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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -21 +4 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 497 766 958
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.73% 21.30% 15.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.95% 22.70% 18.24%
Number of salaries quoted 365 382 754
10th Percentile £26,100 £30,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,250 £38,750 £29,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £55,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.73% +29.41% -15.00%
75th Percentile £58,750 £66,875 £57,500
90th Percentile £73,450 £87,500 £67,500
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +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 4,996 3,374 5,253
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 77.75% 93.83% 85.47%
Number of salaries quoted 2,727 1,734 4,187
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £39,000 £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 £82,500 £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 9 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 9 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 -14 159 £47,500 -18.10% 74
Staffordshire -11 98 £30,750 -38.50% 34
Warwickshire -15 62 £32,500 -27.78% 39
Worcestershire -18 35 £37,500 -25.00% 40
Shropshire -12 33 £47,500 +5.56% 37
Herefordshire -1 24 £52,500 +4.48% 7
Coventry -15 16 £67,500 +12.50% 13
Solihull -5 15 £90,000 +63.64% 6
Halesowen -3 7 £32,500 - 1
Dudley -3 5 £75,000 +114.29% 3
Wednesbury -5 4 £42,500 -5.56%
Walsall -2 3 £44,000 +4.76% 2
Kingswinford -5 2 £45,250 +20.67% 1
Wolverhampton -22 2 £85,000 +161.54% 5
Sutton Coldfield -7 1 £28,000 -
Tipton -7 1 £34,500 - 1
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 39 (7.85%) SharePoint
2 24 (4.83%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.61%) IIS
4 6 (1.21%) Apache
4 6 (1.21%) Exchange Server 2007
4 6 (1.21%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (1.21%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (1.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.20%) Confluence
5 1 (0.20%) NServiceBus
5 1 (0.20%) SAS
5 1 (0.20%) WebLogic
Applications
1 37 (7.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (7.04%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (2.62%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.61%) AutoCAD
4 8 (1.61%) SOLIDWORKS
5 7 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.80%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.40%) Trello
9 1 (0.20%) Abaqus
9 1 (0.20%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 18 (3.62%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.41%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.60%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.60%) SAP Business ByDesign
4 2 (0.40%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
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%) SAP Business One
5 1 (0.20%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 117 (23.54%) Azure
2 96 (19.32%) Microsoft 365
3 42 (8.45%) Power Platform
4 38 (7.65%) SaaS
5 35 (7.04%) AWS
6 34 (6.84%) Entra ID
7 20 (4.02%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (3.22%) Power Automate
9 15 (3.02%) PowerApps
10 11 (2.21%) OneDrive
11 9 (1.81%) Google Workspace
11 9 (1.81%) Serverless
12 8 (1.61%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (1.41%) GCP
14 5 (1.01%) Amazon S3
14 5 (1.01%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
14 5 (1.01%) OCI
15 4 (0.80%) Amazon EC2
15 4 (0.80%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 32 (6.44%) VPN
2 25 (5.03%) Internet
3 24 (4.83%) DNS
3 24 (4.83%) WAN
4 22 (4.43%) DHCP
5 18 (3.62%) Firewall
5 18 (3.62%) LAN
5 18 (3.62%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (1.81%) SD-WAN
7 8 (1.61%) VoIP
8 7 (1.41%) VLAN
8 7 (1.41%) Wireless
9 6 (1.21%) ADSL
9 6 (1.21%) Broadband
9 6 (1.21%) Ethernet
9 6 (1.21%) VDSL
10 5 (1.01%) Network Security
10 5 (1.01%) TCP/IP
11 2 (0.40%) NAS
11 2 (0.40%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (7.24%) Power BI
2 24 (4.83%) SQL Server
3 12 (2.41%) MySQL
4 10 (2.01%) Oracle Reports
4 10 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (2.01%) Relational Database
4 10 (2.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 7 (1.41%) Tableau
6 6 (1.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.01%) Crystal Reports
7 5 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.80%) Metadata
8 4 (0.80%) Power Query
8 4 (0.80%) Redis
8 4 (0.80%) TimescaleDB
9 3 (0.60%) GIS
9 3 (0.60%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.40%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 18 (3.62%) JIRA
2 16 (3.22%) Git
3 7 (1.41%) JUnit
4 6 (1.21%) Maven
4 6 (1.21%) Mockito
5 5 (1.01%) GitLab
5 5 (1.01%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.60%) Appcelerator Titanium
7 2 (0.40%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.40%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.20%) Babel
8 1 (0.20%) Balsamiq
8 1 (0.20%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.20%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.20%) MLflow
8 1 (0.20%) Selenium
8 1 (0.20%) Snyk
8 1 (0.20%) Vite
8 1 (0.20%) webpack
General
1 240 (48.29%) Social Skills
2 146 (29.38%) Analytical Skills
3 114 (22.94%) Finance
4 56 (11.27%) Manufacturing
5 41 (8.25%) Organisational Skills
6 39 (7.85%) Legal
7 34 (6.84%) Law
8 29 (5.84%) Public Sector
9 28 (5.63%) Retail
10 21 (4.23%) Marketing
11 12 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (2.21%) Banking
12 11 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
13 10 (2.01%) Automotive
14 9 (1.81%) Telecoms
15 7 (1.41%) Aerospace
16 6 (1.21%) Advertising
17 5 (1.01%) Games
18 4 (0.80%) Documentation Skills
19 3 (0.60%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 89 (17.91%) Analyst
2 87 (17.51%) Support Engineer
3 74 (14.89%) IT Support
4 56 (11.27%) IT Engineer
5 47 (9.46%) Lead
6 46 (9.26%) IT Support Engineer
7 43 (8.65%) Developer
7 43 (8.65%) Senior
8 40 (8.05%) Technical Support
9 37 (7.44%) Technical Engineer
9 37 (7.44%) Technical Support Engineer
10 31 (6.24%) Support Analyst
11 21 (4.23%) Architect
11 21 (4.23%) Business Analyst
12 20 (4.02%) Senior Analyst
13 19 (3.82%) Applications Support
14 18 (3.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 17 (3.42%) Instructor
16 16 (3.22%) Consultant
17 14 (2.82%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.82%) .NET
1 19 (3.82%) REST
2 17 (3.42%) React
3 9 (1.81%) AngularJS
4 8 (1.61%) JSON
5 7 (1.41%) Node.js
6 6 (1.21%) HTML
6 6 (1.21%) LAMP
7 5 (1.01%) CSS
7 5 (1.01%) Razor View Engine
7 5 (1.01%) Vue
8 4 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
8 4 (0.80%) WPF
9 3 (0.60%) .NET Framework
9 3 (0.60%) Laravel
9 3 (0.60%) ODBC
9 3 (0.60%) React Native
9 3 (0.60%) RESTful
9 3 (0.60%) Spring
9 3 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 37 (7.44%) Driving Licence
1 37 (7.44%) Onboarding
2 30 (6.04%) Self-Motivation
3 22 (4.43%) Management Information System
4 19 (3.82%) Social Media
5 15 (3.02%) FMCG
6 10 (2.01%) Product Ownership
7 9 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (1.81%) IoT
8 8 (1.61%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 8 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.41%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.41%) Linux Command Line
9 7 (1.41%) Operational Technology
10 6 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.01%) Data Centre
12 4 (0.80%) Data Structures
12 4 (0.80%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (0.80%) Mobile App
12 4 (0.80%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 70 (14.08%) Windows
2 20 (4.02%) Linux
3 19 (3.82%) Windows 10
4 10 (2.01%) Apple iOS
5 8 (1.61%) Windows Server
6 6 (1.21%) Windows 7
7 2 (0.40%) Android
7 2 (0.40%) Unix
8 1 (0.20%) CentOS
8 1 (0.20%) Debian
8 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (18.71%) Continuous Improvement
2 75 (15.09%) Agile
3 61 (12.27%) Project Management
4 54 (10.87%) ITIL
5 52 (10.46%) Customer Service
5 52 (10.46%) Decision-Making
6 49 (9.86%) Analytics
7 47 (9.46%) Mentoring
8 43 (8.65%) Business Intelligence
8 43 (8.65%) CRM
9 39 (7.85%) Coaching
10 38 (7.65%) ERP
11 37 (7.44%) Roadmaps
12 36 (7.24%) Customer Experience
12 36 (7.24%) Migration
13 32 (6.44%) Time Management
14 31 (6.24%) Cybersecurity
15 30 (6.04%) Stakeholder Management
16 29 (5.84%) Computer Science
17 27 (5.43%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 85 (17.10%) SQL
2 34 (6.84%) Python
3 25 (5.03%) JavaScript
4 21 (4.23%) C#
5 20 (4.02%) Java
6 19 (3.82%) PowerShell
7 12 (2.41%) PHP
7 12 (2.41%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.81%) Bash
9 8 (1.61%) C
9 8 (1.61%) Ladder Logic
9 8 (1.61%) TypeScript
10 7 (1.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 6 (1.21%) PL/SQL
11 6 (1.21%) R
12 4 (0.80%) C++
13 3 (0.60%) Delphi
13 3 (0.60%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.40%) Go
14 2 (0.40%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 90 (18.11%) Degree
2 48 (9.66%) Security Cleared
3 34 (6.84%) SC Cleared
4 23 (4.63%) DBS Check
5 21 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (2.01%) A+ Certification
9 8 (1.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 7 (1.41%) CISSP
10 7 (1.41%) Master's Degree
11 6 (1.21%) ACCA
11 6 (1.21%) CIMA
11 6 (1.21%) CISA
11 6 (1.21%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (1.21%) MCITP
11 6 (1.21%) SSCP
12 5 (1.01%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 4 (0.80%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.80%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.84%) Data Quality
2 21 (4.23%) QA
3 19 (3.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (3.02%) NIST
5 13 (2.62%) GDPR
6 10 (2.01%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (2.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 7 (1.41%) SLA
8 5 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 3 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.60%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 19770
11 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.20%) PMO
11 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 47 (9.46%) Active Directory
2 20 (4.02%) Docker
3 9 (1.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.60%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.20%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 25 (5.03%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (3.82%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.41%) Terraform
4 6 (1.21%) Ansible
5 3 (0.60%) Grafana
5 3 (0.60%) Nagios
5 3 (0.60%) 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
1 149 (29.98%) Microsoft
2 32 (6.44%) Oracle
3 24 (4.83%) SAP
4 16 (3.22%) Cisco
5 12 (2.41%) Google
5 12 (2.41%) Salesforce
6 9 (1.81%) Databricks
6 9 (1.81%) HP
6 9 (1.81%) Sage
6 9 (1.81%) VMware
7 7 (1.41%) Infor
7 7 (1.41%) Meraki
7 7 (1.41%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.21%) Dell
9 5 (1.01%) Epicor
9 5 (1.01%) Zscaler
10 4 (0.80%) Avaya
10 4 (0.80%) SolarWinds
11 3 (0.60%) Cognos
12 2 (0.40%) Kaseya