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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 438 335 229
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.32% 17.94% 12.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.55% 19.96% 14.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 216 141
10th Percentile £306 £206 £155
25th Percentile £363 £397 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £552 £550
90th Percentile £671 £638 £638
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.51% -2.45% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 12 3
10th Percentile £12.91 £14.34 £16.19
25th Percentile £14.06 £15.53 £17.24
Median hourly rate £19.48 £27.17 £18.97
Median % change year-on-year -28.29% +43.20% +30.47%
75th Percentile £32.88 £36.25 £20.24
90th Percentile £45.00 £43.60 £20.99
England median hourly rate £19.37 £18.86 £16.23
% change year-on-year +2.68% +16.20% -69.76%

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 3,010 1,678 1,572
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.67% 89.88% 82.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,840 1,069 989
10th Percentile £315 £252 £231
25th Percentile £413 £400 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.66% +3.80%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £625
90th Percentile £675 £683 £725
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 111 39
10th Percentile £13.45 £12.62 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.48 £16.40 £16.38
Median hourly rate £23.00 £23.05 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year -0.22% -4.67% -12.07%
75th Percentile £45.00 £34.43 £35.00
90th Percentile £61.00 £50.00 £53.05
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.69
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.09% -4.07%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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
Shropshire -4 128 £462 -10.60% 51
Warwickshire -1 117 £471 -5.90% 91
Birmingham -14 73 £400 -11.11% 225
Coventry -8 40 £363 -18.31% 72
Staffordshire -5 20 £725 +81.25% 78
Worcestershire +12 14 £425 -27.66% 50
Solihull -12 14 - - 33
Wolverhampton 0 4 £275 +46.67% 20
Herefordshire +1 3 - - 20
Dudley - 3 £375 - 6
Wednesbury - 1 - - 1
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 41 (9.36%) Confluence
2 23 (5.25%) SharePoint
3 16 (3.65%) SAS
4 10 (2.28%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.46%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.23%) Apache
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.23%) Appian
7 1 (0.23%) IIS
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.23%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (5.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (3.42%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.37%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.68%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.68%) Revit
5 3 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.46%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.46%) CATIA
6 2 (0.46%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.46%) Sketch
7 1 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.23%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.23%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (4.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (2.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.14%) SAP PSCD
4 3 (0.68%) ContrOCC
4 3 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.68%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.46%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.46%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.23%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.23%) Maximo
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.23%) Primavera
6 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.23%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP PP
6 1 (0.23%) SAP QM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.23%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 74 (16.89%) Azure
2 45 (10.27%) AWS
3 43 (9.82%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (9.82%) Power Platform
4 27 (6.16%) Azure DevOps
5 18 (4.11%) Entra ID
5 18 (4.11%) Power Automate
6 15 (3.42%) Dynamics 365
7 12 (2.74%) Azure Data Factory
7 12 (2.74%) Serverless
8 11 (2.51%) Azure Functions
9 9 (2.05%) GitHub
10 8 (1.83%) Snowflake
11 7 (1.60%) GCP
11 7 (1.60%) OneDrive
12 6 (1.37%) Microsoft Purview
13 5 (1.14%) Google Analytics
14 4 (0.91%) Cloud Computing
14 4 (0.91%) SuccessFactors
15 3 (0.68%) Oracle Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.88%) Firewall
2 16 (3.65%) DHCP
2 16 (3.65%) DNS
3 14 (3.20%) Network Security
4 11 (2.51%) LAN
4 11 (2.51%) TCP/IP
4 11 (2.51%) VPN
4 11 (2.51%) WAN
5 8 (1.83%) Unified Communications
6 6 (1.37%) SD-WAN
6 6 (1.37%) VoIP
7 5 (1.14%) VXLAN
7 5 (1.14%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (1.14%) Wireless
8 4 (0.91%) BGP
8 4 (0.91%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.91%) Internet
8 4 (0.91%) NX-OS
8 4 (0.91%) Softphone
9 3 (0.68%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (8.90%) Power BI
2 23 (5.25%) SQL Server
3 20 (4.57%) Data Warehouse
3 20 (4.57%) Pentaho
4 18 (4.11%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.88%) Metadata
6 16 (3.65%) Relational Database
7 10 (2.28%) Data Lake
7 10 (2.28%) Oracle Reports
8 9 (2.05%) NoSQL
9 8 (1.83%) Oracle Database
10 7 (1.60%) MongoDB
10 7 (1.60%) MySQL
11 6 (1.37%) Ingres
12 4 (0.91%) SAP BW
13 3 (0.68%) Big Data
13 3 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 2 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
14 2 (0.46%) Delta Lake
14 2 (0.46%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (11.64%) JIRA
2 28 (6.39%) Git
3 19 (4.34%) Jenkins
3 19 (4.34%) Selenium
4 17 (3.88%) Postman
5 14 (3.20%) GitLab
5 14 (3.20%) Maven
6 12 (2.74%) Cypress.io
6 12 (2.74%) JUnit
7 11 (2.51%) SonarQube
7 11 (2.51%) WebDriver
8 10 (2.28%) Mockito
9 8 (1.83%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.14%) Zephyr
11 4 (0.91%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 4 (0.91%) Bitbucket
12 3 (0.68%) Protractor
12 3 (0.68%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
13 2 (0.46%) Gatling
General
1 245 (55.94%) Social Skills
2 179 (40.87%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (19.18%) Public Sector
4 63 (14.38%) Finance
5 31 (7.08%) Organisational Skills
6 27 (6.16%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (4.57%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (3.88%) Legal
10 16 (3.65%) Local Government
11 15 (3.42%) Automotive
12 13 (2.97%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (2.05%) Billing
13 9 (2.05%) Retail
14 8 (1.83%) Banking
14 8 (1.83%) Marketing
14 8 (1.83%) Telecoms
15 6 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
16 5 (1.14%) Electronics
16 5 (1.14%) Military
Job Titles
1 66 (15.07%) Analyst
2 49 (11.19%) Lead
3 47 (10.73%) Senior
4 40 (9.13%) Developer
5 31 (7.08%) Architect
5 31 (7.08%) Data Engineer
6 24 (5.48%) Consultant
7 18 (4.11%) Test Analyst
8 17 (3.88%) Administrator
8 17 (3.88%) Business Analyst
8 17 (3.88%) SAP Consultant
9 15 (3.42%) Java Developer
9 15 (3.42%) Support Engineer
10 13 (2.97%) Data Analyst
10 13 (2.97%) Technical Engineer
11 12 (2.74%) Project Manager
12 10 (2.28%) Network Engineer
12 10 (2.28%) Senior Developer
12 10 (2.28%) Technical Support
12 10 (2.28%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (9.13%) REST
2 29 (6.62%) SOAP
3 16 (3.65%) AngularJS
4 15 (3.42%) RESTful
4 15 (3.42%) Spring
4 15 (3.42%) Spring Boot
5 14 (3.20%) Web Services
6 12 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
6 12 (2.74%) Spring Cloud
7 11 (2.51%) Gherkin
7 11 (2.51%) Hibernate
7 11 (2.51%) JPA
8 10 (2.28%) ActiveMQ
8 10 (2.28%) Terraform
9 8 (1.83%) JSON
10 7 (1.60%) Play Framework
11 6 (1.37%) Middleware
11 6 (1.37%) XML
12 5 (1.14%) CSS
12 5 (1.14%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (6.85%) Management Information System
2 28 (6.39%) Cloud Native
3 24 (5.48%) Self-Motivation
4 19 (4.34%) Enterprise Software
5 16 (3.65%) Product Ownership
6 15 (3.42%) Onboarding
7 14 (3.20%) Data Centre
8 12 (2.74%) Operational Technology
9 11 (2.51%) Virtual Team
10 8 (1.83%) Autonomous Agent
10 8 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.60%) Cyber Threat
11 7 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.60%) Life Science
11 7 (1.60%) SCADA
12 6 (1.37%) Data Structures
12 6 (1.37%) Renewable Energy
13 5 (1.14%) Driving Licence
13 5 (1.14%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 47 (10.73%) Windows
2 15 (3.42%) Linux
3 14 (3.20%) Unix
4 12 (2.74%) Mac OS
5 11 (2.51%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.28%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.68%) AIX
8 3 (0.68%) Solaris
8 3 (0.68%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.46%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.46%) CentOS
9 2 (0.46%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.23%) HPUX
10 1 (0.23%) SUSE
10 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (35.16%) Agile
2 137 (31.28%) Continuous Improvement
3 102 (23.29%) Stakeholder Management
4 71 (16.21%) CI/CD
5 67 (15.30%) DevOps
6 65 (14.84%) Test Automation
7 63 (14.38%) Migration
8 62 (14.16%) AI
9 55 (12.56%) Scrum
10 53 (12.10%) Data Modelling
11 52 (11.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 48 (10.96%) Decision-Making
13 47 (10.73%) Generative AI
14 45 (10.27%) Analytics
14 45 (10.27%) Business Intelligence
14 45 (10.27%) ETL
15 44 (10.05%) Mentoring
16 42 (9.59%) Validation
17 40 (9.13%) Technical Leadership
18 39 (8.90%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 64 (14.61%) SQL
2 42 (9.59%) Java
3 31 (7.08%) Python
4 23 (5.25%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.97%) C#
5 13 (2.97%) TypeScript
6 12 (2.74%) PowerShell
7 10 (2.28%) PL/SQL
8 9 (2.05%) C
9 8 (1.83%) ProC
10 7 (1.60%) ABAP
10 7 (1.60%) Bash
10 7 (1.60%) Scala
11 5 (1.14%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.91%) Bicep
13 3 (0.68%) C++
13 3 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 2 (0.46%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.46%) VB
14 2 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 125 (28.54%) Security Cleared
2 106 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 50 (11.42%) Degree
4 35 (7.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (5.02%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.74%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.28%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (2.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.05%) CISSP
9 7 (1.60%) DBS Check
10 6 (1.37%) OCP
10 6 (1.37%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (1.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (1.14%) A+ Certification
11 5 (1.14%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.14%) CCNA
11 5 (1.14%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (0.91%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (11.19%) Data Quality
2 42 (9.59%) QA
3 24 (5.48%) Accessibility
4 16 (3.65%) GDPR
5 15 (3.42%) SLA
6 12 (2.74%) WCAG
7 6 (1.37%) ISO 19650
7 6 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.68%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.68%) NIST
8 3 (0.68%) PMO
9 2 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.46%) ISO 13485
9 2 (0.46%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 1 (0.23%) GMP
10 1 (0.23%) GRC
10 1 (0.23%) HL7
10 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 17025
10 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 27 (6.16%) Docker
2 19 (4.34%) Active Directory
3 15 (3.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.05%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (2.05%) vSphere
5 6 (1.37%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.91%) FreeRADIUS
7 3 (0.68%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 15 (3.42%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.20%) Grafana
2 14 (3.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (3.20%) Prometheus
2 14 (3.20%) SCCM
3 11 (2.51%) Ansible
4 5 (1.14%) Jamf Pro
5 4 (0.91%) FortiGate
5 4 (0.91%) PowerCLI
5 4 (0.91%) vMotion
6 3 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.46%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.46%) Podman
8 1 (0.23%) Argo
8 1 (0.23%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.23%) QRadar
Vendors
1 102 (23.29%) Microsoft
2 48 (10.96%) Oracle
3 38 (8.68%) SAP
4 23 (5.25%) ServiceNow
5 22 (5.02%) Cisco
6 21 (4.79%) VMware
7 15 (3.42%) Denodo
8 14 (3.20%) Talend
9 11 (2.51%) Google
10 7 (1.60%) Apple
10 7 (1.60%) Atlassian
10 7 (1.60%) Databricks
10 7 (1.60%) Qualys
10 7 (1.60%) Red Hat
10 7 (1.60%) Splunk
11 6 (1.37%) Autodesk
11 6 (1.37%) Fortinet
11 6 (1.37%) Informatica
12 5 (1.14%) Samsung
12 5 (1.14%) webMethods