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 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
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 12
Rank change year-on-year -5 +9 -8
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 246 181 127
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.37% 17.59% 10.53%
As % of the Vendors category 31.74% 36.06% 27.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 123 91
10th Percentile £191 £213 £363
25th Percentile £339 £358 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £525 £544 £638
90th Percentile £595 £612 £675
North West median daily rate £450 £437 £475
% change year-on-year +2.97% -8.00% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 26 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 775 502 456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 38.98% 48.79% 37.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 444 321 282
10th Percentile £270 £305 £363
25th Percentile £376 £400 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.16% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £602
90th Percentile £663 £700 £675
North West median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 36 20
10th Percentile £21.39 £13.00 £15.30
25th Percentile £24.19 £19.07 £19.21
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.32 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.05% -26.84% +72.12%
75th Percentile £70.00 £31.40 £51.56
90th Percentile £87.00 £61.88 £64.00
North West median hourly rate £29.00 £25.15 £18.11
% change year-on-year +15.33% +38.85% -48.26%

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 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 27 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 27 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% 20
Oldham - 4 £205 - 7
Salford +3 2 £334 -16.56% 16
Rochdale - 2 - - 1
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 34 (13.82%) SharePoint
2 20 (8.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.85%) SharePoint Server
4 6 (2.44%) Confluence
5 2 (0.81%) Apache
5 2 (0.81%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.81%) CMS
5 2 (0.81%) IIS
6 1 (0.41%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.41%) WebSphere
Applications
1 29 (11.79%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (10.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (4.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (4.47%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.63%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.22%) AutoCAD
5 3 (1.22%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.81%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.81%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.81%) Revit
7 1 (0.41%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 5 (2.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.63%) Primavera
2 4 (1.63%) SAP MM
2 4 (1.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (1.22%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.81%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.81%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.41%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.41%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.41%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 102 (41.46%) Azure
2 94 (38.21%) Microsoft 365
3 50 (20.33%) Power Platform
4 44 (17.89%) Entra ID
5 30 (12.20%) Microsoft Copilot
6 23 (9.35%) AWS
7 21 (8.54%) Power Automate
8 18 (7.32%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (7.32%) PowerApps
9 15 (6.10%) OneDrive
10 12 (4.88%) Dynamics 365
10 12 (4.88%) GCP
11 9 (3.66%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (3.25%) Azure AI
13 6 (2.44%) Azure Data Factory
14 5 (2.03%) GitHub
14 5 (2.03%) OpenShift
14 5 (2.03%) Serverless
15 4 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
16 3 (1.22%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 10 (4.07%) Firewall
1 10 (4.07%) VPN
2 8 (3.25%) DNS
3 7 (2.85%) SSL
4 6 (2.44%) VLAN
5 5 (2.03%) DHCP
5 5 (2.03%) Network Security
5 5 (2.03%) SAN
6 4 (1.63%) LAN
6 4 (1.63%) NAS
6 4 (1.63%) TCP/IP
6 4 (1.63%) WAN
7 3 (1.22%) Skype
8 2 (0.81%) BGP
8 2 (0.81%) PABX
8 2 (0.81%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.81%) SMTP
8 2 (0.81%) VoIP
8 2 (0.81%) VSAN
8 2 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (12.60%) Power BI
2 23 (9.35%) SQL Server
3 13 (5.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 8 (3.25%) MySQL
5 5 (2.03%) Metadata
5 5 (2.03%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.63%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (1.22%) Power Query
8 2 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.81%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.41%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.41%) Delta Lake
9 1 (0.41%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.41%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.41%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 10 (4.07%) JIRA
2 7 (2.85%) Git
3 4 (1.63%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.22%) GitLab
5 2 (0.81%) MSI
5 2 (0.81%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 81 (32.93%) Social Skills
2 59 (23.98%) Finance
3 35 (14.23%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (6.91%) Banking
4 17 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 13 (5.28%) Manufacturing
6 12 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (4.07%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (2.85%) Telecoms
9 6 (2.44%) Legal
9 6 (2.44%) Retail
10 5 (2.03%) Games
11 4 (1.63%) Marketing
12 3 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.22%) Military
13 2 (0.81%) Agriculture
13 2 (0.81%) Aviation
13 2 (0.81%) Billing
13 2 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.41%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 29 (11.79%) IT Support
2 27 (10.98%) Support Engineer
3 23 (9.35%) Analyst
4 19 (7.72%) Architect
4 19 (7.72%) IT Engineer
4 19 (7.72%) IT Support Engineer
5 14 (5.69%) Lead
6 13 (5.28%) DBA
6 13 (5.28%) Developer
7 12 (4.88%) Designer
7 12 (4.88%) SQL DBA
8 11 (4.47%) Content Designer
9 10 (4.07%) IT Analyst
9 10 (4.07%) Senior
10 9 (3.66%) Consultant
10 9 (3.66%) Support Analyst
11 8 (3.25%) Administrator
11 8 (3.25%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
12 7 (2.85%) Coordinator
12 7 (2.85%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.28%) Terraform
2 10 (4.07%) SAML
3 5 (2.03%) REST
4 4 (1.63%) JSON
4 4 (1.63%) Microsoft Graph
4 4 (1.63%) Node.js
4 4 (1.63%) Software Packaging
4 4 (1.63%) Spring
4 4 (1.63%) Spring Boot
5 3 (1.22%) .NET
5 3 (1.22%) React
6 2 (0.81%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.81%) Flash
6 2 (0.81%) Kafka
6 2 (0.81%) Next.js
6 2 (0.81%) OAuth
6 2 (0.81%) ODBC
6 2 (0.81%) PySpark
6 2 (0.81%) SailPoint
6 2 (0.81%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.35%) Onboarding
2 9 (3.66%) Replication
3 8 (3.25%) Cloud Native
3 8 (3.25%) Clustering
4 7 (2.85%) Data Centre
4 7 (2.85%) Management Information System
5 6 (2.44%) CMDB
5 6 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.03%) Animation
6 5 (2.03%) Handset
7 4 (1.63%) Blackberry
7 4 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.63%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.63%) PKI
7 4 (1.63%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.22%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.22%) Life Science
9 2 (0.81%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 62 (25.20%) Windows
2 31 (12.60%) Windows 10
3 22 (8.94%) Windows Server
4 9 (3.66%) Linux
5 5 (2.03%) Unix
6 4 (1.63%) Android
6 4 (1.63%) VMS
7 3 (1.22%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.22%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.41%) AIX
8 1 (0.41%) HPUX
8 1 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.41%) Solaris
8 1 (0.41%) SUSE
8 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (23.17%) ITIL
2 40 (16.26%) Stakeholder Management
3 38 (15.45%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (13.82%) DevOps
5 33 (13.41%) Agile
6 30 (12.20%) Business Intelligence
7 28 (11.38%) CI/CD
7 28 (11.38%) Customer Service
8 25 (10.16%) Roadmaps
9 23 (9.35%) Analytics
10 22 (8.94%) Migration
10 22 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 20 (8.13%) Continuous Improvement
12 19 (7.72%) Data Modelling
12 19 (7.72%) Infrastructure as Code
12 19 (7.72%) Performance Tuning
12 19 (7.72%) Service Management
13 18 (7.32%) ERP
14 17 (6.91%) AI
14 17 (6.91%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 43 (17.48%) SQL
2 34 (13.82%) PowerShell
3 24 (9.76%) Python
4 14 (5.69%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.44%) Bicep
5 6 (2.44%) Java
6 5 (2.03%) Bash
6 5 (2.03%) C#
7 4 (1.63%) JavaScript
8 3 (1.22%) VBScript
9 2 (0.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.81%) Search Processing Language
9 2 (0.81%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 43 (17.48%) Degree
2 38 (15.45%) Security Cleared
3 32 (13.01%) SC Cleared
4 26 (10.57%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (7.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (4.07%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.25%) A+ Certification
9 7 (2.85%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (2.44%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (1.63%) CISSP
11 4 (1.63%) DBS Check
12 3 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (1.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.81%) CCNA
13 2 (0.81%) GCFA
13 2 (0.81%) GCIH
13 2 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.81%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.81%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.13%) Data Quality
2 13 (5.28%) GDPR
3 8 (3.25%) SLA
4 6 (2.44%) PMO
4 6 (2.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (2.03%) Accessibility
5 5 (2.03%) WCAG
6 4 (1.63%) GRC
6 4 (1.63%) NIST
7 3 (1.22%) QA
8 2 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.81%) ISO 19650
8 2 (0.81%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 72 (29.27%) Active Directory
2 15 (6.10%) Docker
3 9 (3.66%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (3.25%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.63%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.63%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.81%) GPFS
6 2 (0.81%) NFS
6 2 (0.81%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.81%) vSphere
7 1 (0.41%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.41%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (13.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (6.10%) Kubernetes
3 11 (4.47%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (2.85%) Ansible
4 7 (2.85%) SCCM
4 7 (2.85%) SCOM
5 4 (1.63%) Grafana
5 4 (1.63%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.81%) AirWatch
6 2 (0.81%) CASB
6 2 (0.81%) Data Guard
6 2 (0.81%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (0.81%) vRealize
6 2 (0.81%) VxRail
7 1 (0.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.41%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.41%) Puppet
7 1 (0.41%) WSUS
Vendors
1 23 (9.35%) ServiceNow
2 17 (6.91%) BeyondTrust
3 16 (6.50%) SAP
4 9 (3.66%) Google
4 9 (3.66%) Oracle
4 9 (3.66%) VMware
5 8 (3.25%) Databricks
6 7 (2.85%) Red Hat
6 7 (2.85%) Splunk
7 5 (2.03%) Cisco
7 5 (2.03%) Perforce
8 4 (1.63%) Adobe
8 4 (1.63%) CyberArk
8 4 (1.63%) IBM
8 4 (1.63%) UiPath
9 3 (1.22%) HP
9 3 (1.22%) Okta
9 3 (1.22%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.81%) Apple
10 2 (0.81%) Bloomberg