The first part of the table below looks at the demand for MCTS in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited MCTS over the 3 months to 16 May 2012 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second part of the table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all Qualifications currently tracked.

Note that daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
Location
3 months to
16 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank474486458
Rank change year-on-year
Up+12Down-28
Matching contract IT job ads1059578
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK0.177 %0.155 %0.142 %
As % of the Qualifications category1.019 %0.981 %0.916 %
Number of daily rates quoted473941
Average daily rate£310£350£350
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-11.42 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£165£225£280
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£450£427£530
UK excluding London average daily rate£300£333£338
% change year-on-year
-9.77 %-1.48 %
Number of hourly rates quoted10147
Average hourly rate£22.00£19.00£15.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+15.78 %+26.66 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£16.50£13.60£13.40
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£25.00£42.50£37.91
UK excluding London average hourly rate£19.00£42.50£15.00
% change year-on-year
-55.29 %+183.33 %
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryAll Qualifications
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Qualifications category
1030396828515
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK17.41 %15.78 %15.46 %
Number of daily rates quoted536946133867
Average daily rate£380£375£350
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+1.33 %+7.14 %
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£215£225£205
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£550£550£525
UK excluding London average daily rate£350£350£325
% change year-on-year
-+7.69 %
Number of hourly rates quoted566663646
Average hourly rate£22.00£22.32£19.50
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-1.41 %+14.43 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£12.50£12.00£12.00
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£42.50£40.00£37.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate£23.00£24.00£18.00
% change year-on-year
-4.16 %+33.33 %

MCTS
Demand Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing MCTS within the UK as a proportion of the total demand within the Qualifications category.

MCTS Demand Trend

MCTS
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing MCTS within the UK.

MCTS Daily Rate Trend

MCTS
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing MCTS within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012.

MCTS Daily Rate Histogram

MCTS
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing MCTS within the UK.

MCTS Hourly Rate Trend

MCTS
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing MCTS within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012.

MCTS Hourly Rate Histogram

MCTS
Top 30 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCTS within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

LocationRank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
EnglandUp+2593£320-8.57 %
LondonUp+3533£369+5.35 %
East of EnglandUp+514£313-21.87 %
South EastDown-2213£308-12.14 %
North WestUp+312£300+6.66 %
South WestDown-177£335-1.10 %
BedfordshireUp+126£325-
East MidlandsUp+26£350-
CambridgeshireDown-66£160-60.00 %
LeicestershireNew entry-6£350-
GlasgowUp+35£275-
ScotlandNo change05£275-21.42 %
Northern IrelandNew entry-5--
Docklands, LondonNew entry-5--
LancashireNew entry-5£300-
YorkshireNew entry-5£350-
County AntrimNew entry-5--
BelfastNew entry-5--
City of LondonUp+234£388+10.71 %
KentUp+123£463+164.28 %
CheshireUp+53£110-63.33 %
HampshireUp+23£200-41.60 %
West MidlandsDown-133£330-
ManchesterDown-183£165-37.14 %
PeterboroughNew entry-3--
LeicesterNew entry-3£350-
DunstableNew entry-3£325-
North YorkshireNew entry-3--
DorsetUp+52£288-8.73 %
BournemouthUp+42£288-8.73 %

MCTS
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 16 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing MCTS 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 MCTS.

1141 (73.06 %)Microsoft Certification
2125 (64.77 %)Microsoft
3114 (59.07 %)Windows
489 (46.11 %)MCITP
577 (39.90 %)Active Directory
674 (38.34 %)Windows Server 2008
773 (37.82 %)MCSE
866 (34.20 %)MCP
960 (31.09 %)Windows Server 2003
1056 (29.02 %)SQL Server
1155 (28.50 %)VMware
1248 (24.87 %)MS Excel
1248 (24.87 %)MS Exchange
1340 (20.73 %)Citrix
1438 (19.69 %)SharePoint
1438 (19.69 %)SQL
1438 (19.69 %)ITIL
1534 (17.62 %)MCSA
1632 (16.58 %).NET
1632 (16.58 %)HP
1632 (16.58 %)Windows 7
1730 (15.54 %)ASP.NET
1829 (15.03 %)MS Office
1928 (14.51 %)Windows XP
2026 (13.47 %)C#
2125 (12.95 %)VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
2125 (12.95 %)Exchange Server 2003
2224 (12.44 %)Exchange Server 2007
2323 (11.92 %)SCCM
2323 (11.92 %)VMware Infrastructure

MCTS
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 16 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing MCTS 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 MCTS. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
132 (16.58 %).NET
230 (15.54 %)ASP.NET
311 (5.699 %)XML
311 (5.699 %).NET Framework
410 (5.181 %)MDX
58 (4.145 %)HTML
66 (3.109 %)Ajax
66 (3.109 %)WCF
66 (3.109 %)CSS
75 (2.591 %)Forefront TMG
84 (2.073 %)ASP.NET MVC
84 (2.073 %)CAML
84 (2.073 %)Application Packaging
84 (2.073 %)XSD
84 (2.073 %)XSLT
93 (1.554 %)ASP
93 (1.554 %)LINQ
93 (1.554 %)NHibernate
93 (1.554 %)ADO.NET Entity Framework
93 (1.554 %)Castle Windsor
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
148 (24.87 %)MS Exchange
238 (19.69 %)SharePoint
325 (12.95 %)Exchange Server 2003
424 (12.44 %)Exchange Server 2007
517 (8.808 %)Exchange Server 2010
616 (8.290 %)IIS
711 (5.699 %)SharePoint 2010
88 (4.145 %)Lync
88 (4.145 %)Exchange Server 2000
88 (4.145 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
97 (3.627 %)Lotus Notes
97 (3.627 %)SharePoint Server
106 (3.109 %)Office Communications Server
106 (3.109 %)BizTalk Server
113 (1.554 %)OpenROAD
122 (1.036 %)Office Project Server
122 (1.036 %)Lotus Domino
131 (0.518 %)CMS
131 (0.518 %)GroupWise
131 (0.518 %)Exchange Server 5.5
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
148 (24.87 %)MS Excel
229 (15.03 %)MS Office
36 (3.109 %)InfoPath
44 (2.073 %)MS Visio
44 (2.073 %)MS Project
52 (1.036 %)MS PowerPoint
61 (0.518 %)Office 365
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
15 (2.591 %)Dynamics CRM
23 (1.554 %)Cognos Business Intelligence
32 (1.036 %)Maximo
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
122 (11.40 %)SAN
221 (10.88 %)DNS
317 (8.808 %)DHCP
414 (7.254 %)TCP/IP
59 (4.663 %)NAS
68 (4.145 %)Internet
77 (3.627 %)LAN
77 (3.627 %)WAN
85 (2.591 %)iSCSI
94 (2.073 %)LDAP
94 (2.073 %)VoIP
94 (2.073 %)HTTP
94 (2.073 %)VPN
94 (2.073 %)SSL
94 (2.073 %)Wireless
102 (1.036 %)Kerberos
102 (1.036 %)IP Telephony
102 (1.036 %)Firewall
102 (1.036 %)NetScreen
111 (0.518 %)SMTP
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
156 (29.02 %)SQL Server
221 (10.88 %)SQL Server 2008
316 (8.290 %)SQL Server Integration Services
415 (7.772 %)SQL Server 2005
514 (7.254 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
613 (6.736 %)Data Warehouse
613 (6.736 %)SQL Server Analysis Services
710 (5.181 %)ETL
87 (3.627 %)BODI
87 (3.627 %)BusinessObjects Data Services
94 (2.073 %)OLAP
103 (1.554 %)SQLPlus
103 (1.554 %)SQL Server 2000
103 (1.554 %)Ingres
103 (1.554 %)Oracle 8/8i
112 (1.036 %)DTS
112 (1.036 %)OLTP
112 (1.036 %)ProClarity
121 (0.518 %)Microsoft Analysis Services
121 (0.518 %)MOLAP
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
16 (3.109 %)Visual Studio
25 (2.591 %)NUnit
34 (2.073 %)Subversion
43 (1.554 %)InstallShield
43 (1.554 %)MSI
43 (1.554 %)Rhino Mocks
52 (1.036 %)Team Foundation Server
61 (0.518 %)Selenium
61 (0.518 %)Cucumber
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
123 (11.92 %)Finance
25 (2.591 %)German Language
34 (2.073 %)Retail
34 (2.073 %)Publishing
43 (1.554 %)Telecoms
43 (1.554 %)Local Government
43 (1.554 %)Marketing
52 (1.036 %)French Language
61 (0.518 %)Advertising
61 (0.518 %)Billing
61 (0.518 %)Banking
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
138 (19.69 %)Developer
227 (13.99 %)Support Engineer
318 (9.326 %)Analyst
416 (8.290 %)Consultant
514 (7.254 %)3rd Line Support
514 (7.254 %)Architect
613 (6.736 %)Technical Support
712 (6.218 %)SharePoint Developer
712 (6.218 %)Server Support
810 (5.181 %)Business Intelligence (BI) Developer
810 (5.181 %)DBA
810 (5.181 %)Desktop Engineer
99 (4.663 %)Server Engineer
99 (4.663 %)Desktop Support
99 (4.663 %)Infrastructure Engineer
99 (4.663 %)3rd Line Support Engineer
108 (4.145 %).NET Developer
108 (4.145 %)Support Analyst
108 (4.145 %)Team Leader
117 (3.627 %)SQL DBA
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
112 (6.218 %)Clustering
28 (4.145 %)Blackberry
35 (2.591 %)Cloud Computing
44 (2.073 %)Client/Server
44 (2.073 %)N-Tier
53 (1.554 %)Management Information System
53 (1.554 %)iPhone
62 (1.036 %)iPad
62 (1.036 %)NHS
71 (0.518 %)Device Driver
71 (0.518 %)Replication
71 (0.518 %)Mathematics
71 (0.518 %)Xserve
71 (0.518 %)Hedge funds
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
1114 (59.07 %)Windows
274 (38.34 %)Windows Server 2008
360 (31.09 %)Windows Server 2003
432 (16.58 %)Windows 7
528 (14.51 %)Windows XP
69 (4.663 %)Windows 2000 Server
76 (3.109 %)Windows CE
85 (2.591 %)Windows 2000
93 (1.554 %)UNIX
93 (1.554 %)Linux
102 (1.036 %)Windows Vista
102 (1.036 %)Mac OS X
111 (0.518 %)SUSE
111 (0.518 %)NetWare
111 (0.518 %)Windows Mobile
111 (0.518 %)Android
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
138 (19.69 %)ITIL
222 (11.40 %)Migration
318 (9.326 %)Business Intelligence
413 (6.736 %)Agile Software Development
413 (6.736 %)Disaster Recovery
413 (6.736 %)Incident Management
511 (5.699 %)SOA
610 (5.181 %)Project Management
77 (3.627 %)Service Management
86 (3.109 %)PRINCE2
86 (3.109 %)CRM
86 (3.109 %)Service Delivery
95 (2.591 %)Business Continuity
95 (2.591 %)TDD
95 (2.591 %)MOF
95 (2.591 %)Network Load Balancing
95 (2.591 %)Data Migration
95 (2.591 %)Web Application Development
104 (2.073 %)Security Architecture
104 (2.073 %)Enterprise Architecture
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
138 (19.69 %)SQL
226 (13.47 %)C#
320 (10.36 %)T-SQL
410 (5.181 %)VB
59 (4.663 %)VB.NET
59 (4.663 %)JavaScript
67 (3.627 %)PowerShell
73 (1.554 %)Java
73 (1.554 %)C++
82 (1.036 %)Ada
82 (1.036 %)C
82 (1.036 %)PL/SQL
82 (1.036 %)VBScript
91 (0.518 %)VBA
91 (0.518 %)Perl
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
1141 (73.06 %)Microsoft Certification
289 (46.11 %)MCITP
373 (37.82 %)MCSE
466 (34.20 %)MCP
534 (17.62 %)MCSA
625 (12.95 %)VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
723 (11.92 %)Cisco Certification
820 (10.36 %)CCA
820 (10.36 %)Citrix Certification
919 (9.845 %)CCNA
1018 (9.326 %)MCSD
1113 (6.736 %)MCAD
1212 (6.218 %)CCNP
1311 (5.699 %)MCDST
148 (4.145 %)Security Cleared
148 (4.145 %)Degree
148 (4.145 %)MCPD
156 (3.109 %)SC Cleared
156 (3.109 %)CCEA
164 (2.073 %)A+ Certification
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
119 (9.845 %)SLA
25 (2.591 %)ISO/IEC 27001
32 (1.036 %)BS25999
32 (1.036 %)ISO 9000
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
177 (39.90 %)Active Directory
223 (11.92 %)VMware Infrastructure
39 (4.663 %)vSphere
39 (4.663 %)XenApp
48 (4.145 %)Hyper-V
48 (4.145 %)NFS
57 (3.627 %)VMware ESX
57 (3.627 %)XenDesktop
64 (2.073 %)ISA Server
73 (1.554 %)Xsan
82 (1.036 %)Novell eDirectory
82 (1.036 %)Citrix Presentation Server
82 (1.036 %)VMware Workstation
91 (0.518 %)VMware Server
91 (0.518 %)XenServer
91 (0.518 %)DFS Replication
91 (0.518 %)UAG
91 (0.518 %)VMware ESXi
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
123 (11.92 %)SCCM
28 (4.145 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
35 (2.591 %)SCOM
35 (2.591 %)McAfee ePO
44 (2.073 %)WSUS
44 (2.073 %)NetBackup
52 (1.036 %)ServiceCenter
52 (1.036 %)WMI
52 (1.036 %)OpenView
52 (1.036 %)Backup Exec
61 (0.518 %)BMC PATROL
61 (0.518 %)SCVMM
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
1125 (64.77 %)Microsoft
255 (28.50 %)VMware
340 (20.73 %)Citrix
432 (16.58 %)HP
522 (11.40 %)Cisco
612 (6.218 %)LANDesk
612 (6.218 %)Symantec
711 (5.699 %)McAfee
711 (5.699 %)EMC
810 (5.181 %)IBM
810 (5.181 %)NetApp
98 (4.145 %)Oracle
107 (3.627 %)Remedy
107 (3.627 %)Lotus
107 (3.627 %)Business Objects
116 (3.109 %)SAP
116 (3.109 %)CommVault
125 (2.591 %)Novell
134 (2.073 %)Apple
143 (1.554 %)Altiris