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 21 August 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
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 3 7
Rank change year-on-year +1 +4 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 189 134 95
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 15.32% 17.65% 12.60%
As % of the Vendors category 37.28% 40.73% 29.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 86 61
10th Percentile £133 £174 £170
25th Percentile £260 £250 £272
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £355 £391
Median % change year-on-year +19.72% -9.21% -13.11%
75th Percentile £536 £435 £500
90th Percentile £594 £525 £638
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 14 17
10th Percentile £12.83 £16.96 -
25th Percentile £13.25 £19.63 £12.75
Median hourly rate £17.97 £25.15 £15.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.55% +67.67% +20.05%
75th Percentile £25.75 - £17.00
90th Percentile £40.88 - £32.76
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -7.20% +39.43% -24.51%

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 507 329 323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 41.09% 43.35% 42.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 218 209
10th Percentile £225 £241 £250
25th Percentile £381 £327 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £420 £488
Median % change year-on-year +19.05% -13.85% +2.63%
75th Percentile £600 £525 £588
90th Percentile £656 £650 £638
England median daily rate £513 £502 £525
% change year-on-year +2.07% -4.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 28 18
10th Percentile £13.25 £13.81 £12.75
25th Percentile £14.56 £18.34 £12.94
Median hourly rate £17.87 £20.90 £15.05
Median % change year-on-year -14.50% +38.87% -24.75%
75th Percentile £24.28 £25.15 £18.11
90th Percentile £57.50 - £45.43
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £29.00
% change year-on-year +29.22% -13.28% -26.68%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 47 £449 +9.45% 55
Northamptonshire +5 39 £375 - 75
Derbyshire 0 38 £500 +66.67% 58
Leicestershire -2 33 £275 +10.00% 62
Lincolnshire -1 24 £315 - 41
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 15 (7.94%) SharePoint
2 14 (7.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.12%) Oracle Workflow
4 3 (1.59%) Apache Superset
4 3 (1.59%) Confluence
5 1 (0.53%) CMS
5 1 (0.53%) SAS
5 1 (0.53%) Tomcat
Applications
1 32 (16.93%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (10.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.59%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.53%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.53%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (2.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.59%) SAP CRM
2 3 (1.59%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.06%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.53%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.53%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 66 (34.92%) Azure
2 46 (24.34%) Microsoft 365
3 26 (13.76%) Power Platform
4 25 (13.23%) Entra ID
5 12 (6.35%) Dynamics 365
6 11 (5.82%) Microsoft Copilot
7 10 (5.29%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (5.29%) Power Automate
8 8 (4.23%) AWS
8 8 (4.23%) Azure AKS
9 5 (2.65%) Azure Service Bus
9 5 (2.65%) GCP
9 5 (2.65%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 4 (2.12%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (2.12%) GitHub
10 4 (2.12%) PowerApps
10 4 (2.12%) Serverless
11 3 (1.59%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (1.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 3 (1.59%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 10 (5.29%) DHCP
1 10 (5.29%) DNS
2 7 (3.70%) Firewall
2 7 (3.70%) Network Security
3 6 (3.17%) LAN
3 6 (3.17%) VPN
3 6 (3.17%) WAN
4 5 (2.65%) VLAN
5 4 (2.12%) TCP/IP
6 2 (1.06%) SAN
7 1 (0.53%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.53%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (0.53%) Reverse Proxy
7 1 (0.53%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (9.52%) Power BI
2 13 (6.88%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.23%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (3.17%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (2.12%) Relational Database
6 3 (1.59%) Metabase
6 3 (1.59%) Metadata
6 3 (1.59%) Parquet
7 2 (1.06%) Data Lake
7 2 (1.06%) MongoDB
7 2 (1.06%) Star Schema
8 1 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.53%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.53%) Big Data
8 1 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.53%) MySQL
8 1 (0.53%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.53%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.53%) VLDB
Development Applications
1 5 (2.65%) JIRA
2 4 (2.12%) Oracle Forms
3 2 (1.06%) Git
3 2 (1.06%) GitLab
General
1 78 (41.27%) Social Skills
2 26 (13.76%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (12.17%) Organisational Skills
4 17 (8.99%) Finance
5 14 (7.41%) Public Sector
6 11 (5.82%) Manufacturing
7 10 (5.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (4.76%) Law
8 9 (4.76%) Retail
9 6 (3.17%) Police
10 5 (2.65%) Automotive
10 5 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (2.12%) Banking
12 2 (1.06%) Aerospace
12 2 (1.06%) Electronics
13 1 (0.53%) Agriculture
13 1 (0.53%) Billing
13 1 (0.53%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 28 (14.81%) Analyst
2 25 (13.23%) Developer
3 18 (9.52%) Architect
4 16 (8.47%) Administrator
5 12 (6.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (5.82%) .NET Developer
6 11 (5.82%) Consultant
6 11 (5.82%) Data Analyst
6 11 (5.82%) IT Support
6 11 (5.82%) Senior
7 10 (5.29%) Lead
8 9 (4.76%) Cloud Engineer
8 9 (4.76%) Support Engineer
9 7 (3.70%) IT Engineer
9 7 (3.70%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (3.17%) .NET Software Developer
10 6 (3.17%) Coordinator
10 6 (3.17%) Service Analyst
10 6 (3.17%) Software Developer
10 6 (3.17%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.88%) .NET
2 11 (5.82%) Terraform
3 8 (4.23%) REST
4 7 (3.70%) Node.js
5 4 (2.12%) Kafka
5 4 (2.12%) Oracle Fusion
5 4 (2.12%) React
6 3 (1.59%) Plotly
6 3 (1.59%) RabbitMQ
6 3 (1.59%) XML
7 2 (1.06%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.53%) ARM Templates
8 1 (0.53%) Express.js
8 1 (0.53%) HTML
8 1 (0.53%) ISPF
8 1 (0.53%) MERN Stack
8 1 (0.53%) Middleware
8 1 (0.53%) PySpark
8 1 (0.53%) SailPoint
8 1 (0.53%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.29%) Management Information System
2 7 (3.70%) Cloud Native
2 7 (3.70%) Driving Licence
3 6 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (2.65%) CMDB
4 5 (2.65%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (1.59%) SCADA
6 3 (1.59%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.06%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.06%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.06%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.06%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.06%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.06%) Smartphone
7 2 (1.06%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 52 (27.51%) Windows
2 16 (8.47%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.35%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.17%) Linux
5 3 (1.59%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.06%) CentOS
7 1 (0.53%) Android
7 1 (0.53%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.53%) MVS
7 1 (0.53%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.53%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (28.04%) Problem-Solving
2 24 (12.70%) Continuous Improvement
2 24 (12.70%) Migration
3 22 (11.64%) CI/CD
4 21 (11.11%) DevOps
5 19 (10.05%) Customer Service
5 19 (10.05%) Decision-Making
5 19 (10.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (9.52%) Business Intelligence
6 18 (9.52%) CRM
7 16 (8.47%) ERP
7 16 (8.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 15 (7.94%) AI
9 14 (7.41%) Data Modelling
9 14 (7.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 13 (6.88%) Agile
10 13 (6.88%) Asset Management
11 12 (6.35%) Infrastructure as Code
11 12 (6.35%) Visualisation
12 11 (5.82%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 14 (7.41%) C#
1 14 (7.41%) SQL
2 12 (6.35%) PowerShell
3 8 (4.23%) JavaScript
4 5 (2.65%) Python
5 4 (2.12%) Kusto Query Language
6 3 (1.59%) MATLAB
6 3 (1.59%) Rust
7 2 (1.06%) ABAP
7 2 (1.06%) Bicep
7 2 (1.06%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.53%) Apex Code
8 1 (0.53%) JCL
8 1 (0.53%) REXX
8 1 (0.53%) SOQL
8 1 (0.53%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 31 (16.40%) Security Cleared
2 23 (12.17%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.41%) Degree
4 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (2.12%) CISM
5 4 (2.12%) CISSP
5 4 (2.12%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.59%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.06%) ACCA
7 2 (1.06%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.06%) CIMA
7 2 (1.06%) CRISC
7 2 (1.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
7 2 (1.06%) MCSA
7 2 (1.06%) MCSE
7 2 (1.06%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.53%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.53%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.82%) Data Quality
2 5 (2.65%) QA
3 3 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.59%) PMO
4 2 (1.06%) GDPR
4 2 (1.06%) NIST
4 2 (1.06%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.06%) SLA
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.53%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 41 (21.69%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (3.17%) Docker
4 2 (1.06%) Firmware
4 2 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.53%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.53%) NFS
5 1 (0.53%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 21 (11.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (5.82%) SCCM
3 4 (2.12%) Kubernetes
4 3 (1.59%) Ansible
4 3 (1.59%) VxRail
5 2 (1.06%) SCOM
5 2 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.53%) Control-M
6 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 14 (7.41%) SAP
2 13 (6.88%) Oracle
3 8 (4.23%) Salesforce
4 7 (3.70%) VMware
5 5 (2.65%) Apple
5 5 (2.65%) Databricks
5 5 (2.65%) ServiceNow
6 3 (1.59%) Aruba
6 3 (1.59%) AVEVA
6 3 (1.59%) MuleSoft
6 3 (1.59%) Samsung
7 2 (1.06%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.06%) NetApp
7 2 (1.06%) Sage
7 2 (1.06%) SolarWinds
8 1 (0.53%) Adobe
8 1 (0.53%) BMC
8 1 (0.53%) Citrix
8 1 (0.53%) Dell
8 1 (0.53%) HP