Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 25 January 2022

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 25 January 2022 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
25 Jan 2022		 Same period 2021 Same period 2020
Rank 347 308 265
Rank change year-on-year -39 -43 +24
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 511 256 668
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.73% 0.74% 1.03%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.83% 3.20% 4.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 163 413
10th Percentile £142 £163 £135
25th Percentile £250 £304 £239
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £375
Median % change year-on-year - +13.33% -3.23%
75th Percentile £550 £525 £456
90th Percentile £638 £600 £538
UK median daily rate £425 £450 £375
% change year-on-year -5.56% +20.00% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 16 37
10th Percentile - £14.00 £14.90
25th Percentile £13.25 £14.88 £15.85
Median hourly rate £15.50 £15.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% +6.98%
75th Percentile £19.13 £19.75 £25.00
90th Percentile £20.51 £36.63 £52.98
UK median hourly rate £15.50 £19.67 £17.50
% change year-on-year -21.19% +12.39% +6.98%

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 13,354 8,002 13,963
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 19.12% 23.28% 21.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,634 5,242 9,063
10th Percentile £313 £275 £260
25th Percentile £413 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +2.15% +3.33%
75th Percentile £625 £573 £565
90th Percentile £700 £650 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £475 £463
% change year-on-year +10.53% +2.70% +2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 605 395 543
10th Percentile £13.25 £15.00 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.26 £21.05 £17.50
Median hourly rate £38.50 £40.00 £32.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% +25.00% +21.14%
75th Percentile £53.08 £52.63 £49.50
90th Percentile £65.67 £62.95 £57.40
UK median hourly rate £39.55 £40.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -2.35% +24.62% +22.64%

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 25 January 2022.

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 25 January 2022.

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 25 January 2022. 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 -80 198 £450 +6.51% 101
South East -50 80 £440 +2.33% 56
North of England -23 67 £213 -57.50% 119
Midlands -19 65 £316 -25.59% 67
East of England -18 54 £463 +66.67% 33
West Midlands -26 42 £341 -23.37% 33
Yorkshire -14 36 £200 -20.00% 31
South West -45 34 £425 +7.26% 26
North West -43 29 £450 -14.29% 69
East Midlands -14 23 £225 -28.29% 34
North East - 2 £550 - 19
Microsoft Certification
UK

For the 6 months to 25 January 2022, 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.

1 419 (82.00%) Microsoft
2 299 (58.51%) Windows
3 250 (48.92%) Active Directory
4 224 (43.84%) Microsoft 365
5 214 (41.88%) Azure
6 207 (40.51%) MCSE
7 199 (38.94%) ITIL
8 148 (28.96%) Windows Server
9 141 (27.59%) Social Skills
10 136 (26.61%) MCSA
11 132 (25.83%) VMware
12 127 (24.85%) Windows 10
13 117 (22.90%) PowerShell
14 102 (19.96%) Cisco
15 96 (18.79%) Security Cleared
16 91 (17.81%) VMware Infrastructure
16 91 (17.81%) Migration
17 90 (17.61%) SCCM
18 87 (17.03%) Cisco Certification
19 84 (16.44%) Agile Software Development
20 81 (15.85%) Citrix
21 78 (15.26%) Microsoft Office
22 77 (15.07%) Degree
22 77 (15.07%) SC Cleared
23 76 (14.87%) DNS
24 73 (14.29%) Azure Active Directory
25 72 (14.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
26 71 (13.89%) SQL Server
27 65 (12.72%) Windows Server 2012
28 62 (12.13%) Firewall

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 51 (9.98%) SharePoint
2 26 (5.09%) MS Exchange
3 20 (3.91%) IIS
4 12 (2.35%) ArcGIS
4 12 (2.35%) Skype for Business
5 8 (1.57%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (1.37%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (1.17%) Confluence
7 6 (1.17%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (0.78%) Exchange Server 2003
9 3 (0.59%) Office Communications Server
10 2 (0.39%) Apache
10 2 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.39%) IBM Notes
10 2 (0.39%) SAS
10 2 (0.39%) SharePoint 2013
10 2 (0.39%) SharePoint Server
10 2 (0.39%) Site Server
11 1 (0.20%) IBM Domino
11 1 (0.20%) WebLogic
Applications
1 78 (15.26%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (3.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.35%) Photoshop
4 3 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 20 (3.91%) Dynamics AX
2 10 (1.96%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.17%) assyst
4 3 (0.59%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.20%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 224 (43.84%) Microsoft 365
2 214 (41.88%) Azure
3 73 (14.29%) Azure Active Directory
4 46 (9.00%) AWS
5 32 (6.26%) IaaS
6 29 (5.68%) Dynamics 365
7 27 (5.28%) PaaS
8 24 (4.70%) Power Platform
9 14 (2.74%) OneDrive
10 10 (1.96%) Azure Storage
10 10 (1.96%) SaaS
11 9 (1.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 9 (1.76%) Cloud Computing
12 8 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (1.37%) Azure Monitor
13 7 (1.37%) Yammer
14 6 (1.17%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (1.17%) GitHub
15 5 (0.98%) Mimecast
15 5 (0.98%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 76 (14.87%) DNS
2 62 (12.13%) Firewall
3 49 (9.59%) DHCP
4 45 (8.81%) VPN
5 42 (8.22%) SAN
6 41 (8.02%) TCP/IP
6 41 (8.02%) Wi-Fi
7 26 (5.09%) Skype
8 20 (3.91%) WAN
9 17 (3.33%) Network Security
9 17 (3.33%) VoIP
10 16 (3.13%) Remote Desktop
11 14 (2.74%) LAN
11 14 (2.74%) NetScaler
12 12 (2.35%) Wireless
13 11 (2.15%) Junos
14 10 (1.96%) Internet
15 9 (1.76%) iSCSI
15 9 (1.76%) Kerberos
16 8 (1.57%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (13.89%) SQL Server
2 23 (4.50%) Power BI
3 15 (2.94%) SQL Server 2012
4 14 (2.74%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 13 (2.54%) Data Lake
5 13 (2.54%) Data Warehouse
5 13 (2.54%) SQL Server 2008
6 12 (2.35%) GIS
7 11 (2.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 10 (1.96%) SQL Server 2016
9 9 (1.76%) Big Data
10 8 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 8 (1.57%) QlikView
11 6 (1.17%) SQL Server 2005
11 6 (1.17%) SQL Server 2014
12 5 (0.98%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 4 (0.78%) Ingres
13 4 (0.78%) MongoDB
14 3 (0.59%) DTS
14 3 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 15 (2.94%) JIRA
2 12 (2.35%) Git (software)
3 9 (1.76%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.37%) Selenium
5 3 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.39%) Subversion
6 2 (0.39%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.20%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.20%) git-flow
7 1 (0.20%) GitLab
7 1 (0.20%) Karma Test Runner
7 1 (0.20%) Maven
7 1 (0.20%) Moq
7 1 (0.20%) MorphX
7 1 (0.20%) MSI
7 1 (0.20%) NUnit
7 1 (0.20%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.20%) Spinnaker
7 1 (0.20%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.20%) Visual Studio Team System
General
1 141 (27.59%) Social Skills
2 60 (11.74%) Finance
3 49 (9.59%) Public Sector
4 38 (7.44%) Retail
5 28 (5.48%) Documentation Skills
6 26 (5.09%) Analytical Skills
6 26 (5.09%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (4.11%) Telecoms
8 17 (3.33%) Marketing
9 13 (2.54%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.96%) Electronics
11 8 (1.57%) Banking
12 7 (1.37%) Legal
13 6 (1.17%) Automotive
13 6 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.98%) Back Office
15 4 (0.78%) Law
15 4 (0.78%) Local Government
16 3 (0.59%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 65 (12.72%) Analyst
2 55 (10.76%) Consultant
2 55 (10.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 51 (9.98%) Azure Engineer
4 42 (8.22%) Architect
5 40 (7.83%) Support Engineer
6 32 (6.26%) Service Analyst
6 32 (6.26%) Service Desk Analyst
7 29 (5.68%) 2nd Line Support
8 26 (5.09%) IT Engineer
9 25 (4.89%) IT Support
10 24 (4.70%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 24 (4.70%) Administrator
10 24 (4.70%) Wintel Engineer
11 20 (3.91%) Azure Consultant
12 19 (3.72%) Desktop Engineer
13 17 (3.33%) Functional Consultant
14 16 (3.13%) Desktop Support
14 16 (3.13%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
15 15 (2.94%) Active Directory Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.15%) .NET
2 10 (1.96%) HTML
2 10 (1.96%) JSON
3 9 (1.76%) LDAP
4 8 (1.57%) REST
4 8 (1.57%) XML
5 6 (1.17%) Azure Blueprints
6 5 (0.98%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.78%) .NET Core
7 4 (0.78%) CSS
7 4 (0.78%) SOAP
7 4 (0.78%) Web Services
8 3 (0.59%) Middleware
8 3 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
8 3 (0.59%) SAML
8 3 (0.59%) XSLT
9 2 (0.39%) .NET Framework
9 2 (0.39%) AngularJS
9 2 (0.39%) SPNEGO
10 1 (0.20%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 36 (7.05%) Management Information System
2 27 (5.28%) Replication
3 25 (4.89%) Data Centre
4 20 (3.91%) PKI
5 19 (3.72%) Data Protection Act
6 18 (3.52%) Clustering
7 13 (2.54%) NHS
8 12 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.96%) Driving Licence
9 10 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (1.76%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.37%) Enterprise Cloud
11 7 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
12 6 (1.17%) Enterprise Storage
12 6 (1.17%) Learning Management System
13 5 (0.98%) Legacy Systems
13 5 (0.98%) Smartphone
13 5 (0.98%) Virtual Team
14 4 (0.78%) Private Cloud
15 3 (0.59%) EMC VNX
Operating Systems
1 299 (58.51%) Windows
2 148 (28.96%) Windows Server
3 127 (24.85%) Windows 10
4 65 (12.72%) Windows Server 2012
5 50 (9.78%) Windows Server 2016
6 47 (9.20%) Windows Server 2008
7 46 (9.00%) Linux
8 44 (8.61%) Windows 7
9 36 (7.05%) Windows Server 2019
10 17 (3.33%) Mac OS
11 15 (2.94%) Android
12 13 (2.54%) Windows Server 2003
13 12 (2.35%) Apple iOS
13 12 (2.35%) Windows 8
14 11 (2.15%) CentOS
15 7 (1.37%) VMS
16 6 (1.17%) Windows 2000 Server
17 5 (0.98%) Ubuntu
17 5 (0.98%) Windows XP
18 4 (0.78%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 199 (38.94%) ITIL
2 91 (17.81%) Migration
3 84 (16.44%) Agile Software Development
4 72 (14.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 56 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
6 54 (10.57%) DevOps
7 45 (8.81%) Incident Management
8 43 (8.41%) Disaster Recovery
9 41 (8.02%) Change Management
10 33 (6.46%) High Availability
11 32 (6.26%) Analytics
11 32 (6.26%) Infrastructure as Code
12 31 (6.07%) Data Migration
13 29 (5.68%) Business Intelligence
14 28 (5.48%) ITIL V3
14 28 (5.48%) Problem Management
14 28 (5.48%) Service Management
15 25 (4.89%) Project Delivery
15 25 (4.89%) Project Management
16 24 (4.70%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 117 (22.90%) PowerShell
2 60 (11.74%) SQL
3 26 (5.09%) Python
4 19 (3.72%) C#
5 12 (2.35%) C
5 12 (2.35%) VB
6 11 (2.15%) R
7 10 (1.96%) Bash
7 10 (1.96%) T-SQL
8 7 (1.37%) Bicep
9 5 (0.98%) Java
9 5 (0.98%) JavaScript
10 2 (0.39%) VBA
11 1 (0.20%) Go
11 1 (0.20%) Perl
11 1 (0.20%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.20%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.20%) VBScript
11 1 (0.20%) X++
Qualifications
1 207 (40.51%) MCSE
2 136 (26.61%) MCSA
3 96 (18.79%) Security Cleared
4 87 (17.03%) Cisco Certification
5 77 (15.07%) Degree
5 77 (15.07%) SC Cleared
6 57 (11.15%) CCNA
7 50 (9.78%) MCITP
8 46 (9.00%) MCP
9 38 (7.44%) A+ Certification
10 36 (7.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 34 (6.65%) DV Cleared
12 33 (6.46%) MCTS
13 22 (4.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 21 (4.11%) CISSP
15 20 (3.91%) ITIL Certification
16 18 (3.52%) CCNP
17 14 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
18 12 (2.35%) JNCIA
19 11 (2.15%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (9.20%) SLA
2 21 (4.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.76%) PCI DSS
4 7 (1.37%) Data Quality
5 5 (0.98%) GDPR
5 5 (0.98%) QA
6 4 (0.78%) ISO 9001
6 4 (0.78%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.59%) GxP
8 2 (0.39%) NCSC
8 2 (0.39%) NIST
8 2 (0.39%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.20%) GPG13
9 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 250 (48.92%) Active Directory
2 91 (17.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (6.85%) Hyper-V
4 23 (4.50%) VMware ESXi
5 21 (4.11%) XenApp
6 20 (3.91%) VMware NSX
6 20 (3.91%) vSphere
7 18 (3.52%) BitLocker
8 17 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
9 16 (3.13%) OpenAM
10 14 (2.74%) Virtual Servers
10 14 (2.74%) XenDesktop
11 12 (2.35%) Microsoft App-V
11 12 (2.35%) Virtual Desktop
12 7 (1.37%) Terminal Services
13 6 (1.17%) DFS Replication
14 5 (0.98%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 5 (0.98%) Docker
14 5 (0.98%) NFS
15 4 (0.78%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 90 (17.61%) SCCM
2 38 (7.44%) Microsoft Intune
3 28 (5.48%) Terraform
4 26 (5.09%) Ansible
5 23 (4.50%) Single Sign-On
6 21 (4.11%) WSUS
7 18 (3.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 17 (3.33%) Microsoft Clustering
9 15 (2.94%) vCenter Server
10 12 (2.35%) vRealize
11 11 (2.15%) SCOM
12 10 (1.96%) Failover Clustering
12 10 (1.96%) Kubernetes
12 10 (1.96%) ZABBIX
13 8 (1.57%) Puppet
13 8 (1.57%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 7 (1.37%) AirWatch
14 7 (1.37%) vMotion
15 6 (1.17%) Backup Exec
16 5 (0.98%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 419 (82.00%) Microsoft
2 132 (25.83%) VMware
3 102 (19.96%) Cisco
4 81 (15.85%) Citrix
5 53 (10.37%) ServiceNow
6 30 (5.87%) Dell
7 29 (5.68%) Oracle
8 26 (5.09%) Apple
9 23 (4.50%) CheckPoint
10 22 (4.31%) HP
11 21 (4.11%) Veeam
12 18 (3.52%) Juniper
12 18 (3.52%) Sophos
13 17 (3.33%) IBM
14 16 (3.13%) ForgeRock
15 15 (2.94%) MobileIron
16 14 (2.74%) SolarWinds
17 13 (2.54%) Polycom
18 12 (2.35%) ESRI
18 12 (2.35%) Lumension