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 27 May 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
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 10
Rank change year-on-year -7 +7 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 182 149 153
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 10.41% 16.87% 10.78%
As % of the Vendors category 29.35% 35.82% 32.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 111 103
10th Percentile £190 £200 £272
25th Percentile £325 £337 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £442 £425 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.06% -10.53% -
75th Percentile £563 £530 £538
90th Percentile £601 £612 £649
North West median daily rate £433 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +1.76% -5.56% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 6 27
10th Percentile £19.63 - £11.79
25th Percentile £28.50 - £12.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £13.00 £13.78
Median % change year-on-year +130.77% -5.63% -17.12%
75th Percentile £178.75 - £25.25
90th Percentile - £23.00 £26.50
North West median hourly rate £25.38 £27.13 £14.50
% change year-on-year -6.43% +87.07% -45.28%

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 620 416 478
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 35.45% 47.11% 33.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 377 285 324
10th Percentile £300 £227 £325
25th Percentile £388 £400 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £473 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.74% -5.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £564 £596
90th Percentile £650 £665 £667
North West median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% -1.55% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 13 40
10th Percentile £22.63 - £11.79
25th Percentile £22.76 £13.00 £12.40
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.00 £16.45
Median % change year-on-year +17.19% +94.56% -38.51%
75th Percentile £72.06 £60.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.00 £60.00
North West median hourly rate £30.49 £31.76 £16.06
% change year-on-year -4.00% +97.76% -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 27 May 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 27 May 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 27 May 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 -6 4 £400 +110.53% 5
Salford -1 3 £334 -52.32% 13
Oldham +1 2 £205 +2.50% 2
Stockport -4 1 £155 -61.25% 2
Bury - 1 - - 1
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 21 (11.54%) SharePoint
2 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (4.95%) Confluence
4 2 (1.10%) Apache
4 2 (1.10%) Apache Spark
4 2 (1.10%) CMS
4 2 (1.10%) IIS
5 1 (0.55%) CICS
5 1 (0.55%) WebSphere
Applications
1 25 (13.74%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (10.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (4.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (4.40%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (2.75%) MS Visio
6 4 (2.20%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.55%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.55%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.55%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (2.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.65%) Elite 3E
2 3 (1.65%) Primavera
2 3 (1.65%) SAP MM
2 3 (1.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.10%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.55%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.55%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.55%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 72 (39.56%) Azure
2 52 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
3 28 (15.38%) Power Platform
4 26 (14.29%) Entra ID
5 22 (12.09%) Microsoft Copilot
6 19 (10.44%) AWS
7 16 (8.79%) Power Automate
8 15 (8.24%) Dynamics 365
8 15 (8.24%) PowerApps
9 13 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (5.49%) GCP
10 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Purview
11 8 (4.40%) OneDrive
11 8 (4.40%) Serverless
12 6 (3.30%) Azure AKS
13 5 (2.75%) Azure Logic Apps
14 4 (2.20%) Azure Functions
14 4 (2.20%) GitHub
14 4 (2.20%) OpenShift
15 3 (1.65%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.14%) Firewall
2 7 (3.85%) Network Security
3 6 (3.30%) DNS
4 4 (2.20%) TCP/IP
4 4 (2.20%) WAN
4 4 (2.20%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.65%) DHCP
6 2 (1.10%) LAN
6 2 (1.10%) SD-WAN
6 2 (1.10%) VPN
6 2 (1.10%) VSAN
7 1 (0.55%) BGP
7 1 (0.55%) Cisco ISE
7 1 (0.55%) Internet
7 1 (0.55%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.55%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.55%) NGFW
7 1 (0.55%) SSL
7 1 (0.55%) WebEx
7 1 (0.55%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.04%) Power BI
2 6 (3.30%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (3.30%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.75%) Relational Database
4 3 (1.65%) Metadata
4 3 (1.65%) MongoDB
4 3 (1.65%) NoSQL
4 3 (1.65%) Oracle Reports
4 3 (1.65%) RDBMS
5 2 (1.10%) BusinessObjects
5 2 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.55%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.55%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.55%) DataStage
6 1 (0.55%) EDRMS
6 1 (0.55%) Looker
6 1 (0.55%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 10 (5.49%) JIRA
2 6 (3.30%) Git
General
1 62 (34.07%) Social Skills
2 45 (24.73%) Finance
3 28 (15.38%) Public Sector
4 27 (14.84%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (10.44%) Banking
6 12 (6.59%) Legal
7 9 (4.95%) Telecoms
8 7 (3.85%) Manufacturing
8 7 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
9 6 (3.30%) Retail
10 4 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.65%) Law
12 2 (1.10%) Agriculture
12 2 (1.10%) Marketing
12 2 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.55%) Billing
13 1 (0.55%) Corporate Banking
13 1 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.55%) Local Government
13 1 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 33 (18.13%) Analyst
2 20 (10.99%) Architect
3 17 (9.34%) IT Support
4 15 (8.24%) Developer
5 14 (7.69%) Lead
6 13 (7.14%) Support Analyst
7 12 (6.59%) IT Analyst
8 11 (6.04%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Engineer
10 9 (4.95%) IT Support Analyst
10 9 (4.95%) Security Engineer
10 9 (4.95%) Senior
10 9 (4.95%) Support Engineer
11 7 (3.85%) IT Engineer
11 7 (3.85%) IT Support Engineer
12 6 (3.30%) Project Manager
12 6 (3.30%) Solutions Architect
13 5 (2.75%) Business Analyst
13 5 (2.75%) Java Developer
13 5 (2.75%) Microsoft Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.40%) REST
1 8 (4.40%) Spring
1 8 (4.40%) Spring Boot
2 5 (2.75%) .NET
3 4 (2.20%) Node.js
3 4 (2.20%) XML
4 3 (1.65%) JSON
4 3 (1.65%) Kafka
5 2 (1.10%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (1.10%) AWS CDK
5 2 (1.10%) Flash
5 2 (1.10%) HTML5 Canvas
5 2 (1.10%) LDAP
5 2 (1.10%) Microsoft Graph
5 2 (1.10%) Model Context Protocol
5 2 (1.10%) Next.js
5 2 (1.10%) OAuth
5 2 (1.10%) PySpark
5 2 (1.10%) React
5 2 (1.10%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.79%) Onboarding
2 12 (6.59%) Cloud Native
3 8 (4.40%) Security Posture
4 6 (3.30%) Data Centre
4 6 (3.30%) Product Ownership
5 5 (2.75%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.20%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (2.20%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.65%) Life Science
8 2 (1.10%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.10%) iPhone
8 2 (1.10%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.10%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.10%) Replication
8 2 (1.10%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 37 (20.33%) Windows
2 28 (15.38%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.59%) Linux
4 5 (2.75%) Unix
5 4 (2.20%) Mac OS
5 4 (2.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (2.20%) Windows Server
6 2 (1.10%) AIX
6 2 (1.10%) Solaris
6 2 (1.10%) VMS
6 2 (1.10%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.55%) HPUX
7 1 (0.55%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.55%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (18.68%) Agile
2 30 (16.48%) DevOps
2 30 (16.48%) ITIL
3 27 (14.84%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (13.74%) CI/CD
5 24 (13.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 23 (12.64%) Roadmaps
6 23 (12.64%) Stakeholder Management
7 18 (9.89%) Customer Service
7 18 (9.89%) Migration
8 17 (9.34%) Analytics
9 15 (8.24%) Change Management
10 14 (7.69%) AI
10 14 (7.69%) ERP
10 14 (7.69%) Identity Access Management
11 13 (7.14%) Cloud Security
11 13 (7.14%) Data Loss Prevention
11 13 (7.14%) Project Delivery
11 13 (7.14%) Risk Management
11 13 (7.14%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 24 (13.19%) SQL
2 21 (11.54%) Python
3 18 (9.89%) PowerShell
4 12 (6.59%) Java
5 7 (3.85%) Bash
6 5 (2.75%) C#
6 5 (2.75%) JavaScript
7 4 (2.20%) Bicep
8 3 (1.65%) TypeScript
9 2 (1.10%) VBA
10 1 (0.55%) C++
10 1 (0.55%) COBOL
10 1 (0.55%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 33 (18.13%) Degree
2 18 (9.89%) Microsoft Certification
3 12 (6.59%) Computer Science Degree
3 12 (6.59%) Security Cleared
4 10 (5.49%) A+ Certification
5 9 (4.95%) Network+ Certification
6 8 (4.40%) SC Cleared
7 6 (3.30%) Azure Certification
8 5 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (2.75%) CISSP
9 4 (2.20%) PMI Certification
10 3 (1.65%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (1.65%) PMP
11 2 (1.10%) AWS Certification
11 2 (1.10%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (1.10%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 1 (0.55%) CBAP
12 1 (0.55%) Chartered Engineer
12 1 (0.55%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.24%) GDPR
2 7 (3.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.30%) Accessibility
3 6 (3.30%) Data Quality
4 5 (2.75%) PMO
5 4 (2.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (1.65%) NIST
6 3 (1.65%) SLA
6 3 (1.65%) WCAG
7 2 (1.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (1.10%) HIPAA
7 2 (1.10%) QA
8 1 (0.55%) GRC
8 1 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.55%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.55%) SOC 2
System Software
1 46 (25.27%) Active Directory
2 17 (9.34%) Docker
3 5 (2.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.10%) GPFS
5 2 (1.10%) NFS
5 2 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.10%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 17 (9.34%) Kubernetes
1 17 (9.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.04%) Terraform
3 5 (2.75%) SCCM
4 2 (1.10%) AirWatch
4 2 (1.10%) Ansible
4 2 (1.10%) CASB
4 2 (1.10%) Grafana
4 2 (1.10%) Progress Chef
4 2 (1.10%) vRealize
4 2 (1.10%) VxRail
5 1 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.55%) Nessus
5 1 (0.55%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 11 (6.04%) SAP
2 9 (4.95%) Google
3 8 (4.40%) Oracle
4 7 (3.85%) Cisco
4 7 (3.85%) Red Hat
5 6 (3.30%) ServiceNow
5 6 (3.30%) VMware
6 5 (2.75%) Databricks
6 5 (2.75%) IBM
7 3 (1.65%) Citrix
7 3 (1.65%) HP
7 3 (1.65%) Salesforce
7 3 (1.65%) UiPath
8 2 (1.10%) Adobe
8 2 (1.10%) Bloomberg
8 2 (1.10%) Infoblox
8 2 (1.10%) Okta
8 2 (1.10%) Remedy
8 2 (1.10%) Splunk
8 2 (1.10%) Varonis