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 20 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,979 6,660 6,075
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 11.51% 18.78% 15.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.75% 21.03% 17.96%
Number of salaries quoted 3,442 2,679 4,019
10th Percentile £26,050 £28,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £46,550
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +7.41% -6.90%
75th Percentile £57,500 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £71,250 £82,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -8.70%

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 33,750 31,666 33,822
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 78.01% 89.31% 87.98%
Number of salaries quoted 19,471 14,162 25,426
10th Percentile £27,800 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,750 £41,250 £37,500
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 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%

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 20 January 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 20 January 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 1,333 £41,000 -21.90% 1,350
North of England -14 1,251 £45,000 -5.26% 827
Midlands -15 872 £38,000 -24.00% 615
North West -13 690 £47,842 -4.28% 378
South West 0 577 £40,000 -25.73% 553
West Midlands -17 512 £42,500 -22.73% 289
Yorkshire -4 437 £35,750 -17.77% 325
East of England -6 414 £35,000 -31.33% 568
East Midlands +1 359 £34,000 -2.86% 317
Scotland -2 352 £33,500 -34.95% 162
Wales +5 144 £45,250 -9.50% 165
North East -3 124 £33,500 -33.00% 136
Northern Ireland -1 59 £50,000 -31.03% 70
Isle of Man +1 1 £62,500 +150.00% 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
1 275 (5.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 210 (4.22%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.96%) IIS
4 46 (0.92%) Confluence
5 24 (0.48%) Apache
6 22 (0.44%) Apache Spark
6 22 (0.44%) CMS
6 22 (0.44%) WordPress
7 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
8 9 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 8 (0.16%) nginx
10 6 (0.12%) Drupal
10 6 (0.12%) HCL Notes
11 5 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (0.10%) SAS
12 4 (0.080%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.080%) ArcGIS
13 3 (0.060%) HCL Domino
13 3 (0.060%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.060%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 405 (8.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 396 (7.95%) Microsoft Office
3 67 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 31 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
5 27 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.38%) AutoCAD
7 15 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
8 14 (0.28%) Photoshop
9 12 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 11 (0.22%) SOLIDWORKS
11 10 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
12 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
13 5 (0.10%) Adobe After Effects
13 5 (0.10%) Simulink
14 4 (0.080%) CATIA
14 4 (0.080%) Fusion 360
14 4 (0.080%) Oracle Smart View
14 4 (0.080%) Trello
15 3 (0.060%) Adobe XD
15 3 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
Business Applications
1 90 (1.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 57 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 18 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
4 18 (0.36%) SAP CO
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
6 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
6 13 (0.26%) SAP FI
7 11 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
8 10 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 10 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
8 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
9 9 (0.18%) iTrent
9 9 (0.18%) SAP Business One
10 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
10 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
11 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
11 6 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
11 6 (0.12%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,090 (21.89%) Azure
2 798 (16.03%) Microsoft 365
3 413 (8.29%) AWS
4 358 (7.19%) Power Platform
5 274 (5.50%) SaaS
6 222 (4.46%) Entra ID
7 144 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
8 116 (2.33%) GCP
9 101 (2.03%) GitHub
10 81 (1.63%) Serverless
11 70 (1.41%) Power Automate
12 53 (1.06%) Azure Data Factory
13 52 (1.04%) Amazon S3
13 52 (1.04%) AWS Lambda
13 52 (1.04%) Dynamics 365
14 44 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 43 (0.86%) AWS CloudFormation
16 42 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
16 42 (0.84%) PaaS
17 41 (0.82%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 367 (7.37%) DNS
2 318 (6.39%) DHCP
3 240 (4.82%) Firewall
4 155 (3.11%) TCP/IP
5 147 (2.95%) VPN
6 140 (2.81%) Wi-Fi
7 119 (2.39%) WAN
8 111 (2.23%) LAN
9 93 (1.87%) VLAN
10 84 (1.69%) VoIP
11 83 (1.67%) Broadband
12 64 (1.29%) Wireless
13 56 (1.12%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (0.96%) Network Security
15 39 (0.78%) Internet
16 36 (0.72%) SAN
17 30 (0.60%) SD-WAN
17 30 (0.60%) Unified Communications
18 24 (0.48%) Ethernet
19 17 (0.34%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 307 (6.17%) Power BI
2 221 (4.44%) SQL Server
3 120 (2.41%) Amazon RDS
4 92 (1.85%) Relational Database
5 83 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
6 82 (1.65%) Data Lake
7 80 (1.61%) MySQL
8 64 (1.29%) SAP BW
9 63 (1.27%) NoSQL
9 63 (1.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 61 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
11 42 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 41 (0.82%) Tableau
13 36 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
14 31 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
14 31 (0.62%) DynamoDB
15 30 (0.60%) Metadata
16 29 (0.58%) GIS
16 29 (0.58%) MongoDB
17 26 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 181 (3.64%) Git
2 162 (3.25%) JIRA
3 52 (1.04%) GitLab
4 44 (0.88%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.62%) Selenium
6 18 (0.36%) Visual Studio
7 16 (0.32%) LabVIEW
8 15 (0.30%) Bitbucket
8 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 15 (0.30%) SonarQube
9 14 (0.28%) Maven
9 14 (0.28%) Snyk
10 12 (0.24%) JUnit
10 12 (0.24%) TeamCity
11 11 (0.22%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.22%) Octopus Deploy
12 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
12 10 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
13 9 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
General
1 2,666 (53.54%) Social Skills
2 1,382 (27.76%) Analytical Skills
3 1,059 (21.27%) Finance
4 319 (6.41%) Manufacturing
5 294 (5.90%) Retail
6 256 (5.14%) Organisational Skills
7 247 (4.96%) Marketing
8 197 (3.96%) Public Sector
9 174 (3.49%) Legal
10 162 (3.25%) Law
11 147 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 138 (2.77%) Telecoms
13 124 (2.49%) Electronics
14 114 (2.29%) Banking
15 109 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
16 81 (1.63%) Automotive
17 77 (1.55%) Games
18 67 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
19 61 (1.23%) Aerospace
20 60 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 874 (17.55%) Analyst
2 666 (13.38%) IT Support
3 567 (11.39%) Senior
4 524 (10.52%) Support Engineer
5 379 (7.61%) Developer
6 327 (6.57%) Lead
7 311 (6.25%) Support Analyst
8 260 (5.22%) IT Engineer
9 253 (5.08%) Technical Support
10 227 (4.56%) IT Support Engineer
11 214 (4.30%) Business Analyst
12 173 (3.47%) 2nd Line Support
13 167 (3.35%) Systems Engineer
13 167 (3.35%) Technical Engineer
14 163 (3.27%) Support Technician
15 154 (3.09%) Technical Support Engineer
16 142 (2.85%) IT Analyst
17 138 (2.77%) Architect
18 133 (2.67%) Applications Support
19 127 (2.55%) Trainee
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (4.04%) .NET
2 158 (3.17%) HTML
3 152 (3.05%) React
4 124 (2.49%) CSS
5 94 (1.89%) REST
6 61 (1.23%) RESTful
7 57 (1.14%) Node.js
8 52 (1.04%) SOAP
9 51 (1.02%) ASP.NET
10 49 (0.98%) AngularJS
10 49 (0.98%) JSON
11 44 (0.88%) XML
12 43 (0.86%) Vue
13 38 (0.76%) Spring
14 37 (0.74%) .NET Framework
14 37 (0.74%) Django
15 33 (0.66%) EDI
16 27 (0.54%) Spring Boot
17 25 (0.50%) Middleware
18 24 (0.48%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 490 (9.84%) Driving Licence
2 388 (7.79%) Onboarding
3 313 (6.29%) Self-Motivation
4 171 (3.43%) Management Information System
5 161 (3.23%) Analytical Mindset
6 152 (3.05%) Legacy Systems
7 103 (2.07%) Product Ownership
8 95 (1.91%) Data Centre
9 75 (1.51%) Cloud Native
10 61 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
11 48 (0.96%) Virtual Team
12 47 (0.94%) FMCG
13 45 (0.90%) Social Media
14 43 (0.86%) Mobile App
15 41 (0.82%) e-Learning
16 40 (0.80%) EPoS
17 35 (0.70%) Data Structures
17 35 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
17 35 (0.70%) Video Conferencing
18 34 (0.68%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 934 (18.76%) Windows
2 399 (8.01%) Windows Server
3 320 (6.43%) Linux
4 120 (2.41%) Windows 10
5 119 (2.39%) Windows Server 2016
6 71 (1.43%) Android
7 58 (1.16%) Mac OS
8 54 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 37 (0.74%) Unix
10 34 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
11 22 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
12 16 (0.32%) Windows 7
13 13 (0.26%) VMS
14 12 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 8 (0.16%) CentOS
16 5 (0.10%) Windows 8
16 5 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.080%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.040%) Mac OS X
18 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 915 (18.38%) Continuous Improvement
1 915 (18.38%) Customer Service
2 668 (13.42%) Agile
3 484 (9.72%) Project Management
4 453 (9.10%) Mentoring
5 437 (8.78%) Decision-Making
6 435 (8.74%) Analytics
7 414 (8.31%) Business Intelligence
8 388 (7.79%) ITIL
9 377 (7.57%) ERP
10 372 (7.47%) DevOps
11 345 (6.93%) Change Management
12 321 (6.45%) CI/CD
13 306 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
13 306 (6.15%) Stakeholder Management
14 304 (6.11%) Computer Science
15 301 (6.05%) CRM
16 296 (5.94%) AI
17 289 (5.80%) Process Improvement
18 258 (5.18%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 751 (15.08%) SQL
2 467 (9.38%) Python
3 267 (5.36%) JavaScript
4 257 (5.16%) PowerShell
5 255 (5.12%) C#
6 165 (3.31%) Java
7 77 (1.55%) PHP
8 67 (1.35%) TypeScript
9 64 (1.29%) C++
10 56 (1.12%) Bash
11 51 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 49 (0.98%) T-SQL
13 39 (0.78%) C
14 25 (0.50%) MATLAB
15 21 (0.42%) PL/SQL
16 20 (0.40%) Go
17 18 (0.36%) Perl
17 18 (0.36%) VBA
18 17 (0.34%) R
19 16 (0.32%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,157 (23.24%) Degree
2 420 (8.44%) Security Cleared
3 285 (5.72%) SC Cleared
4 167 (3.35%) DBS Check
5 148 (2.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 136 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
7 106 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
8 77 (1.55%) DV Cleared
9 74 (1.49%) Master's Degree
10 68 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
11 62 (1.25%) A+ Certification
12 59 (1.18%) ACCA
12 59 (1.18%) HND
13 55 (1.10%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 51 (1.02%) CIMA
15 48 (0.96%) CCNA
15 48 (0.96%) Network+ Certification
16 44 (0.88%) AWS Certification
17 41 (0.82%) HNC
18 37 (0.74%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 267 (5.36%) QA
2 234 (4.70%) Data Quality
3 162 (3.25%) Cyber Essentials
4 127 (2.55%) GDPR
5 116 (2.33%) PCI DSS
6 102 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.65%) Accessibility
8 69 (1.39%) SLA
9 40 (0.80%) NIST
10 32 (0.64%) ISO 9001
11 27 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 24 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
13 17 (0.34%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
15 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.12%) SOC 2
16 6 (0.12%) WCAG
17 5 (0.10%) GLBA
17 5 (0.10%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 645 (12.95%) Active Directory
2 224 (4.50%) Hyper-V
3 161 (3.23%) Docker
4 110 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.93%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.60%) Firmware
7 24 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 18 (0.36%) vSphere
9 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.14%) KVM
10 7 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
11 5 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
12 4 (0.080%) VMware Workstation
13 3 (0.060%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.040%) RHEV
14 2 (0.040%) Xen
15 1 (0.020%) HDFS
15 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 1 (0.020%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 197 (3.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 190 (3.82%) Terraform
3 115 (2.31%) Kubernetes
4 70 (1.41%) Ansible
5 49 (0.98%) SCCM
6 42 (0.84%) BMC PATROL
7 41 (0.82%) Grafana
8 28 (0.56%) Prometheus
9 23 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
11 14 (0.28%) Nagios
12 13 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
13 10 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.20%) Nmap
14 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
15 8 (0.16%) Control-M
16 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
17 6 (0.12%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,366 (27.44%) Microsoft
2 321 (6.45%) SAP
3 240 (4.82%) VMware
4 190 (3.82%) Oracle
5 151 (3.03%) Veeam
6 143 (2.87%) Cisco
7 121 (2.43%) SolarWinds
8 118 (2.37%) Splunk
9 97 (1.95%) Tanium
10 96 (1.93%) Brocade
10 96 (1.93%) Google
10 96 (1.93%) Nimble Storage
11 82 (1.65%) Salesforce
12 79 (1.59%) ServiceNow
13 66 (1.33%) Sage
14 65 (1.31%) Databricks
15 59 (1.18%) Adobe
15 59 (1.18%) Apple
16 55 (1.10%) BT
17 48 (0.96%) HubSpot