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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,383 7,830 4,812
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 14.38% 16.78% 16.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.52% 20.26% 17.46%
Number of salaries quoted 3,666 3,020 3,327
10th Percentile £25,717 £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 £56,250 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £81,250 £76,550
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 30,732 38,652 27,568
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 82.11% 82.83% 93.85%
Number of salaries quoted 18,747 18,776 20,556
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £54,439 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.75% +3.69% -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 28 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 28 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 1,421 £40,000 -20.00% 1,319
North of England -3 1,332 £45,000 -0.36% 747
Midlands +2 972 £37,500 -25.00% 556
North West -3 722 £48,000 -4.00% 429
South West -1 599 £39,267 -28.61% 390
West Midlands +1 578 £42,500 -20.26% 354
East of England -2 482 £33,500 -36.19% 306
Yorkshire -4 480 £33,250 -26.11% 235
East Midlands +3 394 £32,500 -7.14% 196
Scotland -2 351 £33,500 -33.00% 177
Wales +5 184 £47,500 -5.00% 89
North East 0 130 £33,500 -1.47% 86
Northern Ireland +2 63 £55,000 +7.60% 50
Isle of Man +3 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 (5.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 215 (3.99%) SharePoint
3 53 (0.98%) Confluence
4 43 (0.80%) IIS
5 30 (0.56%) Apache Spark
6 27 (0.50%) CMS
7 26 (0.48%) Apache
7 26 (0.48%) WordPress
8 10 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
8 10 (0.19%) Camunda
9 8 (0.15%) nginx
10 7 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
11 6 (0.11%) HCL Notes
11 6 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.093%) Apache Solr
12 5 (0.093%) Drupal
13 4 (0.074%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.074%) Exchange Server 2013
13 4 (0.074%) Umbraco
14 3 (0.056%) OpenStack
Applications
1 470 (8.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 467 (8.68%) Microsoft Office
3 73 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 22 (0.41%) AutoCAD
4 22 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
5 20 (0.37%) MS Visio
6 19 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
7 16 (0.30%) 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 (0.093%) Adobe After Effects
12 5 (0.093%) Adobe XD
12 5 (0.093%) Trello
13 4 (0.074%) Autodesk Inventor
13 4 (0.074%) CATIA
13 4 (0.074%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 89 (1.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 31 (0.58%) 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 11 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
9 11 (0.20%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.20%) SAP FI/CO
9 11 (0.20%) SAP WM
9 11 (0.20%) Unit4 Business World
10 10 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
11 8 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
12 7 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
13 5 (0.093%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,154 (21.44%) Azure
2 815 (15.14%) Microsoft 365
3 434 (8.06%) AWS
4 374 (6.95%) Power Platform
5 280 (5.20%) SaaS
6 230 (4.27%) Entra ID
7 150 (2.79%) GCP
8 130 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
9 84 (1.56%) GitHub
10 70 (1.30%) Power Automate
11 68 (1.26%) Serverless
12 61 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
13 48 (0.89%) Azure Data Factory
14 43 (0.80%) Amazon S3
14 43 (0.80%) AWS Lambda
15 41 (0.76%) OneDrive
15 41 (0.76%) PowerApps
16 40 (0.74%) PaaS
17 36 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
18 34 (0.63%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 335 (6.22%) DNS
2 297 (5.52%) DHCP
3 274 (5.09%) Firewall
4 168 (3.12%) TCP/IP
5 157 (2.92%) VPN
6 149 (2.77%) Wi-Fi
7 145 (2.69%) LAN
8 129 (2.40%) WAN
9 107 (1.99%) Broadband
10 94 (1.75%) VLAN
11 80 (1.49%) VoIP
12 62 (1.15%) Remote Desktop
13 51 (0.95%) Wireless
14 49 (0.91%) Network Security
15 37 (0.69%) SAN
16 33 (0.61%) Ethernet
17 31 (0.58%) Internet
18 22 (0.41%) SD-WAN
19 21 (0.39%) Unified Communications
20 17 (0.32%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 333 (6.19%) Power BI
2 258 (4.79%) SQL Server
3 118 (2.19%) Amazon RDS
3 118 (2.19%) MySQL
4 109 (2.02%) Relational Database
5 96 (1.78%) Data Lake
6 88 (1.63%) PostgreSQL
7 73 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 64 (1.19%) SAP BW
9 57 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
10 50 (0.93%) NoSQL
11 47 (0.87%) Tableau
12 43 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 38 (0.71%) GIS
14 36 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
15 32 (0.59%) MongoDB
16 27 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
16 27 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
16 27 (0.50%) Metadata
16 27 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 203 (3.77%) Git
2 177 (3.29%) JIRA
3 49 (0.91%) Jenkins
4 37 (0.69%) GitLab
5 31 (0.58%) Selenium
6 23 (0.43%) Octopus Deploy
7 22 (0.41%) Visual Studio
8 19 (0.35%) JUnit
8 19 (0.35%) TeamCity
9 17 (0.32%) Maven
10 15 (0.28%) Bitbucket
11 14 (0.26%) SonarQube
12 13 (0.24%) Robot Framework
13 12 (0.22%) Snyk
14 10 (0.19%) Cypress.io
15 9 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
15 9 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
16 8 (0.15%) Cucumber
16 8 (0.15%) LabVIEW
17 7 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2,945 (54.71%) Social Skills
2 1,495 (27.77%) Analytical Skills
3 1,182 (21.96%) Finance
4 383 (7.11%) Retail
5 343 (6.37%) Manufacturing
6 326 (6.06%) Marketing
7 261 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
8 243 (4.51%) Law
9 206 (3.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 183 (3.40%) Public Sector
11 177 (3.29%) Legal
12 147 (2.73%) Banking
13 144 (2.68%) Telecoms
14 129 (2.40%) Electronics
15 112 (2.08%) Games
16 100 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
17 99 (1.84%) Automotive
18 76 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
19 67 (1.24%) Aerospace
20 53 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 876 (16.27%) Analyst
2 654 (12.15%) IT Support
3 606 (11.26%) Senior
4 510 (9.47%) Support Engineer
5 419 (7.78%) Developer
6 396 (7.36%) Lead
7 354 (6.58%) Support Analyst
8 311 (5.78%) Technical Support
9 218 (4.05%) 2nd Line Support
10 215 (3.99%) Technical Engineer
11 207 (3.85%) IT Engineer
12 200 (3.72%) Technical Support Engineer
13 196 (3.64%) Systems Engineer
14 179 (3.33%) IT Support Engineer
15 176 (3.27%) Support Technician
16 169 (3.14%) Business Analyst
17 148 (2.75%) IT Analyst
18 147 (2.73%) Applications Support
19 143 (2.66%) Architect
20 137 (2.55%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 232 (4.31%) .NET
2 201 (3.73%) HTML
3 177 (3.29%) CSS
4 164 (3.05%) React
5 104 (1.93%) REST
6 87 (1.62%) RESTful
7 73 (1.36%) ASP.NET
8 64 (1.19%) Node.js
9 63 (1.17%) JSON
10 55 (1.02%) XML
11 52 (0.97%) Spring
12 51 (0.95%) AngularJS
13 45 (0.84%) .NET Framework
14 42 (0.78%) Django
15 41 (0.76%) SOAP
16 37 (0.69%) Vue
17 35 (0.65%) EDI
17 35 (0.65%) Spring Boot
18 33 (0.61%) Entity Framework
19 32 (0.59%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 507 (9.42%) Driving Licence
2 417 (7.75%) Onboarding
3 310 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 208 (3.86%) Management Information System
5 185 (3.44%) Analytical Mindset
6 140 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
7 97 (1.80%) FMCG
8 95 (1.76%) Data Centre
9 92 (1.71%) Product Ownership
10 71 (1.32%) Virtual Team
11 68 (1.26%) Operational Technology
12 63 (1.17%) Cloud Native
13 50 (0.93%) e-Learning
14 48 (0.89%) Algorithms
15 43 (0.80%) EPoS
15 43 (0.80%) SCADA
16 41 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
17 38 (0.71%) Mobile App
18 37 (0.69%) IoT
19 35 (0.65%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 974 (18.09%) Windows
2 395 (7.34%) Windows Server
3 288 (5.35%) Linux
4 150 (2.79%) Windows 10
5 100 (1.86%) Windows Server 2016
6 72 (1.34%) Mac OS
7 59 (1.10%) Android
8 49 (0.91%) Apple iOS
9 38 (0.71%) Unix
10 26 (0.48%) 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 (0.093%) Mac OS X
15 5 (0.093%) 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 1,035 (19.23%) Customer Service
2 1,002 (18.61%) Continuous Improvement
3 757 (14.06%) Agile
4 501 (9.31%) Analytics
5 487 (9.05%) Mentoring
6 481 (8.94%) Project Management
7 449 (8.34%) Decision-Making
8 433 (8.04%) Business Intelligence
9 422 (7.84%) ERP
9 422 (7.84%) ITIL
10 378 (7.02%) DevOps
11 360 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
12 329 (6.11%) CI/CD
13 326 (6.06%) CRM
14 318 (5.91%) Process Improvement
15 313 (5.81%) Stakeholder Management
16 310 (5.76%) Change Management
17 302 (5.61%) AI
18 299 (5.55%) Data Analysis
19 296 (5.50%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 810 (15.05%) SQL
2 436 (8.10%) Python
3 293 (5.44%) C#
4 289 (5.37%) JavaScript
5 246 (4.57%) PowerShell
6 181 (3.36%) Java
7 91 (1.69%) PHP
8 88 (1.63%) C++
9 62 (1.15%) TypeScript
10 57 (1.06%) T-SQL
11 45 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 43 (0.80%) Bash
13 38 (0.71%) C
14 28 (0.52%) MATLAB
14 28 (0.52%) VBA
15 19 (0.35%) Go
15 19 (0.35%) R
16 17 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
17 16 (0.30%) Perl
18 14 (0.26%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,205 (22.39%) Degree
2 407 (7.56%) Security Cleared
3 284 (5.28%) SC Cleared
4 159 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 156 (2.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 121 (2.25%) DBS Check
7 105 (1.95%) Master's Degree
8 100 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
9 89 (1.65%) DV Cleared
10 85 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
11 74 (1.37%) HND
12 72 (1.34%) HNC
13 60 (1.11%) ACCA
14 59 (1.10%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 58 (1.08%) CCNA
15 58 (1.08%) Network+ Certification
16 57 (1.06%) A+ Certification
17 53 (0.98%) CIMA
18 35 (0.65%) CCNP
18 35 (0.65%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 229 (4.25%) QA
2 205 (3.81%) Data Quality
3 147 (2.73%) GDPR
4 143 (2.66%) Cyber Essentials
5 101 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 100 (1.86%) PCI DSS
7 95 (1.76%) SLA
8 83 (1.54%) Accessibility
9 38 (0.71%) NIST
10 28 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 26 (0.48%) ISO 9001
12 21 (0.39%) 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%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.13%) WCAG
16 6 (0.11%) GRC
16 6 (0.11%) HIPAA
System Software
1 644 (11.96%) Active Directory
2 214 (3.98%) Hyper-V
3 178 (3.31%) Docker
4 114 (2.12%) 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
9 18 (0.33%) vSphere
10 15 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
11 13 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
12 6 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.074%) HDFS
13 4 (0.074%) KVM
13 4 (0.074%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.056%) VMware Workstation
15 2 (0.037%) GPFS
15 2 (0.037%) NFS
15 2 (0.037%) RHEV
15 2 (0.037%) Xen
Systems Management
1 219 (4.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 175 (3.25%) Terraform
3 147 (2.73%) Kubernetes
4 58 (1.08%) Ansible
5 42 (0.78%) BMC PATROL
6 39 (0.72%) SCCM
7 35 (0.65%) Grafana
8 23 (0.43%) 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 (0.19%) AWS Copilot
12 10 (0.19%) Nagios
12 10 (0.19%) 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 (0.093%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,422 (26.42%) Microsoft
2 342 (6.35%) SAP
3 235 (4.37%) VMware
4 178 (3.31%) Cisco
4 178 (3.31%) Oracle
5 133 (2.47%) Veeam
6 122 (2.27%) Google
7 116 (2.15%) Splunk
8 107 (1.99%) SolarWinds
9 104 (1.93%) ServiceNow
10 101 (1.88%) Salesforce
11 89 (1.65%) Tanium
12 88 (1.63%) Brocade
12 88 (1.63%) Nimble Storage
13 80 (1.49%) BT
14 70 (1.30%) Sage
15 67 (1.24%) Databricks
16 56 (1.04%) Apple
17 53 (0.98%) Adobe
18 49 (0.91%) Siemens