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

6 months to
15 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 6,473 6,548 8,617
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.36% 18.89% 14.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.86% 21.62% 18.45%
Number of salaries quoted 4,646 3,651 4,398
10th Percentile £26,750 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -13.04% -8.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £73,750 £76,250
UK median annual salary £47,500 £46,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.15% -7.00% -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 54,577 30,289 46,699
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.47% 87.37% 78.48%
Number of salaries quoted 38,379 16,476 29,338
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £86,000 £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 15 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 15 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 -8 1,652 £45,000 +5.88% 1,302
South East -3 1,566 £44,250 +4.12% 1,382
Midlands -8 1,194 £42,500 +10.39% 856
North West -5 870 £45,125 +0.28% 708
South West -4 796 £45,000 +25.00% 695
West Midlands -9 660 £42,500 -5.07% 542
East of England -4 649 £42,500 +21.43% 597
Yorkshire -8 543 £42,500 +21.43% 427
East Midlands -9 531 £40,500 +15.71% 315
Scotland -1 285 £33,500 -21.18% 475
North East -8 239 £48,500 +25.00% 183
Northern Ireland -5 180 £45,000 -23.73% 276
Wales -22 167 £45,000 -6.49% 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
1 360 (5.56%) SharePoint
2 346 (5.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 68 (1.05%) Confluence
4 48 (0.74%) IIS
5 42 (0.65%) CMS
6 33 (0.51%) WordPress
7 30 (0.46%) Apache
8 24 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.25%) Apache Spark
10 15 (0.23%) SAS
11 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.14%) nginx
12 9 (0.14%) WebLogic
13 7 (0.11%) Jupyter
13 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
14 5 (0.077%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.062%) Anypoint
15 4 (0.062%) Exchange Server 2013
15 4 (0.062%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.062%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 417 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 386 (5.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 52 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 30 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 21 (0.32%) AutoCAD
7 21 (0.32%) Simulink
8 12 (0.19%) Revit
9 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
10 7 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
11 6 (0.093%) Adobe XD
11 6 (0.093%) EPLAN
11 6 (0.093%) Fusion 360
11 6 (0.093%) Navisworks
11 6 (0.093%) Sketch
12 5 (0.077%) Lightworks
12 5 (0.077%) SOLIDWORKS
12 5 (0.077%) Trello
Business Applications
1 54 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 35 (0.54%) NetSuite
4 25 (0.39%) Shopify
5 18 (0.28%) Magento
5 18 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 16 (0.25%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
7 15 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 13 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
9 12 (0.19%) Workday HCM
10 11 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
11 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.14%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.12%) Primavera
14 7 (0.11%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
15 6 (0.093%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 1,317 (20.35%) Azure
2 1,116 (17.24%) Microsoft 365
3 660 (10.20%) AWS
4 515 (7.96%) Power Platform
5 328 (5.07%) Entra ID
6 223 (3.45%) GCP
7 221 (3.41%) SaaS
8 161 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
9 138 (2.13%) Dynamics 365
10 124 (1.92%) GitHub
11 123 (1.90%) Serverless
12 118 (1.82%) Power Automate
13 113 (1.75%) PowerApps
14 81 (1.25%) Microsoft Copilot
14 81 (1.25%) OneDrive
15 58 (0.90%) Amazon S3
16 55 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
17 52 (0.80%) AWS Lambda
17 52 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
18 50 (0.77%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 412 (6.36%) Firewall
2 392 (6.06%) DNS
3 335 (5.18%) DHCP
4 237 (3.66%) VPN
5 219 (3.38%) TCP/IP
6 189 (2.92%) WAN
7 174 (2.69%) LAN
8 159 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 152 (2.35%) Wireless
10 125 (1.93%) VLAN
11 109 (1.68%) Network Security
12 102 (1.58%) VoIP
13 96 (1.48%) Broadband
14 41 (0.63%) Internet
15 31 (0.48%) SAN
16 30 (0.46%) SSL
17 29 (0.45%) HTTP
18 27 (0.42%) SD-WAN
19 22 (0.34%) MQTT
19 22 (0.34%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 399 (6.16%) Power BI
2 319 (4.93%) SQL Server
3 132 (2.04%) MySQL
4 123 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
5 105 (1.62%) Relational Database
6 101 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
7 94 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
8 85 (1.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 79 (1.22%) NoSQL
10 70 (1.08%) Tableau
11 64 (0.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 47 (0.73%) Electronic Patient Records
13 46 (0.71%) MongoDB
14 44 (0.68%) Power Query
15 43 (0.66%) Big Data
16 40 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
17 38 (0.59%) Data Lake
18 32 (0.49%) DynamoDB
19 25 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
20 23 (0.36%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 285 (4.40%) Git
2 225 (3.48%) JIRA
3 81 (1.25%) GitLab
4 68 (1.05%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.48%) Eclipse
5 31 (0.48%) Subversion
6 26 (0.40%) Cucumber
6 26 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
7 25 (0.39%) JUnit
7 25 (0.39%) Selenium
8 20 (0.31%) Claude Code
8 20 (0.31%) Postman
9 18 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
10 17 (0.26%) Cypress.io
11 15 (0.23%) Bitbucket
12 14 (0.22%) SonarQube
13 13 (0.20%) Burp Suite
14 12 (0.19%) Visual Studio
15 11 (0.17%) Maven
15 11 (0.17%) Metasploit
General
1 3,089 (47.72%) Social Skills
2 1,822 (28.15%) Analytical Skills
3 1,003 (15.50%) Finance
4 591 (9.13%) Manufacturing
5 398 (6.15%) Organisational Skills
6 372 (5.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 301 (4.65%) Law
8 292 (4.51%) Public Sector
9 277 (4.28%) Legal
10 271 (4.19%) Retail
11 215 (3.32%) Electronics
12 211 (3.26%) Marketing
13 202 (3.12%) Aerospace
14 153 (2.36%) Telecoms
15 130 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
16 128 (1.98%) Banking
17 112 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
18 74 (1.14%) Games
18 74 (1.14%) Military
19 69 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 852 (13.16%) Analyst
2 691 (10.68%) Developer
3 688 (10.63%) Senior
4 655 (10.12%) IT Support
5 545 (8.42%) Support Engineer
6 364 (5.62%) IT Engineer
7 360 (5.56%) Lead
8 297 (4.59%) Support Analyst
9 282 (4.36%) Consultant
10 267 (4.12%) IT Support Engineer
11 262 (4.05%) Support Technician
12 243 (3.75%) Technical Support
13 236 (3.65%) Systems Engineer
14 227 (3.51%) IT Technician
15 218 (3.37%) Architect
16 214 (3.31%) Software Engineer
17 208 (3.21%) Technical Engineer
18 199 (3.07%) Senior Developer
19 186 (2.87%) Technical Support Engineer
20 175 (2.70%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 339 (5.24%) .NET
2 221 (3.41%) React
3 198 (3.06%) HTML
4 188 (2.90%) REST
5 145 (2.24%) CSS
6 121 (1.87%) RESTful
7 98 (1.51%) Node.js
8 93 (1.44%) SOAP
9 81 (1.25%) Vue
10 79 (1.22%) Middleware
11 77 (1.19%) AngularJS
12 76 (1.17%) ASP.NET
13 72 (1.11%) JSON
14 68 (1.05%) XML
15 66 (1.02%) Web Services
16 61 (0.94%) Spring
17 58 (0.90%) OAuth
18 56 (0.87%) Spring Boot
19 47 (0.73%) ASP.NET Core
19 47 (0.73%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 514 (7.94%) Driving Licence
2 389 (6.01%) Onboarding
3 303 (4.68%) Self-Motivation
4 269 (4.16%) Management Information System
5 185 (2.86%) Cloud Native
6 169 (2.61%) Product Ownership
7 153 (2.36%) Legacy Systems
8 110 (1.70%) Data Centre
9 98 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
10 96 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
11 87 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
12 86 (1.33%) NHS
13 80 (1.24%) Security Posture
14 78 (1.21%) Social Media
15 71 (1.10%) Robotics
16 70 (1.08%) Mobile App
17 64 (0.99%) Virtual Team
18 61 (0.94%) IoT
19 60 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
20 58 (0.90%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1,068 (16.50%) Windows
2 494 (7.63%) Windows Server
3 458 (7.08%) Linux
4 134 (2.07%) Windows 10
5 108 (1.67%) Windows Server 2016
6 100 (1.54%) Android
7 79 (1.22%) Apple iOS
8 76 (1.17%) Mac OS
9 40 (0.62%) Unix
10 39 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 30 (0.46%) Ubuntu
12 23 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 19 (0.29%) CentOS
14 17 (0.26%) VMS
15 14 (0.22%) Debian
16 9 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
16 9 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
17 8 (0.12%) Windows 7
18 5 (0.077%) OpenVMS
18 5 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,729 (26.71%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,151 (17.78%) Customer Service
3 995 (15.37%) Agile
4 737 (11.39%) Decision-Making
5 681 (10.52%) CI/CD
6 672 (10.38%) Mentoring
7 643 (9.93%) AI
8 585 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
9 566 (8.74%) DevOps
10 555 (8.57%) ITIL
11 530 (8.19%) Analytics
12 526 (8.13%) Software Engineering
13 521 (8.05%) Cybersecurity
14 511 (7.89%) Collaborative Working
15 500 (7.72%) Project Delivery
16 478 (7.38%) ERP
17 461 (7.12%) Business Intelligence
18 394 (6.09%) Project Management
19 384 (5.93%) Service Delivery
20 380 (5.87%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 1,002 (15.48%) SQL
2 710 (10.97%) Python
3 425 (6.57%) JavaScript
4 423 (6.53%) C#
5 290 (4.48%) Java
6 254 (3.92%) PowerShell
7 188 (2.90%) TypeScript
8 181 (2.80%) C++
9 121 (1.87%) Bash
10 76 (1.17%) PHP
11 71 (1.10%) C
12 59 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 54 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 47 (0.73%) Shell Script
15 42 (0.65%) Perl
16 38 (0.59%) Ruby
17 36 (0.56%) Go
18 33 (0.51%) PL/SQL
19 32 (0.49%) Rust
20 28 (0.43%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 1,013 (15.65%) Degree
2 606 (9.36%) Security Cleared
3 435 (6.72%) SC Cleared
4 194 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 193 (2.98%) DBS Check
6 178 (2.75%) Microsoft Certification
7 162 (2.50%) DV Cleared
8 150 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 114 (1.76%) HNC
10 110 (1.70%) Azure Certification
11 94 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
12 86 (1.33%) HND
13 77 (1.19%) PMI Certification
14 71 (1.10%) CISSP
15 65 (1.00%) CCNA
16 63 (0.97%) Master's Degree
17 57 (0.88%) A+ Certification
18 56 (0.87%) PMP
19 55 (0.85%) Chartered Engineer
20 50 (0.77%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 426 (6.58%) QA
2 262 (4.05%) Data Quality
3 187 (2.89%) GDPR
4 178 (2.75%) Cyber Essentials
5 170 (2.63%) SLA
6 164 (2.53%) Accessibility
7 128 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.76%) PCI DSS
9 91 (1.41%) NIST
10 36 (0.56%) ISO 9001
11 33 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.46%) PMO
13 24 (0.37%) GMP
14 18 (0.28%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.25%) GRC
16 15 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
17 12 (0.19%) DO-254
17 12 (0.19%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.19%) TickIT
17 12 (0.19%) WCAG
System Software
1 741 (11.45%) Active Directory
2 279 (4.31%) Hyper-V
3 250 (3.86%) Docker
4 200 (3.09%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.24%) Terminal Server
6 65 (1.00%) Firmware
7 33 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.45%) vSphere
9 25 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
10 19 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
12 9 (0.14%) KVM
13 6 (0.093%) XenApp
14 5 (0.077%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.077%) Squid
14 5 (0.077%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.062%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.046%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.046%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 261 (4.03%) Terraform
2 228 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
3 217 (3.35%) Kubernetes
4 109 (1.68%) Ansible
5 59 (0.91%) SCCM
6 58 (0.90%) Grafana
7 42 (0.65%) Prometheus
8 30 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
9 21 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.28%) Puppet
11 16 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 15 (0.23%) Nagios
13 12 (0.19%) Functional Safety
14 11 (0.17%) Kibana
14 11 (0.17%) Nmap
14 11 (0.17%) Proxmox
15 10 (0.15%) logstash
15 10 (0.15%) Podman
16 9 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
16 9 (0.14%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 1,942 (30.00%) Microsoft
2 321 (4.96%) VMware
3 163 (2.52%) SAP
4 160 (2.47%) Google
5 153 (2.36%) Oracle
6 140 (2.16%) Veeam
7 135 (2.09%) Cisco
8 125 (1.93%) Splunk
9 113 (1.75%) ServiceNow
10 104 (1.61%) SolarWinds
11 90 (1.39%) Salesforce
12 88 (1.36%) Tanium
13 82 (1.27%) Workday
14 81 (1.25%) Nimble Storage
15 80 (1.24%) Brocade
16 78 (1.21%) Databricks
17 64 (0.99%) Sage
18 60 (0.93%) Apple
19 59 (0.91%) Fortinet
20 48 (0.74%) SonicWALL