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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,036 6,282 7,771
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 10.92% 18.59% 15.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.12% 20.57% 18.28%
Number of salaries quoted 3,489 2,633 5,447
10th Percentile £26,000 £28,500 £25,625
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £56,750 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

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 35,665 30,537 42,501
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 77.36% 90.38% 87.15%
Number of salaries quoted 20,712 13,657 32,641
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £78,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 6 February 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 6 February 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 1,331 £41,500 -20.95% 834
North of England -17 1,302 £42,500 -10.53% 663
Midlands -14 860 £38,000 -25.86% 475
North West -14 714 £47,500 -5.00% 375
South West -2 587 £40,000 -27.27% 349
West Midlands -17 503 £42,500 -22.73% 308
Yorkshire -5 454 £35,750 -17.82% 224
East of England -4 427 £35,500 -30.35% 281
East Midlands 0 355 £35,000 - 167
Scotland -3 354 £33,500 -34.95% 128
North East -4 134 £40,662 -18.68% 73
Wales +2 128 £45,000 -13.46% 63
Northern Ireland -2 71 £45,000 -25.00% 31
Isle of Man +1 1 £62,500 +150.00% 1
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
1 300 (5.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 227 (4.51%) SharePoint
3 46 (0.91%) Confluence
4 45 (0.89%) IIS
5 31 (0.62%) CMS
6 24 (0.48%) WordPress
7 22 (0.44%) Apache
8 19 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
10 10 (0.20%) nginx
11 8 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
12 6 (0.12%) Drupal
12 6 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
12 6 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
12 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 5 (0.099%) SAS
14 4 (0.079%) Apache Solr
14 4 (0.079%) ArcGIS
14 4 (0.079%) HCL Notes
14 4 (0.079%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 379 (7.53%) Microsoft Office
2 374 (7.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 68 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
5 26 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.36%) AutoCAD
7 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
8 13 (0.26%) Photoshop
9 11 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
10 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
10 9 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
11 5 (0.099%) Adobe After Effects
11 5 (0.099%) Simulink
12 4 (0.079%) CATIA
12 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
12 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
13 3 (0.060%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.060%) Elementor
13 3 (0.060%) Trello
Business Applications
1 81 (1.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 49 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 22 (0.44%) NetSuite
4 18 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
6 15 (0.30%) SAP CO
7 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
8 12 (0.24%) iTrent
9 11 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
11 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 8 (0.16%) Shopify
12 7 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
13 6 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,109 (22.02%) Azure
2 848 (16.84%) Microsoft 365
3 425 (8.44%) AWS
4 359 (7.13%) Power Platform
5 260 (5.16%) SaaS
6 225 (4.47%) Entra ID
7 145 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
8 121 (2.40%) GCP
9 102 (2.03%) GitHub
10 83 (1.65%) Serverless
11 77 (1.53%) Power Automate
12 58 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
13 56 (1.11%) Dynamics 365
14 53 (1.05%) AWS Lambda
15 51 (1.01%) Amazon S3
16 50 (0.99%) Google Workspace
17 46 (0.91%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 45 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
18 45 (0.89%) PaaS
19 44 (0.87%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 394 (7.82%) DNS
2 342 (6.79%) DHCP
3 270 (5.36%) Firewall
4 154 (3.06%) TCP/IP
5 152 (3.02%) VPN
6 151 (3.00%) Wi-Fi
7 133 (2.64%) WAN
8 119 (2.36%) LAN
9 95 (1.89%) Broadband
10 94 (1.87%) VLAN
11 86 (1.71%) VoIP
12 73 (1.45%) Wireless
13 54 (1.07%) Remote Desktop
14 49 (0.97%) Network Security
15 40 (0.79%) Internet
16 36 (0.71%) SD-WAN
17 34 (0.68%) SAN
18 30 (0.60%) Unified Communications
19 24 (0.48%) Ethernet
19 24 (0.48%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 305 (6.06%) Power BI
2 213 (4.23%) SQL Server
3 133 (2.64%) Amazon RDS
4 90 (1.79%) Relational Database
5 81 (1.61%) Data Lake
6 77 (1.53%) PostgreSQL
7 75 (1.49%) MySQL
8 66 (1.31%) NoSQL
9 65 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 64 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
10 64 (1.27%) SAP BW
11 40 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 39 (0.77%) Tableau
13 36 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
14 31 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
14 31 (0.62%) DynamoDB
15 29 (0.58%) MongoDB
16 28 (0.56%) Metadata
17 26 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
18 25 (0.50%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 184 (3.65%) Git
2 159 (3.16%) JIRA
3 48 (0.95%) GitLab
4 41 (0.81%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.60%) Selenium
6 18 (0.36%) Visual Studio
7 16 (0.32%) LabVIEW
8 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
9 14 (0.28%) Maven
9 14 (0.28%) Snyk
10 12 (0.24%) JUnit
11 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
11 11 (0.22%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
12 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
12 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
12 10 (0.20%) TeamCity
13 9 (0.18%) Cypress.io
13 9 (0.18%) Octopus Deploy
14 8 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
General
1 2,679 (53.20%) Social Skills
2 1,410 (28.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1,051 (20.87%) Finance
4 303 (6.02%) Manufacturing
5 301 (5.98%) Organisational Skills
6 283 (5.62%) Retail
7 248 (4.92%) Marketing
8 208 (4.13%) Public Sector
9 183 (3.63%) Legal
10 160 (3.18%) Law
11 156 (3.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 152 (3.02%) Telecoms
13 127 (2.52%) Electronics
14 118 (2.34%) Banking
15 111 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
16 81 (1.61%) Games
17 78 (1.55%) Automotive
18 72 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
19 59 (1.17%) Aerospace
19 59 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 848 (16.84%) Analyst
2 697 (13.84%) IT Support
3 566 (11.24%) Senior
4 564 (11.20%) Support Engineer
5 379 (7.53%) Developer
6 306 (6.08%) Lead
7 302 (6.00%) IT Engineer
8 289 (5.74%) Support Analyst
9 264 (5.24%) IT Support Engineer
10 246 (4.88%) Technical Support
11 211 (4.19%) Business Analyst
12 174 (3.46%) 2nd Line Support
13 167 (3.32%) Systems Engineer
14 165 (3.28%) Technical Engineer
15 162 (3.22%) Support Technician
16 154 (3.06%) Technical Support Engineer
17 143 (2.84%) IT Analyst
18 140 (2.78%) Architect
19 128 (2.54%) Consultant
20 126 (2.50%) Trainee
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 197 (3.91%) .NET
2 164 (3.26%) HTML
3 155 (3.08%) React
4 129 (2.56%) CSS
5 87 (1.73%) REST
6 69 (1.37%) Node.js
7 61 (1.21%) RESTful
8 50 (0.99%) AngularJS
9 49 (0.97%) Vue
10 48 (0.95%) SOAP
11 47 (0.93%) JSON
12 44 (0.87%) ASP.NET
13 39 (0.77%) XML
14 38 (0.75%) Spring
15 35 (0.69%) .NET Framework
16 34 (0.68%) Django
17 33 (0.66%) EDI
18 29 (0.58%) Laravel
19 28 (0.56%) Spring Boot
20 27 (0.54%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 498 (9.89%) Driving Licence
2 384 (7.63%) Onboarding
3 311 (6.18%) Self-Motivation
4 168 (3.34%) Legacy Systems
5 167 (3.32%) Management Information System
6 158 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
7 106 (2.10%) Data Centre
8 101 (2.01%) Product Ownership
9 84 (1.67%) Cloud Native
10 64 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
11 52 (1.03%) Social Media
12 47 (0.93%) FMCG
13 46 (0.91%) Virtual Team
14 45 (0.89%) Mobile App
15 43 (0.85%) EPoS
16 38 (0.75%) Distributed Systems
16 38 (0.75%) Low-Code
17 37 (0.73%) Data Structures
18 33 (0.66%) Video Conferencing
19 32 (0.64%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 949 (18.84%) Windows
2 426 (8.46%) Windows Server
3 338 (6.71%) Linux
4 143 (2.84%) Windows Server 2016
5 118 (2.34%) Windows 10
6 77 (1.53%) Android
7 60 (1.19%) Mac OS
8 53 (1.05%) Apple iOS
9 38 (0.75%) Unix
10 35 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
11 24 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
12 17 (0.34%) Windows 7
13 14 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 9 (0.18%) CentOS
14 9 (0.18%) VMS
15 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
15 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
16 4 (0.079%) Debian
17 3 (0.060%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 942 (18.71%) Customer Service
2 906 (17.99%) Continuous Improvement
3 647 (12.85%) Agile
4 482 (9.57%) Project Management
5 455 (9.03%) Mentoring
6 446 (8.86%) Decision-Making
7 434 (8.62%) Analytics
8 416 (8.26%) Business Intelligence
9 381 (7.57%) ITIL
10 370 (7.35%) DevOps
11 360 (7.15%) ERP
12 341 (6.77%) Change Management
13 329 (6.53%) CI/CD
14 309 (6.14%) AI
15 306 (6.08%) Computer Science
16 304 (6.04%) CRM
16 304 (6.04%) Stakeholder Management
17 299 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
18 291 (5.78%) Process Improvement
19 286 (5.68%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 713 (14.16%) SQL
2 490 (9.73%) Python
3 283 (5.62%) JavaScript
4 258 (5.12%) PowerShell
5 239 (4.75%) C#
6 164 (3.26%) Java
7 82 (1.63%) PHP
8 76 (1.51%) TypeScript
9 60 (1.19%) Bash
9 60 (1.19%) C++
10 55 (1.09%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 43 (0.85%) T-SQL
12 42 (0.83%) C
13 24 (0.48%) PL/SQL
13 24 (0.48%) R
14 22 (0.44%) MATLAB
15 18 (0.36%) Bicep
16 17 (0.34%) Go
16 17 (0.34%) Perl
17 16 (0.32%) VBA
Qualifications
1 1,129 (22.42%) Degree
2 420 (8.34%) Security Cleared
3 290 (5.76%) SC Cleared
4 164 (3.26%) DBS Check
5 148 (2.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 133 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
7 101 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.49%) Master's Degree
9 68 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
10 67 (1.33%) A+ Certification
11 65 (1.29%) DV Cleared
12 61 (1.21%) ACCA
13 58 (1.15%) HND
14 53 (1.05%) CIMA
15 49 (0.97%) CCNA
15 49 (0.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 45 (0.89%) HNC
18 41 (0.81%) AWS Certification
19 33 (0.66%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (5.18%) QA
2 217 (4.31%) Data Quality
3 179 (3.55%) Cyber Essentials
4 135 (2.68%) PCI DSS
5 134 (2.66%) GDPR
6 111 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.63%) Accessibility
8 68 (1.35%) SLA
9 43 (0.85%) NIST
10 35 (0.69%) ISO 9001
11 26 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 25 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
13 15 (0.30%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 7 (0.14%) SOC 2
16 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.12%) WCAG
17 5 (0.099%) GLBA
18 4 (0.079%) GRC
System Software
1 670 (13.30%) Active Directory
2 244 (4.85%) Hyper-V
3 167 (3.32%) Docker
4 112 (2.22%) Terminal Server
5 110 (2.18%) VMware Infrastructure
6 28 (0.56%) Firmware
7 25 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.34%) vSphere
9 16 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
10 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
11 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.12%) KVM
12 6 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
13 5 (0.099%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 2 (0.040%) RHEV
15 2 (0.040%) Xen
16 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 1 (0.020%) XenApp
16 1 (0.020%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 196 (3.89%) Microsoft Intune
1 196 (3.89%) Terraform
2 119 (2.36%) Kubernetes
3 77 (1.53%) Ansible
4 50 (0.99%) SCCM
5 43 (0.85%) Grafana
6 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
7 27 (0.54%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
9 15 (0.30%) Nagios
10 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
10 14 (0.28%) vCenter Server
11 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
12 10 (0.20%) Nmap
13 8 (0.16%) Autotask
13 8 (0.16%) Control-M
13 8 (0.16%) ZABBIX
14 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 1,369 (27.18%) Microsoft
2 298 (5.92%) SAP
3 255 (5.06%) VMware
4 179 (3.55%) Oracle
5 171 (3.40%) Veeam
6 139 (2.76%) SolarWinds
7 136 (2.70%) Splunk
8 135 (2.68%) Cisco
9 113 (2.24%) Tanium
10 112 (2.22%) Brocade
10 112 (2.22%) Nimble Storage
11 105 (2.08%) Google
12 83 (1.65%) Salesforce
13 73 (1.45%) ServiceNow
14 67 (1.33%) Adobe
15 63 (1.25%) Databricks
16 60 (1.19%) Sage
17 56 (1.11%) Apple
17 56 (1.11%) BT
18 47 (0.93%) HubSpot