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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -6 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,011 6,354 7,745
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 11.05% 18.49% 16.00%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.28% 20.51% 18.31%
Number of salaries quoted 3,471 2,626 5,435
10th Percentile £26,000 £28,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £28,839 £36,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £56,750 £67,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £72,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

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 35,085 30,981 42,300
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 77.39% 90.17% 87.36%
Number of salaries quoted 20,379 13,689 32,501
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £34,750 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £77,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 2 February 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 2 February 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
South East -3 1,336 £41,000 -21.90% 884
North of England -17 1,282 £42,500 -10.53% 633
Midlands -15 865 £37,500 -27.71% 494
North West -13 707 £47,500 -5.00% 358
South West -3 580 £40,000 -27.27% 352
West Midlands -17 503 £42,500 -22.73% 314
Yorkshire -5 444 £34,000 -21.84% 208
East of England -5 420 £35,000 -31.33% 277
East Midlands +1 361 £33,000 -5.71% 180
Scotland -3 351 £33,500 -34.95% 124
North East -4 131 £40,662 -18.68% 76
Wales +3 130 £45,000 -13.88% 57
Northern Ireland 0 70 £45,250 -37.59% 26
Isle of Man +1 1 £62,500 +150.00% 1
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
1 288 (5.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 222 (4.43%) SharePoint
3 45 (0.90%) Confluence
3 45 (0.90%) IIS
4 29 (0.58%) CMS
5 24 (0.48%) WordPress
6 22 (0.44%) Apache
7 19 (0.38%) Apache Spark
8 15 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
9 10 (0.20%) nginx
10 8 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
11 6 (0.12%) Drupal
11 6 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
11 6 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
11 6 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.100%) SAS
13 4 (0.080%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.080%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.080%) HCL Notes
13 4 (0.080%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 382 (7.62%) Microsoft Excel
1 382 (7.62%) Microsoft Office
2 67 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 28 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
4 26 (0.52%) MS Visio
5 18 (0.36%) AutoCAD
6 15 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
7 13 (0.26%) Photoshop
8 11 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 9 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
9 9 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
9 9 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
10 5 (0.100%) Adobe After Effects
10 5 (0.100%) Simulink
11 4 (0.080%) CATIA
11 4 (0.080%) Fusion 360
11 4 (0.080%) Oracle Smart View
11 4 (0.080%) Trello
12 3 (0.060%) Adobe XD
12 3 (0.060%) Elementor
Business Applications
1 87 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 50 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
3 22 (0.44%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.40%) SAP CO
5 18 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
7 13 (0.26%) Sage X3
8 12 (0.24%) iTrent
8 12 (0.24%) SAP FI
8 12 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
9 11 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
11 8 (0.16%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
11 8 (0.16%) Oracle Financials
11 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 8 (0.16%) Shopify
12 7 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,102 (21.99%) Azure
2 839 (16.74%) Microsoft 365
3 421 (8.40%) AWS
4 357 (7.12%) Power Platform
5 263 (5.25%) SaaS
6 223 (4.45%) Entra ID
7 143 (2.85%) Azure DevOps
8 119 (2.37%) GCP
9 101 (2.02%) GitHub
10 81 (1.62%) Serverless
11 76 (1.52%) Power Automate
12 56 (1.12%) Azure Data Factory
13 53 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
14 51 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
15 50 (1.00%) Amazon S3
16 49 (0.98%) Google Workspace
17 46 (0.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 44 (0.88%) OneDrive
19 43 (0.86%) AWS CloudFormation
19 43 (0.86%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 387 (7.72%) DNS
2 335 (6.69%) DHCP
3 266 (5.31%) Firewall
4 155 (3.09%) TCP/IP
5 150 (2.99%) VPN
6 148 (2.95%) Wi-Fi
7 131 (2.61%) WAN
8 117 (2.33%) LAN
9 94 (1.88%) VLAN
10 93 (1.86%) Broadband
11 86 (1.72%) VoIP
12 72 (1.44%) Wireless
13 55 (1.10%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (0.96%) Network Security
15 40 (0.80%) Internet
16 36 (0.72%) SD-WAN
17 33 (0.66%) SAN
18 30 (0.60%) Unified Communications
19 24 (0.48%) Ethernet
19 24 (0.48%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 303 (6.05%) Power BI
2 214 (4.27%) SQL Server
3 125 (2.49%) Amazon RDS
4 92 (1.84%) Relational Database
5 81 (1.62%) Data Lake
6 79 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
7 77 (1.54%) MySQL
8 65 (1.30%) NoSQL
8 65 (1.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 64 (1.28%) SAP BW
10 63 (1.26%) Data Warehouse
11 41 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 38 (0.76%) Tableau
13 36 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
14 31 (0.62%) DynamoDB
15 30 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
16 28 (0.56%) MongoDB
17 27 (0.54%) Metadata
18 26 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
19 25 (0.50%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 182 (3.63%) Git
2 156 (3.11%) JIRA
3 49 (0.98%) GitLab
4 41 (0.82%) Jenkins
5 31 (0.62%) Selenium
6 18 (0.36%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.30%) LabVIEW
7 15 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 14 (0.28%) Maven
8 14 (0.28%) Snyk
9 12 (0.24%) JUnit
10 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
10 11 (0.22%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
11 10 (0.20%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.20%) Cypress.io
11 10 (0.20%) Metasploit
11 10 (0.20%) TeamCity
12 9 (0.18%) Octopus Deploy
13 8 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
General
1 2,665 (53.18%) Social Skills
2 1,394 (27.82%) Analytical Skills
3 1,056 (21.07%) Finance
4 306 (6.11%) Manufacturing
5 290 (5.79%) Organisational Skills
6 287 (5.73%) Retail
7 248 (4.95%) Marketing
8 207 (4.13%) Public Sector
9 182 (3.63%) Legal
10 161 (3.21%) Law
11 155 (3.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 147 (2.93%) Telecoms
13 124 (2.47%) Electronics
14 115 (2.29%) Banking
15 108 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
16 79 (1.58%) Automotive
16 79 (1.58%) Games
17 70 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
18 59 (1.18%) Aerospace
19 58 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 857 (17.10%) Analyst
2 700 (13.97%) IT Support
3 569 (11.36%) Support Engineer
4 565 (11.28%) Senior
5 380 (7.58%) Developer
6 316 (6.31%) Lead
7 303 (6.05%) IT Engineer
8 294 (5.87%) Support Analyst
9 267 (5.33%) IT Support Engineer
10 250 (4.99%) Technical Support
11 211 (4.21%) Business Analyst
12 174 (3.47%) 2nd Line Support
13 168 (3.35%) Technical Engineer
14 166 (3.31%) Support Technician
15 162 (3.23%) Systems Engineer
16 157 (3.13%) Technical Support Engineer
17 143 (2.85%) IT Analyst
18 139 (2.77%) Architect
19 127 (2.53%) Consultant
20 126 (2.51%) Trainee
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 198 (3.95%) .NET
2 164 (3.27%) HTML
3 153 (3.05%) React
4 131 (2.61%) CSS
5 87 (1.74%) REST
6 66 (1.32%) Node.js
7 61 (1.22%) RESTful
8 49 (0.98%) AngularJS
9 48 (0.96%) SOAP
10 47 (0.94%) JSON
10 47 (0.94%) Vue
11 46 (0.92%) ASP.NET
12 40 (0.80%) XML
13 39 (0.78%) Spring
14 35 (0.70%) .NET Framework
14 35 (0.70%) Django
15 32 (0.64%) EDI
16 28 (0.56%) Laravel
16 28 (0.56%) Spring Boot
17 26 (0.52%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 498 (9.94%) Driving Licence
2 389 (7.76%) Onboarding
3 311 (6.21%) Self-Motivation
4 167 (3.33%) Management Information System
5 159 (3.17%) Analytical Mindset
5 159 (3.17%) Legacy Systems
6 103 (2.06%) Data Centre
7 101 (2.02%) Product Ownership
8 81 (1.62%) Cloud Native
9 61 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
10 50 (1.00%) Social Media
11 47 (0.94%) FMCG
12 46 (0.92%) Virtual Team
13 43 (0.86%) Mobile App
14 42 (0.84%) EPoS
15 37 (0.74%) Distributed Systems
16 36 (0.72%) Data Structures
16 36 (0.72%) Low-Code
17 34 (0.68%) e-Learning
18 33 (0.66%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 946 (18.88%) Windows
2 418 (8.34%) Windows Server
3 331 (6.61%) Linux
4 134 (2.67%) Windows Server 2016
5 121 (2.41%) Windows 10
6 75 (1.50%) Android
7 61 (1.22%) Mac OS
8 54 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 38 (0.76%) Unix
10 34 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
11 24 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
12 17 (0.34%) Windows 7
13 14 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 11 (0.22%) VMS
15 9 (0.18%) CentOS
16 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
16 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.080%) Debian
18 3 (0.060%) Ubuntu
19 2 (0.040%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 931 (18.58%) Customer Service
2 902 (18.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 653 (13.03%) Agile
4 479 (9.56%) Project Management
5 454 (9.06%) Mentoring
6 446 (8.90%) Decision-Making
7 434 (8.66%) Analytics
8 412 (8.22%) Business Intelligence
9 375 (7.48%) ITIL
10 371 (7.40%) ERP
11 364 (7.26%) DevOps
12 337 (6.73%) Change Management
13 324 (6.47%) CI/CD
14 304 (6.07%) Computer Science
15 302 (6.03%) Stakeholder Management
16 301 (6.01%) AI
16 301 (6.01%) CRM
16 301 (6.01%) Cybersecurity
17 290 (5.79%) Process Improvement
18 277 (5.53%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 712 (14.21%) SQL
2 484 (9.66%) Python
3 276 (5.51%) JavaScript
4 260 (5.19%) PowerShell
5 243 (4.85%) C#
6 167 (3.33%) Java
7 84 (1.68%) PHP
8 71 (1.42%) TypeScript
9 61 (1.22%) Bash
10 60 (1.20%) C++
11 53 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 44 (0.88%) T-SQL
13 40 (0.80%) C
14 22 (0.44%) MATLAB
14 22 (0.44%) PL/SQL
15 20 (0.40%) R
16 18 (0.36%) Perl
17 17 (0.34%) Bicep
18 16 (0.32%) Go
18 16 (0.32%) VBA
Qualifications
1 1,134 (22.63%) Degree
2 411 (8.20%) Security Cleared
3 282 (5.63%) SC Cleared
4 170 (3.39%) DBS Check
5 145 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 134 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
7 97 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 73 (1.46%) Master's Degree
9 67 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
10 66 (1.32%) DV Cleared
11 65 (1.30%) A+ Certification
12 60 (1.20%) ACCA
13 59 (1.18%) HND
14 52 (1.04%) CIMA
15 50 (1.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 47 (0.94%) CCNA
16 47 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
17 46 (0.92%) HNC
18 41 (0.82%) AWS Certification
19 34 (0.68%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (5.23%) QA
2 228 (4.55%) Data Quality
3 170 (3.39%) Cyber Essentials
4 134 (2.67%) GDPR
5 126 (2.51%) PCI DSS
6 105 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 82 (1.64%) Accessibility
8 67 (1.34%) SLA
9 42 (0.84%) NIST
10 32 (0.64%) ISO 9001
11 26 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 24 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
13 15 (0.30%) PMO
14 9 (0.18%) ISO 13485
15 7 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 7 (0.14%) SOC 2
16 6 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 6 (0.12%) WCAG
17 5 (0.100%) GLBA
18 4 (0.080%) GRC
System Software
1 665 (13.27%) Active Directory
2 236 (4.71%) Hyper-V
3 164 (3.27%) Docker
4 108 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
5 104 (2.08%) Terminal Server
6 30 (0.60%) Firmware
7 25 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 16 (0.32%) vSphere
9 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
10 8 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.12%) KVM
11 6 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
12 5 (0.100%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.080%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.040%) RHEV
14 2 (0.040%) Xen
15 1 (0.020%) HDFS
15 1 (0.020%) iptables
15 1 (0.020%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 194 (3.87%) Terraform
2 190 (3.79%) Microsoft Intune
3 116 (2.31%) Kubernetes
4 77 (1.54%) Ansible
5 50 (1.00%) SCCM
6 43 (0.86%) Grafana
7 42 (0.84%) BMC PATROL
8 27 (0.54%) Prometheus
9 19 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.32%) Nagios
11 14 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
11 14 (0.28%) vCenter Server
12 12 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
13 10 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 10 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
13 10 (0.20%) Nmap
14 8 (0.16%) Autotask
14 8 (0.16%) Control-M
15 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
15 7 (0.14%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,362 (27.18%) Microsoft
2 313 (6.25%) SAP
3 244 (4.87%) VMware
4 179 (3.57%) Oracle
5 162 (3.23%) Veeam
6 136 (2.71%) Cisco
7 129 (2.57%) SolarWinds
8 128 (2.55%) Splunk
9 105 (2.10%) Tanium
10 104 (2.08%) Brocade
10 104 (2.08%) Google
10 104 (2.08%) Nimble Storage
11 82 (1.64%) Salesforce
12 72 (1.44%) ServiceNow
13 67 (1.34%) Adobe
14 63 (1.26%) Databricks
15 60 (1.20%) Sage
16 56 (1.12%) Apple
17 55 (1.10%) BT
18 48 (0.96%) HubSpot