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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,455 1,190 1,415
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 9.31% 21.08% 14.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.19% 24.30% 18.48%
Number of salaries quoted 984 668 492
10th Percentile £27,329 £25,375 £26,750
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,000 £49,254
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% -22.85% +0.52%
75th Percentile £56,063 £50,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £70,950 £65,000 £73,750
England median annual salary £46,000 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.22% -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 11,029 4,897 7,658
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 70.60% 86.76% 80.21%
Number of salaries quoted 7,795 2,827 3,576
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £39,500 £32,500 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.32% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.64%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -5 816 £42,500 - 671
East Midlands -6 637 £42,000 +29.23% 436
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 71 (4.88%) SharePoint
2 42 (2.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.96%) IIS
4 10 (0.69%) CMS
5 8 (0.55%) Confluence
6 6 (0.41%) CICS
7 4 (0.27%) SAS
7 4 (0.27%) WordPress
8 3 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.21%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.14%) Documentum
9 2 (0.14%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.069%) Apache
10 1 (0.069%) Appian
10 1 (0.069%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.069%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.069%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.069%) Umbraco
Applications
1 130 (8.93%) Microsoft Office
2 107 (7.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.82%) Simulink
3 12 (0.82%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.62%) OrCAD
5 6 (0.41%) EPLAN
6 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
7 4 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.27%) Revit
8 3 (0.21%) Navisworks
8 3 (0.21%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.14%) Fusion 360
9 2 (0.14%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.069%) CorelDRAW
10 1 (0.069%) LaTeX
10 1 (0.069%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.069%) SketchUp
Business Applications
1 19 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
3 12 (0.82%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 12 (0.82%) Shopify
4 10 (0.69%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.62%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 9 (0.62%) SAP Business One
6 7 (0.48%) Sage X3
7 6 (0.41%) Dynamics AX
7 6 (0.41%) Magento
8 5 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.34%) Sage 50
8 5 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
10 3 (0.21%) Infor M3
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Cash Management
10 3 (0.21%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.21%) SAP FI
10 3 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 263 (18.08%) Microsoft 365
2 240 (16.49%) Azure
3 126 (8.66%) Power Platform
4 97 (6.67%) Entra ID
5 80 (5.50%) AWS
6 57 (3.92%) SaaS
7 41 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (2.41%) Dynamics 365
9 23 (1.58%) GitHub
9 23 (1.58%) OneDrive
9 23 (1.58%) Power Automate
10 22 (1.51%) Google Workspace
11 19 (1.31%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (1.24%) Microsoft Purview
12 18 (1.24%) PowerApps
13 16 (1.10%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (1.03%) GCP
15 13 (0.89%) Google Analytics
15 13 (0.89%) PaaS
16 10 (0.69%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 79 (5.43%) DNS
2 66 (4.54%) Firewall
3 64 (4.40%) DHCP
4 63 (4.33%) VPN
5 52 (3.57%) TCP/IP
6 34 (2.34%) Wireless
7 33 (2.27%) VLAN
8 32 (2.20%) WAN
9 31 (2.13%) LAN
10 29 (1.99%) Wi-Fi
11 19 (1.31%) Network Security
12 15 (1.03%) Internet
13 13 (0.89%) VoIP
14 10 (0.69%) Modbus
15 9 (0.62%) Wireshark
16 7 (0.48%) Cisco IOS
16 7 (0.48%) Remote Desktop
17 6 (0.41%) SSL
18 5 (0.34%) Ethernet
18 5 (0.34%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (7.90%) Power BI
2 60 (4.12%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.99%) Relational Database
4 25 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
4 25 (1.72%) Tableau
5 22 (1.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 20 (1.37%) Azure SQL Database
7 18 (1.24%) Power Query
8 16 (1.10%) Electronic Patient Records
9 12 (0.82%) Data Mining
9 12 (0.82%) MySQL
9 12 (0.82%) Oracle Reports
9 12 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 11 (0.76%) Crystal Reports
11 10 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
12 9 (0.62%) Data Lake
13 8 (0.55%) Db2
13 8 (0.55%) DynamoDB
14 6 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
14 6 (0.41%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 45 (3.09%) Git
2 32 (2.20%) JIRA
3 28 (1.92%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.62%) Eclipse
4 9 (0.62%) LabVIEW
5 8 (0.55%) GitLab
6 7 (0.48%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.48%) Postman
6 7 (0.48%) Selenium
7 6 (0.41%) JMeter
7 6 (0.41%) Maven
8 5 (0.34%) JUnit
8 5 (0.34%) SoapUI
8 5 (0.34%) Zephyr
9 4 (0.27%) Burp Suite
9 4 (0.27%) Metasploit
10 3 (0.21%) Mockito
10 3 (0.21%) VersionOne
11 2 (0.14%) Ant
11 2 (0.14%) Apache Ivy
General
1 754 (51.82%) Social Skills
2 425 (29.21%) Analytical Skills
3 255 (17.53%) Manufacturing
4 227 (15.60%) Finance
5 136 (9.35%) Organisational Skills
6 108 (7.42%) Retail
7 82 (5.64%) Marketing
8 64 (4.40%) Public Sector
9 57 (3.92%) Electronics
10 56 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 41 (2.82%) Legal
12 40 (2.75%) Automotive
12 40 (2.75%) Law
13 28 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
14 25 (1.72%) Telecoms
15 24 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
16 23 (1.58%) Aerospace
17 22 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
18 13 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
19 12 (0.82%) Billing
Job Titles
1 180 (12.37%) Analyst
2 161 (11.07%) IT Support
3 152 (10.45%) Support Engineer
4 121 (8.32%) Senior
5 110 (7.56%) Developer
6 91 (6.25%) IT Engineer
7 84 (5.77%) Consultant
8 82 (5.64%) Lead
9 77 (5.29%) Technical Support
10 70 (4.81%) IT Support Engineer
11 66 (4.54%) Technical Engineer
12 64 (4.40%) Technical Support Engineer
13 63 (4.33%) Support Analyst
14 58 (3.99%) Support Technician
15 50 (3.44%) IT Technician
16 41 (2.82%) Administrator
16 41 (2.82%) Data Analyst
17 39 (2.68%) IT Manager
18 38 (2.61%) IT Support Technician
19 35 (2.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (3.92%) REST
2 54 (3.71%) .NET
3 33 (2.27%) React
4 29 (1.99%) Spring
5 26 (1.79%) SOAP
5 26 (1.79%) Spring Boot
6 19 (1.31%) Node.js
7 16 (1.10%) CSS
7 16 (1.10%) HTML
7 16 (1.10%) ISPF
7 16 (1.10%) Terraform
8 15 (1.03%) RESTful
9 14 (0.96%) Playwright
10 12 (0.82%) EDI
11 11 (0.76%) AngularJS
11 11 (0.76%) SAP Fiori
11 11 (0.76%) XML
12 10 (0.69%) ASP.NET
12 10 (0.69%) JSON
12 10 (0.69%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 178 (12.23%) Driving Licence
2 114 (7.84%) Onboarding
3 83 (5.70%) Management Information System
4 77 (5.29%) Self-Motivation
5 51 (3.51%) Enterprise Software
6 48 (3.30%) Robotics
7 29 (1.99%) SCADA
8 28 (1.92%) NHS
9 21 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.44%) Social Media
10 19 (1.31%) Data Centre
11 18 (1.24%) IoT
11 18 (1.24%) Legacy Applications
11 18 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
12 17 (1.17%) FMCG
12 17 (1.17%) Mainframe
12 17 (1.17%) SystemC
13 16 (1.10%) CMDB
14 15 (1.03%) Data Structures
14 15 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 258 (17.73%) Windows
2 95 (6.53%) Windows Server
3 75 (5.15%) Linux
4 40 (2.75%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.10%) Android
6 13 (0.89%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.82%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.62%) Unix
9 7 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.34%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.27%) VMS
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
12 3 (0.21%) Solaris
12 3 (0.21%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.14%) Debian
14 1 (0.069%) AIX
14 1 (0.069%) CentOS
14 1 (0.069%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.069%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 414 (28.45%) Continuous Improvement
2 300 (20.62%) Customer Service
3 184 (12.65%) Decision-Making
4 167 (11.48%) Agile
5 165 (11.34%) Analytics
6 142 (9.76%) Mentoring
7 133 (9.14%) ERP
8 126 (8.66%) Collaborative Working
9 124 (8.52%) Business Intelligence
10 120 (8.25%) Cybersecurity
10 120 (8.25%) Stakeholder Management
11 113 (7.77%) Project Delivery
12 104 (7.15%) AI
13 101 (6.94%) Project Management
14 98 (6.74%) CRM
14 98 (6.74%) Roadmaps
15 94 (6.46%) Service Delivery
16 91 (6.25%) ITIL
17 90 (6.19%) Validation
18 88 (6.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 221 (15.19%) SQL
2 99 (6.80%) Python
3 71 (4.88%) Java
4 58 (3.99%) PowerShell
5 48 (3.30%) JavaScript
6 42 (2.89%) C#
7 23 (1.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.51%) C
9 20 (1.37%) TypeScript
10 19 (1.31%) Ladder Logic
11 16 (1.10%) COBOL
11 16 (1.10%) Embedded C
11 16 (1.10%) JCL
12 13 (0.89%) C++
12 13 (0.89%) VBA
13 12 (0.82%) MATLAB
14 10 (0.69%) Bash
14 10 (0.69%) R
15 9 (0.62%) ABAP
16 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 230 (15.81%) Degree
2 102 (7.01%) Security Cleared
3 86 (5.91%) SC Cleared
4 54 (3.71%) HNC
5 52 (3.57%) HND
6 26 (1.79%) Azure Certification
6 26 (1.79%) DBS Check
7 22 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (1.24%) NVQ Level 3
9 16 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (1.03%) City & Guilds
11 13 (0.89%) CCNA
11 13 (0.89%) Chartered Engineer
12 12 (0.82%) NVQ Level 4
12 12 (0.82%) PMI Certification
13 10 (0.69%) ACCA
14 8 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
14 8 (0.55%) CISSP
14 8 (0.55%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (4.40%) Data Quality
2 57 (3.92%) GDPR
3 52 (3.57%) QA
4 42 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 38 (2.61%) SLA
6 31 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.72%) Accessibility
8 21 (1.44%) ISO 9001
9 10 (0.69%) PCI DSS
10 8 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.55%) ISO 14001
11 7 (0.48%) GRC
12 6 (0.41%) GMP
12 6 (0.41%) NIST
13 5 (0.34%) PMO
14 4 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
15 3 (0.21%) AQAP
15 3 (0.21%) COSHH
15 3 (0.21%) ISO 26262
15 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 166 (11.41%) Active Directory
2 56 (3.85%) Hyper-V
3 32 (2.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.86%) Docker
5 20 (1.37%) Firmware
6 14 (0.96%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (0.82%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (0.34%) vSphere
10 2 (0.14%) Samba
10 2 (0.14%) XenApp
11 1 (0.069%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 52 (3.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (1.51%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.76%) SCCM
4 9 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.55%) Ansible
5 8 (0.55%) Functional Safety
6 6 (0.41%) Backup Exec
7 4 (0.27%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.27%) Grafana
7 4 (0.27%) Nmap
7 4 (0.27%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.21%) Control-M
8 3 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.21%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.21%) Puppet
8 3 (0.21%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.14%) WSUS
10 1 (0.069%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.069%) Nagios
10 1 (0.069%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 454 (31.20%) Microsoft
2 65 (4.47%) SAP
3 46 (3.16%) Workday
4 43 (2.96%) Google
5 41 (2.82%) Oracle
5 41 (2.82%) VMware
6 33 (2.27%) Cisco
7 31 (2.13%) ServiceNow
8 27 (1.86%) Salesforce
9 26 (1.79%) Sage
10 19 (1.31%) IBM
11 18 (1.24%) Cognos
12 15 (1.03%) Allen-Bradley
12 15 (1.03%) Siemens
13 13 (0.89%) Apple
13 13 (0.89%) EMC
13 13 (0.89%) JD Edwards
14 12 (0.82%) Databricks
15 11 (0.76%) HubSpot
15 11 (0.76%) Veeam