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

6 months to
8 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 3 7
Rank change year-on-year -10 +4 +1
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 932 1,188 1,818
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.44% 23.39% 13.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.57% 26.21% 17.18%
Number of salaries quoted 694 624 1,196
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £29,625 £30,688 £28,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +12.50% -15.28%
75th Percentile £56,719 £58,750 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £68,750 £69,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,919
% change year-on-year -5.00% +0.16% -9.24%

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 8,815 4,532 10,584
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 70.34% 89.21% 79.07%
Number of salaries quoted 5,892 2,506 7,577
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,275 £49,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.64% +3.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £67,500 £63,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £82,500 £76,250 £75,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -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 8 June 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 June 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 -12 530 £42,500 -10.53% 233
East Midlands -8 399 £35,000 -6.67% 162
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 56 (6.01%) SharePoint
2 41 (4.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.18%) CMS
4 6 (0.64%) IIS
5 5 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 5 (0.54%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2007
6 4 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.32%) WordPress
8 2 (0.21%) Confluence
9 1 (0.11%) Appian
9 1 (0.11%) Drupal
9 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 72 (7.73%) Microsoft Office
2 60 (6.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.82%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.54%) Fusion 360
5 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.43%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
7 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.11%) Sketch
7 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.97%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 8 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.75%) iTrent
4 7 (0.75%) SAP Business One
5 5 (0.54%) Magento
5 5 (0.54%) Q-Pulse
5 5 (0.54%) Shopify
6 4 (0.43%) Line 50
6 4 (0.43%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.43%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.32%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 2 (0.21%) NetSuite
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.11%) Exchequer
9 1 (0.11%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 199 (21.35%) Microsoft 365
2 165 (17.70%) Azure
3 80 (8.58%) Power Platform
4 79 (8.48%) AWS
5 66 (7.08%) Entra ID
6 29 (3.11%) Serverless
7 28 (3.00%) SaaS
8 24 (2.58%) Amazon S3
9 23 (2.47%) AWS Lambda
10 20 (2.15%) Dynamics 365
11 16 (1.72%) Power Automate
12 14 (1.50%) OneDrive
13 13 (1.39%) Google Workspace
13 13 (1.39%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
15 10 (1.07%) GCP
16 9 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
17 8 (0.86%) Amazon EventBridge
17 8 (0.86%) Amazon SQS
17 8 (0.86%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 56 (6.01%) DNS
2 52 (5.58%) Firewall
3 50 (5.36%) VPN
4 49 (5.26%) DHCP
5 35 (3.76%) WAN
6 28 (3.00%) TCP/IP
7 27 (2.90%) Wireless
8 23 (2.47%) VLAN
9 22 (2.36%) LAN
10 21 (2.25%) Wi-Fi
11 19 (2.04%) Internet
12 16 (1.72%) SD-WAN
13 14 (1.50%) VoIP
14 11 (1.18%) Network Security
15 8 (0.86%) MQTT
16 5 (0.54%) Bluetooth
16 5 (0.54%) Skype
17 4 (0.43%) LoRaWAN
18 3 (0.32%) Remote Desktop
18 3 (0.32%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (7.51%) Power BI
2 30 (3.22%) SQL Server
3 19 (2.04%) Tableau
4 18 (1.93%) Power Query
5 16 (1.72%) MySQL
6 14 (1.50%) Amazon Redshift
7 13 (1.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 9 (0.97%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.86%) DynamoDB
9 8 (0.86%) Oracle Reports
10 7 (0.75%) Star Schema
11 6 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.64%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.54%) MongoDB
12 5 (0.54%) NoSQL
13 4 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.43%) Data Mining
13 4 (0.43%) Neo4j
13 4 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
13 4 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 20 (2.15%) Git
2 13 (1.39%) JIRA
3 8 (0.86%) JUnit
4 7 (0.75%) Maven
4 7 (0.75%) Mockito
5 6 (0.64%) Burp Suite
5 6 (0.64%) Metasploit
6 5 (0.54%) Subversion
6 5 (0.54%) VersionOne
7 3 (0.32%) Jenkins
8 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.21%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.21%) XCUITest
9 1 (0.11%) Appium
9 1 (0.11%) Bugzilla
9 1 (0.11%) Carbide.c++
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.11%) Postman
9 1 (0.11%) TestRail
General
1 420 (45.06%) Social Skills
2 291 (31.22%) Analytical Skills
3 161 (17.27%) Finance
4 108 (11.59%) Manufacturing
5 58 (6.22%) Organisational Skills
6 53 (5.69%) Retail
7 50 (5.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 38 (4.08%) Marketing
9 35 (3.76%) Legal
10 33 (3.54%) Law
11 28 (3.00%) Public Sector
12 26 (2.79%) Influencing Skills
13 24 (2.58%) Electronics
14 18 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
15 17 (1.82%) Automotive
16 13 (1.39%) Banking
17 12 (1.29%) Telecoms
18 11 (1.18%) Investment Banking
19 9 (0.97%) Advertising
20 8 (0.86%) Games
Job Titles
1 151 (16.20%) Analyst
2 140 (15.02%) Support Engineer
3 115 (12.34%) IT Support
4 90 (9.66%) Senior
5 86 (9.23%) IT Engineer
6 77 (8.26%) Developer
7 68 (7.30%) Technical Support
8 67 (7.19%) IT Support Engineer
9 62 (6.65%) Technical Engineer
9 62 (6.65%) Technical Support Engineer
10 54 (5.79%) Support Technician
11 50 (5.36%) Lead
12 37 (3.97%) Support Analyst
13 36 (3.86%) Data Analyst
13 36 (3.86%) IT Technician
14 33 (3.54%) IT Support Technician
15 32 (3.43%) Consultant
15 32 (3.43%) Senior Analyst
16 29 (3.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 29 (3.11%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.61%) React
2 27 (2.90%) Node.js
2 27 (2.90%) REST
3 23 (2.47%) CSS
3 23 (2.47%) HTML
4 17 (1.82%) .NET
5 13 (1.39%) Spring
6 11 (1.18%) AngularJS
7 10 (1.07%) RESTful
7 10 (1.07%) Spring Boot
8 6 (0.64%) EDI
9 5 (0.54%) Middleware
10 4 (0.43%) .NET Framework
10 4 (0.43%) ASP.NET
10 4 (0.43%) ASP.NET Core
10 4 (0.43%) JSON
11 3 (0.32%) Laravel
11 3 (0.32%) Playwright
11 3 (0.32%) SOAP
12 2 (0.21%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 93 (9.98%) Driving Licence
2 48 (5.15%) Onboarding
3 47 (5.04%) Management Information System
4 41 (4.40%) Self-Motivation
5 18 (1.93%) Social Media
6 16 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
7 12 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (1.29%) Security Posture
8 11 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (1.18%) IoT
9 10 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
9 10 (1.07%) Virtual Team
10 9 (0.97%) Data Centre
10 9 (0.97%) FMCG
11 8 (0.86%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (0.86%) iSeries
11 8 (0.86%) Mobile App
11 8 (0.86%) Product Ownership
11 8 (0.86%) Replication
11 8 (0.86%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 154 (16.52%) Windows
2 58 (6.22%) Windows Server
3 51 (5.47%) Linux
4 46 (4.94%) Windows 10
5 10 (1.07%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.97%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.86%) Android
8 6 (0.64%) Debian
9 5 (0.54%) CentOS
9 5 (0.54%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.43%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.43%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.43%) Unix
10 4 (0.43%) VMS
11 3 (0.32%) SUSE
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 218 (23.39%) Continuous Improvement
2 155 (16.63%) Customer Service
3 126 (13.52%) Decision-Making
4 125 (13.41%) Agile
5 104 (11.16%) Analytics
6 100 (10.73%) Mentoring
7 97 (10.41%) Collaborative Working
8 88 (9.44%) ITIL
9 80 (8.58%) ERP
10 78 (8.37%) Service Delivery
11 75 (8.05%) Cybersecurity
12 72 (7.73%) Roadmaps
13 71 (7.62%) Business Intelligence
14 67 (7.19%) Process Improvement
15 66 (7.08%) AI
16 57 (6.12%) Computer Science
17 55 (5.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 54 (5.79%) Coaching
19 53 (5.69%) CRM
20 52 (5.58%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 148 (15.88%) SQL
2 80 (8.58%) Python
3 39 (4.18%) PowerShell
4 31 (3.33%) Java
5 28 (3.00%) JavaScript
6 21 (2.25%) C#
6 21 (2.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 17 (1.82%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.61%) Ladder Logic
9 14 (1.50%) Bash
10 12 (1.29%) PHP
10 12 (1.29%) VBA
11 11 (1.18%) C
12 8 (0.86%) C++
12 8 (0.86%) PL/SQL
12 8 (0.86%) R
12 8 (0.86%) T-SQL
13 7 (0.75%) RPG
14 6 (0.64%) Go
15 4 (0.43%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 133 (14.27%) Degree
2 67 (7.19%) Security Cleared
3 52 (5.58%) SC Cleared
4 36 (3.86%) Microsoft Certification
5 32 (3.43%) DBS Check
6 23 (2.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 18 (1.93%) CISSP
8 16 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.18%) A+ Certification
11 10 (1.07%) ACCA
11 10 (1.07%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.07%) CCNA
11 10 (1.07%) CIMA
11 10 (1.07%) PMI Certification
12 8 (0.86%) Azure Certification
12 8 (0.86%) PMP
13 7 (0.75%) CISA
13 7 (0.75%) MCSE
13 7 (0.75%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (4.40%) Data Quality
2 39 (4.18%) QA
3 35 (3.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 29 (3.11%) Cyber Essentials
5 27 (2.90%) GDPR
6 22 (2.36%) NIST
6 22 (2.36%) SLA
7 13 (1.39%) Accessibility
7 13 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.97%) ISO 14001
8 9 (0.97%) ISO 9001
9 7 (0.75%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (0.54%) COSHH
11 5 (0.54%) GMP
11 5 (0.54%) GRC
11 5 (0.54%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 115 (12.34%) Active Directory
2 28 (3.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.68%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.47%) Docker
5 10 (1.07%) vSphere
6 8 (0.86%) Firmware
7 4 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.11%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 39 (4.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (2.25%) Kubernetes
3 15 (1.61%) Terraform
4 8 (0.86%) Ansible
5 6 (0.64%) Nmap
6 5 (0.54%) Grafana
6 5 (0.54%) Nagios
7 4 (0.43%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.43%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.43%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.43%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.32%) SCCM
8 3 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.21%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.21%) Puppet
10 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 245 (26.29%) Microsoft
2 36 (3.86%) VMware
3 31 (3.33%) Cisco
3 31 (3.33%) SAP
4 24 (2.58%) Oracle
5 17 (1.82%) Sage
6 16 (1.72%) Google
6 16 (1.72%) IBM
7 14 (1.50%) Salesforce
8 12 (1.29%) Cognos
8 12 (1.29%) Dell
8 12 (1.29%) Workday
9 11 (1.18%) ServiceNow
9 11 (1.18%) SolarWinds
10 9 (0.97%) Databricks
10 9 (0.97%) Meraki
11 8 (0.86%) HP
12 7 (0.75%) Apple
13 6 (0.64%) Avaya
13 6 (0.64%) Red Hat