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 12 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 242 272
Rank change year-on-year -47 +30 +65
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 378 292 297
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.83% 1.05% 0.89%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.61% 3.36% 2.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 259 170 181
10th Percentile £156 £200 £213
25th Percentile £306 £328 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £564 £625 £588
90th Percentile £650 £663 £650
UK median daily rate £450 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -8.54% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 31 48
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £13.11
25th Percentile £24.57 £15.65 £14.16
Median hourly rate £55.00 £17.44 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +215.37% +6.99% -6.86%
75th Percentile £77.50 £33.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £178.75 £83.00 £21.40
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £18.42 £15.76
% change year-on-year +198.63% +16.86% -9.94%

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 14,466 8,694 10,180
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.73% 31.41% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,766 5,465 6,478
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £431 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £715 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,121 663 761
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.13 £15.10
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £21.37
Median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +118.69% -47.05% -13.64%
75th Percentile £75.00 £55.37 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £79.17
UK median hourly rate £51.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +104.77% -41.51% -21.82%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -38 135 £520 +4.00% 182
North of England -56 72 £498 +17.27% 79
South East -50 65 £275 -54.17% 82
North West -37 56 £491 +9.82% 42
Midlands -28 41 £425 -13.62% 44
West Midlands -24 37 £425 +58.88% 30
South West -36 31 £425 -18.27% 42
East of England -29 26 £160 -57.33% 25
Yorkshire -36 13 £650 +62.50% 28
East Midlands -6 4 £431 -13.05% 14
North East -42 3 £363 +81.25% 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 42 (11.11%) SharePoint
2 31 (8.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.53%) Confluence
3 2 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (0.53%) HCL Notes
3 2 (0.53%) Mendix
4 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.26%) Liferay
Applications
1 14 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.26%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.26%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (3.17%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.59%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.59%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.26%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 207 (54.76%) Azure
2 109 (28.84%) Microsoft 365
3 96 (25.40%) Entra ID
4 78 (20.63%) Power Platform
5 52 (13.76%) Azure DevOps
5 52 (13.76%) Power Automate
6 42 (11.11%) Dynamics 365
7 40 (10.58%) PowerApps
8 33 (8.73%) Microsoft Purview
9 28 (7.41%) AWS
10 25 (6.61%) GitHub
10 25 (6.61%) OneDrive
11 21 (5.56%) Microsoft Copilot
12 18 (4.76%) Azure Logic Apps
12 18 (4.76%) Serverless
13 16 (4.23%) Azure Functions
13 16 (4.23%) Azure Monitor
13 16 (4.23%) SaaS
14 12 (3.17%) GitHub Actions
14 12 (3.17%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 45 (11.90%) DNS
2 35 (9.26%) SAN
3 31 (8.20%) Firewall
4 29 (7.67%) TCP/IP
5 28 (7.41%) VPN
6 25 (6.61%) DHCP
7 13 (3.44%) LAN
8 10 (2.65%) SSL
9 8 (2.12%) WAN
10 7 (1.85%) Wi-Fi
10 7 (1.85%) Wireless
11 6 (1.59%) Network Security
11 6 (1.59%) NGFW
12 5 (1.32%) Kerberos
13 4 (1.06%) Internet
13 4 (1.06%) VLAN
14 3 (0.79%) DMZ
14 3 (0.79%) Intrusion Detection
14 3 (0.79%) NAS
14 3 (0.79%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (11.64%) SQL Server
2 42 (11.11%) Power BI
3 26 (6.88%) MySQL
4 21 (5.56%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (1.85%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (1.85%) Power Query
7 6 (1.59%) Metadata
8 4 (1.06%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (1.06%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.79%) Big Data
10 2 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.53%) Data Mart
10 2 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
10 2 (0.53%) QlikView
10 2 (0.53%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (2.12%) Git
1 8 (2.12%) Selenium
1 8 (2.12%) WebDriver
2 6 (1.59%) Cucumber
2 6 (1.59%) Cypress.io
2 6 (1.59%) JIRA
2 6 (1.59%) Postman
3 4 (1.06%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.53%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.26%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.26%) GitLab
5 1 (0.26%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 168 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 95 (25.13%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (16.93%) Public Sector
4 50 (13.23%) Finance
5 22 (5.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 22 (5.82%) Telecoms
6 14 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.65%) Legal
8 9 (2.38%) Aerospace
9 6 (1.59%) Banking
9 6 (1.59%) Military
9 6 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.06%) Law
11 4 (1.06%) Local Government
12 3 (0.79%) Front Office
12 3 (0.79%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.53%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 49 (12.96%) Analyst
2 43 (11.38%) IT Engineer
3 39 (10.32%) Senior
4 38 (10.05%) Architect
5 35 (9.26%) IT Support
6 31 (8.20%) DBA
7 29 (7.67%) Field Engineer
7 29 (7.67%) Field Service Engineer
8 27 (7.14%) Developer
8 27 (7.14%) Lead
9 26 (6.88%) Administrator
10 24 (6.35%) Support Engineer
11 21 (5.56%) IT Support Engineer
12 20 (5.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 19 (5.03%) Dynamics 365 Developer
13 19 (5.03%) Support Analyst
14 18 (4.76%) IT Analyst
15 16 (4.23%) SQL DBA
16 14 (3.70%) Cloud Engineer
16 14 (3.70%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.23%) .NET
1 16 (4.23%) OAuth
2 15 (3.97%) LDAP
2 15 (3.97%) OpenID
3 13 (3.44%) ONVIF
3 13 (3.44%) SAML
4 12 (3.17%) JSON
4 12 (3.17%) OAuth2
5 9 (2.38%) SailPoint
5 9 (2.38%) Web Services
6 8 (2.12%) REST
7 7 (1.85%) ARM Templates
7 7 (1.85%) Microsoft Graph
7 7 (1.85%) Middleware
8 6 (1.59%) Gherkin
9 4 (1.06%) HTML5 Canvas
10 3 (0.79%) Azure Blueprints
10 3 (0.79%) PySpark
11 2 (0.53%) Kafka
11 2 (0.53%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (9.26%) Analytical Mindset
2 34 (8.99%) Data Centre
3 30 (7.94%) Management Information System
4 29 (7.67%) Onboarding
5 19 (5.03%) Replication
5 19 (5.03%) Security Posture
6 17 (4.50%) Cloud Native
6 17 (4.50%) Clustering
7 14 (3.70%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (3.44%) Product Ownership
8 13 (3.44%) Video\Live Streaming
9 12 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (2.91%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (2.65%) PKI
12 8 (2.12%) AI Agents
12 8 (2.12%) Data Structures
12 8 (2.12%) Enterprise Cloud
13 7 (1.85%) BYOD
13 7 (1.85%) Mobile App
14 6 (1.59%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 111 (29.37%) Windows
2 51 (13.49%) Windows Server
3 32 (8.47%) Windows 10
4 25 (6.61%) Linux
5 19 (5.03%) Android
6 12 (3.17%) Apple iOS
6 12 (3.17%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.12%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.59%) Solaris
8 6 (1.59%) Unix
9 5 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (1.32%) VMS
10 4 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.79%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.53%) Alpine Linux
12 2 (0.53%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.26%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (38.89%) Problem-Solving
2 83 (21.96%) DevOps
2 83 (21.96%) ITIL
3 76 (20.11%) Customer Service
4 71 (18.78%) Agile
5 57 (15.08%) Stakeholder Management
6 53 (14.02%) CI/CD
7 47 (12.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 45 (11.90%) Migration
9 44 (11.64%) Infrastructure as Code
10 42 (11.11%) Business Intelligence
10 42 (11.11%) Computer Science
10 42 (11.11%) Project Delivery
11 41 (10.85%) Analytics
11 41 (10.85%) Technical Leadership
12 40 (10.58%) AI
13 39 (10.32%) ITSM
14 38 (10.05%) Continuous Improvement
15 35 (9.26%) Data Governance
16 32 (8.47%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 99 (26.19%) PowerShell
2 44 (11.64%) SQL
3 42 (11.11%) Python
4 35 (9.26%) C#
5 31 (8.20%) JavaScript
6 23 (6.08%) Bicep
7 16 (4.23%) Bash
8 8 (2.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 8 (2.12%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.32%) X++
10 3 (0.79%) Java
10 3 (0.79%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (0.79%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.53%) Perl
11 2 (0.53%) R
12 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 141 (37.30%) Security Cleared
2 119 (31.48%) SC Cleared
3 116 (30.69%) Degree
4 81 (21.43%) MCSE
5 71 (18.78%) Azure Certification
6 66 (17.46%) A+ Certification
7 62 (16.40%) Cisco Certification
8 54 (14.29%) CCNA
9 44 (11.64%) MCSA
9 44 (11.64%) Network+ Certification
10 28 (7.41%) DV Cleared
11 23 (6.08%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (5.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 15 (3.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 14 (3.70%) CISSP
15 13 (3.44%) AWS Certification
16 12 (3.17%) Oracle Certification
17 11 (2.91%) OCP
18 10 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
19 9 (2.38%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 23 (6.08%) NIST
2 19 (5.03%) Accessibility
2 19 (5.03%) Data Quality
3 15 (3.97%) GDPR
3 15 (3.97%) SLA
4 14 (3.70%) QA
5 8 (2.12%) WCAG
6 5 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.32%) NCSC
7 3 (0.79%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.53%) GRC
8 2 (0.53%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.53%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.53%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.26%) GxP
9 1 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.26%) ITGC
System Software
1 123 (32.54%) Active Directory
2 34 (8.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (4.50%) Virtual Machines
4 17 (4.50%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (3.44%) Docker
5 13 (3.44%) vSphere
6 7 (1.85%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.79%) BitLocker
7 3 (0.79%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.53%) Firmware
8 2 (0.53%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.53%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.26%) NDS
9 1 (0.26%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.26%) NFS
Systems Management
1 55 (14.55%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (11.90%) Terraform
3 26 (6.88%) Ansible
4 21 (5.56%) SCCM
5 18 (4.76%) vCenter Server
6 16 (4.23%) Kubernetes
7 14 (3.70%) SCOM
8 9 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (1.32%) CASB
9 5 (1.32%) Nessus
9 5 (1.32%) Podman
10 3 (0.79%) Dell DRAC
10 3 (0.79%) Grafana
10 3 (0.79%) QRadar
10 3 (0.79%) WSUS
11 2 (0.53%) Packer
11 2 (0.53%) vMotion
12 1 (0.26%) FreeIPA
12 1 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 316 (83.60%) Microsoft
2 41 (10.85%) VMware
3 33 (8.73%) Dell
4 31 (8.20%) ServiceNow
5 27 (7.14%) Oracle
6 24 (6.35%) Cisco
7 14 (3.70%) Remedy
8 11 (2.91%) Apple
9 10 (2.65%) Citrix
9 10 (2.65%) Splunk
10 8 (2.12%) Google
10 8 (2.12%) SolarWinds
11 7 (1.85%) OpenAI
11 7 (1.85%) Tenable
12 6 (1.59%) CyberArk
12 6 (1.59%) Foundry
13 5 (1.32%) Databricks
13 5 (1.32%) NetApp
13 5 (1.32%) Okta
13 5 (1.32%) Red Hat