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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -25 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 535 670 1,155
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 6.25% 22.26% 14.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.56% 25.00% 18.07%
Number of salaries quoted 400 394 743
10th Percentile £27,694 £25,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,750 £29,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +11.76% -12.51%
75th Percentile £57,500 £62,500 £58,750
90th Percentile £65,701 £73,750 £70,000
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 6,251 2,680 6,393
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 73.00% 89.04% 81.18%
Number of salaries quoted 3,789 1,549 4,666
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,822 £26,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,000 £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 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £59,400 £55,000
% change year-on-year +1.01% +8.00% -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 30 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 30 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 -14 179 £47,500 -9.52% 56
Staffordshire -16 94 £31,500 -39.03% 29
Warwickshire -15 67 £32,500 -25.71% 57
Worcestershire -19 42 £37,500 +22.95% 9
Coventry -14 32 £42,000 -26.96% 18
Shropshire -18 27 £51,250 +20.59% 23
Herefordshire -17 16 £52,500 -2.33% 6
Solihull -5 12 £30,500 -44.55% 6
Walsall +2 9 £37,500 -10.71%
Tipton -1 8 £33,500 - 3
Halesowen -5 6 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 2
Wolverhampton -27 4 £80,000 +146.15% 3
Sutton Coldfield -8 1 £28,000 -
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 46 (8.60%) SharePoint
2 31 (5.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.93%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 5 (0.93%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.75%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (0.75%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (0.75%) Exchange Server 2013
5 3 (0.56%) IIS
5 3 (0.56%) WordPress
6 2 (0.37%) Confluence
7 1 (0.19%) Appian
7 1 (0.19%) SAS
Applications
1 43 (8.04%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (5.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.62%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.93%) Fusion 360
6 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.19%) Abaqus
7 1 (0.19%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.19%) Sketch
7 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 7 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.93%) Magento
2 5 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.93%) Shopify
3 4 (0.75%) Line 50
3 4 (0.75%) Sage 50
3 4 (0.75%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.56%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.37%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.37%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.19%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 108 (20.19%) Microsoft 365
2 103 (19.25%) Azure
3 52 (9.72%) Power Platform
4 45 (8.41%) Entra ID
5 39 (7.29%) AWS
6 24 (4.49%) SaaS
7 14 (2.62%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.43%) Power Automate
8 13 (2.43%) PowerApps
9 9 (1.68%) Google Workspace
9 9 (1.68%) OneDrive
10 7 (1.31%) Microsoft Copilot
11 6 (1.12%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.12%) GCP
11 6 (1.12%) Serverless
12 4 (0.75%) Amazon S3
12 4 (0.75%) IaaS
12 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (0.75%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 26 (4.86%) VPN
2 25 (4.67%) WAN
3 24 (4.49%) Firewall
4 21 (3.93%) DNS
5 20 (3.74%) Wi-Fi
6 18 (3.36%) DHCP
6 18 (3.36%) Internet
6 18 (3.36%) LAN
7 15 (2.80%) Wireless
8 12 (2.24%) VLAN
9 11 (2.06%) Network Security
10 10 (1.87%) SD-WAN
11 9 (1.68%) TCP/IP
12 7 (1.31%) VoIP
13 5 (0.93%) Bluetooth
13 5 (0.93%) Skype
14 3 (0.56%) SAN
15 2 (0.37%) SNMP
16 1 (0.19%) SMS
16 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (8.97%) Power BI
2 14 (2.62%) Tableau
3 12 (2.24%) Power Query
3 12 (2.24%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.31%) MySQL
4 7 (1.31%) Star Schema
5 6 (1.12%) Oracle Reports
5 6 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.75%) Data Mining
6 4 (0.75%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.75%) FileMaker
6 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.56%) GIS
7 3 (0.56%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.56%) Redis
7 3 (0.56%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.56%) TimescaleDB
8 2 (0.37%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 14 (2.62%) Git
2 10 (1.87%) JIRA
3 8 (1.50%) JUnit
4 7 (1.31%) Maven
4 7 (1.31%) Mockito
5 3 (0.56%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.37%) GitLab
6 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.19%) Appium
7 1 (0.19%) Balsamiq
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.19%) MLflow
7 1 (0.19%) Postman
7 1 (0.19%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.19%) TestRail
7 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 219 (40.93%) Social Skills
2 150 (28.04%) Analytical Skills
3 98 (18.32%) Finance
4 72 (13.46%) Manufacturing
5 31 (5.79%) Organisational Skills
6 30 (5.61%) Public Sector
7 23 (4.30%) Retail
8 22 (4.11%) Legal
9 20 (3.74%) Marketing
10 18 (3.36%) Law
11 16 (2.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 13 (2.43%) Electronics
13 12 (2.24%) Automotive
13 12 (2.24%) Banking
14 11 (2.06%) Investment Banking
15 10 (1.87%) Telecoms
16 8 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
17 5 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
18 3 (0.56%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 95 (17.76%) Support Engineer
2 87 (16.26%) Analyst
3 66 (12.34%) IT Support
4 57 (10.65%) IT Engineer
5 47 (8.79%) Developer
5 47 (8.79%) IT Support Engineer
6 46 (8.60%) Senior
6 46 (8.60%) Technical Engineer
6 46 (8.60%) Technical Support
6 46 (8.60%) Technical Support Engineer
7 32 (5.98%) Lead
8 28 (5.23%) Support Analyst
9 22 (4.11%) Consultant
10 18 (3.36%) 2nd Line Support
11 17 (3.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 17 (3.18%) Instructor
12 16 (2.99%) Programmer
13 15 (2.80%) IT Manager
14 14 (2.62%) Business Analyst
14 14 (2.62%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.11%) REST
2 21 (3.93%) React
3 13 (2.43%) Spring
4 12 (2.24%) .NET
5 11 (2.06%) AngularJS
6 10 (1.87%) CSS
6 10 (1.87%) HTML
6 10 (1.87%) Spring Boot
7 9 (1.68%) RESTful
8 5 (0.93%) EDI
8 5 (0.93%) Node.js
9 4 (0.75%) .NET Framework
10 3 (0.56%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.56%) Playwright
11 1 (0.19%) gRPC
11 1 (0.19%) Lightning Web Components
11 1 (0.19%) PyTorch
11 1 (0.19%) SAP Fiori
11 1 (0.19%) SAPUI5
11 1 (0.19%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 47 (8.79%) Driving Licence
2 27 (5.05%) Self-Motivation
3 24 (4.49%) Management Information System
4 23 (4.30%) Onboarding
5 18 (3.36%) Social Media
6 10 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (1.87%) FMCG
6 10 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (1.87%) Virtual Team
7 9 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (1.68%) Data Centre
8 8 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.31%) AS400
9 7 (1.31%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.31%) iSeries
10 6 (1.12%) Data Structures
10 6 (1.12%) NHS
10 6 (1.12%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.75%) CCTV
11 4 (0.75%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 86 (16.07%) Windows
2 28 (5.23%) Windows 10
3 25 (4.67%) Linux
4 22 (4.11%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.31%) Android
5 7 (1.31%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.93%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.75%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.75%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.75%) Unix
8 2 (0.37%) CentOS
8 2 (0.37%) Debian
8 2 (0.37%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (22.43%) Continuous Improvement
2 72 (13.46%) Agile
3 68 (12.71%) Customer Service
4 61 (11.40%) Decision-Making
5 56 (10.47%) ITIL
6 54 (10.09%) Analytics
6 54 (10.09%) Mentoring
7 52 (9.72%) Collaborative Working
8 49 (9.16%) AI
9 47 (8.79%) Business Intelligence
9 47 (8.79%) ERP
10 46 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
11 38 (7.10%) Service Delivery
12 36 (6.73%) Root Cause Analysis
13 35 (6.54%) Customer Experience
14 34 (6.36%) Project Management
15 33 (6.17%) Coaching
15 33 (6.17%) CRM
16 31 (5.79%) Process Improvement
16 31 (5.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 72 (13.46%) SQL
2 33 (6.17%) Python
3 32 (5.98%) Java
4 19 (3.55%) PowerShell
5 14 (2.62%) C#
6 12 (2.24%) C
6 12 (2.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 12 (2.24%) JavaScript
6 12 (2.24%) Ladder Logic
7 11 (2.06%) Bash
7 11 (2.06%) PHP
7 11 (2.06%) TypeScript
8 8 (1.50%) PL/SQL
9 7 (1.31%) C++
9 7 (1.31%) RPG
10 5 (0.93%) R
11 4 (0.75%) Embedded C
11 4 (0.75%) RPG IV
11 4 (0.75%) RPG/400
12 3 (0.56%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 73 (13.64%) Degree
2 53 (9.91%) Security Cleared
3 41 (7.66%) SC Cleared
4 24 (4.49%) DBS Check
5 22 (4.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (1.87%) A+ Certification
7 10 (1.87%) CISSP
8 9 (1.68%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.50%) ACCA
9 8 (1.50%) CIMA
10 7 (1.31%) CISA
10 7 (1.31%) SSCP
11 6 (1.12%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.12%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (0.93%) HND
12 5 (0.93%) MCITP
12 5 (0.93%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.75%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.98%) QA
2 28 (5.23%) Data Quality
3 25 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 19 (3.55%) GDPR
4 19 (3.55%) NIST
5 17 (3.18%) Cyber Essentials
6 13 (2.43%) SLA
7 11 (2.06%) Accessibility
8 9 (1.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (1.68%) ISO 14001
8 9 (1.68%) ISO 9001
9 6 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 5 (0.93%) HIPAA
11 4 (0.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.56%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.56%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.37%) GRC
13 2 (0.37%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.37%) PMO
System Software
1 67 (12.52%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.36%) Docker
3 17 (3.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (2.24%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.31%) Firmware
6 4 (0.75%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.37%) vSphere
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 30 (5.61%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (3.18%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.06%) Terraform
4 6 (1.12%) Ansible
5 4 (0.75%) Functional Safety
5 4 (0.75%) Nagios
5 4 (0.75%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.56%) SCCM
6 3 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.37%) Grafana
7 2 (0.37%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.37%) Puppet
8 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 132 (24.67%) Microsoft
2 22 (4.11%) VMware
3 21 (3.93%) Cisco
3 21 (3.93%) SAP
4 18 (3.36%) Oracle
5 16 (2.99%) Sage
6 12 (2.24%) Dell
7 9 (1.68%) Google
7 9 (1.68%) Salesforce
7 9 (1.68%) SolarWinds
8 7 (1.31%) HP
8 7 (1.31%) IBM
8 7 (1.31%) Meraki
9 6 (1.12%) Avaya
9 6 (1.12%) McAfee
9 6 (1.12%) Sophos
9 6 (1.12%) Zscaler
10 4 (0.75%) Adobe
10 4 (0.75%) Apple
10 4 (0.75%) Veeam