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 31 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 4 8
Rank change year-on-year +1 +4 -1
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,229 1,288 784
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 22.06% 14.51% 15.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 25.64% 17.91% 16.16%
Number of salaries quoted 703 456 615
10th Percentile £25,750 £28,500 £26,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £34,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,000 £50,000 £48,050
Median % change year-on-year -24.00% +4.06% +2.23%
75th Percentile £50,200 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £73,750 £70,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 4,793 7,193 4,851
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 86.03% 81.06% 93.11%
Number of salaries quoted 2,892 3,276 3,708
10th Percentile £27,000 £30,000 £26,768
25th Percentile £32,500 £38,000 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,500 £52,104 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.76% +4.21% -
75th Percentile £63,750 £66,013 £64,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £79,800 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

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 31 October 2025.

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 31 October 2025. 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 +1 645 £42,500 -19.05% 325
East Midlands +5 584 £32,500 -12.16% 202
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 33 (2.69%) SharePoint
2 30 (2.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (1.30%) IIS
4 7 (0.57%) Confluence
5 6 (0.49%) Apache
6 2 (0.16%) CMS
6 2 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.16%) HCL Notes
6 2 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.081%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.081%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.081%) Appian
7 1 (0.081%) nginx
7 1 (0.081%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.081%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.081%) WebLogic
Applications
1 99 (8.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (4.88%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.73%) AutoCAD
5 8 (0.65%) SOLIDWORKS
6 4 (0.33%) CATIA
7 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.16%) Trello
9 1 (0.081%) EPLAN
9 1 (0.081%) Revit
Business Applications
1 35 (2.85%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.73%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.49%) Shopify
4 5 (0.41%) Exchequer
4 5 (0.41%) SAP Business One
4 5 (0.41%) SAP EWM
4 5 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.41%) SAP WM
5 4 (0.33%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 4 (0.33%) Magento
5 4 (0.33%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
6 3 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.16%) Infor CloudSuite
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.16%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 176 (14.32%) Azure
2 163 (13.26%) Microsoft 365
3 81 (6.59%) Power Platform
4 77 (6.27%) SaaS
5 47 (3.82%) Entra ID
6 41 (3.34%) AWS
7 35 (2.85%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (1.46%) Cloud Computing
9 15 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (1.22%) Power Automate
10 13 (1.06%) GCP
11 12 (0.98%) PowerApps
12 10 (0.81%) OneDrive
13 9 (0.73%) GitHub
14 8 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
15 6 (0.49%) PaaS
16 5 (0.41%) Azure Logic Apps
16 5 (0.41%) OCI
16 5 (0.41%) Serverless
16 5 (0.41%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 55 (4.48%) DNS
1 55 (4.48%) Firewall
2 52 (4.23%) DHCP
3 47 (3.82%) VPN
4 44 (3.58%) Remote Desktop
5 37 (3.01%) WAN
6 36 (2.93%) LAN
7 24 (1.95%) Wi-Fi
8 18 (1.46%) TCP/IP
9 11 (0.90%) Network Security
10 10 (0.81%) Broadband
10 10 (0.81%) Wireless
11 9 (0.73%) VoIP
12 8 (0.65%) Cisco IOS
12 8 (0.65%) Internet
13 7 (0.57%) ADSL
13 7 (0.57%) Ethernet
13 7 (0.57%) VDSL
14 6 (0.49%) VLAN
15 5 (0.41%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (5.78%) Power BI
2 53 (4.31%) SQL Server
3 22 (1.79%) MySQL
4 20 (1.63%) GIS
5 19 (1.55%) Relational Database
6 17 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 14 (1.14%) Tableau
8 13 (1.06%) Crystal Reports
9 12 (0.98%) BusinessObjects
10 9 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
11 8 (0.65%) Metadata
12 6 (0.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.41%) Data Mining
13 5 (0.41%) EDRMS
13 5 (0.41%) Geospatial Data
13 5 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
14 4 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.33%) Data Warehouse
15 3 (0.24%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 20 (1.63%) JIRA
2 17 (1.38%) Git
3 3 (0.24%) Burp Suite
3 3 (0.24%) GitLab
3 3 (0.24%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.24%) Metasploit
3 3 (0.24%) Visual Studio
4 2 (0.16%) JUnit
4 2 (0.16%) Maven
4 2 (0.16%) Mockito
4 2 (0.16%) Selenium
4 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 2 (0.16%) Subversion
4 2 (0.16%) Vagrant
4 2 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
5 1 (0.081%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.081%) ERwin
5 1 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.081%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.081%) TestComplete
General
1 495 (40.28%) Social Skills
2 440 (35.80%) Retail
3 359 (29.21%) Manufacturing
4 276 (22.46%) Analytical Skills
5 232 (18.88%) Finance
6 76 (6.18%) Dutch Language
6 76 (6.18%) Finnish Language
6 76 (6.18%) Norwegian Language
7 47 (3.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 42 (3.42%) Law
9 40 (3.25%) Public Sector
10 39 (3.17%) Legal
11 36 (2.93%) Marketing
11 36 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
12 33 (2.69%) Digital Health
13 23 (1.87%) Banking
14 21 (1.71%) Electronics
15 19 (1.55%) Catalan Language
16 18 (1.46%) Games
17 16 (1.30%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 289 (23.52%) Trainer
2 159 (12.94%) Analyst
3 155 (12.61%) IT Support
4 153 (12.45%) Support Engineer
5 97 (7.89%) Technical Support
6 94 (7.65%) 2nd Line Support
7 86 (7.00%) Technical Engineer
8 83 (6.75%) Technical Support Engineer
9 82 (6.67%) Support Analyst
10 75 (6.10%) Developer
11 58 (4.72%) Senior
12 56 (4.56%) IT Engineer
13 54 (4.39%) Lead
14 49 (3.99%) IT Support Engineer
15 42 (3.42%) Support Technician
16 38 (3.09%) Applications Support
17 32 (2.60%) 1st/2nd Line Support
18 30 (2.44%) 1st Line Support
19 26 (2.12%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
19 26 (2.12%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.50%) .NET
2 29 (2.36%) REST
3 28 (2.28%) React
4 23 (1.87%) HTML
5 21 (1.71%) CSS
6 18 (1.46%) AngularJS
7 16 (1.30%) EDI
7 16 (1.30%) JSON
8 13 (1.06%) Razor View Engine
9 11 (0.90%) Middleware
10 10 (0.81%) Elastic Stack
11 9 (0.73%) Web Services
12 8 (0.65%) .NET Framework
12 8 (0.65%) SOAP
13 7 (0.57%) ASP.NET
14 6 (0.49%) LAMP
14 6 (0.49%) Oracle Fusion
14 6 (0.49%) RESTful
14 6 (0.49%) Vue
14 6 (0.49%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 286 (23.27%) Robotics
2 114 (9.28%) Onboarding
3 96 (7.81%) Driving Licence
4 55 (4.48%) FMCG
5 47 (3.82%) Analytical Mindset
6 44 (3.58%) Self-Motivation
7 38 (3.09%) Management Information System
8 19 (1.55%) SCADA
9 17 (1.38%) Operational Technology
10 15 (1.22%) EPoS
11 14 (1.14%) Security Posture
12 13 (1.06%) Data Centre
13 12 (0.98%) e-Learning
14 11 (0.90%) Data Structures
14 11 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
15 10 (0.81%) Product Ownership
16 9 (0.73%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 8 (0.65%) Cyber Threat
17 8 (0.65%) Cyberattack
17 8 (0.65%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 182 (14.81%) Windows
2 51 (4.15%) Windows Server
3 47 (3.82%) Windows 10
4 43 (3.50%) Linux
5 14 (1.14%) Mac OS
6 12 (0.98%) Android
7 6 (0.49%) Unix
8 5 (0.41%) Mac OS X
9 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.24%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.16%) VMS
11 2 (0.16%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.081%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.081%) Windows Mobile
12 1 (0.081%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 311 (25.31%) AI
2 294 (23.92%) Machine Learning
3 288 (23.43%) Red Team
4 285 (23.19%) Generative AI
4 285 (23.19%) LLM
5 256 (20.83%) Data Privacy
6 232 (18.88%) Continuous Improvement
7 223 (18.14%) Customer Service
8 133 (10.82%) ERP
9 122 (9.93%) CRM
10 115 (9.36%) Logistics
11 105 (8.54%) Mentoring
12 93 (7.57%) Project Management
13 92 (7.49%) Business Intelligence
14 89 (7.24%) Agile
15 85 (6.92%) Decision-Making
16 81 (6.59%) ITIL
17 70 (5.70%) Analytics
18 65 (5.29%) Incident Management
19 62 (5.04%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 185 (15.05%) SQL
2 92 (7.49%) C#
3 61 (4.96%) Python
4 48 (3.91%) JavaScript
5 34 (2.77%) PowerShell
6 26 (2.12%) Java
7 21 (1.71%) PHP
8 15 (1.22%) T-SQL
9 12 (0.98%) Bash
10 7 (0.57%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.49%) C++
11 6 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 6 (0.49%) R
12 4 (0.33%) Perl
12 4 (0.33%) VB.NET
13 3 (0.24%) C
13 3 (0.24%) Groovy
14 2 (0.16%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.16%) Delphi
14 2 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 453 (36.86%) Degree
2 72 (5.86%) Security Cleared
3 46 (3.74%) SC Cleared
4 33 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (1.38%) DBS Check
7 16 (1.30%) ACCA
7 16 (1.30%) CIMA
7 16 (1.30%) CISSP
8 15 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.22%) Master's Degree
9 13 (1.06%) MCP
10 11 (0.90%) HND
11 10 (0.81%) DV Cleared
12 9 (0.73%) HNC
13 8 (0.65%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 8 (0.65%) A+ Certification
13 8 (0.65%) CISM
13 8 (0.65%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.50%) QA
2 27 (2.20%) GDPR
3 18 (1.46%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.38%) SLA
5 16 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 9 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (0.65%) NIST
8 7 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 6 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.49%) PMO
10 5 (0.41%) ISO 9001
11 4 (0.33%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.16%) COBIT
12 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.16%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.081%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.081%) IEC 61131
13 1 (0.081%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 1 (0.081%) ISO/IEC 19770
13 1 (0.081%) WCAG
System Software
1 125 (10.17%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (1.46%) Docker
4 14 (1.14%) Hyper-V
4 14 (1.14%) vSphere
5 10 (0.81%) Firmware
6 8 (0.65%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.081%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.081%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 36 (2.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (1.46%) Terraform
3 11 (0.90%) Ansible
4 10 (0.81%) Kubernetes
5 3 (0.24%) FortiGate
5 3 (0.24%) Nagios
5 3 (0.24%) Nmap
6 1 (0.081%) AirWatch
6 1 (0.081%) Argo
6 1 (0.081%) Autotask
6 1 (0.081%) AWS Copilot
6 1 (0.081%) CA Service Virtualization
6 1 (0.081%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.081%) Grafana
6 1 (0.081%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.081%) SCCM
6 1 (0.081%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.081%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 304 (24.74%) Databricks
2 297 (24.17%) Google
3 285 (23.19%) Adobe
4 271 (22.05%) Microsoft
5 83 (6.75%) SAP
6 51 (4.15%) Salesforce
7 49 (3.99%) Cisco
8 36 (2.93%) Oracle
9 23 (1.87%) VMware
10 20 (1.63%) Juniper
11 12 (0.98%) ServiceNow
12 11 (0.90%) Dell
12 11 (0.90%) HubSpot
12 11 (0.90%) Splunk
13 9 (0.73%) Infor
13 9 (0.73%) McAfee
13 9 (0.73%) Zoho
14 8 (0.65%) 3PAR
14 8 (0.65%) Apple
15 7 (0.57%) BT