The first part of the table below looks at the demand for Windows 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 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
Location
3 months to
21 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank6612
Rank change year-on-year
No change0Up+6
Matching contract IT job ads721873405495
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK12.35 %12.20 %9.957 %
As % of the Operating Systems category60.72 %58.67 %54.92 %
Number of daily rates quoted333733662212
Average daily rate£330£350£350
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-5.71 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£160£190£175
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£500£550£535
UK excluding London average daily rate£315£300£295
% change year-on-year
+5.00 %+1.69 %
Number of hourly rates quoted10181064883
Average hourly rate£17.00£16.25£15.50
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+4.61 %+4.83 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£11.00£10.50£10.00
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£36.50£35.00£32.20
UK excluding London average hourly rate£16.50£15.50£15.00
% change year-on-year
+6.45 %+3.33 %
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
Demand Trend

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

Windows Demand Trend

Windows
Daily Rate Trend

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

Windows Daily Rate Trend

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Windows Daily Rate Histogram

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Windows Hourly Rate Trend

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram

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

Windows Hourly Rate Histogram

Windows
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 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
EnglandNo change06662£335-6.29 %
LondonUp+53053£363-12.91 %
South EastUp+11466£306-5.76 %
City of LondonUp+6917£375-11.76 %
East of EnglandUp+1506£300+9.09 %
South WestNo change0443£363+11.53 %
North WestDown-1395£300+13.20 %
BerkshireNo change0387£305-6.15 %
ScotlandDown-1321£315+14.54 %
HampshireNo change0320£300-7.69 %
SurreyUp+1277£326-6.11 %
West MidlandsNo change0268£320+16.36 %
YorkshireDown-5244£275-0.90 %
East MidlandsNo change0218£300+20.00 %
ReadingDown-1202£338-3.57 %
BuckinghamshireUp+1180£300+8.59 %
ManchesterUp+5165£300+15.38 %
West YorkshireDown-8153£300+9.09 %
HertfordshireDown-2149£318+5.83 %
Milton KeynesNo change0135£300+20.00 %
CambridgeshireDown-1119£290+5.45 %
CheshireDown-3110£324+6.22 %
GloucestershireDown-5107£400+28.00 %
BristolUp+298£320+6.66 %
EdinburghDown-198£325+8.33 %
EssexUp+295£233-7.00 %
GlasgowUp+291£255-7.27 %
LeedsDown-489£300+20.00 %
WalesUp+188£225-37.93 %
OxfordshireDown-386£313-3.47 %

Windows
Top 30 Related IT Skills

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

14353 (31.24 %)Microsoft
24251 (30.51 %)Active Directory
33278 (23.52 %)Windows Server 2008
43098 (22.23 %)Windows 7
52912 (20.90 %)Windows Server 2003
62657 (19.07 %)VMware
72642 (18.96 %)Windows XP
82479 (17.79 %)SQL
92217 (15.91 %)UNIX
102180 (15.64 %)SQL Server
112175 (15.61 %)Citrix
122131 (15.29 %)Linux
132079 (14.92 %)Finance
142021 (14.50 %)MS Office
151990 (14.28 %)MS Exchange
161893 (13.58 %)MS Excel
171670 (11.98 %)ITIL
181585 (11.37 %).NET
191541 (11.06 %)Security Cleared
201490 (10.69 %)HP
211420 (10.19 %)Oracle
211420 (10.19 %)VMware Infrastructure
221310 (9.401 %)Migration
231270 (9.114 %)SAN
241248 (8.956 %)TCP/IP
251213 (8.705 %)C#
261170 (8.396 %)DNS
271158 (8.310 %)Cisco
281090 (7.822 %)Microsoft Certification
291031 (7.399 %)Banking

Windows
Top Related IT Skills by Category

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

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
11585 (11.37 %).NET
2778 (5.583 %)XML
3605 (4.342 %)Web Services
4596 (4.277 %)ASP.NET
5497 (3.567 %)HTML
6391 (2.806 %)Middleware
7350 (2.512 %)WebSphere
8347 (2.490 %)CSS
9343 (2.461 %)Application Packaging
10303 (2.174 %)WCF
11283 (2.031 %).NET Framework
12242 (1.737 %)WPF
13230 (1.651 %)J2EE
14202 (1.450 %)jQuery
15201 (1.442 %)Ajax
16158 (1.134 %)WinForms
17151 (1.084 %)SOAP
18143 (1.026 %)XSLT
19120 (0.861 %)ASP
20113 (0.811 %)Silverlight
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
11990 (14.28 %)MS Exchange
2943 (6.767 %)IIS
3800 (5.741 %)Exchange Server 2010
4783 (5.619 %)SharePoint
5772 (5.540 %)Exchange Server 2003
6663 (4.758 %)Exchange Server 2007
7332 (2.382 %)Apache
8316 (2.268 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
9286 (2.052 %)SharePoint 2010
10284 (2.038 %)Lotus Notes
11171 (1.227 %)BizTalk Server
12166 (1.191 %)WebSphere MQ
13147 (1.055 %)WebLogic
14146 (1.048 %)WebSphere Application Server
15137 (0.983 %)Tomcat
16122 (0.875 %)Lync
17118 (0.847 %)SharePoint Server
1889 (0.639 %)IBM HTTP Server
1973 (0.524 %)Documentum
2062 (0.445 %)CMS
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
12021 (14.50 %)MS Office
21893 (13.58 %)MS Excel
3220 (1.579 %)MS Visio
4149 (1.069 %)MS PowerPoint
598 (0.703 %)MS Project
647 (0.337 %)Photoshop
745 (0.323 %)Office 365
840 (0.287 %)InfoPath
929 (0.208 %)Acrobat
929 (0.208 %)Spreadsheet
1024 (0.172 %)MATLAB
1118 (0.129 %)InDesign
1216 (0.115 %)Fireworks
1313 (0.093 %)AutoCAD
1410 (0.072 %)Adobe Illustrator
1410 (0.072 %)Simulink
159 (0.065 %)Vectorworks
168 (0.057 %)Google Apps
177 (0.050 %)CINEMA 4D
185 (0.036 %)DeltaView
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
1106 (0.761 %)Dynamics CRM
236 (0.258 %)RMDS
236 (0.258 %)Oracle EBS
324 (0.172 %)Teamcenter
415 (0.108 %)SunGard Stream Clearvision
415 (0.108 %)Oracle Applications
415 (0.108 %)assyst
514 (0.100 %)Dynamics NAV
613 (0.093 %)Maximo
712 (0.086 %)SAP ERP
712 (0.086 %)SoftGrid
811 (0.079 %)Cerner Millennium
910 (0.072 %)LabWindows
910 (0.072 %)Dynamics AX
910 (0.072 %)BusinessWorks
910 (0.072 %)WebTrends
109 (0.065 %)3000 Xtra
118 (0.057 %)Oracle EBS R12
118 (0.057 %)SunGard Martini
118 (0.057 %)SAP CRM
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
11270 (9.114 %)SAN
21248 (8.956 %)TCP/IP
31170 (8.396 %)DNS
4945 (6.781 %)Firewall
5818 (5.870 %)LAN
6740 (5.310 %)DHCP
7705 (5.059 %)WAN
8577 (4.141 %)Internet
9497 (3.567 %)VPN
10318 (2.282 %)NAS
11285 (2.045 %)VoIP
12281 (2.017 %)LDAP
13237 (1.701 %)HTTP
14227 (1.629 %)Wireless
15215 (1.543 %)SSL
16164 (1.177 %)SMTP
17153 (1.098 %)Network Security
18145 (1.041 %)VLAN
19135 (0.969 %)FTP
20127 (0.911 %)iSCSI
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
12180 (15.64 %)SQL Server
2541 (3.882 %)SQL Server 2008
3521 (3.739 %)SQL Server 2005
4233 (1.672 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
5232 (1.665 %)MySQL
6209 (1.500 %)SQL Server Integration Services
7201 (1.442 %)DB2
8193 (1.385 %)Oracle 8/8i
9143 (1.026 %)Oracle 10g
10142 (1.019 %)Oracle 11g
11132 (0.947 %)SQL Server 2000
12131 (0.940 %)RDBMS
13122 (0.875 %)SQL Server Analysis Services
14102 (0.732 %)Data Warehouse
1574 (0.531 %)Crystal Reports
1672 (0.517 %)ETL
1771 (0.510 %)DTS
1870 (0.502 %)MS Access
1963 (0.452 %)Oracle Reports
2057 (0.409 %)Microsoft Analysis Services
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
1451 (3.236 %)Visual Studio
2427 (3.064 %)MSI
3178 (1.277 %)Subversion
4168 (1.206 %)Team Foundation Server
5142 (1.019 %)InstallShield
6121 (0.868 %)Wise Package Studio
7101 (0.725 %)ClearCase
893 (0.667 %)NUnit
893 (0.667 %)Eclipse
988 (0.632 %)JIRA
1081 (0.581 %)Hudson
1175 (0.538 %)TeamCity
1266 (0.474 %)Ant
1361 (0.438 %)VSS/SourceSafe
1460 (0.431 %)Maven
1460 (0.431 %)Git (software)
1559 (0.423 %)JUnit
1654 (0.388 %)QuickTest Pro
1743 (0.309 %)Oracle Forms
1840 (0.287 %)LoadRunner
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
12079 (14.92 %)Finance
21031 (7.399 %)Banking
3557 (3.997 %)Telecoms
4423 (3.036 %)Investment Banking
5260 (1.866 %)Front Office
6204 (1.464 %)Back Office
7198 (1.421 %)Legal
8174 (1.249 %)Law
9168 (1.206 %)Financial Institution
10146 (1.048 %)Retail
11101 (0.725 %)Publishing
1281 (0.581 %)German Language
1377 (0.553 %)Marketing
1476 (0.545 %)Games
1572 (0.517 %)Manufacturing
1663 (0.452 %)French Language
1760 (0.431 %)Local Government
1760 (0.431 %)Pharmaceutical
1859 (0.423 %)Billing
1935 (0.251 %)Electronics
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
12569 (18.44 %)Analyst
21601 (11.49 %)Developer
31089 (7.815 %)Support Analyst
41084 (7.779 %)Support Engineer
5761 (5.461 %)Desktop Support
6748 (5.368 %)Consultant
7735 (5.274 %)Architect
8688 (4.937 %)Administrator
9646 (4.636 %)2nd Line Support
10469 (3.366 %)Service Analyst
11447 (3.208 %)Service Desk Analyst
12443 (3.179 %)3rd Line Support
13426 (3.057 %)Infrastructure Engineer
14393 (2.820 %)Desktop Engineer
15365 (2.619 %)Systems Administrator
15365 (2.619 %)Project Manager
16325 (2.332 %)IT Support
17306 (2.196 %)1st Line Support
18302 (2.167 %)Applications Packager
18302 (2.167 %).NET Developer
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
1788 (5.655 %)Blackberry
2665 (4.772 %)Clustering
3280 (2.009 %)Client/Server
4254 (1.823 %)Replication
5207 (1.485 %)Mainframe
6190 (1.363 %)Fat Client
6190 (1.363 %)Thin Client
7178 (1.277 %)Computer Science
8168 (1.206 %)Management Information System
9165 (1.184 %)PKI
10156 (1.119 %)iPhone
11134 (0.962 %)Derivative
12132 (0.947 %)NHS
13120 (0.861 %)Foreign Exchange (FX)
14118 (0.847 %)iPad
15115 (0.825 %)Fixed Income
16108 (0.775 %)Hedge funds
1797 (0.696 %)Mathematics
1890 (0.646 %)N-Tier
1984 (0.603 %)CLARiiON
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
13278 (23.52 %)Windows Server 2008
23098 (22.23 %)Windows 7
32912 (20.90 %)Windows Server 2003
42642 (18.96 %)Windows XP
52217 (15.91 %)UNIX
62131 (15.29 %)Linux
7613 (4.399 %)Windows Vista
8595 (4.270 %)Solaris
9486 (3.488 %)Windows 2000
10360 (2.583 %)AIX
11345 (2.476 %)Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12287 (2.060 %)Windows 2000 Server
13203 (1.457 %)Windows NT
14202 (1.450 %)Android
15167 (1.198 %)Windows Mobile
16160 (1.148 %)Mac OS X
17145 (1.041 %)Apple iOS
18134 (0.962 %)HPUX
1993 (0.667 %)Windows CE
2058 (0.416 %)zOS
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
11670 (11.98 %)ITIL
21310 (9.401 %)Migration
3628 (4.507 %)Project Management
4384 (2.756 %)OO
5377 (2.705 %)Service Delivery
6370 (2.655 %)Disaster Recovery
7330 (2.368 %)Configuration Management
8327 (2.347 %)Agile Software Development
9318 (2.282 %)Service Management
10317 (2.275 %)Change Management
11281 (2.017 %)Problem Management
12266 (1.909 %)Load Balancing
13262 (1.880 %)PRINCE2
14237 (1.701 %)Incident Management
15228 (1.636 %)Multithreading
16221 (1.586 %)CRM
17213 (1.529 %)User Acceptance Testing
18210 (1.507 %)Scrum
19207 (1.485 %)Workflow
20202 (1.450 %)E-Commerce
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
12479 (17.79 %)SQL
21213 (8.705 %)C#
3868 (6.229 %)Java
4786 (5.640 %)C++
5617 (4.428 %)PowerShell
6589 (4.227 %)VB
7557 (3.997 %)VBScript
8521 (3.739 %)C
9455 (3.265 %)JavaScript
10437 (3.136 %)Perl
11314 (2.253 %)Shell Script
12271 (1.945 %)T-SQL
13227 (1.629 %)Python
14224 (1.607 %)VB.NET
15179 (1.285 %)PHP
15179 (1.285 %)PL/SQL
16122 (0.875 %)VBA
17101 (0.725 %)Ruby
1896 (0.689 %)Bash shell
1982 (0.588 %)VC++
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
11541 (11.06 %)Security Cleared
21090 (7.822 %)Microsoft Certification
3987 (7.083 %)SC Cleared
4675 (4.844 %)MCSE
5579 (4.155 %)Degree
6381 (2.734 %)DV Cleared
7365 (2.619 %)MCP
8336 (2.411 %)Cisco Certification
9285 (2.045 %)MCITP
10257 (1.844 %)CCNA
11168 (1.206 %)VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12156 (1.119 %)Citrix Certification
13146 (1.048 %)ITIL Certification
14135 (0.969 %)MCSA
15130 (0.933 %)ISEB
16125 (0.897 %)CCNP
17115 (0.825 %)CCA
18111 (0.797 %)MCTS
1978 (0.560 %)CISSP
2077 (0.553 %)MCDST
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
1518 (3.717 %)SLA
2290 (2.081 %)QA
355 (0.395 %)ISO 9001
453 (0.380 %)ISO/IEC 27001
534 (0.244 %)Sarbanes-Oxley
625 (0.179 %)PCI DSS
714 (0.100 %)TickIT
812 (0.086 %)GMP
910 (0.072 %)COBIT
910 (0.072 %)HL7
108 (0.057 %)ISO 9000
108 (0.057 %)BS7799
117 (0.050 %)Solvency II
125 (0.036 %)WAI
134 (0.029 %)IAS 39
134 (0.029 %)Basel II
143 (0.022 %)21 CFR Part 11
143 (0.022 %)BS25999
152 (0.014 %)JSP 440
152 (0.014 %)ISO/IEC 17799
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
14251 (30.51 %)Active Directory
21420 (10.19 %)VMware Infrastructure
3596 (4.277 %)XenApp
4549 (3.940 %)vSphere
5480 (3.445 %)VMware ESX
6373 (2.677 %)Hyper-V
7234 (1.679 %)XenDesktop
8173 (1.241 %)VMware ESXi
9169 (1.213 %)Terminal Services
10133 (0.954 %)Citrix Presentation Server
11101 (0.725 %)XenServer
1281 (0.581 %)NFS
1371 (0.510 %)ISA Server
1464 (0.459 %)Oracle RAC
1560 (0.431 %)Terminal Server
1652 (0.373 %)MetaFrame
1751 (0.366 %)Xen
1849 (0.352 %)Microsoft Virtual Server
1937 (0.266 %)VMware Workstation
2036 (0.258 %)VMware Server
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
1959 (6.882 %)SCCM
2314 (2.253 %)SCOM
3271 (1.945 %)NetBackup
4222 (1.593 %)Tivoli
5210 (1.507 %)Backup Exec
6187 (1.342 %)OpenView Configuration Management
7185 (1.328 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
8142 (1.019 %)WSUS
9117 (0.840 %)HP Quality Center
1094 (0.675 %)OpenView
1181 (0.581 %)Norton AntiVirus
1280 (0.574 %)Tivoli Storage Manager
1369 (0.495 %)HP SIM
1467 (0.481 %)Nagios
1467 (0.481 %)vCenter
1467 (0.481 %)McAfee ePO
1565 (0.466 %)BladeLogic
1565 (0.466 %)WMI
1657 (0.409 %)EMC NetWorker
1746 (0.330 %)Puppet
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
14353 (31.24 %)Microsoft
22657 (19.07 %)VMware
32175 (15.61 %)Citrix
41490 (10.69 %)HP
51420 (10.19 %)Oracle
61158 (8.310 %)Cisco
7544 (3.904 %)IBM
8445 (3.193 %)EMC
8445 (3.193 %)NetApp
9437 (3.136 %)Symantec
10395 (2.835 %)Dell
11394 (2.827 %)Red Hat
12306 (2.196 %)Lotus
13274 (1.966 %)Remedy
14239 (1.715 %)Sun
15195 (1.399 %)Altiris
16187 (1.342 %)Apple
17184 (1.320 %)McAfee
17184 (1.320 %)SAP
18180 (1.292 %)Reuters