Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MCSA qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 29 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 513 616 690
Rank change year-on-year +103 +74 -94
Contract jobs citing MCSA 87 97 166
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.20% 0.16% 0.19%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.65% 0.60% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 72 110
10th Percentile £105 £219 £185
25th Percentile £313 £363 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £480 £400
Median % change year-on-year -27.08% +20.00% +14.29%
75th Percentile £556 £608 £538
90th Percentile £568 £675 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £480 £360
% change year-on-year -21.88% +33.33% +10.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 15 26
10th Percentile £14.16 - £13.25
25th Percentile £14.48 £15.25 £15.25
Median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.16% - +3.33%
75th Percentile £21.37 £15.75 £15.75
90th Percentile £21.38 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
% change year-on-year +5.16% - +3.33%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSA is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,360 16,293 19,031
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.65% 27.30% 21.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,216 10,865 12,554
10th Percentile £300 £325 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% +8.30%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £625
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £530 £500
% change year-on-year - +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,077 849 779
10th Percentile £13.87 £15.25 £13.68
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.00 £19.35
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £41.62
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +29.75% +6.94%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £57.00
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.94 £49.57 £31.89
% change year-on-year -17.41% +55.44% -12.76%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MCSA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MCSA.

Daily rate trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 29 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MCSA.

Hourly rate trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 11 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA within the UK over the 6 months to 29 April 2024. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +97 79 £538 +11.98% 39
UK excluding London +68 75 £375 -21.88% 32
East of England +44 47 £100 -23.08% 13
London +102 10 £350 -30.00% 7
South East +14 10 £538 +11.98% 3
Work from Home +91 9 £375 -25.00% 5
South West +10 9 £538 +34.38% 1
Scotland +40 6 £325 +47.73% 3
North of England +11 4 £325 -50.00% 10
Yorkshire +22 2 £325 -22.16% 6
North West +6 2 £325 -50.00% 4

MCSA
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 25 (28.74%) Microsoft Exchange
2 15 (17.24%) Confluence
3 7 (8.05%) IIS
4 6 (6.90%) SharePoint
5 1 (1.15%) Exchange Server 2007
5 1 (1.15%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 12 (13.79%) Microsoft Excel
1 12 (13.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (5.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (2.30%) Eikon
Cloud Services
1 52 (59.77%) Microsoft 365
2 8 (9.20%) Azure
3 2 (2.30%) AWS
3 2 (2.30%) OneDrive
4 1 (1.15%) Azure AKS
4 1 (1.15%) Entra ID
4 1 (1.15%) GCP
4 1 (1.15%) IaaS
4 1 (1.15%) Mimecast
4 1 (1.15%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (47.13%) Wi-Fi
2 20 (22.99%) DHCP
2 20 (22.99%) DNS
3 8 (9.20%) VPN
4 5 (5.75%) LAN
4 5 (5.75%) SAN
4 5 (5.75%) WAN
5 2 (2.30%) Firewall
6 1 (1.15%) Fibre Channel
6 1 (1.15%) iSCSI
6 1 (1.15%) Kerberos
6 1 (1.15%) MPLS
6 1 (1.15%) NAS
6 1 (1.15%) Network Security
6 1 (1.15%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.15%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.30%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (17.24%) JIRA
General
1 28 (32.18%) Retail
2 23 (26.44%) Social Skills
3 20 (22.99%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (17.24%) Military
5 7 (8.05%) Finance
6 5 (5.75%) Telecoms
7 4 (4.60%) Manufacturing
7 4 (4.60%) Marketing
7 4 (4.60%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (3.45%) Banking
9 2 (2.30%) Public Sector
10 1 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (1.15%) Financial Institution
10 1 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 41 (47.13%) Analyst
2 40 (45.98%) Service Analyst
2 40 (45.98%) Service Desk Analyst
3 15 (17.24%) Integration Engineer
3 15 (17.24%) Test and Integration Engineer
3 15 (17.24%) Test Engineer
4 12 (13.79%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
5 10 (11.49%) Support Engineer
6 8 (9.20%) 3rd Line Support
7 6 (6.90%) 2nd Line Support
8 5 (5.75%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 5 (5.75%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 4 (4.60%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 4 (4.60%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 4 (4.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 4 (4.60%) Service Delivery Engineer
10 3 (3.45%) Desktop Engineer
10 3 (3.45%) Server Engineer
11 2 (2.30%) Deskside Engineer
11 2 (2.30%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.15%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 16 (18.39%) PKI
2 12 (13.79%) Data Centre
3 3 (3.45%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (2.30%) Blackberry
4 2 (2.30%) iPad
4 2 (2.30%) iPhone
5 1 (1.15%) Clustering
5 1 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.15%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 46 (52.87%) Windows
2 32 (36.78%) Windows Server
3 21 (24.14%) Windows Server 2012
4 8 (9.20%) Linux
5 7 (8.05%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (6.90%) CentOS
6 6 (6.90%) Debian
6 6 (6.90%) Windows Server 2008
7 5 (5.75%) Windows 7
7 5 (5.75%) Windows 8
8 4 (4.60%) Windows 10
9 2 (2.30%) Android
9 2 (2.30%) Apple iOS
9 2 (2.30%) Mac OS
10 1 (1.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (54.02%) ITIL
2 46 (52.87%) Customer Service
3 40 (45.98%) Incident Management
4 18 (20.69%) Problem-Solving
5 16 (18.39%) Service Delivery
6 15 (17.24%) Agile
6 15 (17.24%) Critical Thinking
6 15 (17.24%) Regression Testing
6 15 (17.24%) Test Scripting
7 12 (13.79%) Mathematics
8 8 (9.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 6 (6.90%) Computer Science
10 5 (5.75%) Employee Productivity
11 4 (4.60%) PRINCE2
12 3 (3.45%) High Availability
12 3 (3.45%) Server Management
13 2 (2.30%) Fintech
13 2 (2.30%) Software Deployment
13 2 (2.30%) User Experience
13 2 (2.30%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 17 (19.54%) SQL
2 4 (4.60%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 87 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 47 (54.02%) A+ Certification
3 36 (41.38%) MCSE
4 31 (35.63%) SC Cleared
4 31 (35.63%) Security Cleared
5 15 (17.24%) CCNA
5 15 (17.24%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (17.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 13 (14.94%) Degree
7 9 (10.34%) MCP
8 7 (8.05%) CCNP
9 6 (6.90%) RHCT
10 5 (5.75%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (2.30%) CCENT
12 1 (1.15%) Azure Certification
12 1 (1.15%) MCSD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.60%) SLA
System Software
1 49 (56.32%) Active Directory
2 27 (31.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (6.90%) Hyper-V
3 6 (6.90%) KVM
4 1 (1.15%) Terminal Services
4 1 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 4 (4.60%) SCCM
2 2 (2.30%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (1.15%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.15%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.15%) Nessus
3 1 (1.15%) SCOM
3 1 (1.15%) Terraform
3 1 (1.15%) WSUS
Vendors
1 48 (55.17%) Citrix
1 48 (55.17%) Microsoft
2 42 (48.28%) ServiceNow
3 28 (32.18%) VMware
4 6 (6.90%) Red Hat
5 4 (4.60%) Dell
5 4 (4.60%) SolarWinds
6 3 (3.45%) Cisco
6 3 (3.45%) HP
7 2 (2.30%) Bloomberg
7 2 (2.30%) Reuters
7 2 (2.30%) Veeam
8 1 (1.15%) CrowdStrike
8 1 (1.15%) IronPort
8 1 (1.15%) TOWER Software