Problem-Solving Job Trends in Staffordshire

Problem Solving
West Midlands > Staffordshire

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Staffordshire requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 111 172 140
As % of all permanent jobs in Staffordshire 9.40% 26.50% 16.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.12% 31.05% 19.86%
Number of salaries quoted 70 37 32
10th Percentile £26,750 £23,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £28,500 £37,500 £35,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,500 £45,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -21.11% -10.00% +41.56%
75th Percentile £56,263 £57,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £67,500 £63,250 £58,194
West Midlands median annual salary £42,500 £42,500 £52,000
% change year-on-year - -18.27% +6.12%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Staffordshire

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 Staffordshire.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 734 554 705
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Staffordshire 62.15% 85.36% 84.74%
Number of salaries quoted 515 210 400
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £30,580 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -5.56% +5.88%
75th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £59,063
90th Percentile £73,750 £68,750 £65,000
West Midlands median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +10.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Staffordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Staffordshire.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Staffordshire

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in Staffordshire

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in Staffordshire

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Staffordshire over the 6 months to 10 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in Staffordshire

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in Staffordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Staffordshire region over the 6 months to 10 October 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
Tamworth -1 23 £29,000 +16.00% 6
Stoke-on-Trent -4 21 £40,750 -16.41% 17
Stafford -5 20 £48,750 +8.33% 17
Cannock +7 7 £55,000 - 2
Lichfield -5 4 £54,500 - 5
Burntwood +2 2 - -
Rugeley -2 1 - - 3
Burton-upon-Trent -13 1 £62,500 +160.42% 9
Problem-Solving
West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Staffordshire 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 12 (10.81%) SharePoint
2 7 (6.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.80%) IIS
3 2 (1.80%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.90%) Apache
4 1 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 10 (9.01%) Simulink
2 7 (6.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (3.60%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.90%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.90%) EPLAN
Cloud Services
1 24 (21.62%) Microsoft 365
2 16 (14.41%) Azure
3 10 (9.01%) Entra ID
4 8 (7.21%) Power Platform
5 7 (6.31%) OneDrive
6 5 (4.50%) AWS
6 5 (4.50%) SaaS
7 3 (2.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 2 (1.80%) Azure Data Factory
8 2 (1.80%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.80%) GCP
8 2 (1.80%) IaaS
8 2 (1.80%) PaaS
9 1 (0.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (0.90%) Azure Storage
9 1 (0.90%) dbt
9 1 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.90%) GitHub
9 1 (0.90%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.90%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 9 (8.11%) Wireshark
2 7 (6.31%) LAN
2 7 (6.31%) WAN
3 6 (5.41%) DNS
3 6 (5.41%) VPN
3 6 (5.41%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (2.70%) DHCP
4 3 (2.70%) TCP/IP
5 2 (1.80%) 5G
5 2 (1.80%) Bluetooth
5 2 (1.80%) Firewall
5 2 (1.80%) Skype
5 2 (1.80%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.31%) Power BI
2 6 (5.41%) SQL Server
3 4 (3.60%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (3.60%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (2.70%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (2.70%) Data Lake
4 3 (2.70%) MySQL
4 3 (2.70%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 3 (2.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 2 (1.80%) MS Access
6 1 (0.90%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.90%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.90%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 9 (8.11%) Eclipse
2 4 (3.60%) Git
3 1 (0.90%) Carbide.c++
General
1 82 (73.87%) Social Skills
2 32 (28.83%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (21.62%) Manufacturing
4 15 (13.51%) Marketing
5 12 (10.81%) Electronics
6 6 (5.41%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (4.50%) Finance
8 4 (3.60%) Retail
9 3 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.80%) Automotive
10 2 (1.80%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.90%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.90%) Agriculture
11 1 (0.90%) Billing
11 1 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 26 (23.42%) IT Support
2 24 (21.62%) Support Engineer
3 18 (16.22%) Technical Engineer
3 18 (16.22%) Technical Support
3 18 (16.22%) Technical Support Engineer
4 13 (11.71%) 1st Line Support
5 11 (9.91%) Analyst
5 11 (9.91%) Senior
6 10 (9.01%) Lead
7 9 (8.11%) Applications Engineer
7 9 (8.11%) IT Technician
8 8 (7.21%) Support Analyst
9 6 (5.41%) IT Engineer
9 6 (5.41%) IT Support Engineer
9 6 (5.41%) IT Support Technician
9 6 (5.41%) Support Technician
10 5 (4.50%) 2nd Line Support
10 5 (4.50%) Developer
10 5 (4.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 4 (3.60%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.70%) AngularJS
1 3 (2.70%) React
1 3 (2.70%) Terraform
2 2 (1.80%) Spring
2 2 (1.80%) Spring Boot
3 1 (0.90%) Kafka
3 1 (0.90%) PySpark
3 1 (0.90%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.01%) Analytical Mindset
2 6 (5.41%) Driving Licence
2 6 (5.41%) Onboarding
2 6 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (2.70%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (2.70%) SCADA
4 2 (1.80%) BYOD
4 2 (1.80%) CAN bus
4 2 (1.80%) FMCG
4 2 (1.80%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.90%) Acoustics
5 1 (0.90%) Client/Server
5 1 (0.90%) Cloud Native
5 1 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (0.90%) Operational Technology
5 1 (0.90%) Private Cloud
5 1 (0.90%) Renewable Energy
5 1 (0.90%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 24 (21.62%) Windows
2 9 (8.11%) Windows Server
3 4 (3.60%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (2.70%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.80%) Android
5 2 (1.80%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.80%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (36.94%) Customer Service
2 37 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
3 17 (15.32%) Customer Experience
4 16 (14.41%) Cybersecurity
5 15 (13.51%) Agile
5 15 (13.51%) User Experience
6 12 (10.81%) Presales
7 11 (9.91%) Business Intelligence
7 11 (9.91%) Validation
8 10 (9.01%) Regression Testing
8 10 (9.01%) Software Testing
9 9 (8.11%) Analytics
9 9 (8.11%) Commercial Awareness
9 9 (8.11%) Procure-to-Pay
9 9 (8.11%) Product Requirements
9 9 (8.11%) Project Delivery
9 9 (8.11%) Scrum
10 8 (7.21%) Root Cause Analysis
11 7 (6.31%) Business Continuity
11 7 (6.31%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 15 (13.51%) Ladder Logic
2 14 (12.61%) Java
3 11 (9.91%) C
3 11 (9.91%) Embedded C
4 10 (9.01%) MATLAB
5 8 (7.21%) SQL
6 5 (4.50%) Python
7 4 (3.60%) PowerShell
8 3 (2.70%) C#
8 3 (2.70%) Go
8 3 (2.70%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.90%) Bicep
9 1 (0.90%) C++
Qualifications
1 21 (18.92%) Degree
2 9 (8.11%) Security Cleared
3 5 (4.50%) HNC
4 4 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
4 4 (3.60%) DBS Check
4 4 (3.60%) SC Cleared
5 3 (2.70%) HND
6 2 (1.80%) City & Guilds
6 2 (1.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.80%) NVQ Level 3
7 1 (0.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (0.90%) APMG
7 1 (0.90%) APMP
7 1 (0.90%) CCSP
7 1 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.90%) CISSP
7 1 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.90%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.90%) PhD
7 1 (0.90%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.41%) Data Quality
2 5 (4.50%) GDPR
3 4 (3.60%) ISO 14001
3 4 (3.60%) ISO 9001
4 2 (1.80%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.90%) PMO
5 1 (0.90%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (14.41%) Active Directory
2 11 (9.91%) Embedded Firmware
2 11 (9.91%) Firmware
3 3 (2.70%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.80%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.80%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.80%) vSphere
4 2 (1.80%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 8 (7.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (3.60%) Functional Safety
3 2 (1.80%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.90%) Ansible
Vendors
1 33 (29.73%) Microsoft
2 7 (6.31%) VMware
3 6 (5.41%) Sophos
4 5 (4.50%) Citrix
5 4 (3.60%) Dell
6 2 (1.80%) Apple
6 2 (1.80%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.80%) McAfee
6 2 (1.80%) Mitel
6 2 (1.80%) Samsung
6 2 (1.80%) SonicWALL
6 2 (1.80%) WatchGuard
7 1 (0.90%) Databricks
7 1 (0.90%) Google
7 1 (0.90%) HubSpot