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

6 months to
19 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 5,041 5,898 8,032
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 10.37% 18.41% 16.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.53% 20.23% 18.47%
Number of salaries quoted 3,551 2,606 5,563
10th Percentile £26,000 £28,000 £25,650
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £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 £57,167 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -12.89%

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 37,263 29,152 43,494
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 76.64% 90.99% 86.86%
Number of salaries quoted 21,972 13,277 33,192
10th Percentile £28,000 £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% -8.90%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £83,750 £78,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 19 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 19 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 1,361 £42,500 -10.53% 713
South East -3 1,282 £42,500 -19.05% 926
Midlands -15 868 £37,500 -28.57% 472
North West -14 737 £46,000 -8.00% 438
South West -4 587 £41,250 -24.53% 313
West Midlands -20 505 £42,500 -22.73% 295
Yorkshire -7 486 £37,000 -14.94% 203
East of England -5 433 £37,500 -26.42% 314
East Midlands 0 361 £35,000 - 176
Scotland -6 346 £33,500 -33.00% 147
North East -5 138 £45,000 -1.10% 83
Wales -2 118 £42,500 -25.72% 63
Northern Ireland -3 72 £40,500 -32.18% 39
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 311 (6.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 231 (4.58%) SharePoint
3 51 (1.01%) Confluence
4 45 (0.89%) IIS
5 37 (0.73%) CMS
6 25 (0.50%) WordPress
7 24 (0.48%) Apache
8 20 (0.40%) Apache Spark
9 16 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 12 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
11 10 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2007
11 10 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2010
11 10 (0.20%) nginx
12 7 (0.14%) Drupal
13 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.079%) Headless CMS
14 4 (0.079%) SAS
14 4 (0.079%) WebSphere
14 4 (0.079%) WebSphere Application Server
15 3 (0.060%) govService
Applications
1 365 (7.24%) Microsoft Office
2 324 (6.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 62 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.56%) MS Visio
4 28 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
5 14 (0.28%) AutoCAD
5 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 12 (0.24%) Photoshop
7 10 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
10 6 (0.12%) Adobe Premiere
11 4 (0.079%) Adobe After Effects
11 4 (0.079%) CATIA
11 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
12 3 (0.060%) Adobe XD
12 3 (0.060%) Elementor
12 3 (0.060%) Oracle Smart View
12 3 (0.060%) Revit
12 3 (0.060%) Trello
Business Applications
1 70 (1.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 44 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 15 (0.30%) SAP CO
5 13 (0.26%) Oracle Payables
5 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
6 12 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
7 11 (0.22%) iTrent
7 11 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
7 11 (0.22%) Oracle Receivables
8 10 (0.20%) Shopify
9 8 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
9 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
10 7 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
10 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
11 6 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
11 6 (0.12%) Oracle Financials
11 6 (0.12%) SAP ERP
11 6 (0.12%) SAP FI
11 6 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,073 (21.29%) Azure
2 876 (17.38%) Microsoft 365
3 451 (8.95%) AWS
4 327 (6.49%) Power Platform
5 251 (4.98%) SaaS
6 240 (4.76%) Entra ID
7 146 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
8 135 (2.68%) GCP
9 100 (1.98%) GitHub
10 88 (1.75%) Serverless
11 82 (1.63%) Power Automate
12 67 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
13 61 (1.21%) Google Workspace
14 58 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
15 55 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
16 53 (1.05%) Amazon S3
17 47 (0.93%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 47 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
17 47 (0.93%) OneDrive
18 46 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 398 (7.90%) DNS
2 343 (6.80%) DHCP
3 271 (5.38%) Firewall
4 162 (3.21%) VPN
5 153 (3.04%) TCP/IP
6 152 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
7 143 (2.84%) WAN
8 127 (2.52%) LAN
9 105 (2.08%) Broadband
10 94 (1.86%) VLAN
11 84 (1.67%) VoIP
12 74 (1.47%) Wireless
13 54 (1.07%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (0.95%) Network Security
15 45 (0.89%) Internet
16 39 (0.77%) SD-WAN
17 29 (0.58%) SAN
17 29 (0.58%) Unified Communications
18 24 (0.48%) Wireshark
19 23 (0.46%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 268 (5.32%) Power BI
2 201 (3.99%) SQL Server
3 133 (2.64%) Amazon RDS
4 81 (1.61%) Relational Database
5 76 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
6 68 (1.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 67 (1.33%) NoSQL
8 65 (1.29%) Data Warehouse
9 64 (1.27%) MySQL
10 44 (0.87%) Tableau
11 39 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 38 (0.75%) Data Lake
13 35 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
14 33 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
14 33 (0.65%) Power Query
15 32 (0.63%) DynamoDB
16 31 (0.61%) MongoDB
17 28 (0.56%) Metadata
18 24 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
19 19 (0.38%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 185 (3.67%) Git
2 163 (3.23%) JIRA
3 55 (1.09%) GitLab
4 44 (0.87%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.61%) Selenium
6 16 (0.32%) LabVIEW
6 16 (0.32%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.30%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 12 (0.24%) Cucumber
9 12 (0.24%) JUnit
9 12 (0.24%) SonarQube
10 11 (0.22%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
11 10 (0.20%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
12 8 (0.16%) TeamCity
13 7 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 2,663 (52.83%) Social Skills
2 1,420 (28.17%) Analytical Skills
3 1,026 (20.35%) Finance
4 328 (6.51%) Organisational Skills
5 283 (5.61%) Manufacturing
6 274 (5.44%) Retail
7 230 (4.56%) Marketing
8 216 (4.28%) Public Sector
9 183 (3.63%) Legal
10 168 (3.33%) Law
11 162 (3.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 159 (3.15%) Telecoms
13 130 (2.58%) Electronics
14 121 (2.40%) Banking
15 110 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
16 84 (1.67%) Games
17 81 (1.61%) Automotive
18 80 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
19 55 (1.09%) Aerospace
20 49 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 823 (16.33%) Analyst
2 720 (14.28%) IT Support
3 584 (11.59%) Support Engineer
4 563 (11.17%) Senior
5 377 (7.48%) Developer
6 323 (6.41%) IT Engineer
7 285 (5.65%) Support Analyst
8 282 (5.59%) IT Support Engineer
9 270 (5.36%) Lead
10 232 (4.60%) Technical Support
11 205 (4.07%) Business Analyst
12 179 (3.55%) 2nd Line Support
13 172 (3.41%) Support Technician
14 169 (3.35%) Systems Engineer
15 160 (3.17%) Technical Engineer
16 152 (3.02%) Technical Support Engineer
17 143 (2.84%) Architect
17 143 (2.84%) Consultant
18 141 (2.80%) IT Analyst
19 128 (2.54%) Trainee
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 192 (3.81%) .NET
2 160 (3.17%) React
3 156 (3.09%) HTML
4 123 (2.44%) CSS
5 85 (1.69%) REST
6 73 (1.45%) Node.js
7 58 (1.15%) RESTful
8 52 (1.03%) AngularJS
9 49 (0.97%) Vue
10 47 (0.93%) SOAP
11 42 (0.83%) JSON
12 40 (0.79%) ASP.NET
13 38 (0.75%) Spring
14 36 (0.71%) XML
15 34 (0.67%) Django
16 33 (0.65%) .NET Framework
17 31 (0.61%) Laravel
17 31 (0.61%) Spring Boot
18 27 (0.54%) EDI
18 27 (0.54%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 516 (10.24%) Driving Licence
2 375 (7.44%) Onboarding
3 311 (6.17%) Self-Motivation
4 169 (3.35%) Legacy Systems
5 165 (3.27%) Management Information System
6 150 (2.98%) Analytical Mindset
7 109 (2.16%) Data Centre
8 102 (2.02%) Product Ownership
9 88 (1.75%) Cloud Native
10 65 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
11 62 (1.23%) Social Media
12 50 (0.99%) Mobile App
13 47 (0.93%) EPoS
14 45 (0.89%) Low-Code
15 43 (0.85%) FMCG
16 42 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
17 39 (0.77%) Virtual Team
18 38 (0.75%) Data Structures
19 36 (0.71%) IoT
19 36 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 970 (19.24%) Windows
2 435 (8.63%) Windows Server
3 348 (6.90%) Linux
4 146 (2.90%) Windows Server 2016
5 122 (2.42%) Windows 10
6 88 (1.75%) Android
7 64 (1.27%) Mac OS
8 57 (1.13%) Apple iOS
9 37 (0.73%) Unix
10 36 (0.71%) Windows Server 2019
11 25 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
12 19 (0.38%) Windows 7
13 18 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 12 (0.24%) CentOS
15 9 (0.18%) Windows 8
15 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
16 8 (0.16%) VMS
17 6 (0.12%) Ubuntu
18 5 (0.099%) Debian
19 2 (0.040%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 948 (18.81%) Customer Service
2 942 (18.69%) Continuous Improvement
3 655 (12.99%) Agile
4 478 (9.48%) Project Management
5 466 (9.24%) Mentoring
6 449 (8.91%) Decision-Making
7 397 (7.88%) Analytics
8 391 (7.76%) ITIL
9 384 (7.62%) Business Intelligence
10 381 (7.56%) DevOps
11 339 (6.72%) CI/CD
12 336 (6.67%) ERP
13 335 (6.65%) Change Management
14 315 (6.25%) AI
15 309 (6.13%) Computer Science
16 305 (6.05%) Cybersecurity
17 303 (6.01%) CRM
17 303 (6.01%) Process Improvement
18 302 (5.99%) Stakeholder Management
19 294 (5.83%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 692 (13.73%) SQL
2 504 (10.00%) Python
3 283 (5.61%) JavaScript
4 256 (5.08%) PowerShell
5 228 (4.52%) C#
6 173 (3.43%) Java
7 80 (1.59%) TypeScript
8 79 (1.57%) PHP
9 68 (1.35%) Bash
10 59 (1.17%) C++
10 59 (1.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 45 (0.89%) C
12 43 (0.85%) T-SQL
13 25 (0.50%) PL/SQL
13 25 (0.50%) R
14 20 (0.40%) MATLAB
15 19 (0.38%) Go
16 18 (0.36%) Bicep
16 18 (0.36%) Perl
17 16 (0.32%) VBA
Qualifications
1 1,042 (20.67%) Degree
2 428 (8.49%) Security Cleared
3 296 (5.87%) SC Cleared
4 160 (3.17%) DBS Check
5 145 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 127 (2.52%) Computer Science Degree
7 102 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
8 73 (1.45%) Master's Degree
9 68 (1.35%) A+ Certification
10 66 (1.31%) DV Cleared
11 65 (1.29%) ACCA
12 62 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
13 57 (1.13%) CIMA
14 56 (1.11%) HND
15 50 (0.99%) HNC
16 49 (0.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 45 (0.89%) CCNA
17 45 (0.89%) Network+ Certification
18 41 (0.81%) AWS Certification
19 35 (0.69%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (5.20%) QA
2 180 (3.57%) Cyber Essentials
3 175 (3.47%) Data Quality
4 145 (2.88%) GDPR
5 140 (2.78%) PCI DSS
6 116 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 76 (1.51%) Accessibility
8 69 (1.37%) SLA
9 45 (0.89%) NIST
10 37 (0.73%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 28 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
13 11 (0.22%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
14 9 (0.18%) SOC 2
15 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 6 (0.12%) WCAG
17 5 (0.099%) California Consumer Privacy Act
18 4 (0.079%) GLBA
18 4 (0.079%) GRC
System Software
1 678 (13.45%) Active Directory
2 252 (5.00%) Hyper-V
3 175 (3.47%) Docker
4 120 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 112 (2.22%) Terminal Server
6 28 (0.56%) Firmware
7 23 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
9 15 (0.30%) vSphere
10 8 (0.16%) KVM
10 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
10 8 (0.16%) VMware Workstation
11 5 (0.099%) Embedded Firmware
12 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.040%) RHEV
13 2 (0.040%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.040%) Xen
13 2 (0.040%) XenApp
14 1 (0.020%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 202 (4.01%) Terraform
2 199 (3.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 127 (2.52%) Kubernetes
4 79 (1.57%) Ansible
5 53 (1.05%) SCCM
6 49 (0.97%) Grafana
7 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
8 31 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 18 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 17 (0.34%) Nagios
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
14 10 (0.20%) Autotask
14 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
14 10 (0.20%) Nmap
15 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
16 8 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 8 (0.16%) Control-M
17 6 (0.12%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,380 (27.38%) Microsoft
2 266 (5.28%) VMware
3 227 (4.50%) SAP
4 173 (3.43%) Oracle
4 173 (3.43%) Veeam
5 140 (2.78%) SolarWinds
6 139 (2.76%) Splunk
7 131 (2.60%) Cisco
8 116 (2.30%) Google
9 113 (2.24%) Tanium
10 112 (2.22%) Brocade
10 112 (2.22%) Nimble Storage
11 79 (1.57%) Salesforce
12 71 (1.41%) ServiceNow
13 67 (1.33%) Adobe
14 61 (1.21%) Databricks
15 59 (1.17%) Apple
15 59 (1.17%) BT
15 59 (1.17%) Sage
16 48 (0.95%) HubSpot