Problem-Solving Job Trends in the Midlands

Problem Solving
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,136 1,251 1,471
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.06% 21.89% 13.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.52% 25.70% 17.47%
Number of salaries quoted 820 720 737
10th Percentile £26,235 £25,265 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -11.55%
75th Percentile £56,250 £57,500 £58,000
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Midlands

Problem-Solving falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the Midlands.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 9,862 4,867 8,420
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 70.00% 85.16% 77.80%
Number of salaries quoted 7,016 2,971 5,201
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,250 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -11.29%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the Midlands

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the Midlands

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the Midlands over the 6 months to 2 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the Midlands

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 2 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
West Midlands -10 632 £42,500 -5.56% 341
East Midlands -10 500 £39,250 +10.56% 229
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the 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 53 (4.67%) SharePoint
2 39 (3.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (0.97%) IIS
4 9 (0.79%) CMS
5 5 (0.44%) Confluence
5 5 (0.44%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2007
6 3 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.26%) WordPress
7 2 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.18%) CICS
8 1 (0.088%) Apache
8 1 (0.088%) Appian
8 1 (0.088%) Documentum
8 1 (0.088%) Drupal
8 1 (0.088%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.088%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.088%) SAS
Applications
1 96 (8.45%) Microsoft Office
2 83 (7.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.44%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.18%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.088%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.088%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.088%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.088%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.088%) Revit
8 1 (0.088%) Simulink
8 1 (0.088%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (1.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 12 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.97%) SAP Business One
5 9 (0.79%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 6 (0.53%) Sage X3
6 6 (0.53%) Shopify
7 5 (0.44%) Magento
7 5 (0.44%) Sage 50
8 4 (0.35%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.35%) Line 50
8 4 (0.35%) NetSuite
9 3 (0.26%) Q-Pulse
10 2 (0.18%) Infor CloudSuite
10 2 (0.18%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.18%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
10 2 (0.18%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.18%) SAP FI
10 2 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 237 (20.86%) Microsoft 365
2 199 (17.52%) Azure
3 117 (10.30%) Power Platform
4 84 (7.39%) AWS
5 82 (7.22%) Entra ID
6 44 (3.87%) SaaS
7 29 (2.55%) Dynamics 365
8 19 (1.67%) Power Automate
9 17 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
9 17 (1.50%) Serverless
10 15 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
10 15 (1.32%) PowerApps
11 14 (1.23%) Amazon S3
11 14 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
12 13 (1.14%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (1.14%) GCP
13 12 (1.06%) Google Workspace
14 11 (0.97%) GitHub
15 10 (0.88%) OneDrive
16 8 (0.70%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 65 (5.72%) Firewall
2 63 (5.55%) DNS
3 49 (4.31%) DHCP
3 49 (4.31%) VPN
4 42 (3.70%) TCP/IP
5 33 (2.90%) Wireless
6 28 (2.46%) VLAN
7 27 (2.38%) WAN
8 22 (1.94%) LAN
9 20 (1.76%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.58%) Network Security
11 14 (1.23%) VoIP
12 9 (0.79%) Internet
13 8 (0.70%) MQTT
13 8 (0.70%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.62%) SSL
15 6 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
16 5 (0.44%) Remote Desktop
16 5 (0.44%) Skype
17 4 (0.35%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (9.51%) Power BI
2 46 (4.05%) SQL Server
3 27 (2.38%) Power Query
4 24 (2.11%) Tableau
5 19 (1.67%) Data Warehouse
6 17 (1.50%) MySQL
7 16 (1.41%) Relational Database
7 16 (1.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 14 (1.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
10 9 (0.79%) DynamoDB
11 8 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
11 8 (0.70%) Crystal Reports
12 7 (0.62%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.62%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.62%) PostgreSQL
13 6 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.53%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.44%) DTS
14 5 (0.44%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (2.99%) Git
2 24 (2.11%) JIRA
3 13 (1.14%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
4 5 (0.44%) JUnit
4 5 (0.44%) Maven
4 5 (0.44%) Postman
4 5 (0.44%) VersionOne
5 4 (0.35%) Burp Suite
5 4 (0.35%) GitLab
5 4 (0.35%) JMeter
5 4 (0.35%) Metasploit
5 4 (0.35%) Selenium
5 4 (0.35%) SoapUI
6 3 (0.26%) Mockito
6 3 (0.26%) Subversion
6 3 (0.26%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.18%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.088%) Gradle
General
1 560 (49.30%) Social Skills
2 337 (29.67%) Analytical Skills
3 199 (17.52%) Finance
4 170 (14.96%) Manufacturing
5 75 (6.60%) Retail
6 74 (6.51%) Organisational Skills
7 47 (4.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 46 (4.05%) Marketing
9 40 (3.52%) Public Sector
10 39 (3.43%) Law
11 38 (3.35%) Legal
12 27 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
13 24 (2.11%) Electronics
14 20 (1.76%) Automotive
14 20 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.32%) Telecoms
16 13 (1.14%) Games
17 11 (0.97%) Banking
18 9 (0.79%) Advertising
18 9 (0.79%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 188 (16.55%) Analyst
2 140 (12.32%) IT Support
3 134 (11.80%) Support Engineer
4 102 (8.98%) Developer
5 99 (8.71%) Senior
6 78 (6.87%) Technical Support
7 73 (6.43%) IT Engineer
8 70 (6.16%) Technical Engineer
9 68 (5.99%) Technical Support Engineer
10 64 (5.63%) Support Technician
11 63 (5.55%) Lead
12 56 (4.93%) Support Analyst
13 54 (4.75%) IT Support Engineer
14 53 (4.67%) IT Technician
15 52 (4.58%) Consultant
16 48 (4.23%) IT Manager
17 45 (3.96%) IT Support Technician
18 39 (3.43%) Data Analyst
18 39 (3.43%) Senior Analyst
19 28 (2.46%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.67%) REST
2 40 (3.52%) React
3 32 (2.82%) .NET
4 25 (2.20%) Node.js
5 21 (1.85%) SOAP
6 20 (1.76%) Spring
7 17 (1.50%) Spring Boot
8 16 (1.41%) CSS
8 16 (1.41%) HTML
9 13 (1.14%) RESTful
10 12 (1.06%) AngularJS
10 12 (1.06%) Playwright
11 10 (0.88%) JSON
11 10 (0.88%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.79%) JDBC
12 9 (0.79%) Middleware
12 9 (0.79%) OAuth
12 9 (0.79%) SAPUI5
13 7 (0.62%) ASP.NET
13 7 (0.62%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 113 (9.95%) Driving Licence
2 63 (5.55%) Management Information System
3 60 (5.28%) Onboarding
4 45 (3.96%) Self-Motivation
5 27 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
6 18 (1.58%) NHS
7 17 (1.50%) IoT
8 16 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
9 15 (1.32%) Robotics
10 13 (1.14%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.06%) Data Centre
11 12 (1.06%) Security Posture
11 12 (1.06%) Social Media
12 11 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (0.97%) Mobile App
12 11 (0.97%) Virtual Team
13 10 (0.88%) CMDB
14 9 (0.79%) Replication
14 9 (0.79%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 202 (17.78%) Windows
2 76 (6.69%) Linux
3 71 (6.25%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.05%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.32%) Android
6 11 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.88%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.70%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.62%) Unix
10 6 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 5 (0.44%) CentOS
11 5 (0.44%) OpenVMS
12 4 (0.35%) Debian
12 4 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
12 4 (0.35%) VMS
12 4 (0.35%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.26%) SUSE
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.088%) Solaris
15 1 (0.088%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 337 (29.67%) Continuous Improvement
2 197 (17.34%) Customer Service
3 159 (14.00%) Decision-Making
4 147 (12.94%) Analytics
5 146 (12.85%) Agile
6 136 (11.97%) Mentoring
7 130 (11.44%) Collaborative Working
8 117 (10.30%) ERP
9 113 (9.95%) Business Intelligence
10 108 (9.51%) ITIL
11 101 (8.89%) Cybersecurity
12 97 (8.54%) Service Delivery
13 93 (8.19%) AI
14 78 (6.87%) Roadmaps
15 74 (6.51%) Stakeholder Management
16 68 (5.99%) Collaborative Culture
16 68 (5.99%) Process Improvement
16 68 (5.99%) Root Cause Analysis
17 67 (5.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 66 (5.81%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 191 (16.81%) SQL
2 85 (7.48%) Python
3 47 (4.14%) Java
4 44 (3.87%) PowerShell
5 38 (3.35%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.82%) C#
7 31 (2.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.94%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.85%) Ladder Logic
10 16 (1.41%) VBA
11 13 (1.14%) Bash
11 13 (1.14%) PHP
12 11 (0.97%) C
13 10 (0.88%) C++
14 9 (0.79%) ABAP
15 7 (0.62%) RPG
15 7 (0.62%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.53%) Embedded C
16 6 (0.53%) Go
17 4 (0.35%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 152 (13.38%) Degree
2 76 (6.69%) Security Cleared
3 62 (5.46%) SC Cleared
4 30 (2.64%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (2.38%) DBS Check
6 19 (1.67%) Azure Certification
7 18 (1.58%) CISSP
8 15 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.32%) CompTIA Security+
9 12 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
9 12 (1.06%) HND
10 10 (0.88%) HNC
11 8 (0.70%) CCNA
11 8 (0.70%) PMI Certification
12 7 (0.62%) ACCA
12 7 (0.62%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (0.62%) CIMA
12 7 (0.62%) CISA
12 7 (0.62%) SSCP
13 6 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (4.84%) Data Quality
2 41 (3.61%) Cyber Essentials
2 41 (3.61%) GDPR
2 41 (3.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 40 (3.52%) QA
4 34 (2.99%) SLA
5 22 (1.94%) Accessibility
6 19 (1.67%) NIST
7 17 (1.50%) ISO 9001
8 11 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 9 (0.79%) ISO 14001
10 7 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
10 7 (0.62%) GRC
10 7 (0.62%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.35%) GMP
11 4 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.26%) COSHH
12 3 (0.26%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 141 (12.41%) Active Directory
2 45 (3.96%) Hyper-V
3 31 (2.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (2.11%) Docker
5 10 (0.88%) Firmware
6 9 (0.79%) vSphere
7 7 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
8 5 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.18%) Samba
10 1 (0.088%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.088%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.088%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 44 (3.87%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (1.94%) Kubernetes
3 17 (1.50%) Terraform
4 10 (0.88%) Ansible
5 7 (0.62%) SCCM
6 6 (0.53%) Grafana
7 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.35%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.35%) Galera Cluster
8 4 (0.35%) Nmap
8 4 (0.35%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
9 3 (0.26%) Control-M
9 3 (0.26%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.26%) Puppet
9 3 (0.26%) WhatsUp Gold
10 2 (0.18%) Nagios
11 1 (0.088%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.088%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.088%) WSUS
Vendors
1 330 (29.05%) Microsoft
2 47 (4.14%) SAP
3 42 (3.70%) VMware
4 30 (2.64%) Cisco
5 25 (2.20%) ServiceNow
6 21 (1.85%) IBM
7 19 (1.67%) Workday
8 18 (1.58%) Sage
9 17 (1.50%) Cognos
9 17 (1.50%) Google
10 15 (1.32%) Oracle
11 14 (1.23%) Salesforce
12 12 (1.06%) Dell
13 11 (0.97%) HubSpot
13 11 (0.97%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.88%) iManage
15 9 (0.79%) Epicor
15 9 (0.79%) JD Edwards
16 8 (0.70%) Apple
16 8 (0.70%) Sophos