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 3 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,443 1,204 1,426
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 9.15% 21.44% 14.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.03% 24.68% 18.46%
Number of salaries quoted 978 683 493
10th Percentile £27,393 £25,275 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £37,500 £49,008
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% -23.48% +0.02%
75th Percentile £56,325 £50,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £71,250 £65,000 £72,500
England median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% -4.55%

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 11,072 4,879 7,725
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 70.19% 86.88% 80.01%
Number of salaries quoted 7,837 2,822 3,643
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £36,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,356 £45,750 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.25% -8.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £78,650
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 -7 814 £42,500 - 870
East Midlands -7 627 £42,000 +29.23% 595
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 70 (4.85%) SharePoint
2 42 (2.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.97%) IIS
4 10 (0.69%) CMS
5 8 (0.55%) Confluence
6 6 (0.42%) CICS
7 5 (0.35%) WordPress
8 4 (0.28%) SAS
9 3 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.21%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.21%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.14%) Documentum
11 1 (0.069%) Apache
11 1 (0.069%) Appian
11 1 (0.069%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.069%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 1 (0.069%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.069%) Umbraco
Applications
1 124 (8.59%) Microsoft Office
2 103 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.83%) Spreadsheet
4 11 (0.76%) Simulink
5 9 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.49%) OrCAD
7 5 (0.35%) AutoCAD
7 5 (0.35%) EPLAN
8 4 (0.28%) Fusion 360
8 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
8 4 (0.28%) Revit
9 3 (0.21%) Navisworks
9 3 (0.21%) SOLIDWORKS
10 2 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
10 2 (0.14%) MS Visio
11 1 (0.069%) Autodesk Inventor
11 1 (0.069%) LaTeX
11 1 (0.069%) Notion
11 1 (0.069%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 18 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.90%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 13 (0.90%) Shopify
4 11 (0.76%) SAP Business One
5 10 (0.69%) NetSuite
6 9 (0.62%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 7 (0.49%) Magento
7 7 (0.49%) Sage X3
8 6 (0.42%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
9 5 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
9 5 (0.35%) Sage 50
9 5 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.21%) Infor M3
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Cash Management
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 266 (18.43%) Microsoft 365
2 243 (16.84%) Azure
3 130 (9.01%) Power Platform
4 97 (6.72%) Entra ID
5 83 (5.75%) AWS
6 58 (4.02%) SaaS
7 41 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
8 36 (2.49%) Dynamics 365
9 23 (1.59%) GitHub
9 23 (1.59%) Power Automate
10 22 (1.52%) OneDrive
11 21 (1.46%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
13 18 (1.25%) PowerApps
14 17 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
15 16 (1.11%) GCP
16 13 (0.90%) Google Analytics
16 13 (0.90%) PaaS
17 11 (0.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 79 (5.47%) DNS
2 66 (4.57%) Firewall
3 64 (4.44%) DHCP
4 62 (4.30%) VPN
5 53 (3.67%) TCP/IP
6 34 (2.36%) Wireless
7 33 (2.29%) VLAN
8 32 (2.22%) WAN
9 31 (2.15%) LAN
10 28 (1.94%) Wi-Fi
11 19 (1.32%) Network Security
12 15 (1.04%) VoIP
13 12 (0.83%) Internet
14 9 (0.62%) Modbus
14 9 (0.62%) Wireshark
15 7 (0.49%) Cisco IOS
15 7 (0.49%) Remote Desktop
16 6 (0.42%) SSL
17 5 (0.35%) Ethernet
17 5 (0.35%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 120 (8.32%) Power BI
2 58 (4.02%) SQL Server
3 30 (2.08%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.80%) Tableau
5 25 (1.73%) Data Warehouse
6 22 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 20 (1.39%) Power Query
8 19 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
9 16 (1.11%) Electronic Patient Records
10 13 (0.90%) MySQL
10 13 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 12 (0.83%) Data Mining
11 12 (0.83%) Oracle Reports
12 11 (0.76%) Crystal Reports
13 10 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
14 9 (0.62%) Data Lake
14 9 (0.62%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.55%) Db2
16 6 (0.42%) Amazon Redshift
16 6 (0.42%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 47 (3.26%) Git
2 32 (2.22%) JIRA
3 28 (1.94%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.62%) Eclipse
5 8 (0.55%) GitLab
5 8 (0.55%) LabVIEW
6 7 (0.49%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.49%) Postman
6 7 (0.49%) Selenium
7 6 (0.42%) JMeter
7 6 (0.42%) Maven
8 5 (0.35%) JUnit
8 5 (0.35%) SoapUI
8 5 (0.35%) VersionOne
8 5 (0.35%) Zephyr
9 4 (0.28%) Burp Suite
9 4 (0.28%) Metasploit
10 3 (0.21%) Mockito
10 3 (0.21%) Subversion
11 2 (0.14%) Ant
General
1 748 (51.84%) Social Skills
2 421 (29.18%) Analytical Skills
3 248 (17.19%) Manufacturing
4 230 (15.94%) Finance
5 134 (9.29%) Organisational Skills
6 109 (7.55%) Retail
7 81 (5.61%) Marketing
8 66 (4.57%) Public Sector
9 57 (3.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (3.67%) Electronics
11 41 (2.84%) Legal
12 40 (2.77%) Law
13 38 (2.63%) Automotive
14 28 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
15 23 (1.59%) Telecoms
16 21 (1.46%) Aerospace
16 21 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
17 20 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
18 12 (0.83%) Billing
19 11 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 187 (12.96%) Analyst
2 157 (10.88%) IT Support
3 147 (10.19%) Support Engineer
4 118 (8.18%) Senior
5 113 (7.83%) Developer
6 89 (6.17%) IT Engineer
7 84 (5.82%) Consultant
8 83 (5.75%) Lead
9 75 (5.20%) Technical Support
10 67 (4.64%) IT Support Engineer
11 64 (4.44%) Support Analyst
11 64 (4.44%) Technical Engineer
12 62 (4.30%) Technical Support Engineer
13 57 (3.95%) Support Technician
14 50 (3.47%) IT Technician
15 42 (2.91%) Data Analyst
16 40 (2.77%) IT Manager
17 39 (2.70%) IT Support Technician
18 38 (2.63%) Administrator
19 33 (2.29%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.09%) REST
2 53 (3.67%) .NET
3 35 (2.43%) React
4 30 (2.08%) Spring
5 27 (1.87%) SOAP
5 27 (1.87%) Spring Boot
6 20 (1.39%) Node.js
7 17 (1.18%) CSS
7 17 (1.18%) HTML
7 17 (1.18%) Terraform
8 16 (1.11%) ISPF
8 16 (1.11%) RESTful
9 14 (0.97%) Playwright
10 12 (0.83%) AngularJS
10 12 (0.83%) EDI
10 12 (0.83%) XML
11 11 (0.76%) JSON
11 11 (0.76%) Middleware
11 11 (0.76%) SAP Fiori
12 10 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 173 (11.99%) Driving Licence
2 108 (7.48%) Onboarding
3 84 (5.82%) Management Information System
4 74 (5.13%) Self-Motivation
5 50 (3.47%) Enterprise Software
6 41 (2.84%) Robotics
7 28 (1.94%) NHS
8 25 (1.73%) SCADA
9 21 (1.46%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (1.25%) Data Centre
10 18 (1.25%) Legacy Applications
10 18 (1.25%) Social Media
11 17 (1.18%) IoT
11 17 (1.18%) Mainframe
11 17 (1.18%) SystemC
12 16 (1.11%) CMDB
12 16 (1.11%) FMCG
12 16 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
12 16 (1.11%) Virtual Team
13 15 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 255 (17.67%) Windows
2 94 (6.51%) Windows Server
3 77 (5.34%) Linux
4 43 (2.98%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.11%) Android
6 12 (0.83%) Apple iOS
7 11 (0.76%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.62%) Unix
9 7 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.35%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.28%) VMS
11 4 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.21%) Solaris
12 3 (0.21%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.14%) Debian
14 1 (0.069%) AIX
14 1 (0.069%) CentOS
14 1 (0.069%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.069%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 419 (29.04%) Continuous Improvement
2 292 (20.24%) Customer Service
3 187 (12.96%) Decision-Making
4 171 (11.85%) Analytics
5 169 (11.71%) Agile
6 143 (9.91%) Mentoring
7 137 (9.49%) ERP
8 130 (9.01%) Business Intelligence
9 126 (8.73%) Collaborative Working
10 123 (8.52%) Cybersecurity
11 118 (8.18%) Stakeholder Management
12 112 (7.76%) Project Delivery
13 104 (7.21%) AI
14 98 (6.79%) Project Management
15 97 (6.72%) Roadmaps
16 96 (6.65%) Service Delivery
17 94 (6.51%) ITIL
18 91 (6.31%) CRM
19 89 (6.17%) Validation
20 88 (6.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 223 (15.45%) SQL
2 101 (7.00%) Python
3 71 (4.92%) Java
4 58 (4.02%) PowerShell
5 49 (3.40%) JavaScript
6 40 (2.77%) C#
7 25 (1.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.52%) C
9 21 (1.46%) TypeScript
10 19 (1.32%) Ladder Logic
11 17 (1.18%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.11%) COBOL
12 16 (1.11%) JCL
13 13 (0.90%) VBA
14 11 (0.76%) Bash
14 11 (0.76%) C++
14 11 (0.76%) MATLAB
15 10 (0.69%) R
16 9 (0.62%) ABAP
17 7 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 222 (15.38%) Degree
2 102 (7.07%) Security Cleared
3 86 (5.96%) SC Cleared
4 46 (3.19%) HNC
5 45 (3.12%) HND
6 26 (1.80%) Azure Certification
6 26 (1.80%) DBS Check
7 22 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
8 19 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (1.25%) NVQ Level 3
10 17 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.04%) City & Guilds
12 14 (0.97%) PMI Certification
13 13 (0.90%) CCNA
14 12 (0.83%) NVQ Level 4
15 10 (0.69%) ACCA
16 9 (0.62%) CISSP
17 8 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
17 8 (0.55%) Chartered Engineer
18 7 (0.49%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (4.44%) Data Quality
2 57 (3.95%) GDPR
3 51 (3.53%) QA
4 41 (2.84%) Cyber Essentials
5 40 (2.77%) SLA
6 31 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.73%) Accessibility
8 21 (1.46%) ISO 9001
9 10 (0.69%) PCI DSS
10 8 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.55%) ISO 14001
11 7 (0.49%) GRC
12 6 (0.42%) GMP
12 6 (0.42%) NIST
13 5 (0.35%) PMO
14 4 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
15 3 (0.21%) AQAP
15 3 (0.21%) COSHH
15 3 (0.21%) ISO 26262
15 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 165 (11.43%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.74%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.87%) Docker
5 21 (1.46%) Firmware
6 14 (0.97%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (0.35%) vSphere
10 2 (0.14%) Samba
10 2 (0.14%) XenApp
11 1 (0.069%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 52 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (1.59%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.76%) SCCM
4 9 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.55%) Ansible
6 7 (0.49%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.35%) Backup Exec
8 4 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
8 4 (0.28%) Grafana
8 4 (0.28%) Nmap
8 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.21%) Control-M
9 3 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.21%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.21%) Puppet
9 3 (0.21%) WhatsUp Gold
10 2 (0.14%) WSUS
11 1 (0.069%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.069%) Nagios
11 1 (0.069%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 446 (30.91%) Microsoft
2 66 (4.57%) SAP
3 45 (3.12%) Workday
4 42 (2.91%) Oracle
5 40 (2.77%) VMware
6 39 (2.70%) Google
7 33 (2.29%) Cisco
8 32 (2.22%) ServiceNow
9 26 (1.80%) Sage
10 22 (1.52%) Salesforce
11 20 (1.39%) IBM
12 18 (1.25%) Cognos
13 15 (1.04%) Allen-Bradley
14 13 (0.90%) Databricks
14 13 (0.90%) JD Edwards
14 13 (0.90%) Siemens
15 11 (0.76%) Apple
15 11 (0.76%) EMC
15 11 (0.76%) HubSpot
16 10 (0.69%) Broadcom