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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 228 312
Rank change year-on-year -24 +84 +63
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 328 307 244
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.03% 1.09% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.03% 3.58% 2.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 178 168
10th Percentile £219 £207 £208
25th Percentile £341 £325 £272
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £600
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £480 £450
% change year-on-year +4.17% +6.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 26 17
10th Percentile £6.00 £11.75 £15.33
25th Percentile £13.50 £15.87 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.63 £21.46 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% +16.00% +19.35%
75th Percentile £39.85 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £89.63 £92.88 £39.66
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £21.46 £18.50
% change year-on-year -10.39% +16.00% +19.35%

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 10,840 8,578 11,150
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.19% 30.52% 30.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,125 5,270 7,034
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £419 £420 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £730 £737
UK median daily rate £521 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 893 415 688
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.51 £16.51
25th Percentile £19.00 £24.50 £26.18
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £52.35
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -11.79% +16.34%
75th Percentile £57.50 £68.00 £67.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £79.42 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -37.13% -23.81% +16.67%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -10 115 £525 +25.75% 84
South West +18 60 £550 -8.33% 23
South East -29 47 £459 -8.30% 94
Midlands -21 44 £275 -35.29% 76
North of England -58 35 £458 -8.40% 89
West Midlands -20 33 £310 -38.00% 45
North West -37 26 £458 -8.40% 44
East of England -15 24 £528 +181.33% 42
East Midlands -13 11 £215 -46.25% 31
Yorkshire -44 9 £396 - 34
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 39 (11.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (8.84%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.83%) Skype for Business
4 4 (1.22%) Confluence
5 3 (0.91%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 17 (5.18%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (3.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.22%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (3.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.83%) Maximo
3 5 (1.52%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.30%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 147 (44.82%) Azure
2 104 (31.71%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (16.77%) Power Platform
4 51 (15.55%) Entra ID
5 40 (12.20%) AWS
6 34 (10.37%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (9.45%) Power Automate
8 28 (8.54%) Dynamics 365
9 27 (8.23%) PowerApps
10 21 (6.40%) Microsoft Purview
11 17 (5.18%) Azure Data Factory
11 17 (5.18%) Azure Monitor
11 17 (5.18%) GitHub
12 14 (4.27%) Azure Logic Apps
13 13 (3.96%) Azure Sentinel
14 12 (3.66%) Azure AKS
14 12 (3.66%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 11 (3.35%) SaaS
16 10 (3.05%) Azure Key Vault
17 9 (2.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 61 (18.60%) DNS
2 42 (12.80%) Firewall
3 38 (11.59%) DHCP
4 32 (9.76%) TCP/IP
5 28 (8.54%) VPN
6 15 (4.57%) VLAN
7 10 (3.05%) LAN
8 9 (2.74%) Skype
8 9 (2.74%) SSL
9 8 (2.44%) Network Security
10 7 (2.13%) SAN
10 7 (2.13%) Unified Communications
10 7 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (1.83%) Fibre Channel
11 6 (1.83%) iSCSI
12 5 (1.52%) Kerberos
12 5 (1.52%) Wireless
13 4 (1.22%) DKIM
13 4 (1.22%) DMARC
14 3 (0.91%) S/MIME
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.93%) Power BI
2 22 (6.71%) SQL Server
3 14 (4.27%) Data Lake
4 9 (2.74%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (2.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 8 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (2.13%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.83%) Metadata
8 5 (1.52%) MySQL
8 5 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (1.22%) Metadata Repository
10 3 (0.91%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.91%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.91%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.91%) Power Query
10 3 (0.91%) Spark SQL
11 2 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.61%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.61%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 14 (4.27%) Git
2 12 (3.66%) JIRA
3 7 (2.13%) MSI
4 5 (1.52%) GitLab
4 5 (1.52%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.91%) AdminStudio
5 3 (0.91%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.91%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.61%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.61%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.61%) JDeveloper
General
1 139 (42.38%) Social Skills
2 60 (18.29%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (12.50%) Public Sector
4 39 (11.89%) Finance
5 19 (5.79%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (4.27%) Banking
7 9 (2.74%) Legal
8 7 (2.13%) Marketing
8 7 (2.13%) Military
9 5 (1.52%) Aerospace
9 5 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.22%) International Banking
10 4 (1.22%) Retail
11 3 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.91%) Polish Language
11 3 (0.91%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.61%) Advertising
12 2 (0.61%) Aeronautics
12 2 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.61%) Law
Job Titles
1 53 (16.16%) Architect
2 35 (10.67%) Analyst
3 30 (9.15%) Senior
4 26 (7.93%) Support Engineer
5 23 (7.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 19 (5.79%) Support Analyst
7 18 (5.49%) Solutions Architect
8 17 (5.18%) Administrator
8 17 (5.18%) Consultant
8 17 (5.18%) Lead
8 17 (5.18%) Wintel Engineer
9 16 (4.88%) Developer
10 14 (4.27%) Azure Engineer
11 13 (3.96%) Field Engineer
11 13 (3.96%) Technical Support
12 12 (3.66%) IT Analyst
13 11 (3.35%) Infrastructure Support
13 11 (3.35%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
13 11 (3.35%) IT Support
13 11 (3.35%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.15%) OAuth
2 25 (7.62%) OpenID
2 25 (7.62%) SAML
3 16 (4.88%) .NET
4 15 (4.57%) OAuth2
5 14 (4.27%) Microsoft Graph
6 13 (3.96%) ARM Templates
7 10 (3.05%) LDAP
8 9 (2.74%) REST
9 8 (2.44%) JSON
10 7 (2.13%) RESTful
11 4 (1.22%) PySpark
12 3 (0.91%) ASP.NET Web API
12 3 (0.91%) HTML
12 3 (0.91%) React
13 2 (0.61%) CSS
13 2 (0.61%) HTML5 Canvas
13 2 (0.61%) Jest
13 2 (0.61%) SailPoint
13 2 (0.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (6.71%) PKI
2 19 (5.79%) Analytical Mindset
3 16 (4.88%) Replication
4 15 (4.57%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (4.27%) Hybrid Cloud
5 14 (4.27%) Onboarding
6 13 (3.96%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.96%) Security Posture
7 10 (3.05%) BYOD
7 10 (3.05%) Driving Licence
7 10 (3.05%) NHS
8 9 (2.74%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.83%) Clustering
9 6 (1.83%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.83%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.52%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.52%) Security Operations Centre
10 5 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.52%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 4 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 155 (47.26%) Windows
2 69 (21.04%) Windows Server
3 35 (10.67%) Windows 10
4 28 (8.54%) Linux
5 17 (5.18%) Mac OS
6 11 (3.35%) Windows Server 2012
7 8 (2.44%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.52%) Android
8 5 (1.52%) Windows Server 2003
9 4 (1.22%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.22%) Unix
10 3 (0.91%) CentOS
11 2 (0.61%) VMS
11 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (28.96%) ITIL
2 94 (28.66%) Problem-Solving
3 53 (16.16%) DevOps
4 45 (13.72%) Agile
4 45 (13.72%) CI/CD
5 43 (13.11%) Migration
6 42 (12.80%) Customer Service
7 38 (11.59%) Service Management
8 36 (10.98%) Identity Access Management
8 36 (10.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 34 (10.37%) Computer Science
9 34 (10.37%) Disaster Recovery
10 33 (10.06%) Analytics
10 33 (10.06%) RBAC
11 32 (9.76%) Cloud Security
11 32 (9.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 29 (8.84%) Identity Management
13 28 (8.54%) Business Intelligence
14 25 (7.62%) Change Management
15 24 (7.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 95 (28.96%) PowerShell
2 43 (13.11%) SQL
3 26 (7.93%) Python
4 15 (4.57%) Bicep
5 13 (3.96%) JavaScript
6 12 (3.66%) C#
7 7 (2.13%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.83%) VBScript
9 5 (1.52%) T-SQL
10 4 (1.22%) Bash
11 3 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.61%) R
13 1 (0.30%) Java
13 1 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.30%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 119 (36.28%) Security Cleared
2 91 (27.74%) Degree
3 82 (25.00%) SC Cleared
4 73 (22.26%) Azure Certification
5 69 (21.04%) MCSE
6 33 (10.06%) DV Cleared
7 32 (9.76%) MCSA
8 28 (8.54%) A+ Certification
9 27 (8.23%) MCP
10 25 (7.62%) Cisco Certification
10 25 (7.62%) CISSP
11 20 (6.10%) Computer Science Degree
11 20 (6.10%) Network+ Certification
12 17 (5.18%) CCNA
13 15 (4.57%) AWS Certification
14 13 (3.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 11 (3.35%) CISM
15 11 (3.35%) HND
15 11 (3.35%) ITIL Certification
15 11 (3.35%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (8.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (6.40%) GDPR
3 16 (4.88%) NIST
4 6 (1.83%) NIST 800
4 6 (1.83%) SLA
5 5 (1.52%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.22%) Data Quality
6 4 (1.22%) NCSC
6 4 (1.22%) SOC 2
7 3 (0.91%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.61%) ISO 22301
8 2 (0.61%) QA
8 2 (0.61%) WCAG
9 1 (0.30%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.30%) PMO
System Software
1 145 (44.21%) Active Directory
2 42 (12.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (5.18%) Hyper-V
3 17 (5.18%) vSphere
4 14 (4.27%) Docker
5 13 (3.96%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (1.83%) NFS
6 6 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.52%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.52%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (1.22%) Microsoft App-V
8 4 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.61%) Firmware
9 2 (0.61%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.30%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.30%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 39 (11.89%) SCCM
2 34 (10.37%) Microsoft Intune
3 27 (8.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 27 (8.23%) Terraform
4 22 (6.71%) Kubernetes
5 20 (6.10%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (3.96%) Ansible
7 9 (2.74%) WSUS
8 8 (2.44%) SCOM
9 7 (2.13%) vCenter Server
10 4 (1.22%) CASB
10 4 (1.22%) Nessus
11 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
11 2 (0.61%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.30%) CSIRT
12 1 (0.30%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
12 1 (0.30%) QRadar
Vendors
1 307 (93.60%) Microsoft
2 54 (16.46%) VMware
3 24 (7.32%) Cisco
4 19 (5.79%) ServiceNow
5 18 (5.49%) Veeam
6 17 (5.18%) Oracle
6 17 (5.18%) Splunk
7 14 (4.27%) Citrix
8 12 (3.66%) Dell
9 10 (3.05%) Databricks
10 9 (2.74%) Red Hat
10 9 (2.74%) SolarWinds
11 8 (2.44%) Tenable
12 7 (2.13%) CheckPoint
12 7 (2.13%) IBM
13 6 (1.83%) NetApp
13 6 (1.83%) Palo Alto
14 5 (1.52%) CyberArk
14 5 (1.52%) iManage
14 5 (1.52%) Mitel
359 Microsoft Certification jobs in England