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 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 591 683 1,222
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.38% 20.20% 15.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.74% 23.55% 18.85%
Number of salaries quoted 442 440 662
10th Percentile £27,699 £25,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +5.88% -15.00%
75th Percentile £56,857 £61,250 £58,750
90th Percentile £63,750 £68,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £48,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -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 5,501 2,900 6,484
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 68.69% 85.75% 80.40%
Number of salaries quoted 4,120 1,825 4,337
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,822 £26,900
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £36,250
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 £80,000 £79,225
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 16 July 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 16 July 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 -17 188 £50,000 +4.17% 78
Staffordshire -3 101 £42,500 -17.74% 20
Warwickshire -3 71 £32,500 -31.58% 29
Worcestershire -5 52 £37,500 +22.95% 25
Shropshire +5 40 £44,500 +4.71% 22
Coventry -15 32 £42,000 -6.29% 11
Wolverhampton -12 12 £38,500 +18.46% 3
Solihull +1 11 £30,500 -44.55% 3
Herefordshire -18 11 £52,500 +75.00% 6
Walsall +4 9 £37,500 -15.73% 3
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 1
Halesowen 0 5 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 1
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Sutton Coldfield - 3 £42,500 - 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 48 (8.12%) SharePoint
2 31 (5.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.35%) IIS
4 5 (0.85%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.68%) Confluence
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.51%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) Apache
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.17%) Appian
7 1 (0.17%) Documentum
7 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.17%) SAS
Applications
1 56 (9.48%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (5.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.02%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.85%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.34%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.17%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.17%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.17%) Simulink
8 1 (0.17%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.85%) Magento
3 5 (0.85%) Shopify
4 4 (0.68%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.68%) Line 50
4 4 (0.68%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.68%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.34%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 2 (0.34%) SAP Business One
6 1 (0.17%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.17%) Raiser’s Edge
6 1 (0.17%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 1 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 123 (20.81%) Microsoft 365
2 109 (18.44%) Azure
3 70 (11.84%) Power Platform
4 57 (9.64%) Entra ID
5 35 (5.92%) AWS
6 33 (5.58%) SaaS
7 14 (2.37%) Dynamics 365
7 14 (2.37%) Microsoft Purview
7 14 (2.37%) Power Automate
7 14 (2.37%) PowerApps
8 9 (1.52%) OneDrive
9 8 (1.35%) Google Workspace
10 7 (1.18%) Azure Data Factory
10 7 (1.18%) GCP
10 7 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (0.85%) PaaS
12 4 (0.68%) IaaS
13 3 (0.51%) Amazon S3
13 3 (0.51%) Serverless
13 3 (0.51%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 33 (5.58%) Firewall
2 24 (4.06%) WAN
3 23 (3.89%) VPN
4 22 (3.72%) DNS
5 20 (3.38%) LAN
5 20 (3.38%) Wi-Fi
6 17 (2.88%) Wireless
7 16 (2.71%) DHCP
8 14 (2.37%) TCP/IP
9 13 (2.20%) Network Security
10 10 (1.69%) VLAN
11 8 (1.35%) Internet
12 6 (1.02%) VoIP
13 5 (0.85%) Cisco IOS
13 5 (0.85%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.85%) Skype
14 4 (0.68%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.68%) SSL
15 3 (0.51%) HTTP
15 3 (0.51%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (11.00%) Power BI
2 22 (3.72%) SQL Server
3 17 (2.88%) Tableau
4 15 (2.54%) Power Query
5 12 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (1.86%) MySQL
7 9 (1.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 9 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 7 (1.18%) Relational Database
8 7 (1.18%) Star Schema
9 6 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (1.02%) Data Mining
10 5 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.68%) FileMaker
11 4 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (0.51%) GIS
12 3 (0.51%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 2 (0.34%) Redis
Development Applications
1 16 (2.71%) Git
2 12 (2.03%) JIRA
3 4 (0.68%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.68%) JUnit
4 3 (0.51%) Cucumber
4 3 (0.51%) GitLab
4 3 (0.51%) Maven
4 3 (0.51%) Mockito
4 3 (0.51%) Postman
4 3 (0.51%) SoapUI
5 2 (0.34%) JMeter
5 2 (0.34%) Selenium
5 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (0.34%) Zephyr
6 1 (0.17%) Appium
6 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.17%) Bugzilla
6 1 (0.17%) TestRail
6 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.17%) Yeoman
General
1 270 (45.69%) Social Skills
2 153 (25.89%) Analytical Skills
3 94 (15.91%) Finance
4 86 (14.55%) Manufacturing
5 34 (5.75%) Organisational Skills
5 34 (5.75%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.91%) Retail
7 27 (4.57%) Marketing
8 24 (4.06%) Legal
9 19 (3.21%) Law
10 16 (2.71%) Electronics
11 14 (2.37%) Automotive
11 14 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (1.69%) Banking
13 10 (1.69%) Telecoms
14 9 (1.52%) Investment Banking
15 8 (1.35%) Games
16 6 (1.02%) Esports
16 6 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 104 (17.60%) Support Engineer
2 83 (14.04%) Analyst
3 66 (11.17%) Technical Support
4 64 (10.83%) IT Support
4 64 (10.83%) Technical Engineer
5 63 (10.66%) Technical Support Engineer
6 58 (9.81%) Developer
7 49 (8.29%) IT Engineer
8 42 (7.11%) Senior
9 39 (6.60%) IT Support Engineer
10 33 (5.58%) Lead
11 32 (5.41%) IT Manager
12 28 (4.74%) Support Analyst
13 21 (3.55%) Consultant
14 16 (2.71%) 1st Line Support
14 16 (2.71%) Programmer
15 15 (2.54%) 2nd Line Support
15 15 (2.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 15 (2.54%) IT Analyst
16 14 (2.37%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.41%) REST
2 21 (3.55%) React
3 18 (3.05%) .NET
4 16 (2.71%) Spring
5 13 (2.20%) Spring Boot
6 12 (2.03%) AngularJS
7 11 (1.86%) CSS
7 11 (1.86%) HTML
8 10 (1.69%) RESTful
9 8 (1.35%) Node.js
9 8 (1.35%) SOAP
10 7 (1.18%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (1.02%) JDBC
11 6 (1.02%) Middleware
11 6 (1.02%) OAuth
11 6 (1.02%) SAPUI5
12 5 (0.85%) Playwright
13 4 (0.68%) .NET Framework
13 4 (0.68%) COM
13 4 (0.68%) DCOM
Miscellaneous
1 48 (8.12%) Driving Licence
2 28 (4.74%) Self-Motivation
3 27 (4.57%) Management Information System
4 22 (3.72%) Onboarding
5 19 (3.21%) Enterprise Software
6 15 (2.54%) Social Media
7 11 (1.86%) Virtual Team
8 10 (1.69%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (1.69%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.69%) NHS
9 9 (1.52%) Data Structures
9 9 (1.52%) IoT
9 9 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (1.35%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.35%) Security Posture
11 7 (1.18%) AS400
11 7 (1.18%) Cyber Defence
11 7 (1.18%) iSeries
11 7 (1.18%) Mobile App
12 5 (0.85%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 102 (17.26%) Windows
2 31 (5.25%) Linux
3 29 (4.91%) Windows Server
4 28 (4.74%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.54%) Android
6 10 (1.69%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.85%) Unix
7 5 (0.85%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.68%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.68%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.34%) CentOS
9 2 (0.34%) Debian
9 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (27.41%) Continuous Improvement
2 96 (16.24%) Customer Service
3 73 (12.35%) Agile
4 72 (12.18%) Analytics
5 70 (11.84%) Decision-Making
6 69 (11.68%) Collaborative Working
7 67 (11.34%) Business Intelligence
7 67 (11.34%) Mentoring
8 66 (11.17%) ITIL
9 60 (10.15%) AI
10 59 (9.98%) ERP
11 52 (8.80%) Cybersecurity
12 50 (8.46%) Customer Experience
13 45 (7.61%) Service Delivery
14 43 (7.28%) Root Cause Analysis
15 42 (7.11%) CRM
16 38 (6.43%) Stakeholder Management
17 36 (6.09%) Collaborative Culture
18 33 (5.58%) Process Improvement
18 33 (5.58%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 92 (15.57%) SQL
2 39 (6.60%) Java
3 32 (5.41%) Python
4 22 (3.72%) PowerShell
5 19 (3.21%) C#
5 19 (3.21%) Ladder Logic
6 15 (2.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 12 (2.03%) JavaScript
8 11 (1.86%) PHP
9 9 (1.52%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.35%) C
11 7 (1.18%) Bash
11 7 (1.18%) RPG
12 6 (1.02%) ABAP
13 5 (0.85%) C++
13 5 (0.85%) Embedded C
14 4 (0.68%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.68%) RPG IV
14 4 (0.68%) RPG/400
15 3 (0.51%) RPG III
Qualifications
1 81 (13.71%) Degree
2 56 (9.48%) Security Cleared
3 44 (7.45%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.55%) DBS Check
5 20 (3.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (2.88%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.86%) CISSP
8 10 (1.69%) CompTIA Security+
9 8 (1.35%) A+ Certification
9 8 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.18%) ACCA
10 7 (1.18%) CIMA
10 7 (1.18%) CISA
10 7 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.18%) SSCP
11 5 (0.85%) CCNA
11 5 (0.85%) HND
11 5 (0.85%) MCITP
12 4 (0.68%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.41%) Data Quality
2 30 (5.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.74%) Cyber Essentials
4 25 (4.23%) GDPR
4 25 (4.23%) QA
5 17 (2.88%) ISO 9001
6 16 (2.71%) NIST
7 14 (2.37%) Accessibility
7 14 (2.37%) SLA
8 9 (1.52%) ISO 14001
9 7 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.68%) HIPAA
10 4 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.51%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.51%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.34%) GRC
12 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 83 (14.04%) Active Directory
2 26 (4.40%) Hyper-V
3 21 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.86%) Docker
5 8 (1.35%) Firmware
6 5 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.34%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 39 (6.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (1.86%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.52%) Terraform
4 5 (0.85%) Ansible
5 4 (0.68%) Functional Safety
5 4 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.51%) Grafana
6 3 (0.51%) Nagios
6 3 (0.51%) SCCM
7 2 (0.34%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.34%) Puppet
8 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 165 (27.92%) Microsoft
2 29 (4.91%) SAP
3 26 (4.40%) VMware
4 22 (3.72%) Cisco
5 14 (2.37%) Sage
6 12 (2.03%) Dell
7 11 (1.86%) Salesforce
8 10 (1.69%) Google
9 9 (1.52%) Oracle
10 7 (1.18%) HP
10 7 (1.18%) IBM
10 7 (1.18%) Meraki
11 6 (1.02%) Apple
11 6 (1.02%) HubSpot
11 6 (1.02%) iManage
11 6 (1.02%) McAfee
11 6 (1.02%) Sophos
12 5 (0.85%) ServiceNow
12 5 (0.85%) SolarWinds
13 4 (0.68%) Xero