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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -22 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 887 999 1,753
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.01% 20.00% 15.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.59% 22.44% 18.58%
Number of salaries quoted 687 620 1,214
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,200 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £31,250 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,500 £45,000 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.44% +7.14% -16.00%
75th Percentile £55,627 £61,250 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £72,625 £69,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +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 9,253 4,451 9,436
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 73.12% 89.13% 82.20%
Number of salaries quoted 5,488 2,605 7,106
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £35,000 £34,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £66,250 £65,000 £61,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,000 £75,000
England median annual salary £59,773 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -0.38% +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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -24 525 £42,500 -15.00% 244
East Midlands -6 359 £35,000 -9.09% 162
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 58 (6.54%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.51%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.01%) CMS
4 5 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 5 (0.56%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.34%) WordPress
7 2 (0.23%) Confluence
7 2 (0.23%) IIS
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) Appian
8 1 (0.11%) Drupal
8 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 60 (6.76%) Microsoft Office
2 56 (6.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.80%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 6 (0.68%) MS Visio
7 5 (0.56%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
8 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.11%) Sketch
8 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 16 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.13%) iTrent
3 7 (0.79%) SAP Business One
4 6 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.56%) Q-Pulse
6 4 (0.45%) Line 50
6 4 (0.45%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.45%) Shopify
7 3 (0.34%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 3 (0.34%) Magento
7 3 (0.34%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.34%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 2 (0.23%) SAP MM
9 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.11%) Exchequer
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
9 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
9 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
9 1 (0.11%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 203 (22.89%) Microsoft 365
2 172 (19.39%) Azure
3 80 (9.02%) AWS
4 73 (8.23%) Power Platform
5 63 (7.10%) Entra ID
6 34 (3.83%) SaaS
6 34 (3.83%) Serverless
7 23 (2.59%) Amazon S3
7 23 (2.59%) AWS Lambda
8 16 (1.80%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (1.80%) Power Automate
9 15 (1.69%) GCP
10 14 (1.58%) OneDrive
11 13 (1.47%) Google Workspace
12 12 (1.35%) PowerApps
13 9 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
14 7 (0.79%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (0.79%) Microsoft Copilot
15 6 (0.68%) Amazon EventBridge
Communications & Networking
1 58 (6.54%) DNS
2 52 (5.86%) DHCP
3 47 (5.30%) VPN
4 39 (4.40%) WAN
5 38 (4.28%) Firewall
6 24 (2.71%) LAN
7 22 (2.48%) Internet
7 22 (2.48%) Wi-Fi
8 19 (2.14%) TCP/IP
9 18 (2.03%) Wireless
10 17 (1.92%) SD-WAN
11 16 (1.80%) VoIP
12 11 (1.24%) VLAN
13 10 (1.13%) Network Security
14 7 (0.79%) Remote Desktop
15 5 (0.56%) Bluetooth
15 5 (0.56%) MQTT
15 5 (0.56%) Skype
15 5 (0.56%) WLAN
16 4 (0.45%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (7.22%) Power BI
2 39 (4.40%) SQL Server
3 17 (1.92%) Power Query
4 14 (1.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 13 (1.47%) Amazon Redshift
5 13 (1.47%) MySQL
5 13 (1.47%) Oracle Reports
6 12 (1.35%) Tableau
7 9 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
8 7 (0.79%) DynamoDB
8 7 (0.79%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 6 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.68%) Star Schema
10 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.45%) Data Mining
11 4 (0.45%) FileMaker
11 4 (0.45%) Metadata
11 4 (0.45%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 22 (2.48%) JIRA
2 21 (2.37%) Git
3 7 (0.79%) JUnit
4 6 (0.68%) GitLab
4 6 (0.68%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.68%) Subversion
5 5 (0.56%) Burp Suite
5 5 (0.56%) Maven
5 5 (0.56%) Metasploit
5 5 (0.56%) Mockito
5 5 (0.56%) VersionOne
6 2 (0.23%) Appcelerator Titanium
6 2 (0.23%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.23%) Selenium
6 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.23%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.23%) XCUITest
7 1 (0.11%) MLflow
7 1 (0.11%) Postman
7 1 (0.11%) Yeoman
General
1 400 (45.10%) Social Skills
2 269 (30.33%) Analytical Skills
3 152 (17.14%) Finance
4 91 (10.26%) Manufacturing
5 67 (7.55%) Organisational Skills
6 50 (5.64%) Retail
7 43 (4.85%) Marketing
8 42 (4.74%) Legal
9 39 (4.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 39 (4.40%) Law
10 32 (3.61%) Public Sector
11 24 (2.71%) Automotive
12 22 (2.48%) Electronics
13 18 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
14 13 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
15 12 (1.35%) Advertising
15 12 (1.35%) Banking
16 11 (1.24%) Games
16 11 (1.24%) Telecoms
17 8 (0.90%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 141 (15.90%) Analyst
1 141 (15.90%) IT Support
2 139 (15.67%) Support Engineer
3 102 (11.50%) IT Engineer
4 82 (9.24%) IT Support Engineer
5 69 (7.78%) Senior
6 62 (6.99%) Developer
7 56 (6.31%) Lead
8 55 (6.20%) Technical Support
9 50 (5.64%) Support Analyst
10 47 (5.30%) Technical Engineer
10 47 (5.30%) Technical Support Engineer
11 44 (4.96%) Support Technician
12 35 (3.95%) 2nd Line Support
13 33 (3.72%) Administrator
14 32 (3.61%) IT Technician
15 30 (3.38%) Consultant
16 29 (3.27%) Architect
16 29 (3.27%) Full-Stack Developer
16 29 (3.27%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.17%) React
2 31 (3.49%) CSS
2 31 (3.49%) HTML
3 30 (3.38%) Node.js
4 18 (2.03%) REST
5 13 (1.47%) .NET
6 8 (0.90%) Spring
7 7 (0.79%) RESTful
7 7 (0.79%) Spring Boot
8 6 (0.68%) AngularJS
9 5 (0.56%) JSON
10 4 (0.45%) .NET Framework
10 4 (0.45%) Middleware
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.45%) WinForms
11 3 (0.34%) ASP.NET Core
11 3 (0.34%) Elastic Stack
11 3 (0.34%) GraphQL
11 3 (0.34%) Laravel
11 3 (0.34%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 103 (11.61%) Driving Licence
2 58 (6.54%) Onboarding
3 38 (4.28%) Self-Motivation
4 30 (3.38%) Management Information System
5 18 (2.03%) Social Media
6 17 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
6 17 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
7 15 (1.69%) FMCG
8 12 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.24%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.01%) IoT
11 8 (0.90%) Data Centre
11 8 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
11 8 (0.90%) Security Posture
12 7 (0.79%) Cyber Defence
12 7 (0.79%) EPoS
12 7 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
12 7 (0.79%) Virtual Team
12 7 (0.79%) Web Conferencing
13 6 (0.68%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 160 (18.04%) Windows
2 55 (6.20%) Windows Server
3 42 (4.74%) Windows 10
4 41 (4.62%) Linux
5 15 (1.69%) Apple iOS
6 8 (0.90%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.68%) Android
7 6 (0.68%) Debian
8 5 (0.56%) CentOS
8 5 (0.56%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.45%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.45%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.45%) Unix
10 3 (0.34%) SUSE
11 2 (0.23%) VMS
11 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (19.50%) Continuous Improvement
2 162 (18.26%) Customer Service
3 109 (12.29%) Agile
4 96 (10.82%) ITIL
5 93 (10.48%) Decision-Making
6 76 (8.57%) Mentoring
7 74 (8.34%) ERP
8 73 (8.23%) Analytics
9 69 (7.78%) CRM
10 68 (7.67%) Business Intelligence
11 64 (7.22%) Process Improvement
12 61 (6.88%) Collaborative Working
13 57 (6.43%) Project Management
14 55 (6.20%) Cybersecurity
14 55 (6.20%) Service Delivery
15 54 (6.09%) Computer Science
16 51 (5.75%) Roadmaps
17 48 (5.41%) ITSM
17 48 (5.41%) Time Management
18 45 (5.07%) AI
Programming Languages
1 127 (14.32%) SQL
2 67 (7.55%) Python
3 33 (3.72%) JavaScript
4 30 (3.38%) PowerShell
5 26 (2.93%) Java
6 21 (2.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 16 (1.80%) C
7 16 (1.80%) PHP
8 15 (1.69%) C#
9 14 (1.58%) TypeScript
10 13 (1.47%) Ladder Logic
11 12 (1.35%) Bash
12 9 (1.01%) T-SQL
13 7 (0.79%) R
14 6 (0.68%) C++
15 5 (0.56%) PL/SQL
15 5 (0.56%) VBA
16 4 (0.45%) Embedded C
17 3 (0.34%) Delphi
17 3 (0.34%) VB
Qualifications
1 124 (13.98%) Degree
2 55 (6.20%) Security Cleared
3 46 (5.19%) SC Cleared
4 30 (3.38%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.25%) DBS Check
7 19 (2.14%) CISSP
8 15 (1.69%) CompTIA Security+
9 13 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.35%) A+ Certification
10 12 (1.35%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.13%) PMP
12 9 (1.01%) ACCA
12 9 (1.01%) CCNA
12 9 (1.01%) CIMA
13 8 (0.90%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (0.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.79%) CISA
14 7 (0.79%) CISMP
14 7 (0.79%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (5.07%) Data Quality
2 38 (4.28%) QA
3 27 (3.04%) GDPR
4 26 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (2.25%) NIST
6 16 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
6 16 (1.80%) SLA
7 10 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
7 10 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 7 (0.79%) Accessibility
8 7 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 6 (0.68%) HIPAA
10 5 (0.56%) COSHH
10 5 (0.56%) GMP
11 4 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 4 (0.45%) ISO 14001
11 4 (0.45%) ISO 9001
11 4 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.45%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 110 (12.40%) Active Directory
2 22 (2.48%) Docker
2 22 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.24%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.90%) Firmware
5 7 (0.79%) vSphere
6 4 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 38 (4.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.59%) Kubernetes
3 18 (2.03%) Terraform
4 8 (0.90%) Ansible
5 5 (0.56%) Grafana
5 5 (0.56%) Nagios
5 5 (0.56%) Nmap
5 5 (0.56%) SCCM
6 3 (0.34%) Galera Cluster
6 3 (0.34%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.34%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.23%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.23%) Puppet
7 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 232 (26.16%) Microsoft
2 33 (3.72%) Cisco
3 31 (3.49%) Oracle
4 30 (3.38%) VMware
5 27 (3.04%) SAP
6 16 (1.80%) Google
7 14 (1.58%) Sage
7 14 (1.58%) ServiceNow
8 13 (1.47%) Salesforce
9 11 (1.24%) Databricks
9 11 (1.24%) SolarWinds
10 10 (1.13%) Dell
10 10 (1.13%) Meraki
11 9 (1.01%) HP
12 8 (0.90%) Freshdesk
13 7 (0.79%) Zscaler
14 6 (0.68%) Apple
14 6 (0.68%) Avaya
14 6 (0.68%) McAfee
14 6 (0.68%) Workday