Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Microsoft
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Manchester 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 21 September 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
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 13
Rank change year-on-year -6 +10 -10
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 247 179 118
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.53% 17.92% 9.98%
As % of the Vendors category 33.11% 36.98% 24.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 122 83
10th Percentile £192 £252 £358
25th Percentile £356 £353 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £450 £488
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -7.69% +14.71%
75th Percentile £525 £547 £638
90th Percentile £604 £635 £673
North West median daily rate £466 £438 £450
% change year-on-year +6.51% -2.78% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 30 7
10th Percentile £19.00 £13.00 £18.40
25th Percentile £26.33 £19.07 £24.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £22.32 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +34.44% -25.62% +74.83%
75th Percentile £178.75 £31.40 £33.75
90th Percentile - £31.49 £40.50
North West median hourly rate £25.69 £22.32 £30.50
% change year-on-year +15.12% -26.84% +35.38%

All Vendors
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 746 484 477
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 37.83% 48.45% 40.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 423 311 277
10th Percentile £269 £311 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.63% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £585 £602 £600
90th Percentile £663 £713 £675
North West median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 40 16
10th Percentile £20.25 £13.00 £15.81
25th Percentile £24.19 £19.07 £19.21
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.47 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.87% -25.09% +69.30%
75th Percentile £76.00 £31.40 £44.06
90th Percentile £87.50 £56.32 £74.38
North West median hourly rate £29.96 £22.63 £35.36
% change year-on-year +32.39% -36.00% +1.03%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Manchester

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Manchester over the 6 months to 21 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Manchester

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Manchester

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Manchester over the 6 months to 21 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Manchester

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 21 September 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
Bolton -4 7 £160 -59.62% 16
Oldham +3 4 - - 14
Rochdale - 2 - - 5
Salford +3 1 £168 -58.13% 8
Bury - 1 - - 5
Microsoft
North West

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 45 (18.22%) SharePoint
2 25 (10.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (5.67%) SharePoint Server
4 3 (1.21%) Confluence
5 1 (0.40%) CMS
5 1 (0.40%) IIS
5 1 (0.40%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.40%) WebSphere
Applications
1 30 (12.15%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (10.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (4.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (4.05%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.62%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.21%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.81%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.81%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.81%) Revit
7 1 (0.40%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.40%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 4 (1.62%) Dynamics CRM
1 4 (1.62%) Primavera
1 4 (1.62%) SAP MM
1 4 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.81%) Dynamics AX
2 2 (0.81%) Elite 3E
2 2 (0.81%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.40%) Adobe Campaign
3 1 (0.40%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.40%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 105 (42.51%) Azure
2 101 (40.89%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (24.70%) Power Platform
4 39 (15.79%) Entra ID
5 35 (14.17%) Microsoft Copilot
6 27 (10.93%) Power Automate
7 25 (10.12%) PowerApps
8 21 (8.50%) OneDrive
9 19 (7.69%) AWS
9 19 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
10 15 (6.07%) Azure AI
11 13 (5.26%) Dynamics 365
12 12 (4.86%) GCP
13 11 (4.45%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
15 5 (2.02%) OpenShift
16 3 (1.21%) GitHub
16 3 (1.21%) SaaS
16 3 (1.21%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 3 (1.21%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.45%) SSL
2 9 (3.64%) VPN
3 7 (2.83%) DNS
3 7 (2.83%) Firewall
4 6 (2.43%) VLAN
5 5 (2.02%) SAN
5 5 (2.02%) Skype
6 4 (1.62%) DHCP
6 4 (1.62%) NAS
7 3 (1.21%) LAN
7 3 (1.21%) Network Security
7 3 (1.21%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.81%) BGP
8 2 (0.81%) PABX
8 2 (0.81%) SMTP
8 2 (0.81%) VoIP
8 2 (0.81%) VSAN
8 2 (0.81%) WAN
9 1 (0.40%) Ethernet VPN
9 1 (0.40%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (14.57%) Power BI
2 24 (9.72%) SQL Server
3 15 (6.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 13 (5.26%) MySQL
5 5 (2.02%) Metadata
6 4 (1.62%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.62%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.62%) Power Query
7 2 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.81%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.40%) Delta Lake
8 1 (0.40%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 8 (3.24%) JIRA
2 5 (2.02%) Git
3 4 (1.62%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.62%) MSI
4 3 (1.21%) GitLab
5 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.40%) MSTest
6 1 (0.40%) NUnit
6 1 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 78 (31.58%) Social Skills
2 50 (20.24%) Finance
3 35 (14.17%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (6.07%) Public Sector
5 14 (5.67%) Manufacturing
6 12 (4.86%) Banking
6 12 (4.86%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.83%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.02%) Games
8 5 (2.02%) Legal
8 5 (2.02%) Military
8 5 (2.02%) Retail
9 4 (1.62%) Marketing
10 3 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.81%) Agriculture
11 2 (0.81%) Aviation
11 2 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.40%) Billing
12 1 (0.40%) Law
Job Titles
1 28 (11.34%) IT Support
2 25 (10.12%) Support Engineer
3 23 (9.31%) Analyst
3 23 (9.31%) Developer
4 18 (7.29%) IT Engineer
4 18 (7.29%) IT Support Engineer
5 17 (6.88%) DBA
5 17 (6.88%) SQL DBA
6 16 (6.48%) Architect
7 13 (5.26%) Lead
8 12 (4.86%) Designer
8 12 (4.86%) SharePoint Developer
9 11 (4.45%) Administrator
9 11 (4.45%) Content Designer
10 10 (4.05%) IT Analyst
10 10 (4.05%) Senior
10 10 (4.05%) Support Analyst
11 9 (3.64%) Consultant
12 8 (3.24%) Solutions Architect
13 7 (2.83%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.05%) Terraform
2 9 (3.64%) SAML
3 4 (1.62%) .NET
3 4 (1.62%) REST
3 4 (1.62%) Software Packaging
4 3 (1.21%) A2A Protocol
4 3 (1.21%) JSON
4 3 (1.21%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (1.21%) Model Context Protocol
4 3 (1.21%) React
5 2 (0.81%) Flash
5 2 (0.81%) Kafka
5 2 (0.81%) Next.js
5 2 (0.81%) Node.js
5 2 (0.81%) ODBC
5 2 (0.81%) PySpark
5 2 (0.81%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.40%) OAuth
6 1 (0.40%) WPF
6 1 (0.40%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.12%) Onboarding
2 13 (5.26%) Replication
3 12 (4.86%) Clustering
4 8 (3.24%) Management Information System
5 7 (2.83%) Cloud Native
5 7 (2.83%) Handset
6 6 (2.43%) Blackberry
6 6 (2.43%) CMDB
6 6 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (2.02%) Animation
7 5 (2.02%) Data Centre
7 5 (2.02%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (2.02%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.62%) PKI
9 3 (1.21%) Driving Licence
9 3 (1.21%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (1.21%) Life Science
10 2 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 63 (25.51%) Windows
2 27 (10.93%) Windows 10
3 24 (9.72%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.24%) Linux
5 6 (2.43%) Android
6 5 (2.02%) Unix
7 3 (1.21%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.21%) VMS
8 2 (0.81%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.40%) AIX
9 1 (0.40%) HPUX
9 1 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.40%) Solaris
9 1 (0.40%) SUSE
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (23.89%) ITIL
2 41 (16.60%) Stakeholder Management
3 39 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
4 35 (14.17%) Business Intelligence
5 34 (13.77%) DevOps
6 29 (11.74%) Agile
6 29 (11.74%) Customer Service
7 26 (10.53%) Roadmaps
8 23 (9.31%) Performance Tuning
9 22 (8.91%) CI/CD
9 22 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
10 21 (8.50%) Analytics
11 19 (7.69%) Service Management
12 18 (7.29%) Data Modelling
13 17 (6.88%) AI
13 17 (6.88%) Migration
13 17 (6.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 17 (6.88%) Technical Leadership
14 15 (6.07%) ERP
14 15 (6.07%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 42 (17.00%) SQL
2 37 (14.98%) PowerShell
3 20 (8.10%) Python
4 18 (7.29%) T-SQL
5 7 (2.83%) C#
6 4 (1.62%) Bash
6 4 (1.62%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.21%) Bicep
7 3 (1.21%) Java
7 3 (1.21%) VBScript
8 2 (0.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.81%) Search Processing Language
9 1 (0.40%) Go
9 1 (0.40%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 51 (20.65%) Degree
2 45 (18.22%) Security Cleared
3 36 (14.57%) SC Cleared
4 34 (13.77%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (8.91%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (5.26%) Azure Certification
7 11 (4.45%) Computer Science Degree
8 10 (4.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (3.24%) A+ Certification
10 7 (2.83%) Network+ Certification
11 4 (1.62%) DBS Check
12 3 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (1.21%) CISSP
12 3 (1.21%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.81%) CCNA
13 2 (0.81%) GCFA
13 2 (0.81%) GCIH
13 2 (0.81%) Numerate Degree
13 2 (0.81%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.81%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.29%) Data Quality
2 9 (3.64%) SLA
3 8 (3.24%) GDPR
4 5 (2.02%) Accessibility
4 5 (2.02%) PMO
4 5 (2.02%) WCAG
5 4 (1.62%) GRC
5 4 (1.62%) QA
6 2 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.81%) ISO 19650
6 2 (0.81%) NIST
6 2 (0.81%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 64 (25.91%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.05%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (3.64%) Docker
3 9 (3.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.62%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.21%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.81%) GPFS
6 2 (0.81%) NFS
6 2 (0.81%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.81%) vSphere
7 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 30 (12.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (4.86%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (4.45%) SCOM
4 9 (3.64%) Kubernetes
4 9 (3.64%) SCCM
5 7 (2.83%) Ansible
6 4 (1.62%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.21%) Grafana
8 2 (0.81%) CASB
8 2 (0.81%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.81%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.81%) vRealize
8 2 (0.81%) VxRail
9 1 (0.40%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.40%) Puppet
9 1 (0.40%) WSUS
Vendors
1 27 (10.93%) ServiceNow
2 19 (7.69%) BeyondTrust
3 14 (5.67%) SAP
4 9 (3.64%) Google
4 9 (3.64%) VMware
5 8 (3.24%) Databricks
5 8 (3.24%) Oracle
6 7 (2.83%) Splunk
7 6 (2.43%) Red Hat
8 5 (2.02%) Cisco
8 5 (2.02%) CyberArk
8 5 (2.02%) Perforce
9 4 (1.62%) Adobe
9 4 (1.62%) Citrix
9 4 (1.62%) IBM
9 4 (1.62%) Okta
9 4 (1.62%) UiPath
10 3 (1.21%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.81%) Apple
11 2 (0.81%) Autodesk