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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -9 +3 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 4,888 5,257 10,311
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.68% 19.76% 15.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.61% 21.65% 18.27%
Number of salaries quoted 3,520 3,154 6,836
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £48,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.46% +6.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £63,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -9.09%

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 46,067 24,285 56,424
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 72.39% 91.28% 84.13%
Number of salaries quoted 28,065 13,812 40,686
10th Percentile £28,957 £28,500 £27,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -8.90%
75th Percentile £70,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.86%

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 21 April 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 21 April 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 1,294 £42,500 -7.61% 607
South East -8 1,182 £45,000 -10.00% 736
Midlands -23 906 £40,000 -12.09% 481
North West -15 668 £42,500 -10.87% 324
South West -8 555 £43,500 -3.33% 295
West Midlands -24 543 £42,500 -15.00% 275
Yorkshire -10 497 £37,500 -10.71% 200
East of England -9 459 £40,678 -18.65% 297
East Midlands -6 360 £35,000 -9.09% 206
Scotland -4 316 £35,000 -30.00% 133
North East -13 129 £48,445 +7.65% 93
Wales -11 117 £42,500 -15.33% 68
Northern Ireland -6 86 £24,500 -55.45% 71
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +64.47% 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
1 285 (5.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 246 (5.03%) SharePoint
3 41 (0.84%) CMS
4 40 (0.82%) Confluence
5 25 (0.51%) WordPress
6 24 (0.49%) IIS
7 18 (0.37%) Apache
8 17 (0.35%) Apache Spark
9 14 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
10 12 (0.25%) SAS
11 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
12 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
13 8 (0.16%) nginx
14 7 (0.14%) Drupal
15 5 (0.10%) OpenStack
15 5 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 5 (0.10%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.082%) Anypoint
16 4 (0.082%) Moodle
Applications
1 324 (6.63%) Microsoft Office
2 304 (6.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 48 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 36 (0.74%) MS Visio
5 32 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
7 11 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
8 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 9 (0.18%) Fusion 360
8 9 (0.18%) Photoshop
9 5 (0.10%) AutoCAD
10 4 (0.082%) Simulink
11 3 (0.061%) Elementor
11 3 (0.061%) Trello
12 2 (0.041%) Adobe After Effects
12 2 (0.041%) Adobe Captivate
12 2 (0.041%) Adobe Premiere
12 2 (0.041%) Adobe XD
12 2 (0.041%) Sketch
12 2 (0.041%) Weka
Business Applications
1 39 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 38 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
3 26 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 18 (0.37%) Dynamics NAV
5 16 (0.33%) Shopify
6 15 (0.31%) Sage X3
7 14 (0.29%) Magento
8 13 (0.27%) SAP CO
8 13 (0.27%) SAP ERP
9 12 (0.25%) iTrent
10 8 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
10 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 5 (0.10%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 5 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
13 4 (0.082%) Dynamics GP
13 4 (0.082%) Markit EDM
13 4 (0.082%) Salesforce CRM
13 4 (0.082%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 990 (20.25%) Azure
2 833 (17.04%) Microsoft 365
3 469 (9.59%) AWS
4 346 (7.08%) Power Platform
5 221 (4.52%) Entra ID
6 207 (4.23%) SaaS
7 139 (2.84%) GCP
8 129 (2.64%) Azure DevOps
9 116 (2.37%) Serverless
10 114 (2.33%) GitHub
11 82 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
12 75 (1.53%) Azure Data Factory
12 75 (1.53%) Power Automate
13 63 (1.29%) Amazon S3
14 62 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
15 59 (1.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 56 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
16 56 (1.15%) Google Workspace
17 50 (1.02%) PaaS
18 46 (0.94%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 323 (6.61%) DNS
2 286 (5.85%) Firewall
3 275 (5.63%) DHCP
4 162 (3.31%) WAN
5 158 (3.23%) VPN
6 130 (2.66%) Wi-Fi
7 128 (2.62%) LAN
8 122 (2.50%) TCP/IP
9 107 (2.19%) Broadband
10 88 (1.80%) Wireless
11 83 (1.70%) VLAN
12 67 (1.37%) VoIP
13 62 (1.27%) Network Security
14 42 (0.86%) SD-WAN
15 35 (0.72%) Internet
16 32 (0.65%) SAN
17 26 (0.53%) Remote Desktop
18 25 (0.51%) Unified Communications
19 22 (0.45%) Wireshark
20 20 (0.41%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 293 (5.99%) Power BI
2 205 (4.19%) SQL Server
3 80 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
4 79 (1.62%) PostgreSQL
5 75 (1.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 69 (1.41%) NoSQL
7 66 (1.35%) Relational Database
8 64 (1.31%) MySQL
9 60 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
10 47 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 45 (0.92%) Power Query
12 44 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
13 43 (0.88%) Tableau
14 40 (0.82%) DynamoDB
15 34 (0.70%) MongoDB
16 25 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
17 24 (0.49%) Data Lake
18 23 (0.47%) Metadata
19 22 (0.45%) Big Data
19 22 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 191 (3.91%) Git
2 150 (3.07%) JIRA
3 69 (1.41%) GitLab
4 52 (1.06%) Jenkins
5 22 (0.45%) Selenium
6 20 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
7 17 (0.35%) Cucumber
8 16 (0.33%) Maven
8 16 (0.33%) SonarQube
9 13 (0.27%) Bitbucket
9 13 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.27%) LabVIEW
10 11 (0.23%) Visual Studio
11 9 (0.18%) Burp Suite
11 9 (0.18%) JUnit
11 9 (0.18%) Metasploit
12 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
13 6 (0.12%) Postman
13 6 (0.12%) Robot Framework
13 6 (0.12%) Subversion
General
1 2,398 (49.06%) Social Skills
2 1,381 (28.25%) Analytical Skills
3 904 (18.49%) Finance
4 335 (6.85%) Organisational Skills
5 302 (6.18%) Manufacturing
6 233 (4.77%) Public Sector
7 211 (4.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 204 (4.17%) Retail
9 202 (4.13%) Marketing
10 183 (3.74%) Legal
11 149 (3.05%) Law
12 141 (2.88%) Banking
13 129 (2.64%) Electronics
14 126 (2.58%) Telecoms
15 93 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
16 85 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
17 77 (1.58%) Automotive
18 75 (1.53%) Games
19 53 (1.08%) Advertising
20 52 (1.06%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 735 (15.04%) Analyst
2 647 (13.24%) IT Support
3 578 (11.82%) Support Engineer
4 532 (10.88%) Senior
5 374 (7.65%) Developer
6 351 (7.18%) IT Engineer
7 283 (5.79%) IT Support Engineer
8 256 (5.24%) Lead
9 226 (4.62%) Support Analyst
10 202 (4.13%) Support Technician
11 174 (3.56%) Technical Support
12 171 (3.50%) Systems Engineer
13 165 (3.38%) Architect
13 165 (3.38%) Business Analyst
14 161 (3.29%) IT Technician
15 155 (3.17%) 2nd Line Support
16 147 (3.01%) Consultant
17 144 (2.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
18 140 (2.86%) IT Support Technician
19 139 (2.84%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (3.42%) .NET
2 157 (3.21%) React
3 137 (2.80%) HTML
4 107 (2.19%) CSS
5 96 (1.96%) REST
6 79 (1.62%) Node.js
7 60 (1.23%) RESTful
8 55 (1.13%) SOAP
9 51 (1.04%) JSON
9 51 (1.04%) Vue
10 49 (1.00%) XML
11 47 (0.96%) Middleware
12 44 (0.90%) AngularJS
13 42 (0.86%) Spring
14 39 (0.80%) OAuth
14 39 (0.80%) Spring Boot
15 33 (0.68%) ASP.NET
16 31 (0.63%) GraphQL
17 29 (0.59%) EDI
17 29 (0.59%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 382 (7.82%) Driving Licence
2 302 (6.18%) Onboarding
3 270 (5.52%) Self-Motivation
4 167 (3.42%) Management Information System
5 135 (2.76%) Analytical Mindset
6 113 (2.31%) Product Ownership
7 112 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 98 (2.00%) Cloud Native
9 86 (1.76%) Data Centre
10 78 (1.60%) Social Media
11 66 (1.35%) Distributed Systems
12 64 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
13 57 (1.17%) Mobile App
14 54 (1.10%) Low-Code
15 43 (0.88%) Data Structures
16 35 (0.72%) Security Posture
16 35 (0.72%) Virtual Team
17 34 (0.70%) Life Science
18 32 (0.65%) IoT
18 32 (0.65%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 861 (17.61%) Windows
2 383 (7.84%) Windows Server
3 303 (6.20%) Linux
4 132 (2.70%) Windows 10
5 106 (2.17%) Windows Server 2016
6 104 (2.13%) Android
7 67 (1.37%) Apple iOS
8 54 (1.10%) Mac OS
9 38 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
10 32 (0.65%) Unix
11 26 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 25 (0.51%) CentOS
13 20 (0.41%) Ubuntu
13 20 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
14 14 (0.29%) Windows 7
15 13 (0.27%) VMS
16 10 (0.20%) Debian
17 9 (0.18%) Windows 8
18 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
19 4 (0.082%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 990 (20.25%) Continuous Improvement
2 876 (17.92%) Customer Service
3 647 (13.24%) Agile
4 498 (10.19%) Decision-Making
5 449 (9.19%) Mentoring
6 431 (8.82%) ITIL
7 405 (8.29%) DevOps
8 404 (8.27%) CI/CD
9 386 (7.90%) Analytics
10 375 (7.67%) Business Intelligence
10 375 (7.67%) Project Management
11 349 (7.14%) AI
12 335 (6.85%) Coaching
13 312 (6.38%) Cybersecurity
14 296 (6.06%) Stakeholder Management
15 287 (5.87%) ERP
16 286 (5.85%) Computer Science
16 286 (5.85%) Software Engineering
17 278 (5.69%) CRM
18 269 (5.50%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 636 (13.01%) SQL
2 517 (10.58%) Python
3 276 (5.65%) JavaScript
4 216 (4.42%) PowerShell
5 186 (3.81%) C#
6 185 (3.78%) Java
7 102 (2.09%) TypeScript
8 82 (1.68%) Bash
9 75 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 63 (1.29%) PHP
11 62 (1.27%) C++
12 47 (0.96%) C
13 35 (0.72%) T-SQL
14 26 (0.53%) Kotlin
15 25 (0.51%) Bicep
15 25 (0.51%) Go
15 25 (0.51%) PL/SQL
16 23 (0.47%) R
17 20 (0.41%) Scala
18 17 (0.35%) Rust
Qualifications
1 828 (16.94%) Degree
2 325 (6.65%) Security Cleared
3 218 (4.46%) SC Cleared
4 189 (3.87%) DBS Check
5 147 (3.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 126 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 90 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
8 74 (1.51%) ACCA
9 73 (1.49%) A+ Certification
10 69 (1.41%) Cisco Certification
11 66 (1.35%) CIMA
12 58 (1.19%) DV Cleared
13 56 (1.15%) CCNA
14 51 (1.04%) Master's Degree
15 50 (1.02%) CISSP
16 46 (0.94%) HNC
17 45 (0.92%) PMI Certification
18 44 (0.90%) Network+ Certification
19 40 (0.82%) AWS Certification
20 35 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 252 (5.16%) QA
2 225 (4.60%) Data Quality
3 148 (3.03%) GDPR
4 126 (2.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 117 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 104 (2.13%) SLA
7 95 (1.94%) PCI DSS
8 82 (1.68%) NIST
9 52 (1.06%) Accessibility
10 37 (0.76%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.63%) Actionable Recommendations
12 21 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 16 (0.33%) SOC 2
14 14 (0.29%) GMP
15 10 (0.20%) GRC
15 10 (0.20%) TickIT
16 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 8 (0.16%) PMO
17 7 (0.14%) ISO 14001
18 6 (0.12%) COBIT
System Software
1 602 (12.32%) Active Directory
2 193 (3.95%) Hyper-V
3 182 (3.72%) Docker
4 133 (2.72%) VMware Infrastructure
5 64 (1.31%) Terminal Server
6 26 (0.53%) Firmware
7 25 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.35%) vSphere
9 10 (0.20%) KVM
9 10 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
11 6 (0.12%) XenApp
12 5 (0.10%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.082%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 4 (0.082%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 3 (0.061%) Embedded Firmware
15 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.020%) BitLocker
16 1 (0.020%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 211 (4.32%) Terraform
2 167 (3.42%) Microsoft Intune
3 141 (2.88%) Kubernetes
4 89 (1.82%) Ansible
5 60 (1.23%) SCCM
6 55 (1.13%) Grafana
7 32 (0.65%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.41%) BMC PATROL
9 17 (0.35%) Nagios
9 17 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.23%) Autotask
10 11 (0.23%) vCenter Server
11 10 (0.20%) Cisco CUCM
11 10 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.20%) Puppet
12 9 (0.18%) FortiGate
12 9 (0.18%) Nmap
13 8 (0.16%) HP Fortify
13 8 (0.16%) Kibana
13 8 (0.16%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,346 (27.54%) Microsoft
2 224 (4.58%) VMware
3 142 (2.91%) Oracle
4 114 (2.33%) Veeam
5 111 (2.27%) SAP
6 100 (2.05%) Cisco
6 100 (2.05%) Google
7 95 (1.94%) Splunk
8 94 (1.92%) SolarWinds
9 82 (1.68%) ServiceNow
10 77 (1.58%) Databricks
11 65 (1.33%) Apple
11 65 (1.33%) Tanium
12 64 (1.31%) Brocade
12 64 (1.31%) Nimble Storage
13 63 (1.29%) Adobe
14 62 (1.27%) Salesforce
15 52 (1.06%) Sage
16 49 (1.00%) Dell
17 37 (0.76%) HubSpot