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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 587 668 1,229
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.35% 20.01% 15.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.66% 23.30% 18.83%
Number of salaries quoted 440 435 667
10th Percentile £27,694 £25,000 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,000 £29,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +5.88% -15.00%
75th Percentile £57,313 £61,250 £58,374
90th Percentile £63,850 £70,000 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £49,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -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 5,504 2,867 6,526
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 68.94% 85.89% 80.59%
Number of salaries quoted 4,121 1,801 4,382
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,822 £26,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £78,975
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 11 July 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 11 July 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 -17 185 £50,149 +4.48% 78
Staffordshire -5 102 £42,500 -17.39% 29
Warwickshire -3 74 £32,500 -27.78% 34
Worcestershire -7 50 £37,500 +22.95% 26
Shropshire +3 36 £44,500 +4.71% 20
Coventry -13 32 £42,000 -11.58% 9
Wolverhampton -11 12 £38,500 +18.46% 2
Solihull 0 11 £30,500 -44.55% 3
Herefordshire -23 11 £52,500 +61.54% 7
Walsall +4 9 £37,500 -14.77% 4
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 1
Halesowen -1 5 £47,500 +26.67%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 1
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67%
Sutton Coldfield - 3 £42,500 - 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 48 (8.18%) SharePoint
2 31 (5.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.36%) IIS
4 5 (0.85%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.51%) Confluence
6 3 (0.51%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) Apache
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.17%) Appian
7 1 (0.17%) Documentum
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.17%) SAS
Applications
1 56 (9.54%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (5.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.02%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.85%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.17%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.17%) Simulink
7 1 (0.17%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 10 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.85%) Magento
3 5 (0.85%) Shopify
4 4 (0.68%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.68%) Line 50
4 4 (0.68%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.68%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.34%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 2 (0.34%) SAP Business ByDesign
5 2 (0.34%) SAP Business One
6 1 (0.17%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.17%) Raiser’s Edge
6 1 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 123 (20.95%) Microsoft 365
2 110 (18.74%) Azure
3 67 (11.41%) Power Platform
4 56 (9.54%) Entra ID
5 35 (5.96%) AWS
6 32 (5.45%) SaaS
7 14 (2.39%) Dynamics 365
7 14 (2.39%) Microsoft Purview
7 14 (2.39%) Power Automate
7 14 (2.39%) PowerApps
8 9 (1.53%) Google Workspace
8 9 (1.53%) OneDrive
9 7 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
9 7 (1.19%) GCP
10 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (0.85%) PaaS
12 4 (0.68%) IaaS
13 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
13 3 (0.51%) Serverless
13 3 (0.51%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.45%) Firewall
2 24 (4.09%) WAN
3 23 (3.92%) VPN
4 22 (3.75%) DNS
5 20 (3.41%) LAN
5 20 (3.41%) Wi-Fi
6 16 (2.73%) DHCP
6 16 (2.73%) Wireless
7 14 (2.39%) TCP/IP
8 12 (2.04%) Network Security
9 10 (1.70%) VLAN
10 9 (1.53%) Internet
11 6 (1.02%) SD-WAN
11 6 (1.02%) VoIP
12 5 (0.85%) Cisco IOS
12 5 (0.85%) Skype
13 4 (0.68%) Bluetooth
13 4 (0.68%) SSL
14 3 (0.51%) HTTP
14 3 (0.51%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (10.73%) Power BI
2 22 (3.75%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.73%) Tableau
4 14 (2.39%) Power Query
5 11 (1.87%) MySQL
6 10 (1.70%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (1.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 7 (1.19%) Relational Database
8 7 (1.19%) Star Schema
9 6 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (1.02%) Data Mining
10 5 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.68%) FileMaker
11 4 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (0.51%) GIS
12 3 (0.51%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 2 (0.34%) Redis
Development Applications
1 15 (2.56%) Git
2 11 (1.87%) JIRA
3 4 (0.68%) JUnit
4 3 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.51%) Maven
4 3 (0.51%) Mockito
5 2 (0.34%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.34%) GitLab
5 2 (0.34%) Postman
5 2 (0.34%) SoapUI
5 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.17%) Appium
6 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.17%) Carbide.c++
6 1 (0.17%) Selenium
6 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.17%) TestRail
6 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.17%) Yeoman
6 1 (0.17%) Zephyr
General
1 267 (45.49%) Social Skills
2 155 (26.41%) Analytical Skills
3 91 (15.50%) Finance
4 86 (14.65%) Manufacturing
5 35 (5.96%) Public Sector
6 34 (5.79%) Organisational Skills
7 30 (5.11%) Retail
8 27 (4.60%) Marketing
9 24 (4.09%) Legal
10 18 (3.07%) Law
11 16 (2.73%) Electronics
12 14 (2.39%) Automotive
12 14 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (1.70%) Banking
14 10 (1.70%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.53%) Investment Banking
16 6 (1.02%) Games
16 6 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
17 4 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 108 (18.40%) Support Engineer
2 82 (13.97%) Analyst
3 66 (11.24%) IT Support
3 66 (11.24%) Technical Support
4 65 (11.07%) Technical Engineer
5 64 (10.90%) Technical Support Engineer
6 57 (9.71%) Developer
7 52 (8.86%) IT Engineer
8 43 (7.33%) Senior
9 42 (7.16%) IT Support Engineer
10 32 (5.45%) Lead
11 31 (5.28%) IT Manager
12 28 (4.77%) Support Analyst
13 21 (3.58%) Consultant
14 16 (2.73%) 1st Line Support
14 16 (2.73%) Programmer
15 15 (2.56%) 2nd Line Support
15 15 (2.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 14 (2.39%) IT Technician
16 14 (2.39%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.28%) REST
2 21 (3.58%) React
3 18 (3.07%) .NET
4 16 (2.73%) Spring
5 13 (2.21%) Spring Boot
6 12 (2.04%) AngularJS
7 11 (1.87%) CSS
7 11 (1.87%) HTML
8 10 (1.70%) RESTful
9 7 (1.19%) Node.js
10 6 (1.02%) Middleware
10 6 (1.02%) SAP Fiori
10 6 (1.02%) SOAP
11 5 (0.85%) JDBC
11 5 (0.85%) OAuth
11 5 (0.85%) SAPUI5
12 4 (0.68%) .NET Framework
12 4 (0.68%) COM
12 4 (0.68%) DCOM
12 4 (0.68%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 48 (8.18%) Driving Licence
2 28 (4.77%) Self-Motivation
3 26 (4.43%) Management Information System
4 24 (4.09%) Onboarding
5 19 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.21%) Social Media
7 11 (1.87%) Virtual Team
8 10 (1.70%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (1.70%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (1.53%) Data Structures
9 9 (1.53%) IoT
9 9 (1.53%) NHS
10 8 (1.36%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.36%) Security Posture
11 7 (1.19%) AS400
11 7 (1.19%) Cyber Defence
11 7 (1.19%) iSeries
11 7 (1.19%) Mobile App
12 5 (0.85%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 100 (17.04%) Windows
2 31 (5.28%) Linux
3 30 (5.11%) Windows Server
4 28 (4.77%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.56%) Android
6 10 (1.70%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.85%) Unix
7 5 (0.85%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.68%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.68%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.34%) CentOS
9 2 (0.34%) Debian
9 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 159 (27.09%) Continuous Improvement
2 95 (16.18%) Customer Service
3 71 (12.10%) Analytics
4 70 (11.93%) Agile
5 68 (11.58%) ITIL
5 68 (11.58%) Mentoring
6 67 (11.41%) Collaborative Working
6 67 (11.41%) Decision-Making
7 65 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
8 61 (10.39%) ERP
9 58 (9.88%) AI
10 52 (8.86%) Cybersecurity
11 50 (8.52%) Customer Experience
12 45 (7.67%) Service Delivery
13 43 (7.33%) CRM
13 43 (7.33%) Root Cause Analysis
14 34 (5.79%) Collaborative Culture
14 34 (5.79%) Stakeholder Management
15 33 (5.62%) Validation
16 32 (5.45%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 90 (15.33%) SQL
2 37 (6.30%) Java
3 32 (5.45%) Python
4 22 (3.75%) PowerShell
5 19 (3.24%) C#
5 19 (3.24%) Ladder Logic
6 14 (2.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 12 (2.04%) JavaScript
8 11 (1.87%) PHP
9 9 (1.53%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.36%) C
11 7 (1.19%) Bash
11 7 (1.19%) RPG
12 5 (0.85%) ABAP
12 5 (0.85%) C++
12 5 (0.85%) Embedded C
13 4 (0.68%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.68%) RPG IV
13 4 (0.68%) RPG/400
14 3 (0.51%) RPG III
Qualifications
1 77 (13.12%) Degree
2 58 (9.88%) Security Cleared
3 45 (7.67%) SC Cleared
4 20 (3.41%) Microsoft Certification
5 19 (3.24%) DBS Check
6 17 (2.90%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.87%) CISSP
8 10 (1.70%) CompTIA Security+
9 8 (1.36%) A+ Certification
9 8 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.19%) CISA
10 7 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.19%) SSCP
11 6 (1.02%) ACCA
11 6 (1.02%) CIMA
12 5 (0.85%) HND
12 5 (0.85%) MCITP
13 4 (0.68%) CCNA
13 4 (0.68%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (5.62%) Data Quality
2 31 (5.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.77%) Cyber Essentials
4 26 (4.43%) GDPR
5 25 (4.26%) QA
6 17 (2.90%) ISO 9001
6 17 (2.90%) NIST
7 14 (2.39%) Accessibility
7 14 (2.39%) SLA
8 9 (1.53%) ISO 14001
9 7 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (0.68%) HIPAA
10 4 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.51%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 3 (0.51%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.34%) GRC
12 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 83 (14.14%) Active Directory
2 26 (4.43%) Hyper-V
3 21 (3.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.87%) Docker
5 8 (1.36%) Firmware
6 5 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.34%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 38 (6.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (1.87%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.53%) Terraform
4 5 (0.85%) Ansible
5 4 (0.68%) Functional Safety
5 4 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.51%) Grafana
6 3 (0.51%) Nagios
6 3 (0.51%) SCCM
7 2 (0.34%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.34%) Puppet
7 2 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.17%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 167 (28.45%) Microsoft
2 27 (4.60%) SAP
3 26 (4.43%) VMware
4 22 (3.75%) Cisco
5 14 (2.39%) Sage
6 12 (2.04%) Dell
6 12 (2.04%) Salesforce
7 11 (1.87%) Google
8 9 (1.53%) Oracle
9 7 (1.19%) HP
9 7 (1.19%) IBM
10 6 (1.02%) Apple
10 6 (1.02%) McAfee
10 6 (1.02%) Meraki
10 6 (1.02%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.02%) Sophos
11 5 (0.85%) HubSpot
11 5 (0.85%) iManage
12 4 (0.68%) ServiceNow
12 4 (0.68%) Xero