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 25 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
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 13
Rank change year-on-year -5 +10 -9
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 249 183 128
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.58% 17.91% 10.57%
As % of the Vendors category 32.01% 36.45% 27.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 123 92
10th Percentile £193 £209 £363
25th Percentile £352 £360 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £638
90th Percentile £596 £612 £674
North West median daily rate £450 £438 £475
% change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 25 7
10th Percentile £19.05 £13.00 £18.40
25th Percentile £25.88 £19.07 £24.25
Median hourly rate £29.50 £22.32 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.20% -25.62% +74.83%
75th Percentile £150.73 £22.63 £33.75
90th Percentile £178.75 £31.40 £40.50
North West median hourly rate £25.38 £22.32 £11.20
% change year-on-year +13.74% +99.33% -50.31%

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 778 502 460
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 39.31% 49.12% 37.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 449 318 284
10th Percentile £275 £307 £363
25th Percentile £375 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £613
90th Percentile £663 £700 £675
North West median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.63% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 35 21
10th Percentile £21.39 £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 £29.00 £25.15 £17.00
% change year-on-year +15.33% +47.91% -51.43%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -5 7 £160 -46.67% 11
Oldham +3 4 £205 - 4
Salford +3 2 £334 -16.56% 13
Rochdale - 2 - -
Bury - 1 - - 2
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 33 (13.25%) SharePoint
2 20 (8.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.81%) Confluence
3 7 (2.81%) SharePoint Server
4 2 (0.80%) Apache
4 2 (0.80%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.80%) CMS
4 2 (0.80%) IIS
5 1 (0.40%) CICS
5 1 (0.40%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.40%) WebSphere
Applications
1 28 (11.24%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (10.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (4.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (4.42%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.61%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.20%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.80%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.40%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.40%) Navisworks
7 1 (0.40%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.40%) Revit
Business Applications
1 5 (2.01%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.61%) Primavera
2 4 (1.61%) SAP MM
2 4 (1.61%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (1.20%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.80%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.40%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.40%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.40%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.40%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 102 (40.96%) Azure
2 94 (37.75%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (19.28%) Power Platform
4 44 (17.67%) Entra ID
5 30 (12.05%) Microsoft Copilot
6 23 (9.24%) AWS
7 20 (8.03%) Power Automate
8 18 (7.23%) Azure DevOps
9 17 (6.83%) PowerApps
10 15 (6.02%) OneDrive
11 12 (4.82%) GCP
12 11 (4.42%) Dynamics 365
13 9 (3.61%) Azure Monitor
14 8 (3.21%) Azure AI
15 7 (2.81%) Serverless
16 6 (2.41%) Azure Data Factory
17 5 (2.01%) GitHub
17 5 (2.01%) OpenShift
18 4 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
18 4 (1.61%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.82%) Firewall
2 10 (4.02%) VPN
3 9 (3.61%) DNS
4 7 (2.81%) SSL
5 6 (2.41%) Network Security
5 6 (2.41%) VLAN
6 5 (2.01%) DHCP
6 5 (2.01%) SAN
7 4 (1.61%) LAN
7 4 (1.61%) NAS
7 4 (1.61%) TCP/IP
7 4 (1.61%) WAN
8 3 (1.20%) Skype
9 2 (0.80%) BGP
9 2 (0.80%) PABX
9 2 (0.80%) SD-WAN
9 2 (0.80%) SMTP
9 2 (0.80%) VoIP
9 2 (0.80%) VSAN
9 2 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (12.05%) Power BI
2 23 (9.24%) SQL Server
3 13 (5.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 8 (3.21%) MySQL
5 7 (2.81%) Relational Database
6 5 (2.01%) Metadata
6 5 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (1.61%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.61%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.61%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.20%) NoSQL
8 3 (1.20%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (1.20%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.80%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.80%) Power Query
9 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.40%) Delta Lake
10 1 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 11 (4.42%) JIRA
2 7 (2.81%) Git
3 4 (1.61%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.20%) GitLab
5 2 (0.80%) MSI
5 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 82 (32.93%) Social Skills
2 62 (24.90%) Finance
3 35 (14.06%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (7.63%) Banking
5 17 (6.83%) Public Sector
6 13 (5.22%) Manufacturing
7 12 (4.82%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (4.02%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (2.81%) Telecoms
10 6 (2.41%) Legal
10 6 (2.41%) Retail
11 5 (2.01%) Games
11 5 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.61%) Marketing
13 3 (1.20%) Military
13 3 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.80%) Agriculture
14 2 (0.80%) Aviation
14 2 (0.80%) Billing
15 1 (0.40%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 28 (11.24%) IT Support
2 26 (10.44%) Support Engineer
3 24 (9.64%) Analyst
4 19 (7.63%) Architect
5 18 (7.23%) IT Engineer
5 18 (7.23%) IT Support Engineer
6 15 (6.02%) DBA
7 14 (5.62%) Lead
8 13 (5.22%) Designer
8 13 (5.22%) Developer
9 12 (4.82%) SQL DBA
10 11 (4.42%) Content Designer
11 10 (4.02%) IT Analyst
11 10 (4.02%) Senior
12 9 (3.61%) Support Analyst
13 8 (3.21%) Administrator
13 8 (3.21%) Consultant
13 8 (3.21%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 7 (2.81%) IT Support Analyst
14 7 (2.81%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.22%) Terraform
2 10 (4.02%) SAML
3 6 (2.41%) JSON
4 5 (2.01%) REST
5 4 (1.61%) Kafka
5 4 (1.61%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (1.61%) Node.js
5 4 (1.61%) Spring
5 4 (1.61%) Spring Boot
5 4 (1.61%) XML
6 3 (1.20%) .NET
6 3 (1.20%) React
6 3 (1.20%) Software Packaging
7 2 (0.80%) Flash
7 2 (0.80%) Model Context Protocol
7 2 (0.80%) Next.js
7 2 (0.80%) OAuth
7 2 (0.80%) ODBC
7 2 (0.80%) PySpark
7 2 (0.80%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 22 (8.84%) Onboarding
2 9 (3.61%) Cloud Native
2 9 (3.61%) Replication
3 8 (3.21%) Clustering
3 8 (3.21%) Data Centre
4 6 (2.41%) CMDB
4 6 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
4 6 (2.41%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.01%) Animation
5 5 (2.01%) Handset
5 5 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (2.01%) Product Ownership
6 4 (1.61%) Blackberry
6 4 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (1.61%) PKI
7 3 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.20%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.20%) Life Science
8 2 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 62 (24.90%) Windows
2 32 (12.85%) Windows 10
3 22 (8.84%) Windows Server
4 10 (4.02%) Linux
5 6 (2.41%) Unix
6 4 (1.61%) Android
6 4 (1.61%) VMS
7 3 (1.20%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.80%) AIX
8 2 (0.80%) Solaris
9 1 (0.40%) HPUX
9 1 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.40%) SUSE
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (23.29%) ITIL
2 39 (15.66%) Stakeholder Management
3 37 (14.86%) Problem-Solving
4 36 (14.46%) Agile
4 36 (14.46%) DevOps
5 29 (11.65%) Business Intelligence
5 29 (11.65%) CI/CD
6 28 (11.24%) Customer Service
7 26 (10.44%) Roadmaps
8 23 (9.24%) Analytics
9 22 (8.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 21 (8.43%) Migration
11 20 (8.03%) Infrastructure as Code
11 20 (8.03%) Service Management
12 19 (7.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 18 (7.23%) Data Modelling
13 18 (7.23%) ERP
13 18 (7.23%) Performance Tuning
14 17 (6.83%) AI
14 17 (6.83%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 42 (16.87%) SQL
2 34 (13.65%) PowerShell
3 24 (9.64%) Python
4 14 (5.62%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.41%) Bicep
5 6 (2.41%) Java
6 5 (2.01%) Bash
6 5 (2.01%) C#
7 4 (1.61%) JavaScript
8 3 (1.20%) VBScript
9 2 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
9 2 (0.80%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.40%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 43 (17.27%) Degree
2 37 (14.86%) Security Cleared
3 31 (12.45%) SC Cleared
4 25 (10.04%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (7.63%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (4.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (4.02%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.21%) A+ Certification
9 7 (2.81%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (2.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (1.61%) CISSP
11 4 (1.61%) DBS Check
12 3 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.80%) CCNA
13 2 (0.80%) GCFA
13 2 (0.80%) GCIH
13 2 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.80%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.80%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (7.63%) Data Quality
2 13 (5.22%) GDPR
3 8 (3.21%) SLA
4 6 (2.41%) PMO
4 6 (2.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (2.01%) Accessibility
5 5 (2.01%) NIST
5 5 (2.01%) WCAG
6 4 (1.61%) GRC
7 3 (1.20%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.20%) QA
8 2 (0.80%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.40%) ISO 19650
9 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.40%) SOC 2
System Software
1 73 (29.32%) Active Directory
2 15 (6.02%) Docker
3 9 (3.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (3.21%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.61%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.61%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.80%) GPFS
6 2 (0.80%) NFS
6 2 (0.80%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.80%) vSphere
7 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.40%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (12.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (6.02%) Kubernetes
3 10 (4.02%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (2.81%) Ansible
4 7 (2.81%) SCOM
5 6 (2.41%) SCCM
6 4 (1.61%) Grafana
6 4 (1.61%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.20%) CASB
8 2 (0.80%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.80%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.80%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.80%) vRealize
8 2 (0.80%) VxRail
9 1 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.40%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.40%) Puppet
9 1 (0.40%) WSUS
Vendors
1 23 (9.24%) ServiceNow
2 16 (6.43%) BeyondTrust
2 16 (6.43%) SAP
3 11 (4.42%) Oracle
4 10 (4.02%) VMware
5 9 (3.61%) Google
6 8 (3.21%) Databricks
7 7 (2.81%) Red Hat
7 7 (2.81%) Splunk
8 5 (2.01%) Cisco
8 5 (2.01%) IBM
8 5 (2.01%) Perforce
9 4 (1.61%) Adobe
9 4 (1.61%) UiPath
10 3 (1.20%) CyberArk
10 3 (1.20%) HP
10 3 (1.20%) Okta
10 3 (1.20%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.80%) Infoblox
11 2 (0.80%) Proofpoint