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 16 January 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
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -5 +4 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 14 20 26
As % of all contract jobs in Essex 12.96% 23.26% 13.83%
As % of the Vendors category 41.18% 46.51% 40.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 11 16
10th Percentile - - £183
25th Percentile £185 £180 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £310 £245 £400
Median % change year-on-year +26.53% -38.75% +73.91%
75th Percentile £472 £318 £600
90th Percentile £511 £318 £649
East of England median daily rate £425 £438 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -12.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 8
10th Percentile - - £11.61
25th Percentile - - £12.13
Median hourly rate £12.75 - £16.63
75th Percentile - - £21.50
90th Percentile - - £27.14
East of England median hourly rate £18.50 £16.23 £15.00
% change year-on-year +13.99% +8.20% -41.77%

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 34 43 65
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Essex 31.48% 50.00% 34.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 24 42
10th Percentile £185 £180 £185
25th Percentile £190 £240 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £288 £450
Median % change year-on-year +47.83% -36.11% +2.86%
75th Percentile £476 £319 £533
90th Percentile £511 £600 £606
East of England median daily rate £495 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +3.61% -4.45% +4.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 14
10th Percentile - - £12.13
25th Percentile £12.75 - £14.22
Median hourly rate £16.25 £30.00 £30.66
Median % change year-on-year -45.83% -2.14% +65.70%
75th Percentile £23.56 - £52.28
90th Percentile £44.17 - £55.54
East of England median hourly rate £19.50 £20.19 £31.50
% change year-on-year -3.41% -35.91% +21.15%

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 16 January 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 16 January 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
Colchester +3 4 £190 - 18
Maldon - 3 - - 1
Braintree -1 2 £425 +136.11% 2
Chelmsford -2 1 £475 - 18
Witham - 1 £505 -
Basildon - 1 £195 - 4
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 7 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (35.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (14.29%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (7.14%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 3 (21.43%) Shopify
2 1 (7.14%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 6 (42.86%) Microsoft 365
2 4 (28.57%) OneDrive
3 3 (21.43%) Azure
4 1 (7.14%) Azure AKS
4 1 (7.14%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (7.14%) Azure Functions
4 1 (7.14%) Azure Logic Apps
4 1 (7.14%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 4 (28.57%) TCP/IP
1 4 (28.57%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (7.14%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (7.14%) Big Data
1 1 (7.14%) MongoDB
General
1 8 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 4 (28.57%) Local Government
2 4 (28.57%) Public Sector
3 3 (21.43%) Marketing
3 3 (21.43%) Retail
4 1 (7.14%) Agriculture
4 1 (7.14%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 5 (35.71%) Support Engineer
2 4 (28.57%) Field Engineer
2 4 (28.57%) Field Support Engineer
2 4 (28.57%) IT Engineer
2 4 (28.57%) IT Support
2 4 (28.57%) IT Support Engineer
3 3 (21.43%) Administrator
3 3 (21.43%) Web Administrator
4 2 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) Project Manager
4 2 (14.29%) Senior
4 2 (14.29%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) Senior VMware Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) Senior Windows Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) VMware Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) Windows Engineer
4 2 (14.29%) Windows Infrastructure Engineer
5 1 (7.14%) Business Data Analyst
5 1 (7.14%) Project Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (7.14%) Express.js
1 1 (7.14%) MERN Stack
1 1 (7.14%) Node.js
1 1 (7.14%) React
Miscellaneous
1 4 (28.57%) Driving Licence
1 4 (28.57%) Self-Motivation
2 1 (7.14%) Cloud Native
2 1 (7.14%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (7.14%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (7.14%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 6 (42.86%) Windows
2 4 (28.57%) Apple iOS
2 4 (28.57%) Windows 10
3 2 (14.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (50.00%) Logistics
2 4 (28.57%) Change Management
2 4 (28.57%) Customer Service
3 3 (21.43%) AI
3 3 (21.43%) Decision-Making
3 3 (21.43%) E-Commerce
4 2 (14.29%) Agile
4 2 (14.29%) Business Case
4 2 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (14.29%) PRINCE2
4 2 (14.29%) Risk Management
4 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 1 (7.14%) Business Strategy
5 1 (7.14%) CI/CD
5 1 (7.14%) Critical Thinking
5 1 (7.14%) Data Science
5 1 (7.14%) Micro Frontends
5 1 (7.14%) Requirements Workshops
5 1 (7.14%) Roadmaps
5 1 (7.14%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 1 (7.14%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (21.43%) Degree
2 1 (7.14%) Azure Certification
2 1 (7.14%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (7.14%) Master's Degree
2 1 (7.14%) Microsoft Certification
System Software
1 4 (28.57%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 2 (14.29%) VMware
2 1 (7.14%) Databricks