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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -25 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 513 743 1,149
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 6.05% 23.32% 15.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.31% 26.16% 18.67%
Number of salaries quoted 388 415 750
10th Percentile £27,261 £25,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,500 £34,375 £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 £63,500 £58,750
90th Percentile £65,748 £74,606 £71,725
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -6.80% +1.93% -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 6,177 2,840 6,155
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 72.83% 89.14% 82.52%
Number of salaries quoted 3,721 1,646 4,565
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £35,700
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 £64,375
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 18 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 18 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 -15 173 £50,000 -9.09% 80
Staffordshire -15 96 £31,125 -37.75% 35
Warwickshire -17 61 £32,500 -7.14% 57
Worcestershire -15 44 £37,500 +22.95% 25
Coventry -16 26 £42,000 -26.96% 21
Shropshire -18 25 £46,250 +8.82% 21
Herefordshire -16 15 £52,500 +4.48% 1
Solihull -3 13 £57,500 +4.55% 7
Walsall +3 9 £37,500 -26.47% 2
Tipton -3 8 £33,500 -
Halesowen -5 6 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley +1 4 - - 5
Wolverhampton -32 3 £80,000 +146.15% 7
Sutton Coldfield -7 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 47 (9.16%) SharePoint
2 31 (6.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.97%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.78%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (0.78%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (0.78%) Exchange Server 2013
4 4 (0.78%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 3 (0.58%) WordPress
6 2 (0.39%) Confluence
7 1 (0.19%) Appian
Applications
1 42 (8.19%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (5.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.73%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.97%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.58%) 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 9 (1.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.97%) Magento
2 5 (0.97%) Shopify
3 4 (0.78%) Line 50
3 4 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.58%) Sage 50
4 3 (0.58%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.39%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.39%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.39%) 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
1 113 (22.03%) Microsoft 365
2 107 (20.86%) Azure
3 52 (10.14%) Power Platform
4 44 (8.58%) Entra ID
5 38 (7.41%) AWS
6 24 (4.68%) SaaS
7 14 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.53%) Power Automate
8 13 (2.53%) PowerApps
9 10 (1.95%) OneDrive
10 9 (1.75%) Google Workspace
11 7 (1.36%) Azure Data Factory
11 7 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
11 7 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
12 6 (1.17%) GCP
12 6 (1.17%) Serverless
13 4 (0.78%) IaaS
13 4 (0.78%) Microsoft Purview
13 4 (0.78%) PaaS
14 3 (0.58%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 25 (4.87%) WAN
2 24 (4.68%) Firewall
2 24 (4.68%) VPN
3 20 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
4 19 (3.70%) DNS
5 18 (3.51%) Internet
6 17 (3.31%) LAN
7 15 (2.92%) DHCP
7 15 (2.92%) Wireless
8 10 (1.95%) Network Security
8 10 (1.95%) SD-WAN
8 10 (1.95%) VLAN
9 7 (1.36%) VoIP
10 6 (1.17%) TCP/IP
11 5 (0.97%) Bluetooth
11 5 (0.97%) Skype
12 3 (0.58%) SAN
13 2 (0.39%) NAS
14 1 (0.19%) Intrusion Detection
14 1 (0.19%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (9.36%) Power BI
2 15 (2.92%) Tableau
3 12 (2.34%) Power Query
3 12 (2.34%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (1.36%) Star Schema
5 6 (1.17%) MySQL
6 5 (0.97%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.78%) Data Mining
7 4 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.78%) FileMaker
7 4 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.58%) GIS
8 3 (0.58%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.58%) Redis
8 3 (0.58%) TimescaleDB
9 2 (0.39%) MariaDB
9 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 14 (2.73%) Git
2 12 (2.34%) JIRA
3 6 (1.17%) JUnit
3 6 (1.17%) Maven
3 6 (1.17%) Mockito
4 3 (0.58%) GitLab
4 3 (0.58%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.19%) Balsamiq
6 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.19%) Bugzilla
6 1 (0.19%) MLflow
6 1 (0.19%) Postman
6 1 (0.19%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 203 (39.57%) Social Skills
2 144 (28.07%) Analytical Skills
3 98 (19.10%) Finance
4 63 (12.28%) Manufacturing
5 34 (6.63%) Organisational Skills
6 29 (5.65%) Public Sector
7 24 (4.68%) Legal
8 21 (4.09%) Law
8 21 (4.09%) Marketing
8 21 (4.09%) Retail
9 15 (2.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (2.34%) Automotive
11 11 (2.14%) Banking
11 11 (2.14%) Electronics
11 11 (2.14%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.95%) Investment Banking
13 6 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
14 5 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.58%) Agriculture
Job Titles
1 92 (17.93%) Support Engineer
2 85 (16.57%) Analyst
3 70 (13.65%) IT Support
4 59 (11.50%) IT Engineer
5 49 (9.55%) IT Support Engineer
6 41 (7.99%) Developer
6 41 (7.99%) Senior
6 41 (7.99%) Technical Engineer
6 41 (7.99%) Technical Support
6 41 (7.99%) Technical Support Engineer
7 34 (6.63%) Lead
8 27 (5.26%) Support Analyst
9 18 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support
9 18 (3.51%) Consultant
10 17 (3.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 17 (3.31%) Instructor
11 15 (2.92%) Architect
11 15 (2.92%) Programmer
12 14 (2.73%) IT Manager
12 14 (2.73%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.51%) React
1 18 (3.51%) REST
2 11 (2.14%) Spring
3 10 (1.95%) CSS
3 10 (1.95%) HTML
4 9 (1.75%) .NET
4 9 (1.75%) AngularJS
4 9 (1.75%) Spring Boot
5 7 (1.36%) RESTful
6 4 (0.78%) .NET Framework
6 4 (0.78%) EDI
6 4 (0.78%) Node.js
7 3 (0.58%) GraphQL
7 3 (0.58%) Playwright
8 2 (0.39%) JSON
9 1 (0.19%) Kafka
9 1 (0.19%) Laravel
9 1 (0.19%) OLE
9 1 (0.19%) XML
9 1 (0.19%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 48 (9.36%) Driving Licence
2 26 (5.07%) Self-Motivation
3 22 (4.29%) Management Information System
3 22 (4.29%) Onboarding
4 18 (3.51%) Social Media
5 12 (2.34%) FMCG
6 10 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (1.75%) Data Centre
7 9 (1.75%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (1.36%) Cyber Defence
9 6 (1.17%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.17%) iSeries
10 5 (0.97%) AS400
10 5 (0.97%) NHS
10 5 (0.97%) Product Ownership
10 5 (0.97%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.78%) Data Structures
11 4 (0.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 84 (16.37%) Windows
2 25 (4.87%) Windows 10
3 24 (4.68%) Linux
4 17 (3.31%) Windows Server
5 8 (1.56%) Apple iOS
6 6 (1.17%) Android
7 5 (0.97%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.78%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.78%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.78%) Unix
9 2 (0.39%) CentOS
9 2 (0.39%) Debian
9 2 (0.39%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (20.47%) Continuous Improvement
2 70 (13.65%) Agile
3 60 (11.70%) Customer Service
4 59 (11.50%) Decision-Making
5 54 (10.53%) ITIL
6 53 (10.33%) Analytics
7 48 (9.36%) Collaborative Working
7 48 (9.36%) Mentoring
8 47 (9.16%) Business Intelligence
9 44 (8.58%) AI
10 43 (8.38%) ERP
11 40 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
12 38 (7.41%) Project Management
13 36 (7.02%) CRM
14 35 (6.82%) Service Delivery
15 31 (6.04%) Coaching
15 31 (6.04%) Customer Experience
15 31 (6.04%) Roadmaps
15 31 (6.04%) Root Cause Analysis
16 29 (5.65%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 64 (12.48%) SQL
2 33 (6.43%) Python
3 26 (5.07%) Java
4 19 (3.70%) PowerShell
5 12 (2.34%) C
5 12 (2.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 11 (2.14%) C#
6 11 (2.14%) JavaScript
6 11 (2.14%) Ladder Logic
6 11 (2.14%) PHP
7 10 (1.95%) Bash
7 10 (1.95%) TypeScript
8 7 (1.36%) C++
9 6 (1.17%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.97%) R
10 5 (0.97%) RPG
11 4 (0.78%) Embedded C
12 3 (0.58%) RPG IV
12 3 (0.58%) RPG/400
12 3 (0.58%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 69 (13.45%) Degree
2 49 (9.55%) Security Cleared
3 41 (7.99%) SC Cleared
4 23 (4.48%) DBS Check
5 22 (4.29%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.14%) A+ Certification
7 10 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (1.95%) CISSP
8 9 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
9 8 (1.56%) ACCA
9 8 (1.56%) CIMA
9 8 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.36%) CISA
10 7 (1.36%) SSCP
11 6 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.17%) MCITP
12 5 (0.97%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.97%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.78%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (6.04%) QA
2 27 (5.26%) Data Quality
3 22 (4.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 17 (3.31%) NIST
5 16 (3.12%) Cyber Essentials
5 16 (3.12%) GDPR
6 12 (2.34%) SLA
7 10 (1.95%) Accessibility
8 9 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (1.36%) ISO 14001
9 7 (1.36%) ISO 9001
10 6 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (0.97%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.58%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.58%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.39%) PMO
14 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 65 (12.67%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.12%) Docker
3 15 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.95%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.36%) Firmware
6 4 (0.78%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.39%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 28 (5.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.12%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.53%) Terraform
4 6 (1.17%) Ansible
5 4 (0.78%) Nagios
5 4 (0.78%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.58%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.39%) Grafana
7 2 (0.39%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.39%) Puppet
7 2 (0.39%) SCCM
7 2 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 132 (25.73%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.90%) Cisco
2 20 (3.90%) VMware
3 18 (3.51%) SAP
4 16 (3.12%) Oracle
5 12 (2.34%) Sage
6 11 (2.14%) Dell
7 9 (1.75%) Google
7 9 (1.75%) SolarWinds
8 7 (1.36%) HP
8 7 (1.36%) Meraki
8 7 (1.36%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.36%) Zscaler
9 6 (1.17%) Avaya
9 6 (1.17%) McAfee
9 6 (1.17%) Sophos
10 5 (0.97%) IBM
11 4 (0.78%) Adobe
11 4 (0.78%) Apple
12 3 (0.58%) Cognos