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

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 5 10
Rank change year-on-year 0 +5 -3
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 359 238 222
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 16.77% 12.91% 11.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.90% 15.35% 13.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 138 149
10th Percentile £248 £160 £200
25th Percentile £400 £346 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £456 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.96% -8.75% -3.85%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £635
90th Percentile £625 £700 £738
England median daily rate £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 6 2
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.88 £17.34
25th Percentile £15.88 £16.38 £21.53
Median hourly rate £19.51 £18.11 £29.77
Median % change year-on-year +7.73% -39.18% +48.85%
75th Percentile £32.15 £20.87 £39.26
90th Percentile £37.51 £21.75 £44.20
England median hourly rate £18.90 £19.50 £45.44
% change year-on-year -3.10% -57.09% +52.74%

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 1,899 1,550 1,620
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 88.70% 84.10% 85.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,205 963 1,101
10th Percentile £263 £250 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £524 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.58% +4.80% -
75th Percentile £588 £612 £600
90th Percentile £675 £713 £700
England median daily rate £501 £525 £549
% change year-on-year -4.67% -4.42% -0.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 52 51
10th Percentile £13.25 £14.70 £15.50
25th Percentile £16.29 £16.07 £17.72
Median hourly rate £21.46 £21.80 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.54% -12.82% +41.24%
75th Percentile £30.00 £34.06 £52.50
90th Percentile £42.97 £52.25 £67.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.85%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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
Birmingham -4 96 £475 -1.86% 99
Warwickshire +6 93 £500 -13.04% 40
Shropshire +4 85 £500 +14.94% 42
Coventry +1 30 £425 +2.22% 14
Staffordshire +3 13 £220 -43.15% 47
Worcestershire -12 12 £550 +175.00% 35
Solihull +1 6 £600 +64.38% 12
Herefordshire -13 6 £600 -5.51% 9
Wolverhampton +3 2 £227 +145.68% 9
Walsall +3 1 £338 - 3
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 46 (12.81%) SAS
2 13 (3.62%) Confluence
3 10 (2.79%) SharePoint
4 9 (2.51%) Apache
4 9 (2.51%) WebLogic
5 8 (2.23%) JBoss
6 4 (1.11%) HCL Notes
7 3 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.84%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.84%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.84%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 3 (0.84%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.84%) SugarCRM
8 2 (0.56%) CMS
8 2 (0.56%) Drupal
9 1 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.28%) nginx
9 1 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 20 (5.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (5.29%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.67%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (1.67%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.84%) Revit
6 2 (0.56%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.56%) MicroStation
6 2 (0.56%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.56%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.39%) SAP HR
2 5 (1.39%) SAP PM
3 3 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle HRMS
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.56%) ResourceLink
4 2 (0.56%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.28%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.28%) iTrent
5 1 (0.28%) Maximo
5 1 (0.28%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.28%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 56 (15.60%) Azure
2 46 (12.81%) AWS
3 27 (7.52%) GCP
4 21 (5.85%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (3.90%) OpenShift
6 12 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (3.34%) GitHub
6 12 (3.34%) Power Platform
7 11 (3.06%) Serverless
8 10 (2.79%) Cloud Computing
9 9 (2.51%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.23%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 7 (1.95%) Apigee
11 7 (1.95%) Cloud Functions
11 7 (1.95%) Entra ID
12 6 (1.67%) Akamai
12 6 (1.67%) Datadog
13 5 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (1.39%) Power Automate
13 5 (1.39%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (5.29%) VPN
2 15 (4.18%) Firewall
3 13 (3.62%) DNS
4 11 (3.06%) TCP/IP
5 10 (2.79%) DHCP
6 6 (1.67%) VSAN
6 6 (1.67%) Wireshark
7 5 (1.39%) MPLS
7 5 (1.39%) VoIP
7 5 (1.39%) WAN
8 4 (1.11%) LAN
8 4 (1.11%) Network Security
8 4 (1.11%) Wireless
9 3 (0.84%) BGP
9 3 (0.84%) IPsec
9 3 (0.84%) Junos
9 3 (0.84%) SD-WAN
10 2 (0.56%) Broadband
10 2 (0.56%) SSH
10 2 (0.56%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (8.64%) Pentaho
2 16 (4.46%) Oracle Database
3 13 (3.62%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.34%) MongoDB
4 12 (3.34%) MySQL
5 11 (3.06%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 10 (2.79%) Relational Database
7 8 (2.23%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (2.23%) Power BI
8 7 (1.95%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (1.67%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.39%) SQL Server
11 4 (1.11%) Hadoop
11 4 (1.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.84%) Big Data
12 3 (0.84%) Geospatial Data
12 3 (0.84%) GIS
12 3 (0.84%) OLTP
12 3 (0.84%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.84%) SAS Visual Analytics
Development Applications
1 74 (20.61%) Git
2 69 (19.22%) JIRA
3 54 (15.04%) Jenkins
4 23 (6.41%) Selenium
5 22 (6.13%) JUnit
6 21 (5.85%) GitLab
7 8 (2.23%) Eclipse
7 8 (2.23%) IntelliJ
8 3 (0.84%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.84%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.56%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.56%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.56%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.56%) MLflow
9 2 (0.56%) Postman
10 1 (0.28%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.28%) Jaeger
10 1 (0.28%) Mockito
10 1 (0.28%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.28%) TestPartner
General
1 207 (57.66%) Social Skills
2 123 (34.26%) Analytical Skills
3 49 (13.65%) Finance
4 38 (10.58%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.74%) Legal
6 13 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (3.62%) Telecoms
7 12 (3.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (3.34%) Marketing
7 12 (3.34%) Presentation Skills
8 11 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (2.79%) Manufacturing
10 9 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (1.95%) Banking
11 7 (1.95%) Military
12 5 (1.39%) Electronics
13 3 (0.84%) Law
14 2 (0.56%) Police
14 2 (0.56%) Publishing
15 1 (0.28%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 64 (17.83%) Analyst
2 33 (9.19%) Developer
3 20 (5.57%) Architect
4 18 (5.01%) Business Analyst
5 17 (4.74%) Data Engineer
5 17 (4.74%) Project Manager
6 16 (4.46%) Consultant
6 16 (4.46%) Lead
6 16 (4.46%) Support Engineer
7 15 (4.18%) IT Analyst
8 14 (3.90%) Test Specialist
9 13 (3.62%) Senior
10 12 (3.34%) Support Analyst
11 11 (3.06%) IT Support
12 10 (2.79%) 1st Line Support
13 9 (2.51%) Infrastructure Analyst
13 9 (2.51%) IT Support Analyst
14 8 (2.23%) Cloud Developer
14 8 (2.23%) Splunk Engineer
15 7 (1.95%) GCP Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (8.91%) REST
2 15 (4.18%) Elastic Stack
2 15 (4.18%) HTML
2 15 (4.18%) SOAP
3 14 (3.90%) pytest
4 13 (3.62%) Node.js
5 11 (3.06%) Play Framework
5 11 (3.06%) Spring
6 9 (2.51%) HTML5
6 9 (2.51%) XML
7 8 (2.23%) EJB
7 8 (2.23%) Hibernate
7 8 (2.23%) J2EE
7 8 (2.23%) J2SE
7 8 (2.23%) JSON
7 8 (2.23%) RESTful
8 6 (1.67%) .NET
8 6 (1.67%) GraphQL
8 6 (1.67%) SAML
9 5 (1.39%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.29%) Self-Motivation
2 14 (3.90%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.90%) Product Ownership
3 12 (3.34%) Management Information System
4 11 (3.06%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.79%) Cloud Native
6 9 (2.51%) Linux Command Line
7 8 (2.23%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.95%) SCADA
9 6 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.39%) Data Structures
10 5 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (1.39%) NHS
10 5 (1.39%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 4 (1.11%) Driving Licence
11 4 (1.11%) Operational Technology
11 4 (1.11%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.84%) Educational Technology
12 3 (0.84%) IoT
12 3 (0.84%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 40 (11.14%) Linux
2 35 (9.75%) Windows
3 25 (6.96%) Unix
4 11 (3.06%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.39%) Windows Server
6 4 (1.11%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.56%) VMS
8 1 (0.28%) AIX
8 1 (0.28%) Android
8 1 (0.28%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.28%) CentOS
8 1 (0.28%) Solaris
8 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.28%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (36.49%) Agile
2 103 (28.69%) DevOps
3 90 (25.07%) CI/CD
4 72 (20.06%) Continuous Improvement
5 62 (17.27%) Scrum
6 59 (16.43%) Analytics
6 59 (16.43%) Test Automation
7 58 (16.16%) Stakeholder Management
8 55 (15.32%) Data Modelling
9 52 (14.48%) Data Pipeline
10 49 (13.65%) ETL
11 45 (12.53%) Business Intelligence
12 40 (11.14%) ITIL
13 39 (10.86%) Containerisation
13 39 (10.86%) Project Management
14 37 (10.31%) Deployment Automation
14 37 (10.31%) Migration
15 36 (10.03%) Change Management
16 35 (9.75%) Data Integration
17 33 (9.19%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 75 (20.89%) SQL
2 63 (17.55%) Python
3 20 (5.57%) Java
3 20 (5.57%) JavaScript
4 16 (4.46%) Bash
5 14 (3.90%) PowerShell
6 13 (3.62%) Scala
7 9 (2.51%) Shell Script
8 8 (2.23%) Go
9 7 (1.95%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.67%) Perl
10 6 (1.67%) VBA
11 5 (1.39%) Apex Code
11 5 (1.39%) C#
11 5 (1.39%) PHP
11 5 (1.39%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.84%) Ruby
13 2 (0.56%) ABAP
13 2 (0.56%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 94 (26.18%) Security Cleared
2 76 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 46 (12.81%) Degree
4 18 (5.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.06%) DV Cleared
6 10 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.95%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.67%) MCP
8 6 (1.67%) PMI Certification
8 6 (1.67%) PMP
9 5 (1.39%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.39%) MCDST
10 4 (1.11%) AWS Certification
10 4 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.84%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.84%) CCNA
11 3 (0.84%) CCNP
11 3 (0.84%) CEH
11 3 (0.84%) CISSP
11 3 (0.84%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (10.03%) Data Quality
2 30 (8.36%) QA
3 11 (3.06%) PMO
4 8 (2.23%) GDPR
4 8 (2.23%) SLA
5 5 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.11%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.84%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.56%) ISO 19650
8 2 (0.56%) ISO 9001
8 2 (0.56%) NIST
9 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) NCSC
9 1 (0.28%) PSD2
9 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 78 (21.73%) Docker
2 21 (5.85%) Active Directory
3 13 (3.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (1.95%) vSphere
5 3 (0.84%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.28%) Firmware
7 1 (0.28%) IAG
7 1 (0.28%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 71 (19.78%) Kubernetes
2 15 (4.18%) Puppet
3 13 (3.62%) Ansible
4 11 (3.06%) SCCM
4 11 (3.06%) Terraform
5 8 (2.23%) Grafana
5 8 (2.23%) Kibana
6 7 (1.95%) vRealize
6 7 (1.95%) VxRail
7 6 (1.67%) CSIRT
7 6 (1.67%) Prometheus
8 4 (1.11%) Argo
9 3 (0.84%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.56%) BMC PATROL
10 2 (0.56%) Data Guard
10 2 (0.56%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.56%) Istio
10 2 (0.56%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 1 (0.28%) Dell DRAC
Vendors
1 53 (14.76%) Oracle
2 48 (13.37%) Microsoft
3 31 (8.64%) Denodo
3 31 (8.64%) Talend
4 29 (8.08%) ServiceNow
5 28 (7.80%) SAP
6 24 (6.69%) Splunk
7 20 (5.57%) Cisco
8 15 (4.18%) VMware
9 13 (3.62%) Google
10 11 (3.06%) IBM
10 11 (3.06%) Workday
11 10 (2.79%) Salesforce
12 9 (2.51%) HP
13 8 (2.23%) AppDynamics
13 8 (2.23%) BeyondTrust
13 8 (2.23%) CyberArk
13 8 (2.23%) Dell
13 8 (2.23%) webMethods
14 7 (1.95%) F5