Problem-Solving Job Trends in the West Midlands

Problem Solving
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -24 +3 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 523 706 1,150
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 6.11% 23.45% 15.06%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.38% 26.30% 18.35%
Number of salaries quoted 392 389 745
10th Percentile £27,694 £25,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,928 £32,500 £29,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £48,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.46% +12.94% -15.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £63,250 £58,750
90th Percentile £68,625 £74,014 £71,725
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.94% +1.00% -9.09%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West 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 West Midlands.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 6,242 2,684 6,266
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 72.89% 89.14% 82.07%
Number of salaries quoted 3,774 1,510 4,612
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,822 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £35,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -12.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the West Midlands

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the West Midlands

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 24 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the West Midlands

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the West 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 West Midlands region over the 6 months to 24 May 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
Birmingham -14 177 £50,000 -4.76% 77
Staffordshire -14 96 £31,500 -38.77% 27
Warwickshire -18 63 £32,500 -16.13% 67
Worcestershire -19 41 £37,500 +22.95% 17
Coventry -15 28 £42,000 -26.96% 22
Shropshire -16 26 £50,000 +17.65% 21
Herefordshire -19 16 £52,500 -30.00% 6
Solihull -3 13 £30,500 -44.55% 4
Walsall +3 9 £37,500 -26.47% 3
Tipton -2 8 £33,500 -
Halesowen -5 6 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 3
Wolverhampton -28 3 £80,000 +146.15% 5
Sutton Coldfield -8 1 £28,000 - 1
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West 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 46 (8.80%) SharePoint
2 30 (5.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.96%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.76%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (0.76%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (0.76%) Exchange Server 2013
4 4 (0.76%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 3 (0.57%) WordPress
6 2 (0.38%) Confluence
7 1 (0.19%) Appian
7 1 (0.19%) IIS
7 1 (0.19%) SAS
Applications
1 42 (8.03%) Microsoft Office
2 29 (5.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.68%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.96%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.19%) Abaqus
7 1 (0.19%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.19%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 8 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.96%) Magento
2 5 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.96%) Shopify
3 4 (0.76%) Line 50
3 4 (0.76%) Sage 50
4 3 (0.57%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.57%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.38%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.38%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.19%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 109 (20.84%) Microsoft 365
2 107 (20.46%) Azure
3 50 (9.56%) Power Platform
4 44 (8.41%) Entra ID
5 39 (7.46%) AWS
6 25 (4.78%) SaaS
7 14 (2.68%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.49%) Power Automate
8 13 (2.49%) PowerApps
9 9 (1.72%) Google Workspace
9 9 (1.72%) OneDrive
10 7 (1.34%) Azure Data Factory
10 7 (1.34%) Azure Sentinel
10 7 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
11 6 (1.15%) GCP
11 6 (1.15%) Serverless
12 4 (0.76%) IaaS
12 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (0.76%) PaaS
13 3 (0.57%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 24 (4.59%) WAN
2 23 (4.40%) Firewall
2 23 (4.40%) VPN
3 20 (3.82%) Wi-Fi
4 18 (3.44%) DNS
4 18 (3.44%) Internet
5 16 (3.06%) LAN
6 15 (2.87%) Wireless
7 14 (2.68%) DHCP
8 10 (1.91%) Network Security
8 10 (1.91%) SD-WAN
8 10 (1.91%) VLAN
9 7 (1.34%) VoIP
10 6 (1.15%) TCP/IP
11 5 (0.96%) Bluetooth
11 5 (0.96%) Skype
12 3 (0.57%) SAN
13 2 (0.38%) NAS
14 1 (0.19%) Intrusion Detection
14 1 (0.19%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (8.80%) Power BI
2 14 (2.68%) Tableau
3 12 (2.29%) Power Query
4 11 (2.10%) SQL Server
5 7 (1.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 7 (1.34%) Star Schema
6 6 (1.15%) MySQL
7 5 (0.96%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.76%) Data Mining
8 4 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.76%) FileMaker
8 4 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.57%) GIS
9 3 (0.57%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.57%) Redis
9 3 (0.57%) TimescaleDB
10 2 (0.38%) MariaDB
10 2 (0.38%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (2.87%) Git
2 11 (2.10%) JIRA
3 8 (1.53%) JUnit
4 7 (1.34%) Maven
4 7 (1.34%) Mockito
5 3 (0.57%) GitLab
5 3 (0.57%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.19%) Appium
7 1 (0.19%) Balsamiq
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Bugzilla
7 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.19%) MLflow
7 1 (0.19%) Postman
7 1 (0.19%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.19%) TestRail
7 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 209 (39.96%) Social Skills
2 149 (28.49%) Analytical Skills
3 99 (18.93%) Finance
4 65 (12.43%) Manufacturing
5 32 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
6 30 (5.74%) Public Sector
7 24 (4.59%) Legal
8 22 (4.21%) Retail
9 20 (3.82%) Law
9 20 (3.82%) Marketing
10 16 (3.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (2.29%) Automotive
11 12 (2.29%) Banking
11 12 (2.29%) Electronics
12 11 (2.10%) Investment Banking
13 10 (1.91%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
15 5 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
16 3 (0.57%) Agriculture
Job Titles
1 91 (17.40%) Support Engineer
2 85 (16.25%) Analyst
3 66 (12.62%) IT Support
4 56 (10.71%) IT Engineer
5 46 (8.80%) IT Support Engineer
6 45 (8.60%) Senior
7 44 (8.41%) Developer
8 43 (8.22%) Technical Engineer
8 43 (8.22%) Technical Support
8 43 (8.22%) Technical Support Engineer
9 35 (6.69%) Lead
10 28 (5.35%) Support Analyst
11 20 (3.82%) Consultant
12 18 (3.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 17 (3.25%) 2nd Line Support
13 17 (3.25%) Instructor
14 15 (2.87%) Programmer
15 14 (2.68%) Architect
15 14 (2.68%) IT Manager
15 14 (2.68%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.02%) React
1 21 (4.02%) REST
2 13 (2.49%) Spring
3 11 (2.10%) AngularJS
4 10 (1.91%) .NET
4 10 (1.91%) CSS
4 10 (1.91%) HTML
4 10 (1.91%) Spring Boot
5 8 (1.53%) RESTful
6 5 (0.96%) Node.js
7 4 (0.76%) .NET Framework
7 4 (0.76%) EDI
8 3 (0.57%) GraphQL
8 3 (0.57%) Playwright
9 2 (0.38%) JSON
10 1 (0.19%) JDBC
10 1 (0.19%) Laravel
10 1 (0.19%) OAuth
10 1 (0.19%) SOAP
10 1 (0.19%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 47 (8.99%) Driving Licence
2 25 (4.78%) Self-Motivation
3 22 (4.21%) Management Information System
4 21 (4.02%) Onboarding
5 18 (3.44%) Social Media
6 11 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (2.10%) FMCG
7 10 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (1.72%) Data Centre
8 9 (1.72%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (1.34%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
10 6 (1.15%) iSeries
10 6 (1.15%) Security Posture
11 5 (0.96%) AS400
11 5 (0.96%) NHS
11 5 (0.96%) Product Ownership
12 4 (0.76%) CAN bus
12 4 (0.76%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 83 (15.87%) Windows
2 25 (4.78%) Linux
2 25 (4.78%) Windows 10
3 18 (3.44%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.53%) Apple iOS
5 7 (1.34%) Android
6 5 (0.96%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.76%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.76%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.76%) Unix
8 2 (0.38%) CentOS
8 2 (0.38%) Debian
8 2 (0.38%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (21.61%) Continuous Improvement
2 71 (13.58%) Agile
3 63 (12.05%) Customer Service
4 60 (11.47%) Decision-Making
5 54 (10.33%) ITIL
5 54 (10.33%) Mentoring
6 53 (10.13%) Analytics
7 50 (9.56%) Collaborative Working
8 47 (8.99%) AI
9 46 (8.80%) ERP
10 45 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
11 44 (8.41%) Business Intelligence
12 36 (6.88%) Project Management
12 36 (6.88%) Service Delivery
13 35 (6.69%) CRM
14 33 (6.31%) Coaching
14 33 (6.31%) Customer Experience
14 33 (6.31%) Root Cause Analysis
15 31 (5.93%) Roadmaps
16 30 (5.74%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 65 (12.43%) SQL
2 32 (6.12%) Python
3 31 (5.93%) Java
4 20 (3.82%) PowerShell
5 13 (2.49%) JavaScript
6 12 (2.29%) C
6 12 (2.29%) C#
6 12 (2.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 12 (2.29%) Ladder Logic
7 11 (2.10%) Bash
7 11 (2.10%) PHP
7 11 (2.10%) TypeScript
8 7 (1.34%) C++
8 7 (1.34%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.96%) R
9 5 (0.96%) RPG
10 4 (0.76%) Embedded C
11 3 (0.57%) RPG IV
11 3 (0.57%) RPG/400
11 3 (0.57%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 73 (13.96%) Degree
2 53 (10.13%) Security Cleared
3 43 (8.22%) SC Cleared
4 24 (4.59%) DBS Check
5 22 (4.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (1.91%) A+ Certification
7 10 (1.91%) CISSP
8 9 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.53%) ACCA
9 8 (1.53%) CIMA
10 7 (1.34%) CISA
10 7 (1.34%) SSCP
11 6 (1.15%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (0.96%) HND
12 5 (0.96%) MCITP
12 5 (0.96%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.76%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (6.31%) QA
2 27 (5.16%) Data Quality
3 23 (4.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (3.44%) NIST
5 17 (3.25%) GDPR
6 16 (3.06%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (2.29%) SLA
8 11 (2.10%) Accessibility
9 9 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (1.53%) ISO 14001
10 8 (1.53%) ISO 9001
11 6 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 5 (0.96%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.57%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.57%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.38%) PMO
15 1 (0.19%) GRC
System Software
1 63 (12.05%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.44%) Docker
3 14 (2.68%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.91%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.34%) Firmware
6 4 (0.76%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.38%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 29 (5.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (3.25%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.49%) Terraform
4 6 (1.15%) Ansible
5 4 (0.76%) Functional Safety
5 4 (0.76%) Nagios
5 4 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.38%) Grafana
6 2 (0.38%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.38%) Puppet
6 2 (0.38%) SCCM
6 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 129 (24.67%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.82%) Cisco
3 19 (3.63%) VMware
4 18 (3.44%) SAP
5 17 (3.25%) Oracle
6 14 (2.68%) Sage
7 11 (2.10%) Dell
8 9 (1.72%) Google
8 9 (1.72%) SolarWinds
9 7 (1.34%) HP
9 7 (1.34%) Meraki
9 7 (1.34%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.34%) Zscaler
10 6 (1.15%) Avaya
10 6 (1.15%) McAfee
10 6 (1.15%) Sophos
11 5 (0.96%) IBM
12 4 (0.76%) Adobe
12 4 (0.76%) Apple
12 4 (0.76%) ServiceNow