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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -15 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 864 1,204 1,215
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 10.46% 19.40% 15.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.09% 21.27% 17.94%
Number of salaries quoted 683 482 968
10th Percentile £25,900 £28,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £30,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £51,126 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -26.65% +20.30% -19.05%
75th Percentile £53,951 £63,750 £58,750
90th Percentile £67,700 £82,500 £68,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.74%

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 6,602 5,660 6,772
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 79.94% 91.20% 86.09%
Number of salaries quoted 3,673 2,498 5,569
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £39,036 £34,000
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 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £61,425 £57,500
% change year-on-year -10.46% +6.83% -8.00%

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 1 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 1 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 -18 502 £42,500 -22.73% 309
East Midlands +1 361 £33,000 -5.71% 180
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 57 (6.60%) SharePoint
2 32 (3.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.62%) IIS
4 7 (0.81%) Confluence
5 6 (0.69%) Apache
5 6 (0.69%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2007
6 3 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.23%) CMS
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.12%) Appian
8 1 (0.12%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.12%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.12%) SAS
8 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 66 (7.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 45 (5.21%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.50%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.16%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (1.04%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.93%) SOLIDWORKS
7 7 (0.81%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.46%) CATIA
9 3 (0.35%) Trello
10 1 (0.12%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.12%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 33 (3.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (1.27%) iTrent
3 9 (1.04%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.35%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.23%) Q-Pulse
6 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.12%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.12%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.12%) SAP EWM
7 1 (0.12%) SAP WM
7 1 (0.12%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 190 (21.99%) Azure
2 178 (20.60%) Microsoft 365
3 80 (9.26%) SaaS
4 71 (8.22%) AWS
5 59 (6.83%) Power Platform
6 55 (6.37%) Entra ID
7 26 (3.01%) Dynamics 365
8 23 (2.66%) Serverless
9 17 (1.97%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.74%) GCP
11 14 (1.62%) Amazon S3
12 13 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (1.50%) PowerApps
13 12 (1.39%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (1.39%) OneDrive
14 9 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
15 8 (0.93%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.93%) Google Workspace
16 7 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.81%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 70 (8.10%) DNS
2 67 (7.75%) DHCP
3 42 (4.86%) VPN
4 38 (4.40%) Remote Desktop
5 32 (3.70%) WAN
6 29 (3.36%) Firewall
7 23 (2.66%) Internet
8 22 (2.55%) LAN
9 20 (2.31%) Wi-Fi
10 16 (1.85%) TCP/IP
11 14 (1.62%) Wireless
12 13 (1.50%) VLAN
12 13 (1.50%) VoIP
13 12 (1.39%) SD-WAN
14 9 (1.04%) ADSL
14 9 (1.04%) Ethernet
14 9 (1.04%) VDSL
15 6 (0.69%) Broadband
16 5 (0.58%) PBX
17 4 (0.46%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (6.02%) SQL Server
2 46 (5.32%) Power BI
3 17 (1.97%) MySQL
3 17 (1.97%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.74%) Oracle Reports
4 15 (1.74%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (1.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 12 (1.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 10 (1.16%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (1.04%) Tableau
9 8 (0.93%) GIS
10 6 (0.69%) Crystal Reports
10 6 (0.69%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.69%) Metadata
11 5 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
12 4 (0.46%) BusinessObjects
12 4 (0.46%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.35%) Data Mining
13 3 (0.35%) Redis
Development Applications
1 31 (3.59%) JIRA
2 21 (2.43%) Git
3 9 (1.04%) JUnit
4 7 (0.81%) Burp Suite
4 7 (0.81%) GitLab
4 7 (0.81%) Metasploit
4 7 (0.81%) Mockito
5 6 (0.69%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.69%) Maven
5 6 (0.69%) Subversion
6 4 (0.46%) Selenium
7 3 (0.35%) Appcelerator Titanium
7 3 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.35%) 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%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 418 (48.38%) Social Skills
2 276 (31.94%) Analytical Skills
3 171 (19.79%) Finance
4 111 (12.85%) Retail
5 83 (9.61%) Manufacturing
6 49 (5.67%) Law
7 48 (5.56%) Organisational Skills
8 41 (4.75%) Legal
9 40 (4.63%) Marketing
10 38 (4.40%) Public Sector
11 25 (2.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 23 (2.66%) Electronics
13 18 (2.08%) Telecoms
14 16 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
15 14 (1.62%) Automotive
15 14 (1.62%) Banking
15 14 (1.62%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (1.39%) Aerospace
17 8 (0.93%) Games
18 7 (0.81%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 166 (19.21%) IT Support
2 164 (18.98%) Support Engineer
3 118 (13.66%) Analyst
4 107 (12.38%) IT Engineer
5 95 (11.00%) IT Support Engineer
6 79 (9.14%) Developer
7 78 (9.03%) Lead
8 75 (8.68%) Technical Support
9 64 (7.41%) Senior
9 64 (7.41%) Technical Engineer
10 61 (7.06%) Support Analyst
10 61 (7.06%) Technical Support Engineer
11 60 (6.94%) 2nd Line Support
12 43 (4.98%) Support Technician
13 35 (4.05%) Administrator
13 35 (4.05%) Applications Support
14 32 (3.70%) 1st/2nd Line Support
15 30 (3.47%) Architect
16 26 (3.01%) Full-Stack Developer
17 21 (2.43%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.51%) React
2 32 (3.70%) .NET
3 30 (3.47%) REST
4 28 (3.24%) HTML
5 27 (3.13%) CSS
6 22 (2.55%) Node.js
7 16 (1.85%) AngularJS
7 16 (1.85%) JSON
8 11 (1.27%) Razor View Engine
9 7 (0.81%) Middleware
9 7 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
9 7 (0.81%) RESTful
9 7 (0.81%) Vue
10 6 (0.69%) LAMP
10 6 (0.69%) Laravel
10 6 (0.69%) Spring
11 5 (0.58%) EDI
11 5 (0.58%) Web Services
12 4 (0.46%) SOAP
12 4 (0.46%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 110 (12.73%) Onboarding
2 108 (12.50%) Driving Licence
3 48 (5.56%) Management Information System
4 44 (5.09%) Self-Motivation
5 40 (4.63%) Analytical Mindset
6 33 (3.82%) FMCG
7 14 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.50%) Product Ownership
8 13 (1.50%) Social Media
9 12 (1.39%) Operational Technology
10 11 (1.27%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.16%) e-Learning
11 10 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 9 (1.04%) IoT
13 8 (0.93%) Data Structures
13 8 (0.93%) Embedded Systems
14 7 (0.81%) EPoS
14 7 (0.81%) SCADA
14 7 (0.81%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 154 (17.82%) Windows
2 58 (6.71%) Windows Server
3 38 (4.40%) Linux
4 26 (3.01%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.39%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.46%) Android
7 4 (0.46%) Unix
8 3 (0.35%) Debian
8 3 (0.35%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.23%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.12%) VMS
10 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (21.99%) Customer Service
2 179 (20.72%) Continuous Improvement
3 118 (13.66%) CRM
4 112 (12.96%) ERP
5 101 (11.69%) Project Management
6 97 (11.23%) Agile
7 94 (10.88%) Mentoring
8 91 (10.53%) Decision-Making
9 85 (9.84%) ITIL
10 75 (8.68%) Business Intelligence
11 70 (8.10%) Analytics
12 57 (6.60%) Root Cause Analysis
13 56 (6.48%) Incident Management
14 55 (6.37%) Analytical Thinking
15 53 (6.13%) Logistics
16 52 (6.02%) Change Management
16 52 (6.02%) E-Commerce
16 52 (6.02%) Process Improvement
17 50 (5.79%) Migration
17 50 (5.79%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 180 (20.83%) SQL
2 77 (8.91%) C#
3 62 (7.18%) Python
4 53 (6.13%) JavaScript
5 34 (3.94%) Java
5 34 (3.94%) PowerShell
6 22 (2.55%) PHP
7 15 (1.74%) T-SQL
8 13 (1.50%) C
9 10 (1.16%) Bash
9 10 (1.16%) TypeScript
10 7 (0.81%) Ladder Logic
10 7 (0.81%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.81%) R
11 5 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.46%) C++
12 4 (0.46%) Delphi
13 3 (0.35%) Perl
13 3 (0.35%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.23%) XAML
Qualifications
1 169 (19.56%) Degree
2 73 (8.45%) Security Cleared
3 53 (6.13%) SC Cleared
4 32 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (2.66%) DBS Check
7 19 (2.20%) Master's Degree
8 18 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
10 15 (1.74%) CISSP
11 11 (1.27%) ACCA
11 11 (1.27%) CCNA
11 11 (1.27%) CIMA
12 10 (1.16%) A+ Certification
12 10 (1.16%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (1.16%) PMI Certification
13 9 (1.04%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.04%) CISMP
13 9 (1.04%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (1.04%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (6.83%) QA
2 31 (3.59%) Data Quality
3 29 (3.36%) GDPR
4 25 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.16%) SLA
6 9 (1.04%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (1.04%) NIST
7 8 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 5 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 4 (0.46%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.35%) PMO
12 2 (0.23%) COSHH
12 2 (0.23%) GMP
12 2 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.23%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 117 (13.54%) Active Directory
2 22 (2.55%) Docker
3 12 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.04%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.93%) Firmware
6 7 (0.81%) vSphere
7 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 41 (4.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.66%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.62%) Terraform
4 7 (0.81%) Nmap
5 6 (0.69%) Ansible
6 5 (0.58%) Nagios
6 5 (0.58%) SCCM
7 4 (0.46%) Grafana
8 3 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.23%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.23%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.12%) Argo
10 1 (0.12%) Autotask
10 1 (0.12%) AWS Copilot
10 1 (0.12%) CA Service Virtualization
10 1 (0.12%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 251 (29.05%) Microsoft
2 70 (8.10%) SAP
3 56 (6.48%) Oracle
4 38 (4.40%) Salesforce
5 36 (4.17%) Cisco
6 14 (1.62%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.39%) VMware
8 11 (1.27%) Google
9 10 (1.16%) Databricks
10 9 (1.04%) Meraki
10 9 (1.04%) Sage
11 8 (0.93%) Zoho
12 7 (0.81%) Epicor
12 7 (0.81%) Infor
13 6 (0.69%) Freshdesk
13 6 (0.69%) HP
13 6 (0.69%) HubSpot
13 6 (0.69%) SolarWinds
14 5 (0.58%) Panasonic
14 5 (0.58%) Samsung