Virtual Machines Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Virtual Machine (VM)
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Virtual Machines skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 108 112
Rank change year-on-year -55 +4 +59
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 3 14 21
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.095% 0.65% 0.83%
As % of the System Software category 0.59% 6.39% 6.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 7 16
10th Percentile £515 £363 £313
25th Percentile £531 £388 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £566 £450 £413
Median % change year-on-year +25.83% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £606 £563 £575
90th Percentile £625 £663 £666
England median daily rate £525 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -6.82%

All System Software Skills
Midlands

Virtual Machines falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills in the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 505 219 316
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 15.96% 10.11% 12.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 353 146 232
10th Percentile £185 £159 £160
25th Percentile £306 £200 £224
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £418
Median % change year-on-year +17.61% +1.83% +4.38%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £530
90th Percentile £652 £673 £637
England median daily rate £500 £520 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 7 9
10th Percentile £16.25 £15.22 £17.25
25th Percentile £18.54 £16.68 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £18.13 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.72% -2.00% +5.05%
75th Percentile £25.58 £21.89 £19.25
90th Percentile £38.90 £28.68 £24.58
England median hourly rate £41.94 £26.96 £50.00
% change year-on-year +55.59% -46.09% +86.92%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Virtual Machines relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

Virtual Machines job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Machines within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 12 January 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
West Midlands -44 3 £566 +19.21% 3
Virtual Machines
England

Virtual Machines
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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 1 (33.33%) Apache
1 1 (33.33%) IIS
Business Applications
1 1 (33.33%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 1 (33.33%) Azure
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (33.33%) Data Mining
1 1 (33.33%) OLTP
General
1 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (33.33%) Finance
1 1 (33.33%) Law
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Consultant
1 1 (33.33%) Data Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Functional Consultant
1 1 (33.33%) IT Manager
1 1 (33.33%) SAP Consultant
1 1 (33.33%) SAP Functional Consultant
1 1 (33.33%) SAP SD Consultant
1 1 (33.33%) SAP SD Functional Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) Middleware
1 1 (33.33%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Algorithms
1 1 (33.33%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 1 (33.33%) VMS
1 1 (33.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (33.33%) Actionable Insight
1 1 (33.33%) Agile
1 1 (33.33%) Analytics
1 1 (33.33%) Customer Requirements
1 1 (33.33%) Data Architecture
1 1 (33.33%) Data Collection
1 1 (33.33%) Data Pipeline
1 1 (33.33%) Data Science
1 1 (33.33%) Data Visualisation
1 1 (33.33%) Decision-Making
1 1 (33.33%) ETL
1 1 (33.33%) Event-Driven
1 1 (33.33%) Machine Learning
1 1 (33.33%) Migration
1 1 (33.33%) Predictive Modelling
1 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
1 1 (33.33%) Statistical Analysis
1 1 (33.33%) Visualisation
1 1 (33.33%) Waterfall
1 1 (33.33%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 2 (66.67%) Java
2 1 (33.33%) Python
2 1 (33.33%) Scala
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Guidewire
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft
1 1 (33.33%) SAP