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

 6 months to
17 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 3 8
Rank change year-on-year -10 +5 0
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 395 317 196
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.37% 18.43% 10.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.37% 20.87% 12.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 276 195 129
10th Percentile £306 £169 £158
25th Percentile £363 £362 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £460 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% -3.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £588
90th Percentile £591 £638 £650
England median daily rate £495 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +0.61% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 9 7
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.86 £15.13
25th Percentile £13.31 £25.00 £15.32
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.88 £18.97
Median % change year-on-year -25.77% +78.60% -9.54%
75th Percentile £44.80 £44.00 £38.88
90th Percentile £67.84 £54.13 £56.25
England median hourly rate £21.00 £20.26 £16.23
% change year-on-year +3.68% +24.80% -70.37%

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 2,954 1,519 1,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.06% 88.31% 82.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,864 964 1,040
10th Percentile £313 £233 £269
25th Percentile £405 £380 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £625
90th Percentile £665 £650 £725
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.40% -4.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 106 58
10th Percentile £13.39 £12.62 £13.13
25th Percentile £17.87 £14.81 £14.78
Median hourly rate £30.73 £24.34 £21.75
Median % change year-on-year +26.25% +11.91% -19.44%
75th Percentile £53.75 £35.45 £37.50
90th Percentile £70.51 £50.00 £55.38
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +4.83%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -11 115 £450 -12.62% 31
Warwickshire -2 111 £485 +1.04% 53
Birmingham -14 74 £450 +3.45% 113
Coventry -15 31 £363 -12.12% 24
Worcestershire +7 13 £438 +28.11% 28
Staffordshire -4 11 £316 +26.50% 47
Solihull -18 7 £402 -31.57% 15
Wolverhampton - 5 £200 - 12
Herefordshire -1 4 - - 5
Dudley - 3 £375 - 3
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 -
Wednesbury - 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 36 (9.11%) Confluence
2 27 (6.84%) SAS
3 21 (5.32%) SharePoint
4 15 (3.80%) Oracle Workflow
5 7 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
6 6 (1.52%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 5 (1.27%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.25%) Apache
8 1 (0.25%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.25%) Appian
8 1 (0.25%) IIS
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.25%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 27 (6.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (4.56%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.77%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.27%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (1.01%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.76%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.76%) Revit
8 2 (0.51%) Adobe XD
8 2 (0.51%) CATIA
8 2 (0.51%) Sketch
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.25%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.25%) InDesign
9 1 (0.25%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (3.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (2.78%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.52%) Oracle HRMS
4 5 (1.27%) SAP PSCD
5 3 (0.76%) ContrOCC
5 3 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.76%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.25%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.25%) Maximo
6 1 (0.25%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.25%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.25%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.25%) SAP QM
6 1 (0.25%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 78 (19.75%) Azure
2 39 (9.87%) Power Platform
3 38 (9.62%) AWS
4 35 (8.86%) Microsoft 365
5 29 (7.34%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (5.57%) Entra ID
7 14 (3.54%) Power Automate
8 13 (3.29%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (3.29%) GitHub
8 13 (3.29%) Serverless
9 12 (3.04%) GCP
10 10 (2.53%) Azure Functions
11 9 (2.28%) OneDrive
12 8 (2.03%) Microsoft Purview
13 7 (1.77%) Snowflake
14 5 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (1.27%) Google Analytics
15 4 (1.01%) SaaS
15 4 (1.01%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 16 (4.05%) DNS
2 13 (3.29%) DHCP
2 13 (3.29%) VPN
3 11 (2.78%) Firewall
4 10 (2.53%) LAN
4 10 (2.53%) WAN
5 9 (2.28%) TCP/IP
6 8 (2.03%) Network Security
6 8 (2.03%) SD-WAN
7 5 (1.27%) Internet
7 5 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (1.01%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.01%) VoIP
9 3 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (0.76%) SSL
9 3 (0.76%) VLAN
10 2 (0.51%) PBX
10 2 (0.51%) SAN
10 2 (0.51%) Softphone
10 2 (0.51%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.61%) Power BI
2 28 (7.09%) Pentaho
3 22 (5.57%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (5.06%) SQL Server
5 14 (3.54%) PostgreSQL
6 12 (3.04%) Metadata
7 8 (2.03%) Data Lake
7 8 (2.03%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (1.77%) MySQL
8 7 (1.77%) Relational Database
9 6 (1.52%) Ingres
9 6 (1.52%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.27%) Oracle Database
11 4 (1.01%) Big Data
11 4 (1.01%) Power Query
11 4 (1.01%) SAP BW
12 3 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 2 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
13 2 (0.51%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 64 (16.20%) JIRA
2 37 (9.37%) Git
3 28 (7.09%) Jenkins
4 21 (5.32%) Selenium
5 16 (4.05%) Postman
6 12 (3.04%) WebDriver
7 11 (2.78%) Cypress.io
8 9 (2.28%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.28%) GitLab
9 6 (1.52%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 6 (1.52%) JUnit
10 5 (1.27%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.27%) Zephyr
11 4 (1.01%) JMeter
11 4 (1.01%) Maven
11 4 (1.01%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.76%) Browser DevTools
12 3 (0.76%) Protractor
12 3 (0.76%) SonarQube
13 2 (0.51%) Gatling
General
1 204 (51.65%) Social Skills
2 157 (39.75%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (16.46%) Public Sector
4 59 (14.94%) Finance
5 21 (5.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 18 (4.56%) Local Government
7 16 (4.05%) Manufacturing
8 15 (3.80%) Organisational Skills
9 12 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (3.04%) Legal
10 10 (2.53%) Automotive
11 8 (2.03%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.77%) Banking
12 7 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.77%) Marketing
13 5 (1.27%) Billing
13 5 (1.27%) Electronics
13 5 (1.27%) Retail
14 4 (1.01%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.76%) Military
Job Titles
1 60 (15.19%) Analyst
2 44 (11.14%) Data Engineer
3 43 (10.89%) Lead
4 36 (9.11%) Senior
5 30 (7.59%) Developer
6 26 (6.58%) Consultant
7 19 (4.81%) Administrator
7 19 (4.81%) Architect
8 18 (4.56%) Business Analyst
8 18 (4.56%) SAP Consultant
9 16 (4.05%) Test Analyst
10 11 (2.78%) Data Analyst
11 9 (2.28%) Network Engineer
11 9 (2.28%) Project Manager
12 8 (2.03%) Business Intelligence Developer
12 8 (2.03%) Delivery Manager
12 8 (2.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (2.03%) Senior Data Engineer
12 8 (2.03%) Test Engineer
13 7 (1.77%) Oracle Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.05%) REST
2 11 (2.78%) Spring
3 10 (2.53%) Oracle Fusion
3 10 (2.53%) SOAP
4 9 (2.28%) Gherkin
5 8 (2.03%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.77%) Play Framework
7 6 (1.52%) Middleware
8 5 (1.27%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.27%) JDBC
8 5 (1.27%) SAP PI
9 4 (1.01%) IDoc
9 4 (1.01%) Playwright
9 4 (1.01%) RESTful
9 4 (1.01%) Spring Cloud
9 4 (1.01%) Web Services
9 4 (1.01%) XML
10 3 (0.76%) HTML
10 3 (0.76%) SAML
10 3 (0.76%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 19 (4.81%) Management Information System
2 18 (4.56%) Cloud Native
3 15 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
3 15 (3.80%) Self-Motivation
4 13 (3.29%) Product Ownership
5 11 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.28%) Data Centre
6 9 (2.28%) Onboarding
7 8 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (2.03%) SCADA
7 8 (2.03%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.77%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.52%) Autonomous Agent
10 5 (1.27%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.01%) iPhone
11 4 (1.01%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.76%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 45 (11.39%) Windows
2 13 (3.29%) Mac OS
3 12 (3.04%) Unix
3 12 (3.04%) Windows 10
3 12 (3.04%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.53%) Linux
5 3 (0.76%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.25%) HPUX
6 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (36.20%) Agile
2 128 (32.41%) Continuous Improvement
3 80 (20.25%) DevOps
4 79 (20.00%) CI/CD
5 73 (18.48%) Stakeholder Management
6 67 (16.96%) Test Automation
7 61 (15.44%) Business Intelligence
8 59 (14.94%) Analytics
8 59 (14.94%) ETL
9 57 (14.43%) Data Modelling
10 56 (14.18%) Migration
11 55 (13.92%) Scrum
12 52 (13.16%) AI
13 49 (12.41%) Decision-Making
14 43 (10.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 43 (10.89%) Validation
15 41 (10.38%) Data Pipeline
16 40 (10.13%) ITIL
17 34 (8.61%) Generative AI
18 31 (7.85%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 86 (21.77%) SQL
2 38 (9.62%) Python
3 25 (6.33%) Java
4 14 (3.54%) PL/SQL
4 14 (3.54%) PowerShell
5 12 (3.04%) JavaScript
6 11 (2.78%) C
7 10 (2.53%) Bash
8 9 (2.28%) C#
9 8 (2.03%) ProC
10 7 (1.77%) Scala
11 6 (1.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (1.27%) ABAP
12 5 (1.27%) TypeScript
13 4 (1.01%) Bicep
13 4 (1.01%) C++
13 4 (1.01%) MATLAB
14 1 (0.25%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.25%) VB
14 1 (0.25%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 133 (33.67%) Security Cleared
2 111 (28.10%) SC Cleared
3 40 (10.13%) Degree
4 22 (5.57%) Microsoft Certification
5 21 (5.32%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (2.78%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (2.28%) ISTQB
9 8 (2.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (1.77%) CCNA
10 7 (1.77%) DV Cleared
10 7 (1.77%) OCP
10 7 (1.77%) Oracle Certification
11 6 (1.52%) MCSE
12 5 (1.27%) AWS Certification
12 5 (1.27%) CISSP
13 4 (1.01%) A+ Certification
13 4 (1.01%) PMP
13 4 (1.01%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (14.43%) Data Quality
2 37 (9.37%) QA
3 19 (4.81%) Accessibility
4 15 (3.80%) GDPR
5 14 (3.54%) SLA
6 10 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (2.53%) WCAG
7 4 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.01%) PMO
8 3 (0.76%) GRC
8 3 (0.76%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.76%) NIST
9 2 (0.51%) ISO 19650
9 2 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 2 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.25%) HL7
10 1 (0.25%) ISO 14001
10 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 39 (9.87%) Docker
2 23 (5.82%) Active Directory
3 12 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.28%) vSphere
5 8 (2.03%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.77%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.51%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.25%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (8.10%) Kubernetes
2 18 (4.56%) SCCM
3 13 (3.29%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (3.29%) Terraform
4 11 (2.78%) Grafana
5 10 (2.53%) Ansible
6 9 (2.28%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.27%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.01%) Podman
8 4 (1.01%) PowerCLI
8 4 (1.01%) vMotion
9 3 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.51%) Argo
10 2 (0.51%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.25%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.25%) QRadar
11 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 84 (21.27%) Microsoft
2 53 (13.42%) Oracle
3 33 (8.35%) SAP
4 24 (6.08%) Denodo
5 23 (5.82%) Talend
6 19 (4.81%) ServiceNow
6 19 (4.81%) VMware
7 17 (4.30%) Cisco
8 14 (3.54%) Atlassian
9 9 (2.28%) Databricks
9 9 (2.28%) Google
9 9 (2.28%) Splunk
10 7 (1.77%) Apple
10 7 (1.77%) Qualys
11 6 (1.52%) Siemens
12 5 (1.27%) Adobe
12 5 (1.27%) Citrix
12 5 (1.27%) webMethods
13 4 (1.01%) 3PAR
13 4 (1.01%) Nimble Storage
362 Problem-Solving jobs in the West Midlands