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 27 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -15 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 866 1,203 1,156
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 10.66% 19.44% 15.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.31% 21.35% 17.91%
Number of salaries quoted 688 484 916
10th Percentile £25,875 £28,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £30,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £50,250 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -25.37% +18.24% -19.05%
75th Percentile £53,951 £63,750 £58,750
90th Percentile £68,050 £82,500 £69,000
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,950
% change year-on-year -18.18% +7.95% -8.29%

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 6,504 5,635 6,456
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 80.06% 91.06% 85.94%
Number of salaries quoted 3,621 2,498 5,307
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £39,000 £34,696
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,743 £57,500
% change year-on-year -9.45% +5.64% -8.00%

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 27 January 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 27 January 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 -17 504 £42,500 -22.73% 323
East Midlands +1 361 £33,000 -5.71% 301
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 52 (6.00%) SharePoint
2 32 (3.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.62%) IIS
4 7 (0.81%) Confluence
5 6 (0.69%) Apache
5 6 (0.69%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.12%) Appian
7 1 (0.12%) CMS
7 1 (0.12%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.12%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.12%) SAS
7 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 68 (7.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (4.97%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.62%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (1.04%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.92%) SOLIDWORKS
7 7 (0.81%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.46%) CATIA
9 3 (0.35%) Trello
10 1 (0.12%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.12%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 35 (4.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (1.27%) iTrent
3 9 (1.04%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.35%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.12%) C-CURE
7 1 (0.12%) HFM
7 1 (0.12%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.12%) Q-Pulse
7 1 (0.12%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 191 (22.06%) Azure
2 178 (20.55%) Microsoft 365
3 80 (9.24%) SaaS
4 72 (8.31%) AWS
5 57 (6.58%) Power Platform
6 55 (6.35%) Entra ID
7 27 (3.12%) Dynamics 365
8 22 (2.54%) Serverless
9 15 (1.73%) Amazon S3
9 15 (1.73%) Power Automate
10 14 (1.62%) GCP
11 13 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (1.27%) OneDrive
12 11 (1.27%) PowerApps
13 9 (1.04%) GitHub
14 8 (0.92%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (0.92%) Google Workspace
15 7 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (0.81%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 71 (8.20%) DNS
2 67 (7.74%) DHCP
3 42 (4.85%) VPN
4 38 (4.39%) Remote Desktop
5 30 (3.46%) WAN
6 28 (3.23%) Firewall
7 23 (2.66%) Internet
8 21 (2.42%) LAN
9 19 (2.19%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (1.73%) TCP/IP
11 13 (1.50%) VLAN
11 13 (1.50%) VoIP
11 13 (1.50%) Wireless
12 11 (1.27%) SD-WAN
13 9 (1.04%) ADSL
13 9 (1.04%) Ethernet
13 9 (1.04%) VDSL
14 6 (0.69%) Broadband
15 5 (0.58%) Network Security
15 5 (0.58%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (6.12%) SQL Server
2 44 (5.08%) Power BI
3 17 (1.96%) MySQL
3 17 (1.96%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.73%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
5 12 (1.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 10 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
6 10 (1.15%) GIS
7 9 (1.04%) Tableau
8 8 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.69%) Crystal Reports
9 6 (0.69%) Metadata
10 5 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.46%) BusinessObjects
11 4 (0.46%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.35%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.35%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 32 (3.70%) JIRA
2 21 (2.42%) Git
3 9 (1.04%) JUnit
4 8 (0.92%) GitLab
5 7 (0.81%) Burp Suite
5 7 (0.81%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.81%) Metasploit
5 7 (0.81%) Mockito
5 7 (0.81%) Subversion
6 6 (0.69%) Maven
7 4 (0.46%) Selenium
8 3 (0.35%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 3 (0.35%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.23%) Vagrant
9 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket Server
10 1 (0.12%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (0.12%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.12%) Snyk
10 1 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 424 (48.96%) Social Skills
2 274 (31.64%) Analytical Skills
3 169 (19.52%) Finance
4 110 (12.70%) Retail
5 82 (9.47%) Manufacturing
6 49 (5.66%) Law
7 48 (5.54%) Organisational Skills
8 41 (4.73%) Legal
9 39 (4.50%) Marketing
10 38 (4.39%) Public Sector
11 24 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 23 (2.66%) Electronics
13 18 (2.08%) Telecoms
14 17 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
15 16 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
16 14 (1.62%) Automotive
16 14 (1.62%) Banking
17 12 (1.39%) Aerospace
18 9 (1.04%) Fire and Rescue
19 8 (0.92%) Games
Job Titles
1 163 (18.82%) IT Support
1 163 (18.82%) Support Engineer
2 124 (14.32%) Analyst
3 104 (12.01%) IT Engineer
4 92 (10.62%) IT Support Engineer
5 79 (9.12%) Lead
6 78 (9.01%) Developer
7 74 (8.55%) Technical Support
8 65 (7.51%) Support Analyst
9 63 (7.27%) Technical Engineer
10 62 (7.16%) 2nd Line Support
10 62 (7.16%) Senior
11 60 (6.93%) Technical Support Engineer
12 40 (4.62%) Support Technician
13 36 (4.16%) Applications Support
14 35 (4.04%) Administrator
15 31 (3.58%) 1st/2nd Line Support
16 30 (3.46%) Architect
17 26 (3.00%) Full-Stack Developer
18 22 (2.54%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.50%) React
2 33 (3.81%) .NET
3 31 (3.58%) REST
4 30 (3.46%) HTML
5 28 (3.23%) CSS
6 22 (2.54%) Node.js
7 17 (1.96%) AngularJS
8 16 (1.85%) JSON
9 11 (1.27%) Razor View Engine
10 7 (0.81%) Middleware
10 7 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
10 7 (0.81%) RESTful
10 7 (0.81%) Vue
11 6 (0.69%) LAMP
11 6 (0.69%) Laravel
11 6 (0.69%) Spring
12 5 (0.58%) EDI
12 5 (0.58%) Web Services
13 4 (0.46%) ASP.NET
13 4 (0.46%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 111 (12.82%) Onboarding
2 109 (12.59%) Driving Licence
3 45 (5.20%) Management Information System
4 44 (5.08%) Self-Motivation
5 40 (4.62%) Analytical Mindset
6 34 (3.93%) FMCG
7 14 (1.62%) Product Ownership
8 13 (1.50%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.50%) Operational Technology
8 13 (1.50%) Social Media
9 12 (1.39%) Security Posture
10 10 (1.15%) e-Learning
10 10 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (1.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 9 (1.04%) IoT
11 9 (1.04%) SCADA
12 8 (0.92%) Data Structures
12 8 (0.92%) Embedded Systems
13 7 (0.81%) Insider Threat
13 7 (0.81%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 157 (18.13%) Windows
2 58 (6.70%) Windows Server
3 39 (4.50%) Linux
4 27 (3.12%) Windows 10
5 11 (1.27%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.46%) Unix
8 3 (0.35%) Android
8 3 (0.35%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.23%) Debian
9 2 (0.23%) VMS
9 2 (0.23%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (21.94%) Customer Service
2 179 (20.67%) Continuous Improvement
3 118 (13.63%) CRM
4 112 (12.93%) ERP
5 103 (11.89%) Project Management
6 99 (11.43%) Agile
7 92 (10.62%) Mentoring
8 89 (10.28%) ITIL
9 87 (10.05%) Decision-Making
10 73 (8.43%) Business Intelligence
11 69 (7.97%) Analytics
12 60 (6.93%) Incident Management
13 56 (6.47%) Root Cause Analysis
14 55 (6.35%) Analytical Thinking
14 55 (6.35%) Process Improvement
15 53 (6.12%) Logistics
16 52 (6.00%) Change Management
16 52 (6.00%) Computer Science
16 52 (6.00%) E-Commerce
17 51 (5.89%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 179 (20.67%) SQL
2 79 (9.12%) C#
3 64 (7.39%) Python
4 54 (6.24%) JavaScript
5 35 (4.04%) Java
6 33 (3.81%) PowerShell
7 22 (2.54%) PHP
8 15 (1.73%) T-SQL
9 13 (1.50%) C
10 11 (1.27%) TypeScript
11 10 (1.15%) Bash
12 7 (0.81%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.69%) Ladder Logic
13 6 (0.69%) R
14 5 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.46%) C++
15 4 (0.46%) Delphi
15 4 (0.46%) Perl
16 3 (0.35%) Groovy
16 3 (0.35%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 170 (19.63%) Degree
2 77 (8.89%) Security Cleared
3 55 (6.35%) SC Cleared
4 33 (3.81%) Microsoft Certification
5 32 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (2.77%) DBS Check
7 19 (2.19%) Master's Degree
8 18 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.73%) CISSP
10 12 (1.39%) ACCA
10 12 (1.39%) CIMA
11 11 (1.27%) CCNA
12 10 (1.15%) AWS Certification
12 10 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (1.15%) MCP
13 9 (1.04%) CISMP
13 9 (1.04%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (1.04%) PMI Certification
14 8 (0.92%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (6.81%) QA
2 30 (3.46%) GDPR
3 28 (3.23%) Data Quality
4 25 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (1.27%) SLA
6 9 (1.04%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (1.04%) NIST
7 8 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 5 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 4 (0.46%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.35%) PMO
11 2 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.23%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.23%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
11 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 118 (13.63%) Active Directory
2 23 (2.66%) Docker
3 12 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.92%) Firmware
4 8 (0.92%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.81%) vSphere
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 41 (4.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.77%) Kubernetes
3 16 (1.85%) Terraform
4 7 (0.81%) Nmap
5 6 (0.69%) Ansible
5 6 (0.69%) Nagios
6 5 (0.58%) SCCM
7 4 (0.46%) Grafana
8 3 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.23%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.23%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.12%) Argo
10 1 (0.12%) Autotask
10 1 (0.12%) AWS Copilot
10 1 (0.12%) CA Service Virtualization
10 1 (0.12%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 256 (29.56%) Microsoft
2 70 (8.08%) SAP
3 58 (6.70%) Oracle
4 40 (4.62%) Salesforce
5 36 (4.16%) Cisco
6 15 (1.73%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.39%) Google
7 12 (1.39%) VMware
8 10 (1.15%) Databricks
9 9 (1.04%) Meraki
9 9 (1.04%) Sage
9 9 (1.04%) Zoho
10 7 (0.81%) Epicor
10 7 (0.81%) HubSpot
10 7 (0.81%) Infor
11 6 (0.69%) Freshdesk
11 6 (0.69%) SolarWinds
12 5 (0.58%) Panasonic
12 5 (0.58%) QAD
12 5 (0.58%) Samsung