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 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
29 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 436 326 225
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.17% 17.87% 11.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.35% 20.02% 14.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 283 208 138
10th Percentile £306 £200 £154
25th Percentile £363 £400 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £478 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.76% +6.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £550
90th Percentile £663 £634 £638
England median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 12 3
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.34 £16.19
25th Percentile £14.98 £15.53 £17.24
Median hourly rate £19.99 £27.17 £18.97
Median % change year-on-year -26.41% +43.20% +30.47%
75th Percentile £33.93 £36.25 £20.24
90th Percentile £51.25 £43.60 £20.99
England median hourly rate £19.48 £18.85 £16.23
% change year-on-year +3.34% +16.14% -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 3,038 1,628 1,552
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.81% 89.25% 82.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,866 1,041 976
10th Percentile £315 £250 £231
25th Percentile £413 £400 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £517
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.29% +3.40%
75th Percentile £582 £588 £625
90th Percentile £675 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 109 39
10th Percentile £13.45 £12.62 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.48 £16.30 £16.38
Median hourly rate £28.09 £23.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.13% -4.88% -12.07%
75th Percentile £53.75 £33.88 £35.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £55.65
England median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -4 129 £462 -10.60% 44
Warwickshire -1 116 £460 -8.00% 82
Birmingham -14 77 £419 -6.94% 245
Coventry -8 39 £363 -18.31% 59
Staffordshire -7 18 £519 +29.69% 76
Solihull -10 14 - - 25
Worcestershire +9 12 £425 -27.66% 55
Wolverhampton 0 4 £275 +46.67% 25
Herefordshire -1 4 - - 18
Dudley - 3 £375 - 7
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 (9.40%) Confluence
2 22 (5.05%) SharePoint
3 17 (3.90%) SAS
4 12 (2.75%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.46%) Oracle Self-Service HR
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 (5.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (3.21%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.92%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.69%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.69%) Revit
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%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.23%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.23%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (4.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (2.98%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.15%) SAP PSCD
4 3 (0.69%) ContrOCC
4 3 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.69%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.46%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.46%) Oracle HRMS
5 2 (0.46%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.23%) Maximo
6 1 (0.23%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.23%) Primavera
6 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
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 (16.97%) Azure
2 46 (10.55%) AWS
2 46 (10.55%) Microsoft 365
3 40 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 29 (6.65%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (4.82%) Entra ID
6 17 (3.90%) Power Automate
7 15 (3.44%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.98%) Serverless
9 11 (2.52%) Azure Functions
9 11 (2.52%) GitHub
10 10 (2.29%) Azure Data Factory
11 7 (1.61%) GCP
11 7 (1.61%) OneDrive
12 6 (1.38%) Microsoft Purview
12 6 (1.38%) Snowflake
13 5 (1.15%) Google Analytics
14 4 (0.92%) Cloud Computing
14 4 (0.92%) SuccessFactors
15 3 (0.69%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 19 (4.36%) Firewall
2 18 (4.13%) DHCP
2 18 (4.13%) DNS
3 16 (3.67%) Network Security
4 13 (2.98%) LAN
4 13 (2.98%) TCP/IP
4 13 (2.98%) VPN
4 13 (2.98%) WAN
5 8 (1.83%) SD-WAN
5 8 (1.83%) Unified Communications
6 6 (1.38%) Internet
6 6 (1.38%) VoIP
7 5 (1.15%) VXLAN
7 5 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (1.15%) Wireless
8 4 (0.92%) BGP
8 4 (0.92%) Ethernet VPN
8 4 (0.92%) NX-OS
8 4 (0.92%) Softphone
8 4 (0.92%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (8.26%) Power BI
2 23 (5.28%) SQL Server
3 21 (4.82%) Pentaho
4 20 (4.59%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (4.36%) PostgreSQL
6 17 (3.90%) Relational Database
7 14 (3.21%) Metadata
8 10 (2.29%) Data Lake
8 10 (2.29%) Oracle Reports
9 9 (2.06%) NoSQL
10 8 (1.83%) Oracle Database
11 7 (1.61%) MongoDB
11 7 (1.61%) MySQL
12 6 (1.38%) Ingres
13 4 (0.92%) SAP BW
14 3 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
14 3 (0.69%) Big Data
14 3 (0.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 2 (0.46%) Tableau
16 1 (0.23%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 53 (12.16%) JIRA
2 30 (6.88%) Git
3 20 (4.59%) Jenkins
4 19 (4.36%) Selenium
5 17 (3.90%) Postman
6 14 (3.21%) GitLab
6 14 (3.21%) Maven
7 12 (2.75%) Cypress.io
7 12 (2.75%) JUnit
8 11 (2.52%) SonarQube
8 11 (2.52%) WebDriver
9 10 (2.29%) Mockito
10 8 (1.83%) Cucumber
11 5 (1.15%) Zephyr
12 4 (0.92%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 4 (0.92%) Bitbucket
13 3 (0.69%) Browser DevTools
13 3 (0.69%) Protractor
13 3 (0.69%) REST Assured
13 3 (0.69%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 243 (55.73%) Social Skills
2 179 (41.06%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (19.27%) Public Sector
4 63 (14.45%) Finance
5 25 (5.73%) Organisational Skills
6 24 (5.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 23 (5.28%) Manufacturing
8 20 (4.59%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (3.90%) Legal
9 17 (3.90%) Local Government
10 13 (2.98%) Automotive
10 13 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
11 9 (2.06%) Billing
12 8 (1.83%) Banking
12 8 (1.83%) Marketing
12 8 (1.83%) Retail
12 8 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 6 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.92%) Back Office
14 4 (0.92%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 66 (15.14%) Analyst
2 48 (11.01%) Lead
3 46 (10.55%) Senior
4 41 (9.40%) Developer
5 31 (7.11%) Architect
6 30 (6.88%) Data Engineer
7 24 (5.50%) Consultant
8 18 (4.13%) Administrator
8 18 (4.13%) Test Analyst
9 17 (3.90%) Business Analyst
9 17 (3.90%) SAP Consultant
10 15 (3.44%) Java Developer
11 14 (3.21%) Support Engineer
12 13 (2.98%) Data Analyst
13 12 (2.75%) Technical Engineer
14 11 (2.52%) Network Engineer
14 11 (2.52%) Senior Developer
15 10 (2.29%) Security Engineer
16 9 (2.06%) Delivery Manager
16 9 (2.06%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.40%) REST
2 29 (6.65%) SOAP
3 16 (3.67%) AngularJS
4 15 (3.44%) RESTful
4 15 (3.44%) Spring
4 15 (3.44%) Spring Boot
5 14 (3.21%) Web Services
6 12 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
6 12 (2.75%) Spring Cloud
7 11 (2.52%) Gherkin
7 11 (2.52%) Hibernate
7 11 (2.52%) JPA
7 11 (2.52%) Terraform
8 10 (2.29%) ActiveMQ
9 8 (1.83%) JSON
10 7 (1.61%) Play Framework
11 6 (1.38%) Middleware
11 6 (1.38%) React
11 6 (1.38%) XML
12 5 (1.15%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 29 (6.65%) Cloud Native
1 29 (6.65%) Management Information System
2 26 (5.96%) Self-Motivation
3 20 (4.59%) Enterprise Software
4 16 (3.67%) Product Ownership
5 15 (3.44%) Onboarding
6 13 (2.98%) Data Centre
7 10 (2.29%) Operational Technology
8 9 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (2.06%) Virtual Team
9 8 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
9 8 (1.83%) Autonomous Agent
10 7 (1.61%) Cyber Threat
10 7 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.38%) Data Structures
11 6 (1.38%) Life Science
11 6 (1.38%) SCADA
12 5 (1.15%) Driving Licence
12 5 (1.15%) Mobile App
12 5 (1.15%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 50 (11.47%) Windows
2 16 (3.67%) Linux
3 15 (3.44%) Mac OS
4 14 (3.21%) Unix
5 12 (2.75%) Windows Server
6 11 (2.52%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.69%) AIX
8 3 (0.69%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.69%) Solaris
8 3 (0.69%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
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 (35.32%) Agile
2 136 (31.19%) Continuous Improvement
3 102 (23.39%) Stakeholder Management
4 71 (16.28%) CI/CD
5 69 (15.83%) DevOps
6 67 (15.37%) Test Automation
7 64 (14.68%) Migration
8 58 (13.30%) AI
9 55 (12.61%) Scrum
9 55 (12.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 52 (11.93%) Data Modelling
11 46 (10.55%) Decision-Making
12 45 (10.32%) Business Intelligence
13 44 (10.09%) Analytics
13 44 (10.09%) ETL
13 44 (10.09%) Mentoring
14 43 (9.86%) Generative AI
15 41 (9.40%) User Acceptance Testing
16 40 (9.17%) Collaborative Working
16 40 (9.17%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 65 (14.91%) SQL
2 42 (9.63%) Java
3 30 (6.88%) Python
4 23 (5.28%) JavaScript
5 14 (3.21%) PowerShell
5 14 (3.21%) TypeScript
6 13 (2.98%) C#
7 10 (2.29%) PL/SQL
8 9 (2.06%) C
9 8 (1.83%) Bash
9 8 (1.83%) ProC
10 7 (1.61%) ABAP
10 7 (1.61%) Scala
11 5 (1.15%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.92%) Bicep
13 3 (0.69%) C++
13 3 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 2 (0.46%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.46%) VB
14 2 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 129 (29.59%) Security Cleared
2 109 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 50 (11.47%) Degree
4 35 (8.03%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (5.28%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.75%) Azure Certification
6 12 (2.75%) ISTQB
7 11 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (2.06%) CISSP
10 7 (1.61%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (1.38%) CCNA
11 6 (1.38%) DBS Check
11 6 (1.38%) OCP
11 6 (1.38%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (1.15%) A+ Certification
12 5 (1.15%) AWS Certification
12 5 (1.15%) DV Cleared
12 5 (1.15%) Network+ Certification
13 4 (0.92%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (10.78%) Data Quality
2 43 (9.86%) QA
3 23 (5.28%) Accessibility
4 16 (3.67%) GDPR
5 15 (3.44%) SLA
6 12 (2.75%) WCAG
7 7 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (1.15%) ISO 19650
9 3 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.69%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.69%) NIST
9 3 (0.69%) PMO
10 2 (0.46%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 1 (0.23%) GMP
11 1 (0.23%) GRC
11 1 (0.23%) GxP
11 1 (0.23%) HL7
11 1 (0.23%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 30 (6.88%) Docker
2 21 (4.82%) Active Directory
3 16 (3.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.06%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (2.06%) vSphere
5 7 (1.61%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.92%) FreeRADIUS
7 3 (0.69%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.23%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 17 (3.90%) Kubernetes
2 15 (3.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (3.44%) SCCM
3 14 (3.21%) Grafana
3 14 (3.21%) Prometheus
4 12 (2.75%) Ansible
5 6 (1.38%) Jamf Pro
6 5 (1.15%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.92%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.92%) PowerCLI
7 4 (0.92%) vMotion
8 3 (0.69%) Podman
9 2 (0.46%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.23%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.23%) Argo
10 1 (0.23%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.23%) QRadar
Vendors
1 99 (22.71%) Microsoft
2 51 (11.70%) Oracle
3 36 (8.26%) SAP
4 23 (5.28%) Cisco
4 23 (5.28%) ServiceNow
4 23 (5.28%) VMware
5 16 (3.67%) Denodo
6 15 (3.44%) Talend
7 11 (2.52%) Google
8 8 (1.83%) Atlassian
9 7 (1.61%) Apple
9 7 (1.61%) Qualys
9 7 (1.61%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.61%) Splunk
10 6 (1.38%) Databricks
10 6 (1.38%) Fortinet
10 6 (1.38%) Informatica
11 5 (1.15%) Autodesk
11 5 (1.15%) Samsung
11 5 (1.15%) webMethods
676 Problem-Solving jobs in the West Midlands