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 18 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,199 1,278 1,451
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.25% 22.05% 13.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.83% 25.92% 17.61%
Number of salaries quoted 847 746 706
10th Percentile £26,475 £25,259 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,500 £29,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,500 £43,364
Median % change year-on-year +10.39% -11.22% -12.60%
75th Percentile £57,125 £53,721 £58,747
90th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -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 10,134 4,930 8,239
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.73% 85.06% 77.45%
Number of salaries quoted 7,225 2,975 4,975
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -9 668 £42,500 -3.41% 531
East Midlands -9 528 £41,000 +17.14% 315
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 54 (4.50%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.08%) IIS
4 7 (0.58%) CMS
5 5 (0.42%) Confluence
5 5 (0.42%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.33%) CICS
7 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.25%) SAS
7 3 (0.25%) WordPress
8 2 (0.17%) Documentum
9 1 (0.083%) Apache
9 1 (0.083%) Appian
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2007
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.083%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.083%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 98 (8.17%) Microsoft Office
2 80 (6.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.42%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.33%) Simulink
7 3 (0.25%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.17%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.17%) Navisworks
8 2 (0.17%) OrCAD
8 2 (0.17%) Revit
9 1 (0.083%) LaTeX
9 1 (0.083%) MS Visio
9 1 (0.083%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.083%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 17 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.25%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 15 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.08%) SAP Business One
4 10 (0.83%) Shopify
5 9 (0.75%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 7 (0.58%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.58%) Sage X3
7 5 (0.42%) Magento
7 5 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
7 5 (0.42%) Sage 50
7 5 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.33%) Line 50
9 3 (0.25%) Infor CloudSuite
9 3 (0.25%) Infor LN
9 3 (0.25%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics GP
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics NAV
10 2 (0.17%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 239 (19.93%) Microsoft 365
2 224 (18.68%) Azure
3 125 (10.43%) Power Platform
4 86 (7.17%) AWS
5 85 (7.09%) Entra ID
6 51 (4.25%) SaaS
7 32 (2.67%) Dynamics 365
8 28 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (2.00%) Power Automate
10 18 (1.50%) PowerApps
11 16 (1.33%) GCP
11 16 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
11 16 (1.33%) Serverless
12 15 (1.25%) GitHub
13 14 (1.17%) Microsoft Purview
14 11 (0.92%) Amazon S3
14 11 (0.92%) AWS Lambda
14 11 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (0.83%) Google Workspace
16 9 (0.75%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 66 (5.50%) Firewall
2 65 (5.42%) DNS
3 51 (4.25%) DHCP
4 49 (4.09%) VPN
5 45 (3.75%) TCP/IP
6 33 (2.75%) Wireless
7 30 (2.50%) VLAN
8 22 (1.83%) WAN
9 20 (1.67%) LAN
10 19 (1.58%) Network Security
11 18 (1.50%) Wi-Fi
12 15 (1.25%) VoIP
13 8 (0.67%) MQTT
14 7 (0.58%) SSL
15 6 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
15 6 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.50%) SD-WAN
16 5 (0.42%) Internet
16 5 (0.42%) Skype
17 4 (0.33%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (9.59%) Power BI
2 50 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 24 (2.00%) Power Query
3 24 (2.00%) Tableau
4 20 (1.67%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (1.67%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 17 (1.42%) MySQL
7 16 (1.33%) Electronic Patient Records
8 14 (1.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
10 10 (0.83%) Crystal Reports
10 10 (0.83%) DynamoDB
11 9 (0.75%) Data Mining
12 8 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
13 7 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
13 7 (0.58%) MongoDB
14 6 (0.50%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
15 5 (0.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 43 (3.59%) Git
2 27 (2.25%) JIRA
3 18 (1.50%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.50%) Maven
5 5 (0.42%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.42%) JUnit
5 5 (0.42%) Postman
5 5 (0.42%) VersionOne
6 4 (0.33%) Burp Suite
6 4 (0.33%) GitLab
6 4 (0.33%) JMeter
6 4 (0.33%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.33%) Selenium
6 4 (0.33%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.25%) Mockito
7 3 (0.25%) Subversion
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.17%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 587 (48.96%) Social Skills
2 349 (29.11%) Analytical Skills
3 213 (17.76%) Finance
4 183 (15.26%) Manufacturing
5 82 (6.84%) Retail
6 75 (6.26%) Organisational Skills
7 61 (5.09%) Marketing
8 48 (4.00%) Public Sector
9 47 (3.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 45 (3.75%) Legal
11 43 (3.59%) Law
12 29 (2.42%) Electronics
12 29 (2.42%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (1.75%) Automotive
14 19 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.25%) Telecoms
16 12 (1.00%) Games
17 10 (0.83%) Banking
18 8 (0.67%) Investment Banking
18 8 (0.67%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 184 (15.35%) Analyst
2 137 (11.43%) IT Support
3 128 (10.68%) Support Engineer
4 115 (9.59%) Developer
5 104 (8.67%) Senior
6 79 (6.59%) Technical Support
7 70 (5.84%) Consultant
8 69 (5.75%) Technical Engineer
9 68 (5.67%) IT Engineer
9 68 (5.67%) Lead
10 67 (5.59%) Technical Support Engineer
11 60 (5.00%) Support Analyst
12 58 (4.84%) Support Technician
13 52 (4.34%) IT Technician
14 50 (4.17%) IT Support Engineer
15 49 (4.09%) IT Manager
16 43 (3.59%) IT Support Technician
17 40 (3.34%) Senior Analyst
18 38 (3.17%) Data Analyst
19 29 (2.42%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.50%) REST
2 40 (3.34%) React
3 39 (3.25%) .NET
4 25 (2.09%) Node.js
5 24 (2.00%) Spring
6 21 (1.75%) SOAP
6 21 (1.75%) Spring Boot
7 17 (1.42%) CSS
7 17 (1.42%) HTML
8 15 (1.25%) RESTful
9 13 (1.08%) AngularJS
10 12 (1.00%) Playwright
11 11 (0.92%) JSON
12 10 (0.83%) EDI
12 10 (0.83%) Middleware
12 10 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
13 9 (0.75%) ASP.NET
13 9 (0.75%) JDBC
13 9 (0.75%) OAuth
13 9 (0.75%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 122 (10.18%) Driving Licence
2 71 (5.92%) Management Information System
3 70 (5.84%) Onboarding
4 51 (4.25%) Self-Motivation
5 30 (2.50%) Enterprise Software
6 28 (2.34%) NHS
7 20 (1.67%) Robotics
8 18 (1.50%) IoT
9 17 (1.42%) SystemC
10 16 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
11 15 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.08%) Data Structures
13 12 (1.00%) Data Centre
13 12 (1.00%) Legacy Applications
13 12 (1.00%) SCADA
13 12 (1.00%) Virtual Team
14 11 (0.92%) Cloud Native
14 11 (0.92%) CMDB
14 11 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
14 11 (0.92%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 211 (17.60%) Windows
2 81 (6.76%) Linux
3 80 (6.67%) Windows Server
4 45 (3.75%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.33%) Android
6 13 (1.08%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.83%) Unix
8 9 (0.75%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.75%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.42%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.33%) CentOS
11 4 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.33%) VMS
12 3 (0.25%) Debian
12 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.17%) Solaris
13 2 (0.17%) SUSE
13 2 (0.17%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.083%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 355 (29.61%) Continuous Improvement
2 216 (18.02%) Customer Service
3 172 (14.35%) Decision-Making
4 159 (13.26%) Agile
5 154 (12.84%) Analytics
6 138 (11.51%) Mentoring
7 129 (10.76%) ERP
8 128 (10.68%) Collaborative Working
9 121 (10.09%) Business Intelligence
10 108 (9.01%) Cybersecurity
11 103 (8.59%) ITIL
12 98 (8.17%) AI
13 94 (7.84%) Service Delivery
14 87 (7.26%) Roadmaps
14 87 (7.26%) Stakeholder Management
15 77 (6.42%) CRM
16 76 (6.34%) Collaborative Culture
17 73 (6.09%) Project Delivery
18 68 (5.67%) Root Cause Analysis
19 67 (5.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 198 (16.51%) SQL
2 87 (7.26%) Python
3 56 (4.67%) Java
4 46 (3.84%) PowerShell
5 44 (3.67%) JavaScript
6 35 (2.92%) C#
7 30 (2.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 24 (2.00%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.75%) Ladder Logic
10 16 (1.33%) C
11 14 (1.17%) VBA
12 13 (1.08%) Bash
12 13 (1.08%) PHP
13 11 (0.92%) C++
14 10 (0.83%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.75%) ABAP
16 8 (0.67%) COBOL
16 8 (0.67%) JCL
17 7 (0.58%) RPG
18 6 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 172 (14.35%) Degree
2 84 (7.01%) Security Cleared
3 69 (5.75%) SC Cleared
4 28 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 23 (1.92%) Azure Certification
6 21 (1.75%) DBS Check
7 18 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
7 18 (1.50%) CISSP
8 16 (1.33%) HND
9 14 (1.17%) CompTIA Security+
9 14 (1.17%) HNC
9 14 (1.17%) PMI Certification
10 11 (0.92%) CCNA
11 10 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.58%) ACCA
12 7 (0.58%) CIMA
12 7 (0.58%) CISA
12 7 (0.58%) SSCP
13 6 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.50%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (4.67%) Data Quality
2 46 (3.84%) GDPR
3 41 (3.42%) QA
4 40 (3.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 37 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 37 (3.09%) SLA
6 21 (1.75%) Accessibility
7 19 (1.58%) ISO 9001
8 18 (1.50%) NIST
9 9 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 9 (0.75%) ISO 14001
10 7 (0.58%) GRC
10 7 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.33%) GMP
11 4 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.25%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.25%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.17%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 149 (12.43%) Active Directory
2 48 (4.00%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (2.25%) Docker
5 15 (1.25%) Firmware
6 10 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.75%) vSphere
8 7 (0.58%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.17%) Samba
10 2 (0.17%) XenApp
11 1 (0.083%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.083%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 43 (3.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (2.00%) Kubernetes
3 19 (1.58%) Terraform
4 10 (0.83%) Ansible
4 10 (0.83%) SCCM
5 5 (0.42%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.42%) Grafana
5 5 (0.42%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.33%) Galera Cluster
6 4 (0.33%) Nmap
6 4 (0.33%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.33%) Puppet
6 4 (0.33%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
7 3 (0.25%) Control-M
7 3 (0.25%) WhatsUp Gold
8 2 (0.17%) Nagios
8 2 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.17%) WSUS
9 1 (0.083%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 357 (29.77%) Microsoft
2 56 (4.67%) SAP
3 42 (3.50%) VMware
4 31 (2.59%) Cisco
5 30 (2.50%) Oracle
6 25 (2.09%) ServiceNow
7 24 (2.00%) Workday
8 22 (1.83%) IBM
9 21 (1.75%) Salesforce
10 20 (1.67%) Sage
11 18 (1.50%) Cognos
11 18 (1.50%) Google
12 12 (1.00%) Databricks
13 11 (0.92%) Dell
13 11 (0.92%) HubSpot
13 11 (0.92%) Sophos
14 10 (0.83%) Epicor
14 10 (0.83%) iManage
14 10 (0.83%) Red Hat
15 9 (0.75%) Apple