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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 225 257
Rank change year-on-year -85 +32 +105
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 303 268 319
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.74% 1.11% 0.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.32% 3.53% 2.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 151 209
10th Percentile £161 £200 £197
25th Percentile £350 £251 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.16% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £630 £575
90th Percentile £688 £700 £675
UK median daily rate £468 £475 £480
% change year-on-year -1.47% -1.04% -4.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 30 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 £19.99 £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 13,060 7,600 11,282
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.06% 31.41% 30.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,773 4,834 6,961
10th Percentile £348 £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 £521 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -0.86% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 951 434 979
10th Percentile £17.05 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £18.00
Median hourly rate £48.72 £40.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +21.80% - -23.81%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.50 £81.81 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £49.36 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +31.63% -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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -38 111 £525 +5.00% 82
North of England -59 65 £469 -1.22% 66
North West -40 48 £469 -4.73% 33
South East -55 39 £238 -54.76% 59
South West -22 34 £450 -17.24% 24
Midlands -58 30 £425 +72.94% 29
West Midlands -58 24 £425 +72.94% 14
East of England -43 22 £190 -5.00% 37
Yorkshire -46 14 £484 +21.00% 21
East Midlands -23 6 £363 - 15
North East -19 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 34 (11.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (8.91%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.99%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 19 (6.27%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.64%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 5 (1.65%) Maximo
3 4 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.66%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.33%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 136 (44.88%) Azure
2 84 (27.72%) Microsoft 365
3 58 (19.14%) Entra ID
4 49 (16.17%) Power Platform
5 29 (9.57%) Microsoft Purview
6 27 (8.91%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (8.58%) Power Automate
7 26 (8.58%) PowerApps
8 22 (7.26%) Azure Data Factory
9 21 (6.93%) AWS
9 21 (6.93%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 19 (6.27%) GitHub
11 16 (5.28%) Dynamics 365
12 15 (4.95%) OneDrive
13 13 (4.29%) Azure Monitor
14 11 (3.63%) Azure Sentinel
14 11 (3.63%) Microsoft Copilot
15 10 (3.30%) Azure AKS
15 10 (3.30%) Azure Logic Apps
16 9 (2.97%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 42 (13.86%) SAN
2 28 (9.24%) Firewall
3 25 (8.25%) DNS
4 24 (7.92%) VPN
5 12 (3.96%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.30%) LAN
7 7 (2.31%) DHCP
7 7 (2.31%) Network Security
7 7 (2.31%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (1.98%) Kerberos
9 5 (1.65%) SSL
9 5 (1.65%) VLAN
10 4 (1.32%) DMZ
10 4 (1.32%) NAS
10 4 (1.32%) NGFW
11 3 (0.99%) SMTP
11 3 (0.99%) VoIP
12 2 (0.66%) Internet
12 2 (0.66%) PSTN
12 2 (0.66%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.24%) SQL Server
2 26 (8.58%) Power BI
3 14 (4.62%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 9 (2.97%) Azure SQL Database
5 9 (2.97%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.97%) Metadata
6 7 (2.31%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (1.98%) MySQL
7 6 (1.98%) Spark SQL
8 5 (1.65%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.65%) Power Query
9 4 (1.32%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.99%) Big Data
10 3 (0.99%) 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%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 10 (3.30%) Git
2 4 (1.32%) GitLab
3 3 (0.99%) 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 (32.01%) Social Skills
2 67 (22.11%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (11.88%) Finance
4 32 (10.56%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.28%) Telecoms
6 13 (4.29%) Legal
7 9 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.64%) Banking
9 4 (1.32%) Front Office
9 4 (1.32%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.32%) Marketing
10 3 (0.99%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.99%) International Banking
10 3 (0.99%) Law
10 3 (0.99%) Military
10 3 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.66%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 44 (14.52%) Architect
2 42 (13.86%) IT Engineer
3 37 (12.21%) Field Engineer
3 37 (12.21%) Field Service Engineer
4 30 (9.90%) Analyst
5 29 (9.57%) IT Support
5 29 (9.57%) Senior
6 20 (6.60%) Support Engineer
7 18 (5.94%) IT Support Engineer
8 17 (5.61%) Wintel Engineer
9 16 (5.28%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 16 (5.28%) Support Analyst
10 15 (4.95%) IT Analyst
11 14 (4.62%) Administrator
11 14 (4.62%) Solutions Architect
12 13 (4.29%) Field Support Engineer
13 12 (3.96%) Cloud Engineer
13 12 (3.96%) Developer
14 11 (3.63%) DBA
14 11 (3.63%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.28%) OAuth
2 14 (4.62%) OpenID
2 14 (4.62%) SAML
3 12 (3.96%) LDAP
4 10 (3.30%) .NET
4 10 (3.30%) OAuth2
5 8 (2.64%) ARM Templates
6 6 (1.98%) Microsoft Graph
7 5 (1.65%) ONVIF
8 4 (1.32%) REST
8 4 (1.32%) SailPoint
8 4 (1.32%) Web Services
9 3 (0.99%) React
10 2 (0.66%) CSS
10 2 (0.66%) Jest
10 2 (0.66%) OpenGL
10 2 (0.66%) PySpark
10 2 (0.66%) Qt
10 2 (0.66%) RESTful
10 2 (0.66%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.20%) Analytical Mindset
1 40 (13.20%) Data Centre
2 25 (8.25%) Onboarding
3 18 (5.94%) Replication
4 16 (5.28%) Clustering
4 16 (5.28%) Enterprise Software
5 10 (3.30%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (2.97%) BYOD
7 8 (2.64%) Security Posture
8 7 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.98%) Cloud Native
9 6 (1.98%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.65%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.65%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.65%) Mobile App
10 5 (1.65%) Video\Live Streaming
11 4 (1.32%) Operational Technology
11 4 (1.32%) PKI
11 4 (1.32%) Product Ownership
11 4 (1.32%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 96 (31.68%) Windows
2 44 (14.52%) Windows Server
3 28 (9.24%) Windows 10
4 18 (5.94%) Linux
5 9 (2.97%) Android
5 9 (2.97%) Windows Server 2003
6 7 (2.31%) Apple iOS
6 7 (2.31%) Windows 7
7 6 (1.98%) Mac OS
7 6 (1.98%) Unix
7 6 (1.98%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (1.65%) VMS
9 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.66%) AIX
11 1 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (35.64%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (19.47%) Customer Service
3 55 (18.15%) ITIL
4 50 (16.50%) DevOps
5 49 (16.17%) Migration
6 47 (15.51%) Analytics
7 42 (13.86%) CI/CD
8 37 (12.21%) Break/Fix
9 35 (11.55%) Agile
10 31 (10.23%) Disaster Recovery
10 31 (10.23%) High Availability
11 30 (9.90%) Infrastructure as Code
11 30 (9.90%) Project Delivery
12 28 (9.24%) Data Governance
12 28 (9.24%) Identity Access Management
13 27 (8.91%) RBAC
13 27 (8.91%) Roadmaps
14 26 (8.58%) Business Intelligence
14 26 (8.58%) Computer Science
15 23 (7.59%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 85 (28.05%) PowerShell
2 36 (11.88%) SQL
3 27 (8.91%) Python
4 16 (5.28%) Bicep
5 10 (3.30%) Bash
6 8 (2.64%) C#
7 7 (2.31%) T-SQL
8 5 (1.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.32%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.32%) 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 91 (30.03%) MCSE
2 88 (29.04%) Security Cleared
3 74 (24.42%) Degree
4 72 (23.76%) SC Cleared
5 59 (19.47%) Cisco Certification
6 53 (17.49%) Azure Certification
7 51 (16.83%) A+ Certification
8 49 (16.17%) CCNA
9 48 (15.84%) Network+ Certification
10 38 (12.54%) MCSA
11 23 (7.59%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (7.26%) DV Cleared
13 21 (6.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 17 (5.61%) CISSP
15 14 (4.62%) VCAP
16 10 (3.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 9 (2.97%) CCNP
18 7 (2.31%) AWS Certification
18 7 (2.31%) CISM
18 7 (2.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (6.27%) NIST
2 18 (5.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.30%) SLA
4 9 (2.97%) GDPR
5 8 (2.64%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.64%) NIST 800
6 6 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (1.98%) NCSC
7 4 (1.32%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.32%) QA
8 3 (0.99%) 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 (33.00%) Active Directory
2 29 (9.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (6.27%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (5.61%) Virtual Desktop
5 15 (4.95%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (4.95%) vSphere
6 11 (3.63%) Docker
7 8 (2.64%) 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 34 (11.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (10.56%) Terraform
3 29 (9.57%) Ansible
4 18 (5.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 18 (5.94%) vCenter Server
5 15 (4.95%) Kubernetes
5 15 (4.95%) SCCM
6 6 (1.98%) CASB
6 6 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.65%) Nessus
8 3 (0.99%) Podman
8 3 (0.99%) QRadar
8 3 (0.99%) SCOM
8 3 (0.99%) WSUS
9 2 (0.66%) Packer
10 1 (0.33%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.33%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.33%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 239 (78.88%) Microsoft
2 39 (12.87%) VMware
3 38 (12.54%) Dell
4 27 (8.91%) Cisco
5 12 (3.96%) Apple
5 12 (3.96%) Oracle
6 11 (3.63%) Citrix
6 11 (3.63%) Databricks
6 11 (3.63%) ServiceNow
7 7 (2.31%) CyberArk
8 6 (1.98%) Palo Alto
8 6 (1.98%) Remedy
8 6 (1.98%) Tenable
9 5 (1.65%) IBM
9 5 (1.65%) Red Hat
9 5 (1.65%) Splunk
10 4 (1.32%) Bloomberg
10 4 (1.32%) HP
10 4 (1.32%) NetApp
10 4 (1.32%) Reuters