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

 6 months to
29 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 11
Rank change year-on-year -6 +8 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 345 241 198
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.07% 17.75% 10.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.30% 20.07% 12.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 155 141
10th Percentile £300 £157 £263
25th Percentile £390 £281 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £539 £541 £611
90th Percentile £645 £650 £650
England median daily rate £488 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -2.50% -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 9
10th Percentile £13.30 £14.52 £14.29
25th Percentile £15.62 £15.64 £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 £28.45 £56.25
90th Percentile - £47.76 £72.50
England median hourly rate £22.80 £22.07 £17.50
% change year-on-year +3.30% +26.11% -61.69%

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 2,594 1,201 1,618
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 83.22% 88.44% 84.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,690 801 1,066
10th Percentile £306 £200 £275
25th Percentile £402 £385 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.34%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £625
90th Percentile £651 £678 £750
England median daily rate £507 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.48% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 58 115
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.62 £11.09
25th Percentile £20.11 £14.55 £14.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £18.07 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.07% -19.71% +26.98%
75th Percentile £67.19 £24.10 £41.13
90th Percentile £72.54 £38.67 £57.75
England median hourly rate £44.00 £30.45 £35.50
% change year-on-year +44.50% -14.23% -5.33%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 +3 95 £525 -2.23% 44
Shropshire -11 94 £450 -1.50% 18
Birmingham -13 80 £468 +5.46% 75
Coventry -7 24 £308 -21.78% 13
Staffordshire -2 13 £313 +108.33% 31
Worcestershire -10 9 £563 +8.17% 24
Solihull -11 5 £493 - 8
Herefordshire -16 3 - - 5
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 29 (8.41%) Confluence
1 29 (8.41%) SAS
2 10 (2.90%) SharePoint
2 10 (2.90%) WebLogic
3 7 (2.03%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (1.74%) Oracle Self-Service HR
5 5 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.58%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.29%) Apache
7 1 (0.29%) Appian
7 1 (0.29%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.29%) JBoss
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.29%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 22 (6.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (5.80%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (2.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (2.03%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.16%) Adobe XD
5 4 (1.16%) Sketch
5 4 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.87%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.87%) Revit
7 1 (0.29%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.29%) CATIA
7 1 (0.29%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.29%) InDesign
7 1 (0.29%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (1.74%) Oracle HRMS
2 5 (1.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.58%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.58%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.29%) Aareon QL
5 1 (0.29%) MIS ActiveH
5 1 (0.29%) OPENHousing
5 1 (0.29%) Orchard Housing
5 1 (0.29%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.29%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.29%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 56 (16.23%) Azure
2 41 (11.88%) AWS
3 24 (6.96%) Power Platform
4 20 (5.80%) Microsoft 365
5 18 (5.22%) Entra ID
6 16 (4.64%) GitHub
7 15 (4.35%) GCP
8 11 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (2.61%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.03%) Power Automate
11 6 (1.74%) Figma
12 5 (1.45%) Amazon S3
12 5 (1.45%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (1.45%) OpenShift
12 5 (1.45%) PowerApps
12 5 (1.45%) Serverless
13 4 (1.16%) Datadog
13 4 (1.16%) dbt
13 4 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
14 3 (0.87%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.90%) DNS
2 8 (2.32%) VPN
3 6 (1.74%) Firewall
4 5 (1.45%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (1.45%) Network Security
5 4 (1.16%) BIG-IP
5 4 (1.16%) SD-WAN
5 4 (1.16%) TCP/IP
5 4 (1.16%) VSAN
5 4 (1.16%) WAN
6 2 (0.58%) DHCP
6 2 (0.58%) Internet
6 2 (0.58%) LAN
6 2 (0.58%) SMTP
6 2 (0.58%) SSL
6 2 (0.58%) VLAN
6 2 (0.58%) WAAS
7 1 (0.29%) DKIM
7 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.67%) Pentaho
2 20 (5.80%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (5.51%) Power BI
4 12 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (3.19%) SQL Server
6 9 (2.61%) Metadata
7 8 (2.32%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (2.32%) MongoDB
8 6 (1.74%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (1.45%) Relational Database
10 4 (1.16%) MySQL
10 4 (1.16%) Power Query
10 4 (1.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.87%) Tableau
11 3 (0.87%) WebFOCUS
12 2 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.58%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.58%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 69 (20.00%) JIRA
2 54 (15.65%) Git
3 36 (10.43%) Jenkins
4 11 (3.19%) Selenium
5 8 (2.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 6 (1.74%) GitLab
6 6 (1.74%) Postman
7 5 (1.45%) JUnit
7 5 (1.45%) REST Assured
7 5 (1.45%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.87%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.87%) JMeter
8 3 (0.87%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
9 2 (0.58%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.29%) CA Gen
10 1 (0.29%) Storybook
10 1 (0.29%) TestRail
10 1 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.29%) webpack
General
1 180 (52.17%) Social Skills
2 137 (39.71%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (11.88%) Finance
4 27 (7.83%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.93%) Organisational Skills
6 9 (2.61%) Banking
6 9 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
6 9 (2.61%) Legal
7 8 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.74%) Local Government
8 6 (1.74%) Military
9 5 (1.45%) Electronics
9 5 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.87%) Automotive
11 3 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.87%) Law
11 3 (0.87%) Retail
11 3 (0.87%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.58%) Police
Job Titles
1 60 (17.39%) Analyst
2 32 (9.28%) Data Engineer
2 32 (9.28%) Developer
3 24 (6.96%) Lead
4 19 (5.51%) Business Analyst
5 17 (4.93%) Senior
6 16 (4.64%) Architect
7 14 (4.06%) Consultant
8 12 (3.48%) Delivery Manager
9 11 (3.19%) Administrator
10 10 (2.90%) Data Analyst
11 9 (2.61%) Business Intelligence Developer
12 8 (2.32%) Project Manager
12 8 (2.32%) Site Engineer
12 8 (2.32%) Site Reliability Engineer
12 8 (2.32%) Splunk Engineer
13 7 (2.03%) Infrastructure Analyst
13 7 (2.03%) SAP Consultant
13 7 (2.03%) Software Engineer
13 7 (2.03%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.64%) Spring
2 13 (3.77%) REST
3 11 (3.19%) Spring Boot
4 10 (2.90%) Elastic Stack
5 9 (2.61%) RESTful
6 7 (2.03%) AngularJS
6 7 (2.03%) HTML
6 7 (2.03%) OpenTelemetry
7 6 (1.74%) CSS
7 6 (1.74%) HTML5
7 6 (1.74%) Middleware
7 6 (1.74%) SAML
8 5 (1.45%) CSS3
8 5 (1.45%) React
8 5 (1.45%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.87%) FastAPI
9 3 (0.87%) Playwright
9 3 (0.87%) PyTorch
9 3 (0.87%) TensorFlow
9 3 (0.87%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.64%) Management Information System
1 16 (4.64%) Product Ownership
2 15 (4.35%) Cloud Native
3 13 (3.77%) Onboarding
4 11 (3.19%) Operational Technology
5 10 (2.90%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.32%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (2.32%) SCADA
7 6 (1.74%) Data Structures
7 6 (1.74%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.74%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.16%) CSOC
8 4 (1.16%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (1.16%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 29 (8.41%) Linux
2 27 (7.83%) Windows
3 11 (3.19%) Unix
4 8 (2.32%) Windows 10
5 7 (2.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (1.74%) Windows Server
7 5 (1.45%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.29%) CentOS
9 1 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (34.78%) Agile
2 102 (29.57%) Continuous Improvement
3 75 (21.74%) CI/CD
4 62 (17.97%) DevOps
5 56 (16.23%) Scrum
6 55 (15.94%) Data Modelling
7 53 (15.36%) Analytics
7 53 (15.36%) Migration
8 51 (14.78%) Business Intelligence
9 50 (14.49%) ETL
10 49 (14.20%) AI
11 46 (13.33%) Stakeholder Management
11 46 (13.33%) Test Automation
12 42 (12.17%) Decision-Making
13 40 (11.59%) Generative AI
14 39 (11.30%) Validation
15 37 (10.72%) Change Management
16 35 (10.14%) Data Integration
17 34 (9.86%) Data Pipeline
18 31 (8.99%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 82 (23.77%) SQL
2 47 (13.62%) Python
3 30 (8.70%) Java
4 18 (5.22%) Bash
5 15 (4.35%) PL/SQL
6 14 (4.06%) PowerShell
7 11 (3.19%) JavaScript
8 7 (2.03%) Shell Script
9 6 (1.74%) Perl
10 5 (1.45%) TypeScript
11 4 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (1.16%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.87%) C
12 3 (0.87%) C#
12 3 (0.87%) C++
12 3 (0.87%) Go
12 3 (0.87%) MATLAB
13 2 (0.58%) Bicep
14 1 (0.29%) SystemVerilog
14 1 (0.29%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 112 (32.46%) Security Cleared
2 92 (26.67%) SC Cleared
3 52 (15.07%) Degree
4 17 (4.93%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (3.19%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.90%) DV Cleared
7 7 (2.03%) Azure Certification
7 7 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (2.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (1.16%) CCNP
8 4 (1.16%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.16%) MCSE
8 4 (1.16%) OCP
8 4 (1.16%) Oracle Certification
8 4 (1.16%) PMI Certification
8 4 (1.16%) PMP
9 3 (0.87%) CCNA
9 3 (0.87%) RHCA
9 3 (0.87%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (13.33%) Data Quality
2 21 (6.09%) QA
3 9 (2.61%) PMO
4 8 (2.32%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.45%) GDPR
5 5 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.16%) ISO 19650
6 4 (1.16%) SLA
6 4 (1.16%) WCAG
7 3 (0.87%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.87%) GRC
7 3 (0.87%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 12207
7 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.29%) ISO 14001
9 1 (0.29%) NIST
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 61 (17.68%) Docker
2 19 (5.51%) Active Directory
3 16 (4.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (3.48%) vSphere
5 4 (1.16%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.16%) Snort
5 4 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.87%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.58%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.29%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 64 (18.55%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.80%) Ansible
3 15 (4.35%) Terraform
4 14 (4.06%) Grafana
5 9 (2.61%) Prometheus
5 9 (2.61%) Puppet
6 8 (2.32%) Kibana
7 6 (1.74%) Argo
7 6 (1.74%) SCCM
8 5 (1.45%) vRealize
8 5 (1.45%) VxRail
9 4 (1.16%) CSIRT
9 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.16%) PowerCLI
9 4 (1.16%) vMotion
10 3 (0.87%) Control-M
10 3 (0.87%) IBM Guardium
10 3 (0.87%) Nessus
10 3 (0.87%) Podman
10 3 (0.87%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 66 (19.13%) Microsoft
2 42 (12.17%) Oracle
3 33 (9.57%) ServiceNow
4 23 (6.67%) Talend
5 22 (6.38%) Denodo
6 21 (6.09%) VMware
7 16 (4.64%) SAP
7 16 (4.64%) Splunk
8 15 (4.35%) Cisco
9 9 (2.61%) Atlassian
9 9 (2.61%) Red Hat
10 7 (2.03%) Adobe
11 6 (1.74%) SolarWinds
12 5 (1.45%) Dell
12 5 (1.45%) HP
12 5 (1.45%) Okta
13 4 (1.16%) AppDynamics
13 4 (1.16%) MuleSoft
13 4 (1.16%) Nimble Storage
13 4 (1.16%) Zscaler
238 Problem-Solving jobs in the West Midlands