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

6 months to
19 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 5,194 6,024 11,473
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.69% 20.05% 14.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.03% 22.03% 18.13%
Number of salaries quoted 3,873 3,190 7,025
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £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 £48,793
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.47% -11.29%

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 47,109 27,343 63,293
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.73% 91.03% 79.78%
Number of salaries quoted 32,980 13,881 44,192
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,984 £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 £81,000 £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 19 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 19 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 -8 1,405 £42,500 -4.49% 562
South East -5 1,261 £45,000 +5.76% 742
Midlands -9 965 £42,000 -1.18% 403
North West -7 721 £45,000 -3.23% 326
South West -6 614 £44,000 +17.33% 269
West Midlands -9 550 £42,500 -5.56% 224
East of England -3 523 £45,000 +28.57% 236
Yorkshire -12 510 £41,500 +18.57% 163
East Midlands -9 412 £35,000 -6.67% 180
Scotland -3 261 £34,000 -30.33% 99
North East -11 174 £48,500 +21.25% 87
Wales -18 114 £45,000 -5.26% 45
Northern Ireland -10 71 £38,500 -30.00% 72
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 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
1 332 (6.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 313 (6.03%) SharePoint
3 50 (0.96%) Confluence
4 49 (0.94%) CMS
5 31 (0.60%) IIS
6 25 (0.48%) WordPress
7 24 (0.46%) Apache
8 20 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.25%) 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 8 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 8 (0.15%) WebSphere
14 7 (0.13%) OpenEdge
15 5 (0.096%) nginx
15 5 (0.096%) Skype for Business
15 5 (0.096%) WebLogic
16 4 (0.077%) Moodle
Applications
1 325 (6.26%) Microsoft Office
2 314 (6.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 42 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 32 (0.62%) MS Visio
6 16 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.13%) Simulink
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.096%) Fusion 360
11 5 (0.096%) Trello
12 4 (0.077%) Chatbot
13 3 (0.058%) Autodesk Inventor
13 3 (0.058%) Windchill
14 2 (0.039%) Adobe XD
14 2 (0.039%) Lightworks
14 2 (0.039%) Siemens NX
14 2 (0.039%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 50 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
3 27 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.42%) 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 (0.15%) Sage 50
11 8 (0.15%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.13%) SAP CO
12 7 (0.13%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.096%) Q-Pulse
14 4 (0.077%) Dynamics GP
14 4 (0.077%) Line 50
14 4 (0.077%) Sage X3
14 4 (0.077%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 1,083 (20.85%) Azure
2 945 (18.19%) Microsoft 365
3 537 (10.34%) AWS
4 394 (7.59%) Power Platform
5 245 (4.72%) Entra ID
6 174 (3.35%) SaaS
7 152 (2.93%) GCP
8 119 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
9 113 (2.18%) Dynamics 365
10 111 (2.14%) Serverless
11 87 (1.68%) GitHub
12 84 (1.62%) Power Automate
13 76 (1.46%) PowerApps
14 67 (1.29%) OneDrive
15 55 (1.06%) Amazon S3
16 49 (0.94%) Google Workspace
17 48 (0.92%) AWS Lambda
18 45 (0.87%) IaaS
19 44 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
19 44 (0.85%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 368 (7.09%) Firewall
2 338 (6.51%) DNS
3 290 (5.58%) DHCP
4 196 (3.77%) VPN
5 177 (3.41%) WAN
6 146 (2.81%) LAN
7 142 (2.73%) TCP/IP
8 136 (2.62%) Wi-Fi
9 109 (2.10%) Broadband
10 107 (2.06%) Wireless
11 102 (1.96%) VLAN
12 83 (1.60%) Network Security
13 80 (1.54%) VoIP
14 41 (0.79%) Internet
15 40 (0.77%) SD-WAN
16 31 (0.60%) SAN
17 23 (0.44%) HTTP
18 20 (0.39%) SSL
19 18 (0.35%) Remote Desktop
20 17 (0.33%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 317 (6.10%) Power BI
2 220 (4.24%) SQL Server
3 105 (2.02%) Amazon RDS
4 78 (1.50%) MySQL
5 76 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
6 69 (1.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 68 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
8 67 (1.29%) NoSQL
9 60 (1.16%) Tableau
10 59 (1.14%) Relational Database
11 54 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 45 (0.87%) Power Query
13 38 (0.73%) MongoDB
14 35 (0.67%) Big Data
15 32 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
16 30 (0.58%) Data Lake
17 29 (0.56%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
19 23 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
20 21 (0.40%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 193 (3.72%) Git
2 146 (2.81%) JIRA
3 66 (1.27%) GitLab
4 40 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.56%) Rational DOORS
6 17 (0.33%) Cucumber
6 17 (0.33%) JUnit
7 16 (0.31%) Subversion
8 15 (0.29%) Selenium
9 14 (0.27%) Maven
10 12 (0.23%) Cypress.io
10 12 (0.23%) Eclipse
10 12 (0.23%) SonarQube
11 11 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
12 9 (0.17%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.17%) Postman
13 8 (0.15%) Burp Suite
13 8 (0.15%) LabVIEW
13 8 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
14 7 (0.13%) Visual Studio
General
1 2,482 (47.79%) Social Skills
2 1,435 (27.63%) Analytical Skills
3 830 (15.98%) Finance
4 382 (7.35%) Manufacturing
5 331 (6.37%) Organisational Skills
6 234 (4.51%) Public Sector
7 225 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 202 (3.89%) Legal
9 197 (3.79%) Law
10 195 (3.75%) Retail
11 178 (3.43%) Marketing
12 135 (2.60%) Banking
13 134 (2.58%) Telecoms
14 132 (2.54%) Electronics
15 105 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
16 99 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
17 76 (1.46%) Aerospace
18 70 (1.35%) Games
19 57 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
20 53 (1.02%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 745 (14.34%) Analyst
2 630 (12.13%) IT Support
3 548 (10.55%) Support Engineer
4 541 (10.42%) Senior
5 469 (9.03%) Developer
6 373 (7.18%) IT Engineer
7 286 (5.51%) IT Support Engineer
8 271 (5.22%) Lead
9 238 (4.58%) Support Technician
10 213 (4.10%) Systems Engineer
11 209 (4.02%) Support Analyst
12 188 (3.62%) IT Technician
13 176 (3.39%) Technical Support
14 175 (3.37%) Consultant
15 174 (3.35%) Architect
16 162 (3.12%) Software Engineer
17 150 (2.89%) IT Support Technician
18 146 (2.81%) Technical Engineer
19 139 (2.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 139 (2.68%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (3.74%) .NET
2 182 (3.50%) React
3 156 (3.00%) HTML
4 138 (2.66%) REST
5 119 (2.29%) CSS
6 95 (1.83%) Node.js
7 79 (1.52%) SOAP
8 71 (1.37%) RESTful
9 69 (1.33%) JSON
10 68 (1.31%) Middleware
11 62 (1.19%) Vue
12 61 (1.17%) XML
13 59 (1.14%) AngularJS
14 41 (0.79%) ASP.NET
14 41 (0.79%) Spring
15 40 (0.77%) Web Services
16 39 (0.75%) OAuth
17 38 (0.73%) Spring Boot
18 36 (0.69%) EDI
19 30 (0.58%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 396 (7.62%) Driving Licence
2 281 (5.41%) Onboarding
3 232 (4.47%) Self-Motivation
4 199 (3.83%) Management Information System
5 139 (2.68%) Legacy Systems
6 137 (2.64%) Cloud Native
7 127 (2.45%) Product Ownership
8 99 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
9 97 (1.87%) Data Centre
10 75 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
11 71 (1.37%) Social Media
12 64 (1.23%) Mobile App
13 59 (1.14%) Security Posture
14 52 (1.00%) Low-Code
15 48 (0.92%) Virtual Team
16 47 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
17 45 (0.87%) Data Structures
18 39 (0.75%) Algorithms
18 39 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
18 39 (0.75%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 901 (17.35%) Windows
2 441 (8.49%) Windows Server
3 362 (6.97%) Linux
4 138 (2.66%) Windows 10
5 126 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 101 (1.94%) Android
7 66 (1.27%) Apple iOS
8 60 (1.16%) Mac OS
9 53 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.58%) Unix
11 27 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 26 (0.50%) CentOS
12 26 (0.50%) Ubuntu
13 19 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
14 16 (0.31%) VMS
15 13 (0.25%) Windows 7
16 12 (0.23%) Debian
17 7 (0.13%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
18 5 (0.096%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,179 (22.70%) Continuous Improvement
2 934 (17.98%) Customer Service
3 684 (13.17%) Agile
4 519 (9.99%) Decision-Making
5 518 (9.97%) Mentoring
6 447 (8.61%) AI
7 442 (8.51%) CI/CD
8 437 (8.41%) Analytics
9 421 (8.11%) ITIL
10 405 (7.80%) DevOps
11 387 (7.45%) Collaborative Working
12 386 (7.43%) Cybersecurity
13 369 (7.10%) ERP
14 367 (7.07%) Business Intelligence
15 352 (6.78%) Software Engineering
16 340 (6.55%) Stakeholder Management
17 325 (6.26%) Computer Science
18 320 (6.16%) Coaching
19 307 (5.91%) Project Management
20 299 (5.76%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 774 (14.90%) SQL
2 590 (11.36%) Python
3 328 (6.31%) JavaScript
4 261 (5.03%) C#
5 222 (4.27%) Java
6 211 (4.06%) PowerShell
7 140 (2.70%) TypeScript
8 117 (2.25%) C++
9 99 (1.91%) Bash
10 74 (1.42%) PHP
11 53 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 50 (0.96%) C
13 44 (0.85%) PL/SQL
14 42 (0.81%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.58%) Kotlin
16 29 (0.56%) R
17 28 (0.54%) Perl
18 26 (0.50%) Go
19 25 (0.48%) Ruby
20 24 (0.46%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 761 (14.65%) Degree
2 415 (7.99%) Security Cleared
3 301 (5.80%) SC Cleared
4 205 (3.95%) DBS Check
5 154 (2.96%) Microsoft Certification
6 151 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 85 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
8 76 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
9 68 (1.31%) DV Cleared
10 66 (1.27%) A+ Certification
11 64 (1.23%) ACCA
12 60 (1.16%) CCNA
12 60 (1.16%) CIMA
13 54 (1.04%) HNC
14 53 (1.02%) PMI Certification
15 51 (0.98%) Azure Certification
16 46 (0.89%) Master's Degree
16 46 (0.89%) Network+ Certification
17 45 (0.87%) CISSP
17 45 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 301 (5.80%) QA
2 240 (4.62%) Data Quality
3 167 (3.22%) Cyber Essentials
4 149 (2.87%) GDPR
5 131 (2.52%) SLA
6 126 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 115 (2.21%) PCI DSS
8 88 (1.69%) Accessibility
9 81 (1.56%) NIST
10 39 (0.75%) ISO 9001
11 23 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 23 (0.44%) PMO
12 18 (0.35%) GMP
13 17 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
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 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 648 (12.48%) Active Directory
2 242 (4.66%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.39%) Docker
4 170 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.54%) Terminal Server
6 31 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
7 30 (0.58%) Firmware
8 20 (0.39%) vSphere
9 17 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.19%) KVM
12 8 (0.15%) Embedded Firmware
13 7 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.12%) XenApp
15 5 (0.096%) ClearTrust
16 4 (0.077%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 4 (0.077%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.058%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 3 (0.058%) Terminal Services
18 2 (0.039%) Samba
Systems Management
1 195 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 187 (3.60%) Terraform
3 169 (3.25%) Kubernetes
4 92 (1.77%) Ansible
5 55 (1.06%) SCCM
6 53 (1.02%) Grafana
7 36 (0.69%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.40%) Nagios
9 16 (0.31%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.25%) vCenter Server
11 10 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.19%) Kibana
12 9 (0.17%) Autotask
12 9 (0.17%) Functional Safety
12 9 (0.17%) logstash
12 9 (0.17%) Podman
12 9 (0.17%) Puppet
12 9 (0.17%) QRadar
12 9 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.17%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,532 (29.50%) Microsoft
2 284 (5.47%) VMware
3 137 (2.64%) Veeam
4 132 (2.54%) Oracle
5 117 (2.25%) SAP
6 116 (2.23%) Splunk
7 112 (2.16%) Google
8 111 (2.14%) SolarWinds
9 104 (2.00%) Cisco
10 83 (1.60%) Tanium
11 81 (1.56%) Nimble Storage
12 80 (1.54%) Brocade
13 75 (1.44%) Salesforce
14 63 (1.21%) Databricks
15 62 (1.19%) Apple
15 62 (1.19%) ServiceNow
16 51 (0.98%) Adobe
17 50 (0.96%) Sage
18 43 (0.83%) Dell
19 37 (0.71%) Meraki