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 30 July 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
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 10
Rank change year-on-year -4 +7 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 241 166 145
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.25% 16.75% 11.50%
As % of the Vendors category 32.48% 35.17% 31.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 110 109
10th Percentile £193 £208 £311
25th Percentile £370 £360 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £525 £555 £600
90th Percentile £596 £638 £650
North West median daily rate £450 £440 £463
% change year-on-year +2.27% -4.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 21 8
10th Percentile £24.92 £13.00 £14.97
25th Percentile £28.50 £18.87 £15.92
Median hourly rate £30.00 £22.32 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year +34.44% -12.49% +48.60%
75th Percentile £178.75 £22.63 £38.44
90th Percentile - - £54.79
North West median hourly rate £29.00 £22.47 £16.06
% change year-on-year +29.05% +39.93% -27.87%

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 742 472 461
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 37.72% 47.63% 36.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 438 292 303
10th Percentile £275 £300 £350
25th Percentile £395 £400 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -4.10% -
75th Percentile £575 £612 £600
90th Percentile £650 £716 £675
North West median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 31 25
10th Percentile £22.63 £13.00 £14.23
25th Percentile £24.19 £18.97 £16.85
Median hourly rate £33.75 £22.32 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +51.24% -28.02% +74.94%
75th Percentile £72.81 £24.59 £60.00
90th Percentile £88.25 £60.00 £86.05
North West median hourly rate £29.96 £28.59 £16.06
% change year-on-year +4.79% +78.02% -44.62%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 30 July 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 £400 +63.27% 11
Oldham +2 2 £205 +2.50% 9
Salford +1 2 £334 -16.56% 10
Rochdale - 2 - - 4
Bury - 1 - - 5
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 36 (14.94%) SharePoint
2 21 (8.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (3.73%) Confluence
4 7 (2.90%) SharePoint Server
5 2 (0.83%) Apache
5 2 (0.83%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.83%) CMS
5 2 (0.83%) IIS
6 1 (0.41%) CICS
6 1 (0.41%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.41%) WebSphere
Applications
1 29 (12.03%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (9.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (4.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (4.15%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (2.49%) MS Visio
6 4 (1.66%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.41%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 5 (2.07%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (2.07%) Primavera
1 5 (2.07%) SAP MM
2 4 (1.66%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (1.24%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.83%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.41%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.41%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 106 (43.98%) Azure
2 88 (36.51%) Microsoft 365
3 45 (18.67%) Power Platform
4 35 (14.52%) Entra ID
4 35 (14.52%) Microsoft Copilot
5 25 (10.37%) Power Automate
6 23 (9.54%) AWS
6 23 (9.54%) PowerApps
7 20 (8.30%) Azure DevOps
8 16 (6.64%) OneDrive
9 12 (4.98%) Dynamics 365
10 10 (4.15%) GCP
11 9 (3.73%) Azure AI
11 9 (3.73%) Azure Monitor
11 9 (3.73%) Microsoft Purview
12 8 (3.32%) Serverless
13 7 (2.90%) OpenShift
14 6 (2.49%) GitHub
15 5 (2.07%) Azure Logic Apps
15 5 (2.07%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.64%) Firewall
2 9 (3.73%) VPN
3 8 (3.32%) DNS
4 7 (2.90%) Network Security
4 7 (2.90%) SSL
5 5 (2.07%) DHCP
5 5 (2.07%) TCP/IP
5 5 (2.07%) VLAN
6 4 (1.66%) LAN
6 4 (1.66%) WAN
7 3 (1.24%) NAS
7 3 (1.24%) SAN
7 3 (1.24%) Skype
8 2 (0.83%) BGP
8 2 (0.83%) PABX
8 2 (0.83%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.83%) SMTP
8 2 (0.83%) VoIP
8 2 (0.83%) VSAN
8 2 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.54%) Power BI
2 22 (9.13%) SQL Server
3 12 (4.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (2.90%) MySQL
4 7 (2.90%) Relational Database
5 6 (2.49%) Metadata
6 5 (2.07%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (1.66%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.66%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.24%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 3 (1.24%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (1.24%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.83%) Power Query
9 2 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.41%) BusinessObjects
10 1 (0.41%) DataStage
10 1 (0.41%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 13 (5.39%) JIRA
2 8 (3.32%) Git
3 2 (0.83%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.83%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (0.41%) GitLab
4 1 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 72 (29.88%) Social Skills
2 52 (21.58%) Finance
3 35 (14.52%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (8.30%) Banking
4 20 (8.30%) Public Sector
5 13 (5.39%) Manufacturing
6 10 (4.15%) Legal
7 9 (3.73%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (2.90%) Retail
9 6 (2.49%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.66%) Games
10 4 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.66%) Marketing
11 2 (0.83%) Agriculture
11 2 (0.83%) Aviation
11 2 (0.83%) Law
11 2 (0.83%) Military
11 2 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 26 (10.79%) Analyst
1 26 (10.79%) IT Support
2 22 (9.13%) Support Engineer
3 18 (7.47%) Architect
4 17 (7.05%) IT Engineer
4 17 (7.05%) IT Support Engineer
5 16 (6.64%) Developer
6 15 (6.22%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 14 (5.81%) DBA
8 13 (5.39%) Designer
8 13 (5.39%) Lead
8 13 (5.39%) Senior
9 11 (4.56%) Content Designer
9 11 (4.56%) Microsoft Engineer
9 11 (4.56%) SQL DBA
10 9 (3.73%) IT Analyst
10 9 (3.73%) Support Analyst
11 8 (3.32%) Administrator
11 8 (3.32%) Security Engineer
11 8 (3.32%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.49%) REST
1 6 (2.49%) Spring
1 6 (2.49%) Spring Boot
2 5 (2.07%) JSON
2 5 (2.07%) SAML
3 4 (1.66%) .NET
3 4 (1.66%) Kafka
3 4 (1.66%) Node.js
3 4 (1.66%) XML
4 3 (1.24%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (1.24%) React
5 2 (0.83%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (0.83%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.83%) AWS CDK
5 2 (0.83%) Model Context Protocol
5 2 (0.83%) Next.js
5 2 (0.83%) OAuth
5 2 (0.83%) PySpark
5 2 (0.83%) SailPoint
5 2 (0.83%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.30%) Onboarding
2 13 (5.39%) Cloud Native
3 9 (3.73%) Management Information System
4 8 (3.32%) Security Posture
5 7 (2.90%) Clustering
5 7 (2.90%) Replication
6 5 (2.07%) Data Centre
6 5 (2.07%) Handset
6 5 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.07%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (1.66%) Animation
7 4 (1.66%) Blackberry
7 4 (1.66%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.66%) Driving Licence
7 4 (1.66%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.66%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.24%) Life Science
9 2 (0.83%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 53 (21.99%) Windows
2 30 (12.45%) Windows 10
3 17 (7.05%) Windows Server
4 13 (5.39%) Linux
5 6 (2.49%) Unix
6 4 (1.66%) Android
6 4 (1.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.66%) VMS
7 2 (0.83%) AIX
7 2 (0.83%) Solaris
7 2 (0.83%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.41%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.41%) HPUX
8 1 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.41%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (19.92%) ITIL
2 42 (17.43%) DevOps
3 36 (14.94%) Problem-Solving
4 35 (14.52%) Agile
5 31 (12.86%) CI/CD
6 27 (11.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 26 (10.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 25 (10.37%) Roadmaps
9 24 (9.96%) Customer Service
10 23 (9.54%) Business Intelligence
11 22 (9.13%) Migration
12 20 (8.30%) Analytics
13 18 (7.47%) AI
14 17 (7.05%) Change Management
14 17 (7.05%) Infrastructure as Code
15 16 (6.64%) Knowledge Transfer
15 16 (6.64%) Performance Tuning
16 15 (6.22%) Cloud Security
16 15 (6.22%) Data Loss Prevention
17 14 (5.81%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 42 (17.43%) SQL
2 30 (12.45%) PowerShell
3 29 (12.03%) Python
4 12 (4.98%) T-SQL
5 10 (4.15%) Java
6 7 (2.90%) Bicep
7 6 (2.49%) Bash
7 6 (2.49%) C#
8 4 (1.66%) JavaScript
9 3 (1.24%) TypeScript
9 3 (1.24%) VBScript
10 2 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.41%) C++
11 1 (0.41%) COBOL
11 1 (0.41%) VBA
Qualifications
1 46 (19.09%) Degree
2 28 (11.62%) Security Cleared
3 26 (10.79%) SC Cleared
4 22 (9.13%) Microsoft Certification
5 20 (8.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (4.56%) Azure Certification
7 10 (4.15%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.90%) A+ Certification
9 6 (2.49%) Network+ Certification
10 5 (2.07%) CISSP
11 4 (1.66%) DBS Check
11 4 (1.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 3 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (1.24%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (1.24%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.83%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.83%) CCNA
13 2 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.83%) PMP
13 2 (0.83%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.81%) GDPR
2 12 (4.98%) Data Quality
3 7 (2.90%) PMO
3 7 (2.90%) SLA
4 5 (2.07%) Accessibility
4 5 (2.07%) NIST
4 5 (2.07%) WCAG
5 4 (1.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.83%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.83%) QA
8 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.41%) GRC
8 1 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.41%) SOC 2
System Software
1 63 (26.14%) Active Directory
2 19 (7.88%) Docker
3 8 (3.32%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (2.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (1.24%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.83%) GPFS
6 2 (0.83%) NFS
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.83%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.83%) vSphere
7 1 (0.41%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 28 (11.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (7.88%) Kubernetes
3 17 (7.05%) Terraform
4 6 (2.49%) SCOM
5 5 (2.07%) Ansible
6 4 (1.66%) Grafana
6 4 (1.66%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.24%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.83%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.83%) CASB
8 2 (0.83%) Data Guard
8 2 (0.83%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.83%) SCCM
8 2 (0.83%) vRealize
8 2 (0.83%) VxRail
9 1 (0.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.41%) Nessus
9 1 (0.41%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.41%) Puppet
Vendors
1 17 (7.05%) ServiceNow
2 15 (6.22%) SAP
3 10 (4.15%) Oracle
4 9 (3.73%) Databricks
5 8 (3.32%) Google
5 8 (3.32%) Red Hat
6 7 (2.90%) Cisco
6 7 (2.90%) VMware
7 6 (2.49%) BeyondTrust
7 6 (2.49%) Splunk
8 5 (2.07%) IBM
9 4 (1.66%) Perforce
9 4 (1.66%) Salesforce
9 4 (1.66%) UiPath
10 3 (1.24%) Adobe
10 3 (1.24%) CyberArk
10 3 (1.24%) HP
10 3 (1.24%) Remedy
11 2 (0.83%) Infoblox
11 2 (0.83%) Varonis