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 2 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 4 6
Rank change year-on-year +1 +2 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,423 7,335 4,965
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 18.40% 15.29% 16.00%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 21.56% 19.13% 17.01%
Number of salaries quoted 3,650 2,724 3,471
10th Percentile £25,743 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £33,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £39,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £55,000 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £69,020 £82,500 £77,500
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 29,792 38,336 29,181
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.32% 79.92% 94.04%
Number of salaries quoted 17,110 18,819 21,680
10th Percentile £26,863 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,000 £40,000 £39,085
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,500 £54,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.89% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £63,750 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £81,250
UK median annual salary £54,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -10.00% - -

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 2 November 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 2 November 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
North of England -1 1,808 £45,000 - 850
South East +1 1,686 £40,000 -20.00% 2,283
Midlands +1 1,232 £38,000 -24.00% 617
North West +3 1,025 £47,683 -2.34% 483
West Midlands +1 647 £42,500 -19.05% 364
Yorkshire -1 640 £32,500 -29.35% 262
East Midlands +5 585 £32,500 -12.16% 249
South West +2 584 £37,500 -31.82% 504
East of England 0 522 £32,500 -35.00% 441
Scotland -5 368 £33,500 -32.66% 200
Wales +8 185 £47,500 -4.04% 151
North East 0 143 £33,500 +3.08% 109
Northern Ireland 0 54 £59,500 +32.22% 65
Channel Islands +2 1 £45,000 +5.88% 8
Isle of Man 0 1 - - 2
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
1 263 (4.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 222 (3.46%) SharePoint
3 52 (0.81%) Confluence
4 51 (0.79%) IIS
5 31 (0.48%) Apache Spark
6 28 (0.44%) CMS
7 26 (0.40%) Apache
8 20 (0.31%) WordPress
9 12 (0.19%) Camunda
10 10 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
11 9 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
12 7 (0.11%) HCL Notes
13 6 (0.093%) Tomcat
14 5 (0.078%) Apache Solr
14 5 (0.078%) ArcGIS
14 5 (0.078%) nginx
14 5 (0.078%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 5 (0.078%) Umbraco
15 4 (0.062%) Exchange Server 2013
15 4 (0.062%) SAS
Applications
1 487 (7.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 460 (7.16%) Microsoft Office
3 67 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 27 (0.42%) AutoCAD
5 21 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 21 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 21 (0.33%) Simulink
6 20 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
7 17 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
8 13 (0.20%) Photoshop
9 12 (0.19%) Mathcad
10 10 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 10 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
11 8 (0.12%) Adobe Premiere
11 8 (0.12%) Trello
12 6 (0.093%) Revit
13 5 (0.078%) Adobe XD
14 4 (0.062%) Autodesk Inventor
14 4 (0.062%) CATIA
14 4 (0.062%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 89 (1.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 47 (0.73%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
5 19 (0.30%) SAP Business One
6 18 (0.28%) Oracle Receivables
6 18 (0.28%) Sage 200
7 16 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
7 16 (0.25%) Shopify
7 16 (0.25%) Unit4 Business World
8 14 (0.22%) Sage CRM
8 14 (0.22%) SAP FI
9 13 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
9 13 (0.20%) SAP WM
10 10 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
10 10 (0.16%) Sage X3
10 10 (0.16%) SAP CO
10 10 (0.16%) SAP FI/CO
11 8 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
11 8 (0.12%) JDE EnterpriseOne
Cloud Services
1 1,124 (17.50%) Azure
2 784 (12.21%) Microsoft 365
3 417 (6.49%) AWS
4 379 (5.90%) Power Platform
5 250 (3.89%) SaaS
6 218 (3.39%) Entra ID
7 144 (2.24%) GCP
8 118 (1.84%) Azure DevOps
9 69 (1.07%) GitHub
10 67 (1.04%) Power Automate
11 66 (1.03%) Dynamics 365
12 65 (1.01%) Serverless
13 45 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
14 43 (0.67%) Amazon S3
15 42 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
15 42 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
15 42 (0.65%) OneDrive
15 42 (0.65%) PowerApps
16 38 (0.59%) PaaS
17 33 (0.51%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 423 (6.59%) VPN
2 303 (4.72%) DNS
3 297 (4.62%) Firewall
4 280 (4.36%) Cisco IOS
5 258 (4.02%) DHCP
6 173 (2.69%) TCP/IP
7 148 (2.30%) Wi-Fi
8 139 (2.16%) LAN
9 132 (2.06%) Broadband
10 122 (1.90%) WAN
11 89 (1.39%) VLAN
12 82 (1.28%) VoIP
13 62 (0.97%) Remote Desktop
14 50 (0.78%) Network Security
15 44 (0.69%) Wireless
16 38 (0.59%) SAN
17 33 (0.51%) Ethernet
17 33 (0.51%) Internet
18 22 (0.34%) IP Telephony
19 20 (0.31%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 345 (5.37%) Power BI
2 265 (4.13%) SQL Server
3 115 (1.79%) Data Lake
4 111 (1.73%) Amazon RDS
5 108 (1.68%) MySQL
6 100 (1.56%) Relational Database
7 81 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
8 73 (1.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.00%) SAP BW
10 61 (0.95%) Data Warehouse
11 57 (0.89%) Tableau
12 42 (0.65%) NoSQL
12 42 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 39 (0.61%) GIS
14 34 (0.53%) Metadata
15 31 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
16 30 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
17 29 (0.45%) Big Data
17 29 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
18 28 (0.44%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 185 (2.88%) Git
2 171 (2.66%) JIRA
3 47 (0.73%) Jenkins
4 27 (0.42%) Octopus Deploy
5 26 (0.40%) Selenium
6 25 (0.39%) Visual Studio
7 24 (0.37%) GitLab
8 19 (0.30%) Maven
8 19 (0.30%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.28%) JUnit
10 13 (0.20%) Bitbucket
11 12 (0.19%) Robot Framework
11 12 (0.19%) Snyk
12 10 (0.16%) Oracle Forms
13 9 (0.14%) SonarQube
13 9 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
14 8 (0.12%) Cypress.io
14 8 (0.12%) LabVIEW
14 8 (0.12%) MSBuild
14 8 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
General
1 3,038 (47.30%) Social Skills
2 1,855 (28.88%) Analytical Skills
3 1,234 (19.21%) Finance
4 1,128 (17.56%) Manufacturing
5 1,119 (17.42%) Retail
6 472 (7.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 352 (5.48%) Marketing
8 291 (4.53%) Law
9 256 (3.99%) Organisational Skills
10 192 (2.99%) Dutch Language
10 192 (2.99%) Finnish Language
10 192 (2.99%) Norwegian Language
11 185 (2.88%) Legal
12 172 (2.68%) Banking
13 156 (2.43%) Public Sector
14 146 (2.27%) Telecoms
15 139 (2.16%) Games
16 125 (1.95%) Electronics
17 98 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
18 95 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 923 (14.37%) Analyst
2 725 (11.29%) Trainer
3 616 (9.59%) IT Support
4 604 (9.40%) Senior
5 467 (7.27%) Support Engineer
6 405 (6.31%) Lead
7 400 (6.23%) Support Analyst
8 388 (6.04%) Developer
9 328 (5.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 327 (5.09%) Technical Support
11 230 (3.58%) 2nd Line Support
12 218 (3.39%) Technical Engineer
13 211 (3.29%) Systems Engineer
14 202 (3.14%) Technical Support Engineer
15 168 (2.62%) Support Technician
16 165 (2.57%) IT Analyst
17 161 (2.51%) IT Engineer
18 155 (2.41%) Applications Support
19 146 (2.27%) Consultant
20 141 (2.20%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 271 (4.22%) Elastic Stack
2 228 (3.55%) .NET
3 195 (3.04%) HTML
4 172 (2.68%) CSS
5 146 (2.27%) React
6 109 (1.70%) REST
7 79 (1.23%) ASP.NET
7 79 (1.23%) RESTful
8 70 (1.09%) JSON
9 64 (1.00%) XML
10 56 (0.87%) Node.js
11 55 (0.86%) Spring
12 50 (0.78%) .NET Framework
13 48 (0.75%) AngularJS
14 45 (0.70%) SOAP
15 36 (0.56%) EDI
16 35 (0.54%) Entity Framework
16 35 (0.54%) Spring Boot
17 34 (0.53%) Django
17 34 (0.53%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 734 (11.43%) Robotics
2 484 (7.54%) Driving Licence
3 377 (5.87%) Onboarding
4 317 (4.94%) Self-Motivation
5 302 (4.70%) Cyberattack
6 256 (3.99%) Management Information System
7 200 (3.11%) Analytical Mindset
8 124 (1.93%) FMCG
9 115 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
10 102 (1.59%) Data Centre
11 100 (1.56%) Operational Technology
12 82 (1.28%) Product Ownership
13 62 (0.97%) Virtual Team
14 61 (0.95%) Manufacturing Execution System
15 59 (0.92%) e-Learning
16 55 (0.86%) Algorithms
17 54 (0.84%) Renewable Energy
18 53 (0.83%) Cloud Native
19 51 (0.79%) EPoS
20 49 (0.76%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1,214 (18.90%) Windows
2 525 (8.17%) Linux
3 374 (5.82%) Windows Server
4 320 (4.98%) Android
5 160 (2.49%) Windows 10
6 82 (1.28%) Windows Server 2016
7 76 (1.18%) Mac OS
8 50 (0.78%) Unix
9 43 (0.67%) Apple iOS
10 25 (0.39%) Windows 7
11 21 (0.33%) Windows Server 2019
12 13 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
13 11 (0.17%) VMS
14 5 (0.078%) Mac OS X
14 5 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
15 4 (0.062%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 4 (0.062%) Windows 8
16 3 (0.047%) CentOS
16 3 (0.047%) Ubuntu
17 1 (0.016%) Windows Mobile
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,063 (16.55%) Customer Service
2 1,011 (15.74%) Continuous Improvement
3 1,004 (15.63%) AI
4 879 (13.69%) Machine Learning
5 781 (12.16%) Agile
6 766 (11.93%) LLM
7 762 (11.86%) Generative AI
8 724 (11.27%) Red Team
9 619 (9.64%) Data Privacy
10 614 (9.56%) DevOps
11 532 (8.28%) Analytics
12 482 (7.50%) Mentoring
13 475 (7.40%) ERP
13 475 (7.40%) Project Management
14 452 (7.04%) Business Intelligence
15 447 (6.96%) Decision-Making
16 427 (6.65%) Mathematics
17 406 (6.32%) ITIL
18 375 (5.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 371 (5.78%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 832 (12.95%) SQL
2 683 (10.63%) Python
3 481 (7.49%) PowerShell
4 295 (4.59%) Bash
5 293 (4.56%) C#
6 268 (4.17%) JavaScript
7 198 (3.08%) Java
8 90 (1.40%) C++
9 79 (1.23%) PHP
10 57 (0.89%) TypeScript
11 56 (0.87%) T-SQL
12 40 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 34 (0.53%) C
14 33 (0.51%) MATLAB
14 33 (0.51%) VBA
15 20 (0.31%) R
16 15 (0.23%) Perl
17 14 (0.22%) Go
17 14 (0.22%) PL/SQL
18 11 (0.17%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 1,927 (30.00%) Degree
2 393 (6.12%) Security Cleared
3 275 (4.28%) SC Cleared
4 172 (2.68%) Computer Science Degree
5 156 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 135 (2.10%) DBS Check
7 108 (1.68%) Master's Degree
8 104 (1.62%) HNC
9 99 (1.54%) DV Cleared
10 96 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
11 95 (1.48%) HND
12 79 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
13 63 (0.98%) A+ Certification
14 60 (0.93%) Network+ Certification
15 53 (0.83%) CCNA
16 46 (0.72%) ACCA
16 46 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 42 (0.65%) CIMA
18 37 (0.58%) CISSP
19 36 (0.56%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 226 (3.52%) QA
2 199 (3.10%) Data Quality
3 145 (2.26%) GDPR
4 121 (1.88%) Cyber Essentials
5 105 (1.63%) SLA
6 90 (1.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 80 (1.25%) Accessibility
8 79 (1.23%) PCI DSS
9 36 (0.56%) NIST
10 26 (0.40%) ISO 9001
11 24 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 20 (0.31%) PMO
13 17 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
14 12 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 15288
15 10 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
16 7 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 7 (0.11%) WCAG
17 6 (0.093%) HIPAA
17 6 (0.093%) ISO 13485
18 5 (0.078%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 627 (9.76%) Active Directory
2 461 (7.18%) Hyper-V
3 420 (6.54%) Docker
4 278 (4.33%) vSphere
5 260 (4.05%) VMware NSX
6 118 (1.84%) VMware Infrastructure
7 72 (1.12%) Terminal Server
8 59 (0.92%) Firmware
9 21 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
10 19 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
11 17 (0.26%) Embedded Firmware
11 17 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
12 8 (0.12%) Terminal Services
13 6 (0.093%) HDFS
13 6 (0.093%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.062%) KVM
14 4 (0.062%) XenApp
15 3 (0.047%) GPFS
15 3 (0.047%) Lustre
15 3 (0.047%) NFS
Systems Management
1 420 (6.54%) Terraform
2 318 (4.95%) Ansible
3 232 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
4 147 (2.29%) Kubernetes
5 33 (0.51%) SCCM
6 27 (0.42%) Grafana
7 22 (0.34%) BMC PATROL
8 21 (0.33%) Prometheus
9 17 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.22%) FortiGate
10 14 (0.22%) vCenter Server
11 12 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.16%) AWS Copilot
12 10 (0.16%) Nagios
12 10 (0.16%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.12%) QRadar
14 7 (0.11%) PaperCut
15 6 (0.093%) Cisco CUCM
16 5 (0.078%) Netcool
16 5 (0.078%) Netcool/OMNIbus
Vendors
1 1,401 (21.81%) Microsoft
2 852 (13.26%) Google
3 782 (12.17%) Databricks
4 762 (11.86%) Adobe
5 445 (6.93%) Cisco
6 360 (5.60%) Splunk
7 354 (5.51%) SAP
8 285 (4.44%) Juniper
9 270 (4.20%) 3PAR
10 224 (3.49%) VMware
11 183 (2.85%) Oracle
12 115 (1.79%) Veeam
13 110 (1.71%) Salesforce
14 98 (1.53%) BT
15 97 (1.51%) ServiceNow
16 88 (1.37%) SolarWinds
17 81 (1.26%) Sage
18 78 (1.21%) Siemens
19 73 (1.14%) Tanium
20 72 (1.12%) Brocade