 243 (4.24%) Data Quality
3 184 (3.21%) Cyber Essentials
4 157 (2.74%) GDPR
5 147 (2.57%) SLA
6 138 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 130 (2.27%) PCI DSS
8 115 (2.01%) Accessibility
9 90 (1.57%) NIST
10 39 (0.68%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 25 (0.44%) PMO
13 21 (0.37%) GMP
14 17 (0.30%) Good Clinical Practice
15 15 (0.26%) GRC
16 14 (0.24%) SOC 2
17 13 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
18 12 (0.21%) TickIT
19 11 (0.19%) ISO 14001
20 9 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 717 (12.51%) Active Directory
2 280 (4.89%) Hyper-V
3 214 (3.73%) Docker
4 188 (3.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.54%) Terminal Server
6 43 (0.75%) Firmware
7 30 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
8 27 (0.47%) vSphere
9 22 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
11 11 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
12 7 (0.12%) KVM
13 6 (0.10%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.10%) XenApp
14 5 (0.087%) ClearTrust
15 4 (0.070%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.070%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.052%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.052%) Squid
16 3 (0.052%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 226 (3.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 223 (3.89%) Terraform
3 203 (3.54%) Kubernetes
4 102 (1.78%) Ansible
5 61 (1.06%) Grafana
6 59 (1.03%) SCCM
7 41 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 19 (0.33%) FortiGate
8 19 (0.33%) Nagios
9 13 (0.23%) Puppet
10 11 (0.19%) Kibana
11 10 (0.17%) Autotask
11 10 (0.17%) Functional Safety
11 10 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.17%) logstash
11 10 (0.17%) Podman
11 10 (0.17%) Proxmox
11 10 (0.17%) QRadar
12 9 (0.16%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.16%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,762 (30.75%) Microsoft
2 310 (5.41%) VMware
3 144 (2.51%) Veeam
4 128 (2.23%) Splunk
5 127 (2.22%) Google
6 125 (2.18%) SAP
7 122 (2.13%) Cisco
8 114 (1.99%) SolarWinds
9 113 (1.97%) Oracle
10 96 (1.68%) Tanium
11 90 (1.57%) ServiceNow
12 89 (1.55%) Nimble Storage
13 88 (1.54%) Brocade
14 82 (1.43%) Salesforce
15 69 (1.20%) Databricks
16 58 (1.01%) Apple
17 53 (0.92%) Adobe
17 53 (0.92%) Sage
18 50 (0.87%) Fortinet
19 49 (0.86%) Dell