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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 3 9
Rank change year-on-year -10 +6 -1
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 402 315 199
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.53% 18.40% 10.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.53% 20.81% 12.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 194 131
10th Percentile £307 £169 £160
25th Percentile £363 £361 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £460 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% -3.16% -7.32%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £588
90th Percentile £607 £638 £650
England median daily rate £498 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +1.12% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 9 7
10th Percentile £12.90 £14.86 £15.13
25th Percentile £13.31 £25.00 £15.32
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.88 £18.97
Median % change year-on-year -25.77% +78.60% -9.54%
75th Percentile £44.80 £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% -70.25%

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 2,972 1,514 1,533
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 85.23% 88.43% 81.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,884 961 1,038
10th Percentile £313 £235 £274
25th Percentile £406 £380 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £625
90th Percentile £669 £650 £725
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 106 60
10th Percentile £13.45 £12.62 £13.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £14.81 £14.93
Median hourly rate £30.73 £24.34 £24.31
Median % change year-on-year +26.25% +0.11% -9.95%
75th Percentile £53.75 £35.45 £39.06
90th Percentile £70.59 £50.00 £56.25
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.61%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -10 120 £450 -12.62% 38
Warwickshire -2 114 £500 +4.71% 60
Birmingham -12 74 £450 +3.45% 251
Coventry -14 31 £363 -12.12% 29
Worcestershire +8 13 £438 +28.11% 30
Staffordshire -5 10 £316 +26.50% 51
Solihull -21 7 £402 -31.57% 26
Wolverhampton - 5 £200 - 12
Herefordshire -1 4 - - 8
Dudley - 3 £375 - 3
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 37 (9.20%) Confluence
2 28 (6.97%) SAS
3 21 (5.22%) SharePoint
4 15 (3.73%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (1.49%) Oracle Self-Service HR
5 6 (1.49%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.25%) Apache
6 1 (0.25%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.25%) Appian
6 1 (0.25%) IIS
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.25%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 26 (6.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (4.48%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.74%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (1.00%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.75%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.75%) Revit
8 2 (0.50%) Adobe XD
8 2 (0.50%) CATIA
8 2 (0.50%) Sketch
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.25%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.25%) InDesign
9 1 (0.25%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (3.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (2.74%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.49%) Oracle HRMS
4 5 (1.24%) SAP PSCD
5 3 (0.75%) ContrOCC
5 3 (0.75%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.75%) 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 (19.65%) Azure
2 39 (9.70%) AWS
2 39 (9.70%) Power Platform
3 34 (8.46%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (7.21%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (5.22%) Entra ID
6 14 (3.48%) Power Automate
7 13 (3.23%) Azure Data Factory
7 13 (3.23%) Dynamics 365
7 13 (3.23%) GitHub
7 13 (3.23%) Serverless
8 12 (2.99%) GCP
9 10 (2.49%) Azure Functions
10 8 (1.99%) Microsoft Purview
10 8 (1.99%) OneDrive
11 7 (1.74%) Snowflake
12 5 (1.24%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (1.24%) Google Analytics
13 4 (1.00%) Azure Storage
13 4 (1.00%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 15 (3.73%) DNS
2 12 (2.99%) DHCP
2 12 (2.99%) VPN
3 11 (2.74%) Firewall
4 10 (2.49%) LAN
4 10 (2.49%) WAN
5 8 (1.99%) Network Security
5 8 (1.99%) SD-WAN
5 8 (1.99%) TCP/IP
6 5 (1.24%) Internet
6 5 (1.24%) Intrusion Detection
6 5 (1.24%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (1.00%) Unified Communications
7 4 (1.00%) VoIP
8 3 (0.75%) SSL
8 3 (0.75%) VLAN
9 2 (0.50%) BIG-IP
9 2 (0.50%) PBX
9 2 (0.50%) SAN
9 2 (0.50%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.46%) Power BI
2 28 (6.97%) Pentaho
3 22 (5.47%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (4.98%) SQL Server
5 14 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
6 12 (2.99%) Metadata
7 8 (1.99%) Data Lake
7 8 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (1.74%) MySQL
8 7 (1.74%) Relational Database
9 6 (1.49%) Ingres
9 6 (1.49%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.24%) Oracle Database
11 4 (1.00%) Big Data
11 4 (1.00%) Power Query
11 4 (1.00%) SAP BW
12 3 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.75%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 2 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 65 (16.17%) JIRA
2 39 (9.70%) Git
3 29 (7.21%) Jenkins
4 21 (5.22%) Selenium
5 16 (3.98%) Postman
6 12 (2.99%) WebDriver
7 11 (2.74%) Cypress.io
8 9 (2.24%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.24%) GitLab
9 7 (1.74%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 6 (1.49%) JUnit
11 5 (1.24%) Bitbucket
11 5 (1.24%) Zephyr
12 4 (1.00%) JMeter
12 4 (1.00%) Maven
12 4 (1.00%) REST Assured
13 3 (0.75%) Browser DevTools
13 3 (0.75%) Protractor
13 3 (0.75%) SonarQube
14 2 (0.50%) Mockito
General
1 206 (51.24%) Social Skills
2 160 (39.80%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (16.17%) Public Sector
4 59 (14.68%) Finance
5 21 (5.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 18 (4.48%) Local Government
7 15 (3.73%) Manufacturing
7 15 (3.73%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.99%) Influencing Skills
8 12 (2.99%) Legal
9 10 (2.49%) Automotive
10 8 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.74%) Banking
11 7 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.74%) Marketing
12 5 (1.24%) Billing
12 5 (1.24%) Electronics
12 5 (1.24%) Retail
13 4 (1.00%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.75%) Military
Job Titles
1 61 (15.17%) Analyst
2 45 (11.19%) Data Engineer
3 43 (10.70%) Lead
4 36 (8.96%) Senior
5 31 (7.71%) Developer
6 26 (6.47%) Consultant
7 19 (4.73%) Administrator
7 19 (4.73%) Architect
8 18 (4.48%) Business Analyst
8 18 (4.48%) SAP Consultant
9 16 (3.98%) Test Analyst
10 11 (2.74%) Data Analyst
11 9 (2.24%) Network Engineer
11 9 (2.24%) Project Manager
12 8 (1.99%) Business Intelligence Developer
12 8 (1.99%) Delivery Manager
12 8 (1.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (1.99%) Java Developer
12 8 (1.99%) Senior Data Engineer
12 8 (1.99%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.98%) REST
2 12 (2.99%) Spring
3 10 (2.49%) Oracle Fusion
3 10 (2.49%) SOAP
4 9 (2.24%) Gherkin
4 9 (2.24%) Spring Boot
5 7 (1.74%) Play Framework
6 6 (1.49%) Middleware
7 5 (1.24%) AngularJS
7 5 (1.24%) JDBC
7 5 (1.24%) SAP PI
8 4 (1.00%) IDoc
8 4 (1.00%) Playwright
8 4 (1.00%) RESTful
8 4 (1.00%) Spring Cloud
8 4 (1.00%) Web Services
8 4 (1.00%) XML
9 3 (0.75%) ADO
9 3 (0.75%) CSS
9 3 (0.75%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 20 (4.98%) Cloud Native
2 19 (4.73%) Management Information System
3 15 (3.73%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.48%) Self-Motivation
5 13 (3.23%) Product Ownership
6 11 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (2.49%) Data Centre
8 9 (2.24%) Onboarding
9 8 (1.99%) Analytical Mindset
9 8 (1.99%) SCADA
9 8 (1.99%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.74%) Operational Technology
11 6 (1.49%) Autonomous Agent
12 5 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
12 5 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
12 5 (1.24%) Hybrid Cloud
13 4 (1.00%) iPhone
13 4 (1.00%) Mobile App
14 3 (0.75%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 46 (11.44%) Windows
2 13 (3.23%) Linux
2 13 (3.23%) Mac OS
3 12 (2.99%) Unix
3 12 (2.99%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.74%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.75%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.25%) HPUX
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (36.07%) Agile
2 131 (32.59%) Continuous Improvement
3 81 (20.15%) CI/CD
3 81 (20.15%) DevOps
4 73 (18.16%) Stakeholder Management
5 68 (16.92%) Test Automation
6 62 (15.42%) Analytics
6 62 (15.42%) Business Intelligence
7 60 (14.93%) ETL
8 58 (14.43%) Data Modelling
9 57 (14.18%) Scrum
10 56 (13.93%) Migration
11 54 (13.43%) AI
12 50 (12.44%) Decision-Making
13 43 (10.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 43 (10.70%) Validation
14 42 (10.45%) Data Pipeline
15 39 (9.70%) ITIL
16 36 (8.96%) Generative AI
17 31 (7.71%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 91 (22.64%) SQL
2 38 (9.45%) Python
3 29 (7.21%) Java
4 17 (4.23%) PL/SQL
5 14 (3.48%) PowerShell
6 12 (2.99%) JavaScript
7 11 (2.74%) C
8 10 (2.49%) Bash
9 9 (2.24%) C#
10 8 (1.99%) ProC
11 7 (1.74%) Scala
12 6 (1.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 5 (1.24%) ABAP
13 5 (1.24%) TypeScript
14 4 (1.00%) Bicep
14 4 (1.00%) C++
14 4 (1.00%) MATLAB
15 2 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.50%) Shell Script
16 1 (0.25%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 140 (34.83%) Security Cleared
2 118 (29.35%) SC Cleared
3 40 (9.95%) Degree
4 21 (5.22%) BPSS Clearance
4 21 (5.22%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (2.74%) Azure Certification
6 10 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.24%) ISTQB
8 8 (1.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 7 (1.74%) CCNA
9 7 (1.74%) DV Cleared
9 7 (1.74%) OCP
9 7 (1.74%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (1.49%) MCSE
11 5 (1.24%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.24%) CISSP
12 4 (1.00%) CCNP
12 4 (1.00%) PMP
12 4 (1.00%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (14.43%) Data Quality
2 37 (9.20%) QA
3 19 (4.73%) Accessibility
4 15 (3.73%) GDPR
5 14 (3.48%) SLA
6 10 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (2.49%) WCAG
7 5 (1.24%) PMO
8 4 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.75%) GRC
9 3 (0.75%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.75%) NIST
10 2 (0.50%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 2 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.25%) HL7
11 1 (0.25%) ISO 14001
11 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 40 (9.95%) Docker
2 22 (5.47%) Active Directory
3 12 (2.99%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.24%) vSphere
5 8 (1.99%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.74%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.50%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (0.50%) Snort
7 2 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.25%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 36 (8.96%) Kubernetes
2 17 (4.23%) SCCM
3 13 (3.23%) Terraform
4 12 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (2.74%) Grafana
6 10 (2.49%) Ansible
7 9 (2.24%) Prometheus
8 5 (1.24%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (1.00%) Podman
9 4 (1.00%) PowerCLI
9 4 (1.00%) vMotion
10 3 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.50%) Argo
11 2 (0.50%) CSIRT
11 2 (0.50%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.25%) AirWatch
12 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
12 1 (0.25%) QRadar
12 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 85 (21.14%) Microsoft
2 55 (13.68%) Oracle
3 33 (8.21%) SAP
4 24 (5.97%) Denodo
5 23 (5.72%) Talend
6 22 (5.47%) ServiceNow
7 19 (4.73%) VMware
8 17 (4.23%) Cisco
9 14 (3.48%) Atlassian
10 11 (2.74%) Splunk
11 9 (2.24%) Databricks
11 9 (2.24%) Google
12 7 (1.74%) Apple
12 7 (1.74%) Qualys
13 6 (1.49%) Siemens
14 5 (1.24%) Adobe
14 5 (1.24%) Citrix
14 5 (1.24%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.24%) webMethods
15 4 (1.00%) Informatica