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 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 799 635 929
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 8.83% 19.69% 15.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.72% 22.58% 19.76%
Number of salaries quoted 532 405 308
10th Percentile £28,275 £25,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,000 £29,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,735 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% -14.53% -
75th Percentile £57,500 £57,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £68,625 £67,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% -4.55%

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 6,282 2,812 4,701
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.42% 87.19% 80.73%
Number of salaries quoted 4,595 1,742 2,306
10th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,563 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +5.06%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -4 295 £55,000 +22.22% 251
Staffordshire -3 106 £46,000 +2.22% 80
Warwickshire -3 82 £38,750 -29.55% 82
Shropshire +2 68 £44,500 -6.32% 42
Worcestershire -4 64 £40,000 +31.15% 55
Coventry -7 38 £42,250 +34.13% 63
Wolverhampton +5 17 £49,250 -24.23% 27
Solihull +3 16 £31,000 -8.82% 27
Herefordshire -23 10 £29,750 -15.00% 20
Walsall -1 7 £37,500 -16.67% 6
Tipton - 7 £33,500 - 10
Dudley - 6 £36,000 - 7
Halesowen -5 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67% 1
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 45 (5.63%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.01%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.25%) IIS
4 7 (0.88%) Confluence
5 5 (0.63%) CICS
6 4 (0.50%) WordPress
7 3 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.38%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.25%) CMS
8 2 (0.25%) Documentum
8 2 (0.25%) SAS
9 1 (0.13%) Apache
9 1 (0.13%) Appian
9 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 67 (8.39%) Microsoft Office
2 53 (6.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.38%) Simulink
4 7 (0.88%) OrCAD
5 6 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.50%) Fusion 360
8 3 (0.38%) AutoCAD
8 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.25%) EPLAN
9 2 (0.25%) Revit
9 2 (0.25%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.13%) LaTeX
10 1 (0.13%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
10 1 (0.13%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.13%) SketchUp
10 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 10 (1.25%) NetSuite
2 9 (1.13%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.88%) Shopify
4 6 (0.75%) Magento
5 4 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.50%) Line 50
5 4 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.50%) Sage 50
5 4 (0.50%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.38%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.25%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 2 (0.25%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.13%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.13%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.13%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.13%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 155 (19.40%) Azure
2 134 (16.77%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (12.14%) Power Platform
4 62 (7.76%) Entra ID
5 54 (6.76%) AWS
6 45 (5.63%) SaaS
7 28 (3.50%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (2.88%) Dynamics 365
9 17 (2.13%) GitHub
9 17 (2.13%) Microsoft Purview
10 16 (2.00%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.88%) GitHub Actions
12 14 (1.75%) GCP
13 13 (1.63%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
14 11 (1.38%) PaaS
15 10 (1.25%) Google Workspace
16 9 (1.13%) OneDrive
17 7 (0.88%) Google Analytics
17 7 (0.88%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (3.88%) Firewall
2 29 (3.63%) DNS
2 29 (3.63%) VPN
3 25 (3.13%) TCP/IP
3 25 (3.13%) WAN
4 21 (2.63%) LAN
4 21 (2.63%) Wireless
5 20 (2.50%) DHCP
6 17 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
7 13 (1.63%) Network Security
8 12 (1.50%) VLAN
9 9 (1.13%) VoIP
9 9 (1.13%) Wireshark
10 6 (0.75%) Cisco IOS
10 6 (0.75%) Internet
11 5 (0.63%) SD-WAN
12 4 (0.50%) Bluetooth
13 3 (0.38%) Ethernet
13 3 (0.38%) HTTP
13 3 (0.38%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (11.51%) Power BI
2 33 (4.13%) SQL Server
3 24 (3.00%) Tableau
4 23 (2.88%) Data Warehouse
5 21 (2.63%) Relational Database
6 18 (2.25%) Power Query
7 14 (1.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (1.38%) Azure SQL Database
8 11 (1.38%) MySQL
8 11 (1.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.25%) Data Mining
10 9 (1.13%) Data Lake
11 8 (1.00%) Electronic Patient Records
12 7 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
12 7 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
13 6 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
14 5 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.63%) Big Data
14 5 (0.63%) Oracle BI EE
14 5 (0.63%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 29 (3.63%) Git
2 26 (3.25%) Jenkins
3 25 (3.13%) JIRA
4 9 (1.13%) Eclipse
5 8 (1.00%) GitLab
6 7 (0.88%) Cucumber
7 6 (0.75%) JMeter
7 6 (0.75%) Maven
7 6 (0.75%) Postman
7 6 (0.75%) Selenium
8 5 (0.63%) JUnit
8 5 (0.63%) SoapUI
8 5 (0.63%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.38%) Mockito
10 2 (0.25%) Ant
10 2 (0.25%) Apache Ivy
10 2 (0.25%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.13%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.13%) TestRail
11 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 388 (48.56%) Social Skills
2 206 (25.78%) Analytical Skills
3 126 (15.77%) Finance
3 126 (15.77%) Manufacturing
4 69 (8.64%) Organisational Skills
5 59 (7.38%) Public Sector
6 54 (6.76%) Retail
7 38 (4.76%) Marketing
8 35 (4.38%) Electronics
9 24 (3.00%) Automotive
10 21 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 21 (2.63%) Law
11 20 (2.50%) Legal
12 16 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.88%) Telecoms
14 10 (1.25%) Banking
14 10 (1.25%) Billing
14 10 (1.25%) Fire and Rescue
15 9 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (1.00%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 96 (12.02%) Support Engineer
2 84 (10.51%) Analyst
3 72 (9.01%) Developer
4 68 (8.51%) Technical Support
5 65 (8.14%) IT Support
6 61 (7.63%) Lead
7 60 (7.51%) Technical Engineer
8 58 (7.26%) Technical Support Engineer
9 53 (6.63%) Consultant
9 53 (6.63%) Senior
10 47 (5.88%) IT Engineer
11 35 (4.38%) IT Support Engineer
12 33 (4.13%) IT Manager
13 28 (3.50%) Administrator
13 28 (3.50%) Support Analyst
14 22 (2.75%) Architect
15 18 (2.25%) Electronics Engineer
16 17 (2.13%) 2nd Line Support
16 17 (2.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 15 (1.88%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (5.13%) REST
2 38 (4.76%) .NET
3 30 (3.75%) Spring
4 27 (3.38%) Spring Boot
5 26 (3.25%) React
6 15 (1.88%) RESTful
7 14 (1.75%) AngularJS
7 14 (1.75%) ISPF
7 14 (1.75%) Playwright
8 13 (1.63%) CSS
8 13 (1.63%) HTML
8 13 (1.63%) SOAP
9 12 (1.50%) Terraform
10 10 (1.25%) XML
11 8 (1.00%) LDAP
11 8 (1.00%) SAP Fiori
11 8 (1.00%) Web Services
12 7 (0.88%) Node.js
13 6 (0.75%) Middleware
13 6 (0.75%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 73 (9.14%) Driving Licence
2 45 (5.63%) Onboarding
3 43 (5.38%) Self-Motivation
4 41 (5.13%) Management Information System
5 40 (5.01%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.38%) NHS
7 17 (2.13%) Data Centre
8 16 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
8 16 (2.00%) Virtual Team
9 15 (1.88%) Social Media
10 14 (1.75%) Legacy Applications
10 14 (1.75%) Mainframe
11 12 (1.50%) Cloud Native
12 11 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (1.38%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.38%) Hybrid Cloud
12 11 (1.38%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.38%) Public Cloud
13 10 (1.25%) IoT
13 10 (1.25%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 131 (16.40%) Windows
2 46 (5.76%) Windows Server
3 40 (5.01%) Linux
4 21 (2.63%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.63%) Android
6 9 (1.13%) Apple iOS
6 9 (1.13%) Unix
7 7 (0.88%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.50%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.38%) Solaris
9 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.13%) AIX
11 1 (0.13%) CentOS
11 1 (0.13%) Debian
11 1 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.13%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 230 (28.79%) Continuous Improvement
2 155 (19.40%) Customer Service
3 119 (14.89%) Agile
4 99 (12.39%) Decision-Making
5 98 (12.27%) Business Intelligence
6 96 (12.02%) Analytics
7 83 (10.39%) Mentoring
8 78 (9.76%) AI
9 76 (9.51%) Collaborative Working
9 76 (9.51%) ERP
10 70 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
11 63 (7.88%) Cybersecurity
12 62 (7.76%) CI/CD
13 59 (7.38%) Collaborative Culture
14 58 (7.26%) CRM
15 57 (7.13%) Project Delivery
15 57 (7.13%) Root Cause Analysis
16 56 (7.01%) Project Management
16 56 (7.01%) Validation
17 55 (6.88%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 130 (16.27%) SQL
2 68 (8.51%) Java
3 53 (6.63%) Python
4 30 (3.75%) PowerShell
5 26 (3.25%) C#
5 26 (3.25%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 17 (2.13%) C
7 17 (2.13%) Embedded C
7 17 (2.13%) Ladder Logic
8 14 (1.75%) COBOL
8 14 (1.75%) JCL
9 13 (1.63%) TypeScript
10 11 (1.38%) MATLAB
11 7 (0.88%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.88%) R
11 7 (0.88%) RPG
12 6 (0.75%) ABAP
12 6 (0.75%) PHP
13 5 (0.63%) Bash
Qualifications
1 124 (15.52%) Degree
2 80 (10.01%) Security Cleared
3 65 (8.14%) SC Cleared
4 22 (2.75%) Azure Certification
5 16 (2.00%) DBS Check
5 16 (2.00%) HNC
6 15 (1.88%) HND
7 12 (1.50%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.13%) CCNA
11 8 (1.00%) ACCA
11 8 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (0.88%) CIMA
13 6 (0.75%) CCNP
13 6 (0.75%) ISTQB
14 5 (0.63%) ISEB
14 5 (0.63%) PMP
15 4 (0.50%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (6.01%) Data Quality
2 37 (4.63%) QA
3 34 (4.26%) GDPR
4 25 (3.13%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (2.88%) SLA
6 22 (2.75%) Accessibility
7 20 (2.50%) ISO 9001
8 17 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 9 (1.13%) ISO 14001
10 5 (0.63%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.50%) GMP
11 4 (0.50%) PMO
12 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.38%) AQAP
12 3 (0.38%) ISO 26262
12 3 (0.38%) NIST
13 2 (0.25%) Automotive SPICE
13 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.25%) GRC
13 2 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 88 (11.01%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.13%) Hyper-V
3 19 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.00%) Docker
5 15 (1.88%) Firmware
6 13 (1.63%) Embedded Firmware
7 8 (1.00%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.50%) vSphere
10 2 (0.25%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 34 (4.26%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (1.50%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.75%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.63%) SCCM
6 4 (0.50%) Ansible
7 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.38%) Puppet
8 2 (0.25%) Backup Exec
8 2 (0.25%) Grafana
8 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.25%) WSUS
9 1 (0.13%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.13%) Nagios
9 1 (0.13%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 227 (28.41%) Microsoft
2 37 (4.63%) SAP
3 29 (3.63%) Workday
4 25 (3.13%) VMware
5 19 (2.38%) Cisco
5 19 (2.38%) Google
6 18 (2.25%) Oracle
6 18 (2.25%) Sage
7 14 (1.75%) ServiceNow
8 11 (1.38%) HubSpot
8 11 (1.38%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.13%) Apple
9 9 (1.13%) Broadcom
9 9 (1.13%) Databricks
10 8 (1.00%) EMC
11 7 (0.88%) Dell
11 7 (0.88%) IBM
12 6 (0.75%) iManage
12 6 (0.75%) Pega
12 6 (0.75%) Sophos