The first part of the table below looks at the demand for VMware ESX skills in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited VMware ESX over the 3 months to 21 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 of the System Software category.

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.

VMware ESX Server
Location
3 months to
21 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank283264290
Rank change year-on-year
Down-19Up+26
Matching contract IT job ads348392270
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK0.595 %0.652 %0.489 %
As % of the System Software category7.714 %9.043 %9.070 %
Number of daily rates quoted20924296
Average daily rate£350£343£325
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+2.18 %+5.38 %
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£225£225£213
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£475£425£450
UK excluding London average daily rate£325£290£250
% change year-on-year
+12.06 %+16.00 %
Number of hourly rates quoted112327
Average hourly rate£30.00£32.00£25.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-6.25 %+28.00 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£17.50£18.50£17.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£42.50£40.00£38.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate£30.00£27.25£22.00
% change year-on-year
+10.09 %+23.86 %
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategoryAll System Software
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
System Software category
451143352977
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK7.717 %7.206 %5.394 %
Number of daily rates quoted215119001147
Average daily rate£340£350£325
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-2.85 %+7.69 %
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£195£200£175
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£460£475£475
UK excluding London average daily rate£325£308£275
% change year-on-year
+5.69 %+11.81 %
Number of hourly rates quoted623643530
Average hourly rate£17.50£18.00£18.75
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-2.77 %-4.00 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£11.00£11.00£11.00
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£35.50£35.00£35.40
UK excluding London average hourly rate£16.50£17.50£17.50
% change year-on-year
-5.71 %-

VMware ESX
Demand Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing VMware ESX within the UK as a proportion of the total demand within the System Software category.

VMware ESX Demand Trend

VMware ESX
Daily Rate Trend

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

VMware ESX Daily Rate Trend

VMware ESX
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing VMware ESX within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

VMware ESX Daily Rate Histogram

VMware ESX
Hourly Rate Trend

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

VMware ESX Hourly Rate Trend

VMware ESX
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing VMware ESX within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

VMware ESX Hourly Rate Histogram

VMware ESX
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 VMware ESX within the UK over the 3 months to 21 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
EnglandDown-17321£350-
LondonUp+22158£375-3.84 %
South EastDown-1866£350+7.69 %
City of LondonUp+1439£400+6.66 %
South WestDown-1021£415+112.82 %
YorkshireDown-1918£310-17.33 %
North WestDown-2618£294+15.19 %
East MidlandsUp+317£328+50.80 %
HampshireUp+1716£338+28.57 %
BuckinghamshireUp+614£251+16.51 %
Milton KeynesNo change013£251+16.51 %
West YorkshireDown-1213£350+7.69 %
LeedsNo change012£350+7.69 %
West SussexNo change011£388+10.71 %
East of EnglandDown-2011£213-36.09 %
ReadingDown-1110£350-1.47 %
West MidlandsDown-1310£310+33.44 %
BerkshireDown-2510£350-1.47 %
BelfastNew entry-10£260-
County AntrimNew entry-10£260-
Northern IrelandNew entry-10£260-
CheshireUp+39£300+17.64 %
ManchesterNew entry-9£190-
GloucestershireDown-198£415+112.82 %
North EastNew entry-8£400-
Tyne and WearNew entry-8£400-
NottinghamUp+47£325+54.76 %
NottinghamshireDown-27£325+54.76 %
BirminghamDown-76£301-
SurreyDown-76£375+20.96 %

VMware ESX
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing VMware ESX 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 VMware ESX.

1653 (99.54 %)VMware
2480 (73.17 %)Windows
3402 (61.28 %)VMware Infrastructure
4271 (41.31 %)Windows Server 2008
5254 (38.72 %)Active Directory
6235 (35.82 %)SAN
7224 (34.15 %)Windows Server 2003
8223 (33.99 %)Citrix
9220 (33.54 %)Microsoft
10213 (32.47 %)vSphere
11204 (31.10 %)HP
12160 (24.39 %)Cisco
13154 (23.48 %)MS Exchange
14142 (21.65 %)Linux
15139 (21.19 %)SQL
16118 (17.99 %)SQL Server
17109 (16.62 %)Finance
18103 (15.70 %)DNS
19101 (15.40 %)XenApp
2097 (14.79 %)Security Cleared
2097 (14.79 %)Clustering
2192 (14.02 %)VMware ESXi
2289 (13.57 %)TCP/IP
2388 (13.41 %)ITIL
2487 (13.26 %)Windows 7
2585 (12.96 %)Microsoft Certification
2684 (12.80 %)Firewall
2782 (12.50 %)IIS
2782 (12.50 %)NAS
2880 (12.20 %)DHCP

VMware ESX
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing VMware ESX 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 VMware ESX. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
139 (5.945 %).NET
227 (4.116 %)XML
323 (3.506 %)Web Services
421 (3.201 %)J2EE
514 (2.134 %)HTML
514 (2.134 %)ASP.NET
613 (1.982 %).NET Remoting
711 (1.677 %)Application Packaging
711 (1.677 %)ADSI
810 (1.524 %)WebSphere
99 (1.372 %)JMS
108 (1.220 %)SOAP
116 (0.915 %)Middleware
125 (0.762 %)REST
125 (0.762 %)LAMP
125 (0.762 %)CSS
134 (0.610 %)WSH
134 (0.610 %)Ajax
143 (0.457 %)jQuery
143 (0.457 %)Forefront TMG
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
1154 (23.48 %)MS Exchange
282 (12.50 %)IIS
361 (9.299 %)Exchange Server 2010
451 (7.774 %)Exchange Server 2003
549 (7.470 %)Apache
646 (7.012 %)Exchange Server 2007
730 (4.573 %)SharePoint
730 (4.573 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
821 (3.201 %)WebLogic
917 (2.591 %)Tomcat
108 (1.220 %)WebSphere Application Server
117 (1.067 %)SharePoint 2010
117 (1.067 %)Lotus Notes
126 (0.915 %)BizTalk Server
126 (0.915 %)Lotus Domino
126 (0.915 %)Lync
133 (0.457 %)Office Communications Server
133 (0.457 %)IBM HTTP Server
133 (0.457 %)Oracle Application Server
142 (0.305 %)Oracle HTTP Server
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
172 (10.98 %)MS Excel
236 (5.488 %)MS Office
35 (0.762 %)MS Visio
43 (0.457 %)Spreadsheet
52 (0.305 %)MS Project
61 (0.152 %)Office 365
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
16 (0.915 %)Dynamics NAV
23 (0.457 %)Sage 1000
23 (0.457 %)Sage 200
32 (0.305 %)Dynamics CRM
32 (0.305 %)SoftGrid
32 (0.305 %)Maximo
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
1235 (35.82 %)SAN
2103 (15.70 %)DNS
389 (13.57 %)TCP/IP
484 (12.80 %)Firewall
582 (12.50 %)NAS
680 (12.20 %)DHCP
764 (9.756 %)LAN
848 (7.317 %)WAN
941 (6.250 %)Internet
1038 (5.793 %)iSCSI
1128 (4.268 %)Fibre Channel
1227 (4.116 %)SMTP
1227 (4.116 %)VPN
1325 (3.811 %)VLAN
1414 (2.134 %)VoIP
1513 (1.982 %)LDAP
1513 (1.982 %)HTTP
1612 (1.829 %)Wireless
179 (1.372 %)Cisco ASA
179 (1.372 %)FTP
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
1118 (17.99 %)SQL Server
232 (4.878 %)SQL Server 2005
331 (4.726 %)MySQL
426 (3.963 %)SQL Server 2008
521 (3.201 %)Oracle 8/8i
68 (1.220 %)SQL Server 2000
77 (1.067 %)Oracle 11g
86 (0.915 %)Data Warehouse
86 (0.915 %)Oracle 10g
93 (0.457 %)Oracle BI EE
93 (0.457 %)Oracle OWB
93 (0.457 %)Oracle Discoverer
93 (0.457 %)ETL
93 (0.457 %)Oracle Reports
102 (0.305 %)RDBMS
111 (0.152 %)BusinessObjects XI
111 (0.152 %)SAP HANA
111 (0.152 %)BusinessObjects
111 (0.152 %)OLTP
111 (0.152 %)Crystal Enterprise
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
114 (2.134 %)Visual Studio
26 (0.915 %)InstallShield
26 (0.915 %)MSI
33 (0.457 %)Oracle APEX
33 (0.457 %)Team Foundation Server
42 (0.305 %)Hudson
42 (0.305 %)K2 blackpoint
51 (0.152 %)Git (software)
51 (0.152 %)Capistrano
51 (0.152 %)Maven
51 (0.152 %)Subversion
51 (0.152 %)StarTeam
51 (0.152 %)JIRA
51 (0.152 %)Eclipse
51 (0.152 %)ClearCase
51 (0.152 %)PVCS
51 (0.152 %)VSS/SourceSafe
51 (0.152 %)Ant
51 (0.152 %)WinRunner
51 (0.152 %)TestDirector
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
1109 (16.62 %)Finance
258 (8.841 %)Banking
327 (4.116 %)Telecoms
422 (3.354 %)Investment Banking
511 (1.677 %)Financial Institution
68 (1.220 %)Retail
77 (1.067 %)Back Office
77 (1.067 %)Law
77 (1.067 %)Pharmaceutical
85 (0.762 %)Online Betting
93 (0.457 %)Multimedia
102 (0.305 %)French Language
102 (0.305 %)German Language
102 (0.305 %)Marketing
102 (0.305 %)Games
102 (0.305 %)Manufacturing
111 (0.152 %)Publishing
111 (0.152 %)Automotive
111 (0.152 %)Front Office
111 (0.152 %)Billing
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
173 (11.13 %)Administrator
271 (10.82 %)Analyst
362 (9.451 %)Consultant
452 (7.927 %)3rd Line Support
551 (7.774 %)Infrastructure Engineer
648 (7.317 %)Systems Administrator
742 (6.402 %)Architect
836 (5.488 %)Support Engineer
935 (5.335 %)VMware Engineer
1029 (4.421 %)VMware Consultant
1128 (4.268 %)Support Analyst
1128 (4.268 %)Server Engineer
1225 (3.811 %)Systems Engineer
1324 (3.659 %)Linux Engineer
1324 (3.659 %)Server Support
1419 (2.896 %)Developer
1517 (2.591 %)Server Analyst
1616 (2.439 %)Infrastructure Analyst
1616 (2.439 %)Technical Architect
1616 (2.439 %)Network Engineer
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
197 (14.79 %)Clustering
235 (5.335 %)Replication
329 (4.421 %)Blackberry
418 (2.744 %)Hedge funds
513 (1.982 %)EqualLogic
513 (1.982 %)CLARiiON
69 (1.372 %)Client/Server
78 (1.220 %)Thin Client
78 (1.220 %)Fat Client
87 (1.067 %)Cryptography
87 (1.067 %)Computer Science
96 (0.915 %)Management Information System
96 (0.915 %)HP StorageWorks
96 (0.915 %)Enterprise Storage
105 (0.762 %)Celerra
105 (0.762 %)NHS
114 (0.610 %)HACMP
114 (0.610 %)N-Tier
114 (0.610 %)Symmetrix DMX
123 (0.457 %)Video Conferencing
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
1480 (73.17 %)Windows
2271 (41.31 %)Windows Server 2008
3224 (34.15 %)Windows Server 2003
4142 (21.65 %)Linux
587 (13.26 %)Windows 7
664 (9.756 %)UNIX
760 (9.146 %)Windows XP
858 (8.841 %)Solaris
952 (7.927 %)Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1037 (5.640 %)Windows 2000
1131 (4.726 %)Windows 2000 Server
1230 (4.573 %)Windows NT
1319 (2.896 %)HPUX
1416 (2.439 %)CentOS
1510 (1.524 %)VMS
1510 (1.524 %)Windows Vista
166 (0.915 %)AIX
174 (0.610 %)Windows CE
174 (0.610 %)Oracle Linux
183 (0.457 %)Apple iOS
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
188 (13.41 %)ITIL
266 (10.06 %)Migration
347 (7.165 %)Disaster Recovery
426 (3.963 %)Change Management
426 (3.963 %)Change Control
524 (3.659 %)PRINCE2
623 (3.506 %)Service Management
719 (2.896 %)Service Delivery
818 (2.744 %)Problem Management
917 (2.591 %)Capacity Planning
917 (2.591 %)Time Management
1015 (2.287 %)Capacity Management
1015 (2.287 %)UML
1114 (2.134 %)Configuration Management
1114 (2.134 %)Workflow
1114 (2.134 %)Continuous Integration
1114 (2.134 %)Load Balancing
1213 (1.982 %)Project Management
1312 (1.829 %)Web Development
1312 (1.829 %)Software Architecture
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
1139 (21.19 %)SQL
268 (10.37 %)PowerShell
344 (6.707 %)Perl
440 (6.098 %)VBScript
526 (3.963 %)C
625 (3.811 %)Shell Script
722 (3.354 %)C#
816 (2.439 %)VB
913 (1.982 %)XPath
1010 (1.524 %)PHP
119 (1.372 %)Java
119 (1.372 %)JavaScript
119 (1.372 %)Python
128 (1.220 %)VB.NET
128 (1.220 %)Bash shell
133 (0.457 %)PL/SQL
142 (0.305 %)Tcl
142 (0.305 %)VBA
151 (0.152 %)Korn
151 (0.152 %)Ada
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
197 (14.79 %)Security Cleared
285 (12.96 %)Microsoft Certification
373 (11.13 %)MCSE
470 (10.67 %)VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
566 (10.06 %)SC Cleared
644 (6.707 %)Cisco Certification
740 (6.098 %)CCNA
835 (5.335 %)DV Cleared
930 (4.573 %)MCITP
1022 (3.354 %)Degree
1120 (3.049 %)MCSA
1219 (2.896 %)Citrix Certification
1315 (2.287 %)MCP
1315 (2.287 %)CCNP
1414 (2.134 %)ITIL Certification
1414 (2.134 %)VCP4
1511 (1.677 %)CCSA
1610 (1.524 %)CCEA
179 (1.372 %)VCP5
179 (1.372 %)CCA
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
119 (2.896 %)SLA
28 (1.220 %)PCI DSS
34 (0.610 %)ISO 9001
41 (0.152 %)ISO/IEC 27001
41 (0.152 %)QA
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
1402 (61.28 %)VMware Infrastructure
2254 (38.72 %)Active Directory
3213 (32.47 %)vSphere
4101 (15.40 %)XenApp
592 (14.02 %)VMware ESXi
646 (7.012 %)Hyper-V
741 (6.250 %)Citrix Presentation Server
839 (5.945 %)XenDesktop
924 (3.659 %)XenServer
1019 (2.896 %)NFS
1116 (2.439 %)VMware Server
1215 (2.287 %)vCloud
1313 (1.982 %)ISA Server
1313 (1.982 %)Terminal Services
1412 (1.829 %)MailMarshal
1511 (1.677 %)VMware Workstation
1511 (1.677 %)NLBS
1511 (1.677 %)Microsoft Virtual Server
168 (1.220 %)Oracle RAC
176 (0.915 %)Xen
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
167 (10.21 %)NetBackup
258 (8.841 %)SCOM
357 (8.689 %)vCenter
454 (8.232 %)SCCM
536 (5.488 %)Backup Exec
624 (3.659 %)WSUS
722 (3.354 %)Norton AntiVirus
815 (2.287 %)McAfee ePO
914 (2.134 %)Legato
914 (2.134 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
1012 (1.829 %)HP Data Protector
1110 (1.524 %)Tivoli
1110 (1.524 %)OpenView
127 (1.067 %)EMC NetWorker
136 (0.915 %)BladeLogic
136 (0.915 %)HP SIM
136 (0.915 %)Puppet
136 (0.915 %)SCVMM
144 (0.610 %)Nagios
144 (0.610 %)Tivoli Storage Manager
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
1653 (99.54 %)VMware
2223 (33.99 %)Citrix
3220 (33.54 %)Microsoft
4204 (31.10 %)HP
5160 (24.39 %)Cisco
676 (11.59 %)Oracle
770 (10.67 %)NetApp
868 (10.37 %)Symantec
960 (9.146 %)Dell
1054 (8.232 %)IBM
1152 (7.927 %)Red Hat
1248 (7.317 %)EMC
1339 (5.945 %)Veritas
1436 (5.488 %)McAfee
1535 (5.335 %)Sun
1634 (5.183 %)Brocade
1720 (3.049 %)Sophos
1720 (3.049 %)BMC
1819 (2.896 %)JBoss
1819 (2.896 %)PlateSpin