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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,125 1,250 1,517
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.01% 21.87% 13.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.45% 25.67% 17.50%
Number of salaries quoted 819 720 773
10th Percentile £26,220 £25,267 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,250 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -11.55%
75th Percentile £56,250 £57,500 £58,000
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £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 9,824 4,869 8,668
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.92% 85.18% 78.02%
Number of salaries quoted 6,997 2,963 5,407
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,250 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -11.41%

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 August 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 August 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 -10 630 £42,500 -5.56% 342
East Midlands -10 491 £37,500 +5.63% 228
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 53 (4.71%) SharePoint
2 39 (3.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (0.89%) IIS
4 9 (0.80%) CMS
5 5 (0.44%) Confluence
5 5 (0.44%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2007
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.27%) WordPress
7 2 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.089%) Apache
8 1 (0.089%) Appian
8 1 (0.089%) CICS
8 1 (0.089%) Documentum
8 1 (0.089%) Drupal
8 1 (0.089%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.089%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.089%) SAS
Applications
1 96 (8.53%) Microsoft Office
2 83 (7.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.44%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.089%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.089%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.089%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.089%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.089%) Simulink
8 1 (0.089%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (1.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.24%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 12 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.98%) SAP Business One
5 9 (0.80%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 6 (0.53%) Sage X3
6 6 (0.53%) Shopify
7 5 (0.44%) Magento
7 5 (0.44%) Sage 50
8 4 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.36%) Line 50
8 4 (0.36%) NetSuite
9 3 (0.27%) Q-Pulse
10 2 (0.18%) Infor CloudSuite
10 2 (0.18%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.18%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
10 2 (0.18%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.18%) SAP FI
10 2 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 238 (21.16%) Microsoft 365
2 197 (17.51%) Azure
3 117 (10.40%) Power Platform
4 84 (7.47%) AWS
5 82 (7.29%) Entra ID
6 44 (3.91%) SaaS
7 29 (2.58%) Dynamics 365
8 19 (1.69%) Power Automate
9 17 (1.51%) Serverless
10 16 (1.42%) Azure DevOps
11 15 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
11 15 (1.33%) PowerApps
12 14 (1.24%) Amazon S3
12 14 (1.24%) Google Workspace
12 14 (1.24%) Microsoft Purview
13 13 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (1.16%) GCP
14 10 (0.89%) GitHub
14 10 (0.89%) OneDrive
15 8 (0.71%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 64 (5.69%) Firewall
2 62 (5.51%) DNS
3 48 (4.27%) DHCP
3 48 (4.27%) VPN
4 42 (3.73%) TCP/IP
5 33 (2.93%) Wireless
6 28 (2.49%) VLAN
7 27 (2.40%) WAN
8 21 (1.87%) LAN
9 20 (1.78%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.60%) Network Security
11 14 (1.24%) VoIP
12 9 (0.80%) Internet
13 8 (0.71%) MQTT
13 8 (0.71%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.62%) SSL
15 6 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
16 5 (0.44%) Skype
17 4 (0.36%) HTTP
17 4 (0.36%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (9.60%) Power BI
2 46 (4.09%) SQL Server
3 27 (2.40%) Power Query
4 24 (2.13%) Tableau
5 19 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
6 17 (1.51%) MySQL
7 16 (1.42%) Relational Database
7 16 (1.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 14 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (1.07%) Azure SQL Database
10 9 (0.80%) DynamoDB
11 8 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
11 8 (0.71%) Crystal Reports
12 7 (0.62%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.62%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.62%) PostgreSQL
13 6 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.53%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.44%) DTS
14 5 (0.44%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (3.02%) Git
2 24 (2.13%) JIRA
3 12 (1.07%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
4 5 (0.44%) JUnit
4 5 (0.44%) Maven
4 5 (0.44%) Postman
4 5 (0.44%) VersionOne
5 4 (0.36%) Burp Suite
5 4 (0.36%) GitLab
5 4 (0.36%) JMeter
5 4 (0.36%) Metasploit
5 4 (0.36%) Selenium
5 4 (0.36%) SoapUI
6 3 (0.27%) Mockito
6 3 (0.27%) Subversion
6 3 (0.27%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.18%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.089%) Gradle
General
1 560 (49.78%) Social Skills
2 330 (29.33%) Analytical Skills
3 198 (17.60%) Finance
4 165 (14.67%) Manufacturing
5 74 (6.58%) Organisational Skills
5 74 (6.58%) Retail
6 46 (4.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 46 (4.09%) Marketing
7 39 (3.47%) Law
7 39 (3.47%) Public Sector
8 38 (3.38%) Legal
9 27 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
10 24 (2.13%) Electronics
11 20 (1.78%) Automotive
11 20 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
12 15 (1.33%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.16%) Games
14 11 (0.98%) Banking
15 9 (0.80%) Advertising
15 9 (0.80%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 187 (16.62%) Analyst
2 142 (12.62%) IT Support
3 136 (12.09%) Support Engineer
4 102 (9.07%) Developer
5 98 (8.71%) Senior
6 78 (6.93%) Technical Support
7 75 (6.67%) IT Engineer
8 70 (6.22%) Technical Engineer
9 68 (6.04%) Technical Support Engineer
10 64 (5.69%) Support Technician
11 63 (5.60%) Lead
12 56 (4.98%) IT Support Engineer
12 56 (4.98%) Support Analyst
13 53 (4.71%) IT Technician
14 51 (4.53%) Consultant
15 48 (4.27%) IT Manager
16 45 (4.00%) IT Support Technician
17 39 (3.47%) Data Analyst
18 38 (3.38%) Senior Analyst
19 28 (2.49%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.71%) REST
2 40 (3.56%) React
3 31 (2.76%) .NET
4 25 (2.22%) Node.js
5 21 (1.87%) SOAP
6 19 (1.69%) Spring
7 16 (1.42%) CSS
7 16 (1.42%) HTML
7 16 (1.42%) Spring Boot
8 13 (1.16%) RESTful
9 12 (1.07%) AngularJS
9 12 (1.07%) Playwright
10 10 (0.89%) JSON
10 10 (0.89%) SAP Fiori
11 9 (0.80%) JDBC
11 9 (0.80%) Middleware
11 9 (0.80%) OAuth
11 9 (0.80%) SAPUI5
12 7 (0.62%) ASP.NET
12 7 (0.62%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 114 (10.13%) Driving Licence
2 61 (5.42%) Management Information System
3 58 (5.16%) Onboarding
4 45 (4.00%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
6 18 (1.60%) NHS
7 17 (1.51%) IoT
8 16 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
10 12 (1.07%) Data Centre
10 12 (1.07%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.07%) Social Media
11 11 (0.98%) Data Structures
11 11 (0.98%) Legacy Systems
11 11 (0.98%) Mobile App
11 11 (0.98%) Virtual Team
12 10 (0.89%) CMDB
13 9 (0.80%) Replication
13 9 (0.80%) Robotics
13 9 (0.80%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 203 (18.04%) Windows
2 75 (6.67%) Linux
3 70 (6.22%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.09%) Windows 10
5 14 (1.24%) Android
6 10 (0.89%) Apple iOS
6 10 (0.89%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.71%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.62%) Unix
9 6 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.44%) CentOS
10 5 (0.44%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.36%) Debian
11 4 (0.36%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.36%) VMS
11 4 (0.36%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.27%) SUSE
13 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.089%) Solaris
14 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 330 (29.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 197 (17.51%) Customer Service
3 158 (14.04%) Decision-Making
4 146 (12.98%) Agile
4 146 (12.98%) Analytics
5 136 (12.09%) Mentoring
6 129 (11.47%) Collaborative Working
7 117 (10.40%) ERP
8 113 (10.04%) Business Intelligence
9 108 (9.60%) ITIL
10 101 (8.98%) Cybersecurity
11 97 (8.62%) Service Delivery
12 93 (8.27%) AI
13 76 (6.76%) Roadmaps
14 74 (6.58%) Stakeholder Management
15 68 (6.04%) Process Improvement
16 67 (5.96%) Collaborative Culture
16 67 (5.96%) Root Cause Analysis
16 67 (5.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 66 (5.87%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 191 (16.98%) SQL
2 85 (7.56%) Python
3 46 (4.09%) Java
4 44 (3.91%) PowerShell
5 38 (3.38%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.84%) C#
7 31 (2.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.96%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.87%) Ladder Logic
10 16 (1.42%) VBA
11 13 (1.16%) Bash
11 13 (1.16%) PHP
12 11 (0.98%) C
13 10 (0.89%) C++
14 9 (0.80%) ABAP
15 7 (0.62%) RPG
15 7 (0.62%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.53%) Embedded C
16 6 (0.53%) Go
17 4 (0.36%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 149 (13.24%) Degree
2 76 (6.76%) Security Cleared
3 62 (5.51%) SC Cleared
4 30 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (2.40%) DBS Check
6 19 (1.69%) Azure Certification
7 18 (1.60%) CISSP
8 15 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.33%) CompTIA Security+
9 11 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (0.71%) CCNA
10 8 (0.71%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.62%) ACCA
11 7 (0.62%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (0.62%) CIMA
11 7 (0.62%) CISA
11 7 (0.62%) SSCP
12 6 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 6 (0.53%) CCSP
12 6 (0.53%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (4.80%) Data Quality
2 41 (3.64%) Cyber Essentials
2 41 (3.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 40 (3.56%) GDPR
3 40 (3.56%) QA
4 34 (3.02%) SLA
5 22 (1.96%) Accessibility
6 19 (1.69%) NIST
7 17 (1.51%) ISO 9001
8 11 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 9 (0.80%) ISO 14001
10 7 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
10 7 (0.62%) GRC
10 7 (0.62%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.36%) GMP
11 4 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.27%) COSHH
12 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 140 (12.44%) Active Directory
2 44 (3.91%) Hyper-V
3 31 (2.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (2.13%) Docker
5 10 (0.89%) Firmware
6 9 (0.80%) vSphere
7 6 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
8 5 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.18%) Samba
10 1 (0.089%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.089%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.089%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 43 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (1.96%) Kubernetes
3 17 (1.51%) Terraform
4 10 (0.89%) Ansible
5 7 (0.62%) SCCM
6 6 (0.53%) Grafana
7 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.36%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.36%) Galera Cluster
8 4 (0.36%) Nmap
8 4 (0.36%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.27%) BMC PATROL
9 3 (0.27%) Control-M
9 3 (0.27%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.27%) Puppet
9 3 (0.27%) WhatsUp Gold
10 2 (0.18%) Nagios
11 1 (0.089%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.089%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.089%) WSUS
Vendors
1 331 (29.42%) Microsoft
2 46 (4.09%) SAP
3 42 (3.73%) VMware
4 30 (2.67%) Cisco
5 25 (2.22%) ServiceNow
6 21 (1.87%) IBM
7 19 (1.69%) Google
7 19 (1.69%) Workday
8 18 (1.60%) Sage
9 17 (1.51%) Cognos
10 15 (1.33%) Oracle
11 14 (1.24%) Salesforce
12 12 (1.07%) Dell
13 11 (0.98%) HubSpot
13 11 (0.98%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.89%) iManage
15 9 (0.80%) Epicor
15 9 (0.80%) JD Edwards
16 8 (0.71%) Apple
16 8 (0.71%) Sophos