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 20 August 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 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 13
Rank change year-on-year -4 +10 -9
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 257 180 122
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 13.08% 17.60% 10.19%
As % of the Vendors category 32.95% 35.79% 26.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 120 89
10th Percentile £193 £208 £363
25th Percentile £357 £360 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £525 £552 £638
90th Percentile £600 £638 £665
North West median daily rate £450 £437 £475
% change year-on-year +2.92% -7.95% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 25 7
10th Percentile £19.46 £13.00 £18.40
25th Percentile £28.50 £19.07 £24.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £22.32 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +34.44% -25.62% +71.82%
75th Percentile £178.75 £22.63 £33.75
90th Percentile - £31.40 £40.50
North West median hourly rate £25.69 £22.32 £16.06
% change year-on-year +15.12% +38.95% -28.72%

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 780 503 456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 39.69% 49.17% 38.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 451 318 282
10th Percentile £275 £307 £363
25th Percentile £378 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £584 £612 £602
90th Percentile £663 £701 £675
North West median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 35 21
10th Percentile £22.63 £13.00 £15.63
25th Percentile £24.19 £19.07 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.32 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.05% -28.02% +74.94%
75th Percentile £70.00 £30.77 £60.00
90th Percentile £87.00 £62.25 £97.50
North West median hourly rate £29.48 £26.26 £16.06
% change year-on-year +12.26% +63.51% -51.33%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 20 August 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 8 £160 -46.67% 11
Oldham +3 4 £205 - 5
Salford +1 2 £334 -16.56% 12
Rochdale - 2 - - 5
Bury - 1 - - 4
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 40 (15.56%) SharePoint
2 25 (9.73%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (3.11%) Confluence
4 7 (2.72%) SharePoint Server
5 2 (0.78%) Apache
5 2 (0.78%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.78%) CMS
5 2 (0.78%) IIS
6 1 (0.39%) CICS
6 1 (0.39%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.39%) WebSphere
Applications
1 29 (11.28%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (10.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (4.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (4.28%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.56%) Chatbot
4 4 (1.56%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.78%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.39%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.39%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.39%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.39%) Revit
Business Applications
1 5 (1.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.56%) Primavera
2 4 (1.56%) SAP MM
2 4 (1.56%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (1.17%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.78%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.39%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.39%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.39%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.39%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 111 (43.19%) Azure
2 100 (38.91%) Microsoft 365
3 54 (21.01%) Power Platform
4 49 (19.07%) Entra ID
5 36 (14.01%) Microsoft Copilot
6 26 (10.12%) Power Automate
7 25 (9.73%) AWS
8 23 (8.95%) PowerApps
9 20 (7.78%) OneDrive
10 19 (7.39%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (4.67%) Dynamics 365
11 12 (4.67%) GCP
12 10 (3.89%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (3.11%) Azure AI
13 8 (3.11%) Serverless
14 6 (2.33%) Azure Data Factory
14 6 (2.33%) GitHub
14 6 (2.33%) OpenShift
15 5 (1.95%) Azure Logic Apps
15 5 (1.95%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 13 (5.06%) Firewall
2 10 (3.89%) VPN
3 8 (3.11%) DNS
4 7 (2.72%) SSL
5 6 (2.33%) Network Security
5 6 (2.33%) VLAN
6 5 (1.95%) DHCP
6 5 (1.95%) SAN
7 4 (1.56%) LAN
7 4 (1.56%) NAS
7 4 (1.56%) TCP/IP
7 4 (1.56%) WAN
8 3 (1.17%) Skype
9 2 (0.78%) BGP
9 2 (0.78%) PABX
9 2 (0.78%) SD-WAN
9 2 (0.78%) SMTP
9 2 (0.78%) VoIP
9 2 (0.78%) VSAN
9 2 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (11.67%) Power BI
2 23 (8.95%) SQL Server
3 13 (5.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 8 (3.11%) MySQL
5 7 (2.72%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.33%) Metadata
7 5 (1.95%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.56%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (1.56%) MongoDB
9 3 (1.17%) NoSQL
9 3 (1.17%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (1.17%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.78%) Power Query
10 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.39%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.39%) Delta Lake
11 1 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 12 (4.67%) JIRA
2 8 (3.11%) Git
3 4 (1.56%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.17%) GitLab
5 2 (0.78%) MSI
5 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 83 (32.30%) Social Skills
2 64 (24.90%) Finance
3 35 (13.62%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (8.17%) Public Sector
5 19 (7.39%) Banking
6 13 (5.06%) Manufacturing
7 11 (4.28%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (3.89%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (3.11%) Legal
10 7 (2.72%) Retail
10 7 (2.72%) Telecoms
11 6 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (1.95%) Games
13 4 (1.56%) Marketing
14 3 (1.17%) Military
14 3 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.78%) Agriculture
15 2 (0.78%) Aviation
15 2 (0.78%) Billing
15 2 (0.78%) Law
Job Titles
1 28 (10.89%) IT Support
2 26 (10.12%) Analyst
2 26 (10.12%) Support Engineer
3 19 (7.39%) Architect
4 18 (7.00%) IT Engineer
4 18 (7.00%) IT Support Engineer
5 15 (5.84%) DBA
6 14 (5.45%) Lead
7 13 (5.06%) Designer
7 13 (5.06%) Developer
7 13 (5.06%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
8 12 (4.67%) SQL DBA
9 11 (4.28%) Content Designer
9 11 (4.28%) Senior
10 10 (3.89%) IT Analyst
11 9 (3.50%) Microsoft Engineer
11 9 (3.50%) Support Analyst
12 8 (3.11%) Administrator
12 8 (3.11%) Consultant
13 7 (2.72%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (5.84%) Terraform
2 10 (3.89%) SAML
3 6 (2.33%) JSON
4 5 (1.95%) REST
5 4 (1.56%) Kafka
5 4 (1.56%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (1.56%) Node.js
5 4 (1.56%) Spring
5 4 (1.56%) Spring Boot
5 4 (1.56%) XML
6 3 (1.17%) .NET
6 3 (1.17%) React
7 2 (0.78%) ARM Templates
7 2 (0.78%) Flash
7 2 (0.78%) Next.js
7 2 (0.78%) OAuth
7 2 (0.78%) ODBC
7 2 (0.78%) PySpark
7 2 (0.78%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.78%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 23 (8.95%) Onboarding
2 10 (3.89%) Cloud Native
3 8 (3.11%) Clustering
3 8 (3.11%) Data Centre
3 8 (3.11%) Replication
4 7 (2.72%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (2.72%) Management Information System
5 6 (2.33%) CMDB
6 5 (1.95%) Animation
6 5 (1.95%) Handset
6 5 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.95%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.56%) Blackberry
7 4 (1.56%) Driving Licence
7 4 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.56%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.17%) Life Science
8 3 (1.17%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.17%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 62 (24.12%) Windows
2 32 (12.45%) Windows 10
3 22 (8.56%) Windows Server
4 12 (4.67%) Linux
5 6 (2.33%) Unix
6 4 (1.56%) Android
6 4 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.56%) VMS
7 3 (1.17%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.78%) AIX
8 2 (0.78%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.78%) Solaris
9 1 (0.39%) HPUX
9 1 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.39%) SUSE
9 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (22.18%) ITIL
2 38 (14.79%) DevOps
2 38 (14.79%) Problem-Solving
2 38 (14.79%) Stakeholder Management
3 37 (14.40%) Agile
4 31 (12.06%) Roadmaps
5 30 (11.67%) Business Intelligence
5 30 (11.67%) CI/CD
6 29 (11.28%) Customer Service
7 24 (9.34%) Analytics
7 24 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 23 (8.95%) Migration
9 21 (8.17%) Knowledge Transfer
10 20 (7.78%) Infrastructure as Code
10 20 (7.78%) Service Management
11 19 (7.39%) Data Modelling
12 18 (7.00%) AI
12 18 (7.00%) ERP
12 18 (7.00%) Performance Tuning
13 17 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 43 (16.73%) SQL
2 35 (13.62%) PowerShell
3 27 (10.51%) Python
4 14 (5.45%) T-SQL
5 7 (2.72%) Bicep
5 7 (2.72%) Java
6 6 (2.33%) Bash
7 5 (1.95%) C#
8 4 (1.56%) JavaScript
9 3 (1.17%) VBScript
10 2 (0.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.78%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.78%) Search Processing Language
10 2 (0.78%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.39%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 47 (18.29%) Degree
2 36 (14.01%) Security Cleared
3 31 (12.06%) SC Cleared
4 25 (9.73%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (8.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (4.67%) Azure Certification
7 11 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (3.11%) A+ Certification
9 7 (2.72%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (2.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (1.95%) DBS Check
12 4 (1.56%) CISSP
13 3 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
13 3 (1.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 3 (1.17%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.78%) CCNA
14 2 (0.78%) GCFA
14 2 (0.78%) GCIH
14 2 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (0.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.78%) Data Quality
2 14 (5.45%) GDPR
3 8 (3.11%) SLA
4 7 (2.72%) PMO
5 6 (2.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (1.95%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.95%) NIST
6 5 (1.95%) WCAG
7 4 (1.56%) GRC
8 3 (1.17%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.17%) QA
9 2 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.39%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.39%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.39%) ISO 19650
10 1 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.39%) SOC 2
System Software
1 78 (30.35%) Active Directory
2 17 (6.61%) Docker
3 9 (3.50%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (3.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.56%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.78%) GPFS
6 2 (0.78%) NFS
6 2 (0.78%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.78%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.78%) vSphere
7 1 (0.39%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.39%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.39%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 31 (12.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (6.61%) Kubernetes
3 10 (3.89%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (2.72%) Ansible
4 7 (2.72%) SCOM
5 5 (1.95%) Progress Chef
5 5 (1.95%) SCCM
6 4 (1.56%) Grafana
7 3 (1.17%) CASB
8 2 (0.78%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.78%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.78%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.78%) vRealize
8 2 (0.78%) VxRail
9 1 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.39%) Puppet
9 1 (0.39%) WSUS
Vendors
1 23 (8.95%) ServiceNow
2 16 (6.23%) SAP
3 15 (5.84%) BeyondTrust
4 11 (4.28%) Oracle
5 10 (3.89%) VMware
6 9 (3.50%) Databricks
6 9 (3.50%) Google
7 8 (3.11%) Red Hat
8 7 (2.72%) Splunk
9 5 (1.95%) Cisco
9 5 (1.95%) IBM
9 5 (1.95%) Perforce
10 4 (1.56%) Adobe
10 4 (1.56%) Salesforce
10 4 (1.56%) UiPath
11 3 (1.17%) HP
11 3 (1.17%) Okta
12 2 (0.78%) Bloomberg
12 2 (0.78%) Citrix
12 2 (0.78%) Clearswift