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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,077 5,926 11,405
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.63% 20.09% 14.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.96% 22.03% 18.31%
Number of salaries quoted 3,779 3,116 6,996
10th Percentile £26,360 £26,000 £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 £73,800 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 46,318 26,901 62,283
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.63% 91.20% 80.29%
Number of salaries quoted 32,280 13,607 43,554
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £33,125 £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% -9.69%

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 12 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 12 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 1,377 £42,500 -4.49% 588
South East -5 1,221 £45,000 +5.88% 725
Midlands -8 941 £40,000 -11.11% 406
North West -5 706 £45,000 -3.23% 332
South West -6 596 £43,500 +8.75% 295
West Midlands -9 537 £42,500 -10.53% 243
East of England -3 508 £45,000 +28.57% 272
Yorkshire -11 507 £40,500 +15.71% 187
East Midlands -9 401 £35,000 -6.67% 165
Scotland -2 269 £35,000 -28.28% 99
North East -13 164 £48,472 +21.18% 80
Wales -16 114 £43,750 -12.50% 39
Northern Ireland -7 71 £38,500 -30.00% 63
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
1 311 (6.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 301 (5.93%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.95%) CMS
4 47 (0.93%) Confluence
5 29 (0.57%) IIS
6 24 (0.47%) WordPress
7 23 (0.45%) Apache
8 19 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 14 (0.28%) Apache Spark
10 13 (0.26%) SAS
11 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
13 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 6 (0.12%) WebSphere
15 5 (0.098%) nginx
15 5 (0.098%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.079%) Moodle
16 4 (0.079%) OpenStack
Applications
1 309 (6.09%) Microsoft Office
2 305 (6.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 45 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.69%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
9 7 (0.14%) Fusion 360
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 6 (0.12%) Simulink
11 5 (0.098%) Photoshop
12 4 (0.079%) Chatbot
12 4 (0.079%) Trello
13 3 (0.059%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.039%) Adobe XD
14 2 (0.039%) Lightworks
14 2 (0.039%) Sketch
14 2 (0.039%) SOLIDWORKS
14 2 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 48 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.37%) Shopify
6 16 (0.32%) Magento
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.22%) iTrent
10 10 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
11 9 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
12 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
12 8 (0.16%) SAP CO
13 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
14 5 (0.098%) Q-Pulse
14 5 (0.098%) Salesforce CRM
15 4 (0.079%) Dynamics GP
15 4 (0.079%) Line 50
15 4 (0.079%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 1,044 (20.56%) Azure
2 902 (17.77%) Microsoft 365
3 525 (10.34%) AWS
4 374 (7.37%) Power Platform
5 236 (4.65%) Entra ID
6 170 (3.35%) SaaS
7 151 (2.97%) GCP
8 117 (2.30%) Azure DevOps
9 111 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
10 110 (2.17%) Serverless
11 82 (1.62%) GitHub
12 77 (1.52%) Power Automate
13 69 (1.36%) PowerApps
14 64 (1.26%) OneDrive
15 57 (1.12%) Amazon S3
16 51 (1.00%) Google Workspace
17 49 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
18 44 (0.87%) IaaS
19 43 (0.85%) PaaS
20 40 (0.79%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 349 (6.87%) Firewall
2 325 (6.40%) DNS
3 274 (5.40%) DHCP
4 180 (3.55%) VPN
5 172 (3.39%) WAN
6 138 (2.72%) LAN
7 130 (2.56%) TCP/IP
7 130 (2.56%) Wi-Fi
8 107 (2.11%) Broadband
9 106 (2.09%) Wireless
10 102 (2.01%) VLAN
11 82 (1.62%) VoIP
12 80 (1.58%) Network Security
13 42 (0.83%) SD-WAN
14 39 (0.77%) Internet
15 33 (0.65%) SAN
16 19 (0.37%) HTTP
17 17 (0.33%) Remote Desktop
18 16 (0.32%) SSL
19 15 (0.30%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 298 (5.87%) Power BI
2 211 (4.16%) SQL Server
3 96 (1.89%) Amazon RDS
4 74 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
5 73 (1.44%) MySQL
6 71 (1.40%) NoSQL
7 68 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
7 68 (1.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 61 (1.20%) Tableau
9 54 (1.06%) Relational Database
10 53 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 45 (0.89%) Power Query
12 38 (0.75%) Big Data
13 36 (0.71%) MongoDB
14 30 (0.59%) DynamoDB
15 28 (0.55%) Data Lake
16 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
16 25 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
17 22 (0.43%) Metadata
18 21 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 192 (3.78%) Git
2 144 (2.84%) JIRA
3 66 (1.30%) GitLab
4 39 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.59%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) JUnit
6 16 (0.32%) Selenium
7 15 (0.30%) Cucumber
7 15 (0.30%) Subversion
8 14 (0.28%) Maven
9 11 (0.22%) Cypress.io
9 11 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
9 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
10 10 (0.20%) Eclipse
10 10 (0.20%) LabVIEW
11 9 (0.18%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.16%) Burp Suite
12 8 (0.16%) Postman
12 8 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 7 (0.14%) MLflow
General
1 2,421 (47.69%) Social Skills
2 1,423 (28.03%) Analytical Skills
3 826 (16.27%) Finance
4 355 (6.99%) Manufacturing
5 323 (6.36%) Organisational Skills
6 228 (4.49%) Public Sector
7 219 (4.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 195 (3.84%) Law
8 195 (3.84%) Legal
9 184 (3.62%) Marketing
10 182 (3.58%) Retail
11 139 (2.74%) Telecoms
12 134 (2.64%) Electronics
13 131 (2.58%) Banking
14 101 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
15 91 (1.79%) Influencing Skills
16 72 (1.42%) Aerospace
17 69 (1.36%) Games
18 54 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
19 53 (1.04%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 732 (14.42%) Analyst
2 620 (12.21%) IT Support
3 541 (10.66%) Senior
4 535 (10.54%) Support Engineer
5 444 (8.75%) Developer
6 367 (7.23%) IT Engineer
7 280 (5.52%) IT Support Engineer
8 266 (5.24%) Lead
9 234 (4.61%) Support Technician
10 206 (4.06%) Systems Engineer
11 204 (4.02%) Support Analyst
12 184 (3.62%) IT Technician
13 175 (3.45%) Architect
14 170 (3.35%) Consultant
15 164 (3.23%) Technical Support
16 159 (3.13%) Software Engineer
17 148 (2.92%) IT Support Technician
18 143 (2.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 133 (2.62%) Technical Engineer
20 127 (2.50%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 190 (3.74%) .NET
2 176 (3.47%) React
3 150 (2.95%) HTML
4 130 (2.56%) REST
5 116 (2.28%) CSS
6 90 (1.77%) Node.js
7 74 (1.46%) SOAP
8 69 (1.36%) RESTful
9 66 (1.30%) JSON
10 59 (1.16%) Vue
11 58 (1.14%) Middleware
11 58 (1.14%) XML
12 57 (1.12%) AngularJS
13 40 (0.79%) Spring
14 39 (0.77%) ASP.NET
14 39 (0.77%) OAuth
15 37 (0.73%) Web Services
16 36 (0.71%) Spring Boot
17 33 (0.65%) EDI
18 29 (0.57%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 386 (7.60%) Driving Licence
2 275 (5.42%) Onboarding
3 229 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 201 (3.96%) Management Information System
5 126 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
5 126 (2.48%) Product Ownership
6 124 (2.44%) Cloud Native
7 102 (2.01%) Analytical Mindset
8 98 (1.93%) Data Centre
9 75 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
10 74 (1.46%) Social Media
11 64 (1.26%) Mobile App
12 52 (1.02%) Low-Code
13 50 (0.98%) Enterprise Software
14 49 (0.97%) Security Posture
15 44 (0.87%) Data Structures
15 44 (0.87%) Virtual Team
16 39 (0.77%) Algorithms
17 37 (0.73%) NHS
18 36 (0.71%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 855 (16.84%) Windows
2 415 (8.17%) Windows Server
3 340 (6.70%) Linux
4 133 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 117 (2.30%) Windows Server 2016
6 99 (1.95%) Android
7 64 (1.26%) Apple iOS
8 53 (1.04%) Mac OS
9 52 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.59%) Unix
11 26 (0.51%) CentOS
12 25 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 24 (0.47%) Ubuntu
14 19 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
15 15 (0.30%) VMS
16 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
17 10 (0.20%) Debian
18 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
19 5 (0.098%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,110 (21.86%) Continuous Improvement
2 902 (17.77%) Customer Service
3 676 (13.31%) Agile
4 512 (10.08%) Decision-Making
5 503 (9.91%) Mentoring
6 434 (8.55%) AI
7 432 (8.51%) Analytics
8 426 (8.39%) CI/CD
9 404 (7.96%) ITIL
10 395 (7.78%) DevOps
11 372 (7.33%) Collaborative Working
12 349 (6.87%) Business Intelligence
12 349 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
13 342 (6.74%) ERP
14 339 (6.68%) Software Engineering
15 323 (6.36%) Coaching
16 322 (6.34%) Project Management
16 322 (6.34%) Stakeholder Management
17 315 (6.20%) Computer Science
18 296 (5.83%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 747 (14.71%) SQL
2 577 (11.36%) Python
3 316 (6.22%) JavaScript
4 250 (4.92%) C#
5 221 (4.35%) Java
6 199 (3.92%) PowerShell
7 133 (2.62%) TypeScript
8 106 (2.09%) C++
9 88 (1.73%) Bash
10 71 (1.40%) PHP
11 52 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 49 (0.97%) C
13 44 (0.87%) PL/SQL
14 41 (0.81%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.59%) Kotlin
15 30 (0.59%) R
16 27 (0.53%) Perl
17 24 (0.47%) Go
17 24 (0.47%) Shell Script
18 23 (0.45%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 764 (15.05%) Degree
2 393 (7.74%) Security Cleared
3 286 (5.63%) SC Cleared
4 205 (4.04%) DBS Check
5 153 (3.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 147 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 85 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
8 77 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
9 68 (1.34%) A+ Certification
10 67 (1.32%) DV Cleared
11 62 (1.22%) ACCA
12 61 (1.20%) CCNA
13 58 (1.14%) CIMA
14 54 (1.06%) HNC
15 52 (1.02%) PMI Certification
16 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 47 (0.93%) Master's Degree
18 44 (0.87%) Azure Certification
19 43 (0.85%) CISSP
19 43 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 292 (5.75%) QA
2 235 (4.63%) Data Quality
3 155 (3.05%) Cyber Essentials
4 148 (2.92%) GDPR
5 128 (2.52%) SLA
6 117 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 105 (2.07%) PCI DSS
8 83 (1.63%) Accessibility
9 80 (1.58%) NIST
10 39 (0.77%) ISO 9001
11 23 (0.45%) PMO
12 21 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 20 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
14 16 (0.32%) GMP
15 13 (0.26%) GRC
15 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
16 12 (0.24%) SOC 2
16 12 (0.24%) TickIT
17 9 (0.18%) Good Clinical Practice
18 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 619 (12.19%) Active Directory
2 228 (4.49%) Hyper-V
3 164 (3.23%) Docker
4 162 (3.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.42%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.57%) Firmware
7 28 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (0.35%) vSphere
9 14 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
10 13 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.20%) KVM
12 7 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 4 (0.079%) ClearTrust
14 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 4 (0.079%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.059%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.059%) Terminal Services
16 2 (0.039%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 188 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 187 (3.68%) Terraform
3 159 (3.13%) Kubernetes
4 87 (1.71%) Ansible
5 55 (1.08%) SCCM
6 48 (0.95%) Grafana
7 32 (0.63%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.41%) Nagios
9 14 (0.28%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.24%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.18%) Autotask
11 9 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (0.18%) Kibana
11 9 (0.18%) Puppet
11 9 (0.18%) QRadar
11 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
12 8 (0.16%) Functional Safety
12 8 (0.16%) logstash
12 8 (0.16%) Podman
Vendors
1 1,449 (28.54%) Microsoft
2 264 (5.20%) VMware
3 132 (2.60%) Oracle
4 129 (2.54%) Veeam
5 110 (2.17%) Google
6 109 (2.15%) SAP
7 106 (2.09%) Cisco
7 106 (2.09%) Splunk
8 102 (2.01%) SolarWinds
9 74 (1.46%) Tanium
10 73 (1.44%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (1.42%) Brocade
12 70 (1.38%) Salesforce
13 66 (1.30%) Databricks
14 63 (1.24%) Apple
15 62 (1.22%) ServiceNow
16 51 (1.00%) Adobe
17 45 (0.89%) Dell
18 44 (0.87%) Sage
19 39 (0.77%) Meraki