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

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,269 6,516 8,630
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.23% 18.93% 14.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.66% 21.62% 18.39%
Number of salaries quoted 4,550 3,606 4,498
10th Percentile £26,749 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £29,750 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £59,008 £61,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £73,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £47,166 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.70% -5.00% -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 53,769 30,137 46,936
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.58% 87.57% 78.49%
Number of salaries quoted 37,803 16,469 29,864
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £48,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.40% -3.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 7 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 7 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 -9 1,628 £45,000 +5.88% 892
South East -3 1,521 £45,000 +5.88% 1,103
Midlands -9 1,168 £42,000 +5.00% 650
North West -5 858 £45,000 -2.17% 453
South West -5 768 £44,000 +17.33% 475
West Midlands -10 643 £42,500 -5.56% 384
East of England -5 626 £42,500 +21.43% 417
Yorkshire -7 541 £42,500 +21.43% 318
East Midlands -8 522 £40,000 +12.68% 266
Scotland -5 257 £33,000 -25.00% 204
North East -12 229 £50,000 +34.23% 132
Wales -20 161 £42,500 -11.68% 101
Northern Ireland -8 156 £38,500 -33.04% 109
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 2
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
1 353 (5.63%) SharePoint
2 350 (5.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 66 (1.05%) Confluence
4 45 (0.72%) CMS
5 43 (0.69%) IIS
6 33 (0.53%) WordPress
7 30 (0.48%) Apache
8 24 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 15 (0.24%) Apache Spark
9 15 (0.24%) SAS
10 11 (0.18%) WebSphere
11 9 (0.14%) nginx
11 9 (0.14%) WebLogic
12 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
13 6 (0.096%) Exchange Server 2013
13 6 (0.096%) Jupyter
14 5 (0.080%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.064%) Exchange Server 2010
15 4 (0.064%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.064%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 404 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 393 (6.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.65%) MS Visio
6 26 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
7 16 (0.26%) AutoCAD
7 16 (0.26%) Simulink
8 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 8 (0.13%) Revit
9 6 (0.096%) Adobe XD
9 6 (0.096%) EPLAN
9 6 (0.096%) Fusion 360
9 6 (0.096%) Sketch
10 5 (0.080%) Lightworks
10 5 (0.080%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.080%) Trello
11 4 (0.064%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 54 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
3 36 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.33%) Shopify
5 18 (0.29%) Magento
6 17 (0.27%) SAP ERP
7 16 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
8 15 (0.24%) SAP Business One
9 14 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 13 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
11 12 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
12 10 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 10 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
13 9 (0.14%) Sage 50
13 9 (0.14%) Sage X3
13 9 (0.14%) Workday HCM
14 7 (0.11%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
14 7 (0.11%) Raiser’s Edge
15 5 (0.080%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 1,291 (20.59%) Azure
2 1,106 (17.64%) Microsoft 365
3 662 (10.56%) AWS
4 501 (7.99%) Power Platform
5 323 (5.15%) Entra ID
6 221 (3.53%) GCP
7 218 (3.48%) SaaS
8 153 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
9 136 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
10 122 (1.95%) Serverless
11 117 (1.87%) GitHub
12 111 (1.77%) Power Automate
13 109 (1.74%) PowerApps
14 82 (1.31%) OneDrive
15 78 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
16 56 (0.89%) Amazon S3
17 52 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
17 52 (0.83%) Microsoft Purview
18 51 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
18 51 (0.81%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 416 (6.64%) Firewall
2 382 (6.09%) DNS
3 326 (5.20%) DHCP
4 231 (3.68%) VPN
5 216 (3.45%) TCP/IP
6 196 (3.13%) WAN
7 177 (2.82%) LAN
8 154 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 151 (2.41%) Wireless
10 124 (1.98%) VLAN
11 108 (1.72%) Network Security
12 102 (1.63%) Broadband
13 99 (1.58%) VoIP
14 42 (0.67%) Internet
15 30 (0.48%) SD-WAN
16 29 (0.46%) HTTP
16 29 (0.46%) SAN
16 29 (0.46%) SSL
17 22 (0.35%) WLAN
18 21 (0.33%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 393 (6.27%) Power BI
2 302 (4.82%) SQL Server
3 126 (2.01%) MySQL
4 120 (1.91%) Amazon RDS
5 100 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
6 97 (1.55%) Relational Database
7 92 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
8 85 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 76 (1.21%) NoSQL
10 72 (1.15%) Tableau
11 64 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 48 (0.77%) Power Query
13 45 (0.72%) MongoDB
14 41 (0.65%) Big Data
15 37 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
15 37 (0.59%) Electronic Patient Records
16 35 (0.56%) Data Lake
17 30 (0.48%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
19 21 (0.33%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 272 (4.34%) Git
2 215 (3.43%) JIRA
3 84 (1.34%) GitLab
4 64 (1.02%) Jenkins
5 28 (0.45%) Eclipse
5 28 (0.45%) Subversion
6 27 (0.43%) Rational DOORS
7 26 (0.41%) Cucumber
7 26 (0.41%) Selenium
8 23 (0.37%) JUnit
9 21 (0.33%) Postman
10 19 (0.30%) Claude Code
11 18 (0.29%) Cypress.io
12 17 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
13 15 (0.24%) Bitbucket
14 14 (0.22%) SonarQube
15 11 (0.18%) Burp Suite
15 11 (0.18%) Maven
16 10 (0.16%) JMeter
16 10 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 2,989 (47.68%) Social Skills
2 1,752 (27.95%) Analytical Skills
3 975 (15.55%) Finance
4 556 (8.87%) Manufacturing
5 395 (6.30%) Organisational Skills
6 338 (5.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 290 (4.63%) Law
8 280 (4.47%) Public Sector
9 270 (4.31%) Legal
10 257 (4.10%) Retail
11 197 (3.14%) Marketing
12 186 (2.97%) Electronics
13 161 (2.57%) Aerospace
14 157 (2.50%) Telecoms
15 128 (2.04%) Banking
16 124 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
17 115 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
18 71 (1.13%) Games
19 67 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
20 62 (0.99%) Military
Job Titles
1 842 (13.43%) Analyst
2 680 (10.85%) Senior
3 665 (10.61%) IT Support
4 662 (10.56%) Developer
5 558 (8.90%) Support Engineer
6 375 (5.98%) IT Engineer
7 345 (5.50%) Lead
8 286 (4.56%) Support Analyst
9 280 (4.47%) IT Support Engineer
10 264 (4.21%) Support Technician
11 257 (4.10%) Consultant
12 237 (3.78%) Technical Support
13 235 (3.75%) Systems Engineer
14 221 (3.53%) IT Technician
15 209 (3.33%) Software Engineer
16 206 (3.29%) Architect
17 203 (3.24%) Technical Engineer
18 192 (3.06%) Senior Developer
19 182 (2.90%) Technical Support Engineer
20 171 (2.73%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 323 (5.15%) .NET
2 217 (3.46%) React
3 190 (3.03%) HTML
4 184 (2.94%) REST
5 140 (2.23%) CSS
6 116 (1.85%) RESTful
7 97 (1.55%) Node.js
8 90 (1.44%) SOAP
9 80 (1.28%) Vue
10 78 (1.24%) AngularJS
11 77 (1.23%) Middleware
12 71 (1.13%) JSON
13 69 (1.10%) ASP.NET
14 66 (1.05%) XML
15 60 (0.96%) Spring
16 59 (0.94%) Web Services
17 55 (0.88%) Spring Boot
18 54 (0.86%) OAuth
19 45 (0.72%) Kafka
20 43 (0.69%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 498 (7.94%) Driving Licence
2 370 (5.90%) Onboarding
3 298 (4.75%) Self-Motivation
4 257 (4.10%) Management Information System
5 175 (2.79%) Cloud Native
6 160 (2.55%) Product Ownership
7 155 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
8 100 (1.60%) Data Centre
9 94 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
10 87 (1.39%) Distributed Systems
11 84 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
12 78 (1.24%) NHS
13 76 (1.21%) Security Posture
14 73 (1.16%) Social Media
15 68 (1.08%) Mobile App
16 61 (0.97%) IoT
16 61 (0.97%) Robotics
16 61 (0.97%) Virtual Team
17 58 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
18 55 (0.88%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,061 (16.92%) Windows
2 494 (7.88%) Windows Server
3 452 (7.21%) Linux
4 141 (2.25%) Windows 10
5 109 (1.74%) Windows Server 2016
6 106 (1.69%) Android
7 80 (1.28%) Apple iOS
8 79 (1.26%) Mac OS
9 40 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (0.57%) Unix
11 30 (0.48%) Ubuntu
12 24 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 21 (0.33%) CentOS
14 17 (0.27%) VMS
15 14 (0.22%) Debian
16 11 (0.18%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
18 8 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
19 5 (0.080%) OpenVMS
19 5 (0.080%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,644 (26.22%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,115 (17.79%) Customer Service
3 962 (15.35%) Agile
4 688 (10.97%) Decision-Making
5 662 (10.56%) CI/CD
6 649 (10.35%) Mentoring
7 622 (9.92%) AI
8 551 (8.79%) DevOps
9 549 (8.76%) ITIL
10 546 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
11 515 (8.22%) Analytics
12 513 (8.18%) Software Engineering
13 506 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
14 486 (7.75%) Collaborative Working
15 468 (7.47%) ERP
16 464 (7.40%) Project Delivery
17 457 (7.29%) Business Intelligence
18 372 (5.93%) Project Management
19 371 (5.92%) Computer Science
20 369 (5.89%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 978 (15.60%) SQL
2 692 (11.04%) Python
3 410 (6.54%) JavaScript
4 403 (6.43%) C#
5 279 (4.45%) Java
6 249 (3.97%) PowerShell
7 185 (2.95%) TypeScript
8 178 (2.84%) C++
9 116 (1.85%) Bash
10 78 (1.24%) PHP
11 68 (1.08%) C
12 58 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 54 (0.86%) T-SQL
14 44 (0.70%) Shell Script
15 40 (0.64%) Perl
16 37 (0.59%) Ruby
17 36 (0.57%) Go
18 32 (0.51%) PL/SQL
19 31 (0.49%) Rust
20 28 (0.45%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 959 (15.30%) Degree
2 565 (9.01%) Security Cleared
3 411 (6.56%) SC Cleared
4 194 (3.09%) DBS Check
5 188 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 171 (2.73%) Microsoft Certification
7 138 (2.20%) DV Cleared
8 130 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
9 98 (1.56%) Azure Certification
10 92 (1.47%) HNC
11 90 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
12 72 (1.15%) PMI Certification
13 65 (1.04%) HND
14 63 (1.00%) CISSP
15 61 (0.97%) CCNA
16 60 (0.96%) Master's Degree
17 56 (0.89%) ACCA
18 54 (0.86%) PMP
19 51 (0.81%) A+ Certification
19 51 (0.81%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 411 (6.56%) QA
2 260 (4.15%) Data Quality
3 187 (2.98%) GDPR
4 178 (2.84%) Cyber Essentials
5 159 (2.54%) SLA
6 149 (2.38%) Accessibility
7 130 (2.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 119 (1.90%) PCI DSS
9 92 (1.47%) NIST
10 38 (0.61%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.48%) PMO
13 25 (0.40%) GMP
14 18 (0.29%) Good Clinical Practice
15 15 (0.24%) GRC
16 14 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
16 14 (0.22%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.19%) TickIT
17 12 (0.19%) WCAG
18 10 (0.16%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 731 (11.66%) Active Directory
2 281 (4.48%) Hyper-V
3 250 (3.99%) Docker
4 204 (3.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.28%) Terminal Server
6 59 (0.94%) Firmware
7 31 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
8 28 (0.45%) vSphere
9 26 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
10 17 (0.27%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.16%) KVM
13 6 (0.096%) XenApp
14 5 (0.080%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.080%) Squid
14 5 (0.080%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.064%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.064%) VMware Workstation
16 3 (0.048%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.048%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 252 (4.02%) Terraform
2 233 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
3 218 (3.48%) Kubernetes
4 107 (1.71%) Ansible
5 62 (0.99%) Grafana
5 62 (0.99%) SCCM
6 45 (0.72%) Prometheus
7 22 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (0.33%) FortiGate
9 19 (0.30%) Puppet
10 16 (0.26%) Nagios
11 14 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.18%) Functional Safety
12 11 (0.18%) Kibana
12 11 (0.18%) Podman
12 11 (0.18%) Proxmox
13 10 (0.16%) logstash
14 9 (0.14%) Nmap
14 9 (0.14%) vCenter Server
14 9 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,902 (30.34%) Microsoft
2 323 (5.15%) VMware
3 152 (2.42%) Google
4 150 (2.39%) SAP
5 144 (2.30%) Oracle
6 139 (2.22%) Veeam
7 133 (2.12%) Cisco
8 123 (1.96%) Splunk
9 106 (1.69%) ServiceNow
9 106 (1.69%) SolarWinds
10 89 (1.42%) Salesforce
11 88 (1.40%) Tanium
12 81 (1.29%) Nimble Storage
13 80 (1.28%) Brocade
14 74 (1.18%) Databricks
15 65 (1.04%) Apple
16 61 (0.97%) Sage
17 58 (0.93%) Workday
18 56 (0.89%) Fortinet
19 46 (0.73%) IBM