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

6 months to
9 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 6,360 6,536 8,541
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.32% 18.88% 14.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.77% 21.59% 18.30%
Number of salaries quoted 4,598 3,640 4,457
10th Percentile £26,750 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £29,750 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £61,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £73,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -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 54,045 30,267 46,670
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.68% 87.45% 78.62%
Number of salaries quoted 37,960 16,583 29,669
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £48,073 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.41% -3.85% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £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 9 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 9 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 -9 1,642 £45,000 +5.88% 892
South East -3 1,540 £45,000 +5.88% 1,134
Midlands -9 1,175 £42,500 +6.47% 660
North West -4 862 £45,125 +0.28% 455
South West -5 780 £45,000 +20.00% 476
West Midlands -10 648 £42,500 -5.56% 389
East of England -3 645 £42,500 +21.43% 418
Yorkshire -7 547 £42,500 +21.43% 319
East Midlands -9 524 £40,000 +12.68% 271
Scotland -2 269 £33,500 -24.72% 211
North East -10 233 £50,000 +31.58% 130
Northern Ireland -7 163 £39,000 -33.90% 106
Wales -20 162 £45,000 -6.49% 107
Isle of Man -1 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
1 353 (5.55%) SharePoint
2 352 (5.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 67 (1.05%) Confluence
4 45 (0.71%) CMS
5 44 (0.69%) IIS
6 34 (0.53%) WordPress
7 31 (0.49%) Apache
8 24 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.25%) Apache Spark
10 15 (0.24%) SAS
11 11 (0.17%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.14%) nginx
12 9 (0.14%) WebLogic
13 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
14 6 (0.094%) Jupyter
15 5 (0.079%) Exchange Server 2013
15 5 (0.079%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.063%) Anypoint
16 4 (0.063%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.063%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 403 (6.34%) Microsoft Office
2 385 (6.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 50 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.64%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
7 19 (0.30%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.30%) Simulink
8 10 (0.16%) Revit
9 8 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 8 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.13%) Chatbot
10 6 (0.094%) Adobe XD
10 6 (0.094%) EPLAN
10 6 (0.094%) Fusion 360
10 6 (0.094%) Sketch
11 5 (0.079%) Lightworks
11 5 (0.079%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.079%) SOLIDWORKS
11 5 (0.079%) Trello
Business Applications
1 54 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
3 36 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.35%) Shopify
5 18 (0.28%) Magento
6 17 (0.27%) SAP ERP
7 16 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
8 15 (0.24%) SAP Business One
9 14 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 13 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
11 12 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
11 12 (0.19%) Workday HCM
12 11 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
13 10 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
14 9 (0.14%) Sage 50
14 9 (0.14%) Sage X3
15 7 (0.11%) NEC Housing
15 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
15 7 (0.11%) Raiser’s Edge
16 5 (0.079%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 1,304 (20.50%) Azure
2 1,111 (17.47%) Microsoft 365
3 666 (10.47%) AWS
4 505 (7.94%) Power Platform
5 329 (5.17%) Entra ID
6 226 (3.55%) GCP
7 221 (3.47%) SaaS
8 156 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
9 135 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
10 123 (1.93%) Serverless
11 119 (1.87%) GitHub
12 112 (1.76%) Power Automate
13 110 (1.73%) PowerApps
14 82 (1.29%) OneDrive
15 78 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
16 57 (0.90%) Amazon S3
17 54 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
18 52 (0.82%) AWS Lambda
18 52 (0.82%) Microsoft Purview
19 50 (0.79%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 414 (6.51%) Firewall
2 383 (6.02%) DNS
3 327 (5.14%) DHCP
4 231 (3.63%) VPN
5 215 (3.38%) TCP/IP
6 193 (3.03%) WAN
7 175 (2.75%) LAN
8 155 (2.44%) Wi-Fi
9 151 (2.37%) Wireless
10 125 (1.97%) VLAN
11 107 (1.68%) Network Security
12 103 (1.62%) Broadband
13 100 (1.57%) VoIP
14 43 (0.68%) Internet
15 29 (0.46%) HTTP
15 29 (0.46%) SAN
15 29 (0.46%) SD-WAN
15 29 (0.46%) SSL
16 22 (0.35%) WLAN
17 21 (0.33%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 396 (6.23%) Power BI
2 307 (4.83%) SQL Server
3 127 (2.00%) MySQL
4 120 (1.89%) Amazon RDS
5 101 (1.59%) Data Warehouse
6 100 (1.57%) Relational Database
7 93 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
8 85 (1.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 77 (1.21%) NoSQL
10 72 (1.13%) Tableau
11 64 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 45 (0.71%) MongoDB
12 45 (0.71%) Power Query
13 41 (0.64%) Big Data
14 38 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
15 37 (0.58%) Electronic Patient Records
16 35 (0.55%) Data Lake
17 30 (0.47%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
19 22 (0.35%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 277 (4.36%) Git
2 218 (3.43%) JIRA
3 84 (1.32%) GitLab
4 65 (1.02%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.46%) Eclipse
6 28 (0.44%) Subversion
7 27 (0.42%) Rational DOORS
8 26 (0.41%) Cucumber
8 26 (0.41%) Selenium
9 23 (0.36%) JUnit
10 22 (0.35%) Postman
11 20 (0.31%) Claude Code
12 18 (0.28%) Cypress.io
12 18 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
13 15 (0.24%) Bitbucket
14 14 (0.22%) SonarQube
15 12 (0.19%) Burp Suite
16 11 (0.17%) Maven
17 10 (0.16%) JMeter
17 10 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 3,031 (47.66%) Social Skills
2 1,770 (27.83%) Analytical Skills
3 993 (15.61%) Finance
4 573 (9.01%) Manufacturing
5 393 (6.18%) Organisational Skills
6 359 (5.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 297 (4.67%) Law
8 285 (4.48%) Public Sector
9 271 (4.26%) Legal
10 262 (4.12%) Retail
11 210 (3.30%) Electronics
12 202 (3.18%) Marketing
13 176 (2.77%) Aerospace
14 160 (2.52%) Telecoms
15 128 (2.01%) Banking
16 127 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
17 115 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
18 72 (1.13%) Games
19 68 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
20 65 (1.02%) Military
Job Titles
1 842 (13.24%) Analyst
2 687 (10.80%) Senior
3 671 (10.55%) Developer
4 666 (10.47%) IT Support
5 554 (8.71%) Support Engineer
6 370 (5.82%) IT Engineer
7 353 (5.55%) Lead
8 288 (4.53%) Support Analyst
9 275 (4.32%) IT Support Engineer
10 266 (4.18%) Support Technician
11 265 (4.17%) Consultant
12 239 (3.76%) Technical Support
13 237 (3.73%) Systems Engineer
14 224 (3.52%) IT Technician
15 210 (3.30%) Software Engineer
16 209 (3.29%) Architect
17 204 (3.21%) Technical Engineer
18 193 (3.03%) Senior Developer
19 183 (2.88%) Technical Support Engineer
20 172 (2.70%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 327 (5.14%) .NET
2 218 (3.43%) React
3 195 (3.07%) HTML
4 185 (2.91%) REST
5 145 (2.28%) CSS
6 118 (1.86%) RESTful
7 97 (1.53%) Node.js
8 91 (1.43%) SOAP
9 80 (1.26%) Vue
10 79 (1.24%) AngularJS
11 77 (1.21%) Middleware
12 72 (1.13%) ASP.NET
13 71 (1.12%) JSON
14 66 (1.04%) XML
15 63 (0.99%) Web Services
16 61 (0.96%) Spring
17 56 (0.88%) OAuth
17 56 (0.88%) Spring Boot
18 46 (0.72%) Kafka
19 45 (0.71%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 509 (8.00%) Driving Licence
2 379 (5.96%) Onboarding
3 302 (4.75%) Self-Motivation
4 264 (4.15%) Management Information System
5 180 (2.83%) Cloud Native
6 162 (2.55%) Product Ownership
7 156 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
8 100 (1.57%) Data Centre
9 95 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
10 88 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
11 87 (1.37%) Distributed Systems
12 78 (1.23%) NHS
12 78 (1.23%) Security Posture
13 77 (1.21%) Social Media
14 69 (1.08%) Robotics
15 68 (1.07%) Mobile App
16 64 (1.01%) IoT
17 61 (0.96%) Virtual Team
18 59 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
19 56 (0.88%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,071 (16.84%) Windows
2 496 (7.80%) Windows Server
3 455 (7.15%) Linux
4 139 (2.19%) Windows 10
5 109 (1.71%) Windows Server 2016
6 106 (1.67%) Android
7 80 (1.26%) Apple iOS
8 79 (1.24%) Mac OS
9 40 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (0.57%) Unix
11 30 (0.47%) Ubuntu
12 24 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 21 (0.33%) CentOS
14 17 (0.27%) VMS
15 13 (0.20%) Debian
16 10 (0.16%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
17 9 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
18 5 (0.079%) OpenVMS
18 5 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,672 (26.29%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,132 (17.80%) Customer Service
3 975 (15.33%) Agile
4 698 (10.97%) Decision-Making
5 668 (10.50%) CI/CD
6 657 (10.33%) Mentoring
7 628 (9.87%) AI
8 560 (8.81%) Stakeholder Management
9 556 (8.74%) DevOps
10 551 (8.66%) ITIL
11 524 (8.24%) Analytics
12 519 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
13 517 (8.13%) Software Engineering
14 497 (7.81%) Collaborative Working
15 472 (7.42%) Project Delivery
16 470 (7.39%) ERP
17 456 (7.17%) Business Intelligence
18 384 (6.04%) Project Management
19 373 (5.86%) Computer Science
20 372 (5.85%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 981 (15.42%) SQL
2 696 (10.94%) Python
3 416 (6.54%) JavaScript
4 406 (6.38%) C#
5 282 (4.43%) Java
6 249 (3.92%) PowerShell
7 188 (2.96%) TypeScript
8 179 (2.81%) C++
9 118 (1.86%) Bash
10 78 (1.23%) PHP
11 71 (1.12%) C
12 59 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 55 (0.86%) T-SQL
14 44 (0.69%) Shell Script
15 40 (0.63%) Perl
16 37 (0.58%) Go
17 36 (0.57%) Ruby
18 33 (0.52%) Rust
19 32 (0.50%) PL/SQL
20 28 (0.44%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 984 (15.47%) Degree
2 586 (9.21%) Security Cleared
3 422 (6.64%) SC Cleared
4 196 (3.08%) DBS Check
5 188 (2.96%) Computer Science Degree
6 171 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
7 146 (2.30%) DV Cleared
8 139 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
9 108 (1.70%) HNC
10 102 (1.60%) Azure Certification
11 90 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
12 79 (1.24%) HND
13 73 (1.15%) PMI Certification
14 66 (1.04%) CISSP
15 62 (0.97%) Master's Degree
16 61 (0.96%) CCNA
17 54 (0.85%) PMP
18 53 (0.83%) ACCA
19 52 (0.82%) A+ Certification
20 51 (0.80%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 416 (6.54%) QA
2 259 (4.07%) Data Quality
3 190 (2.99%) GDPR
4 178 (2.80%) Cyber Essentials
5 162 (2.55%) SLA
6 154 (2.42%) Accessibility
7 130 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 119 (1.87%) PCI DSS
9 93 (1.46%) NIST
10 37 (0.58%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.47%) PMO
13 24 (0.38%) GMP
14 18 (0.28%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.25%) GRC
16 14 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
16 14 (0.22%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.19%) TickIT
17 12 (0.19%) WCAG
18 11 (0.17%) DO-254
System Software
1 736 (11.57%) Active Directory
2 280 (4.40%) Hyper-V
3 252 (3.96%) Docker
4 202 (3.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.26%) Terminal Server
6 62 (0.97%) Firmware
7 32 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
8 28 (0.44%) vSphere
9 26 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
10 19 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.16%) KVM
13 6 (0.094%) XenApp
14 5 (0.079%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.079%) Squid
14 5 (0.079%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.063%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.063%) VMware Workstation
16 3 (0.047%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.047%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 255 (4.01%) Terraform
2 233 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
3 221 (3.47%) Kubernetes
4 107 (1.68%) Ansible
5 62 (0.97%) Grafana
5 62 (0.97%) SCCM
6 45 (0.71%) Prometheus
7 26 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (0.33%) FortiGate
9 19 (0.30%) Puppet
10 16 (0.25%) Nagios
11 14 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.17%) Functional Safety
12 11 (0.17%) Kibana
12 11 (0.17%) Podman
12 11 (0.17%) Proxmox
13 10 (0.16%) logstash
13 10 (0.16%) Nmap
14 9 (0.14%) Failover Clustering
14 9 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,914 (30.09%) Microsoft
2 323 (5.08%) VMware
3 155 (2.44%) Google
4 153 (2.41%) SAP
5 147 (2.31%) Oracle
6 138 (2.17%) Veeam
7 132 (2.08%) Cisco
8 123 (1.93%) Splunk
9 108 (1.70%) ServiceNow
10 106 (1.67%) SolarWinds
11 88 (1.38%) Tanium
12 87 (1.37%) Salesforce
13 81 (1.27%) Nimble Storage
14 80 (1.26%) Brocade
15 74 (1.16%) Databricks
16 67 (1.05%) Workday
17 65 (1.02%) Apple
18 62 (0.97%) Sage
19 56 (0.88%) Fortinet
20 46 (0.72%) Meraki