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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 240 257
Rank change year-on-year -50 +17 +88
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 355 303 332
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.79% 1.11% 0.94%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.51% 3.60% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 178 203
10th Percentile £156 £202 £186
25th Percentile £300 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £565 £625 £588
90th Percentile £675 £664 £669
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 33 56
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £13.69
25th Percentile £25.13 £15.44 £14.16
Median hourly rate £59.07 £17.44 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +238.69% +6.99% -1.21%
75th Percentile £153.44 £33.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £178.75 £80.90 -
UK median hourly rate £59.07 £17.44 £16.30
% change year-on-year +238.69% +6.99% -1.21%

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 14,161 8,412 10,841
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.58% 30.87% 30.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,544 5,306 6,841
10th Percentile £350 £283 £313
25th Percentile £430 £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 £717 £716 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £523 £525
% change year-on-year +0.38% -0.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,057 611 885
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.13 £14.48
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.32 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +113.27% -41.12% -23.76%
75th Percentile £75.00 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £52.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +107.75% -41.51% -25.00%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -51 120 £520 +4.00% 78
North of England -61 70 £485 +14.12% 66
South East -52 64 £275 -54.17% 70
North West -39 56 £484 +11.01% 33
Midlands -38 32 £425 +46.55% 29
East of England -29 31 £173 -54.00% 22
South West -32 31 £425 -18.27% 18
West Midlands -45 27 £425 +58.88% 16
Yorkshire -47 12 £650 +57.58% 21
East Midlands -11 5 £363 -26.92% 13
North East -43 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 41 (11.55%) SharePoint
2 25 (7.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.28%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.28%) Confluence
3 1 (0.28%) Liferay
Applications
1 14 (3.94%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.28%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.69%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.28%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.28%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 191 (53.80%) Azure
2 101 (28.45%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (23.94%) Entra ID
4 63 (17.75%) Power Platform
5 44 (12.39%) Power Automate
6 41 (11.55%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (9.86%) PowerApps
8 33 (9.30%) Dynamics 365
9 30 (8.45%) AWS
9 30 (8.45%) Microsoft Purview
10 25 (7.04%) OneDrive
11 22 (6.20%) GitHub
12 18 (5.07%) Microsoft Copilot
13 16 (4.51%) Azure Logic Apps
14 14 (3.94%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (3.66%) Serverless
16 12 (3.38%) SaaS
17 11 (3.10%) Azure Functions
17 11 (3.10%) IaaS
17 11 (3.10%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (10.70%) DNS
2 36 (10.14%) SAN
3 29 (8.17%) Firewall
4 28 (7.89%) VPN
5 25 (7.04%) TCP/IP
6 18 (5.07%) DHCP
7 15 (4.23%) LAN
8 10 (2.82%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (2.25%) SSL
9 8 (2.25%) WAN
9 8 (2.25%) Wireless
10 6 (1.69%) Network Security
11 5 (1.41%) NGFW
11 5 (1.41%) VLAN
12 4 (1.13%) Internet
12 4 (1.13%) Kerberos
13 3 (0.85%) DMZ
13 3 (0.85%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.85%) NAS
13 3 (0.85%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.86%) SQL Server
2 33 (9.30%) Power BI
3 20 (5.63%) MySQL
4 17 (4.79%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.69%) Power Query
6 5 (1.41%) Metadata
6 5 (1.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (1.13%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (1.13%) Star Schema
8 3 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.85%) Big Data
9 2 (0.56%) BusinessObjects
9 2 (0.56%) Data Mart
9 2 (0.56%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.56%) QlikView
9 2 (0.56%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.56%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (2.25%) Git
2 6 (1.69%) Selenium
2 6 (1.69%) WebDriver
3 5 (1.41%) JIRA
4 4 (1.13%) Cucumber
4 4 (1.13%) Cypress.io
4 4 (1.13%) Postman
5 3 (0.85%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.56%) GitLab
7 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.28%) MLflow
7 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 140 (39.44%) Social Skills
2 85 (23.94%) Analytical Skills
3 57 (16.06%) Public Sector
4 48 (13.52%) Finance
5 22 (6.20%) Telecoms
6 18 (5.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (3.38%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.10%) Legal
9 6 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.41%) Aerospace
10 5 (1.41%) Banking
11 4 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.13%) Military
12 3 (0.85%) Front Office
12 3 (0.85%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.85%) Local Government
12 3 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.56%) Law
13 2 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.28%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 46 (12.96%) IT Engineer
2 44 (12.39%) Analyst
3 40 (11.27%) Architect
4 37 (10.42%) IT Support
5 36 (10.14%) Senior
6 32 (9.01%) Field Engineer
6 32 (9.01%) Field Service Engineer
7 27 (7.61%) Support Engineer
8 26 (7.32%) Administrator
9 25 (7.04%) DBA
10 24 (6.76%) IT Support Engineer
11 21 (5.92%) Lead
12 20 (5.63%) Developer
13 19 (5.35%) Support Analyst
14 17 (4.79%) IT Analyst
15 16 (4.51%) Technical Support
16 14 (3.94%) Dynamics 365 Developer
16 14 (3.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 13 (3.66%) Field Support Engineer
17 13 (3.66%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.94%) LDAP
1 14 (3.94%) OAuth
2 13 (3.66%) ONVIF
3 12 (3.38%) .NET
3 12 (3.38%) OpenID
3 12 (3.38%) SAML
4 10 (2.82%) OAuth2
5 9 (2.54%) JSON
6 8 (2.25%) SailPoint
6 8 (2.25%) Web Services
7 7 (1.97%) Microsoft Graph
8 6 (1.69%) ARM Templates
9 5 (1.41%) REST
10 4 (1.13%) Gherkin
11 3 (0.85%) Azure Blueprints
11 3 (0.85%) Middleware
11 3 (0.85%) PySpark
11 3 (0.85%) YAML
12 2 (0.56%) OpenGL
12 2 (0.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 38 (10.70%) Data Centre
2 35 (9.86%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (8.17%) Onboarding
4 22 (6.20%) Management Information System
5 18 (5.07%) Cloud Native
5 18 (5.07%) Security Posture
6 17 (4.79%) Replication
7 14 (3.94%) Clustering
8 13 (3.66%) Video\Live Streaming
9 12 (3.38%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
11 10 (2.82%) Product Ownership
12 8 (2.25%) PKI
13 7 (1.97%) AI Agents
14 6 (1.69%) Data Structures
14 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Cloud
14 6 (1.69%) Mobile App
15 5 (1.41%) Cloud Security Posture
15 5 (1.41%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 107 (30.14%) Windows
2 43 (12.11%) Windows Server
3 30 (8.45%) Windows 10
4 22 (6.20%) Linux
5 15 (4.23%) Android
6 11 (3.10%) Mac OS
7 10 (2.82%) Apple iOS
8 6 (1.69%) Unix
8 6 (1.69%) VMS
8 6 (1.69%) Windows Server 2003
9 5 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (1.41%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (1.13%) Solaris
10 4 (1.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.56%) Alpine Linux
12 2 (0.56%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.28%) AIX
13 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (36.90%) Problem-Solving
2 75 (21.13%) DevOps
3 74 (20.85%) Customer Service
4 71 (20.00%) ITIL
5 59 (16.62%) Agile
6 49 (13.80%) CI/CD
7 43 (12.11%) Infrastructure as Code
8 41 (11.55%) Stakeholder Management
9 39 (10.99%) Computer Science
10 38 (10.70%) Migration
11 37 (10.42%) Project Delivery
11 37 (10.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 36 (10.14%) Analytics
13 34 (9.58%) Data Governance
14 33 (9.30%) Business Intelligence
15 32 (9.01%) AI
15 32 (9.01%) Break/Fix
15 32 (9.01%) ITSM
16 31 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
17 29 (8.17%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 91 (25.63%) PowerShell
2 37 (10.42%) SQL
3 36 (10.14%) Python
4 25 (7.04%) C#
5 21 (5.92%) Bicep
5 21 (5.92%) JavaScript
6 15 (4.23%) Bash
7 7 (1.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.69%) T-SQL
9 3 (0.85%) Java
9 3 (0.85%) X++
10 2 (0.56%) Perl
10 2 (0.56%) R
11 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.28%) VB
Qualifications
1 122 (34.37%) Security Cleared
2 101 (28.45%) SC Cleared
3 100 (28.17%) Degree
4 83 (23.38%) MCSE
5 67 (18.87%) A+ Certification
6 64 (18.03%) Cisco Certification
7 60 (16.90%) Azure Certification
8 54 (15.21%) CCNA
9 46 (12.96%) Network+ Certification
10 42 (11.83%) MCSA
11 26 (7.32%) DV Cleared
12 21 (5.92%) Computer Science Degree
13 20 (5.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 14 (3.94%) AWS Certification
15 13 (3.66%) CISSP
16 10 (2.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 10 (2.82%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 10 (2.82%) Oracle Certification
17 9 (2.54%) OCP
17 9 (2.54%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.76%) NIST
2 21 (5.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (4.51%) Data Quality
4 15 (4.23%) SLA
5 14 (3.94%) Accessibility
6 12 (3.38%) QA
7 11 (3.10%) GDPR
8 7 (1.97%) NCSC
9 6 (1.69%) WCAG
10 3 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.85%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.56%) GRC
11 2 (0.56%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.56%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.56%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.28%) GxP
12 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.28%) ITGC
System Software
1 117 (32.96%) Active Directory
2 30 (8.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.79%) Virtual Desktop
3 17 (4.79%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (4.51%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (3.66%) vSphere
6 12 (3.38%) Docker
7 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.85%) Firmware
8 3 (0.85%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.56%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.56%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.56%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.28%) NFS
10 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 44 (12.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 43 (12.11%) Terraform
3 26 (7.32%) Ansible
4 18 (5.07%) SCCM
5 17 (4.79%) vCenter Server
6 14 (3.94%) Kubernetes
7 11 (3.10%) SCOM
8 7 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.69%) CASB
10 5 (1.41%) Nessus
11 4 (1.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (1.13%) Podman
12 3 (0.85%) Grafana
12 3 (0.85%) QRadar
12 3 (0.85%) WSUS
13 2 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
13 2 (0.56%) Packer
13 2 (0.56%) vMotion
14 1 (0.28%) Kubeflow
14 1 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 289 (81.41%) Microsoft
2 40 (11.27%) VMware
3 34 (9.58%) Dell
4 24 (6.76%) Oracle
4 24 (6.76%) ServiceNow
5 23 (6.48%) Cisco
6 13 (3.66%) Remedy
7 12 (3.38%) Apple
8 10 (2.82%) Citrix
8 10 (2.82%) Splunk
9 9 (2.54%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.97%) CyberArk
10 7 (1.97%) Google
10 7 (1.97%) Tenable
11 5 (1.41%) Databricks
11 5 (1.41%) Dynatrace
11 5 (1.41%) NetApp
11 5 (1.41%) OpenAI
12 4 (1.13%) Foundry
12 4 (1.13%) HP
256 Microsoft Certification jobs in England