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

6 months to
13 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 5,047 5,984 7,899
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 10.65% 18.29% 15.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.84% 20.16% 18.32%
Number of salaries quoted 3,513 2,628 5,498
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 £57,500 £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 36,473 29,681 43,107
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 76.97% 90.70% 86.83%
Number of salaries quoted 21,404 13,454 33,036
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% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,500 £83,750 £78,479
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 13 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 13 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
North of England -16 1,335 £42,500 -11.46% 577
South East -3 1,304 £42,500 -19.05% 876
Midlands -15 865 £38,000 -25.86% 447
North West -15 727 £46,000 -8.00% 339
South West -4 587 £40,000 -24.81% 327
West Midlands -18 506 £42,500 -22.73% 280
Yorkshire -6 472 £35,000 -19.54% 183
East of England -3 440 £37,500 -26.42% 281
East Midlands 0 357 £35,000 - 167
Scotland -6 351 £33,500 -34.95% 96
North East -5 136 £41,250 -14.06% 67
Wales 0 120 £42,500 -18.66% 58
Northern Ireland -2 70 £42,750 -28.41% 27
Isle of Man 0 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 (5.98%) Microsoft Exchange
2 227 (4.50%) SharePoint
3 50 (0.99%) Confluence
4 45 (0.89%) IIS
5 33 (0.65%) CMS
6 24 (0.48%) Apache
6 24 (0.48%) WordPress
7 20 (0.40%) Apache Spark
8 16 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
10 10 (0.20%) nginx
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
11 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
12 6 (0.12%) Drupal
12 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.079%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.079%) Headless CMS
13 4 (0.079%) SAS
13 4 (0.079%) WebSphere
13 4 (0.079%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 373 (7.39%) Microsoft Office
2 357 (7.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 64 (1.27%) 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 10 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
10 8 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
11 7 (0.14%) Adobe Premiere
12 4 (0.079%) Adobe After Effects
12 4 (0.079%) CATIA
12 4 (0.079%) Fusion 360
12 4 (0.079%) Oracle Smart View
13 3 (0.059%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.059%) Elementor
13 3 (0.059%) Revit
13 3 (0.059%) Trello
Business Applications
1 75 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 46 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (0.52%) 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
9 11 (0.22%) iTrent
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 9 (0.18%) Shopify
12 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
12 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
13 7 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
13 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
14 6 (0.12%) Markit EDM
14 6 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,096 (21.72%) Azure
2 861 (17.06%) Microsoft 365
3 445 (8.82%) AWS
4 349 (6.91%) Power Platform
5 253 (5.01%) SaaS
6 235 (4.66%) Entra ID
7 146 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
8 133 (2.64%) GCP
9 102 (2.02%) GitHub
10 87 (1.72%) Serverless
11 80 (1.59%) Power Automate
12 62 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
13 57 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
13 57 (1.13%) Google Workspace
14 55 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
15 53 (1.05%) Amazon S3
16 47 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
17 46 (0.91%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 46 (0.91%) OneDrive
18 45 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 398 (7.89%) DNS
2 345 (6.84%) DHCP
3 268 (5.31%) Firewall
4 156 (3.09%) TCP/IP
4 156 (3.09%) VPN
5 152 (3.01%) Wi-Fi
6 137 (2.71%) WAN
7 121 (2.40%) LAN
8 102 (2.02%) Broadband
9 94 (1.86%) VLAN
10 86 (1.70%) VoIP
11 74 (1.47%) Wireless
12 54 (1.07%) Remote Desktop
13 49 (0.97%) Network Security
14 40 (0.79%) Internet
15 38 (0.75%) SD-WAN
16 30 (0.59%) SAN
17 29 (0.57%) Unified Communications
18 24 (0.48%) Wireshark
19 23 (0.46%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 294 (5.83%) Power BI
2 205 (4.06%) SQL Server
3 133 (2.64%) Amazon RDS
4 84 (1.66%) Relational Database
5 75 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
6 69 (1.37%) MySQL
7 66 (1.31%) NoSQL
8 65 (1.29%) Data Lake
8 65 (1.29%) Data Warehouse
8 65 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 46 (0.91%) SAP BW
10 42 (0.83%) Tableau
11 38 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 35 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
13 33 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
14 31 (0.61%) DynamoDB
15 30 (0.59%) Power Query
16 29 (0.57%) MongoDB
17 28 (0.55%) Metadata
18 26 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 185 (3.67%) Git
2 163 (3.23%) JIRA
3 53 (1.05%) GitLab
4 42 (0.83%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.59%) Selenium
6 17 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 16 (0.32%) LabVIEW
8 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
9 14 (0.28%) Maven
9 14 (0.28%) Snyk
10 12 (0.24%) JUnit
11 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
11 11 (0.22%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
12 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
12 10 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
13 9 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
13 9 (0.18%) TeamCity
14 8 (0.16%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 2,678 (53.06%) Social Skills
2 1,412 (27.98%) Analytical Skills
3 1,051 (20.82%) Finance
4 314 (6.22%) Organisational Skills
5 291 (5.77%) Manufacturing
6 282 (5.59%) Retail
7 239 (4.74%) Marketing
8 211 (4.18%) Public Sector
9 182 (3.61%) Legal
10 167 (3.31%) Law
11 160 (3.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 158 (3.13%) Telecoms
13 129 (2.56%) Electronics
14 121 (2.40%) Banking
15 109 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
16 82 (1.62%) Games
17 80 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
18 79 (1.57%) Automotive
19 57 (1.13%) Aerospace
20 50 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 844 (16.72%) Analyst
2 713 (14.13%) IT Support
3 577 (11.43%) Support Engineer
4 564 (11.17%) Senior
5 379 (7.51%) Developer
6 316 (6.26%) IT Engineer
7 290 (5.75%) Lead
8 287 (5.69%) Support Analyst
9 277 (5.49%) IT Support Engineer
10 238 (4.72%) Technical Support
11 208 (4.12%) Business Analyst
12 178 (3.53%) 2nd Line Support
13 171 (3.39%) Support Technician
14 166 (3.29%) Systems Engineer
15 158 (3.13%) Technical Engineer
16 151 (2.99%) Technical Support Engineer
17 143 (2.83%) IT Analyst
18 142 (2.81%) Architect
19 135 (2.67%) Consultant
20 128 (2.54%) Trainee
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (3.84%) .NET
2 164 (3.25%) HTML
3 157 (3.11%) React
4 127 (2.52%) CSS
5 88 (1.74%) REST
6 72 (1.43%) Node.js
7 60 (1.19%) RESTful
8 53 (1.05%) AngularJS
9 48 (0.95%) SOAP
9 48 (0.95%) Vue
10 46 (0.91%) JSON
11 42 (0.83%) ASP.NET
12 39 (0.77%) Spring
13 38 (0.75%) XML
14 34 (0.67%) .NET Framework
15 33 (0.65%) Django
16 31 (0.61%) Spring Boot
17 30 (0.59%) EDI
17 30 (0.59%) Laravel
18 26 (0.52%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 506 (10.03%) Driving Licence
2 379 (7.51%) Onboarding
3 312 (6.18%) Self-Motivation
4 171 (3.39%) Legacy Systems
5 168 (3.33%) Management Information System
6 154 (3.05%) Analytical Mindset
7 108 (2.14%) Data Centre
8 100 (1.98%) Product Ownership
9 86 (1.70%) Cloud Native
10 65 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
11 53 (1.05%) Social Media
12 49 (0.97%) Mobile App
13 47 (0.93%) EPoS
13 47 (0.93%) FMCG
14 42 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
15 40 (0.79%) Low-Code
15 40 (0.79%) Virtual Team
16 38 (0.75%) Data Structures
17 35 (0.69%) Life Science
18 33 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 961 (19.04%) Windows
2 437 (8.66%) Windows Server
3 343 (6.80%) Linux
4 145 (2.87%) Windows Server 2016
5 121 (2.40%) Windows 10
6 84 (1.66%) Android
7 64 (1.27%) Mac OS
8 56 (1.11%) Apple iOS
9 36 (0.71%) Unix
10 35 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
11 25 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
12 18 (0.36%) Windows 7
13 15 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 9 (0.18%) CentOS
14 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
15 8 (0.16%) VMS
15 8 (0.16%) Windows 8
16 5 (0.099%) Debian
17 4 (0.079%) Ubuntu
18 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 946 (18.74%) Customer Service
2 923 (18.29%) Continuous Improvement
3 651 (12.90%) Agile
4 480 (9.51%) Project Management
5 459 (9.09%) Mentoring
6 444 (8.80%) Decision-Making
7 427 (8.46%) Analytics
8 409 (8.10%) Business Intelligence
9 382 (7.57%) ITIL
10 377 (7.47%) DevOps
11 353 (6.99%) ERP
12 340 (6.74%) Change Management
13 335 (6.64%) CI/CD
14 314 (6.22%) AI
15 307 (6.08%) Stakeholder Management
16 306 (6.06%) CRM
17 305 (6.04%) Computer Science
17 305 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
18 303 (6.00%) Process Improvement
19 294 (5.83%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 700 (13.87%) SQL
2 496 (9.83%) Python
3 285 (5.65%) JavaScript
4 257 (5.09%) PowerShell
5 228 (4.52%) C#
6 167 (3.31%) Java
7 80 (1.59%) PHP
8 78 (1.55%) TypeScript
9 64 (1.27%) Bash
10 58 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 57 (1.13%) C++
12 43 (0.85%) C
12 43 (0.85%) T-SQL
13 25 (0.50%) PL/SQL
14 24 (0.48%) R
15 20 (0.40%) MATLAB
16 19 (0.38%) Go
17 18 (0.36%) Bicep
18 17 (0.34%) Perl
19 16 (0.32%) Scala
Qualifications
1 1,088 (21.56%) Degree
2 421 (8.34%) Security Cleared
3 291 (5.77%) SC Cleared
4 163 (3.23%) DBS Check
5 146 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 128 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
7 98 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 73 (1.45%) Master's Degree
9 67 (1.33%) A+ Certification
10 64 (1.27%) ACCA
10 64 (1.27%) DV Cleared
11 63 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
12 56 (1.11%) CIMA
12 56 (1.11%) HND
13 49 (0.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 47 (0.93%) Network+ Certification
15 45 (0.89%) CCNA
15 45 (0.89%) HNC
16 40 (0.79%) AWS Certification
17 33 (0.65%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 264 (5.23%) QA
2 200 (3.96%) Data Quality
3 179 (3.55%) Cyber Essentials
4 143 (2.83%) GDPR
5 140 (2.77%) PCI DSS
6 114 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 81 (1.60%) Accessibility
8 67 (1.33%) SLA
9 46 (0.91%) NIST
10 35 (0.69%) ISO 9001
11 26 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
11 26 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 12 (0.24%) PMO
13 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
13 9 (0.18%) 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
1 673 (13.33%) Active Directory
2 246 (4.87%) Hyper-V
3 175 (3.47%) Docker
4 112 (2.22%) Terminal Server
4 112 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
5 27 (0.53%) Firmware
6 24 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
7 16 (0.32%) vSphere
8 15 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
10 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
11 6 (0.12%) KVM
12 5 (0.099%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.040%) RHEV
14 2 (0.040%) Xen
15 1 (0.020%) HDFS
15 1 (0.020%) iptables
15 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 200 (3.96%) Terraform
2 196 (3.88%) Microsoft Intune
3 126 (2.50%) Kubernetes
4 80 (1.59%) Ansible
5 50 (0.99%) SCCM
6 49 (0.97%) Grafana
7 42 (0.83%) BMC PATROL
8 31 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 19 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) Nagios
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
14 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
14 10 (0.20%) Nmap
15 9 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 9 (0.18%) Autotask
15 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
16 8 (0.16%) Control-M
17 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 1,372 (27.18%) Microsoft
2 268 (5.31%) SAP
3 258 (5.11%) VMware
4 180 (3.57%) Oracle
5 172 (3.41%) Veeam
6 140 (2.77%) SolarWinds
7 138 (2.73%) Splunk
8 129 (2.56%) Cisco
9 113 (2.24%) Tanium
10 112 (2.22%) Brocade
10 112 (2.22%) Google
10 112 (2.22%) Nimble Storage
11 81 (1.60%) Salesforce
12 71 (1.41%) ServiceNow
13 66 (1.31%) Adobe
14 60 (1.19%) Databricks
14 60 (1.19%) Sage
15 59 (1.17%) BT
16 57 (1.13%) Apple
17 48 (0.95%) HubSpot