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 18 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 236 262
Rank change year-on-year -68 +26 +81
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 377 293 299
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.82% 1.06% 0.90%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.60% 3.37% 2.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 257 171 188
10th Percentile £156 £200 £240
25th Percentile £306 £325 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £550 £625 £586
90th Percentile £650 £663 £641
UK median daily rate £450 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -9.18% -0.90% -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 31 44
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £12.33
25th Percentile £38.25 £15.65 £14.16
Median hourly rate £55.00 £17.44 £16.03
Median % change year-on-year +215.37% +8.80% -8.40%
75th Percentile £77.50 £33.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £178.75 £83.00 -
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £18.84 £15.17
% change year-on-year +192.01% +24.16% -13.31%

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 14,505 8,692 10,104
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.71% 31.48% 30.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,788 5,433 6,445
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £433 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £715 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,131 676 728
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.13 £15.03
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £21.37
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +114.71% -47.05% -13.64%
75th Percentile £75.00 £56.00 £67.56
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.65
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.82%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -40 136 £520 +4.00% 153
North of England -66 69 £485 +14.12% 76
South East -59 64 £275 -54.17% 81
North West -40 54 £484 +8.28% 41
Midlands -27 44 £425 +11.92% 44
West Midlands -23 39 £425 +72.94% 28
South West -35 32 £425 -18.27% 31
East of England -34 25 £160 -57.33% 27
Yorkshire -38 12 £650 +62.50% 27
East Midlands -16 5 £431 -13.05% 16
North East -39 3 £363 +81.25% 9
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 41 (10.88%) SharePoint
2 32 (8.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.53%) Confluence
3 2 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (0.53%) HCL Notes
3 2 (0.53%) Mendix
4 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.27%) Liferay
Applications
1 15 (3.98%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (3.18%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.59%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.59%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.27%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.27%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 211 (55.97%) Azure
2 112 (29.71%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (25.73%) Entra ID
4 83 (22.02%) Power Platform
5 55 (14.59%) Azure DevOps
5 55 (14.59%) Power Automate
6 45 (11.94%) Dynamics 365
7 43 (11.41%) PowerApps
8 33 (8.75%) Microsoft Purview
9 30 (7.96%) AWS
10 25 (6.63%) OneDrive
11 24 (6.37%) GitHub
12 21 (5.57%) Microsoft Copilot
13 20 (5.31%) Serverless
14 19 (5.04%) Azure Logic Apps
15 17 (4.51%) Azure Functions
15 17 (4.51%) Azure Monitor
16 16 (4.24%) SaaS
17 13 (3.45%) Azure Data Factory
18 11 (2.92%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 43 (11.41%) DNS
2 34 (9.02%) SAN
3 28 (7.43%) DHCP
4 27 (7.16%) Firewall
4 27 (7.16%) VPN
5 24 (6.37%) TCP/IP
6 11 (2.92%) LAN
7 8 (2.12%) WAN
8 7 (1.86%) Wireless
9 6 (1.59%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.59%) Network Security
9 6 (1.59%) NGFW
9 6 (1.59%) SSL
9 6 (1.59%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (1.06%) Internet
11 3 (0.80%) DMZ
11 3 (0.80%) NetScaler
11 3 (0.80%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (0.80%) VLAN
12 2 (0.53%) PCoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (11.94%) Power BI
2 42 (11.14%) SQL Server
3 26 (6.90%) MySQL
4 21 (5.57%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.12%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.12%) Power Query
6 7 (1.86%) Metadata
6 7 (1.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (1.33%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.06%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.80%) Big Data
9 3 (0.80%) Delta Lake
9 3 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.53%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.53%) Qlik Sense
10 2 (0.53%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.53%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (2.12%) Git
1 8 (2.12%) Selenium
1 8 (2.12%) WebDriver
2 6 (1.59%) Cucumber
2 6 (1.59%) Cypress.io
2 6 (1.59%) JIRA
2 6 (1.59%) Postman
3 4 (1.06%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.53%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.27%) GitLab
General
1 171 (45.36%) Social Skills
2 95 (25.20%) Analytical Skills
3 67 (17.77%) Public Sector
4 47 (12.47%) Finance
5 24 (6.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 23 (6.10%) Telecoms
7 15 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.92%) Aerospace
9 10 (2.65%) Legal
10 6 (1.59%) Banking
10 6 (1.59%) Military
10 6 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.06%) Law
12 4 (1.06%) Local Government
13 3 (0.80%) Front Office
13 3 (0.80%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.53%) Aviation
14 2 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 50 (13.26%) Analyst
2 42 (11.14%) IT Engineer
3 41 (10.88%) Architect
4 39 (10.34%) Senior
5 35 (9.28%) IT Support
6 30 (7.96%) DBA
7 29 (7.69%) Developer
7 29 (7.69%) Field Engineer
7 29 (7.69%) Field Service Engineer
8 28 (7.43%) Lead
9 25 (6.63%) Administrator
10 23 (6.10%) Support Engineer
11 21 (5.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 21 (5.57%) Support Analyst
12 20 (5.31%) Dynamics 365 Developer
12 20 (5.31%) IT Support Engineer
13 19 (5.04%) IT Analyst
14 15 (3.98%) IT Support Analyst
14 15 (3.98%) SQL DBA
15 14 (3.71%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.51%) .NET
1 17 (4.51%) OAuth
2 15 (3.98%) OpenID
3 14 (3.71%) SAML
4 13 (3.45%) JSON
4 13 (3.45%) ONVIF
5 12 (3.18%) OAuth2
6 11 (2.92%) LDAP
7 9 (2.39%) SailPoint
7 9 (2.39%) Web Services
8 8 (2.12%) ARM Templates
8 8 (2.12%) Middleware
8 8 (2.12%) REST
9 7 (1.86%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (1.59%) Gherkin
11 4 (1.06%) Azure Blueprints
11 4 (1.06%) HTML5 Canvas
12 3 (0.80%) PySpark
13 2 (0.53%) Kafka
13 2 (0.53%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (9.28%) Analytical Mindset
2 34 (9.02%) Data Centre
3 31 (8.22%) Management Information System
4 29 (7.69%) Onboarding
5 19 (5.04%) Cloud Native
5 19 (5.04%) Replication
6 17 (4.51%) Clustering
7 15 (3.98%) Security Posture
8 14 (3.71%) Enterprise Software
8 14 (3.71%) Product Ownership
9 13 (3.45%) Video\Live Streaming
10 12 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
11 10 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (2.65%) PKI
12 9 (2.39%) Data Structures
13 8 (2.12%) AI Agents
13 8 (2.12%) Enterprise Cloud
14 7 (1.86%) BYOD
14 7 (1.86%) Mobile App
15 6 (1.59%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 108 (28.65%) Windows
2 52 (13.79%) Windows Server
3 33 (8.75%) Windows 10
4 20 (5.31%) Android
4 20 (5.31%) Linux
5 13 (3.45%) Apple iOS
6 12 (3.18%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.12%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (1.59%) Solaris
9 4 (1.06%) VMS
10 3 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.53%) Alpine Linux
11 2 (0.53%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.53%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (39.26%) Problem-Solving
2 86 (22.81%) DevOps
3 79 (20.95%) ITIL
4 77 (20.42%) Customer Service
5 74 (19.63%) Agile
6 58 (15.38%) Stakeholder Management
7 56 (14.85%) CI/CD
8 52 (13.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 45 (11.94%) Business Intelligence
10 44 (11.67%) Analytics
10 44 (11.67%) Infrastructure as Code
10 44 (11.67%) Migration
10 44 (11.67%) Technical Leadership
11 43 (11.41%) Computer Science
11 43 (11.41%) Project Delivery
12 41 (10.88%) AI
13 40 (10.61%) ITSM
14 38 (10.08%) Continuous Improvement
15 36 (9.55%) Data Governance
16 35 (9.28%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 98 (25.99%) PowerShell
2 44 (11.67%) SQL
3 42 (11.14%) Python
4 37 (9.81%) C#
5 33 (8.75%) JavaScript
6 24 (6.37%) Bicep
7 17 (4.51%) Bash
8 8 (2.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 8 (2.12%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.33%) X++
10 4 (1.06%) Java
11 3 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.80%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.53%) Perl
12 2 (0.53%) R
13 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 146 (38.73%) Security Cleared
2 123 (32.63%) SC Cleared
3 118 (31.30%) Degree
4 75 (19.89%) MCSE
5 72 (19.10%) Azure Certification
6 68 (18.04%) A+ Certification
7 61 (16.18%) Cisco Certification
8 53 (14.06%) CCNA
9 46 (12.20%) Network+ Certification
10 39 (10.34%) MCSA
11 29 (7.69%) DV Cleared
12 23 (6.10%) Computer Science Degree
13 22 (5.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 15 (3.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 14 (3.71%) AWS Certification
16 11 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
16 11 (2.92%) Oracle Certification
17 10 (2.65%) CISSP
17 10 (2.65%) OCP
18 9 (2.39%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 23 (6.10%) NIST
3 20 (5.31%) Accessibility
4 19 (5.04%) Data Quality
5 15 (3.98%) GDPR
5 15 (3.98%) SLA
6 14 (3.71%) QA
7 8 (2.12%) WCAG
8 6 (1.59%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (1.59%) NCSC
9 2 (0.53%) GRC
9 2 (0.53%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.53%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.53%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.53%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.27%) ITGC
System Software
1 123 (32.63%) Active Directory
2 34 (9.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.51%) Virtual Machines
3 17 (4.51%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (4.24%) Virtual Desktop
5 14 (3.71%) Docker
6 13 (3.45%) vSphere
7 7 (1.86%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.80%) BitLocker
8 3 (0.80%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.53%) Firmware
9 2 (0.53%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.53%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.27%) NDS
10 1 (0.27%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.27%) NFS
Systems Management
1 56 (14.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 44 (11.67%) Terraform
3 26 (6.90%) Ansible
4 22 (5.84%) SCCM
5 18 (4.77%) vCenter Server
6 15 (3.98%) Kubernetes
7 14 (3.71%) SCOM
8 9 (2.39%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (1.33%) Podman
11 3 (0.80%) Dell DRAC
11 3 (0.80%) Grafana
11 3 (0.80%) QRadar
11 3 (0.80%) WSUS
12 2 (0.53%) Packer
12 2 (0.53%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.53%) vMotion
13 1 (0.27%) Istio
13 1 (0.27%) PingFederate
13 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 320 (84.88%) Microsoft
2 41 (10.88%) VMware
3 33 (8.75%) Dell
4 30 (7.96%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.63%) Oracle
6 23 (6.10%) Cisco
7 11 (2.92%) Apple
8 9 (2.39%) Google
8 9 (2.39%) Remedy
9 8 (2.12%) Citrix
9 8 (2.12%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.86%) OpenAI
11 6 (1.59%) Databricks
11 6 (1.59%) Foundry
11 6 (1.59%) Red Hat
11 6 (1.59%) Splunk
12 5 (1.33%) Dynatrace
12 5 (1.33%) NetApp
12 5 (1.33%) Okta
13 4 (1.06%) Palo Alto