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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,879 6,436 8,234
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.46% 18.72% 14.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.06% 21.68% 18.80%
Number of salaries quoted 4,890 3,524 3,700
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 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -15.79% -2.06%
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £71,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -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 57,049 29,693 43,806
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.18% 86.39% 77.90%
Number of salaries quoted 40,490 16,142 25,354
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £39,727
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -8.65% -4.74%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £66,152
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 5 September 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 5 September 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 1,721 £45,000 +9.66% 1,109
South East -4 1,633 £42,500 - 1,285
Midlands -7 1,247 £42,500 +11.84% 891
North West -8 893 £45,000 - 568
South West -4 857 £45,000 +28.57% 734
East of England -4 705 £42,500 +21.43% 577
West Midlands -8 694 £42,500 -2.42% 550
Yorkshire -8 558 £42,500 +21.43% 376
East Midlands -9 551 £41,000 +17.14% 343
Scotland +3 311 £33,500 -30.93% 402
North East -2 270 £48,500 +23.57% 185
Northern Ireland +1 227 £70,000 +18.64% 267
Wales -19 192 £42,500 -11.68% 128
Isle of Man +1 3 £35,000 - 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
1 416 (6.05%) SharePoint
2 345 (5.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 62 (0.90%) Confluence
4 61 (0.89%) CMS
5 54 (0.78%) IIS
6 31 (0.45%) WordPress
7 30 (0.44%) Apache
8 27 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
9 26 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
10 16 (0.23%) Apache Spark
11 13 (0.19%) SAS
12 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
13 9 (0.13%) nginx
13 9 (0.13%) WebLogic
14 8 (0.12%) Jupyter
15 7 (0.10%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.10%) Oracle Workflow
16 5 (0.073%) CICS
16 5 (0.073%) Skype for Business
17 4 (0.058%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 451 (6.56%) Microsoft Office
2 431 (6.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 59 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 52 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 37 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 33 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
7 29 (0.42%) Simulink
8 25 (0.36%) AutoCAD
9 17 (0.25%) 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 (0.087%) Adobe XD
12 6 (0.087%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.087%) Sketch
12 6 (0.087%) SOLIDWORKS
13 5 (0.073%) Lightworks
14 4 (0.058%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 71 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 54 (0.78%) NetSuite
3 48 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
4 30 (0.44%) Shopify
5 18 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
6 17 (0.25%) SAP Business One
7 16 (0.23%) Magento
7 16 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
7 16 (0.23%) Workday HCM
8 14 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.20%) SAP ERP
9 12 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
10 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
10 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
11 9 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
11 9 (0.13%) Sage 50
12 8 (0.12%) Primavera
13 7 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
13 7 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 1,360 (19.77%) Azure
2 1,171 (17.02%) Microsoft 365
3 683 (9.93%) AWS
4 569 (8.27%) Power Platform
5 358 (5.20%) Entra ID
6 243 (3.53%) SaaS
7 229 (3.33%) GCP
8 173 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
9 149 (2.17%) PowerApps
10 145 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 136 (1.98%) GitHub
12 131 (1.90%) Power Automate
13 121 (1.76%) Serverless
14 90 (1.31%) OneDrive
15 83 (1.21%) Microsoft Copilot
16 60 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
17 59 (0.86%) Amazon S3
18 57 (0.83%) Google Workspace
19 56 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
20 54 (0.78%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 430 (6.25%) Firewall
2 419 (6.09%) DNS
3 360 (5.23%) DHCP
4 266 (3.87%) VPN
5 231 (3.36%) TCP/IP
6 191 (2.78%) WAN
7 182 (2.65%) LAN
8 180 (2.62%) Wi-Fi
9 165 (2.40%) Wireless
10 141 (2.05%) VLAN
11 117 (1.70%) Network Security
12 111 (1.61%) VoIP
13 76 (1.10%) Broadband
14 48 (0.70%) Internet
15 31 (0.45%) SSL
16 27 (0.39%) SAN
17 26 (0.38%) HTTP
18 25 (0.36%) SD-WAN
19 23 (0.33%) MQTT
20 22 (0.32%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 456 (6.63%) Power BI
2 326 (4.74%) SQL Server
3 133 (1.93%) MySQL
4 127 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
5 115 (1.67%) Relational Database
6 104 (1.51%) Data Warehouse
7 90 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
8 80 (1.16%) NoSQL
8 80 (1.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 69 (1.00%) Tableau
10 61 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 49 (0.71%) MongoDB
12 47 (0.68%) Electronic Patient Records
12 47 (0.68%) Power Query
13 44 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
13 44 (0.64%) Big Data
14 43 (0.63%) Data Lake
15 29 (0.42%) DynamoDB
15 29 (0.42%) Metadata
16 26 (0.38%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 292 (4.24%) Git
2 229 (3.33%) JIRA
3 77 (1.12%) GitLab
4 74 (1.08%) Jenkins
5 37 (0.54%) Eclipse
6 33 (0.48%) Subversion
7 29 (0.42%) Selenium
8 28 (0.41%) Cucumber
9 26 (0.38%) JUnit
10 25 (0.36%) Claude Code
11 23 (0.33%) Rational DOORS
12 22 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
13 21 (0.31%) Bitbucket
13 21 (0.31%) Postman
14 18 (0.26%) Cypress.io
15 14 (0.20%) SonarQube
16 13 (0.19%) Burp Suite
17 12 (0.17%) Visual Studio
18 11 (0.16%) LabVIEW
18 11 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 3,329 (48.39%) Social Skills
2 1,927 (28.01%) Analytical Skills
3 1,089 (15.83%) Finance
4 652 (9.48%) Manufacturing
5 447 (6.50%) Organisational Skills
6 383 (5.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 322 (4.68%) Law
8 310 (4.51%) Public Sector
9 298 (4.33%) Retail
10 293 (4.26%) Legal
11 254 (3.69%) Marketing
12 247 (3.59%) Electronics
13 233 (3.39%) Aerospace
14 154 (2.24%) Telecoms
15 143 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
16 131 (1.90%) Banking
17 106 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
18 88 (1.28%) Automotive
19 78 (1.13%) Military
20 75 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 911 (13.24%) Analyst
2 737 (10.71%) Senior
3 698 (10.15%) Developer
4 689 (10.02%) IT Support
5 548 (7.97%) Support Engineer
6 382 (5.55%) Lead
7 370 (5.38%) IT Engineer
8 345 (5.02%) Support Analyst
9 320 (4.65%) Consultant
10 277 (4.03%) IT Support Engineer
11 261 (3.79%) Technical Support
12 259 (3.77%) Support Technician
13 238 (3.46%) Systems Engineer
14 228 (3.31%) Architect
15 224 (3.26%) Software Engineer
16 223 (3.24%) Technical Engineer
17 222 (3.23%) IT Technician
18 201 (2.92%) Technical Support Engineer
19 196 (2.85%) Senior Developer
20 175 (2.54%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 351 (5.10%) .NET
2 267 (3.88%) Terraform
3 214 (3.11%) React
4 196 (2.85%) REST
5 193 (2.81%) HTML
6 141 (2.05%) CSS
7 128 (1.86%) RESTful
8 98 (1.42%) SOAP
9 94 (1.37%) Node.js
10 82 (1.19%) ASP.NET
11 81 (1.18%) Vue
11 81 (1.18%) Web Services
12 79 (1.15%) Middleware
12 79 (1.15%) XML
13 77 (1.12%) AngularJS
14 74 (1.08%) JSON
15 71 (1.03%) Spring
16 64 (0.93%) Spring Boot
17 54 (0.78%) OAuth
18 52 (0.76%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 566 (8.23%) Driving Licence
2 451 (6.56%) Onboarding
3 351 (5.10%) Self-Motivation
4 305 (4.43%) Management Information System
5 190 (2.76%) Cloud Native
6 174 (2.53%) Product Ownership
7 156 (2.27%) Legacy Systems
8 122 (1.77%) Enterprise Software
9 119 (1.73%) Data Centre
10 95 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
11 93 (1.35%) Robotics
12 86 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
12 86 (1.25%) NHS
13 82 (1.19%) Security Posture
14 76 (1.10%) Cyber Threat
15 70 (1.02%) Mobile App
15 70 (1.02%) Virtual Team
16 69 (1.00%) Social Media
17 63 (0.92%) IoT
18 62 (0.90%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 1,123 (16.33%) Windows
2 515 (7.49%) Windows Server
3 461 (6.70%) Linux
4 126 (1.83%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.61%) Windows Server 2016
6 86 (1.25%) Android
7 85 (1.24%) Apple iOS
8 77 (1.12%) Mac OS
9 43 (0.63%) Unix
10 42 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
11 29 (0.42%) Ubuntu
12 18 (0.26%) VMS
13 17 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 15 (0.22%) Debian
15 11 (0.16%) CentOS
15 11 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
16 9 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
17 7 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
18 6 (0.087%) Rocky
19 5 (0.073%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,854 (26.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,266 (18.40%) Customer Service
3 1,035 (15.05%) Agile
4 771 (11.21%) Decision-Making
5 707 (10.28%) Mentoring
6 698 (10.15%) CI/CD
7 681 (9.90%) AI
8 661 (9.61%) Stakeholder Management
9 580 (8.43%) DevOps
10 574 (8.34%) Analytics
11 563 (8.18%) Software Engineering
12 562 (8.17%) ITIL
12 562 (8.17%) Project Delivery
13 544 (7.91%) Collaborative Working
14 541 (7.86%) Cybersecurity
15 518 (7.53%) ERP
16 491 (7.14%) Business Intelligence
17 464 (6.75%) Project Management
18 429 (6.24%) CRM
19 411 (5.97%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,046 (15.21%) SQL
2 729 (10.60%) Python
3 435 (6.32%) C#
4 434 (6.31%) JavaScript
5 306 (4.45%) Java
6 285 (4.14%) PowerShell
7 193 (2.81%) TypeScript
8 190 (2.76%) C++
9 123 (1.79%) Bash
10 75 (1.09%) C
11 70 (1.02%) PHP
12 64 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 57 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 47 (0.68%) Ruby
15 46 (0.67%) Shell Script
16 42 (0.61%) Perl
17 40 (0.58%) PL/SQL
18 37 (0.54%) Go
19 36 (0.52%) MATLAB
19 36 (0.52%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,086 (15.79%) Degree
2 647 (9.41%) Security Cleared
3 456 (6.63%) SC Cleared
4 202 (2.94%) DBS Check
5 196 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 181 (2.63%) Microsoft Certification
7 177 (2.57%) DV Cleared
8 150 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 146 (2.12%) HNC
10 132 (1.92%) HND
11 125 (1.82%) Azure Certification
12 92 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
13 80 (1.16%) PMI Certification
14 73 (1.06%) CISSP
15 71 (1.03%) Chartered Engineer
16 64 (0.93%) A+ Certification
17 61 (0.89%) CCNA
17 61 (0.89%) Master's Degree
18 59 (0.86%) PMP
19 51 (0.74%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 455 (6.61%) QA
2 277 (4.03%) Data Quality
3 212 (3.08%) GDPR
4 175 (2.54%) Cyber Essentials
5 172 (2.50%) Accessibility
6 169 (2.46%) SLA
7 134 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.66%) PCI DSS
9 95 (1.38%) NIST
10 36 (0.52%) ISO 9001
11 33 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 33 (0.48%) PMO
12 18 (0.26%) GMP
12 18 (0.26%) Good Clinical Practice
13 17 (0.25%) DO-254
14 15 (0.22%) GRC
14 15 (0.22%) NCSC
15 13 (0.19%) GxP
16 12 (0.17%) TickIT
16 12 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 783 (11.38%) Active Directory
2 294 (4.27%) Hyper-V
3 256 (3.72%) Docker
4 207 (3.01%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.16%) Terminal Server
6 71 (1.03%) Firmware
7 38 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 32 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
9 28 (0.41%) vSphere
10 25 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 6 (0.087%) KVM
12 6 (0.087%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.073%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.073%) Squid
14 4 (0.058%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 4 (0.058%) XenApp
15 3 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.044%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.044%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 242 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
2 220 (3.20%) Kubernetes
3 107 (1.56%) Ansible
4 58 (0.84%) Grafana
5 54 (0.78%) SCCM
6 42 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
7 41 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.31%) FortiGate
8 21 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
9 17 (0.25%) Puppet
10 14 (0.20%) BMC PATROL
10 14 (0.20%) Functional Safety
11 11 (0.16%) Kibana
11 11 (0.16%) Nagios
11 11 (0.16%) Nmap
12 10 (0.15%) logstash
12 10 (0.15%) Podman
12 10 (0.15%) Proxmox
13 9 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
13 9 (0.13%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2,087 (30.34%) Microsoft
2 338 (4.91%) VMware
3 192 (2.79%) SAP
4 181 (2.63%) Google
5 165 (2.40%) Oracle
6 141 (2.05%) Veeam
7 134 (1.95%) Cisco
8 124 (1.80%) Splunk
9 121 (1.76%) Workday
10 119 (1.73%) ServiceNow
11 101 (1.47%) SolarWinds
12 95 (1.38%) Salesforce
13 88 (1.28%) Tanium
14 81 (1.18%) Nimble Storage
15 80 (1.16%) Brocade
15 80 (1.16%) Databricks
16 78 (1.13%) Sage
17 69 (1.00%) Fortinet
18 59 (0.86%) Apple
19 55 (0.80%) SonicWALL