Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Problem Solving
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
4 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 10
Rank change year-on-year -5 +7 -1
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 352 244 199
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.22% 18.11% 10.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.50% 20.49% 12.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 252 156 142
10th Percentile £285 £155 £264
25th Percentile £388 £279 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £452 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.20% -9.70% -4.76%
75th Percentile £550 £540 £611
90th Percentile £645 £647 £650
England median daily rate £488 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -2.50% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 9
10th Percentile £13.30 £14.45 £14.29
25th Percentile £15.62 £15.41 £15.13
Median hourly rate £30.27 £16.75 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year +80.72% -60.12% +127.09%
75th Percentile £67.84 £23.18 £56.25
90th Percentile - £42.81 £72.50
England median hourly rate £22.81 £22.07 £17.50
% change year-on-year +3.35% +26.11% -65.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

Problem-Solving falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,607 1,191 1,620
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 83.08% 88.42% 84.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,699 784 1,076
10th Percentile £306 £195 £275
25th Percentile £402 £381 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £625
90th Percentile £670 £675 £750
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 59 114
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.62 £11.08
25th Percentile £21.25 £14.14 £14.00
Median hourly rate £33.98 £18.13 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.42% -19.42% +21.62%
75th Percentile £67.84 £24.61 £40.38
90th Percentile £72.54 £38.19 £58.00
England median hourly rate £45.46 £30.00 £36.05
% change year-on-year +51.53% -16.77% -2.97%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 4 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 4 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in the West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 4 May 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
Contract
IT Job Ads		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
Warwickshire +2 97 £525 -2.51% 49
Shropshire -10 95 £450 -2.17% 19
Birmingham -13 83 £469 +7.09% 78
Coventry -5 24 £308 -21.78% 15
Staffordshire -1 12 £313 +108.33% 40
Worcestershire -9 10 £563 +8.17% 32
Solihull -11 5 £493 - 11
Herefordshire -13 3 - - 4
Wolverhampton - 2 - - 3
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 -
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 30 (8.52%) Confluence
2 29 (8.24%) SAS
3 12 (3.41%) SharePoint
4 8 (2.27%) WebLogic
5 7 (1.99%) Oracle Workflow
6 6 (1.70%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 5 (1.42%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.57%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.28%) Appian
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.28%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 22 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (5.40%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.99%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.42%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (1.14%) Adobe XD
6 4 (1.14%) Sketch
6 4 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.85%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.85%) Revit
8 1 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.28%) CATIA
8 1 (0.28%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.28%) InDesign
8 1 (0.28%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.70%) Oracle HRMS
3 3 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.57%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.57%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.28%) Aareon QL
5 1 (0.28%) MIS ActiveH
5 1 (0.28%) OPENHousing
5 1 (0.28%) Orchard Housing
5 1 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.28%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.28%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.28%) SAP QM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 58 (16.48%) Azure
2 39 (11.08%) AWS
3 27 (7.67%) Power Platform
4 19 (5.40%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (4.83%) Entra ID
6 16 (4.55%) GitHub
7 15 (4.26%) GCP
8 14 (3.98%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (2.56%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (1.99%) Power Automate
11 6 (1.70%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.70%) Figma
12 5 (1.42%) Amazon S3
12 5 (1.42%) OpenShift
12 5 (1.42%) PowerApps
12 5 (1.42%) Serverless
13 4 (1.14%) Datadog
13 4 (1.14%) dbt
13 4 (1.14%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (1.14%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.84%) DNS
2 8 (2.27%) VPN
3 6 (1.70%) Firewall
4 5 (1.42%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (1.42%) Network Security
5 4 (1.14%) BIG-IP
5 4 (1.14%) SD-WAN
5 4 (1.14%) TCP/IP
5 4 (1.14%) VSAN
5 4 (1.14%) WAN
6 3 (0.85%) Internet
7 2 (0.57%) DHCP
7 2 (0.57%) LAN
7 2 (0.57%) SMTP
7 2 (0.57%) SSL
7 2 (0.57%) VLAN
7 2 (0.57%) WAAS
8 1 (0.28%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.28%) SAN
8 1 (0.28%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.53%) Pentaho
2 22 (6.25%) Power BI
3 20 (5.68%) Data Warehouse
4 12 (3.41%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (3.13%) SQL Server
6 10 (2.84%) Metadata
7 8 (2.27%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (1.70%) MongoDB
8 6 (1.70%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (1.42%) Relational Database
10 4 (1.14%) MySQL
10 4 (1.14%) Power Query
10 4 (1.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.85%) Tableau
11 3 (0.85%) WebFOCUS
12 2 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.57%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.57%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 69 (19.60%) JIRA
2 53 (15.06%) Git
3 36 (10.23%) Jenkins
4 10 (2.84%) Selenium
5 7 (1.99%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 6 (1.70%) GitLab
6 6 (1.70%) Postman
7 5 (1.42%) REST Assured
7 5 (1.42%) Zephyr
8 4 (1.14%) JUnit
9 3 (0.85%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.85%) JMeter
9 3 (0.85%) WebDriver
10 2 (0.57%) Browser DevTools
10 2 (0.57%) CircleCI
11 1 (0.28%) CA Gen
11 1 (0.28%) Storybook
11 1 (0.28%) TestRail
11 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.28%) webpack
General
1 182 (51.70%) Social Skills
2 143 (40.63%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (12.22%) Finance
4 26 (7.39%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.83%) Organisational Skills
6 10 (2.84%) Legal
7 9 (2.56%) Banking
7 9 (2.56%) Presentation Skills
8 8 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (1.70%) Local Government
9 6 (1.70%) Military
10 5 (1.42%) Electronics
10 5 (1.42%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.85%) Automotive
12 3 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.85%) Law
12 3 (0.85%) Retail
12 3 (0.85%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.57%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 60 (17.05%) Analyst
2 33 (9.38%) Data Engineer
3 32 (9.09%) Developer
4 26 (7.39%) Lead
5 20 (5.68%) Business Analyst
6 19 (5.40%) Senior
7 17 (4.83%) Consultant
8 16 (4.55%) Architect
9 12 (3.41%) Delivery Manager
10 11 (3.13%) Administrator
10 11 (3.13%) Data Analyst
11 9 (2.56%) Business Intelligence Developer
11 9 (2.56%) SAP Consultant
12 8 (2.27%) Project Manager
12 8 (2.27%) Site Engineer
12 8 (2.27%) Site Reliability Engineer
12 8 (2.27%) Splunk Engineer
13 7 (1.99%) Infrastructure Analyst
13 7 (1.99%) Network Engineer
13 7 (1.99%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.98%) Spring
2 12 (3.41%) REST
3 10 (2.84%) Elastic Stack
3 10 (2.84%) Spring Boot
4 9 (2.56%) RESTful
5 7 (1.99%) AngularJS
5 7 (1.99%) OpenTelemetry
6 6 (1.70%) CSS
6 6 (1.70%) HTML
6 6 (1.70%) Middleware
6 6 (1.70%) SAML
7 5 (1.42%) CSS3
7 5 (1.42%) HTML5
7 5 (1.42%) React
7 5 (1.42%) SailPoint
8 3 (0.85%) FastAPI
8 3 (0.85%) Hugging Face
8 3 (0.85%) PyTorch
8 3 (0.85%) TensorFlow
8 3 (0.85%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.55%) Cloud Native
1 16 (4.55%) Management Information System
1 16 (4.55%) Product Ownership
2 12 (3.41%) Onboarding
3 11 (3.13%) Operational Technology
4 10 (2.84%) Data Centre
5 9 (2.56%) Analytical Mindset
5 9 (2.56%) SCADA
5 9 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (1.70%) Data Structures
6 6 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (1.70%) Driving Licence
6 6 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.14%) CSOC
8 4 (1.14%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.14%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (1.14%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 28 (7.95%) Linux
2 27 (7.67%) Windows
3 10 (2.84%) Unix
4 8 (2.27%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (1.70%) Windows Server
6 5 (1.42%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.57%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.28%) CentOS
8 1 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.28%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (34.94%) Agile
2 101 (28.69%) Continuous Improvement
3 75 (21.31%) CI/CD
4 64 (18.18%) DevOps
5 56 (15.91%) Data Modelling
6 54 (15.34%) Analytics
6 54 (15.34%) Business Intelligence
6 54 (15.34%) Migration
6 54 (15.34%) Scrum
7 51 (14.49%) AI
7 51 (14.49%) ETL
8 50 (14.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 49 (13.92%) Test Automation
10 41 (11.65%) Decision-Making
10 41 (11.65%) Generative AI
11 40 (11.36%) Validation
12 37 (10.51%) Change Management
13 35 (9.94%) Data Integration
13 35 (9.94%) Data Pipeline
14 31 (8.81%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 82 (23.30%) SQL
2 47 (13.35%) Python
3 28 (7.95%) Java
4 18 (5.11%) Bash
5 15 (4.26%) PL/SQL
6 14 (3.98%) PowerShell
7 11 (3.13%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.70%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.42%) Perl
9 5 (1.42%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.14%) C#
10 4 (1.14%) C++
10 4 (1.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.14%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.85%) C
11 3 (0.85%) Go
11 3 (0.85%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.57%) Bicep
13 1 (0.28%) SystemVerilog
13 1 (0.28%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 116 (32.95%) Security Cleared
2 95 (26.99%) SC Cleared
3 52 (14.77%) Degree
4 17 (4.83%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (3.41%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.84%) DV Cleared
8 8 (2.27%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.99%) Azure Certification
9 7 (1.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (1.42%) MCSE
11 4 (1.14%) CCNA
11 4 (1.14%) CCNP
11 4 (1.14%) Master's Degree
11 4 (1.14%) OCP
11 4 (1.14%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (1.14%) PMI Certification
11 4 (1.14%) PMP
12 3 (0.85%) RHCA
12 3 (0.85%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (13.92%) Data Quality
2 22 (6.25%) QA
3 10 (2.84%) Accessibility
4 8 (2.27%) PMO
5 5 (1.42%) GDPR
5 5 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.14%) ISO 19650
6 4 (1.14%) SLA
6 4 (1.14%) WCAG
7 3 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.85%) GRC
7 3 (0.85%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 12207
7 3 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.28%) NIST
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 60 (17.05%) Docker
2 18 (5.11%) Active Directory
3 16 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (3.41%) vSphere
5 4 (1.14%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.14%) Snort
5 4 (1.14%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.85%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.57%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.28%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 63 (17.90%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.68%) Ansible
3 15 (4.26%) Terraform
4 14 (3.98%) Grafana
5 9 (2.56%) Prometheus
6 8 (2.27%) Kibana
6 8 (2.27%) Puppet
7 6 (1.70%) Argo
7 6 (1.70%) SCCM
8 5 (1.42%) vRealize
8 5 (1.42%) VxRail
9 4 (1.14%) CSIRT
9 4 (1.14%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.14%) PowerCLI
9 4 (1.14%) vMotion
10 3 (0.85%) Control-M
10 3 (0.85%) IBM Guardium
10 3 (0.85%) Nessus
10 3 (0.85%) Podman
10 3 (0.85%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 66 (18.75%) Microsoft
2 41 (11.65%) Oracle
3 31 (8.81%) ServiceNow
4 23 (6.53%) Talend
5 22 (6.25%) Denodo
6 21 (5.97%) VMware
7 19 (5.40%) SAP
8 16 (4.55%) Splunk
9 15 (4.26%) Cisco
10 9 (2.56%) Atlassian
11 8 (2.27%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.99%) Adobe
13 6 (1.70%) Dell
13 6 (1.70%) SolarWinds
14 5 (1.42%) HP
14 5 (1.42%) Okta
15 4 (1.14%) AppDynamics
15 4 (1.14%) MuleSoft
15 4 (1.14%) Nimble Storage
15 4 (1.14%) Zscaler
275 Problem-Solving jobs in the West Midlands