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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,243 1,236 1,450
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 8.35% 21.78% 14.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.97% 25.76% 18.19%
Number of salaries quoted 872 709 613
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% -15.56% -9.09%
75th Percentile £57,500 £51,250 £58,750
90th Percentile £70,225 £67,500 £71,250
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £51,350
% change year-on-year +5.56% -12.37% -6.64%

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 10,384 4,798 7,970
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 69.74% 84.55% 77.61%
Number of salaries quoted 7,423 2,857 4,423
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,145
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,000 £35,750
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 £76,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -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 4 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 4 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 -8 692 £42,500 -0.98% 653
East Midlands -9 549 £41,000 +17.14% 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 63 (5.07%) SharePoint
2 40 (3.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.21%) IIS
4 7 (0.56%) Confluence
5 5 (0.40%) CMS
5 5 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.32%) CICS
6 4 (0.32%) SAS
7 3 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.24%) WordPress
8 2 (0.16%) Documentum
9 1 (0.080%) Apache
9 1 (0.080%) Appian
9 1 (0.080%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.080%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.080%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.080%) Tomcat
Applications
1 105 (8.45%) Microsoft Office
2 81 (6.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.64%) Simulink
4 8 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.40%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.32%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.16%) OrCAD
7 2 (0.16%) Revit
8 1 (0.080%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.080%) CorelDRAW
8 1 (0.080%) EPLAN
8 1 (0.080%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.080%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.080%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.080%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.080%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 19 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 14 (1.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 12 (0.97%) SAP Business One
5 11 (0.88%) Shopify
6 9 (0.72%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 9 (0.72%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.56%) Sage X3
8 5 (0.40%) Magento
8 5 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.40%) Sage 50
8 5 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
9 4 (0.32%) Line 50
10 3 (0.24%) Infor CloudSuite
10 3 (0.24%) Infor LN
10 3 (0.24%) Infor M3
10 3 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
10 3 (0.24%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.16%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 246 (19.79%) Microsoft 365
2 228 (18.34%) Azure
3 125 (10.06%) Power Platform
4 87 (7.00%) AWS
5 86 (6.92%) Entra ID
6 53 (4.26%) SaaS
7 34 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
7 34 (2.74%) Dynamics 365
8 25 (2.01%) Power Automate
9 18 (1.45%) GitHub
9 18 (1.45%) PowerApps
10 17 (1.37%) Microsoft Copilot
10 17 (1.37%) Microsoft Purview
11 15 (1.21%) GCP
12 14 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
13 13 (1.05%) Serverless
14 12 (0.97%) Google Workspace
14 12 (0.97%) OneDrive
15 11 (0.88%) PaaS
16 10 (0.80%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 70 (5.63%) DNS
2 65 (5.23%) Firewall
3 56 (4.51%) DHCP
4 54 (4.34%) VPN
5 49 (3.94%) TCP/IP
6 34 (2.74%) Wireless
7 32 (2.57%) VLAN
8 25 (2.01%) LAN
9 24 (1.93%) WAN
10 22 (1.77%) Wi-Fi
11 18 (1.45%) Network Security
12 17 (1.37%) VoIP
13 8 (0.64%) Internet
13 8 (0.64%) MQTT
14 7 (0.56%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.48%) Cisco IOS
15 6 (0.48%) SSL
15 6 (0.48%) Wireshark
16 5 (0.40%) Modbus
16 5 (0.40%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (9.33%) Power BI
2 51 (4.10%) SQL Server
3 27 (2.17%) Relational Database
4 25 (2.01%) Tableau
5 22 (1.77%) Power Query
6 21 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
7 19 (1.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 17 (1.37%) MySQL
9 16 (1.29%) Electronic Patient Records
10 14 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 13 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
12 12 (0.97%) Data Mining
13 11 (0.88%) Crystal Reports
14 10 (0.80%) DynamoDB
15 7 (0.56%) MongoDB
15 7 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
15 7 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
16 6 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
16 6 (0.48%) Data Lake
17 5 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 47 (3.78%) Git
2 31 (2.49%) JIRA
3 23 (1.85%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.56%) Cucumber
4 7 (0.56%) Postman
5 6 (0.48%) Eclipse
5 6 (0.48%) GitLab
5 6 (0.48%) JMeter
5 6 (0.48%) Maven
5 6 (0.48%) Selenium
5 6 (0.48%) SoapUI
6 5 (0.40%) JUnit
6 5 (0.40%) VersionOne
6 5 (0.40%) Zephyr
7 4 (0.32%) Burp Suite
7 4 (0.32%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.32%) Metasploit
8 3 (0.24%) Mockito
8 3 (0.24%) Subversion
9 2 (0.16%) TeamCity
General
1 620 (49.88%) Social Skills
2 365 (29.36%) Analytical Skills
3 212 (17.06%) Finance
4 191 (15.37%) Manufacturing
5 85 (6.84%) Retail
6 82 (6.60%) Organisational Skills
7 68 (5.47%) Marketing
8 51 (4.10%) Public Sector
9 50 (4.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 44 (3.54%) Law
11 41 (3.30%) Legal
12 36 (2.90%) Electronics
13 30 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
14 25 (2.01%) Automotive
15 18 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
16 15 (1.21%) Telecoms
17 10 (0.80%) Banking
18 8 (0.64%) Billing
18 8 (0.64%) Games
18 8 (0.64%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 182 (14.64%) Analyst
2 137 (11.02%) IT Support
3 125 (10.06%) Support Engineer
4 117 (9.41%) Developer
5 103 (8.29%) Senior
6 76 (6.11%) Consultant
6 76 (6.11%) Technical Support
7 74 (5.95%) Lead
8 72 (5.79%) IT Engineer
9 65 (5.23%) Technical Engineer
10 63 (5.07%) Technical Support Engineer
11 62 (4.99%) Support Analyst
12 56 (4.51%) Support Technician
13 52 (4.18%) IT Support Engineer
14 49 (3.94%) IT Technician
15 44 (3.54%) IT Manager
16 41 (3.30%) IT Support Technician
17 37 (2.98%) Data Analyst
17 37 (2.98%) Senior Analyst
18 31 (2.49%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.34%) REST
2 44 (3.54%) .NET
3 39 (3.14%) React
4 27 (2.17%) Spring
5 24 (1.93%) Spring Boot
6 23 (1.85%) Node.js
6 23 (1.85%) SOAP
7 19 (1.53%) CSS
7 19 (1.53%) HTML
8 17 (1.37%) Terraform
9 16 (1.29%) RESTful
10 14 (1.13%) AngularJS
10 14 (1.13%) Playwright
11 12 (0.97%) JSON
12 11 (0.88%) EDI
12 11 (0.88%) ISPF
12 11 (0.88%) Middleware
13 10 (0.80%) SAP Fiori
13 10 (0.80%) XML
14 9 (0.72%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 135 (10.86%) Driving Licence
2 84 (6.76%) Onboarding
3 73 (5.87%) Management Information System
4 58 (4.67%) Self-Motivation
5 35 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
6 29 (2.33%) Robotics
7 28 (2.25%) NHS
8 19 (1.53%) IoT
9 17 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
9 17 (1.37%) Greenfield Project
9 17 (1.37%) SystemC
10 16 (1.29%) Data Centre
10 16 (1.29%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.21%) Legacy Applications
12 14 (1.13%) SCADA
13 13 (1.05%) CMDB
13 13 (1.05%) Data Structures
14 12 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (0.97%) Mainframe
15 11 (0.88%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 222 (17.86%) Windows
2 82 (6.60%) Windows Server
3 81 (6.52%) Linux
4 42 (3.38%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.37%) Android
6 14 (1.13%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.80%) Unix
8 9 (0.72%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.48%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.40%) OpenVMS
11 4 (0.32%) FreeRTOS
11 4 (0.32%) VMS
12 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.16%) Debian
13 2 (0.16%) Solaris
14 1 (0.080%) CentOS
14 1 (0.080%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (29.44%) Continuous Improvement
2 235 (18.91%) Customer Service
3 174 (14.00%) Decision-Making
4 164 (13.19%) Agile
5 159 (12.79%) Analytics
6 138 (11.10%) Mentoring
7 129 (10.38%) ERP
8 123 (9.90%) Business Intelligence
8 123 (9.90%) Collaborative Working
9 116 (9.33%) Cybersecurity
10 98 (7.88%) AI
11 97 (7.80%) ITIL
12 95 (7.64%) Service Delivery
13 91 (7.32%) Roadmaps
13 91 (7.32%) Stakeholder Management
14 82 (6.60%) Project Delivery
15 80 (6.44%) CRM
16 75 (6.03%) Collaborative Culture
17 73 (5.87%) Project Management
17 73 (5.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 203 (16.33%) SQL
2 87 (7.00%) Python
3 66 (5.31%) Java
4 52 (4.18%) PowerShell
5 49 (3.94%) JavaScript
6 38 (3.06%) C#
7 29 (2.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 23 (1.85%) TypeScript
9 21 (1.69%) Ladder Logic
10 20 (1.61%) C
11 14 (1.13%) Embedded C
12 13 (1.05%) VBA
13 12 (0.97%) Bash
13 12 (0.97%) C++
13 12 (0.97%) PHP
14 11 (0.88%) COBOL
14 11 (0.88%) JCL
15 9 (0.72%) ABAP
16 8 (0.64%) MATLAB
17 7 (0.56%) RPG
Qualifications
1 185 (14.88%) Degree
2 96 (7.72%) Security Cleared
3 79 (6.36%) SC Cleared
4 26 (2.09%) HND
4 26 (2.09%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (1.93%) Azure Certification
6 23 (1.85%) HNC
7 21 (1.69%) DBS Check
8 18 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.21%) PMI Certification
10 14 (1.13%) CISSP
11 12 (0.97%) CCNA
12 11 (0.88%) NVQ Level 4
13 10 (0.80%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (0.56%) ACCA
14 7 (0.56%) CIMA
14 7 (0.56%) PMP
15 6 (0.48%) CCSP
15 6 (0.48%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (4.67%) Data Quality
2 50 (4.02%) GDPR
3 46 (3.70%) QA
4 40 (3.22%) Cyber Essentials
4 40 (3.22%) SLA
5 37 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (1.77%) Accessibility
7 21 (1.69%) ISO 9001
8 15 (1.21%) NIST
9 9 (0.72%) ISO 14001
10 7 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 7 (0.56%) GRC
10 7 (0.56%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.32%) GMP
11 4 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.24%) AQAP
12 3 (0.24%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.24%) ISO 26262
12 3 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 155 (12.47%) Active Directory
2 51 (4.10%) Hyper-V
3 30 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (2.09%) Docker
5 18 (1.45%) Firmware
6 13 (1.05%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.80%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.64%) vSphere
9 2 (0.16%) Samba
9 2 (0.16%) XenApp
10 1 (0.080%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.080%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 48 (3.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (1.85%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.80%) SCCM
4 8 (0.64%) Ansible
5 6 (0.48%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.40%) Grafana
7 4 (0.32%) BMC PATROL
7 4 (0.32%) Galera Cluster
7 4 (0.32%) Nmap
7 4 (0.32%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.32%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.24%) Control-M
8 3 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.24%) Progress Chef
8 3 (0.24%) Puppet
8 3 (0.24%) WhatsUp Gold
9 2 (0.16%) WSUS
10 1 (0.080%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.080%) Nagios
Vendors
1 380 (30.57%) Microsoft
2 61 (4.91%) SAP
3 40 (3.22%) VMware
4 33 (2.65%) Oracle
5 31 (2.49%) Cisco
6 29 (2.33%) ServiceNow
7 26 (2.09%) Workday
8 22 (1.77%) Sage
8 22 (1.77%) Salesforce
9 21 (1.69%) IBM
10 19 (1.53%) Google
11 17 (1.37%) Cognos
12 14 (1.13%) Databricks
13 12 (0.97%) Allen-Bradley
13 12 (0.97%) HubSpot
14 11 (0.88%) Apple
14 11 (0.88%) JD Edwards
14 11 (0.88%) Sophos
15 10 (0.80%) Dell
15 10 (0.80%) Epicor