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

6 months to
2 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 1,440 1,205 1,436
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 9.13% 21.43% 14.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.01% 24.67% 18.46%
Number of salaries quoted 980 684 502
10th Percentile £27,279 £25,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,188 £29,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £37,750 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.58% -21.35% -2.04%
75th Percentile £56,250 £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 11,067 4,884 7,777
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 70.17% 86.84% 79.92%
Number of salaries quoted 7,838 2,826 3,687
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,356 £46,375 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.74% -7.25% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £77,700
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 2 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 2 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 -7 812 £42,500 - 795
East Midlands -7 626 £42,000 +29.23% 487
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 (4.86%) SharePoint
2 42 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.97%) IIS
4 10 (0.69%) CMS
5 8 (0.56%) 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 (8.61%) Microsoft Office
2 103 (7.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.83%) Spreadsheet
4 11 (0.76%) Simulink
5 9 (0.63%) 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%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.069%) SketchUp
Business Applications
1 19 (1.32%) 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 (0.63%) 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%) Line 50
10 4 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Cash Management
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 265 (18.40%) Microsoft 365
2 244 (16.94%) Azure
3 133 (9.24%) Power Platform
4 97 (6.74%) Entra ID
5 82 (5.69%) AWS
6 57 (3.96%) SaaS
7 41 (2.85%) Azure DevOps
8 36 (2.50%) Dynamics 365
9 23 (1.60%) GitHub
9 23 (1.60%) Power Automate
10 21 (1.46%) OneDrive
11 20 (1.39%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
13 18 (1.25%) PowerApps
14 16 (1.11%) GCP
14 16 (1.11%) Microsoft Copilot
15 13 (0.90%) Google Analytics
15 13 (0.90%) PaaS
16 11 (0.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 78 (5.42%) DNS
2 64 (4.44%) Firewall
3 63 (4.38%) DHCP
4 61 (4.24%) VPN
5 52 (3.61%) TCP/IP
6 34 (2.36%) Wireless
7 32 (2.22%) VLAN
8 31 (2.15%) WAN
9 30 (2.08%) LAN
10 28 (1.94%) Wi-Fi
11 20 (1.39%) Network Security
12 16 (1.11%) VoIP
13 12 (0.83%) Internet
14 9 (0.63%) Modbus
14 9 (0.63%) 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
1 123 (8.54%) Power BI
2 57 (3.96%) SQL Server
3 30 (2.08%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
4 26 (1.81%) Tableau
5 22 (1.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 20 (1.39%) Power Query
7 19 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
8 16 (1.11%) Electronic Patient Records
9 14 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 13 (0.90%) MySQL
11 12 (0.83%) Data Mining
12 11 (0.76%) Crystal Reports
12 11 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
13 10 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
14 9 (0.63%) Data Lake
14 9 (0.63%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.56%) 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 (0.63%) Eclipse
5 8 (0.56%) GitLab
5 8 (0.56%) 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 (51.94%) Social Skills
2 421 (29.24%) Analytical Skills
3 247 (17.15%) Manufacturing
4 229 (15.90%) Finance
5 132 (9.17%) Organisational Skills
6 109 (7.57%) Retail
7 82 (5.69%) Marketing
8 66 (4.58%) Public Sector
9 55 (3.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 54 (3.75%) Electronics
11 41 (2.85%) Legal
12 40 (2.78%) Law
13 38 (2.64%) Automotive
14 29 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
15 23 (1.60%) 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
1 189 (13.13%) Analyst
2 157 (10.90%) IT Support
3 146 (10.14%) Support Engineer
4 119 (8.26%) Senior
5 113 (7.85%) Developer
6 87 (6.04%) IT Engineer
7 84 (5.83%) Consultant
8 83 (5.76%) Lead
9 76 (5.28%) Technical Support
10 65 (4.51%) IT Support Engineer
10 65 (4.51%) Technical Engineer
11 64 (4.44%) Support Analyst
12 63 (4.38%) Technical Support Engineer
13 59 (4.10%) Support Technician
14 51 (3.54%) IT Technician
15 43 (2.99%) Data Analyst
16 41 (2.85%) IT Support Technician
17 40 (2.78%) IT Manager
18 37 (2.57%) Administrator
19 32 (2.22%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (4.03%) REST
2 53 (3.68%) .NET
3 35 (2.43%) React
4 30 (2.08%) Spring
5 27 (1.88%) Spring Boot
6 26 (1.81%) SOAP
7 20 (1.39%) Node.js
8 18 (1.25%) CSS
8 18 (1.25%) HTML
9 17 (1.18%) Terraform
10 16 (1.11%) ISPF
10 16 (1.11%) RESTful
11 14 (0.97%) Playwright
12 12 (0.83%) AngularJS
12 12 (0.83%) EDI
12 12 (0.83%) JSON
12 12 (0.83%) XML
13 11 (0.76%) Middleware
13 11 (0.76%) SAP Fiori
14 9 (0.63%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 169 (11.74%) Driving Licence
2 108 (7.50%) Onboarding
3 84 (5.83%) Management Information System
4 73 (5.07%) Self-Motivation
5 50 (3.47%) Enterprise Software
6 41 (2.85%) Robotics
7 28 (1.94%) NHS
8 24 (1.67%) 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
1 252 (17.50%) Windows
2 91 (6.32%) Windows Server
3 78 (5.42%) Linux
4 43 (2.99%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.11%) Android
6 11 (0.76%) Apple iOS
6 11 (0.76%) Mac OS
7 10 (0.69%) Unix
8 7 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.35%) OpenVMS
10 4 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.28%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Solaris
11 3 (0.21%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.14%) Debian
13 1 (0.069%) AIX
13 1 (0.069%) CentOS
13 1 (0.069%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.069%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 418 (29.03%) Continuous Improvement
2 291 (20.21%) Customer Service
3 188 (13.06%) Decision-Making
4 174 (12.08%) Analytics
5 168 (11.67%) Agile
6 144 (10.00%) Mentoring
7 136 (9.44%) ERP
8 133 (9.24%) Business Intelligence
9 126 (8.75%) Collaborative Working
10 123 (8.54%) Cybersecurity
11 116 (8.06%) Stakeholder Management
12 110 (7.64%) Project Delivery
13 103 (7.15%) AI
14 99 (6.88%) Roadmaps
15 98 (6.81%) Project Management
16 96 (6.67%) Service Delivery
17 94 (6.53%) ITIL
18 92 (6.39%) CRM
19 88 (6.11%) Validation
20 87 (6.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 224 (15.56%) SQL
2 103 (7.15%) Python
3 71 (4.93%) Java
4 56 (3.89%) PowerShell
5 49 (3.40%) JavaScript
6 40 (2.78%) C#
7 26 (1.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.53%) C
9 21 (1.46%) TypeScript
10 20 (1.39%) 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 (0.63%) ABAP
17 7 (0.49%) PHP
Qualifications
1 222 (15.42%) Degree
2 102 (7.08%) Security Cleared
3 86 (5.97%) SC Cleared
4 46 (3.19%) HNC
5 45 (3.13%) HND
6 25 (1.74%) Azure Certification
7 24 (1.67%) DBS Check
8 22 (1.53%) Microsoft Certification
9 19 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
10 16 (1.11%) NVQ Level 3
11 14 (0.97%) City & Guilds
11 14 (0.97%) PMI Certification
12 13 (0.90%) CCNA
13 12 (0.83%) NVQ Level 4
14 10 (0.69%) ACCA
15 9 (0.63%) CISSP
16 8 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
16 8 (0.56%) Chartered Engineer
17 7 (0.49%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (4.44%) Data Quality
2 57 (3.96%) GDPR
3 52 (3.61%) QA
4 41 (2.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 41 (2.85%) SLA
5 31 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 23 (1.60%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.53%) ISO 9001
8 10 (0.69%) PCI DSS
9 9 (0.63%) ISO 14001
10 8 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
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 (11.46%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.75%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.88%) Docker
5 21 (1.46%) Firmware
6 13 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
6 13 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
7 8 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.35%) vSphere
9 2 (0.14%) Samba
9 2 (0.14%) XenApp
10 1 (0.069%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 50 (3.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (1.60%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.69%) SCCM
4 9 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.56%) Ansible
6 7 (0.49%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.28%) Backup Exec
7 4 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.28%) Grafana
7 4 (0.28%) Nmap
7 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.21%) Control-M
8 3 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.21%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.21%) Puppet
8 3 (0.21%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.14%) WSUS
10 1 (0.069%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.069%) Nagios
10 1 (0.069%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 445 (30.90%) Microsoft
2 67 (4.65%) SAP
3 42 (2.92%) Workday
4 41 (2.85%) Oracle
5 40 (2.78%) VMware
6 38 (2.64%) Google
7 33 (2.29%) Cisco
8 32 (2.22%) ServiceNow
9 27 (1.88%) Sage
10 21 (1.46%) Salesforce
11 20 (1.39%) IBM
12 18 (1.25%) Cognos
13 15 (1.04%) Allen-Bradley
14 14 (0.97%) Databricks
15 13 (0.90%) JD Edwards
15 13 (0.90%) Siemens
16 12 (0.83%) Apple
17 11 (0.76%) EMC
17 11 (0.76%) HubSpot
18 10 (0.69%) Broadcom