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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 799 638 945
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 8.83% 19.61% 15.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.73% 22.66% 19.81%
Number of salaries quoted 534 405 321
10th Percentile £28,250 £25,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £33,063 £29,250 £35,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £43,105 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.40% -13.79% -
75th Percentile £57,500 £57,500 £63,250
90th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £80,000
England median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% -4.55%

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 6,275 2,815 4,771
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.34% 86.54% 80.55%
Number of salaries quoted 4,612 1,763 2,386
10th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,099 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -7.41% +2.86%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,800
% change year-on-year +9.09% -6.46% -5.66%

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 26 September 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 26 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
Birmingham -5 292 £55,000 +22.22% 306
Staffordshire -3 108 £46,750 +3.89% 69
Warwickshire -6 80 £38,750 -29.55% 95
Shropshire +3 68 £43,250 -8.95% 50
Worcestershire -3 66 £38,000 +24.59% 53
Coventry -7 40 £42,250 +34.13% 60
Wolverhampton +6 17 £49,250 -24.23% 23
Solihull +5 16 £31,000 -8.82% 28
Herefordshire -22 10 £29,750 -8.46% 22
Tipton - 7 £33,500 - 11
Walsall -1 6 £37,500 -16.67% 6
Dudley - 6 £36,000 - 6
Halesowen -5 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Willenhall -3 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Sutton Coldfield - 4 £42,500 -
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 44 (5.51%) SharePoint
2 30 (3.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.25%) IIS
4 7 (0.88%) Confluence
5 5 (0.63%) CICS
6 4 (0.50%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.50%) WordPress
7 3 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.25%) CMS
8 2 (0.25%) Documentum
8 2 (0.25%) SAS
9 1 (0.13%) Apache
9 1 (0.13%) Appian
9 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 69 (8.64%) Microsoft Office
2 52 (6.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.38%) Simulink
4 6 (0.75%) OrCAD
4 6 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.63%) Fusion 360
5 5 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.38%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.25%) EPLAN
7 2 (0.25%) Revit
7 2 (0.25%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.13%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.13%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.13%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.13%) SketchUp
8 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 10 (1.25%) NetSuite
2 9 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.88%) Shopify
4 6 (0.75%) Magento
5 4 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.50%) Line 50
5 4 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.50%) Sage 50
5 4 (0.50%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.38%) SAP Business One
6 3 (0.38%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.25%) JDE EnterpriseOne
8 1 (0.13%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.13%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.13%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.13%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 151 (18.90%) Azure
2 132 (16.52%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (12.14%) Power Platform
4 57 (7.13%) Entra ID
5 54 (6.76%) AWS
6 45 (5.63%) SaaS
7 28 (3.50%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (2.88%) Dynamics 365
9 17 (2.13%) GitHub
10 16 (2.00%) Microsoft Purview
10 16 (2.00%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.88%) GitHub Actions
12 14 (1.75%) GCP
13 13 (1.63%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
14 11 (1.38%) PaaS
15 10 (1.25%) Google Workspace
16 7 (0.88%) Google Analytics
16 7 (0.88%) IaaS
16 7 (0.88%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 30 (3.75%) Firewall
2 27 (3.38%) VPN
3 26 (3.25%) DNS
4 25 (3.13%) TCP/IP
5 24 (3.00%) WAN
6 21 (2.63%) Wireless
7 20 (2.50%) LAN
8 18 (2.25%) DHCP
9 15 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
10 13 (1.63%) Network Security
11 12 (1.50%) VLAN
12 9 (1.13%) VoIP
12 9 (1.13%) Wireshark
13 6 (0.75%) Cisco IOS
13 6 (0.75%) Internet
14 5 (0.63%) SD-WAN
15 4 (0.50%) Bluetooth
15 4 (0.50%) Skype
16 3 (0.38%) Ethernet
16 3 (0.38%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (11.51%) Power BI
2 32 (4.01%) SQL Server
3 24 (3.00%) Tableau
4 22 (2.75%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (2.50%) Relational Database
6 19 (2.38%) Power Query
7 14 (1.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (1.38%) MySQL
8 11 (1.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.25%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (1.25%) Data Mining
10 9 (1.13%) Data Lake
11 8 (1.00%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
13 6 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
13 6 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
14 5 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.63%) Big Data
14 5 (0.63%) Oracle BI EE
14 5 (0.63%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 29 (3.63%) Git
2 26 (3.25%) Jenkins
3 25 (3.13%) JIRA
4 9 (1.13%) Eclipse
5 7 (0.88%) Cucumber
5 7 (0.88%) GitLab
6 6 (0.75%) JMeter
6 6 (0.75%) Maven
6 6 (0.75%) Postman
6 6 (0.75%) Selenium
7 5 (0.63%) JUnit
7 5 (0.63%) SoapUI
7 5 (0.63%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.38%) Mockito
9 2 (0.25%) Ant
9 2 (0.25%) Apache Ivy
9 2 (0.25%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.13%) Bugzilla
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio
General
1 391 (48.94%) Social Skills
2 207 (25.91%) Analytical Skills
3 129 (16.15%) Finance
4 127 (15.89%) Manufacturing
5 69 (8.64%) Organisational Skills
6 58 (7.26%) Public Sector
7 53 (6.63%) Retail
8 38 (4.76%) Marketing
9 34 (4.26%) Electronics
10 23 (2.88%) Automotive
11 21 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 21 (2.63%) Law
12 20 (2.50%) Legal
13 16 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.88%) Telecoms
15 10 (1.25%) Banking
15 10 (1.25%) Billing
15 10 (1.25%) Fire and Rescue
16 9 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
17 8 (1.00%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 93 (11.64%) Support Engineer
2 86 (10.76%) Analyst
3 72 (9.01%) Developer
4 68 (8.51%) Technical Support
5 62 (7.76%) IT Support
6 61 (7.63%) Lead
7 60 (7.51%) Technical Engineer
8 58 (7.26%) Technical Support Engineer
9 53 (6.63%) Consultant
10 52 (6.51%) Senior
11 44 (5.51%) IT Engineer
12 33 (4.13%) IT Manager
13 32 (4.01%) IT Support Engineer
14 30 (3.75%) Support Analyst
15 28 (3.50%) Administrator
16 21 (2.63%) Architect
17 17 (2.13%) 2nd Line Support
17 17 (2.13%) Electronics Engineer
18 16 (2.00%) 1st Line Support
19 15 (1.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (5.01%) REST
2 37 (4.63%) .NET
3 30 (3.75%) Spring
4 27 (3.38%) Spring Boot
5 26 (3.25%) React
6 15 (1.88%) RESTful
7 14 (1.75%) AngularJS
7 14 (1.75%) ISPF
7 14 (1.75%) Playwright
8 13 (1.63%) CSS
8 13 (1.63%) HTML
8 13 (1.63%) SOAP
9 12 (1.50%) Terraform
10 10 (1.25%) XML
11 8 (1.00%) LDAP
11 8 (1.00%) SAP Fiori
12 7 (0.88%) Node.js
12 7 (0.88%) Web Services
13 6 (0.75%) JSON
13 6 (0.75%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 73 (9.14%) Driving Licence
2 45 (5.63%) Onboarding
3 43 (5.38%) Self-Motivation
4 41 (5.13%) Management Information System
5 39 (4.88%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.38%) NHS
7 18 (2.25%) Data Centre
8 17 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (2.00%) Virtual Team
10 15 (1.88%) Social Media
11 14 (1.75%) Legacy Applications
11 14 (1.75%) Mainframe
12 12 (1.50%) Cloud Native
13 11 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.38%) Data Structures
13 11 (1.38%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.38%) Public Cloud
14 10 (1.25%) Hybrid Cloud
14 10 (1.25%) IoT
15 9 (1.13%) SystemC
Operating Systems
1 128 (16.02%) Windows
2 45 (5.63%) Windows Server
3 40 (5.01%) Linux
4 23 (2.88%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.63%) Android
6 9 (1.13%) Apple iOS
6 9 (1.13%) Unix
7 7 (0.88%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.50%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.38%) Solaris
9 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.13%) AIX
11 1 (0.13%) CentOS
11 1 (0.13%) Debian
11 1 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.13%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 233 (29.16%) Continuous Improvement
2 155 (19.40%) Customer Service
3 118 (14.77%) Agile
4 99 (12.39%) Decision-Making
5 98 (12.27%) Business Intelligence
6 95 (11.89%) Analytics
7 82 (10.26%) Mentoring
8 79 (9.89%) ERP
9 77 (9.64%) AI
9 77 (9.64%) Collaborative Working
10 70 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
11 62 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
12 60 (7.51%) CI/CD
12 60 (7.51%) Collaborative Culture
12 60 (7.51%) CRM
13 57 (7.13%) Project Management
13 57 (7.13%) Root Cause Analysis
14 56 (7.01%) Customer Experience
14 56 (7.01%) Project Delivery
15 55 (6.88%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 126 (15.77%) SQL
2 68 (8.51%) Java
3 51 (6.38%) Python
4 29 (3.63%) PowerShell
5 26 (3.25%) JavaScript
6 25 (3.13%) C#
7 19 (2.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 18 (2.25%) Ladder Logic
9 17 (2.13%) C
9 17 (2.13%) Embedded C
10 14 (1.75%) COBOL
10 14 (1.75%) JCL
11 13 (1.63%) TypeScript
12 11 (1.38%) MATLAB
13 7 (0.88%) PL/SQL
13 7 (0.88%) RPG
14 6 (0.75%) ABAP
14 6 (0.75%) PHP
14 6 (0.75%) R
15 5 (0.63%) Bash
Qualifications
1 121 (15.14%) Degree
2 81 (10.14%) Security Cleared
3 66 (8.26%) SC Cleared
4 22 (2.75%) Azure Certification
5 16 (2.00%) DBS Check
6 15 (1.88%) HNC
7 14 (1.75%) HND
8 12 (1.50%) PMI Certification
9 11 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.13%) CCNA
12 8 (1.00%) ACCA
13 7 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
13 7 (0.88%) CIMA
14 6 (0.75%) CCNP
14 6 (0.75%) ISTQB
15 5 (0.63%) ISEB
15 5 (0.63%) PMP
16 4 (0.50%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (6.13%) Data Quality
2 36 (4.51%) QA
3 34 (4.26%) GDPR
4 24 (3.00%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (2.88%) SLA
6 22 (2.75%) Accessibility
7 20 (2.50%) ISO 9001
8 17 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 9 (1.13%) ISO 14001
10 5 (0.63%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.50%) GMP
11 4 (0.50%) PMO
12 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.38%) AQAP
12 3 (0.38%) ISO 26262
12 3 (0.38%) NIST
13 2 (0.25%) Automotive SPICE
13 2 (0.25%) GRC
13 2 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.13%) HIPAA
System Software
1 85 (10.64%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.00%) Hyper-V
3 17 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (1.88%) Docker
4 15 (1.88%) Firmware
5 13 (1.63%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (1.00%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.50%) vSphere
9 2 (0.25%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 32 (4.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (1.50%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.75%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.63%) SCCM
6 4 (0.50%) Ansible
7 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.38%) Puppet
8 2 (0.25%) Backup Exec
8 2 (0.25%) Grafana
8 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.25%) WSUS
9 1 (0.13%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.13%) Nagios
9 1 (0.13%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 225 (28.16%) Microsoft
2 38 (4.76%) SAP
3 28 (3.50%) Workday
4 24 (3.00%) VMware
5 19 (2.38%) Cisco
5 19 (2.38%) Google
6 18 (2.25%) Sage
7 17 (2.13%) Oracle
8 14 (1.75%) ServiceNow
9 12 (1.50%) HubSpot
10 11 (1.38%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.13%) Apple
11 9 (1.13%) Broadcom
11 9 (1.13%) Databricks
11 9 (1.13%) Dell
12 8 (1.00%) Sophos
13 7 (0.88%) EMC
13 7 (0.88%) IBM
14 6 (0.75%) iManage
14 6 (0.75%) Pega