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

6 months to
27 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 4,937 5,835 10,583
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.34% 20.60% 14.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.32% 22.40% 18.14%
Number of salaries quoted 3,653 2,974 6,892
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £59,750 £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 47,821 26,051 58,333
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.10% 91.99% 82.10%
Number of salaries quoted 31,091 12,779 41,663
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,250
25th Percentile £38,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £51,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% +3.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,375 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.78% +6.14% -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 27 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 27 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 -8 1,356 £42,500 -5.56% 643
South East -8 1,174 £45,000 -3.23% 681
Midlands -22 910 £42,000 -6.67% 379
North West -15 695 £45,000 -4.26% 360
South West -8 569 £43,500 +8.75% 277
West Midlands -24 532 £42,500 -11.46% 243
Yorkshire -10 515 £41,500 +10.67% 210
East of England -7 490 £42,500 +5.98% 256
East Midlands -10 374 £35,000 -9.09% 137
Scotland -4 277 £35,000 -30.00% 113
North East -15 146 £48,222 +7.16% 84
Wales -12 112 £42,500 -15.00% 50
Northern Ireland -7 69 £38,500 -30.00% 60
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 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
1 292 (5.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 286 (5.79%) SharePoint
3 47 (0.95%) CMS
4 37 (0.75%) Confluence
5 30 (0.61%) IIS
6 22 (0.45%) Apache
6 22 (0.45%) WordPress
7 16 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (0.26%) Apache Spark
9 12 (0.24%) SAS
10 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
12 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.081%) Moodle
15 4 (0.081%) nginx
15 4 (0.081%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.081%) Totara
Applications
1 298 (6.04%) Microsoft Office
2 289 (5.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 39 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 37 (0.75%) 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 4 (0.081%) Trello
12 3 (0.061%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.061%) Chatbot
13 2 (0.041%) Acrobat
13 2 (0.041%) Sketch
13 2 (0.041%) SOLIDWORKS
14 1 (0.020%) Weka
14 1 (0.020%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 47 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
3 25 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.43%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.38%) Shopify
6 16 (0.32%) Magento
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
9 11 (0.22%) iTrent
9 11 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.22%) SAP CO
10 9 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
12 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
12 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
14 4 (0.081%) Line 50
14 4 (0.081%) Markit EDM
14 4 (0.081%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 993 (20.11%) Azure
2 862 (17.46%) Microsoft 365
3 498 (10.09%) AWS
4 364 (7.37%) Power Platform
5 221 (4.48%) Entra ID
6 170 (3.44%) SaaS
7 139 (2.82%) GCP
8 122 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
9 108 (2.19%) Serverless
10 102 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
11 90 (1.82%) GitHub
12 73 (1.48%) Power Automate
13 63 (1.28%) PowerApps
14 60 (1.22%) Amazon S3
15 55 (1.11%) Google Workspace
16 53 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
16 53 (1.07%) OneDrive
17 46 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
17 46 (0.93%) IaaS
18 44 (0.89%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 313 (6.34%) Firewall
2 304 (6.16%) DNS
3 249 (5.04%) DHCP
4 170 (3.44%) WAN
5 166 (3.36%) VPN
6 130 (2.63%) LAN
7 124 (2.51%) TCP/IP
8 119 (2.41%) Wi-Fi
9 108 (2.19%) Broadband
10 104 (2.11%) Wireless
11 94 (1.90%) VLAN
12 74 (1.50%) Network Security
13 73 (1.48%) VoIP
14 43 (0.87%) SD-WAN
15 36 (0.73%) Internet
16 34 (0.69%) SAN
17 21 (0.43%) HTTP
17 21 (0.43%) Unified Communications
18 17 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
19 16 (0.32%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 288 (5.83%) Power BI
2 205 (4.15%) SQL Server
3 74 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
4 72 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
5 70 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
6 68 (1.38%) MySQL
6 68 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 67 (1.36%) NoSQL
8 59 (1.20%) Tableau
9 52 (1.05%) Relational Database
9 52 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 44 (0.89%) Power Query
11 36 (0.73%) Big Data
12 35 (0.71%) DynamoDB
13 29 (0.59%) MongoDB
14 27 (0.55%) Data Lake
15 25 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
16 23 (0.47%) Oracle Reports
17 22 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
18 21 (0.43%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 195 (3.95%) Git
2 140 (2.84%) JIRA
3 73 (1.48%) GitLab
4 45 (0.91%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.59%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) Maven
7 15 (0.30%) Selenium
8 14 (0.28%) Cucumber
9 13 (0.26%) JUnit
9 13 (0.26%) LabVIEW
9 13 (0.26%) SonarQube
10 12 (0.24%) Cypress.io
11 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.20%) Subversion
13 9 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
14 8 (0.16%) MLflow
14 8 (0.16%) Visual Studio
15 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
15 7 (0.14%) Mockito
15 7 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,331 (47.21%) Social Skills
2 1,385 (28.05%) Analytical Skills
3 837 (16.95%) Finance
4 332 (6.72%) Manufacturing
5 312 (6.32%) Organisational Skills
6 223 (4.52%) Public Sector
7 214 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 191 (3.87%) Law
9 184 (3.73%) Legal
10 182 (3.69%) Marketing
11 168 (3.40%) Retail
12 142 (2.88%) Telecoms
13 137 (2.77%) Electronics
14 126 (2.55%) Banking
15 96 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
16 71 (1.44%) Games
17 70 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
18 68 (1.38%) Aerospace
19 56 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
20 52 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 707 (14.32%) Analyst
2 616 (12.48%) IT Support
3 543 (11.00%) Senior
4 536 (10.86%) Support Engineer
5 420 (8.51%) Developer
6 352 (7.13%) IT Engineer
7 273 (5.53%) IT Support Engineer
8 257 (5.21%) Lead
9 232 (4.70%) Support Technician
10 206 (4.17%) Support Analyst
11 191 (3.87%) Systems Engineer
12 183 (3.71%) IT Technician
13 170 (3.44%) Architect
14 160 (3.24%) Consultant
14 160 (3.24%) Technical Support
15 154 (3.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 152 (3.08%) Software Engineer
17 147 (2.98%) IT Support Technician
18 128 (2.59%) Technical Engineer
19 127 (2.57%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 178 (3.61%) .NET
2 163 (3.30%) React
3 141 (2.86%) HTML
4 119 (2.41%) REST
5 111 (2.25%) CSS
6 79 (1.60%) Node.js
7 71 (1.44%) SOAP
8 64 (1.30%) RESTful
9 61 (1.24%) JSON
10 57 (1.15%) XML
11 56 (1.13%) Middleware
12 51 (1.03%) Vue
13 48 (0.97%) AngularJS
14 42 (0.85%) Spring
15 41 (0.83%) OAuth
16 38 (0.77%) Spring Boot
17 35 (0.71%) EDI
18 33 (0.67%) ASP.NET
19 28 (0.57%) Laravel
20 27 (0.55%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 376 (7.62%) Driving Licence
2 263 (5.33%) Onboarding
3 218 (4.42%) Self-Motivation
4 181 (3.67%) Management Information System
5 127 (2.57%) Product Ownership
6 119 (2.41%) Cloud Native
7 107 (2.17%) Analytical Mindset
8 104 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
9 97 (1.96%) Data Centre
10 76 (1.54%) Social Media
11 73 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
12 60 (1.22%) Mobile App
13 58 (1.17%) Low-Code
14 51 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
15 45 (0.91%) Virtual Team
16 42 (0.85%) Data Structures
17 36 (0.73%) Hybrid Cloud
18 35 (0.71%) Algorithms
18 35 (0.71%) NHS
18 35 (0.71%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 832 (16.85%) Windows
2 390 (7.90%) Windows Server
3 314 (6.36%) Linux
4 129 (2.61%) Windows 10
5 106 (2.15%) Android
6 101 (2.05%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.28%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.05%) Mac OS
9 47 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
10 31 (0.63%) Unix
11 26 (0.53%) CentOS
12 25 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 23 (0.47%) Ubuntu
14 20 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
15 14 (0.28%) 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 (0.081%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,038 (21.02%) Continuous Improvement
2 871 (17.64%) Customer Service
3 668 (13.53%) Agile
4 484 (9.80%) Mentoring
5 471 (9.54%) Decision-Making
6 428 (8.67%) CI/CD
7 410 (8.30%) Analytics
8 408 (8.26%) AI
9 406 (8.22%) DevOps
10 401 (8.12%) ITIL
11 340 (6.89%) Business Intelligence
12 331 (6.70%) Coaching
13 325 (6.58%) ERP
14 324 (6.56%) Collaborative Working
14 324 (6.56%) Software Engineering
15 319 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
16 317 (6.42%) Project Management
17 307 (6.22%) Stakeholder Management
18 300 (6.08%) Computer Science
19 289 (5.85%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 686 (13.90%) SQL
2 568 (11.50%) Python
3 306 (6.20%) JavaScript
4 227 (4.60%) C#
5 208 (4.21%) Java
6 200 (4.05%) PowerShell
7 120 (2.43%) TypeScript
8 98 (1.99%) C++
9 93 (1.88%) Bash
10 67 (1.36%) PHP
11 50 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 48 (0.97%) C
13 42 (0.85%) PL/SQL
14 38 (0.77%) T-SQL
15 29 (0.59%) R
16 26 (0.53%) Kotlin
17 23 (0.47%) Perl
18 22 (0.45%) Go
18 22 (0.45%) Ruby
18 22 (0.45%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 761 (15.41%) Degree
2 373 (7.56%) Security Cleared
3 262 (5.31%) SC Cleared
4 207 (4.19%) DBS Check
5 157 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
6 143 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.52%) A+ Certification
9 74 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
10 69 (1.40%) DV Cleared
11 61 (1.24%) ACCA
12 58 (1.17%) 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 45 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
18 43 (0.87%) CISSP
19 40 (0.81%) Azure Certification
20 38 (0.77%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (5.47%) QA
2 230 (4.66%) Data Quality
3 148 (3.00%) GDPR
4 126 (2.55%) SLA
5 125 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 106 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 89 (1.80%) PCI DSS
8 81 (1.64%) NIST
9 67 (1.36%) Accessibility
10 39 (0.79%) ISO 9001
11 20 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
12 15 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 14 (0.28%) GMP
13 14 (0.28%) SOC 2
14 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
15 12 (0.24%) PMO
15 12 (0.24%) TickIT
16 11 (0.22%) GRC
17 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 6 (0.12%) COBIT
System Software
1 589 (11.93%) Active Directory
2 194 (3.93%) Hyper-V
3 167 (3.38%) Docker
4 148 (3.00%) VMware Infrastructure
5 56 (1.13%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.59%) Firmware
7 27 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.32%) 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 (0.081%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.061%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.061%) Virtual Servers
17 2 (0.041%) ClearTrust
17 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 200 (4.05%) Terraform
2 178 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
3 158 (3.20%) Kubernetes
4 90 (1.82%) Ansible
5 58 (1.17%) SCCM
6 52 (1.05%) Grafana
7 35 (0.71%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.45%) Nagios
9 14 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.22%) vCenter Server
11 10 (0.20%) 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 1,384 (28.03%) Microsoft
2 234 (4.74%) VMware
3 135 (2.73%) Oracle
4 114 (2.31%) Veeam
5 112 (2.27%) SAP
6 109 (2.21%) Cisco
7 103 (2.09%) Google
8 89 (1.80%) Splunk
9 88 (1.78%) SolarWinds
10 68 (1.38%) Databricks
11 64 (1.30%) Apple
11 64 (1.30%) Salesforce
11 64 (1.30%) ServiceNow
12 57 (1.15%) Tanium
13 56 (1.13%) Brocade
13 56 (1.13%) Nimble Storage
14 50 (1.01%) Adobe
15 47 (0.95%) Dell
16 43 (0.87%) Sage
17 36 (0.73%) Meraki