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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -23 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 900 1,003 1,689
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 7.29% 20.49% 14.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.93% 23.00% 18.09%
Number of salaries quoted 696 626 1,215
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £28,928 £31,563 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £45,000 £42,200
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +6.64% -15.60%
75th Percentile £56,250 £61,250 £57,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £72,500 £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 9,061 4,360 9,337
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 73.41% 89.05% 82.32%
Number of salaries quoted 5,322 2,625 7,105
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £65,640 £65,000 £61,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £57,591 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.02% +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 23 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 23 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 -25 538 £42,500 -15.84% 250
East Midlands -7 359 £35,000 -9.09% 202
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 59 (6.56%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (0.89%) CMS
4 5 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 5 (0.56%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.33%) WordPress
7 2 (0.22%) Confluence
7 2 (0.22%) 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%) NServiceBus
8 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 58 (6.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 58 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.67%) Spreadsheet
3 10 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.78%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.56%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.11%) Abaqus
7 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.11%) Sketch
7 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (1.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.11%) iTrent
3 6 (0.67%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.67%) SAP Business One
3 6 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.56%) Q-Pulse
5 4 (0.44%) Shopify
6 3 (0.33%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 3 (0.33%) Line 50
6 3 (0.33%) Magento
6 3 (0.33%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.33%) SAP Business ByDesign
7 2 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.22%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.11%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.11%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.11%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 207 (23.00%) Microsoft 365
2 177 (19.67%) Azure
3 78 (8.67%) Power Platform
4 77 (8.56%) AWS
5 65 (7.22%) Entra ID
6 40 (4.44%) SaaS
7 34 (3.78%) Serverless
8 23 (2.56%) Amazon S3
8 23 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (2.00%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (1.78%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.67%) GCP
12 14 (1.56%) OneDrive
13 13 (1.44%) Google Workspace
14 12 (1.33%) PowerApps
15 11 (1.22%) Azure Data Factory
16 9 (1.00%) Azure Sentinel
17 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Copilot
18 6 (0.67%) Amazon Cognito
18 6 (0.67%) Amazon EventBridge
Communications & Networking
1 61 (6.78%) DNS
2 55 (6.11%) DHCP
3 48 (5.33%) VPN
4 39 (4.33%) Firewall
5 38 (4.22%) WAN
6 24 (2.67%) LAN
7 23 (2.56%) Internet
8 22 (2.44%) Wi-Fi
9 19 (2.11%) TCP/IP
10 16 (1.78%) SD-WAN
10 16 (1.78%) Wireless
11 15 (1.67%) VoIP
12 10 (1.11%) Network Security
12 10 (1.11%) Remote Desktop
12 10 (1.11%) VLAN
13 5 (0.56%) Broadband
13 5 (0.56%) MQTT
13 5 (0.56%) Skype
13 5 (0.56%) WLAN
14 4 (0.44%) Bluetooth
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (7.67%) Power BI
2 39 (4.33%) SQL Server
3 17 (1.89%) Power Query
4 15 (1.67%) MySQL
5 14 (1.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 13 (1.44%) Amazon Redshift
6 13 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
6 13 (1.44%) Tableau
7 10 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 7 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (0.78%) DynamoDB
9 7 (0.78%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.67%) Star Schema
11 5 (0.56%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.44%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.44%) Metadata
13 3 (0.33%) Redis
13 3 (0.33%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 22 (2.44%) Git
1 22 (2.44%) JIRA
2 7 (0.78%) JUnit
3 6 (0.67%) GitLab
3 6 (0.67%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.67%) Subversion
4 5 (0.56%) Burp Suite
4 5 (0.56%) Maven
4 5 (0.56%) Metasploit
4 5 (0.56%) Mockito
5 4 (0.44%) VersionOne
6 2 (0.22%) Appcelerator Titanium
6 2 (0.22%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.22%) Selenium
6 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.22%) XCUITest
7 1 (0.11%) MLflow
7 1 (0.11%) Postman
7 1 (0.11%) Yeoman
General
1 409 (45.44%) Social Skills
2 279 (31.00%) Analytical Skills
3 162 (18.00%) Finance
4 92 (10.22%) Manufacturing
5 68 (7.56%) Organisational Skills
6 58 (6.44%) Retail
7 46 (5.11%) Legal
8 43 (4.78%) Marketing
9 40 (4.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 40 (4.44%) Law
10 35 (3.89%) Public Sector
11 25 (2.78%) Automotive
12 21 (2.33%) Electronics
13 17 (1.89%) Banking
13 17 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
14 12 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (1.22%) Advertising
15 11 (1.22%) Games
16 10 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
17 9 (1.00%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 148 (16.44%) Analyst
2 145 (16.11%) IT Support
3 141 (15.67%) Support Engineer
4 105 (11.67%) IT Engineer
5 85 (9.44%) IT Support Engineer
6 71 (7.89%) Senior
7 64 (7.11%) Developer
8 58 (6.44%) Lead
9 55 (6.11%) Support Analyst
10 54 (6.00%) Technical Support
11 46 (5.11%) Technical Engineer
11 46 (5.11%) Technical Support Engineer
12 43 (4.78%) Support Technician
13 36 (4.00%) 2nd Line Support
14 33 (3.67%) Administrator
15 32 (3.56%) IT Technician
16 31 (3.44%) Architect
16 31 (3.44%) Consultant
17 29 (3.22%) Full-Stack Developer
17 29 (3.22%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.33%) React
2 31 (3.44%) CSS
2 31 (3.44%) HTML
2 31 (3.44%) Node.js
3 19 (2.11%) REST
4 13 (1.44%) .NET
5 8 (0.89%) Spring
6 7 (0.78%) AngularJS
6 7 (0.78%) RESTful
6 7 (0.78%) Spring Boot
7 5 (0.56%) JSON
7 5 (0.56%) Vue
8 4 (0.44%) .NET Framework
8 4 (0.44%) Laravel
8 4 (0.44%) Middleware
8 4 (0.44%) Oracle Fusion
9 3 (0.33%) ASP.NET
9 3 (0.33%) ASP.NET Core
9 3 (0.33%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.33%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 102 (11.33%) Driving Licence
2 60 (6.67%) Onboarding
3 36 (4.00%) Self-Motivation
4 33 (3.67%) Management Information System
5 21 (2.33%) Analytical Mindset
6 18 (2.00%) Social Media
7 17 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (1.67%) FMCG
9 12 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.22%) IoT
10 11 (1.22%) Product Ownership
11 8 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
11 8 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
11 8 (0.89%) Security Posture
12 7 (0.78%) Cyber Defence
12 7 (0.78%) Data Centre
12 7 (0.78%) EPoS
12 7 (0.78%) Virtual Team
12 7 (0.78%) Web Conferencing
13 6 (0.67%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 166 (18.44%) Windows
2 56 (6.22%) Windows Server
3 44 (4.89%) Windows 10
4 42 (4.67%) Linux
5 15 (1.67%) Apple iOS
6 8 (0.89%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.67%) Android
7 6 (0.67%) Debian
8 5 (0.56%) CentOS
8 5 (0.56%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.33%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.33%) SUSE
9 3 (0.33%) Unix
10 2 (0.22%) VMS
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (20.11%) Continuous Improvement
2 160 (17.78%) Customer Service
3 110 (12.22%) Agile
4 103 (11.44%) ITIL
5 94 (10.44%) Decision-Making
6 83 (9.22%) Mentoring
7 80 (8.89%) ERP
8 76 (8.44%) Analytics
9 73 (8.11%) Business Intelligence
9 73 (8.11%) CRM
10 67 (7.44%) Process Improvement
11 64 (7.11%) Project Management
12 60 (6.67%) Collaborative Working
13 56 (6.22%) Cybersecurity
14 55 (6.11%) Computer Science
15 54 (6.00%) Service Delivery
16 53 (5.89%) ITSM
16 53 (5.89%) Roadmaps
17 52 (5.78%) Time Management
18 47 (5.22%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 134 (14.89%) SQL
2 61 (6.78%) Python
3 35 (3.89%) JavaScript
4 28 (3.11%) PowerShell
5 26 (2.89%) Java
6 23 (2.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.00%) C#
8 16 (1.78%) PHP
9 15 (1.67%) C
10 14 (1.56%) Ladder Logic
10 14 (1.56%) TypeScript
11 12 (1.33%) Bash
11 12 (1.33%) T-SQL
12 7 (0.78%) R
13 6 (0.67%) C++
14 5 (0.56%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.56%) VBA
15 3 (0.33%) Delphi
15 3 (0.33%) Embedded C
15 3 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 133 (14.78%) Degree
2 57 (6.33%) Security Cleared
3 47 (5.22%) SC Cleared
4 31 (3.44%) Microsoft Certification
5 23 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.22%) DBS Check
7 19 (2.11%) CISSP
8 15 (1.67%) CompTIA Security+
9 13 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.33%) A+ Certification
10 12 (1.33%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.11%) PMP
12 9 (1.00%) ACCA
12 9 (1.00%) CCNA
12 9 (1.00%) CIMA
13 8 (0.89%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (0.89%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.78%) CISA
14 7 (0.78%) CISMP
14 7 (0.78%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.11%) Data Quality
2 39 (4.33%) QA
3 28 (3.11%) GDPR
4 26 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (2.22%) NIST
6 16 (1.78%) SLA
7 15 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (1.22%) Actionable Recommendations
9 10 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.89%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 6 (0.67%) HIPAA
13 5 (0.56%) COSHH
13 5 (0.56%) GMP
14 4 (0.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 4 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.44%) SOC 2
15 3 (0.33%) ISO 14001
15 3 (0.33%) ISO 9001
16 2 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 115 (12.78%) Active Directory
2 24 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (2.44%) Docker
4 12 (1.33%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.89%) vSphere
6 6 (0.67%) Firmware
7 3 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 39 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.56%) Kubernetes
3 18 (2.00%) Terraform
4 8 (0.89%) Ansible
5 5 (0.56%) Grafana
5 5 (0.56%) Nagios
5 5 (0.56%) Nmap
5 5 (0.56%) SCCM
6 3 (0.33%) Galera Cluster
6 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.33%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.22%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.22%) Puppet
7 2 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.11%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 234 (26.00%) Microsoft
2 33 (3.67%) Cisco
3 32 (3.56%) Oracle
3 32 (3.56%) VMware
4 29 (3.22%) SAP
5 18 (2.00%) ServiceNow
6 16 (1.78%) Google
7 13 (1.44%) Salesforce
8 12 (1.33%) Sage
9 11 (1.22%) Databricks
10 10 (1.11%) Dell
10 10 (1.11%) Freshdesk
10 10 (1.11%) HP
10 10 (1.11%) SolarWinds
11 9 (1.00%) Meraki
12 7 (0.78%) Zscaler
13 6 (0.67%) Avaya
13 6 (0.67%) McAfee
13 6 (0.67%) Sophos
13 6 (0.67%) Workday