Critical Thinking Job Trends

Critical Thinking
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Critical Thinking skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 408 422 422
Rank change year-on-year +14 0 -59
Permanent jobs citing Critical Thinking 254 294 323
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.42% 0.55% 0.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.52% 0.61% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 115 108 219
10th Percentile £31,250 £27,000 £31,650
25th Percentile £42,000 £42,313 £46,306
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £59,430 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.66% -4.91% -3.85%
75th Percentile £69,375 £77,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,500 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +8.00% -25.93%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Critical Thinking 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,596 48,532 50,084
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.00% 90.69% 89.94%
Number of salaries quoted 28,664 23,590 38,164
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%

Critical Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Critical Thinking relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Critical Thinking job vacancy trend in the UK

Critical Thinking
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Critical Thinking.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Critical Thinking over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Critical Thinking in the UK

Critical Thinking
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Critical Thinking within the UK over the 6 months to 14 January 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
England +19 192 £52,500 -13.89% 239
UK excluding London +39 141 £49,500 -8.33% 245
London +51 104 £65,000 -5.45% 24
Scotland +45 53 £53,750 +26.47% 8
Work from Home -16 39 £56,875 +13.75% 126
North of England -2 32 £50,000 -22.90% 44
North West +18 30 £52,500 -30.00% 15
South East +14 21 £52,500 +5.00% 71
Midlands +20 16 £32,500 -39.81% 31
West Midlands +23 15 £32,500 -41.93% 12
East of England +34 11 £60,000 - 39
South West -15 7 £60,000 -14.29% 36
Yorkshire -15 2 £49,000 +12.64% 20
Wales +8 1 £60,000 +4.87% 12
East Midlands -11 1 £38,000 -29.63% 19

Critical Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 2 (0.79%) Confluence
1 2 (0.79%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.39%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.39%) BizTalk Server
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 16 (6.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (5.51%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.97%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.57%) Adobe Premiere
4 4 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.57%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.39%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 5 (1.97%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.39%) Endur
2 1 (0.39%) EuroRunner
2 1 (0.39%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.39%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 28 (11.02%) AWS
2 20 (7.87%) Azure
3 19 (7.48%) Power Platform
4 8 (3.15%) GCP
4 8 (3.15%) Snowflake
5 7 (2.76%) SaaS
6 6 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.57%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 4 (1.57%) Entra ID
8 2 (0.79%) Amazon SQS
8 2 (0.79%) Azure App Service
8 2 (0.79%) Azure Service Bus
8 2 (0.79%) Firebase
8 2 (0.79%) PowerApps
8 2 (0.79%) Serverless
9 1 (0.39%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (0.39%) Boomi
9 1 (0.39%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.54%) Firewall
2 5 (1.97%) Intrusion Detection
2 5 (1.97%) RTP
2 5 (1.97%) Wi-Fi
3 4 (1.57%) BGP
3 4 (1.57%) Cisco ASA
3 4 (1.57%) Cisco Nexus
3 4 (1.57%) Cisco Wireless
3 4 (1.57%) EIGRP
3 4 (1.57%) HSRP
3 4 (1.57%) LAN
3 4 (1.57%) Network Security
3 4 (1.57%) OSPF
3 4 (1.57%) SNMP
3 4 (1.57%) TACACS
3 4 (1.57%) VPN
3 4 (1.57%) WAAS
3 4 (1.57%) WAN
3 4 (1.57%) Wireless
4 1 (0.39%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (6.69%) Power BI
2 11 (4.33%) Tableau
3 8 (3.15%) Looker
4 6 (2.36%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (1.57%) Amazon Redshift
5 4 (1.57%) BigQuery
6 3 (1.18%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.39%) Apache Hive
7 1 (0.39%) Big Data
7 1 (0.39%) DB2
7 1 (0.39%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.39%) Metadata
7 1 (0.39%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.39%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (1.18%) JIRA
General
1 144 (56.69%) Social Skills
2 124 (48.82%) Analytical Skills
3 55 (21.65%) Finance
4 25 (9.84%) Marketing
5 20 (7.87%) Law
6 15 (5.91%) Financial Institution
7 13 (5.12%) Manufacturing
8 12 (4.72%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (3.94%) Banking
10 9 (3.54%) Digital Economy
10 9 (3.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (2.36%) Legal
12 5 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.97%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (1.97%) Retail
13 4 (1.57%) Advertising
14 3 (1.18%) Public Sector
15 2 (0.79%) Military
15 2 (0.79%) Publishing
16 1 (0.39%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 53 (20.87%) Innovation Manager
2 31 (12.20%) Graduate
3 29 (11.42%) Telesales Specialist
4 23 (9.06%) Senior
5 20 (7.87%) Analyst
6 18 (7.09%) IT Support
7 11 (4.33%) Lead
7 11 (4.33%) Support Engineer
8 8 (3.15%) Consultant
8 8 (3.15%) Designer
8 8 (3.15%) Developer
8 8 (3.15%) Development Manager
8 8 (3.15%) Product Development Manager
9 7 (2.76%) Architect
9 7 (2.76%) IT Engineer
9 7 (2.76%) IT Support Engineer
9 7 (2.76%) Software Engineering Director
9 7 (2.76%) Technical Engineer
9 7 (2.76%) Technical Support Engineer
9 7 (2.76%) User Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.57%) .NET
1 4 (1.57%) 802.1X
2 2 (0.79%) .NET Core
2 2 (0.79%) Blazor
2 2 (0.79%) Kafka
2 2 (0.79%) Middleware
2 2 (0.79%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.39%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 21 (8.27%) Product Ownership
2 14 (5.51%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (3.94%) Analytical Mindset
4 9 (3.54%) Management Information System
5 8 (3.15%) Data Centre
5 8 (3.15%) IoT
6 6 (2.36%) Fixed Income
7 5 (1.97%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.97%) Social Media
8 4 (1.57%) Educational Technology
8 4 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.57%) Photography
8 4 (1.57%) Video Editing
9 3 (1.18%) CMDB
9 3 (1.18%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.18%) PACS
9 3 (1.18%) Robotics
9 3 (1.18%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 2 (0.79%) Cloud Native
10 2 (0.79%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 20 (7.87%) Windows
2 7 (2.76%) Linux
2 7 (2.76%) Mac OS
2 7 (2.76%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.79%) Android
3 2 (0.79%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.39%) AIX
4 1 (0.39%) Unix
4 1 (0.39%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (38.58%) Problem-Solving
2 92 (36.22%) Decision-Making
3 81 (31.89%) Stakeholder Management
4 76 (29.92%) Analytics
5 74 (29.13%) Continuous Improvement
6 62 (24.41%) AI
7 53 (20.87%) Data-Driven Decision Making
8 50 (19.69%) Customer Experience
8 50 (19.69%) Emotional Intelligence
9 42 (16.54%) Agile
10 36 (14.17%) Roadmaps
11 33 (12.99%) Telesales
12 29 (11.42%) EAM
12 29 (11.42%) Project Management
13 26 (10.24%) Information Security
14 25 (9.84%) Customer Service
15 24 (9.45%) Actionable Insight
15 24 (9.45%) Process Improvement
15 24 (9.45%) Workshop Facilitation
16 22 (8.66%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 28 (11.02%) SQL
2 22 (8.66%) Python
3 8 (3.15%) R
4 7 (2.76%) PL/SQL
4 7 (2.76%) VBScript
5 5 (1.97%) Elixir
5 5 (1.97%) Go
5 5 (1.97%) Ruby
6 3 (1.18%) C#
6 3 (1.18%) Java
6 3 (1.18%) PowerShell
7 2 (0.79%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.39%) C
8 1 (0.39%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.39%) Scala
Qualifications
1 35 (13.78%) Security Cleared
2 33 (12.99%) Degree
3 25 (9.84%) SC Cleared
4 14 (5.51%) DBS Check
5 13 (5.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.76%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (2.76%) CISSP
7 6 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (2.36%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.57%) CCIE
8 4 (1.57%) CCNP
9 3 (1.18%) CCNA
9 3 (1.18%) CISA
9 3 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.39%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.39%) CCAB
11 1 (0.39%) CISM
11 1 (0.39%) CRISC
11 1 (0.39%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.51%) Data Quality
2 8 (3.15%) Accessibility
3 7 (2.76%) PMO
3 7 (2.76%) QA
4 5 (1.97%) Actionable Recommendations
4 5 (1.97%) MiFID
4 5 (1.97%) SLA
5 4 (1.57%) GDPR
6 3 (1.18%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.79%) NIST
8 1 (0.39%) COBIT
8 1 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 9 (3.54%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (1.97%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.57%) ProxySG
3 4 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.39%) KVM
4 1 (0.39%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 3 (1.18%) Ansible
2 2 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.79%) Terraform
Vendors
1 33 (12.99%) Dell
2 22 (8.66%) Microsoft
3 14 (5.51%) Foundry
4 11 (4.33%) Google
5 9 (3.54%) Salesforce
5 9 (3.54%) VMware
6 7 (2.76%) Cisco
6 7 (2.76%) Veeam
7 5 (1.97%) GoldenSource
7 5 (1.97%) TikTok
8 4 (1.57%) Blue Coat
8 4 (1.57%) CheckPoint
8 4 (1.57%) F5
8 4 (1.57%) Facebook
8 4 (1.57%) HubSpot
8 4 (1.57%) Infoblox
8 4 (1.57%) Instagram
8 4 (1.57%) Motorola
8 4 (1.57%) Pardot
8 4 (1.57%) SolarWinds