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 27 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -3 +4 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,406 7,847 4,805
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 14.46% 16.71% 16.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.58% 20.21% 17.49%
Number of salaries quoted 3,684 3,031 3,320
10th Percentile £25,750 £27,200 £26,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £35,750 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £56,750 £67,500 £64,813
90th Percentile £70,000 £81,250 £76,250
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 30,751 38,829 27,473
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 82.23% 82.70% 93.85%
Number of salaries quoted 18,778 18,883 20,474
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £54,714 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.18% +4.22% -0.94%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £81,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 27 November 2025.

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 27 November 2025. 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 -2 1,422 £40,000 -20.00% 1,328
North of England -3 1,337 £45,000 - 797
Midlands +2 978 £38,000 -24.00% 622
North West -3 727 £48,000 -4.00% 443
South West -1 602 £38,500 -30.00% 414
West Midlands +1 582 £42,500 -20.26% 367
East of England -2 487 £35,000 -33.33% 323
Yorkshire -4 479 £33,500 -25.56% 267
East Midlands +3 396 £32,500 -7.14% 246
Scotland -3 352 £33,500 -33.00% 174
Wales +5 185 £47,811 -4.38% 91
North East 0 131 £33,500 +2.29% 90
Northern Ireland +4 64 £59,000 +15.43% 51
Isle of Man +2 2 £62,500 +150.00% 2
Channel Islands -3 1 £45,000 +5.88%
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 (5.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 216 (4.00%) SharePoint
3 53 (0.98%) Confluence
4 42 (0.78%) IIS
5 31 (0.57%) Apache Spark
6 27 (0.50%) CMS
7 26 (0.48%) WordPress
8 25 (0.46%) Apache
9 10 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
9 10 (0.18%) Camunda
10 8 (0.15%) nginx
11 7 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
12 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
12 6 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 5 (0.092%) Apache Solr
13 5 (0.092%) Drupal
14 4 (0.074%) ArcGIS
14 4 (0.074%) Exchange Server 2013
14 4 (0.074%) Umbraco
15 3 (0.055%) OpenStack
Applications
1 475 (8.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 470 (8.69%) Microsoft Office
3 74 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 22 (0.41%) AutoCAD
5 21 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
6 19 (0.35%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 17 (0.31%) Simulink
8 14 (0.26%) Photoshop
8 14 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
9 12 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 11 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
11 9 (0.17%) Mathcad
12 5 (0.092%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.092%) Adobe XD
12 5 (0.092%) Trello
13 4 (0.074%) Autodesk Inventor
13 4 (0.074%) CATIA
13 4 (0.074%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 91 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 31 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (0.33%) Oracle Receivables
6 16 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.30%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.28%) SAP FI
8 13 (0.24%) Sage X3
8 13 (0.24%) Shopify
9 12 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
10 11 (0.20%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.20%) SAP FI/CO
10 11 (0.20%) SAP WM
10 11 (0.20%) Unit4 Business World
11 10 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
12 8 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
13 7 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
14 5 (0.092%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,150 (21.27%) Azure
2 807 (14.93%) Microsoft 365
3 436 (8.07%) AWS
4 378 (6.99%) Power Platform
5 278 (5.14%) SaaS
6 229 (4.24%) Entra ID
7 151 (2.79%) GCP
8 128 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
9 83 (1.54%) GitHub
10 71 (1.31%) Power Automate
11 69 (1.28%) Serverless
12 62 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
13 48 (0.89%) Azure Data Factory
14 44 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
15 43 (0.80%) Amazon S3
15 43 (0.80%) OneDrive
16 42 (0.78%) PowerApps
17 40 (0.74%) PaaS
18 36 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
19 34 (0.63%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 331 (6.12%) DNS
2 293 (5.42%) DHCP
3 276 (5.11%) Firewall
4 169 (3.13%) TCP/IP
5 159 (2.94%) VPN
6 148 (2.74%) Wi-Fi
7 146 (2.70%) LAN
8 128 (2.37%) WAN
9 107 (1.98%) Broadband
10 93 (1.72%) VLAN
11 80 (1.48%) VoIP
12 62 (1.15%) Remote Desktop
13 50 (0.92%) Network Security
13 50 (0.92%) Wireless
14 38 (0.70%) SAN
15 33 (0.61%) Ethernet
16 31 (0.57%) Internet
17 22 (0.41%) SD-WAN
18 19 (0.35%) Unified Communications
19 17 (0.31%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 337 (6.23%) Power BI
2 261 (4.83%) SQL Server
3 120 (2.22%) Amazon RDS
4 118 (2.18%) MySQL
5 109 (2.02%) Relational Database
6 96 (1.78%) Data Lake
7 87 (1.61%) PostgreSQL
8 74 (1.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.18%) SAP BW
10 58 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
11 48 (0.89%) NoSQL
12 47 (0.87%) Tableau
13 43 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 37 (0.68%) GIS
15 36 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
16 31 (0.57%) MongoDB
17 28 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
18 27 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
18 27 (0.50%) Metadata
19 26 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 199 (3.68%) Git
2 179 (3.31%) JIRA
3 48 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 34 (0.63%) GitLab
5 31 (0.57%) Selenium
6 23 (0.43%) Octopus Deploy
7 22 (0.41%) Visual Studio
8 19 (0.35%) JUnit
8 19 (0.35%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.33%) Maven
10 14 (0.26%) Bitbucket
10 14 (0.26%) SonarQube
11 13 (0.24%) Robot Framework
12 12 (0.22%) Snyk
13 10 (0.18%) Cypress.io
14 9 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
14 9 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
15 8 (0.15%) Cucumber
15 8 (0.15%) LabVIEW
16 7 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2,959 (54.74%) Social Skills
2 1,516 (28.04%) Analytical Skills
3 1,196 (22.12%) Finance
4 387 (7.16%) Retail
5 351 (6.49%) Manufacturing
6 327 (6.05%) Marketing
7 262 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
8 251 (4.64%) Law
9 208 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 181 (3.35%) Public Sector
11 180 (3.33%) Legal
12 148 (2.74%) Banking
13 144 (2.66%) Telecoms
14 129 (2.39%) Electronics
15 116 (2.15%) Games
16 101 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
17 100 (1.85%) Automotive
18 76 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
19 66 (1.22%) Aerospace
20 53 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 900 (16.65%) Analyst
2 645 (11.93%) IT Support
3 610 (11.28%) Senior
4 506 (9.36%) Support Engineer
5 422 (7.81%) Developer
6 396 (7.33%) Lead
7 357 (6.60%) Support Analyst
8 311 (5.75%) Technical Support
9 216 (4.00%) Technical Engineer
10 215 (3.98%) 2nd Line Support
11 204 (3.77%) IT Engineer
12 201 (3.72%) Technical Support Engineer
13 198 (3.66%) Systems Engineer
14 175 (3.24%) IT Support Engineer
15 171 (3.16%) Support Technician
16 170 (3.14%) Business Analyst
17 153 (2.83%) IT Analyst
18 147 (2.72%) Applications Support
19 142 (2.63%) Architect
20 137 (2.53%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 231 (4.27%) .NET
2 201 (3.72%) HTML
3 176 (3.26%) CSS
4 164 (3.03%) React
5 106 (1.96%) REST
6 85 (1.57%) RESTful
7 72 (1.33%) ASP.NET
8 65 (1.20%) Node.js
9 63 (1.17%) JSON
10 55 (1.02%) XML
11 52 (0.96%) Spring
12 51 (0.94%) AngularJS
13 45 (0.83%) .NET Framework
14 42 (0.78%) Django
15 41 (0.76%) SOAP
16 37 (0.68%) Vue
17 35 (0.65%) EDI
18 34 (0.63%) Spring Boot
19 33 (0.61%) Entity Framework
20 32 (0.59%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 506 (9.36%) Driving Licence
2 415 (7.68%) Onboarding
3 309 (5.72%) Self-Motivation
4 212 (3.92%) Management Information System
5 188 (3.48%) Analytical Mindset
6 141 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
7 96 (1.78%) Data Centre
7 96 (1.78%) FMCG
8 92 (1.70%) Product Ownership
9 72 (1.33%) Virtual Team
10 68 (1.26%) Operational Technology
11 61 (1.13%) Cloud Native
12 52 (0.96%) e-Learning
13 48 (0.89%) Algorithms
14 44 (0.81%) SCADA
15 43 (0.80%) EPoS
16 41 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
17 38 (0.70%) Mobile App
18 37 (0.68%) IoT
19 35 (0.65%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 969 (17.92%) Windows
2 387 (7.16%) Windows Server
3 285 (5.27%) Linux
4 152 (2.81%) Windows 10
5 99 (1.83%) Windows Server 2016
6 73 (1.35%) Mac OS
7 59 (1.09%) Android
8 49 (0.91%) Apple iOS
9 38 (0.70%) Unix
10 25 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
11 21 (0.39%) Windows 7
12 13 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
13 9 (0.17%) VMS
14 6 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 5 (0.092%) Mac OS X
15 5 (0.092%) Windows Server 2008
16 4 (0.074%) CentOS
16 4 (0.074%) Ubuntu
16 4 (0.074%) Windows 8
17 2 (0.037%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,034 (19.13%) Customer Service
2 1,005 (18.59%) Continuous Improvement
3 754 (13.95%) Agile
4 505 (9.34%) Analytics
5 489 (9.05%) Mentoring
6 488 (9.03%) Project Management
7 455 (8.42%) Decision-Making
8 439 (8.12%) Business Intelligence
9 427 (7.90%) ERP
10 425 (7.86%) ITIL
11 376 (6.96%) DevOps
12 365 (6.75%) Cybersecurity
13 329 (6.09%) CRM
14 328 (6.07%) CI/CD
15 319 (5.90%) Process Improvement
16 312 (5.77%) Stakeholder Management
17 311 (5.75%) Change Management
18 305 (5.64%) AI
19 304 (5.62%) Data Analysis
20 298 (5.51%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 819 (15.15%) SQL
2 435 (8.05%) Python
3 293 (5.42%) C#
4 291 (5.38%) JavaScript
5 244 (4.51%) PowerShell
6 181 (3.35%) Java
7 92 (1.70%) PHP
8 87 (1.61%) C++
9 65 (1.20%) TypeScript
10 57 (1.05%) T-SQL
11 46 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 42 (0.78%) Bash
13 38 (0.70%) C
14 30 (0.55%) VBA
15 29 (0.54%) MATLAB
16 19 (0.35%) R
17 18 (0.33%) Go
18 16 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
18 16 (0.30%) Perl
19 13 (0.24%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,213 (22.44%) Degree
2 411 (7.60%) Security Cleared
3 286 (5.29%) SC Cleared
4 157 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 156 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 121 (2.24%) DBS Check
7 107 (1.98%) Master's Degree
8 101 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
9 92 (1.70%) DV Cleared
10 84 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
11 74 (1.37%) HND
12 72 (1.33%) HNC
13 60 (1.11%) ACCA
14 59 (1.09%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 58 (1.07%) A+ Certification
15 58 (1.07%) Network+ Certification
16 57 (1.05%) CCNA
17 53 (0.98%) CIMA
18 36 (0.67%) CISSP
19 34 (0.63%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 231 (4.27%) QA
2 205 (3.79%) Data Quality
3 149 (2.76%) GDPR
4 143 (2.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 101 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 99 (1.83%) PCI DSS
7 93 (1.72%) SLA
8 83 (1.54%) Accessibility
9 38 (0.70%) NIST
10 28 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 26 (0.48%) ISO 9001
12 22 (0.41%) PMO
13 18 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
14 9 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 9 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
15 7 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 7 (0.13%) GRC
15 7 (0.13%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.13%) WCAG
16 6 (0.11%) HIPAA
System Software
1 637 (11.78%) Active Directory
2 214 (3.96%) Hyper-V
3 177 (3.27%) Docker
4 114 (2.11%) VMware Infrastructure
5 88 (1.63%) Terminal Server
6 53 (0.98%) Firmware
7 23 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
8 19 (0.35%) vSphere
9 15 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 13 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
12 5 (0.092%) HDFS
13 4 (0.074%) KVM
13 4 (0.074%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.055%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.055%) XenApp
15 2 (0.037%) GPFS
15 2 (0.037%) NFS
15 2 (0.037%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 216 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 173 (3.20%) Terraform
3 147 (2.72%) Kubernetes
4 58 (1.07%) Ansible
5 42 (0.78%) BMC PATROL
6 37 (0.68%) SCCM
7 34 (0.63%) Grafana
8 22 (0.41%) Prometheus
9 15 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
10 14 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.26%) vCenter Server
11 12 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 10 (0.18%) AWS Copilot
12 10 (0.18%) Nagios
12 10 (0.18%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
14 7 (0.13%) PaperCut
14 7 (0.13%) QRadar
15 6 (0.11%) Control-M
16 5 (0.092%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,422 (26.30%) Microsoft
2 345 (6.38%) SAP
3 235 (4.35%) VMware
4 180 (3.33%) Oracle
5 176 (3.26%) Cisco
6 132 (2.44%) Veeam
7 123 (2.28%) Google
8 116 (2.15%) Splunk
9 106 (1.96%) SolarWinds
10 105 (1.94%) ServiceNow
11 101 (1.87%) Salesforce
12 89 (1.65%) Tanium
13 88 (1.63%) Brocade
13 88 (1.63%) Nimble Storage
14 80 (1.48%) BT
15 70 (1.29%) Sage
16 68 (1.26%) Databricks
17 55 (1.02%) Apple
18 53 (0.98%) Adobe
19 49 (0.91%) Siemens