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 24 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 226 263
Rank change year-on-year -84 +37 +93
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 306 268 315
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.74% 1.12% 0.86%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.31% 3.55% 2.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 151 206
10th Percentile £160 £200 £191
25th Percentile £350 £251 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £583 £614 £570
90th Percentile £675 £700 £673
UK median daily rate £469 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +0.77% -2.11% -8.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 31 57
10th Percentile £21.35 - £13.69
25th Percentile £41.50 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +287.33% - +5.16%
75th Percentile £178.75 £24.21 £21.37
90th Percentile - £37.50 -
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £17.44 £16.30
% change year-on-year +262.01% +6.99% +5.16%

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 13,255 7,552 11,126
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.89% 31.48% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,890 4,812 6,895
10th Percentile £350 £278 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year - -2.23% -2.36%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £523 £528
% change year-on-year +0.38% -0.85% -4.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 989 430 979
10th Percentile £17.00 £18.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.27 £18.13
Median hourly rate £47.54 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.83% -12.50% -25.93%
75th Percentile £73.00 £66.00 £62.05
90th Percentile £85.36 £80.00 £75.24
UK median hourly rate £48.05 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +47.85% -18.75% -27.27%

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 24 May 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 24 May 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 24 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
London -32 115 £525 +5.00% 70
North of England -69 68 £474 +2.71% 57
North West -43 51 £474 -3.86% 34
South East -52 38 £238 -54.76% 55
South West -22 34 £425 -20.93% 18
Midlands -70 25 £425 +58.88% 27
East of England -42 24 £173 -13.75% 21
West Midlands -67 19 £425 +58.88% 10
Yorkshire -48 14 £484 +21.00% 15
East Midlands -23 6 £363 - 17
North East -27 3 - - 8
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 35 (11.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (9.80%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.98%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 19 (6.21%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.61%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 5 (1.63%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.63%) Maximo
3 3 (0.98%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 137 (44.77%) Azure
2 84 (27.45%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (19.61%) Entra ID
4 49 (16.01%) Power Platform
5 31 (10.13%) Microsoft Purview
6 30 (9.80%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (8.50%) Power Automate
8 25 (8.17%) PowerApps
9 22 (7.19%) Azure Data Factory
10 21 (6.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 20 (6.54%) GitHub
12 18 (5.88%) AWS
12 18 (5.88%) Dynamics 365
13 16 (5.23%) OneDrive
14 14 (4.58%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (4.25%) Microsoft Copilot
16 11 (3.59%) Azure Logic Apps
16 11 (3.59%) Azure Sentinel
17 10 (3.27%) Azure AKS
18 9 (2.94%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.40%) SAN
2 28 (9.15%) Firewall
3 24 (7.84%) DNS
3 24 (7.84%) VPN
4 12 (3.92%) TCP/IP
5 11 (3.59%) LAN
6 7 (2.29%) DHCP
6 7 (2.29%) Network Security
6 7 (2.29%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (1.96%) Kerberos
8 5 (1.63%) VLAN
9 4 (1.31%) DMZ
9 4 (1.31%) NGFW
9 4 (1.31%) SSL
10 3 (0.98%) NAS
10 3 (0.98%) PSTN
10 3 (0.98%) SMTP
10 3 (0.98%) VoIP
11 2 (0.65%) iSCSI
11 2 (0.65%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (9.80%) SQL Server
2 26 (8.50%) Power BI
3 14 (4.58%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 9 (2.94%) Azure SQL Database
5 9 (2.94%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.94%) Metadata
6 8 (2.61%) PostgreSQL
7 7 (2.29%) MySQL
8 6 (1.96%) Spark SQL
9 5 (1.63%) Delta Lake
9 5 (1.63%) Power Query
10 4 (1.31%) Metadata Repository
11 3 (0.98%) Big Data
11 3 (0.98%) Star Schema
12 2 (0.65%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.65%) Tableau
13 1 (0.33%) MongoDB
13 1 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 10 (3.27%) Git
2 3 (0.98%) Visual Studio Code
3 2 (0.65%) Cypress.io
3 2 (0.65%) GitLab
3 2 (0.65%) JDeveloper
3 2 (0.65%) Selenium
3 2 (0.65%) WebDriver
4 1 (0.33%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.33%) MLflow
4 1 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.33%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 99 (32.35%) Social Skills
2 68 (22.22%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (12.42%) Finance
4 34 (11.11%) Public Sector
5 18 (5.88%) Telecoms
6 13 (4.25%) Legal
7 9 (2.94%) Banking
8 8 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.31%) Front Office
9 4 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.31%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.31%) Marketing
10 3 (0.98%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.98%) International Banking
10 3 (0.98%) Law
10 3 (0.98%) Military
10 3 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.65%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 42 (13.73%) IT Engineer
2 41 (13.40%) Architect
3 37 (12.09%) Field Engineer
3 37 (12.09%) Field Service Engineer
4 31 (10.13%) Analyst
5 29 (9.48%) IT Support
5 29 (9.48%) Senior
6 20 (6.54%) Support Engineer
7 19 (6.21%) Wintel Engineer
8 18 (5.88%) IT Support Engineer
9 16 (5.23%) Administrator
9 16 (5.23%) IT Analyst
9 16 (5.23%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 16 (5.23%) Support Analyst
10 13 (4.25%) Developer
10 13 (4.25%) Field Support Engineer
10 13 (4.25%) Solutions Architect
11 12 (3.92%) DBA
11 12 (3.92%) Lead
11 12 (3.92%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.90%) OAuth
2 13 (4.25%) OpenID
2 13 (4.25%) SAML
3 12 (3.92%) LDAP
4 11 (3.59%) .NET
5 9 (2.94%) OAuth2
6 8 (2.61%) ARM Templates
7 7 (2.29%) Microsoft Graph
7 7 (2.29%) ONVIF
8 4 (1.31%) REST
8 4 (1.31%) SailPoint
8 4 (1.31%) Web Services
9 3 (0.98%) React
10 2 (0.65%) CSS
10 2 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
10 2 (0.65%) Qt
10 2 (0.65%) RESTful
10 2 (0.65%) XML
10 2 (0.65%) XSLT
10 2 (0.65%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.07%) Analytical Mindset
1 40 (13.07%) Data Centre
2 25 (8.17%) Onboarding
3 19 (6.21%) Replication
4 18 (5.88%) Clustering
5 15 (4.90%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (3.27%) Hybrid Cloud
7 9 (2.94%) BYOD
7 9 (2.94%) Security Posture
8 7 (2.29%) Video\Live Streaming
9 6 (1.96%) Cloud Native
9 6 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.96%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.63%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.63%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.63%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.31%) Product Ownership
11 4 (1.31%) Public Cloud
12 3 (0.98%) Operational Technology
12 3 (0.98%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 95 (31.05%) Windows
2 42 (13.73%) Windows Server
3 30 (9.80%) Windows 10
4 18 (5.88%) Linux
5 10 (3.27%) Android
6 9 (2.94%) Windows Server 2003
7 8 (2.61%) Apple iOS
7 8 (2.61%) Windows 7
8 6 (1.96%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.96%) Unix
8 6 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.63%) VMS
10 4 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (1.31%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.65%) AIX
12 1 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (36.60%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (19.28%) Customer Service
3 56 (18.30%) ITIL
4 53 (17.32%) DevOps
5 47 (15.36%) Analytics
6 45 (14.71%) Migration
7 41 (13.40%) CI/CD
8 37 (12.09%) Break/Fix
9 36 (11.76%) Agile
10 35 (11.44%) High Availability
11 32 (10.46%) Disaster Recovery
11 32 (10.46%) Project Delivery
12 30 (9.80%) Infrastructure as Code
13 28 (9.15%) Data Governance
13 28 (9.15%) Roadmaps
14 27 (8.82%) Computer Science
15 26 (8.50%) Business Intelligence
15 26 (8.50%) RBAC
16 25 (8.17%) Identity Access Management
17 24 (7.84%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 86 (28.10%) PowerShell
2 36 (11.76%) SQL
3 27 (8.82%) Python
4 17 (5.56%) Bicep
5 10 (3.27%) Bash
5 10 (3.27%) C#
6 7 (2.29%) T-SQL
7 6 (1.96%) JavaScript
8 5 (1.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.31%) R
10 2 (0.65%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.33%) Java
11 1 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.33%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.33%) VB
11 1 (0.33%) X++
Qualifications
1 93 (30.39%) MCSE
2 88 (28.76%) Security Cleared
3 76 (24.84%) Degree
4 73 (23.86%) SC Cleared
5 62 (20.26%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (17.65%) A+ Certification
7 51 (16.67%) Azure Certification
7 51 (16.67%) CCNA
8 48 (15.69%) Network+ Certification
9 42 (13.73%) MCSA
10 23 (7.52%) Computer Science Degree
10 23 (7.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 21 (6.86%) DV Cleared
12 16 (5.23%) CISSP
12 16 (5.23%) VCAP
13 10 (3.27%) CCNP
14 9 (2.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 7 (2.29%) CISM
15 7 (2.29%) CompTIA Security+
15 7 (2.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (6.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 19 (6.21%) NIST
2 10 (3.27%) GDPR
2 10 (3.27%) SLA
3 8 (2.61%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.61%) NIST 800
4 6 (1.96%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (1.96%) NCSC
5 5 (1.63%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.31%) QA
6 4 (1.31%) WCAG
7 1 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.33%) GRC
7 1 (0.33%) GxP
7 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 96 (31.37%) Active Directory
2 31 (10.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (6.86%) VMware ESXi
4 18 (5.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (5.56%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (5.56%) vSphere
6 9 (2.94%) Docker
7 7 (2.29%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.65%) Firmware
8 2 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.65%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.33%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 37 (12.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (10.78%) Terraform
3 28 (9.15%) Ansible
4 20 (6.54%) vCenter Server
5 16 (5.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 15 (4.90%) SCCM
7 13 (4.25%) Kubernetes
8 6 (1.96%) CASB
8 6 (1.96%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.63%) Nessus
10 4 (1.31%) SCOM
11 3 (0.98%) Podman
11 3 (0.98%) QRadar
11 3 (0.98%) WSUS
12 2 (0.65%) Packer
13 1 (0.33%) Backup Exec
13 1 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.33%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
13 1 (0.33%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 240 (78.43%) Microsoft
2 41 (13.40%) VMware
3 38 (12.42%) Dell
4 30 (9.80%) Cisco
5 13 (4.25%) Oracle
6 12 (3.92%) Apple
7 11 (3.59%) Citrix
7 11 (3.59%) Databricks
7 11 (3.59%) ServiceNow
8 7 (2.29%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.96%) Palo Alto
9 6 (1.96%) Remedy
9 6 (1.96%) Tenable
10 5 (1.63%) IBM
10 5 (1.63%) NetApp
10 5 (1.63%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.63%) Splunk
11 4 (1.31%) Bloomberg
11 4 (1.31%) Foundry
11 4 (1.31%) Reuters
219 Microsoft Certification jobs in England