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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,069 5,919 11,401
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.64% 20.10% 14.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.96% 22.03% 18.36%
Number of salaries quoted 3,771 3,113 7,001
10th Percentile £26,375 £26,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £77,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -10.91%

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 46,239 26,873 62,108
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.65% 91.25% 80.42%
Number of salaries quoted 32,138 13,591 43,459
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £33,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 11 June 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 11 June 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 -8 1,372 £42,500 -4.49% 609
South East -5 1,218 £45,000 +5.88% 728
Midlands -9 939 £40,000 -11.11% 405
North West -6 704 £45,000 -3.23% 347
South West -6 598 £43,500 +8.75% 290
West Midlands -9 535 £42,500 -10.53% 240
East of England -3 505 £45,000 +28.57% 276
Yorkshire -12 504 £41,500 +18.57% 190
East Midlands -9 401 £35,000 -6.67% 167
Scotland -3 270 £35,000 -28.28% 104
North East -14 164 £48,472 +7.72% 82
Wales -15 116 £45,000 -10.00% 39
Northern Ireland -6 71 £38,500 -30.00% 65
Isle of Man +2 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
1 311 (6.14%) Microsoft Exchange
2 301 (5.94%) SharePoint
3 47 (0.93%) CMS
3 47 (0.93%) Confluence
4 29 (0.57%) IIS
5 23 (0.45%) Apache
5 23 (0.45%) WordPress
6 20 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
7 14 (0.28%) Apache Spark
8 13 (0.26%) SAS
9 11 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
10 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
10 9 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
11 7 (0.14%) OpenEdge
11 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 6 (0.12%) WebSphere
13 5 (0.099%) nginx
13 5 (0.099%) Skype for Business
14 4 (0.079%) Moodle
14 4 (0.079%) OpenStack
Applications
1 307 (6.06%) Microsoft Office
2 300 (5.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 45 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.69%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 9 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.16%) Fusion 360
9 6 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.099%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.099%) Simulink
11 4 (0.079%) Chatbot
11 4 (0.079%) Trello
12 3 (0.059%) Autodesk Inventor
13 2 (0.039%) Adobe XD
13 2 (0.039%) Sketch
13 2 (0.039%) SOLIDWORKS
13 2 (0.039%) Windchill
14 1 (0.020%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 49 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 24 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
5 19 (0.37%) Shopify
6 16 (0.32%) Magento
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 11 (0.22%) iTrent
10 10 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
11 9 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 8 (0.16%) Sage 50
12 8 (0.16%) SAP Business One
12 8 (0.16%) SAP CO
13 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
14 5 (0.099%) Q-Pulse
14 5 (0.099%) Salesforce CRM
15 4 (0.079%) Dynamics GP
15 4 (0.079%) Line 50
15 4 (0.079%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 1,044 (20.60%) Azure
2 898 (17.72%) Microsoft 365
3 524 (10.34%) AWS
4 374 (7.38%) Power Platform
5 235 (4.64%) Entra ID
6 171 (3.37%) SaaS
7 151 (2.98%) GCP
8 119 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
9 111 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
10 110 (2.17%) Serverless
11 81 (1.60%) GitHub
12 77 (1.52%) Power Automate
13 69 (1.36%) PowerApps
14 63 (1.24%) OneDrive
15 57 (1.12%) Amazon S3
16 52 (1.03%) Google Workspace
17 49 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
18 46 (0.91%) IaaS
19 45 (0.89%) PaaS
20 40 (0.79%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 347 (6.85%) Firewall
2 324 (6.39%) DNS
3 275 (5.43%) DHCP
4 179 (3.53%) VPN
5 170 (3.35%) WAN
6 136 (2.68%) LAN
7 131 (2.58%) TCP/IP
8 129 (2.54%) Wi-Fi
9 107 (2.11%) Broadband
10 105 (2.07%) Wireless
11 102 (2.01%) VLAN
12 83 (1.64%) VoIP
13 80 (1.58%) Network Security
14 41 (0.81%) SD-WAN
15 36 (0.71%) Internet
16 33 (0.65%) SAN
17 19 (0.37%) HTTP
18 17 (0.34%) Remote Desktop
19 15 (0.30%) Unified Communications
19 15 (0.30%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 297 (5.86%) Power BI
2 213 (4.20%) SQL Server
3 96 (1.89%) Amazon RDS
4 75 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
5 74 (1.46%) MySQL
6 71 (1.40%) NoSQL
7 68 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
7 68 (1.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 60 (1.18%) Tableau
9 55 (1.09%) Relational Database
10 53 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 45 (0.89%) Power Query
12 38 (0.75%) Big Data
13 36 (0.71%) MongoDB
14 30 (0.59%) DynamoDB
15 28 (0.55%) Data Lake
16 25 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
16 25 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
17 23 (0.45%) Metadata
18 21 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 191 (3.77%) Git
2 144 (2.84%) JIRA
3 67 (1.32%) GitLab
4 40 (0.79%) Jenkins
5 30 (0.59%) Rational DOORS
6 16 (0.32%) Cucumber
6 16 (0.32%) JUnit
6 16 (0.32%) Selenium
7 15 (0.30%) Subversion
8 14 (0.28%) Maven
9 11 (0.22%) Cypress.io
9 11 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
9 11 (0.22%) SonarQube
10 10 (0.20%) LabVIEW
11 9 (0.18%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.18%) Eclipse
12 8 (0.16%) Burp Suite
12 8 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 7 (0.14%) Metasploit
13 7 (0.14%) Mockito
General
1 2,422 (47.78%) Social Skills
2 1,423 (28.07%) Analytical Skills
3 827 (16.31%) Finance
4 352 (6.94%) Manufacturing
5 321 (6.33%) Organisational Skills
6 228 (4.50%) Public Sector
7 220 (4.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 194 (3.83%) Law
8 194 (3.83%) Legal
9 184 (3.63%) Marketing
10 181 (3.57%) Retail
11 139 (2.74%) Telecoms
12 133 (2.62%) Electronics
13 132 (2.60%) Banking
14 101 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
15 90 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
16 73 (1.44%) Aerospace
17 68 (1.34%) Games
18 54 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
19 52 (1.03%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 732 (14.44%) Analyst
2 620 (12.23%) IT Support
3 541 (10.67%) Senior
4 534 (10.53%) Support Engineer
5 440 (8.68%) Developer
6 367 (7.24%) IT Engineer
7 279 (5.50%) IT Support Engineer
8 264 (5.21%) Lead
9 234 (4.62%) Support Technician
10 208 (4.10%) Support Analyst
11 207 (4.08%) Systems Engineer
12 183 (3.61%) IT Technician
13 174 (3.43%) Architect
14 172 (3.39%) Consultant
15 163 (3.22%) Technical Support
16 159 (3.14%) Software Engineer
17 148 (2.92%) IT Support Technician
18 144 (2.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 132 (2.60%) Technical Engineer
20 126 (2.49%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 190 (3.75%) .NET
2 177 (3.49%) React
3 150 (2.96%) HTML
4 130 (2.56%) REST
5 117 (2.31%) CSS
6 90 (1.78%) Node.js
7 74 (1.46%) SOAP
8 68 (1.34%) RESTful
9 65 (1.28%) JSON
10 60 (1.18%) Middleware
10 60 (1.18%) Vue
11 58 (1.14%) AngularJS
11 58 (1.14%) XML
12 40 (0.79%) Spring
13 39 (0.77%) ASP.NET
13 39 (0.77%) OAuth
14 36 (0.71%) Spring Boot
14 36 (0.71%) Web Services
15 33 (0.65%) EDI
16 30 (0.59%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 384 (7.58%) Driving Licence
2 274 (5.41%) Onboarding
3 225 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
4 199 (3.93%) Management Information System
5 125 (2.47%) Cloud Native
5 125 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
5 125 (2.47%) Product Ownership
6 103 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
7 97 (1.91%) Data Centre
8 75 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
9 73 (1.44%) Social Media
10 64 (1.26%) Mobile App
11 52 (1.03%) Low-Code
12 50 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
13 47 (0.93%) Security Posture
14 44 (0.87%) Data Structures
14 44 (0.87%) Virtual Team
15 38 (0.75%) Algorithms
16 35 (0.69%) Hybrid Cloud
16 35 (0.69%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 853 (16.83%) Windows
2 415 (8.19%) Windows Server
3 340 (6.71%) Linux
4 134 (2.64%) Windows 10
5 117 (2.31%) Windows Server 2016
6 99 (1.95%) Android
7 64 (1.26%) Apple iOS
8 52 (1.03%) Mac OS
8 52 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
9 30 (0.59%) Unix
10 26 (0.51%) CentOS
11 25 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 24 (0.47%) Ubuntu
13 19 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
14 15 (0.30%) VMS
15 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
16 10 (0.20%) Debian
17 7 (0.14%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.079%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,103 (21.76%) Continuous Improvement
2 903 (17.81%) Customer Service
3 677 (13.36%) Agile
4 509 (10.04%) Decision-Making
5 502 (9.90%) Mentoring
6 431 (8.50%) AI
7 429 (8.46%) CI/CD
8 428 (8.44%) Analytics
9 405 (7.99%) ITIL
10 401 (7.91%) DevOps
11 370 (7.30%) Collaborative Working
12 346 (6.83%) Business Intelligence
13 344 (6.79%) Cybersecurity
14 342 (6.75%) ERP
15 339 (6.69%) Software Engineering
16 327 (6.45%) Stakeholder Management
17 324 (6.39%) Project Management
18 322 (6.35%) Coaching
19 314 (6.19%) Computer Science
20 296 (5.84%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 746 (14.72%) SQL
2 578 (11.40%) Python
3 316 (6.23%) JavaScript
4 248 (4.89%) C#
5 221 (4.36%) Java
6 201 (3.97%) PowerShell
7 133 (2.62%) TypeScript
8 104 (2.05%) C++
9 89 (1.76%) Bash
10 72 (1.42%) PHP
11 52 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 47 (0.93%) C
13 44 (0.87%) PL/SQL
14 42 (0.83%) T-SQL
15 30 (0.59%) Kotlin
15 30 (0.59%) R
16 27 (0.53%) Perl
17 24 (0.47%) Go
17 24 (0.47%) Shell Script
18 23 (0.45%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 765 (15.09%) Degree
2 392 (7.73%) Security Cleared
3 286 (5.64%) SC Cleared
4 208 (4.10%) DBS Check
5 153 (3.02%) Microsoft Certification
6 147 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 85 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
8 75 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
9 69 (1.36%) A+ Certification
10 68 (1.34%) DV Cleared
11 62 (1.22%) ACCA
12 59 (1.16%) CCNA
13 58 (1.14%) CIMA
14 54 (1.07%) HNC
15 53 (1.05%) PMI Certification
16 48 (0.95%) Network+ Certification
17 47 (0.93%) Master's Degree
18 43 (0.85%) Azure Certification
18 43 (0.85%) CISSP
19 41 (0.81%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 292 (5.76%) QA
2 237 (4.68%) Data Quality
3 153 (3.02%) Cyber Essentials
4 147 (2.90%) GDPR
5 127 (2.51%) SLA
6 117 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 105 (2.07%) PCI DSS
8 83 (1.64%) NIST
9 81 (1.60%) Accessibility
10 38 (0.75%) ISO 9001
11 22 (0.43%) PMO
12 20 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 20 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 16 (0.32%) GMP
14 13 (0.26%) GRC
14 13 (0.26%) ISO 14001
15 12 (0.24%) SOC 2
15 12 (0.24%) TickIT
16 9 (0.18%) Good Clinical Practice
17 8 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 619 (12.21%) Active Directory
2 227 (4.48%) Hyper-V
3 166 (3.27%) Docker
4 163 (3.22%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (1.42%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.57%) Firmware
7 28 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (0.36%) vSphere
9 14 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
10 13 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.20%) KVM
12 7 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
12 7 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (0.12%) XenApp
14 4 (0.079%) ClearTrust
14 4 (0.079%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 4 (0.079%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.059%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.059%) Terminal Services
16 2 (0.039%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 191 (3.77%) Terraform
2 188 (3.71%) Microsoft Intune
3 161 (3.18%) Kubernetes
4 86 (1.70%) Ansible
5 55 (1.09%) SCCM
6 48 (0.95%) Grafana
7 32 (0.63%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.41%) Nagios
9 14 (0.28%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
12 9 (0.18%) Autotask
12 9 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.18%) Kibana
12 9 (0.18%) Puppet
12 9 (0.18%) QRadar
12 9 (0.18%) ZABBIX
13 8 (0.16%) Functional Safety
13 8 (0.16%) logstash
13 8 (0.16%) Podman
Vendors
1 1,447 (28.55%) Microsoft
2 265 (5.23%) VMware
3 134 (2.64%) Oracle
4 129 (2.54%) Veeam
5 112 (2.21%) SAP
6 107 (2.11%) Google
6 107 (2.11%) Splunk
7 105 (2.07%) Cisco
8 103 (2.03%) SolarWinds
9 74 (1.46%) Tanium
10 73 (1.44%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (1.42%) Brocade
12 70 (1.38%) Salesforce
13 67 (1.32%) Databricks
14 62 (1.22%) Apple
14 62 (1.22%) ServiceNow
15 51 (1.01%) Adobe
16 45 (0.89%) Dell
17 44 (0.87%) Sage
18 39 (0.77%) Meraki