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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,529 6,598 8,584
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 8.37% 18.91% 14.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.89% 21.67% 18.45%
Number of salaries quoted 4,670 3,681 4,359
10th Percentile £26,750 £25,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -13.04% -8.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £47,500 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -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 54,931 30,454 46,534
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.45% 87.29% 78.40%
Number of salaries quoted 38,625 16,580 29,151
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 -9 1,665 £45,000 +5.88% 1,216
South East -3 1,566 £42,750 +0.59% 1,284
Midlands -8 1,197 £42,500 +10.39% 797
North West -5 874 £45,250 +0.56% 658
South West -4 799 £45,000 +25.00% 649
West Midlands -9 665 £42,500 -4.59% 508
East of England -3 661 £42,500 +21.43% 595
Yorkshire -8 547 £42,500 +21.43% 398
East Midlands -9 529 £41,000 +17.14% 290
Scotland -1 289 £33,500 -21.18% 397
North East -7 244 £48,500 +25.00% 179
Northern Ireland -1 199 £45,000 -23.73% 244
Wales -22 168 £45,000 -6.49% 136
Isle of Man 0 3 £35,000 +1.45% 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
1 373 (5.71%) SharePoint
2 345 (5.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 66 (1.01%) Confluence
4 55 (0.84%) CMS
5 50 (0.77%) IIS
6 33 (0.51%) WordPress
7 30 (0.46%) Apache
8 24 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.25%) Apache Spark
10 15 (0.23%) SAS
11 14 (0.21%) Sitecore CMS
12 10 (0.15%) WebSphere
13 9 (0.14%) nginx
13 9 (0.14%) WebLogic
14 7 (0.11%) Jupyter
14 7 (0.11%) OpenEdge
15 5 (0.077%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.061%) Anypoint
16 4 (0.061%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.061%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 420 (6.43%) Microsoft Office
2 398 (6.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 51 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 49 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 41 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 30 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 22 (0.34%) Simulink
8 21 (0.32%) AutoCAD
9 13 (0.20%) Revit
10 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 8 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
10 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
11 6 (0.092%) Adobe XD
11 6 (0.092%) EPLAN
11 6 (0.092%) Fusion 360
11 6 (0.092%) Navisworks
11 6 (0.092%) Sketch
12 5 (0.077%) Lightworks
12 5 (0.077%) SOLIDWORKS
12 5 (0.077%) Trello
Business Applications
1 57 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
2 54 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 39 (0.60%) NetSuite
4 28 (0.43%) Shopify
5 18 (0.28%) Magento
5 18 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 16 (0.25%) SAP Business One
7 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
7 15 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 13 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
8 13 (0.20%) Workday HCM
9 12 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
10 11 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
11 10 (0.15%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.15%) Sage X3
12 9 (0.14%) Sage 50
13 8 (0.12%) Primavera
14 7 (0.11%) NEC Housing
14 7 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
15 6 (0.092%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 1,320 (20.22%) Azure
2 1,122 (17.18%) Microsoft 365
3 661 (10.12%) AWS
4 533 (8.16%) Power Platform
5 329 (5.04%) Entra ID
6 228 (3.49%) SaaS
7 225 (3.45%) GCP
8 161 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
9 139 (2.13%) Dynamics 365
10 128 (1.96%) PowerApps
11 126 (1.93%) GitHub
11 126 (1.93%) Serverless
12 121 (1.85%) Power Automate
13 80 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
13 80 (1.23%) OneDrive
14 60 (0.92%) Amazon S3
15 56 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
16 55 (0.84%) AWS Lambda
17 51 (0.78%) AWS CloudFormation
17 51 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 415 (6.36%) Firewall
2 390 (5.97%) DNS
3 333 (5.10%) DHCP
4 233 (3.57%) VPN
5 219 (3.35%) TCP/IP
6 187 (2.86%) WAN
7 173 (2.65%) LAN
8 158 (2.42%) Wi-Fi
9 153 (2.34%) Wireless
10 126 (1.93%) VLAN
11 111 (1.70%) Network Security
12 103 (1.58%) VoIP
13 95 (1.46%) Broadband
14 41 (0.63%) Internet
15 31 (0.47%) SAN
16 29 (0.44%) HTTP
16 29 (0.44%) SSL
17 27 (0.41%) SD-WAN
18 22 (0.34%) MQTT
18 22 (0.34%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 417 (6.39%) Power BI
2 323 (4.95%) SQL Server
3 134 (2.05%) MySQL
4 125 (1.91%) Amazon RDS
5 107 (1.64%) Relational Database
6 101 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
7 93 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
8 84 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 77 (1.18%) NoSQL
10 71 (1.09%) Tableau
11 64 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 47 (0.72%) Electronic Patient Records
13 45 (0.69%) MongoDB
14 44 (0.67%) Big Data
15 42 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
15 42 (0.64%) Power Query
16 39 (0.60%) Data Lake
17 31 (0.47%) DynamoDB
18 25 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
19 23 (0.35%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 285 (4.37%) Git
2 222 (3.40%) JIRA
3 79 (1.21%) GitLab
4 68 (1.04%) Jenkins
5 32 (0.49%) Eclipse
6 31 (0.47%) Subversion
7 26 (0.40%) Cucumber
7 26 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
8 25 (0.38%) JUnit
8 25 (0.38%) Selenium
9 21 (0.32%) Claude Code
9 21 (0.32%) Postman
10 19 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
11 17 (0.26%) Cypress.io
12 15 (0.23%) Bitbucket
13 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
14 13 (0.20%) Burp Suite
15 12 (0.18%) Visual Studio
16 11 (0.17%) Maven
16 11 (0.17%) Metasploit
General
1 3,125 (47.86%) Social Skills
2 1,827 (27.98%) Analytical Skills
3 1,020 (15.62%) Finance
4 599 (9.17%) Manufacturing
5 398 (6.10%) Organisational Skills
6 373 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 304 (4.66%) Law
8 291 (4.46%) Public Sector
9 280 (4.29%) Retail
10 277 (4.24%) Legal
11 230 (3.52%) Marketing
12 219 (3.35%) Electronics
13 204 (3.12%) Aerospace
14 157 (2.40%) Telecoms
15 132 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
16 128 (1.96%) Banking
17 110 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
18 74 (1.13%) Military
19 73 (1.12%) Games
20 69 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 855 (13.10%) Analyst
2 706 (10.81%) Senior
3 699 (10.71%) Developer
4 658 (10.08%) IT Support
5 547 (8.38%) Support Engineer
6 363 (5.56%) Lead
7 361 (5.53%) IT Engineer
8 301 (4.61%) Support Analyst
9 290 (4.44%) Consultant
10 267 (4.09%) IT Support Engineer
11 263 (4.03%) Support Technician
12 247 (3.78%) Technical Support
13 237 (3.63%) Systems Engineer
14 227 (3.48%) IT Technician
15 217 (3.32%) Architect
16 213 (3.26%) Software Engineer
17 210 (3.22%) Technical Engineer
18 199 (3.05%) Senior Developer
19 188 (2.88%) Technical Support Engineer
20 175 (2.68%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 343 (5.25%) .NET
2 220 (3.37%) React
3 199 (3.05%) HTML
4 190 (2.91%) REST
5 146 (2.24%) CSS
6 121 (1.85%) RESTful
7 99 (1.52%) Node.js
8 93 (1.42%) SOAP
9 81 (1.24%) Vue
10 79 (1.21%) AngularJS
10 79 (1.21%) Middleware
11 78 (1.19%) ASP.NET
12 72 (1.10%) JSON
13 69 (1.06%) XML
14 66 (1.01%) Web Services
15 62 (0.95%) Spring
16 57 (0.87%) OAuth
16 57 (0.87%) Spring Boot
17 47 (0.72%) ASP.NET Core
17 47 (0.72%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 517 (7.92%) Driving Licence
2 398 (6.10%) Onboarding
3 319 (4.89%) Self-Motivation
4 284 (4.35%) Management Information System
5 185 (2.83%) Cloud Native
6 166 (2.54%) Product Ownership
7 153 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
8 110 (1.68%) Data Centre
9 99 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
10 97 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
11 87 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
12 85 (1.30%) NHS
13 79 (1.21%) Security Posture
14 75 (1.15%) Social Media
15 73 (1.12%) Robotics
16 71 (1.09%) Mobile App
17 64 (0.98%) IoT
17 64 (0.98%) Virtual Team
18 63 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
19 58 (0.89%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1,073 (16.43%) Windows
2 499 (7.64%) Windows Server
3 453 (6.94%) Linux
4 135 (2.07%) Windows 10
5 109 (1.67%) Windows Server 2016
6 100 (1.53%) Android
7 79 (1.21%) Apple iOS
8 75 (1.15%) Mac OS
9 39 (0.60%) Unix
9 39 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
10 29 (0.44%) Ubuntu
11 21 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 18 (0.28%) CentOS
12 18 (0.28%) VMS
13 14 (0.21%) Debian
14 9 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
14 9 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
15 7 (0.11%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.077%) OpenVMS
16 5 (0.077%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,737 (26.60%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,162 (17.80%) Customer Service
3 995 (15.24%) Agile
4 739 (11.32%) Decision-Making
5 681 (10.43%) CI/CD
6 672 (10.29%) Mentoring
7 646 (9.89%) AI
8 592 (9.07%) Stakeholder Management
9 568 (8.70%) DevOps
10 558 (8.55%) ITIL
11 550 (8.42%) Analytics
12 527 (8.07%) Software Engineering
13 526 (8.06%) Cybersecurity
14 512 (7.84%) Collaborative Working
15 509 (7.80%) Project Delivery
16 483 (7.40%) ERP
17 463 (7.09%) Business Intelligence
18 419 (6.42%) Project Management
19 388 (5.94%) CRM
20 382 (5.85%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 1,011 (15.48%) SQL
2 712 (10.91%) Python
3 434 (6.65%) JavaScript
4 425 (6.51%) C#
5 293 (4.49%) Java
6 254 (3.89%) PowerShell
7 190 (2.91%) TypeScript
8 181 (2.77%) C++
9 121 (1.85%) Bash
10 76 (1.16%) PHP
11 72 (1.10%) C
12 60 (0.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 54 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 46 (0.70%) Shell Script
15 42 (0.64%) Perl
16 38 (0.58%) Ruby
17 36 (0.55%) Go
18 33 (0.51%) PL/SQL
18 33 (0.51%) Rust
19 29 (0.44%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 1,018 (15.59%) Degree
2 605 (9.27%) Security Cleared
3 435 (6.66%) SC Cleared
4 196 (3.00%) DBS Check
5 193 (2.96%) Computer Science Degree
6 176 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
7 161 (2.47%) DV Cleared
8 148 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
9 120 (1.84%) HNC
10 111 (1.70%) Azure Certification
11 96 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
12 92 (1.41%) HND
13 77 (1.18%) PMI Certification
14 72 (1.10%) CISSP
15 66 (1.01%) CCNA
16 63 (0.96%) Master's Degree
17 60 (0.92%) Chartered Engineer
18 58 (0.89%) A+ Certification
19 56 (0.86%) PMP
20 49 (0.75%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 426 (6.52%) QA
2 261 (4.00%) Data Quality
3 189 (2.89%) GDPR
4 176 (2.70%) Cyber Essentials
5 171 (2.62%) SLA
6 163 (2.50%) Accessibility
7 125 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 114 (1.75%) PCI DSS
9 92 (1.41%) NIST
10 35 (0.54%) ISO 9001
11 31 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 30 (0.46%) PMO
13 25 (0.38%) GMP
14 18 (0.28%) Good Clinical Practice
15 16 (0.25%) GRC
16 13 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
17 12 (0.18%) DO-254
17 12 (0.18%) SOC 2
17 12 (0.18%) TickIT
17 12 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 746 (11.43%) Active Directory
2 280 (4.29%) Hyper-V
3 251 (3.84%) Docker
4 201 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
5 80 (1.23%) Terminal Server
6 66 (1.01%) Firmware
7 33 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 29 (0.44%) vSphere
9 25 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
10 20 (0.31%) Embedded Firmware
11 15 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
12 8 (0.12%) KVM
13 6 (0.092%) XenApp
14 5 (0.077%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.077%) Squid
14 5 (0.077%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.046%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.046%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 261 (4.00%) Terraform
2 228 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 215 (3.29%) Kubernetes
4 107 (1.64%) Ansible
5 60 (0.92%) SCCM
6 57 (0.87%) Grafana
7 41 (0.63%) Prometheus
8 31 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
9 21 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 17 (0.26%) Puppet
11 16 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 14 (0.21%) Nagios
13 12 (0.18%) Functional Safety
14 11 (0.17%) Kibana
14 11 (0.17%) Nmap
15 10 (0.15%) logstash
15 10 (0.15%) Podman
15 10 (0.15%) Proxmox
16 9 (0.14%) QRadar
16 9 (0.14%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 1,960 (30.02%) Microsoft
2 322 (4.93%) VMware
3 168 (2.57%) SAP
4 164 (2.51%) Google
5 153 (2.34%) Oracle
6 140 (2.14%) Veeam
7 134 (2.05%) Cisco
8 124 (1.90%) Splunk
9 113 (1.73%) ServiceNow
10 104 (1.59%) SolarWinds
11 89 (1.36%) Salesforce
12 88 (1.35%) Tanium
13 87 (1.33%) Workday
14 81 (1.24%) Nimble Storage
15 80 (1.23%) Brocade
16 78 (1.19%) Databricks
17 68 (1.04%) Sage
18 60 (0.92%) Apple
18 60 (0.92%) Fortinet
19 49 (0.75%) SonicWALL