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 17 June 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 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 9
Rank change year-on-year -7 +6 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 198 161 167
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 10.73% 17.50% 11.31%
As % of the Vendors category 30.51% 37.53% 32.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 120 114
10th Percentile £185 £207 £281
25th Percentile £328 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £425 £481
Median % change year-on-year +4.65% -11.69% +1.32%
75th Percentile £540 £538 £575
90th Percentile £606 £613 £650
North West median daily rate £447 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.18% -10.53% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 6 29
10th Percentile £23.34 - £11.79
25th Percentile £28.50 - £12.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £13.00 £14.27
Median % change year-on-year +130.77% -8.87% -16.87%
75th Percentile £178.75 - £25.25
90th Percentile - £23.00 £28.20
North West median hourly rate £29.00 £27.13 £14.50
% change year-on-year +6.91% +87.07% -40.24%

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 649 429 518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 35.18% 46.63% 35.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 392 293 349
10th Percentile £275 £296 £325
25th Percentile £375 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £583 £575 £595
90th Percentile £675 £696 £663
North West median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 14 45
10th Percentile £22.63 - £11.87
25th Percentile £25.00 £13.00 £12.84
Median hourly rate £37.50 £41.49 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.62% +107.46% -1.73%
75th Percentile £77.00 £60.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £162.00 £68.13 £60.00
North West median hourly rate £30.25 £38.80 £16.06
% change year-on-year -22.04% +141.56% -45.19%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 -3 6 £400 +110.53% 15
Salford 0 3 £334 -52.32% 26
Oldham +2 2 £205 +2.50% 12
Stockport -4 1 £155 -61.25% 14
Bury - 1 - - 18
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 (10.10%) SharePoint
2 11 (5.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (4.55%) Confluence
4 2 (1.01%) Apache
4 2 (1.01%) Apache Spark
4 2 (1.01%) CMS
4 2 (1.01%) IIS
5 1 (0.51%) CICS
5 1 (0.51%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.51%) WebSphere
Applications
1 27 (13.64%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (10.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (5.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (5.05%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (3.54%) MS Visio
6 4 (2.02%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.51%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.51%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 6 (3.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (2.53%) Primavera
2 5 (2.53%) SAP MM
3 3 (1.52%) Elite 3E
3 3 (1.52%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (1.01%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.51%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.51%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 78 (39.39%) Azure
2 63 (31.82%) Microsoft 365
3 30 (15.15%) Microsoft Copilot
3 30 (15.15%) Power Platform
4 24 (12.12%) Entra ID
5 18 (9.09%) AWS
5 18 (9.09%) Power Automate
6 16 (8.08%) PowerApps
7 14 (7.07%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (7.07%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (5.05%) Microsoft Purview
9 8 (4.04%) GCP
9 8 (4.04%) Serverless
10 7 (3.54%) OneDrive
11 6 (3.03%) Azure AKS
12 5 (2.53%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (2.53%) OpenShift
13 4 (2.02%) Azure Functions
13 4 (2.02%) GitHub
14 3 (1.52%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.06%) Firewall
2 7 (3.54%) Network Security
3 5 (2.53%) DNS
4 4 (2.02%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.52%) VPN
5 3 (1.52%) WAN
6 2 (1.01%) DHCP
6 2 (1.01%) LAN
6 2 (1.01%) VSAN
6 2 (1.01%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.51%) BGP
7 1 (0.51%) Internet
7 1 (0.51%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.51%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.51%) NAS
7 1 (0.51%) NGFW
7 1 (0.51%) SAN
7 1 (0.51%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.51%) SSL
7 1 (0.51%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.06%) Power BI
2 10 (5.05%) SQL Server
3 7 (3.54%) Relational Database
4 6 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (3.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (1.52%) Metadata
5 3 (1.52%) MongoDB
5 3 (1.52%) NoSQL
5 3 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
5 3 (1.52%) RDBMS
6 2 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (1.01%) BusinessObjects
6 2 (1.01%) Data Lake
6 2 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (1.01%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 2 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.51%) DataStage
7 1 (0.51%) MS Access
7 1 (0.51%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 13 (6.57%) JIRA
2 6 (3.03%) Git
General
1 64 (32.32%) Social Skills
2 45 (22.73%) Finance
3 31 (15.66%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (14.14%) Public Sector
5 18 (9.09%) Banking
6 12 (6.06%) Legal
6 12 (6.06%) Manufacturing
7 9 (4.55%) Telecoms
8 8 (4.04%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (3.54%) Retail
10 4 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.52%) Marketing
12 2 (1.01%) Agriculture
12 2 (1.01%) Law
13 1 (0.51%) Aviation
13 1 (0.51%) Games
13 1 (0.51%) Local Government
13 1 (0.51%) Military
13 1 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.51%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 33 (16.67%) Analyst
2 19 (9.60%) Developer
2 19 (9.60%) IT Support
3 18 (9.09%) Architect
4 13 (6.57%) Support Analyst
5 12 (6.06%) Designer
5 12 (6.06%) IT Analyst
5 12 (6.06%) Lead
6 11 (5.56%) Content Designer
6 11 (5.56%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
6 11 (5.56%) Support Engineer
7 10 (5.05%) Microsoft Engineer
8 9 (4.55%) IT Engineer
8 9 (4.55%) IT Support Analyst
8 9 (4.55%) IT Support Engineer
8 9 (4.55%) Security Engineer
9 8 (4.04%) Senior
10 7 (3.54%) Solutions Architect
11 6 (3.03%) Java Developer
11 6 (3.03%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (4.55%) Spring
1 9 (4.55%) Spring Boot
2 8 (4.04%) REST
3 7 (3.54%) .NET
4 4 (2.02%) Node.js
4 4 (2.02%) XML
5 3 (1.52%) JSON
5 3 (1.52%) Kafka
6 2 (1.01%) A2A Protocol
6 2 (1.01%) ARM Templates
6 2 (1.01%) AWS CDK
6 2 (1.01%) Flash
6 2 (1.01%) HTML5 Canvas
6 2 (1.01%) LDAP
6 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Graph
6 2 (1.01%) Model Context Protocol
6 2 (1.01%) Next.js
6 2 (1.01%) OAuth
6 2 (1.01%) React
6 2 (1.01%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.09%) Onboarding
2 13 (6.57%) Cloud Native
3 8 (4.04%) Security Posture
4 7 (3.54%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.03%) Product Ownership
6 5 (2.53%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.53%) Data Centre
6 5 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (2.02%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (2.02%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (1.52%) Life Science
9 2 (1.01%) Clustering
9 2 (1.01%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.01%) iPhone
9 2 (1.01%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.01%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.01%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 36 (18.18%) Windows
2 26 (13.13%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.06%) Linux
4 5 (2.53%) Unix
4 5 (2.53%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.52%) VMS
7 2 (1.01%) AIX
7 2 (1.01%) Solaris
7 2 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.51%) HPUX
8 1 (0.51%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.51%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (18.18%) DevOps
2 34 (17.17%) Agile
3 32 (16.16%) CI/CD
4 30 (15.15%) ITIL
4 30 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
5 26 (13.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 21 (10.61%) Customer Service
7 20 (10.10%) Roadmaps
7 20 (10.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 19 (9.60%) Migration
9 14 (7.07%) AI
9 14 (7.07%) Change Management
9 14 (7.07%) Cloud Security
9 14 (7.07%) Data Loss Prevention
10 13 (6.57%) Analytics
10 13 (6.57%) Business Intelligence
10 13 (6.57%) Containerisation
11 12 (6.06%) Computer Science
11 12 (6.06%) ERP
11 12 (6.06%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (14.14%) SQL
2 23 (11.62%) Python
3 18 (9.09%) PowerShell
4 13 (6.57%) Java
5 7 (3.54%) C#
6 5 (2.53%) Bicep
6 5 (2.53%) JavaScript
7 4 (2.02%) Bash
7 4 (2.02%) T-SQL
8 3 (1.52%) TypeScript
9 2 (1.01%) VBA
10 1 (0.51%) C++
10 1 (0.51%) COBOL
10 1 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.51%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 37 (18.69%) Degree
2 19 (9.60%) Microsoft Certification
3 15 (7.58%) Security Cleared
4 12 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
4 12 (6.06%) SC Cleared
5 10 (5.05%) A+ Certification
6 9 (4.55%) Network+ Certification
7 6 (3.03%) Azure Certification
7 6 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (2.53%) CISSP
9 3 (1.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 3 (1.52%) PMI Certification
10 2 (1.01%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.01%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (1.01%) Numerate Degree
10 2 (1.01%) PMP
10 2 (1.01%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (0.51%) Chartered Engineer
11 1 (0.51%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.57%) GDPR
2 8 (4.04%) Accessibility
2 8 (4.04%) Data Quality
3 6 (3.03%) PMO
3 6 (3.03%) WCAG
4 4 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.52%) NIST
5 3 (1.52%) SLA
6 2 (1.01%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (1.01%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.51%) GRC
7 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (0.51%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.51%) QA
7 1 (0.51%) SOC 2
System Software
1 46 (23.23%) Active Directory
2 18 (9.09%) Docker
3 3 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.01%) GPFS
4 2 (1.01%) NFS
4 2 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.01%) vSphere
5 1 (0.51%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 18 (9.09%) Kubernetes
2 14 (7.07%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (6.57%) Terraform
4 3 (1.52%) Grafana
5 2 (1.01%) AirWatch
5 2 (1.01%) Ansible
5 2 (1.01%) CASB
5 2 (1.01%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.01%) Progress Chef
5 2 (1.01%) SCCM
5 2 (1.01%) vRealize
5 2 (1.01%) VxRail
6 1 (0.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.51%) Nessus
6 1 (0.51%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 14 (7.07%) SAP
2 9 (4.55%) ServiceNow
3 7 (3.54%) Oracle
3 7 (3.54%) Red Hat
4 6 (3.03%) Cisco
5 5 (2.53%) Databricks
5 5 (2.53%) Google
5 5 (2.53%) IBM
6 4 (2.02%) Salesforce
6 4 (2.02%) VMware
7 3 (1.52%) HP
7 3 (1.52%) Splunk
7 3 (1.52%) UiPath
8 2 (1.01%) Adobe
8 2 (1.01%) Bloomberg
8 2 (1.01%) Infoblox
8 2 (1.01%) Okta
8 2 (1.01%) Remedy
8 2 (1.01%) Varonis
9 1 (0.51%) Informatica