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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -16 +1 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 854 1,126 1,323
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 9.20% 19.78% 15.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.78% 21.34% 18.13%
Number of salaries quoted 670 497 1,044
10th Percentile £26,000 £27,750 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £29,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £50,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +17.65% -15.00%
75th Percentile £53,988 £63,750 £58,750
90th Percentile £67,850 £83,750 £68,750
England median annual salary £45,700 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -16.91% +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 7,248 5,276 7,298
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 78.09% 92.69% 85.85%
Number of salaries quoted 4,100 2,492 5,889
10th Percentile £28,241 £30,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £34,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £49,214
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +6.68% -6.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,654 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £62,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -11.29% +12.73% -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 28 February 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 28 February 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 -21 502 £42,500 -22.73% 236
East Midlands -1 349 £35,000 -4.11% 154
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 (5.97%) SharePoint
2 33 (3.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.29%) IIS
4 6 (0.70%) Apache
4 6 (0.70%) CMS
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2007
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.70%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (0.70%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 5 (0.59%) Confluence
6 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.12%) Drupal
6 1 (0.12%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.12%) SAS
6 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 63 (7.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (6.09%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.87%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.17%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (1.05%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.94%) SOLIDWORKS
7 7 (0.82%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.47%) CATIA
9 2 (0.23%) Trello
10 1 (0.12%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.12%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 27 (3.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.17%) iTrent
2 10 (1.17%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.59%) Q-Pulse
3 5 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.35%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.12%) Cognos Controller
6 1 (0.12%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.12%) HFM
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.12%) SAP Business One
6 1 (0.12%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.12%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 185 (21.66%) Azure
2 180 (21.08%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (9.02%) AWS
4 73 (8.55%) SaaS
5 66 (7.73%) Power Platform
6 53 (6.21%) Entra ID
7 29 (3.40%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (3.40%) Serverless
8 20 (2.34%) Power Automate
9 17 (1.99%) Amazon S3
9 17 (1.99%) AWS Lambda
9 17 (1.99%) GCP
9 17 (1.99%) PowerApps
10 13 (1.52%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (1.29%) OneDrive
12 9 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
13 7 (0.82%) OCI
14 6 (0.70%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 66 (7.73%) DNS
2 64 (7.49%) DHCP
3 47 (5.50%) VPN
4 38 (4.45%) WAN
5 34 (3.98%) Firewall
6 33 (3.86%) Remote Desktop
7 27 (3.16%) Internet
8 25 (2.93%) LAN
9 19 (2.22%) TCP/IP
9 19 (2.22%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (1.76%) SD-WAN
10 15 (1.76%) Wireless
11 12 (1.41%) VLAN
11 12 (1.41%) VoIP
12 8 (0.94%) ADSL
12 8 (0.94%) Ethernet
12 8 (0.94%) VDSL
13 7 (0.82%) Network Security
14 6 (0.70%) Broadband
15 4 (0.47%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (6.09%) Power BI
2 45 (5.27%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.87%) MySQL
4 15 (1.76%) Oracle Reports
5 14 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (1.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 13 (1.52%) Amazon Redshift
6 13 (1.52%) Tableau
7 12 (1.41%) Relational Database
7 12 (1.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.82%) Power Query
9 6 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.70%) Metadata
10 5 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.59%) Crystal Reports
10 5 (0.59%) GIS
11 4 (0.47%) Data Lake
11 4 (0.47%) Redis
11 4 (0.47%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 27 (3.16%) JIRA
2 19 (2.22%) Git
3 8 (0.94%) JUnit
4 7 (0.82%) Burp Suite
4 7 (0.82%) Metasploit
5 6 (0.70%) GitLab
5 6 (0.70%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.70%) Maven
5 6 (0.70%) Mockito
6 5 (0.59%) Subversion
7 3 (0.35%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 2 (0.23%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.23%) Selenium
8 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.12%) Babel
9 1 (0.12%) Balsamiq
9 1 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 416 (48.71%) Social Skills
2 283 (33.14%) Analytical Skills
3 159 (18.62%) Finance
4 97 (11.36%) Retail
5 78 (9.13%) Manufacturing
6 62 (7.26%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (5.39%) Law
8 42 (4.92%) Legal
9 36 (4.22%) Public Sector
10 35 (4.10%) Marketing
11 26 (3.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 18 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
12 18 (2.11%) Electronics
13 16 (1.87%) Telecoms
14 15 (1.76%) Automotive
15 13 (1.52%) Banking
15 13 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (1.41%) Aerospace
17 10 (1.17%) Advertising
17 10 (1.17%) Games
Job Titles
1 153 (17.92%) IT Support
2 152 (17.80%) Support Engineer
3 130 (15.22%) Analyst
4 101 (11.83%) IT Engineer
5 89 (10.42%) IT Support Engineer
6 76 (8.90%) Lead
7 74 (8.67%) Developer
8 69 (8.08%) Technical Support
9 62 (7.26%) Senior
10 59 (6.91%) Support Analyst
11 56 (6.56%) Technical Engineer
12 54 (6.32%) Technical Support Engineer
13 50 (5.85%) 2nd Line Support
14 44 (5.15%) Support Technician
15 34 (3.98%) Administrator
15 34 (3.98%) Architect
16 32 (3.75%) 1st/2nd Line Support
17 31 (3.63%) Applications Support
18 30 (3.51%) Full-Stack Developer
19 25 (2.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.45%) React
2 29 (3.40%) .NET
3 27 (3.16%) CSS
3 27 (3.16%) HTML
4 25 (2.93%) Node.js
4 25 (2.93%) REST
5 12 (1.41%) AngularJS
5 12 (1.41%) JSON
6 8 (0.94%) Razor View Engine
7 7 (0.82%) Vue
8 6 (0.70%) LAMP
8 6 (0.70%) Middleware
8 6 (0.70%) Oracle Fusion
9 5 (0.59%) Laravel
9 5 (0.59%) RESTful
10 4 (0.47%) GraphQL
10 4 (0.47%) Next.js
10 4 (0.47%) Spring
10 4 (0.47%) Web Services
10 4 (0.47%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 107 (12.53%) Driving Licence
2 93 (10.89%) Onboarding
3 47 (5.50%) Management Information System
4 39 (4.57%) Self-Motivation
5 30 (3.51%) Analytical Mindset
6 28 (3.28%) FMCG
7 19 (2.22%) Social Media
8 16 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
9 14 (1.64%) Product Ownership
10 12 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
10 12 (1.41%) Security Posture
11 11 (1.29%) Operational Technology
12 10 (1.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 9 (1.05%) EPoS
13 9 (1.05%) IoT
14 8 (0.94%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
15 7 (0.82%) Insider Threat
15 7 (0.82%) Linux Command Line
15 7 (0.82%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 160 (18.74%) Windows
2 55 (6.44%) Windows Server
3 40 (4.68%) Linux
4 28 (3.28%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.41%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.70%) Windows 7
7 5 (0.59%) Debian
7 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.47%) Android
8 4 (0.47%) Unix
9 3 (0.35%) CentOS
9 3 (0.35%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.23%) SUSE
10 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (22.60%) Continuous Improvement
2 173 (20.26%) Customer Service
3 110 (12.88%) CRM
4 106 (12.41%) ERP
5 93 (10.89%) Agile
5 93 (10.89%) Decision-Making
5 93 (10.89%) Mentoring
6 91 (10.66%) Project Management
7 86 (10.07%) ITIL
8 76 (8.90%) Business Intelligence
9 72 (8.43%) Analytics
10 56 (6.56%) Computer Science
11 55 (6.44%) Process Improvement
11 55 (6.44%) Time Management
12 54 (6.32%) Root Cause Analysis
13 53 (6.21%) Analytical Thinking
13 53 (6.21%) Migration
14 51 (5.97%) Service Delivery
15 49 (5.74%) Stakeholder Management
16 48 (5.62%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 166 (19.44%) SQL
2 64 (7.49%) C#
3 58 (6.79%) Python
4 52 (6.09%) JavaScript
5 28 (3.28%) Java
5 28 (3.28%) PowerShell
6 18 (2.11%) PHP
7 16 (1.87%) T-SQL
8 12 (1.41%) Bash
8 12 (1.41%) C
9 10 (1.17%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.94%) Ladder Logic
10 8 (0.94%) R
11 7 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (0.82%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.47%) C++
12 4 (0.47%) Delphi
12 4 (0.47%) VBA
13 3 (0.35%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.23%) XAML
Qualifications
1 161 (18.85%) Degree
2 72 (8.43%) Security Cleared
3 54 (6.32%) SC Cleared
4 31 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
4 31 (3.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (2.81%) DBS Check
6 17 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (1.76%) CISSP
8 14 (1.64%) Master's Degree
9 12 (1.41%) CompTIA Security+
10 11 (1.29%) A+ Certification
10 11 (1.29%) CCNA
11 10 (1.17%) PMI Certification
12 9 (1.05%) ACCA
12 9 (1.05%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.05%) CIMA
12 9 (1.05%) CISMP
12 9 (1.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 9 (1.05%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (6.56%) QA
2 40 (4.68%) Data Quality
3 27 (3.16%) GDPR
4 24 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 13 (1.52%) Actionable Recommendations
6 10 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (1.17%) NIST
6 10 (1.17%) SLA
7 9 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 5 (0.59%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.59%) COSHH
8 5 (0.59%) GMP
8 5 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.23%) PMO
11 1 (0.12%) COBIT
11 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 100 (11.71%) Active Directory
2 23 (2.69%) Docker
3 16 (1.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.29%) Hyper-V
5 9 (1.05%) vSphere
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.12%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 40 (4.68%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.81%) Kubernetes
3 16 (1.87%) Terraform
4 8 (0.94%) Ansible
5 7 (0.82%) Nmap
6 5 (0.59%) Grafana
6 5 (0.59%) Nagios
6 5 (0.59%) SCCM
7 3 (0.35%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.12%) Argo
9 1 (0.12%) Autotask
9 1 (0.12%) AWS Copilot
9 1 (0.12%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.12%) Puppet
9 1 (0.12%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 242 (28.34%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.56%) SAP
3 49 (5.74%) Oracle
4 36 (4.22%) Cisco
5 30 (3.51%) Salesforce
6 19 (2.22%) VMware
7 17 (1.99%) Google
8 15 (1.76%) ServiceNow
9 12 (1.41%) HP
10 9 (1.05%) Databricks
10 9 (1.05%) Meraki
10 9 (1.05%) Sage
11 7 (0.82%) Epicor
11 7 (0.82%) Infor
12 6 (0.70%) Dell
12 6 (0.70%) Freshdesk
12 6 (0.70%) SolarWinds
13 5 (0.59%) Zscaler
14 4 (0.47%) Panasonic
14 4 (0.47%) Veeam