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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -18 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 875 1,016 1,593
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.97% 21.07% 14.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.59% 23.34% 18.08%
Number of salaries quoted 683 586 1,212
10th Percentile £26,000 £26,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £28,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,500 £48,000 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year -19.79% +14.29% -16.00%
75th Percentile £56,875 £62,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £68,600 £74,014 £69,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.64% +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 8,266 4,353 8,813
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 75.32% 90.26% 82.81%
Number of salaries quoted 4,841 2,574 6,881
10th Percentile £28,250 £28,822 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,500 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,392 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.57% +10.30% -9.52%
75th Percentile £65,640 £65,000 £62,500
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 3 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 3 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 -25 520 £42,500 -20.26% 278
East Midlands -2 352 £35,000 -11.39% 199
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 58 (6.63%) SharePoint
2 39 (4.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (0.91%) CMS
4 6 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2007
4 6 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2013
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 4 (0.46%) IIS
7 2 (0.23%) Apache
7 2 (0.23%) Confluence
7 2 (0.23%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) Drupal
8 1 (0.11%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.11%) SAS
8 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 59 (6.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (6.29%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.71%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.80%) MS Visio
7 5 (0.57%) AutoCAD
8 3 (0.34%) Fusion 360
8 3 (0.34%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.23%) Trello
10 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.11%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.11%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 23 (2.63%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.14%) iTrent
2 10 (1.14%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.57%) Q-Pulse
5 3 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.34%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 2 (0.23%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.23%) SAP Business One
6 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 2 (0.23%) Shopify
7 1 (0.11%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.11%) HFM
7 1 (0.11%) Line 50
7 1 (0.11%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.11%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.11%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.11%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 192 (21.94%) Microsoft 365
2 191 (21.83%) Azure
3 78 (8.91%) AWS
4 69 (7.89%) Power Platform
5 58 (6.63%) Entra ID
6 54 (6.17%) SaaS
7 31 (3.54%) Serverless
8 23 (2.63%) Dynamics 365
9 18 (2.06%) Amazon S3
9 18 (2.06%) AWS Lambda
10 17 (1.94%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.83%) GCP
12 13 (1.49%) Google Workspace
12 13 (1.49%) OneDrive
12 13 (1.49%) PowerApps
13 11 (1.26%) Azure Data Factory
14 10 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.80%) OCI
17 5 (0.57%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (7.09%) DNS
2 58 (6.63%) DHCP
3 49 (5.60%) VPN
4 39 (4.46%) WAN
5 36 (4.11%) Firewall
6 26 (2.97%) LAN
7 24 (2.74%) Internet
8 23 (2.63%) Wi-Fi
9 19 (2.17%) Remote Desktop
9 19 (2.17%) TCP/IP
10 16 (1.83%) SD-WAN
11 12 (1.37%) Wireless
12 10 (1.14%) VoIP
13 9 (1.03%) VLAN
14 7 (0.80%) Network Security
15 6 (0.69%) Broadband
16 5 (0.57%) WLAN
17 4 (0.46%) ADSL
17 4 (0.46%) Ethernet
17 4 (0.46%) VDSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (6.74%) Power BI
2 37 (4.23%) SQL Server
3 18 (2.06%) MySQL
4 15 (1.71%) Oracle Reports
5 14 (1.60%) Power Query
5 14 (1.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 14 (1.60%) Tableau
6 13 (1.49%) Amazon Redshift
6 13 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (1.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 8 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
8 8 (0.91%) Relational Database
9 7 (0.80%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.57%) Metadata
11 5 (0.57%) Star Schema
12 4 (0.46%) Redis
13 3 (0.34%) GIS
13 3 (0.34%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 25 (2.86%) JIRA
2 23 (2.63%) Git
3 7 (0.80%) Burp Suite
3 7 (0.80%) JUnit
3 7 (0.80%) Metasploit
4 6 (0.69%) GitLab
4 6 (0.69%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.57%) Maven
5 5 (0.57%) Mockito
5 5 (0.57%) Subversion
6 3 (0.34%) Appcelerator Titanium
7 2 (0.23%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.23%) Selenium
7 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.23%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.11%) MLflow
8 1 (0.11%) Postman
8 1 (0.11%) Snyk
General
1 411 (46.97%) Social Skills
2 283 (32.34%) Analytical Skills
3 156 (17.83%) Finance
4 84 (9.60%) Manufacturing
5 68 (7.77%) Retail
6 67 (7.66%) Organisational Skills
7 48 (5.49%) Legal
8 47 (5.37%) Law
9 42 (4.80%) Marketing
10 35 (4.00%) Public Sector
11 29 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 21 (2.40%) Automotive
13 19 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (2.17%) Electronics
14 14 (1.60%) Banking
15 12 (1.37%) Games
15 12 (1.37%) Presentation Skills
16 11 (1.26%) Advertising
16 11 (1.26%) Aerospace
17 10 (1.14%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 156 (17.83%) IT Support
2 142 (16.23%) Analyst
3 140 (16.00%) Support Engineer
4 104 (11.89%) IT Engineer
5 90 (10.29%) IT Support Engineer
6 70 (8.00%) Developer
7 64 (7.31%) Lead
7 64 (7.31%) Senior
8 58 (6.63%) Support Analyst
9 51 (5.83%) Technical Support
10 43 (4.91%) Technical Engineer
11 42 (4.80%) Support Technician
11 42 (4.80%) Technical Support Engineer
12 36 (4.11%) 2nd Line Support
13 34 (3.89%) Administrator
14 33 (3.77%) Architect
15 31 (3.54%) IT Technician
16 29 (3.31%) Full-Stack Developer
17 28 (3.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 28 (3.20%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (4.11%) React
2 30 (3.43%) CSS
2 30 (3.43%) HTML
3 28 (3.20%) Node.js
4 18 (2.06%) REST
5 17 (1.94%) .NET
6 9 (1.03%) JSON
7 7 (0.80%) RESTful
7 7 (0.80%) Vue
8 6 (0.69%) Laravel
8 6 (0.69%) Middleware
9 5 (0.57%) AngularJS
9 5 (0.57%) Spring
10 4 (0.46%) .NET Framework
10 4 (0.46%) ASP.NET
10 4 (0.46%) Next.js
10 4 (0.46%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.46%) Spring Boot
10 4 (0.46%) XML
11 3 (0.34%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 99 (11.31%) Driving Licence
2 63 (7.20%) Onboarding
3 39 (4.46%) Management Information System
4 32 (3.66%) Self-Motivation
5 21 (2.40%) Analytical Mindset
6 19 (2.17%) Social Media
7 17 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (1.71%) FMCG
9 14 (1.60%) Product Ownership
10 13 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (1.37%) IoT
11 12 (1.37%) Security Posture
12 9 (1.03%) Distributed Systems
12 9 (1.03%) EPoS
13 8 (0.91%) Data Centre
13 8 (0.91%) Data Structures
14 7 (0.80%) Cyber Defence
14 7 (0.80%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 7 (0.80%) Insider Threat
14 7 (0.80%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 165 (18.86%) Windows
2 50 (5.71%) Windows Server
3 43 (4.91%) Linux
4 37 (4.23%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.71%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.80%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.69%) Android
7 6 (0.69%) Windows 7
7 6 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (0.57%) Debian
8 5 (0.57%) Unix
9 4 (0.46%) CentOS
10 3 (0.34%) SUSE
11 2 (0.23%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (20.91%) Continuous Improvement
2 160 (18.29%) Customer Service
3 109 (12.46%) Agile
4 94 (10.74%) Mentoring
5 93 (10.63%) ITIL
6 87 (9.94%) CRM
6 87 (9.94%) Decision-Making
7 83 (9.49%) ERP
8 73 (8.34%) Analytics
9 68 (7.77%) Project Management
10 65 (7.43%) Business Intelligence
11 62 (7.09%) Process Improvement
12 59 (6.74%) Time Management
13 56 (6.40%) Computer Science
14 53 (6.06%) Roadmaps
15 52 (5.94%) Collaborative Working
16 49 (5.60%) Migration
16 49 (5.60%) Service Delivery
17 45 (5.14%) Stakeholder Management
18 44 (5.03%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 139 (15.89%) SQL
2 51 (5.83%) Python
3 41 (4.69%) JavaScript
4 31 (3.54%) C#
5 24 (2.74%) PowerShell
6 23 (2.63%) Java
7 18 (2.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.06%) PHP
8 16 (1.83%) T-SQL
9 12 (1.37%) Bash
9 12 (1.37%) C
9 12 (1.37%) Ladder Logic
10 10 (1.14%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.80%) R
12 6 (0.69%) C++
13 5 (0.57%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.46%) VBA
15 3 (0.34%) Delphi
15 3 (0.34%) Rust
15 3 (0.34%) VB
Qualifications
1 146 (16.69%) Degree
2 68 (7.77%) Security Cleared
3 52 (5.94%) SC Cleared
4 33 (3.77%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.51%) DBS Check
7 21 (2.40%) CISSP
8 19 (2.17%) CompTIA Security+
9 17 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.37%) A+ Certification
10 12 (1.37%) ACCA
10 12 (1.37%) CCNA
10 12 (1.37%) CIMA
11 10 (1.14%) PMI Certification
12 9 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
12 9 (1.03%) CISMP
12 9 (1.03%) PMP
13 8 (0.91%) AWS Certification
13 8 (0.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.80%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (5.14%) Data Quality
1 45 (5.14%) QA
2 30 (3.43%) GDPR
3 28 (3.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 21 (2.40%) NIST
5 13 (1.49%) Actionable Recommendations
6 12 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials
7 10 (1.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 10 (1.14%) SLA
8 9 (1.03%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 5 (0.57%) COSHH
10 5 (0.57%) GMP
10 5 (0.57%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.34%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 107 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 23 (2.63%) Docker
2 23 (2.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.37%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.91%) vSphere
5 3 (0.34%) Firmware
5 3 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 41 (4.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.63%) Kubernetes
3 18 (2.06%) Terraform
4 7 (0.80%) Ansible
4 7 (0.80%) Nmap
5 6 (0.69%) Grafana
6 5 (0.57%) Nagios
6 5 (0.57%) SCCM
7 3 (0.34%) Galera Cluster
7 3 (0.34%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.11%) Argo
9 1 (0.11%) AWS Copilot
9 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.11%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.11%) Puppet
9 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 233 (26.63%) Microsoft
2 35 (4.00%) Cisco
2 35 (4.00%) Oracle
2 35 (4.00%) SAP
3 28 (3.20%) VMware
4 18 (2.06%) Google
4 18 (2.06%) ServiceNow
5 15 (1.71%) Salesforce
6 12 (1.37%) Databricks
6 12 (1.37%) HP
7 10 (1.14%) Sage
8 9 (1.03%) Dell
8 9 (1.03%) Meraki
9 8 (0.91%) Freshdesk
10 7 (0.80%) Epicor
10 7 (0.80%) SolarWinds
11 6 (0.69%) Zscaler
12 5 (0.57%) Avaya
12 5 (0.57%) Infor
12 5 (0.57%) Workday