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 16 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 4 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 +2 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,676 7,346 4,987
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 15.54% 15.37% 16.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.58% 19.08% 17.28%
Number of salaries quoted 3,727 2,740 3,468
10th Percentile £25,750 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £35,250 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £55,250 £65,569 £63,750
90th Percentile £69,500 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 30,554 38,491 28,864
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 83.64% 80.51% 93.86%
Number of salaries quoted 18,282 18,678 21,385
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,000 £40,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £54,714 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.18% +4.22% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £69,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £81,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 16 November 2025.

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 16 November 2025. 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 +2 1,517 £40,000 -20.00% 1,387
North of England -2 1,412 £45,000 - 937
Midlands +2 1,041 £37,500 -25.00% 649
North West -3 740 £48,000 -4.00% 552
South West +2 614 £37,500 -31.82% 484
West Midlands +1 599 £42,500 -20.04% 413
Yorkshire -1 532 £33,250 -26.11% 286
East of England 0 496 £33,500 -33.00% 436
East Midlands +4 442 £32,500 -7.14% 231
Scotland -4 367 £33,500 -33.99% 210
Wales +7 186 £47,500 -5.00% 130
North East +1 140 £33,500 +6.35% 103
Northern Ireland +3 64 £59,000 +30.68% 77
Isle of Man +1 2 £62,500 +150.00% 2
Channel Islands -2 1 £45,000 +5.88%
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 (4.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 222 (3.91%) SharePoint
3 56 (0.99%) Confluence
4 48 (0.85%) IIS
5 32 (0.56%) Apache Spark
6 25 (0.44%) Apache
6 25 (0.44%) CMS
7 22 (0.39%) WordPress
8 12 (0.21%) Camunda
9 9 (0.16%) Apache Airflow
9 9 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
10 6 (0.11%) nginx
10 6 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 5 (0.088%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.088%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.070%) Exchange Server 2013
12 4 (0.070%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.053%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.053%) JOnAS
Applications
1 490 (8.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 471 (8.30%) Microsoft Office
3 76 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 25 (0.44%) AutoCAD
5 22 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
6 20 (0.35%) Simulink
6 20 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 17 (0.30%) MS Visio
8 15 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
9 14 (0.25%) Photoshop
10 12 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 11 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
11 11 (0.19%) Mathcad
12 9 (0.16%) Adobe Premiere
13 6 (0.11%) Revit
14 5 (0.088%) Adobe After Effects
14 5 (0.088%) Adobe XD
15 4 (0.070%) Autodesk Inventor
15 4 (0.070%) CATIA
15 4 (0.070%) Trello
Business Applications
1 92 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
3 40 (0.70%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
5 18 (0.32%) SAP Business One
6 16 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
7 15 (0.26%) SAP FI
8 14 (0.25%) Shopify
9 13 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
9 13 (0.23%) Sage X3
9 13 (0.23%) Unit4 Business World
10 12 (0.21%) Sage 200
10 12 (0.21%) SAP WM
11 11 (0.19%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
12 10 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
13 8 (0.14%) JDE EnterpriseOne
13 8 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
13 8 (0.14%) Sage CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,173 (20.67%) Azure
2 821 (14.46%) Microsoft 365
3 440 (7.75%) AWS
4 384 (6.77%) Power Platform
5 274 (4.83%) SaaS
6 231 (4.07%) Entra ID
7 151 (2.66%) GCP
8 126 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
9 82 (1.44%) GitHub
10 70 (1.23%) Serverless
11 68 (1.20%) Power Automate
12 67 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
13 48 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
14 45 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
15 44 (0.78%) Amazon S3
16 43 (0.76%) OneDrive
17 42 (0.74%) PowerApps
18 41 (0.72%) Cloud Computing
19 40 (0.70%) PaaS
20 32 (0.56%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 330 (5.81%) DNS
2 295 (5.20%) Firewall
3 290 (5.11%) DHCP
4 173 (3.05%) TCP/IP
5 166 (2.92%) VPN
6 152 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
7 145 (2.55%) LAN
8 127 (2.24%) WAN
9 116 (2.04%) Broadband
10 96 (1.69%) VLAN
11 80 (1.41%) VoIP
12 62 (1.09%) Remote Desktop
13 52 (0.92%) Network Security
14 48 (0.85%) Wireless
15 36 (0.63%) SAN
16 35 (0.62%) Internet
17 33 (0.58%) Ethernet
18 21 (0.37%) SD-WAN
19 20 (0.35%) Unified Communications
20 19 (0.33%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 346 (6.10%) Power BI
2 273 (4.81%) SQL Server
3 124 (2.18%) Amazon RDS
4 115 (2.03%) MySQL
5 110 (1.94%) Data Lake
6 105 (1.85%) Relational Database
7 87 (1.53%) PostgreSQL
8 73 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.13%) SAP BW
10 59 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
11 55 (0.97%) Tableau
12 47 (0.83%) NoSQL
13 43 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 39 (0.69%) GIS
15 36 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
16 29 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
16 29 (0.51%) MongoDB
17 28 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
17 28 (0.49%) Metadata
17 28 (0.49%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 194 (3.42%) Git
2 180 (3.17%) JIRA
3 51 (0.90%) Jenkins
4 31 (0.55%) GitLab
4 31 (0.55%) Selenium
5 24 (0.42%) Octopus Deploy
6 23 (0.41%) JUnit
6 23 (0.41%) Visual Studio
7 19 (0.33%) Maven
8 18 (0.32%) TeamCity
9 15 (0.26%) Bitbucket
10 13 (0.23%) Robot Framework
11 12 (0.21%) Snyk
12 11 (0.19%) SonarQube
13 9 (0.16%) Oracle Forms
13 9 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
14 8 (0.14%) LabVIEW
15 7 (0.12%) Cucumber
15 7 (0.12%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 3,074 (54.16%) Social Skills
2 1,629 (28.70%) Analytical Skills
3 1,250 (22.02%) Finance
4 544 (9.58%) Retail
5 518 (9.13%) Manufacturing
6 340 (5.99%) Marketing
7 286 (5.04%) Law
8 270 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
9 226 (3.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 189 (3.33%) Legal
11 169 (2.98%) Public Sector
12 166 (2.92%) Banking
13 146 (2.57%) Telecoms
14 125 (2.20%) Electronics
14 125 (2.20%) Games
15 104 (1.83%) Automotive
16 102 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
17 95 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
18 68 (1.20%) Aerospace
19 54 (0.95%) Billing
Job Titles
1 925 (16.30%) Analyst
2 643 (11.33%) IT Support
3 616 (10.85%) Senior
4 504 (8.88%) Support Engineer
5 412 (7.26%) Developer
6 404 (7.12%) Lead
7 385 (6.78%) Support Analyst
8 325 (5.73%) Technical Support
9 229 (4.03%) 2nd Line Support
10 222 (3.91%) Technical Engineer
11 207 (3.65%) Systems Engineer
11 207 (3.65%) Technical Support Engineer
12 188 (3.31%) IT Engineer
13 175 (3.08%) Support Technician
14 163 (2.87%) IT Support Engineer
15 162 (2.85%) Business Analyst
16 159 (2.80%) IT Analyst
17 154 (2.71%) Applications Support
18 150 (2.64%) Trainer
19 143 (2.52%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 234 (4.12%) .NET
2 197 (3.47%) HTML
3 172 (3.03%) CSS
4 156 (2.75%) React
5 109 (1.92%) REST
6 82 (1.44%) RESTful
7 77 (1.36%) ASP.NET
8 65 (1.15%) JSON
9 59 (1.04%) XML
10 58 (1.02%) Node.js
11 56 (0.99%) Spring
12 50 (0.88%) .NET Framework
12 50 (0.88%) AngularJS
13 41 (0.72%) Django
13 41 (0.72%) SOAP
14 36 (0.63%) EDI
15 35 (0.62%) Entity Framework
15 35 (0.62%) Spring Boot
15 35 (0.62%) Vue
16 33 (0.58%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 511 (9.00%) Driving Licence
2 407 (7.17%) Onboarding
3 322 (5.67%) Self-Motivation
4 222 (3.91%) Management Information System
5 199 (3.51%) Analytical Mindset
6 158 (2.78%) Robotics
7 138 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
8 101 (1.78%) FMCG
9 98 (1.73%) Data Centre
10 87 (1.53%) Product Ownership
11 75 (1.32%) Operational Technology
12 73 (1.29%) Virtual Team
13 61 (1.07%) Cloud Native
14 59 (1.04%) e-Learning
15 58 (1.02%) Renewable Energy
16 52 (0.92%) Algorithms
17 48 (0.85%) EPoS
18 46 (0.81%) SCADA
19 42 (0.74%) Cyberattack
20 38 (0.67%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 992 (17.48%) Windows
2 400 (7.05%) Windows Server
3 287 (5.06%) Linux
4 161 (2.84%) Windows 10
5 100 (1.76%) Windows Server 2016
6 75 (1.32%) Mac OS
7 62 (1.09%) Android
8 50 (0.88%) Apple iOS
9 44 (0.78%) Unix
10 24 (0.42%) Windows 7
11 23 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
12 13 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
13 11 (0.19%) VMS
14 5 (0.088%) Mac OS X
14 5 (0.088%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 5 (0.088%) Windows 8
14 5 (0.088%) Windows Server 2008
15 4 (0.070%) CentOS
16 3 (0.053%) Ubuntu
17 2 (0.035%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,065 (18.76%) Customer Service
2 1,030 (18.15%) Continuous Improvement
3 789 (13.90%) Agile
4 536 (9.44%) Analytics
5 492 (8.67%) Project Management
6 485 (8.54%) Mentoring
7 472 (8.32%) Decision-Making
8 456 (8.03%) ERP
9 450 (7.93%) Business Intelligence
10 448 (7.89%) AI
11 435 (7.66%) ITIL
12 386 (6.80%) Cybersecurity
13 374 (6.59%) DevOps
14 346 (6.10%) CRM
15 330 (5.81%) Process Improvement
16 329 (5.80%) CI/CD
17 320 (5.64%) Stakeholder Management
18 316 (5.57%) Data Analysis
19 312 (5.50%) Computer Science
19 312 (5.50%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 842 (14.83%) SQL
2 448 (7.89%) Python
3 299 (5.27%) C#
4 281 (4.95%) JavaScript
5 241 (4.25%) PowerShell
6 193 (3.40%) Java
7 89 (1.57%) C++
8 85 (1.50%) PHP
9 58 (1.02%) T-SQL
9 58 (1.02%) TypeScript
10 45 (0.79%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 42 (0.74%) Bash
12 38 (0.67%) C
13 32 (0.56%) MATLAB
14 30 (0.53%) VBA
15 20 (0.35%) R
16 17 (0.30%) Go
17 16 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
17 16 (0.28%) Perl
18 15 (0.26%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,367 (24.08%) Degree
2 422 (7.43%) Security Cleared
3 296 (5.21%) SC Cleared
4 163 (2.87%) Computer Science Degree
5 159 (2.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 125 (2.20%) DBS Check
7 107 (1.89%) Master's Degree
8 100 (1.76%) DV Cleared
9 97 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
10 96 (1.69%) HND
11 80 (1.41%) HNC
12 79 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
13 59 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
14 58 (1.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 57 (1.00%) A+ Certification
16 53 (0.93%) CCNA
17 52 (0.92%) ACCA
18 47 (0.83%) CIMA
19 36 (0.63%) CCNP
20 35 (0.62%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (3.91%) QA
2 197 (3.47%) Data Quality
3 148 (2.61%) GDPR
4 142 (2.50%) Cyber Essentials
5 100 (1.76%) SLA
6 98 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 97 (1.71%) PCI DSS
8 83 (1.46%) Accessibility
9 41 (0.72%) NIST
10 27 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 25 (0.44%) ISO 9001
12 22 (0.39%) PMO
13 18 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
14 11 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 15288
15 10 (0.18%) Software Quality Assurance
16 7 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 7 (0.12%) HIPAA
16 7 (0.12%) WCAG
17 6 (0.11%) GRC
17 6 (0.11%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 654 (11.52%) Active Directory
2 222 (3.91%) Hyper-V
3 170 (3.00%) Docker
4 121 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.55%) Terminal Server
6 54 (0.95%) Firmware
7 24 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
9 18 (0.32%) vSphere
10 17 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
11 14 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
12 6 (0.11%) HDFS
12 6 (0.11%) Terminal Services
12 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.070%) KVM
13 4 (0.070%) XenApp
14 3 (0.053%) GPFS
14 3 (0.053%) Lustre
14 3 (0.053%) NFS
14 3 (0.053%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 229 (4.03%) Microsoft Intune
2 173 (3.05%) Terraform
3 153 (2.70%) Kubernetes
4 59 (1.04%) Ansible
5 42 (0.74%) BMC PATROL
6 37 (0.65%) SCCM
7 35 (0.62%) Grafana
8 22 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 14 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
9 14 (0.25%) vCenter Server
10 13 (0.23%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.18%) AWS Copilot
11 10 (0.18%) ZABBIX
12 9 (0.16%) Nagios
13 8 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
13 8 (0.14%) QRadar
14 7 (0.12%) PaperCut
15 6 (0.11%) Control-M
16 5 (0.088%) Netcool
Vendors
1 1,452 (25.58%) Microsoft
2 354 (6.24%) SAP
3 273 (4.81%) Google
4 244 (4.30%) VMware
5 211 (3.72%) Databricks
6 193 (3.40%) Oracle
7 192 (3.38%) Adobe
8 183 (3.22%) Cisco
9 132 (2.33%) Veeam
10 118 (2.08%) Splunk
11 109 (1.92%) Salesforce
12 108 (1.90%) ServiceNow
13 105 (1.85%) SolarWinds
14 89 (1.57%) Tanium
15 88 (1.55%) Brocade
15 88 (1.55%) BT
15 88 (1.55%) Nimble Storage
16 81 (1.43%) Sage
17 55 (0.97%) Siemens
18 54 (0.95%) Apple