Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 3 March 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 3 March 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Microsoft Certification
UK > England
6 months to
3 Mar 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 299 253 263
Rank change year-on-year -46 +10 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 297 611 920
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.77% 1.01% 1.03%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.39% 4.67% 5.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 235 392 599
Median daily rate £420 £383 £400
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +9.80% -4.38% +15.11%
10th Percentile £172 £143 £158
90th Percentile £583 £550 £600
UK median daily rate £428 £375 £395
% change year-on-year +14.00% -5.06% +13.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 37 89
Median hourly rate £19.67 £17.50 £18.70
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +12.39% -6.42% +27.65%
10th Percentile £14.05 £14.36 £14.53
90th Percentile £32.25 £46.45 £33.62
UK median hourly rate £23.21 £17.50 £18.25
% change year-on-year +32.63% -4.11% +24.57%

Microsoft Certification is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 8,769 13,095 17,527
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 22.59% 21.66% 19.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,616 8,551 10,870
Median daily rate £475 £475 £454
Median daily rate % change year-on-year - +4.63% +0.89%
10th Percentile £276 £263 £263
90th Percentile £650 £650 £638
UK median daily rate £475 £468 £450
% change year-on-year +1.50% +4.00% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 462 488 743
Median hourly rate £40.00 £31.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +29.03% +12.73% +10.00%
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.33 £12.51
90th Percentile £61.25 £56.25 £52.45
Median hourly rate £40.00 £32.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +25.00% +16.36% +11.02%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 3 March 2021.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in England

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification in England over the 6 months to 3 March 2021.

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 3 March 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
London -35 103 £450 +20.00% 69
South East +34 84 £490 +30.67% 58
East of England +56 37 £306 -19.14% 22
North of England +21 29 £450 +5.88% 88
North West +32 21 £450 +12.50% 45
Midlands +2 19 £435 +8.75% 46
South West +39 17 £308 -27.53% 25
West Midlands +19 17 £450 -1.64% 30
Yorkshire +28 8 £450 +5.88% 38
East Midlands 0 2 £303 -3.20% 16
Microsoft Certification
UK

For the 6 months to 3 March 2021, IT contractor jobs citing Microsoft Certification also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region with a requirement for Microsoft Certification.

1 235 (79.12%) Microsoft
2 152 (51.18%) Windows
3 123 (41.41%) Active Directory
4 114 (38.38%) Microsoft 365
5 113 (38.05%) MCSE
6 110 (37.04%) Azure
7 103 (34.68%) VMware
8 101 (34.01%) Windows Server
9 92 (30.98%) ITIL
10 89 (29.97%) VMware Infrastructure
11 88 (29.63%) Security Cleared
12 71 (23.91%) MCSA
13 66 (22.22%) Cisco
13 66 (22.22%) Migration
14 59 (19.87%) Cisco Certification
14 59 (19.87%) Windows 10
15 57 (19.19%) DNS
15 57 (19.19%) Microsoft Office
16 54 (18.18%) PowerShell
16 54 (18.18%) DevOps
17 53 (17.85%) Agile Software Development
18 48 (16.16%) SharePoint
19 47 (15.82%) DHCP
20 44 (14.81%) WAN
20 44 (14.81%) CCNA
20 44 (14.81%) SC Cleared
21 43 (14.48%) LAN
22 42 (14.14%) Firewall
23 40 (13.47%) Service Management
23 40 (13.47%) VPN

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring IT Skills in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same job type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 48 (16.16%) SharePoint
2 27 (9.09%) MS Exchange
3 18 (6.06%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (3.70%) Exchange Server 2013
4 11 (3.70%) Skype for Business
5 9 (3.03%) ArcGIS
6 6 (2.02%) Confluence
7 5 (1.68%) IIS
8 4 (1.35%) OpenStack
9 3 (1.01%) CMS
9 3 (1.01%) IBM Notes
9 3 (1.01%) SAS
10 2 (0.67%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.67%) Exchange Server 2003
10 2 (0.67%) Exchange Server 2007
10 2 (0.67%) nginx
11 1 (0.34%) BizTalk Server
11 1 (0.34%) Office Communications Server
11 1 (0.34%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 57 (19.19%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (10.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (8.42%) MS Visio
4 9 (3.03%) Photoshop
5 4 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (1.01%) Windchill
7 2 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.67%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.34%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 15 (5.05%) Teamcenter
2 7 (2.36%) Dynamics AX
3 3 (1.01%) Infor M3
4 2 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.34%) assyst
5 1 (0.34%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 114 (38.38%) Microsoft 365
2 110 (37.04%) Azure
3 31 (10.44%) Azure Active Directory
4 17 (5.72%) IaaS
5 16 (5.39%) PaaS
6 15 (5.05%) AWS
6 15 (5.05%) Power Platform
7 14 (4.71%) Power Automate
8 10 (3.37%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (3.37%) PowerApps
9 7 (2.36%) OneDrive
10 5 (1.68%) GCP
10 5 (1.68%) SaaS
11 3 (1.01%) Azure Functions
11 3 (1.01%) Serverless
12 2 (0.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 2 (0.67%) Logic Apps
13 1 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
13 1 (0.34%) Azure Stack
13 1 (0.34%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 57 (19.19%) DNS
2 47 (15.82%) DHCP
3 44 (14.81%) WAN
4 43 (14.48%) LAN
5 42 (14.14%) Firewall
6 40 (13.47%) VPN
7 26 (8.75%) TCP/IP
8 23 (7.74%) VLAN
9 20 (6.73%) Wi-Fi
10 19 (6.40%) SMTP
11 18 (6.06%) IPsec
11 18 (6.06%) POP3
11 18 (6.06%) SNMP
12 15 (5.05%) Skype
13 12 (4.04%) SAN
14 7 (2.36%) Internet
14 7 (2.36%) Kerberos
14 7 (2.36%) X.500
15 6 (2.02%) 802.11
15 6 (2.02%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (11.45%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.70%) Power BI
3 8 (2.69%) Azure SQL Database
3 8 (2.69%) Big Data
3 8 (2.69%) GIS
4 6 (2.02%) SQL Server 2012
5 5 (1.68%) SQL Server 2008
5 5 (1.68%) SQL Server 2014
6 4 (1.35%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.35%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.35%) SQL Server 2016
7 3 (1.01%) HDInsight
7 3 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (1.01%) Relational Database
7 3 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 3 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.67%) Microsoft Analysis Services
8 2 (0.67%) PowerPivot
8 2 (0.67%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 23 (7.74%) JIRA
2 3 (1.01%) Atlassian Bamboo
2 3 (1.01%) Git (software)
2 3 (1.01%) Jenkins
2 3 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.67%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.67%) eggPlant
3 2 (0.67%) GitLab
3 2 (0.67%) HP UFT
3 2 (0.67%) Hudson
3 2 (0.67%) LoadRunner
3 2 (0.67%) Visual Studio
3 2 (0.67%) VSS/SourceSafe
4 1 (0.34%) MSI
4 1 (0.34%) MSTest
4 1 (0.34%) Selenium
4 1 (0.34%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.34%) Visual Studio Team System
General
1 21 (7.07%) Finance
2 16 (5.39%) Manufacturing
3 15 (5.05%) Public Sector
4 11 (3.70%) Retail
5 8 (2.69%) Telecoms
6 7 (2.36%) Banking
7 6 (2.02%) Back Office
8 5 (1.68%) Electronics
8 5 (1.68%) Marketing
9 4 (1.35%) Legal
10 2 (0.67%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.67%) Front Office
10 2 (0.67%) General Ledger
10 2 (0.67%) Law
10 2 (0.67%) Publishing
11 1 (0.34%) Czech Language
11 1 (0.34%) German Language
11 1 (0.34%) International Banking
11 1 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.34%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 45 (15.15%) Architect
2 38 (12.79%) Consultant
3 28 (9.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 26 (8.75%) Analyst
5 20 (6.73%) Support Engineer
6 15 (5.05%) Azure Engineer
6 15 (5.05%) Network Engineer
6 15 (5.05%) Wintel Engineer
7 13 (4.38%) Administrator
8 12 (4.04%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 12 (4.04%) IT Engineer
9 11 (3.70%) Azure Architect
9 11 (3.70%) IT Support
9 11 (3.70%) Service Analyst
10 10 (3.37%) Service Desk Analyst
10 10 (3.37%) Systems Administrator
11 9 (3.03%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 9 (3.03%) Network Architect
12 8 (2.69%) Cloud Engineer
12 8 (2.69%) Microsoft Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (8.08%) 802.1X
2 9 (3.03%) Itk
3 8 (2.69%) .NET
4 7 (2.36%) LDAP
5 5 (1.68%) Web Services
6 3 (1.01%) CGI
7 2 (0.67%) Node.js
7 2 (0.67%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.67%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.34%) ASP.NET Web API
8 1 (0.34%) Flask
8 1 (0.34%) HTML5 Canvas
8 1 (0.34%) jQuery
8 1 (0.34%) JSON
8 1 (0.34%) MDX
8 1 (0.34%) ModSecurity
8 1 (0.34%) OpenID
8 1 (0.34%) REST
8 1 (0.34%) RESTful
8 1 (0.34%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 37 (12.46%) Analytical Skills
2 24 (8.08%) Data Centre
3 22 (7.41%) Management Information System
4 13 (4.38%) NHS
4 13 (4.38%) PKI
5 12 (4.04%) Replication
6 7 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (2.02%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (1.68%) Clustering
8 5 (1.68%) Fat Client
8 5 (1.68%) Private Cloud
8 5 (1.68%) Thin Client
9 4 (1.35%) Hybrid Cloud
10 3 (1.01%) Blackberry
10 3 (1.01%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.01%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.01%) User Experience
10 3 (1.01%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.67%) iPad
11 2 (0.67%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 152 (51.18%) Windows
2 101 (34.01%) Windows Server
3 59 (19.87%) Windows 10
4 37 (12.46%) Linux
5 28 (9.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 27 (9.09%) Windows Server 2012
7 24 (8.08%) Windows 7
7 24 (8.08%) Windows Server 2008
8 16 (5.39%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (3.37%) Mac OS
10 6 (2.02%) Apple iOS
11 5 (1.68%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (1.01%) Android
12 3 (1.01%) Windows 8
13 1 (0.34%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.34%) Unix
13 1 (0.34%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (30.98%) ITIL
2 66 (22.22%) Migration
3 54 (18.18%) DevOps
4 53 (17.85%) Agile Software Development
5 40 (13.47%) Service Management
6 32 (10.77%) Computer Science
6 32 (10.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 29 (9.76%) Change Management
8 28 (9.43%) Continuous Integration
9 26 (8.75%) Continuous Improvement
10 25 (8.42%) Load Balancing
11 24 (8.08%) Data Migration
12 22 (7.41%) Problem-Solving
13 21 (7.07%) Disaster Recovery
14 19 (6.40%) Business Intelligence
14 19 (6.40%) ITIL V3
14 19 (6.40%) Kalman Filter
15 18 (6.06%) Service Delivery
15 18 (6.06%) Web Filtering
16 16 (5.39%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 54 (18.18%) PowerShell
2 37 (12.46%) SQL
3 14 (4.71%) C
4 11 (3.70%) VB
5 9 (3.03%) Python
6 6 (2.02%) Java
6 6 (2.02%) JavaScript
6 6 (2.02%) T-SQL
7 4 (1.35%) Bash Shell
7 4 (1.35%) C++
7 4 (1.35%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
8 3 (1.01%) C#
9 2 (0.67%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.67%) VBA
10 1 (0.34%) Formula Language
10 1 (0.34%) Ruby
10 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.34%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.34%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 113 (38.05%) MCSE
2 88 (29.63%) Security Cleared
3 71 (23.91%) MCSA
4 59 (19.87%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (14.81%) CCNA
5 44 (14.81%) SC Cleared
6 39 (13.13%) DV Cleared
7 38 (12.79%) Degree
8 29 (9.76%) CCNP
9 27 (9.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 25 (8.42%) MCP
11 19 (6.40%) MCITP
12 18 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
13 16 (5.39%) MCAD
14 14 (4.71%) A+ Certification
14 14 (4.71%) ITIL Certification
14 14 (4.71%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 8 (2.69%) Network+ Certification
15 8 (2.69%) TOGAF Certification
16 7 (2.36%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (8.75%) SLA
2 13 (4.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (2.36%) QA
4 3 (1.01%) NCSC
5 2 (0.67%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.67%) GDPR
5 2 (0.67%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.34%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 123 (41.41%) Active Directory
2 89 (29.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (7.07%) Hyper-V
4 17 (5.72%) VMware ESXi
5 14 (4.71%) vSphere
6 13 (4.38%) VMware NSX
7 9 (3.03%) XenApp
8 6 (2.02%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
8 6 (2.02%) Terminal Services
8 6 (2.02%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (1.68%) Virtual Servers
10 4 (1.35%) BitLocker
10 4 (1.35%) vCloud
10 4 (1.35%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (1.01%) Docker
12 2 (0.67%) Microsoft App-V
12 2 (0.67%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 2 (0.67%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.34%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.34%) UAG
Systems Management
1 39 (13.13%) SCCM
2 31 (10.44%) Ansible
3 27 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
4 9 (3.03%) WSUS
5 8 (2.69%) NetBackup
5 8 (2.69%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (2.69%) vCenter Server
6 6 (2.02%) AirWatch
6 6 (2.02%) SCOM
6 6 (2.02%) Terraform
6 6 (2.02%) vRealize
7 5 (1.68%) DameWare
7 5 (1.68%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.68%) McAfee ePO
7 5 (1.68%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
8 4 (1.35%) Backup Exec
9 3 (1.01%) EMC VPLEX
9 3 (1.01%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (1.01%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 235 (79.12%) Microsoft
2 103 (34.68%) VMware
3 66 (22.22%) Cisco
4 33 (11.11%) Citrix
5 31 (10.44%) HP
6 19 (6.40%) Dell
7 15 (5.05%) Oracle
7 15 (5.05%) ServiceNow
8 14 (4.71%) Veeam
9 12 (4.04%) Siemens
10 11 (3.70%) Lumension
10 11 (3.70%) SAP
10 11 (3.70%) Sophos
11 10 (3.37%) Apple
11 10 (3.37%) SolarWinds
12 9 (3.03%) ESRI
13 7 (2.36%) CheckPoint
13 7 (2.36%) IBM
13 7 (2.36%) Ivanti
13 7 (2.36%) Juniper