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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -15 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 879 1,217 1,065
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 10.91% 19.36% 15.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.55% 21.29% 17.88%
Number of salaries quoted 698 497 833
10th Percentile £25,963 £28,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £30,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,000 £50,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -24.00% +17.65% -19.05%
75th Percentile £53,951 £63,750 £58,750
90th Percentile £68,750 £82,500 £68,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -5.45%

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 6,485 5,716 5,958
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 80.47% 90.93% 86.29%
Number of salaries quoted 3,613 2,539 4,895
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,754 £35,000
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 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -17 515 £42,500 -22.73% 339
East Midlands +1 363 £34,000 -6.85% 387
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 (5.80%) SharePoint
2 32 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.48%) IIS
4 7 (0.80%) Confluence
5 6 (0.68%) Apache
5 6 (0.68%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.11%) Appian
7 1 (0.11%) CMS
7 1 (0.11%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.11%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.11%) SAS
7 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 74 (8.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (5.01%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.59%) Spreadsheet
4 10 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (1.02%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.91%) SOLIDWORKS
7 7 (0.80%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.46%) CATIA
9 3 (0.34%) Trello
10 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
10 1 (0.11%) EPLAN
10 1 (0.11%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 35 (3.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.14%) iTrent
3 9 (1.02%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.34%) 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%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.23%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.11%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.11%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.11%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.11%) SAP EWM
7 1 (0.11%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 193 (21.96%) Azure
2 176 (20.02%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (9.33%) SaaS
4 73 (8.30%) AWS
5 57 (6.48%) Power Platform
6 56 (6.37%) Entra ID
7 27 (3.07%) Dynamics 365
8 22 (2.50%) Serverless
9 15 (1.71%) Amazon S3
10 14 (1.59%) GCP
10 14 (1.59%) Power Automate
11 13 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
12 12 (1.37%) Azure DevOps
13 10 (1.14%) OneDrive
13 10 (1.14%) PowerApps
14 9 (1.02%) GitHub
15 8 (0.91%) Cloud Computing
16 7 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.80%) OCI
17 6 (0.68%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 71 (8.08%) DNS
2 67 (7.62%) DHCP
3 43 (4.89%) VPN
4 40 (4.55%) Remote Desktop
5 32 (3.64%) WAN
6 29 (3.30%) Firewall
7 23 (2.62%) Internet
7 23 (2.62%) LAN
8 19 (2.16%) Wi-Fi
9 15 (1.71%) TCP/IP
10 13 (1.48%) VLAN
10 13 (1.48%) VoIP
10 13 (1.48%) Wireless
11 11 (1.25%) SD-WAN
12 9 (1.02%) ADSL
12 9 (1.02%) Ethernet
12 9 (1.02%) VDSL
13 7 (0.80%) Broadband
14 5 (0.57%) Network Security
14 5 (0.57%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (5.92%) SQL Server
2 45 (5.12%) Power BI
3 18 (2.05%) MySQL
4 17 (1.93%) Relational Database
5 16 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (1.71%) Oracle Reports
7 12 (1.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (1.25%) GIS
9 10 (1.14%) Amazon Redshift
10 9 (1.02%) Tableau
11 8 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 6 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.68%) Crystal Reports
12 6 (0.68%) Metadata
13 5 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.46%) BusinessObjects
14 4 (0.46%) Data Lake
15 3 (0.34%) Data Mining
15 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
15 3 (0.34%) Redis
Development Applications
1 33 (3.75%) JIRA
2 22 (2.50%) Git
3 9 (1.02%) JUnit
4 8 (0.91%) GitLab
5 7 (0.80%) Burp Suite
5 7 (0.80%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.80%) Metasploit
5 7 (0.80%) Mockito
5 7 (0.80%) Subversion
6 6 (0.68%) Maven
7 4 (0.46%) Selenium
8 3 (0.34%) Appcelerator Titanium
8 3 (0.34%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.23%) Vagrant
9 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.11%) Babel
10 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.11%) webpack
General
1 434 (49.37%) Social Skills
2 277 (31.51%) Analytical Skills
3 174 (19.80%) Finance
4 115 (13.08%) Retail
5 85 (9.67%) Manufacturing
6 49 (5.57%) Organisational Skills
7 48 (5.46%) Law
8 41 (4.66%) Legal
9 40 (4.55%) Marketing
9 40 (4.55%) Public Sector
10 27 (3.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 23 (2.62%) Electronics
12 18 (2.05%) Documentation Skills
13 17 (1.93%) Telecoms
14 16 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
15 14 (1.59%) Automotive
15 14 (1.59%) Banking
16 12 (1.37%) Aerospace
17 10 (1.14%) Fire and Rescue
18 8 (0.91%) Games
Job Titles
1 163 (18.54%) IT Support
2 162 (18.43%) Support Engineer
3 127 (14.45%) Analyst
4 102 (11.60%) IT Engineer
5 90 (10.24%) IT Support Engineer
6 80 (9.10%) Developer
6 80 (9.10%) Lead
7 76 (8.65%) Technical Support
8 68 (7.74%) Support Analyst
9 66 (7.51%) 2nd Line Support
10 65 (7.39%) Senior
11 64 (7.28%) Technical Engineer
12 61 (6.94%) Technical Support Engineer
13 41 (4.66%) Support Technician
14 36 (4.10%) Applications Support
15 34 (3.87%) Administrator
16 31 (3.53%) 1st/2nd Line Support
16 31 (3.53%) Architect
17 26 (2.96%) Full-Stack Developer
18 25 (2.84%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.32%) React
2 32 (3.64%) .NET
3 31 (3.53%) REST
4 30 (3.41%) HTML
5 28 (3.19%) CSS
6 21 (2.39%) Node.js
7 17 (1.93%) AngularJS
8 16 (1.82%) JSON
9 11 (1.25%) Razor View Engine
10 8 (0.91%) RESTful
11 7 (0.80%) Middleware
11 7 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
11 7 (0.80%) Vue
12 6 (0.68%) EDI
12 6 (0.68%) LAMP
12 6 (0.68%) Laravel
12 6 (0.68%) Spring
13 5 (0.57%) Web Services
14 4 (0.46%) SOAP
14 4 (0.46%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 113 (12.86%) Onboarding
2 110 (12.51%) Driving Licence
3 46 (5.23%) Self-Motivation
4 45 (5.12%) Management Information System
5 41 (4.66%) Analytical Mindset
6 34 (3.87%) FMCG
7 14 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (1.59%) Product Ownership
8 13 (1.48%) Operational Technology
8 13 (1.48%) Social Media
9 12 (1.37%) Security Posture
10 11 (1.25%) e-Learning
10 11 (1.25%) SCADA
11 10 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 9 (1.02%) Embedded Systems
12 9 (1.02%) IoT
13 8 (0.91%) Data Structures
14 7 (0.80%) EPoS
14 7 (0.80%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 159 (18.09%) Windows
2 59 (6.71%) Windows Server
3 41 (4.66%) Linux
4 27 (3.07%) Windows 10
5 12 (1.37%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.46%) Android
7 4 (0.46%) Unix
8 3 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.23%) Debian
9 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.23%) VMS
9 2 (0.23%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Mobile
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (21.84%) Customer Service
2 182 (20.71%) Continuous Improvement
3 119 (13.54%) CRM
4 115 (13.08%) ERP
5 103 (11.72%) Project Management
6 97 (11.04%) Agile
7 94 (10.69%) Mentoring
8 92 (10.47%) ITIL
9 86 (9.78%) Decision-Making
10 74 (8.42%) Business Intelligence
11 69 (7.85%) Analytics
12 63 (7.17%) Incident Management
13 58 (6.60%) Root Cause Analysis
14 57 (6.48%) Logistics
15 56 (6.37%) Process Improvement
16 55 (6.26%) Analytical Thinking
17 54 (6.14%) E-Commerce
18 53 (6.03%) Computer Science
19 52 (5.92%) Change Management
20 51 (5.80%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 181 (20.59%) SQL
2 79 (8.99%) C#
3 65 (7.39%) Python
4 54 (6.14%) JavaScript
5 34 (3.87%) Java
6 32 (3.64%) PowerShell
7 22 (2.50%) PHP
8 15 (1.71%) T-SQL
9 13 (1.48%) C
10 11 (1.25%) TypeScript
11 9 (1.02%) Bash
12 7 (0.80%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.68%) Ladder Logic
14 5 (0.57%) C++
14 5 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.57%) R
15 4 (0.46%) Delphi
15 4 (0.46%) Perl
16 3 (0.34%) Groovy
16 3 (0.34%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 174 (19.80%) Degree
2 82 (9.33%) Security Cleared
3 57 (6.48%) SC Cleared
4 33 (3.75%) Computer Science Degree
4 33 (3.75%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (2.73%) DBS Check
6 19 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
6 19 (2.16%) Master's Degree
7 18 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (1.82%) CISSP
9 14 (1.59%) ACCA
9 14 (1.59%) CIMA
10 11 (1.25%) CCNA
10 11 (1.25%) MCP
11 10 (1.14%) AWS Certification
11 10 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
12 9 (1.02%) DV Cleared
12 9 (1.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 9 (1.02%) MCSE
12 9 (1.02%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (6.71%) QA
2 29 (3.30%) GDPR
3 28 (3.19%) Data Quality
4 25 (2.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (1.37%) SLA
6 10 (1.14%) NIST
7 9 (1.02%) Actionable Recommendations
7 9 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 4 (0.46%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.34%) PMO
12 2 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.23%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.23%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.23%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 119 (13.54%) Active Directory
2 23 (2.62%) Docker
3 14 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.91%) Firmware
4 8 (0.91%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.80%) vSphere
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 41 (4.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.62%) Kubernetes
3 15 (1.71%) Terraform
4 7 (0.80%) Nmap
5 6 (0.68%) Ansible
5 6 (0.68%) Nagios
6 5 (0.57%) SCCM
7 3 (0.34%) Grafana
7 3 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.23%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.23%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.11%) Argo
9 1 (0.11%) Autotask
9 1 (0.11%) AWS Copilot
9 1 (0.11%) CA Service Virtualization
9 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 259 (29.47%) Microsoft
2 72 (8.19%) SAP
3 58 (6.60%) Oracle
4 40 (4.55%) Salesforce
5 37 (4.21%) Cisco
6 15 (1.71%) ServiceNow
7 14 (1.59%) VMware
8 10 (1.14%) Databricks
8 10 (1.14%) Google
9 9 (1.02%) Meraki
9 9 (1.02%) Sage
9 9 (1.02%) Zoho
10 7 (0.80%) Epicor
10 7 (0.80%) HubSpot
10 7 (0.80%) Infor
11 6 (0.68%) Freshdesk
11 6 (0.68%) SolarWinds
12 5 (0.57%) HP
12 5 (0.57%) Panasonic
12 5 (0.57%) Samsung