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 21 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 3
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,622 6,381 8,282
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.95% 18.65% 15.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.72% 21.52% 19.12%
Number of salaries quoted 5,276 3,516 3,415
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,684 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -15.79% -
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £46,584 £45,602 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.15% -13.14% -4.55%

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 59,900 29,645 43,323
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.30% 86.63% 78.74%
Number of salaries quoted 42,201 16,057 23,312
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 21 September 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 21 September 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 -9 1,913 £45,000 +5.88% 1,446
South East -4 1,796 £42,000 -1.18% 1,629
Midlands -7 1,380 £42,500 +10.39% 1,141
North West -5 989 £45,000 -7.64% 795
South West -4 942 £45,000 +25.00% 784
West Midlands -7 770 £42,500 -5.07% 686
East of England -2 764 £42,500 +27.60% 743
East Midlands -8 608 £41,750 +19.29% 454
Yorkshire -7 596 £42,500 +28.79% 454
Scotland +6 344 £35,000 -25.53% 520
North East +1 331 £50,000 +42.86% 214
Northern Ireland +4 276 £70,000 +18.64% 309
Wales -16 222 £42,500 -11.68% 155
Isle of Man +1 3 £35,000 - 9
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
1 460 (6.04%) SharePoint
2 357 (4.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 65 (0.85%) Confluence
4 58 (0.76%) CMS
5 55 (0.72%) IIS
6 33 (0.43%) Apache
7 31 (0.41%) WordPress
8 27 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
8 27 (0.35%) Sitecore CMS
9 17 (0.22%) Apache Spark
10 14 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
11 10 (0.13%) nginx
11 10 (0.13%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.12%) Jupyter
12 9 (0.12%) SAS
12 9 (0.12%) WebLogic
13 7 (0.092%) OpenEdge
14 5 (0.066%) CICS
15 4 (0.052%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 4 (0.052%) Tomcat
Applications
1 556 (7.29%) Microsoft Office
2 508 (6.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 77 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 65 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
5 45 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 43 (0.56%) AutoCAD
7 39 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
8 34 (0.45%) Simulink
9 26 (0.34%) Revit
10 15 (0.20%) EPLAN
11 14 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
12 10 (0.13%) Navisworks
13 8 (0.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 8 (0.10%) Chatbot
13 8 (0.10%) Fusion 360
14 7 (0.092%) Siemens NX
15 6 (0.079%) Adobe Illustrator
15 6 (0.079%) Lightworks
15 6 (0.079%) OrCAD
16 5 (0.066%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 76 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 64 (0.84%) NetSuite
3 51 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
4 32 (0.42%) Shopify
5 23 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
6 21 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
7 19 (0.25%) Workday HCM
8 17 (0.22%) SAP Business One
9 16 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
10 14 (0.18%) Magento
11 13 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
11 13 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 13 (0.17%) SAP ERP
12 12 (0.16%) Oracle Cash Management
12 12 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
12 12 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
13 11 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
14 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
14 10 (0.13%) Sage X3
15 9 (0.12%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 1,381 (18.12%) Azure
2 1,246 (16.35%) Microsoft 365
3 697 (9.14%) AWS
4 615 (8.07%) Power Platform
5 397 (5.21%) Entra ID
6 281 (3.69%) SaaS
7 233 (3.06%) GCP
8 174 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
9 157 (2.06%) Dynamics 365
10 156 (2.05%) PowerApps
11 146 (1.92%) Power Automate
12 145 (1.90%) GitHub
13 122 (1.60%) Serverless
14 110 (1.44%) OneDrive
15 91 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
16 69 (0.91%) Google Workspace
17 68 (0.89%) Amazon S3
18 64 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
19 61 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
20 59 (0.77%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 444 (5.83%) Firewall
2 432 (5.67%) DNS
3 363 (4.76%) DHCP
4 284 (3.73%) VPN
5 232 (3.04%) TCP/IP
6 204 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
7 199 (2.61%) WAN
8 191 (2.51%) LAN
9 174 (2.28%) Wireless
10 145 (1.90%) VLAN
11 124 (1.63%) Network Security
12 117 (1.54%) VoIP
13 64 (0.84%) Broadband
14 57 (0.75%) Internet
15 31 (0.41%) SSL
16 29 (0.38%) SAN
17 28 (0.37%) Remote Desktop
17 28 (0.37%) SD-WAN
18 25 (0.33%) HTTP
19 24 (0.31%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 495 (6.49%) Power BI
2 334 (4.38%) SQL Server
3 139 (1.82%) MySQL
4 119 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
5 118 (1.55%) Relational Database
6 108 (1.42%) Data Warehouse
7 95 (1.25%) PostgreSQL
8 82 (1.08%) NoSQL
9 79 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 73 (0.96%) Tableau
11 60 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 54 (0.71%) MongoDB
13 51 (0.67%) Power Query
14 49 (0.64%) Data Lake
15 47 (0.62%) Electronic Patient Records
16 46 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
16 46 (0.60%) Big Data
17 33 (0.43%) Metadata
17 33 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
18 29 (0.38%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 304 (3.99%) Git
2 249 (3.27%) JIRA
3 85 (1.12%) GitLab
4 83 (1.09%) Jenkins
5 40 (0.52%) Eclipse
6 35 (0.46%) Subversion
7 33 (0.43%) Selenium
8 32 (0.42%) Cucumber
9 27 (0.35%) Claude Code
10 26 (0.34%) JUnit
11 23 (0.30%) Bitbucket
11 23 (0.30%) Oracle Forms
12 22 (0.29%) Postman
13 21 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
14 20 (0.26%) Cypress.io
15 16 (0.21%) LabVIEW
16 15 (0.20%) SonarQube
17 14 (0.18%) Burp Suite
18 12 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
18 12 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 3,767 (49.42%) Social Skills
2 2,099 (27.54%) Analytical Skills
3 1,213 (15.91%) Finance
4 826 (10.84%) Manufacturing
5 586 (7.69%) Organisational Skills
6 424 (5.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 375 (4.92%) Retail
8 357 (4.68%) Public Sector
9 338 (4.43%) Law
10 314 (4.12%) Legal
11 300 (3.94%) Electronics
12 292 (3.83%) Aerospace
13 280 (3.67%) Marketing
14 196 (2.57%) Telecoms
15 152 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
16 146 (1.92%) Banking
17 124 (1.63%) Automotive
18 119 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
19 100 (1.31%) Military
20 98 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,009 (13.24%) Analyst
2 800 (10.50%) Senior
3 734 (9.63%) IT Support
4 707 (9.28%) Developer
5 584 (7.66%) Support Engineer
6 399 (5.23%) Lead
7 392 (5.14%) IT Engineer
8 390 (5.12%) Support Analyst
9 344 (4.51%) Consultant
10 295 (3.87%) IT Support Engineer
11 282 (3.70%) Technical Support
12 273 (3.58%) Support Technician
13 242 (3.18%) Technical Engineer
14 239 (3.14%) Architect
15 236 (3.10%) IT Technician
16 234 (3.07%) Systems Engineer
17 228 (2.99%) Software Engineer
18 219 (2.87%) Technical Support Engineer
19 203 (2.66%) Senior Developer
20 187 (2.45%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 359 (4.71%) .NET
2 279 (3.66%) Terraform
3 220 (2.89%) React
4 204 (2.68%) REST
5 192 (2.52%) HTML
6 141 (1.85%) CSS
7 135 (1.77%) RESTful
8 98 (1.29%) SOAP
9 94 (1.23%) Node.js
10 92 (1.21%) Web Services
11 86 (1.13%) XML
12 82 (1.08%) ASP.NET
13 81 (1.06%) Vue
14 80 (1.05%) Middleware
15 78 (1.02%) JSON
16 77 (1.01%) AngularJS
17 75 (0.98%) Spring
18 68 (0.89%) Spring Boot
19 59 (0.77%) Kafka
20 50 (0.66%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 659 (8.65%) Driving Licence
2 532 (6.98%) Onboarding
3 401 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
4 352 (4.62%) Management Information System
5 208 (2.73%) Cloud Native
6 182 (2.39%) Product Ownership
7 145 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
8 143 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
9 128 (1.68%) Data Centre
10 120 (1.57%) Robotics
11 99 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
12 92 (1.21%) NHS
13 89 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
14 81 (1.06%) IoT
15 80 (1.05%) Security Posture
16 77 (1.01%) Cyber Threat
17 76 (1.00%) CCTV
18 75 (0.98%) Virtual Team
19 70 (0.92%) Mobile App
19 70 (0.92%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,188 (15.59%) Windows
2 523 (6.86%) Windows Server
3 456 (5.98%) Linux
4 130 (1.71%) Windows 10
5 99 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
6 93 (1.22%) Apple iOS
7 88 (1.15%) Android
8 84 (1.10%) Mac OS
9 45 (0.59%) Unix
10 40 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
11 29 (0.38%) Ubuntu
12 17 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 17 (0.22%) VMS
13 15 (0.20%) Embedded Linux
14 14 (0.18%) Debian
15 10 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
16 9 (0.12%) CentOS
17 8 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
18 6 (0.079%) Rocky
19 5 (0.066%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,067 (27.12%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,436 (18.84%) Customer Service
3 1,096 (14.38%) Agile
4 820 (10.76%) Decision-Making
5 773 (10.14%) Mentoring
6 768 (10.08%) Stakeholder Management
7 752 (9.87%) AI
8 717 (9.41%) CI/CD
9 656 (8.61%) Project Delivery
10 623 (8.17%) Collaborative Working
11 605 (7.94%) Analytics
12 594 (7.79%) DevOps
13 592 (7.77%) Software Engineering
14 587 (7.70%) ERP
15 580 (7.61%) ITIL
16 573 (7.52%) Cybersecurity
17 535 (7.02%) Business Intelligence
18 531 (6.97%) Project Management
19 472 (6.19%) CRM
19 472 (6.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,105 (14.50%) SQL
2 765 (10.04%) Python
3 445 (5.84%) C#
4 443 (5.81%) JavaScript
5 317 (4.16%) Java
6 298 (3.91%) PowerShell
7 204 (2.68%) C++
8 199 (2.61%) TypeScript
9 124 (1.63%) Bash
10 80 (1.05%) C
11 66 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 66 (0.87%) PHP
12 61 (0.80%) T-SQL
13 49 (0.64%) Ruby
14 47 (0.62%) PL/SQL
15 46 (0.60%) MATLAB
15 46 (0.60%) Shell Script
16 41 (0.54%) Perl
17 38 (0.50%) Go
17 38 (0.50%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,222 (16.03%) Degree
2 710 (9.32%) Security Cleared
3 493 (6.47%) SC Cleared
4 224 (2.94%) DBS Check
5 222 (2.91%) HNC
6 205 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
7 193 (2.53%) HND
8 189 (2.48%) Microsoft Certification
9 181 (2.37%) DV Cleared
10 160 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
11 136 (1.78%) Azure Certification
12 95 (1.25%) Chartered Engineer
13 91 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
14 77 (1.01%) A+ Certification
14 77 (1.01%) PMI Certification
15 71 (0.93%) Master's Degree
16 65 (0.85%) CISSP
17 58 (0.76%) CCNA
18 57 (0.75%) Network+ Certification
18 57 (0.75%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 488 (6.40%) QA
2 298 (3.91%) Data Quality
3 224 (2.94%) GDPR
4 204 (2.68%) Accessibility
5 184 (2.41%) SLA
6 167 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials
7 134 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 105 (1.38%) PCI DSS
9 83 (1.09%) NIST
10 42 (0.55%) ISO 9001
11 37 (0.49%) PMO
12 32 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 20 (0.26%) DO-254
14 19 (0.25%) GMP
14 19 (0.25%) Good Clinical Practice
15 18 (0.24%) NCSC
16 16 (0.21%) GRC
17 13 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
17 13 (0.17%) GxP
18 12 (0.16%) TickIT
System Software
1 829 (10.88%) Active Directory
2 289 (3.79%) Hyper-V
3 263 (3.45%) Docker
4 215 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
5 76 (1.00%) Firmware
6 72 (0.94%) Terminal Server
7 42 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 33 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 30 (0.39%) Embedded Firmware
10 29 (0.38%) vSphere
11 16 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
12 9 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.066%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.066%) Squid
14 4 (0.052%) KVM
14 4 (0.052%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.039%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.039%) VMware Server
16 2 (0.026%) Samba
16 2 (0.026%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 259 (3.40%) Microsoft Intune
2 222 (2.91%) Kubernetes
3 110 (1.44%) Ansible
4 62 (0.81%) Grafana
5 53 (0.70%) SCCM
6 45 (0.59%) Prometheus
7 44 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
8 26 (0.34%) BMC PATROL
9 20 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
10 19 (0.25%) FortiGate
11 17 (0.22%) Functional Safety
12 16 (0.21%) Puppet
13 13 (0.17%) Kibana
14 11 (0.14%) logstash
14 11 (0.14%) Nmap
14 11 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
15 10 (0.13%) Nagios
15 10 (0.13%) Podman
15 10 (0.13%) Proxmox
16 9 (0.12%) Argo
Vendors
1 2,303 (30.22%) Microsoft
2 343 (4.50%) VMware
3 220 (2.89%) SAP
4 208 (2.73%) Google
5 173 (2.27%) Oracle
6 172 (2.26%) Workday
7 137 (1.80%) Veeam
8 136 (1.78%) Cisco
9 124 (1.63%) ServiceNow
10 122 (1.60%) Splunk
11 104 (1.36%) Sage
12 103 (1.35%) Salesforce
13 92 (1.21%) SolarWinds
14 80 (1.05%) Tanium
15 78 (1.02%) Databricks
16 76 (1.00%) Fortinet
17 73 (0.96%) Nimble Storage
18 72 (0.94%) Brocade
19 66 (0.87%) Apple
20 58 (0.76%) SonicWALL