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 23 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 262 233 317
Rank change year-on-year -29 +84 +62
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 322 285 253
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.99% 1.06% 0.68%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.89% 3.49% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 165 180
10th Percentile £192 £200 £206
25th Percentile £308 £319 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.32% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £591 £585 £605
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £450 £465
% change year-on-year +11.11% -3.30% -0.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 24 17
10th Percentile - £12.90 £14.67
25th Percentile £6.00 £19.60 £16.25
Median hourly rate £16.00 £21.46 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.44% +19.22% +16.13%
75th Percentile £24.56 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £25.47 £100.53 £39.66
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £21.73 £17.75
% change year-on-year -11.50% +22.42% +14.52%

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 11,145 8,170 11,458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.33% 30.48% 30.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,401 4,957 7,170
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £419 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -1.24% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 875 400 783
10th Percentile £15.92 £19.78 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.75
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -3.29% +6.11%
75th Percentile £62.50 £67.56 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.25 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.52 £47.75
% change year-on-year -36.36% -17.24% +6.11%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -8 117 £525 +31.25% 80
South West +22 61 £550 -6.38% 41
Midlands -33 44 £275 -31.25% 49
North of England -55 39 £450 -10.00% 87
South East -45 36 £446 -10.80% 97
West Midlands -37 32 £310 -27.06% 19
North West -38 28 £450 -10.00% 34
East of England -23 21 £365 +94.67% 54
East Midlands -21 12 £210 -47.50% 30
Yorkshire -41 9 £468 - 44
North East -11 2 - - 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 43 (13.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (8.39%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.86%) Skype for Business
4 4 (1.24%) Confluence
5 3 (0.93%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 21 (6.52%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (3.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.24%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.48%) Maximo
3 7 (2.17%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 150 (46.58%) Azure
2 104 (32.30%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (16.15%) Entra ID
3 52 (16.15%) Power Platform
4 39 (12.11%) AWS
5 37 (11.49%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (8.07%) Power Automate
7 25 (7.76%) PowerApps
8 23 (7.14%) Dynamics 365
8 23 (7.14%) Microsoft Purview
9 22 (6.83%) Azure Data Factory
10 20 (6.21%) Azure Monitor
11 18 (5.59%) GitHub
12 17 (5.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 16 (4.97%) Azure AKS
14 15 (4.66%) Azure Sentinel
15 14 (4.35%) Azure Logic Apps
16 13 (4.04%) Azure Key Vault
17 12 (3.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 11 (3.42%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 56 (17.39%) DNS
2 36 (11.18%) Firewall
3 34 (10.56%) DHCP
4 28 (8.70%) VPN
5 23 (7.14%) TCP/IP
6 15 (4.66%) VLAN
7 9 (2.80%) Network Security
7 9 (2.80%) Skype
8 8 (2.48%) SAN
9 7 (2.17%) LAN
9 7 (2.17%) Unified Communications
9 7 (2.17%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (1.55%) Kerberos
10 5 (1.55%) SSL
11 4 (1.24%) DKIM
11 4 (1.24%) DMARC
12 3 (0.93%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.93%) S/MIME
12 3 (0.93%) SMTP
12 3 (0.93%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.39%) Power BI
2 22 (6.83%) SQL Server
3 16 (4.97%) Data Lake
4 11 (3.42%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (3.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 8 (2.48%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.86%) Metadata
7 5 (1.55%) Delta Lake
7 5 (1.55%) MySQL
7 5 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (1.55%) Spark SQL
8 4 (1.24%) Metadata Repository
8 4 (1.24%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.93%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.93%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.62%) Apache Cassandra
10 2 (0.62%) Power Query
10 2 (0.62%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.62%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (4.04%) Git
2 7 (2.17%) JIRA
3 6 (1.86%) MSI
4 5 (1.55%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.24%) GitLab
6 3 (0.93%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.93%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.93%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.62%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.62%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.62%) JDeveloper
General
1 134 (41.61%) Social Skills
2 57 (17.70%) Analytical Skills
3 35 (10.87%) Public Sector
4 28 (8.70%) Finance
5 21 (6.52%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (3.73%) Banking
7 10 (3.11%) Legal
8 7 (2.17%) Marketing
8 7 (2.17%) Military
9 6 (1.86%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.24%) International Banking
11 3 (0.93%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.93%) Polish Language
11 3 (0.93%) Retail
12 2 (0.62%) Aeronautics
12 2 (0.62%) Law
13 1 (0.31%) Advertising
13 1 (0.31%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.31%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 54 (16.77%) Architect
2 37 (11.49%) Analyst
3 24 (7.45%) Senior
3 24 (7.45%) Support Engineer
4 23 (7.14%) Solutions Architect
5 22 (6.83%) Wintel Engineer
6 21 (6.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 19 (5.90%) Support Analyst
8 18 (5.59%) Administrator
9 16 (4.97%) Azure Engineer
10 15 (4.66%) IT Analyst
10 15 (4.66%) Lead
11 14 (4.35%) Developer
11 14 (4.35%) Field Engineer
12 13 (4.04%) IT Support
12 13 (4.04%) Technical Support
13 12 (3.73%) Azure Architect
13 12 (3.73%) Technical Analyst
14 11 (3.42%) Infrastructure Support
14 11 (3.42%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.94%) OAuth
2 28 (8.70%) SAML
3 27 (8.39%) OpenID
4 17 (5.28%) OAuth2
5 15 (4.66%) .NET
5 15 (4.66%) ARM Templates
6 12 (3.73%) Microsoft Graph
7 10 (3.11%) REST
8 6 (1.86%) JSON
8 6 (1.86%) LDAP
8 6 (1.86%) RESTful
9 4 (1.24%) PySpark
10 3 (0.93%) ASP.NET Web API
10 3 (0.93%) React
11 2 (0.62%) CSS
11 2 (0.62%) Jest
11 2 (0.62%) Next.js
11 2 (0.62%) SailPoint
11 2 (0.62%) Tailwind CSS
11 2 (0.62%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (6.83%) PKI
2 21 (6.52%) Replication
3 18 (5.59%) Analytical Mindset
4 17 (5.28%) Enterprise Software
4 17 (5.28%) Onboarding
5 15 (4.66%) Hybrid Cloud
6 12 (3.73%) BYOD
7 10 (3.11%) Cloud Native
7 10 (3.11%) Clustering
8 9 (2.80%) Driving Licence
8 9 (2.80%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.80%) Security Posture
9 7 (2.17%) Data Centre
9 7 (2.17%) Low-Code
9 7 (2.17%) NHS
9 7 (2.17%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.55%) Security Operations Centre
10 5 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.55%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 4 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 146 (45.34%) Windows
2 68 (21.12%) Windows Server
3 41 (12.73%) Windows 10
4 25 (7.76%) Linux
5 12 (3.73%) Windows Server 2012
6 9 (2.80%) Windows Server 2003
7 8 (2.48%) Mac OS
8 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (1.24%) Android
9 4 (1.24%) Windows 7
9 4 (1.24%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.93%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.93%) CentOS
11 2 (0.62%) VMS
12 1 (0.31%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (28.88%) Problem-Solving
2 86 (26.71%) ITIL
3 55 (17.08%) DevOps
4 45 (13.98%) CI/CD
5 44 (13.66%) Migration
6 42 (13.04%) RBAC
7 41 (12.73%) Agile
7 41 (12.73%) Customer Service
8 39 (12.11%) Disaster Recovery
8 39 (12.11%) Identity Access Management
9 38 (11.80%) Analytics
10 37 (11.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 37 (11.49%) Service Management
11 33 (10.25%) Computer Science
12 32 (9.94%) Continuous Improvement
13 29 (9.01%) Business Intelligence
13 29 (9.01%) Cloud Security
14 27 (8.39%) Roadmaps
15 26 (8.07%) Identity Management
16 25 (7.76%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 104 (32.30%) PowerShell
2 44 (13.66%) SQL
3 28 (8.70%) Python
4 19 (5.90%) Bicep
5 11 (3.42%) C#
6 10 (3.11%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.17%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.86%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.86%) VBScript
9 4 (1.24%) Bash
10 2 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.62%) R
11 1 (0.31%) Java
11 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 115 (35.71%) Security Cleared
2 88 (27.33%) Degree
3 82 (25.47%) Azure Certification
4 81 (25.16%) SC Cleared
5 66 (20.50%) MCSE
6 33 (10.25%) DV Cleared
7 32 (9.94%) MCSA
8 28 (8.70%) A+ Certification
9 26 (8.07%) MCP
10 25 (7.76%) Network+ Certification
11 23 (7.14%) CISSP
11 23 (7.14%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (6.83%) Cisco Certification
13 17 (5.28%) CCNA
14 14 (4.35%) AWS Certification
14 14 (4.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 13 (4.04%) CISM
16 11 (3.42%) ITIL Certification
16 11 (3.42%) Master's Degree
16 11 (3.42%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (9.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (5.59%) NIST
3 17 (5.28%) GDPR
4 8 (2.48%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (1.86%) SLA
6 5 (1.55%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.24%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.24%) NCSC
7 4 (1.24%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.62%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.62%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.62%) QA
8 2 (0.62%) WCAG
9 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.31%) PMO
9 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 149 (46.27%) Active Directory
2 40 (12.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (5.28%) Hyper-V
4 16 (4.97%) vSphere
5 15 (4.66%) Docker
6 11 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 5 (1.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (1.55%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (1.24%) Microsoft App-V
10 2 (0.62%) Firmware
10 2 (0.62%) NFS
10 2 (0.62%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.31%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (10.87%) SCCM
2 33 (10.25%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (9.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 30 (9.32%) Terraform
4 23 (7.14%) Kubernetes
5 21 (6.52%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (5.28%) Ansible
7 9 (2.80%) vCenter Server
7 9 (2.80%) WSUS
8 8 (2.48%) SCOM
9 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
9 2 (0.62%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.31%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.31%) QRadar
Vendors
1 302 (93.79%) Microsoft
2 52 (16.15%) VMware
3 22 (6.83%) Cisco
4 17 (5.28%) Oracle
5 15 (4.66%) ServiceNow
6 14 (4.35%) Veeam
7 13 (4.04%) Databricks
7 13 (4.04%) Dell
8 11 (3.42%) Citrix
8 11 (3.42%) Red Hat
9 9 (2.80%) IBM
9 9 (2.80%) SolarWinds
10 8 (2.48%) Splunk
11 5 (1.55%) iManage
11 5 (1.55%) Mitel
12 4 (1.24%) OpenAI
12 4 (1.24%) Tenable
13 3 (0.93%) Apple
13 3 (0.93%) Google
13 3 (0.93%) Palo Alto