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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,201 1,272 1,468
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.25% 21.97% 13.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.83% 25.84% 17.74%
Number of salaries quoted 850 741 705
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,267 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £29,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,500 £43,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.39% -11.49% -12.76%
75th Percentile £56,875 £53,633 £58,750
90th Percentile £70,350 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -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 10,152 4,923 8,276
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.74% 85.03% 77.48%
Number of salaries quoted 7,239 2,955 4,955
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
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 £65,000 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,465
% change year-on-year +9.09% -0.84% -11.26%

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 20 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 20 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 -8 669 £42,500 -5.07% 435
East Midlands -9 529 £40,500 +15.71% 259
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 54 (4.50%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.08%) IIS
4 7 (0.58%) CMS
5 6 (0.50%) Confluence
6 5 (0.42%) Skype for Business
7 4 (0.33%) CICS
8 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.25%) SAS
8 3 (0.25%) WordPress
9 2 (0.17%) Documentum
10 1 (0.083%) Apache
10 1 (0.083%) Appian
10 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2007
10 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2013
10 1 (0.083%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.083%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 98 (8.16%) Microsoft Office
2 82 (6.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.42%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.33%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.33%) Simulink
7 2 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.17%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.17%) OrCAD
7 2 (0.17%) Revit
8 1 (0.083%) EPLAN
8 1 (0.083%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.083%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.083%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.083%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 18 (1.50%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.25%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 15 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.08%) SAP Business One
4 10 (0.83%) Shopify
5 9 (0.75%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 7 (0.58%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.58%) Sage X3
7 5 (0.42%) Magento
7 5 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
7 5 (0.42%) Sage 50
7 5 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.33%) Line 50
9 3 (0.25%) Infor CloudSuite
9 3 (0.25%) Infor LN
9 3 (0.25%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics GP
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics NAV
10 2 (0.17%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 234 (19.48%) Microsoft 365
2 222 (18.48%) Azure
3 125 (10.41%) Power Platform
4 86 (7.16%) AWS
5 84 (6.99%) Entra ID
6 51 (4.25%) SaaS
7 33 (2.75%) Dynamics 365
8 30 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
9 23 (1.92%) Power Automate
10 17 (1.42%) PowerApps
11 16 (1.33%) GCP
11 16 (1.33%) GitHub
11 16 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
12 15 (1.25%) Serverless
13 14 (1.17%) Microsoft Purview
14 12 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (0.83%) Amazon S3
15 10 (0.83%) AWS Lambda
16 9 (0.75%) Google Workspace
16 9 (0.75%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 65 (5.41%) DNS
1 65 (5.41%) Firewall
2 51 (4.25%) DHCP
3 49 (4.08%) VPN
4 45 (3.75%) TCP/IP
5 33 (2.75%) Wireless
6 30 (2.50%) VLAN
7 22 (1.83%) WAN
8 20 (1.67%) LAN
9 19 (1.58%) Network Security
10 18 (1.50%) Wi-Fi
11 15 (1.25%) VoIP
12 8 (0.67%) MQTT
13 7 (0.58%) SSL
14 6 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
14 6 (0.50%) Internet
14 6 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
14 6 (0.50%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.42%) Skype
16 4 (0.33%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (9.66%) Power BI
2 50 (4.16%) SQL Server
3 24 (2.00%) Power Query
3 24 (2.00%) Relational Database
3 24 (2.00%) Tableau
4 21 (1.75%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (1.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 17 (1.42%) MySQL
7 16 (1.33%) Electronic Patient Records
8 14 (1.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
10 11 (0.92%) Crystal Reports
11 10 (0.83%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.75%) Data Mining
13 8 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
14 7 (0.58%) MongoDB
15 6 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
15 6 (0.50%) GIS
15 6 (0.50%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 45 (3.75%) Git
2 28 (2.33%) JIRA
3 20 (1.67%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.50%) Cucumber
4 6 (0.50%) Maven
4 6 (0.50%) Postman
5 5 (0.42%) GitLab
5 5 (0.42%) JMeter
5 5 (0.42%) JUnit
5 5 (0.42%) Selenium
5 5 (0.42%) SoapUI
5 5 (0.42%) VersionOne
6 4 (0.33%) Burp Suite
6 4 (0.33%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.33%) Zephyr
7 3 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.25%) Mockito
7 3 (0.25%) Subversion
8 2 (0.17%) Ant
8 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
General
1 591 (49.21%) Social Skills
2 351 (29.23%) Analytical Skills
3 214 (17.82%) Finance
4 181 (15.07%) Manufacturing
5 81 (6.74%) Retail
6 76 (6.33%) Organisational Skills
7 63 (5.25%) Marketing
8 48 (4.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 48 (4.00%) Public Sector
9 43 (3.58%) Legal
10 42 (3.50%) Law
11 29 (2.41%) Electronics
11 29 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
12 20 (1.67%) Automotive
12 20 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.25%) Telecoms
14 12 (1.00%) Games
15 10 (0.83%) Banking
16 8 (0.67%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.67%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 183 (15.24%) Analyst
2 134 (11.16%) IT Support
3 126 (10.49%) Support Engineer
4 117 (9.74%) Developer
5 103 (8.58%) Senior
6 79 (6.58%) Technical Support
7 70 (5.83%) Consultant
8 68 (5.66%) Technical Engineer
9 67 (5.58%) IT Engineer
9 67 (5.58%) Lead
10 66 (5.50%) Technical Support Engineer
11 59 (4.91%) Support Analyst
12 58 (4.83%) Support Technician
13 52 (4.33%) IT Technician
14 49 (4.08%) IT Support Engineer
15 46 (3.83%) IT Manager
16 43 (3.58%) IT Support Technician
17 40 (3.33%) Senior Analyst
18 38 (3.16%) Data Analyst
19 29 (2.41%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.50%) REST
2 41 (3.41%) .NET
3 40 (3.33%) React
4 25 (2.08%) Spring
5 24 (2.00%) Node.js
6 22 (1.83%) SOAP
6 22 (1.83%) Spring Boot
7 19 (1.58%) CSS
7 19 (1.58%) HTML
8 18 (1.50%) Terraform
9 16 (1.33%) RESTful
10 14 (1.17%) AngularJS
11 13 (1.08%) Playwright
12 12 (1.00%) JSON
13 11 (0.92%) EDI
14 10 (0.83%) Middleware
14 10 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
15 9 (0.75%) JDBC
15 9 (0.75%) OAuth
15 9 (0.75%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 121 (10.07%) Driving Licence
2 73 (6.08%) Management Information System
3 69 (5.75%) Onboarding
4 52 (4.33%) Self-Motivation
5 33 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
6 28 (2.33%) NHS
7 19 (1.58%) IoT
7 19 (1.58%) Robotics
8 17 (1.42%) SystemC
9 16 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
10 15 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (1.08%) CMDB
11 13 (1.08%) Data Structures
11 13 (1.08%) Legacy Applications
11 13 (1.08%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.00%) Data Centre
12 12 (1.00%) SCADA
12 12 (1.00%) Security Posture
13 11 (0.92%) Cloud Native
13 11 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 207 (17.24%) Windows
2 80 (6.66%) Linux
3 79 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 43 (3.58%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.33%) Android
6 13 (1.08%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.83%) Unix
8 9 (0.75%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.75%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.42%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.33%) CentOS
11 4 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.33%) VMS
12 3 (0.25%) Debian
12 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.17%) Solaris
13 2 (0.17%) SUSE
13 2 (0.17%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.083%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 355 (29.56%) Continuous Improvement
2 217 (18.07%) Customer Service
3 173 (14.40%) Decision-Making
4 163 (13.57%) Agile
5 153 (12.74%) Analytics
6 138 (11.49%) Mentoring
7 127 (10.57%) Collaborative Working
8 126 (10.49%) ERP
9 122 (10.16%) Business Intelligence
10 108 (8.99%) Cybersecurity
11 98 (8.16%) ITIL
12 97 (8.08%) AI
13 95 (7.91%) Service Delivery
14 88 (7.33%) Roadmaps
15 87 (7.24%) Stakeholder Management
16 78 (6.49%) CRM
17 77 (6.41%) Collaborative Culture
18 74 (6.16%) Project Delivery
19 70 (5.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 69 (5.75%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 199 (16.57%) SQL
2 86 (7.16%) Python
3 58 (4.83%) Java
4 46 (3.83%) JavaScript
4 46 (3.83%) PowerShell
5 36 (3.00%) C#
6 30 (2.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 24 (2.00%) TypeScript
8 21 (1.75%) Ladder Logic
9 16 (1.33%) C
10 14 (1.17%) VBA
11 13 (1.08%) Bash
11 13 (1.08%) PHP
12 11 (0.92%) C++
13 10 (0.83%) Embedded C
14 9 (0.75%) ABAP
14 9 (0.75%) COBOL
14 9 (0.75%) JCL
15 7 (0.58%) RPG
16 6 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 172 (14.32%) Degree
2 87 (7.24%) Security Cleared
3 70 (5.83%) SC Cleared
4 28 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
5 23 (1.92%) Azure Certification
6 21 (1.75%) DBS Check
7 18 (1.50%) CISSP
8 17 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (1.42%) HND
9 15 (1.25%) HNC
10 14 (1.17%) CompTIA Security+
10 14 (1.17%) PMI Certification
11 10 (0.83%) CCNA
11 10 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.58%) ACCA
12 7 (0.58%) CIMA
12 7 (0.58%) CISA
12 7 (0.58%) SSCP
13 6 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.50%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (4.75%) Data Quality
2 47 (3.91%) GDPR
3 43 (3.58%) QA
4 39 (3.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 37 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 37 (3.08%) SLA
6 21 (1.75%) Accessibility
7 19 (1.58%) ISO 9001
8 18 (1.50%) NIST
9 9 (0.75%) ISO 14001
10 8 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 7 (0.58%) GRC
11 7 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.33%) GMP
12 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.25%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.25%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 148 (12.32%) Active Directory
2 47 (3.91%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (2.25%) Docker
5 15 (1.25%) Firmware
6 10 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 8 (0.67%) vSphere
8 7 (0.58%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.17%) Samba
10 2 (0.17%) XenApp
11 1 (0.083%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.083%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 42 (3.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.00%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.83%) Ansible
3 10 (0.83%) SCCM
4 5 (0.42%) Functional Safety
4 5 (0.42%) Grafana
4 5 (0.42%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.33%) Galera Cluster
5 4 (0.33%) Nmap
5 4 (0.33%) Progress Chef
5 4 (0.33%) Puppet
5 4 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.33%) vCenter Server
6 3 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
6 3 (0.25%) Control-M
6 3 (0.25%) WhatsUp Gold
7 2 (0.17%) Nagios
7 2 (0.17%) WSUS
8 1 (0.083%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.083%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 356 (29.64%) Microsoft
2 58 (4.83%) SAP
3 40 (3.33%) VMware
4 31 (2.58%) Oracle
5 29 (2.41%) Cisco
6 27 (2.25%) ServiceNow
7 25 (2.08%) Workday
8 22 (1.83%) IBM
8 22 (1.83%) Salesforce
9 20 (1.67%) Sage
10 18 (1.50%) Cognos
11 17 (1.42%) Google
12 12 (1.00%) Databricks
12 12 (1.00%) HubSpot
13 11 (0.92%) Dell
13 11 (0.92%) Sophos
14 10 (0.83%) Epicor
14 10 (0.83%) iManage
14 10 (0.83%) Red Hat
15 9 (0.75%) Apple