Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Essex

Microsoft
East of England > Essex

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Essex requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 23 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 4 4
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 24 20 33
As % of all contract jobs in Essex 17.27% 22.73% 14.35%
As % of the Vendors category 42.86% 50.00% 41.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 16 21
10th Percentile - £181 £105
25th Percentile £185 £221 £189
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £273 £440
Median % change year-on-year +37.61% -38.00% +0.46%
75th Percentile £388 £318 £550
90th Percentile £425 £449 £649
East of England median daily rate £400 £400 £477
% change year-on-year - -16.14% +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 11
10th Percentile - £15.46 -
25th Percentile - £16.38 £12.13
Median hourly rate £12.75 £17.92 £15.76
Median % change year-on-year -28.85% +13.71% +11.65%
75th Percentile £16.50 £19.46 £21.50
90th Percentile - £20.38 £40.31
East of England median hourly rate £18.50 £16.23 £14.80
% change year-on-year +13.99% +9.66% -15.43%

All Vendors
Essex

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in Essex.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 56 40 80
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Essex 40.29% 45.45% 34.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 27 50
10th Percentile £185 £186 £187
25th Percentile £300 £243 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £318 £450
Median % change year-on-year +17.92% -29.33% -
75th Percentile £481 £436 £546
90th Percentile £515 £600 £650
East of England median daily rate £500 £504 £500
% change year-on-year -0.70% +0.70% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 3 13
10th Percentile £12.75 £16.07 -
25th Percentile £16.17 £17.92 £12.13
Median hourly rate £16.50 £21.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% - +31.25%
75th Percentile £46.22 £25.50 £40.31
90th Percentile £58.50 £28.20 £58.50
East of England median hourly rate £20.09 £29.50 £21.37
% change year-on-year -31.90% +38.04% -2.86%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Essex

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Essex.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Essex

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Essex

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Essex citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Essex citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Essex

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Essex over the 6 months to 23 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Essex

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Essex

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Essex citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Essex citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Essex

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Essex region over the 6 months to 23 March 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
Maldon - 9 £375 -
Basildon +4 5 - - 9
Colchester - 4 £190 - 7
Braintree -1 2 £425 +136.11%
Chelmsford - 1 £475 - 6
Microsoft
East of England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Essex 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:

Applications
1 11 (45.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (37.50%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (8.33%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (25.00%) Sage X3
2 3 (12.50%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 11 (45.83%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (25.00%) Power Platform
3 5 (20.83%) Azure
4 4 (16.67%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 9 (37.50%) Wi-Fi
2 4 (16.67%) TCP/IP
3 3 (12.50%) Firewall
3 3 (12.50%) LAN
3 3 (12.50%) VPN
3 3 (12.50%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (25.00%) Data Warehouse
1 6 (25.00%) Power BI
1 6 (25.00%) Power Query
1 6 (25.00%) ZAP BI
2 2 (8.33%) Crystal Reports
2 2 (8.33%) Tableau
General
1 16 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 8 (33.33%) Manufacturing
3 6 (25.00%) Finance
4 4 (16.67%) Local Government
4 4 (16.67%) Public Sector
5 3 (12.50%) Marketing
5 3 (12.50%) Retail
6 2 (8.33%) Legal
Job Titles
1 9 (37.50%) IT Support
2 6 (25.00%) Business Intelligence Developer
2 6 (25.00%) Developer
2 6 (25.00%) Power BI Developer
2 6 (25.00%) Report Developer
2 6 (25.00%) SQL BI Developer
2 6 (25.00%) SQL Developer
3 5 (20.83%) Administrator
4 4 (16.67%) Field Engineer
4 4 (16.67%) Field Support Engineer
4 4 (16.67%) IT Engineer
4 4 (16.67%) IT Support Engineer
4 4 (16.67%) Sage Developer
4 4 (16.67%) Support Engineer
5 3 (12.50%) Web Administrator
6 2 (8.33%) Help Desk Administrator
6 2 (8.33%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 2 (8.33%) VMware Engineer
6 2 (8.33%) Windows Engineer
6 2 (8.33%) Windows Infrastructure Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (29.17%) Driving Licence
2 3 (12.50%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 11 (45.83%) Windows
2 5 (20.83%) Windows Server
3 4 (16.67%) Apple iOS
3 4 (16.67%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (33.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 7 (29.17%) Logistics
3 6 (25.00%) Analytics
3 6 (25.00%) Business Intelligence
3 6 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 6 (25.00%) Customer Engagement
3 6 (25.00%) Customer Service
3 6 (25.00%) Data Analysis
3 6 (25.00%) Data Lineage
3 6 (25.00%) Data Validation
3 6 (25.00%) ETL
3 6 (25.00%) Kalman Filter
3 6 (25.00%) Requirements Gathering
3 6 (25.00%) Technology Transformation
3 6 (25.00%) User Experience
3 6 (25.00%) Validation
4 4 (16.67%) Change Management
5 3 (12.50%) AI
5 3 (12.50%) E-Commerce
5 3 (12.50%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 6 (25.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
1 6 (25.00%) SQL
1 6 (25.00%) VBA
Qualifications
1 2 (8.33%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (25.00%) Data Quality
System Software
1 7 (29.17%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 6 (25.00%) Sage
2 2 (8.33%) VMware