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 15 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -9 +2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 660 705 956
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 7.75% 20.48% 14.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.21% 24.09% 18.84%
Number of salaries quoted 466 462 437
10th Percentile £28,125 £25,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £33,063 £29,250 £32,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,772 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.07% -5.74% -5.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £61,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £69,875 £73,300
England median annual salary £47,500 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -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 5,887 2,927 5,075
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 69.10% 85.01% 78.50%
Number of salaries quoted 4,419 1,879 3,113
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,822 £28,119
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,447 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.91% -2.01% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +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 15 August 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 15 August 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 -12 236 £52,500 +16.67% 257
Staffordshire -6 88 £47,500 -7.67% 52
Warwickshire -3 76 £35,000 -22.22% 58
Worcestershire -4 61 £37,500 +22.95% 30
Shropshire +9 49 £45,000 +5.88% 37
Coventry -12 35 £42,000 +11.79% 28
Solihull +2 12 £30,500 -44.55% 26
Wolverhampton -7 12 £38,500 +18.46% 13
Walsall +1 8 £37,500 -16.67% 10
Herefordshire -25 8 £40,500 +24.62% 8
Tipton - 8 £33,500 - 5
Halesowen 0 5 £47,500 +46.15%
Dudley - 5 £26,100 - 3
Willenhall -2 4 £37,500 -16.67%
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 37 (5.61%) SharePoint
2 28 (4.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.52%) IIS
4 5 (0.76%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.61%) Confluence
6 3 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.45%) CICS
6 3 (0.45%) WordPress
7 2 (0.30%) Documentum
7 2 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2007
7 2 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.30%) SAS
8 1 (0.15%) Apache
8 1 (0.15%) Appian
8 1 (0.15%) CMS
8 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 53 (8.03%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.91%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.76%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.45%) Simulink
7 2 (0.30%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.30%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.15%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.15%) LaTeX
8 1 (0.15%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.76%) Magento
3 5 (0.76%) Shopify
4 4 (0.61%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.61%) Line 50
4 4 (0.61%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.61%) Sage 50
4 4 (0.61%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.61%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.30%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.15%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.15%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 129 (19.55%) Azure
2 121 (18.33%) Microsoft 365
3 84 (12.73%) Power Platform
4 53 (8.03%) Entra ID
5 52 (7.88%) AWS
6 43 (6.52%) SaaS
7 21 (3.18%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (2.27%) Power Automate
10 13 (1.97%) Microsoft Purview
10 13 (1.97%) PowerApps
11 10 (1.52%) GCP
11 10 (1.52%) GitHub
11 10 (1.52%) Microsoft Copilot
12 8 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.91%) Google Workspace
13 6 (0.91%) IaaS
13 6 (0.91%) PaaS
14 4 (0.61%) Amazon Kinesis
14 4 (0.61%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.39%) Firewall
2 22 (3.33%) DNS
3 21 (3.18%) VPN
4 19 (2.88%) WAN
5 18 (2.73%) TCP/IP
5 18 (2.73%) Wireless
6 16 (2.42%) Wi-Fi
7 15 (2.27%) LAN
8 14 (2.12%) DHCP
9 12 (1.82%) Network Security
10 10 (1.52%) VLAN
11 8 (1.21%) VoIP
12 5 (0.76%) Cisco IOS
12 5 (0.76%) SD-WAN
12 5 (0.76%) Skype
13 4 (0.61%) Bluetooth
13 4 (0.61%) SSL
14 3 (0.45%) HTTP
14 3 (0.45%) SAN
15 2 (0.30%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (11.97%) Power BI
2 25 (3.79%) SQL Server
3 20 (3.03%) Power Query
4 18 (2.73%) Tableau
5 16 (2.42%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (1.82%) Relational Database
7 11 (1.67%) MySQL
7 11 (1.67%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (1.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (1.21%) Electronic Patient Records
10 7 (1.06%) Data Mining
11 6 (0.91%) Amazon Redshift
12 5 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
12 5 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.76%) Star Schema
13 4 (0.61%) FileMaker
13 4 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
14 3 (0.45%) Db2
14 3 (0.45%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.45%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 27 (4.09%) Git
2 20 (3.03%) JIRA
3 17 (2.58%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.91%) Maven
5 5 (0.76%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.76%) JUnit
5 5 (0.76%) Postman
6 4 (0.61%) GitLab
6 4 (0.61%) JMeter
6 4 (0.61%) Selenium
6 4 (0.61%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.45%) Mockito
7 3 (0.45%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.30%) Ant
8 2 (0.30%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.30%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.30%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.15%) Bugzilla
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 299 (45.30%) Social Skills
2 169 (25.61%) Analytical Skills
3 113 (17.12%) Finance
4 96 (14.55%) Manufacturing
5 47 (7.12%) Public Sector
6 40 (6.06%) Organisational Skills
7 36 (5.45%) Retail
8 26 (3.94%) Marketing
9 25 (3.79%) Legal
10 22 (3.33%) Law
11 19 (2.88%) Electronics
11 19 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (2.27%) Automotive
13 12 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (1.52%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.36%) Banking
16 8 (1.21%) Investment Banking
17 7 (1.06%) Fire and Rescue
17 7 (1.06%) Games
17 7 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 91 (13.79%) Support Engineer
2 88 (13.33%) Analyst
3 69 (10.45%) Technical Support
4 68 (10.30%) Developer
5 63 (9.55%) Technical Engineer
6 61 (9.24%) Technical Support Engineer
7 56 (8.48%) IT Support
8 50 (7.58%) Senior
9 42 (6.36%) Lead
10 38 (5.76%) Consultant
10 38 (5.76%) IT Manager
11 35 (5.30%) IT Engineer
12 32 (4.85%) Support Analyst
13 28 (4.24%) IT Support Engineer
14 18 (2.73%) 1st Line Support
15 17 (2.58%) Administrator
16 16 (2.42%) Programmer
17 15 (2.27%) Architect
17 15 (2.27%) Senior Analyst
18 14 (2.12%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.76%) REST
2 26 (3.94%) .NET
3 25 (3.79%) React
4 23 (3.48%) Spring
5 20 (3.03%) Spring Boot
6 13 (1.97%) RESTful
7 12 (1.82%) AngularJS
7 12 (1.82%) CSS
7 12 (1.82%) HTML
7 12 (1.82%) Playwright
8 9 (1.36%) SOAP
9 7 (1.06%) ISPF
9 7 (1.06%) Node.js
9 7 (1.06%) SAP Fiori
10 6 (0.91%) JDBC
10 6 (0.91%) Middleware
10 6 (0.91%) OAuth
10 6 (0.91%) SAPUI5
11 5 (0.76%) LDAP
11 5 (0.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (7.58%) Driving Licence
2 33 (5.00%) Management Information System
3 30 (4.55%) Onboarding
4 28 (4.24%) Self-Motivation
5 25 (3.79%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.88%) NHS
7 12 (1.82%) Virtual Team
8 11 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
8 11 (1.67%) Data Centre
9 10 (1.52%) Data Structures
10 9 (1.36%) Cloud Native
10 9 (1.36%) Legacy Applications
10 9 (1.36%) Mobile App
10 9 (1.36%) Social Media
10 9 (1.36%) SystemC
11 8 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.21%) IoT
12 7 (1.06%) AS400
12 7 (1.06%) Mainframe
12 7 (1.06%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 106 (16.06%) Windows
2 40 (6.06%) Linux
3 36 (5.45%) Windows Server
4 26 (3.94%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.97%) Android
6 10 (1.52%) Apple iOS
7 9 (1.36%) Unix
8 6 (0.91%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.61%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.45%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.30%) CentOS
11 2 (0.30%) Debian
11 2 (0.30%) Solaris
11 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 203 (30.76%) Continuous Improvement
2 111 (16.82%) Customer Service
3 102 (15.45%) Agile
4 84 (12.73%) Decision-Making
5 82 (12.42%) Business Intelligence
6 80 (12.12%) Analytics
7 77 (11.67%) Mentoring
8 75 (11.36%) AI
9 70 (10.61%) Collaborative Working
9 70 (10.61%) ERP
10 62 (9.39%) ITIL
11 56 (8.48%) Cybersecurity
12 53 (8.03%) Collaborative Culture
13 52 (7.88%) CI/CD
14 50 (7.58%) Stakeholder Management
15 48 (7.27%) Customer Experience
16 46 (6.97%) Root Cause Analysis
16 46 (6.97%) Service Delivery
17 45 (6.82%) CRM
18 42 (6.36%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 102 (15.45%) SQL
2 51 (7.73%) Java
3 41 (6.21%) Python
4 22 (3.33%) C#
5 21 (3.18%) JavaScript
5 21 (3.18%) PowerShell
6 20 (3.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 18 (2.73%) Ladder Logic
8 15 (2.27%) TypeScript
9 11 (1.67%) C
9 11 (1.67%) PHP
10 9 (1.36%) Embedded C
11 7 (1.06%) COBOL
11 7 (1.06%) JCL
11 7 (1.06%) RPG
12 6 (0.91%) ABAP
12 6 (0.91%) Bash
13 5 (0.76%) C++
14 4 (0.61%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.61%) RPG/400
Qualifications
1 95 (14.39%) Degree
2 69 (10.45%) Security Cleared
3 56 (8.48%) SC Cleared
4 20 (3.03%) Azure Certification
5 15 (2.27%) DBS Check
5 15 (2.27%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (1.67%) CISSP
6 11 (1.67%) PMI Certification
7 10 (1.52%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.06%) ACCA
9 7 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (1.06%) CIMA
9 7 (1.06%) CISA
9 7 (1.06%) SSCP
10 6 (0.91%) CCNA
10 6 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (0.76%) HND
11 5 (0.76%) PMP
12 4 (0.61%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (5.76%) Data Quality
2 32 (4.85%) GDPR
3 28 (4.24%) QA
4 26 (3.94%) Cyber Essentials
5 24 (3.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (3.33%) SLA
7 19 (2.88%) Accessibility
8 17 (2.58%) ISO 9001
9 15 (2.27%) NIST
10 9 (1.36%) ISO 14001
11 4 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.45%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.45%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.30%) GRC
13 2 (0.30%) ISO 26262
13 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.30%) PMO
System Software
1 79 (11.97%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.64%) Hyper-V
3 16 (2.42%) Docker
3 16 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.21%) Firmware
5 6 (0.91%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.61%) vSphere
7 3 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.30%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 30 (4.55%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (2.27%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.97%) Terraform
4 6 (0.91%) Ansible
5 5 (0.76%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.76%) SCCM
6 4 (0.61%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.61%) Puppet
7 3 (0.45%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.30%) Grafana
8 2 (0.30%) Nagios
8 2 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.30%) WSUS
9 1 (0.15%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.15%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 179 (27.12%) Microsoft
2 33 (5.00%) SAP
3 23 (3.48%) VMware
4 21 (3.18%) Cisco
5 14 (2.12%) Sage
6 12 (1.82%) Dell
6 12 (1.82%) Salesforce
7 11 (1.67%) ServiceNow
8 10 (1.52%) HubSpot
8 10 (1.52%) Oracle
9 9 (1.36%) Workday
10 8 (1.21%) Apple
10 8 (1.21%) Google
10 8 (1.21%) Sophos
11 7 (1.06%) IBM
12 6 (0.91%) iManage
12 6 (0.91%) McAfee
13 5 (0.76%) SolarWinds
14 4 (0.61%) Broadcom
14 4 (0.61%) Meraki