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 23 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 5,759 6,410 9,597
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 7.92% 18.92% 14.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.24% 21.48% 18.09%
Number of salaries quoted 4,271 3,506 5,616
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,750 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,907 £29,750 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £41,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.66% -8.89% -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £73,250
UK median annual salary £47,500 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.38% -4.63% -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 51,233 29,845 53,065
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.48% 88.11% 79.53%
Number of salaries quoted 36,051 16,147 35,683
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,733 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,851 £37,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,245 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,043 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.01% +0.08% -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 23 July 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 23 July 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 -10 1,510 £45,000 +5.88% 666
South East -3 1,417 £45,000 +5.88% 770
Midlands -8 1,069 £42,000 +5.00% 415
North West -6 795 £45,000 -1.10% 351
South West -6 719 £44,000 +17.33% 328
West Midlands -9 596 £42,500 -5.56% 236
East of England -6 561 £42,500 +21.43% 284
Yorkshire -9 519 £42,500 +21.43% 223
East Midlands -10 469 £35,440 -0.17% 179
Scotland -9 232 £33,000 -25.42% 105
North East -17 196 £51,500 +37.33% 99
Wales -18 152 £45,000 -7.22% 60
Northern Ireland -15 118 £38,500 -30.00% 32
Isle of Man +2 3 £35,000 +1.45% 5
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
1 364 (6.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 343 (5.96%) SharePoint
3 56 (0.97%) Confluence
4 50 (0.87%) CMS
5 37 (0.64%) IIS
6 28 (0.49%) Apache
6 28 (0.49%) WordPress
7 20 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
8 14 (0.24%) Apache Spark
9 13 (0.23%) SAS
10 11 (0.19%) WebSphere
11 9 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
12 8 (0.14%) nginx
12 8 (0.14%) WebLogic
13 7 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
13 7 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
13 7 (0.12%) OpenEdge
14 6 (0.10%) Jupyter
15 5 (0.087%) Skype for Business
16 4 (0.069%) Moodle
Applications
1 369 (6.41%) Microsoft Office
2 360 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 53 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 42 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
5 33 (0.57%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
7 12 (0.21%) Simulink
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.14%) Chatbot
9 7 (0.12%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.087%) Adobe XD
10 5 (0.087%) Fusion 360
10 5 (0.087%) Lightworks
10 5 (0.087%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.087%) Sketch
10 5 (0.087%) Trello
11 3 (0.052%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.052%) LaTeX
11 3 (0.052%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 56 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.59%) NetSuite
3 31 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 18 (0.31%) Shopify
5 17 (0.30%) Magento
6 16 (0.28%) SAP ERP
7 15 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
8 14 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
9 13 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 11 (0.19%) SAP Business One
11 10 (0.17%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 10 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
12 8 (0.14%) Sage 50
13 7 (0.12%) Raiser’s Edge
13 7 (0.12%) Sage X3
14 6 (0.10%) iTrent
15 5 (0.087%) Dynamics GP
15 5 (0.087%) NEC Housing
15 5 (0.087%) Q-Pulse
16 4 (0.069%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 1,215 (21.10%) Azure
2 1,076 (18.68%) Microsoft 365
3 597 (10.37%) AWS
4 460 (7.99%) Power Platform
5 299 (5.19%) Entra ID
6 206 (3.58%) SaaS
7 199 (3.46%) GCP
8 136 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
9 121 (2.10%) Dynamics 365
10 110 (1.91%) Serverless
11 102 (1.77%) PowerApps
12 100 (1.74%) GitHub
13 99 (1.72%) Power Automate
14 77 (1.34%) OneDrive
15 64 (1.11%) Microsoft Copilot
16 52 (0.90%) Amazon S3
16 52 (0.90%) Microsoft Purview
17 48 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
18 46 (0.80%) IaaS
19 43 (0.75%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 410 (7.12%) Firewall
2 381 (6.62%) DNS
3 326 (5.66%) DHCP
4 212 (3.68%) VPN
5 198 (3.44%) TCP/IP
6 196 (3.40%) WAN
7 175 (3.04%) LAN
8 152 (2.64%) Wi-Fi
9 139 (2.41%) Wireless
10 118 (2.05%) VLAN
11 111 (1.93%) Broadband
12 98 (1.70%) Network Security
13 93 (1.61%) VoIP
14 40 (0.69%) Internet
15 31 (0.54%) SD-WAN
16 27 (0.47%) HTTP
16 27 (0.47%) SAN
17 25 (0.43%) SSL
18 22 (0.38%) WLAN
19 20 (0.35%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 365 (6.34%) Power BI
2 270 (4.69%) SQL Server
3 128 (2.22%) Amazon RDS
4 107 (1.86%) MySQL
5 92 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
6 84 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
6 84 (1.46%) Relational Database
6 84 (1.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 71 (1.23%) NoSQL
8 68 (1.18%) Tableau
9 65 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 47 (0.82%) Power Query
11 46 (0.80%) MongoDB
12 39 (0.68%) Big Data
13 34 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
14 33 (0.57%) Data Lake
15 27 (0.47%) DynamoDB
16 25 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
17 19 (0.33%) Star Schema
18 18 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 227 (3.94%) Git
2 179 (3.11%) JIRA
3 80 (1.39%) GitLab
4 56 (0.97%) Jenkins
5 27 (0.47%) Rational DOORS
6 25 (0.43%) Cucumber
7 24 (0.42%) Subversion
8 23 (0.40%) Eclipse
8 23 (0.40%) Selenium
9 18 (0.31%) JUnit
10 17 (0.30%) Cypress.io
10 17 (0.30%) Postman
11 14 (0.24%) Oracle Forms
11 14 (0.24%) SonarQube
12 13 (0.23%) Claude Code
13 11 (0.19%) Bitbucket
14 9 (0.16%) JMeter
14 9 (0.16%) Maven
14 9 (0.16%) Visual Studio
15 8 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 2,772 (48.13%) Social Skills
2 1,574 (27.33%) Analytical Skills
3 893 (15.51%) Finance
4 459 (7.97%) Manufacturing
5 371 (6.44%) Organisational Skills
6 261 (4.53%) Legal
7 256 (4.45%) Law
8 249 (4.32%) Public Sector
9 247 (4.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 233 (4.05%) Retail
11 183 (3.18%) Marketing
12 155 (2.69%) Electronics
13 153 (2.66%) Telecoms
14 117 (2.03%) Banking
15 108 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
16 105 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
17 95 (1.65%) Aerospace
18 77 (1.34%) Games
19 59 (1.02%) Advertising
20 58 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 791 (13.74%) Analyst
2 662 (11.50%) IT Support
3 636 (11.04%) Senior
4 605 (10.51%) Developer
5 559 (9.71%) Support Engineer
6 382 (6.63%) IT Engineer
7 303 (5.26%) Lead
8 287 (4.98%) IT Support Engineer
9 260 (4.51%) Support Technician
10 257 (4.46%) Support Analyst
11 245 (4.25%) Systems Engineer
12 218 (3.79%) Technical Support
13 212 (3.68%) IT Technician
14 203 (3.52%) Consultant
15 193 (3.35%) Software Engineer
16 191 (3.32%) Technical Engineer
17 183 (3.18%) Architect
18 176 (3.06%) Senior Developer
19 172 (2.99%) Technical Support Engineer
20 164 (2.85%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 286 (4.97%) .NET
2 195 (3.39%) React
3 171 (2.97%) HTML
4 164 (2.85%) REST
5 124 (2.15%) CSS
6 99 (1.72%) RESTful
7 97 (1.68%) Node.js
8 86 (1.49%) SOAP
9 74 (1.28%) Vue
10 73 (1.27%) JSON
10 73 (1.27%) Middleware
11 70 (1.22%) AngularJS
12 64 (1.11%) XML
13 55 (0.96%) Spring
14 54 (0.94%) ASP.NET
15 50 (0.87%) Spring Boot
16 48 (0.83%) Web Services
17 47 (0.82%) OAuth
18 41 (0.71%) Kafka
19 36 (0.63%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 448 (7.78%) Driving Licence
2 335 (5.82%) Onboarding
3 271 (4.71%) Self-Motivation
4 228 (3.96%) Management Information System
5 161 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
6 159 (2.76%) Cloud Native
7 144 (2.50%) Product Ownership
8 97 (1.68%) Data Centre
9 95 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
10 89 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
11 74 (1.28%) Security Posture
12 66 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
12 66 (1.15%) Mobile App
13 65 (1.13%) Social Media
14 58 (1.01%) IoT
14 58 (1.01%) Virtual Team
15 48 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
16 47 (0.82%) Algorithms
16 47 (0.82%) NHS
17 46 (0.80%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,024 (17.78%) Windows
2 488 (8.47%) Windows Server
3 436 (7.57%) Linux
4 143 (2.48%) Windows 10
5 129 (2.24%) Windows Server 2016
6 107 (1.86%) Android
7 73 (1.27%) Apple iOS
7 73 (1.27%) Mac OS
8 41 (0.71%) Windows Server 2019
9 32 (0.56%) Unix
10 28 (0.49%) Ubuntu
11 24 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 21 (0.36%) CentOS
13 16 (0.28%) VMS
14 14 (0.24%) Windows 7
15 13 (0.23%) Debian
16 9 (0.16%) FreeRTOS
17 8 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
17 8 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
18 6 (0.10%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,410 (24.48%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,062 (18.44%) Customer Service
3 831 (14.43%) Agile
4 599 (10.40%) CI/CD
5 585 (10.16%) Decision-Making
6 580 (10.07%) Mentoring
7 550 (9.55%) AI
8 511 (8.87%) ITIL
9 496 (8.61%) DevOps
10 485 (8.42%) Analytics
11 470 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
12 457 (7.94%) Software Engineering
13 448 (7.78%) Collaborative Working
13 448 (7.78%) Stakeholder Management
14 424 (7.36%) Business Intelligence
15 410 (7.12%) ERP
16 387 (6.72%) Project Delivery
17 351 (6.09%) Customer Experience
18 340 (5.90%) Computer Science
18 340 (5.90%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 904 (15.70%) SQL
2 644 (11.18%) Python
3 367 (6.37%) C#
4 365 (6.34%) JavaScript
5 255 (4.43%) Java
6 239 (4.15%) PowerShell
7 164 (2.85%) TypeScript
8 162 (2.81%) C++
9 108 (1.88%) Bash
10 72 (1.25%) PHP
11 61 (1.06%) C
12 59 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 48 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 35 (0.61%) Perl
14 35 (0.61%) Ruby
15 34 (0.59%) PL/SQL
16 32 (0.56%) Go
17 31 (0.54%) Shell Script
18 29 (0.50%) Kotlin
19 27 (0.47%) R
Qualifications
1 840 (14.59%) Degree
2 490 (8.51%) Security Cleared
3 361 (6.27%) SC Cleared
4 184 (3.19%) DBS Check
5 167 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 166 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
7 90 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
7 90 (1.56%) DV Cleared
8 87 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
9 78 (1.35%) Azure Certification
10 62 (1.08%) CCNA
10 62 (1.08%) HNC
11 60 (1.04%) ACCA
12 58 (1.01%) PMI Certification
13 56 (0.97%) A+ Certification
13 56 (0.97%) CIMA
14 54 (0.94%) Master's Degree
15 49 (0.85%) CISSP
15 49 (0.85%) PMP
16 45 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 356 (6.18%) QA
2 242 (4.20%) Data Quality
3 192 (3.33%) Cyber Essentials
4 161 (2.80%) GDPR
5 147 (2.55%) SLA
6 138 (2.40%) PCI DSS
7 137 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 120 (2.08%) Accessibility
9 91 (1.58%) NIST
10 37 (0.64%) ISO 9001
11 29 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 26 (0.45%) PMO
13 21 (0.36%) GMP
14 17 (0.30%) Good Clinical Practice
15 15 (0.26%) GRC
15 15 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 13 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
17 12 (0.21%) TickIT
18 10 (0.17%) ISO 14001
19 9 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 723 (12.55%) Active Directory
2 284 (4.93%) Hyper-V
3 226 (3.92%) Docker
4 191 (3.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 96 (1.67%) Terminal Server
6 45 (0.78%) Firmware
7 30 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
8 27 (0.47%) vSphere
9 23 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
11 12 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
12 6 (0.10%) KVM
12 6 (0.10%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.10%) XenApp
13 5 (0.087%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.087%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 5 (0.087%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.069%) Squid
15 3 (0.052%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.052%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 230 (3.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 228 (3.96%) Terraform
3 205 (3.56%) Kubernetes
4 101 (1.75%) Ansible
5 62 (1.08%) Grafana
6 61 (1.06%) SCCM
7 42 (0.73%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.35%) FortiGate
9 17 (0.30%) Nagios
10 14 (0.24%) Puppet
11 13 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 12 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
13 11 (0.19%) Kibana
14 10 (0.17%) Autotask
14 10 (0.17%) Functional Safety
14 10 (0.17%) logstash
14 10 (0.17%) Podman
14 10 (0.17%) Proxmox
15 9 (0.16%) vCenter Server
15 9 (0.16%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,787 (31.03%) Microsoft
2 323 (5.61%) VMware
3 152 (2.64%) Veeam
4 136 (2.36%) Splunk
5 131 (2.27%) Google
6 126 (2.19%) SAP
7 125 (2.17%) Cisco
8 121 (2.10%) SolarWinds
9 119 (2.07%) Oracle
10 104 (1.81%) Tanium
11 97 (1.68%) Nimble Storage
12 96 (1.67%) Brocade
13 94 (1.63%) ServiceNow
14 80 (1.39%) Salesforce
15 69 (1.20%) Databricks
16 60 (1.04%) Apple
17 55 (0.96%) Sage
18 51 (0.89%) Fortinet
19 50 (0.87%) Adobe
20 47 (0.82%) Dell