Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 1 August 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 1 August 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Microsoft Certification
UK > England
6 months to
1 Aug 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 357 261 303
Rank change year-on-year -96 +42 -10
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 383 294 762
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.67% 0.91% 0.91%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.43% 3.72% 4.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 264 178 477
10th Percentile £200 £181 £158
25th Percentile £303 £302 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £434 £375
Median % change year-on-year +1.88% +15.83% +7.14%
75th Percentile £526 £538 £488
90th Percentile £580 £582 £575
UK median daily rate £445 £425 £375
% change year-on-year +4.71% +13.33% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 22 40
10th Percentile £13.13 £14.55 £11.00
25th Percentile £13.25 £17.00 £14.80
Median hourly rate £13.50 £20.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.50% +8.11% +5.71%
75th Percentile £18.75 £24.69 £25.79
90th Percentile £23.21 £40.55 £34.51
UK median hourly rate £13.50 £19.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year -31.65% -1.25% +14.88%

Microsoft Certification is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 11,153 7,907 15,989
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 19.48% 24.49% 19.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,155 5,256 10,084
10th Percentile £306 £298 £263
25th Percentile £402 £400 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £481 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +1.21% +5.56%
75th Percentile £595 £575 £575
90th Percentile £679 £650 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 566 275 658
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.25 £19.03 £17.50
Median hourly rate £32.00 £31.61 £33.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.23% -5.64% +52.27%
75th Percentile £52.50 £48.46 £48.75
90th Percentile £63.38 £60.00 £57.50
UK median hourly rate £28.90 £31.61 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.57% -9.69% +60.44%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 1 August 2021.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 1 August 2021.

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 1 August 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
London -96 129 £450 +4.35% 83
South East -29 102 £450 +9.09% 73
North of England -8 60 £413 +17.86% 95
North West -8 40 £450 +28.57% 50
East of England -19 32 £520 +15.56% 25
Midlands -55 29 £375 -31.82% 64
West Midlands -53 18 £500 -9.09% 38
Yorkshire -12 17 £220 -6.38% 31
South West -28 12 £290 -38.95% 32
East Midlands -15 11 £301 -49.79% 26
North East -5 3 £300 -11.11% 14
Microsoft Certification
UK

For the 6 months to 1 August 2021, IT contractor jobs citing Microsoft Certification also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region with a requirement for Microsoft Certification.

1 277 (72.32%) Microsoft
2 207 (54.05%) Windows
3 177 (46.21%) MCSE
4 150 (39.16%) Active Directory
5 143 (37.34%) Microsoft 365
6 134 (34.99%) ITIL
6 134 (34.99%) Azure
7 121 (31.59%) VMware
8 105 (27.42%) Windows Server
9 102 (26.63%) Social Skills
10 91 (23.76%) Degree
11 86 (22.45%) VMware Infrastructure
11 86 (22.45%) MCSA
12 81 (21.15%) Security Cleared
13 78 (20.37%) Citrix
14 73 (19.06%) Cisco Certification
15 70 (18.28%) PowerShell
16 67 (17.49%) Migration
16 67 (17.49%) Windows 10
17 65 (16.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 65 (16.97%) CCNA
18 63 (16.45%) Cisco
18 63 (16.45%) DNS
18 63 (16.45%) SC Cleared
19 57 (14.88%) SCCM
19 57 (14.88%) Problem-Solving
20 53 (13.84%) Microsoft Office
20 53 (13.84%) SQL Server
21 50 (13.05%) Firewall
22 49 (12.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring IT Skills in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same job type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 47 (12.27%) MS Exchange
2 46 (12.01%) SharePoint
3 19 (4.96%) Exchange Server 2010
4 18 (4.70%) Exchange Server 2013
5 12 (3.13%) Skype for Business
6 7 (1.83%) SAS
7 5 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2003
7 5 (1.31%) IIS
8 4 (1.04%) ArcGIS
8 4 (1.04%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (1.04%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.78%) IBM Notes
9 3 (0.78%) SharePoint 2010
9 3 (0.78%) SharePoint Server
10 2 (0.52%) Office Communications Server
10 2 (0.52%) SharePoint 2013
11 1 (0.26%) Apache
11 1 (0.26%) Confluence
11 1 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.26%) Tomcat
Applications
1 53 (13.84%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (4.70%) MS Visio
3 16 (4.18%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.04%) Photoshop
5 2 (0.52%) InfoPath
5 2 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 9 (2.35%) Dynamics AX
2 5 (1.31%) Teamcenter
3 3 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.26%) Sentinel
Cloud Services
1 143 (37.34%) Microsoft 365
2 134 (34.99%) Azure
3 30 (7.83%) AWS
3 30 (7.83%) Azure Active Directory
4 22 (5.74%) IaaS
5 21 (5.48%) PaaS
6 20 (5.22%) Power Platform
7 15 (3.92%) Dynamics 365
8 14 (3.66%) OneDrive
8 14 (3.66%) SaaS
9 11 (2.87%) Azure Data Factory
10 9 (2.35%) GCP
10 9 (2.35%) PowerApps
11 8 (2.09%) Azure Service Bus
12 7 (1.83%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.57%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 6 (1.57%) Power Automate
14 5 (1.31%) Azure Functions
14 5 (1.31%) Serverless
15 4 (1.04%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 63 (16.45%) DNS
2 50 (13.05%) Firewall
3 47 (12.27%) DHCP
4 37 (9.66%) VPN
5 33 (8.62%) LAN
6 28 (7.31%) TCP/IP
7 25 (6.53%) NetScaler
7 25 (6.53%) WAN
8 24 (6.27%) Wi-Fi
9 21 (5.48%) Network Security
10 20 (5.22%) SAN
11 16 (4.18%) Skype
11 16 (4.18%) VLAN
12 15 (3.92%) Kerberos
12 15 (3.92%) Wireless
13 13 (3.39%) VoIP
14 12 (3.13%) SMTP
15 10 (2.61%) X.500
16 9 (2.35%) IPsec
16 9 (2.35%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (13.84%) SQL Server
2 16 (4.18%) SQL Server 2012
3 15 (3.92%) SQL Server 2016
4 14 (3.66%) Power BI
5 11 (2.87%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (2.09%) Data Lake
7 7 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.57%) GIS
8 6 (1.57%) MySQL
8 6 (1.57%) SQL Server 2014
9 5 (1.31%) SQL Server 2017
10 4 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (1.04%) HDInsight
11 3 (0.78%) Big Data
11 3 (0.78%) SQL Server 2008
12 2 (0.52%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.52%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
12 2 (0.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 1 (0.26%) SQL Server 2019
Development Applications
1 10 (2.61%) JIRA
2 6 (1.57%) Visual Studio
3 5 (1.31%) Git (software)
4 3 (0.78%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.78%) MSI
4 3 (0.78%) Visual Studio Team System
5 2 (0.52%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.52%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.26%) AdminStudio
6 1 (0.26%) git-flow
6 1 (0.26%) Hudson
6 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 102 (26.63%) Social Skills
2 42 (10.97%) Public Sector
3 38 (9.92%) Finance
4 28 (7.31%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (5.48%) Banking
6 17 (4.44%) Retail
7 14 (3.66%) Documentation Skills
7 14 (3.66%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.35%) Law
8 9 (2.35%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.09%) Marketing
10 7 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.31%) Electronics
11 5 (1.31%) Legal
12 4 (1.04%) Local Government
13 3 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.78%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.52%) Back Office
14 2 (0.52%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 50 (13.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 39 (10.18%) Support Engineer
3 38 (9.92%) Analyst
4 37 (9.66%) Architect
5 35 (9.14%) Consultant
6 29 (7.57%) Service Analyst
7 28 (7.31%) Service Desk Analyst
8 23 (6.01%) Developer
9 18 (4.70%) IT Engineer
10 16 (4.18%) Azure Engineer
11 15 (3.92%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 14 (3.66%) Wintel Engineer
13 13 (3.39%) IT Support
14 11 (2.87%) Azure Consultant
14 11 (2.87%) Infrastructure Specialist
15 10 (2.61%) 2nd Line Support
15 10 (2.61%) Infrastructure Architect
15 10 (2.61%) IT Support Engineer
16 9 (2.35%) Administrator
16 9 (2.35%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (5.74%) LDAP
2 19 (4.96%) .NET
3 11 (2.87%) 802.1X
4 7 (1.83%) ASP.NET Web API
4 7 (1.83%) REST
5 6 (1.57%) AngularJS
6 5 (1.31%) CSS
6 5 (1.31%) OAuth
6 5 (1.31%) RESTful
6 5 (1.31%) Software Packaging
7 4 (1.04%) .NET Framework
7 4 (1.04%) HTML
7 4 (1.04%) Itk
7 4 (1.04%) Web Services
8 3 (0.78%) ADO
8 3 (0.78%) SAML
8 3 (0.78%) XML
9 2 (0.52%) .NET Core
9 2 (0.52%) JSON
9 2 (0.52%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 19 (4.96%) Data Centre
2 18 (4.70%) Self-Motivation
3 16 (4.18%) Management Information System
4 15 (3.92%) NHS
5 14 (3.66%) PKI
6 12 (3.13%) Clustering
6 12 (3.13%) Replication
7 11 (2.87%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (2.09%) User Experience
9 7 (1.83%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.83%) iPad
10 6 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.57%) Microsoft Licensing
10 6 (1.57%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.31%) Blackberry
11 5 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (1.31%) iPhone
12 4 (1.04%) Driving Licence
12 4 (1.04%) Online Banking
12 4 (1.04%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 207 (54.05%) Windows
2 105 (27.42%) Windows Server
3 67 (17.49%) Windows 10
4 47 (12.27%) Windows Server 2012
5 40 (10.44%) Linux
6 38 (9.92%) Windows Server 2016
7 35 (9.14%) Windows Server 2019
8 32 (8.36%) Windows 7
9 25 (6.53%) Windows Server 2008
10 12 (3.13%) Android
10 12 (3.13%) Apple iOS
11 6 (1.57%) Mac OS
11 6 (1.57%) VMS
11 6 (1.57%) Windows Server 2003
12 5 (1.31%) Unix
13 4 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 3 (0.78%) Mac OS X
14 3 (0.78%) Windows 8
15 2 (0.52%) Windows XP
16 1 (0.26%) Windows 2000 Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (34.99%) ITIL
2 67 (17.49%) Migration
3 65 (16.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 57 (14.88%) Problem-Solving
5 40 (10.44%) Computer Science
6 37 (9.66%) Agile Software Development
6 37 (9.66%) DevOps
7 25 (6.53%) Change Management
8 23 (6.01%) Incident Management
8 23 (6.01%) Load Balancing
9 22 (5.74%) ITIL V3
10 21 (5.48%) Service Management
10 21 (5.48%) Virtual Environments
11 20 (5.22%) Mentoring
12 19 (4.96%) Project Management
13 18 (4.70%) Continuous Improvement
14 17 (4.44%) Virtual Infrastructure
15 16 (4.18%) Business Intelligence
15 16 (4.18%) Customer Requirements
15 16 (4.18%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 70 (18.28%) PowerShell
2 43 (11.23%) SQL
3 16 (4.18%) C#
4 10 (2.61%) C
4 10 (2.61%) T-SQL
5 9 (2.35%) VB
6 6 (1.57%) VBScript
7 5 (1.31%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.04%) Python
8 4 (1.04%) VB.NET
9 2 (0.52%) C++
9 2 (0.52%) Java
10 1 (0.26%) Bash Shell
10 1 (0.26%) R
Qualifications
1 177 (46.21%) MCSE
2 91 (23.76%) Degree
3 86 (22.45%) MCSA
4 81 (21.15%) Security Cleared
5 73 (19.06%) Cisco Certification
6 65 (16.97%) CCNA
7 63 (16.45%) SC Cleared
8 49 (12.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 45 (11.75%) MCP
10 32 (8.36%) MCITP
11 27 (7.05%) Computer Science Degree
12 26 (6.79%) DV Cleared
13 22 (5.74%) A+ Certification
14 21 (5.48%) Citrix Certification
15 19 (4.96%) ITIL Certification
16 14 (3.66%) CCNP
17 13 (3.39%) CISSP
18 9 (2.35%) TOGAF Certification
19 8 (2.09%) MCAD
20 7 (1.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (9.66%) SLA
2 26 (6.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (2.61%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (2.35%) NIST
5 7 (1.83%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.57%) ISO 9001
7 5 (1.31%) QA
8 3 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.78%) GDPR
8 3 (0.78%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.26%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 150 (39.16%) Active Directory
2 86 (22.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (7.83%) VMware ESXi
3 30 (7.83%) vSphere
4 27 (7.05%) XenApp
5 21 (5.48%) Hyper-V
6 9 (2.35%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
6 9 (2.35%) Virtual Desktop
7 8 (2.09%) XenDesktop
8 7 (1.83%) Microsoft App-V
8 7 (1.83%) Virtual Servers
9 6 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (1.31%) VMware NSX
11 3 (0.78%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.78%) vCloud
11 3 (0.78%) VMware Server
12 2 (0.52%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.52%) Firmware
12 2 (0.52%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.26%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 57 (14.88%) SCCM
2 31 (8.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 22 (5.74%) WSUS
4 15 (3.92%) SCOM
5 14 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (3.39%) Ansible
7 12 (3.13%) vCenter Server
8 6 (1.57%) AirWatch
8 6 (1.57%) vRealize
9 5 (1.31%) Kubernetes
9 5 (1.31%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (1.04%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (1.04%) Terraform
11 3 (0.78%) Backup Exec
11 3 (0.78%) DatAdvantage
11 3 (0.78%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.78%) NetBackup
11 3 (0.78%) vMotion
11 3 (0.78%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 277 (72.32%) Microsoft
2 121 (31.59%) VMware
3 78 (20.37%) Citrix
4 63 (16.45%) Cisco
5 35 (9.14%) ServiceNow
6 19 (4.96%) HP
7 17 (4.44%) Dell
8 14 (3.66%) Apple
9 12 (3.13%) Veeam
10 11 (2.87%) CheckPoint
10 11 (2.87%) Fortinet
10 11 (2.87%) Oracle
11 10 (2.61%) SolarWinds
12 9 (2.35%) Google
12 9 (2.35%) Sophos
13 8 (2.09%) IBM
14 7 (1.83%) EMC
14 7 (1.83%) Ivanti
14 7 (1.83%) McAfee
14 7 (1.83%) Remedy