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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -25 +4 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 519 729 1,021
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.23% 21.67% 15.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.51% 23.80% 18.17%
Number of salaries quoted 386 403 778
10th Percentile £26,000 £29,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £37,250 £29,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £53,300 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.26% +25.41% -15.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £65,000 £57,500
90th Percentile £72,750 £80,000 £67,500
England median annual salary £47,085 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -14.39% +10.00% -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 5,457 3,063 5,620
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 76.07% 91.05% 83.67%
Number of salaries quoted 3,132 1,708 4,396
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,580 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,275 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.77% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,688 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £80,375 £77,500
England median annual salary £56,875 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -5.21% +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 2 April 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 2 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
Birmingham -12 169 £48,750 -15.22% 97
Staffordshire -9 97 £30,750 -38.50% 39
Warwickshire -14 66 £32,500 -23.53% 40
Worcestershire -14 44 £37,500 +7.14% 25
Shropshire -18 30 £42,500 - 20
Herefordshire -8 24 £52,500 +4.48% 7
Coventry -14 23 £54,675 -8.11% 12
Solihull -5 15 £90,000 +63.64% 7
Dudley -2 6 £75,000 +114.29% 2
Walsall +1 5 £44,000 -13.73% 5
Wednesbury -5 4 £42,500 -5.56%
Halesowen -8 4 £32,500 -
Tipton -6 3 £34,000 - 2
Wolverhampton -28 3 £80,000 +146.15% 4
Kingswinford -5 2 £45,250 +20.67% 1
Sutton Coldfield -8 1 £28,000 -
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 (8.86%) SharePoint
2 27 (5.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2007
3 6 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2010
3 6 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2013
4 5 (0.96%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.39%) Apache
5 2 (0.39%) Confluence
5 2 (0.39%) IIS
5 2 (0.39%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.19%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.19%) SAS
6 1 (0.19%) WebLogic
Applications
1 39 (7.51%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (7.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.31%) Spreadsheet
4 7 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.35%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.77%) AutoCAD
5 4 (0.77%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.58%) SOLIDWORKS
7 2 (0.39%) Fusion 360
7 2 (0.39%) Trello
8 1 (0.19%) Abaqus
8 1 (0.19%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 19 (3.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.35%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.58%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.58%) SAP Business ByDesign
3 3 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.39%) SAP Business One
4 2 (0.39%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.19%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.19%) Line 50
5 1 (0.19%) Raiser’s Edge
5 1 (0.19%) Sage X3
5 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 122 (23.51%) Azure
2 106 (20.42%) Microsoft 365
3 44 (8.48%) Power Platform
4 40 (7.71%) Entra ID
5 35 (6.74%) AWS
6 33 (6.36%) SaaS
7 18 (3.47%) Dynamics 365
8 14 (2.70%) Power Automate
9 13 (2.50%) PowerApps
10 11 (2.12%) OneDrive
11 9 (1.73%) Azure Data Factory
11 9 (1.73%) Google Workspace
11 9 (1.73%) Serverless
12 6 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
12 6 (1.16%) GCP
13 5 (0.96%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.96%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.96%) OCI
14 4 (0.77%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (5.97%) VPN
2 25 (4.82%) DNS
3 24 (4.62%) WAN
4 23 (4.43%) Internet
5 22 (4.24%) DHCP
5 22 (4.24%) Wi-Fi
6 21 (4.05%) Firewall
7 17 (3.28%) LAN
8 10 (1.93%) SD-WAN
9 8 (1.54%) VLAN
9 8 (1.54%) VoIP
10 6 (1.16%) Broadband
10 6 (1.16%) Network Security
11 5 (0.96%) Wireless
12 4 (0.77%) ADSL
12 4 (0.77%) Ethernet
12 4 (0.77%) TCP/IP
12 4 (0.77%) VDSL
13 2 (0.39%) NAS
13 2 (0.39%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (7.32%) Power BI
2 15 (2.89%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.93%) Oracle Reports
4 9 (1.73%) MySQL
4 9 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.73%) Tableau
5 8 (1.54%) Power Query
6 7 (1.35%) Relational Database
6 7 (1.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (1.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (0.96%) Star Schema
8 4 (0.77%) Metadata
8 4 (0.77%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.77%) Redis
9 3 (0.58%) Crystal Reports
9 3 (0.58%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.58%) GIS
9 3 (0.58%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 20 (3.85%) Git
1 20 (3.85%) JIRA
2 6 (1.16%) JUnit
3 5 (0.96%) GitLab
3 5 (0.96%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.96%) Maven
3 5 (0.96%) Mockito
4 3 (0.58%) Appcelerator Titanium
5 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (0.39%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.19%) Babel
6 1 (0.19%) Balsamiq
6 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.19%) MLflow
6 1 (0.19%) Postman
6 1 (0.19%) Snyk
6 1 (0.19%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.19%) Vite
6 1 (0.19%) webpack
General
1 241 (46.44%) Social Skills
2 163 (31.41%) Analytical Skills
3 115 (22.16%) Finance
4 59 (11.37%) Manufacturing
5 42 (8.09%) Legal
6 41 (7.90%) Organisational Skills
7 34 (6.55%) Public Sector
8 32 (6.17%) Law
9 25 (4.82%) Marketing
10 24 (4.62%) Retail
11 13 (2.50%) Banking
11 13 (2.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (2.12%) Automotive
12 11 (2.12%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.35%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.16%) Advertising
14 6 (1.16%) Aerospace
15 5 (0.96%) Electronics
15 5 (0.96%) Games
15 5 (0.96%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 94 (18.11%) Analyst
2 85 (16.38%) Support Engineer
3 77 (14.84%) IT Support
4 58 (11.18%) IT Engineer
5 48 (9.25%) IT Support Engineer
6 46 (8.86%) Lead
7 42 (8.09%) Senior
8 40 (7.71%) Developer
9 38 (7.32%) Technical Support
10 35 (6.74%) Support Analyst
10 35 (6.74%) Technical Engineer
10 35 (6.74%) Technical Support Engineer
11 22 (4.24%) Architect
12 21 (4.05%) Senior Analyst
13 20 (3.85%) Business Analyst
14 18 (3.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (3.28%) Applications Support
15 17 (3.28%) Instructor
16 15 (2.89%) 2nd Line Support
16 15 (2.89%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.89%) REST
2 14 (2.70%) React
3 12 (2.31%) .NET
4 9 (1.73%) HTML
5 8 (1.54%) CSS
6 7 (1.35%) Node.js
7 5 (0.96%) AngularJS
7 5 (0.96%) JSON
7 5 (0.96%) Vue
8 4 (0.77%) Oracle Fusion
8 4 (0.77%) Spring
9 3 (0.58%) .NET Framework
9 3 (0.58%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.58%) Laravel
9 3 (0.58%) Next.js
9 3 (0.58%) React Native
9 3 (0.58%) RESTful
9 3 (0.58%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.58%) WinForms
9 3 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (7.13%) Driving Licence
2 31 (5.97%) Onboarding
3 26 (5.01%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (4.43%) Management Information System
5 19 (3.66%) Social Media
6 15 (2.89%) FMCG
7 11 (2.12%) Analytical Mindset
7 11 (2.12%) Product Ownership
8 10 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.93%) IoT
8 10 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.35%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.35%) Data Centre
9 7 (1.35%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 5 (0.96%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.96%) EPoS
11 4 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.77%) Mobile App
11 4 (0.77%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.77%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 78 (15.03%) Windows
2 22 (4.24%) Windows 10
3 16 (3.08%) Linux
4 12 (2.31%) Apple iOS
4 12 (2.31%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.16%) Windows 7
6 4 (0.77%) Android
7 3 (0.58%) Unix
8 1 (0.19%) CentOS
8 1 (0.19%) Debian
8 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (20.04%) Continuous Improvement
2 74 (14.26%) Agile
3 62 (11.95%) Customer Service
4 58 (11.18%) Project Management
5 57 (10.98%) ITIL
6 56 (10.79%) Decision-Making
7 51 (9.83%) Analytics
8 48 (9.25%) Mentoring
9 45 (8.67%) CRM
10 43 (8.29%) Business Intelligence
11 41 (7.90%) Roadmaps
12 40 (7.71%) ERP
13 39 (7.51%) Coaching
14 35 (6.74%) Migration
15 32 (6.17%) AI
15 32 (6.17%) Computer Science
15 32 (6.17%) Cybersecurity
15 32 (6.17%) Time Management
16 30 (5.78%) Service Delivery
17 29 (5.59%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 70 (13.49%) SQL
2 28 (5.39%) Python
3 18 (3.47%) Java
3 18 (3.47%) JavaScript
4 16 (3.08%) PowerShell
5 12 (2.31%) T-SQL
6 11 (2.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 11 (2.12%) Ladder Logic
6 11 (2.12%) PHP
7 10 (1.93%) C#
8 9 (1.73%) C
9 8 (1.54%) Bash
10 7 (1.35%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.96%) C++
11 5 (0.96%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.96%) R
12 2 (0.39%) Delphi
12 2 (0.39%) Go
12 2 (0.39%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.39%) VB
Qualifications
1 87 (16.76%) Degree
2 47 (9.06%) Security Cleared
3 34 (6.55%) SC Cleared
4 21 (4.05%) DBS Check
5 19 (3.66%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (2.50%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.12%) A+ Certification
8 9 (1.73%) ACCA
8 9 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (1.73%) CIMA
8 9 (1.73%) CISSP
9 8 (1.54%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 7 (1.35%) CISA
10 7 (1.35%) CompTIA Security+
10 7 (1.35%) SSCP
11 6 (1.16%) MCITP
12 4 (0.77%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.77%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
13 3 (0.58%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (6.36%) Data Quality
2 23 (4.43%) QA
3 22 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (3.47%) NIST
5 16 (3.08%) GDPR
6 11 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials
7 10 (1.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (1.73%) SLA
9 6 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 5 (0.96%) Accessibility
10 5 (0.96%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.58%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.58%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 19770
13 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.19%) PMO
System Software
1 58 (11.18%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.66%) Docker
3 12 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (1.35%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.39%) Firmware
5 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (5.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (3.47%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.31%) Terraform
4 5 (0.96%) Ansible
5 3 (0.58%) Grafana
5 3 (0.58%) Nagios
5 3 (0.58%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.19%) Argo
7 1 (0.19%) AWS Copilot
7 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.19%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.19%) Puppet
7 1 (0.19%) SCCM
7 1 (0.19%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 145 (27.94%) Microsoft
2 26 (5.01%) SAP
3 23 (4.43%) Oracle
4 19 (3.66%) Cisco
5 14 (2.70%) VMware
6 11 (2.12%) Google
7 10 (1.93%) Sage
8 9 (1.73%) Dell
8 9 (1.73%) HP
8 9 (1.73%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.35%) Databricks
9 7 (1.35%) Meraki
9 7 (1.35%) ServiceNow
10 6 (1.16%) Zscaler
11 5 (0.96%) Avaya
11 5 (0.96%) Epicor
11 5 (0.96%) Infor
11 5 (0.96%) SolarWinds
12 3 (0.58%) McAfee
12 3 (0.58%) Sophos