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

6 months to
5 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 4,862 5,125 9,979
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.34% 19.83% 15.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.34% 21.71% 18.31%
Number of salaries quoted 3,485 3,048 6,673
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,929 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £49,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +8.89% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,522 £65,000 £61,123
90th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
UK median annual salary £46,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -15.45% +10.00% -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 42,859 23,603 54,503
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 73.47% 91.34% 84.73%
Number of salaries quoted 26,210 13,643 39,783
10th Percentile £28,250 £28,900 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,321 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.95% +8.64% -8.41%
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -7.50% +9.09% -11.00%

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 5 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 5 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 1,293 £41,000 -10.87% 662
South East -7 1,190 £45,000 -11.71% 802
Midlands -18 887 £38,750 -18.42% 478
North West -17 661 £41,500 -14.43% 365
South West -7 550 £43,500 -8.42% 308
West Midlands -24 523 £42,500 -19.05% 278
Yorkshire -8 504 £35,500 -15.48% 222
East of England -8 443 £40,339 -19.32% 288
East Midlands -3 361 £35,000 -11.39% 199
Scotland -5 326 £33,500 -33.00% 127
North East -10 128 £45,497 +1.10% 92
Wales -6 109 £40,000 -25.23% 81
Northern Ireland -4 90 £35,000 -36.36% 19
Isle of Man -1 1 £62,500 +64.47% 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
1 287 (5.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 237 (4.87%) SharePoint
3 45 (0.93%) CMS
4 44 (0.90%) Confluence
5 28 (0.58%) IIS
6 23 (0.47%) WordPress
7 18 (0.37%) Apache
8 17 (0.35%) Apache Spark
9 14 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
10 13 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
11 12 (0.25%) SAS
12 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
12 11 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
13 8 (0.16%) nginx
14 7 (0.14%) Drupal
15 5 (0.10%) Anypoint
15 5 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
16 4 (0.082%) Headless CMS
16 4 (0.082%) Moodle
16 4 (0.082%) OpenStack
Applications
1 346 (7.12%) Microsoft Office
2 306 (6.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 54 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 35 (0.72%) MS Visio
5 23 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
7 11 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
7 11 (0.23%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.19%) AutoCAD
9 8 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 7 (0.14%) Fusion 360
11 4 (0.082%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.082%) Simulink
11 4 (0.082%) Trello
12 3 (0.062%) Elementor
12 3 (0.062%) InDesign
13 2 (0.041%) Adobe Premiere
13 2 (0.041%) Revit
13 2 (0.041%) Sketch
13 2 (0.041%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 41 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
2 30 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
3 24 (0.49%) NetSuite
4 15 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
5 14 (0.29%) Shopify
6 13 (0.27%) Sage X3
6 13 (0.27%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.21%) iTrent
7 10 (0.21%) Magento
8 9 (0.19%) SAP ERP
9 7 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
9 7 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
9 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
10 5 (0.10%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 5 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
10 5 (0.10%) SAP Business One
11 4 (0.082%) Dynamics GP
11 4 (0.082%) Oracle Payables
11 4 (0.082%) SAP FI
11 4 (0.082%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,019 (20.96%) Azure
2 855 (17.59%) Microsoft 365
3 469 (9.65%) AWS
4 328 (6.75%) Power Platform
5 227 (4.67%) Entra ID
6 220 (4.52%) SaaS
7 143 (2.94%) GCP
8 132 (2.71%) Azure DevOps
9 108 (2.22%) Serverless
10 107 (2.20%) GitHub
11 77 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
12 75 (1.54%) Power Automate
13 72 (1.48%) Azure Data Factory
14 58 (1.19%) Amazon S3
14 58 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
15 57 (1.17%) Google Workspace
16 56 (1.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 54 (1.11%) PaaS
18 53 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
19 46 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 344 (7.08%) DNS
2 290 (5.96%) DHCP
3 285 (5.86%) Firewall
4 160 (3.29%) WAN
5 155 (3.19%) VPN
6 139 (2.86%) TCP/IP
7 128 (2.63%) Wi-Fi
8 126 (2.59%) LAN
9 111 (2.28%) Broadband
10 88 (1.81%) VLAN
11 77 (1.58%) Wireless
12 66 (1.36%) VoIP
13 56 (1.15%) Network Security
14 45 (0.93%) SD-WAN
15 37 (0.76%) Remote Desktop
16 36 (0.74%) Internet
17 31 (0.64%) SAN
18 25 (0.51%) Unified Communications
19 22 (0.45%) Wireshark
20 20 (0.41%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 275 (5.66%) Power BI
2 199 (4.09%) SQL Server
3 94 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
4 81 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
5 73 (1.50%) Relational Database
6 69 (1.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 67 (1.38%) MySQL
7 67 (1.38%) NoSQL
8 58 (1.19%) Data Warehouse
9 45 (0.93%) Power Query
10 44 (0.90%) Tableau
11 43 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 42 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
13 36 (0.74%) DynamoDB
14 31 (0.64%) MongoDB
15 26 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
16 23 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
17 22 (0.45%) Data Lake
17 22 (0.45%) Metadata
18 20 (0.41%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 188 (3.87%) Git
2 155 (3.19%) JIRA
3 65 (1.34%) GitLab
4 50 (1.03%) Jenkins
5 29 (0.60%) Selenium
6 19 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
7 15 (0.31%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.31%) Maven
7 15 (0.31%) Visual Studio
8 14 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 14 (0.29%) Cypress.io
8 14 (0.29%) SonarQube
9 13 (0.27%) Robot Framework
10 12 (0.25%) Snyk
11 10 (0.21%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.21%) Metasploit
12 9 (0.19%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.19%) JUnit
13 7 (0.14%) CircleCI
14 6 (0.12%) Subversion
General
1 2,450 (50.39%) Social Skills
2 1,371 (28.20%) Analytical Skills
3 899 (18.49%) Finance
4 341 (7.01%) Organisational Skills
5 279 (5.74%) Manufacturing
6 229 (4.71%) Public Sector
7 218 (4.48%) Marketing
8 217 (4.46%) Retail
9 204 (4.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 200 (4.11%) Legal
11 169 (3.48%) Law
12 143 (2.94%) Banking
13 129 (2.65%) Electronics
14 123 (2.53%) Telecoms
15 94 (1.93%) Presentation Skills
16 84 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
17 78 (1.60%) Games
18 69 (1.42%) Automotive
19 54 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
20 52 (1.07%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 728 (14.97%) Analyst
2 689 (14.17%) IT Support
3 593 (12.20%) Support Engineer
4 509 (10.47%) Senior
5 381 (7.84%) Developer
6 356 (7.32%) IT Engineer
7 298 (6.13%) IT Support Engineer
8 245 (5.04%) Lead
9 234 (4.81%) Support Analyst
10 196 (4.03%) Support Technician
11 174 (3.58%) Technical Support
12 171 (3.52%) Business Analyst
12 171 (3.52%) Systems Engineer
13 160 (3.29%) 2nd Line Support
14 157 (3.23%) IT Technician
15 154 (3.17%) Architect
16 149 (3.06%) Consultant
17 139 (2.86%) IT Support Technician
18 136 (2.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 133 (2.74%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (3.41%) .NET
2 155 (3.19%) React
3 145 (2.98%) HTML
4 112 (2.30%) CSS
5 81 (1.67%) REST
6 80 (1.65%) Node.js
7 60 (1.23%) RESTful
8 54 (1.11%) Vue
9 45 (0.93%) SOAP
10 42 (0.86%) AngularJS
10 42 (0.86%) JSON
10 42 (0.86%) XML
11 40 (0.82%) Spring
12 37 (0.76%) OAuth
12 37 (0.76%) Spring Boot
13 36 (0.74%) ASP.NET
14 35 (0.72%) Django
14 35 (0.72%) Middleware
15 32 (0.66%) Laravel
16 29 (0.60%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 396 (8.14%) Driving Licence
2 304 (6.25%) Onboarding
3 280 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 167 (3.43%) Management Information System
5 121 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
6 118 (2.43%) Analytical Mindset
7 107 (2.20%) Product Ownership
8 88 (1.81%) Cloud Native
9 87 (1.79%) Data Centre
10 82 (1.69%) Social Media
11 65 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
12 61 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
13 59 (1.21%) Mobile App
14 50 (1.03%) Low-Code
15 42 (0.86%) Data Structures
16 37 (0.76%) EPoS
17 34 (0.70%) IoT
17 34 (0.70%) Life Science
17 34 (0.70%) NHS
18 33 (0.68%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 912 (18.76%) Windows
2 392 (8.06%) Windows Server
3 324 (6.66%) Linux
4 131 (2.69%) Windows 10
5 115 (2.37%) Windows Server 2016
6 105 (2.16%) Android
7 67 (1.38%) Apple iOS
8 55 (1.13%) Mac OS
9 38 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
10 37 (0.76%) Unix
11 25 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 23 (0.47%) CentOS
13 22 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
14 19 (0.39%) Ubuntu
15 17 (0.35%) Windows 7
16 11 (0.23%) VMS
16 11 (0.23%) Windows 8
17 8 (0.16%) Debian
17 8 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.082%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 967 (19.89%) Continuous Improvement
2 881 (18.12%) Customer Service
3 659 (13.55%) Agile
4 485 (9.98%) Decision-Making
5 460 (9.46%) Mentoring
6 430 (8.84%) ITIL
7 398 (8.19%) DevOps
8 387 (7.96%) CI/CD
9 381 (7.84%) Project Management
10 371 (7.63%) Analytics
11 362 (7.45%) Business Intelligence
12 344 (7.08%) AI
13 323 (6.64%) Coaching
14 309 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
15 289 (5.94%) Stakeholder Management
16 281 (5.78%) Process Improvement
17 280 (5.76%) Computer Science
18 272 (5.59%) CRM
19 268 (5.51%) Software Engineering
20 261 (5.37%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 616 (12.67%) SQL
2 512 (10.53%) Python
3 279 (5.74%) JavaScript
4 220 (4.52%) PowerShell
5 186 (3.83%) C#
6 171 (3.52%) Java
7 92 (1.89%) TypeScript
8 79 (1.62%) Bash
9 73 (1.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 66 (1.36%) PHP
11 65 (1.34%) C++
12 48 (0.99%) C
13 42 (0.86%) T-SQL
14 27 (0.56%) PL/SQL
15 26 (0.53%) Kotlin
16 25 (0.51%) R
17 24 (0.49%) Go
18 22 (0.45%) Bicep
19 20 (0.41%) Scala
20 18 (0.37%) VBA
Qualifications
1 882 (18.14%) Degree
2 351 (7.22%) Security Cleared
3 232 (4.77%) SC Cleared
4 177 (3.64%) DBS Check
5 147 (3.02%) Microsoft Certification
6 125 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 91 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 79 (1.62%) ACCA
9 70 (1.44%) A+ Certification
10 68 (1.40%) CIMA
11 67 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
12 64 (1.32%) DV Cleared
13 58 (1.19%) CCNA
14 54 (1.11%) Master's Degree
15 48 (0.99%) CISSP
16 46 (0.95%) HNC
17 43 (0.88%) PMI Certification
18 42 (0.86%) AWS Certification
19 41 (0.84%) Network+ Certification
20 37 (0.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 247 (5.08%) QA
2 201 (4.13%) Data Quality
3 145 (2.98%) GDPR
4 139 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials
5 113 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 104 (2.14%) PCI DSS
7 92 (1.89%) SLA
8 70 (1.44%) NIST
9 63 (1.30%) Accessibility
10 35 (0.72%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
12 24 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 15 (0.31%) SOC 2
14 14 (0.29%) GMP
15 9 (0.19%) PMO
16 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 6 (0.12%) COBIT
17 6 (0.12%) GRC
18 5 (0.10%) HIPAA
18 5 (0.10%) ISO 14001
System Software
1 632 (13.00%) Active Directory
2 207 (4.26%) Hyper-V
3 188 (3.87%) Docker
4 133 (2.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.48%) Terminal Server
6 28 (0.58%) Firmware
7 21 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.31%) vSphere
10 11 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.21%) KVM
11 10 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.12%) XenApp
13 4 (0.082%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
14 3 (0.062%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.041%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.021%) iptables
16 1 (0.021%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 212 (4.36%) Terraform
2 175 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
3 136 (2.80%) Kubernetes
4 88 (1.81%) Ansible
5 62 (1.28%) SCCM
6 54 (1.11%) Grafana
7 34 (0.70%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.45%) BMC PATROL
9 18 (0.37%) Nagios
9 18 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (0.29%) vCenter Server
11 13 (0.27%) Autotask
12 12 (0.25%) Cisco CUCM
12 12 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 10 (0.21%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.21%) FortiGate
13 10 (0.21%) Nmap
14 9 (0.19%) ZABBIX
15 8 (0.16%) HP Fortify
15 8 (0.16%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,333 (27.42%) Microsoft
2 233 (4.79%) VMware
3 142 (2.92%) Oracle
4 128 (2.63%) Veeam
5 113 (2.32%) SAP
6 111 (2.28%) Google
7 104 (2.14%) Cisco
8 103 (2.12%) Splunk
9 100 (2.06%) SolarWinds
10 80 (1.65%) ServiceNow
11 76 (1.56%) Databricks
12 73 (1.50%) Tanium
13 72 (1.48%) Brocade
13 72 (1.48%) Nimble Storage
14 68 (1.40%) Apple
15 67 (1.38%) Adobe
16 60 (1.23%) Salesforce
17 55 (1.13%) Sage
18 48 (0.99%) Dell
19 37 (0.76%) HubSpot