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 1 October 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
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 12
Rank change year-on-year -5 +9 -9
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 250 179 117
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.59% 17.95% 10.14%
As % of the Vendors category 33.51% 37.06% 24.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 124 80
10th Percentile £193 £255 £352
25th Percentile £400 £352 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.78% -5.26% +7.95%
75th Percentile £525 £556 £628
90th Percentile £610 £630 £675
North West median daily rate £473 £438 £450
% change year-on-year +7.88% -2.67% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 31 7
10th Percentile £19.00 £13.00 £23.50
25th Percentile £25.25 £19.07 £29.00
Median hourly rate £29.50 £22.32 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.20% -28.02% +80.65%
75th Percentile £69.17 £31.40 £34.38
90th Percentile £178.75 - £40.50
North West median hourly rate £24.77 £22.32 £30.50
% change year-on-year +11.00% -26.84% +35.47%

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 746 483 477
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 37.56% 48.45% 41.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 314 270
10th Percentile £275 £308 £370
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% +3.04%
75th Percentile £600 £604 £598
90th Percentile £663 £729 £675
North West median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 41 16
10th Percentile £20.25 £13.00 £15.81
25th Percentile £24.19 £19.07 £20.71
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.32 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +68.05% -26.84% +72.12%
75th Percentile £74.38 £31.40 £44.06
90th Percentile £87.50 £55.49 £74.38
North West median hourly rate £29.48 £22.63 £35.36
% change year-on-year +30.27% -36.00% +1.03%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 -3 8 £160 -59.62% 18
Oldham +3 4 - - 6
Rochdale - 2 - - 4
Bury - 1 - - 6
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 49 (19.60%) SharePoint
2 28 (11.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (5.60%) SharePoint Server
4 1 (0.40%) Confluence
4 1 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
4 1 (0.40%) IIS
4 1 (0.40%) SharePoint 2010
4 1 (0.40%) SharePoint 2013
4 1 (0.40%) WebSphere
Applications
1 28 (11.20%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (9.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (3.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (3.20%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.60%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.20%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.80%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.80%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.80%) Revit
7 1 (0.40%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 4 (1.60%) Primavera
1 4 (1.60%) SAP MM
1 4 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.20%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 2 (0.80%) Dynamics AX
3 2 (0.80%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.40%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.40%) Cloudability
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle Utilities
4 1 (0.40%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 110 (44.00%) Azure
2 104 (41.60%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (25.20%) Power Platform
4 43 (17.20%) Entra ID
5 34 (13.60%) Microsoft Copilot
6 28 (11.20%) Power Automate
7 27 (10.80%) PowerApps
8 23 (9.20%) OneDrive
9 20 (8.00%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (7.20%) AWS
11 15 (6.00%) Azure AI
11 15 (6.00%) Dynamics 365
12 13 (5.20%) GCP
13 11 (4.40%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (2.40%) Azure Data Factory
15 5 (2.00%) OpenShift
16 3 (1.20%) GitHub
16 3 (1.20%) SaaS
16 3 (1.20%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 3 (1.20%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.40%) SSL
2 10 (4.00%) VPN
3 7 (2.80%) Firewall
4 6 (2.40%) DNS
4 6 (2.40%) VLAN
5 5 (2.00%) SAN
5 5 (2.00%) Skype
6 4 (1.60%) DHCP
6 4 (1.60%) NAS
6 4 (1.60%) SMTP
7 3 (1.20%) LAN
7 3 (1.20%) Network Security
7 3 (1.20%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.80%) BGP
8 2 (0.80%) PABX
8 2 (0.80%) VoIP
8 2 (0.80%) VSAN
8 2 (0.80%) WAN
9 1 (0.40%) Ethernet VPN
9 1 (0.40%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (14.80%) Power BI
2 25 (10.00%) SQL Server
3 15 (6.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 13 (5.20%) MySQL
5 5 (2.00%) Metadata
5 5 (2.00%) Power Query
6 4 (1.60%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.80%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.80%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.40%) Delta Lake
8 1 (0.40%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 6 (2.40%) Git
2 5 (2.00%) JIRA
3 4 (1.60%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.60%) MSI
4 3 (1.20%) GitLab
5 2 (0.80%) MSTest
5 2 (0.80%) NUnit
5 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 76 (30.40%) Social Skills
2 48 (19.20%) Finance
3 33 (13.20%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (6.00%) Public Sector
5 14 (5.60%) Manufacturing
6 12 (4.80%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (3.20%) Banking
8 6 (2.40%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (2.00%) Games
9 5 (2.00%) Legal
9 5 (2.00%) Military
9 5 (2.00%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.60%) Marketing
10 4 (1.60%) Retail
11 3 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.80%) Agriculture
12 2 (0.80%) Aviation
12 2 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.40%) Billing
13 1 (0.40%) Law
Job Titles
1 26 (10.40%) Developer
2 24 (9.60%) Support Engineer
3 23 (9.20%) IT Support
4 18 (7.20%) Analyst
5 17 (6.80%) Architect
5 17 (6.80%) DBA
5 17 (6.80%) SQL DBA
6 15 (6.00%) IT Engineer
6 15 (6.00%) IT Support Engineer
7 14 (5.60%) Lead
8 13 (5.20%) SharePoint Developer
9 12 (4.80%) Designer
10 11 (4.40%) Administrator
10 11 (4.40%) Consultant
10 11 (4.40%) Content Designer
11 10 (4.00%) Senior
12 9 (3.60%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
12 9 (3.60%) Solutions Architect
13 8 (3.20%) Applications Packager
13 8 (3.20%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.00%) Terraform
2 9 (3.60%) SAML
3 5 (2.00%) .NET
3 5 (2.00%) REST
4 4 (1.60%) Software Packaging
5 3 (1.20%) A2A Protocol
5 3 (1.20%) JSON
5 3 (1.20%) Kafka
5 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Graph
5 3 (1.20%) Model Context Protocol
5 3 (1.20%) React
6 2 (0.80%) Flash
6 2 (0.80%) Next.js
6 2 (0.80%) Node.js
6 2 (0.80%) OAuth
6 2 (0.80%) ODBC
6 2 (0.80%) PySpark
6 2 (0.80%) SailPoint
6 2 (0.80%) WPF
7 1 (0.40%) WebSphere MQ
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.20%) Onboarding
2 13 (5.20%) Clustering
2 13 (5.20%) Replication
3 9 (3.60%) Management Information System
4 7 (2.80%) Cloud Native
4 7 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (2.80%) Handset
5 6 (2.40%) Blackberry
5 6 (2.40%) CMDB
5 6 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.00%) Animation
6 5 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (2.00%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.60%) Data Centre
7 4 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.60%) PKI
8 3 (1.20%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.20%) Legacy Applications
8 3 (1.20%) Life Science
8 3 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 63 (25.20%) Windows
2 26 (10.40%) Windows 10
3 25 (10.00%) Windows Server
4 9 (3.60%) Linux
5 6 (2.40%) Android
5 6 (2.40%) Apple iOS
6 5 (2.00%) Unix
7 3 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.20%) VMS
7 3 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.40%) AIX
8 1 (0.40%) HPUX
8 1 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.40%) Solaris
8 1 (0.40%) SUSE
8 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (22.00%) ITIL
2 41 (16.40%) Stakeholder Management
3 40 (16.00%) Problem-Solving
4 36 (14.40%) Business Intelligence
5 35 (14.00%) DevOps
6 27 (10.80%) Agile
6 27 (10.80%) Roadmaps
7 26 (10.40%) Customer Service
8 24 (9.60%) Performance Tuning
9 23 (9.20%) CI/CD
9 23 (9.20%) Continuous Improvement
10 20 (8.00%) Analytics
10 20 (8.00%) Technical Leadership
11 19 (7.60%) Data Modelling
11 19 (7.60%) Migration
12 18 (7.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 17 (6.80%) AI
13 17 (6.80%) Service Management
14 15 (6.00%) ERP
14 15 (6.00%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 43 (17.20%) SQL
2 41 (16.40%) PowerShell
3 20 (8.00%) Python
4 18 (7.20%) T-SQL
5 9 (3.60%) C#
6 4 (1.60%) Bash
6 4 (1.60%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.20%) Bicep
7 3 (1.20%) Java
7 3 (1.20%) VBScript
8 2 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.80%) Go
8 2 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
8 2 (0.80%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 50 (20.00%) Security Cleared
2 49 (19.60%) Degree
3 39 (15.60%) SC Cleared
4 33 (13.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (8.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (5.20%) Azure Certification
7 10 (4.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 9 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (2.40%) A+ Certification
10 5 (2.00%) DBS Check
10 5 (2.00%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (1.20%) CISSP
11 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 2 (0.80%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.80%) GCFA
12 2 (0.80%) GCIH
12 2 (0.80%) Numerate Degree
12 2 (0.80%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.80%) PMP
13 1 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.00%) Data Quality
2 9 (3.60%) SLA
3 8 (3.20%) GDPR
4 5 (2.00%) Accessibility
4 5 (2.00%) WCAG
5 4 (1.60%) GRC
6 3 (1.20%) PMO
6 3 (1.20%) QA
7 2 (0.80%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.80%) ISO 19650
7 2 (0.80%) NIST
7 2 (0.80%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 64 (25.60%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.00%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (3.60%) Docker
3 9 (3.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.40%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (1.60%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.20%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (0.80%) GPFS
7 2 (0.80%) NFS
7 2 (0.80%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.80%) vSphere
8 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (12.80%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (4.80%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (4.40%) SCOM
4 10 (4.00%) SCCM
5 9 (3.60%) Kubernetes
6 7 (2.80%) Ansible
7 4 (1.60%) Progress Chef
8 3 (1.20%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (1.20%) Grafana
9 2 (0.80%) CASB
9 2 (0.80%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.80%) vRealize
9 2 (0.80%) VxRail
10 1 (0.40%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.40%) PaperCut
10 1 (0.40%) Puppet
10 1 (0.40%) WSUS
Vendors
1 27 (10.80%) ServiceNow
2 19 (7.60%) BeyondTrust
3 14 (5.60%) SAP
4 10 (4.00%) Google
5 9 (3.60%) Oracle
5 9 (3.60%) VMware
6 8 (3.20%) Databricks
7 7 (2.80%) Splunk
8 6 (2.40%) Red Hat
9 5 (2.00%) Apple
9 5 (2.00%) Cisco
9 5 (2.00%) CyberArk
9 5 (2.00%) Perforce
10 4 (1.60%) Adobe
10 4 (1.60%) Citrix
10 4 (1.60%) Clearswift
10 4 (1.60%) IBM
10 4 (1.60%) Okta
10 4 (1.60%) Proofpoint
10 4 (1.60%) UiPath