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 17 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 665 708 951
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.78% 20.47% 14.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.25% 24.10% 18.83%
Number of salaries quoted 468 465 432
10th Percentile £28,250 £25,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £33,250 £29,250 £32,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,543 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.59% -6.23% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £60,500 £59,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £69,500 £72,950
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 5,912 2,938 5,050
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.12% 84.96% 78.43%
Number of salaries quoted 4,434 1,888 3,085
10th Percentile £31,545 £28,822 £28,119
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £36,300
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,200 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.42% -2.48% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,603
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 17 August 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 17 August 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 -13 238 £52,500 +16.67% 238
Staffordshire -5 87 £47,500 -7.67% 50
Warwickshire -4 75 £35,000 -22.22% 55
Worcestershire -4 64 £38,000 +24.59% 29
Shropshire +7 49 £45,000 +2.86% 35
Coventry -12 35 £42,000 +11.79% 26
Solihull +2 13 £30,500 -44.55% 21
Wolverhampton -8 12 £38,500 +18.46% 14
Walsall +1 8 £37,500 -16.67% 7
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 2
Herefordshire -28 7 £28,500 -12.31% 6
Halesowen 0 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 3
Willenhall -3 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Sutton Coldfield - 4 £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 37 (5.56%) SharePoint
2 26 (3.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.50%) IIS
4 5 (0.75%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.60%) CICS
5 4 (0.60%) Confluence
6 3 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.45%) WordPress
7 2 (0.30%) Documentum
7 2 (0.30%) SAS
8 1 (0.15%) Apache
8 1 (0.15%) Appian
8 1 (0.15%) CMS
8 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2007
8 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 51 (7.67%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.90%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.75%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.60%) Simulink
7 3 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.30%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.30%) OrCAD
9 1 (0.15%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.15%) LaTeX
9 1 (0.15%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.75%) Magento
3 5 (0.75%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.75%) Shopify
4 4 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.60%) Line 50
4 4 (0.60%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.60%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.60%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.30%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.15%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 131 (19.70%) Azure
2 119 (17.89%) Microsoft 365
3 87 (13.08%) Power Platform
4 53 (7.97%) AWS
5 51 (7.67%) Entra ID
6 45 (6.77%) SaaS
7 22 (3.31%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
9 16 (2.41%) Power Automate
10 14 (2.11%) PowerApps
11 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Purview
12 11 (1.65%) GCP
12 11 (1.65%) GitHub
13 10 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
14 9 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (1.05%) PaaS
16 6 (0.90%) Google Workspace
16 6 (0.90%) IaaS
17 4 (0.60%) Amazon Kinesis
17 4 (0.60%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.21%) Firewall
2 21 (3.16%) DNS
3 19 (2.86%) VPN
4 18 (2.71%) TCP/IP
4 18 (2.71%) Wireless
5 17 (2.56%) WAN
6 15 (2.26%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (1.95%) DHCP
7 13 (1.95%) LAN
8 12 (1.80%) Network Security
9 10 (1.50%) VLAN
10 8 (1.20%) VoIP
11 5 (0.75%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (0.75%) SD-WAN
11 5 (0.75%) Skype
12 4 (0.60%) Bluetooth
12 4 (0.60%) SSL
13 3 (0.45%) HTTP
13 3 (0.45%) SAN
13 3 (0.45%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (12.33%) Power BI
2 26 (3.91%) SQL Server
3 20 (3.01%) Power Query
3 20 (3.01%) Tableau
4 16 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
5 13 (1.95%) Relational Database
6 12 (1.80%) MySQL
7 11 (1.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (1.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (1.20%) Data Mining
9 8 (1.20%) Electronic Patient Records
10 6 (0.90%) Amazon Redshift
11 5 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.75%) Star Schema
12 4 (0.60%) Data Lake
12 4 (0.60%) Db2
12 4 (0.60%) FileMaker
13 3 (0.45%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 28 (4.21%) Git
2 20 (3.01%) JIRA
3 18 (2.71%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.90%) Maven
5 5 (0.75%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.75%) JUnit
5 5 (0.75%) Postman
6 4 (0.60%) GitLab
6 4 (0.60%) JMeter
6 4 (0.60%) Selenium
6 4 (0.60%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.45%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.45%) Mockito
7 3 (0.45%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.30%) Ant
8 2 (0.30%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.30%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.15%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 304 (45.71%) Social Skills
2 170 (25.56%) Analytical Skills
3 114 (17.14%) Finance
4 96 (14.44%) Manufacturing
5 48 (7.22%) Public Sector
6 41 (6.17%) Organisational Skills
7 36 (5.41%) Retail
8 27 (4.06%) Marketing
9 25 (3.76%) Legal
10 22 (3.31%) Law
11 20 (3.01%) Electronics
12 18 (2.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 15 (2.26%) Automotive
14 12 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
15 11 (1.65%) Telecoms
16 9 (1.35%) Banking
17 8 (1.20%) Investment Banking
18 7 (1.05%) Fire and Rescue
18 7 (1.05%) Games
18 7 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 90 (13.53%) Support Engineer
2 89 (13.38%) Analyst
3 71 (10.68%) Technical Support
4 70 (10.53%) Developer
5 64 (9.62%) Technical Engineer
6 62 (9.32%) Technical Support Engineer
7 55 (8.27%) IT Support
8 50 (7.52%) Senior
9 45 (6.77%) Lead
10 40 (6.02%) Consultant
11 38 (5.71%) IT Manager
12 32 (4.81%) IT Engineer
12 32 (4.81%) Support Analyst
13 26 (3.91%) IT Support Engineer
14 18 (2.71%) 1st Line Support
15 17 (2.56%) Administrator
16 16 (2.41%) Programmer
17 15 (2.26%) Architect
17 15 (2.26%) IT Technician
17 15 (2.26%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.71%) REST
2 28 (4.21%) .NET
3 26 (3.91%) React
4 24 (3.61%) Spring
5 21 (3.16%) Spring Boot
6 14 (2.11%) RESTful
7 13 (1.95%) AngularJS
8 12 (1.80%) CSS
8 12 (1.80%) HTML
8 12 (1.80%) Playwright
9 9 (1.35%) SOAP
10 8 (1.20%) ISPF
10 8 (1.20%) Node.js
11 7 (1.05%) SAP Fiori
12 6 (0.90%) JDBC
12 6 (0.90%) Middleware
12 6 (0.90%) OAuth
12 6 (0.90%) SAPUI5
13 5 (0.75%) LDAP
13 5 (0.75%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (7.67%) Driving Licence
2 34 (5.11%) Management Information System
3 31 (4.66%) Onboarding
4 28 (4.21%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (3.91%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.86%) NHS
7 12 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
7 12 (1.80%) Data Centre
7 12 (1.80%) Virtual Team
8 10 (1.50%) Cloud Native
8 10 (1.50%) Data Structures
8 10 (1.50%) Legacy Applications
9 9 (1.35%) IoT
9 9 (1.35%) Mobile App
9 9 (1.35%) SystemC
10 8 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.20%) Mainframe
10 8 (1.20%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.05%) Cyber Defence
11 7 (1.05%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 104 (15.64%) Windows
2 40 (6.02%) Linux
3 36 (5.41%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.76%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.95%) Android
6 10 (1.50%) Apple iOS
7 9 (1.35%) Unix
8 6 (0.90%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.60%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.30%) CentOS
11 2 (0.30%) Debian
11 2 (0.30%) Solaris
11 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.30%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (30.83%) Continuous Improvement
2 113 (16.99%) Customer Service
3 104 (15.64%) Agile
4 85 (12.78%) Business Intelligence
5 84 (12.63%) Decision-Making
6 83 (12.48%) Analytics
7 77 (11.58%) Mentoring
8 76 (11.43%) AI
9 72 (10.83%) ERP
10 70 (10.53%) Collaborative Working
11 60 (9.02%) ITIL
12 56 (8.42%) Cybersecurity
13 55 (8.27%) Collaborative Culture
14 53 (7.97%) CI/CD
15 49 (7.37%) Stakeholder Management
16 48 (7.22%) CRM
16 48 (7.22%) Customer Experience
17 46 (6.92%) Root Cause Analysis
18 45 (6.77%) Service Delivery
19 43 (6.47%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 105 (15.79%) SQL
2 53 (7.97%) Java
3 43 (6.47%) Python
4 23 (3.46%) JavaScript
5 22 (3.31%) C#
5 22 (3.31%) PowerShell
6 20 (3.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.71%) Ladder Logic
8 15 (2.26%) TypeScript
9 12 (1.80%) C
10 11 (1.65%) PHP
11 10 (1.50%) Embedded C
12 8 (1.20%) COBOL
12 8 (1.20%) JCL
13 7 (1.05%) RPG
14 6 (0.90%) ABAP
14 6 (0.90%) Bash
15 5 (0.75%) C++
16 4 (0.60%) PL/SQL
16 4 (0.60%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 96 (14.44%) Degree
2 69 (10.38%) Security Cleared
3 56 (8.42%) SC Cleared
4 20 (3.01%) Azure Certification
5 13 (1.95%) DBS Check
5 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (1.65%) CISSP
6 11 (1.65%) PMI Certification
7 10 (1.50%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.05%) ACCA
9 7 (1.05%) CIMA
9 7 (1.05%) CISA
9 7 (1.05%) SSCP
10 6 (0.90%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (0.90%) CCNA
10 6 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (0.75%) HND
11 5 (0.75%) PMP
12 4 (0.60%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (5.86%) Data Quality
2 32 (4.81%) GDPR
3 29 (4.36%) QA
4 25 (3.76%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (3.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 23 (3.46%) SLA
6 19 (2.86%) Accessibility
7 17 (2.56%) ISO 9001
8 15 (2.26%) NIST
9 9 (1.35%) ISO 14001
10 4 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.45%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.45%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.30%) GRC
12 2 (0.30%) ISO 26262
12 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 2 (0.30%) PMO
System Software
1 78 (11.73%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.61%) Hyper-V
3 17 (2.56%) Docker
4 16 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 9 (1.35%) Firmware
6 7 (1.05%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.60%) vSphere
8 3 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.30%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 28 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (2.26%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.95%) Terraform
4 6 (0.90%) Ansible
5 5 (0.75%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.75%) SCCM
6 4 (0.60%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.60%) Puppet
7 3 (0.45%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.30%) Grafana
8 2 (0.30%) Nagios
8 2 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.30%) WSUS
9 1 (0.15%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.15%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 179 (26.92%) Microsoft
2 34 (5.11%) SAP
3 23 (3.46%) VMware
4 20 (3.01%) Cisco
5 15 (2.26%) Sage
6 12 (1.80%) Salesforce
7 11 (1.65%) Dell
7 11 (1.65%) HubSpot
7 11 (1.65%) ServiceNow
8 10 (1.50%) Oracle
9 9 (1.35%) Google
9 9 (1.35%) Workday
10 8 (1.20%) Apple
10 8 (1.20%) Sophos
11 7 (1.05%) IBM
12 6 (0.90%) iManage
12 6 (0.90%) McAfee
13 5 (0.75%) Databricks
13 5 (0.75%) SolarWinds
14 4 (0.60%) Broadcom