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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,323 1,230 1,448
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.62% 21.96% 14.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.39% 25.61% 18.37%
Number of salaries quoted 918 706 542
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,250 £25,750
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £32,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% -15.56% -8.16%
75th Percentile £57,375 £51,250 £59,875
90th Percentile £71,250 £65,625 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,000 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.44% -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 10,680 4,802 7,883
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.62% 85.75% 78.52%
Number of salaries quoted 7,602 2,883 4,022
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,822
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £36,250
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 £63,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 -8 732 £42,500 -5.56% 818
East Midlands -8 589 £41,500 +18.57% 483
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 66 (4.99%) SharePoint
2 41 (3.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.06%) IIS
4 8 (0.60%) Confluence
5 5 (0.38%) CMS
5 5 (0.38%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.30%) CICS
6 4 (0.30%) SAS
7 3 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.23%) WordPress
8 2 (0.15%) Documentum
9 1 (0.076%) Apache
9 1 (0.076%) Appian
9 1 (0.076%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.076%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 118 (8.92%) Microsoft Office
2 86 (6.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.83%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (0.76%) Simulink
5 9 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 6 (0.45%) Fusion 360
7 5 (0.38%) AutoCAD
8 4 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
8 4 (0.30%) Revit
9 3 (0.23%) EPLAN
9 3 (0.23%) Navisworks
9 3 (0.23%) OrCAD
10 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
10 2 (0.15%) MS Visio
10 2 (0.15%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.076%) Adobe Illustrator
11 1 (0.076%) CorelDRAW
11 1 (0.076%) Photoshop
11 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.076%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 18 (1.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.98%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 12 (0.91%) SAP Business One
5 11 (0.83%) Shopify
6 10 (0.76%) NetSuite
7 9 (0.68%) JDE EnterpriseOne
8 7 (0.53%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
10 5 (0.38%) Magento
10 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
10 5 (0.38%) Oracle ERP
10 5 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
10 5 (0.38%) Sage 50
10 5 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
11 4 (0.30%) Line 50
11 4 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
12 3 (0.23%) Infor M3
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 254 (19.20%) Microsoft 365
2 229 (17.31%) Azure
3 131 (9.90%) Power Platform
4 87 (6.58%) Entra ID
5 84 (6.35%) AWS
6 54 (4.08%) SaaS
7 36 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (2.72%) Dynamics 365
8 25 (1.89%) Power Automate
9 19 (1.44%) GitHub
10 18 (1.36%) PowerApps
11 17 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
11 17 (1.28%) Microsoft Purview
12 16 (1.21%) GCP
13 15 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (1.13%) Google Workspace
14 14 (1.06%) OneDrive
15 12 (0.91%) PaaS
15 12 (0.91%) Serverless
16 9 (0.68%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 70 (5.29%) DNS
2 65 (4.91%) Firewall
3 56 (4.23%) DHCP
3 56 (4.23%) VPN
4 51 (3.85%) TCP/IP
5 34 (2.57%) Wireless
6 32 (2.42%) VLAN
7 28 (2.12%) WAN
8 26 (1.97%) LAN
9 24 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
10 20 (1.51%) Network Security
11 17 (1.28%) VoIP
12 10 (0.76%) Internet
13 8 (0.60%) Wireshark
14 7 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
14 7 (0.53%) Modbus
14 7 (0.53%) MQTT
14 7 (0.53%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.45%) SD-WAN
15 6 (0.45%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (9.22%) Power BI
2 52 (3.93%) SQL Server
3 28 (2.12%) Tableau
4 27 (2.04%) Relational Database
5 23 (1.74%) Power Query
6 22 (1.66%) Data Warehouse
7 20 (1.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 16 (1.21%) Electronic Patient Records
9 15 (1.13%) MySQL
10 14 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 12 (0.91%) Data Mining
12 11 (0.83%) Crystal Reports
13 9 (0.68%) DynamoDB
13 9 (0.68%) Oracle Reports
14 8 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
15 7 (0.53%) Data Lake
16 6 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
16 6 (0.45%) MongoDB
17 5 (0.38%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 43 (3.25%) Git
2 32 (2.42%) JIRA
3 24 (1.81%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.60%) Eclipse
5 7 (0.53%) Cucumber
6 6 (0.45%) GitLab
6 6 (0.45%) JMeter
6 6 (0.45%) LabVIEW
6 6 (0.45%) Maven
6 6 (0.45%) Postman
6 6 (0.45%) Selenium
7 5 (0.38%) JUnit
7 5 (0.38%) SoapUI
7 5 (0.38%) VersionOne
7 5 (0.38%) Zephyr
8 4 (0.30%) Burp Suite
8 4 (0.30%) Metasploit
9 3 (0.23%) Mockito
9 3 (0.23%) Subversion
10 2 (0.15%) Ant
General
1 673 (50.87%) Social Skills
2 383 (28.95%) Analytical Skills
3 219 (16.55%) Manufacturing
4 216 (16.33%) Finance
5 100 (7.56%) Organisational Skills
6 92 (6.95%) Retail
7 74 (5.59%) Marketing
8 57 (4.31%) Public Sector
9 54 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 43 (3.25%) Electronics
10 43 (3.25%) Law
11 39 (2.95%) Legal
12 30 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
13 28 (2.12%) Automotive
14 19 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.36%) Telecoms
16 12 (0.91%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
17 11 (0.83%) Banking
18 9 (0.68%) Billing
Job Titles
1 187 (14.13%) Analyst
2 141 (10.66%) IT Support
3 131 (9.90%) Support Engineer
4 111 (8.39%) Developer
5 105 (7.94%) Senior
6 79 (5.97%) Consultant
7 78 (5.90%) IT Engineer
8 76 (5.74%) Lead
9 75 (5.67%) Technical Support
10 65 (4.91%) Support Analyst
11 64 (4.84%) Technical Engineer
12 62 (4.69%) Technical Support Engineer
13 58 (4.38%) Support Technician
14 55 (4.16%) IT Support Engineer
15 48 (3.63%) IT Technician
16 42 (3.17%) Data Analyst
16 42 (3.17%) IT Manager
17 40 (3.02%) IT Support Technician
18 34 (2.57%) Administrator
19 32 (2.42%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.08%) REST
2 43 (3.25%) .NET
3 36 (2.72%) React
4 28 (2.12%) Spring
5 25 (1.89%) Spring Boot
6 23 (1.74%) SOAP
7 20 (1.51%) Node.js
8 17 (1.28%) CSS
8 17 (1.28%) HTML
9 16 (1.21%) RESTful
9 16 (1.21%) Terraform
10 14 (1.06%) AngularJS
10 14 (1.06%) Playwright
11 12 (0.91%) EDI
11 12 (0.91%) ISPF
12 11 (0.83%) JSON
12 11 (0.83%) Middleware
12 11 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
12 11 (0.83%) XML
13 9 (0.68%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 152 (11.49%) Driving Licence
2 99 (7.48%) Onboarding
3 77 (5.82%) Management Information System
4 64 (4.84%) Self-Motivation
5 39 (2.95%) Enterprise Software
6 33 (2.49%) Robotics
7 28 (2.12%) NHS
8 19 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.44%) Data Centre
9 18 (1.36%) IoT
10 17 (1.28%) SCADA
10 17 (1.28%) SystemC
10 17 (1.28%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
12 14 (1.06%) CMDB
12 14 (1.06%) Data Structures
12 14 (1.06%) Legacy Applications
12 14 (1.06%) Social Media
13 13 (0.98%) Mainframe
14 12 (0.91%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 230 (17.38%) Windows
2 83 (6.27%) Windows Server
3 79 (5.97%) Linux
4 44 (3.33%) Windows 10
5 18 (1.36%) Android
6 14 (1.06%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.76%) Mac OS
7 10 (0.76%) Unix
8 6 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.38%) OpenVMS
9 5 (0.38%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.30%) VMS
11 2 (0.15%) Debian
11 2 (0.15%) Solaris
11 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.076%) CentOS
12 1 (0.076%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 383 (28.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 265 (20.03%) Customer Service
3 181 (13.68%) Decision-Making
4 164 (12.40%) Analytics
5 159 (12.02%) Agile
6 138 (10.43%) Mentoring
7 132 (9.98%) ERP
8 130 (9.83%) Business Intelligence
9 121 (9.15%) Collaborative Working
10 118 (8.92%) Cybersecurity
11 98 (7.41%) AI
12 97 (7.33%) Service Delivery
12 97 (7.33%) Stakeholder Management
13 96 (7.26%) ITIL
14 95 (7.18%) Project Delivery
15 91 (6.88%) Roadmaps
16 88 (6.65%) Project Management
17 85 (6.42%) CRM
18 81 (6.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 74 (5.59%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 210 (15.87%) SQL
2 91 (6.88%) Python
3 68 (5.14%) Java
4 53 (4.01%) PowerShell
5 46 (3.48%) JavaScript
6 36 (2.72%) C#
7 30 (2.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.66%) Ladder Logic
9 21 (1.59%) C
9 21 (1.59%) TypeScript
10 16 (1.21%) Embedded C
11 13 (0.98%) VBA
12 12 (0.91%) C++
12 12 (0.91%) COBOL
12 12 (0.91%) JCL
13 11 (0.83%) Bash
14 10 (0.76%) MATLAB
15 9 (0.68%) ABAP
16 8 (0.60%) PHP
16 8 (0.60%) R
Qualifications
1 199 (15.04%) Degree
2 100 (7.56%) Security Cleared
3 84 (6.35%) SC Cleared
4 35 (2.65%) HND
5 33 (2.49%) HNC
6 25 (1.89%) Azure Certification
7 24 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
8 22 (1.66%) DBS Check
9 19 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
10 14 (1.06%) PMI Certification
11 13 (0.98%) CCNA
12 12 (0.91%) NVQ Level 3
12 12 (0.91%) NVQ Level 4
13 11 (0.83%) City & Guilds
13 11 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (0.76%) CISSP
15 8 (0.60%) ACCA
16 7 (0.53%) Chartered Engineer
17 6 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
17 6 (0.45%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (4.76%) Data Quality
2 54 (4.08%) GDPR
3 48 (3.63%) QA
4 41 (3.10%) SLA
5 39 (2.95%) Cyber Essentials
6 34 (2.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.89%) Accessibility
8 22 (1.66%) ISO 9001
9 9 (0.68%) ISO 14001
10 8 (0.60%) NIST
11 7 (0.53%) GRC
11 7 (0.53%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.30%) GMP
13 4 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.23%) AQAP
14 3 (0.23%) COSHH
14 3 (0.23%) HIPAA
14 3 (0.23%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 157 (11.87%) Active Directory
2 50 (3.78%) Hyper-V
3 28 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (1.81%) Docker
5 20 (1.51%) Firmware
6 13 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (0.91%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.53%) vSphere
10 2 (0.15%) Samba
10 2 (0.15%) XenApp
11 1 (0.076%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 50 (3.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (1.59%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.76%) SCCM
4 8 (0.60%) Ansible
5 7 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.45%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.30%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.30%) Grafana
7 4 (0.30%) Nmap
7 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.23%) Control-M
8 3 (0.23%) Galera Cluster
8 3 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.23%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.23%) Puppet
8 3 (0.23%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.23%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.15%) WSUS
10 1 (0.076%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.076%) Nagios
Vendors
1 399 (30.16%) Microsoft
2 69 (5.22%) SAP
3 38 (2.87%) VMware
4 35 (2.65%) Oracle
5 34 (2.57%) Cisco
5 34 (2.57%) Workday
6 30 (2.27%) ServiceNow
7 27 (2.04%) Google
8 24 (1.81%) Sage
9 22 (1.66%) Salesforce
10 20 (1.51%) IBM
11 17 (1.28%) Cognos
12 15 (1.13%) Databricks
13 14 (1.06%) Allen-Bradley
14 12 (0.91%) Apple
14 12 (0.91%) HubSpot
14 12 (0.91%) JD Edwards
15 11 (0.83%) Sophos
16 10 (0.76%) Dell
16 10 (0.76%) Epicor