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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 2 13
Rank change year-on-year -8 +11 -5
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 397 293 189
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.54% 18.36% 9.23%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.44% 20.69% 11.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 180 132
10th Percentile £306 £159 £191
25th Percentile £363 £282 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £447 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.80% -6.00% -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £532 £600
90th Percentile £638 £638 £650
England median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 9 10
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.86 £14.71
25th Percentile £16.09 £25.00 £15.22
Median hourly rate £27.30 £33.88 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year -19.42% +63.40% -0.49%
75th Percentile £42.65 £44.00 £56.25
90th Percentile £67.84 £54.13 £72.50
England median hourly rate £22.00 £21.27 £16.23
% change year-on-year +3.46% +31.02% -69.09%

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 2,954 1,416 1,657
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.87% 88.72% 80.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,928 895 1,107
10th Percentile £313 £206 £263
25th Percentile £405 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £683 £725
England median daily rate £525 £514 £525
% change year-on-year +2.14% -2.10% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 148 97 108
10th Percentile £14.82 £12.62 £11.06
25th Percentile £20.31 £13.78 £14.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £22.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +51.07% +18.42% -24.00%
75th Percentile £59.56 £33.88 £37.50
90th Percentile £72.54 £50.00 £57.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% -6.09%

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 11 July 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 11 July 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 11 July 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
Warwickshire -2 126 £525 +16.67% 33
Shropshire -14 95 £455 +0.29% 20
Birmingham -12 83 £450 +4.90% 77
Coventry -15 29 £406 +4.84% 9
Worcestershire +5 17 £563 +5.63% 26
Staffordshire -3 11 £313 +95.31% 27
Solihull -14 7 £493 -36.94% 4
Wolverhampton - 4 - - 2
Herefordshire -3 3 - - 7
Wednesbury - 1 - -
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 -
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 29 (7.30%) Confluence
2 26 (6.55%) SAS
3 18 (4.53%) SharePoint
4 15 (3.78%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (2.02%) WebLogic
6 6 (1.51%) Oracle Self-Service HR
7 5 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.25%) Appian
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.25%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 27 (6.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (4.79%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (2.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.26%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.01%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.76%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.76%) Revit
7 2 (0.50%) CATIA
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.25%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.25%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.25%) InDesign
8 1 (0.25%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.25%) Sketch
8 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (2.02%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.51%) Oracle HRMS
4 5 (1.26%) SAP PSCD
5 3 (0.76%) ContrOCC
5 3 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.76%) 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 76 (19.14%) Azure
2 43 (10.83%) AWS
3 35 (8.82%) Power Platform
4 30 (7.56%) Microsoft 365
5 25 (6.30%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (4.79%) Entra ID
7 15 (3.78%) GitHub
8 14 (3.53%) GCP
9 12 (3.02%) Azure Data Factory
10 11 (2.77%) Serverless
11 10 (2.52%) Dynamics 365
12 8 (2.02%) Microsoft Purview
12 8 (2.02%) Power Automate
13 7 (1.76%) Azure Functions
14 6 (1.51%) Amazon S3
14 6 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (1.51%) Snowflake
15 5 (1.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 5 (1.26%) OneDrive
15 5 (1.26%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 12 (3.02%) DNS
2 9 (2.27%) Firewall
2 9 (2.27%) VPN
3 7 (1.76%) DHCP
3 7 (1.76%) Intrusion Detection
3 7 (1.76%) SD-WAN
3 7 (1.76%) WAN
4 6 (1.51%) LAN
4 6 (1.51%) Network Security
5 5 (1.26%) Internet
5 5 (1.26%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.26%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (1.01%) BIG-IP
7 3 (0.76%) SSL
7 3 (0.76%) VLAN
8 2 (0.50%) PBX
8 2 (0.50%) SAN
8 2 (0.50%) Unified Communications
8 2 (0.50%) VoIP
8 2 (0.50%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (7.30%) Power BI
2 22 (5.54%) Pentaho
3 19 (4.79%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (3.53%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (3.53%) SQL Server
5 10 (2.52%) Metadata
6 8 (2.02%) Ingres
7 7 (1.76%) MongoDB
7 7 (1.76%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.51%) MySQL
8 6 (1.51%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (1.01%) Oracle Database
9 4 (1.01%) Power Query
10 3 (0.76%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.76%) Tableau
10 3 (0.76%) WebFOCUS
11 2 (0.50%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 61 (15.37%) JIRA
2 44 (11.08%) Git
3 31 (7.81%) Jenkins
4 18 (4.53%) Selenium
5 12 (3.02%) Postman
6 8 (2.02%) GitLab
6 8 (2.02%) WebDriver
7 7 (1.76%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 7 (1.76%) Cypress.io
7 7 (1.76%) REST Assured
8 6 (1.51%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.26%) JUnit
9 5 (1.26%) Zephyr
10 4 (1.01%) JMeter
11 3 (0.76%) Browser DevTools
12 2 (0.50%) Gatling
12 2 (0.50%) Protractor
12 2 (0.50%) Serenity BDD
12 2 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
12 2 (0.50%) TestRail
General
1 198 (49.87%) Social Skills
2 155 (39.04%) Analytical Skills
3 71 (17.88%) Finance
4 35 (8.82%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.28%) Local Government
6 15 (3.78%) Manufacturing
7 14 (3.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (3.02%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (2.77%) Banking
9 11 (2.77%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (2.02%) Automotive
10 8 (2.02%) Legal
10 8 (2.02%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.76%) Electronics
12 6 (1.51%) Marketing
13 5 (1.26%) Billing
13 5 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.26%) Military
13 5 (1.26%) Retail
14 4 (1.01%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 60 (15.11%) Analyst
2 43 (10.83%) Lead
3 39 (9.82%) Data Engineer
4 32 (8.06%) Senior
5 27 (6.80%) Developer
6 24 (6.05%) Consultant
7 21 (5.29%) Business Analyst
8 20 (5.04%) Architect
9 19 (4.79%) Administrator
10 15 (3.78%) Data Analyst
10 15 (3.78%) SAP Consultant
11 11 (2.77%) Test Analyst
12 10 (2.52%) Delivery Manager
12 10 (2.52%) Software Engineer
13 9 (2.27%) Network Engineer
14 8 (2.02%) Business Intelligence Developer
14 8 (2.02%) Project Manager
14 8 (2.02%) Test Engineer
15 7 (1.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 7 (1.76%) Scrum Master
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.78%) REST
1 15 (3.78%) Spring
2 11 (2.77%) Spring Boot
3 9 (2.27%) Oracle Fusion
4 7 (1.76%) OpenTelemetry
5 6 (1.51%) JDBC
5 6 (1.51%) Middleware
5 6 (1.51%) SOAP
6 5 (1.26%) Gherkin
6 5 (1.26%) Playwright
6 5 (1.26%) SAP PI
7 4 (1.01%) IDoc
7 4 (1.01%) SAML
8 3 (0.76%) ADO
8 3 (0.76%) FastAPI
8 3 (0.76%) Hugging Face
8 3 (0.76%) Node.js
8 3 (0.76%) PyTorch
8 3 (0.76%) RESTful
8 3 (0.76%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.53%) Cloud Native
2 14 (3.53%) Management Information System
3 13 (3.27%) Operational Technology
3 13 (3.27%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.02%) Onboarding
5 11 (2.77%) Data Centre
6 10 (2.52%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (2.52%) SCADA
7 9 (2.27%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (2.27%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.51%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.26%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (1.26%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.01%) CSOC
10 4 (1.01%) Driving Licence
10 4 (1.01%) Security Operations Centre
11 3 (0.76%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 43 (10.83%) Windows
2 17 (4.28%) Linux
3 13 (3.27%) Mac OS
4 10 (2.52%) Unix
4 10 (2.52%) Windows 10
5 8 (2.02%) Windows Server
6 5 (1.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (1.01%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.25%) HPUX
8 1 (0.25%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (31.74%) Agile
2 119 (29.97%) Continuous Improvement
3 76 (19.14%) CI/CD
4 66 (16.62%) DevOps
5 65 (16.37%) Stakeholder Management
6 62 (15.62%) Test Automation
7 59 (14.86%) Migration
8 57 (14.36%) Analytics
8 57 (14.36%) Business Intelligence
9 56 (14.11%) AI
9 56 (14.11%) ETL
10 55 (13.85%) Scrum
11 53 (13.35%) Data Modelling
12 46 (11.59%) Decision-Making
12 46 (11.59%) Validation
13 43 (10.83%) Generative AI
14 39 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 35 (8.82%) Data Pipeline
16 32 (8.06%) ITIL
17 30 (7.56%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 97 (24.43%) SQL
2 47 (11.84%) Python
3 31 (7.81%) Java
4 20 (5.04%) PL/SQL
5 15 (3.78%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.77%) C
7 9 (2.27%) Bash
8 8 (2.02%) ProC
9 7 (1.76%) C#
9 7 (1.76%) JavaScript
10 6 (1.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (1.26%) ABAP
11 5 (1.26%) MATLAB
11 5 (1.26%) Perl
11 5 (1.26%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.26%) TypeScript
12 4 (1.01%) Bicep
12 4 (1.01%) C++
12 4 (1.01%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.25%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 130 (32.75%) Security Cleared
2 109 (27.46%) SC Cleared
3 44 (11.08%) Degree
4 15 (3.78%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (2.77%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (2.52%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (2.02%) Azure Certification
9 7 (1.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 6 (1.51%) CCNA
10 6 (1.51%) OCP
10 6 (1.51%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (1.26%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.26%) CCNP
11 5 (1.26%) CISSP
11 5 (1.26%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.26%) MCSE
12 4 (1.01%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.76%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (14.11%) Data Quality
2 25 (6.30%) QA
3 14 (3.53%) Accessibility
3 14 (3.53%) SLA
4 11 (2.77%) GDPR
5 7 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.76%) PMO
5 7 (1.76%) WCAG
6 3 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.76%) GRC
6 3 (0.76%) HIPAA
6 3 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 3 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 2 (0.50%) ISO 19650
7 2 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 2 (0.50%) NIST
8 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.25%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 45 (11.34%) Docker
2 20 (5.04%) Active Directory
3 12 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.27%) vSphere
5 6 (1.51%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.51%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.01%) Snort
7 3 (0.76%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.50%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 46 (11.59%) Kubernetes
2 16 (4.03%) SCCM
3 13 (3.27%) Grafana
3 13 (3.27%) Terraform
4 11 (2.77%) Ansible
4 11 (2.77%) Prometheus
5 9 (2.27%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (1.26%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.01%) Argo
7 4 (1.01%) CSIRT
7 4 (1.01%) PowerCLI
7 4 (1.01%) vMotion
8 3 (0.76%) Control-M
8 3 (0.76%) IBM Guardium
8 3 (0.76%) Nessus
8 3 (0.76%) Podman
8 3 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.76%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.50%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.25%) QRadar
Vendors
1 87 (21.91%) Microsoft
2 57 (14.36%) Oracle
3 29 (7.30%) SAP
4 28 (7.05%) ServiceNow
5 23 (5.79%) Talend
6 20 (5.04%) Denodo
7 19 (4.79%) VMware
8 16 (4.03%) Cisco
9 13 (3.27%) Splunk
10 11 (2.77%) Red Hat
11 8 (2.02%) Atlassian
11 8 (2.02%) Google
12 7 (1.76%) Databricks
12 7 (1.76%) Qualys
13 6 (1.51%) Apple
13 6 (1.51%) Siemens
14 5 (1.26%) Citrix
14 5 (1.26%) webMethods
14 5 (1.26%) Zscaler
15 4 (1.01%) Nimble Storage