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

6 months to
1 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 5,060 6,875 4,942
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 12.06% 18.45% 16.07%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.16% 20.90% 17.74%
Number of salaries quoted 3,451 2,789 3,235
10th Percentile £26,250 £28,481 £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% - -1.41%

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 33,380 32,892 27,855
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 79.58% 88.28% 90.59%
Number of salaries quoted 19,063 15,104 20,736
10th Percentile £27,707 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,755 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.91% +4.76% -4.50%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £80,070
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 1 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 1 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 1,352 £41,500 -20.95% 2,735
North of England -14 1,257 £45,000 -5.26% 2,399
Midlands -13 914 £38,500 -23.00% 1,816
North West -9 706 £47,683 -1.36% 1,215
South West 0 588 £40,000 -27.27% 1,165
West Midlands -16 541 £42,500 -22.73% 945
Yorkshire -4 440 £35,750 -17.82% 976
East of England -6 419 £35,000 -31.33% 1,525
East Midlands +1 372 £35,000 -4.11% 787
Scotland -4 337 £33,500 -33.00% 475
Wales +5 160 £47,500 -5.00% 291
North East -1 111 £33,500 -33.00% 221
Northern Ireland 0 57 £51,250 -14.58% 150
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
1 281 (5.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 215 (4.25%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.95%) IIS
4 46 (0.91%) Confluence
5 23 (0.45%) 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
1 441 (8.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 430 (8.50%) Microsoft Office
3 70 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 25 (0.49%) 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 10 (0.20%) Simulink
11 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
12 5 (0.099%) Adobe After Effects
13 4 (0.079%) Autodesk Inventor
13 4 (0.079%) CATIA
13 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
13 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
13 4 (0.079%) Revit
13 4 (0.079%) Trello
Business Applications
1 89 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
3 33 (0.65%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.36%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
7 15 (0.30%) 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 6 (0.12%) iTrent
13 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
13 6 (0.12%) Sage 200
14 5 (0.099%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 1,087 (21.48%) Azure
2 786 (15.53%) Microsoft 365
3 399 (7.89%) AWS
4 357 (7.06%) Power Platform
5 280 (5.53%) SaaS
6 222 (4.39%) Entra ID
7 145 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
8 125 (2.47%) GCP
9 97 (1.92%) GitHub
10 72 (1.42%) Serverless
11 69 (1.36%) 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 42 (0.83%) OneDrive
17 41 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
17 41 (0.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 41 (0.81%) Snowflake
18 40 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 349 (6.90%) DNS
2 305 (6.03%) DHCP
3 240 (4.74%) Firewall
4 154 (3.04%) TCP/IP
5 145 (2.87%) VPN
6 136 (2.69%) Wi-Fi
7 118 (2.33%) WAN
8 112 (2.21%) LAN
9 96 (1.90%) VLAN
10 82 (1.62%) VoIP
11 81 (1.60%) Broadband
12 64 (1.26%) Wireless
13 60 (1.19%) Remote Desktop
14 47 (0.93%) Network Security
15 38 (0.75%) SAN
16 35 (0.69%) Internet
17 30 (0.59%) SD-WAN
17 30 (0.59%) Unified Communications
18 27 (0.53%) Ethernet
19 15 (0.30%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 309 (6.11%) Power BI
2 228 (4.51%) SQL Server
3 119 (2.35%) 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 (1.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.26%) SAP BW
10 60 (1.19%) 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
14 35 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
15 33 (0.65%) GIS
16 32 (0.63%) MongoDB
17 30 (0.59%) DynamoDB
17 30 (0.59%) Metadata
18 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 192 (3.79%) Git
2 161 (3.18%) 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 2,745 (54.25%) Social Skills
2 1,413 (27.92%) Analytical Skills
3 1,096 (21.66%) Finance
4 340 (6.72%) Retail
5 314 (6.21%) Manufacturing
6 292 (5.77%) Marketing
7 249 (4.92%) Organisational Skills
8 184 (3.64%) Public Sector
9 181 (3.58%) Law
10 173 (3.42%) Legal
11 150 (2.96%) Telecoms
12 145 (2.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 137 (2.71%) Electronics
14 110 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
15 103 (2.04%) Banking
16 83 (1.64%) Automotive
17 79 (1.56%) Games
18 62 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
19 61 (1.21%) Aerospace
19 61 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 856 (16.92%) Analyst
2 633 (12.51%) IT Support
3 576 (11.38%) Senior
4 512 (10.12%) Support Engineer
5 388 (7.67%) Developer
6 338 (6.68%) Lead
7 321 (6.34%) Support Analyst
8 267 (5.28%) Technical Support
9 226 (4.47%) IT Engineer
10 206 (4.07%) Business Analyst
11 196 (3.87%) IT Support Engineer
12 183 (3.62%) 2nd Line Support
13 182 (3.60%) Technical Engineer
14 180 (3.56%) Systems Engineer
15 173 (3.42%) Support Technician
16 168 (3.32%) 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 (4.15%) .NET
2 173 (3.42%) HTML
3 155 (3.06%) React
4 140 (2.77%) CSS
5 91 (1.80%) REST
6 76 (1.50%) RESTful
7 65 (1.28%) 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 34 (0.67%) Spring
15 32 (0.63%) EDI
16 29 (0.57%) Oracle Fusion
17 26 (0.51%) .NET Core
18 25 (0.49%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 487 (9.62%) Driving Licence
2 407 (8.04%) Onboarding
3 310 (6.13%) Self-Motivation
4 174 (3.44%) Management Information System
5 159 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
6 151 (2.98%) Legacy Systems
7 95 (1.88%) Product Ownership
8 85 (1.68%) Data Centre
9 68 (1.34%) FMCG
10 65 (1.28%) Cloud Native
11 58 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
11 58 (1.15%) Virtual Team
12 42 (0.83%) e-Learning
13 39 (0.77%) Mobile App
14 38 (0.75%) EPoS
14 38 (0.75%) Video Conferencing
15 37 (0.73%) Social Media
16 34 (0.67%) IoT
17 33 (0.65%) Data Structures
18 32 (0.63%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 926 (18.30%) Windows
2 390 (7.71%) Windows Server
3 308 (6.09%) Linux
4 125 (2.47%) Windows 10
5 109 (2.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 68 (1.34%) Android
7 56 (1.11%) Mac OS
8 55 (1.09%) 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 5 (0.099%) Mac OS X
16 4 (0.079%) CentOS
16 4 (0.079%) Windows 8
16 4 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
17 3 (0.059%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 933 (18.44%) Continuous Improvement
2 925 (18.28%) Customer Service
3 688 (13.60%) Agile
4 496 (9.80%) Project Management
5 459 (9.07%) Mentoring
6 455 (8.99%) Analytics
7 438 (8.66%) Decision-Making
8 418 (8.26%) Business Intelligence
9 407 (8.04%) ITIL
10 390 (7.71%) ERP
11 378 (7.47%) DevOps
12 347 (6.86%) Change Management
13 325 (6.42%) CI/CD
14 311 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
15 310 (6.13%) CRM
16 307 (6.07%) Stakeholder Management
17 303 (5.99%) Process Improvement
18 290 (5.73%) Computer Science
19 287 (5.67%) AI
20 274 (5.42%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 760 (15.02%) SQL
2 431 (8.52%) Python
3 272 (5.38%) JavaScript
4 263 (5.20%) C#
5 255 (5.04%) PowerShell
6 153 (3.02%) Java
7 75 (1.48%) PHP
8 68 (1.34%) C++
9 58 (1.15%) TypeScript
10 50 (0.99%) T-SQL
11 48 (0.95%) Bash
11 48 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 36 (0.71%) C
13 28 (0.55%) MATLAB
14 24 (0.47%) VBA
15 23 (0.45%) R
16 18 (0.36%) Go
17 17 (0.34%) Perl
18 16 (0.32%) PL/SQL
19 15 (0.30%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,186 (23.44%) Degree
2 415 (8.20%) Security Cleared
3 289 (5.71%) SC Cleared
4 148 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
5 138 (2.73%) DBS Check
6 137 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
7 107 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
8 87 (1.72%) Master's Degree
9 83 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
10 76 (1.50%) DV Cleared
11 65 (1.28%) ACCA
12 62 (1.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 58 (1.15%) CCNA
14 57 (1.13%) CIMA
14 57 (1.13%) HND
15 53 (1.05%) A+ Certification
16 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 43 (0.85%) AWS Certification
18 39 (0.77%) HNC
19 36 (0.71%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 258 (5.10%) QA
2 224 (4.43%) Data Quality
3 164 (3.24%) Cyber Essentials
4 131 (2.59%) GDPR
5 115 (2.27%) PCI DSS
6 102 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 86 (1.70%) Accessibility
8 73 (1.44%) SLA
9 41 (0.81%) NIST
10 31 (0.61%) ISO 9001
11 30 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 25 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
13 16 (0.32%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.14%) Software Quality Assurance
15 7 (0.14%) WCAG
16 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.12%) SOC 2
17 5 (0.099%) COBIT
17 5 (0.099%) GLBA
System Software
1 622 (12.29%) Active Directory
2 216 (4.27%) Hyper-V
3 177 (3.50%) Docker
4 114 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.90%) Terminal Server
6 39 (0.77%) Firmware
7 23 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
8 19 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
9 18 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (0.36%) vSphere
10 8 (0.16%) 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
1 201 (3.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 179 (3.54%) Terraform
3 122 (2.41%) Kubernetes
4 58 (1.15%) Ansible
5 46 (0.91%) 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 1,376 (27.19%) Microsoft
2 328 (6.48%) SAP
3 245 (4.84%) VMware
4 190 (3.75%) Oracle
5 160 (3.16%) Cisco
6 146 (2.89%) Veeam
7 120 (2.37%) SolarWinds
8 116 (2.29%) Splunk
9 98 (1.94%) Tanium
10 96 (1.90%) Brocade
10 96 (1.90%) Google
10 96 (1.90%) Nimble Storage
11 94 (1.86%) ServiceNow
12 83 (1.64%) Salesforce
13 68 (1.34%) Sage
14 62 (1.23%) Apple
15 60 (1.19%) Databricks
16 59 (1.17%) Adobe
16 59 (1.17%) BT
17 46 (0.91%) Workday