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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,938 5,731 8,179
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.89% 18.65% 15.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.00% 20.35% 18.37%
Number of salaries quoted 3,499 2,698 5,702
10th Percentile £26,050 £27,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £72,500 £83,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -11.44%

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 37,996 28,157 44,518
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 76.09% 91.62% 86.99%
Number of salaries quoted 22,472 13,159 33,752
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £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 £65,640 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £83,750 £77,750
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 28 February 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 February 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 -17 1,364 £42,500 -10.05% 545
South East -4 1,242 £42,500 -19.05% 785
Midlands -16 854 £37,500 -25.00% 391
North West -15 721 £45,000 -10.00% 295
South West -3 563 £42,500 -19.05% 253
West Midlands -21 502 £42,500 -22.73% 235
Yorkshire -5 501 £35,000 -19.49% 187
East of England -7 414 £40,000 -20.00% 257
East Midlands -1 349 £35,000 -4.11% 156
Scotland -7 332 £33,500 -33.00% 89
North East -4 142 £45,000 - 77
Wales -2 116 £42,500 -28.83% 53
Northern Ireland -3 80 £35,000 -41.39% 21
Isle of Man 0 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 287 (5.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 232 (4.70%) SharePoint
3 51 (1.03%) Confluence
4 43 (0.87%) IIS
5 39 (0.79%) CMS
6 25 (0.51%) WordPress
7 24 (0.49%) Apache
8 19 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
10 13 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
11 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2007
11 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2010
12 9 (0.18%) nginx
13 7 (0.14%) Drupal
14 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 5 (0.10%) SAS
16 4 (0.081%) Moodle
16 4 (0.081%) Totara
16 4 (0.081%) WebSphere
16 4 (0.081%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 363 (7.35%) Microsoft Office
2 302 (6.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 61 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 27 (0.55%) MS Visio
4 27 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 14 (0.28%) AutoCAD
5 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 11 (0.22%) Photoshop
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
9 4 (0.081%) CATIA
9 4 (0.081%) Fusion 360
9 4 (0.081%) Simulink
9 4 (0.081%) Trello
10 3 (0.061%) Adobe After Effects
10 3 (0.061%) Adobe Premiere
10 3 (0.061%) Adobe XD
10 3 (0.061%) Elementor
10 3 (0.061%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 65 (1.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 44 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.53%) 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
8 8 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 8 (0.16%) SAP ERP
9 7 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
9 7 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
9 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
9 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
10 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
11 5 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
11 5 (0.10%) SAP FI
11 5 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
11 5 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 1,016 (20.58%) Azure
2 848 (17.17%) Microsoft 365
3 446 (9.03%) AWS
4 317 (6.42%) Power Platform
5 241 (4.88%) Entra ID
5 241 (4.88%) SaaS
6 142 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
7 135 (2.73%) GCP
8 99 (2.00%) GitHub
9 93 (1.88%) Serverless
10 80 (1.62%) Power Automate
11 67 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
12 63 (1.28%) Google Workspace
13 59 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
14 57 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
15 56 (1.13%) Amazon S3
16 49 (0.99%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 48 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
18 47 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
18 47 (0.95%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 368 (7.45%) DNS
2 312 (6.32%) DHCP
3 277 (5.61%) Firewall
4 162 (3.28%) VPN
5 154 (3.12%) TCP/IP
6 148 (3.00%) WAN
6 148 (3.00%) Wi-Fi
7 127 (2.57%) LAN
8 112 (2.27%) Broadband
9 94 (1.90%) VLAN
10 83 (1.68%) VoIP
11 71 (1.44%) Wireless
12 54 (1.09%) Remote Desktop
13 51 (1.03%) Network Security
14 44 (0.89%) Internet
15 42 (0.85%) SD-WAN
16 31 (0.63%) SAN
17 30 (0.61%) Unified Communications
18 24 (0.49%) Wireshark
19 22 (0.45%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 256 (5.18%) Power BI
2 193 (3.91%) SQL Server
3 101 (2.05%) Amazon RDS
4 78 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
5 77 (1.56%) Relational Database
6 69 (1.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 66 (1.34%) NoSQL
8 64 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
9 59 (1.19%) MySQL
10 46 (0.93%) Tableau
11 37 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 35 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
12 35 (0.71%) Power Query
13 33 (0.67%) Amazon Redshift
13 33 (0.67%) DynamoDB
14 30 (0.61%) MongoDB
15 28 (0.57%) Data Lake
15 28 (0.57%) Metadata
16 24 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
17 17 (0.34%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 185 (3.75%) Git
2 161 (3.26%) JIRA
3 60 (1.22%) GitLab
4 45 (0.91%) Jenkins
5 32 (0.65%) Selenium
6 16 (0.32%) LabVIEW
6 16 (0.32%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
7 15 (0.30%) Visual Studio
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 13 (0.26%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.26%) SonarQube
10 12 (0.24%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.22%) JUnit
11 11 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
12 10 (0.20%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
12 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
13 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
13 7 (0.14%) TeamCity
General
1 2,563 (51.90%) Social Skills
2 1,377 (27.89%) Analytical Skills
3 986 (19.97%) Finance
4 335 (6.78%) Organisational Skills
5 276 (5.59%) Manufacturing
6 264 (5.35%) Retail
7 221 (4.48%) Marketing
8 218 (4.41%) Public Sector
9 189 (3.83%) Legal
10 166 (3.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 160 (3.24%) Law
12 157 (3.18%) Telecoms
13 119 (2.41%) Banking
14 118 (2.39%) Electronics
15 109 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
16 90 (1.82%) Games
17 83 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
18 82 (1.66%) Automotive
19 52 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
20 51 (1.03%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 793 (16.06%) Analyst
2 707 (14.32%) IT Support
3 589 (11.93%) Support Engineer
4 542 (10.98%) Senior
5 378 (7.65%) Developer
6 327 (6.62%) IT Engineer
7 283 (5.73%) IT Support Engineer
8 271 (5.49%) Support Analyst
9 249 (5.04%) Lead
10 219 (4.43%) Technical Support
11 201 (4.07%) Business Analyst
12 180 (3.65%) 2nd Line Support
12 180 (3.65%) Support Technician
13 156 (3.16%) Technical Engineer
14 146 (2.96%) Technical Support Engineer
15 144 (2.92%) Architect
16 141 (2.86%) Consultant
16 141 (2.86%) Systems Engineer
17 131 (2.65%) IT Analyst
18 130 (2.63%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 179 (3.62%) .NET
2 157 (3.18%) React
3 149 (3.02%) HTML
4 111 (2.25%) CSS
5 80 (1.62%) REST
6 76 (1.54%) Node.js
7 56 (1.13%) RESTful
8 48 (0.97%) AngularJS
8 48 (0.97%) Vue
9 43 (0.87%) SOAP
10 38 (0.77%) JSON
11 36 (0.73%) Spring
12 35 (0.71%) ASP.NET
12 35 (0.71%) XML
13 34 (0.69%) Django
14 32 (0.65%) .NET Framework
15 31 (0.63%) Spring Boot
16 30 (0.61%) Laravel
17 27 (0.55%) Middleware
18 26 (0.53%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 509 (10.31%) Driving Licence
2 353 (7.15%) Onboarding
3 312 (6.32%) Self-Motivation
4 167 (3.38%) Management Information System
5 140 (2.84%) Analytical Mindset
6 134 (2.71%) Legacy Systems
7 102 (2.07%) Data Centre
8 98 (1.98%) Product Ownership
9 86 (1.74%) Cloud Native
10 75 (1.52%) Social Media
11 66 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
12 56 (1.13%) Mobile App
13 48 (0.97%) Low-Code
14 45 (0.91%) Distributed Systems
15 44 (0.89%) EPoS
16 41 (0.83%) FMCG
17 37 (0.75%) NHS
17 37 (0.75%) Virtual Team
18 36 (0.73%) Data Structures
18 36 (0.73%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 948 (19.20%) Windows
2 405 (8.20%) Windows Server
3 311 (6.30%) Linux
4 126 (2.55%) Windows 10
5 115 (2.33%) Windows Server 2016
6 103 (2.09%) Android
7 64 (1.30%) Mac OS
8 59 (1.19%) Apple iOS
9 37 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (0.73%) Unix
11 25 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
12 21 (0.43%) Windows 7
13 20 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 16 (0.32%) CentOS
15 10 (0.20%) Windows 8
16 9 (0.18%) Ubuntu
16 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
17 8 (0.16%) VMS
18 6 (0.12%) Debian
19 2 (0.041%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 944 (19.12%) Continuous Improvement
2 901 (18.25%) Customer Service
3 636 (12.88%) Agile
4 469 (9.50%) Project Management
5 458 (9.28%) Mentoring
6 455 (9.21%) Decision-Making
7 395 (8.00%) ITIL
8 379 (7.68%) DevOps
9 378 (7.65%) Analytics
10 363 (7.35%) Business Intelligence
11 348 (7.05%) CI/CD
12 323 (6.54%) AI
13 322 (6.52%) Change Management
14 303 (6.14%) Cybersecurity
14 303 (6.14%) ERP
15 301 (6.10%) Computer Science
16 292 (5.91%) Process Improvement
17 291 (5.89%) CRM
18 290 (5.87%) Stakeholder Management
19 282 (5.71%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 659 (13.35%) SQL
2 499 (10.11%) Python
3 281 (5.69%) JavaScript
4 255 (5.16%) PowerShell
5 213 (4.31%) C#
6 166 (3.36%) Java
7 84 (1.70%) TypeScript
8 73 (1.48%) Bash
9 70 (1.42%) PHP
10 61 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 57 (1.15%) C++
12 43 (0.87%) C
12 43 (0.87%) T-SQL
13 27 (0.55%) R
14 26 (0.53%) PL/SQL
15 21 (0.43%) MATLAB
16 20 (0.41%) Go
16 20 (0.41%) Kotlin
17 19 (0.38%) Bicep
18 17 (0.34%) VBA
Qualifications
1 996 (20.17%) Degree
2 385 (7.80%) Security Cleared
3 258 (5.22%) SC Cleared
4 155 (3.14%) DBS Check
5 142 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 119 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
7 105 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
8 69 (1.40%) ACCA
9 67 (1.36%) A+ Certification
10 64 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
11 63 (1.28%) DV Cleared
11 63 (1.28%) Master's Degree
12 61 (1.24%) CIMA
13 52 (1.05%) HNC
14 49 (0.99%) HND
14 49 (0.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 47 (0.95%) CCNA
16 44 (0.89%) Network+ Certification
17 42 (0.85%) AWS Certification
18 36 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 252 (5.10%) QA
2 165 (3.34%) Data Quality
3 149 (3.02%) Cyber Essentials
4 142 (2.88%) GDPR
5 110 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 108 (2.19%) PCI DSS
7 74 (1.50%) Accessibility
7 74 (1.50%) SLA
8 45 (0.91%) NIST
9 36 (0.73%) ISO 9001
10 29 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
11 28 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 11 (0.22%) PMO
13 10 (0.20%) GMP
14 9 (0.18%) SOC 2
15 7 (0.14%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 6 (0.12%) WCAG
17 5 (0.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 5 (0.10%) COSHH
System Software
1 645 (13.06%) Active Directory
2 221 (4.48%) Hyper-V
3 178 (3.60%) Docker
4 124 (2.51%) 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 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 9 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
12 8 (0.16%) KVM
12 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.081%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.061%) XenApp
16 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
17 1 (0.020%) Lustre
17 1 (0.020%) RHEV
17 1 (0.020%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 203 (4.11%) Terraform
2 200 (4.05%) Microsoft Intune
3 126 (2.55%) Kubernetes
4 82 (1.66%) Ansible
5 57 (1.15%) SCCM
6 47 (0.95%) Grafana
7 42 (0.85%) BMC PATROL
8 30 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 18 (0.36%) Nagios
9 18 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
11 13 (0.26%) vCenter Server
12 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
13 11 (0.22%) Autotask
14 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
14 10 (0.20%) Nmap
14 10 (0.20%) ZABBIX
15 8 (0.16%) Control-M
16 7 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 7 (0.14%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,345 (27.24%) Microsoft
2 239 (4.84%) VMware
3 190 (3.85%) SAP
4 163 (3.30%) Oracle
5 146 (2.96%) Veeam
6 126 (2.55%) Cisco
7 114 (2.31%) Google
8 109 (2.21%) SolarWinds
9 108 (2.19%) Splunk
10 81 (1.64%) Tanium
11 80 (1.62%) Brocade
11 80 (1.62%) Nimble Storage
12 71 (1.44%) Salesforce
12 71 (1.44%) ServiceNow
13 67 (1.36%) Adobe
14 61 (1.24%) Apple
14 61 (1.24%) Databricks
14 61 (1.24%) Sage
15 57 (1.15%) BT
16 46 (0.93%) HubSpot