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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 996 1,139 1,961
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.75% 21.76% 14.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.13% 24.93% 17.97%
Number of salaries quoted 739 651 1,144
10th Percentile £26,265 £25,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £29,750 £29,750 £28,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +6.25% -15.79%
75th Percentile £56,526 £57,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £65,762 £67,500 £70,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -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 8,946 4,568 10,911
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.57% 87.26% 79.15%
Number of salaries quoted 6,314 2,669 7,448
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,700 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £48,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% +2.11% -9.52%
75th Percentile £67,438 £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 1 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 1 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 -9 568 £42,500 -5.56% 271
East Midlands -10 425 £35,000 -4.11% 221
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 62 (6.22%) SharePoint
2 42 (4.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.10%) CMS
4 10 (1.00%) IIS
5 5 (0.50%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2007
6 4 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.30%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 3 (0.30%) WordPress
8 2 (0.20%) Confluence
9 1 (0.10%) Appian
9 1 (0.10%) Documentum
9 1 (0.10%) Drupal
9 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 86 (8.63%) Microsoft Office
2 66 (6.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.50%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.10%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.10%) Simulink
7 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 13 (1.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.00%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 7 (0.70%) SAP Business One
4 6 (0.60%) iTrent
5 5 (0.50%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.50%) Magento
5 5 (0.50%) Q-Pulse
5 5 (0.50%) Shopify
6 4 (0.40%) Line 50
6 4 (0.40%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.40%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.30%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.10%) Exchequer
9 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.10%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.10%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.10%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 217 (21.79%) Microsoft 365
2 181 (18.17%) Azure
3 95 (9.54%) Power Platform
4 77 (7.73%) Entra ID
5 76 (7.63%) AWS
6 32 (3.21%) SaaS
7 24 (2.41%) Serverless
8 20 (2.01%) Amazon S3
8 20 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
9 18 (1.81%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (1.81%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.51%) PowerApps
11 14 (1.41%) OneDrive
12 13 (1.31%) Google Workspace
13 12 (1.20%) GCP
13 12 (1.20%) Microsoft Purview
14 10 (1.00%) Microsoft Copilot
15 9 (0.90%) Azure Data Factory
15 9 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
16 8 (0.80%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 59 (5.92%) Firewall
2 58 (5.82%) DNS
3 53 (5.32%) VPN
4 51 (5.12%) DHCP
5 36 (3.61%) TCP/IP
6 33 (3.31%) WAN
7 30 (3.01%) Wireless
8 24 (2.41%) LAN
8 24 (2.41%) VLAN
9 23 (2.31%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (1.51%) Network Security
11 13 (1.31%) SD-WAN
11 13 (1.31%) VoIP
12 12 (1.20%) Internet
13 8 (0.80%) MQTT
14 5 (0.50%) Skype
15 4 (0.40%) Bluetooth
15 4 (0.40%) LoRaWAN
15 4 (0.40%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (8.84%) Power BI
2 38 (3.82%) SQL Server
3 21 (2.11%) Tableau
4 20 (2.01%) MySQL
5 19 (1.91%) Power Query
6 14 (1.41%) Relational Database
7 13 (1.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
8 12 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
10 9 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 8 (0.80%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
12 7 (0.70%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.70%) Star Schema
13 6 (0.60%) Data Mining
13 6 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
14 5 (0.50%) NoSQL
15 4 (0.40%) FileMaker
15 4 (0.40%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 20 (2.01%) Git
2 12 (1.20%) JIRA
3 6 (0.60%) JUnit
4 5 (0.50%) Burp Suite
4 5 (0.50%) Maven
4 5 (0.50%) Metasploit
4 5 (0.50%) Mockito
4 5 (0.50%) VersionOne
5 3 (0.30%) Subversion
6 2 (0.20%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.20%) TeamCity
6 2 (0.20%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.10%) Appium
7 1 (0.10%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.10%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.10%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.10%) TestRail
7 1 (0.10%) Yeoman
General
1 459 (46.08%) Social Skills
2 301 (30.22%) Analytical Skills
3 168 (16.87%) Finance
4 138 (13.86%) Manufacturing
5 64 (6.43%) Organisational Skills
6 61 (6.12%) Retail
7 46 (4.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 43 (4.32%) Marketing
9 39 (3.92%) Legal
10 35 (3.51%) Law
11 34 (3.41%) Public Sector
12 27 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (2.11%) Electronics
14 20 (2.01%) Automotive
15 19 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
16 12 (1.20%) Banking
16 12 (1.20%) Telecoms
17 11 (1.10%) Games
18 10 (1.00%) Investment Banking
19 9 (0.90%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 159 (15.96%) Analyst
2 147 (14.76%) Support Engineer
3 126 (12.65%) IT Support
4 91 (9.14%) Developer
4 91 (9.14%) Senior
5 86 (8.63%) IT Engineer
6 75 (7.53%) Technical Support
7 68 (6.83%) Technical Engineer
7 68 (6.83%) Technical Support Engineer
8 67 (6.73%) IT Support Engineer
9 59 (5.92%) Support Technician
10 49 (4.92%) Lead
11 43 (4.32%) IT Technician
12 41 (4.12%) Support Analyst
13 38 (3.82%) IT Manager
13 38 (3.82%) IT Support Technician
14 37 (3.71%) Data Analyst
15 35 (3.51%) Consultant
16 31 (3.11%) Senior Analyst
17 27 (2.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (4.22%) React
2 37 (3.71%) REST
3 30 (3.01%) Node.js
4 26 (2.61%) .NET
5 20 (2.01%) CSS
5 20 (2.01%) HTML
6 13 (1.31%) Spring
7 12 (1.20%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.00%) RESTful
8 10 (1.00%) Spring Boot
9 9 (0.90%) Middleware
10 8 (0.80%) SOAP
11 7 (0.70%) JDBC
11 7 (0.70%) OAuth
11 7 (0.70%) SAP Fiori
11 7 (0.70%) SAPUI5
12 6 (0.60%) ASP.NET
12 6 (0.60%) ASP.NET Core
13 5 (0.50%) EDI
14 4 (0.40%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 95 (9.54%) Driving Licence
2 52 (5.22%) Onboarding
3 47 (4.72%) Management Information System
4 45 (4.52%) Self-Motivation
5 18 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
6 16 (1.61%) IoT
7 13 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.31%) Security Posture
8 11 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
8 11 (1.10%) Social Media
8 11 (1.10%) Virtual Team
9 9 (0.90%) Data Structures
9 9 (0.90%) Mobile App
9 9 (0.90%) Replication
9 9 (0.90%) SCADA
10 8 (0.80%) Data Centre
10 8 (0.80%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (0.80%) iSeries
10 8 (0.80%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 172 (17.27%) Windows
2 66 (6.63%) Windows Server
3 61 (6.12%) Linux
4 50 (5.02%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.31%) Android
6 11 (1.10%) Apple iOS
7 10 (1.00%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.70%) Debian
8 7 (0.70%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.50%) CentOS
9 5 (0.50%) OpenVMS
9 5 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.50%) Unix
9 5 (0.50%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.40%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.40%) VMS
11 3 (0.30%) SUSE
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (25.40%) Continuous Improvement
2 171 (17.17%) Customer Service
3 137 (13.76%) Decision-Making
4 120 (12.05%) Analytics
5 119 (11.95%) Agile
6 114 (11.45%) Mentoring
7 112 (11.24%) Collaborative Working
8 98 (9.84%) ERP
9 96 (9.64%) ITIL
10 91 (9.14%) Business Intelligence
11 89 (8.94%) Cybersecurity
12 87 (8.73%) Service Delivery
13 74 (7.43%) AI
14 68 (6.83%) Roadmaps
15 63 (6.33%) Process Improvement
15 63 (6.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 59 (5.92%) CRM
17 57 (5.72%) Computer Science
18 55 (5.52%) Coaching
18 55 (5.52%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 169 (16.97%) SQL
2 82 (8.23%) Python
3 43 (4.32%) PowerShell
4 38 (3.82%) Java
5 29 (2.91%) C#
6 28 (2.81%) JavaScript
7 23 (2.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 18 (1.81%) Ladder Logic
9 17 (1.71%) TypeScript
10 14 (1.41%) Bash
10 14 (1.41%) VBA
11 13 (1.31%) PHP
12 11 (1.10%) C
13 9 (0.90%) C++
14 7 (0.70%) ABAP
14 7 (0.70%) R
14 7 (0.70%) RPG
14 7 (0.70%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.60%) Go
15 6 (0.60%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 134 (13.45%) Degree
2 74 (7.43%) Security Cleared
3 57 (5.72%) SC Cleared
4 31 (3.11%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (2.51%) DBS Check
6 19 (1.91%) CISSP
7 17 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 15 (1.51%) Azure Certification
8 15 (1.51%) CompTIA Security+
9 13 (1.31%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.10%) A+ Certification
11 9 (0.90%) ACCA
11 9 (0.90%) CIMA
12 8 (0.80%) BPSS Clearance
13 7 (0.70%) CISA
13 7 (0.70%) SSCP
14 6 (0.60%) CCNA
14 6 (0.60%) CCSP
14 6 (0.60%) HND
14 6 (0.60%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.52%) Data Quality
2 42 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 39 (3.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 35 (3.51%) QA
5 30 (3.01%) GDPR
6 24 (2.41%) SLA
7 21 (2.11%) NIST
8 16 (1.61%) Accessibility
9 15 (1.51%) ISO 9001
10 13 (1.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 9 (0.90%) ISO 14001
12 7 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
12 7 (0.70%) GRC
12 7 (0.70%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.50%) COSHH
13 5 (0.50%) GMP
14 4 (0.40%) HIPAA
14 4 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 4 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.30%) SOC 2
System Software
1 133 (13.35%) Active Directory
2 39 (3.92%) Hyper-V
3 32 (3.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (2.11%) Docker
5 9 (0.90%) Firmware
5 9 (0.90%) vSphere
6 5 (0.50%) Embedded Firmware
6 5 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.20%) Samba
9 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 46 (4.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (2.01%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.31%) Terraform
4 9 (0.90%) Ansible
5 6 (0.60%) Grafana
6 5 (0.50%) Nagios
6 5 (0.50%) Nmap
6 5 (0.50%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.40%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.40%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.40%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.30%) SCCM
8 3 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.20%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.20%) Puppet
10 1 (0.10%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.10%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 282 (28.31%) Microsoft
2 40 (4.02%) VMware
3 35 (3.51%) SAP
4 27 (2.71%) Cisco
5 17 (1.71%) Google
5 17 (1.71%) IBM
5 17 (1.71%) Sage
6 16 (1.61%) Salesforce
7 15 (1.51%) Oracle
8 13 (1.31%) Cognos
8 13 (1.31%) Workday
9 12 (1.20%) Dell
10 11 (1.10%) ServiceNow
11 10 (1.00%) Red Hat
12 9 (0.90%) SolarWinds
13 8 (0.80%) Databricks
13 8 (0.80%) HP
13 8 (0.80%) iManage
14 7 (0.70%) Apple
15 6 (0.60%) Epicor