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 28 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 270 237 295
Rank change year-on-year -33 +58 +61
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 345 278 270
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.97% 1.08% 0.71%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.83% 3.56% 2.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 159 191
10th Percentile £219 £200 £205
25th Percentile £338 £266 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +11.11% -6.25%
75th Percentile £600 £627 £600
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £450 £425
% change year-on-year +11.11% +5.88% -11.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 23 34
10th Percentile - £15.08 £13.69
25th Percentile £6.00 £19.24 £14.69
Median hourly rate £16.00 £21.46 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.44% +22.63% +12.90%
75th Percentile £24.25 £35.00 £21.44
90th Percentile £25.47 £67.39 £35.44
UK median hourly rate £16.00 £21.73 £17.50
% change year-on-year -26.37% +24.17% +12.90%

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 12,192 7,803 11,764
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.32% 30.38% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,114 4,810 7,262
10th Percentile £325 £290 £290
25th Percentile £422 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £726 £738
UK median daily rate £517 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.52% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 942 397 896
10th Percentile £16.17 £20.22 £14.25
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.26 £20.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £49.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -48.67% +15.29% -10.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.19 £82.35 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.47 £40.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -37.11% -4.71% -13.27%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 -12 121 £525 +31.25% 85
South West +4 57 £550 -4.35% 36
South East -37 48 £447 -10.60% 96
Midlands -37 46 £315 -21.25% 61
North of England -64 46 £460 -9.80% 100
West Midlands -37 36 £425 +67.49% 23
North West -47 34 £460 -9.80% 52
East of England -27 21 £173 -8.00% 42
East Midlands -15 10 £210 -47.50% 36
Yorkshire -54 9 £468 -22.00% 36
North East -11 3 - - 17
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 46 (13.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 35 (10.14%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.74%) Skype for Business
4 4 (1.16%) Confluence
5 3 (0.87%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 21 (6.09%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.16%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (2.32%) Dynamics CRM
1 8 (2.32%) Maximo
1 8 (2.32%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 1 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 161 (46.67%) Azure
2 107 (31.01%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (17.68%) Entra ID
4 52 (15.07%) Power Platform
5 41 (11.88%) AWS
6 36 (10.43%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (8.12%) Microsoft Purview
8 26 (7.54%) Power Automate
8 26 (7.54%) PowerApps
9 21 (6.09%) Azure Data Factory
9 21 (6.09%) Azure Monitor
10 19 (5.51%) GitHub
11 18 (5.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 18 (5.22%) Dynamics 365
12 16 (4.64%) Azure AKS
12 16 (4.64%) Azure Sentinel
13 15 (4.35%) Microsoft Copilot
14 14 (4.06%) OneDrive
15 13 (3.77%) Azure Key Vault
16 12 (3.48%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 63 (18.26%) DNS
2 39 (11.30%) Firewall
3 36 (10.43%) VPN
4 35 (10.14%) DHCP
5 27 (7.83%) TCP/IP
6 17 (4.93%) VLAN
7 15 (4.35%) SAN
8 12 (3.48%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (3.19%) LAN
10 10 (2.90%) Network Security
11 9 (2.61%) Skype
11 9 (2.61%) SSL
12 7 (2.03%) Unified Communications
13 5 (1.45%) Kerberos
14 4 (1.16%) DKIM
14 4 (1.16%) DMARC
15 3 (0.87%) RS-232
15 3 (0.87%) S/MIME
15 3 (0.87%) SMTP
15 3 (0.87%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (6.96%) SQL Server
2 22 (6.38%) Power BI
3 16 (4.64%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 10 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (2.61%) MySQL
6 9 (2.61%) PostgreSQL
7 8 (2.32%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.74%) Metadata
9 5 (1.45%) Delta Lake
9 5 (1.45%) Spark SQL
10 4 (1.16%) Metadata Repository
11 3 (0.87%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.87%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.58%) Apache Cassandra
12 2 (0.58%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.58%) Power Query
12 2 (0.58%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.58%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 14 (4.06%) Git
2 6 (1.74%) JIRA
3 5 (1.45%) GitLab
3 5 (1.45%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.87%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.58%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.58%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.58%) JDeveloper
5 2 (0.58%) MSI
6 1 (0.29%) AdminStudio
6 1 (0.29%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.29%) MLflow
6 1 (0.29%) Selenium
6 1 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.29%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.29%) WebDriver
General
1 135 (39.13%) Social Skills
2 63 (18.26%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (11.59%) Public Sector
4 30 (8.70%) Finance
5 19 (5.51%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (3.19%) Legal
7 10 (2.90%) Banking
8 6 (1.74%) Marketing
8 6 (1.74%) Military
8 6 (1.74%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.16%) International Banking
10 3 (0.87%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.87%) Polish Language
10 3 (0.87%) Retail
11 2 (0.58%) Aeronautics
12 1 (0.29%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.29%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 56 (16.23%) Architect
2 35 (10.14%) Analyst
3 32 (9.28%) Support Engineer
4 28 (8.12%) Senior
5 24 (6.96%) Administrator
6 22 (6.38%) IT Support
6 22 (6.38%) Solutions Architect
7 21 (6.09%) Wintel Engineer
8 20 (5.80%) Field Engineer
8 20 (5.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 19 (5.51%) IT Engineer
10 18 (5.22%) Azure Engineer
10 18 (5.22%) Support Analyst
11 15 (4.35%) Lead
12 14 (4.06%) IT Analyst
13 13 (3.77%) Cloud Engineer
13 13 (3.77%) Field Service Engineer
13 13 (3.77%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 13 (3.77%) Technical Analyst
13 13 (3.77%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.28%) OAuth
2 29 (8.41%) SAML
3 28 (8.12%) OpenID
4 17 (4.93%) OAuth2
5 16 (4.64%) ARM Templates
6 15 (4.35%) .NET
7 11 (3.19%) LDAP
8 9 (2.61%) Microsoft Graph
8 9 (2.61%) REST
9 5 (1.45%) JSON
9 5 (1.45%) RESTful
10 4 (1.16%) PySpark
11 3 (0.87%) YAML
12 2 (0.58%) ASP.NET Web API
12 2 (0.58%) CSS
12 2 (0.58%) Jest
12 2 (0.58%) Next.js
12 2 (0.58%) React
12 2 (0.58%) SailPoint
12 2 (0.58%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 24 (6.96%) Analytical Mindset
2 22 (6.38%) Replication
3 20 (5.80%) Enterprise Software
3 20 (5.80%) PKI
4 17 (4.93%) Hybrid Cloud
5 15 (4.35%) Security Posture
6 14 (4.06%) BYOD
6 14 (4.06%) Data Centre
7 13 (3.77%) Onboarding
8 11 (3.19%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.90%) Clustering
9 10 (2.90%) Management Information System
10 9 (2.61%) Driving Licence
10 9 (2.61%) Private Cloud
11 7 (2.03%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.45%) Cloud Security Posture
12 5 (1.45%) Operational Technology
12 5 (1.45%) Security Operations Centre
12 5 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (1.45%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 147 (42.61%) Windows
2 65 (18.84%) Windows Server
3 40 (11.59%) Windows 10
4 30 (8.70%) Linux
5 13 (3.77%) Windows Server 2012
6 12 (3.48%) Windows Server 2003
7 7 (2.03%) Windows 7
7 7 (2.03%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (1.74%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.74%) Unix
9 4 (1.16%) VMS
9 4 (1.16%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.87%) Android
10 3 (0.87%) CentOS
11 2 (0.58%) AIX
11 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (29.28%) Problem-Solving
2 85 (24.64%) ITIL
3 54 (15.65%) DevOps
4 53 (15.36%) Migration
5 50 (14.49%) Customer Service
6 49 (14.20%) CI/CD
7 45 (13.04%) RBAC
8 44 (12.75%) Identity Access Management
9 42 (12.17%) Disaster Recovery
10 39 (11.30%) Agile
11 38 (11.01%) Analytics
12 37 (10.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 37 (10.72%) Service Management
13 36 (10.43%) Cloud Security
14 33 (9.57%) Computer Science
15 32 (9.28%) Identity Management
16 30 (8.70%) Roadmaps
17 29 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
18 28 (8.12%) Data Governance
19 26 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 108 (31.30%) PowerShell
2 45 (13.04%) SQL
3 30 (8.70%) Python
4 21 (6.09%) Bicep
5 11 (3.19%) C#
6 8 (2.32%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.03%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.74%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.45%) Bash
10 2 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.58%) R
10 2 (0.58%) VBScript
11 1 (0.29%) Java
11 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 117 (33.91%) Security Cleared
2 87 (25.22%) Degree
3 82 (23.77%) SC Cleared
4 80 (23.19%) Azure Certification
5 78 (22.61%) MCSE
6 35 (10.14%) DV Cleared
7 33 (9.57%) MCSA
8 31 (8.99%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (8.70%) A+ Certification
9 30 (8.70%) CISSP
9 30 (8.70%) Network+ Certification
10 26 (7.54%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 23 (6.67%) CCNA
12 21 (6.09%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (4.35%) AWS Certification
14 14 (4.06%) CCNP
14 14 (4.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 13 (3.77%) CISM
16 12 (3.48%) CompTIA Security+
17 11 (3.19%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (7.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (6.09%) NIST
3 17 (4.93%) GDPR
4 9 (2.61%) NIST 800
5 8 (2.32%) NCSC
6 6 (1.74%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.45%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.45%) SLA
8 4 (1.16%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.16%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.87%) QA
10 2 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.58%) WCAG
11 1 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.29%) GxP
11 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.29%) PMO
11 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 154 (44.64%) Active Directory
2 42 (12.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (5.22%) Hyper-V
4 16 (4.64%) Docker
5 14 (4.06%) vSphere
6 11 (3.19%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (2.32%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (2.03%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (1.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 5 (1.45%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (0.87%) Firmware
11 2 (0.58%) NFS
11 2 (0.58%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 38 (11.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (10.43%) Terraform
3 31 (8.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 31 (8.99%) SCCM
4 26 (7.54%) Kubernetes
5 21 (6.09%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (5.51%) Ansible
7 9 (2.61%) vCenter Server
7 9 (2.61%) WSUS
8 6 (1.74%) CASB
9 5 (1.45%) Nessus
9 5 (1.45%) SCOM
10 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.58%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.29%) PaperCut
11 1 (0.29%) QRadar
11 1 (0.29%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 312 (90.43%) Microsoft
2 56 (16.23%) VMware
3 24 (6.96%) Cisco
4 19 (5.51%) Oracle
5 17 (4.93%) Dell
6 16 (4.64%) ServiceNow
7 14 (4.06%) Veeam
8 12 (3.48%) Databricks
9 11 (3.19%) Red Hat
9 11 (3.19%) Splunk
10 10 (2.90%) Citrix
10 10 (2.90%) SolarWinds
11 9 (2.61%) IBM
11 9 (2.61%) Tenable
12 7 (2.03%) CyberArk
13 5 (1.45%) iManage
13 5 (1.45%) Mitel
13 5 (1.45%) Remedy
14 4 (1.16%) CheckPoint
14 4 (1.16%) Palo Alto