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

6 months to
23 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 4,837 5,915 10,552
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.21% 20.87% 15.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.17% 22.67% 18.31%
Number of salaries quoted 3,572 2,968 6,864
10th Percentile £26,252 £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 £59,563 £61,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,890 £49,500
% change year-on-year -6.66% +2.81% -10.00%

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 47,571 26,095 57,621
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.92% 92.08% 82.88%
Number of salaries quoted 30,777 12,800 41,153
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,167
25th Percentile £37,750 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £59,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +0.84% +8.18% -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 23 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 23 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 1,331 £42,500 -5.56% 664
South East -8 1,153 £46,288 -0.46% 726
Midlands -22 878 £42,000 -6.67% 406
North West -16 683 £45,000 -5.26% 364
South West -8 556 £43,500 +8.75% 285
West Midlands -25 516 £42,500 -11.46% 255
Yorkshire -11 509 £41,000 +6.49% 231
East of England -7 480 £42,175 +0.42% 256
East Midlands -11 358 £35,000 -9.09% 152
Scotland -6 281 £35,000 -30.00% 118
North East -17 139 £48,445 +7.65% 80
Wales -10 111 £42,500 -15.00% 56
Northern Ireland -7 68 £38,750 -29.55% 104
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
1 283 (5.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 282 (5.83%) SharePoint
3 48 (0.99%) CMS
4 37 (0.76%) Confluence
5 27 (0.56%) IIS
6 24 (0.50%) WordPress
7 23 (0.48%) 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 6 (0.12%) 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%) Totara
Applications
1 294 (6.08%) Microsoft Office
2 282 (5.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 38 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
4 37 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 35 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 10 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.19%) Fusion 360
8 6 (0.12%) Photoshop
9 5 (0.10%) AutoCAD
9 5 (0.10%) Simulink
10 4 (0.083%) Trello
11 3 (0.062%) Autodesk Inventor
12 2 (0.041%) Acrobat
12 2 (0.041%) Chatbot
12 2 (0.041%) Sketch
12 2 (0.041%) SOLIDWORKS
12 2 (0.041%) Weka
13 1 (0.021%) PlantUML
Business Applications
1 45 (0.93%) 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 7 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.14%) SAP Business One
11 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 6 (0.12%) Sage 50
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 (19.95%) Azure
2 839 (17.35%) Microsoft 365
3 487 (10.07%) AWS
4 355 (7.34%) Power Platform
5 217 (4.49%) Entra ID
6 167 (3.45%) SaaS
7 136 (2.81%) GCP
8 115 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
9 109 (2.25%) Serverless
10 99 (2.05%) Dynamics 365
11 86 (1.78%) GitHub
12 73 (1.51%) Power Automate
13 61 (1.26%) Amazon S3
13 61 (1.26%) PowerApps
14 55 (1.14%) AWS Lambda
14 55 (1.14%) Google Workspace
15 51 (1.05%) OneDrive
16 47 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
16 47 (0.97%) IaaS
17 45 (0.93%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 298 (6.16%) Firewall
2 289 (5.97%) DNS
3 233 (4.82%) DHCP
4 164 (3.39%) WAN
5 159 (3.29%) VPN
6 124 (2.56%) LAN
7 115 (2.38%) Wi-Fi
8 113 (2.34%) TCP/IP
9 104 (2.15%) Broadband
10 100 (2.07%) Wireless
11 85 (1.76%) VLAN
12 70 (1.45%) VoIP
13 67 (1.39%) Network Security
14 42 (0.87%) SD-WAN
15 38 (0.79%) SAN
16 35 (0.72%) Internet
17 21 (0.43%) Unified Communications
18 20 (0.41%) HTTP
19 16 (0.33%) Wireshark
20 15 (0.31%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 283 (5.85%) Power BI
2 197 (4.07%) SQL Server
3 69 (1.43%) MySQL
3 69 (1.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 68 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
5 65 (1.34%) NoSQL
6 64 (1.32%) Data Warehouse
7 62 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
8 55 (1.14%) Tableau
9 54 (1.12%) Relational Database
10 53 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 44 (0.91%) Power Query
12 37 (0.76%) 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
1 191 (3.95%) Git
2 134 (2.77%) JIRA
3 75 (1.55%) GitLab
4 48 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 27 (0.56%) Rational DOORS
6 19 (0.39%) Maven
7 16 (0.33%) Selenium
7 16 (0.33%) SonarQube
8 15 (0.31%) Cucumber
9 14 (0.29%) Cypress.io
10 13 (0.27%) LabVIEW
11 11 (0.23%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.21%) JUnit
13 8 (0.17%) Visual Studio
14 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.14%) MLflow
14 7 (0.14%) Mockito
14 7 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
14 7 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
14 7 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 2,272 (46.97%) Social Skills
2 1,345 (27.81%) Analytical Skills
3 820 (16.95%) Finance
4 324 (6.70%) Manufacturing
5 303 (6.26%) Organisational Skills
6 225 (4.65%) Public Sector
7 214 (4.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 181 (3.74%) Legal
8 181 (3.74%) Marketing
9 180 (3.72%) Law
10 162 (3.35%) Retail
11 140 (2.89%) Telecoms
12 133 (2.75%) Electronics
13 126 (2.60%) Banking
14 91 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
15 70 (1.45%) Games
16 65 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
17 61 (1.26%) Aerospace
18 56 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
19 51 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 694 (14.35%) Analyst
2 604 (12.49%) IT Support
3 530 (10.96%) Support Engineer
4 528 (10.92%) Senior
5 397 (8.21%) Developer
6 350 (7.24%) IT Engineer
7 269 (5.56%) IT Support Engineer
8 261 (5.40%) Lead
9 220 (4.55%) Support Technician
10 200 (4.13%) Support Analyst
11 175 (3.62%) Systems Engineer
12 173 (3.58%) Architect
12 173 (3.58%) IT Technician
13 156 (3.23%) Technical Support
14 155 (3.20%) Consultant
15 154 (3.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 149 (3.08%) Software Engineer
17 141 (2.92%) IT Support Technician
18 131 (2.71%) Business Analyst
19 126 (2.60%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (3.41%) .NET
2 157 (3.25%) React
3 139 (2.87%) HTML
4 114 (2.36%) REST
5 108 (2.23%) CSS
6 76 (1.57%) Node.js
7 70 (1.45%) SOAP
8 59 (1.22%) JSON
8 59 (1.22%) RESTful
9 57 (1.18%) XML
10 54 (1.12%) Middleware
11 49 (1.01%) AngularJS
11 49 (1.01%) Vue
12 45 (0.93%) Spring
13 41 (0.85%) Spring Boot
14 38 (0.79%) OAuth
15 34 (0.70%) EDI
16 30 (0.62%) ASP.NET
17 28 (0.58%) Laravel
18 25 (0.52%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 366 (7.57%) Driving Licence
2 260 (5.38%) Onboarding
3 218 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 177 (3.66%) Management Information System
5 125 (2.58%) Product Ownership
6 117 (2.42%) Cloud Native
7 110 (2.27%) Analytical Mindset
8 100 (2.07%) Data Centre
9 96 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
10 76 (1.57%) Social Media
11 72 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
12 60 (1.24%) Mobile App
13 57 (1.18%) Low-Code
14 53 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
15 43 (0.89%) Virtual Team
16 42 (0.87%) Data Structures
17 35 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
18 34 (0.70%) Algorithms
19 33 (0.68%) IoT
19 33 (0.68%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 811 (16.77%) Windows
2 374 (7.73%) Windows Server
3 305 (6.31%) Linux
4 125 (2.58%) Windows 10
5 106 (2.19%) Android
6 91 (1.88%) Windows Server 2016
7 63 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.08%) 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 24 (0.50%) 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 1,011 (20.90%) Continuous Improvement
2 848 (17.53%) Customer Service
3 659 (13.62%) Agile
4 471 (9.74%) Mentoring
5 457 (9.45%) Decision-Making
6 418 (8.64%) CI/CD
7 399 (8.25%) DevOps
8 392 (8.10%) ITIL
9 389 (8.04%) Analytics
10 387 (8.00%) AI
11 334 (6.91%) Business Intelligence
12 325 (6.72%) Coaching
13 319 (6.59%) ERP
14 317 (6.55%) Software Engineering
15 316 (6.53%) Project Management
16 306 (6.33%) Cybersecurity
17 305 (6.31%) Collaborative Working
18 300 (6.20%) Stakeholder Management
19 291 (6.02%) Computer Science
20 279 (5.77%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 648 (13.40%) SQL
2 542 (11.21%) Python
3 297 (6.14%) JavaScript
4 214 (4.42%) C#
5 201 (4.16%) Java
6 195 (4.03%) PowerShell
7 119 (2.46%) TypeScript
8 94 (1.94%) Bash
9 91 (1.88%) C++
10 68 (1.41%) PHP
11 50 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 46 (0.95%) C
13 40 (0.83%) PL/SQL
14 35 (0.72%) T-SQL
15 28 (0.58%) R
16 27 (0.56%) Kotlin
17 23 (0.48%) Shell Script
18 21 (0.43%) Go
18 21 (0.43%) Ruby
18 21 (0.43%) Scala
Qualifications
1 751 (15.53%) Degree
2 348 (7.19%) Security Cleared
3 244 (5.04%) SC Cleared
4 202 (4.18%) DBS Check
5 159 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
6 142 (2.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 94 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 79 (1.63%) A+ Certification
9 75 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
10 65 (1.34%) DV Cleared
11 63 (1.30%) ACCA
12 60 (1.24%) CCNA
13 58 (1.20%) CIMA
14 49 (1.01%) HNC
14 49 (1.01%) Network+ Certification
14 49 (1.01%) PMI Certification
15 47 (0.97%) Master's Degree
16 44 (0.91%) CISSP
17 38 (0.79%) Azure Certification
18 37 (0.76%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 272 (5.62%) QA
2 222 (4.59%) Data Quality
3 150 (3.10%) GDPR
4 121 (2.50%) SLA
5 116 (2.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 107 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.70%) PCI DSS
8 80 (1.65%) NIST
9 67 (1.39%) Accessibility
10 39 (0.81%) ISO 9001
11 19 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 17 (0.35%) 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%) COBIT
System Software
1 568 (11.74%) Active Directory
2 176 (3.64%) Hyper-V
3 168 (3.47%) Docker
4 142 (2.94%) VMware Infrastructure
5 48 (0.99%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.54%) Firmware
6 26 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.35%) vSphere
8 13 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
9 12 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
10 10 (0.21%) KVM
11 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.12%) XenApp
13 4 (0.083%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.083%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 3 (0.062%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.062%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.062%) Virtual Servers
15 1 (0.021%) ClearTrust
15 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 197 (4.07%) Terraform
2 174 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
3 155 (3.20%) Kubernetes
4 89 (1.84%) Ansible
5 57 (1.18%) SCCM
6 51 (1.05%) Grafana
7 34 (0.70%) Prometheus
8 23 (0.48%) Nagios
9 15 (0.31%) 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%) HP Fortify
12 8 (0.17%) logstash
13 7 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 1,343 (27.77%) Microsoft
2 218 (4.51%) VMware
3 137 (2.83%) Oracle
4 108 (2.23%) SAP
5 104 (2.15%) Veeam
6 103 (2.13%) Cisco
7 101 (2.09%) Google
8 80 (1.65%) SolarWinds
8 80 (1.65%) Splunk
9 67 (1.39%) Databricks
10 65 (1.34%) Apple
11 63 (1.30%) ServiceNow
12 61 (1.26%) Salesforce
13 53 (1.10%) Adobe
14 51 (1.05%) Dell
15 49 (1.01%) Tanium
16 48 (0.99%) Brocade
16 48 (0.99%) Nimble Storage
17 40 (0.83%) Sage
18 36 (0.74%) HubSpot