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 10 June 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
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 2
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 402 359 410
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.75% 18.09% 14.65%
As % of the Vendors category 29.73% 35.30% 37.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 235 215
10th Percentile £166 £205 £200
25th Percentile £325 £348 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £425 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -10.53% -
75th Percentile £538 £525 £600
90th Percentile £614 £575 £670
England median daily rate £497 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +4.66% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 35 104
10th Percentile £17.73 £12.82 £10.95
25th Percentile - £13.00 £11.05
Median hourly rate £25.38 £27.13 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% +87.07% -40.24%
75th Percentile £74.26 £31.41 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 £61.76 £26.50
England median hourly rate £21.00 £19.00 £15.00
% change year-on-year +10.53% +26.67% -31.82%

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 1,352 1,017 1,094
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 39.52% 51.26% 39.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 799 660 634
10th Percentile £275 £288 £271
25th Percentile £394 £387 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% +4.38%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £660 £649
England median daily rate £505 £515 £518
% change year-on-year -1.94% -0.61% -1.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 60 152
10th Percentile £19.46 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £24.19 £18.61 £12.00
Median hourly rate £30.49 £34.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -11.62% +114.82% -45.19%
75th Percentile £62.00 £63.10 £26.54
90th Percentile £86.00 £85.33 £46.18
England median hourly rate £32.50 £27.13 £23.80
% change year-on-year +19.82% +13.97% -39.82%

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 10 June 2026.

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 10 June 2026.

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 10 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 -7 190 £449 +5.53% 191
Cheshire -4 87 £465 +16.10% 57
Merseyside 0 63 £140 -63.40% 39
Cumbria -6 35 £458 -1.51% 23
Lancashire -16 20 £350 -33.33% 80
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 41 (10.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (9.70%) SharePoint
3 15 (3.73%) Confluence
4 12 (2.99%) Skype for Business
5 4 (1.00%) CMS
6 3 (0.75%) IIS
7 2 (0.50%) Apache
7 2 (0.50%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.25%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.25%) WebSphere
Applications
1 53 (13.18%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (6.72%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (2.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.99%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.74%) MS Visio
6 4 (1.00%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.25%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.25%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 15 (3.73%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (1.74%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.75%) Elite 3E
3 3 (0.75%) Oracle Payables
3 3 (0.75%) Primavera
3 3 (0.75%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.25%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.25%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 150 (37.31%) Azure
2 130 (32.34%) Microsoft 365
3 50 (12.44%) Entra ID
4 49 (12.19%) Power Platform
5 34 (8.46%) Dynamics 365
5 34 (8.46%) Microsoft Copilot
6 32 (7.96%) AWS
7 24 (5.97%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (4.73%) Power Automate
9 18 (4.48%) PowerApps
10 14 (3.48%) GCP
10 14 (3.48%) OneDrive
11 13 (3.23%) Microsoft Purview
12 12 (2.99%) Serverless
13 10 (2.49%) Azure AKS
14 9 (2.24%) GitHub
15 8 (1.99%) SaaS
16 7 (1.74%) Azure Logic Apps
16 7 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
17 5 (1.24%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 19 (4.73%) DNS
1 19 (4.73%) Skype
2 18 (4.48%) Firewall
3 17 (4.23%) VPN
4 16 (3.98%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (2.74%) LAN
5 11 (2.74%) Network Security
5 11 (2.74%) WAN
6 9 (2.24%) DHCP
6 9 (2.24%) VLAN
7 4 (1.00%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.75%) WebEx
9 2 (0.50%) Internet
9 2 (0.50%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.50%) SSH
9 2 (0.50%) VSAN
10 1 (0.25%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (0.25%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (0.25%) PABX
10 1 (0.25%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (6.97%) Power BI
2 20 (4.98%) SQL Server
3 9 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (1.74%) Relational Database
5 5 (1.24%) Power Query
5 5 (1.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (1.00%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.00%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 3 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.75%) Metadata
7 3 (0.75%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.75%) MySQL
7 3 (0.75%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.75%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.75%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.50%) Data Lake
9 1 (0.25%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.25%) Looker
Development Applications
1 20 (4.98%) JIRA
2 11 (2.74%) Git
3 3 (0.75%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.75%) MSI
4 2 (0.50%) GitLab
5 1 (0.25%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.25%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.25%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.25%) Postman
5 1 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 118 (29.35%) Social Skills
2 88 (21.89%) Finance
3 51 (12.69%) Analytical Skills
3 51 (12.69%) Public Sector
4 48 (11.94%) Banking
5 41 (10.20%) Legal
6 16 (3.98%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (2.99%) Local Government
8 11 (2.74%) Manufacturing
8 11 (2.74%) Retail
9 9 (2.24%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.49%) Investment Banking
11 5 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.24%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.24%) Military
11 5 (1.24%) Retail Banking
12 4 (1.00%) Billing
13 3 (0.75%) Corporate Banking
13 3 (0.75%) Law
13 3 (0.75%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 60 (14.93%) Analyst
2 36 (8.96%) Architect
3 33 (8.21%) IT Support
4 30 (7.46%) Developer
5 28 (6.97%) 1st Line Support
6 23 (5.72%) Support Analyst
7 22 (5.47%) IT Analyst
8 19 (4.73%) IT Support Analyst
9 18 (4.48%) Security Engineer
10 17 (4.23%) Lead
11 16 (3.98%) Wintel Engineer
12 15 (3.73%) Administrator
12 15 (3.73%) Support Engineer
13 13 (3.23%) Project Manager
14 12 (2.99%) Business Analyst
14 12 (2.99%) IT Engineer
14 12 (2.99%) IT Support Engineer
14 12 (2.99%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 12 (2.99%) Senior
14 12 (2.99%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.49%) Spring
1 10 (2.49%) Spring Boot
2 9 (2.24%) .NET
2 9 (2.24%) REST
3 6 (1.49%) Software Packaging
3 6 (1.49%) XML
4 5 (1.24%) OAuth
5 4 (1.00%) ARM Templates
5 4 (1.00%) JSON
5 4 (1.00%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (1.00%) Node.js
5 4 (1.00%) SAML
6 3 (0.75%) HTML
6 3 (0.75%) HTML5 Canvas
6 3 (0.75%) Kafka
6 3 (0.75%) LDAP
6 3 (0.75%) OpenID
6 3 (0.75%) React
6 3 (0.75%) XMPP
7 2 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 27 (6.72%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.98%) Clustering
2 20 (4.98%) Replication
3 17 (4.23%) Cloud Native
4 13 (3.23%) Product Ownership
5 11 (2.74%) Management Information System
6 8 (1.99%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.49%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (1.00%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (1.00%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.00%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (1.00%) Operational Technology
9 3 (0.75%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.75%) Driving Licence
9 3 (0.75%) Housing Association
9 3 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (0.75%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 127 (31.59%) Windows
2 64 (15.92%) Windows 10
3 24 (5.97%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.73%) Linux
5 13 (3.23%) Windows 7
6 8 (1.99%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (1.74%) Unix
8 6 (1.49%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.00%) AIX
9 4 (1.00%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.75%) Solaris
10 3 (0.75%) VMS
11 2 (0.50%) HPUX
11 2 (0.50%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.50%) SUSE
11 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.25%) Android
12 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (13.93%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (13.68%) Agile
3 52 (12.94%) DevOps
4 50 (12.44%) Customer Service
5 46 (11.44%) ITIL
6 42 (10.45%) CI/CD
7 40 (9.95%) Migration
8 38 (9.45%) ITSM
9 34 (8.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 32 (7.96%) Service Management
10 32 (7.96%) Stakeholder Management
11 30 (7.46%) AI
11 30 (7.46%) Project Delivery
12 29 (7.21%) Business Intelligence
12 29 (7.21%) Change Management
12 29 (7.21%) Roadmaps
13 27 (6.72%) Analytics
14 25 (6.22%) Continuous Improvement
14 25 (6.22%) Identity Access Management
15 24 (5.97%) Capacity Planning
Programming Languages
1 72 (17.91%) PowerShell
2 42 (10.45%) SQL
3 31 (7.71%) Python
4 16 (3.98%) Java
5 13 (3.23%) VBScript
6 11 (2.74%) VB
7 9 (2.24%) C#
8 8 (1.99%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.99%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.74%) Bash
9 7 (1.74%) Bicep
10 5 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (1.00%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.75%) VBA
13 2 (0.50%) C++
14 1 (0.25%) COBOL
14 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 64 (15.92%) Security Cleared
2 57 (14.18%) SC Cleared
3 56 (13.93%) Degree
4 41 (10.20%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (4.23%) MCSA
5 17 (4.23%) MCSE
6 16 (3.98%) VCAP
6 16 (3.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 13 (3.23%) Azure Certification
8 12 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.74%) A+ Certification
9 11 (2.74%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (2.74%) CISSP
10 9 (2.24%) AWS Certification
10 9 (2.24%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (1.74%) DBS Check
12 5 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (1.24%) PMI Certification
13 3 (0.75%) PMP
13 3 (0.75%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.23%) GDPR
2 10 (2.49%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.99%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.99%) NIST
3 8 (1.99%) SLA
4 7 (1.74%) PMO
4 7 (1.74%) WCAG
5 4 (1.00%) QA
5 4 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.75%) NCSC
7 2 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.50%) GRC
7 2 (0.50%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 95 (23.63%) Active Directory
2 22 (5.47%) Virtual Machines
3 21 (5.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (4.98%) Docker
5 19 (4.73%) VMware ESXi
6 18 (4.48%) vSphere
7 12 (2.99%) BitLocker
8 4 (1.00%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.75%) NFS
10 2 (0.50%) GPFS
10 2 (0.50%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.25%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 22 (5.47%) SCCM
2 21 (5.22%) Kubernetes
3 20 (4.98%) Ansible
3 20 (4.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (4.48%) vCenter Server
5 17 (4.23%) Terraform
6 8 (1.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (1.00%) Grafana
7 4 (1.00%) Progress Chef
7 4 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.75%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.50%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.50%) Argo
9 2 (0.50%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.50%) CASB
9 2 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
9 2 (0.50%) Istio
9 2 (0.50%) linkerd
9 2 (0.50%) vRealize
9 2 (0.50%) VxRail
Vendors
1 51 (12.69%) ServiceNow
2 36 (8.96%) Cisco
3 23 (5.72%) VMware
4 18 (4.48%) Remedy
5 15 (3.73%) Bomgar
5 15 (3.73%) iManage
6 14 (3.48%) Oracle
6 14 (3.48%) SAP
7 11 (2.74%) Citrix
7 11 (2.74%) Splunk
8 9 (2.24%) Google
8 9 (2.24%) Red Hat
9 8 (1.99%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (1.49%) CrowdStrike
11 5 (1.24%) Databricks
11 5 (1.24%) IBM
12 4 (1.00%) HP
12 4 (1.00%) Salesforce
13 3 (0.75%) CyberArk
13 3 (0.75%) Infoblox