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 10 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,299 1,240 1,430
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.54% 21.73% 14.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.25% 25.57% 18.28%
Number of salaries quoted 916 713 557
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,050 £25,750
25th Percentile £30,500 £29,000 £32,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% -15.56% -8.16%
75th Percentile £57,125 £51,250 £59,500
90th Percentile £71,250 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,371 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +5.27% -14.29% -4.55%

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 10,605 4,850 7,823
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.70% 85.00% 77.79%
Number of salaries quoted 7,575 2,906 4,129
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £36,250
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 £63,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -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 10 September 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 10 September 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 -8 715 £42,500 -3.41% 461
East Midlands -8 582 £41,000 +17.14% 316
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 67 (5.16%) SharePoint
2 42 (3.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.15%) IIS
4 9 (0.69%) Confluence
5 5 (0.38%) CMS
5 5 (0.38%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.31%) CICS
6 4 (0.31%) SAS
7 3 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.23%) WordPress
8 2 (0.15%) Documentum
9 1 (0.077%) Apache
9 1 (0.077%) Appian
9 1 (0.077%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.077%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.077%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.077%) Tomcat
Applications
1 114 (8.78%) Microsoft Office
2 85 (6.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.69%) Simulink
6 6 (0.46%) AutoCAD
6 6 (0.46%) Fusion 360
7 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.31%) Revit
8 3 (0.23%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.15%) EPLAN
9 2 (0.15%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.15%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.077%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.077%) CorelDRAW
10 1 (0.077%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.077%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.077%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.077%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 19 (1.46%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 14 (1.08%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 12 (0.92%) SAP Business One
5 11 (0.85%) Shopify
6 10 (0.77%) NetSuite
7 9 (0.69%) JDE EnterpriseOne
8 7 (0.54%) Sage X3
9 5 (0.38%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.38%) Magento
9 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
9 5 (0.38%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.38%) Sage 50
9 5 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.31%) Line 50
10 4 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.23%) Infor M3
11 3 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
11 3 (0.23%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 3 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 254 (19.55%) Microsoft 365
2 232 (17.86%) Azure
3 127 (9.78%) Power Platform
4 87 (6.70%) Entra ID
5 86 (6.62%) AWS
6 55 (4.23%) SaaS
7 36 (2.77%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (2.62%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (1.92%) Power Automate
10 19 (1.46%) GitHub
11 18 (1.39%) PowerApps
12 17 (1.31%) Microsoft Copilot
12 17 (1.31%) Microsoft Purview
13 16 (1.23%) GCP
14 15 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
14 15 (1.15%) OneDrive
15 13 (1.00%) Google Workspace
15 13 (1.00%) Serverless
16 12 (0.92%) PaaS
17 10 (0.77%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 72 (5.54%) DNS
2 66 (5.08%) Firewall
3 58 (4.46%) DHCP
4 57 (4.39%) VPN
5 51 (3.93%) TCP/IP
6 35 (2.69%) Wireless
7 32 (2.46%) VLAN
8 28 (2.16%) LAN
8 28 (2.16%) WAN
9 26 (2.00%) Wi-Fi
10 20 (1.54%) Network Security
11 17 (1.31%) VoIP
12 8 (0.62%) Internet
12 8 (0.62%) MQTT
13 7 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
13 7 (0.54%) Remote Desktop
13 7 (0.54%) Wireshark
14 6 (0.46%) Modbus
14 6 (0.46%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.46%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (9.08%) Power BI
2 51 (3.93%) SQL Server
3 28 (2.16%) Relational Database
4 27 (2.08%) Tableau
5 23 (1.77%) Power Query
6 22 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
7 20 (1.54%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 17 (1.31%) MySQL
9 16 (1.23%) Electronic Patient Records
10 14 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 13 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (1.00%) Data Mining
12 11 (0.85%) Crystal Reports
13 10 (0.77%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
15 7 (0.54%) Data Lake
15 7 (0.54%) MongoDB
15 7 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
16 6 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
17 5 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 47 (3.62%) Git
2 34 (2.62%) JIRA
3 24 (1.85%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.54%) Cucumber
4 7 (0.54%) Eclipse
4 7 (0.54%) Postman
5 6 (0.46%) GitLab
5 6 (0.46%) JMeter
5 6 (0.46%) Maven
5 6 (0.46%) Selenium
5 6 (0.46%) SoapUI
6 5 (0.38%) JUnit
6 5 (0.38%) LabVIEW
6 5 (0.38%) VersionOne
6 5 (0.38%) Zephyr
7 4 (0.31%) Burp Suite
7 4 (0.31%) Metasploit
8 3 (0.23%) Mockito
8 3 (0.23%) Subversion
9 2 (0.15%) Ant
General
1 662 (50.96%) Social Skills
2 378 (29.10%) Analytical Skills
3 215 (16.55%) Finance
4 204 (15.70%) Manufacturing
5 94 (7.24%) Organisational Skills
6 91 (7.01%) Retail
7 72 (5.54%) Marketing
8 56 (4.31%) Public Sector
9 50 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 44 (3.39%) Law
11 41 (3.16%) Legal
12 40 (3.08%) Electronics
13 30 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
14 27 (2.08%) Automotive
15 20 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
16 17 (1.31%) Telecoms
17 11 (0.85%) Banking
18 10 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
19 9 (0.69%) Billing
20 8 (0.62%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 181 (13.93%) Analyst
2 141 (10.85%) IT Support
3 129 (9.93%) Support Engineer
4 116 (8.93%) Developer
5 102 (7.85%) Senior
6 77 (5.93%) Consultant
6 77 (5.93%) Lead
7 76 (5.85%) IT Engineer
7 76 (5.85%) Technical Support
8 65 (5.00%) Support Analyst
8 65 (5.00%) Technical Engineer
9 63 (4.85%) Technical Support Engineer
10 57 (4.39%) Support Technician
11 54 (4.16%) IT Support Engineer
12 49 (3.77%) IT Technician
13 43 (3.31%) IT Manager
14 41 (3.16%) IT Support Technician
15 38 (2.93%) Data Analyst
16 34 (2.62%) Administrator
17 33 (2.54%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.16%) REST
2 45 (3.46%) .NET
3 39 (3.00%) React
4 28 (2.16%) Spring
5 25 (1.92%) Spring Boot
6 23 (1.77%) Node.js
6 23 (1.77%) SOAP
7 19 (1.46%) CSS
7 19 (1.46%) HTML
8 17 (1.31%) Terraform
9 16 (1.23%) RESTful
10 14 (1.08%) AngularJS
10 14 (1.08%) Playwright
11 12 (0.92%) ISPF
11 12 (0.92%) JSON
11 12 (0.92%) XML
12 11 (0.85%) EDI
12 11 (0.85%) Middleware
13 10 (0.77%) SAP Fiori
14 9 (0.69%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 147 (11.32%) Driving Licence
2 94 (7.24%) Onboarding
3 75 (5.77%) Management Information System
4 65 (5.00%) Self-Motivation
5 38 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
6 32 (2.46%) Robotics
7 28 (2.16%) NHS
8 20 (1.54%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.46%) Data Centre
9 19 (1.46%) IoT
10 17 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
10 17 (1.31%) SystemC
10 17 (1.31%) Virtual Team
11 16 (1.23%) Legacy Applications
11 16 (1.23%) SCADA
12 13 (1.00%) CMDB
12 13 (1.00%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.00%) Mainframe
13 12 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (0.92%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 230 (17.71%) Windows
2 83 (6.39%) Windows Server
3 80 (6.16%) Linux
4 44 (3.39%) Windows 10
5 18 (1.39%) Android
6 14 (1.08%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.77%) Unix
8 9 (0.69%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.46%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.38%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.31%) VMS
12 3 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.15%) Debian
13 2 (0.15%) Solaris
14 1 (0.077%) CentOS
14 1 (0.077%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.077%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 384 (29.56%) Continuous Improvement
2 252 (19.40%) Customer Service
3 179 (13.78%) Decision-Making
4 163 (12.55%) Agile
5 161 (12.39%) Analytics
6 136 (10.47%) Mentoring
7 131 (10.08%) ERP
8 125 (9.62%) Business Intelligence
9 123 (9.47%) Collaborative Working
10 114 (8.78%) Cybersecurity
11 99 (7.62%) AI
11 99 (7.62%) Stakeholder Management
12 98 (7.54%) ITIL
13 96 (7.39%) Service Delivery
14 94 (7.24%) Roadmaps
15 92 (7.08%) Project Delivery
16 86 (6.62%) CRM
16 86 (6.62%) Project Management
17 78 (6.00%) Collaborative Culture
17 78 (6.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 207 (15.94%) SQL
2 90 (6.93%) Python
3 69 (5.31%) Java
4 53 (4.08%) PowerShell
5 50 (3.85%) JavaScript
6 38 (2.93%) C#
7 30 (2.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 23 (1.77%) TypeScript
9 22 (1.69%) Ladder Logic
10 21 (1.62%) C
11 15 (1.15%) Embedded C
12 13 (1.00%) C++
12 13 (1.00%) VBA
13 12 (0.92%) Bash
13 12 (0.92%) COBOL
13 12 (0.92%) JCL
13 12 (0.92%) PHP
14 9 (0.69%) ABAP
14 9 (0.69%) MATLAB
15 8 (0.62%) R
Qualifications
1 196 (15.09%) Degree
2 99 (7.62%) Security Cleared
3 82 (6.31%) SC Cleared
4 32 (2.46%) HND
5 29 (2.23%) HNC
6 26 (2.00%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (1.85%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.62%) DBS Check
9 20 (1.54%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (1.23%) PMI Certification
11 14 (1.08%) CCNA
12 12 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
12 12 (0.92%) NVQ Level 4
13 10 (0.77%) CISSP
13 10 (0.77%) City & Guilds
14 8 (0.62%) ACCA
14 8 (0.62%) NVQ Level 3
14 8 (0.62%) PMP
15 7 (0.54%) CCNP
15 7 (0.54%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (4.70%) Data Quality
2 53 (4.08%) GDPR
3 48 (3.70%) QA
4 41 (3.16%) SLA
5 39 (3.00%) Cyber Essentials
6 34 (2.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.69%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.69%) ISO 9001
8 9 (0.69%) ISO 14001
9 8 (0.62%) NIST
10 7 (0.54%) GRC
10 7 (0.54%) PCI DSS
11 6 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.31%) GMP
12 4 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.23%) AQAP
13 3 (0.23%) COSHH
13 3 (0.23%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.23%) ISO 26262
13 3 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 158 (12.16%) Active Directory
2 52 (4.00%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (2.00%) Docker
5 20 (1.54%) Firmware
6 13 (1.00%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.62%) vSphere
9 2 (0.15%) Samba
9 2 (0.15%) XenApp
10 1 (0.077%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.077%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 49 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (1.77%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.77%) SCCM
4 8 (0.62%) Ansible
5 6 (0.46%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.38%) Grafana
7 4 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.31%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.31%) Nmap
7 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.31%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.23%) Control-M
8 3 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.23%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.23%) Puppet
8 3 (0.23%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.15%) WSUS
10 1 (0.077%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.077%) Nagios
Vendors
1 397 (30.56%) Microsoft
2 66 (5.08%) SAP
3 40 (3.08%) VMware
4 35 (2.69%) Cisco
4 35 (2.69%) Oracle
5 30 (2.31%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.31%) Workday
6 24 (1.85%) Sage
7 22 (1.69%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.62%) Google
8 21 (1.62%) IBM
9 17 (1.31%) Cognos
10 15 (1.15%) Databricks
11 14 (1.08%) Allen-Bradley
12 12 (0.92%) Apple
12 12 (0.92%) HubSpot
12 12 (0.92%) JD Edwards
13 11 (0.85%) Sophos
14 10 (0.77%) Dell
14 10 (0.77%) Epicor