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 2 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,850 5,070 9,860
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.45% 19.59% 15.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.45% 21.44% 18.30%
Number of salaries quoted 3,472 3,008 6,625
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,929 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,000 £65,000 £61,123
90th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,749 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -16.82% +10.00% -9.09%

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 42,363 23,649 53,873
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 73.79% 91.37% 84.81%
Number of salaries quoted 25,776 13,566 39,462
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.41%
75th Percentile £67,500 £69,938 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%

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 2 April 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 2 April 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 -18 1,291 £41,000 -10.87% 662
South East -7 1,197 £45,000 -11.71% 802
Midlands -19 876 £38,500 -19.79% 478
North West -17 653 £41,000 -18.00% 365
South West -6 548 £43,500 -8.42% 308
West Midlands -25 519 £42,500 -20.26% 278
Yorkshire -7 508 £35,500 -15.98% 222
East of England -9 438 £40,000 -20.00% 288
East Midlands -2 354 £35,000 -12.50% 199
Scotland -5 327 £33,500 -33.00% 127
North East -10 130 £45,497 +1.10% 92
Wales -5 109 £40,000 -27.27% 81
Northern Ireland -2 90 £35,000 -38.83% 19
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +64.47% 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
1 289 (5.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 241 (4.97%) SharePoint
3 44 (0.91%) Confluence
4 43 (0.89%) CMS
5 30 (0.62%) IIS
6 22 (0.45%) WordPress
7 18 (0.37%) Apache
8 17 (0.35%) Apache Spark
9 13 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
10 12 (0.25%) Exchange Server 2013
10 12 (0.25%) SAS
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
12 8 (0.16%) nginx
13 7 (0.14%) Drupal
14 5 (0.10%) Anypoint
14 5 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 4 (0.082%) Headless CMS
15 4 (0.082%) Moodle
15 4 (0.082%) OpenStack
Applications
1 346 (7.13%) Microsoft Office
2 300 (6.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 56 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 33 (0.68%) MS Visio
5 22 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
7 11 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
7 11 (0.23%) Photoshop
8 10 (0.21%) AutoCAD
9 8 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 6 (0.12%) Fusion 360
11 4 (0.082%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.082%) Simulink
11 4 (0.082%) Trello
12 3 (0.062%) Elementor
12 3 (0.062%) InDesign
12 3 (0.062%) SOLIDWORKS
13 2 (0.041%) Adobe Premiere
13 2 (0.041%) Revit
13 2 (0.041%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 42 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
3 23 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 14 (0.29%) Dynamics NAV
5 13 (0.27%) Sage X3
5 13 (0.27%) SAP CO
5 13 (0.27%) Shopify
6 10 (0.21%) iTrent
7 9 (0.19%) Magento
7 9 (0.19%) SAP ERP
8 7 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
8 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
8 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.082%) Dynamics GP
9 4 (0.082%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 4 (0.082%) Markit EDM
9 4 (0.082%) Oracle EBS
9 4 (0.082%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.082%) SAP Business One
9 4 (0.082%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,018 (20.99%) Azure
2 853 (17.59%) Microsoft 365
3 466 (9.61%) AWS
4 322 (6.64%) Power Platform
5 229 (4.72%) Entra ID
6 221 (4.56%) SaaS
7 143 (2.95%) GCP
8 133 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
9 105 (2.16%) GitHub
9 105 (2.16%) Serverless
10 76 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
11 74 (1.53%) Power Automate
12 71 (1.46%) Azure Data Factory
13 57 (1.18%) Amazon S3
13 57 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
13 57 (1.18%) Google Workspace
14 56 (1.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 54 (1.11%) PaaS
16 52 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
17 46 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 344 (7.09%) DNS
2 290 (5.98%) DHCP
3 284 (5.86%) Firewall
4 159 (3.28%) WAN
5 156 (3.22%) VPN
6 142 (2.93%) TCP/IP
7 130 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
8 125 (2.58%) LAN
9 111 (2.29%) Broadband
10 89 (1.84%) VLAN
11 78 (1.61%) Wireless
12 66 (1.36%) VoIP
13 56 (1.15%) Network Security
14 45 (0.93%) SD-WAN
15 38 (0.78%) Remote Desktop
16 35 (0.72%) Internet
17 29 (0.60%) SAN
18 27 (0.56%) Unified Communications
19 22 (0.45%) Wireshark
20 20 (0.41%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 268 (5.53%) Power BI
2 198 (4.08%) SQL Server
3 94 (1.94%) Amazon RDS
4 81 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
5 71 (1.46%) Relational Database
6 69 (1.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 67 (1.38%) MySQL
7 67 (1.38%) NoSQL
8 57 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
9 44 (0.91%) Tableau
10 43 (0.89%) Power Query
11 41 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
11 41 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 35 (0.72%) DynamoDB
13 31 (0.64%) MongoDB
14 25 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
14 25 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
15 22 (0.45%) Data Lake
15 22 (0.45%) Metadata
16 20 (0.41%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 189 (3.90%) Git
2 155 (3.20%) JIRA
3 65 (1.34%) GitLab
4 49 (1.01%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.64%) Selenium
6 17 (0.35%) Rational DOORS
7 16 (0.33%) LabVIEW
8 15 (0.31%) Maven
8 15 (0.31%) Robot Framework
8 15 (0.31%) Visual Studio
9 14 (0.29%) Cucumber
9 14 (0.29%) Cypress.io
9 14 (0.29%) Snyk
9 14 (0.29%) SonarQube
10 10 (0.21%) Burp Suite
10 10 (0.21%) Metasploit
11 9 (0.19%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.19%) JUnit
12 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
13 6 (0.12%) Postman
General
1 2,455 (50.62%) Social Skills
2 1,355 (27.94%) Analytical Skills
3 903 (18.62%) Finance
4 337 (6.95%) Organisational Skills
5 273 (5.63%) Manufacturing
6 229 (4.72%) Public Sector
7 221 (4.56%) Retail
8 217 (4.47%) Marketing
9 198 (4.08%) Legal
10 196 (4.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 167 (3.44%) Law
12 142 (2.93%) Banking
13 128 (2.64%) Electronics
14 126 (2.60%) Telecoms
15 95 (1.96%) Presentation Skills
16 83 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
17 79 (1.63%) Games
18 69 (1.42%) Automotive
19 56 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
20 49 (1.01%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 732 (15.09%) Analyst
2 692 (14.27%) IT Support
3 598 (12.33%) Support Engineer
4 504 (10.39%) Senior
5 381 (7.86%) Developer
6 353 (7.28%) IT Engineer
7 298 (6.14%) IT Support Engineer
8 245 (5.05%) Lead
9 236 (4.87%) Support Analyst
10 198 (4.08%) Support Technician
11 180 (3.71%) Technical Support
12 179 (3.69%) Business Analyst
13 163 (3.36%) Systems Engineer
14 162 (3.34%) 2nd Line Support
15 156 (3.22%) IT Technician
16 150 (3.09%) Architect
17 148 (3.05%) Consultant
18 138 (2.85%) IT Support Technician
18 138 (2.85%) Technical Engineer
19 134 (2.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (3.40%) .NET
2 154 (3.18%) React
3 144 (2.97%) HTML
4 111 (2.29%) CSS
5 82 (1.69%) Node.js
6 77 (1.59%) REST
7 58 (1.20%) RESTful
8 54 (1.11%) Vue
9 44 (0.91%) AngularJS
10 42 (0.87%) SOAP
11 41 (0.85%) Spring
12 39 (0.80%) JSON
12 39 (0.80%) XML
13 38 (0.78%) Spring Boot
14 37 (0.76%) ASP.NET
15 36 (0.74%) OAuth
16 35 (0.72%) Django
17 31 (0.64%) Laravel
17 31 (0.64%) Middleware
18 30 (0.62%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 402 (8.29%) Driving Licence
2 304 (6.27%) Onboarding
3 278 (5.73%) Self-Motivation
4 164 (3.38%) Management Information System
5 122 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
6 116 (2.39%) Analytical Mindset
7 107 (2.21%) Product Ownership
8 87 (1.79%) Data Centre
9 86 (1.77%) Cloud Native
10 83 (1.71%) Social Media
11 66 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
12 60 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
13 59 (1.22%) Mobile App
14 49 (1.01%) Low-Code
15 42 (0.87%) Data Structures
16 40 (0.82%) EPoS
17 36 (0.74%) IoT
17 36 (0.74%) NHS
18 34 (0.70%) CCTV
18 34 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 920 (18.97%) Windows
2 393 (8.10%) Windows Server
3 323 (6.66%) Linux
4 131 (2.70%) Windows 10
5 115 (2.37%) Windows Server 2016
6 108 (2.23%) Android
7 67 (1.38%) Apple iOS
8 55 (1.13%) Mac OS
9 38 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
10 37 (0.76%) Unix
11 24 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 23 (0.47%) CentOS
13 21 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
14 19 (0.39%) Ubuntu
15 17 (0.35%) Windows 7
16 11 (0.23%) VMS
16 11 (0.23%) Windows 8
17 8 (0.16%) Debian
17 8 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
18 3 (0.062%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 959 (19.77%) Continuous Improvement
2 883 (18.21%) Customer Service
3 655 (13.51%) Agile
4 480 (9.90%) Decision-Making
5 459 (9.46%) Mentoring
6 428 (8.82%) ITIL
7 397 (8.19%) DevOps
8 391 (8.06%) Project Management
9 387 (7.98%) CI/CD
10 363 (7.48%) Analytics
11 357 (7.36%) Business Intelligence
12 340 (7.01%) AI
13 323 (6.66%) Coaching
14 307 (6.33%) Cybersecurity
15 289 (5.96%) Stakeholder Management
16 284 (5.86%) Computer Science
17 280 (5.77%) Process Improvement
18 273 (5.63%) CRM
19 264 (5.44%) Software Engineering
20 263 (5.42%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 608 (12.54%) SQL
2 503 (10.37%) Python
3 280 (5.77%) JavaScript
4 220 (4.54%) PowerShell
5 187 (3.86%) C#
6 169 (3.48%) Java
7 90 (1.86%) TypeScript
8 76 (1.57%) Bash
9 72 (1.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 66 (1.36%) PHP
11 61 (1.26%) C++
12 46 (0.95%) C
13 44 (0.91%) T-SQL
14 27 (0.56%) PL/SQL
15 26 (0.54%) Kotlin
15 26 (0.54%) R
16 23 (0.47%) Go
17 20 (0.41%) Bicep
17 20 (0.41%) Scala
18 18 (0.37%) VBA
Qualifications
1 898 (18.52%) Degree
2 357 (7.36%) Security Cleared
3 237 (4.89%) SC Cleared
4 177 (3.65%) DBS Check
5 148 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 126 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
7 90 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
8 80 (1.65%) ACCA
9 69 (1.42%) A+ Certification
9 69 (1.42%) CIMA
10 67 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
11 66 (1.36%) DV Cleared
12 58 (1.20%) CCNA
13 55 (1.13%) Master's Degree
14 48 (0.99%) CISSP
15 46 (0.95%) HNC
16 43 (0.89%) AWS Certification
16 43 (0.89%) PMI Certification
17 40 (0.82%) Network+ Certification
18 38 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 242 (4.99%) QA
2 194 (4.00%) Data Quality
3 142 (2.93%) GDPR
4 139 (2.87%) Cyber Essentials
5 112 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 103 (2.12%) PCI DSS
7 87 (1.79%) SLA
8 67 (1.38%) NIST
9 63 (1.30%) Accessibility
10 36 (0.74%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
12 24 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 14 (0.29%) GMP
13 14 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 9 (0.19%) PMO
15 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 6 (0.12%) COBIT
16 6 (0.12%) GRC
17 5 (0.10%) HIPAA
17 5 (0.10%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 631 (13.01%) Active Directory
2 210 (4.33%) Hyper-V
3 186 (3.84%) Docker
4 135 (2.78%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.48%) Terminal Server
6 27 (0.56%) Firmware
7 21 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.31%) vSphere
10 11 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.21%) KVM
11 10 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.12%) XenApp
13 4 (0.082%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.062%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.041%) Embedded Firmware
15 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.021%) iptables
16 1 (0.021%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 210 (4.33%) Terraform
2 177 (3.65%) Microsoft Intune
3 134 (2.76%) Kubernetes
4 91 (1.88%) Ansible
5 61 (1.26%) SCCM
6 53 (1.09%) Grafana
7 33 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.45%) BMC PATROL
9 18 (0.37%) Nagios
9 18 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.29%) vCenter Server
11 13 (0.27%) Autotask
11 13 (0.27%) Cisco CUCM
11 13 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.21%) AWS Copilot
12 10 (0.21%) FortiGate
12 10 (0.21%) Nmap
13 9 (0.19%) ZABBIX
14 8 (0.16%) HP Fortify
14 8 (0.16%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,334 (27.51%) Microsoft
2 235 (4.85%) VMware
3 141 (2.91%) Oracle
4 130 (2.68%) Veeam
5 111 (2.29%) SAP
6 110 (2.27%) Google
7 108 (2.23%) Cisco
8 103 (2.12%) Splunk
9 100 (2.06%) SolarWinds
10 79 (1.63%) ServiceNow
11 74 (1.53%) Databricks
12 73 (1.51%) Tanium
13 72 (1.48%) Brocade
13 72 (1.48%) Nimble Storage
14 68 (1.40%) Apple
15 67 (1.38%) Adobe
16 60 (1.24%) Salesforce
17 58 (1.20%) Sage
18 47 (0.97%) Dell
19 39 (0.80%) HubSpot