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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 982 1,131 1,976
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.76% 22.27% 14.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.13% 25.21% 18.08%
Number of salaries quoted 729 647 1,158
10th Percentile £26,460 £25,267 £25,000
25th Percentile £29,750 £29,750 £28,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +6.25% -15.79%
75th Percentile £57,250 £57,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £66,500 £67,500 £70,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -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 8,821 4,487 10,927
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.70% 88.36% 78.99%
Number of salaries quoted 6,202 2,590 7,516
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 £81,250 £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 26 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 26 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 -9 563 £42,500 -5.56% 220
East Midlands -10 416 £35,000 -4.11% 187
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 62 (6.31%) SharePoint
2 42 (4.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.12%) CMS
4 10 (1.02%) 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 83 (8.45%) Microsoft Office
2 65 (6.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.51%) Fusion 360
5 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.10%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.10%) Simulink
6 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 12 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.92%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 7 (0.71%) iTrent
4 7 (0.71%) SAP Business One
5 5 (0.51%) Magento
5 5 (0.51%) Q-Pulse
5 5 (0.51%) Shopify
6 4 (0.41%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 4 (0.41%) Line 50
6 4 (0.41%) Sage 50
6 4 (0.41%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.31%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.10%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 208 (21.18%) Microsoft 365
2 181 (18.43%) Azure
3 94 (9.57%) Power Platform
4 79 (8.04%) AWS
5 74 (7.54%) Entra ID
6 32 (3.26%) SaaS
7 26 (2.65%) Serverless
8 22 (2.24%) Amazon S3
9 20 (2.04%) AWS Lambda
9 20 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
10 17 (1.73%) Power Automate
11 14 (1.43%) OneDrive
11 14 (1.43%) PowerApps
12 13 (1.32%) Google Workspace
13 11 (1.12%) GCP
13 11 (1.12%) Microsoft Purview
14 10 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
15 9 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
15 9 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
16 8 (0.81%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 58 (5.91%) Firewall
2 56 (5.70%) DNS
3 52 (5.30%) VPN
4 50 (5.09%) DHCP
5 35 (3.56%) TCP/IP
6 33 (3.36%) WAN
7 29 (2.95%) Wireless
8 24 (2.44%) VLAN
9 23 (2.34%) LAN
10 21 (2.14%) Wi-Fi
11 14 (1.43%) Network Security
11 14 (1.43%) SD-WAN
12 13 (1.32%) VoIP
13 12 (1.22%) Internet
14 8 (0.81%) MQTT
15 5 (0.51%) Skype
16 4 (0.41%) Bluetooth
16 4 (0.41%) LoRaWAN
16 4 (0.41%) SSL
17 3 (0.31%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (8.86%) Power BI
2 37 (3.77%) SQL Server
3 20 (2.04%) MySQL
3 20 (2.04%) Tableau
4 19 (1.93%) Power Query
5 13 (1.32%) Amazon Redshift
5 13 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 12 (1.22%) Azure SQL Database
6 12 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (1.22%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 8 (0.81%) DynamoDB
9 7 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (0.71%) MongoDB
9 7 (0.71%) Star Schema
10 6 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.51%) Data Mining
11 5 (0.51%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.41%) FileMaker
12 4 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 19 (1.93%) Git
2 12 (1.22%) JIRA
3 7 (0.71%) JUnit
4 6 (0.61%) Burp Suite
4 6 (0.61%) Maven
4 6 (0.61%) Metasploit
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%) Bugzilla
8 1 (0.10%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.10%) Postman
8 1 (0.10%) TestRail
8 1 (0.10%) Yeoman
General
1 452 (46.03%) Social Skills
2 303 (30.86%) Analytical Skills
3 169 (17.21%) Finance
4 132 (13.44%) Manufacturing
5 62 (6.31%) Organisational Skills
6 60 (6.11%) Retail
7 46 (4.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 42 (4.28%) Marketing
9 39 (3.97%) Legal
10 33 (3.36%) Law
10 33 (3.36%) Public Sector
11 27 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (2.14%) Electronics
13 19 (1.93%) Automotive
14 18 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
15 12 (1.22%) Banking
16 11 (1.12%) Games
16 11 (1.12%) Telecoms
17 10 (1.02%) Investment Banking
18 9 (0.92%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 155 (15.78%) Analyst
2 145 (14.77%) Support Engineer
3 120 (12.22%) IT Support
4 93 (9.47%) Senior
5 89 (9.06%) Developer
6 83 (8.45%) IT Engineer
7 74 (7.54%) Technical Support
8 67 (6.82%) Technical Engineer
8 67 (6.82%) Technical Support Engineer
9 66 (6.72%) IT Support Engineer
10 56 (5.70%) Support Technician
11 49 (4.99%) Lead
12 39 (3.97%) IT Technician
13 38 (3.87%) IT Manager
14 37 (3.77%) Data Analyst
15 36 (3.67%) Support Analyst
16 35 (3.56%) IT Support Technician
17 34 (3.46%) Consultant
18 31 (3.16%) Senior Analyst
19 26 (2.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.38%) React
2 34 (3.46%) REST
3 31 (3.16%) Node.js
4 24 (2.44%) .NET
5 21 (2.14%) CSS
5 21 (2.14%) HTML
6 13 (1.32%) Spring
7 11 (1.12%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.02%) RESTful
8 10 (1.02%) Spring Boot
9 9 (0.92%) Middleware
10 7 (0.71%) 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%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 92 (9.37%) Driving Licence
2 50 (5.09%) Onboarding
3 47 (4.79%) Management Information System
4 45 (4.58%) Self-Motivation
5 16 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (1.43%) IoT
6 14 (1.43%) Security Posture
7 13 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
8 11 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
8 11 (1.12%) Social Media
8 11 (1.12%) Virtual Team
9 9 (0.92%) Data Structures
9 9 (0.92%) Mobile App
9 9 (0.92%) Replication
9 9 (0.92%) SCADA
10 8 (0.81%) Data Centre
10 8 (0.81%) FMCG
10 8 (0.81%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (0.81%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 162 (16.50%) Windows
2 64 (6.52%) Windows Server
3 59 (6.01%) Linux
4 50 (5.09%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.22%) Android
6 11 (1.12%) Apple iOS
7 10 (1.02%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.71%) Debian
9 6 (0.61%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.51%) CentOS
10 5 (0.51%) OpenVMS
10 5 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.51%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.41%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.41%) Unix
11 4 (0.41%) VMS
12 3 (0.31%) SUSE
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (25.25%) Continuous Improvement
2 166 (16.90%) Customer Service
3 136 (13.85%) Decision-Making
4 122 (12.42%) Agile
5 118 (12.02%) Analytics
6 112 (11.41%) Mentoring
7 107 (10.90%) Collaborative Working
8 95 (9.67%) ERP
9 94 (9.57%) ITIL
10 90 (9.16%) Business Intelligence
11 88 (8.96%) Cybersecurity
12 85 (8.66%) Service Delivery
13 74 (7.54%) AI
14 69 (7.03%) Roadmaps
15 65 (6.62%) Process Improvement
16 63 (6.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 61 (6.21%) Computer Science
18 58 (5.91%) CRM
19 55 (5.60%) Coaching
19 55 (5.60%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 168 (17.11%) SQL
2 84 (8.55%) Python
3 43 (4.38%) PowerShell
4 36 (3.67%) Java
5 29 (2.95%) JavaScript
6 27 (2.75%) C#
7 23 (2.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 17 (1.73%) Ladder Logic
8 17 (1.73%) TypeScript
9 15 (1.53%) Bash
10 13 (1.32%) PHP
10 13 (1.32%) VBA
11 11 (1.12%) C
12 8 (0.81%) C++
12 8 (0.81%) R
13 7 (0.71%) PL/SQL
13 7 (0.71%) RPG
13 7 (0.71%) T-SQL
14 6 (0.61%) ABAP
14 6 (0.61%) Go
Qualifications
1 140 (14.26%) Degree
2 77 (7.84%) Security Cleared
3 58 (5.91%) SC Cleared
4 32 (3.26%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (2.55%) DBS Check
6 20 (2.04%) CISSP
7 19 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (1.63%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (1.43%) Azure Certification
9 14 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.12%) A+ Certification
11 10 (1.02%) ACCA
11 10 (1.02%) CIMA
12 8 (0.81%) BPSS Clearance
12 8 (0.81%) PMI Certification
13 7 (0.71%) CCNA
13 7 (0.71%) CISA
13 7 (0.71%) SSCP
14 6 (0.61%) CCSP
14 6 (0.61%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.58%) Data Quality
2 41 (4.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (3.77%) Cyber Essentials
4 36 (3.67%) QA
5 31 (3.16%) GDPR
6 23 (2.34%) SLA
7 21 (2.14%) NIST
8 16 (1.63%) Accessibility
9 14 (1.43%) ISO 9001
10 13 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 9 (0.92%) ISO 14001
12 8 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
13 7 (0.71%) GRC
13 7 (0.71%) PCI DSS
14 5 (0.51%) COSHH
14 5 (0.51%) GMP
14 5 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 4 (0.41%) HIPAA
15 4 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 3 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 127 (12.93%) Active Directory
2 36 (3.67%) Hyper-V
3 31 (3.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (2.24%) Docker
5 9 (0.92%) Firmware
5 9 (0.92%) vSphere
6 5 (0.51%) Embedded Firmware
6 5 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.20%) Samba
9 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 44 (4.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (2.14%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.32%) Terraform
4 9 (0.92%) Ansible
5 6 (0.61%) Grafana
5 6 (0.61%) Nmap
6 5 (0.51%) Nagios
6 5 (0.51%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.41%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.41%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.41%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.31%) SCCM
8 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.20%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.20%) Puppet
10 1 (0.10%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.10%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 274 (27.90%) Microsoft
2 39 (3.97%) VMware
3 35 (3.56%) SAP
4 28 (2.85%) Cisco
5 18 (1.83%) Sage
6 17 (1.73%) Oracle
7 16 (1.63%) Google
7 16 (1.63%) IBM
7 16 (1.63%) Salesforce
8 12 (1.22%) Cognos
8 12 (1.22%) Dell
8 12 (1.22%) Workday
9 11 (1.12%) ServiceNow
10 10 (1.02%) Red Hat
10 10 (1.02%) SolarWinds
11 9 (0.92%) Databricks
12 8 (0.81%) HP
13 7 (0.71%) Apple
13 7 (0.71%) iManage
14 6 (0.61%) Veeam