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 30 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,295 7,710 4,820
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 14.07% 16.90% 16.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.25% 20.34% 17.48%
Number of salaries quoted 3,610 2,966 3,339
10th Percentile £25,750 £27,674 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £56,750 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 30,699 37,913 27,567
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.58% 83.12% 93.84%
Number of salaries quoted 18,660 18,400 20,595
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,263 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £82,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 30 November 2025.

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 30 November 2025. 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
South East -2 1,407 £40,000 -20.00% 1,177
North of England -3 1,316 £45,000 -5.26% 624
Midlands +2 952 £37,500 -25.00% 481
North West -3 709 £48,000 -4.00% 350
South West -1 588 £38,818 -29.42% 350
West Midlands 0 571 £42,500 -20.26% 313
Yorkshire -3 483 £33,250 -26.11% 196
East of England -2 464 £33,113 -36.93% 292
East Midlands +3 381 £32,500 -7.14% 164
Scotland -4 347 £33,500 -34.95% 143
Wales +5 181 £47,500 -5.00% 77
North East +2 124 £33,500 -31.28% 81
Northern Ireland +3 63 £55,000 -7.45% 33
Isle of Man +2 1 £62,500 +150.00%
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
1 273 (5.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 214 (4.04%) SharePoint
3 51 (0.96%) Confluence
4 43 (0.81%) IIS
5 28 (0.53%) Apache Spark
6 25 (0.47%) CMS
6 25 (0.47%) WordPress
7 24 (0.45%) Apache
8 9 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
9 8 (0.15%) Camunda
10 7 (0.13%) nginx
11 6 (0.11%) Drupal
11 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
12 5 (0.094%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.094%) Oracle Workflow
13 4 (0.076%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.076%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2013
14 3 (0.057%) HCL Domino
14 3 (0.057%) SAS
Applications
1 464 (8.76%) Microsoft Office
2 462 (8.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 71 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 22 (0.42%) AutoCAD
5 21 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
5 21 (0.40%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.26%) Photoshop
7 14 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
8 13 (0.25%) Simulink
9 12 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 11 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
12 6 (0.11%) Mathcad
13 5 (0.094%) Adobe After Effects
13 5 (0.094%) Trello
14 4 (0.076%) Autodesk Inventor
14 4 (0.076%) CATIA
14 4 (0.076%) Oracle Smart View
14 4 (0.076%) Revit
Business Applications
1 89 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 60 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 30 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.30%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.28%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.25%) Sage X3
9 11 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
9 11 (0.21%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
9 11 (0.21%) SAP WM
9 11 (0.21%) Shopify
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
10 10 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
11 8 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
12 7 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
13 5 (0.094%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,133 (21.40%) Azure
2 808 (15.26%) Microsoft 365
3 419 (7.91%) AWS
4 365 (6.89%) Power Platform
5 275 (5.19%) SaaS
6 229 (4.32%) Entra ID
7 141 (2.66%) GCP
8 130 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
9 86 (1.62%) GitHub
10 69 (1.30%) Power Automate
11 64 (1.21%) Serverless
12 56 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
13 50 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
14 41 (0.77%) OneDrive
15 40 (0.76%) PowerApps
16 39 (0.74%) Amazon S3
16 39 (0.74%) AWS Lambda
17 38 (0.72%) PaaS
18 36 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
19 34 (0.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 328 (6.19%) DNS
2 289 (5.46%) DHCP
3 269 (5.08%) Firewall
4 162 (3.06%) TCP/IP
5 152 (2.87%) VPN
6 148 (2.80%) Wi-Fi
7 139 (2.63%) LAN
8 124 (2.34%) WAN
9 100 (1.89%) Broadband
10 91 (1.72%) VLAN
11 80 (1.51%) VoIP
12 61 (1.15%) Remote Desktop
13 51 (0.96%) Wireless
14 47 (0.89%) Network Security
15 37 (0.70%) SAN
16 33 (0.62%) Ethernet
17 30 (0.57%) Internet
18 22 (0.42%) SD-WAN
19 21 (0.40%) Unified Communications
20 17 (0.32%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 328 (6.19%) Power BI
2 247 (4.66%) SQL Server
3 116 (2.19%) Amazon RDS
4 105 (1.98%) Relational Database
5 103 (1.95%) MySQL
6 93 (1.76%) Data Lake
7 83 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
8 72 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.21%) SAP BW
10 56 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
11 46 (0.87%) Tableau
12 42 (0.79%) NoSQL
12 42 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 37 (0.70%) GIS
14 35 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
15 29 (0.55%) MongoDB
16 27 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
17 26 (0.49%) Metadata
18 24 (0.45%) Crystal Reports
18 24 (0.45%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 184 (3.47%) Git
2 169 (3.19%) JIRA
3 46 (0.87%) Jenkins
4 38 (0.72%) GitLab
5 30 (0.57%) Selenium
6 21 (0.40%) Octopus Deploy
6 21 (0.40%) Visual Studio
7 18 (0.34%) TeamCity
8 16 (0.30%) JUnit
8 16 (0.30%) Maven
9 14 (0.26%) Bitbucket
10 13 (0.25%) Robot Framework
10 13 (0.25%) SonarQube
11 12 (0.23%) Snyk
12 9 (0.17%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
12 9 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
13 8 (0.15%) Cucumber
13 8 (0.15%) LabVIEW
14 7 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2,900 (54.77%) Social Skills
2 1,476 (27.88%) Analytical Skills
3 1,169 (22.08%) Finance
4 377 (7.12%) Retail
5 336 (6.35%) Manufacturing
6 317 (5.99%) Marketing
7 260 (4.91%) Organisational Skills
8 228 (4.31%) Law
9 197 (3.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 179 (3.38%) Public Sector
11 177 (3.34%) Legal
12 144 (2.72%) Telecoms
13 132 (2.49%) Banking
14 130 (2.46%) Electronics
15 103 (1.95%) Games
16 101 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
17 94 (1.78%) Automotive
18 72 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
19 66 (1.25%) Aerospace
20 54 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 864 (16.32%) Analyst
2 653 (12.33%) IT Support
3 597 (11.27%) Senior
4 512 (9.67%) Support Engineer
5 387 (7.31%) Lead
6 375 (7.08%) Developer
7 355 (6.70%) Support Analyst
8 309 (5.84%) Technical Support
9 218 (4.12%) 2nd Line Support
10 214 (4.04%) Technical Engineer
11 209 (3.95%) IT Engineer
12 199 (3.76%) Technical Support Engineer
13 197 (3.72%) Systems Engineer
14 182 (3.44%) IT Support Engineer
15 176 (3.32%) Support Technician
16 170 (3.21%) Business Analyst
17 147 (2.78%) Applications Support
18 145 (2.74%) IT Analyst
19 138 (2.61%) Architect
20 134 (2.53%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 217 (4.10%) .NET
2 186 (3.51%) HTML
3 163 (3.08%) CSS
4 154 (2.91%) React
5 97 (1.83%) REST
6 79 (1.49%) RESTful
7 65 (1.23%) ASP.NET
8 60 (1.13%) JSON
9 59 (1.11%) Node.js
10 54 (1.02%) XML
11 49 (0.93%) Spring
12 47 (0.89%) AngularJS
13 41 (0.77%) Django
14 40 (0.76%) .NET Framework
14 40 (0.76%) SOAP
15 33 (0.62%) EDI
16 32 (0.60%) Spring Boot
17 31 (0.59%) Vue
18 30 (0.57%) Entity Framework
19 28 (0.53%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 501 (9.46%) Driving Licence
2 418 (7.89%) Onboarding
3 306 (5.78%) Self-Motivation
4 205 (3.87%) Management Information System
5 181 (3.42%) Analytical Mindset
6 140 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
7 97 (1.83%) FMCG
8 95 (1.79%) Data Centre
9 93 (1.76%) Product Ownership
10 69 (1.30%) Operational Technology
10 69 (1.30%) Virtual Team
11 62 (1.17%) Cloud Native
12 50 (0.94%) e-Learning
13 44 (0.83%) Algorithms
13 44 (0.83%) EPoS
14 42 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
14 42 (0.79%) SCADA
15 35 (0.66%) Security Posture
16 34 (0.64%) IoT
16 34 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 963 (18.19%) Windows
2 388 (7.33%) Windows Server
3 275 (5.19%) Linux
4 150 (2.83%) Windows 10
5 100 (1.89%) Windows Server 2016
6 67 (1.27%) Mac OS
7 57 (1.08%) Android
8 47 (0.89%) Apple iOS
9 36 (0.68%) Unix
10 26 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 20 (0.38%) Windows 7
12 13 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
13 9 (0.17%) VMS
14 6 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 5 (0.094%) Mac OS X
15 5 (0.094%) Windows Server 2008
16 4 (0.076%) CentOS
16 4 (0.076%) Windows 8
17 3 (0.057%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.038%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,025 (19.36%) Customer Service
2 992 (18.73%) Continuous Improvement
3 728 (13.75%) Agile
4 492 (9.29%) Analytics
5 477 (9.01%) Project Management
6 475 (8.97%) Mentoring
7 440 (8.31%) Decision-Making
8 427 (8.06%) Business Intelligence
9 417 (7.88%) ITIL
10 415 (7.84%) ERP
11 373 (7.04%) DevOps
12 362 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
13 321 (6.06%) CRM
14 317 (5.99%) CI/CD
15 316 (5.97%) Process Improvement
16 311 (5.87%) Stakeholder Management
17 310 (5.85%) Change Management
18 295 (5.57%) Data Analysis
19 290 (5.48%) AI
19 290 (5.48%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 790 (14.92%) SQL
2 412 (7.78%) Python
3 277 (5.23%) C#
4 268 (5.06%) JavaScript
5 244 (4.61%) PowerShell
6 164 (3.10%) Java
7 81 (1.53%) C++
8 79 (1.49%) PHP
9 54 (1.02%) TypeScript
10 52 (0.98%) T-SQL
11 45 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 42 (0.79%) Bash
13 36 (0.68%) C
14 27 (0.51%) VBA
15 25 (0.47%) MATLAB
16 18 (0.34%) Go
16 18 (0.34%) R
17 17 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
18 15 (0.28%) Perl
19 14 (0.26%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,187 (22.42%) Degree
2 405 (7.65%) Security Cleared
3 282 (5.33%) SC Cleared
4 152 (2.87%) Microsoft Certification
5 146 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
6 121 (2.29%) DBS Check
7 104 (1.96%) Master's Degree
8 97 (1.83%) BPSS Clearance
9 88 (1.66%) DV Cleared
10 83 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
11 74 (1.40%) HND
12 72 (1.36%) HNC
13 60 (1.13%) ACCA
13 60 (1.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 56 (1.06%) A+ Certification
14 56 (1.06%) CCNA
15 53 (1.00%) CIMA
15 53 (1.00%) Network+ Certification
16 34 (0.64%) CCNP
16 34 (0.64%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 230 (4.34%) QA
2 203 (3.83%) Data Quality
3 144 (2.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 139 (2.63%) GDPR
5 101 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 100 (1.89%) PCI DSS
7 93 (1.76%) SLA
8 80 (1.51%) Accessibility
9 39 (0.74%) NIST
10 29 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 27 (0.51%) ISO 9001
12 20 (0.38%) PMO
13 18 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
14 9 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
15 7 (0.13%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.13%) WCAG
16 6 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.11%) HIPAA
16 6 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 15288
17 5 (0.094%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 640 (12.09%) Active Directory
2 212 (4.00%) Hyper-V
3 171 (3.23%) Docker
4 113 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.66%) Terminal Server
6 51 (0.96%) Firmware
7 23 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 17 (0.32%) vSphere
10 15 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 13 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
12 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.076%) HDFS
13 4 (0.076%) KVM
13 4 (0.076%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.057%) VMware Workstation
15 2 (0.038%) RHEV
15 2 (0.038%) Xen
15 2 (0.038%) XenApp
16 1 (0.019%) GPFS
Systems Management
1 215 (4.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 175 (3.31%) Terraform
3 137 (2.59%) Kubernetes
4 56 (1.06%) Ansible
5 42 (0.79%) BMC PATROL
6 37 (0.70%) SCCM
7 35 (0.66%) Grafana
8 25 (0.47%) Prometheus
9 14 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (0.26%) vCenter Server
10 13 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.19%) AWS Copilot
11 10 (0.19%) FortiGate
11 10 (0.19%) Nagios
11 10 (0.19%) ZABBIX
12 8 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
13 7 (0.13%) PaperCut
13 7 (0.13%) QRadar
14 5 (0.094%) Autotask
14 5 (0.094%) Control-M
Vendors
1 1,411 (26.65%) Microsoft
2 337 (6.36%) SAP
3 233 (4.40%) VMware
4 173 (3.27%) Cisco
5 170 (3.21%) Oracle
6 133 (2.51%) Veeam
7 114 (2.15%) Google
8 113 (2.13%) Splunk
9 107 (2.02%) SolarWinds
10 99 (1.87%) ServiceNow
11 97 (1.83%) Salesforce
12 90 (1.70%) Tanium
13 88 (1.66%) Brocade
13 88 (1.66%) Nimble Storage
14 73 (1.38%) BT
15 71 (1.34%) Sage
16 64 (1.21%) Databricks
17 57 (1.08%) Apple
18 52 (0.98%) Adobe
19 49 (0.93%) Siemens