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

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -17 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 856 1,078 1,505
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.56% 20.52% 15.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.10% 22.27% 18.18%
Number of salaries quoted 668 570 1,170
10th Percentile £26,000 £26,975 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £32,688 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £49,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -23.47% +15.29% -15.00%
75th Percentile £55,211 £62,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £75,125 £68,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -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 7,714 4,841 8,280
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 77.18% 92.14% 84.34%
Number of salaries quoted 4,404 2,591 6,565
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,375 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £48,392
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +8.49% -7.83%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,755 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +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 15 March 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 15 March 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 -22 505 £42,500 -20.84% 265
East Midlands -2 348 £35,000 -11.39% 165
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 49 (5.72%) SharePoint
2 32 (3.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (0.93%) CMS
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2007
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (0.70%) IIS
4 6 (0.70%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 5 (0.58%) Confluence
6 4 (0.47%) Apache
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.12%) Drupal
7 1 (0.12%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.12%) SAS
7 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (6.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 51 (5.96%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.87%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.17%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (1.05%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 7 (0.82%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.82%) SOLIDWORKS
8 3 (0.35%) CATIA
9 2 (0.23%) Trello
10 1 (0.12%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.12%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 23 (2.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.17%) iTrent
2 10 (1.17%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.58%) Q-Pulse
3 5 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.35%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.12%) Cognos Controller
6 1 (0.12%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.12%) HFM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP Business One
6 1 (0.12%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.12%) SAP WM
6 1 (0.12%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 183 (21.38%) Azure
2 179 (20.91%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (9.00%) AWS
4 71 (8.29%) SaaS
5 63 (7.36%) Power Platform
6 52 (6.07%) Entra ID
7 28 (3.27%) Serverless
8 26 (3.04%) Dynamics 365
9 18 (2.10%) Power Automate
10 17 (1.99%) Amazon S3
10 17 (1.99%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (1.87%) PowerApps
12 15 (1.75%) GCP
13 13 (1.52%) Google Workspace
14 11 (1.29%) OneDrive
15 10 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
16 8 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
17 7 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
17 7 (0.82%) OCI
18 6 (0.70%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 63 (7.36%) DNS
2 61 (7.13%) DHCP
3 46 (5.37%) VPN
4 37 (4.32%) WAN
5 32 (3.74%) Firewall
6 30 (3.50%) Remote Desktop
7 26 (3.04%) Internet
8 24 (2.80%) LAN
9 19 (2.22%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (2.10%) TCP/IP
11 15 (1.75%) SD-WAN
12 13 (1.52%) Wireless
13 11 (1.29%) VLAN
14 10 (1.17%) VoIP
15 6 (0.70%) ADSL
15 6 (0.70%) Broadband
15 6 (0.70%) Ethernet
15 6 (0.70%) Network Security
15 6 (0.70%) VDSL
16 4 (0.47%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (6.07%) Power BI
2 38 (4.44%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.75%) MySQL
3 15 (1.75%) Oracle Reports
4 14 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
5 13 (1.52%) Amazon Redshift
5 13 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 11 (1.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 11 (1.29%) Tableau
7 8 (0.93%) Power Query
7 8 (0.93%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
9 6 (0.70%) Metadata
10 5 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.58%) Crystal Reports
10 5 (0.58%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.47%) Redis
11 4 (0.47%) TimescaleDB
12 3 (0.35%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 28 (3.27%) JIRA
2 21 (2.45%) Git
3 8 (0.93%) JUnit
4 7 (0.82%) Burp Suite
4 7 (0.82%) Metasploit
5 6 (0.70%) GitLab
5 6 (0.70%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.70%) Maven
5 6 (0.70%) Mockito
6 5 (0.58%) Subversion
7 3 (0.35%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 2 (0.23%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.23%) Selenium
8 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.12%) Babel
9 1 (0.12%) Balsamiq
9 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 411 (48.01%) Social Skills
2 280 (32.71%) Analytical Skills
3 156 (18.22%) Finance
4 83 (9.70%) Retail
5 77 (9.00%) Manufacturing
6 67 (7.83%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (5.37%) Law
8 45 (5.26%) Legal
9 35 (4.09%) Marketing
9 35 (4.09%) Public Sector
10 25 (2.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 20 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (2.22%) Automotive
13 17 (1.99%) Electronics
14 13 (1.52%) Aerospace
15 12 (1.40%) Banking
15 12 (1.40%) Games
15 12 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
15 12 (1.40%) Telecoms
16 11 (1.29%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 155 (18.11%) IT Support
2 144 (16.82%) Support Engineer
3 140 (16.36%) Analyst
4 102 (11.92%) IT Engineer
5 90 (10.51%) IT Support Engineer
6 72 (8.41%) Developer
7 68 (7.94%) Lead
8 66 (7.71%) Senior
9 58 (6.78%) Support Analyst
9 58 (6.78%) Technical Support
10 47 (5.49%) Technical Engineer
11 46 (5.37%) 2nd Line Support
11 46 (5.37%) Technical Support Engineer
12 39 (4.56%) Support Technician
13 34 (3.97%) Administrator
14 32 (3.74%) 1st/2nd Line Support
14 32 (3.74%) Architect
15 30 (3.50%) Full-Stack Developer
16 26 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 25 (2.92%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (4.21%) React
2 26 (3.04%) HTML
2 26 (3.04%) Node.js
3 25 (2.92%) CSS
4 24 (2.80%) .NET
5 20 (2.34%) REST
6 9 (1.05%) JSON
7 7 (0.82%) Vue
8 6 (0.70%) AngularJS
9 5 (0.58%) .NET Framework
9 5 (0.58%) Laravel
9 5 (0.58%) Middleware
9 5 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
9 5 (0.58%) RESTful
10 4 (0.47%) LAMP
10 4 (0.47%) Next.js
10 4 (0.47%) Spring
10 4 (0.47%) WPF
11 3 (0.35%) Blazor
11 3 (0.35%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 105 (12.27%) Driving Licence
2 80 (9.35%) Onboarding
3 43 (5.02%) Management Information System
4 34 (3.97%) Self-Motivation
5 22 (2.57%) Analytical Mindset
6 20 (2.34%) FMCG
7 19 (2.22%) Social Media
8 17 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
9 14 (1.64%) Product Ownership
10 12 (1.40%) Security Posture
11 11 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
12 10 (1.17%) IoT
13 9 (1.05%) Data Structures
13 9 (1.05%) EPoS
14 8 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
14 8 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 7 (0.82%) Cyber Defence
15 7 (0.82%) Insider Threat
15 7 (0.82%) Web Conferencing
16 6 (0.70%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 157 (18.34%) Windows
2 50 (5.84%) Windows Server
3 40 (4.67%) Linux
4 30 (3.50%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.40%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.70%) Windows 7
7 5 (0.58%) Debian
7 5 (0.58%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.47%) Android
8 4 (0.47%) CentOS
8 4 (0.47%) Unix
9 3 (0.35%) SUSE
10 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (21.85%) Continuous Improvement
2 166 (19.39%) Customer Service
3 107 (12.50%) Agile
4 100 (11.68%) Mentoring
5 98 (11.45%) ERP
6 97 (11.33%) CRM
7 88 (10.28%) Decision-Making
8 87 (10.16%) ITIL
9 81 (9.46%) Project Management
10 71 (8.29%) Analytics
11 66 (7.71%) Business Intelligence
12 61 (7.13%) Process Improvement
12 61 (7.13%) Time Management
13 54 (6.31%) Computer Science
14 52 (6.07%) Migration
15 51 (5.96%) Stakeholder Management
16 48 (5.61%) Analytical Thinking
16 48 (5.61%) Roadmaps
17 47 (5.49%) Service Delivery
18 46 (5.37%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 156 (18.22%) SQL
2 54 (6.31%) Python
3 51 (5.96%) C#
4 47 (5.49%) JavaScript
5 25 (2.92%) Java
6 20 (2.34%) PowerShell
7 16 (1.87%) PHP
8 15 (1.75%) T-SQL
9 12 (1.40%) C
10 11 (1.29%) Bash
10 11 (1.29%) TypeScript
11 9 (1.05%) Ladder Logic
12 8 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (0.93%) R
13 7 (0.82%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.58%) C++
14 5 (0.58%) Delphi
15 4 (0.47%) VBA
16 3 (0.35%) VB
16 3 (0.35%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 155 (18.11%) Degree
2 67 (7.83%) Security Cleared
3 50 (5.84%) SC Cleared
4 33 (3.86%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (2.80%) DBS Check
7 20 (2.34%) CISSP
8 19 (2.22%) CompTIA Security+
9 16 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
11 11 (1.29%) A+ Certification
11 11 (1.29%) CCNA
11 11 (1.29%) PMI Certification
12 10 (1.17%) Master's Degree
12 10 (1.17%) PMP
13 9 (1.05%) ACCA
13 9 (1.05%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.05%) CIMA
13 9 (1.05%) CISMP
13 9 (1.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (6.31%) QA
2 40 (4.67%) Data Quality
3 27 (3.15%) GDPR
4 26 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 19 (2.22%) NIST
6 13 (1.52%) Actionable Recommendations
7 11 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials
8 10 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 8 (0.93%) SLA
10 5 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 5 (0.58%) COSHH
10 5 (0.58%) GMP
10 5 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.12%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.12%) IEC 61131
13 1 (0.12%) PMO
System Software
1 98 (11.45%) Active Directory
2 24 (2.80%) Docker
3 16 (1.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.29%) Hyper-V
5 9 (1.05%) vSphere
6 2 (0.23%) Firmware
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 38 (4.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.80%) Kubernetes
3 17 (1.99%) Terraform
4 8 (0.93%) Ansible
5 7 (0.82%) Nmap
6 5 (0.58%) Grafana
6 5 (0.58%) Nagios
6 5 (0.58%) SCCM
7 3 (0.35%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.12%) Argo
9 1 (0.12%) Autotask
9 1 (0.12%) AWS Copilot
9 1 (0.12%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.12%) Galera Cluster
9 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.12%) Puppet
9 1 (0.12%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
9 1 (0.12%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 233 (27.22%) Microsoft
2 43 (5.02%) Oracle
3 42 (4.91%) SAP
4 35 (4.09%) Cisco
5 21 (2.45%) Salesforce
6 19 (2.22%) Google
6 19 (2.22%) VMware
7 15 (1.75%) ServiceNow
8 12 (1.40%) HP
9 9 (1.05%) Databricks
9 9 (1.05%) Meraki
9 9 (1.05%) Sage
10 7 (0.82%) Epicor
10 7 (0.82%) Infor
11 6 (0.70%) Cognos
11 6 (0.70%) Dell
11 6 (0.70%) Freshdesk
11 6 (0.70%) SolarWinds
12 5 (0.58%) Workday
12 5 (0.58%) Zscaler