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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -10 +2 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 647 702 956
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.64% 20.55% 14.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.05% 24.22% 18.73%
Number of salaries quoted 463 459 444
10th Percentile £27,750 £25,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £29,500 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £45,595
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -1.30% -8.81%
75th Percentile £57,500 £61,250 £59,500
90th Percentile £63,750 £70,000 £73,525
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,010 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.04% -5.98% -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 5,855 2,898 5,103
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.10% 84.84% 78.73%
Number of salaries quoted 4,402 1,875 3,148
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,822 £28,119
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,887 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.00% -1.17% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £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 8 August 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 8 August 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 -14 222 £52,500 +10.53% 110
Staffordshire -4 95 £47,500 -7.67% 44
Warwickshire -2 79 £34,500 -27.37% 61
Worcestershire -6 59 £37,500 +22.95% 27
Shropshire +9 48 £46,250 +8.82% 40
Coventry -11 33 £42,000 +11.79% 28
Wolverhampton -14 12 £38,500 +18.46% 13
Solihull 0 11 £30,500 -44.55% 15
Walsall +1 9 £37,500 -16.67% 9
Herefordshire -24 8 £40,500 +4.52% 16
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 5
Halesowen 0 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 2
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Sutton Coldfield - 4 £42,500 -
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 36 (5.56%) SharePoint
2 28 (4.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.39%) IIS
4 5 (0.77%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.62%) Confluence
6 3 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.46%) Exchange Server 2007
6 3 (0.46%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.46%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.46%) WordPress
7 2 (0.31%) CICS
7 2 (0.31%) Documentum
7 2 (0.31%) SAS
8 1 (0.15%) Apache
8 1 (0.15%) Appian
8 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 52 (8.04%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.77%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.31%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.31%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.15%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.15%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.15%) Simulink
8 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.77%) Magento
3 5 (0.77%) Shopify
4 4 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.62%) Line 50
4 4 (0.62%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.62%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.62%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.46%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.31%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 1 (0.15%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.15%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.15%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.15%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 122 (18.86%) Microsoft 365
2 121 (18.70%) Azure
3 81 (12.52%) Power Platform
4 53 (8.19%) Entra ID
5 52 (8.04%) AWS
6 42 (6.49%) SaaS
7 21 (3.25%) Dynamics 365
8 14 (2.16%) Power Automate
9 13 (2.01%) Microsoft Purview
10 12 (1.85%) PowerApps
11 11 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
12 10 (1.55%) GCP
12 10 (1.55%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.24%) GitHub
13 8 (1.24%) Google Workspace
14 6 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.77%) IaaS
16 4 (0.62%) Amazon Kinesis
16 4 (0.62%) OneDrive
16 4 (0.62%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 30 (4.64%) Firewall
2 21 (3.25%) DNS
3 20 (3.09%) VPN
4 18 (2.78%) WAN
4 18 (2.78%) Wireless
5 17 (2.63%) TCP/IP
6 16 (2.47%) Wi-Fi
7 14 (2.16%) LAN
8 13 (2.01%) DHCP
8 13 (2.01%) Network Security
9 10 (1.55%) VLAN
10 7 (1.08%) VoIP
11 5 (0.77%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (0.77%) Internet
11 5 (0.77%) SD-WAN
11 5 (0.77%) Skype
12 4 (0.62%) Bluetooth
12 4 (0.62%) SSL
13 3 (0.46%) HTTP
13 3 (0.46%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (11.75%) Power BI
2 25 (3.86%) SQL Server
3 21 (3.25%) Power Query
4 17 (2.63%) Tableau
5 16 (2.47%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.70%) MySQL
6 11 (1.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 10 (1.55%) Relational Database
8 9 (1.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.93%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (0.93%) Data Mining
9 6 (0.93%) Electronic Patient Records
10 5 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.77%) Star Schema
11 4 (0.62%) FileMaker
11 4 (0.62%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (0.46%) GIS
12 3 (0.46%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.46%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 24 (3.71%) Git
2 18 (2.78%) JIRA
3 15 (2.32%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.93%) Maven
5 5 (0.77%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.77%) JUnit
5 5 (0.77%) Postman
6 4 (0.62%) GitLab
6 4 (0.62%) JMeter
6 4 (0.62%) Selenium
6 4 (0.62%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.46%) Mockito
7 3 (0.46%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.31%) Ant
8 2 (0.31%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.31%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.15%) Bugzilla
9 1 (0.15%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 295 (45.60%) Social Skills
2 166 (25.66%) Analytical Skills
3 113 (17.47%) Finance
4 94 (14.53%) Manufacturing
5 44 (6.80%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.87%) Organisational Skills
7 34 (5.26%) Retail
8 25 (3.86%) Legal
8 25 (3.86%) Marketing
9 22 (3.40%) Law
10 18 (2.78%) Electronics
10 18 (2.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (2.16%) Automotive
12 12 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.70%) Telecoms
14 9 (1.39%) Banking
15 8 (1.24%) Investment Banking
16 7 (1.08%) Fire and Rescue
16 7 (1.08%) Games
16 7 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 94 (14.53%) Support Engineer
2 86 (13.29%) Analyst
3 69 (10.66%) Technical Support
4 65 (10.05%) Developer
5 63 (9.74%) Technical Engineer
6 61 (9.43%) Technical Support Engineer
7 59 (9.12%) IT Support
8 49 (7.57%) Senior
9 41 (6.34%) Lead
10 38 (5.87%) IT Engineer
11 37 (5.72%) IT Manager
12 34 (5.26%) Consultant
13 31 (4.79%) IT Support Engineer
14 30 (4.64%) Support Analyst
15 19 (2.94%) 1st Line Support
16 16 (2.47%) Programmer
17 15 (2.32%) Architect
17 15 (2.32%) IT Technician
18 14 (2.16%) Senior Analyst
19 13 (2.01%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.87%) REST
2 25 (3.86%) React
3 23 (3.55%) .NET
4 21 (3.25%) Spring
5 18 (2.78%) Spring Boot
6 13 (2.01%) RESTful
7 12 (1.85%) AngularJS
7 12 (1.85%) Playwright
8 11 (1.70%) CSS
8 11 (1.70%) HTML
9 9 (1.39%) SOAP
10 7 (1.08%) Node.js
10 7 (1.08%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (0.93%) JDBC
11 6 (0.93%) Middleware
11 6 (0.93%) OAuth
11 6 (0.93%) SAPUI5
12 5 (0.77%) ISPF
12 5 (0.77%) JSON
12 5 (0.77%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (7.88%) Driving Licence
2 33 (5.10%) Management Information System
3 28 (4.33%) Onboarding
4 27 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
5 24 (3.71%) Enterprise Software
6 17 (2.63%) NHS
7 12 (1.85%) Social Media
8 11 (1.70%) Data Structures
8 11 (1.70%) Virtual Team
9 10 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.39%) Data Centre
10 9 (1.39%) Mobile App
11 8 (1.24%) Cloud Native
11 8 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.24%) IoT
12 7 (1.08%) AS400
12 7 (1.08%) Cyber Defence
12 7 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
12 7 (1.08%) iSeries
12 7 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 107 (16.54%) Windows
2 40 (6.18%) Linux
3 33 (5.10%) Windows Server
4 27 (4.17%) Windows 10
5 13 (2.01%) Android
6 10 (1.55%) Apple iOS
7 9 (1.39%) Unix
8 6 (0.93%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.62%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.62%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.31%) CentOS
10 2 (0.31%) Debian
10 2 (0.31%) Solaris
10 2 (0.31%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (31.22%) Continuous Improvement
2 110 (17.00%) Customer Service
3 95 (14.68%) Agile
4 84 (12.98%) Decision-Making
5 79 (12.21%) Analytics
5 79 (12.21%) Business Intelligence
6 75 (11.59%) AI
6 75 (11.59%) Mentoring
7 70 (10.82%) Collaborative Working
8 68 (10.51%) ERP
9 64 (9.89%) ITIL
10 54 (8.35%) Cybersecurity
11 50 (7.73%) Collaborative Culture
11 50 (7.73%) Customer Experience
12 49 (7.57%) CI/CD
12 49 (7.57%) Stakeholder Management
13 47 (7.26%) Root Cause Analysis
14 45 (6.96%) CRM
14 45 (6.96%) Service Delivery
15 41 (6.34%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 102 (15.77%) SQL
2 47 (7.26%) Java
3 40 (6.18%) Python
4 22 (3.40%) PowerShell
5 21 (3.25%) C#
5 21 (3.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 19 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 18 (2.78%) Ladder Logic
8 15 (2.32%) TypeScript
9 11 (1.70%) PHP
10 9 (1.39%) C
11 7 (1.08%) Bash
11 7 (1.08%) Embedded C
11 7 (1.08%) RPG
12 6 (0.93%) ABAP
13 5 (0.77%) COBOL
13 5 (0.77%) JCL
14 4 (0.62%) C++
14 4 (0.62%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.62%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 91 (14.06%) Degree
2 67 (10.36%) Security Cleared
3 55 (8.50%) SC Cleared
4 19 (2.94%) Azure Certification
4 19 (2.94%) DBS Check
5 15 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (1.70%) CISSP
7 10 (1.55%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (1.39%) PMI Certification
9 8 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.08%) ACCA
10 7 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.08%) CIMA
10 7 (1.08%) CISA
10 7 (1.08%) SSCP
11 6 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.77%) CCNA
12 5 (0.77%) HND
13 4 (0.62%) A+ Certification
13 4 (0.62%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.56%) Data Quality
2 33 (5.10%) GDPR
3 30 (4.64%) QA
4 26 (4.02%) Cyber Essentials
5 25 (3.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (3.40%) SLA
7 19 (2.94%) Accessibility
8 17 (2.63%) ISO 9001
9 16 (2.47%) NIST
10 9 (1.39%) ISO 14001
11 4 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.46%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.46%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.31%) GRC
13 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.31%) PMO
System Software
1 79 (12.21%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.71%) Hyper-V
3 18 (2.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.47%) Docker
5 7 (1.08%) Firmware
6 5 (0.77%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.46%) vSphere
9 1 (0.15%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 31 (4.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (2.32%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.01%) Terraform
4 6 (0.93%) Ansible
5 5 (0.77%) SCCM
6 4 (0.62%) Functional Safety
6 4 (0.62%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.62%) Puppet
7 3 (0.46%) Grafana
7 3 (0.46%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.31%) Nagios
8 2 (0.31%) WSUS
9 1 (0.15%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.15%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.15%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 178 (27.51%) Microsoft
2 32 (4.95%) SAP
3 24 (3.71%) VMware
4 21 (3.25%) Cisco
5 14 (2.16%) Sage
6 12 (1.85%) Dell
7 11 (1.70%) Salesforce
8 10 (1.55%) Google
8 10 (1.55%) HubSpot
8 10 (1.55%) Oracle
8 10 (1.55%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.24%) Apple
10 7 (1.08%) IBM
10 7 (1.08%) Sophos
11 6 (0.93%) HP
11 6 (0.93%) iManage
11 6 (0.93%) McAfee
11 6 (0.93%) Workday
12 5 (0.77%) SolarWinds
13 4 (0.62%) Veeam