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 20 February 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
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 16 21 34
As % of all contract jobs in Essex 14.04% 22.11% 14.53%
As % of the Vendors category 40.00% 44.68% 39.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 14 22
10th Percentile - £180 £111
25th Percentile £185 £180 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £241 £463
Median % change year-on-year +55.44% -47.84% +2.78%
75th Percentile £456 £318 £585
90th Percentile £508 £318 £645
East of England median daily rate £406 £444 £500
% change year-on-year -8.45% -11.25% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 10
10th Percentile - - £11.95
25th Percentile - - £12.13
Median hourly rate £12.75 - £16.93
75th Percentile - - £21.50
90th Percentile - - £45.08
East of England median hourly rate £18.50 £16.23 £14.80
% change year-on-year +13.99% +9.66% -28.24%

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 40 47 87
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Essex 35.09% 49.47% 37.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 28 53
10th Percentile £185 £180 £186
25th Percentile £218 £221 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £288 £475
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% -39.47% -
75th Percentile £494 £318 £598
90th Percentile £528 £600 £650
East of England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +4.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 16
10th Percentile £12.75 - £12.13
25th Percentile £13.61 - £12.68
Median hourly rate £16.25 £30.00 £30.66
Median % change year-on-year -45.83% -2.14% +45.98%
75th Percentile £23.58 - £53.25
90th Percentile £60.50 - £57.78
East of England median hourly rate £19.91 £21.46 £24.50
% change year-on-year -7.22% -12.41% +11.36%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 - 5 £375 - 2
Colchester +3 4 £190 - 21
Braintree -1 2 £425 +136.11% 3
Basildon +2 1 - - 19
Chelmsford -5 1 £475 - 13
Witham - 1 £505 -
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 (43.75%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (37.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (12.50%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (18.75%) Shopify
2 2 (12.50%) Sage X3
3 1 (6.25%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 7 (43.75%) Microsoft 365
2 4 (25.00%) Azure
2 4 (25.00%) OneDrive
3 2 (12.50%) Power Platform
4 1 (6.25%) Azure AKS
4 1 (6.25%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (6.25%) Azure Functions
4 1 (6.25%) Azure Logic Apps
4 1 (6.25%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 5 (31.25%) Wi-Fi
2 4 (25.00%) TCP/IP
3 1 (6.25%) Firewall
3 1 (6.25%) LAN
3 1 (6.25%) VPN
3 1 (6.25%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (12.50%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (12.50%) Power BI
1 2 (12.50%) Power Query
1 2 (12.50%) ZAP BI
2 1 (6.25%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (6.25%) Big Data
2 1 (6.25%) MongoDB
General
1 11 (68.75%) Social Skills
2 4 (25.00%) Local Government
2 4 (25.00%) Public Sector
3 3 (18.75%) Marketing
3 3 (18.75%) Retail
4 2 (12.50%) Finance
4 2 (12.50%) Manufacturing
5 1 (6.25%) Agriculture
Job Titles
1 5 (31.25%) IT Support
2 4 (25.00%) Field Engineer
2 4 (25.00%) Field Support Engineer
2 4 (25.00%) IT Engineer
2 4 (25.00%) IT Support Engineer
2 4 (25.00%) Support Engineer
3 3 (18.75%) Administrator
3 3 (18.75%) Web Administrator
4 2 (12.50%) Business Intelligence Developer
4 2 (12.50%) Developer
4 2 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (12.50%) Power BI Developer
4 2 (12.50%) Project Manager
4 2 (12.50%) Report Developer
4 2 (12.50%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (12.50%) Senior Windows Engineer
4 2 (12.50%) SQL Developer
4 2 (12.50%) VMware Engineer
4 2 (12.50%) Windows Engineer
4 2 (12.50%) Windows Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.25%) Express.js
1 1 (6.25%) MERN Stack
1 1 (6.25%) Node.js
1 1 (6.25%) React
Miscellaneous
1 5 (31.25%) Driving Licence
2 4 (25.00%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (6.25%) Cloud Native
3 1 (6.25%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (6.25%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (6.25%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 7 (43.75%) Windows
2 4 (25.00%) Apple iOS
2 4 (25.00%) Windows 10
3 3 (18.75%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (43.75%) Logistics
2 4 (25.00%) Change Management
2 4 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 4 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 3 (18.75%) AI
3 3 (18.75%) Analytics
3 3 (18.75%) Decision-Making
3 3 (18.75%) E-Commerce
4 2 (12.50%) Agile
4 2 (12.50%) Business Intelligence
4 2 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
4 2 (12.50%) Customer Engagement
4 2 (12.50%) Data Analysis
4 2 (12.50%) Data Lineage
4 2 (12.50%) Data Validation
4 2 (12.50%) ETL
4 2 (12.50%) Kalman Filter
4 2 (12.50%) PRINCE2
4 2 (12.50%) Risk Management
4 2 (12.50%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 3 (18.75%) SQL
2 2 (12.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
2 2 (12.50%) VBA
Qualifications
1 3 (18.75%) Degree
2 1 (6.25%) Azure Certification
2 1 (6.25%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (6.25%) Master's Degree
2 1 (6.25%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (12.50%) Data Quality
System Software
1 5 (31.25%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 2 (12.50%) Sage
1 2 (12.50%) VMware
2 1 (6.25%) Databricks