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 10 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -3 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,232 7,329 4,784
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 13.17% 17.13% 16.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.10% 20.25% 17.55%
Number of salaries quoted 3,580 2,949 3,299
10th Percentile £25,875 £28,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £33,063
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 £63,750
90th Percentile £70,000 £82,500 £75,400
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 32,488 36,200 27,265
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.80% 84.59% 93.81%
Number of salaries quoted 18,839 17,533 20,384
10th Percentile £27,500 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,625 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £81,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -0.83%

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 10 December 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 10 December 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 1,392 £40,500 -19.00% 1,605
North of England -14 1,316 £45,000 -5.26% 1,229
Midlands -3 944 £37,500 -25.00% 870
North West -9 715 £48,000 -3.93% 623
South West -1 578 £40,000 -27.27% 568
West Midlands -14 563 £42,500 -22.73% 487
Yorkshire -4 482 £36,500 -18.89% 483
East of England -2 452 £33,800 -35.62% 686
East Midlands +3 380 £32,500 -7.14% 354
Scotland -5 333 £33,500 -33.00% 238
Wales +5 180 £47,500 -5.00% 127
North East +2 119 £33,500 -33.00% 141
Northern Ireland +3 62 £55,000 -7.45% 75
Isle of Man +3 1 £62,500 +150.00% 1
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 (5.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 213 (4.07%) SharePoint
3 49 (0.94%) Confluence
4 42 (0.80%) IIS
5 25 (0.48%) Apache Spark
5 25 (0.48%) WordPress
6 24 (0.46%) CMS
7 23 (0.44%) Apache
8 9 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.13%) nginx
10 6 (0.11%) Camunda
10 6 (0.11%) Drupal
10 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
11 5 (0.096%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.076%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.076%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2013
12 4 (0.076%) SAS
13 3 (0.057%) HCL Domino
13 3 (0.057%) Umbraco
Applications
1 457 (8.73%) Microsoft Office
2 451 (8.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 67 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 21 (0.40%) MS Visio
5 20 (0.38%) AutoCAD
6 19 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 19 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.29%) Photoshop
8 12 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 12 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
8 12 (0.23%) Simulink
8 12 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
9 9 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
10 5 (0.096%) Adobe After Effects
10 5 (0.096%) Trello
11 4 (0.076%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.076%) Autodesk Inventor
11 4 (0.076%) Mathcad
11 4 (0.076%) Oracle Smart View
11 4 (0.076%) Revit
Business Applications
1 88 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 58 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
3 31 (0.59%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
7 15 (0.29%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.29%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.25%) Sage X3
9 11 (0.21%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
9 11 (0.21%) Shopify
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
10 10 (0.19%) SAP WM
11 8 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
11 8 (0.15%) Unit4 Business World
12 7 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
13 5 (0.096%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,104 (21.10%) Azure
2 803 (15.35%) Microsoft 365
3 400 (7.65%) AWS
4 360 (6.88%) Power Platform
5 277 (5.29%) SaaS
6 229 (4.38%) Entra ID
7 138 (2.64%) GCP
8 135 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
9 88 (1.68%) GitHub
10 69 (1.32%) Power Automate
11 64 (1.22%) Serverless
12 53 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
13 50 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
14 40 (0.76%) OneDrive
14 40 (0.76%) PowerApps
15 38 (0.73%) Amazon S3
15 38 (0.73%) AWS Lambda
15 38 (0.73%) PaaS
16 35 (0.67%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 35 (0.67%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 329 (6.29%) DNS
2 290 (5.54%) DHCP
3 261 (4.99%) Firewall
4 159 (3.04%) TCP/IP
5 151 (2.89%) VPN
6 147 (2.81%) Wi-Fi
7 137 (2.62%) LAN
8 125 (2.39%) WAN
9 93 (1.78%) VLAN
10 91 (1.74%) Broadband
11 78 (1.49%) VoIP
12 59 (1.13%) Remote Desktop
13 56 (1.07%) Wireless
14 46 (0.88%) Network Security
15 37 (0.71%) SAN
16 32 (0.61%) Ethernet
17 29 (0.55%) Internet
18 23 (0.44%) SD-WAN
18 23 (0.44%) Unified Communications
19 17 (0.32%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 321 (6.14%) Power BI
2 239 (4.57%) SQL Server
3 114 (2.18%) Amazon RDS
4 104 (1.99%) Relational Database
5 96 (1.83%) MySQL
6 84 (1.61%) Data Lake
7 79 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
8 72 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.22%) SAP BW
10 59 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
11 45 (0.86%) Tableau
12 42 (0.80%) NoSQL
13 40 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 37 (0.71%) GIS
15 35 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
16 30 (0.57%) Oracle Reports
17 29 (0.55%) MongoDB
18 26 (0.50%) Metadata
19 24 (0.46%) Crystal Reports
19 24 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 186 (3.56%) Git
2 173 (3.31%) JIRA
3 42 (0.80%) Jenkins
4 41 (0.78%) GitLab
5 29 (0.55%) Selenium
6 22 (0.42%) Visual Studio
7 20 (0.38%) Octopus Deploy
8 17 (0.32%) TeamCity
9 14 (0.27%) Bitbucket
9 14 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 14 (0.27%) SonarQube
10 13 (0.25%) Snyk
11 11 (0.21%) JUnit
11 11 (0.21%) Maven
12 10 (0.19%) Cypress.io
13 9 (0.17%) LabVIEW
13 9 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
13 9 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
14 8 (0.15%) Cucumber
15 7 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2,848 (54.43%) Social Skills
2 1,454 (27.79%) Analytical Skills
3 1,137 (21.73%) Finance
4 375 (7.17%) Retail
5 332 (6.35%) Manufacturing
6 306 (5.85%) Marketing
7 258 (4.93%) Organisational Skills
8 206 (3.94%) Law
9 185 (3.54%) Public Sector
10 175 (3.34%) Legal
11 171 (3.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 143 (2.73%) Telecoms
13 131 (2.50%) Electronics
14 110 (2.10%) Banking
15 102 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
16 95 (1.82%) Games
17 89 (1.70%) Automotive
18 64 (1.22%) Aerospace
18 64 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
19 58 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 851 (16.27%) Analyst
2 658 (12.58%) IT Support
3 589 (11.26%) Senior
4 510 (9.75%) Support Engineer
5 374 (7.15%) Developer
6 373 (7.13%) Lead
7 342 (6.54%) Support Analyst
8 297 (5.68%) Technical Support
9 214 (4.09%) IT Engineer
10 213 (4.07%) 2nd Line Support
11 205 (3.92%) Technical Engineer
12 196 (3.75%) Systems Engineer
13 190 (3.63%) Technical Support Engineer
14 188 (3.59%) IT Support Engineer
15 181 (3.46%) Business Analyst
16 178 (3.40%) Support Technician
17 150 (2.87%) Applications Support
18 140 (2.68%) IT Analyst
19 139 (2.66%) Architect
20 134 (2.56%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 210 (4.01%) .NET
2 177 (3.38%) HTML
3 147 (2.81%) CSS
4 146 (2.79%) React
5 94 (1.80%) REST
6 75 (1.43%) RESTful
7 60 (1.15%) Node.js
8 59 (1.13%) JSON
9 58 (1.11%) ASP.NET
10 55 (1.05%) XML
11 45 (0.86%) AngularJS
12 41 (0.78%) SOAP
12 41 (0.78%) Spring
13 40 (0.76%) .NET Framework
13 40 (0.76%) Django
14 32 (0.61%) EDI
14 32 (0.61%) Vue
15 29 (0.55%) Entity Framework
15 29 (0.55%) Spring Boot
16 28 (0.54%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 500 (9.56%) Driving Licence
2 418 (7.99%) Onboarding
3 306 (5.85%) Self-Motivation
4 194 (3.71%) Management Information System
5 170 (3.25%) Analytical Mindset
6 140 (2.68%) Legacy Systems
7 96 (1.83%) Product Ownership
8 94 (1.80%) FMCG
9 90 (1.72%) Data Centre
10 68 (1.30%) Virtual Team
11 63 (1.20%) Operational Technology
12 61 (1.17%) Cloud Native
13 48 (0.92%) e-Learning
14 47 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
15 40 (0.76%) Algorithms
15 40 (0.76%) EPoS
15 40 (0.76%) SCADA
16 35 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
17 34 (0.65%) IoT
17 34 (0.65%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 951 (18.18%) Windows
2 389 (7.44%) Windows Server
3 280 (5.35%) Linux
4 146 (2.79%) Windows 10
5 101 (1.93%) Windows Server 2016
6 65 (1.24%) Mac OS
7 59 (1.13%) Android
8 49 (0.94%) Apple iOS
9 35 (0.67%) Unix
10 28 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 19 (0.36%) Windows 7
12 13 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
13 9 (0.17%) VMS
14 6 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 5 (0.096%) Mac OS X
15 5 (0.096%) 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
1 999 (19.09%) Customer Service
2 971 (18.56%) Continuous Improvement
3 701 (13.40%) Agile
4 479 (9.16%) Project Management
5 475 (9.08%) Analytics
5 475 (9.08%) Mentoring
6 432 (8.26%) Decision-Making
7 422 (8.07%) Business Intelligence
8 413 (7.89%) ITIL
9 408 (7.80%) ERP
10 378 (7.22%) DevOps
11 362 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
12 321 (6.14%) CI/CD
13 318 (6.08%) Change Management
14 308 (5.89%) CRM
15 307 (5.87%) Process Improvement
16 299 (5.71%) Stakeholder Management
17 283 (5.41%) AI
17 283 (5.41%) Project Delivery
18 281 (5.37%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 778 (14.87%) SQL
2 412 (7.87%) Python
3 273 (5.22%) C#
4 270 (5.16%) JavaScript
5 252 (4.82%) PowerShell
6 149 (2.85%) Java
7 77 (1.47%) C++
8 75 (1.43%) PHP
9 56 (1.07%) TypeScript
10 49 (0.94%) T-SQL
11 46 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 44 (0.84%) Bash
13 36 (0.69%) C
14 26 (0.50%) VBA
15 25 (0.48%) MATLAB
16 18 (0.34%) Go
16 18 (0.34%) R
17 17 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
18 15 (0.29%) Perl
19 14 (0.27%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,183 (22.61%) Degree
2 404 (7.72%) Security Cleared
3 280 (5.35%) SC Cleared
4 151 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
5 137 (2.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 117 (2.24%) DBS Check
7 101 (1.93%) Master's Degree
8 98 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
9 86 (1.64%) DV Cleared
10 84 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
11 74 (1.41%) HND
12 65 (1.24%) HNC
13 64 (1.22%) ACCA
14 62 (1.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 57 (1.09%) CCNA
16 56 (1.07%) CIMA
17 55 (1.05%) A+ Certification
18 52 (0.99%) Network+ Certification
19 36 (0.69%) AWS Certification
20 35 (0.67%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 236 (4.51%) QA
2 207 (3.96%) Data Quality
3 149 (2.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 139 (2.66%) GDPR
5 103 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 103 (1.97%) PCI DSS
6 87 (1.66%) SLA
7 81 (1.55%) Accessibility
8 42 (0.80%) NIST
9 30 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 27 (0.52%) ISO 9001
11 22 (0.42%) PMO
12 17 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
13 8 (0.15%) Software Quality Assurance
14 7 (0.13%) ISO 13485
14 7 (0.13%) WCAG
15 6 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.11%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.11%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.096%) GRC
System Software
1 633 (12.10%) Active Directory
2 209 (3.99%) Hyper-V
3 173 (3.31%) Docker
4 112 (2.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.68%) Terminal Server
6 49 (0.94%) Firmware
7 24 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
8 20 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
9 17 (0.32%) vSphere
10 15 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
11 12 (0.23%) Embedded Firmware
12 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.076%) KVM
14 3 (0.057%) HDFS
14 3 (0.057%) 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%) Dovecot
Systems Management
1 214 (4.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 176 (3.36%) Terraform
3 128 (2.45%) Kubernetes
4 59 (1.13%) Ansible
5 42 (0.80%) BMC PATROL
6 40 (0.76%) SCCM
7 37 (0.71%) Grafana
8 27 (0.52%) Prometheus
9 16 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.27%) vCenter Server
11 13 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.21%) Nagios
13 10 (0.19%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.19%) FortiGate
13 10 (0.19%) ZABBIX
14 8 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
15 7 (0.13%) PaperCut
15 7 (0.13%) QRadar
16 6 (0.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 5 (0.096%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,414 (27.03%) Microsoft
2 333 (6.36%) SAP
3 232 (4.43%) VMware
4 171 (3.27%) Cisco
5 165 (3.15%) Oracle
6 133 (2.54%) Veeam
7 112 (2.14%) Google
8 109 (2.08%) Splunk
9 107 (2.05%) SolarWinds
10 94 (1.80%) Salesforce
11 93 (1.78%) ServiceNow
12 90 (1.72%) Tanium
13 88 (1.68%) Brocade
13 88 (1.68%) Nimble Storage
14 71 (1.36%) Sage
15 67 (1.28%) BT
16 61 (1.17%) Databricks
17 60 (1.15%) Apple
18 54 (1.03%) Adobe
19 44 (0.84%) Siemens