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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -9 +3 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,761 6,093 10,594
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.15% 20.80% 15.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.10% 22.60% 18.41%
Number of salaries quoted 3,512 3,168 6,884
10th Percentile £26,265 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £59,406 £61,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,890 £49,500
% change year-on-year -6.66% +2.81% -10.00%

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 47,160 26,962 57,549
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.84% 92.04% 83.04%
Number of salaries quoted 30,428 13,810 41,145
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £27,003
25th Percentile £37,500 £35,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.56% +6.36% -10.10%

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 May 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 May 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 -12 1,301 £42,500 -5.56% 677
South East -8 1,135 £46,000 -1.08% 791
Midlands -22 875 £40,000 -11.11% 421
North West -17 675 £45,000 -5.26% 369
South West -8 543 £43,500 +2.69% 307
West Midlands -25 512 £42,500 -11.46% 254
Yorkshire -13 496 £41,500 +3.75% 230
East of England -7 471 £42,175 -0.76% 310
East Midlands -10 359 £35,000 -9.09% 167
Scotland -5 283 £35,000 -30.00% 116
North East -18 130 £48,472 +7.72% 86
Wales -13 107 £42,500 -15.00% 62
Northern Ireland -9 67 £38,750 -29.55% 33
Isle of Man +3 3 £35,000 -3.45%
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
1 280 (5.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 271 (5.69%) SharePoint
3 47 (0.99%) CMS
4 35 (0.74%) Confluence
5 25 (0.53%) IIS
6 24 (0.50%) WordPress
7 20 (0.42%) Apache
8 15 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.29%) Apache Spark
10 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
11 10 (0.21%) SAS
12 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2010
13 5 (0.11%) Drupal
13 5 (0.11%) nginx
13 5 (0.11%) OpenEdge
13 5 (0.11%) OpenStack
13 5 (0.11%) Skype for Business
14 4 (0.084%) Moodle
14 4 (0.084%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 299 (6.28%) Microsoft Office
2 277 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 38 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
4 36 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 35 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 10 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.19%) Fusion 360
8 8 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.13%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.11%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.11%) Simulink
11 3 (0.063%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.063%) Trello
12 2 (0.042%) Acrobat
12 2 (0.042%) Sketch
12 2 (0.042%) Weka
13 1 (0.021%) Abaqus
13 1 (0.021%) Adobe XD
13 1 (0.021%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 45 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.42%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.40%) Shopify
6 16 (0.34%) Magento
7 14 (0.29%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.27%) iTrent
9 12 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
10 11 (0.23%) SAP CO
11 9 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
12 7 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 7 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
12 7 (0.15%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.15%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.13%) Sage 50
14 5 (0.11%) Salesforce CRM
15 4 (0.084%) Line 50
15 4 (0.084%) Markit EDM
15 4 (0.084%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 946 (19.87%) Azure
2 826 (17.35%) Microsoft 365
3 470 (9.87%) AWS
4 348 (7.31%) Power Platform
5 213 (4.47%) Entra ID
6 169 (3.55%) SaaS
7 133 (2.79%) GCP
8 117 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
9 106 (2.23%) Serverless
10 96 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
11 87 (1.83%) GitHub
12 70 (1.47%) Power Automate
13 59 (1.24%) Amazon S3
14 58 (1.22%) PowerApps
15 55 (1.16%) Google Workspace
16 54 (1.13%) AWS Lambda
17 48 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
17 48 (1.01%) OneDrive
18 47 (0.99%) IaaS
19 45 (0.95%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 294 (6.18%) Firewall
2 289 (6.07%) DNS
3 233 (4.89%) DHCP
4 161 (3.38%) WAN
5 159 (3.34%) VPN
6 123 (2.58%) LAN
7 114 (2.39%) Wi-Fi
8 112 (2.35%) TCP/IP
9 102 (2.14%) Broadband
10 101 (2.12%) Wireless
11 82 (1.72%) VLAN
12 67 (1.41%) VoIP
13 65 (1.37%) Network Security
14 41 (0.86%) SD-WAN
15 35 (0.74%) SAN
16 34 (0.71%) Internet
17 21 (0.44%) Unified Communications
18 20 (0.42%) HTTP
19 17 (0.36%) Wireshark
20 15 (0.32%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 279 (5.86%) Power BI
2 193 (4.05%) SQL Server
3 67 (1.41%) MySQL
3 67 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
4 66 (1.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 63 (1.32%) NoSQL
6 60 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
6 60 (1.26%) Data Warehouse
7 53 (1.11%) Relational Database
8 52 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 52 (1.09%) Tableau
9 43 (0.90%) Power Query
10 36 (0.76%) DynamoDB
11 30 (0.63%) MongoDB
12 25 (0.53%) Big Data
13 24 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
14 23 (0.48%) Data Lake
15 21 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
16 20 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
16 20 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 189 (3.97%) Git
2 131 (2.75%) JIRA
3 72 (1.51%) GitLab
4 46 (0.97%) Jenkins
5 26 (0.55%) Rational DOORS
6 18 (0.38%) Maven
7 16 (0.34%) Selenium
7 16 (0.34%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 14 (0.29%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.27%) LabVIEW
10 11 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 8 (0.17%) Visual Studio
12 7 (0.15%) CircleCI
12 7 (0.15%) JUnit
12 7 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
13 6 (0.13%) Burp Suite
13 6 (0.13%) JMeter
13 6 (0.13%) Mockito
13 6 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,221 (46.65%) Social Skills
2 1,321 (27.75%) Analytical Skills
3 817 (17.16%) Finance
4 314 (6.60%) Manufacturing
5 302 (6.34%) Organisational Skills
6 217 (4.56%) Public Sector
7 209 (4.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 183 (3.84%) Marketing
9 176 (3.70%) Law
10 174 (3.65%) Legal
11 161 (3.38%) Retail
12 136 (2.86%) Telecoms
13 127 (2.67%) Electronics
14 125 (2.63%) Banking
15 90 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
16 70 (1.47%) Games
17 65 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
18 58 (1.22%) Aerospace
19 56 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
20 52 (1.09%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 689 (14.47%) Analyst
2 592 (12.43%) IT Support
3 524 (11.01%) Support Engineer
4 519 (10.90%) Senior
5 394 (8.28%) Developer
6 341 (7.16%) IT Engineer
7 263 (5.52%) IT Support Engineer
8 256 (5.38%) Lead
9 213 (4.47%) Support Technician
10 200 (4.20%) Support Analyst
11 173 (3.63%) Systems Engineer
12 167 (3.51%) Architect
12 167 (3.51%) IT Technician
13 155 (3.26%) Technical Support
14 150 (3.15%) Consultant
15 149 (3.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 143 (3.00%) Software Engineer
17 137 (2.88%) IT Support Technician
18 128 (2.69%) Business Analyst
19 124 (2.60%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 159 (3.34%) .NET
2 154 (3.23%) React
3 140 (2.94%) HTML
4 111 (2.33%) REST
5 109 (2.29%) CSS
6 74 (1.55%) Node.js
7 70 (1.47%) SOAP
8 57 (1.20%) JSON
8 57 (1.20%) RESTful
9 56 (1.18%) Middleware
10 55 (1.16%) XML
11 49 (1.03%) Vue
12 46 (0.97%) AngularJS
13 43 (0.90%) Spring
14 40 (0.84%) Spring Boot
15 38 (0.80%) OAuth
16 33 (0.69%) EDI
17 29 (0.61%) Laravel
18 28 (0.59%) ASP.NET
19 26 (0.55%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 362 (7.60%) Driving Licence
2 263 (5.52%) Onboarding
3 214 (4.49%) Self-Motivation
4 170 (3.57%) Management Information System
5 125 (2.63%) Product Ownership
6 113 (2.37%) Cloud Native
7 109 (2.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 95 (2.00%) Data Centre
9 94 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
10 75 (1.58%) Social Media
11 71 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
12 58 (1.22%) Mobile App
13 56 (1.18%) Low-Code
14 52 (1.09%) Enterprise Software
15 43 (0.90%) Virtual Team
16 39 (0.82%) Data Structures
17 35 (0.74%) NHS
18 34 (0.71%) Algorithms
18 34 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
19 33 (0.69%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 794 (16.68%) Windows
2 360 (7.56%) Windows Server
3 297 (6.24%) Linux
4 124 (2.60%) Windows 10
5 104 (2.18%) Android
6 91 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.32%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.09%) Mac OS
9 43 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.65%) Unix
11 25 (0.53%) CentOS
11 25 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 22 (0.46%) Ubuntu
13 20 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 14 (0.29%) VMS
15 12 (0.25%) Windows 7
16 9 (0.19%) Debian
17 7 (0.15%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.084%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 985 (20.69%) Continuous Improvement
2 834 (17.52%) Customer Service
3 642 (13.48%) Agile
4 462 (9.70%) Mentoring
5 448 (9.41%) Decision-Making
6 405 (8.51%) CI/CD
7 394 (8.28%) DevOps
8 393 (8.25%) ITIL
9 384 (8.07%) Analytics
10 374 (7.86%) AI
11 330 (6.93%) Business Intelligence
12 321 (6.74%) Coaching
13 320 (6.72%) Project Management
14 306 (6.43%) ERP
15 304 (6.39%) Software Engineering
16 298 (6.26%) Collaborative Working
17 297 (6.24%) Cybersecurity
18 296 (6.22%) Stakeholder Management
19 285 (5.99%) Computer Science
20 273 (5.73%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 628 (13.19%) SQL
2 527 (11.07%) Python
3 291 (6.11%) JavaScript
4 207 (4.35%) C#
5 197 (4.14%) Java
6 192 (4.03%) PowerShell
7 117 (2.46%) TypeScript
8 90 (1.89%) Bash
9 88 (1.85%) C++
10 72 (1.51%) PHP
11 49 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.99%) C
13 38 (0.80%) PL/SQL
14 33 (0.69%) T-SQL
15 28 (0.59%) R
16 27 (0.57%) Kotlin
17 23 (0.48%) Shell Script
18 21 (0.44%) Go
19 20 (0.42%) Rust
20 19 (0.40%) Scala
Qualifications
1 736 (15.46%) Degree
2 338 (7.10%) Security Cleared
3 236 (4.96%) SC Cleared
4 201 (4.22%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 138 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 90 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 77 (1.62%) A+ Certification
9 72 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
10 65 (1.37%) ACCA
10 65 (1.37%) DV Cleared
11 60 (1.26%) CIMA
12 57 (1.20%) CCNA
13 49 (1.03%) PMI Certification
14 46 (0.97%) HNC
14 46 (0.97%) Master's Degree
15 45 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
16 43 (0.90%) CISSP
17 37 (0.78%) Azure Certification
18 36 (0.76%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 265 (5.57%) QA
2 216 (4.54%) Data Quality
3 148 (3.11%) GDPR
4 120 (2.52%) SLA
5 114 (2.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 104 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.72%) PCI DSS
8 77 (1.62%) NIST
9 61 (1.28%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.80%) ISO 9001
11 17 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
12 16 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 15 (0.32%) SOC 2
14 14 (0.29%) GMP
15 12 (0.25%) PMO
15 12 (0.25%) TickIT
16 11 (0.23%) GRC
16 11 (0.23%) ISO 14001
17 8 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 6 (0.13%) COBIT
System Software
1 563 (11.83%) Active Directory
2 171 (3.59%) Hyper-V
3 163 (3.42%) Docker
4 133 (2.79%) VMware Infrastructure
5 48 (1.01%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
7 25 (0.53%) Firmware
8 17 (0.36%) vSphere
9 13 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
11 10 (0.21%) KVM
12 7 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.13%) XenApp
14 4 (0.084%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.084%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.063%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.063%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.063%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.021%) BitLocker
16 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 194 (4.07%) Terraform
2 171 (3.59%) Microsoft Intune
3 149 (3.13%) Kubernetes
4 89 (1.87%) Ansible
5 56 (1.18%) SCCM
6 49 (1.03%) Grafana
7 32 (0.67%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.46%) Nagios
9 15 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.21%) Puppet
10 10 (0.21%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 9 (0.19%) Autotask
11 9 (0.19%) Kibana
11 9 (0.19%) ZABBIX
12 8 (0.17%) FortiGate
12 8 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 8 (0.17%) logstash
13 7 (0.15%) Podman
13 7 (0.15%) QRadar
Vendors
1 1,330 (27.94%) Microsoft
2 210 (4.41%) VMware
3 134 (2.81%) Oracle
4 108 (2.27%) SAP
5 102 (2.14%) Veeam
6 99 (2.08%) Cisco
6 99 (2.08%) Google
7 80 (1.68%) SolarWinds
8 79 (1.66%) Splunk
9 66 (1.39%) Databricks
10 65 (1.37%) Apple
11 62 (1.30%) ServiceNow
12 61 (1.28%) Salesforce
13 52 (1.09%) Adobe
14 49 (1.03%) Dell
14 49 (1.03%) Tanium
15 48 (1.01%) Brocade
15 48 (1.01%) Nimble Storage
16 37 (0.78%) Sage
17 35 (0.74%) HubSpot