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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,692 6,605 8,752
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.37% 18.94% 14.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.92% 21.81% 18.67%
Number of salaries quoted 4,778 3,667 4,214
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,625 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £47,324
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -15.48% -3.42%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £47,166 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.81% -10.00% -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 56,118 30,283 46,869
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.20% 86.83% 78.16%
Number of salaries quoted 39,713 16,606 28,556
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,047
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.09% -9.01%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 27 August 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 27 August 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 -8 1,684 £45,000 +7.14% 1,382
South East -4 1,595 £42,500 - 1,486
Midlands -7 1,219 £42,500 +10.39% 949
North West -6 883 £45,000 - 752
South West -4 829 £45,000 +28.57% 833
West Midlands -9 683 £42,500 -0.55% 581
East of England -3 680 £42,500 +21.43% 698
Yorkshire -9 546 £42,500 +21.43% 451
East Midlands -9 534 £41,000 +17.14% 370
Scotland 0 302 £33,500 -26.59% 475
North East -5 255 £48,250 +20.63% 199
Northern Ireland -2 216 £60,000 +1.69% 332
Wales -21 182 £45,000 -6.49% 154
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 7
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
1 406 (6.07%) SharePoint
2 348 (5.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 66 (0.99%) CMS
3 66 (0.99%) Confluence
4 53 (0.79%) IIS
5 31 (0.46%) WordPress
6 29 (0.43%) Apache
7 27 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
8 26 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.24%) Apache Spark
10 14 (0.21%) SAS
11 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.13%) nginx
12 9 (0.13%) WebLogic
13 8 (0.12%) Jupyter
14 7 (0.10%) OpenEdge
15 5 (0.075%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.060%) CICS
16 4 (0.060%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.060%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 432 (6.46%) Microsoft Office
2 417 (6.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 39 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 31 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 26 (0.39%) Simulink
8 24 (0.36%) AutoCAD
9 15 (0.22%) Revit
10 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
10 8 (0.12%) EPLAN
11 7 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
11 7 (0.10%) Fusion 360
12 6 (0.090%) Adobe XD
12 6 (0.090%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.090%) Sketch
13 5 (0.075%) Lightworks
13 5 (0.075%) SOLIDWORKS
14 4 (0.060%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 72 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 51 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 49 (0.73%) NetSuite
4 30 (0.45%) Shopify
5 17 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
5 17 (0.25%) Magento
5 17 (0.25%) SAP Business One
6 16 (0.24%) SAP ERP
7 15 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.21%) Workday HCM
9 12 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
10 11 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
11 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.13%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.12%) Primavera
14 7 (0.10%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
15 6 (0.090%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 1,340 (20.02%) Azure
2 1,150 (17.18%) Microsoft 365
3 673 (10.06%) AWS
4 551 (8.23%) Power Platform
5 351 (5.25%) Entra ID
6 233 (3.48%) SaaS
7 229 (3.42%) GCP
8 167 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
9 145 (2.17%) PowerApps
10 141 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 131 (1.96%) GitHub
12 126 (1.88%) Power Automate
13 121 (1.81%) Serverless
14 83 (1.24%) OneDrive
15 82 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
16 58 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
17 56 (0.84%) Amazon S3
18 53 (0.79%) AWS CloudFormation
18 53 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
19 52 (0.78%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 423 (6.32%) Firewall
2 406 (6.07%) DNS
3 349 (5.22%) DHCP
4 250 (3.74%) VPN
5 229 (3.42%) TCP/IP
6 188 (2.81%) WAN
7 178 (2.66%) LAN
8 167 (2.50%) Wi-Fi
9 161 (2.41%) Wireless
10 134 (2.00%) VLAN
11 116 (1.73%) Network Security
12 108 (1.61%) VoIP
13 80 (1.20%) Broadband
14 45 (0.67%) Internet
15 30 (0.45%) SSL
16 27 (0.40%) HTTP
16 27 (0.40%) SAN
17 25 (0.37%) SD-WAN
18 23 (0.34%) MQTT
19 22 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 437 (6.53%) Power BI
2 328 (4.90%) SQL Server
3 137 (2.05%) MySQL
4 125 (1.87%) Amazon RDS
5 112 (1.67%) Relational Database
6 104 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
7 92 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
8 81 (1.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 80 (1.20%) NoSQL
10 67 (1.00%) Tableau
11 61 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 48 (0.72%) MongoDB
13 47 (0.70%) Electronic Patient Records
14 44 (0.66%) Big Data
15 43 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
15 43 (0.64%) Power Query
16 39 (0.58%) Data Lake
17 29 (0.43%) DynamoDB
18 27 (0.40%) Metadata
19 25 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 293 (4.38%) Git
2 228 (3.41%) JIRA
3 77 (1.15%) GitLab
4 71 (1.06%) Jenkins
5 35 (0.52%) Eclipse
6 33 (0.49%) Subversion
7 30 (0.45%) Selenium
8 28 (0.42%) Cucumber
9 26 (0.39%) JUnit
10 24 (0.36%) Claude Code
10 24 (0.36%) Rational DOORS
11 22 (0.33%) Postman
12 21 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
13 19 (0.28%) Bitbucket
13 19 (0.28%) Cypress.io
14 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
15 13 (0.19%) Burp Suite
16 12 (0.18%) Visual Studio
17 11 (0.16%) JMeter
17 11 (0.16%) LabVIEW
General
1 3,229 (48.25%) Social Skills
2 1,876 (28.03%) Analytical Skills
3 1,065 (15.91%) Finance
4 623 (9.31%) Manufacturing
5 421 (6.29%) Organisational Skills
6 376 (5.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 313 (4.68%) Law
8 294 (4.39%) Retail
9 293 (4.38%) Public Sector
10 287 (4.29%) Legal
11 245 (3.66%) Marketing
12 234 (3.50%) Electronics
13 224 (3.35%) Aerospace
14 157 (2.35%) Telecoms
15 140 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
16 133 (1.99%) Banking
17 106 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
18 79 (1.18%) Military
19 78 (1.17%) Automotive
20 70 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 877 (13.11%) Analyst
2 721 (10.77%) Senior
3 699 (10.45%) Developer
4 669 (10.00%) IT Support
5 547 (8.17%) Support Engineer
6 366 (5.47%) Lead
7 362 (5.41%) IT Engineer
8 322 (4.81%) Support Analyst
9 306 (4.57%) Consultant
10 270 (4.03%) IT Support Engineer
11 261 (3.90%) Support Technician
12 256 (3.83%) Technical Support
13 234 (3.50%) Systems Engineer
14 227 (3.39%) Architect
15 226 (3.38%) IT Technician
16 217 (3.24%) Software Engineer
16 217 (3.24%) Technical Engineer
17 195 (2.91%) Senior Developer
17 195 (2.91%) Technical Support Engineer
18 176 (2.63%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 352 (5.26%) .NET
2 263 (3.93%) Terraform
3 216 (3.23%) React
4 197 (2.94%) HTML
5 194 (2.90%) REST
6 146 (2.18%) CSS
7 128 (1.91%) RESTful
8 96 (1.43%) SOAP
9 95 (1.42%) Node.js
10 82 (1.23%) ASP.NET
10 82 (1.23%) Vue
11 79 (1.18%) Middleware
12 78 (1.17%) AngularJS
13 75 (1.12%) JSON
14 74 (1.11%) Web Services
15 73 (1.09%) XML
16 69 (1.03%) Spring
17 62 (0.93%) Spring Boot
18 55 (0.82%) OAuth
19 51 (0.76%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 539 (8.05%) Driving Licence
2 424 (6.34%) Onboarding
3 336 (5.02%) Self-Motivation
4 298 (4.45%) Management Information System
5 188 (2.81%) Cloud Native
6 174 (2.60%) Product Ownership
7 154 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
8 114 (1.70%) Data Centre
9 110 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
10 92 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
11 89 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
12 84 (1.26%) NHS
13 79 (1.18%) Robotics
14 78 (1.17%) Security Posture
15 69 (1.03%) Cyber Threat
15 69 (1.03%) Virtual Team
16 68 (1.02%) Mobile App
17 66 (0.99%) Social Media
18 62 (0.93%) IoT
19 59 (0.88%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,096 (16.38%) Windows
2 509 (7.61%) Windows Server
3 457 (6.83%) Linux
4 131 (1.96%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
6 89 (1.33%) Android
7 83 (1.24%) Apple iOS
8 76 (1.14%) Mac OS
9 41 (0.61%) Unix
10 39 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
11 29 (0.43%) Ubuntu
12 18 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 18 (0.27%) VMS
13 15 (0.22%) Debian
14 13 (0.19%) CentOS
15 9 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
15 9 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
16 8 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
17 5 (0.075%) OpenVMS
17 5 (0.075%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,785 (26.67%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,214 (18.14%) Customer Service
3 1,021 (15.26%) Agile
4 758 (11.33%) Decision-Making
5 690 (10.31%) CI/CD
6 687 (10.27%) Mentoring
7 653 (9.76%) AI
8 623 (9.31%) Stakeholder Management
9 575 (8.59%) DevOps
10 561 (8.38%) Analytics
11 558 (8.34%) ITIL
12 548 (8.19%) Software Engineering
13 535 (7.99%) Cybersecurity
14 528 (7.89%) Project Delivery
15 526 (7.86%) Collaborative Working
16 500 (7.47%) ERP
17 467 (6.98%) Business Intelligence
18 437 (6.53%) Project Management
19 415 (6.20%) CRM
20 394 (5.89%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,020 (15.24%) SQL
2 717 (10.71%) Python
3 434 (6.49%) C#
3 434 (6.49%) JavaScript
4 299 (4.47%) Java
5 272 (4.06%) PowerShell
6 193 (2.88%) TypeScript
7 185 (2.76%) C++
8 120 (1.79%) Bash
9 73 (1.09%) PHP
10 71 (1.06%) C
11 59 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 54 (0.81%) T-SQL
13 46 (0.69%) Shell Script
14 43 (0.64%) Perl
15 42 (0.63%) Ruby
16 37 (0.55%) Go
17 34 (0.51%) PL/SQL
17 34 (0.51%) Rust
18 33 (0.49%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 1,050 (15.69%) Degree
2 630 (9.41%) Security Cleared
3 448 (6.69%) SC Cleared
4 201 (3.00%) DBS Check
5 194 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 181 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
7 171 (2.56%) DV Cleared
8 151 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
9 128 (1.91%) HNC
10 120 (1.79%) Azure Certification
11 108 (1.61%) HND
12 93 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
13 79 (1.18%) PMI Certification
14 76 (1.14%) CISSP
15 64 (0.96%) Chartered Engineer
16 63 (0.94%) CCNA
17 60 (0.90%) Master's Degree
18 58 (0.87%) PMP
19 57 (0.85%) A+ Certification
20 50 (0.75%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 450 (6.72%) QA
2 263 (3.93%) Data Quality
3 198 (2.96%) GDPR
4 175 (2.62%) Cyber Essentials
5 168 (2.51%) Accessibility
6 167 (2.50%) SLA
7 131 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.70%) PCI DSS
9 97 (1.45%) NIST
10 35 (0.52%) ISO 9001
11 32 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 31 (0.46%) PMO
13 21 (0.31%) GMP
14 18 (0.27%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.24%) GRC
16 14 (0.21%) DO-254
16 14 (0.21%) NCSC
17 12 (0.18%) GxP
17 12 (0.18%) TickIT
17 12 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 763 (11.40%) Active Directory
2 287 (4.29%) Hyper-V
3 250 (3.74%) Docker
4 202 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.20%) Terminal Server
6 68 (1.02%) Firmware
7 36 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 28 (0.42%) vSphere
10 22 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 7 (0.10%) KVM
13 5 (0.075%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.075%) Squid
13 5 (0.075%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.075%) XenApp
14 4 (0.060%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.045%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.045%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.045%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 234 (3.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 220 (3.29%) Kubernetes
3 107 (1.60%) Ansible
4 57 (0.85%) Grafana
4 57 (0.85%) SCCM
5 40 (0.60%) Prometheus
6 37 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
7 21 (0.31%) FortiGate
8 18 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
9 17 (0.25%) Puppet
10 14 (0.21%) Functional Safety
11 12 (0.18%) Nagios
12 11 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
12 11 (0.16%) Kibana
12 11 (0.16%) Nmap
13 10 (0.15%) logstash
13 10 (0.15%) Podman
13 10 (0.15%) Proxmox
14 9 (0.13%) QRadar
14 9 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2,022 (30.22%) Microsoft
2 327 (4.89%) VMware
3 182 (2.72%) SAP
4 175 (2.62%) Google
5 160 (2.39%) Oracle
6 140 (2.09%) Veeam
7 133 (1.99%) Cisco
8 125 (1.87%) Splunk
9 114 (1.70%) ServiceNow
10 102 (1.52%) SolarWinds
10 102 (1.52%) Workday
11 92 (1.37%) Salesforce
12 88 (1.32%) Tanium
13 81 (1.21%) Nimble Storage
14 80 (1.20%) Brocade
15 78 (1.17%) Databricks
16 73 (1.09%) Sage
17 64 (0.96%) Fortinet
18 59 (0.88%) Apple
19 52 (0.78%) SonicWALL