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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 238 257
Rank change year-on-year -66 +19 +85
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 368 296 312
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.81% 1.07% 0.92%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.55% 3.44% 3.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 171 189
10th Percentile £156 £200 £200
25th Percentile £306 £313 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £560 £625 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £650
UK median daily rate £450 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -8.54% -1.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 31 52
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £13.69
25th Percentile £28.94 £15.65 £14.16
Median hourly rate £55.00 £17.44 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +215.37% +6.99% -6.86%
75th Percentile £77.50 £33.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £178.75 £83.00 -
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £17.72 £16.03
% change year-on-year +210.38% +10.54% -8.40%

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 14,437 8,595 10,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.72% 31.14% 30.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,718 5,421 6,548
10th Percentile £350 £289 £325
25th Percentile £431 £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 1,109 642 789
10th Percentile £18.24 £18.13 £14.48
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £21.37
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +114.71% -44.11% -18.18%
75th Percentile £75.00 £58.71 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.71 £78.15
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +102.78% -41.51% -22.22%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -45 130 £518 +3.50% 92
North of England -56 69 £491 +15.51% 65
South East -49 63 £275 -54.17% 69
North West -44 54 £485 +14.12% 32
Midlands -32 39 £425 -13.62% 32
West Midlands -42 35 £425 +58.88% 17
South West -34 31 £425 -19.62% 27
East of England -26 29 £160 -57.33% 27
Yorkshire -31 13 £650 +57.58% 21
East Midlands -15 4 £431 -13.05% 15
North East -40 2 £363 +81.25% 14
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 42 (11.41%) SharePoint
2 29 (7.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.54%) Confluence
4 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2010
4 1 (0.27%) HCL Notes
4 1 (0.27%) Liferay
4 1 (0.27%) Mendix
Applications
1 13 (3.53%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (3.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.63%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (1.36%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.54%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.27%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.27%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 200 (54.35%) Azure
2 105 (28.53%) Microsoft 365
3 90 (24.46%) Entra ID
4 72 (19.57%) Power Platform
5 52 (14.13%) Azure DevOps
6 50 (13.59%) Power Automate
7 42 (11.41%) Dynamics 365
8 38 (10.33%) PowerApps
9 31 (8.42%) Microsoft Purview
10 30 (8.15%) AWS
11 25 (6.79%) GitHub
11 25 (6.79%) OneDrive
12 21 (5.71%) Microsoft Copilot
13 18 (4.89%) Azure Logic Apps
13 18 (4.89%) Serverless
14 16 (4.35%) Azure Functions
14 16 (4.35%) Azure Monitor
15 15 (4.08%) SaaS
16 13 (3.53%) PaaS
17 11 (2.99%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (11.41%) DNS
2 35 (9.51%) SAN
3 30 (8.15%) Firewall
4 28 (7.61%) VPN
5 27 (7.34%) TCP/IP
6 21 (5.71%) DHCP
7 13 (3.53%) LAN
8 10 (2.72%) SSL
9 8 (2.17%) WAN
9 8 (2.17%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (2.17%) Wireless
10 6 (1.63%) Network Security
11 5 (1.36%) NGFW
11 5 (1.36%) VLAN
12 4 (1.09%) Internet
12 4 (1.09%) Kerberos
13 3 (0.82%) DMZ
13 3 (0.82%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.82%) NAS
13 3 (0.82%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (11.14%) SQL Server
2 38 (10.33%) Power BI
3 24 (6.52%) MySQL
4 19 (5.16%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.63%) Power Query
7 5 (1.36%) Metadata
8 4 (1.09%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.09%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (1.09%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.82%) Big Data
10 2 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.54%) Data Mart
10 2 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
10 2 (0.54%) QlikView
10 2 (0.54%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.54%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.54%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 9 (2.45%) Git
2 8 (2.17%) Selenium
2 8 (2.17%) WebDriver
3 6 (1.63%) Cucumber
3 6 (1.63%) Cypress.io
3 6 (1.63%) JIRA
3 6 (1.63%) Postman
4 4 (1.09%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (0.54%) GitLab
5 2 (0.54%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.27%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 155 (42.12%) Social Skills
2 89 (24.18%) Analytical Skills
3 61 (16.58%) Public Sector
4 52 (14.13%) Finance
5 22 (5.98%) Telecoms
6 21 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 13 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (2.72%) Legal
9 8 (2.17%) Aerospace
10 6 (1.63%) Banking
10 6 (1.63%) Military
10 6 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.82%) Front Office
12 3 (0.82%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.82%) Law
12 3 (0.82%) Local Government
12 3 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.54%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 47 (12.77%) Analyst
2 44 (11.96%) IT Engineer
3 40 (10.87%) Architect
4 38 (10.33%) Senior
5 36 (9.78%) IT Support
6 30 (8.15%) Field Engineer
6 30 (8.15%) Field Service Engineer
7 29 (7.88%) DBA
8 27 (7.34%) Lead
9 26 (7.07%) Developer
9 26 (7.07%) Support Engineer
10 25 (6.79%) Administrator
11 23 (6.25%) IT Support Engineer
12 18 (4.89%) Dynamics 365 Developer
12 18 (4.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 18 (4.89%) Support Analyst
13 17 (4.62%) IT Analyst
14 15 (4.08%) SQL DBA
15 14 (3.80%) Technical Support
16 13 (3.53%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.08%) .NET
1 15 (4.08%) LDAP
1 15 (4.08%) OAuth
2 14 (3.80%) OpenID
3 13 (3.53%) ONVIF
3 13 (3.53%) SAML
4 11 (2.99%) JSON
4 11 (2.99%) OAuth2
5 9 (2.45%) SailPoint
5 9 (2.45%) Web Services
6 8 (2.17%) Microsoft Graph
6 8 (2.17%) REST
7 7 (1.90%) Middleware
8 6 (1.63%) Gherkin
9 5 (1.36%) ARM Templates
10 3 (0.82%) Azure Blueprints
10 3 (0.82%) HTML5 Canvas
10 3 (0.82%) PySpark
10 3 (0.82%) YAML
11 2 (0.54%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 36 (9.78%) Data Centre
2 34 (9.24%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (7.88%) Onboarding
4 28 (7.61%) Management Information System
5 19 (5.16%) Replication
5 19 (5.16%) Security Posture
6 16 (4.35%) Cloud Native
7 15 (4.08%) Clustering
8 13 (3.53%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (3.53%) Video\Live Streaming
9 12 (3.26%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (3.26%) Product Ownership
10 11 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (2.17%) Data Structures
11 8 (2.17%) PKI
12 7 (1.90%) AI Agents
13 6 (1.63%) Enterprise Cloud
13 6 (1.63%) Mobile App
14 5 (1.36%) BYOD
14 5 (1.36%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 109 (29.62%) Windows
2 48 (13.04%) Windows Server
3 31 (8.42%) Windows 10
4 25 (6.79%) Linux
5 17 (4.62%) Android
6 12 (3.26%) Mac OS
7 11 (2.99%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.90%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (1.63%) Unix
9 6 (1.63%) VMS
10 5 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (1.09%) Solaris
11 4 (1.09%) Windows 7
11 4 (1.09%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (1.09%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.54%) Alpine Linux
13 2 (0.54%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.54%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.27%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (38.04%) Problem-Solving
2 81 (22.01%) DevOps
3 77 (20.92%) ITIL
4 75 (20.38%) Customer Service
5 67 (18.21%) Agile
6 52 (14.13%) CI/CD
7 51 (13.86%) Stakeholder Management
8 46 (12.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 45 (12.23%) Migration
10 42 (11.41%) Infrastructure as Code
11 40 (10.87%) Computer Science
11 40 (10.87%) Project Delivery
12 39 (10.60%) AI
13 38 (10.33%) Analytics
13 38 (10.33%) Business Intelligence
14 36 (9.78%) Continuous Improvement
14 36 (9.78%) ITSM
15 35 (9.51%) Technical Leadership
16 34 (9.24%) Data Governance
17 30 (8.15%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 97 (26.36%) PowerShell
2 41 (11.14%) SQL
3 40 (10.87%) Python
4 33 (8.97%) C#
5 29 (7.88%) JavaScript
6 21 (5.71%) Bicep
7 16 (4.35%) Bash
8 8 (2.17%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (1.36%) X++
11 3 (0.82%) Java
12 2 (0.54%) Perl
12 2 (0.54%) R
12 2 (0.54%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 135 (36.68%) Security Cleared
2 113 (30.71%) SC Cleared
3 111 (30.16%) Degree
4 81 (22.01%) MCSE
5 66 (17.93%) A+ Certification
6 64 (17.39%) Azure Certification
6 64 (17.39%) Cisco Certification
7 56 (15.22%) CCNA
8 44 (11.96%) Network+ Certification
9 42 (11.41%) MCSA
10 28 (7.61%) DV Cleared
11 22 (5.98%) Computer Science Degree
12 21 (5.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 14 (3.80%) AWS Certification
14 13 (3.53%) CISSP
14 13 (3.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 12 (3.26%) Oracle Certification
16 11 (2.99%) OCP
17 10 (2.72%) BPSS Clearance
18 9 (2.45%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.52%) NIST
2 23 (6.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (4.89%) Accessibility
3 18 (4.89%) Data Quality
4 15 (4.08%) GDPR
4 15 (4.08%) SLA
5 14 (3.80%) QA
6 8 (2.17%) WCAG
7 6 (1.63%) NCSC
8 5 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.82%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.54%) GRC
10 2 (0.54%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.54%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.54%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.27%) GxP
11 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.27%) ITGC
System Software
1 118 (32.07%) Active Directory
2 33 (8.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.62%) Virtual Desktop
3 17 (4.62%) Virtual Machines
3 17 (4.62%) VMware ESXi
4 13 (3.53%) Docker
4 13 (3.53%) vSphere
5 7 (1.90%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.82%) Firmware
6 3 (0.82%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.54%) BitLocker
7 2 (0.54%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.54%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.27%) NDS
8 1 (0.27%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.27%) NFS
Systems Management
1 49 (13.32%) Microsoft Intune
2 44 (11.96%) Terraform
3 27 (7.34%) Ansible
4 20 (5.43%) SCCM
5 17 (4.62%) vCenter Server
6 15 (4.08%) Kubernetes
7 14 (3.80%) SCOM
8 8 (2.17%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.63%) CASB
10 5 (1.36%) Nessus
10 5 (1.36%) Podman
11 4 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.82%) Grafana
12 3 (0.82%) QRadar
12 3 (0.82%) WSUS
13 2 (0.54%) Dell DRAC
13 2 (0.54%) Packer
13 2 (0.54%) vMotion
14 1 (0.27%) FreeIPA
14 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 304 (82.61%) Microsoft
2 41 (11.14%) VMware
3 33 (8.97%) Dell
4 29 (7.88%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.79%) Cisco
5 25 (6.79%) Oracle
6 13 (3.53%) Remedy
7 11 (2.99%) Apple
8 10 (2.72%) Citrix
8 10 (2.72%) Splunk
9 9 (2.45%) SolarWinds
10 8 (2.17%) Google
11 7 (1.90%) Tenable
12 6 (1.63%) CyberArk
12 6 (1.63%) Foundry
12 6 (1.63%) OpenAI
13 5 (1.36%) Databricks
13 5 (1.36%) Dynatrace
13 5 (1.36%) NetApp
13 5 (1.36%) Okta
281 Microsoft Certification jobs in England