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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 11
Rank change year-on-year -1 +7 -3
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 345 236 192
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 15.09% 15.13% 10.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 17.63% 17.40% 12.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 139 133
10th Percentile £254 £160 £220
25th Percentile £406 £348 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £438 £510
Median % change year-on-year +13.14% -14.22% -3.50%
75th Percentile £556 £591 £626
90th Percentile £625 £700 £700
England median daily rate £492 £500 £520
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -3.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 3
10th Percentile £14.20 £16.41 £19.93
25th Percentile £14.94 £16.63 £28.02
Median hourly rate £16.71 £19.12 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.63% -54.48% +162.50%
75th Percentile £21.17 £21.63 £45.00
90th Percentile £28.15 £21.85 £46.50
England median hourly rate £18.73 £21.46 £30.00
% change year-on-year -12.72% -28.47% -3.05%

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 1,957 1,356 1,504
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.61% 86.92% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,238 845 999
10th Percentile £263 £223 £275
25th Percentile £405 £400 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £495
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +6.06% -1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £612 £600
90th Percentile £675 £725 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 46 62
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.70 £14.97
25th Percentile £16.22 £16.38 £17.94
Median hourly rate £20.25 £21.59 £28.34
Median % change year-on-year -6.21% -23.80% +63.62%
75th Percentile £27.21 £33.70 £50.94
90th Percentile £35.60 £52.50 £68.63
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -26.03% -20.00% +21.43%

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 13 January 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 13 January 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 13 January 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
Birmingham -5 95 £488 +2.04% 60
Shropshire +4 91 £500 +14.94% 39
Warwickshire +2 78 £500 -13.98% 40
Coventry -5 26 £419 +4.69% 12
Staffordshire +4 14 £210 -45.74% 25
Worcestershire -18 12 £550 +96.43% 24
Herefordshire -19 6 £600 +9.09% 10
Solihull -3 5 £588 +60.96% 1
Wolverhampton +3 2 £227 +145.68% 8
Walsall +4 1 £338 - 4
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 47 (13.62%) SAS
2 15 (4.35%) Confluence
3 9 (2.61%) Apache
3 9 (2.61%) WebLogic
4 8 (2.32%) JBoss
4 8 (2.32%) SharePoint
5 4 (1.16%) HCL Notes
6 3 (0.87%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.87%) SugarCRM
7 2 (0.58%) Drupal
8 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.29%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.29%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.29%) CMS
8 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.29%) nginx
Applications
1 19 (5.51%) Microsoft Excel
1 19 (5.51%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (2.03%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.16%) Adobe XD
4 4 (1.16%) Sketch
5 1 (0.29%) Revit
5 1 (0.29%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (1.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.58%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.58%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.58%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.58%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.58%) ResourceLink
3 2 (0.58%) SAP HR
3 2 (0.58%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.58%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.29%) Aareon QL
4 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.29%) iTrent
4 1 (0.29%) Maximo
4 1 (0.29%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.29%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.29%) OPENHousing
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.29%) Orchard Housing
Cloud Services
1 53 (15.36%) Azure
2 45 (13.04%) AWS
3 25 (7.25%) GCP
4 18 (5.22%) Microsoft 365
5 15 (4.35%) OpenShift
5 15 (4.35%) Power Platform
6 11 (3.19%) Serverless
7 10 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (2.90%) Cloud Computing
8 8 (2.32%) Power Automate
8 8 (2.32%) PowerApps
9 7 (2.03%) Apigee
9 7 (2.03%) Cloud Functions
9 7 (2.03%) Datadog
9 7 (2.03%) Entra ID
9 7 (2.03%) GitHub
9 7 (2.03%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (1.74%) Akamai
11 5 (1.45%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.45%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (5.80%) VPN
2 13 (3.77%) Firewall
3 12 (3.48%) DNS
4 10 (2.90%) DHCP
5 9 (2.61%) TCP/IP
6 7 (2.03%) VSAN
7 6 (1.74%) Wireshark
8 5 (1.45%) WAN
9 4 (1.16%) MPLS
9 4 (1.16%) Wireless
10 3 (0.87%) BGP
10 3 (0.87%) IPsec
10 3 (0.87%) Junos
10 3 (0.87%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.58%) Broadband
11 2 (0.58%) LAN
11 2 (0.58%) Network Security
11 2 (0.58%) VoIP
12 1 (0.29%) HTTP
12 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (9.28%) Pentaho
2 14 (4.06%) Elasticsearch
2 14 (4.06%) Oracle Database
3 12 (3.48%) MongoDB
3 12 (3.48%) MySQL
4 11 (3.19%) Power BI
4 11 (3.19%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 10 (2.90%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (2.32%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.45%) SQL Server
9 4 (1.16%) NoSQL
9 4 (1.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.87%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 2 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.58%) Hadoop
12 1 (0.29%) Data Mining
12 1 (0.29%) DataStage
12 1 (0.29%) GIS
12 1 (0.29%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 78 (22.61%) Git
2 64 (18.55%) JIRA
3 53 (15.36%) Jenkins
4 23 (6.67%) Selenium
5 22 (6.38%) JUnit
6 20 (5.80%) GitLab
7 8 (2.32%) Eclipse
7 8 (2.32%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.58%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.58%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.58%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.58%) Postman
9 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.29%) Jaeger
9 1 (0.29%) Mockito
9 1 (0.29%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 197 (57.10%) Social Skills
2 124 (35.94%) Analytical Skills
3 37 (10.72%) Finance
4 33 (9.57%) Public Sector
5 14 (4.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 14 (4.06%) Influencing Skills
5 14 (4.06%) Legal
5 14 (4.06%) Presentation Skills
6 13 (3.77%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.32%) Banking
7 8 (2.32%) Telecoms
8 7 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.03%) Marketing
9 6 (1.74%) Military
10 5 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.87%) Law
11 3 (0.87%) Police
12 1 (0.29%) Electronics
12 1 (0.29%) Fire and Rescue
12 1 (0.29%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 56 (16.23%) Analyst
2 37 (10.72%) Developer
3 17 (4.93%) Data Engineer
3 17 (4.93%) Project Manager
4 16 (4.64%) Business Analyst
5 15 (4.35%) Architect
5 15 (4.35%) IT Analyst
6 14 (4.06%) Consultant
6 14 (4.06%) Lead
6 14 (4.06%) Splunk Engineer
6 14 (4.06%) Test Specialist
7 13 (3.77%) Site Engineer
7 13 (3.77%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 13 (3.77%) Support Analyst
8 12 (3.48%) IT Support
8 12 (3.48%) Senior
8 12 (3.48%) Support Engineer
9 11 (3.19%) 1st Line Support
10 10 (2.90%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 10 (2.90%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (10.14%) REST
2 19 (5.51%) Elastic Stack
2 19 (5.51%) HTML
3 16 (4.64%) SOAP
4 14 (4.06%) pytest
5 13 (3.77%) HTML5
5 13 (3.77%) Node.js
6 12 (3.48%) RESTful
7 11 (3.19%) Play Framework
7 11 (3.19%) Spring
8 9 (2.61%) CSS
8 9 (2.61%) XML
9 8 (2.32%) EJB
9 8 (2.32%) Hibernate
9 8 (2.32%) J2EE
9 8 (2.32%) J2SE
9 8 (2.32%) JSON
9 8 (2.32%) React
10 6 (1.74%) .NET
10 6 (1.74%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.51%) Management Information System
2 18 (5.22%) Self-Motivation
3 16 (4.64%) Onboarding
4 12 (3.48%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.19%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.90%) Cloud Native
6 10 (2.90%) Linux Command Line
7 8 (2.32%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.74%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.45%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.45%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 4 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.16%) SCADA
10 4 (1.16%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.87%) IoT
11 3 (0.87%) Learning Management System
11 3 (0.87%) NHS
11 3 (0.87%) PKI
11 3 (0.87%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 40 (11.59%) Linux
2 30 (8.70%) Windows
3 28 (8.12%) Unix
4 10 (2.90%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.45%) Windows Server
6 4 (1.16%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.29%) AIX
8 1 (0.29%) Android
8 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.29%) CentOS
8 1 (0.29%) Solaris
8 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.29%) VMS
8 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (39.42%) Agile
2 105 (30.43%) DevOps
3 92 (26.67%) CI/CD
4 75 (21.74%) Continuous Improvement
5 64 (18.55%) Stakeholder Management
6 62 (17.97%) Data Modelling
6 62 (17.97%) Scrum
7 58 (16.81%) Test Automation
8 57 (16.52%) Analytics
9 52 (15.07%) Data Pipeline
10 46 (13.33%) ETL
11 42 (12.17%) Containerisation
11 42 (12.17%) Project Management
12 41 (11.88%) Change Management
13 40 (11.59%) Business Intelligence
14 39 (11.30%) Data Integration
15 37 (10.72%) Migration
16 36 (10.43%) Deployment Automation
17 35 (10.14%) ITIL
17 35 (10.14%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 67 (19.42%) Python
1 67 (19.42%) SQL
2 23 (6.67%) JavaScript
3 20 (5.80%) Bash
4 19 (5.51%) Java
5 14 (4.06%) PowerShell
6 13 (3.77%) Scala
7 9 (2.61%) Shell Script
8 8 (2.32%) Go
9 6 (1.74%) Perl
9 6 (1.74%) TypeScript
9 6 (1.74%) VBA
10 5 (1.45%) C#
10 5 (1.45%) PHP
10 5 (1.45%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.87%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.87%) Ruby
12 1 (0.29%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 93 (26.96%) Security Cleared
2 75 (21.74%) SC Cleared
3 45 (13.04%) Degree
4 21 (6.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (2.32%) DV Cleared
7 7 (2.03%) Master's Degree
7 7 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.03%) PMI Certification
7 7 (2.03%) PMP
8 6 (1.74%) MCP
9 5 (1.45%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.45%) MCDST
10 4 (1.16%) CCNP
10 4 (1.16%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 3 (0.87%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.87%) CCNA
12 2 (0.58%) A+ Certification
12 2 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (10.72%) Data Quality
2 26 (7.54%) QA
3 9 (2.61%) PMO
4 7 (2.03%) Accessibility
4 7 (2.03%) GDPR
5 5 (1.45%) ISO 19650
5 5 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.87%) WCAG
7 2 (0.58%) ISO 9001
7 2 (0.58%) NIST
7 2 (0.58%) SLA
8 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.29%) NCSC
8 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 83 (24.06%) Docker
2 19 (5.51%) Active Directory
3 14 (4.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.32%) vSphere
5 3 (0.87%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.29%) Firmware
6 1 (0.29%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 76 (22.03%) Kubernetes
2 21 (6.09%) Puppet
3 19 (5.51%) Ansible
4 14 (4.06%) Kibana
5 10 (2.90%) SCCM
6 8 (2.32%) Grafana
6 8 (2.32%) Terraform
6 8 (2.32%) vRealize
6 8 (2.32%) VxRail
7 6 (1.74%) CSIRT
7 6 (1.74%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.58%) Argo
9 2 (0.58%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.58%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.29%) Dell DRAC
10 1 (0.29%) Fluentd
10 1 (0.29%) logstash
10 1 (0.29%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 51 (14.78%) Microsoft
2 44 (12.75%) Oracle
3 32 (9.28%) Denodo
3 32 (9.28%) ServiceNow
3 32 (9.28%) Talend
4 30 (8.70%) Splunk
5 21 (6.09%) Cisco
6 16 (4.64%) SAP
6 16 (4.64%) VMware
7 13 (3.77%) Google
8 10 (2.90%) HP
9 9 (2.61%) AppDynamics
9 9 (2.61%) Dell
9 9 (2.61%) IBM
9 9 (2.61%) SolarWinds
10 8 (2.32%) BeyondTrust
10 8 (2.32%) CyberArk
10 8 (2.32%) F5
10 8 (2.32%) Salesforce
10 8 (2.32%) Workday