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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -16 +4 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 504 826 748
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 9.18% 20.36% 15.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.34% 22.00% 17.71%
Number of salaries quoted 384 326 603
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,000 £25,550
25th Percentile £30,250 £42,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £55,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -22.73% +22.22% -10.85%
75th Percentile £58,750 £66,250 £57,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £96,250 £70,000
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.74%

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 4,443 3,754 4,223
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 80.96% 92.53% 86.82%
Number of salaries quoted 2,331 1,673 3,506
10th Percentile £29,000 £32,500 £26,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £42,500 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £61,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -9.84% +6.09% -8.00%

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 28 January 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 28 January 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 -12 154 £47,500 -18.10% 87
Staffordshire -10 103 £31,500 -37.00% 30
Warwickshire -16 50 £34,480 -31.04% 76
Shropshire -11 37 £47,500 -13.64% 39
Worcestershire -15 32 £35,000 -46.15% 23
Herefordshire +3 26 £51,250 +95.60% 10
Solihull 0 23 £87,500 +59.09% 3
Coventry -10 18 £64,290 +11.81% 19
Halesowen 0 13 £32,500 -
Walsall -2 5 £45,000 +42.86% 4
Wednesbury -3 4 £42,500 -5.56%
Wolverhampton -15 3 £80,000 +77.78% 8
Kingswinford -5 2 £45,250 +20.67%
Dudley -6 2 £75,000 +114.29% 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 34 (6.75%) SharePoint
2 16 (3.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.58%) IIS
4 6 (1.19%) Apache
4 6 (1.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 3 (0.60%) Confluence
6 2 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.20%) Appian
7 1 (0.20%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.20%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.20%) SAS
7 1 (0.20%) WebLogic
Applications
1 46 (9.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (2.78%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.59%) AutoCAD
4 8 (1.59%) SOLIDWORKS
5 7 (1.39%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.79%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.60%) Trello
9 1 (0.20%) Abaqus
9 1 (0.20%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 20 (3.97%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.39%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.60%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.60%) SAP Business ByDesign
4 2 (0.40%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
4 2 (0.40%) iTrent
4 2 (0.40%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.20%) Sage X3
5 1 (0.20%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.20%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 108 (21.43%) Azure
2 74 (14.68%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (8.53%) Power Platform
4 39 (7.74%) SaaS
5 34 (6.75%) AWS
6 19 (3.77%) Dynamics 365
7 16 (3.17%) Entra ID
8 12 (2.38%) Power Automate
9 11 (2.18%) PowerApps
10 9 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.59%) Serverless
12 7 (1.39%) GCP
13 6 (1.19%) Amazon S3
13 6 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (1.19%) OneDrive
14 5 (0.99%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (0.99%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
14 5 (0.99%) OCI
15 4 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 29 (5.75%) VPN
2 26 (5.16%) DNS
3 23 (4.56%) Internet
4 22 (4.37%) DHCP
5 19 (3.77%) WAN
5 19 (3.77%) Wi-Fi
6 14 (2.78%) Firewall
7 13 (2.58%) LAN
8 11 (2.18%) VoIP
8 11 (2.18%) Wireless
9 9 (1.79%) ADSL
9 9 (1.79%) Ethernet
9 9 (1.79%) SD-WAN
9 9 (1.79%) VDSL
10 7 (1.39%) VLAN
11 6 (1.19%) Broadband
12 5 (0.99%) PBX
12 5 (0.99%) TCP/IP
13 3 (0.60%) Bluetooth
14 2 (0.40%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (7.14%) Power BI
2 34 (6.75%) SQL Server
3 17 (3.37%) Relational Database
4 13 (2.58%) MySQL
5 10 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
5 10 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 9 (1.79%) Tableau
7 7 (1.39%) GIS
8 6 (1.19%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (1.19%) Crystal Reports
8 6 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.79%) BusinessObjects
9 4 (0.79%) Metadata
10 3 (0.60%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.60%) Redis
10 3 (0.60%) TimescaleDB
11 2 (0.40%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.40%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 21 (4.17%) JIRA
2 15 (2.98%) Git
3 7 (1.39%) JUnit
4 6 (1.19%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.19%) Maven
4 6 (1.19%) Mockito
5 5 (0.99%) GitLab
6 3 (0.60%) Appcelerator Titanium
7 2 (0.40%) Subversion
7 2 (0.40%) Vagrant
7 2 (0.40%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.20%) Babel
8 1 (0.20%) Balsamiq
8 1 (0.20%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.20%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.20%) Selenium
8 1 (0.20%) Snyk
8 1 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.20%) Vite
8 1 (0.20%) webpack
General
1 242 (48.02%) Social Skills
2 134 (26.59%) Analytical Skills
3 120 (23.81%) Finance
4 72 (14.29%) Manufacturing
5 36 (7.14%) Legal
6 35 (6.94%) Organisational Skills
7 34 (6.75%) Public Sector
8 33 (6.55%) Law
9 30 (5.95%) Retail
10 29 (5.75%) Marketing
11 15 (2.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 15 (2.98%) Telecoms
12 14 (2.78%) Presentation Skills
13 11 (2.18%) Banking
14 8 (1.59%) Electronics
15 7 (1.39%) Aerospace
15 7 (1.39%) Automotive
15 7 (1.39%) Fire and Rescue
16 5 (0.99%) Advertising
16 5 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 87 (17.26%) Support Engineer
2 76 (15.08%) Analyst
3 65 (12.90%) IT Support
4 53 (10.52%) Developer
5 51 (10.12%) Lead
6 49 (9.72%) Technical Support
7 48 (9.52%) Technical Engineer
8 46 (9.13%) Technical Support Engineer
9 40 (7.94%) IT Engineer
9 40 (7.94%) Senior
10 30 (5.95%) IT Support Engineer
11 28 (5.56%) Support Analyst
12 20 (3.97%) Applications Support
12 20 (3.97%) Architect
13 19 (3.77%) Business Analyst
14 18 (3.57%) 2nd Line Support
15 15 (2.98%) Administrator
16 13 (2.58%) Senior Analyst
17 12 (2.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 12 (2.38%) Instructor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.16%) .NET
2 25 (4.96%) REST
3 22 (4.37%) React
4 15 (2.98%) AngularJS
4 15 (2.98%) JSON
5 11 (2.18%) Razor View Engine
6 10 (1.98%) HTML
7 6 (1.19%) CSS
7 6 (1.19%) LAMP
7 6 (1.19%) Node.js
8 5 (0.99%) Vue
9 4 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
9 4 (0.79%) RESTful
9 4 (0.79%) Spring
9 4 (0.79%) Web Services
9 4 (0.79%) WPF
10 3 (0.60%) .NET Framework
10 3 (0.60%) EDI
10 3 (0.60%) ODBC
10 3 (0.60%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 45 (8.93%) Onboarding
2 34 (6.75%) Self-Motivation
3 32 (6.35%) Driving Licence
4 19 (3.77%) Management Information System
5 15 (2.98%) FMCG
6 13 (2.58%) Social Media
7 12 (2.38%) Product Ownership
8 11 (2.18%) Operational Technology
9 10 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 9 (1.79%) IoT
11 8 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
12 7 (1.39%) SCADA
13 6 (1.19%) PDA
14 4 (0.79%) Data Structures
14 4 (0.79%) EPoS
14 4 (0.79%) Mobile App
14 4 (0.79%) Reference Data
14 4 (0.79%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 62 (12.30%) Windows
2 19 (3.77%) Linux
3 15 (2.98%) Windows 10
4 9 (1.79%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.99%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.40%) Unix
6 2 (0.40%) VMS
6 2 (0.40%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.20%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (17.86%) Continuous Improvement
2 74 (14.68%) Agile
3 71 (14.09%) Project Management
4 57 (11.31%) Customer Service
5 55 (10.91%) ITIL
6 49 (9.72%) Decision-Making
7 46 (9.13%) Business Intelligence
8 44 (8.73%) CRM
9 43 (8.53%) Analytics
10 40 (7.94%) Roadmaps
11 35 (6.94%) ERP
11 35 (6.94%) Mentoring
12 34 (6.75%) Customer Experience
12 34 (6.75%) Migration
13 32 (6.35%) Computer Science
13 32 (6.35%) Service Delivery
14 30 (5.95%) Process Improvement
15 28 (5.56%) Data Analysis
16 27 (5.36%) Coaching
16 27 (5.36%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 95 (18.85%) SQL
2 45 (8.93%) Python
3 37 (7.34%) C#
4 32 (6.35%) JavaScript
5 25 (4.96%) Java
6 23 (4.56%) PowerShell
7 15 (2.98%) PHP
8 11 (2.18%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.59%) Bash
9 8 (1.59%) C
10 7 (1.39%) Ladder Logic
10 7 (1.39%) TypeScript
11 6 (1.19%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (0.99%) R
13 4 (0.79%) C++
14 3 (0.60%) Delphi
14 3 (0.60%) Go
14 3 (0.60%) VB.NET
15 2 (0.40%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 92 (18.25%) Degree
2 58 (11.51%) Security Cleared
3 39 (7.74%) SC Cleared
4 19 (3.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (3.37%) DBS Check
7 14 (2.78%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (2.18%) Master's Degree
9 9 (1.79%) ACCA
9 9 (1.79%) CIMA
10 8 (1.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (0.99%) A+ Certification
11 5 (0.99%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 4 (0.79%) CIPD
12 4 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
12 4 (0.79%) DV Cleared
12 4 (0.79%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.60%) CISSP
13 3 (0.60%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.76%) Data Quality
2 21 (4.17%) QA
3 14 (2.78%) GDPR
4 13 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.59%) SLA
6 6 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 6 (1.19%) NIST
7 5 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 3 (0.60%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.40%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.40%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 19770
9 2 (0.40%) PMO
10 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 31 (6.15%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.77%) Docker
3 3 (0.60%) Firmware
3 3 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.20%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 19 (3.77%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (2.38%) Terraform
4 4 (0.79%) Ansible
4 4 (0.79%) Nagios
5 3 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.40%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.40%) Grafana
6 2 (0.40%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.20%) Argo
7 1 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
7 1 (0.20%) SCCM
7 1 (0.20%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 146 (28.97%) Microsoft
2 39 (7.74%) Oracle
3 29 (5.75%) SAP
4 13 (2.58%) Salesforce
5 11 (2.18%) Cisco
6 10 (1.98%) Databricks
7 9 (1.79%) Sage
8 8 (1.59%) ServiceNow
9 7 (1.39%) Google
9 7 (1.39%) Infor
9 7 (1.39%) Meraki
10 5 (0.99%) Epicor
10 5 (0.99%) Panasonic
10 5 (0.99%) Samsung
10 5 (0.99%) Zscaler
11 4 (0.79%) Avaya
11 4 (0.79%) SolarWinds
12 3 (0.60%) Cognos
12 3 (0.60%) VMware
13 2 (0.40%) HP