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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,846 5,896 10,576
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.23% 20.70% 14.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.19% 22.49% 18.20%
Number of salaries quoted 3,582 3,009 6,884
10th Percentile £26,375 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £59,500 £61,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 47,578 26,213 58,120
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.94% 92.04% 82.35%
Number of salaries quoted 30,872 12,903 41,502
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,250
25th Percentile £38,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £51,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% +3.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £59,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +1.69% +7.27% -9.84%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 -11 1,328 £42,500 -5.56% 640
South East -8 1,151 £46,575 +0.16% 708
Midlands -22 886 £40,000 -11.11% 400
North West -17 681 £45,000 -4.76% 352
South West -8 557 £43,500 +8.75% 280
West Midlands -24 522 £42,500 -11.46% 253
Yorkshire -11 507 £40,500 +8.00% 223
East of England -7 486 £42,175 +4.14% 246
East Midlands -10 360 £35,000 -9.09% 148
Scotland -5 278 £35,000 -30.00% 110
North East -17 140 £48,445 +7.65% 76
Wales -12 112 £42,500 -15.00% 53
Northern Ireland -7 68 £38,750 -29.55% 44
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 2
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
1 282 (5.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 280 (5.78%) SharePoint
3 47 (0.97%) CMS
4 37 (0.76%) Confluence
5 28 (0.58%) IIS
6 24 (0.50%) WordPress
7 23 (0.47%) Apache
8 17 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.33%) Apache Spark
10 12 (0.25%) SAS
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2010
13 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
14 5 (0.10%) Drupal
14 5 (0.10%) nginx
14 5 (0.10%) OpenStack
14 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
15 4 (0.083%) Moodle
15 4 (0.083%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 293 (6.05%) Microsoft Office
2 282 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 38 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
4 37 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 10 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 9 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
6 9 (0.19%) Fusion 360
7 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
7 6 (0.12%) Simulink
8 5 (0.10%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.083%) Trello
10 3 (0.062%) Autodesk Inventor
11 2 (0.041%) Acrobat
11 2 (0.041%) Chatbot
11 2 (0.041%) Sketch
11 2 (0.041%) SOLIDWORKS
11 2 (0.041%) Weka
12 1 (0.021%) Abaqus
Business Applications
1 47 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.50%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.43%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.39%) Shopify
6 16 (0.33%) Magento
7 14 (0.29%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
8 12 (0.25%) iTrent
9 11 (0.23%) SAP CO
10 9 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
11 8 (0.17%) Sage 50
12 7 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
12 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 5 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
14 4 (0.083%) Line 50
14 4 (0.083%) Markit EDM
14 4 (0.083%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 965 (19.91%) Azure
2 840 (17.33%) Microsoft 365
3 488 (10.07%) AWS
4 355 (7.33%) Power Platform
5 214 (4.42%) Entra ID
6 166 (3.43%) SaaS
7 136 (2.81%) GCP
8 115 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
9 108 (2.23%) Serverless
10 100 (2.06%) Dynamics 365
11 86 (1.77%) GitHub
12 74 (1.53%) Power Automate
13 62 (1.28%) PowerApps
14 60 (1.24%) Amazon S3
15 55 (1.13%) Google Workspace
16 54 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
17 50 (1.03%) OneDrive
18 47 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
18 47 (0.97%) IaaS
19 45 (0.93%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 300 (6.19%) Firewall
2 291 (6.00%) DNS
3 235 (4.85%) DHCP
4 165 (3.40%) WAN
5 160 (3.30%) VPN
6 125 (2.58%) LAN
7 114 (2.35%) TCP/IP
7 114 (2.35%) Wi-Fi
8 105 (2.17%) Broadband
9 100 (2.06%) Wireless
10 86 (1.77%) VLAN
11 70 (1.44%) VoIP
12 68 (1.40%) Network Security
13 42 (0.87%) SD-WAN
14 35 (0.72%) Internet
15 33 (0.68%) SAN
16 21 (0.43%) Unified Communications
17 20 (0.41%) HTTP
18 16 (0.33%) Wireshark
19 15 (0.31%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 284 (5.86%) Power BI
2 197 (4.07%) SQL Server
3 69 (1.42%) MySQL
4 68 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
4 68 (1.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 65 (1.34%) NoSQL
6 63 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
7 62 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
8 56 (1.16%) Tableau
9 52 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 50 (1.03%) Relational Database
11 44 (0.91%) Power Query
12 36 (0.74%) DynamoDB
13 31 (0.64%) MongoDB
14 30 (0.62%) Big Data
15 25 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
15 25 (0.52%) Data Lake
16 21 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
17 20 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
17 20 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 187 (3.86%) Git
2 134 (2.77%) JIRA
3 75 (1.55%) GitLab
4 48 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 28 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
6 18 (0.37%) Maven
7 15 (0.31%) Selenium
7 15 (0.31%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.29%) Cucumber
9 13 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.27%) LabVIEW
10 11 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.21%) JUnit
12 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
12 7 (0.14%) MLflow
12 7 (0.14%) Mockito
12 7 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
12 7 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 7 (0.14%) Subversion
12 7 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 2,276 (46.97%) Social Skills
2 1,339 (27.63%) Analytical Skills
3 820 (16.92%) Finance
4 327 (6.75%) Manufacturing
5 303 (6.25%) Organisational Skills
6 220 (4.54%) Public Sector
7 212 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 182 (3.76%) Law
9 181 (3.74%) Marketing
10 180 (3.71%) Legal
11 164 (3.38%) Retail
12 140 (2.89%) Telecoms
13 135 (2.79%) Electronics
14 126 (2.60%) Banking
15 93 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
16 70 (1.44%) Games
17 67 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
18 64 (1.32%) Aerospace
19 56 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
20 51 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 696 (14.36%) Analyst
2 611 (12.61%) IT Support
3 534 (11.02%) Support Engineer
4 527 (10.87%) Senior
5 399 (8.23%) Developer
6 347 (7.16%) IT Engineer
7 271 (5.59%) IT Support Engineer
8 258 (5.32%) Lead
9 225 (4.64%) Support Technician
10 203 (4.19%) Support Analyst
11 178 (3.67%) IT Technician
12 177 (3.65%) Systems Engineer
13 173 (3.57%) Architect
14 159 (3.28%) Technical Support
15 156 (3.22%) Consultant
16 153 (3.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 148 (3.05%) Software Engineer
18 144 (2.97%) IT Support Technician
19 131 (2.70%) Business Analyst
20 128 (2.64%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (3.45%) .NET
2 157 (3.24%) React
3 138 (2.85%) HTML
4 116 (2.39%) REST
5 107 (2.21%) CSS
6 75 (1.55%) Node.js
7 72 (1.49%) SOAP
8 60 (1.24%) JSON
9 58 (1.20%) RESTful
10 57 (1.18%) XML
11 54 (1.11%) Middleware
12 50 (1.03%) AngularJS
13 49 (1.01%) Vue
14 44 (0.91%) Spring
15 40 (0.83%) OAuth
15 40 (0.83%) Spring Boot
16 35 (0.72%) EDI
17 31 (0.64%) ASP.NET
18 27 (0.56%) Laravel
19 25 (0.52%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 366 (7.55%) Driving Licence
2 256 (5.28%) Onboarding
3 219 (4.52%) Self-Motivation
4 178 (3.67%) Management Information System
5 124 (2.56%) Product Ownership
6 118 (2.43%) Cloud Native
7 106 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
8 95 (1.96%) Data Centre
8 95 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
9 76 (1.57%) Social Media
10 72 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
11 60 (1.24%) Mobile App
12 57 (1.18%) Low-Code
13 50 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
14 44 (0.91%) Virtual Team
15 41 (0.85%) Data Structures
16 35 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
17 34 (0.70%) Algorithms
17 34 (0.70%) NHS
18 33 (0.68%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 813 (16.78%) Windows
2 375 (7.74%) Windows Server
3 303 (6.25%) Linux
4 126 (2.60%) Windows 10
5 106 (2.19%) Android
6 91 (1.88%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.07%) Mac OS
9 45 (0.93%) Windows Server 2019
10 30 (0.62%) Unix
11 26 (0.54%) CentOS
12 25 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 23 (0.47%) Ubuntu
14 20 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
15 14 (0.29%) VMS
16 12 (0.25%) Windows 7
17 9 (0.19%) Debian
18 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
19 4 (0.083%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,013 (20.90%) Continuous Improvement
2 849 (17.52%) Customer Service
3 655 (13.52%) Agile
4 469 (9.68%) Mentoring
5 457 (9.43%) Decision-Making
6 417 (8.61%) CI/CD
7 399 (8.23%) DevOps
8 395 (8.15%) ITIL
9 389 (8.03%) Analytics
10 388 (8.01%) AI
11 335 (6.91%) Business Intelligence
12 322 (6.64%) Coaching
12 322 (6.64%) ERP
13 317 (6.54%) Project Management
14 315 (6.50%) Software Engineering
15 311 (6.42%) Collaborative Working
15 311 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
16 299 (6.17%) Stakeholder Management
17 294 (6.07%) Computer Science
18 279 (5.76%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 651 (13.43%) SQL
2 544 (11.23%) Python
3 295 (6.09%) JavaScript
4 219 (4.52%) C#
5 204 (4.21%) Java
6 195 (4.02%) PowerShell
7 117 (2.41%) TypeScript
8 96 (1.98%) Bash
9 95 (1.96%) C++
10 67 (1.38%) PHP
11 50 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.97%) C
13 40 (0.83%) PL/SQL
14 35 (0.72%) T-SQL
15 28 (0.58%) R
16 27 (0.56%) Kotlin
17 22 (0.45%) Go
17 22 (0.45%) Shell Script
18 21 (0.43%) Ruby
18 21 (0.43%) Scala
Qualifications
1 755 (15.58%) Degree
2 351 (7.24%) Security Cleared
3 247 (5.10%) SC Cleared
4 203 (4.19%) DBS Check
5 154 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
6 143 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 87 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
8 74 (1.53%) A+ Certification
9 70 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
10 66 (1.36%) DV Cleared
11 62 (1.28%) ACCA
12 58 (1.20%) CIMA
13 54 (1.11%) CCNA
14 49 (1.01%) HNC
15 48 (0.99%) PMI Certification
16 46 (0.95%) Master's Degree
17 45 (0.93%) CISSP
18 44 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
19 39 (0.80%) Azure Certification
20 38 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 269 (5.55%) QA
2 221 (4.56%) Data Quality
3 146 (3.01%) GDPR
4 124 (2.56%) SLA
5 116 (2.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 106 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 83 (1.71%) PCI DSS
8 81 (1.67%) NIST
9 67 (1.38%) Accessibility
10 39 (0.80%) ISO 9001
11 19 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 16 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 15 (0.31%) SOC 2
14 14 (0.29%) GMP
15 12 (0.25%) GRC
15 12 (0.25%) ISO 14001
15 12 (0.25%) PMO
15 12 (0.25%) TickIT
16 8 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 570 (11.76%) Active Directory
2 177 (3.65%) Hyper-V
3 168 (3.47%) Docker
4 143 (2.95%) VMware Infrastructure
5 48 (0.99%) Terminal Server
6 27 (0.56%) Firmware
7 26 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.35%) vSphere
9 13 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
10 12 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
11 10 (0.21%) KVM
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 4 (0.083%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.083%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.062%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.062%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.062%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.021%) ClearTrust
16 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 196 (4.04%) Terraform
2 173 (3.57%) Microsoft Intune
3 156 (3.22%) Kubernetes
4 87 (1.80%) Ansible
5 56 (1.16%) SCCM
6 52 (1.07%) Grafana
7 35 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.45%) Nagios
9 14 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.21%) Puppet
10 10 (0.21%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 9 (0.19%) Autotask
11 9 (0.19%) Kibana
11 9 (0.19%) ZABBIX
12 8 (0.17%) FortiGate
12 8 (0.17%) Functional Safety
12 8 (0.17%) logstash
12 8 (0.17%) QRadar
13 7 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 1,346 (27.78%) Microsoft
2 219 (4.52%) VMware
3 136 (2.81%) Oracle
4 109 (2.25%) SAP
5 104 (2.15%) Veeam
6 103 (2.13%) Cisco
7 101 (2.08%) Google
8 80 (1.65%) SolarWinds
8 80 (1.65%) Splunk
9 67 (1.38%) Databricks
10 65 (1.34%) Apple
11 63 (1.30%) ServiceNow
12 60 (1.24%) Salesforce
13 53 (1.09%) Adobe
14 49 (1.01%) Tanium
15 48 (0.99%) Brocade
15 48 (0.99%) Nimble Storage
16 46 (0.95%) Dell
17 42 (0.87%) Sage
18 36 (0.74%) HubSpot