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

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 5 10
Rank change year-on-year 0 +5 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 388 208 199
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 13.85% 15.65% 10.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.39% 17.32% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 135 153
10th Percentile £263 £158 £200
25th Percentile £388 £291 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.86% -9.40% -4.76%
75th Percentile £540 £600 £625
90th Percentile £600 £700 £688
England median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 3 7
10th Percentile £14.87 £16.36 £17.12
25th Percentile £15.63 £16.51 £31.38
Median hourly rate £16.52 £17.24 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year -4.16% -69.35% +181.25%
75th Percentile £17.72 £19.87 £64.38
90th Percentile £20.68 £21.15 £72.50
England median hourly rate £20.00 £25.00 £18.50
% change year-on-year -20.00% +35.14% -54.32%

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 2,368 1,201 1,637
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.54% 90.37% 84.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,567 791 1,071
10th Percentile £303 £204 £263
25th Percentile £402 £394 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £670 £700 £690
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 54 122
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.36 £11.43
25th Percentile £16.25 £14.70 £15.54
Median hourly rate £22.01 £18.32 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.14% -20.35% +29.80%
75th Percentile £27.50 £27.81 £42.31
90th Percentile £59.50 £35.00 £58.75
England median hourly rate £30.00 £34.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -13.04% +6.15% -8.84%

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 10 March 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
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 10 March 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 -3 119 £479 +10.09% 39
Birmingham -9 91 £468 -1.37% 81
Warwickshire +5 88 £525 -10.64% 44
Coventry -9 26 £316 -19.75% 13
Worcestershire -11 19 £563 +7.14% 33
Staffordshire -1 14 £220 +37.50% 39
Solihull -6 5 £475 +25.83% 6
Herefordshire -17 4 £600 +9.09% 7
Wolverhampton - 2 £267 - 5
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 - 1
Walsall - 1 £338 - 2
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 53 (13.66%) SAS
2 20 (5.15%) Confluence
3 17 (4.38%) WebLogic
4 9 (2.32%) Apache
5 8 (2.06%) JBoss
6 6 (1.55%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.52%) Drupal
8 2 (0.52%) HCL Notes
8 2 (0.52%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.26%) CMS
9 1 (0.26%) nginx
9 1 (0.26%) SugarCRM
9 1 (0.26%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 22 (5.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (5.15%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (2.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (2.06%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.03%) Adobe XD
4 4 (1.03%) Sketch
5 1 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.26%) InDesign
5 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.03%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.52%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.26%) Aareon QL
3 1 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.26%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.26%) iTrent
3 1 (0.26%) Maximo
3 1 (0.26%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.26%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.26%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.26%) OPENHousing
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.26%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.26%) Orchard Housing
3 1 (0.26%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.26%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 61 (15.72%) Azure
2 56 (14.43%) AWS
3 23 (5.93%) GCP
4 20 (5.15%) Power Platform
5 19 (4.90%) Microsoft 365
6 18 (4.64%) OpenShift
7 13 (3.35%) Entra ID
8 12 (3.09%) GitHub
9 10 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (2.58%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.06%) Cloud Computing
11 7 (1.80%) Datadog
11 7 (1.80%) Serverless
12 6 (1.55%) Figma
13 5 (1.29%) Amazon S3
13 5 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (1.29%) Power Automate
13 5 (1.29%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.29%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 4 (1.03%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (4.64%) VPN
2 14 (3.61%) DNS
3 8 (2.06%) DHCP
3 8 (2.06%) TCP/IP
4 7 (1.80%) Firewall
4 7 (1.80%) VSAN
5 5 (1.29%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (0.77%) BIG-IP
6 3 (0.77%) Network Security
7 2 (0.52%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.52%) VoIP
7 2 (0.52%) WAN
7 2 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.52%) Wireless
8 1 (0.26%) Broadband
8 1 (0.26%) DKIM
8 1 (0.26%) DMARC
8 1 (0.26%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.26%) LAN
8 1 (0.26%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (8.51%) Pentaho
2 17 (4.38%) MongoDB
3 16 (4.12%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (4.12%) Power BI
4 15 (3.87%) Oracle Database
5 13 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (3.09%) Elasticsearch
6 12 (3.09%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 11 (2.84%) MySQL
8 10 (2.58%) SQL Server
9 8 (2.06%) Relational Database
10 4 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.03%) Metadata
10 4 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.77%) Big Data
11 3 (0.77%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 3 (0.77%) WebFOCUS
12 2 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.52%) Hadoop
12 2 (0.52%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 93 (23.97%) Git
2 72 (18.56%) JIRA
3 63 (16.24%) Jenkins
4 28 (7.22%) Selenium
5 26 (6.70%) JUnit
6 21 (5.41%) GitLab
7 8 (2.06%) Eclipse
7 8 (2.06%) IntelliJ
8 7 (1.80%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 4 (1.03%) Cucumber
9 4 (1.03%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.77%) JMeter
10 3 (0.77%) Postman
10 3 (0.77%) WebDriver
11 2 (0.52%) CircleCI
12 1 (0.26%) Bitbucket
12 1 (0.26%) CA Gen
12 1 (0.26%) TestRail
12 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.26%) webpack
General
1 211 (54.38%) Social Skills
2 135 (34.79%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (11.60%) Finance
4 35 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 20 (5.15%) Organisational Skills
6 14 (3.61%) Influencing Skills
6 14 (3.61%) Presentation Skills
7 13 (3.35%) Legal
8 11 (2.84%) Banking
8 11 (2.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 11 (2.84%) Military
9 8 (2.06%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.29%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.03%) Electronics
11 4 (1.03%) Law
11 4 (1.03%) Local Government
11 4 (1.03%) Marketing
12 3 (0.77%) Retail
13 2 (0.52%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 65 (16.75%) Analyst
2 43 (11.08%) Developer
3 31 (7.99%) Data Engineer
4 28 (7.22%) Lead
5 16 (4.12%) Business Analyst
5 16 (4.12%) Senior
6 15 (3.87%) Test Specialist
7 14 (3.61%) Consultant
8 13 (3.35%) Splunk Engineer
8 13 (3.35%) Support Analyst
9 12 (3.09%) Site Engineer
9 12 (3.09%) Site Reliability Engineer
10 11 (2.84%) Architect
10 11 (2.84%) IT Analyst
11 10 (2.58%) Administrator
11 10 (2.58%) Infrastructure Analyst
12 9 (2.32%) 1st Line Support
12 9 (2.32%) Applications Specialist
12 9 (2.32%) IT Support
12 9 (2.32%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (9.54%) REST
2 24 (6.19%) Spring
3 15 (3.87%) Elastic Stack
3 15 (3.87%) HTML
4 14 (3.61%) pytest
4 14 (3.61%) SOAP
5 13 (3.35%) HTML5
6 12 (3.09%) Node.js
6 12 (3.09%) RESTful
6 12 (3.09%) Spring Boot
7 11 (2.84%) Play Framework
8 9 (2.32%) J2EE
8 9 (2.32%) XML
9 8 (2.06%) EJB
9 8 (2.06%) Hibernate
9 8 (2.06%) J2SE
9 8 (2.06%) JSON
9 8 (2.06%) React
10 7 (1.80%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.80%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.12%) Management Information System
2 14 (3.61%) Cloud Native
2 14 (3.61%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.61%) Product Ownership
2 14 (3.61%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (3.09%) Data Centre
4 11 (2.84%) Operational Technology
5 10 (2.58%) SCADA
6 9 (2.32%) Linux Command Line
7 7 (1.80%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.29%) Driving Licence
8 5 (1.29%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 4 (1.03%) Algorithms
9 4 (1.03%) CSOC
9 4 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.03%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.03%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (0.77%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 35 (9.02%) Linux
2 27 (6.96%) Windows
3 22 (5.67%) Unix
4 9 (2.32%) Windows 10
5 7 (1.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (1.29%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.77%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.26%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.26%) CentOS
8 1 (0.26%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.26%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (38.14%) Agile
2 113 (29.12%) CI/CD
2 113 (29.12%) Continuous Improvement
3 101 (26.03%) DevOps
4 77 (19.85%) Scrum
5 73 (18.81%) Analytics
6 71 (18.30%) Stakeholder Management
7 70 (18.04%) Data Modelling
8 65 (16.75%) Test Automation
9 57 (14.69%) Data Pipeline
10 54 (13.92%) ETL
11 53 (13.66%) Business Intelligence
12 50 (12.89%) Change Management
13 47 (12.11%) Containerisation
14 46 (11.86%) Data Integration
15 45 (11.60%) Migration
16 44 (11.34%) Validation
17 42 (10.82%) Deployment Automation
18 40 (10.31%) AI
19 38 (9.79%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 98 (25.26%) SQL
2 67 (17.27%) Python
3 37 (9.54%) Java
4 19 (4.90%) Bash
5 17 (4.38%) JavaScript
6 16 (4.12%) PL/SQL
7 13 (3.35%) Scala
8 12 (3.09%) Shell Script
9 10 (2.58%) PowerShell
10 9 (2.32%) Perl
11 8 (2.06%) TypeScript
12 4 (1.03%) Go
12 4 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (1.03%) VBA
13 3 (0.77%) C#
13 3 (0.77%) PHP
13 3 (0.77%) Ruby
14 2 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 2 (0.52%) MATLAB
15 1 (0.26%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 125 (32.22%) Security Cleared
2 101 (26.03%) SC Cleared
3 50 (12.89%) Degree
4 17 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (3.35%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.84%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.80%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.80%) Master's Degree
8 6 (1.55%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 5 (1.29%) MCDST
10 4 (1.03%) CCNP
10 4 (1.03%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.03%) OCP
10 4 (1.03%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (0.77%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.77%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.77%) PMP
11 3 (0.77%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 2 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (12.89%) Data Quality
2 26 (6.70%) QA
3 11 (2.84%) PMO
4 8 (2.06%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.29%) SLA
6 4 (1.03%) GDPR
6 4 (1.03%) ISO 19650
6 4 (1.03%) WCAG
7 2 (0.52%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 12207
7 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 1 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.26%) NCSC
8 1 (0.26%) NIST
8 1 (0.26%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 94 (24.23%) Docker
2 24 (6.19%) Active Directory
3 17 (4.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.58%) vSphere
5 4 (1.03%) Snort
6 3 (0.77%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.52%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.26%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.26%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 91 (23.45%) Kubernetes
2 20 (5.15%) Puppet
3 16 (4.12%) Ansible
4 12 (3.09%) Kibana
4 12 (3.09%) Terraform
5 11 (2.84%) Grafana
5 11 (2.84%) SCCM
6 9 (2.32%) Prometheus
7 8 (2.06%) vRealize
7 8 (2.06%) VxRail
8 5 (1.29%) CSIRT
9 4 (1.03%) Argo
10 3 (0.77%) Control-M
10 3 (0.77%) IBM Guardium
10 3 (0.77%) Nessus
11 2 (0.52%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.52%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.52%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.26%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 67 (17.27%) Microsoft
2 48 (12.37%) Oracle
3 39 (10.05%) ServiceNow
4 32 (8.25%) Denodo
4 32 (8.25%) Talend
5 25 (6.44%) Splunk
6 18 (4.64%) Cisco
7 17 (4.38%) VMware
8 15 (3.87%) SAP
9 12 (3.09%) Google
10 10 (2.58%) HP
11 9 (2.32%) AppDynamics
12 8 (2.06%) Dell
12 8 (2.06%) IBM
12 8 (2.06%) Red Hat
12 8 (2.06%) SolarWinds
12 8 (2.06%) webMethods
13 7 (1.80%) Commvault
14 6 (1.55%) Adobe
14 6 (1.55%) Salesforce