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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,062 1,220 1,688
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.87% 21.60% 13.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.28% 25.27% 17.59%
Number of salaries quoted 789 695 921
10th Percentile £26,100 £25,257 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,250 £29,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -11.55%
75th Percentile £55,250 £57,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £70,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -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 9,415 4,828 9,597
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.74% 85.48% 78.72%
Number of salaries quoted 6,702 2,882 6,220
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £26,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £66,250 £63,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -9 593 £42,500 -5.56% 208
East Midlands -10 465 £35,220 -0.79% 160
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 57 (5.37%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.04%) CMS
4 10 (0.94%) IIS
5 5 (0.47%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2007
6 4 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.28%) Confluence
7 3 (0.28%) WordPress
8 1 (0.094%) Apache
8 1 (0.094%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.094%) Appian
8 1 (0.094%) Documentum
8 1 (0.094%) Drupal
8 1 (0.094%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.094%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.094%) SAS
Applications
1 99 (9.32%) Microsoft Office
2 80 (7.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.47%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.094%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.094%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.094%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.094%) Simulink
8 1 (0.094%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 17 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 11 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.85%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 9 (0.85%) SAP Business One
5 5 (0.47%) Magento
5 5 (0.47%) Q-Pulse
5 5 (0.47%) Shopify
6 4 (0.38%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.38%) Line 50
6 4 (0.38%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.38%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.28%) SAP CO
7 3 (0.28%) SAP FI
7 3 (0.28%) SAP FI/CO
8 2 (0.19%) iTrent
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.094%) Raiser’s Edge
9 1 (0.094%) SAP Business ByDesign
9 1 (0.094%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 230 (21.66%) Microsoft 365
2 182 (17.14%) Azure
3 107 (10.08%) Power Platform
4 78 (7.34%) Entra ID
5 72 (6.78%) AWS
6 36 (3.39%) SaaS
7 23 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
8 19 (1.79%) Power Automate
8 19 (1.79%) Serverless
9 16 (1.51%) PowerApps
10 15 (1.41%) Amazon S3
10 15 (1.41%) Microsoft Purview
11 14 (1.32%) GCP
12 13 (1.22%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (1.22%) Google Workspace
12 13 (1.22%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (1.13%) OneDrive
14 10 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
15 9 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
16 8 (0.75%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 64 (6.03%) Firewall
2 60 (5.65%) DNS
3 48 (4.52%) DHCP
3 48 (4.52%) VPN
4 40 (3.77%) TCP/IP
5 32 (3.01%) WAN
5 32 (3.01%) Wireless
6 26 (2.45%) VLAN
7 24 (2.26%) LAN
8 22 (2.07%) Wi-Fi
9 16 (1.51%) Network Security
10 11 (1.04%) VoIP
11 10 (0.94%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.75%) Internet
12 8 (0.75%) MQTT
13 6 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
13 6 (0.56%) SSL
14 5 (0.47%) Remote Desktop
14 5 (0.47%) Skype
15 4 (0.38%) LoRaWAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (9.23%) Power BI
2 45 (4.24%) SQL Server
3 24 (2.26%) Tableau
4 22 (2.07%) Power Query
5 19 (1.79%) MySQL
6 17 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
7 15 (1.41%) Relational Database
8 14 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (1.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 12 (1.13%) Azure SQL Database
11 8 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
11 8 (0.75%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.66%) Crystal Reports
12 7 (0.66%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
12 7 (0.66%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.56%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.47%) NoSQL
15 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 26 (2.45%) Git
2 16 (1.51%) JIRA
3 5 (0.47%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.47%) VersionOne
4 4 (0.38%) Burp Suite
4 4 (0.38%) JUnit
4 4 (0.38%) Metasploit
5 3 (0.28%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.28%) GitLab
5 3 (0.28%) Maven
5 3 (0.28%) Mockito
5 3 (0.28%) Postman
5 3 (0.28%) SoapUI
5 3 (0.28%) Subversion
6 2 (0.19%) JMeter
6 2 (0.19%) Selenium
6 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.19%) TeamCity
6 2 (0.19%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.19%) Zephyr
General
1 527 (49.62%) Social Skills
2 316 (29.76%) Analytical Skills
3 179 (16.85%) Finance
4 151 (14.22%) Manufacturing
5 71 (6.69%) Organisational Skills
6 70 (6.59%) Retail
7 46 (4.33%) Marketing
8 43 (4.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 39 (3.67%) Legal
10 36 (3.39%) Law
11 33 (3.11%) Public Sector
12 26 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
13 23 (2.17%) Electronics
14 21 (1.98%) Automotive
15 19 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
16 15 (1.41%) Telecoms
17 13 (1.22%) Games
18 10 (0.94%) Banking
19 9 (0.85%) Advertising
19 9 (0.85%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 175 (16.48%) Analyst
2 144 (13.56%) Support Engineer
3 143 (13.47%) IT Support
4 97 (9.13%) Developer
5 93 (8.76%) Senior
6 80 (7.53%) IT Engineer
7 79 (7.44%) Technical Support
8 73 (6.87%) Technical Engineer
9 72 (6.78%) Technical Support Engineer
10 66 (6.21%) Support Technician
11 61 (5.74%) IT Support Engineer
12 52 (4.90%) IT Technician
12 52 (4.90%) Lead
13 48 (4.52%) Support Analyst
14 46 (4.33%) IT Manager
15 45 (4.24%) IT Support Technician
16 40 (3.77%) Consultant
17 38 (3.58%) Data Analyst
18 35 (3.30%) Senior Analyst
19 27 (2.54%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (4.43%) REST
2 39 (3.67%) React
3 29 (2.73%) .NET
4 28 (2.64%) Node.js
5 18 (1.69%) SOAP
6 17 (1.60%) Spring
7 16 (1.51%) CSS
7 16 (1.51%) HTML
8 14 (1.32%) Spring Boot
9 12 (1.13%) AngularJS
10 11 (1.04%) RESTful
11 10 (0.94%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.85%) JDBC
12 9 (0.85%) Middleware
12 9 (0.85%) OAuth
12 9 (0.85%) SAPUI5
13 7 (0.66%) ASP.NET
14 6 (0.56%) ASP.NET Core
14 6 (0.56%) JSON
14 6 (0.56%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 105 (9.89%) Driving Licence
2 54 (5.08%) Management Information System
3 51 (4.80%) Onboarding
4 44 (4.14%) Self-Motivation
5 23 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
6 18 (1.69%) IoT
7 16 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
8 14 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
9 12 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (1.13%) Security Posture
9 12 (1.13%) Social Media
10 11 (1.04%) Data Centre
10 11 (1.04%) NHS
10 11 (1.04%) Virtual Team
11 9 (0.85%) Data Structures
11 9 (0.85%) Mobile App
11 9 (0.85%) Replication
11 9 (0.85%) Robotics
11 9 (0.85%) SCADA
12 8 (0.75%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 189 (17.80%) Windows
2 69 (6.50%) Linux
3 65 (6.12%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.33%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.51%) Android
6 11 (1.04%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.94%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.66%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.56%) Debian
9 6 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.47%) CentOS
10 5 (0.47%) OpenVMS
10 5 (0.47%) Unix
10 5 (0.47%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.38%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.38%) VMS
12 3 (0.28%) SUSE
13 1 (0.094%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.094%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 291 (27.40%) Continuous Improvement
2 179 (16.85%) Customer Service
3 146 (13.75%) Decision-Making
4 140 (13.18%) Analytics
5 127 (11.96%) Collaborative Working
5 127 (11.96%) Mentoring
6 126 (11.86%) Agile
7 109 (10.26%) ERP
8 103 (9.70%) ITIL
9 102 (9.60%) Business Intelligence
10 95 (8.95%) Service Delivery
11 90 (8.47%) Cybersecurity
12 83 (7.82%) AI
13 69 (6.50%) Roadmaps
14 65 (6.12%) Process Improvement
15 64 (6.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 63 (5.93%) CRM
17 62 (5.84%) Root Cause Analysis
18 61 (5.74%) Stakeholder Management
19 58 (5.46%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 180 (16.95%) SQL
2 81 (7.63%) Python
3 44 (4.14%) Java
4 43 (4.05%) PowerShell
5 31 (2.92%) C#
5 31 (2.92%) JavaScript
6 26 (2.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 20 (1.88%) Ladder Logic
8 18 (1.69%) TypeScript
9 16 (1.51%) VBA
10 13 (1.22%) PHP
11 12 (1.13%) Bash
12 11 (1.04%) C
12 11 (1.04%) C++
13 9 (0.85%) ABAP
14 7 (0.66%) RPG
14 7 (0.66%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.56%) Go
16 5 (0.47%) Embedded C
16 5 (0.47%) R
Qualifications
1 141 (13.28%) Degree
2 69 (6.50%) Security Cleared
3 55 (5.18%) SC Cleared
4 30 (2.82%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (2.45%) DBS Check
6 18 (1.69%) CISSP
7 17 (1.60%) Azure Certification
8 15 (1.41%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
10 13 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (0.66%) A+ Certification
11 7 (0.66%) ACCA
11 7 (0.66%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (0.66%) CCNA
11 7 (0.66%) CIMA
11 7 (0.66%) CISA
11 7 (0.66%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.66%) SSCP
12 6 (0.56%) CCSP
12 6 (0.56%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (4.71%) Data Quality
2 42 (3.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 41 (3.86%) Cyber Essentials
4 34 (3.20%) QA
5 30 (2.82%) GDPR
6 29 (2.73%) SLA
7 19 (1.79%) NIST
8 18 (1.69%) Accessibility
9 17 (1.60%) ISO 9001
10 12 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 9 (0.85%) ISO 14001
12 7 (0.66%) GRC
12 7 (0.66%) PCI DSS
13 6 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
14 5 (0.47%) COSHH
14 5 (0.47%) GMP
15 4 (0.38%) HIPAA
15 4 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 3 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 3 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 138 (12.99%) Active Directory
2 44 (4.14%) Hyper-V
3 31 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.98%) Docker
5 9 (0.85%) Firmware
6 8 (0.75%) vSphere
7 5 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
7 5 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.19%) Samba
9 1 (0.094%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.094%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 46 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (1.79%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.22%) Terraform
4 8 (0.75%) Ansible
5 7 (0.66%) Grafana
6 6 (0.56%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.47%) SCCM
8 4 (0.38%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.38%) Galera Cluster
8 4 (0.38%) Nagios
8 4 (0.38%) Nmap
8 4 (0.38%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.19%) Control-M
9 2 (0.19%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.19%) Puppet
9 2 (0.19%) WhatsUp Gold
10 1 (0.094%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.094%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.094%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 310 (29.19%) Microsoft
2 43 (4.05%) SAP
3 39 (3.67%) VMware
4 27 (2.54%) Cisco
5 20 (1.88%) IBM
6 19 (1.79%) ServiceNow
7 18 (1.69%) Google
8 16 (1.51%) Cognos
9 15 (1.41%) Sage
9 15 (1.41%) Workday
10 14 (1.32%) Salesforce
11 12 (1.13%) Dell
12 11 (1.04%) Red Hat
13 10 (0.94%) iManage
13 10 (0.94%) Oracle
14 9 (0.85%) JD Edwards
15 8 (0.75%) Epicor
15 8 (0.75%) HP
15 8 (0.75%) HubSpot
15 8 (0.75%) SolarWinds