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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 4 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 564 940 574
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 14.89% 17.99% 17.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.46% 20.89% 18.83%
Number of salaries quoted 413 326 473
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £41,250 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £53,300 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.26% +6.60% +6.38%
75th Percentile £58,000 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £72,950 £90,000 £71,250
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 3,056 4,500 3,048
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 80.70% 86.11% 92.79%
Number of salaries quoted 2,073 2,047 2,459
10th Percentile £29,000 £32,000 £26,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,125 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,448 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025. 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 -1 170 £45,000 -22.41% 130
Staffordshire +3 104 £38,500 -23.00% 81
Warwickshire +5 63 £50,000 - 33
Worcestershire -4 50 £31,500 -45.78% 32
Herefordshire +8 31 £39,250 +49.80% 9
Shropshire -4 31 £47,500 +5.56% 42
Solihull +2 25 £85,000 +30.77% 10
Coventry -5 20 £52,500 - 15
Walsall +2 13 £45,000 +42.86% 3
Halesowen 0 13 £32,500 - 3
Wednesbury 0 6 £42,500 -5.56%
Kingswinford -1 2 £45,250 +20.67% 2
Dudley -3 2 £75,000 +114.29% 6
Wolverhampton -10 1 £65,000 +44.44% 10
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 24 (4.26%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.48%) IIS
3 11 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (1.06%) Apache
5 2 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.35%) CMS
5 2 (0.35%) Confluence
5 2 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2007
5 2 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2010
5 2 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2013
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.18%) Appian
6 1 (0.18%) HCL Notes
6 1 (0.18%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.18%) SAS
6 1 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 75 (13.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (5.85%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.42%) AutoCAD
3 8 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (1.42%) SOLIDWORKS
4 7 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.53%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.53%) Trello
6 1 (0.18%) Revit
Business Applications
1 21 (3.72%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.06%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.71%) SAP FI
4 3 (0.53%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.35%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 2 (0.35%) iTrent
6 1 (0.18%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.18%) Sage X3
6 1 (0.18%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 107 (18.97%) Azure
2 71 (12.59%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (10.46%) Power Platform
4 36 (6.38%) SaaS
5 25 (4.43%) AWS
6 21 (3.72%) Dynamics 365
7 12 (2.13%) Power Automate
8 11 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.77%) PowerApps
10 9 (1.60%) Entra ID
10 9 (1.60%) GCP
11 8 (1.42%) Azure Data Factory
12 6 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
13 5 (0.89%) OCI
13 5 (0.89%) Serverless
13 5 (0.89%) Snowflake
14 4 (0.71%) Azure Key Vault
14 4 (0.71%) Azure Logic Apps
14 4 (0.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 4 (0.71%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (5.50%) Firewall
1 31 (5.50%) WAN
2 28 (4.96%) LAN
3 22 (3.90%) VPN
4 19 (3.37%) Wi-Fi
5 18 (3.19%) DNS
6 15 (2.66%) DHCP
7 12 (2.13%) Wireless
8 11 (1.95%) Internet
9 10 (1.77%) TCP/IP
10 9 (1.60%) ADSL
10 9 (1.60%) Ethernet
10 9 (1.60%) VDSL
10 9 (1.60%) VoIP
11 7 (1.24%) Broadband
11 7 (1.24%) Remote Desktop
12 6 (1.06%) Network Security
13 5 (0.89%) PBX
14 4 (0.71%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.71%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (9.40%) Power BI
2 38 (6.74%) SQL Server
3 19 (3.37%) Relational Database
4 16 (2.84%) MySQL
5 14 (2.48%) GIS
6 11 (1.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 10 (1.77%) Tableau
8 9 (1.60%) Metadata
8 9 (1.60%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (1.06%) Crystal Reports
10 5 (0.89%) BusinessObjects
10 5 (0.89%) Data Mining
10 5 (0.89%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
12 3 (0.53%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
13 2 (0.35%) MongoDB
13 2 (0.35%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 18 (3.19%) JIRA
2 14 (2.48%) Git
3 4 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.53%) Appcelerator Titanium
4 3 (0.53%) GitLab
4 3 (0.53%) JUnit
5 2 (0.35%) Maven
5 2 (0.35%) Mockito
5 2 (0.35%) Subversion
5 2 (0.35%) Vagrant
5 2 (0.35%) Visual Studio
5 2 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.18%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.18%) Postman
6 1 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.18%) Snyk
6 1 (0.18%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.18%) webpack
General
1 294 (52.13%) Social Skills
2 162 (28.72%) Finance
3 136 (24.11%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (12.94%) Manufacturing
5 57 (10.11%) Retail
6 40 (7.09%) Legal
7 31 (5.50%) Marketing
8 30 (5.32%) Public Sector
9 29 (5.14%) Law
9 29 (5.14%) Organisational Skills
10 27 (4.79%) Digital Health
10 27 (4.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (2.48%) Fire and Rescue
12 13 (2.30%) Presentation Skills
12 13 (2.30%) Telecoms
13 10 (1.77%) Electronics
14 9 (1.60%) Banking
15 8 (1.42%) Aerospace
16 7 (1.24%) Automotive
17 6 (1.06%) Games
Job Titles
1 87 (15.43%) Support Engineer
2 74 (13.12%) Analyst
3 69 (12.23%) IT Support
4 59 (10.46%) Technical Support
5 57 (10.11%) Developer
5 57 (10.11%) Technical Engineer
6 55 (9.75%) Technical Support Engineer
7 45 (7.98%) Senior
8 36 (6.38%) Lead
9 28 (4.96%) 2nd Line Support
10 23 (4.08%) Architect
11 22 (3.90%) Applications Support
12 21 (3.72%) IT Engineer
13 18 (3.19%) Support Analyst
14 17 (3.01%) Administrator
15 15 (2.66%) Network Engineer
16 14 (2.48%) IT Support Engineer
16 14 (2.48%) Support Technician
17 12 (2.13%) Applications Support Analyst
17 12 (2.13%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.67%) .NET
2 23 (4.08%) React
3 21 (3.72%) REST
4 16 (2.84%) AngularJS
5 15 (2.66%) HTML
5 15 (2.66%) JSON
6 13 (2.30%) Razor View Engine
7 10 (1.77%) CSS
8 6 (1.06%) .NET Framework
8 6 (1.06%) EDI
8 6 (1.06%) LAMP
9 5 (0.89%) Vue
9 5 (0.89%) Web Services
9 5 (0.89%) WPF
10 4 (0.71%) Entity Framework
10 4 (0.71%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.71%) RESTful
10 4 (0.71%) Spring
10 4 (0.71%) XML
11 3 (0.53%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.62%) Onboarding
2 36 (6.38%) Driving Licence
3 33 (5.85%) FMCG
4 30 (5.32%) Self-Motivation
5 17 (3.01%) Analytical Mindset
6 16 (2.84%) SCADA
7 15 (2.66%) Management Information System
7 15 (2.66%) Operational Technology
8 11 (1.95%) Data Centre
9 10 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
9 10 (1.77%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.60%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 8 (1.42%) EPoS
11 8 (1.42%) IoT
12 7 (1.24%) Data Structures
12 7 (1.24%) iPad
12 7 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
12 7 (1.24%) Security Posture
13 6 (1.06%) PDA
14 5 (0.89%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 75 (13.30%) Windows
2 30 (5.32%) Windows 10
3 19 (3.37%) Linux
4 9 (1.60%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.53%) Unix
5 3 (0.53%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.35%) VMS
6 2 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.18%) Android
7 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.18%) Windows Mobile
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (23.76%) Continuous Improvement
2 71 (12.59%) Customer Service
3 70 (12.41%) Agile
4 66 (11.70%) Project Management
5 62 (10.99%) Business Intelligence
6 56 (9.93%) Decision-Making
7 51 (9.04%) ITIL
8 49 (8.69%) Analytics
9 42 (7.45%) CRM
9 42 (7.45%) Logistics
10 39 (6.91%) Data Analysis
11 37 (6.56%) ERP
11 37 (6.56%) Mentoring
12 33 (5.85%) Cybersecurity
13 32 (5.67%) Roadmaps
14 31 (5.50%) Customer Experience
15 29 (5.14%) Process Improvement
16 28 (4.96%) Computer Science
16 28 (4.96%) Data Modelling
17 27 (4.79%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 101 (17.91%) SQL
2 49 (8.69%) Python
3 43 (7.62%) C#
4 36 (6.38%) JavaScript
5 21 (3.72%) PowerShell
6 20 (3.55%) Java
7 16 (2.84%) PHP
8 14 (2.48%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (0.89%) Bash
10 5 (0.89%) C++
10 5 (0.89%) Ladder Logic
10 5 (0.89%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.71%) Go
11 4 (0.71%) R
12 3 (0.53%) Delphi
12 3 (0.53%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.35%) C
13 2 (0.35%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 101 (17.91%) Degree
2 52 (9.22%) Security Cleared
3 32 (5.67%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
5 16 (2.84%) ACCA
5 16 (2.84%) CIMA
6 14 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (1.77%) DV Cleared
8 9 (1.60%) CISSP
8 9 (1.60%) Master's Degree
9 8 (1.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (1.42%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (1.24%) AAT
11 6 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.06%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.89%) CISM
12 5 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 4 (0.71%) CCSP
13 4 (0.71%) CIPD
13 4 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.79%) Data Quality
2 15 (2.66%) SLA
3 13 (2.30%) QA
4 8 (1.42%) GDPR
5 7 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.89%) NIST
7 4 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (0.71%) PMO
8 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.35%) COBIT
9 2 (0.35%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.35%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 1 (0.18%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 35 (6.21%) Active Directory
2 12 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.95%) Docker
4 2 (0.35%) Firmware
4 2 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (1.95%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.60%) Terraform
3 8 (1.42%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.53%) FortiGate
5 2 (0.35%) Ansible
5 2 (0.35%) Grafana
5 2 (0.35%) Nagios
6 1 (0.18%) Argo
6 1 (0.18%) AWS Copilot
6 1 (0.18%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.18%) SCCM
6 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.18%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 158 (28.01%) Microsoft
2 29 (5.14%) SAP
3 27 (4.79%) Oracle
4 17 (3.01%) Databricks
5 15 (2.66%) Cisco
6 13 (2.30%) Salesforce
6 13 (2.30%) VMware
7 10 (1.77%) Dell
8 9 (1.60%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.42%) Juniper
9 8 (1.42%) McAfee
9 8 (1.42%) Sage
10 7 (1.24%) Apple
10 7 (1.24%) Infor
11 6 (1.06%) Google
12 5 (0.89%) Epicor
12 5 (0.89%) Panasonic
12 5 (0.89%) Samsung
13 4 (0.71%) Meraki
14 3 (0.53%) Splunk