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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,756 5,245 9,389
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.81% 19.40% 15.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.75% 21.07% 18.35%
Number of salaries quoted 3,388 2,952 6,362
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,929 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £66,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £81,250 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -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 40,464 24,897 51,155
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 74.92% 92.09% 85.61%
Number of salaries quoted 24,163 13,522 38,000
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,750 £27,335
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%
75th Percentile £67,125 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%

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 20 March 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 20 March 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 -18 1,282 £41,500 -11.23% 652
South East -5 1,187 £45,000 -11.71% 856
Midlands -17 846 £37,500 -21.88% 452
North West -17 652 £42,500 -13.27% 354
South West -4 534 £43,500 -13.00% 305
Yorkshire -6 500 £35,000 -19.54% 221
West Midlands -21 499 £42,500 -22.73% 267
East of England -10 425 £40,000 -20.00% 290
East Midlands -2 344 £35,000 -6.67% 185
Scotland -7 303 £36,000 -21.11% 130
North East -8 130 £45,000 - 90
Wales -5 113 £40,000 -33.33% 75
Northern Ireland +1 90 £35,000 -41.39% 18
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +72.41% 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
1 280 (5.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 238 (5.00%) SharePoint
3 49 (1.03%) Confluence
4 46 (0.97%) CMS
5 33 (0.69%) IIS
6 24 (0.50%) WordPress
7 19 (0.40%) Apache
8 16 (0.34%) Apache Spark
9 13 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
10 12 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
11 11 (0.23%) SAS
12 8 (0.17%) nginx
13 7 (0.15%) Drupal
14 6 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 4 (0.084%) Moodle
15 4 (0.084%) Totara
15 4 (0.084%) WebSphere
15 4 (0.084%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 347 (7.30%) Microsoft Office
2 290 (6.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 58 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 30 (0.63%) MS Visio
5 22 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 15 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
7 12 (0.25%) AutoCAD
7 12 (0.25%) Photoshop
8 10 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 5 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
11 4 (0.084%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.084%) Fusion 360
11 4 (0.084%) Simulink
11 4 (0.084%) Trello
12 3 (0.063%) Elementor
12 3 (0.063%) InDesign
13 2 (0.042%) Adobe Premiere
13 2 (0.042%) CATIA
13 2 (0.042%) Revit
Business Applications
1 41 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
3 25 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 13 (0.27%) Sage X3
4 13 (0.27%) SAP CO
4 13 (0.27%) Shopify
5 12 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
6 10 (0.21%) iTrent
6 10 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
7 7 (0.15%) Workday HCM
8 6 (0.13%) Markit EDM
9 5 (0.11%) Magento
9 5 (0.11%) SAP Hybris
10 4 (0.084%) Dynamics AX
10 4 (0.084%) Dynamics GP
10 4 (0.084%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 4 (0.084%) Oracle EBS
10 4 (0.084%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.084%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 994 (20.90%) Azure
2 835 (17.56%) Microsoft 365
3 438 (9.21%) AWS
4 297 (6.24%) Power Platform
5 234 (4.92%) Entra ID
5 234 (4.92%) SaaS
6 133 (2.80%) GCP
7 130 (2.73%) Azure DevOps
8 97 (2.04%) GitHub
9 95 (2.00%) Serverless
10 70 (1.47%) Power Automate
11 64 (1.35%) Azure Data Factory
11 64 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
12 61 (1.28%) Google Workspace
13 55 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
14 54 (1.14%) Amazon S3
14 54 (1.14%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 50 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
16 48 (1.01%) PaaS
17 45 (0.95%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 348 (7.32%) DNS
2 292 (6.14%) DHCP
3 277 (5.82%) Firewall
4 150 (3.15%) VPN
4 150 (3.15%) WAN
5 144 (3.03%) TCP/IP
6 140 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
7 125 (2.63%) LAN
8 110 (2.31%) Broadband
9 94 (1.98%) VLAN
10 75 (1.58%) VoIP
11 74 (1.56%) Wireless
12 51 (1.07%) Network Security
13 46 (0.97%) Remote Desktop
14 44 (0.93%) SD-WAN
15 35 (0.74%) Internet
16 29 (0.61%) SAN
17 28 (0.59%) Unified Communications
18 22 (0.46%) Wireshark
19 20 (0.42%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 242 (5.09%) Power BI
2 190 (3.99%) SQL Server
3 93 (1.96%) Amazon RDS
4 81 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
5 70 (1.47%) Relational Database
6 67 (1.41%) NoSQL
6 67 (1.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 66 (1.39%) MySQL
8 57 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
9 39 (0.82%) Power Query
9 39 (0.82%) Tableau
10 38 (0.80%) Azure SQL Database
11 35 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 34 (0.71%) DynamoDB
13 30 (0.63%) MongoDB
14 26 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
15 25 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
16 24 (0.50%) Metadata
17 20 (0.42%) Data Lake
18 19 (0.40%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 193 (4.06%) Git
2 162 (3.41%) JIRA
3 62 (1.30%) GitLab
4 44 (0.93%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.65%) Selenium
6 17 (0.36%) LabVIEW
7 16 (0.34%) Visual Studio
8 15 (0.32%) Maven
8 15 (0.32%) Robot Framework
9 14 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
9 14 (0.29%) Snyk
10 13 (0.27%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.25%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.23%) JUnit
12 11 (0.23%) SonarQube
13 10 (0.21%) Burp Suite
13 10 (0.21%) Metasploit
14 9 (0.19%) Bitbucket
15 7 (0.15%) CircleCI
15 7 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 2,430 (51.09%) Social Skills
2 1,329 (27.94%) Analytical Skills
3 894 (18.80%) Finance
4 345 (7.25%) Organisational Skills
5 248 (5.21%) Manufacturing
6 224 (4.71%) Retail
7 219 (4.60%) Public Sector
8 212 (4.46%) Marketing
9 187 (3.93%) Legal
10 181 (3.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 153 (3.22%) Law
12 135 (2.84%) Telecoms
13 117 (2.46%) Electronics
14 114 (2.40%) Banking
15 100 (2.10%) Presentation Skills
16 84 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
17 82 (1.72%) Games
18 64 (1.35%) Automotive
19 55 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
20 45 (0.95%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 733 (15.41%) Analyst
2 692 (14.55%) IT Support
3 595 (12.51%) Support Engineer
4 484 (10.18%) Senior
5 384 (8.07%) Developer
6 338 (7.11%) IT Engineer
7 290 (6.10%) IT Support Engineer
8 248 (5.21%) Support Analyst
9 232 (4.88%) Lead
10 190 (3.99%) Technical Support
11 183 (3.85%) Support Technician
12 179 (3.76%) Business Analyst
13 168 (3.53%) 2nd Line Support
14 146 (3.07%) Systems Engineer
15 143 (3.01%) Architect
15 143 (3.01%) Consultant
16 141 (2.96%) IT Technician
17 140 (2.94%) Technical Engineer
18 131 (2.75%) Technical Support Engineer
19 127 (2.67%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (3.47%) .NET
2 155 (3.26%) React
3 142 (2.99%) HTML
4 109 (2.29%) CSS
5 82 (1.72%) Node.js
6 69 (1.45%) REST
7 58 (1.22%) RESTful
8 49 (1.03%) Vue
9 42 (0.88%) AngularJS
10 39 (0.82%) SOAP
11 37 (0.78%) ASP.NET
11 37 (0.78%) Spring
12 36 (0.76%) JSON
13 35 (0.74%) XML
14 34 (0.71%) Django
15 33 (0.69%) Spring Boot
16 31 (0.65%) GraphQL
16 31 (0.65%) Laravel
17 30 (0.63%) OAuth
18 29 (0.61%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 429 (9.02%) Driving Licence
2 321 (6.75%) Onboarding
3 292 (6.14%) Self-Motivation
4 162 (3.41%) Management Information System
5 130 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
6 113 (2.38%) Analytical Mindset
7 96 (2.02%) Product Ownership
8 85 (1.79%) Data Centre
9 84 (1.77%) Cloud Native
9 84 (1.77%) Social Media
10 66 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
11 63 (1.32%) Mobile App
12 52 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
13 47 (0.99%) Low-Code
14 38 (0.80%) EPoS
15 37 (0.78%) Data Structures
15 37 (0.78%) NHS
16 35 (0.74%) IoT
17 32 (0.67%) Security Posture
17 32 (0.67%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 918 (19.30%) Windows
2 390 (8.20%) Windows Server
3 308 (6.48%) Linux
4 128 (2.69%) Windows 10
5 114 (2.40%) Windows Server 2016
6 112 (2.35%) Android
7 63 (1.32%) Apple iOS
8 59 (1.24%) Mac OS
9 37 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (0.76%) Unix
11 23 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
12 22 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 20 (0.42%) CentOS
14 18 (0.38%) Windows 7
15 13 (0.27%) Ubuntu
16 11 (0.23%) Windows 8
17 9 (0.19%) VMS
17 9 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
18 7 (0.15%) Debian
19 3 (0.063%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 934 (19.64%) Continuous Improvement
2 884 (18.59%) Customer Service
3 643 (13.52%) Agile
4 464 (9.76%) Decision-Making
5 461 (9.69%) Mentoring
6 418 (8.79%) ITIL
7 406 (8.54%) Project Management
8 369 (7.76%) DevOps
9 363 (7.63%) CI/CD
10 341 (7.17%) Analytics
11 334 (7.02%) Business Intelligence
12 328 (6.90%) AI
13 300 (6.31%) Cybersecurity
14 286 (6.01%) Coaching
15 284 (5.97%) Computer Science
16 280 (5.89%) Process Improvement
17 278 (5.85%) Stakeholder Management
18 275 (5.78%) CRM
19 271 (5.70%) Service Delivery
20 266 (5.59%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 597 (12.55%) SQL
2 482 (10.13%) Python
3 281 (5.91%) JavaScript
4 233 (4.90%) PowerShell
5 190 (3.99%) C#
6 162 (3.41%) Java
7 90 (1.89%) TypeScript
8 74 (1.56%) Bash
9 67 (1.41%) PHP
10 62 (1.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 57 (1.20%) C++
12 45 (0.95%) C
13 41 (0.86%) T-SQL
14 27 (0.57%) PL/SQL
15 26 (0.55%) Kotlin
15 26 (0.55%) R
16 19 (0.40%) Bicep
16 19 (0.40%) Go
17 18 (0.38%) VBA
18 17 (0.36%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 914 (19.22%) Degree
2 349 (7.34%) Security Cleared
3 231 (4.86%) SC Cleared
4 172 (3.62%) DBS Check
5 151 (3.17%) Microsoft Certification
6 122 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 91 (1.91%) BPSS Clearance
8 72 (1.51%) ACCA
9 68 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
10 64 (1.35%) A+ Certification
10 64 (1.35%) CIMA
10 64 (1.35%) DV Cleared
11 57 (1.20%) CCNA
12 52 (1.09%) HNC
13 49 (1.03%) Master's Degree
14 46 (0.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 42 (0.88%) AWS Certification
15 42 (0.88%) CISSP
16 41 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
17 40 (0.84%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 240 (5.05%) QA
2 174 (3.66%) Data Quality
3 143 (3.01%) GDPR
4 140 (2.94%) Cyber Essentials
5 109 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 103 (2.17%) PCI DSS
7 80 (1.68%) SLA
8 67 (1.41%) Accessibility
9 61 (1.28%) NIST
10 37 (0.78%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
12 25 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 13 (0.27%) GMP
14 11 (0.23%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.19%) PMO
16 7 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.13%) GRC
18 5 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
18 5 (0.11%) COBIT
18 5 (0.11%) WCAG
System Software
1 624 (13.12%) Active Directory
2 210 (4.42%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.70%) Docker
4 123 (2.59%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.51%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.55%) Firmware
7 21 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.27%) vSphere
10 10 (0.21%) KVM
10 10 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
11 6 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.13%) XenApp
12 4 (0.084%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 3 (0.063%) Embedded Firmware
14 2 (0.042%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 2 (0.042%) VMware NSX
15 1 (0.021%) BitLocker
15 1 (0.021%) iptables
Systems Management
1 197 (4.14%) Terraform
2 188 (3.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 128 (2.69%) Kubernetes
4 82 (1.72%) Ansible
5 59 (1.24%) SCCM
6 49 (1.03%) Grafana
7 32 (0.67%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.46%) BMC PATROL
9 19 (0.40%) Nagios
10 18 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
11 15 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
12 14 (0.29%) Autotask
12 14 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
13 11 (0.23%) vCenter Server
13 11 (0.23%) ZABBIX
14 10 (0.21%) AWS Copilot
14 10 (0.21%) Nmap
15 8 (0.17%) FortiGate
16 7 (0.15%) Control-M
16 7 (0.15%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,320 (27.75%) Microsoft
2 225 (4.73%) VMware
3 147 (3.09%) Oracle
4 133 (2.80%) Veeam
5 120 (2.52%) SAP
6 112 (2.35%) Cisco
7 111 (2.33%) Google
8 102 (2.14%) Splunk
9 100 (2.10%) SolarWinds
10 76 (1.60%) ServiceNow
11 73 (1.53%) Tanium
12 72 (1.51%) Brocade
12 72 (1.51%) Nimble Storage
13 68 (1.43%) Adobe
14 67 (1.41%) Databricks
15 65 (1.37%) Apple
15 65 (1.37%) Salesforce
16 59 (1.24%) Sage
17 42 (0.88%) HubSpot
18 41 (0.86%) Dell