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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,791 5,369 9,253
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.07% 19.15% 15.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.05% 20.76% 18.48%
Number of salaries quoted 3,414 2,894 6,304
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,929 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,250 £33,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £66,250 £61,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £82,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -10.22%

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 39,767 25,867 50,081
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 75.32% 92.26% 85.91%
Number of salaries quoted 23,719 13,416 37,565
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%
75th Percentile £66,250 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.41%

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 March 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 March 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 -18 1,306 £41,500 -12.63% 653
South East -5 1,188 £43,500 -14.65% 846
Midlands -18 848 £37,500 -25.00% 454
North West -17 668 £45,000 -10.00% 364
South West -4 542 £43,500 -13.00% 322
Yorkshire -6 505 £35,000 -19.54% 216
West Midlands -20 503 £42,500 -22.73% 267
East of England -9 416 £40,000 -20.00% 268
East Midlands -2 342 £35,000 -11.95% 185
Scotland -7 311 £35,000 -24.84% 123
North East -7 133 £45,000 - 86
Wales -4 111 £41,000 -31.34% 69
Northern Ireland +3 93 £35,000 -41.39% 17
Isle of Man -3 1 £62,500 +72.41% 4
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 (5.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 239 (4.99%) SharePoint
3 49 (1.02%) Confluence
4 44 (0.92%) CMS
5 39 (0.81%) IIS
6 24 (0.50%) WordPress
7 23 (0.48%) Apache
8 18 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 13 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
10 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
10 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
11 9 (0.19%) SAS
12 8 (0.17%) nginx
13 7 (0.15%) Drupal
14 6 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 4 (0.083%) Moodle
15 4 (0.083%) Totara
15 4 (0.083%) WebSphere
15 4 (0.083%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 353 (7.37%) Microsoft Office
2 290 (6.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 57 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 30 (0.63%) MS Visio
5 25 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
6 15 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
7 13 (0.27%) AutoCAD
8 12 (0.25%) Photoshop
9 10 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
10 8 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 7 (0.15%) SOLIDWORKS
12 4 (0.083%) Fusion 360
12 4 (0.083%) Simulink
12 4 (0.083%) Trello
13 3 (0.063%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.063%) CATIA
13 3 (0.063%) Elementor
13 3 (0.063%) InDesign
14 2 (0.042%) Adobe Premiere
14 2 (0.042%) Revit
Business Applications
1 38 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 33 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
3 25 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 14 (0.29%) SAP CO
5 13 (0.27%) Sage X3
5 13 (0.27%) Shopify
6 12 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
7 11 (0.23%) SAP ERP
8 10 (0.21%) iTrent
9 7 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
9 7 (0.15%) Workday HCM
10 6 (0.13%) Markit EDM
11 5 (0.10%) SAP FI
11 5 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
11 5 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
12 4 (0.083%) Dynamics AX
12 4 (0.083%) Dynamics GP
12 4 (0.083%) Oracle EBS
12 4 (0.083%) SAP Business One
13 3 (0.063%) IBM Planning Analytics
Cloud Services
1 996 (20.79%) Azure
2 839 (17.51%) Microsoft 365
3 436 (9.10%) AWS
4 301 (6.28%) Power Platform
5 244 (5.09%) SaaS
6 239 (4.99%) Entra ID
7 131 (2.73%) Azure DevOps
7 131 (2.73%) GCP
8 100 (2.09%) GitHub
9 93 (1.94%) Serverless
10 73 (1.52%) Power Automate
11 64 (1.34%) Azure Data Factory
11 64 (1.34%) Dynamics 365
12 62 (1.29%) Google Workspace
13 55 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
14 54 (1.13%) Amazon S3
15 53 (1.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 49 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
17 48 (1.00%) PowerApps
18 47 (0.98%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 351 (7.33%) DNS
2 294 (6.14%) DHCP
3 280 (5.84%) Firewall
4 149 (3.11%) VPN
5 148 (3.09%) TCP/IP
5 148 (3.09%) WAN
6 142 (2.96%) Wi-Fi
7 124 (2.59%) LAN
8 105 (2.19%) Broadband
9 94 (1.96%) VLAN
10 76 (1.59%) VoIP
11 70 (1.46%) Wireless
12 50 (1.04%) Network Security
12 50 (1.04%) Remote Desktop
13 44 (0.92%) SD-WAN
14 39 (0.81%) Internet
15 31 (0.65%) SAN
16 28 (0.58%) Unified Communications
17 22 (0.46%) Wireshark
18 19 (0.40%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 245 (5.11%) Power BI
2 194 (4.05%) SQL Server
3 93 (1.94%) Amazon RDS
4 80 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
5 71 (1.48%) Relational Database
6 69 (1.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 67 (1.40%) NoSQL
8 64 (1.34%) Data Warehouse
8 64 (1.34%) MySQL
9 42 (0.88%) Tableau
10 38 (0.79%) Power Query
11 37 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
12 36 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 33 (0.69%) DynamoDB
14 30 (0.63%) MongoDB
15 29 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
16 27 (0.56%) Metadata
17 25 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
18 21 (0.44%) Data Lake
19 18 (0.38%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 190 (3.97%) Git
2 161 (3.36%) JIRA
3 63 (1.31%) GitLab
4 44 (0.92%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.65%) Selenium
6 17 (0.35%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.31%) Maven
7 15 (0.31%) Robot Framework
7 15 (0.31%) Visual Studio
8 14 (0.29%) Snyk
9 12 (0.25%) Cucumber
9 12 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 12 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
9 12 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 11 (0.23%) JUnit
11 10 (0.21%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.21%) Metasploit
12 9 (0.19%) Bitbucket
13 7 (0.15%) CircleCI
13 7 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 2,459 (51.33%) Social Skills
2 1,331 (27.78%) Analytical Skills
3 910 (18.99%) Finance
4 342 (7.14%) Organisational Skills
5 255 (5.32%) Manufacturing
6 234 (4.88%) Retail
7 219 (4.57%) Public Sector
8 213 (4.45%) Marketing
9 195 (4.07%) Legal
10 174 (3.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 147 (3.07%) Law
12 138 (2.88%) Telecoms
13 117 (2.44%) Electronics
14 115 (2.40%) Banking
15 104 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
16 84 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
17 83 (1.73%) Games
18 73 (1.52%) Automotive
19 55 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
20 47 (0.98%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 758 (15.82%) Analyst
2 695 (14.51%) IT Support
3 598 (12.48%) Support Engineer
4 491 (10.25%) Senior
5 380 (7.93%) Developer
6 337 (7.03%) IT Engineer
7 290 (6.05%) IT Support Engineer
8 257 (5.36%) Support Analyst
9 226 (4.72%) Lead
10 199 (4.15%) Technical Support
11 189 (3.94%) Business Analyst
12 178 (3.72%) Support Technician
13 176 (3.67%) 2nd Line Support
14 143 (2.98%) Architect
14 143 (2.98%) Consultant
14 143 (2.98%) Technical Engineer
15 140 (2.92%) Systems Engineer
16 134 (2.80%) IT Technician
16 134 (2.80%) Technical Support Engineer
17 128 (2.67%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (3.53%) .NET
2 153 (3.19%) React
3 137 (2.86%) HTML
4 106 (2.21%) CSS
5 79 (1.65%) Node.js
6 70 (1.46%) REST
7 57 (1.19%) RESTful
8 48 (1.00%) Vue
9 42 (0.88%) AngularJS
10 39 (0.81%) SOAP
11 36 (0.75%) ASP.NET
11 36 (0.75%) JSON
11 36 (0.75%) Spring
12 35 (0.73%) XML
13 34 (0.71%) Django
14 32 (0.67%) .NET Framework
14 32 (0.67%) Spring Boot
15 31 (0.65%) GraphQL
16 30 (0.63%) Laravel
17 28 (0.58%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 455 (9.50%) Driving Licence
2 331 (6.91%) Onboarding
3 296 (6.18%) Self-Motivation
4 160 (3.34%) Management Information System
5 126 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
6 114 (2.38%) Analytical Mindset
7 94 (1.96%) Product Ownership
8 85 (1.77%) Social Media
9 84 (1.75%) Cloud Native
10 82 (1.71%) Data Centre
11 66 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
12 63 (1.31%) Mobile App
13 50 (1.04%) Distributed Systems
14 47 (0.98%) Low-Code
15 38 (0.79%) EPoS
16 37 (0.77%) Data Structures
16 37 (0.77%) NHS
17 35 (0.73%) IoT
18 33 (0.69%) Virtual Team
19 32 (0.67%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 926 (19.33%) Windows
2 394 (8.22%) Windows Server
3 305 (6.37%) Linux
4 127 (2.65%) Windows 10
5 113 (2.36%) Android
6 112 (2.34%) Windows Server 2016
7 62 (1.29%) Mac OS
8 60 (1.25%) Apple iOS
9 37 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (0.75%) Unix
11 24 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
12 20 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 19 (0.40%) Windows 7
14 18 (0.38%) CentOS
15 12 (0.25%) Ubuntu
16 11 (0.23%) Windows 8
17 9 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
18 8 (0.17%) VMS
19 6 (0.13%) Debian
20 3 (0.063%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 926 (19.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 878 (18.33%) Customer Service
3 639 (13.34%) Agile
4 463 (9.66%) Mentoring
5 460 (9.60%) Decision-Making
6 425 (8.87%) Project Management
7 409 (8.54%) ITIL
8 372 (7.76%) DevOps
9 359 (7.49%) CI/CD
10 343 (7.16%) Analytics
11 341 (7.12%) Business Intelligence
12 324 (6.76%) AI
13 306 (6.39%) Cybersecurity
14 289 (6.03%) Computer Science
15 285 (5.95%) Coaching
16 283 (5.91%) Process Improvement
17 278 (5.80%) Stakeholder Management
18 275 (5.74%) Service Delivery
19 274 (5.72%) Change Management
20 273 (5.70%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 620 (12.94%) SQL
2 485 (10.12%) Python
3 281 (5.87%) JavaScript
4 239 (4.99%) PowerShell
5 196 (4.09%) C#
6 162 (3.38%) Java
7 89 (1.86%) TypeScript
8 74 (1.54%) Bash
9 66 (1.38%) PHP
10 62 (1.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 56 (1.17%) C++
12 42 (0.88%) T-SQL
13 40 (0.83%) C
14 27 (0.56%) PL/SQL
14 27 (0.56%) R
15 26 (0.54%) Kotlin
16 20 (0.42%) Go
17 19 (0.40%) Bicep
17 19 (0.40%) MATLAB
18 18 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 938 (19.58%) Degree
2 352 (7.35%) Security Cleared
3 233 (4.86%) SC Cleared
4 168 (3.51%) DBS Check
5 146 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 122 (2.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 94 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 71 (1.48%) ACCA
9 65 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
10 64 (1.34%) A+ Certification
11 63 (1.31%) CIMA
12 62 (1.29%) DV Cleared
13 55 (1.15%) HNC
14 53 (1.11%) CCNA
15 51 (1.06%) Master's Degree
16 47 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 43 (0.90%) HND
18 42 (0.88%) AWS Certification
19 41 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
19 41 (0.86%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 246 (5.13%) QA
2 166 (3.46%) Data Quality
3 142 (2.96%) GDPR
4 139 (2.90%) Cyber Essentials
5 108 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 103 (2.15%) PCI DSS
7 77 (1.61%) SLA
8 66 (1.38%) Accessibility
9 56 (1.17%) NIST
10 37 (0.77%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
12 25 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 13 (0.27%) GMP
14 10 (0.21%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.19%) PMO
16 7 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.13%) GRC
17 6 (0.13%) WCAG
18 5 (0.10%) COSHH
18 5 (0.10%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 628 (13.11%) Active Directory
2 211 (4.40%) Hyper-V
3 176 (3.67%) Docker
4 122 (2.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.50%) Terminal Server
6 25 (0.52%) Firmware
7 21 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.29%) vSphere
10 11 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
12 9 (0.19%) KVM
13 6 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
14 5 (0.10%) XenApp
15 4 (0.083%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.083%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 2 (0.042%) VMware NSX
17 1 (0.021%) Lustre
17 1 (0.021%) Oracle RAC
17 1 (0.021%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 198 (4.13%) Terraform
2 194 (4.05%) Microsoft Intune
3 127 (2.65%) Kubernetes
4 82 (1.71%) Ansible
5 58 (1.21%) SCCM
6 48 (1.00%) Grafana
7 32 (0.67%) BMC PATROL
8 31 (0.65%) Prometheus
9 19 (0.40%) Nagios
10 18 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
11 14 (0.29%) Autotask
11 14 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
11 14 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.23%) vCenter Server
13 10 (0.21%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.21%) Nmap
13 10 (0.21%) ZABBIX
14 8 (0.17%) Control-M
15 7 (0.15%) FortiGate
15 7 (0.15%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 1,332 (27.80%) Microsoft
2 225 (4.70%) VMware
3 153 (3.19%) Oracle
4 136 (2.84%) Veeam
5 134 (2.80%) SAP
6 116 (2.42%) Cisco
7 110 (2.30%) Google
8 102 (2.13%) Splunk
9 101 (2.11%) SolarWinds
10 74 (1.54%) ServiceNow
11 73 (1.52%) Tanium
12 72 (1.50%) Brocade
12 72 (1.50%) Nimble Storage
13 65 (1.36%) Adobe
13 65 (1.36%) Apple
13 65 (1.36%) Databricks
13 65 (1.36%) Salesforce
14 63 (1.31%) Sage
15 44 (0.92%) HubSpot
16 41 (0.86%) Dell