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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,970 5,917 10,637
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.37% 20.71% 14.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.37% 22.51% 18.11%
Number of salaries quoted 3,680 3,027 6,914
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,590 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.69% -0.91% -10.00%
75th Percentile £59,094 £61,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 47,926 26,284 58,737
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.04% 91.99% 81.93%
Number of salaries quoted 31,240 12,956 41,854
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,250
25th Percentile £38,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £51,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +2.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -9.84%

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 29 May 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 29 May 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 -9 1,367 £42,500 -5.56% 503
South East -8 1,180 £45,000 -0.55% 643
Midlands -21 916 £42,000 -6.67% 324
North West -16 700 £45,000 -4.26% 273
South West -7 574 £43,500 +8.75% 212
West Midlands -25 535 £42,500 -10.53% 198
Yorkshire -10 516 £41,000 +9.33% 163
East of England -6 498 £45,000 +11.11% 218
East Midlands -10 377 £35,000 -9.09% 128
Scotland -5 274 £35,000 -28.28% 73
North East -14 151 £48,000 +6.67% 78
Wales -12 112 £42,500 -15.00% 44
Northern Ireland -10 69 £38,500 -30.00% 14
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45%
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
1 295 (5.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 291 (5.86%) SharePoint
3 47 (0.95%) CMS
4 41 (0.82%) Confluence
5 29 (0.58%) IIS
6 21 (0.42%) Apache
6 21 (0.42%) WordPress
7 16 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (0.26%) Apache Spark
8 13 (0.26%) SAS
9 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
10 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
10 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
11 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
11 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
13 4 (0.080%) Moodle
13 4 (0.080%) nginx
13 4 (0.080%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.080%) Totara
Applications
1 299 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 293 (5.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 39 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 36 (0.72%) MS Visio
6 11 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.16%) Fusion 360
9 7 (0.14%) Simulink
10 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
11 5 (0.10%) Trello
12 4 (0.080%) Chatbot
13 3 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.040%) Acrobat
14 2 (0.040%) Sketch
14 2 (0.040%) SOLIDWORKS
14 2 (0.040%) Windchill
15 1 (0.020%) Weka
Business Applications
1 48 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 25 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.42%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.38%) Shopify
6 16 (0.32%) Magento
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
8 12 (0.24%) iTrent
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 10 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 10 (0.20%) SAP CO
10 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
11 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
11 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 5 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
13 4 (0.080%) Line 50
13 4 (0.080%) Sage 200
13 4 (0.080%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 993 (19.98%) Azure
2 867 (17.44%) Microsoft 365
3 499 (10.04%) AWS
4 372 (7.48%) Power Platform
5 224 (4.51%) Entra ID
6 172 (3.46%) SaaS
7 141 (2.84%) GCP
8 122 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
9 109 (2.19%) Serverless
10 102 (2.05%) Dynamics 365
11 85 (1.71%) GitHub
12 73 (1.47%) Power Automate
13 65 (1.31%) PowerApps
14 58 (1.17%) Amazon S3
15 54 (1.09%) Google Workspace
15 54 (1.09%) OneDrive
16 51 (1.03%) AWS Lambda
17 46 (0.93%) IaaS
18 44 (0.89%) Azure Data Factory
18 44 (0.89%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 319 (6.42%) Firewall
2 302 (6.08%) DNS
3 251 (5.05%) DHCP
4 173 (3.48%) WAN
5 168 (3.38%) VPN
6 133 (2.68%) LAN
7 126 (2.54%) TCP/IP
8 122 (2.45%) Wi-Fi
9 108 (2.17%) Broadband
10 102 (2.05%) Wireless
11 93 (1.87%) VLAN
12 78 (1.57%) Network Security
13 76 (1.53%) VoIP
14 44 (0.89%) SD-WAN
15 36 (0.72%) Internet
16 34 (0.68%) SAN
17 21 (0.42%) HTTP
18 19 (0.38%) Unified Communications
19 17 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
20 15 (0.30%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 294 (5.92%) Power BI
2 209 (4.21%) SQL Server
3 74 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
3 74 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
4 70 (1.41%) MySQL
4 70 (1.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 69 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
6 68 (1.37%) NoSQL
7 59 (1.19%) Tableau
8 53 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 52 (1.05%) Relational Database
10 44 (0.89%) Power Query
11 37 (0.74%) Big Data
12 32 (0.64%) DynamoDB
13 31 (0.62%) MongoDB
14 28 (0.56%) Data Lake
15 25 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
16 24 (0.48%) Oracle Reports
17 22 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
17 22 (0.44%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 194 (3.90%) Git
2 142 (2.86%) JIRA
3 67 (1.35%) GitLab
4 44 (0.89%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Selenium
8 14 (0.28%) Cucumber
8 14 (0.28%) JUnit
9 13 (0.26%) LabVIEW
9 13 (0.26%) SonarQube
9 13 (0.26%) Subversion
10 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
11 10 (0.20%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
12 9 (0.18%) Visual Studio
13 8 (0.16%) MLflow
14 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.14%) Mockito
14 7 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,350 (47.28%) Social Skills
2 1,396 (28.09%) Analytical Skills
3 836 (16.82%) Finance
4 341 (6.86%) Manufacturing
5 314 (6.32%) Organisational Skills
6 226 (4.55%) Public Sector
7 215 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 191 (3.84%) Law
9 183 (3.68%) Legal
10 182 (3.66%) Marketing
11 170 (3.42%) Retail
12 143 (2.88%) Telecoms
13 135 (2.72%) Electronics
14 126 (2.54%) Banking
15 97 (1.95%) Documentation Skills
16 74 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
17 72 (1.45%) Games
18 70 (1.41%) Aerospace
19 55 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
20 53 (1.07%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 717 (14.43%) Analyst
2 617 (12.41%) IT Support
3 542 (10.91%) Senior
4 537 (10.80%) Support Engineer
5 431 (8.67%) Developer
6 357 (7.18%) IT Engineer
7 276 (5.55%) IT Support Engineer
8 254 (5.11%) Lead
9 230 (4.63%) Support Technician
10 206 (4.14%) Support Analyst
11 191 (3.84%) Systems Engineer
12 182 (3.66%) IT Technician
13 173 (3.48%) Architect
14 165 (3.32%) Consultant
15 159 (3.20%) Technical Support
16 156 (3.14%) Software Engineer
17 151 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
18 146 (2.94%) IT Support Technician
19 129 (2.60%) Business Analyst
20 128 (2.58%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 181 (3.64%) .NET
2 166 (3.34%) React
3 144 (2.90%) HTML
4 124 (2.49%) REST
5 112 (2.25%) CSS
6 82 (1.65%) Node.js
7 72 (1.45%) SOAP
8 64 (1.29%) RESTful
9 63 (1.27%) JSON
10 57 (1.15%) XML
11 55 (1.11%) Middleware
12 54 (1.09%) Vue
13 50 (1.01%) AngularJS
14 40 (0.80%) Spring
15 39 (0.78%) OAuth
16 36 (0.72%) Spring Boot
17 35 (0.70%) EDI
18 33 (0.66%) ASP.NET
19 30 (0.60%) Laravel
19 30 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 382 (7.69%) Driving Licence
2 267 (5.37%) Onboarding
3 219 (4.41%) Self-Motivation
4 186 (3.74%) Management Information System
5 126 (2.54%) Product Ownership
6 117 (2.35%) Cloud Native
7 110 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
8 107 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
9 97 (1.95%) Data Centre
10 76 (1.53%) Social Media
11 72 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
12 63 (1.27%) Mobile App
13 57 (1.15%) Low-Code
14 51 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
15 45 (0.91%) Virtual Team
16 43 (0.87%) Data Structures
17 37 (0.74%) Security Posture
18 36 (0.72%) Algorithms
18 36 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
18 36 (0.72%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 834 (16.78%) Windows
2 393 (7.91%) Windows Server
3 321 (6.46%) Linux
4 132 (2.66%) Windows 10
5 107 (2.15%) Android
6 101 (2.03%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.27%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.05%) Mac OS
9 48 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.62%) Unix
11 26 (0.52%) CentOS
12 25 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 24 (0.48%) Ubuntu
14 20 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
15 15 (0.30%) VMS
16 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.18%) Debian
18 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
19 4 (0.080%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,057 (21.27%) Continuous Improvement
2 876 (17.63%) Customer Service
3 663 (13.34%) Agile
4 489 (9.84%) Mentoring
5 478 (9.62%) Decision-Making
6 423 (8.51%) CI/CD
7 417 (8.39%) AI
8 414 (8.33%) Analytics
9 406 (8.17%) ITIL
10 400 (8.05%) DevOps
11 348 (7.00%) Business Intelligence
12 333 (6.70%) ERP
13 331 (6.66%) Collaborative Working
14 330 (6.64%) Software Engineering
15 325 (6.54%) Coaching
15 325 (6.54%) Cybersecurity
16 319 (6.42%) Project Management
17 311 (6.26%) Stakeholder Management
18 307 (6.18%) Computer Science
19 287 (5.77%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 697 (14.02%) SQL
2 572 (11.51%) Python
3 314 (6.32%) JavaScript
4 237 (4.77%) C#
5 210 (4.23%) Java
6 199 (4.00%) PowerShell
7 123 (2.47%) TypeScript
8 102 (2.05%) C++
9 92 (1.85%) Bash
10 70 (1.41%) PHP
11 51 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 48 (0.97%) C
13 43 (0.87%) PL/SQL
14 40 (0.80%) T-SQL
15 29 (0.58%) R
16 26 (0.52%) Kotlin
17 25 (0.50%) Perl
18 23 (0.46%) Go
19 22 (0.44%) Ruby
19 22 (0.44%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 763 (15.35%) Degree
2 371 (7.46%) Security Cleared
3 263 (5.29%) SC Cleared
4 206 (4.14%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
6 145 (2.92%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
9 73 (1.47%) A+ Certification
10 68 (1.37%) DV Cleared
11 61 (1.23%) ACCA
12 59 (1.19%) CCNA
13 57 (1.15%) CIMA
14 51 (1.03%) HNC
15 48 (0.97%) PMI Certification
16 47 (0.95%) Master's Degree
17 46 (0.93%) Network+ Certification
18 44 (0.89%) CISSP
19 40 (0.80%) Azure Certification
20 39 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 277 (5.57%) QA
2 238 (4.79%) Data Quality
3 150 (3.02%) GDPR
4 129 (2.60%) Cyber Essentials
5 128 (2.58%) SLA
6 110 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 88 (1.77%) PCI DSS
8 82 (1.65%) NIST
9 67 (1.35%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 20 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 15 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 14 (0.28%) GMP
13 14 (0.28%) PMO
13 14 (0.28%) SOC 2
14 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
15 12 (0.24%) GRC
15 12 (0.24%) TickIT
16 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.12%) COBIT
System Software
1 590 (11.87%) Active Directory
2 199 (4.00%) Hyper-V
3 165 (3.32%) Docker
4 156 (3.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 56 (1.13%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.58%) Firmware
7 27 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.34%) vSphere
9 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.20%) KVM
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 5 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.080%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.080%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 4 (0.080%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.060%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.040%) ClearTrust
17 2 (0.040%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 188 (3.78%) Terraform
2 178 (3.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 156 (3.14%) Kubernetes
4 88 (1.77%) Ansible
5 55 (1.11%) SCCM
6 49 (0.99%) Grafana
7 32 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.44%) Nagios
9 15 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
11 11 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 9 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 9 (0.18%) Autotask
12 9 (0.18%) Kibana
12 9 (0.18%) Puppet
12 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.16%) Functional Safety
13 8 (0.16%) logstash
13 8 (0.16%) QRadar
14 7 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 1,393 (28.03%) Microsoft
2 242 (4.87%) VMware
3 138 (2.78%) Oracle
4 115 (2.31%) Veeam
5 113 (2.27%) SAP
6 109 (2.19%) Cisco
7 103 (2.07%) Google
8 88 (1.77%) SolarWinds
8 88 (1.77%) Splunk
9 69 (1.39%) Databricks
10 66 (1.33%) Salesforce
11 64 (1.29%) Apple
11 64 (1.29%) ServiceNow
12 57 (1.15%) Nimble Storage
13 56 (1.13%) Brocade
13 56 (1.13%) Tanium
14 50 (1.01%) Adobe
15 47 (0.95%) Dell
16 44 (0.89%) Sage
17 38 (0.76%) Meraki