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 11 April 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
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 2 9
Rank change year-on-year -6 +7 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 196 183 179
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 12.00% 19.74% 11.58%
As % of the Vendors category 32.24% 41.50% 33.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 151 141 121
10th Percentile £213 £208 £248
25th Percentile £351 £348 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £526 £538 £538
90th Percentile £588 £700 £650
North West median daily rate £416 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -7.56% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 5 30
10th Percentile £19.55 - £11.79
25th Percentile £19.75 £31.25 £12.21
Median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £14.27
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% +127.83% -2.69%
75th Percentile £63.31 £33.75 £25.25
90th Percentile £178.75 - £26.50
North West median hourly rate £25.38 £28.75 £14.50
% change year-on-year -11.72% +98.28% -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 608 441 540
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 37.23% 47.57% 34.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 315 375
10th Percentile £313 £294 £313
25th Percentile £395 £389 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -6.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £598
90th Percentile £650 £700 £700
North West median daily rate £465 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.00% - +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 9 42
10th Percentile £19.75 - £11.81
25th Percentile £22.63 £31.25 £12.51
Median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% +83.41% -52.75%
75th Percentile £65.38 £60.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £92.00 £60.75 £60.00
North West median hourly rate £30.25 £32.50 £16.06
% change year-on-year -6.94% +102.37% -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 11 April 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 11 April 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 11 April 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 4 £400 +110.53% 13
Salford +3 3 £334 -53.39% 8
Oldham -1 3 £205 +2.50% 4
Stockport -1 2 £155 -61.25% 4
Rochdale - 1 - - 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 (10.71%) SharePoint
2 12 (6.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (4.59%) Confluence
4 3 (1.53%) Apache
5 2 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (1.02%) Apache Spark
5 2 (1.02%) CMS
6 1 (0.51%) CICS
6 1 (0.51%) IIS
6 1 (0.51%) SAS
Applications
1 27 (13.78%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (9.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (5.10%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (4.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (3.06%) MS Visio
6 4 (2.04%) Chatbot
7 3 (1.53%) Trello
8 1 (0.51%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.51%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.51%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 6 (3.06%) Advent Geneva
2 4 (2.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (1.53%) Primavera
3 3 (1.53%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.51%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.51%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.51%) Maximo
4 1 (0.51%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 76 (38.78%) Azure
2 54 (27.55%) Microsoft 365
3 34 (17.35%) Entra ID
4 33 (16.84%) Power Platform
5 18 (9.18%) AWS
6 17 (8.67%) Power Automate
6 17 (8.67%) PowerApps
7 16 (8.16%) Microsoft Copilot
8 13 (6.63%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (6.63%) Dynamics 365
9 11 (5.61%) GCP
9 11 (5.61%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (5.10%) OneDrive
11 9 (4.59%) Serverless
12 6 (3.06%) Azure AKS
12 6 (3.06%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (2.55%) Azure Functions
13 5 (2.55%) Google Analytics
13 5 (2.55%) Google Tag Manager
14 4 (2.04%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 15 (7.65%) Firewall
2 9 (4.59%) Network Security
3 5 (2.55%) DNS
4 4 (2.04%) WAN
4 4 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.53%) VPN
6 2 (1.02%) DHCP
6 2 (1.02%) LAN
6 2 (1.02%) SD-WAN
6 2 (1.02%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.51%) Cisco ISE
7 1 (0.51%) HTTP
7 1 (0.51%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.51%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.51%) NGFW
7 1 (0.51%) SSL
7 1 (0.51%) WebEx
7 1 (0.51%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (7.14%) Power BI
2 13 (6.63%) Relational Database
3 12 (6.12%) SQL Server
4 7 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (3.06%) DB2
5 6 (3.06%) MySQL
5 6 (3.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (2.04%) MongoDB
6 4 (2.04%) NoSQL
6 4 (2.04%) RDBMS
7 3 (1.53%) BigQuery
7 3 (1.53%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (1.53%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.53%) Looker
7 3 (1.53%) Metadata
7 3 (1.53%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.51%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.51%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.51%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 14 (7.14%) JIRA
2 5 (2.55%) Git
3 1 (0.51%) GitLab
3 1 (0.51%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.51%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 74 (37.76%) Social Skills
2 47 (23.98%) Finance
3 31 (15.82%) Public Sector
4 27 (13.78%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (10.20%) Banking
6 13 (6.63%) Legal
7 8 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (3.57%) Organisational Skills
9 6 (3.06%) Telecoms
10 5 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (2.55%) Retail
11 4 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (2.04%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.53%) Law
13 2 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.51%) Billing
14 1 (0.51%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.51%) Local Government
14 1 (0.51%) Publishing
14 1 (0.51%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 31 (15.82%) Analyst
2 26 (13.27%) Developer
3 17 (8.67%) IT Support
4 14 (7.14%) Architect
4 14 (7.14%) Senior
5 13 (6.63%) Lead
6 11 (5.61%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 10 (5.10%) Administrator
7 10 (5.10%) Microsoft Engineer
7 10 (5.10%) Support Analyst
8 9 (4.59%) Security Engineer
8 9 (4.59%) Support Engineer
9 8 (4.08%) IT Analyst
9 8 (4.08%) IT Engineer
9 8 (4.08%) IT Support Engineer
9 8 (4.08%) Project Manager
10 7 (3.57%) IT Support Analyst
11 6 (3.06%) Consultant
11 6 (3.06%) Senior Analyst
12 5 (2.55%) DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.12%) .NET
2 8 (4.08%) Spring
2 8 (4.08%) Spring Boot
3 7 (3.57%) REST
4 6 (3.06%) XML
5 5 (2.55%) JSON
5 5 (2.55%) Kafka
6 4 (2.04%) HTML5 Canvas
7 3 (1.53%) OAuth
8 2 (1.02%) ARM Templates
8 2 (1.02%) AWS CDK
8 2 (1.02%) HTML
8 2 (1.02%) LangChain
8 2 (1.02%) LDAP
8 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Graph
8 2 (1.02%) Node.js
8 2 (1.02%) SAML
9 1 (0.51%) PySpark
9 1 (0.51%) PyTorch
9 1 (0.51%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 15 (7.65%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.10%) Cloud Native
3 8 (4.08%) Data Protection Act
3 8 (4.08%) Security Posture
4 6 (3.06%) Data Centre
4 6 (3.06%) Product Ownership
4 6 (3.06%) Virtual Team
5 5 (2.55%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.04%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (2.04%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.02%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.02%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.02%) Mainframe
8 2 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.51%) Low-Code
9 1 (0.51%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 1 (0.51%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 37 (18.88%) Windows
2 26 (13.27%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.12%) Linux
4 5 (2.55%) Unix
5 4 (2.04%) Mac OS
6 3 (1.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.53%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.02%) AIX
7 2 (1.02%) Solaris
7 2 (1.02%) VMS
8 1 (0.51%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.51%) HPUX
8 1 (0.51%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.51%) SUSE
8 1 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (15.82%) Agile
2 29 (14.80%) Problem-Solving
3 26 (13.27%) DevOps
3 26 (13.27%) ITIL
4 25 (12.76%) CI/CD
5 23 (11.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 21 (10.71%) Stakeholder Management
7 18 (9.18%) Analytics
7 18 (9.18%) Migration
8 16 (8.16%) Business Intelligence
8 16 (8.16%) Change Management
9 15 (7.65%) Customer Service
9 15 (7.65%) Data Protection
9 15 (7.65%) Identity Access Management
9 15 (7.65%) Roadmaps
9 15 (7.65%) User Experience
10 14 (7.14%) Project Delivery
11 13 (6.63%) Cloud Security
11 13 (6.63%) Containerisation
11 13 (6.63%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 30 (15.31%) SQL
2 21 (10.71%) PowerShell
3 19 (9.69%) Python
4 14 (7.14%) Java
5 8 (4.08%) JavaScript
6 6 (3.06%) Bash
6 6 (3.06%) C#
7 5 (2.55%) Bicep
8 3 (1.53%) TypeScript
9 2 (1.02%) COBOL
9 2 (1.02%) VBA
10 1 (0.51%) C++
10 1 (0.51%) CLIST
10 1 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.51%) JCL
10 1 (0.51%) PHP
10 1 (0.51%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.51%) REXX
10 1 (0.51%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (11.22%) Degree
2 17 (8.67%) Microsoft Certification
3 10 (5.10%) Security Cleared
4 8 (4.08%) SC Cleared
5 7 (3.57%) A+ Certification
6 6 (3.06%) Azure Certification
6 6 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.06%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (3.06%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (2.55%) CISSP
8 4 (2.04%) PMI Certification
9 3 (1.53%) PMP
10 2 (1.02%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.02%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.02%) MCSA
10 2 (1.02%) MCSE
10 2 (1.02%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (0.51%) CBAP
11 1 (0.51%) Chartered Engineer
11 1 (0.51%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (8.67%) GDPR
2 11 (5.61%) Data Quality
3 9 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (3.57%) Accessibility
5 6 (3.06%) QA
6 5 (2.55%) PMO
7 4 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (2.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (1.53%) NIST
9 2 (1.02%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (1.02%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.51%) GRC
10 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.51%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.51%) SLA
10 1 (0.51%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.51%) WCAG
System Software
1 49 (25.00%) Active Directory
2 18 (9.18%) Docker
3 3 (1.53%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.51%) ACF2
5 1 (0.51%) RACF
5 1 (0.51%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (12.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (9.18%) Kubernetes
3 8 (4.08%) Terraform
4 4 (2.04%) SCCM
5 3 (1.53%) Grafana
5 3 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.02%) CASB
6 2 (1.02%) Progress Chef
6 2 (1.02%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.51%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.51%) CA Endevor
7 1 (0.51%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.51%) Nessus
7 1 (0.51%) Tivoli
7 1 (0.51%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 11 (5.61%) Google
2 8 (4.08%) Oracle
2 8 (4.08%) SAP
3 6 (3.06%) Advent
4 4 (2.04%) Cisco
4 4 (2.04%) Red Hat
4 4 (2.04%) VMware
5 3 (1.53%) Citrix
5 3 (1.53%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.02%) Apple
6 2 (1.02%) Confluent
6 2 (1.02%) Databricks
6 2 (1.02%) HP
6 2 (1.02%) IBM
6 2 (1.02%) Infoblox
6 2 (1.02%) Okta
6 2 (1.02%) Remedy
6 2 (1.02%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.02%) Splunk
6 2 (1.02%) Varonis