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 31 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 301 228 280
Rank change year-on-year -73 +52 +89
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 318 272 299
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.84% 1.12% 0.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.48% 3.58% 2.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 156 206
10th Percentile £228 £210 £203
25th Percentile £400 £316 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% - -
75th Percentile £614 £638 £592
90th Percentile £714 £725 £709
UK median daily rate £504 £500 £450
% change year-on-year +0.75% +11.11% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 27 48
10th Percentile £6.00 £14.99 £13.69
25th Percentile £13.50 £15.44 £14.16
Median hourly rate £22.50 £21.46 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +4.85% +31.66% +5.16%
75th Percentile £28.67 £28.71 £21.37
90th Percentile £123.29 £37.50 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £21.46 £16.30
% change year-on-year +4.85% +31.66% +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 12,811 7,605 11,790
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.68% 31.33% 31.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,528 4,872 7,324
10th Percentile £336 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.87% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 988 432 918
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.43 £25.25 £17.80
Median hourly rate £36.85 £50.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.30% +33.33% -25.00%
75th Percentile £69.30 £68.00 £62.49
90th Percentile £85.36 £82.03 £75.25
UK median hourly rate £36.70 £42.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year -13.65% +13.33% -28.57%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -22 122 £525 +5.00% 73
North of England -76 49 £469 -7.09% 40
South West -6 48 £560 +1.82% 30
Midlands -53 39 £400 +15.94% 39
North West -49 38 £469 -6.16% 24
South East -67 34 £503 -1.95% 70
West Midlands -47 31 £425 +89.73% 27
East of England -40 21 £173 -54.90% 27
East Midlands -33 8 £215 -46.25% 12
Yorkshire -47 8 £484 -19.33% 11
North East -10 3 - - 5
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 42 (13.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (9.75%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.94%) Exchange Server 2013
4 2 (0.63%) Confluence
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.31%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (5.66%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (3.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (2.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.26%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (2.52%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 7 (2.20%) Maximo
3 6 (1.89%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 149 (46.86%) Azure
2 101 (31.76%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (19.18%) Entra ID
4 56 (17.61%) Power Platform
5 33 (10.38%) Azure DevOps
6 29 (9.12%) Microsoft Purview
7 26 (8.18%) AWS
7 26 (8.18%) Power Automate
7 26 (8.18%) PowerApps
8 21 (6.60%) Azure Data Factory
8 21 (6.60%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 19 (5.97%) Azure Monitor
9 19 (5.97%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (5.03%) GitHub
10 16 (5.03%) Microsoft Copilot
10 16 (5.03%) OneDrive
11 14 (4.40%) Azure AKS
12 13 (4.09%) Azure Sentinel
13 12 (3.77%) Azure Logic Apps
14 11 (3.46%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 38 (11.95%) DNS
1 38 (11.95%) Firewall
2 31 (9.75%) VPN
3 21 (6.60%) SAN
4 12 (3.77%) TCP/IP
4 12 (3.77%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (3.14%) DHCP
5 10 (3.14%) LAN
6 9 (2.83%) Network Security
7 6 (1.89%) SSL
8 5 (1.57%) VLAN
9 4 (1.26%) DKIM
9 4 (1.26%) DMARC
9 4 (1.26%) Skype
10 3 (0.94%) DMZ
10 3 (0.94%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.94%) NetScaler
10 3 (0.94%) RS-232
10 3 (0.94%) Softphone
10 3 (0.94%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (9.43%) SQL Server
2 26 (8.18%) Power BI
3 16 (5.03%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 9 (2.83%) MySQL
5 9 (2.83%) PostgreSQL
6 8 (2.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (2.52%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (2.20%) Metadata
8 6 (1.89%) Spark SQL
9 5 (1.57%) Delta Lake
9 5 (1.57%) Power Query
10 4 (1.26%) Metadata Repository
11 3 (0.94%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.94%) Star Schema
11 3 (0.94%) Tableau
12 2 (0.63%) Big Data
12 2 (0.63%) Relational Database
13 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database 12c
13 1 (0.31%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 14 (4.40%) Git
2 4 (1.26%) GitLab
2 4 (1.26%) JIRA
3 3 (0.94%) Bitbucket
3 3 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.63%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.63%) JDeveloper
4 2 (0.63%) Selenium
4 2 (0.63%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.63%) WebDriver
5 1 (0.31%) AdminStudio
5 1 (0.31%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.31%) InstallShield
5 1 (0.31%) MLflow
5 1 (0.31%) MSI
5 1 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.31%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 122 (38.36%) Social Skills
2 51 (16.04%) Analytical Skills
3 34 (10.69%) Public Sector
4 31 (9.75%) Finance
5 15 (4.72%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (4.09%) Legal
7 12 (3.77%) Banking
8 7 (2.20%) Telecoms
9 6 (1.89%) Marketing
10 5 (1.57%) Military
11 4 (1.26%) Aerospace
11 4 (1.26%) International Banking
12 3 (0.94%) Front Office
12 3 (0.94%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.94%) Polish Language
12 3 (0.94%) Retail
13 2 (0.63%) Law
13 2 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.63%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 51 (16.04%) Architect
2 36 (11.32%) Analyst
3 27 (8.49%) Senior
4 25 (7.86%) IT Engineer
5 21 (6.60%) Administrator
5 21 (6.60%) IT Support
5 21 (6.60%) Solutions Architect
6 19 (5.97%) Field Engineer
6 19 (5.97%) Field Service Engineer
7 17 (5.35%) Support Engineer
8 16 (5.03%) Support Analyst
9 15 (4.72%) Azure Engineer
9 15 (4.72%) Lead
9 15 (4.72%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 14 (4.40%) DBA
10 14 (4.40%) IT Analyst
10 14 (4.40%) Wintel Engineer
11 13 (4.09%) IT Support Engineer
11 13 (4.09%) Technical Analyst
11 13 (4.09%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (8.18%) OAuth
2 23 (7.23%) SAML
3 22 (6.92%) OpenID
4 18 (5.66%) OAuth2
5 12 (3.77%) .NET
5 12 (3.77%) ARM Templates
6 10 (3.14%) LDAP
7 9 (2.83%) Microsoft Graph
8 8 (2.52%) REST
9 3 (0.94%) JSON
9 3 (0.94%) YAML
10 2 (0.63%) A2A Protocol
10 2 (0.63%) ASP.NET Web API
10 2 (0.63%) Jest
10 2 (0.63%) Model Context Protocol
10 2 (0.63%) Next.js
10 2 (0.63%) PySpark
10 2 (0.63%) React
10 2 (0.63%) RESTful
10 2 (0.63%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.29%) Analytical Mindset
1 20 (6.29%) Data Centre
2 19 (5.97%) Enterprise Software
2 19 (5.97%) Replication
3 17 (5.35%) Onboarding
4 16 (5.03%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (3.46%) BYOD
5 11 (3.46%) PKI
6 10 (3.14%) Clustering
6 10 (3.14%) Security Posture
7 9 (2.83%) Private Cloud
8 7 (2.20%) Cloud Native
8 7 (2.20%) Management Information System
9 5 (1.57%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.57%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.57%) NHS
9 5 (1.57%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.57%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (0.94%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 116 (36.48%) Windows
2 59 (18.55%) Windows Server
3 29 (9.12%) Windows 10
4 18 (5.66%) Linux
5 13 (4.09%) Windows Server 2012
6 12 (3.77%) Windows Server 2003
7 7 (2.20%) Windows 7
7 7 (2.20%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (1.89%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.89%) Unix
9 5 (1.57%) Android
10 4 (1.26%) VMS
11 3 (0.94%) CentOS
12 2 (0.63%) AIX
12 2 (0.63%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (27.36%) Problem-Solving
2 64 (20.13%) ITIL
3 54 (16.98%) Migration
4 48 (15.09%) DevOps
5 46 (14.47%) CI/CD
5 46 (14.47%) Customer Service
6 43 (13.52%) RBAC
7 39 (12.26%) Analytics
7 39 (12.26%) Identity Access Management
8 34 (10.69%) Agile
9 32 (10.06%) Disaster Recovery
10 30 (9.43%) Cloud Security
11 29 (9.12%) Identity Management
11 29 (9.12%) Roadmaps
12 28 (8.81%) Business Intelligence
12 28 (8.81%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (8.81%) Infrastructure as Code
13 27 (8.49%) Computer Science
13 27 (8.49%) High Availability
14 26 (8.18%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 100 (31.45%) PowerShell
2 41 (12.89%) SQL
3 29 (9.12%) Python
4 18 (5.66%) Bicep
5 10 (3.14%) C#
6 7 (2.20%) Bash
6 7 (2.20%) T-SQL
7 5 (1.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 5 (1.57%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.26%) R
8 4 (1.26%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.31%) VBScript
9 1 (0.31%) X++
Qualifications
1 103 (32.39%) Security Cleared
2 88 (27.67%) Degree
3 78 (24.53%) MCSE
4 75 (23.58%) SC Cleared
5 62 (19.50%) Azure Certification
6 33 (10.38%) Cisco Certification
6 33 (10.38%) DV Cleared
7 31 (9.75%) MCSA
8 29 (9.12%) A+ Certification
9 26 (8.18%) Computer Science Degree
9 26 (8.18%) Network+ Certification
10 25 (7.86%) CISSP
11 24 (7.55%) CCNA
12 20 (6.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 13 (4.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 12 (3.77%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (3.46%) CISM
16 10 (3.14%) CCNP
17 9 (2.83%) AWS Certification
18 8 (2.52%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (5.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (5.66%) NIST
3 14 (4.40%) GDPR
4 8 (2.52%) NCSC
4 8 (2.52%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (1.89%) SLA
6 5 (1.57%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.26%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.26%) QA
8 2 (0.63%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.63%) WCAG
9 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.31%) GxP
9 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.31%) PMO
9 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 134 (42.14%) Active Directory
2 25 (7.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.77%) Docker
4 11 (3.46%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (3.14%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (3.14%) vSphere
6 9 (2.83%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (2.52%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.63%) Firmware
9 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 40 (12.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (11.64%) Terraform
3 30 (9.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 22 (6.92%) SCCM
5 21 (6.60%) Kubernetes
6 19 (5.97%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (5.66%) Ansible
8 9 (2.83%) vCenter Server
9 6 (1.89%) CASB
9 6 (1.89%) WSUS
10 5 (1.57%) Nessus
11 4 (1.26%) SCOM
12 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
12 2 (0.63%) PowerCLI
13 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
13 1 (0.31%) PaperCut
13 1 (0.31%) Podman
13 1 (0.31%) QRadar
Vendors
1 275 (86.48%) Microsoft
2 36 (11.32%) VMware
3 21 (6.60%) Dell
4 20 (6.29%) Cisco
5 18 (5.66%) Oracle
6 17 (5.35%) ServiceNow
7 14 (4.40%) Citrix
8 10 (3.14%) Databricks
8 10 (3.14%) Red Hat
9 9 (2.83%) Tenable
10 8 (2.52%) IBM
11 6 (1.89%) Apple
11 6 (1.89%) CyberArk
11 6 (1.89%) Veeam
12 5 (1.57%) Remedy
13 4 (1.26%) CheckPoint
13 4 (1.26%) Foundry
13 4 (1.26%) Palo Alto
13 4 (1.26%) SolarWinds
13 4 (1.26%) Splunk