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 21 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -23 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 906 1,003 1,694
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.38% 20.62% 14.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.04% 23.13% 18.21%
Number of salaries quoted 701 624 1,209
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £29,120 £32,500 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £45,500 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.09% +8.33% -16.00%
75th Percentile £56,875 £61,250 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £73,375 £69,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £53,300 £50,000
% change year-on-year -10.88% +6.60% -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 9,026 4,337 9,302
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 73.53% 89.17% 82.33%
Number of salaries quoted 5,296 2,612 7,071
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £65,640 £65,000 £61,875
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%

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 21 April 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 21 April 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 -24 543 £42,500 -15.00% 271
East Midlands -6 360 £35,000 -9.09% 205
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 59 (6.51%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.42%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (0.88%) CMS
4 5 (0.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 5 (0.55%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.33%) WordPress
7 2 (0.22%) Confluence
7 2 (0.22%) IIS
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) Appian
8 1 (0.11%) Drupal
8 1 (0.11%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 59 (6.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (6.40%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.66%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.77%) MS Visio
7 5 (0.55%) Fusion 360
8 2 (0.22%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
9 1 (0.11%) EPLAN
9 1 (0.11%) Sketch
9 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (2.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.10%) iTrent
3 6 (0.66%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.66%) SAP Business One
3 6 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.55%) Q-Pulse
5 4 (0.44%) Shopify
6 3 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
6 3 (0.33%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 3 (0.33%) Line 50
6 3 (0.33%) Magento
6 3 (0.33%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.33%) SAP Business ByDesign
7 2 (0.22%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.11%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.11%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 208 (22.96%) Microsoft 365
2 181 (19.98%) Azure
3 80 (8.83%) Power Platform
4 79 (8.72%) AWS
5 65 (7.17%) Entra ID
6 41 (4.53%) SaaS
7 34 (3.75%) Serverless
8 22 (2.43%) Amazon S3
8 22 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
9 21 (2.32%) Dynamics 365
10 18 (1.99%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.77%) GCP
12 14 (1.55%) OneDrive
13 13 (1.43%) Google Workspace
13 13 (1.43%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.21%) Azure Data Factory
15 8 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
17 6 (0.66%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 60 (6.62%) DNS
2 55 (6.07%) DHCP
3 47 (5.19%) VPN
4 38 (4.19%) Firewall
5 37 (4.08%) WAN
6 24 (2.65%) LAN
7 23 (2.54%) Internet
8 22 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
9 19 (2.10%) TCP/IP
10 16 (1.77%) Wireless
11 15 (1.66%) SD-WAN
11 15 (1.66%) VoIP
12 10 (1.10%) Network Security
12 10 (1.10%) Remote Desktop
13 9 (0.99%) VLAN
14 5 (0.55%) Broadband
14 5 (0.55%) Skype
14 5 (0.55%) WLAN
15 4 (0.44%) Bluetooth
15 4 (0.44%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (7.73%) Power BI
2 39 (4.30%) SQL Server
3 17 (1.88%) Power Query
4 16 (1.77%) MySQL
5 14 (1.55%) Oracle Reports
5 14 (1.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 14 (1.55%) Tableau
6 13 (1.43%) Amazon Redshift
7 10 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (0.99%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 7 (0.77%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
10 6 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.66%) DynamoDB
10 6 (0.66%) Star Schema
11 5 (0.55%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.44%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.44%) Metadata
13 3 (0.33%) Neo4j
13 3 (0.33%) Redis
Development Applications
1 24 (2.65%) Git
2 22 (2.43%) JIRA
3 7 (0.77%) JUnit
4 6 (0.66%) Burp Suite
4 6 (0.66%) GitLab
4 6 (0.66%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.66%) Metasploit
4 6 (0.66%) Subversion
5 5 (0.55%) Maven
5 5 (0.55%) Mockito
6 4 (0.44%) VersionOne
7 3 (0.33%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 2 (0.22%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.22%) Selenium
8 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.22%) XCUITest
9 1 (0.11%) MLflow
9 1 (0.11%) Postman
General
1 416 (45.92%) Social Skills
2 279 (30.79%) Analytical Skills
3 163 (17.99%) Finance
4 92 (10.15%) Manufacturing
5 69 (7.62%) Organisational Skills
6 60 (6.62%) Retail
7 46 (5.08%) Legal
8 43 (4.75%) Marketing
9 41 (4.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 40 (4.42%) Law
11 36 (3.97%) Public Sector
12 26 (2.87%) Automotive
13 22 (2.43%) Electronics
14 17 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.66%) Banking
16 12 (1.32%) Games
17 11 (1.21%) Advertising
17 11 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
17 11 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
18 9 (0.99%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 148 (16.34%) Analyst
2 147 (16.23%) IT Support
3 140 (15.45%) Support Engineer
4 105 (11.59%) IT Engineer
5 85 (9.38%) IT Support Engineer
6 69 (7.62%) Senior
7 68 (7.51%) Developer
8 59 (6.51%) Lead
9 55 (6.07%) Support Analyst
9 55 (6.07%) Technical Support
10 46 (5.08%) Technical Engineer
10 46 (5.08%) Technical Support Engineer
11 44 (4.86%) Support Technician
12 36 (3.97%) 2nd Line Support
13 33 (3.64%) Administrator
13 33 (3.64%) Architect
13 33 (3.64%) IT Technician
14 30 (3.31%) Consultant
14 30 (3.31%) IT Support Technician
15 29 (3.20%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.19%) React
2 31 (3.42%) CSS
2 31 (3.42%) HTML
3 30 (3.31%) Node.js
4 19 (2.10%) REST
5 15 (1.66%) .NET
6 8 (0.88%) RESTful
7 7 (0.77%) Spring
8 6 (0.66%) AngularJS
8 6 (0.66%) JSON
8 6 (0.66%) Spring Boot
9 5 (0.55%) Middleware
9 5 (0.55%) Vue
10 4 (0.44%) .NET Framework
10 4 (0.44%) ASP.NET
10 4 (0.44%) Laravel
10 4 (0.44%) Oracle Fusion
11 3 (0.33%) ASP.NET Core
11 3 (0.33%) Elastic Stack
11 3 (0.33%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 102 (11.26%) Driving Licence
2 61 (6.73%) Onboarding
3 36 (3.97%) Self-Motivation
4 33 (3.64%) Management Information System
5 21 (2.32%) Analytical Mindset
6 18 (1.99%) Social Media
7 17 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (1.66%) FMCG
9 13 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.21%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.10%) IoT
11 10 (1.10%) Security Posture
12 9 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
13 7 (0.77%) Cyber Defence
13 7 (0.77%) Data Centre
13 7 (0.77%) Data Structures
13 7 (0.77%) EPoS
13 7 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
13 7 (0.77%) Web Conferencing
14 6 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 166 (18.32%) Windows
2 55 (6.07%) Windows Server
3 45 (4.97%) Windows 10
4 41 (4.53%) Linux
5 15 (1.66%) Apple iOS
6 8 (0.88%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.66%) Android
7 6 (0.66%) Debian
8 5 (0.55%) CentOS
8 5 (0.55%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.33%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.33%) SUSE
9 3 (0.33%) Unix
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.11%) VMS
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (19.98%) Continuous Improvement
2 162 (17.88%) Customer Service
3 111 (12.25%) Agile
4 103 (11.37%) ITIL
5 95 (10.49%) Decision-Making
6 81 (8.94%) Mentoring
7 80 (8.83%) ERP
8 76 (8.39%) Analytics
8 76 (8.39%) CRM
9 75 (8.28%) Business Intelligence
10 68 (7.51%) Process Improvement
11 65 (7.17%) Project Management
12 61 (6.73%) Collaborative Working
13 56 (6.18%) Cybersecurity
14 55 (6.07%) Computer Science
15 54 (5.96%) Service Delivery
16 53 (5.85%) Time Management
17 52 (5.74%) ITSM
17 52 (5.74%) Roadmaps
18 48 (5.30%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 132 (14.57%) SQL
2 58 (6.40%) Python
3 36 (3.97%) JavaScript
4 27 (2.98%) PowerShell
5 25 (2.76%) Java
6 23 (2.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 20 (2.21%) C#
8 16 (1.77%) PHP
9 15 (1.66%) C
10 14 (1.55%) Ladder Logic
11 13 (1.43%) TypeScript
12 12 (1.32%) Bash
12 12 (1.32%) T-SQL
13 7 (0.77%) R
14 6 (0.66%) C++
15 5 (0.55%) PL/SQL
15 5 (0.55%) VBA
16 3 (0.33%) Embedded C
16 3 (0.33%) Rust
16 3 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 138 (15.23%) Degree
2 61 (6.73%) Security Cleared
3 51 (5.63%) SC Cleared
4 32 (3.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 23 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.32%) CISSP
7 20 (2.21%) DBS Check
8 17 (1.88%) CompTIA Security+
9 15 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.32%) A+ Certification
10 12 (1.32%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.10%) ACCA
11 10 (1.10%) CCNA
11 10 (1.10%) CIMA
11 10 (1.10%) PMP
12 9 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (0.88%) CISMP
13 8 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.77%) CISA
14 7 (0.77%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.08%) Data Quality
2 38 (4.19%) QA
3 31 (3.42%) GDPR
4 28 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 22 (2.43%) NIST
6 16 (1.77%) SLA
7 15 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials
8 12 (1.32%) Actionable Recommendations
9 10 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.88%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.66%) HIPAA
11 6 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 5 (0.55%) COSHH
12 5 (0.55%) GMP
13 4 (0.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 4 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.44%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.33%) ISO 14001
14 3 (0.33%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 115 (12.69%) Active Directory
2 24 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (2.43%) Docker
4 12 (1.32%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.88%) vSphere
6 6 (0.66%) Firmware
7 3 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 40 (4.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.54%) Kubernetes
3 18 (1.99%) Terraform
4 8 (0.88%) Ansible
5 6 (0.66%) Nmap
6 5 (0.55%) Grafana
6 5 (0.55%) Nagios
6 5 (0.55%) SCCM
7 3 (0.33%) Galera Cluster
7 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.33%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.22%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.22%) Puppet
8 2 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 236 (26.05%) Microsoft
2 33 (3.64%) Cisco
2 33 (3.64%) Oracle
3 32 (3.53%) VMware
4 29 (3.20%) SAP
5 19 (2.10%) ServiceNow
6 16 (1.77%) Google
7 13 (1.43%) Sage
7 13 (1.43%) Salesforce
8 11 (1.21%) Databricks
9 10 (1.10%) Dell
9 10 (1.10%) Freshdesk
9 10 (1.10%) HP
10 9 (0.99%) Meraki
10 9 (0.99%) SolarWinds
11 6 (0.66%) McAfee
11 6 (0.66%) Sophos
11 6 (0.66%) Workday
11 6 (0.66%) Zscaler
12 5 (0.55%) Avaya