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

6 months to
10 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 1,181 1,269 1,461
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.20% 21.97% 13.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.73% 25.82% 17.57%
Number of salaries quoted 841 740 724
10th Percentile £26,300 £25,265 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £29,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £39,919 £43,072
Median % change year-on-year +6.47% -7.32% -12.10%
75th Percentile £56,875 £53,750 £58,750
90th Percentile £68,750 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.06% -6.00% -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 10,067 4,914 8,316
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.88% 85.09% 77.79%
Number of salaries quoted 7,147 3,000 5,071
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £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 £66,250 £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% - -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 10 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 10 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 -10 650 £42,500 -5.56% 386
East Midlands -9 528 £40,000 +12.68% 268
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 51 (4.32%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (0.93%) IIS
4 8 (0.68%) CMS
5 5 (0.42%) Confluence
5 5 (0.42%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.25%) CICS
6 3 (0.25%) SAS
6 3 (0.25%) WordPress
7 2 (0.17%) Documentum
7 2 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2007
7 2 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.085%) Apache
8 1 (0.085%) Appian
8 1 (0.085%) Drupal
8 1 (0.085%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.085%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 98 (8.30%) Microsoft Office
2 80 (6.77%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.42%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.17%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.17%) OrCAD
7 2 (0.17%) Simulink
8 1 (0.085%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.085%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.085%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.085%) Revit
8 1 (0.085%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
1 15 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 13 (1.10%) SAP Business One
4 9 (0.76%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 9 (0.76%) Shopify
5 6 (0.51%) Sage X3
6 5 (0.42%) Magento
6 5 (0.42%) NetSuite
6 5 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
6 5 (0.42%) Sage 50
6 5 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
7 4 (0.34%) Line 50
8 2 (0.17%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.17%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.17%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.17%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.17%) SAP CO
8 2 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 237 (20.07%) Microsoft 365
2 212 (17.95%) Azure
3 120 (10.16%) Power Platform
4 87 (7.37%) AWS
5 85 (7.20%) Entra ID
6 49 (4.15%) SaaS
7 31 (2.62%) Dynamics 365
8 23 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (1.78%) Power Automate
10 16 (1.35%) GCP
10 16 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
10 16 (1.35%) Serverless
11 15 (1.27%) PowerApps
12 14 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
13 13 (1.10%) GitHub
14 12 (1.02%) Amazon S3
14 12 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
14 12 (1.02%) Google Workspace
15 9 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
15 9 (0.76%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 65 (5.50%) Firewall
2 64 (5.42%) DNS
3 50 (4.23%) DHCP
4 49 (4.15%) VPN
5 44 (3.73%) TCP/IP
6 33 (2.79%) Wireless
7 29 (2.46%) VLAN
8 24 (2.03%) WAN
9 20 (1.69%) LAN
10 19 (1.61%) Wi-Fi
11 18 (1.52%) Network Security
12 15 (1.27%) VoIP
13 9 (0.76%) Internet
14 8 (0.68%) MQTT
15 7 (0.59%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.59%) SSL
16 6 (0.51%) Cisco IOS
17 5 (0.42%) Remote Desktop
17 5 (0.42%) Skype
18 4 (0.34%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (9.31%) Power BI
2 49 (4.15%) SQL Server
3 26 (2.20%) Power Query
4 22 (1.86%) Tableau
5 20 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
6 18 (1.52%) Relational Database
6 18 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 16 (1.35%) MySQL
8 14 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (1.10%) Electronic Patient Records
10 12 (1.02%) Azure SQL Database
11 10 (0.85%) Crystal Reports
11 10 (0.85%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
13 7 (0.59%) Data Mining
13 7 (0.59%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
14 6 (0.51%) GIS
14 6 (0.51%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 39 (3.30%) Git
2 25 (2.12%) JIRA
3 16 (1.35%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.51%) Maven
5 5 (0.42%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.42%) JUnit
5 5 (0.42%) Postman
5 5 (0.42%) VersionOne
6 4 (0.34%) Burp Suite
6 4 (0.34%) GitLab
6 4 (0.34%) JMeter
6 4 (0.34%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.34%) Selenium
6 4 (0.34%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.25%) Mockito
7 3 (0.25%) Subversion
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.17%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 574 (48.60%) Social Skills
2 344 (29.13%) Analytical Skills
3 206 (17.44%) Finance
4 178 (15.07%) Manufacturing
5 78 (6.60%) Retail
6 73 (6.18%) Organisational Skills
7 56 (4.74%) Marketing
8 50 (4.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 46 (3.90%) Public Sector
10 43 (3.64%) Legal
11 41 (3.47%) Law
12 29 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
13 27 (2.29%) Electronics
14 20 (1.69%) Automotive
14 20 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.27%) Telecoms
16 12 (1.02%) Games
17 10 (0.85%) Banking
18 9 (0.76%) Advertising
19 8 (0.68%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 182 (15.41%) Analyst
2 139 (11.77%) IT Support
3 132 (11.18%) Support Engineer
4 110 (9.31%) Developer
5 103 (8.72%) Senior
6 78 (6.60%) Technical Support
7 72 (6.10%) IT Engineer
8 69 (5.84%) Technical Engineer
9 67 (5.67%) Lead
9 67 (5.67%) Technical Support Engineer
10 61 (5.17%) Consultant
10 61 (5.17%) Support Technician
11 56 (4.74%) Support Analyst
12 53 (4.49%) IT Support Engineer
13 52 (4.40%) IT Technician
14 50 (4.23%) IT Manager
15 43 (3.64%) IT Support Technician
16 39 (3.30%) Senior Analyst
17 38 (3.22%) Data Analyst
18 28 (2.37%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.57%) REST
2 40 (3.39%) React
3 35 (2.96%) .NET
4 25 (2.12%) Node.js
5 22 (1.86%) Spring
6 21 (1.78%) SOAP
7 19 (1.61%) Spring Boot
8 18 (1.52%) CSS
8 18 (1.52%) HTML
9 14 (1.19%) RESTful
10 12 (1.02%) AngularJS
10 12 (1.02%) Playwright
11 10 (0.85%) JSON
11 10 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.76%) EDI
12 9 (0.76%) JDBC
12 9 (0.76%) Middleware
12 9 (0.76%) OAuth
12 9 (0.76%) SAPUI5
13 8 (0.68%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 124 (10.50%) Driving Licence
2 69 (5.84%) Management Information System
3 67 (5.67%) Onboarding
4 47 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
5 28 (2.37%) Enterprise Software
6 25 (2.12%) NHS
7 19 (1.61%) Robotics
8 17 (1.44%) IoT
9 16 (1.35%) Greenfield Project
10 15 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 14 (1.19%) Data Structures
11 14 (1.19%) SystemC
12 12 (1.02%) Social Media
13 11 (0.93%) CMDB
13 11 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
13 11 (0.93%) Mobile App
13 11 (0.93%) SCADA
13 11 (0.93%) Security Posture
13 11 (0.93%) Virtual Team
14 10 (0.85%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 211 (17.87%) Windows
2 80 (6.77%) Linux
3 74 (6.27%) Windows Server
4 46 (3.90%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.27%) Android
6 12 (1.02%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.85%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.76%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.76%) Unix
9 6 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.42%) CentOS
10 5 (0.42%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.34%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.34%) VMS
12 3 (0.25%) Debian
12 3 (0.25%) SUSE
12 3 (0.25%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.17%) Solaris
13 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (29.89%) Continuous Improvement
2 208 (17.61%) Customer Service
3 170 (14.39%) Decision-Making
4 155 (13.12%) Agile
5 149 (12.62%) Analytics
6 138 (11.69%) Mentoring
7 129 (10.92%) Collaborative Working
8 124 (10.50%) ERP
9 116 (9.82%) Business Intelligence
10 106 (8.98%) ITIL
11 105 (8.89%) Cybersecurity
12 98 (8.30%) Service Delivery
13 97 (8.21%) AI
14 81 (6.86%) Roadmaps
15 80 (6.77%) Stakeholder Management
16 74 (6.27%) CRM
17 73 (6.18%) Collaborative Culture
18 69 (5.84%) Root Cause Analysis
19 67 (5.67%) Project Delivery
20 66 (5.59%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 194 (16.43%) SQL
2 86 (7.28%) Python
3 52 (4.40%) Java
4 46 (3.90%) PowerShell
5 42 (3.56%) JavaScript
6 34 (2.88%) C#
7 31 (2.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 24 (2.03%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.78%) Ladder Logic
10 15 (1.27%) VBA
11 14 (1.19%) Bash
11 14 (1.19%) C
12 13 (1.10%) PHP
13 10 (0.85%) C++
14 9 (0.76%) ABAP
15 8 (0.68%) Embedded C
16 7 (0.59%) RPG
17 6 (0.51%) COBOL
17 6 (0.51%) JCL
17 6 (0.51%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 165 (13.97%) Degree
2 83 (7.03%) Security Cleared
3 68 (5.76%) SC Cleared
4 29 (2.46%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (2.29%) DBS Check
6 21 (1.78%) Azure Certification
7 18 (1.52%) CISSP
8 16 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (1.35%) HND
9 15 (1.27%) CompTIA Security+
10 14 (1.19%) HNC
11 12 (1.02%) PMI Certification
12 11 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (0.76%) CCNA
14 7 (0.59%) ACCA
14 7 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (0.59%) CIMA
14 7 (0.59%) CISA
14 7 (0.59%) SSCP
15 6 (0.51%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (4.57%) Data Quality
2 45 (3.81%) GDPR
3 41 (3.47%) Cyber Essentials
4 40 (3.39%) QA
5 39 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 36 (3.05%) SLA
7 22 (1.86%) Accessibility
8 19 (1.61%) NIST
9 18 (1.52%) ISO 9001
10 10 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 9 (0.76%) ISO 14001
12 7 (0.59%) GRC
12 7 (0.59%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.34%) GMP
14 4 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 3 (0.25%) COSHH
15 3 (0.25%) HIPAA
15 3 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 146 (12.36%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.90%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.54%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (2.20%) Docker
5 13 (1.10%) Firmware
6 9 (0.76%) Virtual Desktop
7 8 (0.68%) vSphere
8 6 (0.51%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.17%) Samba
11 1 (0.085%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.085%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.085%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 43 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.03%) Kubernetes
3 19 (1.61%) Terraform
4 10 (0.85%) Ansible
4 10 (0.85%) SCCM
5 6 (0.51%) Grafana
6 5 (0.42%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.34%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.34%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.34%) Nmap
7 4 (0.34%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.34%) Puppet
7 4 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
8 3 (0.25%) Control-M
8 3 (0.25%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.17%) Nagios
9 2 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.17%) WSUS
10 1 (0.085%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 348 (29.47%) Microsoft
2 52 (4.40%) SAP
3 40 (3.39%) VMware
4 31 (2.62%) Cisco
5 25 (2.12%) ServiceNow
6 24 (2.03%) Oracle
7 22 (1.86%) Workday
8 21 (1.78%) IBM
9 20 (1.69%) Salesforce
10 18 (1.52%) Google
10 18 (1.52%) Sage
11 17 (1.44%) Cognos
12 11 (0.93%) Dell
12 11 (0.93%) HubSpot
12 11 (0.93%) Red Hat
13 10 (0.85%) iManage
14 9 (0.76%) Apple
14 9 (0.76%) Epicor
14 9 (0.76%) JD Edwards
14 9 (0.76%) Sophos