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 16 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 6 9
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 364 235 233
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 17.31% 12.43% 11.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.28% 14.92% 13.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 142 153
10th Percentile £243 £160 £250
25th Percentile £400 £341 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £435 £550
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% -20.98% +6.38%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £638
90th Percentile £625 £700 £738
England median daily rate £483 £500 £514
% change year-on-year -3.50% -2.72% -5.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 4 2
10th Percentile £15.53 £16.54 £17.34
25th Percentile £17.49 £18.10 £21.53
Median hourly rate £31.61 £19.99 £29.77
Median % change year-on-year +58.14% -32.87% +48.85%
75th Percentile £38.76 £21.63 £39.26
90th Percentile £44.85 £21.85 £44.20
England median hourly rate £19.00 £17.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +11.76% -62.95% +55.53%

All Process and 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 1,888 1,575 1,668
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 89.78% 83.33% 84.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,202 989 1,128
10th Percentile £263 £246 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £624 £600
90th Percentile £675 £715 £713
England median daily rate £506 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.62% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 47 53
10th Percentile £13.25 £14.70 £16.02
25th Percentile £16.29 £17.25 £17.75
Median hourly rate £23.00 £26.13 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.96% -5.00% +55.28%
75th Percentile £30.47 £34.47 £50.00
90th Percentile £50.00 £51.00 £67.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -32.93% -15.73% +27.14%

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 16 November 2025.

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 16 November 2025.

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 16 November 2025. 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 +6 102 £500 -6.10% 59
Birmingham -4 93 £450 -5.81% 126
Shropshire +5 83 £492 +13.10% 47
Coventry +2 32 £425 +2.22% 23
Staffordshire +4 13 £220 -41.18% 54
Worcestershire -11 12 £550 +129.17% 34
Solihull 0 7 £600 +64.38% 17
Herefordshire -11 6 £600 -5.51% 13
Wolverhampton +1 2 £227 +145.68% 8
Walsall +2 1 £338 - 5
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 42 (11.54%) SAS
2 12 (3.30%) Confluence
3 10 (2.75%) WebLogic
4 9 (2.47%) Apache
4 9 (2.47%) SharePoint
5 8 (2.20%) JBoss
6 5 (1.37%) Oracle Self-Service HR
6 5 (1.37%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (1.10%) Apache Spark
7 4 (1.10%) HCL Notes
8 3 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.82%) SugarCRM
9 2 (0.55%) CMS
9 2 (0.55%) Drupal
10 1 (0.27%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.27%) nginx
10 1 (0.27%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 24 (6.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (5.22%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (1.37%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.37%) Revit
6 4 (1.10%) AutoCAD
6 4 (1.10%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.55%) MicroStation
7 2 (0.55%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.65%) SAP HR
3 5 (1.37%) SAP PM
4 4 (1.10%) Oracle HRMS
5 3 (0.82%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.82%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.82%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.55%) ResourceLink
6 2 (0.55%) SAP GRC
6 2 (0.55%) SAP PSCD
6 2 (0.55%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.27%) Maximo
7 1 (0.27%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle iProcurement
Cloud Services
1 54 (14.84%) Azure
2 48 (13.19%) AWS
3 24 (6.59%) GCP
4 21 (5.77%) Microsoft 365
5 15 (4.12%) Power Platform
6 14 (3.85%) OpenShift
7 12 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (3.30%) GitHub
8 11 (3.02%) Serverless
9 10 (2.75%) Cloud Computing
10 8 (2.20%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.20%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 7 (1.92%) Apigee
11 7 (1.92%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (1.65%) Akamai
13 5 (1.37%) AWS CloudFormation
13 5 (1.37%) Datadog
13 5 (1.37%) Power Automate
13 5 (1.37%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.37%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 18 (4.95%) VPN
2 15 (4.12%) Firewall
3 12 (3.30%) DNS
4 11 (3.02%) TCP/IP
5 10 (2.75%) DHCP
6 6 (1.65%) Wireshark
7 5 (1.37%) MPLS
7 5 (1.37%) VoIP
7 5 (1.37%) VSAN
7 5 (1.37%) WAN
8 4 (1.10%) LAN
8 4 (1.10%) Network Security
8 4 (1.10%) Wireless
9 3 (0.82%) BGP
9 3 (0.82%) IPsec
9 3 (0.82%) Junos
9 3 (0.82%) SD-WAN
10 2 (0.55%) Broadband
10 2 (0.55%) Internet
10 2 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (7.42%) Pentaho
2 16 (4.40%) Oracle Database
3 14 (3.85%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.30%) MongoDB
4 12 (3.30%) MySQL
5 11 (3.02%) Relational Database
5 11 (3.02%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 10 (2.75%) Power BI
7 8 (2.20%) Data Warehouse
8 7 (1.92%) Elasticsearch
8 7 (1.92%) NoSQL
9 5 (1.37%) Hadoop
9 5 (1.37%) SQL Server
9 5 (1.37%) Tableau
10 4 (1.10%) Big Data
10 4 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.82%) Geospatial Data
11 3 (0.82%) OLTP
11 3 (0.82%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.82%) SAS Visual Analytics
Development Applications
1 72 (19.78%) Git
2 63 (17.31%) JIRA
3 50 (13.74%) Jenkins
4 23 (6.32%) Selenium
5 22 (6.04%) JUnit
6 19 (5.22%) GitLab
7 8 (2.20%) Eclipse
7 8 (2.20%) IntelliJ
8 3 (0.82%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.55%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.55%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.55%) Gradle
9 2 (0.55%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.55%) MLflow
9 2 (0.55%) Postman
9 2 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.55%) Xcode
10 1 (0.27%) Mockito
10 1 (0.27%) TestPartner
General
1 215 (59.07%) Social Skills
2 127 (34.89%) Analytical Skills
3 56 (15.38%) Finance
4 39 (10.71%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.67%) Legal
6 14 (3.85%) Presentation Skills
7 13 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
8 12 (3.30%) Marketing
9 11 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (3.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (3.02%) Manufacturing
9 11 (3.02%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.92%) Banking
10 7 (1.92%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.65%) Military
12 5 (1.37%) Electronics
13 4 (1.10%) Retail
14 3 (0.82%) Automotive
14 3 (0.82%) Law
15 2 (0.55%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 67 (18.41%) Analyst
2 36 (9.89%) Developer
3 21 (5.77%) Architect
4 17 (4.67%) Lead
4 17 (4.67%) Project Manager
4 17 (4.67%) Support Engineer
5 16 (4.40%) Business Analyst
5 16 (4.40%) Consultant
5 16 (4.40%) Senior
6 14 (3.85%) IT Analyst
6 14 (3.85%) Test Specialist
7 13 (3.57%) Data Engineer
8 11 (3.02%) Support Analyst
9 10 (2.75%) Data Analyst
9 10 (2.75%) IT Support
10 9 (2.47%) 1st Line Support
11 8 (2.20%) IT Support Analyst
12 7 (1.92%) Administrator
12 7 (1.92%) Infrastructure Analyst
12 7 (1.92%) React Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (9.62%) REST
2 16 (4.40%) SOAP
3 15 (4.12%) HTML
4 14 (3.85%) Node.js
4 14 (3.85%) pytest
5 13 (3.57%) Spring
6 12 (3.30%) Elastic Stack
7 11 (3.02%) Play Framework
8 10 (2.75%) XML
9 9 (2.47%) HTML5
10 8 (2.20%) .NET
10 8 (2.20%) EJB
10 8 (2.20%) Hibernate
10 8 (2.20%) J2EE
10 8 (2.20%) J2SE
10 8 (2.20%) JSON
10 8 (2.20%) RESTful
11 6 (1.65%) GraphQL
11 6 (1.65%) React
11 6 (1.65%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 21 (5.77%) Self-Motivation
2 14 (3.85%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.85%) Product Ownership
3 11 (3.02%) Data Centre
3 11 (3.02%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.75%) Cloud Native
5 8 (2.20%) Linux Command Line
6 7 (1.92%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.65%) SCADA
7 6 (1.65%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 5 (1.37%) NHS
9 4 (1.10%) Data Structures
9 4 (1.10%) IoT
9 4 (1.10%) Learning Management System
9 4 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.10%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.82%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (0.82%) Mobile App
10 3 (0.82%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 37 (10.16%) Linux
2 35 (9.62%) Windows
3 25 (6.87%) Unix
4 11 (3.02%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.37%) Windows Server
6 4 (1.10%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.82%) Android
7 3 (0.82%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.55%) VMS
9 1 (0.27%) AIX
9 1 (0.27%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.27%) Solaris
9 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.27%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (35.44%) Agile
2 97 (26.65%) DevOps
3 87 (23.90%) CI/CD
4 75 (20.60%) Continuous Improvement
5 60 (16.48%) Scrum
6 59 (16.21%) Test Automation
7 58 (15.93%) Stakeholder Management
8 55 (15.11%) Analytics
9 54 (14.84%) Data Modelling
10 48 (13.19%) Data Pipeline
11 47 (12.91%) Business Intelligence
12 45 (12.36%) ETL
13 43 (11.81%) ITIL
14 39 (10.71%) Project Management
15 34 (9.34%) Containerisation
15 34 (9.34%) Deployment Automation
16 33 (9.07%) Mentoring
17 32 (8.79%) Data Integration
17 32 (8.79%) Migration
18 31 (8.52%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (20.88%) SQL
2 57 (15.66%) Python
3 23 (6.32%) Java
4 19 (5.22%) JavaScript
5 13 (3.57%) Bash
5 13 (3.57%) PowerShell
5 13 (3.57%) Scala
6 9 (2.47%) Shell Script
6 9 (2.47%) TypeScript
7 8 (2.20%) PL/SQL
7 8 (2.20%) VBA
8 6 (1.65%) C#
8 6 (1.65%) Perl
9 5 (1.37%) Apex Code
9 5 (1.37%) Go
9 5 (1.37%) PHP
10 3 (0.82%) ABAP
10 3 (0.82%) Ruby
11 2 (0.55%) Groovy
11 2 (0.55%) JSX
Qualifications
1 92 (25.27%) Security Cleared
2 73 (20.05%) SC Cleared
3 44 (12.09%) Degree
4 17 (4.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.02%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (3.02%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.65%) MCP
6 6 (1.65%) PMI Certification
6 6 (1.65%) PMP
7 5 (1.37%) MCDST
7 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.10%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.82%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.82%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.82%) CCNA
9 3 (0.82%) CCNP
9 3 (0.82%) CEH
9 3 (0.82%) CISSP
10 2 (0.55%) PCI QSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (9.89%) Data Quality
2 28 (7.69%) QA
3 12 (3.30%) PMO
4 9 (2.47%) GDPR
4 9 (2.47%) SLA
5 5 (1.37%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.82%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.55%) ISO 19650
7 2 (0.55%) NIST
8 1 (0.27%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.27%) PSD2
8 1 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.27%) WCAG
System Software
1 71 (19.51%) Docker
2 18 (4.95%) Active Directory
3 10 (2.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.65%) vSphere
5 2 (0.55%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.55%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.27%) Firmware
6 1 (0.27%) IAG
Systems Management
1 63 (17.31%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.85%) Puppet
3 11 (3.02%) SCCM
4 10 (2.75%) Ansible
4 10 (2.75%) Terraform
5 7 (1.92%) Kibana
6 6 (1.65%) CSIRT
6 6 (1.65%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.65%) vRealize
6 6 (1.65%) VxRail
7 5 (1.37%) Grafana
8 3 (0.82%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.55%) Argo
9 2 (0.55%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.55%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.55%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.55%) Istio
9 2 (0.55%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.27%) Dell DRAC
Vendors
1 52 (14.29%) Oracle
2 43 (11.81%) Microsoft
3 34 (9.34%) SAP
4 28 (7.69%) ServiceNow
5 27 (7.42%) Denodo
5 27 (7.42%) Talend
6 23 (6.32%) Splunk
7 19 (5.22%) Cisco
8 13 (3.57%) Google
9 12 (3.30%) VMware
10 11 (3.02%) Salesforce
10 11 (3.02%) Workday
11 10 (2.75%) IBM
12 9 (2.47%) CyberArk
13 8 (2.20%) BeyondTrust
13 8 (2.20%) HP
13 8 (2.20%) webMethods
14 7 (1.92%) AppDynamics
14 7 (1.92%) Dell
14 7 (1.92%) F5