Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the East Midlands

Microsoft
England > East Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the East Midlands requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 4 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 6 6
Rank change year-on-year +3 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 167 83 103
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 18.96% 12.28% 13.68%
As % of the Vendors category 42.07% 28.92% 27.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 43 72
10th Percentile £145 £185 £158
25th Percentile £302 £205 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £375 £450
Median % change year-on-year - -16.67% +13.56%
75th Percentile £475 £475 £500
90th Percentile £525 £532 £674
England median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 13 9
10th Percentile £16.28 £13.75 £10.77
25th Percentile £20.69 £15.00 £11.21
Median hourly rate £25.15 £17.00 £14.25
Median % change year-on-year +47.94% +19.30% -8.06%
75th Percentile - - £15.75
90th Percentile - £47.70 £19.75
England median hourly rate £21.13 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -6.11% -2.17% +15.00%

All Vendors
East Midlands

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the East Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 397 287 369
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 45.06% 42.46% 49.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 270 168 241
10th Percentile £157 £259 £213
25th Percentile £334 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £478 £475
Median % change year-on-year -12.04% +0.53% +5.56%
75th Percentile £517 £551 £588
90th Percentile £625 £632 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 14 23
10th Percentile £16.29 £13.86 £11.33
25th Percentile £16.35 £15.03 £13.00
Median hourly rate £21.30 £17.00 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.29% +9.68% -11.73%
75th Percentile £25.15 £18.11 £46.88
90th Percentile - £48.03 £88.75
England median hourly rate £24.00 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -26.15% -26.97% +71.15%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the East Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the East Midlands

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the East Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the East Midlands over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the East Midlands

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the East Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the East Midlands over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the East Midlands

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the East Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the East Midlands region over the 6 months to 4 December 2025. 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
Northamptonshire +3 71 £394 -7.41% 53
Leicestershire +1 26 £195 -7.14% 39
Nottinghamshire -1 26 £210 -44.00% 55
Derbyshire +1 25 £355 -16.47% 34
Lincolnshire +4 16 £700 +268.42% 25
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East Midlands by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 12 (7.19%) SharePoint
2 10 (5.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.99%) Confluence
4 2 (1.20%) CMS
5 1 (0.60%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.60%) CICS
5 1 (0.60%) IIS
Applications
1 21 (12.57%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (6.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (4.19%) MS Visio
4 6 (3.59%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (4.79%) Dynamics AX
2 3 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.80%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (1.20%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.60%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 43 (25.75%) Azure
2 26 (15.57%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (13.17%) AWS
4 19 (11.38%) Power Platform
5 14 (8.38%) Dynamics 365
5 14 (8.38%) GCP
5 14 (8.38%) PowerApps
6 13 (7.78%) Entra ID
7 8 (4.79%) Power Automate
8 6 (3.59%) Azure Monitor
8 6 (3.59%) Azure Service Bus
9 5 (2.99%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (2.99%) Azure Functions
9 5 (2.99%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 5 (2.99%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (2.99%) Serverless
10 3 (1.80%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (1.80%) OneDrive
10 3 (1.80%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.80%) DNS
2 2 (1.20%) Network Security
2 2 (1.20%) PuTTY
2 2 (1.20%) SSH
2 2 (1.20%) Telnet
3 1 (0.60%) DHCP
3 1 (0.60%) Firewall
3 1 (0.60%) HTTP
3 1 (0.60%) PBX
3 1 (0.60%) Remote Desktop
3 1 (0.60%) SAN
3 1 (0.60%) SMTP
3 1 (0.60%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.19%) Power BI
2 4 (2.40%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (1.80%) Big Data
3 3 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (1.80%) Metadata
3 3 (1.80%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.80%) Tableau
4 2 (1.20%) Data Lake
4 2 (1.20%) EDMS
4 2 (1.20%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.60%) DB2
5 1 (0.60%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.60%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.60%) Power Query
5 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 9 (5.39%) JIRA
2 7 (4.19%) Git
3 2 (1.20%) Cucumber
3 2 (1.20%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.20%) Selenium
4 1 (0.60%) Eclipse
4 1 (0.60%) IntelliJ
4 1 (0.60%) JMeter
4 1 (0.60%) LoadRunner
4 1 (0.60%) Maven
4 1 (0.60%) Postman
4 1 (0.60%) SonarQube
General
1 61 (36.53%) Social Skills
2 38 (22.75%) Finance
3 12 (7.19%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.79%) Banking
4 8 (4.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 7 (4.19%) Retail
6 6 (3.59%) Aerospace
7 5 (2.99%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (2.99%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.40%) Legal
9 2 (1.20%) Marketing
9 2 (1.20%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.60%) Agriculture
10 1 (0.60%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.60%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.60%) Fire and Rescue
10 1 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.60%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.60%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 39 (23.35%) Analyst
2 23 (13.77%) Developer
3 12 (7.19%) Business Analyst
4 11 (6.59%) Support Engineer
5 10 (5.99%) Service Analyst
5 10 (5.99%) Service Desk Analyst
6 9 (5.39%) Lead
7 8 (4.79%) Dynamics 365 Developer
7 8 (4.79%) Integration Developer
7 8 (4.79%) IT Support
7 8 (4.79%) Power Platform Developer
7 8 (4.79%) Technical Support
8 7 (4.19%) Architect
8 7 (4.19%) Consultant
9 6 (3.59%) Microsoft Developer
9 6 (3.59%) Support Analyst
9 6 (3.59%) Windows Engineer
10 5 (2.99%) HR Consultant
10 5 (2.99%) IT Analyst
10 5 (2.99%) Windows Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.39%) REST
2 7 (4.19%) LDAP
2 7 (4.19%) Spring
3 6 (3.59%) Hibernate
3 6 (3.59%) OAuth
3 6 (3.59%) SAML
4 5 (2.99%) OpenID
5 4 (2.40%) .NET
5 4 (2.40%) CSS
5 4 (2.40%) HTML
5 4 (2.40%) RESTful
6 3 (1.80%) ASP.NET
6 3 (1.80%) React
6 3 (1.80%) SOAP
7 2 (1.20%) AngularJS
7 2 (1.20%) ASP.NET MVC
7 2 (1.20%) Kafka
7 2 (1.20%) Middleware
7 2 (1.20%) Spring Boot
7 2 (1.20%) Visualforce
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.99%) Driving Licence
1 10 (5.99%) Management Information System
2 9 (5.39%) Product Ownership
3 6 (3.59%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (3.59%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.40%) Data Fabric
5 3 (1.80%) Cloud Native
5 3 (1.80%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.80%) Data Structures
5 3 (1.80%) e-Learning
5 3 (1.80%) Web Conferencing
6 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.20%) Distributed Systems
6 2 (1.20%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.20%) NHS
6 2 (1.20%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.20%) PMI
6 2 (1.20%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.20%) Smartphone
6 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 48 (28.74%) Windows
2 14 (8.38%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.19%) Mac OS
4 5 (2.99%) Windows Server
5 3 (1.80%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.80%) Linux
6 2 (1.20%) Windows 7
6 2 (1.20%) Windows 8
6 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.60%) Android
7 1 (0.60%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (28.14%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (14.97%) Agile
2 25 (14.97%) Stakeholder Management
3 20 (11.98%) Analytics
4 19 (11.38%) DevOps
5 18 (10.78%) Migration
5 18 (10.78%) Roadmaps
6 17 (10.18%) Continuous Improvement
7 16 (9.58%) CI/CD
7 16 (9.58%) Customer Service
8 14 (8.38%) Change Management
8 14 (8.38%) ITIL
8 14 (8.38%) User Experience
9 13 (7.78%) Decision-Making
9 13 (7.78%) Scrum
10 12 (7.19%) Business Strategy
10 12 (7.19%) Data Protection
11 11 (6.59%) Data Migration
11 11 (6.59%) Workshop Facilitation
12 10 (5.99%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (16.77%) SQL
2 14 (8.38%) PowerShell
3 11 (6.59%) Python
4 9 (5.39%) Java
5 7 (4.19%) Bash
6 6 (3.59%) C#
7 4 (2.40%) T-SQL
7 4 (2.40%) X++
8 3 (1.80%) JavaScript
8 3 (1.80%) R
9 2 (1.20%) Apex Code
9 2 (1.20%) C
9 2 (1.20%) C++
10 1 (0.60%) COBOL
10 1 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.60%) JCL
10 1 (0.60%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.60%) Swift
10 1 (0.60%) VBA
Qualifications
1 19 (11.38%) Degree
2 12 (7.19%) Security Cleared
3 8 (4.79%) Microsoft Certification
3 8 (4.79%) SC Cleared
4 6 (3.59%) A+ Certification
5 5 (2.99%) Azure Certification
5 5 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (2.99%) Master's Degree
6 2 (1.20%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.20%) MBA
6 2 (1.20%) PMI Certification
7 1 (0.60%) CISA
7 1 (0.60%) CISSP
7 1 (0.60%) Citrix Certification
7 1 (0.60%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.60%) GIAC
7 1 (0.60%) MCSE
7 1 (0.60%) PMP
7 1 (0.60%) Server+ Certification
7 1 (0.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (11.38%) GDPR
2 9 (5.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.59%) HIPAA
3 6 (3.59%) QA
4 3 (1.80%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.80%) SLA
5 2 (1.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 2 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (1.20%) GRC
5 2 (1.20%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.20%) PMO
6 1 (0.60%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.60%) Basel III
6 1 (0.60%) HL7
6 1 (0.60%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.60%) NIST
6 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.60%) PSD2
6 1 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 34 (20.36%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (3.59%) Docker
4 2 (1.20%) BitLocker
4 2 (1.20%) Firmware
4 2 (1.20%) Terminal Services
5 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.60%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (9.58%) SCCM
2 13 (7.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.59%) Kubernetes
3 6 (3.59%) Terraform
4 5 (2.99%) Tivoli Identity Manager
5 2 (1.20%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.60%) Kibana
Vendors
1 8 (4.79%) Citrix
1 8 (4.79%) VMware
2 7 (4.19%) HP
2 7 (4.19%) Salesforce
3 6 (3.59%) Databricks
4 5 (2.99%) IBM
4 5 (2.99%) Ping Identity
5 4 (2.40%) ServiceNow
6 3 (1.80%) Dynatrace
6 3 (1.80%) iManage
6 3 (1.80%) Tenable
7 2 (1.20%) Cisco
7 2 (1.20%) Dell
7 2 (1.20%) Draytek
7 2 (1.20%) McAfee
7 2 (1.20%) Siemens
7 2 (1.20%) Workday
8 1 (0.60%) Apple
8 1 (0.60%) Informatica
8 1 (0.60%) Remedy