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 May 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 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 6 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 -5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 153 66 100
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 14.02% 12.43% 12.94%
As % of the Vendors category 31.74% 30.14% 31.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 47 59
10th Percentile £131 £181 £150
25th Percentile £205 £216 £184
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £425 £391
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +8.70% +4.27%
75th Percentile £475 £525 £603
90th Percentile £550 £550 £638
England median daily rate £493 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.68% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 5 18
10th Percentile £12.94 £13.79 £12.75
25th Percentile £13.25 £15.09 £13.06
Median hourly rate £16.50 £18.77 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.07% +34.04% -20.00%
75th Percentile £23.90 £19.50 £16.04
90th Percentile £26.60 £21.60 £26.50
England median hourly rate £20.09 £19.00 £15.00
% change year-on-year +5.74% +26.67% -31.03%

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 482 219 317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 44.18% 41.24% 41.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 299 152 190
10th Percentile £190 £250 £160
25th Percentile £361 £361 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £550 £545 £600
90th Percentile £620 £630 £659
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 16 24
10th Percentile £13.13 £13.78 £10.90
25th Percentile £15.25 £13.81 £12.28
Median hourly rate £16.35 £16.65 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.77% +18.89% -31.37%
75th Percentile £25.15 £19.24 £14.27
90th Percentile £74.00 £27.38 £24.55
England median hourly rate £30.63 £27.13 £22.50
% change year-on-year +12.90% +20.56% -44.10%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +4 60 £225 -53.85% 33
Northamptonshire +5 42 £436 -12.80% 42
Leicestershire +1 26 £131 -47.53% 29
Derbyshire -7 16 £425 +41.67% 36
Lincolnshire -14 6 £475 +163.89% 20
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 22 (14.38%) SharePoint
2 18 (11.76%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (3.27%) Confluence
4 3 (1.96%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.65%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.65%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.65%) CMS
5 1 (0.65%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.65%) SAS
5 1 (0.65%) Tomcat
Applications
1 21 (13.73%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (11.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (5.88%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (3.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (1.96%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (1.31%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.65%) FrameMaker
Business Applications
1 2 (1.31%) Maximo
2 1 (0.65%) assyst
2 1 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.65%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.65%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 47 (30.72%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (29.41%) Azure
3 23 (15.03%) Entra ID
4 18 (11.76%) Power Platform
5 13 (8.50%) AWS
6 10 (6.54%) PowerApps
7 9 (5.88%) Azure DevOps
7 9 (5.88%) GCP
8 5 (3.27%) Azure AKS
9 4 (2.61%) Azure Service Bus
9 4 (2.61%) Power Automate
9 4 (2.61%) Serverless
10 3 (1.96%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (1.96%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 3 (1.96%) Azure Functions
10 3 (1.96%) GitHub
10 3 (1.96%) IaaS
10 3 (1.96%) OneDrive
10 3 (1.96%) PaaS
10 3 (1.96%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (5.23%) Network Security
2 6 (3.92%) Firewall
2 6 (3.92%) VLAN
3 4 (2.61%) DNS
4 3 (1.96%) Reverse Proxy
5 2 (1.31%) DHCP
5 2 (1.31%) VPN
6 1 (0.65%) SAN
6 1 (0.65%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.65%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.23%) Power BI
2 7 (4.58%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (3.27%) Azure SQL Database
3 5 (3.27%) SQL Server
4 4 (2.61%) Relational Database
4 4 (2.61%) Tableau
5 3 (1.96%) Metabase
5 3 (1.96%) Parquet
6 2 (1.31%) Big Data
6 2 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (1.31%) Metadata
6 2 (1.31%) MongoDB
6 2 (1.31%) Power Query
7 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.65%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.65%) MySQL
7 1 (0.65%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.65%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.65%) VLDB
Development Applications
1 7 (4.58%) JIRA
2 5 (3.27%) Git
3 2 (1.31%) GitLab
General
1 55 (35.95%) Social Skills
2 21 (13.73%) Finance
3 15 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (7.19%) Law
5 8 (5.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (3.27%) Retail
7 4 (2.61%) Banking
7 4 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.96%) Legal
8 3 (1.96%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.31%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.31%) Marketing
10 1 (0.65%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.65%) Agriculture
10 1 (0.65%) Billing
10 1 (0.65%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.65%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 30 (19.61%) Analyst
2 20 (13.07%) Desktop Support
3 18 (11.76%) Architect
4 15 (9.80%) Developer
5 14 (9.15%) Senior
6 12 (7.84%) Administrator
6 12 (7.84%) Service Analyst
6 12 (7.84%) Service Desk Analyst
7 9 (5.88%) IT Support
7 9 (5.88%) Support Engineer
8 8 (5.23%) Power Platform Developer
9 7 (4.58%) Desktop Engineer
9 7 (4.58%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 7 (4.58%) Desktop Support Technician
9 7 (4.58%) Desktop Technician
9 7 (4.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 7 (4.58%) Support Technician
10 6 (3.92%) Data Analyst
10 6 (3.92%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (3.92%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (8.50%) REST
2 5 (3.27%) .NET
2 5 (3.27%) Node.js
3 3 (1.96%) Kafka
3 3 (1.96%) Lightning Web Components
3 3 (1.96%) Middleware
3 3 (1.96%) OAuth
3 3 (1.96%) OAuth2
3 3 (1.96%) OpenID
3 3 (1.96%) Plotly
3 3 (1.96%) SAML
3 3 (1.96%) SOAP
4 2 (1.31%) RabbitMQ
4 2 (1.31%) React
4 2 (1.31%) Visualforce
5 1 (0.65%) ISPF
5 1 (0.65%) J2EE
5 1 (0.65%) RESTful
5 1 (0.65%) Web Services
5 1 (0.65%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.15%) Smartphone
2 10 (6.54%) Cloud Native
3 9 (5.88%) Product Ownership
4 8 (5.23%) Management Information System
5 5 (3.27%) Data Structures
6 4 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.96%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (1.96%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.96%) e-Learning
7 3 (1.96%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.96%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (1.31%) PMI
9 1 (0.65%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.65%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.65%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.65%) Mainframe
9 1 (0.65%) NHS
9 1 (0.65%) Replication
9 1 (0.65%) Smartcard
9 1 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 55 (35.95%) Windows
2 28 (18.30%) Windows 10
3 9 (5.88%) Apple iOS
4 4 (2.61%) Windows 7
4 4 (2.61%) Windows 8
4 4 (2.61%) Windows Server
5 3 (1.96%) Linux
6 2 (1.31%) CentOS
6 2 (1.31%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.65%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.65%) MVS
7 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.65%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (30.72%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (20.26%) Customer Service
3 28 (18.30%) CI/CD
4 24 (15.69%) Stakeholder Management
5 23 (15.03%) Continuous Improvement
6 22 (14.38%) DevOps
7 21 (13.73%) Migration
8 18 (11.76%) Infrastructure as Code
9 13 (8.50%) Agile
10 12 (7.84%) Analytics
10 12 (7.84%) Project Delivery
11 11 (7.19%) Change Management
12 10 (6.54%) Asset Management
12 10 (6.54%) Decision-Making
12 10 (6.54%) Digital Strategy
13 9 (5.88%) BCP
13 9 (5.88%) Collaborative Working
13 9 (5.88%) Data Migration
13 9 (5.88%) Data Visualisation
13 9 (5.88%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 15 (9.80%) SQL
2 12 (7.84%) PowerShell
3 10 (6.54%) Python
4 9 (5.88%) C#
5 5 (3.27%) Bicep
6 4 (2.61%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.96%) Apex Code
7 3 (1.96%) Bash
7 3 (1.96%) MATLAB
7 3 (1.96%) R
7 3 (1.96%) Rust
8 2 (1.31%) SOQL
8 2 (1.31%) TypeScript
8 2 (1.31%) VBA
9 1 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.65%) Java
9 1 (0.65%) JCL
9 1 (0.65%) REXX
9 1 (0.65%) SOSL
9 1 (0.65%) Swift
Qualifications
1 10 (6.54%) Degree
2 7 (4.58%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
3 4 (2.61%) Security Cleared
4 3 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
4 3 (1.96%) SC Cleared
5 2 (1.31%) Azure Certification
5 2 (1.31%) DV Cleared
5 2 (1.31%) Master's Degree
5 2 (1.31%) PMI Certification
5 2 (1.31%) PMP
6 1 (0.65%) AAT
6 1 (0.65%) ACCA
6 1 (0.65%) CIMA
6 1 (0.65%) IIBA
6 1 (0.65%) MBA
6 1 (0.65%) NVQ Level 3
6 1 (0.65%) SAFe Agilist
6 1 (0.65%) VCAP
6 1 (0.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.54%) GDPR
2 5 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.27%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.61%) GRC
4 3 (1.96%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 3 (1.96%) NIST
4 3 (1.96%) QA
4 3 (1.96%) SLA
4 3 (1.96%) SOC 2
5 2 (1.31%) PMO
6 1 (0.65%) Basel III
6 1 (0.65%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 49 (32.03%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.27%) Docker
3 4 (2.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.31%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.65%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.65%) Firmware
5 1 (0.65%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.65%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.65%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (16.99%) SCCM
2 21 (13.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 18 (11.76%) Terraform
4 6 (3.92%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.61%) Ansible
6 3 (1.96%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.65%) Control-M
7 1 (0.65%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 7 (4.58%) Salesforce
1 7 (4.58%) SAP
2 6 (3.92%) HP
3 5 (3.27%) ServiceNow
4 4 (2.61%) Databricks
4 4 (2.61%) Google
4 4 (2.61%) Splunk
4 4 (2.61%) VMware
5 3 (1.96%) Citrix
5 3 (1.96%) Dynatrace
5 3 (1.96%) iManage
5 3 (1.96%) Oracle
6 2 (1.31%) Adobe
6 2 (1.31%) NetApp
7 1 (0.65%) Apple
7 1 (0.65%) BMC
7 1 (0.65%) Dell
7 1 (0.65%) Informatica
7 1 (0.65%) Intel
7 1 (0.65%) Sage