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

6 months to
29 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 311 231 268
Rank change year-on-year -80 +37 +96
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 313 274 316
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.75% 1.15% 0.86%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.34% 3.65% 2.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 156 207
10th Percentile £161 £200 £193
25th Percentile £356 £260 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £583 £625 £575
90th Percentile £675 £698 £672
UK median daily rate £474 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -0.32% - -8.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 31 57
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 £24.21 £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 13,348 7,517 11,216
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.92% 31.42% 30.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,953 4,781 6,985
10th Percentile £350 £278 £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 £624 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £748
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £530
% change year-on-year +0.91% -1.84% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,014 437 989
10th Percentile £17.11 £17.87 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.27 £18.32
Median hourly rate £47.52 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.22% -18.75% -25.93%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.25 £81.01 £75.60
UK median hourly rate £48.05 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +47.85% -18.75% -27.27%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -44 121 £525 +5.00% 82
North of England -70 65 £479 +0.84% 71
North West -38 50 £475 - 40
South East -44 40 £275 -47.62% 71
South West -21 35 £438 -18.60% 24
Midlands -56 26 £425 +58.88% 34
East of England -36 24 £173 -13.75% 33
West Midlands -63 20 £425 +58.88% 14
Yorkshire -46 12 £500 +25.00% 20
East Midlands -21 6 £363 - 20
North East -27 3 - - 11
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 34 (10.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (9.58%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.96%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.32%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.32%) Confluence
Applications
1 19 (6.07%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.56%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 6 (1.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.60%) Maximo
4 3 (0.96%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 144 (46.01%) Azure
2 83 (26.52%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (19.81%) Entra ID
4 55 (17.57%) Power Platform
5 33 (10.54%) Azure DevOps
6 32 (10.22%) Microsoft Purview
7 31 (9.90%) Power Automate
8 28 (8.95%) PowerApps
9 22 (7.03%) Azure Data Factory
9 22 (7.03%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (6.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 20 (6.39%) GitHub
12 18 (5.75%) AWS
13 16 (5.11%) OneDrive
14 14 (4.47%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (4.15%) Azure Sentinel
15 13 (4.15%) Microsoft Copilot
16 12 (3.83%) Azure Logic Apps
17 10 (3.19%) Azure AKS
18 9 (2.88%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.10%) SAN
2 28 (8.95%) Firewall
3 24 (7.67%) DNS
4 23 (7.35%) VPN
5 12 (3.83%) LAN
5 12 (3.83%) TCP/IP
6 7 (2.24%) Network Security
6 7 (2.24%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (1.92%) DHCP
8 5 (1.60%) VLAN
9 4 (1.28%) DMZ
9 4 (1.28%) Internet
9 4 (1.28%) Kerberos
9 4 (1.28%) NGFW
9 4 (1.28%) SSL
10 3 (0.96%) NAS
10 3 (0.96%) PSTN
10 3 (0.96%) SMTP
10 3 (0.96%) VoIP
10 3 (0.96%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (9.58%) Power BI
1 30 (9.58%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.47%) Data Lake
3 12 (3.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 9 (2.88%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (2.88%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (2.88%) Metadata
5 8 (2.56%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (2.24%) MySQL
7 6 (1.92%) Power Query
7 6 (1.92%) Spark SQL
8 5 (1.60%) Delta Lake
9 4 (1.28%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.96%) Big Data
10 3 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.96%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.64%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.64%) Semantic Layer
11 2 (0.64%) Tableau
12 1 (0.32%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 10 (3.19%) Git
2 3 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
3 2 (0.64%) GitLab
3 2 (0.64%) JDeveloper
3 2 (0.64%) Selenium
3 2 (0.64%) WebDriver
4 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.32%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.32%) JIRA
4 1 (0.32%) MLflow
4 1 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.32%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 101 (32.27%) Social Skills
2 67 (21.41%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (12.78%) Finance
4 38 (12.14%) Public Sector
5 18 (5.75%) Telecoms
6 13 (4.15%) Legal
7 9 (2.88%) Banking
8 8 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.28%) Front Office
10 4 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.28%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.28%) Marketing
11 3 (0.96%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.96%) International Banking
11 3 (0.96%) Law
11 3 (0.96%) Military
11 3 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.64%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 44 (14.06%) Architect
2 42 (13.42%) IT Engineer
3 37 (11.82%) Field Engineer
3 37 (11.82%) Field Service Engineer
4 32 (10.22%) Senior
5 31 (9.90%) Analyst
6 29 (9.27%) IT Support
7 20 (6.39%) Support Engineer
8 19 (6.07%) Wintel Engineer
9 18 (5.75%) IT Support Engineer
10 17 (5.43%) Administrator
11 16 (5.11%) Developer
11 16 (5.11%) IT Analyst
11 16 (5.11%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 16 (5.11%) Support Analyst
12 13 (4.15%) Field Support Engineer
12 13 (4.15%) Solutions Architect
13 12 (3.83%) DBA
13 12 (3.83%) Lead
13 12 (3.83%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.15%) OAuth
2 11 (3.51%) .NET
2 11 (3.51%) OpenID
2 11 (3.51%) SAML
3 10 (3.19%) LDAP
4 9 (2.88%) OAuth2
5 8 (2.56%) ARM Templates
6 7 (2.24%) Microsoft Graph
6 7 (2.24%) ONVIF
7 4 (1.28%) JSON
7 4 (1.28%) REST
7 4 (1.28%) SailPoint
7 4 (1.28%) Web Services
8 2 (0.64%) OpenGL
8 2 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.64%) Qt
8 2 (0.64%) React
8 2 (0.64%) XML
8 2 (0.64%) XSLT
8 2 (0.64%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (12.78%) Analytical Mindset
1 40 (12.78%) Data Centre
2 25 (7.99%) Onboarding
3 19 (6.07%) Replication
4 18 (5.75%) Clustering
5 15 (4.79%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (3.51%) BYOD
6 11 (3.51%) Security Posture
7 10 (3.19%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (2.56%) Cloud Native
8 8 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (2.56%) Management Information System
9 7 (2.24%) Video\Live Streaming
10 6 (1.92%) Mobile App
11 5 (1.60%) Cloud Security Posture
11 5 (1.60%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.60%) PKI
11 5 (1.60%) Product Ownership
12 4 (1.28%) CMDB
12 4 (1.28%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 98 (31.31%) Windows
2 44 (14.06%) Windows Server
3 30 (9.58%) Windows 10
4 20 (6.39%) Linux
5 11 (3.51%) Android
6 9 (2.88%) Apple iOS
6 9 (2.88%) Windows Server 2003
7 8 (2.56%) Windows 7
8 7 (2.24%) Mac OS
9 6 (1.92%) Unix
9 6 (1.92%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (1.60%) VMS
11 4 (1.28%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (1.28%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 2 (0.64%) AIX
13 2 (0.64%) Alpine Linux
13 2 (0.64%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (36.42%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (18.85%) Customer Service
2 59 (18.85%) DevOps
3 55 (17.57%) ITIL
4 48 (15.34%) Analytics
5 45 (14.38%) Migration
6 42 (13.42%) CI/CD
7 38 (12.14%) Agile
8 37 (11.82%) Break/Fix
9 35 (11.18%) High Availability
10 33 (10.54%) Project Delivery
11 32 (10.22%) Disaster Recovery
11 32 (10.22%) Infrastructure as Code
12 30 (9.58%) Business Intelligence
12 30 (9.58%) Roadmaps
13 29 (9.27%) Data Governance
13 29 (9.27%) Identity Access Management
13 29 (9.27%) RBAC
14 26 (8.31%) Computer Science
15 25 (7.99%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 89 (28.43%) PowerShell
2 37 (11.82%) SQL
3 29 (9.27%) Python
4 19 (6.07%) Bicep
5 13 (4.15%) C#
6 10 (3.19%) Bash
7 9 (2.88%) JavaScript
8 7 (2.24%) T-SQL
9 6 (1.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.28%) R
11 2 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.32%) Java
12 1 (0.32%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.32%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.32%) VB
12 1 (0.32%) X++
Qualifications
1 94 (30.03%) MCSE
2 93 (29.71%) Security Cleared
3 77 (24.60%) SC Cleared
4 76 (24.28%) Degree
5 62 (19.81%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (17.25%) A+ Certification
7 53 (16.93%) Azure Certification
8 51 (16.29%) CCNA
9 47 (15.02%) Network+ Certification
10 43 (13.74%) MCSA
11 23 (7.35%) DV Cleared
11 23 (7.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 22 (7.03%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (5.75%) CISSP
14 16 (5.11%) VCAP
15 10 (3.19%) CCNP
16 9 (2.88%) CISM
16 9 (2.88%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 7 (2.24%) AWS Certification
17 7 (2.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.71%) NIST
2 20 (6.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.19%) GDPR
3 10 (3.19%) SLA
4 9 (2.88%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.56%) NIST 800
6 6 (1.92%) Accessibility
6 6 (1.92%) NCSC
7 5 (1.60%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (1.28%) QA
9 3 (0.96%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.96%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.96%) WCAG
10 1 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.32%) GRC
10 1 (0.32%) GxP
10 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.32%) Solvency II
System Software
1 96 (30.67%) Active Directory
2 31 (9.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (6.71%) VMware ESXi
4 18 (5.75%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (5.43%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (5.43%) vSphere
6 9 (2.88%) Docker
7 7 (2.24%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.64%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.64%) Firmware
8 2 (0.64%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.64%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.64%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 38 (12.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (11.18%) Terraform
3 30 (9.58%) Ansible
4 20 (6.39%) vCenter Server
5 15 (4.79%) SCCM
6 14 (4.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (4.15%) Kubernetes
8 6 (1.92%) CASB
8 6 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.60%) Nessus
10 4 (1.28%) SCOM
11 3 (0.96%) Podman
11 3 (0.96%) QRadar
11 3 (0.96%) WSUS
12 2 (0.64%) Packer
13 1 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
13 1 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.32%) Kubeflow
13 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
13 1 (0.32%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 247 (78.91%) Microsoft
2 41 (13.10%) VMware
3 38 (12.14%) Dell
4 30 (9.58%) Cisco
5 14 (4.47%) Oracle
6 12 (3.83%) Apple
7 11 (3.51%) Citrix
7 11 (3.51%) Databricks
7 11 (3.51%) ServiceNow
8 8 (2.56%) Tenable
9 7 (2.24%) CyberArk
9 7 (2.24%) Splunk
10 6 (1.92%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.92%) Remedy
11 5 (1.60%) IBM
11 5 (1.60%) NetApp
11 5 (1.60%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.28%) Bloomberg
12 4 (1.28%) HP
12 4 (1.28%) Reuters
277 Microsoft Certification jobs in England