Microsoft Certification Contracts in the North West

Microsoft Certification
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 64 108 125
Rank change year-on-year +44 +17 +32
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 57 29 32
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 2.90% 1.05% 1.00%
As % of the Qualifications category 8.07% 3.50% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 22 25
10th Percentile £250 £227 £225
25th Percentile £383 £287 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £381 £550
Median % change year-on-year +31.15% -30.68% +315.09%
75th Percentile £632 £450 £675
90th Percentile £716 £644 £697
England median daily rate £500 £500 £511
% change year-on-year - -2.20% +20.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 3
10th Percentile - £16.40 -
25th Percentile - £16.63 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.44 £18.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.11% +2.86% -
75th Percentile - £19.13 £19.00
90th Percentile - £19.20 £19.15
England median hourly rate £17.44 £16.30 £15.50
% change year-on-year +6.99% +5.16% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

Microsoft Certification falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the North West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 706 829 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.87% 30.09% 31.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 404 474 683
10th Percentile £230 £268 £325
25th Percentile £398 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £513 £520
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% -1.44% +4.00%
75th Percentile £575 £650 £602
90th Percentile £650 £725 £700
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 124 67
10th Percentile £17.70 £10.95 £20.00
25th Percentile £25.26 £11.77 £25.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £16.06 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +102.37% -57.17% -5.60%
75th Percentile £60.00 £39.54 £49.52
90th Percentile £83.13 £62.50 £66.13
England median hourly rate £45.00 £40.00 £52.40
% change year-on-year +12.50% -23.66% +39.73%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in the North West

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the North West

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the North West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the North West

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the North West

Microsoft Certification
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
Manchester +28 31 £518 +31.43% 37
Lancashire +14 12 £438 -23.91% 14
Merseyside +5 7 £175 -17.16% 5
Cheshire - 6 £475 - 10
Cumbria - 1 £425 - 1
Microsoft Certification
England

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 18 (31.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (15.79%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.75%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 5 (8.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 5 (8.77%) MS Visio
2 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 30 (52.63%) Azure
2 25 (43.86%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (29.82%) Entra ID
4 11 (19.30%) GCP
5 10 (17.54%) IaaS
6 7 (12.28%) AWS
6 7 (12.28%) OneDrive
7 4 (7.02%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Functions
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Pipelines
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (1.75%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.75%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (24.56%) Firewall
2 13 (22.81%) Network Security
3 10 (17.54%) Intrusion Detection
4 9 (15.79%) VPN
5 8 (14.04%) LAN
6 7 (12.28%) SAN
7 5 (8.77%) DNS
8 4 (7.02%) DHCP
8 4 (7.02%) TCP/IP
9 3 (5.26%) WLAN
10 1 (1.75%) H.323
10 1 (1.75%) Unified Communications
10 1 (1.75%) VoIP
10 1 (1.75%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (21.05%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Git
1 1 (1.75%) JIRA
General
1 33 (57.89%) Social Skills
2 17 (29.82%) Analytical Skills
2 17 (29.82%) Telecoms
3 11 (19.30%) Legal
4 5 (8.77%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (8.77%) Manufacturing
4 5 (8.77%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (7.02%) Finance
5 4 (7.02%) French Language
5 4 (7.02%) Public Sector
6 3 (5.26%) Banking
7 1 (1.75%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 12 (21.05%) Analyst
1 12 (21.05%) Architect
1 12 (21.05%) Support Engineer
2 9 (15.79%) IT Support
3 8 (14.04%) 2nd Line Engineer
3 8 (14.04%) 2nd Line Support
3 8 (14.04%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
4 7 (12.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 7 (12.28%) Solutions Architect
5 6 (10.53%) Desktop Support
6 5 (8.77%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
6 5 (8.77%) 2nd Line Desktop Support Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Desktop Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Infrastructure Analyst
6 5 (8.77%) Infrastructure Specialist
6 5 (8.77%) IT Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) IT Support Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.75%) ADO
1 1 (1.75%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 10 (17.54%) Management Information System
2 4 (7.02%) Data Centre
2 4 (7.02%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (3.51%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (1.75%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.75%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.75%) NHS
4 1 (1.75%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 40 (70.18%) Windows
2 23 (40.35%) Windows Server
3 10 (17.54%) Windows Server 2016
4 9 (15.79%) Windows 10
4 9 (15.79%) Windows Server 2012
5 8 (14.04%) Windows Server 2003
5 8 (14.04%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (12.28%) Linux
7 5 (8.77%) Windows 8
7 5 (8.77%) Windows Server 2008
7 5 (8.77%) Windows XP
8 4 (7.02%) Unix
9 2 (3.51%) Windows 7
10 1 (1.75%) Android
10 1 (1.75%) Apple iOS
10 1 (1.75%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (52.63%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (24.56%) Cybersecurity
2 14 (24.56%) Project Delivery
3 13 (22.81%) Business Continuity
3 13 (22.81%) ITIL
4 12 (21.05%) Computer Science
4 12 (21.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 11 (19.30%) High Availability
6 10 (17.54%) Change Management
6 10 (17.54%) Mentoring
6 10 (17.54%) Vulnerability Scanning
7 9 (15.79%) Asset Management
7 9 (15.79%) Enterprise Architecture
7 9 (15.79%) Information Security
8 8 (14.04%) BCP
8 8 (14.04%) Business Continuity Planning
8 8 (14.04%) Disaster Recovery
8 8 (14.04%) Proactive Maintenance
8 8 (14.04%) Risk Assessment
9 7 (12.28%) Web Operations
Programming Languages
1 16 (28.07%) PowerShell
2 2 (3.51%) Kusto Query Language
3 1 (1.75%) Bash
3 1 (1.75%) Python
3 1 (1.75%) VB
3 1 (1.75%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 19 (33.33%) Azure Certification
2 18 (31.58%) Degree
3 9 (15.79%) SC Cleared
3 9 (15.79%) Security Cleared
4 8 (14.04%) A+ Certification
4 8 (14.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (12.28%) AWS Certification
5 7 (12.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 6 (10.53%) MCP
6 6 (10.53%) MCSE
7 4 (7.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 2 (3.51%) MCSA
9 1 (1.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (1.75%) MCT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (12.28%) QA
2 1 (1.75%) NCSC
System Software
1 30 (52.63%) Active Directory
2 13 (22.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (17.54%) vSphere
4 4 (7.02%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (7.02%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (1.75%) BitLocker
5 1 (1.75%) Docker
5 1 (1.75%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (1.75%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 12 (21.05%) Microsoft Intune
1 12 (21.05%) SCCM
2 7 (12.28%) vCenter Server
3 4 (7.02%) WSUS
4 3 (5.26%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (1.75%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.75%) Terraform
Vendors
1 57 (100.00%) Microsoft
2 18 (31.58%) VMware
3 12 (21.05%) Google
4 5 (8.77%) Canon
5 4 (7.02%) Citrix
5 4 (7.02%) Symantec
5 4 (7.02%) Tanium
6 3 (5.26%) Cisco
6 3 (5.26%) Veeam
7 1 (1.75%) McAfee
7 1 (1.75%) ServiceNow