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 17 July 2026, 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
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 0 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 166 119 108
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 14.37% 16.04% 12.81%
As % of the Vendors category 33.47% 37.42% 31.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 81 64
10th Percentile £131 £175 £156
25th Percentile £223 £250 £259
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £375 £391
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.15% +8.68%
75th Percentile £500 £475 £517
90th Percentile £600 £525 £638
England median daily rate £497 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.59% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 11 18
10th Percentile £13.06 £16.35 £12.75
25th Percentile £13.25 £18.44 £12.94
Median hourly rate £17.97 £25.15 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.55% +79.64% -39.76%
75th Percentile £26.50 - £14.85
90th Percentile £32.25 - £21.95
England median hourly rate £22.79 £22.63 £16.06
% change year-on-year +0.68% +40.91% -24.32%

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 496 318 347
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 42.94% 42.86% 41.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 210 223
10th Percentile £190 £212 £191
25th Percentile £363 £321 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £434 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.51% -8.68% -
75th Percentile £575 £542 £588
90th Percentile £656 £638 £629
England median daily rate £510 £513 £515
% change year-on-year -0.49% -0.49% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 28 24
10th Percentile £13.30 £13.81 £11.31
25th Percentile £15.80 £16.04 £12.74
Median hourly rate £17.87 £18.94 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.62% +35.25% -38.46%
75th Percentile £27.08 £25.15 £14.54
90th Percentile £74.00 - £24.55
England median hourly rate £35.50 £25.15 £26.00
% change year-on-year +41.15% -3.27% -28.77%

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 17 July 2026.

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 17 July 2026.

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 17 July 2026. 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
Nottinghamshire +1 48 £433 +5.67% 40
Northamptonshire +2 37 £379 -8.80% 34
Leicestershire -1 30 £275 +10.00% 38
Derbyshire -1 24 £450 +80.00% 27
Lincolnshire -4 19 £425 +136.11% 33
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 18 (10.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (9.64%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.81%) Apache Superset
3 3 (1.81%) Confluence
4 1 (0.60%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.60%) CMS
4 1 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2010
4 1 (0.60%) SAS
4 1 (0.60%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (12.05%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (11.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (4.82%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.60%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.60%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.60%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (3.01%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.81%) SAP CRM
3 2 (1.20%) Maximo
4 1 (0.60%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.60%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 60 (36.14%) Azure
2 37 (22.29%) Microsoft 365
3 25 (15.06%) Entra ID
4 19 (11.45%) Power Platform
5 10 (6.02%) AWS
5 10 (6.02%) Azure DevOps
6 8 (4.82%) Azure AKS
7 6 (3.61%) GCP
8 5 (3.01%) Azure Service Bus
8 5 (3.01%) Dynamics 365
8 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Copilot
8 5 (3.01%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
9 4 (2.41%) Azure Data Factory
9 4 (2.41%) GitHub
9 4 (2.41%) OCI
9 4 (2.41%) Power Automate
9 4 (2.41%) Serverless
10 3 (1.81%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 3 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (1.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.02%) Network Security
2 7 (4.22%) DNS
2 7 (4.22%) Firewall
3 6 (3.61%) DHCP
3 6 (3.61%) LAN
3 6 (3.61%) VLAN
3 6 (3.61%) WAN
4 4 (2.41%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.81%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (1.20%) SAN
7 1 (0.60%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.60%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.60%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.83%) Power BI
2 9 (5.42%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.82%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (3.61%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (2.41%) Relational Database
6 3 (1.81%) Metabase
6 3 (1.81%) Parquet
7 2 (1.20%) Data Lake
7 2 (1.20%) MongoDB
7 2 (1.20%) Star Schema
8 1 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.60%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.60%) Big Data
8 1 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.60%) Metadata
8 1 (0.60%) Power Query
8 1 (0.60%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.60%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.60%) VLDB
Development Applications
1 5 (3.01%) JIRA
2 2 (1.20%) Git
2 2 (1.20%) GitLab
General
1 59 (35.54%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.25%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (7.83%) Organisational Skills
4 12 (7.23%) Finance
4 12 (7.23%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (4.22%) Law
7 6 (3.61%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.61%) Retail
8 4 (2.41%) Banking
9 3 (1.81%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.81%) Police
10 2 (1.20%) Automotive
10 2 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.60%) Agriculture
11 1 (0.60%) Billing
11 1 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.60%) Marketing
11 1 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 30 (18.07%) Analyst
2 23 (13.86%) Developer
3 20 (12.05%) Architect
4 14 (8.43%) Administrator
5 13 (7.83%) IT Support
6 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 11 (6.63%) .NET Developer
7 11 (6.63%) Senior
8 10 (6.02%) Lead
8 10 (6.02%) Service Analyst
8 10 (6.02%) Service Desk Analyst
9 9 (5.42%) Cloud Engineer
9 9 (5.42%) Support Engineer
9 9 (5.42%) Systems Administrator
10 7 (4.22%) Data Analyst
11 6 (3.61%) .NET Software Developer
11 6 (3.61%) Consultant
11 6 (3.61%) IT Engineer
11 6 (3.61%) Lead Developer
11 6 (3.61%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.83%) .NET
2 9 (5.42%) REST
3 7 (4.22%) Node.js
4 4 (2.41%) Kafka
4 4 (2.41%) React
5 3 (1.81%) Middleware
5 3 (1.81%) Plotly
5 3 (1.81%) RabbitMQ
6 2 (1.20%) Lightning Web Components
6 2 (1.20%) OAuth
6 2 (1.20%) OAuth2
6 2 (1.20%) OpenID
6 2 (1.20%) SAML
6 2 (1.20%) SOAP
6 2 (1.20%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.60%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.60%) Express.js
7 1 (0.60%) MERN Stack
7 1 (0.60%) PySpark
7 1 (0.60%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.82%) Cloud Native
2 5 (3.01%) Distributed Systems
2 5 (3.01%) Driving Licence
2 5 (3.01%) Management Information System
2 5 (3.01%) Product Ownership
3 4 (2.41%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.81%) Data Structures
4 3 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (1.81%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.20%) Low-Code
5 2 (1.20%) Security Posture
5 2 (1.20%) Smartphone
5 2 (1.20%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.60%) CMDB
6 1 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.60%) Device Driver
6 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.60%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.60%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 48 (28.92%) Windows
2 16 (9.64%) Windows 10
3 9 (5.42%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.01%) Linux
5 3 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.20%) Apple iOS
6 2 (1.20%) CentOS
7 1 (0.60%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.60%) MVS
7 1 (0.60%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.60%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.60%) Windows 8
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.60%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (24.70%) Problem-Solving
2 27 (16.27%) CI/CD
3 25 (15.06%) DevOps
4 23 (13.86%) Customer Service
5 20 (12.05%) Continuous Improvement
6 16 (9.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 15 (9.04%) Infrastructure as Code
7 15 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
8 14 (8.43%) Data Modelling
9 13 (7.83%) Agile
9 13 (7.83%) Asset Management
9 13 (7.83%) Business Intelligence
9 13 (7.83%) Decision-Making
9 13 (7.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 12 (7.23%) CRM
11 11 (6.63%) Visualisation
12 10 (6.02%) AI
12 10 (6.02%) Migration
12 10 (6.02%) Validation
13 9 (5.42%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 17 (10.24%) C#
2 14 (8.43%) SQL
3 12 (7.23%) PowerShell
4 8 (4.82%) JavaScript
5 5 (3.01%) Python
6 4 (2.41%) Bicep
6 4 (2.41%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.81%) MATLAB
7 3 (1.81%) Rust
8 2 (1.20%) Apex Code
8 2 (1.20%) SOQL
8 2 (1.20%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.60%) Java
9 1 (0.60%) JCL
9 1 (0.60%) REXX
9 1 (0.60%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 20 (12.05%) Security Cleared
2 13 (7.83%) SC Cleared
3 12 (7.23%) Degree
4 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.81%) Azure Certification
6 3 (1.81%) CISM
6 3 (1.81%) CISSP
7 2 (1.20%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.20%) MCSA
7 2 (1.20%) MCSE
7 2 (1.20%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.60%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.60%) CREST Certified
8 1 (0.60%) ECSA
8 1 (0.60%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.60%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.60%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.41%) GDPR
1 4 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.81%) Data Quality
2 3 (1.81%) NIST
2 3 (1.81%) PCI DSS
2 3 (1.81%) PMO
2 3 (1.81%) QA
2 3 (1.81%) SLA
3 2 (1.20%) GRC
3 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (1.20%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.60%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 40 (24.10%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.22%) Docker
3 4 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.20%) Firmware
4 2 (1.20%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.60%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.60%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.60%) NFS
5 1 (0.60%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 17 (10.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (8.43%) Terraform
3 9 (5.42%) SCCM
4 7 (4.22%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.41%) Ansible
6 3 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.81%) VxRail
7 2 (1.20%) SCOM
8 1 (0.60%) Control-M
8 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 11 (6.63%) SAP
2 9 (5.42%) Oracle
2 9 (5.42%) Salesforce
3 5 (3.01%) Databricks
3 5 (3.01%) ServiceNow
4 4 (2.41%) Apple
4 4 (2.41%) VMware
5 3 (1.81%) HP
5 3 (1.81%) MuleSoft
5 3 (1.81%) Samsung
5 3 (1.81%) Splunk
6 2 (1.20%) Adobe
6 2 (1.20%) CyberArk
6 2 (1.20%) NetApp
6 2 (1.20%) SolarWinds
7 1 (0.60%) Autodesk
7 1 (0.60%) Google
7 1 (0.60%) NEC
7 1 (0.60%) Okta
7 1 (0.60%) Ping Identity