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 16 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 227 266
Rank change year-on-year -83 +39 +94
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 305 269 320
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.74% 1.11% 0.88%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.32% 3.53% 2.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 151 209
10th Percentile £161 £200 £197
25th Percentile £350 £251 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £628 £556
90th Percentile £688 £700 £671
UK median daily rate £469 £465 £484
% change year-on-year +0.77% -3.88% -4.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 31 59
10th Percentile £21.35 - £13.69
25th Percentile £41.50 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +287.33% - +5.16%
75th Percentile £178.75 £20.73 £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 13,149 7,628 11,219
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.05% 31.44% 30.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,838 4,861 6,930
10th Percentile £350 £285 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £750
UK median daily rate £522 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -0.57% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 955 433 967
10th Percentile £17.07 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £17.88
Median hourly rate £50.00 £40.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% - -23.81%
75th Percentile £73.19 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.50 £81.35 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +33.33% -6.25% -25.93%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 16 May 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 -33 113 £525 +5.00% 80
North of England -61 66 £471 +2.08% 68
North West -40 49 £471 -4.45% 35
South East -66 38 £238 -54.76% 61
South West -31 34 £450 -17.24% 26
Midlands -59 30 £425 +72.94% 32
West Midlands -59 24 £425 +72.94% 16
East of England -42 22 £190 -5.00% 36
Yorkshire -46 14 £484 +21.00% 21
East Midlands -20 6 £363 - 16
North East -21 3 - - 12
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 35 (11.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (9.51%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.98%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 19 (6.23%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.62%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 5 (1.64%) Maximo
3 4 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.66%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 137 (44.92%) Azure
2 86 (28.20%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (19.34%) Entra ID
4 49 (16.07%) Power Platform
5 30 (9.84%) Microsoft Purview
6 28 (9.18%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (8.52%) Power Automate
7 26 (8.52%) PowerApps
8 22 (7.21%) Azure Data Factory
9 21 (6.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 20 (6.56%) AWS
10 20 (6.56%) GitHub
11 16 (5.25%) Dynamics 365
12 15 (4.92%) OneDrive
13 14 (4.59%) Azure Monitor
14 12 (3.93%) Microsoft Copilot
15 11 (3.61%) Azure Sentinel
16 10 (3.28%) Azure AKS
16 10 (3.28%) Azure Logic Apps
17 9 (2.95%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 42 (13.77%) SAN
2 28 (9.18%) Firewall
3 25 (8.20%) DNS
4 24 (7.87%) VPN
5 12 (3.93%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.28%) LAN
7 7 (2.30%) DHCP
7 7 (2.30%) Network Security
7 7 (2.30%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (1.97%) Kerberos
9 5 (1.64%) VLAN
10 4 (1.31%) DMZ
10 4 (1.31%) NAS
10 4 (1.31%) NGFW
10 4 (1.31%) SSL
11 3 (0.98%) SMTP
11 3 (0.98%) VoIP
12 2 (0.66%) H.323
12 2 (0.66%) PSTN
12 2 (0.66%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.18%) SQL Server
2 26 (8.52%) Power BI
3 14 (4.59%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 9 (2.95%) Azure SQL Database
5 9 (2.95%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.95%) Metadata
6 7 (2.30%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (1.97%) MySQL
7 6 (1.97%) Spark SQL
8 5 (1.64%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.64%) Power Query
9 4 (1.31%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.98%) Big Data
10 3 (0.98%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.66%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.66%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.66%) Tableau
12 1 (0.33%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 10 (3.28%) Git
2 4 (1.31%) GitLab
3 3 (0.98%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.66%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.66%) JDeveloper
4 2 (0.66%) Selenium
4 2 (0.66%) WebDriver
5 1 (0.33%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.33%) MLflow
5 1 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.33%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 97 (31.80%) Social Skills
2 67 (21.97%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (11.80%) Finance
4 32 (10.49%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.25%) Telecoms
6 13 (4.26%) Legal
7 9 (2.95%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.62%) Banking
9 4 (1.31%) Front Office
9 4 (1.31%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.31%) Marketing
10 3 (0.98%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.98%) International Banking
10 3 (0.98%) Law
10 3 (0.98%) Military
10 3 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.66%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 43 (14.10%) Architect
2 42 (13.77%) IT Engineer
3 37 (12.13%) Field Engineer
3 37 (12.13%) Field Service Engineer
4 30 (9.84%) Analyst
5 29 (9.51%) IT Support
5 29 (9.51%) Senior
6 20 (6.56%) Support Engineer
7 18 (5.90%) IT Support Engineer
7 18 (5.90%) Wintel Engineer
8 16 (5.25%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
8 16 (5.25%) Support Analyst
9 15 (4.92%) IT Analyst
10 14 (4.59%) Administrator
10 14 (4.59%) Solutions Architect
11 13 (4.26%) Field Support Engineer
12 12 (3.93%) Cloud Engineer
12 12 (3.93%) Developer
13 11 (3.61%) Azure Engineer
13 11 (3.61%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.25%) OAuth
2 14 (4.59%) OpenID
2 14 (4.59%) SAML
3 12 (3.93%) LDAP
4 10 (3.28%) .NET
4 10 (3.28%) OAuth2
5 8 (2.62%) ARM Templates
6 7 (2.30%) Microsoft Graph
7 5 (1.64%) ONVIF
8 4 (1.31%) REST
8 4 (1.31%) SailPoint
8 4 (1.31%) Web Services
9 3 (0.98%) React
10 2 (0.66%) Jest
10 2 (0.66%) Next.js
10 2 (0.66%) Oracle Fusion
10 2 (0.66%) Qt
10 2 (0.66%) RESTful
10 2 (0.66%) Tailwind CSS
10 2 (0.66%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.11%) Analytical Mindset
1 40 (13.11%) Data Centre
2 25 (8.20%) Onboarding
3 19 (6.23%) Replication
4 17 (5.57%) Clustering
5 16 (5.25%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
7 9 (2.95%) BYOD
8 8 (2.62%) Security Posture
9 7 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.97%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.97%) Management Information System
11 5 (1.64%) Cloud Security Posture
11 5 (1.64%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.64%) Mobile App
11 5 (1.64%) Video\Live Streaming
12 4 (1.31%) Operational Technology
12 4 (1.31%) Product Ownership
12 4 (1.31%) Public Cloud
13 3 (0.98%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 98 (32.13%) Windows
2 45 (14.75%) Windows Server
3 28 (9.18%) Windows 10
4 18 (5.90%) Linux
5 10 (3.28%) Android
6 9 (2.95%) Windows Server 2003
7 8 (2.62%) Apple iOS
8 7 (2.30%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.97%) Mac OS
9 6 (1.97%) Unix
9 6 (1.97%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (1.64%) VMS
11 3 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.66%) AIX
13 1 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (35.41%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (19.34%) Customer Service
3 55 (18.03%) ITIL
4 51 (16.72%) DevOps
5 49 (16.07%) Migration
6 47 (15.41%) Analytics
7 43 (14.10%) CI/CD
8 37 (12.13%) Break/Fix
9 35 (11.48%) Agile
10 32 (10.49%) Disaster Recovery
10 32 (10.49%) High Availability
11 31 (10.16%) Infrastructure as Code
11 31 (10.16%) Project Delivery
12 28 (9.18%) Data Governance
12 28 (9.18%) Identity Access Management
12 28 (9.18%) Roadmaps
13 27 (8.85%) RBAC
14 26 (8.52%) Business Intelligence
14 26 (8.52%) Computer Science
15 24 (7.87%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 87 (28.52%) PowerShell
2 36 (11.80%) SQL
3 27 (8.85%) Python
4 17 (5.57%) Bicep
5 10 (3.28%) Bash
6 8 (2.62%) C#
7 7 (2.30%) T-SQL
8 5 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.31%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.31%) R
10 2 (0.66%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.33%) Java
11 1 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.33%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.33%) VB
11 1 (0.33%) X++
Qualifications
1 92 (30.16%) MCSE
2 88 (28.85%) Security Cleared
3 75 (24.59%) Degree
4 73 (23.93%) SC Cleared
5 59 (19.34%) Cisco Certification
6 53 (17.38%) Azure Certification
7 51 (16.72%) A+ Certification
8 49 (16.07%) CCNA
9 48 (15.74%) Network+ Certification
10 39 (12.79%) MCSA
11 23 (7.54%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (7.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 21 (6.89%) DV Cleared
14 17 (5.57%) CISSP
15 15 (4.92%) VCAP
16 10 (3.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 9 (2.95%) CCNP
18 7 (2.30%) AWS Certification
18 7 (2.30%) CompTIA Security+
18 7 (2.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.56%) NIST
2 19 (6.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.28%) SLA
4 9 (2.95%) GDPR
5 8 (2.62%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.62%) NIST 800
6 6 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (1.97%) NCSC
7 4 (1.31%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.31%) QA
8 3 (0.98%) WCAG
9 1 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.33%) GRC
9 1 (0.33%) GxP
9 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 100 (32.79%) Active Directory
2 30 (9.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (6.56%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (5.57%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (5.25%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (5.25%) vSphere
6 11 (3.61%) Docker
7 8 (2.62%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.66%) Firmware
8 2 (0.66%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.66%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.66%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.33%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 35 (11.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (10.82%) Terraform
3 30 (9.84%) Ansible
4 19 (6.23%) vCenter Server
5 18 (5.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 15 (4.92%) Kubernetes
6 15 (4.92%) SCCM
7 7 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (1.97%) CASB
9 5 (1.64%) Nessus
10 3 (0.98%) Podman
10 3 (0.98%) QRadar
10 3 (0.98%) SCOM
10 3 (0.98%) WSUS
11 2 (0.66%) Packer
12 1 (0.33%) Dell DRAC
12 1 (0.33%) Jamf Pro
12 1 (0.33%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
12 1 (0.33%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 241 (79.02%) Microsoft
2 40 (13.11%) VMware
3 38 (12.46%) Dell
4 28 (9.18%) Cisco
5 13 (4.26%) Oracle
6 12 (3.93%) Apple
7 11 (3.61%) Citrix
7 11 (3.61%) Databricks
7 11 (3.61%) ServiceNow
8 7 (2.30%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.97%) Palo Alto
9 6 (1.97%) Remedy
9 6 (1.97%) Tenable
10 5 (1.64%) IBM
10 5 (1.64%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.64%) Splunk
11 4 (1.31%) Foundry
11 4 (1.31%) HP
11 4 (1.31%) NetApp
11 4 (1.31%) Reuters
271 Microsoft Certification jobs in England