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 27 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -25 +4 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 506 720 1,018
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.28% 21.62% 15.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.47% 23.59% 18.34%
Number of salaries quoted 378 394 781
10th Percentile £26,000 £29,075 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £38,750 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £53,686 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -20.84% +26.32% -15.08%
75th Percentile £58,750 £65,000 £57,500
90th Percentile £73,225 £83,375 £67,500
England median annual salary £47,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -14.55% +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 5,344 3,052 5,550
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 76.84% 91.65% 84.01%
Number of salaries quoted 3,004 1,697 4,361
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £39,750 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +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 27 March 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 27 March 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 -13 163 £48,500 -15.65% 97
Staffordshire -10 94 £30,750 -38.50% 39
Warwickshire -15 65 £32,500 -25.71% 40
Worcestershire -14 43 £37,500 +7.14% 25
Shropshire -14 31 £42,500 - 20
Herefordshire -5 23 £52,500 +4.48% 7
Coventry -15 22 £64,290 +7.60% 12
Solihull -4 16 £87,500 +59.09% 7
Dudley -2 6 £75,000 +114.29% 2
Walsall +2 5 £44,000 -13.73% 5
Halesowen -6 5 £32,500 -
Wednesbury -6 4 £42,500 -5.56%
Wolverhampton -25 3 £80,000 +146.15% 4
Kingswinford -5 2 £45,250 +20.67% 1
Tipton -6 1 £34,500 - 2
Sutton Coldfield -8 1 £28,000 -
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 43 (8.50%) SharePoint
2 25 (4.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2007
3 6 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2010
3 6 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2013
3 6 (1.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 3 (0.59%) Apache
4 3 (0.59%) IIS
5 2 (0.40%) Confluence
6 1 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.20%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.20%) SAS
6 1 (0.20%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.20%) WebLogic
Applications
1 40 (7.91%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (7.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.37%) Spreadsheet
4 7 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.99%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.79%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
7 2 (0.40%) Trello
8 1 (0.20%) Abaqus
8 1 (0.20%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.20%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 18 (3.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.38%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.59%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.59%) SAP Business ByDesign
3 3 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.40%) SAP Business One
4 2 (0.40%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.20%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.20%) Raiser’s Edge
5 1 (0.20%) Sage X3
5 1 (0.20%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 122 (24.11%) Azure
2 101 (19.96%) Microsoft 365
3 41 (8.10%) Power Platform
4 38 (7.51%) Entra ID
5 37 (7.31%) AWS
6 34 (6.72%) SaaS
7 18 (3.56%) Dynamics 365
8 14 (2.77%) Power Automate
9 13 (2.57%) PowerApps
10 11 (2.17%) OneDrive
11 9 (1.78%) Google Workspace
11 9 (1.78%) Serverless
12 8 (1.58%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (1.38%) GCP
14 6 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
15 5 (0.99%) Amazon S3
15 5 (0.99%) AWS Lambda
15 5 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
15 5 (0.99%) OCI
16 4 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 31 (6.13%) VPN
2 25 (4.94%) DNS
3 24 (4.74%) WAN
4 23 (4.55%) Internet
5 22 (4.35%) DHCP
6 20 (3.95%) Firewall
6 20 (3.95%) Wi-Fi
7 17 (3.36%) LAN
8 10 (1.98%) SD-WAN
9 8 (1.58%) VLAN
10 7 (1.38%) VoIP
11 6 (1.19%) Broadband
12 5 (0.99%) Network Security
12 5 (0.99%) Wireless
13 4 (0.79%) ADSL
13 4 (0.79%) Ethernet
13 4 (0.79%) TCP/IP
13 4 (0.79%) VDSL
14 2 (0.40%) NAS
14 2 (0.40%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (6.92%) Power BI
2 15 (2.96%) SQL Server
3 11 (2.17%) MySQL
4 10 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
4 10 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (1.78%) Relational Database
6 8 (1.58%) Tableau
7 7 (1.38%) Power Query
7 7 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.79%) Metadata
10 4 (0.79%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.79%) Redis
10 4 (0.79%) Star Schema
10 4 (0.79%) TimescaleDB
11 3 (0.59%) Crystal Reports
11 3 (0.59%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.59%) GIS
Development Applications
1 20 (3.95%) Git
1 20 (3.95%) JIRA
2 7 (1.38%) JUnit
3 6 (1.19%) Maven
3 6 (1.19%) Mockito
4 5 (0.99%) GitLab
4 5 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.59%) Appcelerator Titanium
6 2 (0.40%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.40%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.20%) Balsamiq
7 1 (0.20%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.20%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.20%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.20%) MLflow
7 1 (0.20%) Postman
7 1 (0.20%) Selenium
7 1 (0.20%) Snyk
7 1 (0.20%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.20%) Vite
General
1 238 (47.04%) Social Skills
2 161 (31.82%) Analytical Skills
3 113 (22.33%) Finance
4 52 (10.28%) Manufacturing
5 41 (8.10%) Legal
5 41 (8.10%) Organisational Skills
6 33 (6.52%) Law
7 32 (6.32%) Public Sector
8 25 (4.94%) Retail
9 22 (4.35%) Marketing
10 13 (2.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (2.17%) Banking
11 11 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.98%) Automotive
13 7 (1.38%) Aerospace
13 7 (1.38%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.19%) Advertising
15 5 (0.99%) Games
16 4 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
16 4 (0.79%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 91 (17.98%) Analyst
2 82 (16.21%) Support Engineer
3 75 (14.82%) IT Support
4 57 (11.26%) IT Engineer
5 47 (9.29%) IT Support Engineer
6 46 (9.09%) Lead
7 43 (8.50%) Senior
8 41 (8.10%) Developer
9 36 (7.11%) Technical Support
10 34 (6.72%) Support Analyst
11 33 (6.52%) Technical Engineer
11 33 (6.52%) Technical Support Engineer
12 21 (4.15%) Architect
12 21 (4.15%) Senior Analyst
13 20 (3.95%) Business Analyst
14 18 (3.56%) Applications Support
14 18 (3.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (3.36%) Instructor
16 15 (2.96%) Project Manager
17 14 (2.77%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.96%) React
1 15 (2.96%) REST
2 12 (2.37%) .NET
3 8 (1.58%) HTML
4 7 (1.38%) CSS
4 7 (1.38%) Node.js
5 6 (1.19%) JSON
6 5 (0.99%) Vue
7 4 (0.79%) AngularJS
7 4 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
8 3 (0.59%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.59%) GraphQL
8 3 (0.59%) LAMP
8 3 (0.59%) Laravel
8 3 (0.59%) Next.js
8 3 (0.59%) React Native
8 3 (0.59%) RESTful
8 3 (0.59%) Spring
8 3 (0.59%) WinForms
8 3 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (7.31%) Driving Licence
2 31 (6.13%) Onboarding
3 27 (5.34%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (4.55%) Management Information System
5 19 (3.75%) Social Media
6 15 (2.96%) FMCG
7 11 (2.17%) Product Ownership
8 10 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.98%) IoT
8 10 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.38%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.38%) Data Centre
9 7 (1.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 5 (0.99%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.99%) EPoS
11 4 (0.79%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.79%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (0.79%) Reference Data
11 4 (0.79%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 74 (14.62%) Windows
2 20 (3.95%) Windows 10
3 18 (3.56%) Linux
4 11 (2.17%) Apple iOS
4 11 (2.17%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.19%) Windows 7
6 3 (0.59%) Android
7 2 (0.40%) Unix
8 1 (0.20%) CentOS
8 1 (0.20%) Debian
8 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (20.36%) Continuous Improvement
2 76 (15.02%) Agile
3 60 (11.86%) Project Management
4 58 (11.46%) Customer Service
5 55 (10.87%) ITIL
6 52 (10.28%) Decision-Making
7 49 (9.68%) Analytics
8 47 (9.29%) Mentoring
9 42 (8.30%) CRM
10 40 (7.91%) Business Intelligence
10 40 (7.91%) Coaching
10 40 (7.91%) Roadmaps
11 39 (7.71%) ERP
12 34 (6.72%) Migration
13 33 (6.52%) Time Management
14 32 (6.32%) Cybersecurity
15 31 (6.13%) AI
16 29 (5.73%) Computer Science
16 29 (5.73%) Customer Experience
17 28 (5.53%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 72 (14.23%) SQL
2 28 (5.53%) Python
3 20 (3.95%) JavaScript
4 18 (3.56%) Java
5 16 (3.16%) PowerShell
6 12 (2.37%) T-SQL
7 11 (2.17%) C#
7 11 (2.17%) PHP
8 10 (1.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 9 (1.78%) Bash
9 9 (1.78%) C
9 9 (1.78%) Ladder Logic
9 9 (1.78%) TypeScript
10 6 (1.19%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.99%) C++
11 5 (0.99%) R
12 2 (0.40%) Delphi
12 2 (0.40%) Go
12 2 (0.40%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.40%) Rust
Qualifications
1 85 (16.80%) Degree
2 48 (9.49%) Security Cleared
3 34 (6.72%) SC Cleared
4 23 (4.55%) DBS Check
5 19 (3.75%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.17%) A+ Certification
8 10 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.78%) CISSP
10 8 (1.58%) ACCA
10 8 (1.58%) CIMA
10 8 (1.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 7 (1.38%) CISA
11 7 (1.38%) CompTIA Security+
11 7 (1.38%) SSCP
12 6 (1.19%) MCITP
13 4 (0.79%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.79%) Oracle Certification
13 4 (0.79%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.93%) Data Quality
2 22 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (4.35%) QA
3 18 (3.56%) NIST
4 16 (3.16%) GDPR
5 11 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 8 (1.58%) SLA
8 6 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 5 (0.99%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.59%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.59%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.59%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 1 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.20%) PMO
12 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 54 (10.67%) Active Directory
2 21 (4.15%) Docker
3 11 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.19%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.40%) Firmware
5 2 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (5.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (3.95%) Kubernetes
3 13 (2.57%) Terraform
4 6 (1.19%) Ansible
5 3 (0.59%) Grafana
5 3 (0.59%) Nagios
5 3 (0.59%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.20%) Argo
7 1 (0.20%) AWS Copilot
7 1 (0.20%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.20%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.20%) Puppet
7 1 (0.20%) SCCM
7 1 (0.20%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 146 (28.85%) Microsoft
2 27 (5.34%) SAP
3 25 (4.94%) Oracle
4 19 (3.75%) Cisco
5 12 (2.37%) Google
5 12 (2.37%) VMware
6 10 (1.98%) Salesforce
7 9 (1.78%) HP
7 9 (1.78%) Sage
8 8 (1.58%) Databricks
8 8 (1.58%) Dell
9 7 (1.38%) Meraki
9 7 (1.38%) ServiceNow
10 6 (1.19%) Zscaler
11 5 (0.99%) Avaya
11 5 (0.99%) Epicor
11 5 (0.99%) Infor
11 5 (0.99%) SolarWinds
12 2 (0.40%) McAfee
12 2 (0.40%) Sophos