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 10 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 306 228 260
Rank change year-on-year -78 +32 +101
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 327 280 319
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.77% 1.14% 0.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.44% 3.65% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 214 161 205
10th Percentile £157 £200 £183
25th Percentile £350 £263 £319
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.30% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £583 £625 £556
90th Percentile £675 £700 £675
UK median daily rate £469 £456 £480
% change year-on-year +2.84% -4.95% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 32 56
10th Percentile £21.55 - £13.69
25th Percentile £44.75 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.87 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +274.24% +3.50% +5.16%
75th Percentile £178.75 £33.75 £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 13,405 7,674 11,449
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.73% 31.36% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,002 4,834 7,080
10th Percentile £350 £280 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £536
Median % change year-on-year - -2.05% -2.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £525
% change year-on-year +0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,018 471 1,012
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.87 £14.00
25th Percentile £22.31 £22.16 £18.99
Median hourly rate £48.61 £32.00 £40.29
Median % change year-on-year +51.91% -20.57% -26.75%
75th Percentile £73.46 £65.43 £64.25
90th Percentile £85.25 £80.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £48.61 £30.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +59.38% -23.75% -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 10 June 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 10 June 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 10 June 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 -44 125 £525 +5.00% 75
North of England -69 68 £483 +10.40% 70
North West -43 49 £475 +3.04% 41
South East -53 44 £275 -45.00% 74
South West -16 36 £450 -14.89% 29
East of England -32 26 £173 -23.33% 28
Midlands -63 24 £425 +72.94% 28
West Midlands -55 18 £425 +89.73% 14
Yorkshire -45 15 £650 +57.58% 21
East Midlands -24 6 £363 -27.50% 14
North East -22 4 £363 +81.25% 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 34 (10.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (9.48%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.92%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.31%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.31%) Confluence
Applications
1 19 (5.81%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 8 (2.45%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 6 (1.83%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.53%) Maximo
4 3 (0.92%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.31%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 153 (46.79%) Azure
2 91 (27.83%) Microsoft 365
3 67 (20.49%) Entra ID
4 55 (16.82%) Power Platform
5 34 (10.40%) Microsoft Purview
6 33 (10.09%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (9.17%) Power Automate
8 27 (8.26%) PowerApps
9 22 (6.73%) GitHub
10 21 (6.42%) AWS
10 21 (6.42%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (6.12%) Azure Data Factory
11 20 (6.12%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 16 (4.89%) OneDrive
13 13 (3.98%) Azure Sentinel
13 13 (3.98%) Microsoft Copilot
14 12 (3.67%) Azure Logic Apps
14 12 (3.67%) Azure Monitor
15 10 (3.06%) Azure AKS
16 8 (2.45%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 40 (12.23%) SAN
2 28 (8.56%) Firewall
3 27 (8.26%) DNS
4 23 (7.03%) VPN
5 14 (4.28%) TCP/IP
6 12 (3.67%) LAN
7 10 (3.06%) DHCP
8 7 (2.14%) Network Security
8 7 (2.14%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.53%) Kerberos
9 5 (1.53%) NetScaler
9 5 (1.53%) VLAN
10 4 (1.22%) DMZ
10 4 (1.22%) Internet
10 4 (1.22%) NGFW
10 4 (1.22%) SSL
10 4 (1.22%) VoIP
11 3 (0.92%) PSTN
11 3 (0.92%) SMTP
11 3 (0.92%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (9.17%) Power BI
1 30 (9.17%) SQL Server
2 13 (3.98%) Data Lake
3 12 (3.67%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 9 (2.75%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (2.75%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.45%) Metadata
5 8 (2.45%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (2.14%) MySQL
7 6 (1.83%) Spark SQL
8 5 (1.53%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.53%) Power Query
9 4 (1.22%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (1.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.92%) Big Data
10 3 (0.92%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.61%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.61%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (2.45%) Git
2 3 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
3 2 (0.61%) GitLab
3 2 (0.61%) JDeveloper
3 2 (0.61%) Selenium
3 2 (0.61%) WebDriver
4 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.31%) JIRA
4 1 (0.31%) MLflow
4 1 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.31%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 104 (31.80%) Social Skills
2 72 (22.02%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (13.15%) Finance
4 39 (11.93%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.12%) Telecoms
6 14 (4.28%) Legal
7 10 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (2.75%) Banking
9 6 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.22%) Front Office
10 4 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.22%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.22%) Marketing
10 4 (1.22%) Military
11 3 (0.92%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.92%) International Banking
11 3 (0.92%) Law
11 3 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.61%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 44 (13.46%) Architect
2 41 (12.54%) IT Engineer
3 36 (11.01%) Field Engineer
3 36 (11.01%) Field Service Engineer
4 34 (10.40%) Analyst
4 34 (10.40%) Senior
5 29 (8.87%) IT Support
6 21 (6.42%) Administrator
7 20 (6.12%) Support Engineer
8 19 (5.81%) Wintel Engineer
9 18 (5.50%) IT Support Engineer
10 16 (4.89%) IT Analyst
10 16 (4.89%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 16 (4.89%) Support Analyst
11 15 (4.59%) Solutions Architect
12 14 (4.28%) Developer
12 14 (4.28%) Technical Support
13 13 (3.98%) Field Support Engineer
14 12 (3.67%) Cloud Engineer
14 12 (3.67%) DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.59%) OAuth
2 13 (3.98%) LDAP
2 13 (3.98%) OpenID
2 13 (3.98%) SAML
3 10 (3.06%) .NET
3 10 (3.06%) OAuth2
4 9 (2.75%) ONVIF
5 8 (2.45%) ARM Templates
6 7 (2.14%) Microsoft Graph
7 6 (1.83%) SailPoint
7 6 (1.83%) Web Services
8 4 (1.22%) JSON
8 4 (1.22%) REST
9 3 (0.92%) PySpark
10 2 (0.61%) Azure Blueprints
10 2 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
10 2 (0.61%) Qt
10 2 (0.61%) XML
10 2 (0.61%) XSLT
10 2 (0.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 41 (12.54%) Data Centre
2 39 (11.93%) Analytical Mindset
3 27 (8.26%) Onboarding
4 18 (5.50%) Clustering
4 18 (5.50%) Replication
5 15 (4.59%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (3.98%) Security Posture
7 11 (3.36%) BYOD
8 10 (3.06%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (2.75%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (2.75%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.75%) Video\Live Streaming
10 8 (2.45%) Cloud Native
11 6 (1.83%) Mobile App
12 5 (1.53%) Cloud Security Posture
12 5 (1.53%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.53%) PKI
13 4 (1.22%) AI Agents
13 4 (1.22%) Product Ownership
13 4 (1.22%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 108 (33.03%) Windows
2 50 (15.29%) Windows Server
3 32 (9.79%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.42%) Linux
5 12 (3.67%) Android
6 10 (3.06%) Apple iOS
7 9 (2.75%) Windows Server 2003
8 8 (2.45%) Windows 7
9 7 (2.14%) Mac OS
10 6 (1.83%) Unix
10 6 (1.83%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (1.53%) VMS
12 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 2 (0.61%) AIX
14 2 (0.61%) Alpine Linux
14 2 (0.61%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (37.00%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (18.65%) Customer Service
3 59 (18.04%) DevOps
3 59 (18.04%) ITIL
4 47 (14.37%) Analytics
5 45 (13.76%) Migration
6 41 (12.54%) CI/CD
7 36 (11.01%) Break/Fix
8 35 (10.70%) Agile
8 35 (10.70%) High Availability
9 33 (10.09%) Infrastructure as Code
9 33 (10.09%) Project Delivery
10 32 (9.79%) Disaster Recovery
11 30 (9.17%) Business Intelligence
11 30 (9.17%) Data Governance
11 30 (9.17%) RBAC
11 30 (9.17%) Roadmaps
12 27 (8.26%) Data Loss Prevention
12 27 (8.26%) Identity Access Management
12 27 (8.26%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 99 (30.28%) PowerShell
2 36 (11.01%) SQL
3 30 (9.17%) Python
4 20 (6.12%) Bicep
5 13 (3.98%) Bash
5 13 (3.98%) C#
6 9 (2.75%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.45%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.61%) Perl
9 2 (0.61%) R
10 1 (0.31%) Java
10 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.31%) VB
10 1 (0.31%) X++
Qualifications
1 100 (30.58%) Security Cleared
2 99 (30.28%) MCSE
3 81 (24.77%) SC Cleared
4 80 (24.46%) Degree
5 63 (19.27%) Cisco Certification
6 57 (17.43%) Azure Certification
7 56 (17.13%) A+ Certification
8 52 (15.90%) CCNA
9 48 (14.68%) MCSA
10 46 (14.07%) Network+ Certification
11 26 (7.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 25 (7.65%) DV Cleared
13 21 (6.42%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (5.50%) CISSP
15 16 (4.89%) VCAP
16 10 (3.06%) CCNP
16 10 (3.06%) CompTIA Security+
17 9 (2.75%) AWS Certification
17 9 (2.75%) CISM
18 8 (2.45%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (7.95%) NIST
2 25 (7.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.36%) Data Quality
3 11 (3.36%) GDPR
3 11 (3.36%) SLA
4 8 (2.45%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.83%) NCSC
6 5 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.22%) QA
8 3 (0.92%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.92%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.61%) Solvency II
9 2 (0.61%) WCAG
10 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.31%) GRC
10 1 (0.31%) GxP
10 1 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 107 (32.72%) Active Directory
2 34 (10.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (7.34%) VMware ESXi
4 21 (6.42%) Virtual Desktop
5 20 (6.12%) vSphere
6 19 (5.81%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (2.75%) Docker
8 7 (2.14%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.61%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.61%) Firmware
9 2 (0.61%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.61%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.61%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 41 (12.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (11.01%) Terraform
3 32 (9.79%) Ansible
4 23 (7.03%) vCenter Server
5 18 (5.50%) SCCM
6 14 (4.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (3.98%) Kubernetes
8 7 (2.14%) SCOM
9 6 (1.83%) CASB
9 6 (1.83%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (1.53%) Nessus
11 3 (0.92%) Podman
11 3 (0.92%) QRadar
11 3 (0.92%) WSUS
12 2 (0.61%) Packer
12 2 (0.61%) vMotion
13 1 (0.31%) Backup Exec
13 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 257 (78.59%) Microsoft
2 44 (13.46%) VMware
3 37 (11.31%) Dell
4 30 (9.17%) Cisco
5 15 (4.59%) Oracle
5 15 (4.59%) ServiceNow
6 14 (4.28%) Citrix
7 12 (3.67%) Apple
8 9 (2.75%) Databricks
8 9 (2.75%) Remedy
9 8 (2.45%) Tenable
10 7 (2.14%) CyberArk
10 7 (2.14%) Splunk
11 6 (1.83%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.83%) SolarWinds
12 5 (1.53%) IBM
12 5 (1.53%) NetApp
12 5 (1.53%) Red Hat
13 4 (1.22%) Bloomberg
13 4 (1.22%) Reuters
272 Microsoft Certification jobs in England