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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 2 11
Rank change year-on-year -11 +9 -3
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 364 277 196
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.13% 18.64% 9.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.15% 20.97% 11.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 259 172 136
10th Percentile £300 £151 £215
25th Percentile £367 £282 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £537 £578
90th Percentile £639 £638 £648
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 8 11
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.72 £15.13
25th Percentile £13.85 £22.53 £15.32
Median hourly rate £27.30 £31.61 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.62% +40.47% +21.65%
75th Percentile £47.81 £46.13 £56.25
90th Percentile £67.84 £54.94 £72.50
England median hourly rate £21.68 £21.39 £16.23
% change year-on-year +1.33% +31.79% -67.54%

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 2,769 1,321 1,669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.70% 88.90% 81.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,826 836 1,096
10th Percentile £313 £202 £263
25th Percentile £405 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £482 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -3.60% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £663 £734
England median daily rate £518 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.48% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 77 120
10th Percentile £14.82 £12.62 £11.12
25th Percentile £22.46 £14.50 £14.22
Median hourly rate £33.99 £22.05 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.15% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £61.00 £31.76 £40.13
90th Percentile £72.54 £50.00 £58.75
England median hourly rate £47.00 £27.45 £37.75
% change year-on-year +71.22% -27.28% +7.09%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 0 118 £525 +7.69% 55
Shropshire -17 89 £450 -2.17% 56
Birmingham -12 78 £450 +3.93% 102
Coventry -14 20 £481 +24.19% 49
Worcestershire +2 15 £563 +8.17% 18
Staffordshire -4 9 £313 +101.61% 64
Solihull -16 7 £493 +123.86% 4
Herefordshire -5 3 - - 6
Wolverhampton - 3 - - 34
Wednesbury - 1 - -
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 27 (7.42%) SAS
2 26 (7.14%) Confluence
3 15 (4.12%) SharePoint
4 14 (3.85%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (2.20%) WebLogic
6 6 (1.65%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.27%) Appian
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.27%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 26 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (4.40%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (2.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.10%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.82%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.82%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.82%) Revit
6 2 (0.55%) CATIA
7 1 (0.27%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.27%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.27%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.27%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.27%) InDesign
7 1 (0.27%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.27%) Sketch
7 1 (0.27%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (2.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.65%) Oracle HRMS
3 5 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.82%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.82%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.55%) ContrOCC
5 2 (0.55%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.27%) Aareon QL
6 1 (0.27%) MIS ActiveH
6 1 (0.27%) OPENHousing
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.27%) Orchard Housing
6 1 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.27%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.27%) SAP QM
6 1 (0.27%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 62 (17.03%) Azure
2 41 (11.26%) AWS
3 31 (8.52%) Power Platform
4 23 (6.32%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (4.67%) Azure DevOps
6 15 (4.12%) Entra ID
6 15 (4.12%) GitHub
7 13 (3.57%) GCP
8 8 (2.20%) Azure Data Factory
8 8 (2.20%) Serverless
9 6 (1.65%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (1.65%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (1.37%) Amazon S3
10 5 (1.37%) Azure Functions
10 5 (1.37%) OneDrive
10 5 (1.37%) Snowflake
11 4 (1.10%) Azure Storage
11 4 (1.10%) dbt
11 4 (1.10%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 11 (3.02%) DNS
2 9 (2.47%) VPN
3 6 (1.65%) DHCP
3 6 (1.65%) Firewall
3 6 (1.65%) SD-WAN
3 6 (1.65%) WAN
4 5 (1.37%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (1.37%) LAN
4 5 (1.37%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (1.10%) BIG-IP
5 4 (1.10%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.82%) Internet
6 3 (0.82%) Network Security
6 3 (0.82%) VLAN
7 2 (0.55%) PBX
7 2 (0.55%) SAN
7 2 (0.55%) SSL
7 2 (0.55%) Unified Communications
7 2 (0.55%) VoIP
7 2 (0.55%) WAAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (6.87%) Power BI
2 23 (6.32%) Pentaho
3 19 (5.22%) Data Warehouse
4 12 (3.30%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (2.75%) Metadata
6 9 (2.47%) SQL Server
7 8 (2.20%) Ingres
8 7 (1.92%) MongoDB
8 7 (1.92%) Relational Database
9 6 (1.65%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (1.10%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (1.10%) MySQL
10 4 (1.10%) Oracle Database
10 4 (1.10%) Power Query
10 4 (1.10%) Tableau
11 3 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.82%) WebFOCUS
12 2 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.55%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 58 (15.93%) JIRA
2 45 (12.36%) Git
3 32 (8.79%) Jenkins
4 15 (4.12%) Selenium
5 9 (2.47%) Postman
6 8 (2.20%) GitLab
7 7 (1.92%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 7 (1.92%) REST Assured
8 5 (1.37%) JUnit
8 5 (1.37%) WebDriver
8 5 (1.37%) Zephyr
9 4 (1.10%) Cucumber
9 4 (1.10%) Cypress.io
9 4 (1.10%) JMeter
10 2 (0.55%) Browser DevTools
10 2 (0.55%) Gatling
10 2 (0.55%) Serenity BDD
10 2 (0.55%) TestRail
11 1 (0.27%) Storybook
11 1 (0.27%) Vite
General
1 175 (48.08%) Social Skills
2 145 (39.84%) Analytical Skills
3 58 (15.93%) Finance
4 26 (7.14%) Public Sector
5 15 (4.12%) Local Government
6 12 (3.30%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (3.02%) Manufacturing
8 10 (2.75%) Banking
9 9 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (2.47%) Legal
10 8 (2.20%) Automotive
10 8 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.37%) Electronics
11 5 (1.37%) Military
12 4 (1.10%) Marketing
12 4 (1.10%) Retail
12 4 (1.10%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.82%) Billing
Job Titles
1 57 (15.66%) Analyst
2 35 (9.62%) Data Engineer
3 31 (8.52%) Lead
4 27 (7.42%) Senior
5 25 (6.87%) Developer
6 20 (5.49%) Business Analyst
7 19 (5.22%) Architect
8 18 (4.95%) Consultant
9 16 (4.40%) Administrator
10 15 (4.12%) Data Analyst
11 11 (3.02%) Delivery Manager
12 9 (2.47%) SAP Consultant
13 8 (2.20%) Software Engineer
13 8 (2.20%) Test Analyst
14 7 (1.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 7 (1.92%) Network Engineer
14 7 (1.92%) Oracle Specialist
14 7 (1.92%) Project Manager
14 7 (1.92%) Scrum Master
14 7 (1.92%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.12%) Spring
2 11 (3.02%) REST
2 11 (3.02%) Spring Boot
3 8 (2.20%) Oracle Fusion
4 7 (1.92%) OpenTelemetry
5 5 (1.37%) Middleware
5 5 (1.37%) Playwright
6 4 (1.10%) Elastic Stack
7 3 (0.82%) FastAPI
7 3 (0.82%) Hugging Face
7 3 (0.82%) Node.js
7 3 (0.82%) PyTorch
7 3 (0.82%) RESTful
7 3 (0.82%) SAML
7 3 (0.82%) TensorFlow
7 3 (0.82%) WireMock
8 2 (0.55%) ADO
8 2 (0.55%) Gherkin
8 2 (0.55%) Kafka
8 2 (0.55%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.67%) Cloud Native
2 14 (3.85%) Management Information System
3 13 (3.57%) Product Ownership
4 11 (3.02%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.75%) Onboarding
5 10 (2.75%) Operational Technology
6 9 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.47%) SCADA
7 8 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (2.20%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.65%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.37%) Driving Licence
10 4 (1.10%) CSOC
10 4 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.10%) Security Operations Centre
10 4 (1.10%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.82%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 38 (10.44%) Windows
2 20 (5.49%) Linux
3 10 (2.75%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.47%) Mac OS
5 8 (2.20%) Unix
5 8 (2.20%) Windows Server
6 5 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (1.10%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.27%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.27%) HPUX
8 1 (0.27%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (32.14%) Agile
2 112 (30.77%) Continuous Improvement
3 73 (20.05%) CI/CD
4 61 (16.76%) DevOps
5 57 (15.66%) Migration
5 57 (15.66%) Test Automation
6 55 (15.11%) Stakeholder Management
7 54 (14.84%) Analytics
7 54 (14.84%) Business Intelligence
8 53 (14.56%) ETL
9 51 (14.01%) Scrum
10 50 (13.74%) AI
10 50 (13.74%) Data Modelling
11 44 (12.09%) Validation
12 42 (11.54%) Decision-Making
13 40 (10.99%) Generative AI
14 35 (9.62%) Data Pipeline
15 34 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 31 (8.52%) Data Integration
17 29 (7.97%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 94 (25.82%) SQL
2 43 (11.81%) Python
3 26 (7.14%) Java
4 20 (5.49%) PL/SQL
5 15 (4.12%) PowerShell
6 12 (3.30%) Bash
7 11 (3.02%) C
8 8 (2.20%) ProC
9 5 (1.37%) C#
9 5 (1.37%) JavaScript
9 5 (1.37%) Perl
9 5 (1.37%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.37%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.10%) C++
10 4 (1.10%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.82%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.55%) Bicep
13 1 (0.27%) SystemVerilog
13 1 (0.27%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 119 (32.69%) Security Cleared
2 99 (27.20%) SC Cleared
3 41 (11.26%) Degree
4 11 (3.02%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (3.02%) Computer Science Degree
4 11 (3.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (2.75%) DV Cleared
6 8 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 6 (1.65%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.37%) MCSE
10 4 (1.10%) AWS Certification
10 4 (1.10%) CCNA
10 4 (1.10%) CCNP
10 4 (1.10%) OCP
10 4 (1.10%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (0.82%) CISSP
11 3 (0.82%) RHCA
11 3 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.55%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (14.84%) Data Quality
2 21 (5.77%) QA
3 12 (3.30%) SLA
4 11 (3.02%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.92%) GDPR
6 6 (1.65%) PMO
7 5 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (1.10%) WCAG
9 3 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.82%) GRC
9 3 (0.82%) ISO 19650
9 3 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 3 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 2 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.27%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.27%) ISO 14001
11 1 (0.27%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.27%) NIST
11 1 (0.27%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (13.46%) Docker
2 19 (5.22%) Active Directory
3 11 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.47%) vSphere
5 6 (1.65%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.10%) Snort
7 3 (0.82%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.55%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 49 (13.46%) Kubernetes
2 15 (4.12%) SCCM
3 14 (3.85%) Ansible
4 13 (3.57%) Grafana
5 12 (3.30%) Terraform
6 11 (3.02%) Prometheus
7 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.10%) Argo
8 4 (1.10%) CSIRT
8 4 (1.10%) Kibana
8 4 (1.10%) PowerCLI
8 4 (1.10%) Puppet
8 4 (1.10%) vMotion
9 3 (0.82%) Control-M
9 3 (0.82%) IBM Guardium
9 3 (0.82%) Nessus
9 3 (0.82%) Podman
9 3 (0.82%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.55%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.55%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 71 (19.51%) Microsoft
2 55 (15.11%) Oracle
3 27 (7.42%) ServiceNow
4 24 (6.59%) Talend
5 21 (5.77%) Denodo
6 19 (5.22%) SAP
7 18 (4.95%) VMware
8 16 (4.40%) Splunk
9 14 (3.85%) Cisco
10 10 (2.75%) Red Hat
11 8 (2.20%) Atlassian
12 7 (1.92%) Google
13 6 (1.65%) Qualys
13 6 (1.65%) Siemens
14 5 (1.37%) Databricks
15 4 (1.10%) Adobe
15 4 (1.10%) Informatica
15 4 (1.10%) Nimble Storage
15 4 (1.10%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.10%) Zscaler