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 19 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,198 1,280 1,469
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.25% 22.11% 13.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.83% 25.99% 17.70%
Number of salaries quoted 845 748 708
10th Percentile £26,462 £25,262 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £29,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,500 £43,227
Median % change year-on-year +10.39% -10.94% -13.31%
75th Percentile £57,000 £53,750 £58,747
90th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -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 10,131 4,925 8,301
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.73% 85.06% 77.54%
Number of salaries quoted 7,225 2,967 4,978
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +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 19 August 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 19 August 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 -9 667 £42,500 -4.00% 513
East Midlands -9 528 £41,000 +17.14% 307
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 54 (4.51%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.09%) IIS
4 7 (0.58%) CMS
5 5 (0.42%) Confluence
5 5 (0.42%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.33%) CICS
7 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.25%) SAS
7 3 (0.25%) WordPress
8 2 (0.17%) Documentum
9 1 (0.083%) Apache
9 1 (0.083%) Appian
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2007
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.083%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.083%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 98 (8.18%) Microsoft Office
2 80 (6.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.42%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.33%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.33%) Simulink
7 2 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.17%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.17%) OrCAD
7 2 (0.17%) Revit
8 1 (0.083%) EPLAN
8 1 (0.083%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.083%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.083%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.083%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 17 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.25%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 15 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.09%) SAP Business One
4 10 (0.83%) Shopify
5 9 (0.75%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 7 (0.58%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.58%) Sage X3
7 5 (0.42%) Magento
7 5 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
7 5 (0.42%) Sage 50
7 5 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.33%) Line 50
9 3 (0.25%) Infor CloudSuite
9 3 (0.25%) Infor LN
9 3 (0.25%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics GP
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics NAV
10 2 (0.17%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 236 (19.70%) Microsoft 365
2 223 (18.61%) Azure
3 125 (10.43%) Power Platform
4 86 (7.18%) AWS
5 84 (7.01%) Entra ID
6 50 (4.17%) SaaS
7 32 (2.67%) Dynamics 365
8 29 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (2.00%) Power Automate
10 18 (1.50%) PowerApps
11 16 (1.34%) GCP
11 16 (1.34%) GitHub
11 16 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
11 16 (1.34%) Serverless
12 14 (1.17%) Microsoft Purview
13 12 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (0.92%) Amazon S3
14 11 (0.92%) AWS Lambda
15 10 (0.83%) Google Workspace
16 9 (0.75%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 66 (5.51%) Firewall
2 65 (5.43%) DNS
3 51 (4.26%) DHCP
4 49 (4.09%) VPN
5 45 (3.76%) TCP/IP
6 33 (2.75%) Wireless
7 30 (2.50%) VLAN
8 22 (1.84%) WAN
9 20 (1.67%) LAN
10 19 (1.59%) Network Security
11 18 (1.50%) Wi-Fi
12 15 (1.25%) VoIP
13 8 (0.67%) MQTT
14 7 (0.58%) SSL
15 6 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
15 6 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.50%) SD-WAN
16 5 (0.42%) Internet
16 5 (0.42%) Skype
17 4 (0.33%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (9.60%) Power BI
2 50 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 24 (2.00%) Power Query
3 24 (2.00%) Tableau
4 21 (1.75%) Relational Database
5 20 (1.67%) Data Warehouse
6 18 (1.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 17 (1.42%) MySQL
8 16 (1.34%) Electronic Patient Records
9 14 (1.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 12 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
11 10 (0.83%) Crystal Reports
11 10 (0.83%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.75%) Data Mining
13 8 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
14 7 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
14 7 (0.58%) MongoDB
15 6 (0.50%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
16 5 (0.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 43 (3.59%) Git
2 27 (2.25%) JIRA
3 19 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.50%) Maven
5 5 (0.42%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.42%) JUnit
5 5 (0.42%) Postman
5 5 (0.42%) VersionOne
6 4 (0.33%) Burp Suite
6 4 (0.33%) GitLab
6 4 (0.33%) JMeter
6 4 (0.33%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.33%) Selenium
6 4 (0.33%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.25%) Mockito
7 3 (0.25%) Subversion
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.17%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 586 (48.91%) Social Skills
2 349 (29.13%) Analytical Skills
3 214 (17.86%) Finance
4 183 (15.28%) Manufacturing
5 82 (6.84%) Retail
6 75 (6.26%) Organisational Skills
7 61 (5.09%) Marketing
8 47 (3.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 47 (3.92%) Public Sector
9 45 (3.76%) Legal
10 42 (3.51%) Law
11 29 (2.42%) Electronics
11 29 (2.42%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (1.75%) Automotive
13 19 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.25%) Telecoms
15 12 (1.00%) Games
16 10 (0.83%) Banking
17 8 (0.67%) Investment Banking
17 8 (0.67%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 182 (15.19%) Analyst
2 136 (11.35%) IT Support
3 128 (10.68%) Support Engineer
4 115 (9.60%) Developer
5 104 (8.68%) Senior
6 79 (6.59%) Technical Support
7 71 (5.93%) Consultant
8 69 (5.76%) Technical Engineer
9 68 (5.68%) IT Engineer
10 67 (5.59%) Lead
10 67 (5.59%) Technical Support Engineer
11 59 (4.92%) Support Analyst
12 58 (4.84%) Support Technician
13 52 (4.34%) IT Technician
14 50 (4.17%) IT Support Engineer
15 48 (4.01%) IT Manager
16 43 (3.59%) IT Support Technician
17 40 (3.34%) Senior Analyst
18 38 (3.17%) Data Analyst
19 29 (2.42%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.51%) REST
2 40 (3.34%) .NET
2 40 (3.34%) React
3 25 (2.09%) Node.js
3 25 (2.09%) Spring
4 22 (1.84%) Spring Boot
5 21 (1.75%) SOAP
6 17 (1.42%) CSS
6 17 (1.42%) HTML
7 15 (1.25%) RESTful
8 13 (1.09%) AngularJS
9 12 (1.00%) Playwright
10 11 (0.92%) JSON
11 10 (0.83%) EDI
11 10 (0.83%) Middleware
11 10 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.75%) ASP.NET
12 9 (0.75%) JDBC
12 9 (0.75%) OAuth
12 9 (0.75%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 122 (10.18%) Driving Licence
2 71 (5.93%) Management Information System
3 69 (5.76%) Onboarding
4 52 (4.34%) Self-Motivation
5 31 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
6 28 (2.34%) NHS
7 20 (1.67%) Robotics
8 18 (1.50%) IoT
9 17 (1.42%) SystemC
10 16 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
11 15 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.09%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.09%) Legacy Applications
13 12 (1.00%) Data Centre
13 12 (1.00%) SCADA
13 12 (1.00%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.92%) Cloud Native
14 11 (0.92%) CMDB
14 11 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
14 11 (0.92%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 209 (17.45%) Windows
2 80 (6.68%) Linux
2 80 (6.68%) Windows Server
3 43 (3.59%) Windows 10
4 16 (1.34%) Android
5 13 (1.09%) Apple iOS
6 10 (0.83%) Unix
7 9 (0.75%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.75%) Ubuntu
8 6 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.42%) OpenVMS
10 4 (0.33%) CentOS
10 4 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.33%) VMS
11 3 (0.25%) Debian
11 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.17%) Solaris
12 2 (0.17%) SUSE
12 2 (0.17%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.083%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 354 (29.55%) Continuous Improvement
2 216 (18.03%) Customer Service
3 172 (14.36%) Decision-Making
4 159 (13.27%) Agile
5 153 (12.77%) Analytics
6 137 (11.44%) Mentoring
7 128 (10.68%) Collaborative Working
8 127 (10.60%) ERP
9 121 (10.10%) Business Intelligence
10 108 (9.02%) Cybersecurity
11 101 (8.43%) ITIL
12 98 (8.18%) AI
13 94 (7.85%) Service Delivery
14 87 (7.26%) Roadmaps
15 86 (7.18%) Stakeholder Management
16 77 (6.43%) Collaborative Culture
17 76 (6.34%) CRM
18 73 (6.09%) Project Delivery
19 68 (5.68%) Root Cause Analysis
19 68 (5.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 198 (16.53%) SQL
2 87 (7.26%) Python
3 57 (4.76%) Java
4 46 (3.84%) PowerShell
5 44 (3.67%) JavaScript
6 35 (2.92%) C#
7 30 (2.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 24 (2.00%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.75%) Ladder Logic
10 16 (1.34%) C
11 14 (1.17%) VBA
12 13 (1.09%) Bash
12 13 (1.09%) PHP
13 11 (0.92%) C++
14 10 (0.83%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.75%) ABAP
15 9 (0.75%) COBOL
15 9 (0.75%) JCL
16 7 (0.58%) RPG
17 6 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 172 (14.36%) Degree
2 84 (7.01%) Security Cleared
3 69 (5.76%) SC Cleared
4 28 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 23 (1.92%) Azure Certification
6 21 (1.75%) DBS Check
7 18 (1.50%) CISSP
8 17 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (1.42%) HND
9 15 (1.25%) HNC
10 14 (1.17%) CompTIA Security+
10 14 (1.17%) PMI Certification
11 10 (0.83%) CCNA
11 10 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.58%) ACCA
12 7 (0.58%) CIMA
12 7 (0.58%) CISA
12 7 (0.58%) SSCP
13 6 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.50%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (4.67%) Data Quality
2 46 (3.84%) GDPR
3 41 (3.42%) QA
4 39 (3.26%) Cyber Essentials
5 37 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 36 (3.01%) SLA
7 21 (1.75%) Accessibility
8 19 (1.59%) ISO 9001
9 18 (1.50%) NIST
10 9 (0.75%) ISO 14001
11 8 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 7 (0.58%) GRC
12 7 (0.58%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.33%) GMP
13 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 3 (0.25%) HIPAA
14 3 (0.25%) SOC 2
15 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 147 (12.27%) Active Directory
2 48 (4.01%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (2.25%) Docker
5 15 (1.25%) Firmware
6 10 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.75%) vSphere
8 7 (0.58%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.17%) Samba
10 2 (0.17%) XenApp
11 1 (0.083%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.083%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 42 (3.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.00%) Kubernetes
3 18 (1.50%) Terraform
4 10 (0.83%) Ansible
4 10 (0.83%) SCCM
5 5 (0.42%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.42%) Grafana
5 5 (0.42%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.33%) Galera Cluster
6 4 (0.33%) Nmap
6 4 (0.33%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.33%) Puppet
6 4 (0.33%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
7 3 (0.25%) Control-M
7 3 (0.25%) WhatsUp Gold
8 2 (0.17%) Nagios
8 2 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.17%) WSUS
9 1 (0.083%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 355 (29.63%) Microsoft
2 56 (4.67%) SAP
3 42 (3.51%) VMware
4 30 (2.50%) Cisco
4 30 (2.50%) Oracle
5 25 (2.09%) ServiceNow
5 25 (2.09%) Workday
6 22 (1.84%) IBM
7 21 (1.75%) Salesforce
8 20 (1.67%) Sage
9 18 (1.50%) Cognos
9 18 (1.50%) Google
10 12 (1.00%) Databricks
11 11 (0.92%) Dell
11 11 (0.92%) HubSpot
11 11 (0.92%) Sophos
12 10 (0.83%) Epicor
12 10 (0.83%) iManage
12 10 (0.83%) Red Hat
13 9 (0.75%) Apple