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 17 July 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
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 3 4
Rank change year-on-year 0 +1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 52 19 29
As % of all contract jobs in Essex 16.99% 17.27% 15.10%
As % of the Vendors category 46.02% 45.24% 46.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 14 20
10th Percentile £331 £225 £105
25th Percentile £363 £226 £172
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £309 £288
Median % change year-on-year +21.36% +7.48% -36.11%
75th Percentile £434 £397 £495
90th Percentile £490 £508 £555
East of England median daily rate £375 £500 £425
% change year-on-year -25.00% +17.65% +12.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 3 6
10th Percentile £15.99 £16.07 £14.31
25th Percentile £16.50 £17.92 £15.82
Median hourly rate £18.25 £21.00 £17.99
Median % change year-on-year -13.10% +16.73% -42.43%
75th Percentile £20.69 £22.38 £26.56
90th Percentile £34.94 £23.20 £58.38
East of England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.32 £15.34
% change year-on-year +9.66% +19.43% +12.96%

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 113 42 63
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Essex 36.93% 38.18% 32.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 25 37
10th Percentile £327 £210 £145
25th Percentile £350 £230 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £381 £330 £475
Median % change year-on-year +15.45% -30.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £515 £450 £575
90th Percentile £590 £507 £675
East of England median daily rate £509 £530 £500
% change year-on-year -3.96% +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 6 10
10th Percentile £16.04 £17.92 £15.47
25th Percentile £16.75 £21.06 £16.99
Median hourly rate £18.25 £30.00 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -39.17% -31.03% -33.59%
75th Percentile £35.53 £40.06 £64.25
90th Percentile £63.50 £41.73 £74.73
East of England median hourly rate £22.68 £20.88 £16.30
% change year-on-year +8.65% +28.07% -25.91%

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 17 July 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in Essex

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Essex over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Essex

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 17 July 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
Basildon -4 12 £428 +14.00% 8
Rochford - 7 - -
Chelmsford -6 6 £425 +88.89% 7
Harlow - 6 - - 3
Maldon - 6 £375 -
Southend-on-Sea - 2 £150 - 5
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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (3.85%) OpenStack
Applications
1 12 (23.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (11.54%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (3.85%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (11.54%) Sage X3
2 2 (3.85%) TrackWise
3 1 (1.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (1.92%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 16 (30.77%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (19.23%) Azure
3 7 (13.46%) Power Platform
4 3 (5.77%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (3.85%) OpenShift
5 2 (3.85%) Veeva
6 1 (1.92%) Azure AKS
6 1 (1.92%) Azure Data Factory
6 1 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (1.92%) Azure Functions
6 1 (1.92%) Azure Logic Apps
6 1 (1.92%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.92%) IaaS
6 1 (1.92%) PaaS
6 1 (1.92%) SaaS
6 1 (1.92%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 12 (23.08%) Wi-Fi
2 10 (19.23%) LAN
2 10 (19.23%) WAN
3 7 (13.46%) Firewall
3 7 (13.46%) VPN
4 3 (5.77%) TCP/IP
5 2 (3.85%) BGP
5 2 (3.85%) MPLS
5 2 (3.85%) SNMP
5 2 (3.85%) TACACS
5 2 (3.85%) Wireless
6 1 (1.92%) DHCP
6 1 (1.92%) DNS
6 1 (1.92%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (13.46%) Data Warehouse
1 7 (13.46%) Power BI
1 7 (13.46%) Power Query
2 6 (11.54%) ZAP BI
3 2 (3.85%) Crystal Reports
3 2 (3.85%) SQL Server
3 2 (3.85%) Tableau
4 1 (1.92%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (1.92%) Big Data
4 1 (1.92%) MongoDB
4 1 (1.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 30 (57.69%) Social Skills
2 12 (23.08%) Finance
3 8 (15.38%) Manufacturing
4 4 (7.69%) Public Sector
5 3 (5.77%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (5.77%) Local Government
5 3 (5.77%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (3.85%) Legal
6 2 (3.85%) Pharmaceutical
6 2 (3.85%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.92%) Agriculture
7 1 (1.92%) General Ledger
7 1 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 28 (53.85%) IT Support
2 9 (17.31%) Support Officer
3 7 (13.46%) Developer
4 6 (11.54%) Business Intelligence Developer
4 6 (11.54%) Power BI Developer
4 6 (11.54%) Report Developer
4 6 (11.54%) SQL BI Developer
4 6 (11.54%) SQL Developer
5 4 (7.69%) 1st Line Support
5 4 (7.69%) Sage Developer
6 3 (5.77%) Architect
6 3 (5.77%) Service Manager
7 2 (3.85%) 2nd Line Support
7 2 (3.85%) Administrator
7 2 (3.85%) Consultant
7 2 (3.85%) Crystal Reports Developer
7 2 (3.85%) Help Desk Administrator
7 2 (3.85%) Support Specialist
7 2 (3.85%) Tableau Developer
8 1 (1.92%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (9.62%) CSS
2 2 (3.85%) NETCONF
2 2 (3.85%) OpenConfig
2 2 (3.85%) RESTCONF
2 2 (3.85%) YANG
3 1 (1.92%) .NET
3 1 (1.92%) .NET Framework
3 1 (1.92%) ASP.NET
3 1 (1.92%) Express.js
3 1 (1.92%) MERN Stack
3 1 (1.92%) Node.js
3 1 (1.92%) React
3 1 (1.92%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 8 (15.38%) Driving Licence
2 3 (5.77%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (3.85%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (3.85%) Data Centre
3 2 (3.85%) Life Science
3 2 (3.85%) Onboarding
3 2 (3.85%) Private Cloud
3 2 (3.85%) Public Cloud
4 1 (1.92%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (1.92%) Data Structures
4 1 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
4 1 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 13 (25.00%) Windows
2 9 (17.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (46.15%) ITIL
2 16 (30.77%) Customer Service
2 16 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (19.23%) Continuous Improvement
3 10 (19.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 7 (13.46%) Analytics
4 7 (13.46%) Business Intelligence
4 7 (13.46%) Data Analysis
4 7 (13.46%) ETL
4 7 (13.46%) Proactive Monitoring
4 7 (13.46%) Requirements Gathering
4 7 (13.46%) User Experience
5 6 (11.54%) Customer Engagement
5 6 (11.54%) Data Lineage
5 6 (11.54%) Data Validation
5 6 (11.54%) Kalman Filter
5 6 (11.54%) Technology Transformation
5 6 (11.54%) Validation
6 4 (7.69%) Data Protection
6 4 (7.69%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 8 (15.38%) SQL
2 7 (13.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
3 6 (11.54%) VBA
4 2 (3.85%) Python
5 1 (1.92%) C#
Qualifications
1 2 (3.85%) CCIE
1 2 (3.85%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (3.85%) JNCIE
2 1 (1.92%) Azure Certification
2 1 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (1.92%) Degree
2 1 (1.92%) Master's Degree
2 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (13.46%) Data Quality
2 2 (3.85%) GMP
System Software
1 10 (19.23%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (3.85%) Ansible
1 2 (3.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (1.92%) Terraform
Vendors
1 6 (11.54%) Sage
2 3 (5.77%) Cisco
3 2 (3.85%) F5
3 2 (3.85%) Fortinet
3 2 (3.85%) Juniper
4 1 (1.92%) Databricks
4 1 (1.92%) Meraki