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 2 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 693 685 966
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 8.05% 20.02% 15.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.62% 23.73% 19.36%
Number of salaries quoted 480 444 395
10th Percentile £28,250 £25,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £33,250 £29,250 £32,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,618 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.28% -10.28% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £58,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £66,375 £68,375 £75,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -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 5,965 2,887 4,989
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.29% 84.39% 78.70%
Number of salaries quoted 4,475 1,828 2,877
10th Percentile £31,850 £28,850 £28,119
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £36,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 -10 253 £55,000 +22.22% 314
Staffordshire -7 88 £47,500 +5.56% 67
Warwickshire -2 77 £37,500 -30.23% 62
Worcestershire -4 67 £40,000 +31.15% 37
Shropshire +5 52 £45,000 -5.26% 36
Coventry -9 36 £42,000 +27.27% 41
Wolverhampton -2 15 £38,500 +18.46% 18
Solihull +2 14 £30,750 -22.15% 23
Tipton - 8 £33,500 -
Herefordshire -23 7 £28,500 -12.31% 15
Walsall 0 6 £37,500 -16.67% 5
Halesowen -3 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Dudley - 4 £26,100 - 9
Sutton Coldfield - 3 £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 41 (5.92%) SharePoint
2 27 (3.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.44%) IIS
4 6 (0.87%) Confluence
5 5 (0.72%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.58%) CICS
7 3 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.43%) WordPress
8 2 (0.29%) Documentum
8 2 (0.29%) SAS
9 1 (0.14%) Apache
9 1 (0.14%) Appian
9 1 (0.14%) CMS
9 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 54 (7.79%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (5.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.01%) Simulink
4 6 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.87%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.72%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.29%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.29%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.29%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.14%) EPLAN
8 1 (0.14%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.14%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.44%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (1.30%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.72%) Magento
4 5 (0.72%) Shopify
5 4 (0.58%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.58%) Line 50
5 4 (0.58%) Sage 50
5 4 (0.58%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.43%) SAP Business One
6 3 (0.43%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.29%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.14%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 1 (0.14%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.14%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 137 (19.77%) Azure
2 121 (17.46%) Microsoft 365
3 89 (12.84%) Power Platform
4 53 (7.65%) AWS
5 52 (7.50%) Entra ID
6 45 (6.49%) SaaS
7 23 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
7 23 (3.32%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (2.45%) Power Automate
9 15 (2.16%) Microsoft Purview
10 14 (2.02%) GitHub
10 14 (2.02%) PowerApps
11 12 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
12 11 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (1.44%) GCP
14 8 (1.15%) PaaS
15 6 (0.87%) Google Workspace
16 5 (0.72%) IaaS
17 4 (0.58%) Amazon Kinesis
17 4 (0.58%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 27 (3.90%) Firewall
2 23 (3.32%) DNS
3 21 (3.03%) TCP/IP
4 20 (2.89%) VPN
5 19 (2.74%) Wireless
6 18 (2.60%) WAN
7 16 (2.31%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (2.16%) DHCP
8 15 (2.16%) LAN
9 11 (1.59%) Network Security
9 11 (1.59%) VLAN
10 9 (1.30%) VoIP
11 5 (0.72%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (0.72%) Skype
11 5 (0.72%) Wireshark
12 4 (0.58%) Bluetooth
12 4 (0.58%) SD-WAN
13 3 (0.43%) HTTP
13 3 (0.43%) Internet
13 3 (0.43%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (12.12%) Power BI
2 27 (3.90%) SQL Server
3 22 (3.17%) Tableau
4 19 (2.74%) Relational Database
5 18 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (2.60%) Power Query
6 12 (1.73%) MySQL
7 11 (1.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 10 (1.44%) Data Mining
9 9 (1.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 8 (1.15%) Electronic Patient Records
11 6 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
11 6 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (0.87%) Data Lake
12 5 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
12 5 (0.72%) Star Schema
13 4 (0.58%) Db2
13 4 (0.58%) FileMaker
13 4 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
13 4 (0.58%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 31 (4.47%) Git
2 24 (3.46%) JIRA
3 23 (3.32%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.01%) Cucumber
4 7 (1.01%) Postman
5 6 (0.87%) GitLab
5 6 (0.87%) JMeter
5 6 (0.87%) Maven
5 6 (0.87%) Selenium
5 6 (0.87%) SoapUI
6 5 (0.72%) Eclipse
6 5 (0.72%) JUnit
6 5 (0.72%) Zephyr
7 3 (0.43%) Mockito
8 2 (0.29%) Ant
8 2 (0.29%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.29%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.14%) Bugzilla
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 324 (46.75%) Social Skills
2 178 (25.69%) Analytical Skills
3 114 (16.45%) Finance
4 100 (14.43%) Manufacturing
5 50 (7.22%) Public Sector
6 47 (6.78%) Organisational Skills
7 39 (5.63%) Retail
8 29 (4.18%) Marketing
9 24 (3.46%) Electronics
10 22 (3.17%) Law
10 22 (3.17%) Legal
11 18 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 17 (2.45%) Automotive
13 13 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
14 11 (1.59%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.30%) Banking
16 8 (1.15%) Billing
16 8 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (1.15%) Investment Banking
17 7 (1.01%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 86 (12.41%) Support Engineer
2 85 (12.27%) Analyst
3 75 (10.82%) Developer
4 70 (10.10%) Technical Support
5 62 (8.95%) Technical Engineer
6 60 (8.66%) Technical Support Engineer
7 54 (7.79%) IT Support
8 51 (7.36%) Lead
9 50 (7.22%) Senior
10 46 (6.64%) Consultant
11 36 (5.19%) IT Manager
12 33 (4.76%) IT Engineer
13 32 (4.62%) Support Analyst
14 25 (3.61%) IT Support Engineer
15 22 (3.17%) Administrator
16 17 (2.45%) Architect
17 16 (2.31%) 1st Line Support
17 16 (2.31%) Project Manager
18 15 (2.16%) Programmer
19 14 (2.02%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (5.34%) REST
2 33 (4.76%) .NET
3 27 (3.90%) Spring
4 26 (3.75%) React
5 24 (3.46%) Spring Boot
6 15 (2.16%) CSS
6 15 (2.16%) HTML
6 15 (2.16%) RESTful
7 14 (2.02%) AngularJS
7 14 (2.02%) Playwright
8 11 (1.59%) ISPF
8 11 (1.59%) SOAP
8 11 (1.59%) Terraform
9 9 (1.30%) XML
10 7 (1.01%) JSON
10 7 (1.01%) LDAP
10 7 (1.01%) Node.js
10 7 (1.01%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (0.87%) OAuth
11 6 (0.87%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 57 (8.23%) Driving Licence
2 37 (5.34%) Management Information System
3 35 (5.05%) Onboarding
4 34 (4.91%) Self-Motivation
5 32 (4.62%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.74%) NHS
7 16 (2.31%) Data Centre
7 16 (2.31%) Virtual Team
8 14 (2.02%) Analytical Mindset
9 13 (1.88%) Legacy Applications
10 11 (1.59%) Mainframe
11 10 (1.44%) Cloud Native
11 10 (1.44%) Data Structures
11 10 (1.44%) Public Cloud
12 9 (1.30%) IoT
12 9 (1.30%) Mobile App
12 9 (1.30%) SystemC
13 8 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
13 8 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 107 (15.44%) Windows
2 38 (5.48%) Linux
3 37 (5.34%) Windows Server
4 21 (3.03%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.88%) Android
6 10 (1.44%) Apple iOS
7 9 (1.30%) Unix
8 6 (0.87%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.58%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.29%) Solaris
12 1 (0.14%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) Debian
12 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.14%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 215 (31.02%) Continuous Improvement
2 120 (17.32%) Customer Service
3 111 (16.02%) Agile
4 87 (12.55%) Business Intelligence
4 87 (12.55%) Decision-Making
5 84 (12.12%) Analytics
6 78 (11.26%) Mentoring
7 77 (11.11%) AI
8 73 (10.53%) ERP
9 68 (9.81%) Collaborative Working
10 61 (8.80%) Cybersecurity
11 57 (8.23%) CI/CD
11 57 (8.23%) Collaborative Culture
11 57 (8.23%) ITIL
12 54 (7.79%) Stakeholder Management
13 51 (7.36%) CRM
14 48 (6.93%) Root Cause Analysis
15 47 (6.78%) Service Delivery
15 47 (6.78%) Workflow
16 46 (6.64%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 109 (15.73%) SQL
2 62 (8.95%) Java
3 42 (6.06%) Python
4 29 (4.18%) JavaScript
5 25 (3.61%) PowerShell
6 24 (3.46%) C#
7 18 (2.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.60%) Ladder Logic
8 14 (2.02%) C
8 14 (2.02%) TypeScript
9 13 (1.88%) Embedded C
10 11 (1.59%) COBOL
10 11 (1.59%) JCL
10 11 (1.59%) PHP
11 7 (1.01%) MATLAB
11 7 (1.01%) RPG
12 6 (0.87%) ABAP
13 5 (0.72%) Bash
13 5 (0.72%) C++
13 5 (0.72%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 105 (15.15%) Degree
2 79 (11.40%) Security Cleared
3 64 (9.24%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.03%) Azure Certification
5 13 (1.88%) DBS Check
5 13 (1.88%) PMI Certification
6 12 (1.73%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (1.15%) CISSP
8 8 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
9 7 (1.01%) ACCA
9 7 (1.01%) CCNA
9 7 (1.01%) CIMA
9 7 (1.01%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (1.01%) PMP
10 6 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (0.87%) HND
10 6 (0.87%) ISTQB
11 5 (0.72%) ISEB
11 5 (0.72%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (5.92%) Data Quality
2 35 (5.05%) QA
3 32 (4.62%) GDPR
4 24 (3.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (3.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 23 (3.32%) SLA
6 20 (2.89%) Accessibility
6 20 (2.89%) ISO 9001
7 13 (1.88%) NIST
8 9 (1.30%) ISO 14001
9 4 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.43%) AQAP
10 3 (0.43%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.43%) GMP
10 3 (0.43%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.43%) ISO 26262
10 3 (0.43%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.29%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.29%) GRC
System Software
1 79 (11.40%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.46%) Hyper-V
3 15 (2.16%) Docker
3 15 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.59%) Firmware
5 9 (1.30%) Embedded Firmware
6 5 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.58%) vSphere
8 2 (0.29%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 28 (4.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.88%) Kubernetes
3 6 (0.87%) Functional Safety
3 6 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (0.72%) SCCM
5 4 (0.58%) Ansible
6 3 (0.43%) Progress Chef
6 3 (0.43%) Puppet
7 2 (0.29%) Grafana
7 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.29%) WSUS
8 1 (0.14%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.14%) Nagios
Vendors
1 188 (27.13%) Microsoft
2 38 (5.48%) SAP
3 22 (3.17%) VMware
4 19 (2.74%) Cisco
5 17 (2.45%) Sage
6 13 (1.88%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.73%) HubSpot
7 12 (1.73%) Oracle
7 12 (1.73%) Salesforce
7 12 (1.73%) Workday
8 10 (1.44%) Dell
9 9 (1.30%) Google
10 8 (1.15%) Apple
10 8 (1.15%) Sophos
11 7 (1.01%) Broadcom
11 7 (1.01%) Databricks
11 7 (1.01%) IBM
12 6 (0.87%) iManage
12 6 (0.87%) McAfee
13 5 (0.72%) Pega