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 1 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 223 315
Rank change year-on-year -38 +92 +72
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 327 292 262
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.99% 1.10% 0.69%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.91% 3.63% 2.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 166 189
10th Percentile £192 £204 £198
25th Percentile £306 £302 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.32% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £594 £574 £600
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £498 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +10.69% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 27 21
10th Percentile - £13.79 £13.69
25th Percentile £6.00 £16.97 £15.33
Median hourly rate £16.00 £21.46 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.44% +22.63% +12.90%
75th Percentile £24.56 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £25.47 £89.05 £39.23
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £21.73 £17.50
% change year-on-year -11.50% +24.17% +12.90%

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 11,222 8,053 11,917
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.12% 30.40% 31.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,459 4,858 7,434
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £416 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £517 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -1.52% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 870 386 865
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.00 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% - +2.62%
75th Percentile £63.75 £67.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.08 £81.42 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year -35.51% -15.55% +2.62%

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 1 February 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 1 February 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 1 February 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 -15 116 £525 +31.25% 88
South West +7 61 £550 - 34
Midlands -40 44 £275 -31.25% 50
North of England -59 42 £448 -12.25% 82
South East -31 41 £447 -10.60% 92
West Midlands -33 32 £310 +6.90% 22
North West -37 30 £445 -12.75% 36
East of England -24 19 £225 +20.00% 50
East Midlands -17 12 £210 -47.50% 27
Yorkshire -43 9 £468 - 39
North East -13 3 - - 10
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 (12.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (8.87%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.83%) Skype for Business
4 4 (1.22%) Confluence
5 3 (0.92%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 21 (6.42%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.22%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.45%) Maximo
3 7 (2.14%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 155 (47.40%) Azure
2 102 (31.19%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (16.82%) Power Platform
4 51 (15.60%) Entra ID
5 41 (12.54%) AWS
6 37 (11.31%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (8.56%) Power Automate
7 28 (8.56%) PowerApps
8 24 (7.34%) Dynamics 365
9 22 (6.73%) Azure Data Factory
9 22 (6.73%) Microsoft Purview
10 20 (6.12%) Azure Monitor
11 18 (5.50%) GitHub
12 17 (5.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 16 (4.89%) Azure AKS
14 15 (4.59%) Azure Logic Apps
14 15 (4.59%) Azure Sentinel
15 13 (3.98%) Azure Key Vault
16 12 (3.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 11 (3.36%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 56 (17.13%) DNS
2 35 (10.70%) Firewall
3 34 (10.40%) DHCP
4 30 (9.17%) VPN
5 21 (6.42%) TCP/IP
6 15 (4.59%) VLAN
7 10 (3.06%) SAN
8 9 (2.75%) Network Security
8 9 (2.75%) Skype
8 9 (2.75%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (2.14%) LAN
9 7 (2.14%) Unified Communications
10 5 (1.53%) Kerberos
10 5 (1.53%) SSL
11 4 (1.22%) DKIM
11 4 (1.22%) DMARC
12 3 (0.92%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.92%) S/MIME
12 3 (0.92%) SMTP
12 3 (0.92%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.95%) Power BI
2 19 (5.81%) SQL Server
3 16 (4.89%) Data Lake
4 11 (3.36%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (3.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 8 (2.45%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.83%) Metadata
7 5 (1.53%) Delta Lake
7 5 (1.53%) MySQL
7 5 (1.53%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (1.53%) Spark SQL
8 4 (1.22%) Metadata Repository
9 3 (0.92%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.92%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.61%) Apache Cassandra
10 2 (0.61%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.61%) Power Query
10 2 (0.61%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (3.98%) Git
2 6 (1.83%) JIRA
3 5 (1.53%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.53%) MSI
4 4 (1.22%) GitLab
5 3 (0.92%) AdminStudio
5 3 (0.92%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.92%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.61%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.61%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.61%) JDeveloper
7 1 (0.31%) MLflow
General
1 131 (40.06%) Social Skills
2 57 (17.43%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (11.01%) Public Sector
4 28 (8.56%) Finance
5 20 (6.12%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (3.67%) Banking
6 12 (3.67%) Legal
7 7 (2.14%) Marketing
7 7 (2.14%) Military
8 6 (1.83%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.22%) International Banking
10 3 (0.92%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.92%) Polish Language
10 3 (0.92%) Retail
11 2 (0.61%) Aeronautics
11 2 (0.61%) Law
12 1 (0.31%) Advertising
12 1 (0.31%) Back Office
12 1 (0.31%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 56 (17.13%) Architect
2 35 (10.70%) Analyst
3 25 (7.65%) Support Engineer
4 24 (7.34%) Senior
5 23 (7.03%) Solutions Architect
6 22 (6.73%) Wintel Engineer
7 21 (6.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 20 (6.12%) Administrator
9 17 (5.20%) Support Analyst
10 16 (4.89%) Azure Engineer
10 16 (4.89%) Field Engineer
11 15 (4.59%) IT Analyst
11 15 (4.59%) Lead
12 14 (4.28%) Developer
12 14 (4.28%) IT Support
13 12 (3.67%) Azure Architect
13 12 (3.67%) Technical Support
14 11 (3.36%) Consultant
14 11 (3.36%) Infrastructure Support
14 11 (3.36%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.79%) OAuth
2 28 (8.56%) SAML
3 27 (8.26%) OpenID
4 17 (5.20%) OAuth2
5 16 (4.89%) .NET
5 16 (4.89%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.36%) Microsoft Graph
7 10 (3.06%) REST
8 6 (1.83%) JSON
8 6 (1.83%) LDAP
8 6 (1.83%) RESTful
9 4 (1.22%) PySpark
10 3 (0.92%) ASP.NET Web API
10 3 (0.92%) React
11 2 (0.61%) CSS
11 2 (0.61%) Jest
11 2 (0.61%) Next.js
11 2 (0.61%) SailPoint
11 2 (0.61%) Tailwind CSS
11 2 (0.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (6.73%) PKI
2 21 (6.42%) Replication
3 20 (6.12%) Analytical Mindset
4 18 (5.50%) Enterprise Software
5 17 (5.20%) Onboarding
6 15 (4.59%) Hybrid Cloud
7 12 (3.67%) BYOD
7 12 (3.67%) Cloud Native
8 10 (3.06%) Clustering
9 9 (2.75%) Data Centre
9 9 (2.75%) Driving Licence
9 9 (2.75%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.75%) Private Cloud
9 9 (2.75%) Security Posture
10 7 (2.14%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.53%) NHS
11 5 (1.53%) Security Operations Centre
11 5 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.53%) Team-Oriented Environment
12 4 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 144 (44.04%) Windows
2 66 (20.18%) Windows Server
3 41 (12.54%) Windows 10
4 24 (7.34%) Linux
5 12 (3.67%) Windows Server 2012
6 10 (3.06%) Windows Server 2003
7 6 (1.83%) Mac OS
7 6 (1.83%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (1.53%) Windows 7
9 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.92%) Android
10 3 (0.92%) CentOS
11 2 (0.61%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.61%) VMS
12 1 (0.31%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (27.83%) Problem-Solving
2 83 (25.38%) ITIL
3 57 (17.43%) DevOps
4 48 (14.68%) CI/CD
5 43 (13.15%) Customer Service
5 43 (13.15%) Migration
5 43 (13.15%) RBAC
6 42 (12.84%) Agile
7 39 (11.93%) Disaster Recovery
7 39 (11.93%) Identity Access Management
8 38 (11.62%) Analytics
9 37 (11.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 37 (11.31%) Service Management
10 34 (10.40%) Computer Science
11 32 (9.79%) Continuous Improvement
12 29 (8.87%) Cloud Security
12 29 (8.87%) Roadmaps
13 28 (8.56%) Business Intelligence
14 26 (7.95%) Identity Management
15 25 (7.65%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 104 (31.80%) PowerShell
2 44 (13.46%) SQL
3 28 (8.56%) Python
4 19 (5.81%) Bicep
5 12 (3.67%) C#
6 10 (3.06%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.14%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.83%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.83%) VBScript
9 4 (1.22%) Bash
10 2 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.61%) R
11 1 (0.31%) Java
11 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 114 (34.86%) Security Cleared
2 86 (26.30%) Degree
3 82 (25.08%) Azure Certification
4 79 (24.16%) SC Cleared
5 68 (20.80%) MCSE
6 35 (10.70%) DV Cleared
7 31 (9.48%) MCSA
8 29 (8.87%) A+ Certification
9 27 (8.26%) Network+ Certification
10 26 (7.95%) Cisco Certification
11 24 (7.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 23 (7.03%) CISSP
12 23 (7.03%) Computer Science Degree
13 19 (5.81%) CCNA
14 14 (4.28%) AWS Certification
14 14 (4.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 13 (3.98%) CISM
16 11 (3.36%) CCNP
16 11 (3.36%) Master's Degree
16 11 (3.36%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (8.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (5.81%) NIST
3 16 (4.89%) GDPR
4 8 (2.45%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (1.83%) NCSC
6 5 (1.53%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.53%) SLA
7 4 (1.22%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.22%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.61%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.61%) QA
8 2 (0.61%) WCAG
9 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.31%) PMO
9 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 149 (45.57%) Active Directory
2 41 (12.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (5.20%) Hyper-V
4 16 (4.89%) Docker
4 16 (4.89%) vSphere
5 11 (3.36%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (2.45%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (1.53%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.53%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.53%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (1.22%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.61%) Firmware
9 2 (0.61%) NFS
9 2 (0.61%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.31%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (10.70%) SCCM
2 33 (10.09%) Microsoft Intune
3 31 (9.48%) Terraform
4 30 (9.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 24 (7.34%) Kubernetes
6 21 (6.42%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (5.20%) Ansible
8 9 (2.75%) vCenter Server
8 9 (2.75%) WSUS
9 7 (2.14%) SCOM
10 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.61%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.31%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.31%) QRadar
Vendors
1 303 (92.66%) Microsoft
2 55 (16.82%) VMware
3 22 (6.73%) Cisco
4 15 (4.59%) Dell
4 15 (4.59%) ServiceNow
5 14 (4.28%) Oracle
5 14 (4.28%) Veeam
6 13 (3.98%) Databricks
7 11 (3.36%) Red Hat
8 9 (2.75%) Citrix
8 9 (2.75%) IBM
8 9 (2.75%) SolarWinds
9 8 (2.45%) Splunk
10 5 (1.53%) iManage
10 5 (1.53%) Mitel
11 4 (1.22%) OpenAI
11 4 (1.22%) Tenable
12 3 (0.92%) Apple
12 3 (0.92%) Google
12 3 (0.92%) Palo Alto