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 15 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 239 260 322
Rank change year-on-year +21 +62 +69
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 302 297 289
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 1.10% 0.91% 0.68%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.50% 3.05% 2.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 176 204
10th Percentile £190 £231 £184
25th Percentile £250 £383 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £516
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -3.15% +21.47%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £590
90th Percentile £650 £644 £743
UK median daily rate £450 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -10.00% - +17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 33 15
10th Percentile £14.99 £11.75 £15.25
25th Percentile £16.30 £14.16 £15.79
Median hourly rate £18.00 £16.30 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.43% -6.86% +12.90%
75th Percentile £33.75 £21.37 £23.50
90th Percentile £84.33 - £35.00
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £15.47 £17.75
% change year-on-year +24.35% -12.87% +14.52%

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 8,625 9,723 12,203
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.52% 29.83% 28.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,462 6,018 7,897
10th Percentile £303 £325 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £743
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 674 583 664
10th Percentile £18.15 £17.08 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £26.71 £24.04
Median hourly rate £25.15 £54.00 £54.78
Median % change year-on-year -53.43% -1.42% +21.73%
75th Percentile £47.12 £69.72 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £80.00 £78.94
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £54.78
% change year-on-year -49.70% -8.73% +21.73%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification 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 15 September 2025.

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 15 September 2025.

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 15 September 2025. 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 -14 97 £500 +1.01% 198
South East +41 55 £515 +5.00% 187
North of England +11 50 £425 -15.00% 164
North West +13 40 £425 -26.09% 89
South West +25 35 £520 +4.00% 70
East of England +11 34 £300 +33.33% 99
Midlands -15 27 £268 -46.50% 146
West Midlands -5 21 £251 -56.11% 77
Yorkshire -11 7 £362 -23.74% 57
East Midlands -11 6 £492 +23.00% 66
North East -2 3 £200 -57.89% 23
Microsoft Certification
UK

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 41 (13.58%) SharePoint
2 32 (10.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.32%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.66%) Confluence
4 2 (0.66%) OpenEdge
5 1 (0.33%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 19 (6.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (4.64%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (4.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (2.98%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.33%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (2.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.66%) Alphatax
3 1 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.33%) Maximo
3 1 (0.33%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 132 (43.71%) Azure
2 112 (37.09%) Microsoft 365
3 49 (16.23%) Entra ID
4 43 (14.24%) Power Platform
5 30 (9.93%) AWS
6 28 (9.27%) Power Automate
7 25 (8.28%) Dynamics 365
8 22 (7.28%) PowerApps
9 21 (6.95%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (5.96%) Microsoft Purview
11 14 (4.64%) Azure Sentinel
12 13 (4.30%) Azure Data Factory
13 12 (3.97%) OneDrive
14 11 (3.64%) Azure Logic Apps
15 10 (3.31%) Azure Monitor
16 9 (2.98%) Azure AKS
16 9 (2.98%) GCP
16 9 (2.98%) GitHub
17 7 (2.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 7 (2.32%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 35 (11.59%) Firewall
2 34 (11.26%) DNS
3 32 (10.60%) TCP/IP
4 30 (9.93%) VPN
5 27 (8.94%) DHCP
6 17 (5.63%) Fibre Channel
6 17 (5.63%) iSCSI
6 17 (5.63%) LAN
6 17 (5.63%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (2.98%) VLAN
8 8 (2.65%) Network Security
8 8 (2.65%) SAN
8 8 (2.65%) SSL
9 6 (1.99%) Skype
9 6 (1.99%) Wireless
10 5 (1.66%) NAS
11 4 (1.32%) S/MIME
11 4 (1.32%) Unified Communications
11 4 (1.32%) WAN
11 4 (1.32%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.94%) Power BI
2 23 (7.62%) SQL Server
3 14 (4.64%) Azure SQL Database
4 6 (1.99%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.99%) Relational Database
4 6 (1.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 5 (1.66%) Data Lake
5 5 (1.66%) Oracle Database
6 3 (0.99%) MySQL
6 3 (0.99%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.66%) DynamoDB
7 2 (0.66%) Metadata
7 2 (0.66%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.66%) Power Query
7 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.33%) Big Data
8 1 (0.33%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.33%) Redis
Development Applications
1 14 (4.64%) JIRA
2 6 (1.99%) Git
3 5 (1.66%) MSI
4 4 (1.32%) GitLab
5 3 (0.99%) ERwin
6 2 (0.66%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.66%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.66%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.33%) Subversion
7 1 (0.33%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 119 (39.40%) Social Skills
2 65 (21.52%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (17.55%) Finance
4 27 (8.94%) Public Sector
5 25 (8.28%) Banking
6 23 (7.62%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (3.31%) Legal
8 7 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (2.32%) Manufacturing
8 7 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (2.32%) Retail
9 5 (1.66%) Marketing
9 5 (1.66%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.99%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.99%) French Language
11 3 (0.99%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.99%) Military
12 2 (0.66%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.66%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 64 (21.19%) Analyst
2 44 (14.57%) Architect
3 31 (10.26%) Support Engineer
4 27 (8.94%) Support Analyst
5 21 (6.95%) IT Support
5 21 (6.95%) Senior
6 20 (6.62%) Desktop Support
7 19 (6.29%) Infrastructure Architect
7 19 (6.29%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 19 (6.29%) Service Analyst
7 19 (6.29%) Service Desk Analyst
8 18 (5.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 16 (5.30%) Deployment Engineer
9 16 (5.30%) VMware Architect
10 15 (4.97%) Azure Engineer
10 15 (4.97%) Developer
10 15 (4.97%) Security Engineer
11 14 (4.64%) 2nd Line Support
11 14 (4.64%) Consultant
11 14 (4.64%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.97%) .NET
2 8 (2.65%) .NET Core
3 7 (2.32%) ARM Templates
4 6 (1.99%) Microsoft Graph
4 6 (1.99%) REST
5 5 (1.66%) ADO
5 5 (1.66%) ASP.NET Web API
5 5 (1.66%) JSON
6 4 (1.32%) .NET Framework
6 4 (1.32%) ASP.NET
6 4 (1.32%) HTML
6 4 (1.32%) LDAP
6 4 (1.32%) OAuth
6 4 (1.32%) Web Services
7 3 (0.99%) ASP.NET MVC
7 3 (0.99%) Dapper ORM
7 3 (0.99%) HTML5 Canvas
7 3 (0.99%) RESTful
7 3 (0.99%) Software Packaging
7 3 (0.99%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.97%) Management Information System
1 15 (4.97%) PKI
2 14 (4.64%) Analytical Mindset
3 11 (3.64%) Onboarding
4 8 (2.65%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (2.32%) Cloud Native
5 7 (2.32%) Driving Licence
5 7 (2.32%) iPad
5 7 (2.32%) iPhone
6 6 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (1.99%) NHS
6 6 (1.99%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.66%) Data Centre
7 5 (1.66%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 4 (1.32%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (1.32%) Video Conferencing
9 3 (0.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 3 (0.99%) Low-Code
9 3 (0.99%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.99%) N-Tier
Operating Systems
1 166 (54.97%) Windows
2 53 (17.55%) Windows Server
3 42 (13.91%) Windows 10
4 22 (7.28%) Mac OS
5 20 (6.62%) Linux
5 20 (6.62%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (2.65%) Windows Server 2003
6 8 (2.65%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (1.66%) Windows 8
7 5 (1.66%) Windows Server 2008
7 5 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (1.66%) Windows XP
8 4 (1.32%) Unix
9 3 (0.99%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.66%) Android
10 2 (0.66%) VMS
11 1 (0.33%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.33%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (36.09%) ITIL
2 100 (33.11%) Problem-Solving
3 50 (16.56%) Customer Service
4 39 (12.91%) Agile
4 39 (12.91%) DevOps
5 32 (10.60%) Computer Science
5 32 (10.60%) Migration
6 29 (9.60%) Service Management
7 28 (9.27%) Business Intelligence
8 27 (8.94%) Incident Management
9 26 (8.61%) Cloud Security
10 25 (8.28%) Continuous Improvement
10 25 (8.28%) Service Delivery
11 24 (7.95%) CI/CD
11 24 (7.95%) ITSM
12 23 (7.62%) Data Loss Prevention
12 23 (7.62%) Identity Access Management
13 21 (6.95%) Analytics
13 21 (6.95%) Stakeholder Management
14 20 (6.62%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (18.21%) PowerShell
2 51 (16.89%) SQL
3 17 (5.63%) C#
4 12 (3.97%) T-SQL
5 11 (3.64%) Bash
6 10 (3.31%) JavaScript
6 10 (3.31%) Python
7 8 (2.65%) Bicep
8 4 (1.32%) VBScript
9 3 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (0.99%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.66%) Java
11 1 (0.33%) Korn
11 1 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 85 (28.15%) Security Cleared
2 69 (22.85%) Degree
3 63 (20.86%) Azure Certification
4 55 (18.21%) SC Cleared
5 53 (17.55%) MCSE
6 50 (16.56%) A+ Certification
7 34 (11.26%) MCSA
8 21 (6.95%) MCP
9 19 (6.29%) DV Cleared
10 15 (4.97%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (4.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 13 (4.30%) Computer Science Degree
11 13 (4.30%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (3.97%) CCNA
13 11 (3.64%) AWS Certification
13 11 (3.64%) CISSP
13 11 (3.64%) VCP5
13 11 (3.64%) VCP6
14 10 (3.31%) Master's Degree
15 8 (2.65%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (6.29%) GDPR
3 13 (4.30%) NIST
4 9 (2.98%) SLA
5 8 (2.65%) HIPAA
6 6 (1.99%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.32%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.32%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.99%) QA
9 2 (0.66%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.66%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.66%) NCSC
10 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.33%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.33%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.33%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.33%) NIST 800
System Software
1 113 (37.42%) Active Directory
2 40 (13.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (7.95%) vSphere
4 19 (6.29%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (5.63%) NFS
6 12 (3.97%) Hyper-V
7 9 (2.98%) Docker
8 4 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.99%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (0.99%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 3 (0.99%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.66%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.66%) Firmware
10 2 (0.66%) XenApp
11 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 45 (14.90%) SCCM
2 23 (7.62%) Microsoft Intune
3 20 (6.62%) Kubernetes
4 15 (4.97%) Terraform
5 6 (1.99%) CASB
6 5 (1.66%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.66%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.32%) Ansible
7 4 (1.32%) Grafana
7 4 (1.32%) Nessus
7 4 (1.32%) SCOM
7 4 (1.32%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.32%) WSUS
8 3 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.99%) Backup Exec
8 3 (0.99%) QRadar
9 2 (0.66%) CSIRT
9 2 (0.66%) Malwarebytes
10 1 (0.33%) Argo
10 1 (0.33%) Istio
Vendors
1 287 (95.03%) Microsoft
2 47 (15.56%) VMware
3 38 (12.58%) ServiceNow
4 28 (9.27%) Splunk
5 27 (8.94%) Citrix
6 24 (7.95%) Veeam
7 17 (5.63%) NetApp
8 16 (5.30%) Cisco
9 10 (3.31%) Oracle
10 9 (2.98%) Zscaler
11 8 (2.65%) Dell
12 7 (2.32%) Darktrace
13 6 (1.99%) Google
14 5 (1.66%) Canon
15 4 (1.32%) CheckPoint
15 4 (1.32%) CyberArk
15 4 (1.32%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.32%) Remedy
15 4 (1.32%) Tenable
16 3 (0.99%) Symantec