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 7 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 243 272
Rank change year-on-year -59 +29 +86
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 340 282 327
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.77% 1.06% 0.88%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.43% 3.43% 2.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 166 206
10th Percentile £153 £200 £191
25th Percentile £300 £286 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.93% -3.30% -4.76%
75th Percentile £563 £609 £584
90th Percentile £675 £669 £675
UK median daily rate £450 £463 £500
% change year-on-year -2.70% -7.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 29 54
10th Percentile £15.00 - £13.69
25th Percentile £22.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £57.82 £17.44 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +231.52% +6.99% +5.16%
75th Percentile £178.75 £33.75 £21.37
90th Percentile - £37.50 -
UK median hourly rate £57.82 £17.44 £16.30
% change year-on-year +231.52% +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 14,015 8,219 11,340
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.59% 30.93% 30.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,447 5,180 7,039
10th Percentile £350 £281 £313
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £644
90th Percentile £719 £716 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £523 £525
% change year-on-year +0.48% -0.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,051 553 987
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.89 £14.16
25th Percentile £24.36 £20.15 £20.75
Median hourly rate £53.00 £28.18 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +88.08% -33.69% -22.73%
75th Percentile £73.88 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.40 £77.00 £77.19
UK median hourly rate £50.49 £27.50 £40.94
% change year-on-year +83.58% -32.83% -25.56%

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 7 July 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 7 July 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 7 July 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 -67 114 £520 +4.00% 63
North of England -47 76 £483 +13.65% 69
North West -28 60 £481 +13.18% 36
South East -49 55 £275 -49.07% 60
South West -27 32 £450 -9.55% 23
East of England -29 32 £173 -23.33% 23
Midlands -53 27 £425 +52.47% 37
West Midlands -58 21 £425 +72.94% 22
Yorkshire -41 12 £650 +57.58% 26
East Midlands -13 6 £431 -13.05% 14
North East -36 4 £363 +81.25% 9
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 38 (11.18%) SharePoint
2 26 (7.65%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.29%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.29%) Confluence
Applications
1 15 (4.41%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.76%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (1.18%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.29%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 176 (51.76%) Azure
2 95 (27.94%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (22.65%) Entra ID
4 59 (17.35%) Power Platform
5 37 (10.88%) Power Automate
6 36 (10.59%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (9.41%) PowerApps
8 30 (8.82%) Microsoft Purview
9 27 (7.94%) AWS
10 25 (7.35%) Dynamics 365
11 22 (6.47%) OneDrive
12 21 (6.18%) GitHub
13 18 (5.29%) Azure Logic Apps
14 16 (4.71%) Microsoft Copilot
15 13 (3.82%) Azure Monitor
16 12 (3.53%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (3.53%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 10 (2.94%) PaaS
17 10 (2.94%) Serverless
18 9 (2.65%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (11.18%) SAN
2 36 (10.59%) DNS
3 30 (8.82%) Firewall
4 26 (7.65%) VPN
5 21 (6.18%) TCP/IP
6 15 (4.41%) LAN
7 14 (4.12%) DHCP
8 9 (2.65%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (2.35%) SSL
10 7 (2.06%) WAN
11 5 (1.47%) Network Security
11 5 (1.47%) NGFW
11 5 (1.47%) Wireless
12 4 (1.18%) Internet
12 4 (1.18%) Kerberos
12 4 (1.18%) VLAN
13 3 (0.88%) DMZ
13 3 (0.88%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.88%) NAS
13 3 (0.88%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (9.71%) Power BI
2 32 (9.41%) SQL Server
3 16 (4.71%) MySQL
4 13 (3.82%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.06%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.76%) Power Query
6 6 (1.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (1.47%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.47%) Metadata
8 4 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (1.18%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
9 3 (0.88%) Big Data
10 2 (0.59%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.59%) Data Mart
10 2 (0.59%) Qlik Sense
10 2 (0.59%) QlikView
10 2 (0.59%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (2.06%) Git
2 4 (1.18%) Selenium
2 4 (1.18%) WebDriver
3 3 (0.88%) JIRA
3 3 (0.88%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.59%) Cucumber
4 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.59%) GitLab
4 2 (0.59%) Postman
5 1 (0.29%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.29%) MLflow
5 1 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.29%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 121 (35.59%) Social Skills
2 83 (24.41%) Analytical Skills
3 47 (13.82%) Public Sector
4 46 (13.53%) Finance
5 23 (6.76%) Telecoms
6 13 (3.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (3.53%) Legal
8 10 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.47%) Banking
9 5 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.18%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.88%) Front Office
11 3 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.88%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.88%) Military
11 3 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.59%) Law
12 2 (0.59%) Local Government
13 1 (0.29%) Mandarin Language
13 1 (0.29%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 44 (12.94%) IT Engineer
2 43 (12.65%) Architect
3 40 (11.76%) Analyst
4 35 (10.29%) IT Support
5 34 (10.00%) Field Engineer
5 34 (10.00%) Field Service Engineer
6 33 (9.71%) Senior
7 24 (7.06%) Support Engineer
8 23 (6.76%) Administrator
9 21 (6.18%) DBA
9 21 (6.18%) IT Support Engineer
10 20 (5.88%) Support Analyst
11 18 (5.29%) Developer
11 18 (5.29%) IT Analyst
11 18 (5.29%) Lead
11 18 (5.29%) Technical Support
12 16 (4.71%) Solutions Architect
13 15 (4.41%) Wintel Engineer
14 14 (4.12%) IT Support Analyst
15 13 (3.82%) Field Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (4.12%) OAuth
2 13 (3.82%) ONVIF
3 12 (3.53%) LDAP
3 12 (3.53%) OpenID
3 12 (3.53%) SAML
4 11 (3.24%) .NET
5 10 (2.94%) OAuth2
6 7 (2.06%) JSON
6 7 (2.06%) Microsoft Graph
7 6 (1.76%) SailPoint
7 6 (1.76%) Web Services
8 4 (1.18%) ARM Templates
8 4 (1.18%) REST
9 3 (0.88%) Middleware
9 3 (0.88%) PySpark
10 2 (0.59%) Gherkin
10 2 (0.59%) OpenGL
10 2 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
10 2 (0.59%) XML
10 2 (0.59%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 40 (11.76%) Data Centre
2 37 (10.88%) Analytical Mindset
3 28 (8.24%) Onboarding
4 19 (5.59%) Replication
5 17 (5.00%) Clustering
5 17 (5.00%) Security Posture
6 15 (4.41%) Management Information System
7 13 (3.82%) Cloud Native
7 13 (3.82%) Video\Live Streaming
8 11 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (2.35%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (2.35%) PKI
11 7 (2.06%) Product Ownership
12 6 (1.76%) Data Structures
12 6 (1.76%) Enterprise Cloud
12 6 (1.76%) Low-Code
12 6 (1.76%) Mobile App
13 5 (1.47%) AI Agents
13 5 (1.47%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 110 (32.35%) Windows
2 49 (14.41%) Windows Server
3 32 (9.41%) Windows 10
4 20 (5.88%) Linux
5 13 (3.82%) Android
6 10 (2.94%) Apple iOS
7 9 (2.65%) Mac OS
7 9 (2.65%) Windows Server 2003
8 8 (2.35%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.76%) Unix
9 6 (1.76%) VMS
9 6 (1.76%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (1.18%) Solaris
10 4 (1.18%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 2 (0.59%) AIX
12 2 (0.59%) Alpine Linux
12 2 (0.59%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (38.53%) Problem-Solving
2 70 (20.59%) Customer Service
3 68 (20.00%) DevOps
4 65 (19.12%) ITIL
5 48 (14.12%) Agile
6 44 (12.94%) CI/CD
7 38 (11.18%) Infrastructure as Code
8 36 (10.59%) Computer Science
9 35 (10.29%) Migration
10 34 (10.00%) Analytics
10 34 (10.00%) Break/Fix
10 34 (10.00%) Project Delivery
11 33 (9.71%) Business Intelligence
12 32 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
13 31 (9.12%) Data Governance
14 29 (8.53%) AI
15 27 (7.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 26 (7.65%) Data Loss Prevention
16 26 (7.65%) RBAC
16 26 (7.65%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 91 (26.76%) PowerShell
2 39 (11.47%) SQL
3 32 (9.41%) Python
4 20 (5.88%) C#
5 19 (5.59%) Bicep
6 17 (5.00%) JavaScript
7 13 (3.82%) Bash
8 7 (2.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 7 (2.06%) T-SQL
9 3 (0.88%) X++
10 2 (0.59%) Perl
10 2 (0.59%) R
11 1 (0.29%) Java
11 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.29%) VB
Qualifications
1 111 (32.65%) Security Cleared
2 94 (27.65%) Degree
3 90 (26.47%) SC Cleared
4 89 (26.18%) MCSE
5 65 (19.12%) A+ Certification
6 63 (18.53%) Cisco Certification
7 59 (17.35%) Azure Certification
8 54 (15.88%) CCNA
9 47 (13.82%) Network+ Certification
10 44 (12.94%) MCSA
11 23 (6.76%) Computer Science Degree
11 23 (6.76%) DV Cleared
11 23 (6.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 13 (3.82%) AWS Certification
13 12 (3.53%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (3.53%) VCAP
14 11 (3.24%) CISSP
15 10 (2.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 9 (2.65%) CCNP
16 9 (2.65%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.18%) NIST
2 20 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (3.82%) Data Quality
4 12 (3.53%) SLA
5 10 (2.94%) Accessibility
6 9 (2.65%) GDPR
7 7 (2.06%) NCSC
7 7 (2.06%) QA
8 4 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (1.18%) WCAG
9 3 (0.88%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.88%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.59%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.59%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.29%) GRC
11 1 (0.29%) GxP
11 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 114 (33.53%) Active Directory
2 32 (9.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (5.88%) VMware ESXi
4 19 (5.59%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (5.00%) Virtual Desktop
6 16 (4.71%) vSphere
7 13 (3.82%) Docker
8 5 (1.47%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.88%) Firmware
9 3 (0.88%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.59%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
10 2 (0.59%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.29%) NFS
11 1 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 40 (11.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 39 (11.47%) Terraform
3 29 (8.53%) Ansible
4 19 (5.59%) vCenter Server
5 18 (5.29%) SCCM
6 12 (3.53%) Kubernetes
7 11 (3.24%) SCOM
8 7 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (1.76%) CASB
10 5 (1.47%) Nessus
11 3 (0.88%) Grafana
11 3 (0.88%) Podman
11 3 (0.88%) QRadar
11 3 (0.88%) WSUS
12 2 (0.59%) Packer
12 2 (0.59%) vMotion
13 1 (0.29%) Backup Exec
13 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 271 (79.71%) Microsoft
2 41 (12.06%) VMware
3 35 (10.29%) Dell
4 25 (7.35%) Cisco
5 22 (6.47%) ServiceNow
6 21 (6.18%) Oracle
7 12 (3.53%) Apple
8 11 (3.24%) Citrix
9 10 (2.94%) Remedy
9 10 (2.94%) Splunk
10 8 (2.35%) SolarWinds
11 7 (2.06%) CyberArk
11 7 (2.06%) Tenable
12 5 (1.47%) Databricks
12 5 (1.47%) Dynatrace
12 5 (1.47%) Foundry
12 5 (1.47%) Google
12 5 (1.47%) NetApp
13 4 (1.18%) HP
13 4 (1.18%) Okta