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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 3 10
Rank change year-on-year -9 +7 -2
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 404 308 183
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.56% 18.26% 9.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.52% 20.66% 12.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 287 189 123
10th Percentile £306 £171 £167
25th Percentile £363 £356 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £454 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.81% -4.49% -5.00%
75th Percentile £533 £538 £588
90th Percentile £641 £660 £650
England median daily rate £493 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -0.40% -1.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 9 7
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.86 £15.13
25th Percentile £14.60 £25.00 £15.32
Median hourly rate £27.30 £33.88 £18.97
Median % change year-on-year -19.42% +78.60% -9.54%
75th Percentile £46.95 £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% -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 2,989 1,491 1,516
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.50% 88.38% 81.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,913 939 1,027
10th Percentile £313 £231 £283
25th Percentile £406 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £626
90th Percentile £671 £669 £738
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 172 105 62
10th Percentile £13.51 £12.62 £13.02
25th Percentile £20.29 £14.70 £14.31
Median hourly rate £33.99 £24.34 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +39.63% +31.57% -32.73%
75th Percentile £53.75 £33.88 £36.88
90th Percentile £72.34 £50.00 £56.13
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -12 117 £450 -12.62% 40
Warwickshire -2 116 £500 +5.26% 61
Birmingham -14 77 £450 +3.93% 110
Coventry -15 31 £363 -12.12% 28
Worcestershire +9 14 £450 -12.62% 27
Staffordshire -5 10 £316 -9.64% 44
Solihull -23 8 £447 -23.87% 15
Wolverhampton - 5 £200 - 13
Herefordshire -2 4 - - 16
Dudley - 2 £375 - 2
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 39 (9.65%) Confluence
2 27 (6.68%) SAS
3 20 (4.95%) SharePoint
4 15 (3.71%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (1.98%) WebLogic
6 6 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
6 6 (1.49%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 1 (0.25%) Apache
7 1 (0.25%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.25%) Appian
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.25%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 27 (6.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (4.46%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.49%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (1.24%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.74%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.74%) Revit
7 2 (0.50%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.50%) CATIA
7 2 (0.50%) Sketch
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.25%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.25%) InDesign
8 1 (0.25%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (3.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (2.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.49%) Oracle HRMS
4 5 (1.24%) SAP PSCD
5 3 (0.74%) ContrOCC
5 3 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.74%) 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 79 (19.55%) Azure
2 41 (10.15%) AWS
3 39 (9.65%) Power Platform
4 33 (8.17%) Microsoft 365
5 29 (7.18%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (4.95%) Entra ID
7 14 (3.47%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (3.22%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (3.22%) GitHub
8 13 (3.22%) Power Automate
8 13 (3.22%) Serverless
9 12 (2.97%) GCP
10 10 (2.48%) Azure Functions
11 8 (1.98%) Microsoft Purview
11 8 (1.98%) OneDrive
12 7 (1.73%) Snowflake
13 5 (1.24%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (1.24%) Google Analytics
14 4 (0.99%) Azure Storage
14 4 (0.99%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (3.47%) DNS
2 11 (2.72%) DHCP
2 11 (2.72%) VPN
3 9 (2.23%) Firewall
4 7 (1.73%) LAN
4 7 (1.73%) TCP/IP
4 7 (1.73%) WAN
5 6 (1.49%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (1.49%) Network Security
5 6 (1.49%) SD-WAN
6 5 (1.24%) Internet
6 5 (1.24%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.74%) BIG-IP
7 3 (0.74%) SSL
7 3 (0.74%) Unified Communications
7 3 (0.74%) VoIP
8 2 (0.50%) Cisco Wireless
8 2 (0.50%) PBX
8 2 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (0.50%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.42%) Power BI
2 27 (6.68%) Pentaho
3 22 (5.45%) Data Warehouse
4 19 (4.70%) SQL Server
5 15 (3.71%) PostgreSQL
6 12 (2.97%) Metadata
7 8 (1.98%) Data Lake
7 8 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (1.73%) MySQL
9 6 (1.49%) Ingres
9 6 (1.49%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.24%) MongoDB
10 5 (1.24%) Oracle Database
10 5 (1.24%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.99%) Big Data
11 4 (0.99%) Power Query
11 4 (0.99%) SAP BW
12 3 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 2 (0.50%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 69 (17.08%) JIRA
2 40 (9.90%) Git
3 28 (6.93%) Jenkins
4 21 (5.20%) Selenium
5 16 (3.96%) Postman
6 12 (2.97%) WebDriver
7 11 (2.72%) Cypress.io
8 9 (2.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 9 (2.23%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.23%) GitLab
9 6 (1.49%) JUnit
10 5 (1.24%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.24%) Zephyr
11 4 (0.99%) JMeter
11 4 (0.99%) Maven
11 4 (0.99%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.74%) Browser DevTools
12 3 (0.74%) Protractor
12 3 (0.74%) SonarQube
13 2 (0.50%) Mockito
General
1 202 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 160 (39.60%) Analytical Skills
3 60 (14.85%) Public Sector
4 59 (14.60%) Finance
5 21 (5.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 16 (3.96%) Local Government
7 15 (3.71%) Manufacturing
7 15 (3.71%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.97%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (2.48%) Automotive
9 10 (2.48%) Presentation Skills
10 9 (2.23%) Legal
11 7 (1.73%) Banking
11 7 (1.73%) Marketing
12 6 (1.49%) Electronics
13 5 (1.24%) Billing
13 5 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.99%) Military
14 4 (0.99%) Retail
15 3 (0.74%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 61 (15.10%) Analyst
2 45 (11.14%) Lead
3 44 (10.89%) Data Engineer
4 35 (8.66%) Senior
5 29 (7.18%) Developer
6 27 (6.68%) Consultant
7 20 (4.95%) Administrator
8 19 (4.70%) Architect
9 18 (4.46%) Business Analyst
9 18 (4.46%) SAP Consultant
10 15 (3.71%) Test Analyst
11 11 (2.72%) Data Analyst
12 8 (1.98%) Business Intelligence Developer
12 8 (1.98%) Delivery Manager
12 8 (1.98%) Java Developer
12 8 (1.98%) Network Engineer
12 8 (1.98%) Project Manager
12 8 (1.98%) Senior Data Engineer
12 8 (1.98%) Test Engineer
13 7 (1.73%) Oracle Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.47%) REST
1 14 (3.47%) Spring
2 11 (2.72%) Spring Boot
3 10 (2.48%) Oracle Fusion
3 10 (2.48%) SOAP
4 9 (2.23%) Gherkin
5 7 (1.73%) Play Framework
6 6 (1.49%) Middleware
7 5 (1.24%) JDBC
7 5 (1.24%) SAP PI
8 4 (0.99%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.99%) IDoc
8 4 (0.99%) Playwright
8 4 (0.99%) Spring Cloud
8 4 (0.99%) XML
9 3 (0.74%) OpenTelemetry
9 3 (0.74%) PyTorch
9 3 (0.74%) React
9 3 (0.74%) TensorFlow
9 3 (0.74%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 21 (5.20%) Cloud Native
2 16 (3.96%) Management Information System
3 13 (3.22%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (2.97%) Data Centre
4 12 (2.97%) Product Ownership
5 11 (2.72%) Onboarding
5 11 (2.72%) Self-Motivation
6 10 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (2.23%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.23%) Operational Technology
7 9 (2.23%) SCADA
8 8 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (1.98%) Virtual Team
9 6 (1.49%) Autonomous Agent
10 5 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (1.24%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.99%) iPhone
11 4 (0.99%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.74%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 46 (11.39%) Windows
2 16 (3.96%) Linux
3 13 (3.22%) Mac OS
4 12 (2.97%) Unix
5 11 (2.72%) Windows 10
5 11 (2.72%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.74%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.25%) HPUX
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (35.15%) Agile
2 126 (31.19%) Continuous Improvement
3 81 (20.05%) CI/CD
4 80 (19.80%) DevOps
5 71 (17.57%) Stakeholder Management
6 65 (16.09%) Test Automation
7 62 (15.35%) Analytics
8 61 (15.10%) Business Intelligence
9 59 (14.60%) ETL
10 58 (14.36%) Data Modelling
11 57 (14.11%) Scrum
12 56 (13.86%) AI
12 56 (13.86%) Migration
13 48 (11.88%) Decision-Making
14 42 (10.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 42 (10.40%) Validation
15 41 (10.15%) Data Pipeline
16 39 (9.65%) ITIL
17 38 (9.41%) Generative AI
18 30 (7.43%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 93 (23.02%) SQL
2 38 (9.41%) Python
3 33 (8.17%) Java
4 19 (4.70%) PL/SQL
5 13 (3.22%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.72%) C
7 10 (2.48%) Bash
8 9 (2.23%) JavaScript
9 8 (1.98%) C#
9 8 (1.98%) ProC
10 7 (1.73%) Scala
11 6 (1.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (1.24%) ABAP
12 5 (1.24%) MATLAB
12 5 (1.24%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.99%) C++
13 4 (0.99%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.74%) Bicep
14 3 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
14 3 (0.74%) Perl
Qualifications
1 144 (35.64%) Security Cleared
2 121 (29.95%) SC Cleared
3 41 (10.15%) Degree
4 21 (5.20%) Microsoft Certification
5 20 (4.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (2.48%) Azure Certification
6 10 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.23%) ISTQB
8 8 (1.98%) DV Cleared
8 8 (1.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 7 (1.73%) CCNA
9 7 (1.73%) OCP
9 7 (1.73%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (1.49%) MCSE
11 5 (1.24%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.24%) CISSP
12 4 (0.99%) CCNP
12 4 (0.99%) RHCA
12 4 (0.99%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (13.86%) Data Quality
2 33 (8.17%) QA
3 18 (4.46%) Accessibility
4 15 (3.71%) GDPR
5 14 (3.47%) SLA
6 10 (2.48%) WCAG
7 9 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (1.49%) PMO
9 4 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.74%) GRC
10 3 (0.74%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 3 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 3 (0.74%) NIST
11 2 (0.50%) ISO 19650
12 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.25%) ISO 14001
12 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
12 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 40 (9.90%) Docker
2 22 (5.45%) Active Directory
3 12 (2.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.23%) vSphere
5 8 (1.98%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.73%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.74%) Snort
8 2 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.25%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.25%) FreeRADIUS
9 1 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 39 (9.65%) Kubernetes
2 17 (4.21%) SCCM
3 12 (2.97%) Grafana
3 12 (2.97%) Terraform
4 11 (2.72%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (2.48%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.23%) Ansible
7 5 (1.24%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.99%) Podman
8 4 (0.99%) PowerCLI
8 4 (0.99%) vMotion
9 3 (0.74%) CSIRT
9 3 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.50%) Argo
11 1 (0.25%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.25%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.25%) IBM Guardium
11 1 (0.25%) QRadar
11 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 86 (21.29%) Microsoft
2 56 (13.86%) Oracle
3 32 (7.92%) SAP
4 26 (6.44%) ServiceNow
5 23 (5.69%) Denodo
6 22 (5.45%) Talend
7 19 (4.70%) VMware
8 16 (3.96%) Cisco
9 14 (3.47%) Atlassian
10 12 (2.97%) Splunk
11 9 (2.23%) Databricks
11 9 (2.23%) Google
12 7 (1.73%) Apple
12 7 (1.73%) Qualys
12 7 (1.73%) Red Hat
13 6 (1.49%) Siemens
14 5 (1.24%) Adobe
14 5 (1.24%) Citrix
14 5 (1.24%) webMethods
15 4 (0.99%) Informatica