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

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 978 1,130 2,016
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.76% 22.28% 14.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.14% 25.19% 17.98%
Number of salaries quoted 728 643 1,191
10th Percentile £26,440 £25,267 £25,000
25th Percentile £29,750 £29,750 £28,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +6.25% -15.79%
75th Percentile £57,500 £57,580 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £70,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% +1.01% -10.00%

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 8,776 4,486 11,213
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.66% 88.46% 78.46%
Number of salaries quoted 6,158 2,588 7,760
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £48,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% +2.11% -9.52%
75th Percentile £67,500 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £81,625 £77,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 22 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 22 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 -9 557 £42,500 -5.56% 215
East Midlands -7 418 £35,000 -4.11% 181
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 61 (6.24%) SharePoint
2 42 (4.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.12%) CMS
4 9 (0.92%) IIS
5 5 (0.51%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2007
6 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2013
6 4 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 3 (0.31%) WordPress
8 2 (0.20%) Confluence
9 1 (0.10%) Appian
9 1 (0.10%) Drupal
9 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 82 (8.38%) Microsoft Office
2 66 (6.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.12%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.51%) Fusion 360
7 4 (0.41%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.10%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 12 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.92%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 7 (0.72%) iTrent
4 7 (0.72%) SAP Business One
5 5 (0.51%) Magento
5 5 (0.51%) Q-Pulse
5 5 (0.51%) Shopify
6 4 (0.41%) Line 50
6 4 (0.41%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.41%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.31%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 3 (0.31%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.10%) Exchequer
9 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.10%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
9 1 (0.10%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 207 (21.17%) Microsoft 365
2 180 (18.40%) Azure
3 94 (9.61%) Power Platform
4 82 (8.38%) AWS
5 69 (7.06%) Entra ID
6 30 (3.07%) SaaS
7 28 (2.86%) Serverless
8 24 (2.45%) Amazon S3
9 22 (2.25%) AWS Lambda
10 20 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
11 17 (1.74%) Power Automate
12 14 (1.43%) OneDrive
12 14 (1.43%) PowerApps
13 13 (1.33%) Google Workspace
14 11 (1.12%) GCP
15 10 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
16 9 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
16 9 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
16 9 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
17 8 (0.82%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (5.83%) Firewall
2 54 (5.52%) DNS
3 52 (5.32%) VPN
4 48 (4.91%) DHCP
5 33 (3.37%) WAN
6 32 (3.27%) TCP/IP
7 27 (2.76%) Wireless
8 24 (2.45%) VLAN
9 22 (2.25%) LAN
10 20 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
11 15 (1.53%) Internet
11 15 (1.53%) SD-WAN
12 13 (1.33%) Network Security
12 13 (1.33%) VoIP
13 8 (0.82%) MQTT
14 5 (0.51%) Skype
15 4 (0.41%) Bluetooth
15 4 (0.41%) LoRaWAN
15 4 (0.41%) SSL
16 3 (0.31%) Hyperconnected
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (8.69%) Power BI
2 35 (3.58%) SQL Server
3 20 (2.04%) Tableau
4 19 (1.94%) MySQL
4 19 (1.94%) Power Query
5 15 (1.53%) Amazon Redshift
6 13 (1.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 12 (1.23%) Relational Database
8 11 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
10 8 (0.82%) DynamoDB
10 8 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 7 (0.72%) MongoDB
11 7 (0.72%) Star Schema
12 6 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
13 5 (0.51%) NoSQL
14 4 (0.41%) Data Mining
14 4 (0.41%) FileMaker
14 4 (0.41%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 19 (1.94%) Git
2 12 (1.23%) JIRA
3 7 (0.72%) Burp Suite
3 7 (0.72%) JUnit
3 7 (0.72%) Metasploit
4 6 (0.61%) Maven
4 6 (0.61%) Mockito
5 5 (0.51%) VersionOne
6 3 (0.31%) Subversion
7 2 (0.20%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.20%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.20%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.10%) Appium
8 1 (0.10%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.10%) Carbide.c++
8 1 (0.10%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.10%) TestRail
8 1 (0.10%) Yeoman
General
1 446 (45.60%) Social Skills
2 303 (30.98%) Analytical Skills
3 168 (17.18%) Finance
4 127 (12.99%) Manufacturing
5 64 (6.54%) Organisational Skills
6 60 (6.13%) Retail
7 47 (4.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 40 (4.09%) Marketing
9 39 (3.99%) Legal
10 34 (3.48%) Law
11 32 (3.27%) Public Sector
12 27 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
13 22 (2.25%) Electronics
14 18 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
15 17 (1.74%) Automotive
16 12 (1.23%) Banking
17 11 (1.12%) Telecoms
18 10 (1.02%) Investment Banking
19 9 (0.92%) Games
20 8 (0.82%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 157 (16.05%) Analyst
2 142 (14.52%) Support Engineer
3 119 (12.17%) IT Support
4 94 (9.61%) Senior
5 91 (9.30%) Developer
6 82 (8.38%) IT Engineer
7 71 (7.26%) Technical Support
8 66 (6.75%) IT Support Engineer
9 65 (6.65%) Technical Engineer
9 65 (6.65%) Technical Support Engineer
10 56 (5.73%) Support Technician
11 50 (5.11%) Lead
12 39 (3.99%) IT Technician
13 38 (3.89%) IT Manager
14 37 (3.78%) Data Analyst
14 37 (3.78%) Support Analyst
15 35 (3.58%) IT Support Technician
16 34 (3.48%) Consultant
17 32 (3.27%) Senior Analyst
18 26 (2.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (4.60%) React
2 34 (3.48%) REST
3 33 (3.37%) Node.js
4 24 (2.45%) .NET
5 23 (2.35%) CSS
5 23 (2.35%) HTML
6 13 (1.33%) Spring
7 11 (1.12%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.02%) RESTful
8 10 (1.02%) Spring Boot
9 8 (0.82%) Middleware
10 7 (0.72%) SOAP
11 6 (0.61%) ASP.NET
11 6 (0.61%) ASP.NET Core
11 6 (0.61%) JDBC
11 6 (0.61%) OAuth
11 6 (0.61%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (0.61%) SAPUI5
12 5 (0.51%) EDI
13 4 (0.41%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 91 (9.30%) Driving Licence
2 50 (5.11%) Onboarding
3 49 (5.01%) Management Information System
4 43 (4.40%) Self-Motivation
5 15 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
6 14 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (1.43%) IoT
6 14 (1.43%) Security Posture
7 13 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.23%) Social Media
9 11 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
9 11 (1.12%) Virtual Team
10 9 (0.92%) Data Structures
10 9 (0.92%) FMCG
10 9 (0.92%) Replication
10 9 (0.92%) SCADA
11 8 (0.82%) Data Centre
11 8 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (0.82%) iSeries
11 8 (0.82%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 162 (16.56%) Windows
2 63 (6.44%) Windows Server
3 59 (6.03%) Linux
4 50 (5.11%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.23%) Android
6 11 (1.12%) Apple iOS
7 10 (1.02%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.72%) Debian
9 6 (0.61%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.51%) CentOS
10 5 (0.51%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.41%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.41%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.41%) Unix
11 4 (0.41%) VMS
12 3 (0.31%) SUSE
13 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (25.05%) Continuous Improvement
2 163 (16.67%) Customer Service
3 136 (13.91%) Decision-Making
4 123 (12.58%) Agile
5 115 (11.76%) Analytics
6 109 (11.15%) Mentoring
7 106 (10.84%) Collaborative Working
8 94 (9.61%) ITIL
9 93 (9.51%) ERP
10 87 (8.90%) Business Intelligence
11 84 (8.59%) Cybersecurity
11 84 (8.59%) Service Delivery
12 72 (7.36%) AI
12 72 (7.36%) Roadmaps
13 68 (6.95%) Process Improvement
14 62 (6.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 60 (6.13%) Computer Science
16 57 (5.83%) CRM
17 55 (5.62%) Coaching
18 54 (5.52%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 167 (17.08%) SQL
2 86 (8.79%) Python
3 43 (4.40%) PowerShell
4 35 (3.58%) Java
5 31 (3.17%) JavaScript
6 27 (2.76%) C#
7 22 (2.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 17 (1.74%) TypeScript
9 16 (1.64%) Ladder Logic
10 15 (1.53%) Bash
11 13 (1.33%) PHP
11 13 (1.33%) VBA
12 10 (1.02%) C
13 8 (0.82%) C++
13 8 (0.82%) R
14 7 (0.72%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.72%) RPG
14 7 (0.72%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.61%) ABAP
15 6 (0.61%) Go
Qualifications
1 138 (14.11%) Degree
2 74 (7.57%) Security Cleared
3 57 (5.83%) SC Cleared
4 32 (3.27%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (2.66%) DBS Check
6 21 (2.15%) Computer Science Degree
7 20 (2.04%) CISSP
8 16 (1.64%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.23%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.12%) A+ Certification
12 10 (1.02%) ACCA
12 10 (1.02%) CIMA
12 10 (1.02%) PMI Certification
13 8 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (0.82%) CCNA
13 8 (0.82%) PMP
14 7 (0.72%) CISA
14 7 (0.72%) SSCP
15 6 (0.61%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (4.50%) Data Quality
2 39 (3.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (3.78%) QA
4 34 (3.48%) Cyber Essentials
5 31 (3.17%) GDPR
6 23 (2.35%) SLA
7 21 (2.15%) NIST
8 15 (1.53%) Accessibility
9 13 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (1.33%) ISO 9001
10 9 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
10 9 (0.92%) ISO 14001
11 7 (0.72%) GRC
11 7 (0.72%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.51%) COSHH
13 5 (0.51%) GMP
14 4 (0.41%) HIPAA
14 4 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 123 (12.58%) Active Directory
2 33 (3.37%) Hyper-V
3 31 (3.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (2.25%) Docker
5 10 (1.02%) vSphere
6 8 (0.82%) Firmware
7 5 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
8 4 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.20%) Samba
9 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 42 (4.29%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (2.15%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.33%) Terraform
4 9 (0.92%) Ansible
5 7 (0.72%) Nmap
6 6 (0.61%) Grafana
7 5 (0.51%) Nagios
7 5 (0.51%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.41%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.41%) Galera Cluster
8 4 (0.41%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.31%) SCCM
9 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.20%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.20%) Puppet
11 1 (0.10%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.10%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 270 (27.61%) Microsoft
2 39 (3.99%) VMware
3 37 (3.78%) SAP
4 29 (2.97%) Cisco
5 21 (2.15%) Oracle
6 18 (1.84%) Sage
7 16 (1.64%) Google
7 16 (1.64%) IBM
8 15 (1.53%) Salesforce
9 12 (1.23%) Cognos
9 12 (1.23%) Dell
9 12 (1.23%) Workday
10 11 (1.12%) ServiceNow
10 11 (1.12%) SolarWinds
11 9 (0.92%) Databricks
11 9 (0.92%) Red Hat
12 8 (0.82%) HP
13 7 (0.72%) Apple
13 7 (0.72%) iManage
14 6 (0.61%) Veeam