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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 2
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,620 6,406 8,319
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.94% 18.67% 15.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.71% 21.55% 19.14%
Number of salaries quoted 5,282 3,531 3,435
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 £46,743 £45,102 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.64% -14.09% -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 59,936 29,730 43,472
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.35% 86.65% 78.66%
Number of salaries quoted 42,260 16,120 23,401
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 20 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 20 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 -8 1,920 £45,000 +5.88% 1,451
South East -4 1,799 £42,250 -0.59% 1,638
Midlands -7 1,381 £42,500 +10.39% 1,140
North West -5 991 £45,000 -7.64% 800
South West -4 943 £45,000 +25.00% 792
West Midlands -7 767 £42,500 -4.59% 688
East of England -2 757 £43,500 +29.85% 746
East Midlands -8 612 £41,500 +18.57% 451
Yorkshire -7 601 £42,500 +28.79% 452
Scotland +7 344 £35,000 -25.53% 518
North East +1 331 £49,250 +40.71% 215
Northern Ireland +3 269 £70,000 +18.64% 308
Wales -14 222 £42,500 -11.11% 154
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
1 459 (6.02%) SharePoint
2 357 (4.69%) 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
1 558 (7.32%) Microsoft Office
2 508 (6.67%) 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 33 (0.43%) 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
16 5 (0.066%) Adobe XD
16 5 (0.066%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 76 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 63 (0.83%) NetSuite
3 51 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
4 31 (0.41%) 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 15 (0.20%) Magento
11 14 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
12 13 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 13 (0.17%) SAP ERP
13 12 (0.16%) Oracle Cash Management
13 12 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
13 12 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
14 11 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
15 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
15 10 (0.13%) Sage X3
16 9 (0.12%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 1,387 (18.20%) Azure
2 1,249 (16.39%) Microsoft 365
3 700 (9.19%) AWS
4 617 (8.10%) Power Platform
5 393 (5.16%) Entra ID
6 281 (3.69%) SaaS
7 234 (3.07%) GCP
8 174 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
9 158 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
10 156 (2.05%) PowerApps
11 145 (1.90%) GitHub
11 145 (1.90%) Power Automate
12 123 (1.61%) Serverless
13 108 (1.42%) OneDrive
14 91 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
15 68 (0.89%) Amazon S3
15 68 (0.89%) Google Workspace
16 64 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
17 61 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
18 59 (0.77%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 443 (5.81%) Firewall
2 434 (5.70%) DNS
3 366 (4.80%) DHCP
4 285 (3.74%) VPN
5 234 (3.07%) TCP/IP
6 202 (2.65%) Wi-Fi
7 200 (2.62%) WAN
8 191 (2.51%) LAN
9 173 (2.27%) Wireless
10 145 (1.90%) VLAN
11 123 (1.61%) Network Security
12 116 (1.52%) VoIP
13 63 (0.83%) 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
1 497 (6.52%) Power BI
2 335 (4.40%) 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 96 (1.26%) 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 50 (0.66%) 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
2 248 (3.25%) JIRA
3 85 (1.12%) GitLab
4 82 (1.08%) Jenkins
5 39 (0.51%) 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
12 22 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
13 20 (0.26%) Cypress.io
14 15 (0.20%) LabVIEW
14 15 (0.20%) SonarQube
15 14 (0.18%) Burp Suite
16 12 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
16 12 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 3,758 (49.32%) Social Skills
2 2,098 (27.53%) Analytical Skills
3 1,218 (15.98%) Finance
4 822 (10.79%) Manufacturing
5 582 (7.64%) Organisational Skills
6 425 (5.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 376 (4.93%) Retail
8 359 (4.71%) Public Sector
9 341 (4.48%) Law
10 316 (4.15%) Legal
11 297 (3.90%) Electronics
12 294 (3.86%) Aerospace
13 280 (3.67%) Marketing
14 196 (2.57%) Telecoms
15 153 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
16 145 (1.90%) Banking
17 123 (1.61%) Automotive
18 118 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
19 100 (1.31%) Military
20 98 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,004 (13.18%) Analyst
2 801 (10.51%) Senior
3 732 (9.61%) IT Support
4 707 (9.28%) Developer
5 580 (7.61%) Support Engineer
6 398 (5.22%) Lead
7 391 (5.13%) IT Engineer
8 388 (5.09%) Support Analyst
9 345 (4.53%) Consultant
10 293 (3.85%) IT Support Engineer
11 279 (3.66%) Technical Support
12 274 (3.60%) Support Technician
13 240 (3.15%) Technical Engineer
14 238 (3.12%) Architect
15 237 (3.11%) IT Technician
16 235 (3.08%) Systems Engineer
17 228 (2.99%) Software Engineer
18 217 (2.85%) Technical Support Engineer
19 203 (2.66%) Senior Developer
20 188 (2.47%) 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
2 530 (6.96%) Onboarding
3 400 (5.25%) 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
8 142 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
9 127 (1.67%) Data Centre
10 119 (1.56%) Robotics
11 98 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
12 92 (1.21%) NHS
13 90 (1.18%) Distributed Systems
14 81 (1.06%) IoT
15 80 (1.05%) Security Posture
16 77 (1.01%) Cyber Threat
17 75 (0.98%) CCTV
17 75 (0.98%) Virtual Team
18 70 (0.92%) Social Media
19 69 (0.91%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 1,189 (15.60%) Windows
2 524 (6.88%) Windows Server
3 459 (6.02%) Linux
4 130 (1.71%) Windows 10
5 99 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
6 91 (1.19%) Apple iOS
7 87 (1.14%) Android
8 83 (1.09%) 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 2,064 (27.09%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,434 (18.82%) Customer Service
3 1,096 (14.38%) Agile
4 823 (10.80%) Decision-Making
5 774 (10.16%) Mentoring
6 768 (10.08%) Stakeholder Management
7 751 (9.86%) AI
8 716 (9.40%) CI/CD
9 654 (8.58%) Project Delivery
10 624 (8.19%) Collaborative Working
11 608 (7.98%) Analytics
12 595 (7.81%) DevOps
13 593 (7.78%) Software Engineering
14 589 (7.73%) ERP
15 582 (7.64%) ITIL
16 572 (7.51%) Cybersecurity
17 537 (7.05%) Business Intelligence
18 530 (6.96%) Project Management
19 473 (6.21%) CRM
19 473 (6.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,105 (14.50%) SQL
2 763 (10.01%) Python
3 445 (5.84%) C#
4 443 (5.81%) JavaScript
5 316 (4.15%) Java
6 298 (3.91%) PowerShell
7 204 (2.68%) C++
8 199 (2.61%) TypeScript
9 124 (1.63%) Bash
10 79 (1.04%) C
11 67 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 66 (0.87%) PHP
13 61 (0.80%) T-SQL
14 48 (0.63%) Ruby
15 47 (0.62%) PL/SQL
16 46 (0.60%) Shell Script
17 45 (0.59%) MATLAB
18 41 (0.54%) Perl
19 38 (0.50%) Go
19 38 (0.50%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,224 (16.06%) Degree
2 712 (9.34%) Security Cleared
3 495 (6.50%) SC Cleared
4 224 (2.94%) DBS Check
5 220 (2.89%) HNC
6 205 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
7 191 (2.51%) HND
8 190 (2.49%) Microsoft Certification
9 181 (2.38%) DV Cleared
10 162 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
11 136 (1.78%) Azure Certification
12 96 (1.26%) 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 66 (0.87%) 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
2 299 (3.92%) Data Quality
3 224 (2.94%) GDPR
4 204 (2.68%) Accessibility
5 183 (2.40%) SLA
6 168 (2.20%) Cyber Essentials
7 136 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 105 (1.38%) PCI DSS
9 84 (1.10%) 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
1 833 (10.93%) Active Directory
2 289 (3.79%) Hyper-V
3 263 (3.45%) Docker
4 217 (2.85%) 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 29 (0.38%) Embedded Firmware
9 29 (0.38%) vSphere
10 16 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
11 8 (0.10%) Virtual Servers
12 5 (0.066%) ClearTrust
12 5 (0.066%) Squid
13 4 (0.052%) KVM
13 4 (0.052%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.039%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.039%) VMware Server
15 2 (0.026%) Samba
15 2 (0.026%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 258 (3.39%) 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 2,305 (30.25%) Microsoft
2 345 (4.53%) VMware
3 220 (2.89%) SAP
4 208 (2.73%) Google
5 173 (2.27%) Oracle
6 168 (2.20%) Workday
7 136 (1.78%) Cisco
7 136 (1.78%) Veeam
8 126 (1.65%) ServiceNow
9 122 (1.60%) Splunk
10 105 (1.38%) Sage
11 103 (1.35%) Salesforce
12 92 (1.21%) SolarWinds
13 80 (1.05%) Tanium
14 79 (1.04%) Databricks
15 76 (1.00%) Fortinet
16 73 (0.96%) Nimble Storage
17 72 (0.94%) Brocade
18 65 (0.85%) Apple
19 58 (0.76%) SonicWALL