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 30 June 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
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 156 110 114
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 13.83% 15.83% 13.18%
As % of the Vendors category 31.20% 36.07% 31.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 77 66
10th Percentile £131 £165 £157
25th Percentile £216 £250 £253
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £375 £400
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% -6.25% +11.11%
75th Percentile £504 £450 £550
90th Percentile £600 £533 £663
England median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 21
10th Percentile £12.94 £16.10 -
25th Percentile £13.25 £18.38 £12.75
Median hourly rate £17.20 £23.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.22% +64.29% -30.00%
75th Percentile £26.50 £25.15 £15.00
90th Percentile £32.25 - £26.50
England median hourly rate £22.64 £22.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year +0.60% +40.63% -27.27%

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 500 305 359
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 44.33% 43.88% 41.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 288 204 218
10th Percentile £190 £228 £188
25th Percentile £375 £326 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £430 £475
Median % change year-on-year +10.47% -9.47% +0.53%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £600
90th Percentile £650 £635 £640
England median daily rate £510 £513 £520
% change year-on-year -0.49% -1.44% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 26 28
10th Percentile £13.25 £13.81 £10.90
25th Percentile £13.54 £15.41 £12.60
Median hourly rate £17.87 £18.87 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.30% +34.79% -33.92%
75th Percentile £22.57 £25.11 £14.54
90th Percentile £74.00 £25.15 £26.50
England median hourly rate £35.00 £26.39 £24.65
% change year-on-year +32.65% +7.04% -32.47%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 49 £423 +3.05% 58
Northamptonshire 0 33 £418 +1.33% 35
Leicestershire -2 27 £131 -47.53% 46
Derbyshire -2 22 £488 +62.50% 31
Lincolnshire -5 17 £315 +75.00% 47
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 16 (10.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (7.05%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.56%) Confluence
4 3 (1.92%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.64%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.64%) CMS
5 1 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.64%) SAS
5 1 (0.64%) Tomcat
Applications
1 22 (14.10%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (12.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (5.77%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (3.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.64%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.64%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (3.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.92%) SAP CRM
3 2 (1.28%) Maximo
4 1 (0.64%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.64%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 58 (37.18%) Azure
2 29 (18.59%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (12.82%) Entra ID
4 16 (10.26%) Power Platform
5 11 (7.05%) AWS
6 9 (5.77%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (5.13%) Azure AKS
8 7 (4.49%) GCP
9 5 (3.21%) Azure Service Bus
9 5 (3.21%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (3.21%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 4 (2.56%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (2.56%) GitHub
10 4 (2.56%) OCI
10 4 (2.56%) Serverless
11 3 (1.92%) Algolia
11 3 (1.92%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (1.92%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (1.92%) Azure Functions
11 3 (1.92%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.41%) Network Security
2 6 (3.85%) Firewall
2 6 (3.85%) VLAN
3 5 (3.21%) DNS
4 4 (2.56%) DHCP
4 4 (2.56%) Reverse Proxy
5 3 (1.92%) LAN
5 3 (1.92%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.92%) WAN
6 2 (1.28%) SAN
7 1 (0.64%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.64%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.64%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.41%) Power BI
2 8 (5.13%) PostgreSQL
2 8 (5.13%) SQL Server
3 6 (3.85%) Azure SQL Database
4 4 (2.56%) Relational Database
5 3 (1.92%) Metabase
5 3 (1.92%) Parquet
6 2 (1.28%) Data Lake
6 2 (1.28%) MongoDB
6 2 (1.28%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.64%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.64%) Big Data
7 1 (0.64%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.64%) MySQL
7 1 (0.64%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.64%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.64%) Tableau
7 1 (0.64%) VLDB
Development Applications
1 5 (3.21%) JIRA
2 2 (1.28%) Git
2 2 (1.28%) GitLab
General
1 49 (31.41%) Social Skills
2 20 (12.82%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (8.33%) Finance
4 11 (7.05%) Public Sector
5 9 (5.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 9 (5.77%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (4.49%) Law
7 6 (3.85%) Retail
8 5 (3.21%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.56%) Banking
10 2 (1.28%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.28%) Automotive
10 2 (1.28%) Billing
10 2 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.28%) Police
11 1 (0.64%) Agriculture
11 1 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.64%) Marketing
11 1 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 32 (20.51%) Analyst
2 22 (14.10%) Architect
3 21 (13.46%) Developer
4 15 (9.62%) Administrator
5 11 (7.05%) .NET Developer
5 11 (7.05%) Senior
5 11 (7.05%) Service Analyst
5 11 (7.05%) Service Desk Analyst
6 9 (5.77%) Cloud Engineer
6 9 (5.77%) IT Support
6 9 (5.77%) Lead
7 8 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 8 (5.13%) Systems Administrator
8 7 (4.49%) Data Analyst
8 7 (4.49%) Desktop Support
9 6 (3.85%) Consultant
9 6 (3.85%) Lead Developer
9 6 (3.85%) Senior Architect
9 6 (3.85%) Software Developer
9 6 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (8.33%) .NET
2 9 (5.77%) REST
3 7 (4.49%) Node.js
4 4 (2.56%) Kafka
4 4 (2.56%) React
5 3 (1.92%) Middleware
5 3 (1.92%) OAuth
5 3 (1.92%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.92%) OpenID
5 3 (1.92%) Plotly
5 3 (1.92%) RabbitMQ
5 3 (1.92%) SAML
6 2 (1.28%) Lightning Web Components
6 2 (1.28%) SOAP
7 1 (0.64%) HTML
7 1 (0.64%) ISPF
7 1 (0.64%) J2EE
7 1 (0.64%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.64%) Web Services
7 1 (0.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.77%) Cloud Native
2 7 (4.49%) Product Ownership
3 5 (3.21%) Distributed Systems
3 5 (3.21%) Management Information System
3 5 (3.21%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.92%) Data Structures
5 3 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (1.92%) Smartphone
6 2 (1.28%) Low-Code
6 2 (1.28%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.64%) CMDB
7 1 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.64%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.64%) Mainframe
7 1 (0.64%) NHS
7 1 (0.64%) PMI
7 1 (0.64%) Replication
7 1 (0.64%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 41 (26.28%) Windows
2 18 (11.54%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.49%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.21%) Linux
5 3 (1.92%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.92%) Windows 7
5 3 (1.92%) Windows 8
6 2 (1.28%) CentOS
7 1 (0.64%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.64%) MVS
7 1 (0.64%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.64%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (17.95%) CI/CD
3 26 (16.67%) DevOps
4 20 (12.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 20 (12.82%) Customer Service
5 19 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
6 16 (10.26%) Infrastructure as Code
7 13 (8.33%) Decision-Making
8 12 (7.69%) Agile
8 12 (7.69%) Asset Management
8 12 (7.69%) CRM
8 12 (7.69%) Data Modelling
8 12 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 11 (7.05%) Project Delivery
9 11 (7.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 11 (7.05%) Validation
10 10 (6.41%) Business Intelligence
10 10 (6.41%) Migration
10 10 (6.41%) Visualisation
11 9 (5.77%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 17 (10.90%) C#
2 12 (7.69%) SQL
3 10 (6.41%) PowerShell
4 8 (5.13%) JavaScript
5 5 (3.21%) Bicep
5 5 (3.21%) Python
6 4 (2.56%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.92%) MATLAB
7 3 (1.92%) Rust
8 2 (1.28%) Apex Code
8 2 (1.28%) SOQL
8 2 (1.28%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.64%) Java
9 1 (0.64%) JCL
9 1 (0.64%) REXX
9 1 (0.64%) SOSL
9 1 (0.64%) VBA
Qualifications
1 16 (10.26%) Security Cleared
2 10 (6.41%) SC Cleared
3 8 (5.13%) Degree
4 6 (3.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (3.21%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.92%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.28%) CISM
7 2 (1.28%) CISSP
7 2 (1.28%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.28%) MCSA
7 2 (1.28%) MCSE
7 2 (1.28%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.64%) ACCA
8 1 (0.64%) CIMA
8 1 (0.64%) CIPD
8 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.64%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.64%) NVQ Level 3
8 1 (0.64%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.64%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.21%) GDPR
2 4 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.56%) NIST
2 4 (2.56%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.92%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.92%) GRC
3 3 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 3 (1.92%) PMO
3 3 (1.92%) SLA
3 3 (1.92%) SOC 2
4 2 (1.28%) QA
5 1 (0.64%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 38 (24.36%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.49%) Docker
3 4 (2.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.28%) Firmware
4 2 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.64%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.64%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.64%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.64%) NFS
5 1 (0.64%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (9.62%) Terraform
2 12 (7.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (6.41%) SCCM
4 8 (5.13%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.56%) Ansible
5 4 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.92%) VxRail
7 1 (0.64%) Control-M
7 1 (0.64%) SCOM
Vendors
1 11 (7.05%) SAP
2 9 (5.77%) Salesforce
3 8 (5.13%) Oracle
4 5 (3.21%) Databricks
4 5 (3.21%) HP
4 5 (3.21%) ServiceNow
5 4 (2.56%) Splunk
5 4 (2.56%) VMware
6 3 (1.92%) MuleSoft
7 2 (1.28%) Adobe
7 2 (1.28%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.28%) NetApp
7 2 (1.28%) SolarWinds
8 1 (0.64%) Apple
8 1 (0.64%) Autodesk
8 1 (0.64%) BMC
8 1 (0.64%) Citrix
8 1 (0.64%) Dell
8 1 (0.64%) Intel
8 1 (0.64%) Sage