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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 4 6
Rank change year-on-year +1 +2 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 578 945 564
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 15.45% 17.55% 17.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.93% 20.53% 18.51%
Number of salaries quoted 424 323 463
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £30,250 £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 £58,188 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £72,675 £87,500 £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 3,053 4,604 3,047
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 81.59% 85.51% 92.81%
Number of salaries quoted 2,067 2,095 2,440
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% -3.26%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,344 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -2.44%

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 November 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 28 November 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 0 175 £45,000 -22.41% 111
Staffordshire +2 103 £39,000 -22.00% 56
Warwickshire +4 67 £53,000 +6.00% 43
Worcestershire -2 54 £31,500 -45.78% 35
Herefordshire +7 31 £39,250 +49.80% 9
Shropshire -2 31 £47,500 +5.56% 43
Solihull +1 25 £85,000 +30.77% 15
Coventry -3 20 £52,500 - 16
Walsall +2 14 £45,000 +42.86% 5
Halesowen 0 13 £32,500 - 4
Wednesbury 0 6 £42,500 -5.56%
Kingswinford -1 2 £45,250 +20.67% 2
Dudley -4 2 £75,000 +114.29% 6
Wolverhampton -9 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 (4.15%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.42%) IIS
3 11 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (1.04%) 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 (0.17%) Apache Solr
6 1 (0.17%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.17%) Appian
6 1 (0.17%) HCL Notes
6 1 (0.17%) nginx
6 1 (0.17%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.17%) SAS
6 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 75 (12.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (5.71%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.38%) AutoCAD
3 8 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (1.38%) SOLIDWORKS
4 7 (1.21%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.52%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.52%) Trello
6 1 (0.17%) Revit
Business Applications
1 22 (3.81%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.21%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.69%) SAP FI
4 3 (0.52%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.35%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 2 (0.35%) iTrent
6 1 (0.17%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.17%) Sage X3
6 1 (0.17%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 109 (18.86%) Azure
2 70 (12.11%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (10.73%) Power Platform
4 36 (6.23%) SaaS
5 26 (4.50%) AWS
6 22 (3.81%) Dynamics 365
7 12 (2.08%) Power Automate
8 11 (1.90%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.90%) GCP
9 10 (1.73%) PowerApps
10 9 (1.56%) Entra ID
11 8 (1.38%) Azure Data Factory
12 7 (1.21%) Cloud Computing
13 5 (0.87%) GitHub
13 5 (0.87%) OCI
13 5 (0.87%) Serverless
13 5 (0.87%) Snowflake
14 4 (0.69%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.69%) Azure Key Vault
14 4 (0.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 34 (5.88%) WAN
2 33 (5.71%) Firewall
3 31 (5.36%) LAN
4 23 (3.98%) VPN
5 21 (3.63%) Wi-Fi
6 19 (3.29%) DNS
7 16 (2.77%) DHCP
8 12 (2.08%) TCP/IP
9 11 (1.90%) Internet
9 11 (1.90%) Wireless
10 9 (1.56%) ADSL
10 9 (1.56%) Ethernet
10 9 (1.56%) VDSL
10 9 (1.56%) VoIP
11 7 (1.21%) Broadband
11 7 (1.21%) Network Security
11 7 (1.21%) Remote Desktop
12 5 (0.87%) PBX
13 4 (0.69%) Bluetooth
13 4 (0.69%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (9.52%) Power BI
2 39 (6.75%) SQL Server
3 19 (3.29%) MySQL
3 19 (3.29%) Relational Database
4 14 (2.42%) GIS
5 11 (1.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 10 (1.73%) Tableau
7 9 (1.56%) Metadata
7 9 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
8 6 (1.04%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.87%) BusinessObjects
9 5 (0.87%) Data Mining
9 5 (0.87%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (0.52%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.52%) NoSQL
12 2 (0.35%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 19 (3.29%) JIRA
2 16 (2.77%) Git
3 4 (0.69%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.52%) Appcelerator Titanium
4 3 (0.52%) JUnit
5 2 (0.35%) GitLab
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 (0.17%) Babel
6 1 (0.17%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.17%) Postman
6 1 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.17%) Snyk
6 1 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.17%) webpack
General
1 300 (51.90%) Social Skills
2 166 (28.72%) Finance
3 138 (23.88%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (12.80%) Manufacturing
5 59 (10.21%) Retail
6 39 (6.75%) Legal
7 32 (5.54%) Marketing
8 31 (5.36%) Public Sector
9 30 (5.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 29 (5.02%) Law
10 29 (5.02%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (4.67%) Digital Health
12 14 (2.42%) Fire and Rescue
12 14 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (2.25%) Telecoms
14 10 (1.73%) Electronics
15 9 (1.56%) Banking
16 8 (1.38%) Aerospace
17 7 (1.21%) Automotive
17 7 (1.21%) Games
Job Titles
1 87 (15.05%) Support Engineer
2 77 (13.32%) Analyst
3 70 (12.11%) IT Support
4 66 (11.42%) Developer
5 60 (10.38%) Technical Support
6 58 (10.03%) Technical Engineer
7 56 (9.69%) Technical Support Engineer
8 46 (7.96%) Senior
9 35 (6.06%) Lead
10 30 (5.19%) 2nd Line Support
11 25 (4.33%) Architect
12 23 (3.98%) Applications Support
13 20 (3.46%) IT Engineer
14 19 (3.29%) Support Analyst
15 17 (2.94%) Administrator
16 16 (2.77%) Network Engineer
17 14 (2.42%) Support Technician
18 13 (2.25%) Applications Support Analyst
18 13 (2.25%) IT Support Engineer
19 12 (2.08%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (5.88%) .NET
2 27 (4.67%) React
3 22 (3.81%) REST
4 18 (3.11%) HTML
5 16 (2.77%) AngularJS
5 16 (2.77%) JSON
6 14 (2.42%) CSS
7 13 (2.25%) Razor View Engine
8 6 (1.04%) .NET Framework
8 6 (1.04%) EDI
8 6 (1.04%) LAMP
8 6 (1.04%) Vue
9 5 (0.87%) Web Services
9 5 (0.87%) WPF
10 4 (0.69%) jQuery
10 4 (0.69%) Node.js
10 4 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.69%) RESTful
10 4 (0.69%) Spring
10 4 (0.69%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.44%) Onboarding
2 36 (6.23%) Driving Licence
3 33 (5.71%) FMCG
4 32 (5.54%) Self-Motivation
5 18 (3.11%) Analytical Mindset
6 16 (2.77%) SCADA
7 15 (2.60%) Management Information System
7 15 (2.60%) Operational Technology
8 12 (2.08%) Data Centre
9 11 (1.90%) Product Ownership
10 10 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 8 (1.38%) Data Structures
12 8 (1.38%) EPoS
12 8 (1.38%) IoT
12 8 (1.38%) Linux Command Line
12 8 (1.38%) Security Posture
13 7 (1.21%) iPad
14 6 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
14 6 (1.04%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 77 (13.32%) Windows
2 31 (5.36%) Windows 10
3 21 (3.63%) Linux
4 8 (1.38%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.52%) Unix
5 3 (0.52%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.35%) VMS
6 2 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.17%) Android
7 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.17%) Windows Mobile
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (24.22%) Continuous Improvement
2 75 (12.98%) Agile
3 74 (12.80%) Customer Service
4 68 (11.76%) Project Management
5 64 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
6 57 (9.86%) Decision-Making
7 53 (9.17%) ITIL
8 49 (8.48%) Analytics
9 44 (7.61%) Logistics
10 42 (7.27%) CRM
11 40 (6.92%) Mentoring
12 39 (6.75%) Data Analysis
13 37 (6.40%) ERP
14 33 (5.71%) Cybersecurity
15 32 (5.54%) Computer Science
15 32 (5.54%) Customer Experience
15 32 (5.54%) Roadmaps
16 31 (5.36%) DevOps
17 29 (5.02%) Process Improvement
18 28 (4.84%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 104 (17.99%) SQL
2 50 (8.65%) Python
3 45 (7.79%) C#
4 42 (7.27%) JavaScript
5 22 (3.81%) Java
6 21 (3.63%) PowerShell
7 19 (3.29%) PHP
8 14 (2.42%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 6 (1.04%) C++
10 6 (1.04%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.87%) Bash
11 5 (0.87%) Ladder Logic
12 4 (0.69%) Go
12 4 (0.69%) R
13 3 (0.52%) Delphi
13 3 (0.52%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.35%) C
14 2 (0.35%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 107 (18.51%) Degree
2 52 (9.00%) Security Cleared
3 32 (5.54%) SC Cleared
4 25 (4.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 16 (2.77%) ACCA
5 16 (2.77%) CIMA
6 14 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (1.73%) CISSP
7 10 (1.73%) DV Cleared
8 9 (1.56%) Master's Degree
9 8 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (1.21%) AAT
10 7 (1.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 6 (1.04%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.87%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (0.87%) CCSP
12 5 (0.87%) CISM
12 5 (0.87%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 4 (0.69%) CIPD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.50%) Data Quality
2 16 (2.77%) SLA
3 13 (2.25%) QA
4 9 (1.56%) GDPR
5 7 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.87%) NIST
6 5 (0.87%) PMO
7 4 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.52%) 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 (0.17%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 36 (6.23%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.90%) Docker
4 2 (0.35%) Firmware
4 2 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 12 (2.08%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.56%) Terraform
3 8 (1.38%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.52%) Ansible
4 3 (0.52%) FortiGate
5 2 (0.35%) Grafana
5 2 (0.35%) Nagios
6 1 (0.17%) Argo
6 1 (0.17%) AWS Copilot
6 1 (0.17%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.17%) SCCM
6 1 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.17%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 159 (27.51%) Microsoft
2 30 (5.19%) SAP
3 27 (4.67%) Oracle
4 17 (2.94%) Cisco
4 17 (2.94%) Databricks
5 14 (2.42%) Salesforce
5 14 (2.42%) VMware
6 11 (1.90%) Dell
7 10 (1.73%) Juniper
8 9 (1.56%) McAfee
8 9 (1.56%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.38%) Sage
10 7 (1.21%) Apple
10 7 (1.21%) Google
10 7 (1.21%) Infor
11 5 (0.87%) Epicor
11 5 (0.87%) Panasonic
11 5 (0.87%) Samsung
12 4 (0.69%) Guidewire
12 4 (0.69%) Meraki