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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 231 290
Rank change year-on-year -61 +59 +88
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 324 270 281
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.88% 1.10% 0.74%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.58% 3.55% 2.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 161 199
10th Percentile £219 £210 £206
25th Percentile £400 £308 £282
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +11.11% -6.25%
75th Percentile £615 £630 £578
90th Percentile £711 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £513 £475 £425
% change year-on-year +7.89% +11.76% -14.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 24 41
10th Percentile - £14.99 £13.69
25th Percentile £6.00 £15.44 £14.48
Median hourly rate £16.00 £21.46 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -25.44% +31.66% +5.16%
75th Percentile £24.25 £30.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £25.47 £64.22 £30.00
UK median hourly rate £16.00 £21.46 £16.30
% change year-on-year -25.44% +31.66% +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 12,563 7,606 11,822
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.01% 31.04% 31.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,330 4,815 7,311
10th Percentile £330 £288 £300
25th Percentile £422 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 977 417 926
10th Percentile £16.25 £18.58 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.64 £25.26 £18.32
Median hourly rate £28.50 £50.00 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year -43.00% +28.70% -22.30%
75th Percentile £67.84 £68.00 £62.88
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.50 £76.39
UK median hourly rate £29.61 £42.50 £38.16
% change year-on-year -30.33% +11.39% -23.69%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 0 125 £525 +16.67% 78
South West -5 48 £565 +0.44% 39
North of England -61 48 £469 -7.21% 67
Midlands -44 41 £375 +8.70% 48
North West -44 37 £465 -7.08% 34
South East -67 35 £480 -4.00% 89
West Midlands -45 32 £425 +89.73% 25
East of England -28 21 £173 -65.50% 45
East Midlands -33 9 £215 -46.25% 23
Yorkshire -52 8 £484 -19.33% 27
North East -9 3 - - 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 44 (13.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (9.88%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.23%) Confluence
4 3 (0.93%) Exchange Server 2013
5 2 (0.62%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (5.25%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (3.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.23%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (2.47%) Dynamics CRM
1 8 (2.47%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 7 (2.16%) Maximo
3 2 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 146 (45.06%) Azure
2 104 (32.10%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (19.75%) Entra ID
4 54 (16.67%) Power Platform
5 33 (10.19%) Azure DevOps
6 32 (9.88%) Microsoft Purview
7 30 (9.26%) AWS
8 25 (7.72%) PowerApps
9 24 (7.41%) Power Automate
10 20 (6.17%) Azure Data Factory
10 20 (6.17%) Azure Monitor
10 20 (6.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 20 (6.17%) Dynamics 365
11 17 (5.25%) Microsoft Copilot
12 16 (4.94%) OneDrive
13 15 (4.63%) Azure AKS
14 14 (4.32%) Azure Sentinel
14 14 (4.32%) GitHub
15 13 (4.01%) Azure Key Vault
16 12 (3.70%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 44 (13.58%) DNS
2 38 (11.73%) Firewall
3 32 (9.88%) VPN
4 18 (5.56%) SAN
5 17 (5.25%) DHCP
6 15 (4.63%) TCP/IP
7 12 (3.70%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (3.40%) LAN
9 9 (2.78%) Network Security
10 8 (2.47%) VLAN
11 7 (2.16%) SSL
12 5 (1.54%) Skype
13 4 (1.23%) DKIM
13 4 (1.23%) DMARC
14 3 (0.93%) Kerberos
14 3 (0.93%) NetScaler
14 3 (0.93%) RS-232
14 3 (0.93%) SMTP
14 3 (0.93%) Unified Communications
14 3 (0.93%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (9.57%) SQL Server
2 24 (7.41%) Power BI
3 16 (4.94%) Data Lake
4 12 (3.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 10 (3.09%) MySQL
5 10 (3.09%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (2.78%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (2.78%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (2.16%) Metadata
8 5 (1.54%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.54%) Power Query
8 5 (1.54%) Spark SQL
9 4 (1.23%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.93%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.93%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.93%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.93%) Tableau
11 2 (0.62%) Big Data
12 1 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
12 1 (0.31%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 14 (4.32%) Git
2 6 (1.85%) JIRA
3 5 (1.54%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.23%) Bitbucket
4 4 (1.23%) GitLab
5 2 (0.62%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.62%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.62%) JDeveloper
5 2 (0.62%) Selenium
5 2 (0.62%) WebDriver
6 1 (0.31%) AdminStudio
6 1 (0.31%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.31%) MLflow
6 1 (0.31%) MSI
6 1 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.31%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 128 (39.51%) Social Skills
2 54 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (11.11%) Public Sector
4 31 (9.57%) Finance
5 16 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (4.01%) Legal
7 10 (3.09%) Banking
8 6 (1.85%) Marketing
8 6 (1.85%) Military
9 5 (1.54%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.23%) International Banking
11 3 (0.93%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.93%) Polish Language
11 3 (0.93%) Retail
12 2 (0.62%) Aeronautics
12 2 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.62%) Law
13 1 (0.31%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 51 (15.74%) Architect
2 33 (10.19%) Analyst
3 31 (9.57%) Senior
4 22 (6.79%) IT Engineer
4 22 (6.79%) Support Engineer
5 21 (6.48%) Administrator
5 21 (6.48%) Solutions Architect
6 20 (6.17%) IT Support
7 17 (5.25%) Field Engineer
7 17 (5.25%) Wintel Engineer
8 16 (4.94%) Azure Engineer
8 16 (4.94%) Field Service Engineer
8 16 (4.94%) Lead
8 16 (4.94%) Support Analyst
9 15 (4.63%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 14 (4.32%) DBA
10 14 (4.32%) Security Engineer
11 13 (4.01%) Cloud Engineer
11 13 (4.01%) Technical Analyst
11 13 (4.01%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (8.95%) OAuth
2 26 (8.02%) SAML
3 25 (7.72%) OpenID
4 17 (5.25%) OAuth2
5 12 (3.70%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.40%) .NET
7 10 (3.09%) LDAP
7 10 (3.09%) Microsoft Graph
7 10 (3.09%) REST
8 4 (1.23%) JSON
9 3 (0.93%) YAML
10 2 (0.62%) A2A Protocol
10 2 (0.62%) ASP.NET Web API
10 2 (0.62%) CSS
10 2 (0.62%) Jest
10 2 (0.62%) Model Context Protocol
10 2 (0.62%) Next.js
10 2 (0.62%) React
10 2 (0.62%) RESTful
10 2 (0.62%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.17%) Enterprise Software
1 20 (6.17%) Replication
2 18 (5.56%) Analytical Mindset
3 17 (5.25%) Data Centre
4 16 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
5 14 (4.32%) BYOD
5 14 (4.32%) PKI
6 13 (4.01%) Onboarding
6 13 (4.01%) Security Posture
7 11 (3.40%) Clustering
8 10 (3.09%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.78%) Private Cloud
10 8 (2.47%) Cloud Native
11 5 (1.54%) Cloud Security Posture
11 5 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
11 5 (1.54%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.54%) NHS
11 5 (1.54%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
12 3 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 123 (37.96%) Windows
2 62 (19.14%) Windows Server
3 31 (9.57%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.48%) Linux
5 13 (4.01%) Windows Server 2012
6 12 (3.70%) Windows Server 2003
7 7 (2.16%) Windows 7
7 7 (2.16%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (1.85%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.85%) Unix
9 4 (1.23%) VMS
10 3 (0.93%) Android
10 3 (0.93%) CentOS
11 2 (0.62%) AIX
11 2 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.31%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (27.47%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (20.37%) ITIL
3 53 (16.36%) Migration
4 48 (14.81%) DevOps
5 45 (13.89%) CI/CD
6 44 (13.58%) Customer Service
6 44 (13.58%) RBAC
7 42 (12.96%) Identity Access Management
8 40 (12.35%) Analytics
9 36 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
10 33 (10.19%) Cloud Security
10 33 (10.19%) Identity Management
11 32 (9.88%) Agile
12 31 (9.57%) Roadmaps
13 29 (8.95%) Computer Science
13 29 (8.95%) Continuous Improvement
14 28 (8.64%) Data Governance
14 28 (8.64%) Data Loss Prevention
14 28 (8.64%) High Availability
15 27 (8.33%) AI
Programming Languages
1 104 (32.10%) PowerShell
2 41 (12.65%) SQL
3 30 (9.26%) Python
4 17 (5.25%) Bicep
5 9 (2.78%) C#
6 7 (2.16%) Bash
7 6 (1.85%) T-SQL
8 5 (1.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.23%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.23%) R
9 4 (1.23%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.31%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 107 (33.02%) Security Cleared
2 86 (26.54%) Degree
3 79 (24.38%) SC Cleared
4 76 (23.46%) MCSE
5 64 (19.75%) Azure Certification
6 32 (9.88%) MCSA
7 31 (9.57%) DV Cleared
8 30 (9.26%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (8.95%) CISSP
10 25 (7.72%) A+ Certification
11 24 (7.41%) Network+ Certification
12 23 (7.10%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 22 (6.79%) CCNA
13 22 (6.79%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (4.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 12 (3.70%) AWS Certification
15 12 (3.70%) CISM
15 12 (3.70%) CompTIA Security+
16 10 (3.09%) CCNP
17 9 (2.78%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (5.25%) NIST
3 16 (4.94%) GDPR
4 8 (2.47%) NIST 800
5 7 (2.16%) NCSC
6 6 (1.85%) SLA
7 5 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.54%) Data Quality
8 4 (1.23%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.23%) QA
9 2 (0.62%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.62%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.62%) WCAG
10 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.31%) GxP
10 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.31%) PMO
10 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 144 (44.44%) Active Directory
2 28 (8.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.70%) Docker
3 12 (3.70%) vSphere
4 9 (2.78%) Hyper-V
4 9 (2.78%) Virtual Machines
4 9 (2.78%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (2.47%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.93%) Firmware
7 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 40 (12.35%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (10.49%) Terraform
3 30 (9.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 25 (7.72%) SCCM
5 21 (6.48%) Kubernetes
6 19 (5.86%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (5.56%) Ansible
8 9 (2.78%) vCenter Server
9 6 (1.85%) CASB
10 5 (1.54%) Nessus
10 5 (1.54%) SCOM
10 5 (1.54%) WSUS
11 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
11 2 (0.62%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
12 1 (0.31%) PaperCut
12 1 (0.31%) QRadar
12 1 (0.31%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 286 (88.27%) Microsoft
2 40 (12.35%) VMware
3 20 (6.17%) Cisco
3 20 (6.17%) Dell
3 20 (6.17%) Oracle
4 16 (4.94%) ServiceNow
5 11 (3.40%) Citrix
6 10 (3.09%) Databricks
6 10 (3.09%) Red Hat
7 9 (2.78%) Tenable
8 8 (2.47%) IBM
8 8 (2.47%) Veeam
9 6 (1.85%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.85%) SolarWinds
10 5 (1.54%) Remedy
10 5 (1.54%) Splunk
11 4 (1.23%) Apple
11 4 (1.23%) CheckPoint
11 4 (1.23%) Foundry
11 4 (1.23%) Palo Alto