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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,152 5,989 11,458
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.66% 20.12% 14.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.99% 22.08% 18.16%
Number of salaries quoted 3,834 3,165 6,994
10th Percentile £26,383 £25,750 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £48,812
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.43% -11.25%

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 46,884 27,128 63,083
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.68% 91.15% 79.89%
Number of salaries quoted 32,794 13,745 43,955
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 1,393 £42,500 -3.41% 1,157
South East -5 1,248 £45,000 +5.88% 1,319
Midlands -9 952 £42,000 -2.33% 763
North West -7 720 £45,000 -3.23% 573
South West -6 611 £43,750 +10.76% 531
West Midlands -9 544 £42,500 -5.56% 406
East of England -3 520 £45,000 +28.57% 674
Yorkshire -13 506 £41,000 +17.14% 389
East Midlands -11 405 £35,000 -6.67% 358
Scotland -4 262 £33,000 -32.37% 474
North East -14 167 £48,500 +21.25% 207
Wales -14 115 £45,000 -5.26% 259
Northern Ireland -7 71 £38,500 -30.00% 316
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 4
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
1 326 (6.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 310 (6.02%) SharePoint
3 49 (0.95%) CMS
4 48 (0.93%) Confluence
5 30 (0.58%) IIS
6 25 (0.49%) WordPress
7 23 (0.45%) Apache
8 20 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.27%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.23%) SAS
11 11 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
13 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 6 (0.12%) WebSphere
15 5 (0.097%) nginx
15 5 (0.097%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.078%) Moodle
16 4 (0.078%) WebLogic
Applications
1 318 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
2 309 (6.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 44 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 33 (0.64%) MS Visio
6 15 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.14%) Simulink
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 6 (0.12%) Fusion 360
11 5 (0.097%) Photoshop
12 4 (0.078%) Chatbot
12 4 (0.078%) Trello
13 3 (0.058%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.039%) Adobe XD
14 2 (0.039%) Lightworks
14 2 (0.039%) Siemens NX
14 2 (0.039%) Sketch
14 2 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 48 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.37%) Shopify
6 16 (0.31%) Magento
7 14 (0.27%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
9 11 (0.21%) iTrent
10 9 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
11 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.14%) SAP CO
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.097%) Q-Pulse
14 4 (0.078%) Dynamics GP
14 4 (0.078%) Sage X3
14 4 (0.078%) Salesforce CRM
14 4 (0.078%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 1,067 (20.71%) Azure
2 928 (18.01%) Microsoft 365
3 534 (10.36%) AWS
4 384 (7.45%) Power Platform
5 240 (4.66%) Entra ID
6 171 (3.32%) SaaS
7 153 (2.97%) GCP
8 120 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
9 112 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
10 111 (2.15%) Serverless
11 85 (1.65%) GitHub
12 81 (1.57%) Power Automate
13 73 (1.42%) PowerApps
14 68 (1.32%) OneDrive
15 57 (1.11%) Amazon S3
16 50 (0.97%) Google Workspace
17 49 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
18 44 (0.85%) IaaS
19 43 (0.83%) PaaS
20 42 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 361 (7.01%) Firewall
2 336 (6.52%) DNS
3 289 (5.61%) DHCP
4 189 (3.67%) VPN
5 174 (3.38%) WAN
6 142 (2.76%) LAN
7 140 (2.72%) TCP/IP
8 133 (2.58%) Wi-Fi
9 109 (2.12%) Broadband
10 106 (2.06%) Wireless
11 101 (1.96%) VLAN
12 84 (1.63%) VoIP
13 82 (1.59%) Network Security
14 41 (0.80%) Internet
14 41 (0.80%) SD-WAN
15 31 (0.60%) SAN
16 20 (0.39%) HTTP
17 19 (0.37%) Remote Desktop
18 17 (0.33%) SSL
18 17 (0.33%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 309 (6.00%) Power BI
2 215 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 104 (2.02%) Amazon RDS
4 75 (1.46%) MySQL
5 74 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
6 68 (1.32%) NoSQL
6 68 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
6 68 (1.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 60 (1.16%) Tableau
8 56 (1.09%) Relational Database
9 53 (1.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 44 (0.85%) Power Query
11 37 (0.72%) MongoDB
12 36 (0.70%) Big Data
13 30 (0.58%) Data Lake
14 29 (0.56%) DynamoDB
15 28 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
16 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
17 22 (0.43%) Metadata
18 21 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 191 (3.71%) Git
2 143 (2.78%) JIRA
3 65 (1.26%) GitLab
4 40 (0.78%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.31%) Cucumber
6 16 (0.31%) JUnit
7 15 (0.29%) Selenium
8 14 (0.27%) Maven
8 14 (0.27%) Subversion
9 12 (0.23%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.21%) Eclipse
10 11 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
10 11 (0.21%) SonarQube
11 9 (0.17%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.17%) LabVIEW
11 9 (0.17%) Postman
12 8 (0.16%) Burp Suite
12 8 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 7 (0.14%) MLflow
General
1 2,463 (47.81%) Social Skills
2 1,430 (27.76%) Analytical Skills
3 831 (16.13%) Finance
4 369 (7.16%) Manufacturing
5 329 (6.39%) Organisational Skills
6 233 (4.52%) Public Sector
7 223 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 197 (3.82%) Legal
9 191 (3.71%) Law
10 187 (3.63%) Retail
11 179 (3.47%) Marketing
12 137 (2.66%) Telecoms
13 135 (2.62%) Banking
14 133 (2.58%) Electronics
15 104 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
16 93 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
17 76 (1.48%) Aerospace
18 70 (1.36%) Games
19 55 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
20 54 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 746 (14.48%) Analyst
2 627 (12.17%) IT Support
3 547 (10.62%) Support Engineer
4 536 (10.40%) Senior
5 452 (8.77%) Developer
6 367 (7.12%) IT Engineer
7 282 (5.47%) IT Support Engineer
8 269 (5.22%) Lead
9 237 (4.60%) Support Technician
10 212 (4.11%) Systems Engineer
11 211 (4.10%) Support Analyst
12 185 (3.59%) IT Technician
13 176 (3.42%) Technical Support
14 173 (3.36%) Architect
14 173 (3.36%) Consultant
15 158 (3.07%) Software Engineer
16 149 (2.89%) IT Support Technician
17 144 (2.80%) Technical Engineer
18 140 (2.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 138 (2.68%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 190 (3.69%) .NET
2 182 (3.53%) React
3 152 (2.95%) HTML
4 132 (2.56%) REST
5 116 (2.25%) CSS
6 91 (1.77%) Node.js
7 76 (1.48%) SOAP
8 72 (1.40%) RESTful
9 66 (1.28%) JSON
10 65 (1.26%) Middleware
11 61 (1.18%) Vue
12 58 (1.13%) AngularJS
12 58 (1.13%) XML
13 42 (0.82%) Spring
14 41 (0.80%) ASP.NET
15 38 (0.74%) OAuth
15 38 (0.74%) Spring Boot
15 38 (0.74%) Web Services
16 34 (0.66%) EDI
17 29 (0.56%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 385 (7.47%) Driving Licence
2 277 (5.38%) Onboarding
3 229 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
4 201 (3.90%) Management Information System
5 134 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
6 131 (2.54%) Cloud Native
7 126 (2.45%) Product Ownership
8 100 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
9 96 (1.86%) Data Centre
10 75 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
11 72 (1.40%) Social Media
12 65 (1.26%) Mobile App
13 54 (1.05%) Security Posture
14 51 (0.99%) Low-Code
15 47 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
15 47 (0.91%) Virtual Team
16 45 (0.87%) Data Structures
17 39 (0.76%) Algorithms
18 38 (0.74%) NHS
19 37 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 886 (17.20%) Windows
2 436 (8.46%) Windows Server
3 356 (6.91%) Linux
4 138 (2.68%) Windows 10
5 125 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 101 (1.96%) Android
7 67 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 57 (1.11%) Mac OS
9 52 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.58%) Unix
11 26 (0.50%) CentOS
11 26 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 25 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 19 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
14 16 (0.31%) VMS
15 13 (0.25%) Windows 7
16 11 (0.21%) Debian
17 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
18 5 (0.097%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,154 (22.40%) Continuous Improvement
2 928 (18.01%) Customer Service
3 677 (13.14%) Agile
4 518 (10.05%) Decision-Making
5 512 (9.94%) Mentoring
6 439 (8.52%) CI/CD
7 438 (8.50%) AI
8 431 (8.37%) Analytics
9 416 (8.07%) ITIL
10 404 (7.84%) DevOps
11 382 (7.41%) Collaborative Working
12 371 (7.20%) Cybersecurity
13 358 (6.95%) Business Intelligence
14 353 (6.85%) ERP
15 345 (6.70%) Software Engineering
16 332 (6.44%) Stakeholder Management
17 319 (6.19%) Project Management
18 317 (6.15%) Coaching
19 314 (6.09%) Computer Science
20 295 (5.73%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 759 (14.73%) SQL
2 585 (11.35%) Python
3 321 (6.23%) JavaScript
4 251 (4.87%) C#
5 220 (4.27%) Java
6 205 (3.98%) PowerShell
7 136 (2.64%) TypeScript
8 110 (2.14%) C++
9 96 (1.86%) Bash
10 72 (1.40%) PHP
11 51 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 50 (0.97%) C
13 44 (0.85%) PL/SQL
14 40 (0.78%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.58%) Kotlin
16 29 (0.56%) R
17 27 (0.52%) Perl
18 24 (0.47%) Go
18 24 (0.47%) Ruby
18 24 (0.47%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 763 (14.81%) Degree
2 413 (8.02%) Security Cleared
3 299 (5.80%) SC Cleared
4 207 (4.02%) DBS Check
5 154 (2.99%) Microsoft Certification
6 146 (2.83%) Computer Science Degree
7 86 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
8 76 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
9 69 (1.34%) DV Cleared
10 67 (1.30%) A+ Certification
11 63 (1.22%) ACCA
12 60 (1.16%) CCNA
13 59 (1.15%) CIMA
14 54 (1.05%) HNC
14 54 (1.05%) PMI Certification
15 50 (0.97%) Azure Certification
16 46 (0.89%) Master's Degree
16 46 (0.89%) Network+ Certification
17 43 (0.83%) CISSP
17 43 (0.83%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 298 (5.78%) QA
2 238 (4.62%) Data Quality
3 164 (3.18%) Cyber Essentials
4 147 (2.85%) GDPR
5 130 (2.52%) SLA
6 122 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 113 (2.19%) PCI DSS
8 89 (1.73%) Accessibility
9 79 (1.53%) NIST
10 40 (0.78%) ISO 9001
11 23 (0.45%) PMO
12 22 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 18 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
13 18 (0.35%) GMP
14 14 (0.27%) GRC
15 13 (0.25%) ISO 14001
16 12 (0.23%) Good Clinical Practice
16 12 (0.23%) SOC 2
16 12 (0.23%) TickIT
17 8 (0.16%) Def Stans
System Software
1 640 (12.42%) Active Directory
2 242 (4.70%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.42%) Docker
4 169 (3.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.55%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.58%) Firmware
6 30 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 19 (0.37%) vSphere
8 16 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.19%) KVM
11 8 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 5 (0.097%) ClearTrust
15 4 (0.078%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.078%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.058%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.058%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.039%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 193 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 188 (3.65%) Terraform
3 169 (3.28%) Kubernetes
4 91 (1.77%) Ansible
5 56 (1.09%) SCCM
6 52 (1.01%) Grafana
7 36 (0.70%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.41%) Nagios
9 16 (0.31%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.25%) vCenter Server
11 11 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.17%) Autotask
12 9 (0.17%) Functional Safety
12 9 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.17%) Kibana
12 9 (0.17%) Puppet
12 9 (0.17%) QRadar
12 9 (0.17%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.16%) Kubeflow
13 8 (0.16%) logstash
Vendors
1 1,497 (29.06%) Microsoft
2 281 (5.45%) VMware
3 136 (2.64%) Veeam
4 132 (2.56%) Oracle
5 115 (2.23%) Splunk
6 111 (2.15%) SAP
7 110 (2.14%) SolarWinds
8 109 (2.12%) Google
9 106 (2.06%) Cisco
10 83 (1.61%) Tanium
11 81 (1.57%) Nimble Storage
12 80 (1.55%) Brocade
13 72 (1.40%) Salesforce
14 66 (1.28%) Databricks
15 62 (1.20%) Apple
16 61 (1.18%) ServiceNow
17 51 (0.99%) Adobe
18 45 (0.87%) Sage
19 43 (0.83%) Dell
20 37 (0.72%) Meraki