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 24 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 4 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 +3 0
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 969 1,378 803
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 16.23% 15.68% 16.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.81% 18.81% 17.32%
Number of salaries quoted 726 500 624
10th Percentile £25,750 £28,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £28,946 £34,000 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £51,250 £62,399 £62,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £75,000 £70,875
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 4,892 7,326 4,636
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 81.96% 83.36% 93.02%
Number of salaries quoted 3,271 3,315 3,593
10th Percentile £27,000 £30,000 £26,768
25th Percentile £32,500 £38,375 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £52,470 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.47% +4.94% -2.91%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,233 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £76,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -2.44%

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 24 November 2025.

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 24 November 2025. 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 +1 578 £42,500 -20.04% 341
East Midlands +3 391 £32,500 -7.14% 172
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 42 (4.33%) SharePoint
2 33 (3.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.55%) IIS
4 7 (0.72%) Confluence
5 6 (0.62%) Apache
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.21%) CMS
7 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2007
7 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.10%) Apache Solr
8 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.10%) Appian
8 1 (0.10%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.10%) nginx
8 1 (0.10%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.10%) SAS
8 1 (0.10%) WebLogic
Applications
1 103 (10.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 63 (6.50%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.93%) AutoCAD
5 8 (0.83%) SOLIDWORKS
6 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.41%) CATIA
8 3 (0.31%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.31%) Trello
9 1 (0.10%) EPLAN
9 1 (0.10%) Revit
Business Applications
1 38 (3.92%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.83%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.52%) Exchequer
3 5 (0.52%) SAP Business One
3 5 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.41%) iTrent
4 4 (0.41%) SAP FI
4 4 (0.41%) Shopify
5 3 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.31%) SAP EWM
5 3 (0.31%) SAP WM
6 2 (0.21%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.10%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.10%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 191 (19.71%) Azure
2 185 (19.09%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (8.46%) Power Platform
4 80 (8.26%) SaaS
5 56 (5.78%) Entra ID
6 49 (5.06%) AWS
7 30 (3.10%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (1.65%) GCP
8 16 (1.65%) Power Automate
9 14 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
9 14 (1.44%) Cloud Computing
10 12 (1.24%) OneDrive
11 11 (1.14%) PowerApps
12 10 (1.03%) GitHub
13 9 (0.93%) Serverless
14 8 (0.83%) OCI
15 7 (0.72%) Azure Data Factory
16 5 (0.52%) Azure Key Vault
16 5 (0.52%) Azure Logic Apps
16 5 (0.52%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 66 (6.81%) DNS
2 63 (6.50%) DHCP
3 51 (5.26%) Firewall
4 47 (4.85%) VPN
5 46 (4.75%) Remote Desktop
6 37 (3.82%) WAN
7 35 (3.61%) LAN
8 22 (2.27%) Wi-Fi
9 20 (2.06%) TCP/IP
10 11 (1.14%) Internet
10 11 (1.14%) Network Security
10 11 (1.14%) VoIP
10 11 (1.14%) Wireless
11 10 (1.03%) Broadband
12 9 (0.93%) ADSL
12 9 (0.93%) Ethernet
12 9 (0.93%) VDSL
13 7 (0.72%) VLAN
14 5 (0.52%) PBX
15 4 (0.41%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (7.43%) Power BI
2 60 (6.19%) SQL Server
3 22 (2.27%) MySQL
4 20 (2.06%) GIS
4 20 (2.06%) Relational Database
5 17 (1.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 14 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (1.24%) BusinessObjects
8 11 (1.14%) Crystal Reports
8 11 (1.14%) Metadata
9 10 (1.03%) Tableau
10 6 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
10 6 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.52%) Data Mining
11 5 (0.52%) EDRMS
11 5 (0.52%) Geospatial Data
12 4 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.41%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.31%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 27 (2.79%) JIRA
2 20 (2.06%) Git
3 5 (0.52%) GitLab
3 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.52%) JUnit
4 4 (0.41%) Selenium
5 3 (0.31%) Appcelerator Titanium
5 3 (0.31%) Burp Suite
5 3 (0.31%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.31%) Metasploit
5 3 (0.31%) Mockito
6 2 (0.21%) Maven
6 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.21%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Vagrant
6 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.10%) ERwin
7 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.10%) webpack
General
1 520 (53.66%) Social Skills
2 266 (27.45%) Analytical Skills
3 239 (24.66%) Finance
4 158 (16.31%) Retail
5 81 (8.36%) Manufacturing
6 50 (5.16%) Law
7 47 (4.85%) Legal
8 44 (4.54%) Marketing
8 44 (4.54%) Organisational Skills
9 40 (4.13%) Public Sector
10 35 (3.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 33 (3.41%) Digital Health
12 20 (2.06%) Electronics
13 19 (1.96%) Banking
14 18 (1.86%) Telecoms
15 16 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
16 15 (1.55%) Automotive
17 14 (1.44%) Fire and Rescue
18 13 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
19 11 (1.14%) Games
Job Titles
1 176 (18.16%) Support Engineer
2 170 (17.54%) IT Support
3 164 (16.92%) Analyst
4 100 (10.32%) Technical Support
5 95 (9.80%) 2nd Line Support
6 87 (8.98%) Technical Engineer
7 86 (8.88%) Support Analyst
8 84 (8.67%) Technical Support Engineer
9 83 (8.57%) Developer
10 80 (8.26%) IT Engineer
11 70 (7.22%) IT Support Engineer
12 62 (6.40%) Senior
13 60 (6.19%) Lead
14 45 (4.64%) Support Technician
15 44 (4.54%) Applications Support
16 36 (3.72%) 1st/2nd Line Support
17 31 (3.20%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
17 31 (3.20%) Architect
18 28 (2.89%) 1st Line Support
19 26 (2.68%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (4.33%) .NET
2 31 (3.20%) React
3 28 (2.89%) HTML
4 27 (2.79%) REST
5 26 (2.68%) CSS
6 18 (1.86%) AngularJS
7 16 (1.65%) JSON
8 14 (1.44%) EDI
9 13 (1.34%) Razor View Engine
10 9 (0.93%) Middleware
11 8 (0.83%) Oracle Fusion
12 7 (0.72%) .NET Framework
12 7 (0.72%) ASP.NET
12 7 (0.72%) Node.js
13 6 (0.62%) LAMP
13 6 (0.62%) RESTful
13 6 (0.62%) Spring
13 6 (0.62%) Vue
13 6 (0.62%) Web Services
13 6 (0.62%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 123 (12.69%) Onboarding
2 108 (11.15%) Driving Licence
3 59 (6.09%) FMCG
4 48 (4.95%) Analytical Mindset
5 47 (4.85%) Self-Motivation
6 42 (4.33%) Management Information System
7 19 (1.96%) SCADA
8 17 (1.75%) Operational Technology
9 14 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (1.44%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.24%) Data Centre
10 12 (1.24%) Data Structures
10 12 (1.24%) e-Learning
10 12 (1.24%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.03%) EPoS
12 9 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 8 (0.83%) IoT
13 8 (0.83%) Linux Command Line
13 8 (0.83%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.72%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 186 (19.20%) Windows
2 57 (5.88%) Windows Server
3 49 (5.06%) Windows 10
4 40 (4.13%) Linux
5 11 (1.14%) Mac OS
6 10 (1.03%) Apple iOS
7 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (0.52%) Mac OS X
8 5 (0.52%) Unix
9 4 (0.41%) Android
10 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.21%) VMS
11 2 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.10%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.10%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Mobile
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (23.43%) Continuous Improvement
2 226 (23.32%) Customer Service
3 133 (13.73%) ERP
4 131 (13.52%) CRM
5 115 (11.87%) Logistics
6 112 (11.56%) Mentoring
7 97 (10.01%) ITIL
8 95 (9.80%) Business Intelligence
8 95 (9.80%) Project Management
9 90 (9.29%) Agile
9 90 (9.29%) Decision-Making
10 73 (7.53%) Analytics
11 68 (7.02%) Incident Management
12 67 (6.91%) Root Cause Analysis
13 61 (6.30%) E-Commerce
14 56 (5.78%) Analytical Thinking
14 56 (5.78%) Cybersecurity
15 50 (5.16%) Computer Science
15 50 (5.16%) Data Analysis
16 49 (5.06%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 198 (20.43%) SQL
2 94 (9.70%) C#
3 58 (5.99%) Python
4 53 (5.47%) JavaScript
5 31 (3.20%) Java
6 27 (2.79%) PowerShell
7 24 (2.48%) PHP
8 17 (1.75%) T-SQL
9 8 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (0.83%) TypeScript
10 7 (0.72%) C
11 6 (0.62%) C++
12 5 (0.52%) Bash
12 5 (0.52%) Ladder Logic
13 4 (0.41%) Delphi
13 4 (0.41%) Go
13 4 (0.41%) Perl
13 4 (0.41%) R
13 4 (0.41%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.31%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 176 (18.16%) Degree
2 73 (7.53%) Security Cleared
3 47 (4.85%) SC Cleared
4 34 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (1.75%) ACCA
6 17 (1.75%) CIMA
6 17 (1.75%) CISSP
7 16 (1.65%) DBS Check
8 15 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
8 15 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.55%) Master's Degree
9 13 (1.34%) MCP
10 11 (1.14%) HND
11 10 (1.03%) DV Cleared
12 9 (0.93%) CISM
13 8 (0.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 8 (0.83%) A+ Certification
13 8 (0.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (0.83%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.64%) QA
2 29 (2.99%) Data Quality
2 29 (2.99%) GDPR
3 19 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (1.96%) SLA
4 9 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 8 (0.83%) NIST
6 7 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
7 6 (0.62%) PMO
8 4 (0.41%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.21%) COBIT
9 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.21%) ISO 20022
9 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 1 (0.10%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.10%) IEC 61508
10 1 (0.10%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 134 (13.83%) Active Directory
2 24 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.34%) Docker
4 7 (0.72%) Firmware
4 7 (0.72%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.62%) vSphere
6 2 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 40 (4.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (1.55%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.03%) Terraform
4 4 (0.41%) Ansible
4 4 (0.41%) SCCM
5 3 (0.31%) FortiGate
5 3 (0.31%) Grafana
5 3 (0.31%) Nmap
6 2 (0.21%) Nagios
7 1 (0.10%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.10%) Argo
7 1 (0.10%) Autotask
7 1 (0.10%) AWS Copilot
7 1 (0.10%) CA Service Virtualization
7 1 (0.10%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.10%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.10%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 279 (28.79%) Microsoft
2 80 (8.26%) SAP
3 48 (4.95%) Salesforce
4 42 (4.33%) Oracle
5 39 (4.02%) Cisco
6 25 (2.58%) VMware
7 17 (1.75%) Databricks
8 16 (1.65%) ServiceNow
9 12 (1.24%) Juniper
9 12 (1.24%) Zoho
10 11 (1.14%) Dell
10 11 (1.14%) Google
10 11 (1.14%) HubSpot
11 9 (0.93%) McAfee
12 8 (0.83%) Apple
12 8 (0.83%) Sage
13 7 (0.72%) Infor
14 6 (0.62%) Civica
14 6 (0.62%) HP
14 6 (0.62%) NEC