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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,069 6,494 8,876
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.11% 18.94% 14.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.50% 21.61% 18.28%
Number of salaries quoted 4,458 3,593 4,796
10th Percentile £26,746 £25,750 £25,500
25th Percentile £31,000 £29,750 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,101 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.98% -10.89% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £73,750
UK median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -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 52,784 30,055 48,544
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.58% 87.64% 78.72%
Number of salaries quoted 37,119 16,409 31,592
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -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% - -8.41%

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 1 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 1 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 1,574 £45,000 +5.88% 781
South East -3 1,493 £45,000 +5.88% 974
Midlands -9 1,125 £42,000 +5.00% 551
North West -6 823 £45,000 -2.17% 397
South West -6 755 £44,000 +17.33% 433
West Midlands -10 630 £42,500 -5.56% 322
East of England -5 598 £42,500 +21.43% 350
Yorkshire -9 534 £42,500 +21.43% 271
East Midlands -10 491 £37,500 +5.63% 227
Scotland -6 245 £33,000 -25.00% 150
North East -16 217 £50,000 +33.33% 124
Wales -19 158 £45,000 -6.49% 83
Northern Ireland -12 137 £38,500 -30.00% 144
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 3
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 (5.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 352 (5.80%) SharePoint
3 64 (1.05%) Confluence
4 47 (0.77%) CMS
5 39 (0.64%) IIS
6 32 (0.53%) WordPress
7 30 (0.49%) Apache
8 23 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.23%) Apache Spark
10 13 (0.21%) SAS
11 11 (0.18%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.15%) WebLogic
13 8 (0.13%) nginx
14 7 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
14 7 (0.12%) OpenEdge
15 6 (0.099%) Jupyter
16 5 (0.082%) Exchange Server 2007
16 5 (0.082%) Exchange Server 2010
16 5 (0.082%) Skype for Business
17 4 (0.066%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 386 (6.36%) Microsoft Office
2 385 (6.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 55 (0.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 47 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 38 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 23 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 14 (0.23%) Simulink
8 12 (0.20%) AutoCAD
9 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 8 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.13%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.082%) Adobe XD
10 5 (0.082%) EPLAN
10 5 (0.082%) Fusion 360
10 5 (0.082%) Lightworks
10 5 (0.082%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.082%) Revit
10 5 (0.082%) Sketch
10 5 (0.082%) Trello
11 3 (0.049%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 54 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 36 (0.59%) NetSuite
3 19 (0.31%) Shopify
4 18 (0.30%) Magento
5 16 (0.26%) SAP ERP
6 14 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
6 14 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
6 14 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 13 (0.21%) SAP Business One
8 10 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
9 9 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
9 9 (0.15%) Sage 50
9 9 (0.15%) Sage X3
10 7 (0.12%) Raiser’s Edge
11 6 (0.099%) NEC Housing
12 5 (0.082%) Dynamics GP
12 5 (0.082%) iTrent
12 5 (0.082%) Salesforce CRM
12 5 (0.082%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,269 (20.91%) Azure
2 1,097 (18.08%) Microsoft 365
3 647 (10.66%) AWS
4 489 (8.06%) Power Platform
5 316 (5.21%) Entra ID
6 212 (3.49%) SaaS
7 211 (3.48%) GCP
8 146 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
9 134 (2.21%) Dynamics 365
10 117 (1.93%) Serverless
11 111 (1.83%) GitHub
12 106 (1.75%) PowerApps
13 105 (1.73%) Power Automate
14 78 (1.29%) OneDrive
15 69 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
16 56 (0.92%) Amazon S3
17 53 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
18 52 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
19 49 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
20 47 (0.77%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 412 (6.79%) Firewall
2 382 (6.29%) DNS
3 325 (5.36%) DHCP
4 223 (3.67%) VPN
5 209 (3.44%) TCP/IP
6 197 (3.25%) WAN
7 176 (2.90%) LAN
8 152 (2.50%) Wi-Fi
9 149 (2.46%) Wireless
10 120 (1.98%) VLAN
11 106 (1.75%) Network Security
12 105 (1.73%) Broadband
13 99 (1.63%) VoIP
14 41 (0.68%) Internet
15 30 (0.49%) SD-WAN
16 29 (0.48%) SAN
17 28 (0.46%) HTTP
17 28 (0.46%) SSL
18 22 (0.36%) WLAN
19 20 (0.33%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 386 (6.36%) Power BI
2 290 (4.78%) SQL Server
3 126 (2.08%) Amazon RDS
4 119 (1.96%) MySQL
5 97 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
6 92 (1.52%) Relational Database
7 88 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
8 84 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 75 (1.24%) NoSQL
10 70 (1.15%) Tableau
11 65 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 49 (0.81%) Power Query
13 45 (0.74%) MongoDB
14 40 (0.66%) Big Data
15 34 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
16 33 (0.54%) Data Lake
17 29 (0.48%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
19 23 (0.38%) Electronic Patient Records
20 21 (0.35%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 256 (4.22%) Git
2 205 (3.38%) JIRA
3 83 (1.37%) GitLab
4 62 (1.02%) Jenkins
5 27 (0.44%) Eclipse
5 27 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
5 27 (0.44%) Subversion
6 26 (0.43%) Cucumber
6 26 (0.43%) Selenium
7 22 (0.36%) JUnit
8 20 (0.33%) Postman
9 18 (0.30%) Cypress.io
10 16 (0.26%) Claude Code
11 15 (0.25%) Oracle Forms
12 14 (0.23%) Bitbucket
12 14 (0.23%) SonarQube
13 10 (0.16%) JMeter
13 10 (0.16%) Maven
13 10 (0.16%) Visual Studio
14 9 (0.15%) Burp Suite
General
1 2,912 (47.98%) Social Skills
2 1,689 (27.83%) Analytical Skills
3 952 (15.69%) Finance
4 510 (8.40%) Manufacturing
5 392 (6.46%) Organisational Skills
6 294 (4.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 280 (4.61%) Law
8 270 (4.45%) Public Sector
9 264 (4.35%) Legal
10 250 (4.12%) Retail
11 185 (3.05%) Marketing
12 173 (2.85%) Electronics
13 157 (2.59%) Telecoms
14 132 (2.17%) Aerospace
15 125 (2.06%) Banking
16 117 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
17 111 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
18 75 (1.24%) Games
19 65 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
20 59 (0.97%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 831 (13.69%) Analyst
2 664 (10.94%) Senior
3 660 (10.87%) IT Support
4 643 (10.59%) Developer
5 551 (9.08%) Support Engineer
6 375 (6.18%) IT Engineer
7 328 (5.40%) Lead
8 278 (4.58%) IT Support Engineer
9 277 (4.56%) Support Analyst
10 261 (4.30%) Support Technician
11 241 (3.97%) Systems Engineer
12 232 (3.82%) Consultant
13 229 (3.77%) Technical Support
14 216 (3.56%) IT Technician
15 205 (3.38%) Software Engineer
16 197 (3.25%) Architect
16 197 (3.25%) Technical Engineer
17 189 (3.11%) Senior Developer
18 178 (2.93%) Technical Support Engineer
19 166 (2.74%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 307 (5.06%) .NET
2 213 (3.51%) React
3 184 (3.03%) HTML
4 178 (2.93%) REST
5 136 (2.24%) CSS
6 110 (1.81%) RESTful
7 98 (1.61%) Node.js
8 90 (1.48%) SOAP
9 78 (1.29%) Vue
10 76 (1.25%) Middleware
11 75 (1.24%) AngularJS
12 74 (1.22%) JSON
13 67 (1.10%) XML
14 64 (1.05%) ASP.NET
15 56 (0.92%) Spring
15 56 (0.92%) Web Services
16 51 (0.84%) OAuth
16 51 (0.84%) Spring Boot
17 43 (0.71%) Kafka
18 41 (0.68%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 474 (7.81%) Driving Licence
2 353 (5.82%) Onboarding
3 288 (4.75%) Self-Motivation
4 247 (4.07%) Management Information System
5 169 (2.78%) Cloud Native
6 162 (2.67%) Legacy Systems
7 151 (2.49%) Product Ownership
8 104 (1.71%) Data Centre
9 95 (1.57%) Analytical Mindset
10 88 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
11 78 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
12 74 (1.22%) Security Posture
13 71 (1.17%) Social Media
14 69 (1.14%) Mobile App
15 64 (1.05%) NHS
16 61 (1.01%) IoT
17 60 (0.99%) Virtual Team
18 56 (0.92%) Cyber Threat
19 50 (0.82%) Data Structures
19 50 (0.82%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 1,050 (17.30%) Windows
2 492 (8.11%) Windows Server
3 448 (7.38%) Linux
4 141 (2.32%) Windows 10
5 119 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
6 108 (1.78%) Android
7 77 (1.27%) Apple iOS
7 77 (1.27%) Mac OS
8 40 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
9 34 (0.56%) Unix
10 28 (0.46%) Ubuntu
11 23 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 21 (0.35%) CentOS
13 17 (0.28%) VMS
14 13 (0.21%) Debian
15 12 (0.20%) Windows 7
16 9 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
17 8 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
18 6 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
19 5 (0.082%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,551 (25.56%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,093 (18.01%) Customer Service
3 911 (15.01%) Agile
4 646 (10.64%) CI/CD
5 640 (10.55%) Decision-Making
6 619 (10.20%) Mentoring
7 599 (9.87%) AI
8 543 (8.95%) ITIL
9 535 (8.82%) DevOps
10 510 (8.40%) Stakeholder Management
11 504 (8.30%) Analytics
12 494 (8.14%) Cybersecurity
13 490 (8.07%) Software Engineering
14 475 (7.83%) Collaborative Working
15 450 (7.41%) Business Intelligence
16 440 (7.25%) ERP
17 435 (7.17%) Project Delivery
18 358 (5.90%) Computer Science
19 357 (5.88%) Service Delivery
20 355 (5.85%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 960 (15.82%) SQL
2 683 (11.25%) Python
3 401 (6.61%) JavaScript
4 392 (6.46%) C#
5 265 (4.37%) Java
6 241 (3.97%) PowerShell
7 181 (2.98%) TypeScript
8 175 (2.88%) C++
9 113 (1.86%) Bash
10 76 (1.25%) PHP
11 67 (1.10%) C
12 61 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 52 (0.86%) T-SQL
14 39 (0.64%) Perl
14 39 (0.64%) Shell Script
15 35 (0.58%) Go
15 35 (0.58%) Ruby
16 34 (0.56%) PL/SQL
17 31 (0.51%) Rust
18 29 (0.48%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 908 (14.96%) Degree
2 547 (9.01%) Security Cleared
3 400 (6.59%) SC Cleared
4 189 (3.11%) DBS Check
5 180 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 172 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
7 120 (1.98%) DV Cleared
8 115 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
9 90 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
10 89 (1.47%) Azure Certification
11 76 (1.25%) HNC
12 67 (1.10%) PMI Certification
13 62 (1.02%) CCNA
14 59 (0.97%) Master's Degree
15 58 (0.96%) ACCA
15 58 (0.96%) CISSP
16 54 (0.89%) CIMA
16 54 (0.89%) PMP
17 53 (0.87%) A+ Certification
18 46 (0.76%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 389 (6.41%) QA
2 255 (4.20%) Data Quality
3 186 (3.06%) Cyber Essentials
4 175 (2.88%) GDPR
5 155 (2.55%) SLA
6 135 (2.22%) Accessibility
7 133 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 128 (2.11%) PCI DSS
9 91 (1.50%) NIST
10 36 (0.59%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.49%) PMO
13 23 (0.38%) GMP
14 18 (0.30%) Good Clinical Practice
15 15 (0.25%) GRC
16 14 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
16 14 (0.23%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.20%) TickIT
18 11 (0.18%) WCAG
19 10 (0.16%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 726 (11.96%) Active Directory
2 278 (4.58%) Hyper-V
3 241 (3.97%) Docker
4 196 (3.23%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.45%) Terminal Server
6 50 (0.82%) Firmware
7 28 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
7 28 (0.46%) vSphere
8 22 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 16 (0.26%) Embedded Firmware
10 14 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 9 (0.15%) KVM
12 6 (0.099%) XenApp
13 5 (0.082%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.082%) Squid
13 5 (0.082%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.082%) VMware Workstation
14 4 (0.066%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.049%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.049%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 247 (4.07%) Terraform
2 235 (3.87%) Microsoft Intune
3 218 (3.59%) Kubernetes
4 104 (1.71%) Ansible
5 62 (1.02%) Grafana
6 61 (1.01%) SCCM
7 44 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.33%) FortiGate
9 19 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
10 17 (0.28%) Puppet
11 16 (0.26%) Nagios
12 13 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
13 11 (0.18%) Functional Safety
13 11 (0.18%) Kibana
13 11 (0.18%) Podman
13 11 (0.18%) Proxmox
14 10 (0.16%) Autotask
14 10 (0.16%) logstash
14 10 (0.16%) ZABBIX
15 9 (0.15%) QRadar
Vendors
1 1,856 (30.58%) Microsoft
2 323 (5.32%) VMware
3 144 (2.37%) Google
3 144 (2.37%) Veeam
4 139 (2.29%) SAP
5 131 (2.16%) Cisco
6 130 (2.14%) Oracle
7 128 (2.11%) Splunk
8 115 (1.89%) SolarWinds
9 104 (1.71%) ServiceNow
10 96 (1.58%) Tanium
11 89 (1.47%) Nimble Storage
12 88 (1.45%) Brocade
13 82 (1.35%) Salesforce
14 72 (1.19%) Databricks
15 63 (1.04%) Apple
16 60 (0.99%) Sage
17 54 (0.89%) Fortinet
18 48 (0.79%) Meraki
19 46 (0.76%) IBM