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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,559 6,264 10,965
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.88% 19.10% 14.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.18% 21.44% 18.18%
Number of salaries quoted 4,170 3,408 6,748
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,250
25th Percentile £30,500 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% -6.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £76,250 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% +1.01% -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 49,711 29,210 60,310
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.51% 89.08% 80.10%
Number of salaries quoted 34,997 15,506 41,886
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,733 £27,500
25th Percentile £39,750 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,296 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 7 July 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 7 July 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 1,477 £44,447 +4.58% 811
South East -4 1,381 £45,000 +5.88% 906
Midlands -7 1,023 £42,000 - 502
North West -7 775 £45,000 -2.17% 421
South West -6 659 £44,000 +17.33% 379
West Midlands -9 575 £42,500 -5.56% 262
East of England -3 570 £42,500 +21.43% 338
Yorkshire -12 517 £42,500 +21.43% 273
East Midlands -10 445 £35,000 -4.11% 240
Scotland -6 253 £32,500 -28.78% 178
North East -16 185 £50,500 +26.25% 133
Wales -22 127 £45,000 -5.26% 100
Northern Ireland -12 89 £38,500 -30.00% 120
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 4
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
1 342 (6.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 341 (6.13%) SharePoint
3 54 (0.97%) Confluence
4 52 (0.94%) CMS
5 35 (0.63%) IIS
6 28 (0.50%) WordPress
7 27 (0.49%) Apache
8 19 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
9 15 (0.27%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.22%) SAS
11 11 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
11 11 (0.20%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
13 8 (0.14%) WebLogic
14 7 (0.13%) OpenEdge
15 6 (0.11%) nginx
16 5 (0.090%) OpenStack
16 5 (0.090%) Oracle SOA Suite
16 5 (0.090%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 360 (6.48%) Microsoft Office
2 342 (6.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 50 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 30 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 15 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
7 10 (0.18%) Simulink
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.11%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.090%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.090%) Fusion 360
10 5 (0.090%) Lightworks
10 5 (0.090%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.090%) Trello
11 4 (0.072%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.072%) Sketch
12 3 (0.054%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.054%) Windchill
13 2 (0.036%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 53 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (0.56%) NetSuite
3 30 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 21 (0.38%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.34%) Shopify
6 16 (0.29%) Magento
7 15 (0.27%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
9 12 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 12 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
10 9 (0.16%) iTrent
10 9 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 8 (0.14%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.14%) Sage 50
12 7 (0.13%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.11%) Raiser’s Edge
14 5 (0.090%) Q-Pulse
15 4 (0.072%) Line 50
15 4 (0.072%) Sage X3
15 4 (0.072%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,174 (21.12%) Azure
2 1,031 (18.55%) Microsoft 365
3 583 (10.49%) AWS
4 432 (7.77%) Power Platform
5 282 (5.07%) Entra ID
6 193 (3.47%) SaaS
7 188 (3.38%) GCP
8 131 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
9 116 (2.09%) Dynamics 365
10 112 (2.01%) Serverless
11 94 (1.69%) GitHub
11 94 (1.69%) Power Automate
12 89 (1.60%) PowerApps
13 74 (1.33%) OneDrive
14 53 (0.95%) Amazon S3
15 52 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
16 46 (0.83%) IaaS
16 46 (0.83%) PaaS
17 45 (0.81%) Google Workspace
18 44 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 420 (7.56%) Firewall
2 369 (6.64%) DNS
3 313 (5.63%) DHCP
4 224 (4.03%) VPN
5 197 (3.54%) WAN
6 179 (3.22%) TCP/IP
7 171 (3.08%) LAN
8 159 (2.86%) Wi-Fi
9 127 (2.28%) Wireless
10 116 (2.09%) VLAN
11 108 (1.94%) Broadband
12 92 (1.65%) Network Security
13 90 (1.62%) VoIP
14 44 (0.79%) Internet
15 36 (0.65%) SD-WAN
16 28 (0.50%) SAN
17 26 (0.47%) HTTP
18 22 (0.40%) SSL
19 21 (0.38%) Remote Desktop
19 21 (0.38%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 351 (6.31%) Power BI
2 250 (4.50%) SQL Server
3 97 (1.74%) Amazon RDS
4 93 (1.67%) MySQL
5 85 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
6 79 (1.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 76 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
8 69 (1.24%) Relational Database
9 65 (1.17%) NoSQL
9 65 (1.17%) Tableau
10 60 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 48 (0.86%) Power Query
12 43 (0.77%) MongoDB
13 36 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
13 36 (0.65%) Big Data
14 32 (0.58%) Data Lake
15 28 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
16 24 (0.43%) DynamoDB
17 22 (0.40%) Amazon Redshift
18 18 (0.32%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 210 (3.78%) Git
2 162 (2.91%) JIRA
3 74 (1.33%) GitLab
4 46 (0.83%) Jenkins
5 28 (0.50%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (0.40%) Cucumber
7 20 (0.36%) Subversion
8 18 (0.32%) Eclipse
9 16 (0.29%) JUnit
10 15 (0.27%) Cypress.io
10 15 (0.27%) Selenium
10 15 (0.27%) SonarQube
11 11 (0.20%) Maven
11 11 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
12 10 (0.18%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.18%) Postman
13 9 (0.16%) Claude Code
14 8 (0.14%) Burp Suite
14 8 (0.14%) MLflow
14 8 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,667 (47.98%) Social Skills
2 1,488 (26.77%) Analytical Skills
3 862 (15.51%) Finance
4 434 (7.81%) Manufacturing
5 368 (6.62%) Organisational Skills
6 254 (4.57%) Public Sector
7 239 (4.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 230 (4.14%) Retail
9 229 (4.12%) Law
10 224 (4.03%) Legal
11 183 (3.29%) Marketing
12 144 (2.59%) Electronics
13 141 (2.54%) Telecoms
14 128 (2.30%) Banking
15 111 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
16 102 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
17 83 (1.49%) Aerospace
18 74 (1.33%) Games
19 59 (1.06%) Advertising
19 59 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 778 (14.00%) Analyst
2 680 (12.23%) IT Support
3 591 (10.63%) Support Engineer
4 581 (10.45%) Senior
5 528 (9.50%) Developer
6 403 (7.25%) IT Engineer
7 305 (5.49%) IT Support Engineer
8 293 (5.27%) Lead
9 254 (4.57%) Support Technician
10 246 (4.43%) Support Analyst
11 221 (3.98%) Systems Engineer
12 208 (3.74%) Technical Support
13 207 (3.72%) IT Technician
14 188 (3.38%) Software Engineer
15 179 (3.22%) Consultant
16 176 (3.17%) Technical Engineer
17 172 (3.09%) Architect
18 165 (2.97%) Technical Support Engineer
19 162 (2.91%) IT Support Technician
20 142 (2.55%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 228 (4.10%) .NET
2 195 (3.51%) React
3 161 (2.90%) HTML
4 148 (2.66%) REST
5 121 (2.18%) CSS
6 100 (1.80%) Node.js
7 90 (1.62%) RESTful
8 78 (1.40%) SOAP
9 74 (1.33%) Middleware
10 71 (1.28%) JSON
10 71 (1.28%) Vue
11 68 (1.22%) AngularJS
12 61 (1.10%) XML
13 51 (0.92%) Spring
14 46 (0.83%) Spring Boot
14 46 (0.83%) Web Services
15 43 (0.77%) ASP.NET
16 40 (0.72%) EDI
16 40 (0.72%) OAuth
17 30 (0.54%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 436 (7.84%) Driving Licence
2 328 (5.90%) Onboarding
3 259 (4.66%) Self-Motivation
4 201 (3.62%) Management Information System
5 157 (2.82%) Cloud Native
6 134 (2.41%) Legacy Systems
7 133 (2.39%) Product Ownership
8 101 (1.82%) Data Centre
9 98 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
10 84 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
11 69 (1.24%) Security Posture
12 68 (1.22%) Social Media
13 65 (1.17%) Mobile App
14 54 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
15 51 (0.92%) IoT
15 51 (0.92%) Virtual Team
16 48 (0.86%) Low-Code
17 46 (0.83%) Algorithms
18 44 (0.79%) NHS
18 44 (0.79%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 980 (17.63%) Windows
2 469 (8.44%) Windows Server
3 393 (7.07%) Linux
4 154 (2.77%) Windows 10
5 118 (2.12%) Windows Server 2016
6 109 (1.96%) Android
7 71 (1.28%) Apple iOS
8 70 (1.26%) Mac OS
9 51 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.54%) Unix
11 29 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 26 (0.47%) CentOS
12 26 (0.47%) Ubuntu
13 16 (0.29%) VMS
14 15 (0.27%) Debian
14 15 (0.27%) Windows 7
15 13 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
16 8 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
17 7 (0.13%) Windows 8
18 6 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,296 (23.31%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,009 (18.15%) Customer Service
3 740 (13.31%) Agile
4 565 (10.16%) Mentoring
5 563 (10.13%) Decision-Making
6 510 (9.17%) AI
7 508 (9.14%) CI/CD
8 478 (8.60%) Analytics
9 472 (8.49%) ITIL
10 461 (8.29%) DevOps
11 446 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
12 437 (7.86%) Collaborative Working
13 420 (7.56%) Software Engineering
14 407 (7.32%) Business Intelligence
15 392 (7.05%) Stakeholder Management
16 389 (7.00%) ERP
17 345 (6.21%) Project Delivery
18 336 (6.04%) Computer Science
19 327 (5.88%) Service Delivery
20 313 (5.63%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 869 (15.63%) SQL
2 645 (11.60%) Python
3 350 (6.30%) JavaScript
4 306 (5.50%) C#
5 245 (4.41%) PowerShell
6 243 (4.37%) Java
7 158 (2.84%) TypeScript
8 144 (2.59%) C++
9 107 (1.92%) Bash
10 75 (1.35%) PHP
11 60 (1.08%) C
12 58 (1.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 47 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 36 (0.65%) PL/SQL
15 32 (0.58%) Perl
16 30 (0.54%) Go
16 30 (0.54%) Shell Script
17 29 (0.52%) Kotlin
18 27 (0.49%) Bicep
18 27 (0.49%) Rust
Qualifications
1 789 (14.19%) Degree
2 448 (8.06%) Security Cleared
3 316 (5.68%) SC Cleared
4 209 (3.76%) DBS Check
5 163 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 159 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 86 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
8 81 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
9 78 (1.40%) DV Cleared
10 70 (1.26%) Azure Certification
11 64 (1.15%) A+ Certification
12 62 (1.12%) ACCA
12 62 (1.12%) CCNA
13 58 (1.04%) CIMA
13 58 (1.04%) HNC
14 50 (0.90%) PMI Certification
15 49 (0.88%) CISSP
16 48 (0.86%) Master's Degree
17 44 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
17 44 (0.79%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 324 (5.83%) QA
2 246 (4.43%) Data Quality
3 167 (3.00%) Cyber Essentials
4 157 (2.82%) GDPR
5 141 (2.54%) SLA
6 137 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 114 (2.05%) PCI DSS
8 102 (1.83%) Accessibility
9 87 (1.57%) NIST
10 41 (0.74%) ISO 9001
11 28 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 25 (0.45%) PMO
13 19 (0.34%) GMP
14 15 (0.27%) GRC
15 14 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
15 14 (0.25%) Good Clinical Practice
16 13 (0.23%) ISO 14001
16 13 (0.23%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.22%) TickIT
18 8 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 702 (12.63%) Active Directory
2 263 (4.73%) Hyper-V
3 201 (3.62%) Docker
4 186 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.30%) Terminal Server
6 38 (0.68%) Firmware
7 31 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
8 27 (0.49%) vSphere
9 20 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
11 11 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.18%) KVM
13 7 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.11%) XenApp
15 5 (0.090%) ClearTrust
16 4 (0.072%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 4 (0.072%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.054%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 3 (0.054%) Terminal Services
17 3 (0.054%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 217 (3.90%) Terraform
2 212 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
3 198 (3.56%) Kubernetes
4 107 (1.92%) Ansible
5 59 (1.06%) Grafana
6 57 (1.03%) SCCM
7 38 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.38%) Nagios
9 18 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.22%) Kibana
10 12 (0.22%) Puppet
11 11 (0.20%) logstash
12 10 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.18%) Podman
12 10 (0.18%) Proxmox
12 10 (0.18%) QRadar
12 10 (0.18%) vCenter Server
13 9 (0.16%) Autotask
13 9 (0.16%) Functional Safety
13 9 (0.16%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 1,691 (30.42%) Microsoft
2 294 (5.29%) VMware
3 130 (2.34%) Veeam
4 125 (2.25%) Google
5 116 (2.09%) SAP
6 112 (2.01%) Oracle
7 110 (1.98%) Splunk
8 109 (1.96%) Cisco
9 98 (1.76%) SolarWinds
10 79 (1.42%) ServiceNow
11 78 (1.40%) Salesforce
12 77 (1.39%) Tanium
13 73 (1.31%) Nimble Storage
14 72 (1.30%) Brocade
15 67 (1.21%) Databricks
16 58 (1.04%) Apple
17 53 (0.95%) Sage
18 51 (0.92%) Adobe
19 48 (0.86%) Dell
20 45 (0.81%) Fortinet