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 17 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 249 253 317
Rank change year-on-year +4 +64 +65
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 297 304 274
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.05% 0.95% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.28% 3.19% 2.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 176 194
10th Percentile £194 £213 £208
25th Percentile £275 £345 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £506
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -6.17% +12.50%
75th Percentile £588 £560 £584
90th Percentile £650 £638 £726
UK median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 18 12
10th Percentile £14.99 £11.75 £15.42
25th Percentile £16.00 £12.54 £16.25
Median hourly rate £21.25 £16.30 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.37% -11.89% +19.35%
75th Percentile £33.75 £35.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £88.30 £112.00 £35.57
UK median hourly rate £19.23 £15.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year +28.20% -21.05% +22.58%

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 9,055 9,516 11,886
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.07% 29.78% 29.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,776 5,780 7,687
10th Percentile £300 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £526 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.19% -4.36% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 757 491 698
10th Percentile £17.87 £19.83 £16.90
25th Percentile £18.87 £30.33 £24.81
Median hourly rate £25.15 £52.50 £53.58
Median % change year-on-year -52.10% -2.02% +19.07%
75th Percentile £43.00 £70.00 £69.91
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.40 £79.37
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £47.84 £53.67
% change year-on-year -47.43% -10.85% +19.26%

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025. 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 -27 98 £500 +8.11% 211
South East +22 58 £492 +23.00% 164
South West +23 41 £523 +4.50% 70
East of England +12 33 £300 +2.13% 74
Midlands -18 32 £235 -41.25% 110
North of England -23 32 £425 -15.00% 140
North West -17 27 £425 -15.00% 82
West Midlands -15 24 £198 -60.89% 64
East Midlands -14 8 £492 +23.00% 46
Yorkshire -24 5 £400 -15.79% 41
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 38 (12.79%) SharePoint
2 34 (11.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (2.02%) Skype for Business
4 3 (1.01%) Confluence
5 1 (0.34%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 20 (6.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (5.72%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (3.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.67%) Maximo
3 1 (0.34%) Alphatax
3 1 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.34%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 141 (47.47%) Azure
2 113 (38.05%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (17.51%) Entra ID
4 45 (15.15%) Power Platform
5 34 (11.45%) AWS
6 28 (9.43%) Azure DevOps
7 25 (8.42%) Dynamics 365
7 25 (8.42%) Power Automate
8 20 (6.73%) PowerApps
9 19 (6.40%) Microsoft Purview
10 17 (5.72%) Azure Sentinel
11 14 (4.71%) Azure Monitor
12 13 (4.38%) Azure Data Factory
12 13 (4.38%) GitHub
12 13 (4.38%) OneDrive
13 11 (3.70%) Azure AKS
13 11 (3.70%) Azure Logic Apps
14 10 (3.37%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (2.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 7 (2.36%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 43 (14.48%) DNS
2 35 (11.78%) TCP/IP
3 34 (11.45%) DHCP
4 32 (10.77%) Firewall
5 24 (8.08%) VPN
6 17 (5.72%) Wi-Fi
7 16 (5.39%) Fibre Channel
7 16 (5.39%) iSCSI
8 12 (4.04%) LAN
8 12 (4.04%) VLAN
9 8 (2.69%) SSL
10 7 (2.36%) Skype
11 6 (2.02%) SAN
11 6 (2.02%) Wireless
12 5 (1.68%) Unified Communications
13 4 (1.35%) Network Security
13 4 (1.35%) S/MIME
13 4 (1.35%) WAN
14 3 (1.01%) VSAN
14 3 (1.01%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (7.74%) Power BI
2 18 (6.06%) SQL Server
3 15 (5.05%) Azure SQL Database
4 8 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.36%) Data Lake
6 6 (2.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (1.68%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.68%) Oracle Database
8 4 (1.35%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (1.01%) MongoDB
9 3 (1.01%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.67%) Apache Cassandra
10 2 (0.67%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.67%) Metadata
10 2 (0.67%) MySQL
10 2 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
10 2 (0.67%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.67%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.34%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.34%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 14 (4.71%) JIRA
2 6 (2.02%) Git
2 6 (2.02%) MSI
3 4 (1.35%) GitLab
4 3 (1.01%) ERwin
4 3 (1.01%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.67%) AdminStudio
5 2 (0.67%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.67%) InstallShield
5 2 (0.67%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.34%) Bitbucket
General
1 114 (38.38%) Social Skills
2 64 (21.55%) Analytical Skills
3 55 (18.52%) Finance
4 33 (11.11%) Public Sector
5 23 (7.74%) Banking
6 14 (4.71%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.03%) Legal
8 6 (2.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.68%) Marketing
10 4 (1.35%) Military
10 4 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.35%) Retail
11 3 (1.01%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.01%) Polish Language
12 2 (0.67%) Advertising
12 2 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.67%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.67%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 52 (17.51%) Analyst
2 48 (16.16%) Architect
3 29 (9.76%) Support Engineer
4 24 (8.08%) Senior
4 24 (8.08%) Support Analyst
5 21 (7.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 19 (6.40%) Security Engineer
7 18 (6.06%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 18 (6.06%) Service Analyst
7 18 (6.06%) Service Desk Analyst
8 17 (5.72%) Infrastructure Architect
9 16 (5.39%) Consultant
10 15 (5.05%) Azure Engineer
10 15 (5.05%) Technical Analyst
10 15 (5.05%) VMware Architect
11 13 (4.38%) Desktop Support
11 13 (4.38%) Developer
11 13 (4.38%) IT Analyst
12 12 (4.04%) Azure Architect
12 12 (4.04%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.38%) .NET
2 11 (3.70%) ARM Templates
3 9 (3.03%) Microsoft Graph
3 9 (3.03%) OAuth
4 7 (2.36%) JSON
4 7 (2.36%) OpenID
5 6 (2.02%) REST
5 6 (2.02%) SAML
6 5 (1.68%) LDAP
6 5 (1.68%) RESTful
7 4 (1.35%) ADO
8 3 (1.01%) .NET Core
8 3 (1.01%) HTML
8 3 (1.01%) PySpark
8 3 (1.01%) Software Packaging
9 2 (0.67%) ASP.NET Web API
9 2 (0.67%) Azure Blueprints
9 2 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
9 2 (0.67%) HTML5 Canvas
9 2 (0.67%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.06%) PKI
2 17 (5.72%) Analytical Mindset
3 12 (4.04%) Onboarding
4 11 (3.70%) Cloud Native
5 10 (3.37%) Security Posture
6 9 (3.03%) Driving Licence
6 9 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (2.69%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (2.69%) NHS
8 7 (2.36%) iPad
8 7 (2.36%) iPhone
9 6 (2.02%) Management Information System
9 6 (2.02%) Video Conferencing
10 5 (1.68%) Replication
10 5 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.68%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 4 (1.35%) Cloud Security Posture
11 4 (1.35%) Legacy Applications
11 4 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (1.35%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 162 (54.55%) Windows
2 49 (16.50%) Windows Server
3 45 (15.15%) Windows 10
4 25 (8.42%) Linux
5 24 (8.08%) Mac OS
6 18 (6.06%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (1.68%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (1.35%) Android
8 4 (1.35%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.35%) Unix
8 4 (1.35%) VMS
8 4 (1.35%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.34%) CentOS
9 1 (0.34%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.34%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (35.69%) ITIL
2 90 (30.30%) Problem-Solving
3 50 (16.84%) Customer Service
4 48 (16.16%) DevOps
5 36 (12.12%) Migration
6 35 (11.78%) Service Management
7 34 (11.45%) CI/CD
8 33 (11.11%) Agile
9 28 (9.43%) Cloud Security
9 28 (9.43%) Computer Science
10 26 (8.75%) Analytics
11 25 (8.42%) Business Intelligence
11 25 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
11 25 (8.42%) Data Loss Prevention
12 23 (7.74%) Identity Access Management
12 23 (7.74%) ITSM
12 23 (7.74%) Service Delivery
13 22 (7.41%) Incident Management
13 22 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 21 (7.07%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 63 (21.21%) PowerShell
2 52 (17.51%) SQL
3 13 (4.38%) Bash
3 13 (4.38%) Python
4 12 (4.04%) Bicep
4 12 (4.04%) C#
4 12 (4.04%) JavaScript
5 9 (3.03%) T-SQL
6 5 (1.68%) VBScript
7 4 (1.35%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.34%) Java
9 1 (0.34%) Korn
9 1 (0.34%) VBA
Qualifications
1 97 (32.66%) Security Cleared
2 71 (23.91%) Azure Certification
3 67 (22.56%) SC Cleared
4 65 (21.89%) Degree
5 56 (18.86%) MCSE
6 39 (13.13%) A+ Certification
7 32 (10.77%) MCSA
8 21 (7.07%) MCP
9 19 (6.40%) DV Cleared
10 17 (5.72%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (5.72%) Network+ Certification
11 15 (5.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 13 (4.38%) CCNA
12 13 (4.38%) Master's Degree
13 12 (4.04%) AWS Certification
13 12 (4.04%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (3.70%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (3.37%) CISSP
15 10 (3.37%) VCP5
15 10 (3.37%) VCP6
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (7.07%) GDPR
3 15 (5.05%) NIST
4 11 (3.70%) SLA
5 7 (2.36%) Accessibility
6 6 (2.02%) HIPAA
7 3 (1.01%) NCSC
7 3 (1.01%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.01%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.67%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.67%) ISO 22301
8 2 (0.67%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.34%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.34%) PMO
9 1 (0.34%) QA
System Software
1 121 (40.74%) Active Directory
2 43 (14.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (7.74%) vSphere
4 18 (6.06%) VMware ESXi
5 16 (5.39%) NFS
6 15 (5.05%) Hyper-V
7 13 (4.38%) Docker
8 6 (2.02%) Virtual Servers
9 5 (1.68%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 4 (1.35%) Microsoft App-V
10 4 (1.35%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (1.01%) Firmware
11 3 (1.01%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.67%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.34%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 45 (15.15%) SCCM
2 28 (9.43%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (7.07%) Kubernetes
4 20 (6.73%) Terraform
5 7 (2.36%) SCOM
6 6 (2.02%) WSUS
7 5 (1.68%) Ansible
8 4 (1.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.35%) CASB
8 4 (1.35%) Nessus
8 4 (1.35%) Prometheus
8 4 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.35%) vCenter Server
9 3 (1.01%) Grafana
9 3 (1.01%) QRadar
10 2 (0.67%) Backup Exec
11 1 (0.34%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.34%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.34%) Istio
11 1 (0.34%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 286 (96.30%) Microsoft
2 53 (17.85%) VMware
3 32 (10.77%) ServiceNow
4 28 (9.43%) Splunk
5 25 (8.42%) Veeam
6 23 (7.74%) Citrix
7 18 (6.06%) Cisco
8 16 (5.39%) NetApp
9 12 (4.04%) Oracle
10 9 (3.03%) Dell
11 7 (2.36%) Darktrace
12 6 (2.02%) SolarWinds
12 6 (2.02%) Zscaler
13 5 (1.68%) CyberArk
13 5 (1.68%) Databricks
13 5 (1.68%) iManage
13 5 (1.68%) Mitel
14 4 (1.35%) Palo Alto
14 4 (1.35%) Remedy
14 4 (1.35%) Tenable