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

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,132 1,255 1,467
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.03% 21.92% 13.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.48% 25.73% 17.55%
Number of salaries quoted 816 724 734
10th Percentile £26,175 £25,267 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -11.55%
75th Percentile £56,363 £57,500 £57,875
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -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 9,860 4,877 8,359
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.95% 85.19% 77.79%
Number of salaries quoted 7,021 2,978 5,160
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,968 £27,500
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 £66,250 £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% - -11.29%

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 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 3 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 -10 630 £42,500 -5.56% 351
East Midlands -10 498 £38,500 +8.45% 236
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 51 (4.51%) SharePoint
2 37 (3.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (0.97%) IIS
4 9 (0.80%) CMS
5 5 (0.44%) Confluence
5 5 (0.44%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2007
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.27%) WordPress
7 2 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.18%) CICS
8 1 (0.088%) Apache
8 1 (0.088%) Appian
8 1 (0.088%) Documentum
8 1 (0.088%) Drupal
8 1 (0.088%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.088%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.088%) SAS
Applications
1 95 (8.39%) Microsoft Office
2 82 (7.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.44%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.18%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.088%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.088%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.088%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.088%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.088%) Revit
8 1 (0.088%) Simulink
8 1 (0.088%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (1.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.24%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 12 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
3 12 (1.06%) SAP Business One
4 9 (0.80%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 6 (0.53%) Sage X3
5 6 (0.53%) Shopify
6 5 (0.44%) Magento
6 5 (0.44%) Sage 50
7 4 (0.35%) Dynamics AX
7 4 (0.35%) Line 50
7 4 (0.35%) NetSuite
8 3 (0.27%) Q-Pulse
9 2 (0.18%) Infor CloudSuite
9 2 (0.18%) Infor LN
9 2 (0.18%) Infor M3
9 2 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.18%) SAP CO
9 2 (0.18%) SAP FI
9 2 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 234 (20.67%) Microsoft 365
2 196 (17.31%) Azure
3 117 (10.34%) Power Platform
4 83 (7.33%) AWS
5 80 (7.07%) Entra ID
6 44 (3.89%) SaaS
7 29 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
8 19 (1.68%) Power Automate
9 17 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (1.41%) Serverless
11 15 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
11 15 (1.33%) PowerApps
12 14 (1.24%) Microsoft Purview
13 13 (1.15%) Amazon S3
13 13 (1.15%) GCP
14 12 (1.06%) AWS Lambda
14 12 (1.06%) Google Workspace
15 11 (0.97%) GitHub
16 10 (0.88%) OneDrive
17 8 (0.71%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 64 (5.65%) Firewall
2 62 (5.48%) DNS
3 48 (4.24%) DHCP
3 48 (4.24%) VPN
4 42 (3.71%) TCP/IP
5 33 (2.92%) Wireless
6 28 (2.47%) VLAN
7 26 (2.30%) WAN
8 21 (1.86%) LAN
9 19 (1.68%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.59%) Network Security
11 14 (1.24%) VoIP
12 9 (0.80%) Internet
13 8 (0.71%) MQTT
13 8 (0.71%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.62%) SSL
15 6 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
16 5 (0.44%) Remote Desktop
16 5 (0.44%) Skype
17 4 (0.35%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (9.54%) Power BI
2 46 (4.06%) SQL Server
3 27 (2.39%) Power Query
4 23 (2.03%) Tableau
5 19 (1.68%) Data Warehouse
6 17 (1.50%) MySQL
7 16 (1.41%) Relational Database
7 16 (1.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 14 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
10 9 (0.80%) DynamoDB
10 9 (0.80%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.71%) Crystal Reports
12 7 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
12 7 (0.62%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.62%) PostgreSQL
13 6 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.53%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.44%) DTS
14 5 (0.44%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (3.00%) Git
2 24 (2.12%) JIRA
3 13 (1.15%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
4 5 (0.44%) JUnit
4 5 (0.44%) Maven
4 5 (0.44%) Postman
4 5 (0.44%) VersionOne
5 4 (0.35%) Burp Suite
5 4 (0.35%) GitLab
5 4 (0.35%) JMeter
5 4 (0.35%) Metasploit
5 4 (0.35%) Selenium
5 4 (0.35%) SoapUI
6 3 (0.27%) Mockito
6 3 (0.27%) Subversion
6 3 (0.27%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.18%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.088%) Gradle
General
1 555 (49.03%) Social Skills
2 333 (29.42%) Analytical Skills
3 197 (17.40%) Finance
4 171 (15.11%) Manufacturing
5 75 (6.63%) Retail
6 74 (6.54%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (4.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 46 (4.06%) Marketing
8 40 (3.53%) Public Sector
9 39 (3.45%) Law
10 38 (3.36%) Legal
11 27 (2.39%) Influencing Skills
12 24 (2.12%) Electronics
13 20 (1.77%) Automotive
13 20 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.33%) Telecoms
15 13 (1.15%) Games
16 11 (0.97%) Banking
17 9 (0.80%) Advertising
17 9 (0.80%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 186 (16.43%) Analyst
2 140 (12.37%) IT Support
3 134 (11.84%) Support Engineer
4 101 (8.92%) Developer
5 97 (8.57%) Senior
6 78 (6.89%) Technical Support
7 72 (6.36%) IT Engineer
8 70 (6.18%) Technical Engineer
9 68 (6.01%) Technical Support Engineer
10 64 (5.65%) Support Technician
11 62 (5.48%) Lead
12 56 (4.95%) Support Analyst
13 54 (4.77%) Consultant
13 54 (4.77%) IT Support Engineer
14 53 (4.68%) IT Technician
15 49 (4.33%) IT Manager
16 45 (3.98%) IT Support Technician
17 38 (3.36%) Data Analyst
17 38 (3.36%) Senior Analyst
18 28 (2.47%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.68%) REST
2 39 (3.45%) React
3 32 (2.83%) .NET
4 24 (2.12%) Node.js
5 21 (1.86%) SOAP
6 20 (1.77%) Spring
7 17 (1.50%) Spring Boot
8 15 (1.33%) CSS
8 15 (1.33%) HTML
9 13 (1.15%) RESTful
10 12 (1.06%) AngularJS
10 12 (1.06%) Playwright
11 10 (0.88%) JSON
11 10 (0.88%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.80%) JDBC
12 9 (0.80%) Middleware
12 9 (0.80%) OAuth
12 9 (0.80%) SAPUI5
13 7 (0.62%) ASP.NET
13 7 (0.62%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 112 (9.89%) Driving Licence
2 63 (5.57%) Management Information System
3 60 (5.30%) Onboarding
4 45 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
6 20 (1.77%) NHS
7 17 (1.50%) IoT
8 15 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
8 15 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
8 15 (1.33%) Robotics
9 13 (1.15%) Data Structures
10 12 (1.06%) Data Centre
10 12 (1.06%) Security Posture
10 12 (1.06%) Social Media
11 11 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
11 11 (0.97%) Mobile App
11 11 (0.97%) Virtual Team
12 10 (0.88%) CMDB
12 10 (0.88%) SystemC
13 9 (0.80%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 201 (17.76%) Windows
2 76 (6.71%) Linux
3 70 (6.18%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.06%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.33%) Android
6 11 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.88%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.71%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.62%) Unix
10 6 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 5 (0.44%) CentOS
11 5 (0.44%) OpenVMS
12 4 (0.35%) Debian
12 4 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
12 4 (0.35%) VMS
12 4 (0.35%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.27%) SUSE
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.088%) Solaris
15 1 (0.088%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 338 (29.86%) Continuous Improvement
2 196 (17.31%) Customer Service
3 161 (14.22%) Decision-Making
4 147 (12.99%) Analytics
5 145 (12.81%) Agile
6 135 (11.93%) Mentoring
7 130 (11.48%) Collaborative Working
8 118 (10.42%) ERP
9 113 (9.98%) Business Intelligence
10 106 (9.36%) ITIL
11 101 (8.92%) Cybersecurity
12 96 (8.48%) Service Delivery
13 94 (8.30%) AI
14 78 (6.89%) Roadmaps
15 73 (6.45%) Stakeholder Management
16 68 (6.01%) Collaborative Culture
16 68 (6.01%) Root Cause Analysis
17 67 (5.92%) Process Improvement
18 66 (5.83%) CRM
18 66 (5.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 190 (16.78%) SQL
2 84 (7.42%) Python
3 47 (4.15%) Java
4 43 (3.80%) PowerShell
5 37 (3.27%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.83%) C#
7 31 (2.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.94%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.86%) Ladder Logic
10 16 (1.41%) VBA
11 13 (1.15%) Bash
11 13 (1.15%) PHP
12 11 (0.97%) C
13 10 (0.88%) C++
14 9 (0.80%) ABAP
15 7 (0.62%) RPG
15 7 (0.62%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.53%) Embedded C
16 6 (0.53%) Go
17 4 (0.35%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 150 (13.25%) Degree
2 75 (6.63%) Security Cleared
3 61 (5.39%) SC Cleared
4 29 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (2.39%) DBS Check
6 19 (1.68%) Azure Certification
7 18 (1.59%) CISSP
8 15 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.33%) CompTIA Security+
9 12 (1.06%) HND
10 11 (0.97%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (0.88%) HNC
12 8 (0.71%) CCNA
12 8 (0.71%) PMI Certification
13 7 (0.62%) ACCA
13 7 (0.62%) CIMA
13 7 (0.62%) CISA
13 7 (0.62%) SSCP
14 6 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 6 (0.53%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (4.77%) Data Quality
2 41 (3.62%) GDPR
3 40 (3.53%) Cyber Essentials
3 40 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 39 (3.45%) QA
5 34 (3.00%) SLA
6 22 (1.94%) Accessibility
7 19 (1.68%) NIST
8 17 (1.50%) ISO 9001
9 10 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 9 (0.80%) ISO 14001
11 7 (0.62%) GRC
11 7 (0.62%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.35%) GMP
13 4 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 3 (0.27%) COSHH
14 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
14 3 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 140 (12.37%) Active Directory
2 45 (3.98%) Hyper-V
3 31 (2.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (2.12%) Docker
5 10 (0.88%) Firmware
6 8 (0.71%) vSphere
7 7 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
8 5 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.18%) Samba
10 1 (0.088%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.088%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.088%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 43 (3.80%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (1.94%) Kubernetes
3 17 (1.50%) Terraform
4 10 (0.88%) Ansible
5 7 (0.62%) SCCM
6 6 (0.53%) Grafana
7 5 (0.44%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.35%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.35%) Galera Cluster
8 4 (0.35%) Nmap
8 4 (0.35%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.27%) BMC PATROL
9 3 (0.27%) Control-M
9 3 (0.27%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.27%) Puppet
9 3 (0.27%) WhatsUp Gold
10 2 (0.18%) Nagios
11 1 (0.088%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.088%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.088%) WSUS
Vendors
1 327 (28.89%) Microsoft
2 48 (4.24%) SAP
3 41 (3.62%) VMware
4 29 (2.56%) Cisco
5 25 (2.21%) ServiceNow
6 21 (1.86%) IBM
7 19 (1.68%) Workday
8 18 (1.59%) Sage
9 17 (1.50%) Cognos
9 17 (1.50%) Google
10 15 (1.33%) Oracle
11 14 (1.24%) Salesforce
12 12 (1.06%) Dell
13 11 (0.97%) HubSpot
13 11 (0.97%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.88%) iManage
15 9 (0.80%) Epicor
15 9 (0.80%) JD Edwards
16 8 (0.71%) Apple
16 8 (0.71%) Sophos