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 23 April 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 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 2 10
Rank change year-on-year -6 +8 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 194 187 173
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 11.68% 20.04% 11.31%
As % of the Vendors category 31.91% 40.74% 32.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 143 117
10th Percentile £198 £209 £251
25th Percentile £325 £348 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £427 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.22% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £538
90th Percentile £599 £700 £646
North West median daily rate £420 £447 £450
% change year-on-year -6.04% -0.67% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 7 30
10th Percentile £19.57 £13.00 £11.79
25th Percentile £22.38 £22.13 £12.21
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £14.27
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +127.83% -1.31%
75th Percentile £178.75 £33.75 £25.25
90th Percentile - - £26.50
North West median hourly rate £29.00 £28.75 £14.50
% change year-on-year +0.87% +98.28% -44.76%

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 608 459 539
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 36.60% 49.20% 35.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 399 318 368
10th Percentile £313 £297 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £474 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.26% -5.25% -
75th Percentile £578 £575 £598
90th Percentile £652 £700 £701
North West median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.15% -0.89% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 11 42
10th Percentile £19.75 £13.00 £11.81
25th Percentile £22.68 £31.25 £12.51
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +83.41% -45.64%
75th Percentile £78.75 £60.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £178.75 - £60.00
North West median hourly rate £38.16 £32.50 £16.06
% change year-on-year +17.42% +102.37% -57.17%

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 23 April 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 23 April 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 23 April 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 4 £400 +110.53% 6
Salford +3 3 £334 -53.39% 10
Oldham 0 3 £205 +2.50% 8
Stockport -1 2 £155 -61.25% 2
Rochdale - 1 - - 2
Bury - 1 - - 3
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 20 (10.31%) SharePoint
2 12 (6.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (4.64%) Confluence
4 3 (1.55%) Apache
5 2 (1.03%) Apache Spark
5 2 (1.03%) CMS
5 2 (1.03%) IIS
6 1 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.52%) CICS
6 1 (0.52%) SAS
Applications
1 28 (14.43%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (8.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (4.64%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (4.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (2.58%) MS Visio
6 4 (2.06%) Chatbot
7 2 (1.03%) Trello
8 1 (0.52%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.52%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 4 (2.06%) Advent Geneva
2 3 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.55%) Primavera
2 3 (1.55%) SAP MM
3 2 (1.03%) Dynamics AX
3 2 (1.03%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.52%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.52%) Maximo
4 1 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 73 (37.63%) Azure
2 54 (27.84%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (16.49%) Entra ID
4 29 (14.95%) Power Platform
5 17 (8.76%) AWS
6 16 (8.25%) Microsoft Copilot
7 14 (7.22%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (6.70%) Power Automate
9 12 (6.19%) PowerApps
10 11 (5.67%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (5.67%) GCP
10 11 (5.67%) Microsoft Purview
11 10 (5.15%) OneDrive
12 7 (3.61%) Serverless
13 6 (3.09%) Azure AKS
14 5 (2.58%) Azure Logic Apps
14 5 (2.58%) Google Analytics
14 5 (2.58%) Google Tag Manager
15 4 (2.06%) Azure Functions
15 4 (2.06%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.22%) Firewall
2 8 (4.12%) Network Security
3 6 (3.09%) DNS
4 4 (2.06%) WAN
4 4 (2.06%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.55%) DHCP
5 3 (1.55%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.55%) VPN
6 2 (1.03%) LAN
6 2 (1.03%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.52%) Cisco ISE
7 1 (0.52%) HTTP
7 1 (0.52%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.52%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.52%) NGFW
7 1 (0.52%) SSL
7 1 (0.52%) WebEx
7 1 (0.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (6.70%) Power BI
2 10 (5.15%) Relational Database
2 10 (5.15%) SQL Server
3 7 (3.61%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (2.06%) DB2
4 4 (2.06%) Metadata
4 4 (2.06%) MongoDB
4 4 (2.06%) MySQL
4 4 (2.06%) NoSQL
4 4 (2.06%) RDBMS
4 4 (2.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (1.55%) BigQuery
5 3 (1.55%) BusinessObjects
5 3 (1.55%) Looker
5 3 (1.55%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (1.03%) Data Lake
6 2 (1.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.52%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.52%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 13 (6.70%) JIRA
2 5 (2.58%) Git
3 1 (0.52%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 73 (37.63%) Social Skills
2 50 (25.77%) Finance
3 28 (14.43%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (14.43%) Public Sector
4 22 (11.34%) Banking
5 13 (6.70%) Legal
6 8 (4.12%) Telecoms
7 7 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.09%) Retail
9 4 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.06%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.55%) Law
11 2 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Agriculture
12 1 (0.52%) Billing
12 1 (0.52%) Local Government
12 1 (0.52%) Military
12 1 (0.52%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 34 (17.53%) Analyst
2 19 (9.79%) Developer
3 18 (9.28%) IT Support
4 16 (8.25%) Architect
5 14 (7.22%) Lead
6 12 (6.19%) Senior
7 11 (5.67%) IT Analyst
7 11 (5.67%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 11 (5.67%) Support Analyst
8 10 (5.15%) Microsoft Engineer
8 10 (5.15%) Support Engineer
9 9 (4.64%) Security Engineer
10 8 (4.12%) Administrator
10 8 (4.12%) IT Engineer
10 8 (4.12%) IT Support Analyst
10 8 (4.12%) IT Support Engineer
11 7 (3.61%) Consultant
11 7 (3.61%) Project Manager
12 5 (2.58%) Business Analyst
12 5 (2.58%) DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (4.64%) .NET
2 8 (4.12%) Spring
2 8 (4.12%) Spring Boot
3 7 (3.61%) REST
4 6 (3.09%) XML
5 5 (2.58%) Kafka
6 4 (2.06%) JSON
7 3 (1.55%) OAuth
8 2 (1.03%) ARM Templates
8 2 (1.03%) AWS CDK
8 2 (1.03%) HTML5 Canvas
8 2 (1.03%) LangChain
8 2 (1.03%) LDAP
8 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Graph
8 2 (1.03%) Node.js
8 2 (1.03%) PySpark
8 2 (1.03%) SAML
8 2 (1.03%) Software Packaging
9 1 (0.52%) PyTorch
9 1 (0.52%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.25%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.15%) Cloud Native
3 8 (4.12%) Security Posture
4 7 (3.61%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (3.09%) Data Centre
5 6 (3.09%) Product Ownership
6 5 (2.58%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.06%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (2.06%) Driving Licence
7 4 (2.06%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (1.03%) AI Agents
9 2 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.03%) iPhone
9 2 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.03%) Mainframe
10 1 (0.52%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 38 (19.59%) Windows
2 29 (14.95%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.19%) Linux
4 5 (2.58%) Unix
5 4 (2.06%) Mac OS
5 4 (2.06%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (1.03%) AIX
7 2 (1.03%) Solaris
7 2 (1.03%) VMS
7 2 (1.03%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.52%) HPUX
8 1 (0.52%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.52%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (16.49%) ITIL
2 30 (15.46%) Agile
3 28 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (12.89%) DevOps
5 23 (11.86%) CI/CD
5 23 (11.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 23 (11.86%) Stakeholder Management
6 19 (9.79%) Analytics
7 18 (9.28%) Migration
7 18 (9.28%) Roadmaps
8 17 (8.76%) Customer Service
9 16 (8.25%) Change Management
10 15 (7.73%) Business Intelligence
10 15 (7.73%) Identity Access Management
11 14 (7.22%) Data Protection
11 14 (7.22%) Risk Management
11 14 (7.22%) User Experience
12 13 (6.70%) Data Loss Prevention
12 13 (6.70%) Project Delivery
13 12 (6.19%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 29 (14.95%) SQL
2 21 (10.82%) PowerShell
3 18 (9.28%) Python
4 14 (7.22%) Java
5 6 (3.09%) Bash
5 6 (3.09%) JavaScript
6 5 (2.58%) Bicep
6 5 (2.58%) C#
7 3 (1.55%) TypeScript
8 2 (1.03%) COBOL
8 2 (1.03%) VBA
9 1 (0.52%) C++
9 1 (0.52%) CLIST
9 1 (0.52%) JCL
9 1 (0.52%) PHP
9 1 (0.52%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.52%) REXX
9 1 (0.52%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (13.92%) Degree
2 20 (10.31%) Microsoft Certification
3 12 (6.19%) Security Cleared
4 9 (4.64%) A+ Certification
5 8 (4.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (4.12%) Network+ Certification
5 8 (4.12%) SC Cleared
6 6 (3.09%) Azure Certification
7 5 (2.58%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.58%) CISSP
8 4 (2.06%) PMI Certification
9 3 (1.55%) PMP
10 2 (1.03%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.03%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.03%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (1.03%) MCSA
10 2 (1.03%) MCSE
10 2 (1.03%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (0.52%) Chartered Engineer
11 1 (0.52%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (8.76%) GDPR
2 11 (5.67%) Data Quality
3 9 (4.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (3.09%) Accessibility
4 6 (3.09%) QA
5 5 (2.58%) PMO
6 4 (2.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.55%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.55%) NIST
8 2 (1.03%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (1.03%) HIPAA
8 2 (1.03%) SLA
9 1 (0.52%) GRC
9 1 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.52%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.52%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.52%) WCAG
System Software
1 51 (26.29%) Active Directory
2 17 (8.76%) Docker
3 3 (1.55%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.52%) ACF2
5 1 (0.52%) RACF
5 1 (0.52%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 21 (10.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (8.76%) Kubernetes
3 7 (3.61%) Terraform
4 5 (2.58%) SCCM
5 2 (1.03%) AirWatch
5 2 (1.03%) CASB
5 2 (1.03%) Grafana
5 2 (1.03%) Progress Chef
5 2 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.52%) CA Endevor
6 1 (0.52%) Nessus
6 1 (0.52%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.52%) Tivoli
6 1 (0.52%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 11 (5.67%) Google
2 8 (4.12%) SAP
3 7 (3.61%) Oracle
4 6 (3.09%) Red Hat
5 4 (2.06%) Advent
5 4 (2.06%) Cisco
5 4 (2.06%) VMware
6 3 (1.55%) Citrix
6 3 (1.55%) HP
6 3 (1.55%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.03%) Adobe
7 2 (1.03%) Bloomberg
7 2 (1.03%) Databricks
7 2 (1.03%) IBM
7 2 (1.03%) Infoblox
7 2 (1.03%) Okta
7 2 (1.03%) Remedy
7 2 (1.03%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.03%) Splunk
7 2 (1.03%) Varonis