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 1 March 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
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 5 8
Rank change year-on-year 0 +3 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 152 81 99
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 15.14% 14.04% 12.53%
As % of the Vendors category 33.04% 31.40% 28.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 51 65
10th Percentile £162 £153 £159
25th Percentile £214 £200 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £409 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% -11.11% +26.76%
75th Percentile £488 £488 £550
90th Percentile £600 £545 £646
England median daily rate £490 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 5 14
10th Percentile £12.94 £14.55 -
25th Percentile £14.44 - £14.00
Median hourly rate £18.88 £17.00 £14.26
Median % change year-on-year +11.03% +19.21% -8.00%
75th Percentile £24.09 - £18.00
90th Percentile £25.79 £20.60 £25.67
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £16.97
% change year-on-year -17.66% +42.51% -18.93%

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 460 258 349
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 45.82% 44.71% 44.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 298 166 225
10th Percentile £190 £203 £193
25th Percentile £354 £356 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £446 £450 £468
Median % change year-on-year -0.89% -3.85% +10.12%
75th Percentile £539 £538 £575
90th Percentile £613 £611 £675
England median daily rate £508 £525 £518
% change year-on-year -3.33% +1.35% -3.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 11 24
10th Percentile £13.24 £13.75 £10.90
25th Percentile £16.13 £13.81 £12.21
Median hourly rate £16.43 £17.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% +21.43% -20.27%
75th Percentile £24.49 £20.60 £15.38
90th Percentile £26.44 £31.76 £22.23
England median hourly rate £24.00 £31.42 £26.00
% change year-on-year -23.62% +20.86% -21.80%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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
Northamptonshire -1 54 £441 -1.62% 53
Nottinghamshire +1 36 £223 -45.73% 72
Leicestershire +8 25 £131 -42.35% 50
Derbyshire -4 22 £475 +90.00% 43
Lincolnshire -3 12 £625 +273.13% 39
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 21 (13.82%) SharePoint
2 17 (11.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (3.95%) Confluence
4 2 (1.32%) CMS
5 1 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.66%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.66%) IIS
Applications
1 19 (12.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (10.53%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (5.92%) MS Visio
4 8 (5.26%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (3.95%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (2.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (4.61%) Dynamics AX
2 2 (1.32%) Maximo
3 1 (0.66%) assyst
3 1 (0.66%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.66%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 44 (28.95%) Azure
2 42 (27.63%) Microsoft 365
3 26 (17.11%) Entra ID
4 20 (13.16%) Power Platform
5 14 (9.21%) AWS
6 13 (8.55%) PowerApps
7 12 (7.89%) GCP
8 8 (5.26%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (5.26%) Dynamics 365
9 7 (4.61%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (4.61%) Azure Service Bus
9 7 (4.61%) Power Automate
10 6 (3.95%) Microsoft Purview
11 5 (3.29%) Azure Functions
11 5 (3.29%) Serverless
12 3 (1.97%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 3 (1.97%) AWS CloudFormation
12 3 (1.97%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 3 (1.97%) IaaS
12 3 (1.97%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 6 (3.95%) Network Security
2 4 (2.63%) DNS
2 4 (2.63%) Firewall
3 3 (1.97%) Reverse Proxy
3 3 (1.97%) VLAN
4 2 (1.32%) DHCP
5 1 (0.66%) PBX
5 1 (0.66%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.66%) VPN
5 1 (0.66%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.61%) Power BI
2 4 (2.63%) Tableau
3 3 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (1.32%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.32%) EDMS
4 2 (1.32%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.66%) Big Data
5 1 (0.66%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.66%) Metadata
5 1 (0.66%) Power Query
5 1 (0.66%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 9 (5.92%) JIRA
2 8 (5.26%) Git
3 1 (0.66%) Cucumber
3 1 (0.66%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.66%) JMeter
3 1 (0.66%) Postman
3 1 (0.66%) Selenium
General
1 53 (34.87%) Social Skills
2 28 (18.42%) Finance
3 15 (9.87%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.95%) Aerospace
4 6 (3.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 6 (3.95%) Law
5 4 (2.63%) Banking
5 4 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
5 4 (2.63%) Legal
6 3 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Marketing
7 2 (1.32%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.66%) Billing
8 1 (0.66%) Corporate Banking
8 1 (0.66%) Digital Healthcare
8 1 (0.66%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.66%) Retail
8 1 (0.66%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 31 (20.39%) Analyst
2 19 (12.50%) Desktop Support
3 15 (9.87%) Developer
4 14 (9.21%) Architect
5 11 (7.24%) Senior
5 11 (7.24%) Service Analyst
5 11 (7.24%) Service Desk Analyst
6 10 (6.58%) Support Engineer
7 9 (5.92%) Lead
8 8 (5.26%) Administrator
8 8 (5.26%) Power Platform Developer
9 7 (4.61%) Consultant
9 7 (4.61%) Desktop Support Technician
9 7 (4.61%) Desktop Technician
9 7 (4.61%) Support Technician
10 6 (3.95%) Business Analyst
10 6 (3.95%) Desktop Engineer
10 6 (3.95%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 6 (3.95%) IT Support
10 6 (3.95%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.26%) REST
2 4 (2.63%) .NET
2 4 (2.63%) HTML
2 4 (2.63%) OAuth
2 4 (2.63%) SAML
3 3 (1.97%) ASP.NET
3 3 (1.97%) CSS
3 3 (1.97%) Middleware
3 3 (1.97%) OAuth2
3 3 (1.97%) OpenID
3 3 (1.97%) RESTful
4 2 (1.32%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.32%) AngularJS
4 2 (1.32%) ASP.NET MVC
4 2 (1.32%) FHIR
4 2 (1.32%) Lightning Web Components
4 2 (1.32%) Node.js
4 2 (1.32%) React
4 2 (1.32%) SOAP
4 2 (1.32%) Visualforce
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.55%) Smartphone
2 10 (6.58%) Product Ownership
3 7 (4.61%) Cloud Native
4 6 (3.95%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.29%) Data Structures
5 5 (3.29%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.97%) Data Fabric
6 3 (1.97%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.97%) e-Learning
6 3 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.97%) Web Conferencing
7 2 (1.32%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.32%) NHS
7 2 (1.32%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.32%) PMI
8 1 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.66%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.66%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 49 (32.24%) Windows
2 27 (17.76%) Windows 10
3 8 (5.26%) Apple iOS
4 7 (4.61%) Mac OS
5 5 (3.29%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.63%) Windows 7
6 4 (2.63%) Windows 8
7 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (24.34%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (21.05%) Migration
2 32 (21.05%) Stakeholder Management
3 27 (17.76%) Continuous Improvement
4 25 (16.45%) Customer Service
4 25 (16.45%) DevOps
5 19 (12.50%) CI/CD
6 18 (11.84%) Analytics
7 15 (9.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 14 (9.21%) Change Management
8 14 (9.21%) Data Migration
8 14 (9.21%) Infrastructure as Code
8 14 (9.21%) User Experience
9 12 (7.89%) Data Protection
9 12 (7.89%) Project Delivery
10 11 (7.24%) Collaborative Working
10 11 (7.24%) Roadmaps
10 11 (7.24%) Workshop Facilitation
10 11 (7.24%) Zero Trust
11 10 (6.58%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 21 (13.82%) SQL
2 16 (10.53%) PowerShell
3 9 (5.92%) Bash
3 9 (5.92%) C#
3 9 (5.92%) Python
4 5 (3.29%) Bicep
5 4 (2.63%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.97%) R
6 3 (1.97%) T-SQL
6 3 (1.97%) X++
7 2 (1.32%) Apex Code
7 2 (1.32%) Java
7 2 (1.32%) TypeScript
7 2 (1.32%) VBA
8 1 (0.66%) C
8 1 (0.66%) C++
8 1 (0.66%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.66%) SOQL
8 1 (0.66%) Swift
Qualifications
1 10 (6.58%) Security Cleared
2 8 (5.26%) Microsoft Certification
3 7 (4.61%) Degree
4 6 (3.95%) SC Cleared
5 4 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.97%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.32%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.32%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.32%) MBA
7 2 (1.32%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.66%) ACCA
8 1 (0.66%) CBAP
8 1 (0.66%) CIMA
8 1 (0.66%) CISA
8 1 (0.66%) CISSP
8 1 (0.66%) GIAC
8 1 (0.66%) IIBA
8 1 (0.66%) MCSE
8 1 (0.66%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (11.18%) GDPR
2 10 (6.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (3.29%) GRC
3 5 (3.29%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 3 (1.97%) NIST
4 3 (1.97%) QA
4 3 (1.97%) SLA
4 3 (1.97%) SOC 2
5 2 (1.32%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.32%) PMO
6 1 (0.66%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.66%) Basel III
6 1 (0.66%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.66%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.66%) HL7
6 1 (0.66%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.66%) PSD2
6 1 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 50 (32.89%) Active Directory
2 10 (6.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.97%) Docker
3 3 (1.97%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.32%) Terminal Services
5 1 (0.66%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.66%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 29 (19.08%) SCCM
2 21 (13.82%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (9.21%) Terraform
4 6 (3.95%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.32%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.66%) Ansible
Vendors
1 10 (6.58%) Citrix
1 10 (6.58%) VMware
2 5 (3.29%) HP
3 4 (2.63%) Databricks
3 4 (2.63%) Salesforce
3 4 (2.63%) ServiceNow
3 4 (2.63%) Tenable
4 3 (1.97%) Dynatrace
4 3 (1.97%) Google
4 3 (1.97%) iManage
4 3 (1.97%) SAP
4 3 (1.97%) Splunk
4 3 (1.97%) Workday
5 1 (0.66%) Adobe
5 1 (0.66%) Informatica
5 1 (0.66%) Intel
5 1 (0.66%) Oracle
5 1 (0.66%) Remedy
5 1 (0.66%) Siemens
5 1 (0.66%) Sophos