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 7 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -13 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 903 1,241 824
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 11.48% 19.05% 15.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.11% 21.18% 17.61%
Number of salaries quoted 704 493 645
10th Percentile £25,913 £28,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £39,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £53,951 £63,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £79,500 £68,750
England median annual salary £45,497 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -17.28% - -

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 6,401 5,860 4,679
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 81.41% 89.96% 87.28%
Number of salaries quoted 3,542 2,565 3,848
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 7 January 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 7 January 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 -16 535 £42,735 -22.30% 214
East Midlands +1 367 £35,000 -2.10% 193
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 46 (5.09%) SharePoint
2 35 (3.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.44%) IIS
4 6 (0.66%) Apache
4 6 (0.66%) Confluence
4 6 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2007
5 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2010
5 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.11%) Appian
6 1 (0.11%) HCL Notes
6 1 (0.11%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.11%) SAS
6 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 90 (9.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 51 (5.65%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.22%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.00%) AutoCAD
5 9 (1.00%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.89%) SOLIDWORKS
7 7 (0.78%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.44%) CATIA
9 3 (0.33%) Trello
10 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.11%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.11%) Revit
10 1 (0.11%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 40 (4.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.00%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.78%) iTrent
4 4 (0.44%) SAP FI
5 3 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.33%) Shopify
6 2 (0.22%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.22%) SAP Business One
6 2 (0.22%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.22%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.11%) Cognos Controller
7 1 (0.11%) Dynamics GP
7 1 (0.11%) HFM
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle BPM
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 193 (21.37%) Azure
2 172 (19.05%) Microsoft 365
3 81 (8.97%) SaaS
4 71 (7.86%) AWS
5 69 (7.64%) Power Platform
6 50 (5.54%) Entra ID
7 30 (3.32%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (1.88%) Serverless
9 16 (1.77%) GCP
10 15 (1.66%) Power Automate
11 13 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (1.22%) Amazon S3
12 11 (1.22%) OneDrive
12 11 (1.22%) PowerApps
13 9 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
13 9 (1.00%) GitHub
14 8 (0.89%) Cloud Computing
15 7 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (0.78%) OCI
16 5 (0.55%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 66 (7.31%) DNS
2 62 (6.87%) DHCP
3 43 (4.76%) Remote Desktop
4 38 (4.21%) VPN
5 33 (3.65%) Firewall
6 32 (3.54%) WAN
7 25 (2.77%) LAN
8 19 (2.10%) Internet
9 17 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (1.33%) VLAN
10 12 (1.33%) Wireless
11 11 (1.22%) TCP/IP
11 11 (1.22%) VoIP
12 9 (1.00%) ADSL
12 9 (1.00%) Ethernet
12 9 (1.00%) VDSL
13 8 (0.89%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.78%) Broadband
15 5 (0.55%) Bluetooth
15 5 (0.55%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (6.20%) Power BI
2 53 (5.87%) SQL Server
3 18 (1.99%) MySQL
3 18 (1.99%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.66%) GIS
4 15 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.66%) PostgreSQL
5 12 (1.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 10 (1.11%) Tableau
7 7 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
7 7 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (0.66%) Crystal Reports
8 6 (0.66%) Metadata
9 5 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
9 5 (0.55%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.44%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.33%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 31 (3.43%) JIRA
2 22 (2.44%) Git
3 8 (0.89%) GitLab
3 8 (0.89%) JUnit
4 7 (0.78%) Burp Suite
4 7 (0.78%) Metasploit
4 7 (0.78%) Subversion
5 6 (0.66%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.66%) Mockito
6 5 (0.55%) Maven
7 4 (0.44%) Selenium
8 3 (0.33%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 3 (0.33%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.22%) Vagrant
9 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.11%) Babel
10 1 (0.11%) Balsamiq
10 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.11%) webpack
General
1 460 (50.94%) Social Skills
2 279 (30.90%) Analytical Skills
3 206 (22.81%) Finance
4 138 (15.28%) Retail
5 81 (8.97%) Manufacturing
6 50 (5.54%) Law
7 45 (4.98%) Organisational Skills
8 43 (4.76%) Marketing
9 41 (4.54%) Legal
10 37 (4.10%) Public Sector
11 26 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 24 (2.66%) Electronics
13 19 (2.10%) Digital Health
13 19 (2.10%) Telecoms
14 18 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
16 14 (1.55%) Fire and Rescue
17 13 (1.44%) Banking
18 12 (1.33%) Aerospace
18 12 (1.33%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 158 (17.50%) Support Engineer
2 153 (16.94%) IT Support
3 132 (14.62%) Analyst
4 89 (9.86%) IT Engineer
5 78 (8.64%) Developer
5 78 (8.64%) IT Support Engineer
6 77 (8.53%) Technical Support
7 73 (8.08%) 2nd Line Support
8 72 (7.97%) Lead
9 71 (7.86%) Support Analyst
10 67 (7.42%) Technical Engineer
11 64 (7.09%) Senior
11 64 (7.09%) Technical Support Engineer
12 43 (4.76%) Support Technician
13 38 (4.21%) Applications Support
14 35 (3.88%) Architect
15 32 (3.54%) Administrator
16 30 (3.32%) 1st/2nd Line Support
17 27 (2.99%) 1st Line Support
18 24 (2.66%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (3.88%) .NET
2 34 (3.77%) React
3 29 (3.21%) REST
4 28 (3.10%) HTML
5 26 (2.88%) CSS
6 17 (1.88%) AngularJS
6 17 (1.88%) Node.js
7 16 (1.77%) JSON
8 11 (1.22%) Razor View Engine
9 10 (1.11%) EDI
10 8 (0.89%) Middleware
10 8 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
10 8 (0.89%) RESTful
11 7 (0.78%) Vue
12 6 (0.66%) LAMP
12 6 (0.66%) Laravel
12 6 (0.66%) Spring
13 5 (0.55%) Web Services
14 4 (0.44%) ASP.NET
14 4 (0.44%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 112 (12.40%) Onboarding
2 107 (11.85%) Driving Licence
3 50 (5.54%) FMCG
4 46 (5.09%) Self-Motivation
5 42 (4.65%) Management Information System
6 41 (4.54%) Analytical Mindset
7 17 (1.88%) SCADA
8 15 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (1.55%) Security Posture
10 13 (1.44%) Operational Technology
10 13 (1.44%) Product Ownership
11 12 (1.33%) e-Learning
12 11 (1.22%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 10 (1.11%) Embedded Systems
13 10 (1.11%) Social Media
14 9 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
15 8 (0.89%) Data Centre
15 8 (0.89%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.89%) IoT
15 8 (0.89%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 156 (17.28%) Windows
2 57 (6.31%) Windows Server
3 41 (4.54%) Linux
4 29 (3.21%) Windows 10
5 11 (1.22%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.55%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.44%) Mac OS X
7 4 (0.44%) Unix
8 3 (0.33%) Android
9 2 (0.22%) VMS
9 2 (0.22%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Mobile
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (23.03%) Continuous Improvement
2 189 (20.93%) Customer Service
3 126 (13.95%) CRM
4 120 (13.29%) ERP
5 101 (11.18%) Agile
5 101 (11.18%) Project Management
6 97 (10.74%) Mentoring
7 90 (9.97%) Decision-Making
7 90 (9.97%) ITIL
8 85 (9.41%) Logistics
9 84 (9.30%) Business Intelligence
10 72 (7.97%) Analytics
11 68 (7.53%) Incident Management
12 64 (7.09%) Root Cause Analysis
13 60 (6.64%) Process Improvement
14 58 (6.42%) Analytical Thinking
15 57 (6.31%) E-Commerce
16 54 (5.98%) Computer Science
17 51 (5.65%) Roadmaps
18 50 (5.54%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 192 (21.26%) SQL
2 85 (9.41%) C#
3 66 (7.31%) Python
4 51 (5.65%) JavaScript
5 35 (3.88%) Java
6 30 (3.32%) PowerShell
7 23 (2.55%) PHP
8 16 (1.77%) T-SQL
9 11 (1.22%) C
10 10 (1.11%) TypeScript
11 9 (1.00%) Bash
12 7 (0.78%) C++
12 7 (0.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 6 (0.66%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.66%) R
14 5 (0.55%) Ladder Logic
15 4 (0.44%) Delphi
15 4 (0.44%) Perl
16 3 (0.33%) Groovy
16 3 (0.33%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 182 (20.16%) Degree
2 82 (9.08%) Security Cleared
3 57 (6.31%) SC Cleared
4 35 (3.88%) Computer Science Degree
4 35 (3.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (2.66%) DBS Check
6 18 (1.99%) ACCA
6 18 (1.99%) CIMA
6 18 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
6 18 (1.99%) Master's Degree
7 17 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
7 17 (1.88%) CISSP
8 15 (1.66%) MCP
9 11 (1.22%) CCNA
9 11 (1.22%) MCSE
10 10 (1.11%) AWS Certification
10 10 (1.11%) CompTIA Security+
11 9 (1.00%) DV Cleared
11 9 (1.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.00%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (6.09%) QA
2 26 (2.88%) Data Quality
2 26 (2.88%) GDPR
3 22 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 12 (1.33%) SLA
5 10 (1.11%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (1.00%) NIST
7 8 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (0.44%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 3 (0.33%) PMO
10 2 (0.22%) COBIT
10 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.22%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.22%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 118 (13.07%) Active Directory
2 20 (2.21%) Docker
3 17 (1.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.89%) vSphere
5 7 (0.78%) Firmware
5 7 (0.78%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (4.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (2.21%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.55%) Terraform
4 7 (0.78%) Nmap
5 5 (0.55%) Ansible
5 5 (0.55%) SCCM
6 3 (0.33%) Grafana
6 3 (0.33%) Nagios
7 2 (0.22%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.11%) Argo
8 1 (0.11%) Autotask
8 1 (0.11%) AWS Copilot
8 1 (0.11%) CA Service Virtualization
8 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.11%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 268 (29.68%) Microsoft
2 71 (7.86%) SAP
3 59 (6.53%) Oracle
4 38 (4.21%) Salesforce
5 35 (3.88%) Cisco
6 17 (1.88%) VMware
7 15 (1.66%) ServiceNow
8 12 (1.33%) Databricks
9 11 (1.22%) Google
9 11 (1.22%) Zoho
10 10 (1.11%) Sage
11 9 (1.00%) HubSpot
12 8 (0.89%) Meraki
13 7 (0.78%) Infor
13 7 (0.78%) QAD
14 6 (0.66%) Freshdesk
15 5 (0.55%) Epicor
15 5 (0.55%) Juniper
15 5 (0.55%) Panasonic
15 5 (0.55%) Samsung