Microsoft Certified Professional Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 26 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 118 131
Rank change year-on-year -46 +13 +19
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certified Professional 3 6 4
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.086% 0.30% 0.14%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.31% 0.88% 0.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 1 2
10th Percentile £416 - £290
25th Percentile £430 - £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £400 £466
Median % change year-on-year +14.06% -14.21% +90.31%
75th Percentile £480 - £576
90th Percentile £492 - £641
England median daily rate £431 £250 £400
% change year-on-year +72.50% -37.50% +60.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £16.25
Median hourly rate - £17.44 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year - -0.34% -
75th Percentile - - £18.75
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £18.75 £17.44 £14.16
% change year-on-year +7.51% +23.16% +3.66%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

Microsoft Certified Professional 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 961 683 768
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 27.43% 34.01% 27.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 624 398 420
10th Percentile £344 £302 £299
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £486 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.41% -2.80% -3.85%
75th Percentile £611 £584 £602
90th Percentile £694 £700 £696
England median daily rate £525 £525 £537
% change year-on-year - -2.32% -2.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 55 130
10th Percentile £22.68 £17.22 £10.95
25th Percentile £29.99 £21.02 £11.83
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +37.38% +99.25% -60.43%
75th Percentile £74.26 £60.00 £43.10
90th Percentile £89.75 £76.07 £62.50
England median hourly rate £53.00 £29.07 £42.50
% change year-on-year +82.32% -31.60% -22.73%

Microsoft Certified Professional
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft Certified Professional relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Microsoft Certified Professional job vacancy trend in the North West

Microsoft Certified Professional
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft Certified Professional.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft Certified Professional
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft Certified Professional.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft Certified Professional
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 Certified Professional within the North West region over the 6 months to 26 June 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
Manchester -41 3 £456 +14.06% 1
Microsoft Certified Professional
England

Microsoft Certified Professional
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 3 (100.00%) Azure
2 2 (66.67%) Azure Stack
2 2 (66.67%) Cloud Computing
2 2 (66.67%) GCP
2 2 (66.67%) OpenShift
3 1 (33.33%) Azure AI
3 1 (33.33%) Entra ID
Development Applications
1 2 (66.67%) Git
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) Architect
1 2 (66.67%) Solutions Architect
2 1 (33.33%) C# Developer
2 1 (33.33%) Developer
2 1 (33.33%) GCP Architect
2 1 (33.33%) SharePoint Developer
2 1 (33.33%) Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (66.67%) A2A Protocol
1 2 (66.67%) Model Context Protocol
1 2 (66.67%) Next.js
1 2 (66.67%) Node.js
1 2 (66.67%) React
2 1 (33.33%) .NET
2 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (33.33%) OAuth
2 1 (33.33%) REST
2 1 (33.33%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) Cloud Native
1 2 (66.67%) Private Cloud
1 2 (66.67%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) Agile
2 2 (66.67%) AI
2 2 (66.67%) API Design
2 2 (66.67%) API Development
2 2 (66.67%) Business Strategy
2 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
2 2 (66.67%) Containerisation
2 2 (66.67%) Continuous Integration
2 2 (66.67%) Customer Experience
2 2 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
2 2 (66.67%) Data Architecture
2 2 (66.67%) DevOps
2 2 (66.67%) Enterprise Architecture
2 2 (66.67%) Infrastructure as Code
2 2 (66.67%) Microservices
2 2 (66.67%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (66.67%) Software Engineering
2 2 (66.67%) Technical Leadership
2 2 (66.67%) Test Automation
2 2 (66.67%) Thought Leadership
Programming Languages
1 2 (66.67%) Python
2 1 (33.33%) C#
2 1 (33.33%) PowerShell
System Software
1 2 (66.67%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (66.67%) Kubernetes
1 2 (66.67%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (100.00%) Microsoft
2 2 (66.67%) Google
3 1 (33.33%) Foundry