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

6 months to
9 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 298 232 277
Rank change year-on-year -66 +45 +78
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 313 274 316
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.77% 1.13% 0.86%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.38% 3.59% 2.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 155 207
10th Percentile £161 £200 £193
25th Percentile £350 £251 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - -0.50%
75th Percentile £588 £630 £575
90th Percentile £688 £710 £675
UK median daily rate £478 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +0.53% - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 31 60
10th Percentile £21.35 - £13.69
25th Percentile £41.50 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +287.33% - +5.16%
75th Percentile £178.75 £20.73 £21.37
90th Percentile - £37.50 £21.38
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £17.44 £16.30
% change year-on-year +262.01% +6.99% +5.16%

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 13,151 7,637 11,442
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.27% 31.43% 31.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,841 4,850 7,059
10th Percentile £340 £290 £313
25th Percentile £425 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £623 £626 £650
90th Percentile £725 £717 £750
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -0.95% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 964 442 981
10th Percentile £17.09 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £18.00
Median hourly rate £47.54 £40.72 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.76% +1.79% -23.81%
75th Percentile £72.50 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.50 £81.32 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £39.32 £40.00
% change year-on-year +20.91% -1.70% -25.93%

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 9 May 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 9 May 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 9 May 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 -39 115 £525 +5.00% 77
North of England -60 64 £476 +3.28% 71
North West -43 48 £476 +0.23% 35
South East -63 41 £275 -47.62% 71
South West -22 38 £500 -8.05% 27
Midlands -48 32 £425 +89.73% 37
West Midlands -50 26 £425 +89.73% 18
East of England -50 21 £181 -9.38% 39
Yorkshire -42 13 £484 +21.00% 27
East Midlands -27 6 £275 - 19
North East -18 3 - - 10
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 36 (11.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (8.95%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.96%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.32%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.32%) Confluence
Applications
1 19 (6.07%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.56%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 5 (1.60%) Maximo
3 4 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.64%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 143 (45.69%) Azure
2 85 (27.16%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (19.81%) Entra ID
4 50 (15.97%) Power Platform
5 30 (9.58%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (9.58%) Microsoft Purview
6 27 (8.63%) PowerApps
7 26 (8.31%) Power Automate
8 23 (7.35%) Azure Data Factory
9 22 (7.03%) AWS
10 21 (6.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 19 (6.07%) GitHub
12 18 (5.75%) Dynamics 365
13 16 (5.11%) OneDrive
14 15 (4.79%) Azure Monitor
15 12 (3.83%) Azure AKS
15 12 (3.83%) Azure Logic Apps
16 11 (3.51%) Azure Sentinel
16 11 (3.51%) Microsoft Copilot
17 9 (2.88%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.10%) SAN
2 27 (8.63%) DNS
2 27 (8.63%) Firewall
3 24 (7.67%) VPN
4 12 (3.83%) TCP/IP
5 9 (2.88%) DHCP
5 9 (2.88%) LAN
6 7 (2.24%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (1.92%) Network Security
7 6 (1.92%) SSL
8 5 (1.60%) Kerberos
8 5 (1.60%) VLAN
9 4 (1.28%) DMZ
9 4 (1.28%) NAS
9 4 (1.28%) NGFW
10 3 (0.96%) SMTP
10 3 (0.96%) VoIP
11 2 (0.64%) H.323
11 2 (0.64%) Internet
11 2 (0.64%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.63%) Power BI
1 27 (8.63%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.47%) Data Lake
3 12 (3.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 9 (2.88%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (2.88%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (2.88%) Metadata
5 7 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.92%) MySQL
6 6 (1.92%) Spark SQL
7 5 (1.60%) Delta Lake
7 5 (1.60%) Power Query
8 4 (1.28%) Metadata Repository
9 3 (0.96%) Big Data
9 3 (0.96%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.96%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.64%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.64%) Tableau
11 1 (0.32%) MongoDB
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 15 (4.79%) Git
2 5 (1.60%) GitLab
3 3 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
4 2 (0.64%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.64%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.64%) JDeveloper
4 2 (0.64%) JIRA
4 2 (0.64%) Selenium
4 2 (0.64%) WebDriver
5 1 (0.32%) AdminStudio
5 1 (0.32%) InstallShield
5 1 (0.32%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.32%) MLflow
5 1 (0.32%) MSI
5 1 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.32%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 100 (31.95%) Social Skills
2 67 (21.41%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (12.14%) Finance
4 34 (10.86%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.11%) Telecoms
6 14 (4.47%) Legal
7 9 (2.88%) Banking
7 9 (2.88%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.28%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.28%) Front Office
8 4 (1.28%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.28%) Marketing
8 4 (1.28%) Military
9 3 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.96%) International Banking
9 3 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.64%) Aeronautics
10 2 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.64%) Law
Job Titles
1 47 (15.02%) Architect
2 42 (13.42%) IT Engineer
3 37 (11.82%) Field Engineer
3 37 (11.82%) Field Service Engineer
4 30 (9.58%) Senior
5 29 (9.27%) Analyst
5 29 (9.27%) IT Support
6 20 (6.39%) Support Engineer
7 18 (5.75%) IT Support Engineer
8 17 (5.43%) Wintel Engineer
9 16 (5.11%) Administrator
9 16 (5.11%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 16 (5.11%) Support Analyst
10 15 (4.79%) IT Analyst
10 15 (4.79%) Solutions Architect
11 14 (4.47%) Developer
12 13 (4.15%) Cloud Engineer
12 13 (4.15%) Field Support Engineer
13 11 (3.51%) DBA
13 11 (3.51%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.79%) OAuth
2 13 (4.15%) .NET
2 13 (4.15%) OpenID
2 13 (4.15%) SAML
3 11 (3.51%) LDAP
4 10 (3.19%) ARM Templates
4 10 (3.19%) OAuth2
5 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Graph
6 5 (1.60%) ONVIF
6 5 (1.60%) REST
7 4 (1.28%) SailPoint
7 4 (1.28%) Web Services
7 4 (1.28%) YAML
8 3 (0.96%) React
9 2 (0.64%) CSS
9 2 (0.64%) Jest
9 2 (0.64%) OpenGL
9 2 (0.64%) PySpark
9 2 (0.64%) Qt
9 2 (0.64%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 40 (12.78%) Analytical Mindset
1 40 (12.78%) Data Centre
2 24 (7.67%) Onboarding
3 18 (5.75%) Replication
4 17 (5.43%) Enterprise Software
5 16 (5.11%) Clustering
6 10 (3.19%) BYOD
6 10 (3.19%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (2.56%) Cloud Native
7 8 (2.56%) Security Posture
8 7 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.92%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.92%) PKI
10 5 (1.60%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.60%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.60%) Mobile App
10 5 (1.60%) Video\Live Streaming
11 4 (1.28%) Operational Technology
11 4 (1.28%) Product Ownership
11 4 (1.28%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 99 (31.63%) Windows
2 47 (15.02%) Windows Server
3 29 (9.27%) Windows 10
4 17 (5.43%) Linux
5 10 (3.19%) Android
6 7 (2.24%) Apple iOS
6 7 (2.24%) Windows 7
6 7 (2.24%) Windows Server 2003
6 7 (2.24%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (1.92%) Mac OS
7 6 (1.92%) Unix
8 5 (1.60%) VMS
9 4 (1.28%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.64%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (34.50%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (18.85%) Customer Service
3 54 (17.25%) ITIL
4 53 (16.93%) DevOps
5 51 (16.29%) Migration
6 47 (15.02%) Analytics
7 46 (14.70%) CI/CD
8 37 (11.82%) Agile
8 37 (11.82%) Break/Fix
9 33 (10.54%) Disaster Recovery
9 33 (10.54%) High Availability
9 33 (10.54%) Infrastructure as Code
10 29 (9.27%) Identity Access Management
11 28 (8.95%) Computer Science
11 28 (8.95%) Data Governance
11 28 (8.95%) Project Delivery
12 27 (8.63%) Business Intelligence
12 27 (8.63%) RBAC
12 27 (8.63%) Roadmaps
13 24 (7.67%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 90 (28.75%) PowerShell
2 37 (11.82%) SQL
3 30 (9.58%) Python
4 18 (5.75%) Bicep
5 11 (3.51%) C#
6 10 (3.19%) Bash
7 7 (2.24%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.92%) JavaScript
9 5 (1.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.28%) R
10 4 (1.28%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.32%) Java
11 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.32%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.32%) VB
11 1 (0.32%) VBScript
11 1 (0.32%) X++
Qualifications
1 92 (29.39%) Security Cleared
2 91 (29.07%) MCSE
3 78 (24.92%) Degree
4 77 (24.60%) SC Cleared
5 59 (18.85%) Cisco Certification
6 57 (18.21%) Azure Certification
7 51 (16.29%) A+ Certification
8 49 (15.65%) CCNA
9 48 (15.34%) Network+ Certification
10 40 (12.78%) MCSA
11 25 (7.99%) Computer Science Degree
12 23 (7.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 21 (6.71%) DV Cleared
14 17 (5.43%) CISSP
15 14 (4.47%) VCAP
16 10 (3.19%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 9 (2.88%) CCNP
18 8 (2.56%) AWS Certification
18 8 (2.56%) CompTIA Security+
19 7 (2.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (6.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 19 (6.07%) NIST
2 10 (3.19%) GDPR
3 8 (2.56%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.56%) NIST 800
3 8 (2.56%) SLA
4 6 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (1.92%) NCSC
5 4 (1.28%) Accessibility
5 4 (1.28%) QA
6 3 (0.96%) WCAG
7 1 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.32%) GRC
7 1 (0.32%) GxP
7 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 108 (34.50%) Active Directory
2 32 (10.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (6.07%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (5.43%) Virtual Desktop
5 15 (4.79%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (4.79%) vSphere
6 14 (4.47%) Docker
7 9 (2.88%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.64%) Firmware
8 2 (0.64%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.64%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.64%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.32%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 37 (11.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (11.50%) Terraform
3 31 (9.90%) Ansible
4 18 (5.75%) Kubernetes
5 17 (5.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 17 (5.43%) SCCM
5 17 (5.43%) vCenter Server
6 6 (1.92%) CASB
6 6 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.60%) Nessus
8 4 (1.28%) WSUS
9 3 (0.96%) Podman
9 3 (0.96%) QRadar
10 2 (0.64%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
10 2 (0.64%) Packer
10 2 (0.64%) SCOM
11 1 (0.32%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.32%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 250 (79.87%) Microsoft
2 40 (12.78%) VMware
3 38 (12.14%) Dell
4 26 (8.31%) Cisco
5 14 (4.47%) Oracle
6 13 (4.15%) Apple
7 12 (3.83%) ServiceNow
8 11 (3.51%) Citrix
8 11 (3.51%) Databricks
9 7 (2.24%) CyberArk
10 6 (1.92%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.92%) Remedy
10 6 (1.92%) Tenable
11 5 (1.60%) IBM
11 5 (1.60%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.28%) Bloomberg
12 4 (1.28%) HP
12 4 (1.28%) ION Trading
12 4 (1.28%) NetApp
12 4 (1.28%) Reuters
285 Microsoft Certification jobs in England