North West Visual Studio Contracts

The table below looks at the demand for Microsoft Visual Studio skills within the North West region with a comparison to our Development Applications category. Included is a guide to the contractor rates offered in IT jobs that have cited Visual Studio over the 3 months to 10 October 2008 with a comparison to the same period last year.

Microsoft Visual Studio
Location Avon Basingstoke Bath Bedfordshire Berkshire Birmingham Bootle Bournemouth Bracknell Bradford Brentwood Brighton Bristol Buckinghamshire Bury St Edmunds Camberley Cambridge Cambridgeshire Canary Wharf Cardiff Cardigan Carlisle Ceredigion Chelmsford Chertsey Cheshire Chessington Chester Chesterfield Chippenham City of London Crawley Crewe Croydon Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Docklands, London Dorset Durham East Anglia East Midlands East of England East Sussex East Yorkshire Edinburgh England Essex Exeter Falkirk Fareham Farnham Gateshead Glamorgan Glasgow Gloucester Gloucestershire Guildford Hampshire Hemel Hempstead Herefordshire Hertfordshire High Wycombe Hull Huntingdon Huntingdonshire Ipswich Kendal Kent Knutsford Lancashire Lancaster Leeds Leek Leicester Leicestershire Liverpool London Luton M4 Corridor Macclesfield Manchester Merseyside Mid Wales Middlesbrough Middlesex Midlands Milton Keynes Newcastle Newcastle Upon Tyne Norfolk North East North West North Yorkshire Nottingham Nottinghamshire Otley Oxford Oxfordshire Peterborough Poole Portsmouth Preston Reading Redhill Salisbury Scotland Sheffield Slough Somerset South Coast South East South Wales South West South Yorkshire Southampton Staffordshire Staines Stevenage Stockport Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Suffolk Surrey Sussex Swindon Teesside Thames Valley Tonbridge Trowbridge Twickenham Tyne and Wear UK Wales Warrington Warwick Warwickshire Watford West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Winchester Windsor Wirral Woking Woodstock Worcestershire Yeovil York Yorkshire	3 months to 10 Oct 2008	Same period last year
Rank	48	86
Rank change on same period last year	+38
Matching contract IT job ads	89	62
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	0.125 %	0.063 %
As % of the category below	23.36 %	15.42 %
Daily rates quoted	18	4
Average minimum daily rate	£270	£295
Average daily rate	£292	£331
% change on same period last year	-11.85 %
Average maximum daily rate	£314	£368
UK excluding London average daily rate	£298	£333
% change on same period last year	-10.59 %
Hourly rates quoted	14	4
Average minimum hourly rate	£24.69	£26.50
Average hourly rate	£26.52	£27.75
% change on same period last year	-4.42 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£28.36	£29.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£33.11	£35.35
% change on same period last year	-6.34 %
Development Applications North West
Matching contract IT job ads	381	402
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	0.536 %	0.406 %
Daily rates quoted	72	91
Average minimum daily rate	£266	£338
Average daily rate	£282	£352
% change on same period last year	-20.01 %
Average maximum daily rate	£297	£366
UK excluding London average daily rate	£324	£328
% change on same period last year	-1.38 %
Hourly rates quoted	32	43
Average minimum hourly rate	£22.68	£25.31
Average hourly rate	£24.45	£27.45
% change on same period last year	-10.91 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£26.22	£29.58
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£32.49	£31.36
% change on same period last year	+3.60 %
Visual Studio England

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.

Visual Studio
Demand Trend

The chart provides a 3-month moving total beginning in 2004 of IT contractor jobs citing Visual Studio across the North West region as a proportion of the total demand within the Development Applications category.

Visual Studio
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing Visual Studio across the North West region.

Visual Studio
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Visual Studio across the North West region over the 3 months to 10 October 2008.

Visual Studio
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing Visual Studio across the North West region.

Visual Studio
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Visual Studio across the North West region over the 3 months to 10 October 2008.

Visual Studio
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Visual Studio within the North West region over the 3 months to 10 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
Manchester	+12	29	£320	-4.14 %
Merseyside	+11	22	£289	-11.17 %
Cheshire	+17	21	£323	-
Lancashire	+7	12	£245	-
Cumbria	-	1	-	-

Visual Studio England

Visual Studio
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 10 October 2008, IT contractor jobs across the North West region citing Visual Studio 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 Visual Studio.

1 135 (89.40 %) .NET 2 80 (52.98 %) SQL Server 3 73 (48.34 %) C# 4 69 (45.70 %) ASP.NET 5 65 (43.05 %) SQL 6 60 (39.74 %) VB.NET 7 57 (37.75 %) SQL Server 2005 8 53 (35.10 %) WebServices 9 48 (31.79 %) HTML 10 45 (29.80 %) XML 11 42 (27.81 %) JavaScript 12 41 (27.15 %) Microsoft 13 39 (25.83 %) CSS 14 37 (24.50 %) ASP 15 29 (19.21 %) Oracle

16 26 (17.22 %) Crystal Reports 17 24 (15.89 %) VSS/SourceSafe 18 22 (14.57 %) N-Tier 19 21 (13.91 %) SQL Server 2000 20 20 (13.25 %) Windows 20 20 (13.25 %) VB 20 20 (13.25 %) .NET Framework 21 19 (12.58 %) PL/SQL 21 19 (12.58 %) Oracle Reports 22 18 (11.92 %) OO 23 16 (10.60 %) XSLT 24 15 (9.934 %) XSL 25 14 (9.272 %) SQL Server Reporting Services 26 13 (8.609 %) RDBMS 27 12 (7.947 %) VBScript

Visual Studio
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 10 October 2008, IT contractor jobs across the North West region citing Visual Studio 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 Visual Studio. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development 1 135 (89.40 %) .NET 2 69 (45.70 %) ASP.NET 3 53 (35.10 %) WebServices 4 48 (31.79 %) HTML 5 45 (29.80 %) XML 6 39 (25.83 %) CSS 7 37 (24.50 %) ASP 8 20 (13.25 %) .NET Framework 9 16 (10.60 %) XSLT 10 15 (9.934 %) XSL 11 12 (7.947 %) AJAX 12 10 (6.623 %) ADO.NET 12 10 (6.623 %) WinForms 13 9 (5.960 %) ASP.NET 2.0 14 7 (4.636 %) SOAP 15 6 (3.974 %) WCF 16 5 (3.311 %) COM 17 4 (2.649 %) Microsoft Enterprise Library 18 3 (1.987 %) Ext JS 18 3 (1.987 %) LINQ	Application Platforms 1 6 (3.974 %) SharePoint 1 6 (3.974 %) IIS 2 3 (1.987 %) MS Exchange 3 2 (1.325 %) SAS 4 1 (0.662 %) CMS 4 1 (0.662 %) Immediacy CMS 4 1 (0.662 %) Apache
Applications 1 8 (5.298 %) MS Excel 2 7 (4.636 %) Photoshop 3 1 (0.662 %) MS Office	Business Applications 1 3 (1.987 %) Summit 2 1 (0.662 %) Dynamics CRM 2 1 (0.662 %) WebTrends
Communications & Networking 1 12 (7.947 %) LDAP 2 3 (1.987 %) GPRS 2 3 (1.987 %) Internet 3 2 (1.325 %) Intranet 4 1 (0.662 %) Extranet 4 1 (0.662 %) Wireless 4 1 (0.662 %) UMTS 4 1 (0.662 %) SSL	Database & Business Intelligence 1 80 (52.98 %) SQL Server 2 57 (37.75 %) SQL Server 2005 3 26 (17.22 %) Crystal Reports 4 21 (13.91 %) SQL Server 2000 5 19 (12.58 %) Oracle Reports 6 14 (9.272 %) SQL Server Reporting Services 7 13 (8.609 %) RDBMS 8 10 (6.623 %) SQL Server Analysis Services 9 9 (5.960 %) SQL Server Integration Services 10 5 (3.311 %) Datawarehouse 11 3 (1.987 %) Informix 12 2 (1.325 %) MS Access 12 2 (1.325 %) Microsoft Analysis Services 13 1 (0.662 %) ETL 13 1 (0.662 %) SQL Server 7
Development Applications 1 24 (15.89 %) VSS/SourceSafe 2 10 (6.623 %) InterDev 3 9 (5.960 %) Dreamweaver 4 7 (4.636 %) NUnit 5 6 (3.974 %) InstallShield 6 2 (1.325 %) Flash 7 1 (0.662 %) Subversion 7 1 (0.662 %) Visual Studio Team System	General 1 9 (5.960 %) Finance 2 7 (4.636 %) Health 2 7 (4.636 %) Insurance 3 5 (3.311 %) Local Government 3 5 (3.311 %) Manufacturing 3 5 (3.311 %) Government 4 4 (2.649 %) Graphic Design 5 2 (1.325 %) Marketing 5 2 (1.325 %) Telecoms 6 1 (0.662 %) Education 6 1 (0.662 %) Games 6 1 (0.662 %) Banking 6 1 (0.662 %) Retail
Job Titles 1 130 (86.09 %) Developer 2 75 (49.67 %) .NET Developer 3 35 (23.18 %) VB.NET Developer 4 29 (19.21 %) C# Developer 5 24 (15.89 %) Web Developer 6 17 (11.26 %) ASP.NET Developer 7 11 (7.285 %) SQL Developer 7 11 (7.285 %) Software Developer 8 6 (3.974 %) Programmer 8 6 (3.974 %) VB.NET/ASP.NET Developer 8 6 (3.974 %) C#/ASP.NET Developer 9 5 (3.311 %) .NET Web Developer 9 5 (3.311 %) SQL Server Developer 10 4 (2.649 %) Analyst 10 4 (2.649 %) Software Engineer 10 4 (2.649 %) CSharp Software Developer 11 3 (1.987 %) Analyst Programmer 11 3 (1.987 %) C++ Developer 11 3 (1.987 %) VB Developer 11 3 (1.987 %) Datawarehouse Developer	Miscellaneous 1 22 (14.57 %) N-Tier 2 4 (2.649 %) NHS 3 3 (1.987 %) Multithreading 4 2 (1.325 %) PDA 5 1 (0.662 %) Derivative 5 1 (0.662 %) Data Conversion 5 1 (0.662 %) VAX 5 1 (0.662 %) Pocket PC
Operating Systems 1 20 (13.25 %) Windows 2 2 (1.325 %) Windows Server 2003 3 1 (0.662 %) Windows Mobile 3 1 (0.662 %) Windows 2000 Server 3 1 (0.662 %) Windows 2000 3 1 (0.662 %) VMS	Processes & Methodologies 1 18 (11.92 %) OO 2 10 (6.623 %) Agile Software Development 3 6 (3.974 %) Migration 3 6 (3.974 %) e-GIF 3 6 (3.974 %) Unit Testing 4 5 (3.311 %) Web Development 4 5 (3.311 %) UML 5 4 (2.649 %) SEO 5 4 (2.649 %) SC Cleared 5 4 (2.649 %) Security Cleared 6 3 (1.987 %) OOP 7 2 (1.325 %) E-Commerce 7 2 (1.325 %) OOD 7 2 (1.325 %) Asset Management 7 2 (1.325 %) Content Management 7 2 (1.325 %) BC Cleared 7 2 (1.325 %) Performance Testing 7 2 (1.325 %) Data Migration 8 1 (0.662 %) Use Case 8 1 (0.662 %) Test Scripting
Programming Languages 1 73 (48.34 %) C# 2 65 (43.05 %) SQL 3 60 (39.74 %) VB.NET 4 42 (27.81 %) JavaScript 5 20 (13.25 %) VB 6 19 (12.58 %) PL/SQL 7 12 (7.947 %) VBScript 8 10 (6.623 %) Transact-SQL 9 8 (5.298 %) VB6 10 7 (4.636 %) C++ 11 5 (3.311 %) C 12 3 (1.987 %) VBA 12 3 (1.987 %) VC++ 12 3 (1.987 %) XPath 13 1 (0.662 %) DCL 13 1 (0.662 %) Pascal 13 1 (0.662 %) ActionScript 13 1 (0.662 %) Perl 13 1 (0.662 %) PHP 13 1 (0.662 %) DHTML	Qualifications 1 1 (0.662 %) Microsoft Certification 1 1 (0.662 %) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance 1 1 (0.662 %) ISO9001 1 1 (0.662 %) QA	System Software 1 6 (3.974 %) Active Directory 2 2 (1.325 %) MSMQ
Vendors 1 41 (27.15 %) Microsoft 2 29 (19.21 %) Oracle 3 1 (0.662 %) IBM 3 1 (0.662 %) Dundas