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 23 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,297 6,042 11,432
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.76% 19.91% 14.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.09% 21.94% 18.10%
Number of salaries quoted 3,963 3,224 6,997
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £48,793
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.47% -11.29%

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 47,744 27,543 63,159
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.98% 90.77% 79.70%
Number of salaries quoted 33,496 14,077 44,073
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,000 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.41%

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 23 June 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 23 June 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 1,426 £42,500 -1.16% 555
South East -5 1,293 £45,000 +5.88% 727
Midlands -8 982 £42,000 -1.18% 406
North West -7 737 £45,000 -2.70% 301
South West -6 625 £44,000 +17.33% 251
West Midlands -9 563 £42,500 -5.56% 225
East of England -3 540 £45,000 +28.57% 229
Yorkshire -11 511 £40,500 +15.71% 183
East Midlands -7 416 £35,000 -4.11% 181
Scotland -2 265 £35,000 -28.28% 92
North East -12 178 £48,500 +21.25% 87
Wales -22 114 £45,000 - 38
Northern Ireland -10 72 £38,500 -30.00% 77
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
1 333 (6.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 321 (6.06%) SharePoint
3 51 (0.96%) Confluence
4 50 (0.94%) CMS
5 30 (0.57%) IIS
6 26 (0.49%) WordPress
7 25 (0.47%) Apache
8 20 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.25%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.23%) SAS
11 11 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
12 9 (0.17%) WebSphere
13 7 (0.13%) OpenEdge
13 7 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 6 (0.11%) WebLogic
15 5 (0.094%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.076%) Moodle
16 4 (0.076%) nginx
Applications
1 333 (6.29%) Microsoft Office
2 315 (5.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 40 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 40 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
4 31 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 14 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 8 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (0.15%) Simulink
7 6 (0.11%) AutoCAD
8 5 (0.094%) Fusion 360
8 5 (0.094%) Photoshop
8 5 (0.094%) Trello
9 4 (0.076%) Chatbot
10 3 (0.057%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.057%) Lightworks
10 3 (0.057%) Windchill
11 2 (0.038%) Adobe XD
11 2 (0.038%) Siemens NX
11 2 (0.038%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 51 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
3 28 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 22 (0.42%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.36%) Shopify
6 16 (0.30%) Magento
7 14 (0.26%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
8 12 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.21%) iTrent
10 9 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 9 (0.17%) SAP Business One
11 8 (0.15%) Sage 50
12 7 (0.13%) SAP CO
12 7 (0.13%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.094%) Q-Pulse
14 4 (0.076%) JDE EnterpriseOne
14 4 (0.076%) Line 50
14 4 (0.076%) Sage X3
14 4 (0.076%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,106 (20.88%) Azure
2 962 (18.16%) Microsoft 365
3 555 (10.48%) AWS
4 400 (7.55%) Power Platform
5 254 (4.80%) Entra ID
6 176 (3.32%) SaaS
7 167 (3.15%) GCP
8 121 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
9 113 (2.13%) Dynamics 365
10 112 (2.11%) Serverless
11 87 (1.64%) GitHub
11 87 (1.64%) Power Automate
12 79 (1.49%) PowerApps
13 70 (1.32%) OneDrive
14 54 (1.02%) Amazon S3
15 49 (0.93%) Google Workspace
16 46 (0.87%) AWS Lambda
16 46 (0.87%) IaaS
17 45 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
18 44 (0.83%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 381 (7.19%) Firewall
2 339 (6.40%) DNS
3 291 (5.49%) DHCP
4 201 (3.79%) VPN
5 184 (3.47%) WAN
6 154 (2.91%) TCP/IP
7 153 (2.89%) LAN
8 144 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
9 110 (2.08%) Broadband
9 110 (2.08%) VLAN
9 110 (2.08%) Wireless
10 90 (1.70%) Network Security
11 84 (1.59%) VoIP
12 43 (0.81%) Internet
13 40 (0.76%) SD-WAN
14 30 (0.57%) SAN
15 23 (0.43%) HTTP
16 21 (0.40%) SSL
16 21 (0.40%) Structured Cabling
17 19 (0.36%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 324 (6.12%) Power BI
2 228 (4.30%) SQL Server
3 98 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
4 83 (1.57%) MySQL
5 80 (1.51%) Data Warehouse
6 74 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
7 70 (1.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 68 (1.28%) NoSQL
9 60 (1.13%) Relational Database
10 59 (1.11%) Tableau
11 54 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 46 (0.87%) Power Query
13 41 (0.77%) MongoDB
14 35 (0.66%) Big Data
15 34 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
16 31 (0.59%) Data Lake
17 30 (0.57%) DynamoDB
18 28 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
19 24 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
20 21 (0.40%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 206 (3.89%) Git
2 149 (2.81%) JIRA
3 69 (1.30%) GitLab
4 41 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.55%) Rational DOORS
6 20 (0.38%) Cucumber
7 18 (0.34%) Subversion
8 16 (0.30%) JUnit
9 15 (0.28%) Eclipse
9 15 (0.28%) Selenium
10 14 (0.26%) SonarQube
11 13 (0.25%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.25%) Maven
12 11 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
13 10 (0.19%) Bitbucket
14 9 (0.17%) Burp Suite
14 9 (0.17%) Postman
15 8 (0.15%) Claude Code
15 8 (0.15%) Metasploit
15 8 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,530 (47.76%) Social Skills
2 1,449 (27.36%) Analytical Skills
3 845 (15.95%) Finance
4 398 (7.51%) Manufacturing
5 339 (6.40%) Organisational Skills
6 239 (4.51%) Public Sector
7 228 (4.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 204 (3.85%) Legal
8 204 (3.85%) Retail
9 202 (3.81%) Law
10 177 (3.34%) Marketing
11 138 (2.61%) Banking
12 134 (2.53%) Electronics
13 133 (2.51%) Telecoms
14 107 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
15 99 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
16 78 (1.47%) Aerospace
17 74 (1.40%) Games
18 60 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
19 54 (1.02%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 759 (14.33%) Analyst
2 643 (12.14%) IT Support
3 559 (10.55%) Support Engineer
4 546 (10.31%) Senior
5 483 (9.12%) Developer
6 378 (7.14%) IT Engineer
7 289 (5.46%) IT Support Engineer
8 279 (5.27%) Lead
9 244 (4.61%) Support Technician
10 215 (4.06%) Support Analyst
11 212 (4.00%) Systems Engineer
12 196 (3.70%) IT Technician
13 186 (3.51%) Technical Support
14 176 (3.32%) Consultant
15 173 (3.27%) Architect
15 173 (3.27%) Software Engineer
16 155 (2.93%) IT Support Technician
16 155 (2.93%) Technical Engineer
17 147 (2.78%) Technical Support Engineer
18 137 (2.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 203 (3.83%) .NET
2 187 (3.53%) React
3 155 (2.93%) HTML
4 142 (2.68%) REST
5 117 (2.21%) CSS
6 96 (1.81%) Node.js
7 80 (1.51%) RESTful
8 79 (1.49%) SOAP
9 71 (1.34%) JSON
10 70 (1.32%) Middleware
11 67 (1.26%) Vue
12 61 (1.15%) AngularJS
12 61 (1.15%) XML
13 43 (0.81%) ASP.NET
13 43 (0.81%) Spring
14 41 (0.77%) Web Services
15 40 (0.76%) Spring Boot
16 38 (0.72%) OAuth
17 37 (0.70%) EDI
18 29 (0.55%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 406 (7.66%) Driving Licence
2 288 (5.44%) Onboarding
3 243 (4.59%) Self-Motivation
4 199 (3.76%) Management Information System
5 140 (2.64%) Cloud Native
6 132 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
7 128 (2.42%) Product Ownership
8 98 (1.85%) Data Centre
9 97 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
10 74 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
11 71 (1.34%) Social Media
12 68 (1.28%) Mobile App
13 62 (1.17%) Security Posture
14 51 (0.96%) Low-Code
15 49 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
15 49 (0.93%) Virtual Team
16 46 (0.87%) Data Structures
17 41 (0.77%) Algorithms
17 41 (0.77%) IoT
18 40 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 917 (17.31%) Windows
2 444 (8.38%) Windows Server
3 366 (6.91%) Linux
4 146 (2.76%) Windows 10
5 118 (2.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 106 (2.00%) Android
7 68 (1.28%) Apple iOS
8 63 (1.19%) Mac OS
9 52 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
10 32 (0.60%) Unix
11 27 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 26 (0.49%) CentOS
12 26 (0.49%) Ubuntu
13 18 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
14 17 (0.32%) VMS
15 14 (0.26%) Windows 7
16 12 (0.23%) Debian
17 7 (0.13%) Windows 8
18 6 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
18 6 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,215 (22.94%) Continuous Improvement
2 944 (17.82%) Customer Service
3 701 (13.23%) Agile
4 534 (10.08%) Mentoring
5 533 (10.06%) Decision-Making
6 459 (8.67%) AI
7 451 (8.51%) CI/CD
8 443 (8.36%) Analytics
9 430 (8.12%) ITIL
10 415 (7.83%) DevOps
11 401 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
12 396 (7.48%) Collaborative Working
13 378 (7.14%) ERP
14 376 (7.10%) Business Intelligence
15 368 (6.95%) Software Engineering
16 349 (6.59%) Stakeholder Management
17 328 (6.19%) Computer Science
18 319 (6.02%) Coaching
19 308 (5.81%) Project Management
20 305 (5.76%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 809 (15.27%) SQL
2 606 (11.44%) Python
3 334 (6.31%) JavaScript
4 275 (5.19%) C#
5 232 (4.38%) Java
6 218 (4.12%) PowerShell
7 147 (2.78%) TypeScript
8 126 (2.38%) C++
9 103 (1.94%) Bash
10 73 (1.38%) PHP
11 55 (1.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 51 (0.96%) C
13 45 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 42 (0.79%) PL/SQL
15 31 (0.59%) Kotlin
16 30 (0.57%) Perl
17 27 (0.51%) Go
17 27 (0.51%) R
17 27 (0.51%) Shell Script
18 25 (0.47%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 774 (14.61%) Degree
2 425 (8.02%) Security Cleared
3 301 (5.68%) SC Cleared
4 208 (3.93%) DBS Check
5 161 (3.04%) Microsoft Certification
6 155 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
8 79 (1.49%) Cisco Certification
9 71 (1.34%) DV Cleared
10 66 (1.25%) A+ Certification
11 65 (1.23%) ACCA
12 62 (1.17%) CCNA
13 61 (1.15%) CIMA
14 58 (1.09%) Azure Certification
15 55 (1.04%) HNC
16 52 (0.98%) PMI Certification
17 47 (0.89%) CISSP
18 45 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
18 45 (0.85%) Master's Degree
18 45 (0.85%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 309 (5.83%) QA
2 242 (4.57%) Data Quality
3 163 (3.08%) Cyber Essentials
4 151 (2.85%) GDPR
5 134 (2.53%) SLA
6 128 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 106 (2.00%) PCI DSS
8 91 (1.72%) Accessibility
9 82 (1.55%) NIST
10 40 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 24 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 23 (0.43%) PMO
13 18 (0.34%) GMP
14 16 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
15 15 (0.28%) GRC
16 13 (0.25%) ISO 14001
17 12 (0.23%) Good Clinical Practice
17 12 (0.23%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.23%) TickIT
18 8 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 662 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 244 (4.61%) Hyper-V
3 182 (3.44%) Docker
4 174 (3.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.36%) Terminal Server
6 32 (0.60%) Firmware
6 32 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
7 22 (0.42%) vSphere
8 20 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
10 10 (0.19%) KVM
11 7 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.11%) XenApp
13 5 (0.094%) ClearTrust
14 4 (0.076%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 4 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.057%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.057%) Terminal Services
16 2 (0.038%) Samba
Systems Management
1 197 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 193 (3.64%) Terraform
3 174 (3.28%) Kubernetes
4 97 (1.83%) Ansible
5 57 (1.08%) SCCM
6 55 (1.04%) Grafana
7 36 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.40%) Nagios
9 18 (0.34%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.23%) Kibana
10 12 (0.23%) vCenter Server
11 11 (0.21%) logstash
12 10 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.17%) Autotask
13 9 (0.17%) Podman
13 9 (0.17%) Proxmox
13 9 (0.17%) Puppet
13 9 (0.17%) QRadar
13 9 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.17%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,563 (29.51%) Microsoft
2 282 (5.32%) VMware
3 129 (2.44%) Veeam
4 128 (2.42%) Oracle
5 118 (2.23%) SAP
6 117 (2.21%) Google
7 109 (2.06%) Splunk
8 105 (1.98%) Cisco
9 102 (1.93%) SolarWinds
10 78 (1.47%) Salesforce
11 75 (1.42%) Tanium
12 73 (1.38%) Nimble Storage
13 72 (1.36%) Brocade
14 66 (1.25%) ServiceNow
15 64 (1.21%) Databricks
16 61 (1.15%) Apple
17 51 (0.96%) Adobe
17 51 (0.96%) Sage
18 45 (0.85%) Dell
19 37 (0.70%) Meraki