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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 563 628 1,305
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.27% 20.73% 15.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.55% 23.56% 19.17%
Number of salaries quoted 416 419 710
10th Percentile £27,694 £25,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,750 £29,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +5.88% -15.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £61,250 £58,560
90th Percentile £65,000 £70,250 £72,042
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -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 5,334 2,666 6,809
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 68.87% 88.02% 80.35%
Number of salaries quoted 3,958 1,644 4,667
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,822 £26,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £36,175
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 £79,625 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 26 June 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 June 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 -16 183 £50,000 +4.17% 63
Staffordshire -3 95 £42,500 -17.39% 26
Warwickshire +1 75 £32,500 -27.78% 42
Worcestershire -5 44 £37,500 +22.95% 30
Shropshire -2 33 £50,000 +17.65% 20
Coventry -12 33 £42,000 -26.96% 11
Herefordshire -18 14 £52,500 -2.33% 5
Solihull -3 11 £30,500 -44.55% 5
Walsall +4 9 £37,500 -12.79% 2
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 1
Wolverhampton -19 7 £38,500 +18.46% 5
Halesowen -3 5 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 4
Willenhall -4 2 £37,500 -16.67% 3
Sutton Coldfield - 2 £35,250 - 2
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 50 (8.88%) SharePoint
2 32 (5.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.42%) IIS
4 5 (0.89%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.71%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.71%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.71%) Exchange Server 2013
5 4 (0.71%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.53%) WordPress
7 2 (0.36%) Confluence
8 1 (0.18%) Appian
8 1 (0.18%) SAS
Applications
1 52 (9.24%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (5.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.89%) Fusion 360
4 5 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.18%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.18%) Simulink
6 1 (0.18%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 7 (1.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.89%) Magento
3 5 (0.89%) Shopify
4 4 (0.71%) Line 50
4 4 (0.71%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.71%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.53%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 2 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.36%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 2 (0.36%) SAP Business One
7 1 (0.18%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.18%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 117 (20.78%) Microsoft 365
2 113 (20.07%) Azure
3 61 (10.83%) Power Platform
4 55 (9.77%) Entra ID
5 36 (6.39%) AWS
6 28 (4.97%) SaaS
7 14 (2.49%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.31%) Power Automate
8 13 (2.31%) PowerApps
9 11 (1.95%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (1.78%) OneDrive
11 9 (1.60%) Google Workspace
12 6 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.89%) Azure Sentinel
13 5 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
13 5 (0.89%) PaaS
14 4 (0.71%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.71%) GCP
14 4 (0.71%) IaaS
14 4 (0.71%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 30 (5.33%) Firewall
2 25 (4.44%) VPN
3 24 (4.26%) WAN
4 21 (3.73%) DNS
5 19 (3.37%) DHCP
5 19 (3.37%) LAN
5 19 (3.37%) Wi-Fi
6 16 (2.84%) Wireless
7 14 (2.49%) TCP/IP
8 12 (2.13%) Network Security
8 12 (2.13%) VLAN
9 9 (1.60%) Internet
10 8 (1.42%) SD-WAN
11 7 (1.24%) VoIP
12 5 (0.89%) Skype
13 4 (0.71%) Bluetooth
14 3 (0.53%) SAN
15 2 (0.36%) Cisco IOS
15 2 (0.36%) SNMP
15 2 (0.36%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (10.30%) Power BI
2 18 (3.20%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.49%) Tableau
4 13 (2.31%) Power Query
5 11 (1.95%) MySQL
6 7 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (1.24%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (1.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 7 (1.24%) Star Schema
7 5 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.89%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.89%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.71%) FileMaker
8 4 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.53%) GIS
9 3 (0.53%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.53%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 11 (1.95%) Git
2 10 (1.78%) JIRA
3 7 (1.24%) JUnit
4 6 (1.07%) Maven
4 6 (1.07%) Mockito
5 2 (0.36%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.18%) Appium
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) Bugzilla
6 1 (0.18%) Carbide.c++
6 1 (0.18%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.18%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.18%) Postman
6 1 (0.18%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.18%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.18%) TestRail
6 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.18%) Yeoman
General
1 244 (43.34%) Social Skills
2 151 (26.82%) Analytical Skills
3 95 (16.87%) Finance
4 83 (14.74%) Manufacturing
5 34 (6.04%) Organisational Skills
6 33 (5.86%) Public Sector
7 26 (4.62%) Retail
8 25 (4.44%) Legal
9 24 (4.26%) Marketing
10 16 (2.84%) Electronics
11 15 (2.66%) Law
12 14 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 13 (2.31%) Automotive
14 11 (1.95%) Banking
15 10 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
15 10 (1.78%) Investment Banking
15 10 (1.78%) Telecoms
16 6 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
17 4 (0.71%) Games
17 4 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 106 (18.83%) Support Engineer
2 82 (14.56%) Analyst
3 66 (11.72%) IT Support
4 59 (10.48%) Technical Support
5 58 (10.30%) Technical Engineer
5 58 (10.30%) Technical Support Engineer
6 55 (9.77%) IT Engineer
7 52 (9.24%) Developer
8 46 (8.17%) IT Support Engineer
9 45 (7.99%) Senior
10 30 (5.33%) Lead
11 28 (4.97%) Support Analyst
12 27 (4.80%) IT Manager
13 20 (3.55%) Consultant
14 17 (3.02%) 2nd Line Support
15 16 (2.84%) Programmer
16 15 (2.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 14 (2.49%) IT Analyst
17 14 (2.49%) IT Technician
17 14 (2.49%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (4.80%) REST
2 20 (3.55%) React
3 15 (2.66%) .NET
4 13 (2.31%) Spring
5 11 (1.95%) AngularJS
6 10 (1.78%) CSS
6 10 (1.78%) HTML
6 10 (1.78%) Spring Boot
7 9 (1.60%) RESTful
8 6 (1.07%) Middleware
9 5 (0.89%) Node.js
10 4 (0.71%) .NET Framework
10 4 (0.71%) COM
10 4 (0.71%) DCOM
10 4 (0.71%) EDI
10 4 (0.71%) LDAP
11 3 (0.53%) JDBC
11 3 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
11 3 (0.53%) SAPUI5
11 3 (0.53%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 47 (8.35%) Driving Licence
2 30 (5.33%) Self-Motivation
3 27 (4.80%) Onboarding
4 26 (4.62%) Management Information System
5 16 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (1.95%) Social Media
6 11 (1.95%) Virtual Team
7 10 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 9 (1.60%) Data Structures
9 8 (1.42%) Data Centre
9 8 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
9 8 (1.42%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.24%) AS400
10 7 (1.24%) Cyber Defence
10 7 (1.24%) FMCG
10 7 (1.24%) iSeries
10 7 (1.24%) Mobile App
10 7 (1.24%) NHS
11 5 (0.89%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 93 (16.52%) Windows
2 31 (5.51%) Windows 10
3 29 (5.15%) Windows Server
4 26 (4.62%) Linux
5 12 (2.13%) Android
6 10 (1.78%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.89%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.71%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.71%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.71%) Unix
9 2 (0.36%) CentOS
9 2 (0.36%) Debian
9 2 (0.36%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (25.75%) Continuous Improvement
2 85 (15.10%) Customer Service
3 71 (12.61%) Agile
4 64 (11.37%) Decision-Making
4 64 (11.37%) Mentoring
5 63 (11.19%) Analytics
5 63 (11.19%) ITIL
6 59 (10.48%) Business Intelligence
7 57 (10.12%) Collaborative Working
7 57 (10.12%) ERP
8 54 (9.59%) AI
9 52 (9.24%) Cybersecurity
10 45 (7.99%) Service Delivery
11 44 (7.82%) Customer Experience
12 42 (7.46%) Root Cause Analysis
13 38 (6.75%) CRM
14 33 (5.86%) Computer Science
15 32 (5.68%) Coaching
15 32 (5.68%) Process Improvement
15 32 (5.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 88 (15.63%) SQL
2 32 (5.68%) Java
2 32 (5.68%) Python
3 23 (4.09%) PowerShell
4 16 (2.84%) C#
4 16 (2.84%) Ladder Logic
5 13 (2.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 11 (1.95%) C
6 11 (1.95%) JavaScript
6 11 (1.95%) PHP
7 10 (1.78%) Bash
8 9 (1.60%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.24%) PL/SQL
9 7 (1.24%) RPG
10 5 (0.89%) C++
10 5 (0.89%) Embedded C
11 4 (0.71%) R
11 4 (0.71%) RPG IV
11 4 (0.71%) RPG/400
12 3 (0.53%) RPG III
Qualifications
1 76 (13.50%) Degree
2 60 (10.66%) Security Cleared
3 45 (7.99%) SC Cleared
4 20 (3.55%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (3.02%) DBS Check
6 14 (2.49%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.95%) CISSP
8 10 (1.78%) A+ Certification
8 10 (1.78%) CompTIA Security+
9 8 (1.42%) ACCA
9 8 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.42%) CIMA
10 7 (1.24%) CISA
10 7 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.24%) SSCP
11 5 (0.89%) HND
11 5 (0.89%) MCITP
11 5 (0.89%) PMI Certification
12 4 (0.71%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.51%) Data Quality
2 29 (5.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.97%) QA
4 25 (4.44%) GDPR
5 24 (4.26%) Cyber Essentials
6 18 (3.20%) NIST
7 14 (2.49%) Accessibility
7 14 (2.49%) ISO 9001
8 13 (2.31%) SLA
9 9 (1.60%) ISO 14001
10 7 (1.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 4 (0.71%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.53%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.53%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.36%) GRC
14 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
14 2 (0.36%) PMO
System Software
1 81 (14.39%) Active Directory
2 22 (3.91%) Hyper-V
3 20 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (2.49%) Docker
5 8 (1.42%) Firmware
6 5 (0.89%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.36%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 36 (6.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.49%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.60%) Terraform
4 6 (1.07%) Ansible
5 4 (0.71%) Functional Safety
6 3 (0.53%) Nagios
6 3 (0.53%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.53%) SCCM
6 3 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.36%) Grafana
7 2 (0.36%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.36%) Puppet
8 1 (0.18%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 157 (27.89%) Microsoft
2 25 (4.44%) VMware
3 23 (4.09%) SAP
4 21 (3.73%) Cisco
5 17 (3.02%) Sage
6 14 (2.49%) Oracle
7 12 (2.13%) Dell
7 12 (2.13%) Salesforce
8 9 (1.60%) Google
9 8 (1.42%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.24%) HP
10 7 (1.24%) IBM
11 6 (1.07%) Apple
11 6 (1.07%) McAfee
11 6 (1.07%) Meraki
11 6 (1.07%) Sophos
12 5 (0.89%) Avaya
12 5 (0.89%) Zscaler
13 4 (0.71%) Adobe
13 4 (0.71%) Veeam