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

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 567 946 568
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 14.62% 18.52% 17.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 18.12% 21.28% 18.96%
Number of salaries quoted 414 332 467
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £30,250 £41,250 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £54,150 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -21.51% +8.30% +6.38%
75th Percentile £58,563 £65,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,525 £90,000 £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 3,130 4,446 2,996
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 80.71% 87.02% 92.58%
Number of salaries quoted 2,116 2,019 2,413
10th Percentile £29,000 £32,000 £26,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.27%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £81,250 £77,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 4 December 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 4 December 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 -1 171 £45,000 -22.41% 112
Staffordshire +4 106 £38,500 -23.00% 72
Warwickshire +2 61 £42,500 -15.00% 38
Worcestershire -4 49 £31,500 -45.78% 26
Shropshire -3 32 £47,500 +5.56% 45
Herefordshire +8 31 £39,250 +49.80% 9
Solihull -1 26 £85,000 +30.77% 8
Coventry -5 20 £52,500 -3.23% 16
Halesowen 0 14 £32,500 - 3
Walsall +2 13 £45,000 +42.86% 3
Wednesbury 0 6 £42,500 -5.56%
Kingswinford -1 2 £45,250 +20.67% 1
Dudley -3 2 £75,000 +114.29% 5
Wolverhampton -11 1 £65,000 +44.44% 17
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 (4.23%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.47%) IIS
3 11 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (1.06%) Apache
5 2 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
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 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.18%) Appian
6 1 (0.18%) CMS
6 1 (0.18%) HCL Notes
6 1 (0.18%) NServiceBus
6 1 (0.18%) SAS
6 1 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 75 (13.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (5.82%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.41%) AutoCAD
3 8 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (1.41%) SOLIDWORKS
4 7 (1.23%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.53%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.53%) Trello
6 1 (0.18%) Revit
Business Applications
1 21 (3.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.06%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.71%) SAP FI
4 3 (0.53%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.35%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 2 (0.35%) iTrent
6 1 (0.18%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.18%) Sage X3
6 1 (0.18%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 108 (19.05%) Azure
2 71 (12.52%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (10.58%) Power Platform
4 36 (6.35%) SaaS
5 28 (4.94%) AWS
6 21 (3.70%) Dynamics 365
7 13 (2.29%) Power Automate
8 11 (1.94%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.94%) GCP
8 11 (1.94%) PowerApps
9 9 (1.59%) Entra ID
10 8 (1.41%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.06%) Serverless
12 5 (0.88%) Cloud Computing
12 5 (0.88%) GitHub
12 5 (0.88%) OCI
12 5 (0.88%) Snowflake
13 4 (0.71%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.71%) Azure Key Vault
13 4 (0.71%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 31 (5.47%) Firewall
1 31 (5.47%) WAN
2 28 (4.94%) LAN
3 22 (3.88%) VPN
4 19 (3.35%) Wi-Fi
5 18 (3.17%) DNS
6 15 (2.65%) DHCP
7 12 (2.12%) Wireless
8 11 (1.94%) Internet
9 10 (1.76%) TCP/IP
10 9 (1.59%) ADSL
10 9 (1.59%) Ethernet
10 9 (1.59%) VDSL
10 9 (1.59%) VoIP
11 7 (1.23%) Broadband
11 7 (1.23%) Remote Desktop
12 6 (1.06%) Network Security
13 5 (0.88%) PBX
14 4 (0.71%) Bluetooth
14 4 (0.71%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (9.52%) Power BI
2 39 (6.88%) SQL Server
3 19 (3.35%) Relational Database
4 16 (2.82%) MySQL
5 14 (2.47%) GIS
6 12 (2.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 10 (1.76%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (1.76%) Tableau
8 9 (1.59%) Metadata
9 6 (1.06%) Crystal Reports
10 5 (0.88%) BusinessObjects
10 5 (0.88%) Data Mining
10 5 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
12 3 (0.53%) Data Lake
13 2 (0.35%) Redis
13 2 (0.35%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 18 (3.17%) JIRA
2 14 (2.47%) Git
3 4 (0.71%) GitLab
3 4 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.53%) Appcelerator Titanium
4 3 (0.53%) JUnit
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 Code
6 1 (0.18%) Babel
6 1 (0.18%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.18%) MLflow
6 1 (0.18%) Postman
6 1 (0.18%) Snyk
6 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.18%) Vite
6 1 (0.18%) webpack
General
1 298 (52.56%) Social Skills
2 163 (28.75%) Finance
3 142 (25.04%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (13.05%) Manufacturing
5 56 (9.88%) Retail
6 39 (6.88%) Legal
7 32 (5.64%) Public Sector
8 31 (5.47%) Marketing
9 30 (5.29%) Law
10 29 (5.11%) Organisational Skills
11 27 (4.76%) Digital Health
12 25 (4.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 14 (2.47%) Fire and Rescue
14 13 (2.29%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (2.29%) Telecoms
15 10 (1.76%) Electronics
16 9 (1.59%) Banking
17 8 (1.41%) Aerospace
18 7 (1.23%) Automotive
19 6 (1.06%) Games
Job Titles
1 87 (15.34%) Support Engineer
2 75 (13.23%) Analyst
3 69 (12.17%) IT Support
4 59 (10.41%) Technical Support
5 57 (10.05%) Technical Engineer
6 55 (9.70%) Developer
6 55 (9.70%) Technical Support Engineer
7 44 (7.76%) Senior
8 38 (6.70%) Lead
9 28 (4.94%) 2nd Line Support
10 24 (4.23%) Architect
11 22 (3.88%) Applications Support
12 21 (3.70%) IT Engineer
13 18 (3.17%) Support Analyst
14 17 (3.00%) Administrator
15 15 (2.65%) Network Engineer
16 14 (2.47%) IT Support Engineer
16 14 (2.47%) Support Technician
17 13 (2.29%) Business Analyst
18 12 (2.12%) Applications Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.47%) .NET
2 21 (3.70%) React
3 20 (3.53%) REST
4 16 (2.82%) AngularJS
5 15 (2.65%) JSON
6 12 (2.12%) HTML
6 12 (2.12%) Razor View Engine
7 8 (1.41%) CSS
8 6 (1.06%) EDI
8 6 (1.06%) LAMP
9 5 (0.88%) .NET Framework
9 5 (0.88%) Node.js
9 5 (0.88%) RESTful
9 5 (0.88%) Vue
9 5 (0.88%) Web Services
10 4 (0.71%) Entity Framework
10 4 (0.71%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.71%) Spring
10 4 (0.71%) WPF
10 4 (0.71%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.58%) Onboarding
2 37 (6.53%) Driving Licence
3 33 (5.82%) FMCG
4 30 (5.29%) Self-Motivation
5 17 (3.00%) Analytical Mindset
6 16 (2.82%) SCADA
7 15 (2.65%) Management Information System
7 15 (2.65%) Operational Technology
8 11 (1.94%) Data Centre
9 10 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
9 10 (1.76%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 8 (1.41%) IoT
12 7 (1.23%) Data Structures
12 7 (1.23%) EPoS
12 7 (1.23%) iPad
12 7 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
12 7 (1.23%) Security Posture
13 6 (1.06%) PDA
14 5 (0.88%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 75 (13.23%) Windows
2 30 (5.29%) Windows 10
3 19 (3.35%) Linux
4 9 (1.59%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.53%) Unix
5 3 (0.53%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.35%) VMS
6 2 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.18%) Android
7 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.18%) Windows Mobile
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (23.63%) Continuous Improvement
2 70 (12.35%) Customer Service
3 69 (12.17%) Agile
3 69 (12.17%) Project Management
4 63 (11.11%) Business Intelligence
5 57 (10.05%) Decision-Making
6 50 (8.82%) ITIL
7 49 (8.64%) Analytics
8 42 (7.41%) CRM
9 41 (7.23%) Logistics
10 38 (6.70%) Data Analysis
11 37 (6.53%) ERP
12 35 (6.17%) Mentoring
13 33 (5.82%) Cybersecurity
14 32 (5.64%) Roadmaps
15 31 (5.47%) Customer Experience
16 30 (5.29%) Process Improvement
17 29 (5.11%) Computer Science
17 29 (5.11%) Data Modelling
18 28 (4.94%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 100 (17.64%) SQL
2 52 (9.17%) Python
3 42 (7.41%) C#
4 34 (6.00%) JavaScript
5 23 (4.06%) Java
6 21 (3.70%) PowerShell
7 16 (2.82%) PHP
8 14 (2.47%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 7 (1.23%) C++
11 6 (1.06%) TypeScript
12 5 (0.88%) Bash
12 5 (0.88%) Ladder Logic
13 4 (0.71%) Go
13 4 (0.71%) R
14 3 (0.53%) C
14 3 (0.53%) Delphi
14 3 (0.53%) VB.NET
15 2 (0.35%) Perl
15 2 (0.35%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 105 (18.52%) Degree
2 55 (9.70%) Security Cleared
3 34 (6.00%) SC Cleared
4 22 (3.88%) Computer Science Degree
5 16 (2.82%) ACCA
5 16 (2.82%) CIMA
6 15 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (1.94%) Master's Degree
8 10 (1.76%) DV Cleared
9 9 (1.59%) CISSP
10 8 (1.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 8 (1.41%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (1.23%) AAT
12 6 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (1.06%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.88%) CISM
13 5 (0.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 4 (0.71%) CCSP
14 4 (0.71%) CIPD
14 4 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.76%) Data Quality
2 15 (2.65%) SLA
3 14 (2.47%) QA
4 8 (1.41%) GDPR
5 7 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.88%) NIST
6 5 (0.88%) PMO
7 4 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.53%) 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 (0.18%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 35 (6.17%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.29%) Docker
3 12 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.35%) Firmware
4 2 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 13 (2.29%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.59%) Terraform
3 8 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.53%) FortiGate
4 3 (0.53%) Nagios
5 2 (0.35%) Ansible
5 2 (0.35%) Grafana
6 1 (0.18%) Argo
6 1 (0.18%) AWS Copilot
6 1 (0.18%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.18%) SCCM
6 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.18%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 160 (28.22%) Microsoft
2 28 (4.94%) SAP
3 27 (4.76%) Oracle
4 17 (3.00%) Databricks
5 15 (2.65%) Cisco
6 13 (2.29%) Salesforce
6 13 (2.29%) VMware
7 10 (1.76%) Dell
8 9 (1.59%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.41%) Juniper
9 8 (1.41%) McAfee
9 8 (1.41%) Sage
10 7 (1.23%) Apple
10 7 (1.23%) Infor
11 6 (1.06%) Google
12 5 (0.88%) Epicor
12 5 (0.88%) Panasonic
12 5 (0.88%) Samsung
13 4 (0.71%) Meraki
14 3 (0.53%) Splunk