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 12 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 833 616 906
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 9.32% 19.23% 16.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.34% 22.08% 19.79%
Number of salaries quoted 548 386 294
10th Percentile £28,250 £25,000 £27,947
25th Percentile £32,688 £29,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - -19.05% +7.14%
75th Percentile £56,851 £57,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £67,500 £68,125 £82,500
England median annual salary £46,000 £45,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +2.22% -15.09% -3.64%

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 6,243 2,790 4,579
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.87% 87.08% 81.55%
Number of salaries quoted 4,536 1,719 2,189
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,950 £31,200
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,009 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +10.00%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £68,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.32%

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 12 October 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 12 October 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 -3 293 £55,000 +22.22% 215
Staffordshire -3 113 £35,500 -16.47% 81
Warwickshire -3 86 £40,000 -27.27% 77
Shropshire +4 77 £42,000 -11.58% 46
Worcestershire -4 67 £39,000 +27.87% 35
Coventry -3 42 £42,500 +34.92% 68
Wolverhampton +10 19 £45,000 -30.77% 19
Solihull +1 15 £31,000 -6.77% 32
Dudley - 9 £36,000 - 6
Walsall -1 8 £40,000 -11.11% 7
Herefordshire -20 8 £29,750 -15.00% 17
Willenhall -1 5 £37,500 -16.67% 2
Sutton Coldfield - 5 £42,500 -
Tipton - 4 £33,500 - 6
Halesowen -5 3 £47,500 +46.15%
Smethwick - 2 £37,500 - 2
Stourbridge - 2 £45,000 - 1
Kingswinford - 1 £45,000 -
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 44 (5.28%) SharePoint
2 29 (3.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.20%) IIS
4 7 (0.84%) CICS
4 7 (0.84%) Confluence
5 5 (0.60%) WordPress
6 3 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.36%) CMS
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.24%) Documentum
7 2 (0.24%) SAS
7 2 (0.24%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.12%) Apache
8 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 73 (8.76%) Microsoft Office
2 61 (7.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.44%) Simulink
4 9 (1.08%) OrCAD
5 6 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 3 (0.36%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.24%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.24%) EPLAN
8 2 (0.24%) Revit
8 2 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
9 1 (0.12%) Elementor
9 1 (0.12%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.12%) LaTeX
9 1 (0.12%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.12%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.12%) SketchUp
9 1 (0.12%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.32%) NetSuite
2 8 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.72%) Shopify
4 5 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.60%) Magento
5 4 (0.48%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.48%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.48%) Sage 50
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.36%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.24%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 2 (0.24%) Line 50
7 2 (0.24%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.12%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.12%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 159 (19.09%) Azure
2 135 (16.21%) Microsoft 365
3 90 (10.80%) Power Platform
4 65 (7.80%) Entra ID
5 54 (6.48%) AWS
6 46 (5.52%) SaaS
7 33 (3.96%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (2.76%) GitHub
9 22 (2.64%) Dynamics 365
10 19 (2.28%) GitHub Actions
11 17 (2.04%) Microsoft Purview
12 15 (1.80%) Power Automate
13 13 (1.56%) GCP
14 12 (1.44%) OneDrive
14 12 (1.44%) PowerApps
15 11 (1.32%) Google Workspace
16 10 (1.20%) PaaS
17 9 (1.08%) Google Analytics
18 8 (0.96%) Microsoft Copilot
19 6 (0.72%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 32 (3.84%) DNS
1 32 (3.84%) VPN
2 30 (3.60%) Firewall
3 29 (3.48%) TCP/IP
4 28 (3.36%) WAN
5 24 (2.88%) LAN
6 22 (2.64%) DHCP
7 21 (2.52%) Wireless
8 17 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
9 14 (1.68%) VLAN
10 12 (1.44%) Network Security
11 9 (1.08%) Wireshark
12 7 (0.84%) Internet
12 7 (0.84%) VoIP
13 6 (0.72%) Cisco IOS
14 5 (0.60%) SD-WAN
15 4 (0.48%) SSL
16 3 (0.36%) 5G
16 3 (0.36%) Ethernet
16 3 (0.36%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (10.20%) Power BI
2 32 (3.84%) SQL Server
3 29 (3.48%) Relational Database
4 23 (2.76%) Data Warehouse
5 21 (2.52%) Tableau
6 16 (1.92%) Power Query
7 14 (1.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
8 11 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.20%) MySQL
10 9 (1.08%) Data Lake
10 9 (1.08%) Data Mining
11 8 (0.96%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.96%) Oracle Reports
12 7 (0.84%) Db2
12 7 (0.84%) PostgreSQL
13 6 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
14 5 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.60%) Big Data
14 5 (0.60%) Oracle BI EE
Development Applications
1 36 (4.32%) Git
2 30 (3.60%) Jenkins
3 27 (3.24%) JIRA
4 9 (1.08%) Eclipse
5 8 (0.96%) GitLab
6 7 (0.84%) Cucumber
7 6 (0.72%) JMeter
7 6 (0.72%) Maven
7 6 (0.72%) Postman
7 6 (0.72%) Selenium
8 5 (0.60%) JUnit
8 5 (0.60%) SoapUI
8 5 (0.60%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.36%) Mockito
10 2 (0.24%) Ant
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Ivy
10 2 (0.24%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.12%) Bugzilla
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 407 (48.86%) Social Skills
2 228 (27.37%) Analytical Skills
3 134 (16.09%) Manufacturing
4 126 (15.13%) Finance
5 76 (9.12%) Organisational Skills
6 58 (6.96%) Retail
7 57 (6.84%) Public Sector
8 38 (4.56%) Marketing
9 37 (4.44%) Electronics
10 24 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 23 (2.76%) Automotive
12 21 (2.52%) Law
13 20 (2.40%) Legal
14 18 (2.16%) Telecoms
15 17 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
16 10 (1.20%) Billing
16 10 (1.20%) Fire and Rescue
17 9 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
18 8 (0.96%) Banking
18 8 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (11.76%) Support Engineer
2 78 (9.36%) Analyst
3 70 (8.40%) Developer
3 70 (8.40%) IT Support
4 67 (8.04%) Lead
4 67 (8.04%) Technical Support
5 59 (7.08%) Technical Engineer
6 57 (6.84%) Technical Support Engineer
7 56 (6.72%) Consultant
8 53 (6.36%) Senior
9 51 (6.12%) IT Engineer
10 38 (4.56%) IT Support Engineer
11 31 (3.72%) IT Manager
12 30 (3.60%) Administrator
13 25 (3.00%) Support Analyst
14 24 (2.88%) Architect
15 19 (2.28%) Data Engineer
15 19 (2.28%) Electronics Engineer
15 19 (2.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 18 (2.16%) Mainframe Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (4.92%) .NET
2 40 (4.80%) REST
3 31 (3.72%) Spring
4 28 (3.36%) Spring Boot
5 24 (2.88%) React
6 18 (2.16%) ISPF
7 14 (1.68%) Playwright
7 14 (1.68%) RESTful
7 14 (1.68%) SOAP
8 12 (1.44%) AngularJS
8 12 (1.44%) Terraform
8 12 (1.44%) XML
9 11 (1.32%) CSS
9 11 (1.32%) HTML
10 10 (1.20%) Web Services
11 8 (0.96%) LDAP
11 8 (0.96%) SAP Fiori
12 7 (0.84%) Middleware
12 7 (0.84%) Node.js
13 6 (0.72%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 81 (9.72%) Driving Licence
2 50 (6.00%) Onboarding
3 49 (5.88%) Self-Motivation
4 47 (5.64%) Enterprise Software
5 45 (5.40%) Management Information System
6 20 (2.40%) NHS
7 18 (2.16%) Data Centre
7 18 (2.16%) Legacy Applications
7 18 (2.16%) Mainframe
8 16 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
8 16 (1.92%) Social Media
8 16 (1.92%) Virtual Team
9 15 (1.80%) Cloud Native
10 12 (1.44%) Data Structures
10 12 (1.44%) Robotics
11 11 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
11 11 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
11 11 (1.32%) IoT
11 11 (1.32%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.32%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 135 (16.21%) Windows
2 48 (5.76%) Windows Server
3 35 (4.20%) Linux
4 21 (2.52%) Windows 10
5 11 (1.32%) Android
6 7 (0.84%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.84%) Unix
7 5 (0.60%) macOS
7 5 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.36%) Solaris
9 2 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.12%) AIX
10 1 (0.12%) CentOS
10 1 (0.12%) Debian
10 1 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.12%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (28.69%) Continuous Improvement
2 167 (20.05%) Customer Service
3 122 (14.65%) Agile
4 107 (12.85%) Decision-Making
5 98 (11.76%) Analytics
6 91 (10.92%) Business Intelligence
7 84 (10.08%) Mentoring
8 81 (9.72%) Stakeholder Management
9 78 (9.36%) AI
10 72 (8.64%) Collaborative Working
10 72 (8.64%) ERP
11 67 (8.04%) CI/CD
12 64 (7.68%) CRM
13 63 (7.56%) Project Delivery
14 61 (7.32%) Collaborative Culture
14 61 (7.32%) Cybersecurity
15 60 (7.20%) Customer Experience
15 60 (7.20%) Validation
16 59 (7.08%) DevOps
17 58 (6.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 135 (16.21%) SQL
2 71 (8.52%) Java
3 48 (5.76%) Python
4 28 (3.36%) JavaScript
5 27 (3.24%) PowerShell
6 26 (3.12%) C#
7 18 (2.16%) COBOL
7 18 (2.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.16%) JCL
8 17 (2.04%) C
9 16 (1.92%) Ladder Logic
10 15 (1.80%) Embedded C
11 14 (1.68%) TypeScript
12 12 (1.44%) MATLAB
13 8 (0.96%) R
14 7 (0.84%) C++
14 7 (0.84%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.84%) RPG
15 6 (0.72%) ABAP
16 5 (0.60%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 127 (15.25%) Degree
2 77 (9.24%) Security Cleared
3 62 (7.44%) SC Cleared
4 22 (2.64%) Azure Certification
5 20 (2.40%) HNC
6 18 (2.16%) DBS Check
6 18 (2.16%) HND
7 12 (1.44%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (1.20%) CCNA
10 9 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (0.96%) NVQ Level 3
12 7 (0.84%) ACCA
12 7 (0.84%) CCNP
13 6 (0.72%) CIMA
13 6 (0.72%) City & Guilds
13 6 (0.72%) ISTQB
14 5 (0.60%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (6.84%) Data Quality
2 38 (4.56%) QA
3 34 (4.08%) GDPR
4 24 (2.88%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (2.40%) Accessibility
5 20 (2.40%) SLA
6 18 (2.16%) ISO 9001
7 17 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.84%) ISO 14001
9 5 (0.60%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.60%) PMO
10 4 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.48%) GMP
11 3 (0.36%) AQAP
11 3 (0.36%) ISO 26262
11 3 (0.36%) NIST
12 2 (0.24%) Automotive SPICE
12 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.24%) GRC
12 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 89 (10.68%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.00%) Hyper-V
3 18 (2.16%) Docker
3 18 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.56%) Firmware
5 11 (1.32%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (0.96%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.48%) vSphere
9 2 (0.24%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (4.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.56%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.72%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.60%) SCCM
6 4 (0.48%) Ansible
7 3 (0.36%) Backup Exec
7 3 (0.36%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.36%) Puppet
8 2 (0.24%) Grafana
8 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.24%) WSUS
9 1 (0.12%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.12%) Nagios
9 1 (0.12%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 243 (29.17%) Microsoft
2 36 (4.32%) SAP
3 34 (4.08%) Workday
4 23 (2.76%) Google
4 23 (2.76%) VMware
5 20 (2.40%) Cisco
6 18 (2.16%) Oracle
7 15 (1.80%) Sage
8 14 (1.68%) ServiceNow
9 13 (1.56%) Salesforce
10 11 (1.32%) Broadcom
11 10 (1.20%) Databricks
11 10 (1.20%) EMC
11 10 (1.20%) HubSpot
12 9 (1.08%) Apple
13 7 (0.84%) Cadence
13 7 (0.84%) Fortinet
13 7 (0.84%) IBM
13 7 (0.84%) Sophos
13 7 (0.84%) Veeam