The first part of the table below looks at the demand for Windows Server 2008 skills in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited Windows Server 2008 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 Operating Systems 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.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Location
3 months to
21 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank5083153
Rank change year-on-year
Up+33Up+70
Matching contract IT job ads17891312662
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK3.060 %2.181 %1.199 %
As % of the Operating Systems category15.05 %10.49 %6.617 %
Number of daily rates quoted842622265
Average daily rate£325£328£300
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-0.76 %+9.16 %
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£196£219£200
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£450£450£450
UK excluding London average daily rate£300£300£275
% change year-on-year
-+9.09 %
Number of hourly rates quoted197144108
Average hourly rate£20.00£18.75£21.75
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+6.66 %-13.79 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£11.98£11.00£12.68
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£35.00£35.00£40.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate£19.00£17.50£22.00
% change year-on-year
+8.57 %-20.45 %
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryAll Operating Systems
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Operating Systems category
118871251010005
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK20.34 %20.80 %18.13 %
Number of daily rates quoted593361134469
Average daily rate£350£375£375
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-6.66 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£200£215£200
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£500£550£550
UK excluding London average daily rate£325£325£300
% change year-on-year
-+8.33 %
Number of hourly rates quoted118512361035
Average hourly rate£17.50£17.00£16.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+2.94 %+6.25 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£11.21£11.00£10.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£40.00£37.50£37.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate£17.00£16.50£15.50
% change year-on-year
+3.03 %+6.45 %

Windows Server 2008
Demand Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing Windows Server 2008 within the UK as a proportion of the total demand within the Operating Systems category.

Windows Server 2008 Demand Trend

Windows Server 2008
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing Windows Server 2008 within the UK.

Windows Server 2008 Daily Rate Trend

Windows Server 2008
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Windows Server 2008 within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

Windows Server 2008 Daily Rate Histogram

Windows Server 2008
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing Windows Server 2008 within the UK.

Windows Server 2008 Hourly Rate Trend

Windows Server 2008
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Windows Server 2008 within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

Windows Server 2008 Hourly Rate Histogram

Windows Server 2008
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 Windows Server 2008 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
EnglandUp+291614£325-2.98 %
LondonUp+52797£350-3.44 %
South EastDown-2334£314+4.58 %
City of LondonUp+49201£380+8.57 %
North WestUp+28109£285+7.54 %
ScotlandUp+42106£325+18.18 %
BerkshireDown-10101£360+17.55 %
South WestDown-688£288-0.86 %
West MidlandsUp+678£325-1.51 %
East of EnglandUp+677£260-16.12 %
HampshireUp+372£273-16.15 %
East MidlandsUp+3561£313+3.99 %
BuckinghamshireUp+2659£250+36.98 %
ReadingDown-356£385+28.33 %
Milton KeynesUp+1449£251+35.40 %
YorkshireDown-3247£300-
SurreyUp+646£339-1.81 %
ManchesterUp+1245£250+13.63 %
BirminghamUp+637£305-15.79 %
EdinburghUp+1736£325+6.55 %
CheshireUp+2130£324+22.26 %
GlasgowUp+2028£350-17.64 %
West YorkshireDown-3226£238-5.00 %
SuffolkUp+1424£258+47.14 %
North EastUp+1124£350+12.90 %
WiltshireUp+623£314-26.17 %
Northern IrelandUp+3122£260-
WalesUp+922£225-30.76 %
GloucestershireDown-1722£195-2.50 %
County AntrimUp+3221£260-

Windows Server 2008
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing Windows Server 2008 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 Windows Server 2008.

13278 (100.00 %)Windows
22100 (64.06 %)Windows Server 2003
31769 (53.97 %)Active Directory
41404 (42.83 %)VMware
51342 (40.94 %)Microsoft
61105 (33.71 %)MS Exchange
7918 (28.00 %)Citrix
8724 (22.09 %)VMware Infrastructure
9701 (21.38 %)Windows 7
10624 (19.04 %)SQL
11611 (18.64 %)HP
12586 (17.88 %)SQL Server
13568 (17.33 %)SAN
14564 (17.21 %)Exchange Server 2010
15540 (16.47 %)DNS
16538 (16.41 %)Windows XP
17532 (16.23 %)MS Excel
18530 (16.17 %)Microsoft Certification
19488 (14.89 %)Exchange Server 2007
20453 (13.82 %)Exchange Server 2003
21437 (13.33 %)Finance
22410 (12.51 %)Cisco
22410 (12.51 %)ITIL
23404 (12.32 %)Security Cleared
24403 (12.29 %)IIS
25391 (11.93 %)Migration
26384 (11.71 %)TCP/IP
27363 (11.07 %)DHCP
27363 (11.07 %)MS Office
28355 (10.83 %)XenApp

Windows Server 2008
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing Windows Server 2008 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 Windows Server 2008. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
1236 (7.200 %).NET
288 (2.685 %)ASP.NET
384 (2.563 %)HTML
480 (2.441 %)Web Services
577 (2.349 %)XML
665 (1.983 %)Application Packaging
762 (1.891 %).NET Framework
852 (1.586 %)WebSphere
936 (1.098 %)CSS
1031 (0.946 %)WCF
1126 (0.793 %)jQuery
1126 (0.793 %)ASP
1224 (0.732 %)Forefront TMG
1322 (0.671 %)Middleware
1418 (0.549 %)WSH
1517 (0.519 %)COM
1517 (0.519 %)Ajax
1517 (0.519 %)ADO.NET Entity Framework
1614 (0.427 %)ASP.NET MVC
1712 (0.366 %)XHTML
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
11105 (33.71 %)MS Exchange
2564 (17.21 %)Exchange Server 2010
3488 (14.89 %)Exchange Server 2007
4453 (13.82 %)Exchange Server 2003
5403 (12.29 %)IIS
6350 (10.68 %)SharePoint
7146 (4.454 %)SharePoint 2010
8140 (4.271 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
968 (2.074 %)BizTalk Server
1066 (2.013 %)Lotus Notes
1164 (1.952 %)Lync
1258 (1.769 %)Apache
1343 (1.312 %)SharePoint Server
1435 (1.068 %)Lotus Domino
1524 (0.732 %)Tomcat
1621 (0.641 %)WebSphere Application Server
1720 (0.610 %)Office Communications Server
1816 (0.488 %)WebSphere MQ
1816 (0.488 %)MSMQ
1913 (0.397 %)Exchange Server 2000
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
1532 (16.23 %)MS Excel
2363 (11.07 %)MS Office
338 (1.159 %)MS Visio
432 (0.976 %)MS PowerPoint
530 (0.915 %)Office 365
619 (0.580 %)MS Project
716 (0.488 %)InfoPath
85 (0.153 %)Photoshop
94 (0.122 %)InDesign
103 (0.092 %)Acrobat
103 (0.092 %)Spreadsheet
112 (0.061 %)PowerPivot
121 (0.031 %)Fireworks
121 (0.031 %)DeltaView
121 (0.031 %)Stata
121 (0.031 %)MATLAB
121 (0.031 %)DOC1
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
133 (1.007 %)Dynamics CRM
27 (0.214 %)WebTrends
36 (0.183 %)BusinessWorks
45 (0.153 %)CODA-Financials
45 (0.153 %)Dynamics AX
45 (0.153 %)Dynamics NAV
53 (0.092 %)Oracle EBS
53 (0.092 %)SoftGrid
53 (0.092 %)Prophet
62 (0.061 %)Cognos Business Intelligence
62 (0.061 %)Maximo
71 (0.031 %)SAP FI/CO
71 (0.031 %)SAP FI
71 (0.031 %)Visualfiles
71 (0.031 %)SAP CO
71 (0.031 %)Minerva
71 (0.031 %)Sentinel
71 (0.031 %)SAP SRM
71 (0.031 %)assyst
71 (0.031 %)Remedy ITSM
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
1568 (17.33 %)SAN
2540 (16.47 %)DNS
3384 (11.71 %)TCP/IP
4363 (11.07 %)DHCP
5336 (10.25 %)Firewall
6272 (8.298 %)LAN
7268 (8.176 %)WAN
8151 (4.606 %)VPN
9120 (3.661 %)Internet
1098 (2.990 %)NAS
1179 (2.410 %)VoIP
1272 (2.196 %)Wireless
1370 (2.135 %)SMTP
1467 (2.044 %)HTTP
1556 (1.708 %)VLAN
1653 (1.617 %)iSCSI
1751 (1.556 %)NetScaler
1845 (1.373 %)SSL
1942 (1.281 %)MPLS
2040 (1.220 %)FTP
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
1586 (17.88 %)SQL Server
2258 (7.871 %)SQL Server 2008
3187 (5.705 %)SQL Server 2005
488 (2.685 %)Oracle 8/8i
562 (1.891 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
649 (1.495 %)SQL Server Integration Services
737 (1.129 %)MySQL
834 (1.037 %)SQL Server Analysis Services
834 (1.037 %)SQL Server 2000
928 (0.854 %)Oracle 11g
1027 (0.824 %)Oracle 10g
1120 (0.610 %)DB2
1120 (0.610 %)RDBMS
1218 (0.549 %)ETL
1317 (0.519 %)Data Warehouse
1416 (0.488 %)OLAP
1512 (0.366 %)Oracle OLAP
1512 (0.366 %)MS Access
169 (0.275 %)Microsoft Analysis Services
176 (0.183 %)SQL Server 7
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
153 (1.617 %)Visual Studio
245 (1.373 %)MSI
334 (1.037 %)Team Foundation Server
427 (0.824 %)StarTeam
523 (0.702 %)Subversion
619 (0.580 %)JIRA
714 (0.427 %)InstallShield
812 (0.366 %)VSS/SourceSafe
812 (0.366 %)ClearCase
98 (0.244 %)TestDirector
107 (0.214 %)Ant
107 (0.214 %)Wise Package Studio
114 (0.122 %)MSBuild
123 (0.092 %)QuickTest Pro
123 (0.092 %)AdminStudio
132 (0.061 %)K2 blackpoint
132 (0.061 %)TeamCity
132 (0.061 %)NUnit
132 (0.061 %)ClearQuest
132 (0.061 %)Eclipse
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
1437 (13.33 %)Finance
2154 (4.698 %)Banking
395 (2.898 %)Telecoms
454 (1.647 %)Investment Banking
536 (1.098 %)Law
624 (0.732 %)Financial Institution
723 (0.702 %)Retail
822 (0.671 %)Publishing
920 (0.610 %)Legal
1019 (0.580 %)Local Government
1115 (0.458 %)Back Office
1213 (0.397 %)German Language
1312 (0.366 %)Front Office
1410 (0.305 %)Manufacturing
158 (0.244 %)Marketing
158 (0.244 %)French Language
167 (0.214 %)Pharmaceutical
176 (0.183 %)Private Banking
176 (0.183 %)Advertising
185 (0.153 %)Military
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
1528 (16.11 %)Analyst
2327 (9.976 %)Support Engineer
3282 (8.603 %)Administrator
4248 (7.566 %)3rd Line Support
5245 (7.474 %)Infrastructure Engineer
6231 (7.047 %)Support Analyst
7223 (6.803 %)Consultant
8189 (5.766 %)Server Engineer
9180 (5.491 %)Architect
10167 (5.095 %)Systems Administrator
11143 (4.362 %)2nd Line Support
12128 (3.905 %)Server Support
13127 (3.874 %)Desktop Support
14123 (3.752 %)Developer
15105 (3.203 %)Systems Engineer
1684 (2.563 %)Technical Analyst
1684 (2.563 %)IT Support
1780 (2.441 %)Technical Architect
1876 (2.318 %)Infrastructure Analyst
1973 (2.227 %)Technical Support
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
1329 (10.04 %)Clustering
2167 (5.095 %)Blackberry
393 (2.837 %)Replication
458 (1.769 %)PKI
550 (1.525 %)Client/Server
647 (1.434 %)Thin Client
647 (1.434 %)Fat Client
746 (1.403 %)Management Information System
832 (0.976 %)CLARiiON
927 (0.824 %)NHS
1024 (0.732 %)Computer Science
1121 (0.641 %)AS400
1121 (0.641 %)Hedge funds
1217 (0.519 %)Celerra
1314 (0.427 %)Firmware
1412 (0.366 %)Symmetrix DMX
1412 (0.366 %)iPhone
1412 (0.366 %)Video Conferencing
1511 (0.336 %)Handset
1511 (0.336 %)Online Banking
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
13278 (100.00 %)Windows
22100 (64.06 %)Windows Server 2003
3701 (21.38 %)Windows 7
4538 (16.41 %)Windows XP
5279 (8.511 %)Linux
6173 (5.278 %)UNIX
7145 (4.423 %)Windows Vista
7145 (4.423 %)Windows 2000 Server
8133 (4.057 %)Windows 2000
9104 (3.173 %)Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10102 (3.112 %)Solaris
1137 (1.129 %)Windows NT
1227 (0.824 %)AIX
1322 (0.671 %)Mac OS X
1419 (0.580 %)Ubuntu
1516 (0.488 %)HPUX
1615 (0.458 %)Windows CE
1714 (0.427 %)CentOS
189 (0.275 %)Windows Mobile
196 (0.183 %)Mac OS X Server
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
1410 (12.51 %)ITIL
2391 (11.93 %)Migration
3145 (4.423 %)Disaster Recovery
4144 (4.393 %)Project Management
596 (2.929 %)Change Management
676 (2.318 %)Service Delivery
772 (2.196 %)Service Management
867 (2.044 %)Incident Management
962 (1.891 %)Change Control
962 (1.891 %)Load Balancing
1059 (1.800 %)Problem Management
1145 (1.373 %)Business Continuity
1244 (1.342 %)Security Management
1343 (1.312 %)CRM
1441 (1.251 %)Configuration Management
1540 (1.220 %)PRINCE2
1639 (1.190 %)ITSM
1735 (1.068 %)Workflow
1834 (1.037 %)Data Migration
1933 (1.007 %)E-Commerce
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
1624 (19.04 %)SQL
2266 (8.115 %)PowerShell
3184 (5.613 %)VBScript
4139 (4.240 %)C#
5101 (3.081 %)VB
655 (1.678 %)Perl
754 (1.647 %)C
848 (1.464 %)JavaScript
946 (1.403 %)T-SQL
1031 (0.946 %)PHP
1128 (0.854 %)Java
1226 (0.793 %)C++
1324 (0.732 %)Shell Script
1423 (0.702 %)VB.NET
1515 (0.458 %)VBA
1614 (0.427 %)Ruby
1712 (0.366 %)Bash shell
1712 (0.366 %)Python
188 (0.244 %)PL/SQL
197 (0.214 %)Jython
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
1530 (16.17 %)Microsoft Certification
2404 (12.32 %)Security Cleared
3319 (9.732 %)MCSE
4279 (8.511 %)SC Cleared
5198 (6.040 %)MCITP
6151 (4.606 %)MCP
7129 (3.935 %)Cisco Certification
8107 (3.264 %)VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9102 (3.112 %)CCNA
1098 (2.990 %)Citrix Certification
1186 (2.624 %)Degree
1276 (2.318 %)DV Cleared
1371 (2.166 %)MCTS
1467 (2.044 %)CCA
1564 (1.952 %)MCSA
1645 (1.373 %)ITIL Certification
1741 (1.251 %)CCEA
1840 (1.220 %)CCNP
1936 (1.098 %)CCEE
2024 (0.732 %)VCP4
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
1104 (3.173 %)SLA
223 (0.702 %)QA
310 (0.305 %)ISO/IEC 27001
47 (0.214 %)ISO 9001
55 (0.153 %)Solvency II
63 (0.092 %)WAI
63 (0.092 %)PCI DSS
72 (0.061 %)COBIT
72 (0.061 %)BS7799
72 (0.061 %)Sarbanes-Oxley
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
11769 (53.97 %)Active Directory
2724 (22.09 %)VMware Infrastructure
3355 (10.83 %)XenApp
4344 (10.49 %)vSphere
5271 (8.267 %)VMware ESX
6245 (7.474 %)Hyper-V
7134 (4.088 %)XenDesktop
898 (2.990 %)VMware ESXi
973 (2.227 %)Terminal Services
1066 (2.013 %)XenServer
1164 (1.952 %)Citrix Presentation Server
1247 (1.434 %)ISA Server
1330 (0.915 %)Terminal Server
1330 (0.915 %)MetaFrame
1425 (0.763 %)MailMarshal
1518 (0.549 %)DFS Replication
1617 (0.519 %)Xen
1617 (0.519 %)UAG
1716 (0.488 %)Microsoft Virtual Server
1716 (0.488 %)Samba
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
1354 (10.80 %)SCCM
2199 (6.071 %)SCOM
3105 (3.203 %)NetBackup
4104 (3.173 %)Backup Exec
577 (2.349 %)WSUS
653 (1.617 %)HP SIM
742 (1.281 %)Norton AntiVirus
742 (1.281 %)OpenView Configuration Management
838 (1.159 %)McAfee ePO
838 (1.159 %)Tivoli
936 (1.098 %)vCenter
1030 (0.915 %)WMI
1030 (0.915 %)MOM
1030 (0.915 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
1129 (0.885 %)Tivoli Storage Manager
1227 (0.824 %)EMC NetWorker
1321 (0.641 %)Netcool
1418 (0.549 %)HP Quality Center
1514 (0.427 %)Veritas Storage Foundation
1613 (0.397 %)ARCserve
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
11404 (42.83 %)VMware
21342 (40.94 %)Microsoft
3918 (28.00 %)Citrix
4611 (18.64 %)HP
5410 (12.51 %)Cisco
6220 (6.711 %)Symantec
7187 (5.705 %)Oracle
8174 (5.308 %)NetApp
9165 (5.034 %)IBM
10156 (4.759 %)EMC
11151 (4.606 %)Dell
12127 (3.874 %)Red Hat
1382 (2.502 %)Lotus
1471 (2.166 %)McAfee
1471 (2.166 %)Altiris
1564 (1.952 %)Veritas
1659 (1.800 %)AppSense
1752 (1.586 %)CheckPoint
1848 (1.464 %)Sophos
1946 (1.403 %)Sun