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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,049 6,853 5,023
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 12.02% 18.48% 16.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.14% 20.93% 17.86%
Number of salaries quoted 3,445 2,774 3,300
10th Percentile £26,250 £28,297 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £71,250 £82,500 £75,000
UK median annual salary £46,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -16.36% - -1.79%

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 33,358 32,735 28,130
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 79.41% 88.29% 90.60%
Number of salaries quoted 19,061 14,979 20,952
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £33,000 £41,250 £38,130
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 January 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 2 January 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
South East -3 1,347 £41,500 -20.95% 820
North of England -14 1,256 £45,000 -5.26% 544
Midlands -13 913 £38,500 -23.00% 330
North West -10 707 £47,842 +0.33% 273
South West 0 588 £40,000 -27.27% 304
West Midlands -16 540 £42,920 -21.96% 187
Yorkshire -4 439 £35,000 -19.54% 189
East of England -6 419 £35,000 -31.33% 328
East Midlands +1 372 £35,000 -4.11% 141
Scotland -6 335 £33,500 -33.00% 98
Wales +5 158 £47,500 -5.00% 54
North East -2 110 £33,500 -33.00% 93
Northern Ireland 0 57 £51,250 -14.58% 21
Isle of Man +2 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 282 (5.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 216 (4.28%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.95%) IIS
4 46 (0.91%) Confluence
5 23 (0.46%) WordPress
6 21 (0.42%) CMS
7 20 (0.40%) Apache
7 20 (0.40%) Apache Spark
8 12 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
9 8 (0.16%) nginx
10 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 6 (0.12%) Drupal
11 6 (0.12%) HCL Notes
12 5 (0.099%) SAS
13 4 (0.079%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.079%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.079%) Camunda
13 4 (0.079%) Exchange Server 2013
14 3 (0.059%) Anypoint
14 3 (0.059%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 439 (8.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 427 (8.46%) Microsoft Office
3 70 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 25 (0.50%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.38%) AutoCAD
7 16 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
7 16 (0.32%) Photoshop
8 14 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 12 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
9 12 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
10 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
10 9 (0.18%) Simulink
11 5 (0.099%) Adobe After Effects
12 4 (0.079%) Autodesk Inventor
12 4 (0.079%) CATIA
12 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
12 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
12 4 (0.079%) Revit
12 4 (0.079%) Trello
Business Applications
1 89 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
3 32 (0.63%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.36%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.32%) SAP CO
7 15 (0.30%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
9 12 (0.24%) SAP Business One
10 11 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
10 11 (0.22%) Shopify
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
12 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
13 7 (0.14%) iTrent
14 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
14 6 (0.12%) Sage 200
15 5 (0.099%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,086 (21.51%) Azure
2 787 (15.59%) Microsoft 365
3 400 (7.92%) AWS
4 358 (7.09%) Power Platform
5 280 (5.55%) SaaS
6 221 (4.38%) Entra ID
7 145 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
8 124 (2.46%) GCP
9 97 (1.92%) GitHub
10 72 (1.43%) Serverless
11 69 (1.37%) Power Automate
12 54 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
13 52 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
14 45 (0.89%) Amazon S3
15 44 (0.87%) AWS Lambda
16 43 (0.85%) OneDrive
17 42 (0.83%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 41 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
18 41 (0.81%) Snowflake
19 40 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 350 (6.93%) DNS
2 306 (6.06%) DHCP
3 240 (4.75%) Firewall
4 154 (3.05%) TCP/IP
5 144 (2.85%) VPN
6 136 (2.69%) Wi-Fi
7 119 (2.36%) WAN
8 112 (2.22%) LAN
9 96 (1.90%) VLAN
10 82 (1.62%) VoIP
11 81 (1.60%) Broadband
12 64 (1.27%) Wireless
13 61 (1.21%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (0.95%) Network Security
15 38 (0.75%) SAN
16 35 (0.69%) Internet
17 31 (0.61%) SD-WAN
18 30 (0.59%) Unified Communications
19 26 (0.51%) Ethernet
20 15 (0.30%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 310 (6.14%) Power BI
2 228 (4.52%) SQL Server
3 119 (2.36%) Amazon RDS
4 99 (1.96%) Relational Database
5 91 (1.80%) MySQL
6 85 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
7 82 (1.62%) Data Lake
8 65 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.27%) SAP BW
10 61 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
11 57 (1.13%) NoSQL
12 46 (0.91%) Tableau
13 43 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 35 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
15 34 (0.67%) Oracle Reports
16 33 (0.65%) GIS
17 32 (0.63%) MongoDB
18 30 (0.59%) DynamoDB
19 29 (0.57%) Metadata
20 25 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 192 (3.80%) Git
2 160 (3.17%) JIRA
3 50 (0.99%) GitLab
4 43 (0.85%) Jenkins
5 32 (0.63%) Selenium
6 21 (0.42%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 15 (0.30%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
8 14 (0.28%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.28%) TeamCity
9 13 (0.26%) Octopus Deploy
10 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
11 10 (0.20%) JUnit
11 10 (0.20%) Maven
11 10 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
12 9 (0.18%) Cucumber
13 8 (0.16%) Burp Suite
13 8 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 2,740 (54.27%) Social Skills
2 1,413 (27.99%) Analytical Skills
3 1,095 (21.69%) Finance
4 339 (6.71%) Retail
5 314 (6.22%) Manufacturing
6 290 (5.74%) Marketing
7 248 (4.91%) Organisational Skills
8 184 (3.64%) Public Sector
9 182 (3.60%) Law
10 175 (3.47%) Legal
11 148 (2.93%) Telecoms
12 144 (2.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 136 (2.69%) Electronics
14 110 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
15 103 (2.04%) Banking
16 83 (1.64%) Automotive
17 79 (1.56%) Games
18 61 (1.21%) Aerospace
18 61 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
18 61 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 858 (16.99%) Analyst
2 634 (12.56%) IT Support
3 572 (11.33%) Senior
4 511 (10.12%) Support Engineer
5 389 (7.70%) Developer
6 336 (6.65%) Lead
7 320 (6.34%) Support Analyst
8 264 (5.23%) Technical Support
9 227 (4.50%) IT Engineer
10 207 (4.10%) Business Analyst
11 197 (3.90%) IT Support Engineer
12 183 (3.62%) 2nd Line Support
13 180 (3.57%) Technical Engineer
14 179 (3.55%) Systems Engineer
15 172 (3.41%) Support Technician
16 166 (3.29%) Technical Support Engineer
17 145 (2.87%) Applications Support
18 138 (2.73%) Consultant
19 137 (2.71%) Architect
20 131 (2.59%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 210 (4.16%) .NET
2 173 (3.43%) HTML
3 155 (3.07%) React
4 140 (2.77%) CSS
5 91 (1.80%) REST
6 76 (1.51%) RESTful
7 65 (1.29%) Node.js
8 54 (1.07%) ASP.NET
9 53 (1.05%) JSON
10 49 (0.97%) AngularJS
11 48 (0.95%) SOAP
12 46 (0.91%) XML
13 38 (0.75%) .NET Framework
13 38 (0.75%) Django
13 38 (0.75%) Vue
14 35 (0.69%) Spring
15 32 (0.63%) EDI
16 28 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
17 26 (0.51%) .NET Core
18 25 (0.50%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 486 (9.63%) Driving Licence
2 406 (8.04%) Onboarding
3 309 (6.12%) Self-Motivation
4 175 (3.47%) Management Information System
5 159 (3.15%) Analytical Mindset
6 151 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
7 95 (1.88%) Product Ownership
8 85 (1.68%) Data Centre
9 68 (1.35%) FMCG
10 65 (1.29%) Cloud Native
11 58 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
12 56 (1.11%) Virtual Team
13 42 (0.83%) e-Learning
14 39 (0.77%) Mobile App
15 38 (0.75%) EPoS
16 37 (0.73%) Social Media
16 37 (0.73%) Video Conferencing
17 34 (0.67%) IoT
18 33 (0.65%) Data Structures
19 32 (0.63%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 922 (18.26%) Windows
2 389 (7.70%) Windows Server
3 307 (6.08%) Linux
4 124 (2.46%) Windows 10
5 109 (2.16%) Windows Server 2016
6 67 (1.33%) Android
7 56 (1.11%) Mac OS
8 54 (1.07%) Apple iOS
9 35 (0.69%) Unix
10 27 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
11 19 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
12 15 (0.30%) Windows 7
13 12 (0.24%) VMS
14 9 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 4 (0.079%) CentOS
15 4 (0.079%) Mac OS X
15 4 (0.079%) Windows 8
15 4 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
16 3 (0.059%) Ubuntu
17 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 931 (18.44%) Continuous Improvement
2 921 (18.24%) Customer Service
3 686 (13.59%) Agile
4 497 (9.84%) Project Management
5 458 (9.07%) Mentoring
6 451 (8.93%) Analytics
7 436 (8.64%) Decision-Making
8 419 (8.30%) Business Intelligence
9 405 (8.02%) ITIL
10 390 (7.72%) ERP
11 377 (7.47%) DevOps
12 348 (6.89%) Change Management
13 324 (6.42%) CI/CD
14 311 (6.16%) CRM
15 308 (6.10%) Cybersecurity
16 306 (6.06%) Stakeholder Management
17 302 (5.98%) Process Improvement
18 291 (5.76%) Computer Science
19 287 (5.68%) AI
20 273 (5.41%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 762 (15.09%) SQL
2 432 (8.56%) Python
3 271 (5.37%) JavaScript
4 263 (5.21%) C#
5 254 (5.03%) PowerShell
6 154 (3.05%) Java
7 75 (1.49%) PHP
8 66 (1.31%) C++
9 57 (1.13%) TypeScript
10 50 (0.99%) T-SQL
11 49 (0.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.93%) Bash
13 36 (0.71%) C
14 28 (0.55%) MATLAB
15 23 (0.46%) R
15 23 (0.46%) VBA
16 18 (0.36%) Go
17 17 (0.34%) Perl
18 16 (0.32%) PL/SQL
19 15 (0.30%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,185 (23.47%) Degree
2 415 (8.22%) Security Cleared
3 289 (5.72%) SC Cleared
4 148 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
5 138 (2.73%) DBS Check
6 136 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
7 106 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
8 87 (1.72%) Master's Degree
9 83 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
10 77 (1.53%) DV Cleared
11 63 (1.25%) ACCA
12 61 (1.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 58 (1.15%) CCNA
14 57 (1.13%) HND
15 55 (1.09%) CIMA
16 53 (1.05%) A+ Certification
17 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
18 44 (0.87%) AWS Certification
19 39 (0.77%) HNC
20 35 (0.69%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 257 (5.09%) QA
2 223 (4.42%) Data Quality
3 166 (3.29%) Cyber Essentials
4 130 (2.57%) GDPR
5 115 (2.28%) PCI DSS
6 102 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 86 (1.70%) Accessibility
8 74 (1.47%) SLA
9 41 (0.81%) NIST
10 30 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 30 (0.59%) ISO 9001
11 25 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
12 16 (0.32%) PMO
13 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
14 7 (0.14%) Software Quality Assurance
14 7 (0.14%) WCAG
15 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.12%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.099%) COBIT
16 5 (0.099%) GLBA
System Software
1 623 (12.34%) Active Directory
2 218 (4.32%) Hyper-V
3 177 (3.51%) Docker
4 115 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.90%) Terminal Server
6 37 (0.73%) Firmware
7 23 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
8 19 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
9 18 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (0.36%) vSphere
10 7 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
11 5 (0.099%) Virtual Servers
12 4 (0.079%) KVM
13 3 (0.059%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.040%) RHEV
14 2 (0.040%) Xen
14 2 (0.040%) XenApp
15 1 (0.020%) HDFS
15 1 (0.020%) iptables
15 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 200 (3.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 179 (3.55%) Terraform
3 122 (2.42%) Kubernetes
4 58 (1.15%) Ansible
5 47 (0.93%) SCCM
6 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
7 37 (0.73%) Grafana
8 27 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 20 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
13 12 (0.24%) Nagios
14 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
15 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
16 8 (0.16%) Nmap
17 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
18 6 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 6 (0.12%) Control-M
18 6 (0.12%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 1,375 (27.23%) Microsoft
2 328 (6.50%) SAP
3 246 (4.87%) VMware
4 189 (3.74%) Oracle
5 160 (3.17%) Cisco
6 146 (2.89%) Veeam
7 121 (2.40%) SolarWinds
8 116 (2.30%) Splunk
9 98 (1.94%) Tanium
10 97 (1.92%) Google
11 96 (1.90%) Brocade
11 96 (1.90%) Nimble Storage
12 95 (1.88%) ServiceNow
13 83 (1.64%) Salesforce
14 68 (1.35%) Sage
15 62 (1.23%) Apple
16 60 (1.19%) Databricks
17 59 (1.17%) Adobe
17 59 (1.17%) BT
18 45 (0.89%) Workday