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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -8 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 444 335 231
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.52% 17.78% 12.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.78% 19.76% 14.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 283 219 142
10th Percentile £306 £206 £155
25th Percentile £363 £394 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £443
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +7.34% -11.50%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £547
90th Percentile £670 £634 £638
England median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 11 4
10th Percentile £12.93 £15.13 £16.54
25th Percentile £13.85 £16.09 £18.10
Median hourly rate £19.30 £29.33 £19.99
Median % change year-on-year -34.21% +46.76% +37.45%
75th Percentile £31.14 £37.51 £21.63
90th Percentile £45.00 £44.00 £21.85
England median hourly rate £19.33 £18.86 £16.23
% change year-on-year +2.49% +16.20% -68.76%

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 3,005 1,695 1,571
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.72% 89.97% 83.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,844 1,078 988
10th Percentile £316 £257 £229
25th Percentile £413 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £517
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.29% +3.40%
75th Percentile £586 £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 223 116 41
10th Percentile £13.45 £12.62 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.48 £16.30 £15.50
Median hourly rate £23.00 £23.03 £23.60
Median % change year-on-year -0.11% -2.44% -14.18%
75th Percentile £43.96 £31.72 £35.00
90th Percentile £60.75 £50.00 £52.50
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -5.56%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -5 133 £461 -10.58% 47
Warwickshire -1 118 £470 -5.95% 88
Birmingham -13 72 £400 -11.11% 324
Coventry -7 40 £363 -14.71% 77
Staffordshire -4 21 £725 +81.25% 85
Worcestershire +9 14 £425 -22.73% 37
Solihull -12 14 - - 39
Wolverhampton 0 4 £275 +46.67% 22
Herefordshire 0 3 - - 19
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 43 (9.68%) Confluence
2 22 (4.95%) SharePoint
3 16 (3.60%) SAS
4 9 (2.03%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (1.80%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.45%) 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%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (4.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (3.15%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.13%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) Navisworks
4 3 (0.68%) Revit
4 3 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.45%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.45%) CATIA
5 2 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.45%) Sketch
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.23%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.23%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (3.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (2.93%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.13%) SAP PSCD
4 3 (0.68%) ContrOCC
4 3 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.45%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.45%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.45%) Teamcenter
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 76 (17.12%) Azure
2 46 (10.36%) AWS
3 44 (9.91%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (9.68%) Power Platform
5 28 (6.31%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (4.28%) Entra ID
7 18 (4.05%) Power Automate
8 14 (3.15%) Dynamics 365
9 12 (2.70%) Azure Data Factory
9 12 (2.70%) Serverless
10 11 (2.48%) Azure Functions
11 9 (2.03%) GitHub
12 8 (1.80%) Snowflake
13 7 (1.58%) GCP
13 7 (1.58%) OneDrive
14 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Purview
15 5 (1.13%) Google Analytics
16 4 (0.90%) Cloud Computing
16 4 (0.90%) OCI
16 4 (0.90%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.83%) Firewall
2 16 (3.60%) DHCP
2 16 (3.60%) DNS
3 14 (3.15%) Network Security
4 11 (2.48%) LAN
4 11 (2.48%) TCP/IP
4 11 (2.48%) VPN
4 11 (2.48%) WAN
5 8 (1.80%) Unified Communications
6 6 (1.35%) SD-WAN
6 6 (1.35%) VoIP
7 5 (1.13%) VXLAN
7 5 (1.13%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (1.13%) Wireless
8 4 (0.90%) BGP
8 4 (0.90%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.90%) Internet
8 4 (0.90%) NX-OS
8 4 (0.90%) Softphone
9 3 (0.68%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (8.78%) Power BI
2 22 (4.95%) SQL Server
3 20 (4.50%) Data Warehouse
3 20 (4.50%) Pentaho
4 18 (4.05%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.83%) Metadata
6 16 (3.60%) Relational Database
7 11 (2.48%) Oracle Reports
8 10 (2.25%) Data Lake
9 9 (2.03%) NoSQL
10 8 (1.80%) Oracle Database
11 7 (1.58%) MongoDB
11 7 (1.58%) MySQL
12 6 (1.35%) Ingres
13 4 (0.90%) SAP BW
14 3 (0.68%) Big Data
14 3 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 2 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
15 2 (0.45%) Delta Lake
15 2 (0.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 53 (11.94%) JIRA
2 28 (6.31%) Git
3 19 (4.28%) Jenkins
3 19 (4.28%) Selenium
4 17 (3.83%) Postman
5 14 (3.15%) GitLab
5 14 (3.15%) Maven
6 12 (2.70%) Cypress.io
6 12 (2.70%) JUnit
7 11 (2.48%) SonarQube
7 11 (2.48%) WebDriver
8 10 (2.25%) Mockito
9 8 (1.80%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.13%) Zephyr
11 4 (0.90%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 4 (0.90%) Bitbucket
12 3 (0.68%) Protractor
12 3 (0.68%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
13 2 (0.45%) Gatling
General
1 250 (56.31%) Social Skills
2 183 (41.22%) Analytical Skills
3 86 (19.37%) Public Sector
4 63 (14.19%) Finance
5 33 (7.43%) Organisational Skills
6 29 (6.53%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 21 (4.73%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (3.83%) Legal
10 16 (3.60%) Local Government
11 15 (3.38%) Automotive
12 13 (2.93%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (2.03%) Billing
13 9 (2.03%) Retail
14 8 (1.80%) Banking
14 8 (1.80%) Marketing
14 8 (1.80%) Telecoms
15 7 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
16 5 (1.13%) Electronics
16 5 (1.13%) Military
Job Titles
1 69 (15.54%) Analyst
2 50 (11.26%) Lead
3 45 (10.14%) Senior
4 39 (8.78%) Developer
5 31 (6.98%) Data Engineer
6 30 (6.76%) Architect
7 24 (5.41%) Consultant
8 18 (4.05%) Test Analyst
9 17 (3.83%) Administrator
9 17 (3.83%) Business Analyst
10 16 (3.60%) SAP Consultant
11 15 (3.38%) Java Developer
11 15 (3.38%) Support Engineer
12 13 (2.93%) Data Analyst
12 13 (2.93%) Technical Engineer
13 11 (2.48%) Project Manager
14 10 (2.25%) Network Engineer
14 10 (2.25%) Technical Support
14 10 (2.25%) Technical Support Engineer
15 9 (2.03%) Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.23%) REST
2 31 (6.98%) SOAP
3 16 (3.60%) AngularJS
4 15 (3.38%) RESTful
4 15 (3.38%) Spring
4 15 (3.38%) Spring Boot
5 14 (3.15%) Web Services
6 13 (2.93%) Oracle Fusion
7 12 (2.70%) Spring Cloud
8 11 (2.48%) Gherkin
8 11 (2.48%) Hibernate
8 11 (2.48%) JPA
9 10 (2.25%) ActiveMQ
9 10 (2.25%) Terraform
10 8 (1.80%) JSON
11 7 (1.58%) Play Framework
12 6 (1.35%) Middleware
12 6 (1.35%) XML
13 5 (1.13%) CSS
13 5 (1.13%) JDBC
Miscellaneous
1 29 (6.53%) Management Information System
2 28 (6.31%) Cloud Native
3 25 (5.63%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (4.73%) Enterprise Software
5 18 (4.05%) Product Ownership
6 17 (3.83%) Onboarding
7 15 (3.38%) Data Centre
8 13 (2.93%) Operational Technology
9 11 (2.48%) Virtual Team
10 8 (1.80%) Autonomous Agent
10 8 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (1.58%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.58%) Life Science
11 7 (1.58%) Renewable Energy
11 7 (1.58%) SCADA
12 6 (1.35%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.35%) Data Structures
12 6 (1.35%) iPhone
12 6 (1.35%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 48 (10.81%) Windows
2 15 (3.38%) Linux
3 14 (3.15%) Unix
4 13 (2.93%) macOS
5 11 (2.48%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.25%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.68%) AIX
8 3 (0.68%) Solaris
8 3 (0.68%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.45%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.45%) CentOS
9 2 (0.45%) 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
1 158 (35.59%) Agile
2 138 (31.08%) Continuous Improvement
3 103 (23.20%) Stakeholder Management
4 71 (15.99%) CI/CD
5 68 (15.32%) DevOps
6 65 (14.64%) Test Automation
7 63 (14.19%) Migration
8 62 (13.96%) AI
9 56 (12.61%) Scrum
10 53 (11.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 52 (11.71%) Data Modelling
12 50 (11.26%) Decision-Making
13 47 (10.59%) Generative AI
14 46 (10.36%) Mentoring
15 45 (10.14%) Analytics
15 45 (10.14%) Business Intelligence
16 44 (9.91%) ETL
16 44 (9.91%) Validation
17 40 (9.01%) Customer Service
18 39 (8.78%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 63 (14.19%) SQL
2 42 (9.46%) Java
3 31 (6.98%) Python
4 23 (5.18%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.93%) C#
5 13 (2.93%) TypeScript
6 12 (2.70%) PowerShell
7 10 (2.25%) PL/SQL
8 8 (1.80%) C
8 8 (1.80%) ProC
9 7 (1.58%) ABAP
9 7 (1.58%) Bash
9 7 (1.58%) Scala
10 5 (1.13%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.90%) Bicep
12 3 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.45%) C++
13 2 (0.45%) MATLAB
13 2 (0.45%) VB
13 2 (0.45%) VBA
Qualifications
1 127 (28.60%) Security Cleared
2 108 (24.32%) SC Cleared
3 49 (11.04%) Degree
4 35 (7.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (4.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.70%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.25%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.25%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.03%) CISSP
9 7 (1.58%) DBS Check
10 6 (1.35%) OCP
10 6 (1.35%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (1.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (1.13%) A+ Certification
11 5 (1.13%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.13%) CCNA
11 5 (1.13%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (0.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (0.90%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (11.04%) Data Quality
2 41 (9.23%) QA
3 24 (5.41%) Accessibility
4 16 (3.60%) GDPR
5 15 (3.38%) SLA
6 12 (2.70%) WCAG
7 6 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (1.13%) ISO 19650
9 4 (0.90%) PMO
10 3 (0.68%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.68%) NIST
11 2 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.45%) ISO 13485
11 2 (0.45%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 1 (0.23%) GRC
12 1 (0.23%) HL7
12 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 17025
12 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 27 (6.08%) Docker
2 19 (4.28%) Active Directory
3 15 (3.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.03%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (2.03%) vSphere
5 6 (1.35%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.90%) FreeRADIUS
7 3 (0.68%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (3.38%) Kubernetes
1 15 (3.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (3.15%) Grafana
2 14 (3.15%) Prometheus
2 14 (3.15%) SCCM
3 11 (2.48%) Ansible
4 6 (1.35%) Jamf Pro
5 4 (0.90%) FortiGate
5 4 (0.90%) PowerCLI
5 4 (0.90%) vMotion
6 3 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.45%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.45%) Podman
8 1 (0.23%) Argo
8 1 (0.23%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.23%) QRadar
Vendors
1 103 (23.20%) Microsoft
2 48 (10.81%) Oracle
3 39 (8.78%) SAP
4 24 (5.41%) ServiceNow
5 22 (4.95%) Cisco
6 21 (4.73%) VMware
7 15 (3.38%) Denodo
8 14 (3.15%) Talend
9 11 (2.48%) Google
10 8 (1.80%) Apple
10 8 (1.80%) Databricks
11 7 (1.58%) Atlassian
11 7 (1.58%) Qualys
11 7 (1.58%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.58%) Splunk
12 6 (1.35%) Autodesk
12 6 (1.35%) Fortinet
12 6 (1.35%) Informatica
12 6 (1.35%) Samsung
13 5 (1.13%) webMethods