Microsoft Certification Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft Certification
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 11 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 258 228 317
Rank change year-on-year -30 +89 +59
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 316 291 245
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.02% 1.08% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.96% 3.54% 2.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 167 170
10th Percentile £216 £206 £212
25th Percentile £313 £325 £282
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.01% -1.00% +8.11%
75th Percentile £600 £586 £622
90th Percentile £705 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 25 18
10th Percentile £6.00 £11.85 £14.83
25th Percentile £11.00 £18.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £18.00 £21.46 £18.25
Median % change year-on-year -16.12% +17.59% +17.74%
75th Percentile £25.47 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £89.63 £96.70 £39.56
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £21.46 £18.25
% change year-on-year -10.39% +17.59% +17.74%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

Microsoft Certification falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 10,677 8,213 11,203
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.30% 30.49% 30.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,037 5,007 7,048
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £420 £419 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £734 £738
UK median daily rate £522 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.57% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 857 386 698
10th Percentile £16.17 £19.57 £15.09
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.32 £23.81
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.71 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -46.16% -6.58% +11.11%
75th Percentile £57.50 £68.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £82.38 £79.78
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year -37.13% -20.00% +11.11%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft Certification relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Microsoft Certification job vacancy trend in England

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the England region over the 6 months to 11 January 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
London +5 116 £525 +31.25% 64
South West +15 62 £550 -12.00% 36
South East -23 43 £447 -10.60% 84
Midlands -25 42 £275 -35.29% 47
North of England -46 33 £450 -10.00% 70
West Midlands -19 32 £305 -39.00% 20
North West -39 24 £450 -10.00% 33
East of England -23 18 £528 +181.33% 46
East Midlands -18 10 £210 -47.50% 26
Yorkshire -38 9 £396 - 27
Microsoft Certification
UK

Microsoft Certification
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 41 (12.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (8.86%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.90%) Skype for Business
4 4 (1.27%) Confluence
5 3 (0.95%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 19 (6.01%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (3.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.27%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.85%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.53%) Maximo
3 7 (2.22%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.32%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 142 (44.94%) Azure
2 99 (31.33%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (16.14%) Power Platform
4 47 (14.87%) Entra ID
5 39 (12.34%) AWS
6 37 (11.71%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (8.86%) Power Automate
8 26 (8.23%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (7.91%) PowerApps
10 22 (6.96%) Microsoft Purview
11 19 (6.01%) Azure Monitor
12 18 (5.70%) Azure Data Factory
13 17 (5.38%) GitHub
14 15 (4.75%) Azure Sentinel
15 14 (4.43%) Azure AKS
15 14 (4.43%) Azure Logic Apps
16 12 (3.80%) Azure Key Vault
16 12 (3.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 11 (3.48%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 11 (3.48%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 56 (17.72%) DNS
2 39 (12.34%) Firewall
3 36 (11.39%) DHCP
4 29 (9.18%) VPN
5 26 (8.23%) TCP/IP
6 15 (4.75%) VLAN
7 9 (2.85%) Skype
8 8 (2.53%) LAN
8 8 (2.53%) Network Security
9 7 (2.22%) SAN
9 7 (2.22%) Unified Communications
9 7 (2.22%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (1.90%) SSL
11 5 (1.58%) Kerberos
12 4 (1.27%) DKIM
12 4 (1.27%) DMARC
12 4 (1.27%) Fibre Channel
12 4 (1.27%) iSCSI
12 4 (1.27%) Wireless
13 3 (0.95%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (7.91%) Power BI
2 21 (6.65%) SQL Server
3 15 (4.75%) Data Lake
4 11 (3.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 9 (2.85%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.90%) Metadata
8 5 (1.58%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.58%) MySQL
8 5 (1.58%) Oracle Database
8 5 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.58%) Spark SQL
9 4 (1.27%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.95%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.95%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.63%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.63%) Power Query
11 2 (0.63%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.63%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (4.11%) Git
2 10 (3.16%) JIRA
3 6 (1.90%) MSI
4 5 (1.58%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.27%) GitLab
6 3 (0.95%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.95%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.95%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.63%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.63%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.63%) JDeveloper
General
1 135 (42.72%) Social Skills
2 57 (18.04%) Analytical Skills
3 39 (12.34%) Public Sector
4 31 (9.81%) Finance
5 19 (6.01%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (3.80%) Banking
7 9 (2.85%) Legal
8 7 (2.22%) Marketing
8 7 (2.22%) Military
9 5 (1.58%) Aerospace
10 4 (1.27%) International Banking
10 4 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.27%) Retail
10 4 (1.27%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.95%) Polish Language
12 2 (0.63%) Advertising
12 2 (0.63%) Aeronautics
12 2 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.63%) Law
Job Titles
1 51 (16.14%) Architect
2 33 (10.44%) Analyst
3 26 (8.23%) Support Engineer
4 25 (7.91%) Senior
5 21 (6.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 18 (5.70%) Solutions Architect
7 17 (5.38%) Support Analyst
7 17 (5.38%) Wintel Engineer
8 16 (5.06%) Administrator
8 16 (5.06%) Azure Engineer
8 16 (5.06%) Lead
9 14 (4.43%) Consultant
9 14 (4.43%) Developer
10 13 (4.11%) Field Engineer
10 13 (4.11%) IT Analyst
11 12 (3.80%) IT Support
12 11 (3.48%) Infrastructure Support
12 11 (3.48%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
12 11 (3.48%) Technical Support
13 10 (3.16%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.49%) OAuth
2 25 (7.91%) OpenID
2 25 (7.91%) SAML
3 16 (5.06%) .NET
4 15 (4.75%) ARM Templates
4 15 (4.75%) OAuth2
5 13 (4.11%) Microsoft Graph
6 9 (2.85%) REST
7 7 (2.22%) LDAP
7 7 (2.22%) RESTful
8 6 (1.90%) JSON
9 4 (1.27%) PySpark
10 3 (0.95%) ASP.NET Web API
10 3 (0.95%) React
11 2 (0.63%) CSS
11 2 (0.63%) Jest
11 2 (0.63%) Next.js
11 2 (0.63%) SailPoint
11 2 (0.63%) Tailwind CSS
11 2 (0.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (6.96%) PKI
2 19 (6.01%) Analytical Mindset
3 17 (5.38%) Enterprise Software
4 16 (5.06%) Replication
5 15 (4.75%) Hybrid Cloud
6 14 (4.43%) Onboarding
7 13 (4.11%) Cloud Native
8 12 (3.80%) BYOD
9 10 (3.16%) Driving Licence
9 10 (3.16%) Security Posture
10 8 (2.53%) Management Information System
10 8 (2.53%) NHS
11 6 (1.90%) Clustering
11 6 (1.90%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.90%) Private Cloud
12 5 (1.58%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.58%) Security Operations Centre
12 5 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (1.58%) Team-Oriented Environment
13 4 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 144 (45.57%) Windows
2 63 (19.94%) Windows Server
3 35 (11.08%) Windows 10
4 25 (7.91%) Linux
5 13 (4.11%) Mac OS
6 11 (3.48%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (1.90%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.58%) Windows Server 2003
9 4 (1.27%) Android
10 3 (0.95%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.95%) CentOS
11 2 (0.63%) VMS
11 2 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.32%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (29.11%) Problem-Solving
2 90 (28.48%) ITIL
3 53 (16.77%) DevOps
4 44 (13.92%) CI/CD
4 44 (13.92%) Migration
5 42 (13.29%) Agile
6 41 (12.97%) Customer Service
7 38 (12.03%) Service Management
8 37 (11.71%) Identity Access Management
8 37 (11.71%) RBAC
9 36 (11.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 35 (11.08%) Analytics
10 35 (11.08%) Disaster Recovery
11 32 (10.13%) Computer Science
12 30 (9.49%) Cloud Security
12 30 (9.49%) Continuous Improvement
13 27 (8.54%) Business Intelligence
14 26 (8.23%) Identity Management
15 25 (7.91%) Change Management
16 24 (7.59%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 97 (30.70%) PowerShell
2 41 (12.97%) SQL
3 28 (8.86%) Python
4 17 (5.38%) Bicep
5 12 (3.80%) C#
6 11 (3.48%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.22%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.90%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.90%) VBScript
9 4 (1.27%) Bash
10 2 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.63%) R
11 1 (0.32%) Java
11 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.32%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 114 (36.08%) Security Cleared
2 88 (27.85%) Degree
3 80 (25.32%) SC Cleared
4 77 (24.37%) Azure Certification
5 63 (19.94%) MCSE
6 33 (10.44%) DV Cleared
7 29 (9.18%) MCSA
8 28 (8.86%) A+ Certification
9 24 (7.59%) Cisco Certification
9 24 (7.59%) CISSP
9 24 (7.59%) MCP
10 21 (6.65%) Network+ Certification
11 20 (6.33%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (5.38%) CCNA
13 14 (4.43%) AWS Certification
14 13 (4.11%) CISM
15 12 (3.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 11 (3.48%) ITIL Certification
16 11 (3.48%) Server+ Certification
17 10 (3.16%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (8.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (6.01%) GDPR
3 18 (5.70%) NIST
4 8 (2.53%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.90%) SLA
6 5 (1.58%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.27%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.27%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.27%) NCSC
7 4 (1.27%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.63%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.63%) QA
8 2 (0.63%) WCAG
9 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.32%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.32%) PMO
System Software
1 139 (43.99%) Active Directory
2 38 (12.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (5.06%) Hyper-V
4 15 (4.75%) vSphere
5 13 (4.11%) Docker
6 10 (3.16%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (2.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (1.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 5 (1.58%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (1.27%) Microsoft App-V
9 4 (1.27%) NFS
9 4 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.63%) Firmware
10 2 (0.63%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.32%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.32%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 37 (11.71%) SCCM
2 34 (10.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 28 (8.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 28 (8.86%) Terraform
4 23 (7.28%) Kubernetes
5 19 (6.01%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (3.80%) Ansible
7 9 (2.85%) WSUS
8 8 (2.53%) SCOM
9 6 (1.90%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.63%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.32%) CASB
11 1 (0.32%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.32%) Nessus
11 1 (0.32%) QRadar
Vendors
1 297 (93.99%) Microsoft
2 50 (15.82%) VMware
3 22 (6.96%) Cisco
4 18 (5.70%) ServiceNow
5 16 (5.06%) Veeam
6 15 (4.75%) Oracle
7 12 (3.80%) Databricks
7 12 (3.80%) Dell
7 12 (3.80%) Splunk
8 11 (3.48%) Citrix
8 11 (3.48%) Red Hat
9 9 (2.85%) IBM
9 9 (2.85%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.90%) CheckPoint
10 6 (1.90%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.58%) iManage
11 5 (1.58%) Mitel
11 5 (1.58%) Tenable
12 4 (1.27%) NetApp
12 4 (1.27%) OpenAI
315 Microsoft Certification jobs in England