Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West 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 29 November 2025, 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
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 451 319 397
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.31% 13.77% 14.72%
As % of the Vendors category 35.46% 30.24% 31.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 320 187 258
10th Percentile £177 £200 £200
25th Percentile £316 £348 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £488 £558 £537
90th Percentile £600 £675 £619
England median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 27 52
10th Percentile £15.56 £17.80 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.41
Median hourly rate £22.32 £32.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +8.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile £31.69 £33.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £46.18 £54.28
England median hourly rate £21.46 £23.70 £23.00
% change year-on-year -9.43% +3.02% +15.97%

All Vendors
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,272 1,055 1,272
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 51.64% 45.55% 47.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 862 558 834
10th Percentile £263 £313 £232
25th Percentile £363 £409 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £452 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.70% - +4.17%
75th Percentile £588 £585 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 56 90
10th Percentile £16.46 £16.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.35 £24.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +77.22%
75th Percentile £56.69 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £72.84 £55.09
England median hourly rate £24.31 £32.50 £44.75
% change year-on-year -25.20% -27.37% +69.73%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the North West

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the North West over the 6 months to 29 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the North West

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the North West over the 6 months to 29 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the North West

Microsoft
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 within the North West region over the 6 months to 29 November 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 +1 204 £425 -5.56% 170
Cheshire +1 142 £428 -10.56% 77
Merseyside 0 46 £181 -27.50% 51
Lancashire -1 40 £449 +1.13% 149
Cumbria +15 13 £492 +3.58% 6
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
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 54 (11.97%) SharePoint
2 38 (8.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (3.55%) Apache
3 16 (3.55%) Confluence
4 15 (3.33%) JBoss
5 13 (2.88%) IIS
6 12 (2.66%) Skype for Business
7 11 (2.44%) WebSphere
8 10 (2.22%) iPlanet
8 10 (2.22%) WebSphere Application Server
9 8 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (1.55%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (1.11%) CMS
11 5 (1.11%) Exchange Server 2010
12 3 (0.67%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.44%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.44%) SAS
14 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
14 1 (0.22%) CICS
14 1 (0.22%) nginx
Applications
1 85 (18.85%) Microsoft Office
2 59 (13.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (4.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (3.77%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.89%) Trello
7 3 (0.67%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.67%) Siemens NX
7 3 (0.67%) Sketch
8 2 (0.44%) Simulink
9 1 (0.22%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 10 (2.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.55%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.44%) Maximo
4 2 (0.44%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.22%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.22%) Primavera
5 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.22%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 110 (24.39%) Microsoft 365
2 106 (23.50%) Azure
3 55 (12.20%) Power Platform
4 50 (11.09%) AWS
5 31 (6.87%) Entra ID
6 18 (3.99%) OneDrive
6 18 (3.99%) Power Automate
7 17 (3.77%) PowerApps
7 17 (3.77%) SaaS
8 16 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (3.33%) Dynamics 365
9 15 (3.33%) GCP
9 15 (3.33%) OpenShift
10 11 (2.44%) GitHub
11 10 (2.22%) Microsoft Purview
12 9 (2.00%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (1.77%) Google Tag Manager
14 7 (1.55%) Azure Logic Apps
14 7 (1.55%) Google Analytics
15 6 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 22 (4.88%) Firewall
2 18 (3.99%) DNS
3 15 (3.33%) LAN
4 13 (2.88%) Skype
4 13 (2.88%) VPN
4 13 (2.88%) WAN
5 12 (2.66%) Network Security
5 12 (2.66%) Wi-Fi
6 10 (2.22%) Kerberos
7 9 (2.00%) Unified Communications
8 8 (1.77%) VLAN
8 8 (1.77%) WebEx
9 7 (1.55%) DHCP
9 7 (1.55%) Internet
10 5 (1.11%) SSL
11 3 (0.67%) SSH
11 3 (0.67%) TCP/IP
12 2 (0.44%) ATM
12 2 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
12 2 (0.44%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (7.32%) Power BI
2 22 (4.88%) SQL Server
3 17 (3.77%) Relational Database
4 12 (2.66%) MySQL
4 12 (2.66%) Oracle Database
5 9 (2.00%) DB2
6 7 (1.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 6 (1.33%) BigQuery
7 6 (1.33%) Data Lake
7 6 (1.33%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.33%) Looker
8 5 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (0.89%) MS Access
10 3 (0.67%) Metadata
10 3 (0.67%) Power Query
10 3 (0.67%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.67%) Tableau
11 2 (0.44%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.44%) Big Data
11 2 (0.44%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 32 (7.10%) JIRA
2 24 (5.32%) Git
3 21 (4.66%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.44%) Bitbucket Server
4 11 (2.44%) CA Release Automation
4 11 (2.44%) Sonatype Nexus
5 9 (2.00%) GitLab
6 4 (0.89%) Gradle
6 4 (0.89%) JUnit
7 3 (0.67%) Selenium
7 3 (0.67%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.44%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.44%) Maven
8 2 (0.44%) MSI
8 2 (0.44%) Storybook
8 2 (0.44%) Xcode
9 1 (0.22%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.22%) InstallShield
9 1 (0.22%) Subversion
9 1 (0.22%) TeamCity
General
1 181 (40.13%) Social Skills
2 125 (27.72%) Finance
3 86 (19.07%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (10.64%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.10%) Banking
6 22 (4.88%) Legal
7 19 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (3.77%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (3.33%) Manufacturing
10 12 (2.66%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.33%) Aerospace
12 6 (1.33%) Local Government
13 5 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.11%) Military
13 5 (1.11%) Publishing
13 5 (1.11%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.89%) Retail
15 3 (0.67%) Japanese Language
15 3 (0.67%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 80 (17.74%) Analyst
2 41 (9.09%) Developer
3 39 (8.65%) Administrator
4 36 (7.98%) IT Support
5 25 (5.54%) Architect
5 25 (5.54%) Senior
6 24 (5.32%) Support Analyst
7 21 (4.66%) Support Engineer
8 20 (4.43%) IT Engineer
8 20 (4.43%) Lead
9 16 (3.55%) IT Support Engineer
9 16 (3.55%) Support Technician
10 15 (3.33%) 2nd Line Support
10 15 (3.33%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.33%) Consultant
10 15 (3.33%) SAP Administrator
10 15 (3.33%) SAP Support
11 13 (2.88%) Security Engineer
12 12 (2.66%) DevOps Engineer
12 12 (2.66%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.99%) OAuth
2 14 (3.10%) .NET
3 13 (2.88%) REST
4 12 (2.66%) HTML
4 12 (2.66%) JSON
4 12 (2.66%) LDAP
4 12 (2.66%) SAML
5 11 (2.44%) OpenID
6 9 (2.00%) Kafka
7 8 (1.77%) Web Services
7 8 (1.77%) XMPP
8 7 (1.55%) React
8 7 (1.55%) SOAP
9 6 (1.33%) CSS
9 6 (1.33%) HTML5 Canvas
9 6 (1.33%) RESTful
9 6 (1.33%) Spring Boot
10 5 (1.11%) SailPoint
10 5 (1.11%) Spring
10 5 (1.11%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (6.87%) Onboarding
2 22 (4.88%) Product Ownership
3 14 (3.10%) Enterprise Software
4 10 (2.22%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.22%) Driving Licence
4 10 (2.22%) Low-Code
5 9 (2.00%) Management Information System
6 7 (1.55%) Mobile App
6 7 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.55%) Virtual Team
7 6 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.33%) Cloud Native
7 6 (1.33%) CMDB
7 6 (1.33%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (1.11%) Clustering
8 5 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.11%) PKI
9 4 (0.89%) Security Posture
10 3 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
10 3 (0.67%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 125 (27.72%) Windows
2 42 (9.31%) Windows 10
3 35 (7.76%) Linux
4 28 (6.21%) Windows Server
5 20 (4.43%) Android
5 20 (4.43%) Apple iOS
6 17 (3.77%) Unix
7 7 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (1.33%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.89%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.22%) Solaris
10 1 (0.22%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.22%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (22.17%) Problem-Solving
2 62 (13.75%) Agile
3 58 (12.86%) Stakeholder Management
4 53 (11.75%) Change Management
5 51 (11.31%) DevOps
5 51 (11.31%) Migration
6 50 (11.09%) Customer Service
6 50 (11.09%) ITIL
7 45 (9.98%) Service Management
8 44 (9.76%) ITSM
9 42 (9.31%) Cybersecurity
9 42 (9.31%) Project Management
10 41 (9.09%) Business Intelligence
11 36 (7.98%) Analytics
12 35 (7.76%) CI/CD
13 30 (6.65%) Continuous Improvement
13 30 (6.65%) Validation
14 29 (6.43%) User Experience
15 27 (5.99%) Service Delivery
16 24 (5.32%) Digital Transformation Programme
Programming Languages
1 45 (9.98%) SQL
2 38 (8.43%) PowerShell
3 31 (6.87%) Python
4 14 (3.10%) Java
4 14 (3.10%) JavaScript
5 10 (2.22%) Groovy
5 10 (2.22%) Shell Script
6 9 (2.00%) Bash
6 9 (2.00%) Perl
7 8 (1.77%) C#
7 8 (1.77%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (1.11%) VB
8 5 (1.11%) VBScript
9 4 (0.89%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.67%) PHP
10 3 (0.67%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.44%) JCL
11 2 (0.44%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.44%) REXX
11 2 (0.44%) VBA
Qualifications
1 81 (17.96%) Security Cleared
2 62 (13.75%) Degree
2 62 (13.75%) SC Cleared
3 25 (5.54%) BPSS Clearance
4 22 (4.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (2.22%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.77%) CISSP
7 8 (1.77%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.55%) ITIL Certification
9 6 (1.33%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.33%) CCNP
9 6 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (1.33%) CISM
10 5 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (1.11%) PMI Certification
11 4 (0.89%) A+ Certification
11 4 (0.89%) CCDP
11 4 (0.89%) CCNA
11 4 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (4.88%) QA
2 21 (4.66%) Accessibility
3 15 (3.33%) Data Quality
4 14 (3.10%) GDPR
5 12 (2.66%) NIST
6 8 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.33%) PCI DSS
8 4 (0.89%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.89%) PMO
8 4 (0.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.44%) ISO 8583
10 1 (0.22%) GRC
10 1 (0.22%) ISO 20022
10 1 (0.22%) NCSC
10 1 (0.22%) P3O
10 1 (0.22%) PMBOK
10 1 (0.22%) PSD2
10 1 (0.22%) SEPA
10 1 (0.22%) SLA
System Software
1 87 (19.29%) Active Directory
2 19 (4.21%) Docker
3 8 (1.77%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (1.11%) BitLocker
5 3 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.44%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.22%) ACF2
7 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.22%) RACF
7 1 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.22%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (9.09%) SCCM
2 37 (8.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (2.88%) Kubernetes
4 11 (2.44%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.22%) CA Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.22%) CA Wily
5 10 (2.22%) Progress Chef
6 9 (2.00%) Tivoli
7 8 (1.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (1.33%) QRadar
9 5 (1.11%) Ansible
9 5 (1.11%) Norton AntiVirus
10 3 (0.67%) Grafana
10 3 (0.67%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.67%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.67%) Terraform
11 2 (0.44%) CA Endevor
11 2 (0.44%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.44%) Nessus
Vendors
1 42 (9.31%) ServiceNow
2 27 (5.99%) Oracle
3 26 (5.76%) SAP
4 20 (4.43%) Splunk
5 19 (4.21%) IBM
6 15 (3.33%) Google
7 14 (3.10%) Citrix
8 13 (2.88%) Cisco
9 12 (2.66%) AppDynamics
10 10 (2.22%) Broadcom
11 8 (1.77%) Apple
11 8 (1.77%) VMware
12 7 (1.55%) Advent
12 7 (1.55%) Red Hat
13 6 (1.33%) McAfee
13 6 (1.33%) Zscaler
14 5 (1.11%) Symantec
15 4 (0.89%) Palo Alto
15 4 (0.89%) Remedy
15 4 (0.89%) Salesforce