England MCP Contracts

The table below looks at the demand for Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in IT contracts within the England region compared to all other Qualifications we currently track. Included is a guide to the contractor rates offered in IT jobs that have cited MCP over the 3 months to 6 October 2008 with a comparison to the same period last year.

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
Location Aberdeen Abingdon Aylesbury Banbury Belfast Berkshire Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bristol Bromley Buckinghamshire Cambridge Cambridgeshire Cardiff Chatham Chelmsford Cheltenham Chertsey Cheshire City of London Colchester Cornwall County Antrim Derby Derbyshire Dorset Durham East Kilbride East Midlands East of England East Yorkshire Eastleigh Edinburgh England Essex Fareham Farnborough Feltham Glasgow Gloucestershire Hammersmith Hampshire Haslemere Hertfordshire High Wycombe Hitchin Home Counties Hull Huntingdon Ipswich Kent Kingston Upon Thames Leatherhead Leeds Leicester Leicestershire Lincolnshire Liverpool London Maidenhead Manchester Merseyside Middlesex Milton Keynes Newcastle North East North Wales North West North Yorkshire Northern Ireland Nottingham Nottinghamshire Oxford Oxfordshire Peterborough Poole Portsmouth Reading Salisbury Sandbach Scotland Sheffield Shropshire Slough Somerset South East South Lanarkshire South Wales South West South Yorkshire Southampton Southwark St Ives Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent Suffolk Surrey Swindon Taunton Tyne and Wear UK Uxbridge Wales Warwick Warwickshire West Midlands West Yorkshire Wiltshire Witham Woking Worcestershire York Yorkshire	3 months to 6 Oct 2008	Same period last year
Rank	274	306
Rank change on same period last year	+32
Matching contract IT job ads	335	423
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	0.468 %	0.425 %
As % of the category below	4.901 %	4.594 %
Daily rates quoted	90	101
Average minimum daily rate	£237	£225
Average daily rate	£254	£237
% change on same period last year	+7.40 %
Average maximum daily rate	£272	£248
UK excluding London average daily rate	£223	£190
% change on same period last year	+17.79 %
Hourly rates quoted	111	146
Average minimum hourly rate	£15.79	£17.53
Average hourly rate	£16.49	£18.52
% change on same period last year	-10.96 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£17.19	£19.52
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£15.34	£18.66
% change on same period last year	-17.75 %
Qualifications England
Matching contract IT job ads	6836	9208
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	9.549 %	9.251 %
Daily rates quoted	2390	3027
Average minimum daily rate	£346	£344
Average daily rate	£367	£363
% change on same period last year	+1.11 %
Average maximum daily rate	£387	£381
UK excluding London average daily rate	£337	£323
% change on same period last year	+4.11 %
Hourly rates quoted	736	908
Average minimum hourly rate	£23.58	£24.09
Average hourly rate	£25.08	£25.76
% change on same period last year	-2.64 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£26.57	£27.43
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£25.40	£25.85
% change on same period last year	-1.74 %
MCP UK

We calculate average IT contractor rates directly from the figures quoted and do not attempt to derive hourly rates from daily rates or vice versa.

MCP
Demand Trend

The chart provides a 3-month moving total beginning in 2004 of IT contractor jobs citing MCP across the England region as a proportion of the total demand within the Qualifications category.

MCP
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing MCP across the England region.

MCP
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing MCP across the England region over the 3 months to 6 October 2008.

MCP
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing MCP across the England region.

MCP
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing MCP across the England region over the 3 months to 6 October 2008.

MCP
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCP within the England region over the 3 months to 6 October 2008. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year. A positive number indicates a relative increase in demand.

Location	Rank Change on Same Period Last Last	Matching Contract IT Job Ads	Average Daily Rate Last 3 Months	Average Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year
London	+51	119	£303	-12.25 %
South East	+2	78	£268	+13.12 %
East of England	+18	46	£137	-17.39 %
East Midlands	+17	25	£300	-3.22 %
South West	+6	21	£268	+8.22 %
West Midlands	+13	16	£320	+210.81 %
Yorkshire	+11	15	£180	-41.46 %
North West	+18	14	£100	-
North East	+7	2	-	-

MCP UK

MCP
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 6 October 2008, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing MCP also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited MCP.

1 660 (100.00 %) Microsoft Certification 2 467 (70.76 %) Windows 3 343 (51.97 %) MCSE 4 289 (43.79 %) Microsoft 5 258 (39.09 %) Active Directory 6 226 (34.24 %) Windows Server 2003 7 191 (28.94 %) Windows XP 8 172 (26.06 %) MS Office 9 134 (20.30 %) MS Exchange 10 122 (18.48 %) Windows 2000 11 118 (17.88 %) MS Excel 12 112 (16.97 %) ITIL 13 96 (14.55 %) MCSA 14 94 (14.24 %) Citrix 15 82 (12.42 %) HP

15 82 (12.42 %) TCP/IP 16 79 (11.97 %) Cisco Certification 17 78 (11.82 %) SQL Server 18 77 (11.67 %) Exchange Server 2003 19 70 (10.61 %) DNS 20 67 (10.15 %) Cisco 21 65 (9.848 %) Windows 2000 Server 22 63 (9.545 %) CCNA 23 62 (9.394 %) SQL 24 60 (9.091 %) LAN 25 58 (8.788 %) DHCP 25 58 (8.788 %) Finance 26 55 (8.333 %) WAN 26 55 (8.333 %) .NET 27 50 (7.576 %) Blackberry

MCP
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 6 October 2008, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing MCP also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited MCP. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development 1 55 (8.333 %) .NET 2 29 (4.394 %) ASP.NET 3 19 (2.879 %) XML 4 13 (1.970 %) HTML 4 13 (1.970 %) .NET Framework 5 10 (1.515 %) Application Packaging 5 10 (1.515 %) WebServices 6 8 (1.212 %) WinForms 7 6 (0.909 %) AJAX 8 5 (0.758 %) CSS 9 3 (0.455 %) COM+ 9 3 (0.455 %) ASP 9 3 (0.455 %) WMI 9 3 (0.455 %) Middleware 9 3 (0.455 %) WCF 10 2 (0.303 %) WPF 10 2 (0.303 %) WF 10 2 (0.303 %) Adobe Flex 10 2 (0.303 %) ODBC 10 2 (0.303 %) ADSI	Application Platforms 1 134 (20.30 %) MS Exchange 2 77 (11.67 %) Exchange Server 2003 3 30 (4.545 %) SharePoint 4 28 (4.242 %) IIS 5 27 (4.091 %) Lotus Notes 6 18 (2.727 %) Exchange Server 2000 7 15 (2.273 %) Exchange Server 2007 7 15 (2.273 %) Exchange Server 5.5 8 14 (2.121 %) SharePoint Server 2007 9 5 (0.758 %) GroupWise 10 3 (0.455 %) Blackberry Enterprise Server 11 2 (0.303 %) CMS 11 2 (0.303 %) Rendezvous 11 2 (0.303 %) WebLogic 11 2 (0.303 %) Lotus Domino 11 2 (0.303 %) BizTalk Server 11 2 (0.303 %) SharePoint Portal Server 12 1 (0.152 %) Commerce Server 12 1 (0.152 %) Site Server 12 1 (0.152 %) Apache
Applications 1 172 (26.06 %) MS Office 2 118 (17.88 %) MS Excel 3 4 (0.606 %) Photoshop 3 4 (0.606 %) MS PowerPoint 4 3 (0.455 %) Acrobat 5 2 (0.303 %) MS Visio	Business Applications 1 8 (1.212 %) Microsoft CRM 1 8 (1.212 %) Dynamics CRM 2 6 (0.909 %) Great Plains 3 4 (0.606 %) Dynamics GP 3 4 (0.606 %) assyst 4 2 (0.303 %) Dynamics AX 4 2 (0.303 %) Navision 5 1 (0.152 %) Summit 5 1 (0.152 %) Line 50
Communications & Networking 1 82 (12.42 %) TCP/IP 2 70 (10.61 %) DNS 3 60 (9.091 %) LAN 4 58 (8.788 %) DHCP 5 55 (8.333 %) WAN 6 41 (6.212 %) SAN 7 40 (6.061 %) VPN 8 34 (5.152 %) Firewall 9 24 (3.636 %) Internet 10 14 (2.121 %) SMS 11 13 (1.970 %) Wireless 12 9 (1.364 %) IP Telephony 13 6 (0.909 %) SSL 13 6 (0.909 %) ADSL 14 5 (0.758 %) LDAP 14 5 (0.758 %) VoIP 14 5 (0.758 %) VLAN 14 5 (0.758 %) Network Security 15 4 (0.606 %) SMTP 16 3 (0.455 %) HTTPS	Database & Business Intelligence 1 78 (11.82 %) SQL Server 2 29 (4.394 %) SQL Server 2005 3 25 (3.788 %) SQL Server 2000 4 11 (1.667 %) SQL Server Reporting Services 4 11 (1.667 %) SQL Server Integration Services 5 5 (0.758 %) PerformancePoint 6 3 (0.455 %) SQL Server Analysis Services 7 2 (0.303 %) MS Access 7 2 (0.303 %) DTS 8 1 (0.152 %) RDBMS 8 1 (0.152 %) Data Cleansing
Development Applications 1 4 (0.606 %) Visual Studio 1 4 (0.606 %) Flash 2 3 (0.455 %) MSI 3 2 (0.303 %) JIRA 4 1 (0.152 %) InstallShield	General 1 58 (8.788 %) Finance 2 28 (4.242 %) Government 3 23 (3.485 %) Banking 4 17 (2.576 %) Insurance 5 13 (1.970 %) Investment Banking 6 11 (1.667 %) Back Office 7 9 (1.364 %) Education 8 8 (1.212 %) Telecoms 9 7 (1.061 %) Law 10 6 (0.909 %) Auditing 11 5 (0.758 %) Legal 11 5 (0.758 %) Retail 12 4 (0.606 %) Health 13 3 (0.455 %) Financial Institution 14 2 (0.303 %) Front Office 14 2 (0.303 %) Pharmaceutical 14 2 (0.303 %) Local Government 15 1 (0.152 %) Pensions 15 1 (0.152 %) Music 15 1 (0.152 %) Marketing
Job Titles 1 169 (25.61 %) Analyst 2 115 (17.42 %) Support Analyst 3 114 (17.27 %) Support Engineer 4 83 (12.58 %) Desktop Support 5 58 (8.788 %) 2nd Line Support 6 52 (7.879 %) Helpdesk Support 7 42 (6.364 %) Desktop Engineer 8 41 (6.212 %) Helpdesk Analyst 8 41 (6.212 %) Developer 9 40 (6.061 %) 3rd Line Support 10 30 (4.545 %) Service Analyst 11 29 (4.394 %) Server Support 11 29 (4.394 %) Desktop Analyst 12 27 (4.091 %) Desktop Support Engineer 12 27 (4.091 %) Service Desk Analyst 13 25 (3.788 %) Desktop Support Analyst 13 25 (3.788 %) 1st Line Support 13 25 (3.788 %) Server Engineer 14 24 (3.636 %) .NET Developer 15 22 (3.333 %) Consultant	Miscellaneous 1 50 (7.576 %) Blackberry 2 23 (3.485 %) Clustering 3 18 (2.727 %) NHS 4 9 (1.364 %) Fixed Income 4 9 (1.364 %) Derivative 5 8 (1.212 %) Replication 6 7 (1.061 %) Thin Client 6 7 (1.061 %) EPoS 6 7 (1.061 %) Fat Client 7 6 (0.909 %) N-Tier 8 5 (0.758 %) Tandem 9 4 (0.606 %) Grid Computing 9 4 (0.606 %) Client/Server 10 2 (0.303 %) HACMP 10 2 (0.303 %) Mainframe 10 2 (0.303 %) Management Information System 10 2 (0.303 %) Video Conferencing 10 2 (0.303 %) Wiki 10 2 (0.303 %) Data Protection Act 11 1 (0.152 %) Biotechnology
Operating Systems 1 467 (70.76 %) Windows 2 226 (34.24 %) Windows Server 2003 3 191 (28.94 %) Windows XP 4 122 (18.48 %) Windows 2000 5 65 (9.848 %) Windows 2000 Server 6 30 (4.545 %) Windows Vista 7 29 (4.394 %) Windows NT 8 26 (3.939 %) UNIX 9 21 (3.182 %) Linux 10 7 (1.061 %) Solaris 10 7 (1.061 %) NetWare 11 5 (0.758 %) AIX 12 4 (0.606 %) Windows Mobile 13 3 (0.455 %) Windows Server 2008 14 1 (0.152 %) Red Hat Linux 14 1 (0.152 %) Ubuntu 14 1 (0.152 %) Mac OS X	Processes & Methodologies 1 112 (16.97 %) ITIL 2 40 (6.061 %) Security Cleared 3 31 (4.697 %) Migration 4 25 (3.788 %) SC Cleared 5 21 (3.182 %) Service Management 6 17 (2.576 %) Incident Management 7 16 (2.424 %) Service Delivery 8 11 (1.667 %) PRINCE2 9 10 (1.515 %) CRM 10 8 (1.212 %) ERP 10 8 (1.212 %) Asset Management 11 7 (1.061 %) OO 11 7 (1.061 %) Data Migration 11 7 (1.061 %) Data Protection 11 7 (1.061 %) Time Management 12 6 (0.909 %) User Acceptance Testing 12 6 (0.909 %) E-Commerce 12 6 (0.909 %) ITSM 13 5 (0.758 %) Project Management 13 5 (0.758 %) Release Management
Programming Languages 1 62 (9.394 %) SQL 2 38 (5.758 %) C# 3 16 (2.424 %) VB 3 16 (2.424 %) VB.NET 4 12 (1.818 %) JavaScript 5 10 (1.515 %) VBScript 6 5 (0.758 %) Shell Script 6 5 (0.758 %) Transact-SQL 6 5 (0.758 %) DHTML 7 4 (0.606 %) C 8 3 (0.455 %) VBA 9 2 (0.303 %) C++ 10 1 (0.152 %) Java 10 1 (0.152 %) Perl 10 1 (0.152 %) PowerShell	Qualifications 1 660 (100.00 %) Microsoft Certification 2 343 (51.97 %) MCSE 3 96 (14.55 %) MCSA 4 79 (11.97 %) Cisco Certification 5 63 (9.545 %) CCNA 6 42 (6.364 %) Degree 7 37 (5.606 %) MCSD 8 36 (5.455 %) MCAD 9 25 (3.788 %) MCDST 10 24 (3.636 %) CCNP 11 23 (3.485 %) A+ Certification 12 15 (2.273 %) Novell Certification 13 13 (1.970 %) CNE 13 13 (1.970 %) Citrix Certification 14 12 (1.818 %) HND 15 11 (1.667 %) MOS 16 8 (1.212 %) CCA 17 7 (1.061 %) ITIL Certification 17 7 (1.061 %) MCTS 17 7 (1.061 %) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance 1 26 (3.939 %) SLA 2 2 (0.303 %) Sarbanes-Oxley 3 1 (0.152 %) DICOM 3 1 (0.152 %) BS7799 3 1 (0.152 %) ISO9001	System Software 1 258 (39.09 %) Active Directory 2 18 (2.727 %) ISA Server 3 13 (1.970 %) Terminal Services 4 12 (1.818 %) VMware Infrastructure 5 10 (1.515 %) Backup Exec 6 9 (1.364 %) NetBackup 7 7 (1.061 %) VMware ESX 8 4 (0.606 %) MailMarshal 8 4 (0.606 %) Terminal Server 9 3 (0.455 %) Citrix Presentation Server 9 3 (0.455 %) VMware Server 10 2 (0.303 %) Novell eDirectory 11 1 (0.152 %) MetaFrame 11 1 (0.152 %) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management 1 40 (6.061 %) Systems Management Server (SMS) 2 15 (2.273 %) MOM 3 8 (1.212 %) Norton AntiVirus 4 6 (0.909 %) SCCM 4 6 (0.909 %) SCOM 5 5 (0.758 %) MAILsweeper 6 4 (0.606 %) WSUS 6 4 (0.606 %) OpenView 7 3 (0.455 %) DameWare 8 2 (0.303 %) Legato 8 2 (0.303 %) Tivoli 8 2 (0.303 %) Tivoli Storage Manager 8 2 (0.303 %) MIMEsweeper 9 1 (0.152 %) OpenView Configuration Management 9 1 (0.152 %) ZENworks 9 1 (0.152 %) BMC Marimba 9 1 (0.152 %) HP Data Protector	Vendors 1 289 (43.79 %) Microsoft 2 94 (14.24 %) Citrix 3 82 (12.42 %) HP 4 67 (10.15 %) Cisco 5 34 (5.152 %) VMware 6 32 (4.848 %) Remedy 7 28 (4.242 %) Lotus 8 26 (3.939 %) Dell 9 20 (3.030 %) IBM 10 19 (2.879 %) Compaq 11 18 (2.727 %) Oracle 12 16 (2.424 %) Novell 12 16 (2.424 %) Reuters 12 16 (2.424 %) Bloomberg 12 16 (2.424 %) Altiris 13 15 (2.273 %) VERITAS 14 10 (1.515 %) Symantec 14 10 (1.515 %) EMC 15 8 (1.212 %) McAfee Security 15 8 (1.212 %) NetApp