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 11 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,059 5,961 7,872
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 10.78% 18.24% 15.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.98% 20.14% 18.30%
Number of salaries quoted 3,510 2,605 5,480
10th Percentile £26,000 £28,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £36,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,208 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

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 36,177 29,600 43,006
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 77.12% 90.56% 86.81%
Number of salaries quoted 21,089 13,401 32,975
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,030 £83,750 £77,757
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 11 February 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 11 February 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 1,328 £42,500 -19.05% 860
North of England -17 1,325 £42,500 -10.87% 611
Midlands -15 862 £37,500 -26.83% 459
North West -13 724 £46,000 -8.00% 359
South West -2 587 £40,000 -26.82% 330
West Midlands -18 502 £42,500 -22.73% 306
Yorkshire -6 465 £36,500 -16.09% 191
East of England -3 434 £36,500 -28.39% 285
East Midlands 0 358 £34,000 -2.86% 153
Scotland -3 355 £33,500 -35.81% 112
North East -4 136 £41,000 -14.58% 71
Wales 0 124 £42,500 -18.66% 59
Northern Ireland -2 69 £45,000 -24.64% 30
Isle of Man +1 1 £62,500 +150.00%
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
1 302 (5.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 226 (4.47%) SharePoint
3 50 (0.99%) Confluence
4 45 (0.89%) IIS
5 32 (0.63%) CMS
6 24 (0.47%) WordPress
7 23 (0.45%) Apache
8 19 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
10 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
11 10 (0.20%) nginx
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
13 6 (0.12%) Drupal
13 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.079%) Apache Solr
14 4 (0.079%) Headless CMS
14 4 (0.079%) SAS
14 4 (0.079%) WebSphere
14 4 (0.079%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 384 (7.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 378 (7.47%) Microsoft Office
3 66 (1.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 28 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 27 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 15 (0.30%) AutoCAD
7 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
8 12 (0.24%) Photoshop
9 11 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
11 8 (0.16%) Adobe Premiere
11 8 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
12 5 (0.099%) Adobe After Effects
13 4 (0.079%) CATIA
13 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
13 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
14 3 (0.059%) Adobe XD
14 3 (0.059%) Elementor
14 3 (0.059%) Simulink
14 3 (0.059%) Trello
Business Applications
1 75 (1.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
3 25 (0.49%) NetSuite
4 18 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
5 16 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
6 15 (0.30%) SAP CO
7 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
8 12 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
8 12 (0.24%) iTrent
9 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
10 9 (0.18%) Shopify
11 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
11 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
13 6 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,117 (22.08%) Azure
2 855 (16.90%) Microsoft 365
3 437 (8.64%) AWS
4 369 (7.29%) Power Platform
5 256 (5.06%) SaaS
6 231 (4.57%) Entra ID
7 147 (2.91%) Azure DevOps
8 128 (2.53%) GCP
9 104 (2.06%) GitHub
10 85 (1.68%) Serverless
11 78 (1.54%) Power Automate
12 62 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
13 59 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
14 56 (1.11%) Google Workspace
15 54 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
16 52 (1.03%) Amazon S3
17 47 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
18 45 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
18 45 (0.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 45 (0.89%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 399 (7.89%) DNS
2 346 (6.84%) DHCP
3 269 (5.32%) Firewall
4 156 (3.08%) TCP/IP
5 154 (3.04%) VPN
6 152 (3.00%) Wi-Fi
7 136 (2.69%) WAN
8 120 (2.37%) LAN
9 95 (1.88%) Broadband
10 93 (1.84%) VLAN
11 85 (1.68%) VoIP
12 74 (1.46%) Wireless
13 53 (1.05%) Remote Desktop
14 49 (0.97%) Network Security
15 40 (0.79%) Internet
16 38 (0.75%) SD-WAN
17 33 (0.65%) SAN
18 30 (0.59%) Unified Communications
19 24 (0.47%) Wireshark
20 23 (0.45%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 314 (6.21%) Power BI
2 211 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 133 (2.63%) Amazon RDS
4 87 (1.72%) Relational Database
5 82 (1.62%) Data Lake
6 77 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
7 73 (1.44%) MySQL
8 67 (1.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 66 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
9 66 (1.30%) NoSQL
10 64 (1.27%) SAP BW
11 41 (0.81%) Tableau
12 39 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 37 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
14 32 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
15 31 (0.61%) DynamoDB
16 29 (0.57%) MongoDB
16 29 (0.57%) Power Query
17 28 (0.55%) Metadata
18 26 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 186 (3.68%) Git
2 162 (3.20%) JIRA
3 52 (1.03%) GitLab
4 42 (0.83%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.57%) Selenium
6 17 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.30%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 14 (0.28%) Maven
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 12 (0.24%) JUnit
10 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
10 11 (0.22%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
11 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
12 9 (0.18%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.18%) TeamCity
13 8 (0.16%) Oracle Forms
13 8 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
General
1 2,688 (53.13%) Social Skills
2 1,427 (28.21%) Analytical Skills
3 1,045 (20.66%) Finance
4 311 (6.15%) Organisational Skills
5 290 (5.73%) Manufacturing
6 281 (5.55%) Retail
7 238 (4.70%) Marketing
8 211 (4.17%) Public Sector
9 182 (3.60%) Legal
10 164 (3.24%) Law
11 157 (3.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 154 (3.04%) Telecoms
13 128 (2.53%) Electronics
14 119 (2.35%) Banking
15 110 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
16 82 (1.62%) Games
17 79 (1.56%) Automotive
18 77 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
19 56 (1.11%) Aerospace
20 52 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 857 (16.94%) Analyst
2 710 (14.03%) IT Support
3 579 (11.44%) Support Engineer
4 560 (11.07%) Senior
5 384 (7.59%) Developer
6 315 (6.23%) IT Engineer
7 304 (6.01%) Lead
8 286 (5.65%) Support Analyst
9 277 (5.48%) IT Support Engineer
10 242 (4.78%) Technical Support
11 214 (4.23%) Business Analyst
12 176 (3.48%) 2nd Line Support
13 166 (3.28%) Support Technician
14 164 (3.24%) Systems Engineer
15 161 (3.18%) Technical Engineer
16 154 (3.04%) Technical Support Engineer
17 141 (2.79%) Architect
17 141 (2.79%) IT Analyst
18 132 (2.61%) Consultant
19 128 (2.53%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 199 (3.93%) .NET
2 165 (3.26%) HTML
3 158 (3.12%) React
4 130 (2.57%) CSS
5 89 (1.76%) REST
6 72 (1.42%) Node.js
7 61 (1.21%) RESTful
8 54 (1.07%) AngularJS
9 49 (0.97%) SOAP
9 49 (0.97%) Vue
10 47 (0.93%) JSON
11 45 (0.89%) ASP.NET
12 40 (0.79%) XML
13 39 (0.77%) Spring
14 34 (0.67%) .NET Framework
15 33 (0.65%) Django
16 30 (0.59%) EDI
17 29 (0.57%) Laravel
17 29 (0.57%) Spring Boot
18 26 (0.51%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 501 (9.90%) Driving Licence
2 380 (7.51%) Onboarding
3 311 (6.15%) Self-Motivation
4 170 (3.36%) Legacy Systems
5 167 (3.30%) Management Information System
6 159 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
7 108 (2.13%) Data Centre
8 101 (2.00%) Product Ownership
9 87 (1.72%) Cloud Native
10 65 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
11 53 (1.05%) Social Media
12 48 (0.95%) Mobile App
13 47 (0.93%) FMCG
14 46 (0.91%) EPoS
15 43 (0.85%) Virtual Team
16 40 (0.79%) Low-Code
17 39 (0.77%) Distributed Systems
18 37 (0.73%) Data Structures
19 33 (0.65%) IoT
19 33 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 954 (18.86%) Windows
2 433 (8.56%) Windows Server
3 339 (6.70%) Linux
4 145 (2.87%) Windows Server 2016
5 121 (2.39%) Windows 10
6 80 (1.58%) Android
7 63 (1.25%) Mac OS
8 55 (1.09%) Apple iOS
9 36 (0.71%) Unix
9 36 (0.71%) Windows Server 2019
10 26 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
11 18 (0.36%) Windows 7
12 15 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 9 (0.18%) CentOS
13 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
14 8 (0.16%) VMS
14 8 (0.16%) Windows 8
15 5 (0.099%) Debian
16 4 (0.079%) Ubuntu
17 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 941 (18.60%) Customer Service
2 915 (18.09%) Continuous Improvement
3 659 (13.03%) Agile
4 481 (9.51%) Project Management
5 454 (8.97%) Mentoring
6 447 (8.84%) Decision-Making
7 445 (8.80%) Analytics
8 429 (8.48%) Business Intelligence
9 383 (7.57%) ITIL
10 377 (7.45%) DevOps
11 369 (7.29%) ERP
12 340 (6.72%) Change Management
13 334 (6.60%) CI/CD
14 308 (6.09%) AI
14 308 (6.09%) Computer Science
15 306 (6.05%) CRM
15 306 (6.05%) Stakeholder Management
16 302 (5.97%) Process Improvement
17 300 (5.93%) Cybersecurity
18 291 (5.75%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 715 (14.13%) SQL
2 492 (9.73%) Python
3 285 (5.63%) JavaScript
4 259 (5.12%) PowerShell
5 234 (4.63%) C#
6 168 (3.32%) Java
7 82 (1.62%) PHP
8 78 (1.54%) TypeScript
9 63 (1.25%) Bash
10 60 (1.19%) C++
11 58 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 46 (0.91%) T-SQL
13 43 (0.85%) C
14 25 (0.49%) PL/SQL
15 24 (0.47%) R
16 20 (0.40%) MATLAB
17 18 (0.36%) Bicep
17 18 (0.36%) Go
18 17 (0.34%) Perl
19 15 (0.30%) VBA
Qualifications
1 1,118 (22.10%) Degree
2 421 (8.32%) Security Cleared
3 290 (5.73%) SC Cleared
4 159 (3.14%) DBS Check
5 147 (2.91%) Microsoft Certification
6 132 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
7 95 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
8 74 (1.46%) Master's Degree
9 68 (1.34%) A+ Certification
10 66 (1.30%) DV Cleared
11 64 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
12 62 (1.23%) ACCA
13 56 (1.11%) HND
14 54 (1.07%) CIMA
15 49 (0.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 49 (0.97%) Network+ Certification
16 46 (0.91%) CCNA
17 45 (0.89%) HNC
18 40 (0.79%) AWS Certification
19 33 (0.65%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 263 (5.20%) QA
2 223 (4.41%) Data Quality
3 179 (3.54%) Cyber Essentials
4 139 (2.75%) GDPR
4 139 (2.75%) PCI DSS
5 113 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 81 (1.60%) Accessibility
7 67 (1.32%) SLA
8 44 (0.87%) NIST
9 35 (0.69%) ISO 9001
10 26 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
10 26 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 13 (0.26%) PMO
12 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
13 8 (0.16%) SOC 2
14 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 6 (0.12%) WCAG
16 5 (0.099%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 4 (0.079%) GLBA
17 4 (0.079%) GRC
System Software
1 675 (13.34%) Active Directory
2 246 (4.86%) Hyper-V
3 172 (3.40%) Docker
4 112 (2.21%) Terminal Server
4 112 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 28 (0.55%) Firmware
6 24 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
7 16 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (0.32%) vSphere
8 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
9 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
10 6 (0.12%) KVM
11 5 (0.099%) Embedded Firmware
12 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.040%) RHEV
13 2 (0.040%) Xen
14 1 (0.020%) HDFS
14 1 (0.020%) iptables
14 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 200 (3.95%) Terraform
2 194 (3.83%) Microsoft Intune
3 126 (2.49%) Kubernetes
4 80 (1.58%) Ansible
5 51 (1.01%) SCCM
6 48 (0.95%) Grafana
7 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
8 31 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 20 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) Nagios
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
11 14 (0.28%) vCenter Server
12 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
13 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.20%) Nmap
14 9 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 9 (0.18%) Autotask
15 8 (0.16%) Control-M
15 8 (0.16%) ZABBIX
16 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 1,374 (27.16%) Microsoft
2 292 (5.77%) SAP
3 257 (5.08%) VMware
4 180 (3.56%) Oracle
5 172 (3.40%) Veeam
6 139 (2.75%) SolarWinds
7 137 (2.71%) Splunk
8 130 (2.57%) Cisco
9 113 (2.23%) Tanium
10 112 (2.21%) Brocade
10 112 (2.21%) Nimble Storage
11 110 (2.17%) Google
12 84 (1.66%) Salesforce
13 71 (1.40%) ServiceNow
14 67 (1.32%) Adobe
15 60 (1.19%) Databricks
16 59 (1.17%) Sage
17 56 (1.11%) Apple
18 55 (1.09%) BT
19 48 (0.95%) HubSpot