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 13 August 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
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 6 6
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 529 377 311
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 13.97% 17.07% 13.03%
As % of the Vendors category 32.98% 34.46% 33.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 247 177
10th Percentile £185 £208 £197
25th Percentile £316 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% +5.56%
75th Percentile £525 £505 £600
90th Percentile £599 £604 £650
England median daily rate £490 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.57% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 48 62
10th Percentile £16.50 £12.95 -
25th Percentile £24.08 £17.44 £10.95
Median hourly rate £26.00 £22.32 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +16.51% +38.95% -28.72%
75th Percentile £61.79 £30.82 -
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £34.75
England median hourly rate £21.50 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -4.99% +39.43% -26.23%

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 1,604 1,094 937
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 42.34% 49.55% 39.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 954 703 534
10th Percentile £255 £305 £276
25th Percentile £400 £388 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.74% -5.00% +1.52%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £597
90th Percentile £663 £674 £673
England median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 72 95
10th Percentile £17.20 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £22.68 £19.07 £11.07
Median hourly rate £29.00 £26.26 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +10.43% +63.51% -52.76%
75th Percentile £60.75 £50.00 £35.68
90th Percentile £85.00 £69.38 £55.79
England median hourly rate £34.00 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +35.17% -16.17% -20.00%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -2 255 £450 - 290
Cheshire +3 126 £492 +14.42% 87
Merseyside +1 65 £200 -50.00% 71
Cumbria +2 42 £478 +12.47% 15
Lancashire -7 34 £400 -11.11% 108
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 75 (14.18%) SharePoint
2 57 (10.78%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (3.02%) Skype for Business
4 13 (2.46%) Confluence
5 8 (1.51%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.57%) CMS
6 3 (0.57%) IIS
7 2 (0.38%) Apache
7 2 (0.38%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.19%) CICS
8 1 (0.19%) Mendix
8 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
Applications
1 68 (12.85%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (7.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (1.51%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.95%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.76%) AutoCAD
8 3 (0.57%) Navisworks
8 3 (0.57%) ProjectWise
8 3 (0.57%) Revit
9 1 (0.19%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (2.46%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (2.08%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (1.32%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.76%) Primavera
4 4 (0.76%) SAP MM
4 4 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.57%) Elite 3E
5 3 (0.57%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 2 (0.38%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.19%) Cloudability
7 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
7 1 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 200 (37.81%) Azure
2 184 (34.78%) Microsoft 365
3 90 (17.01%) Power Platform
4 74 (13.99%) Entra ID
5 50 (9.45%) AWS
5 50 (9.45%) Microsoft Copilot
6 35 (6.62%) Dynamics 365
7 33 (6.24%) Azure DevOps
8 30 (5.67%) OneDrive
8 30 (5.67%) Power Automate
9 29 (5.48%) PowerApps
10 22 (4.16%) GCP
11 13 (2.46%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (2.46%) GitHub
11 13 (2.46%) Serverless
12 12 (2.27%) SaaS
13 11 (2.08%) Azure AI
13 11 (2.08%) Microsoft Purview
14 10 (1.89%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (1.51%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 33 (6.24%) DNS
2 27 (5.10%) VPN
3 25 (4.73%) Firewall
4 21 (3.97%) Skype
5 19 (3.59%) DHCP
6 16 (3.02%) LAN
6 16 (3.02%) Network Security
7 15 (2.84%) WAN
8 13 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (2.27%) VLAN
10 10 (1.89%) TCP/IP
11 7 (1.32%) SAN
11 7 (1.32%) SSL
12 4 (0.76%) NAS
13 3 (0.57%) PABX
13 3 (0.57%) SSH
13 3 (0.57%) VoIP
14 2 (0.38%) SD-WAN
14 2 (0.38%) VSAN
14 2 (0.38%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (11.15%) Power BI
2 43 (8.13%) SQL Server
3 18 (3.40%) MySQL
4 17 (3.21%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (3.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 8 (1.51%) Power Query
6 8 (1.51%) Relational Database
7 6 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.13%) Metadata
8 5 (0.95%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.76%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.76%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 3 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.57%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.57%) Oracle Reports
10 3 (0.57%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.38%) EDMS
11 2 (0.38%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 22 (4.16%) JIRA
2 12 (2.27%) Git
3 10 (1.89%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.51%) GitLab
5 4 (0.76%) MSI
6 2 (0.38%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.38%) Toad
7 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 160 (30.25%) Social Skills
2 106 (20.04%) Finance
3 68 (12.85%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (8.51%) Banking
5 43 (8.13%) Public Sector
6 33 (6.24%) Legal
7 20 (3.78%) Manufacturing
8 17 (3.21%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
9 15 (2.84%) Local Government
10 9 (1.70%) Retail
11 8 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (1.32%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.32%) Telecoms
13 6 (1.13%) Marketing
13 6 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.95%) Games
14 5 (0.95%) Military
15 4 (0.76%) Advertising
15 4 (0.76%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 54 (10.21%) Analyst
2 48 (9.07%) IT Support
3 44 (8.32%) Support Engineer
4 39 (7.37%) Architect
5 34 (6.43%) IT Engineer
5 34 (6.43%) IT Support Engineer
6 30 (5.67%) DBA
7 29 (5.48%) Lead
8 25 (4.73%) Administrator
8 25 (4.73%) Developer
9 20 (3.78%) Senior
10 19 (3.59%) Service Analyst
11 18 (3.40%) SQL DBA
12 17 (3.21%) Security Engineer
13 14 (2.65%) Desktop Engineer
13 14 (2.65%) IT Analyst
13 14 (2.65%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 14 (2.65%) Service Desk Analyst
14 13 (2.46%) 1st Line Support
14 13 (2.46%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.89%) Microsoft Graph
1 10 (1.89%) SAML
2 7 (1.32%) JSON
3 6 (1.13%) ARM Templates
3 6 (1.13%) REST
3 6 (1.13%) Software Packaging
4 5 (0.95%) Kafka
4 5 (0.95%) Spring
4 5 (0.95%) Spring Boot
4 5 (0.95%) XML
5 4 (0.76%) .NET
5 4 (0.76%) Node.js
5 4 (0.76%) OAuth
5 4 (0.76%) SailPoint
6 3 (0.57%) Azure Blueprints
6 3 (0.57%) HTML5 Canvas
6 3 (0.57%) LangChain
6 3 (0.57%) PySpark
6 3 (0.57%) React
7 2 (0.38%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 35 (6.62%) Onboarding
2 25 (4.73%) Management Information System
3 23 (4.35%) Cloud Native
4 20 (3.78%) Replication
5 19 (3.59%) Clustering
6 13 (2.46%) Data Centre
7 10 (1.89%) Driving Licence
7 10 (1.89%) Security Posture
8 9 (1.70%) AI Agents
8 9 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (1.51%) CMDB
9 8 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (1.51%) PKI
9 8 (1.51%) Product Ownership
10 7 (1.32%) Enterprise Cloud
11 6 (1.13%) Hybrid Cloud
12 5 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (0.95%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (0.95%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 161 (30.43%) Windows
2 71 (13.42%) Windows 10
3 40 (7.56%) Windows Server
4 26 (4.91%) Linux
5 17 (3.21%) Windows 7
6 11 (2.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (1.89%) Solaris
7 10 (1.89%) Unix
8 7 (1.32%) Android
8 7 (1.32%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.32%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.95%) AIX
9 5 (0.95%) VMS
9 5 (0.95%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.57%) HPUX
10 3 (0.57%) Oracle Linux
10 3 (0.57%) SUSE
10 3 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (17.77%) ITIL
2 84 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
3 66 (12.48%) Customer Service
4 62 (11.72%) DevOps
5 58 (10.96%) Agile
6 57 (10.78%) Stakeholder Management
7 56 (10.59%) Service Management
8 55 (10.40%) Business Intelligence
9 54 (10.21%) Migration
10 51 (9.64%) Continuous Improvement
11 50 (9.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 49 (9.26%) ITSM
13 48 (9.07%) CI/CD
14 46 (8.70%) Analytics
15 43 (8.13%) AI
16 41 (7.75%) Change Management
17 36 (6.81%) Infrastructure as Code
18 35 (6.62%) Roadmaps
19 33 (6.24%) Project Delivery
20 32 (6.05%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 93 (17.58%) PowerShell
2 70 (13.23%) SQL
3 49 (9.26%) Python
4 19 (3.59%) Bicep
4 19 (3.59%) VBScript
5 17 (3.21%) T-SQL
6 15 (2.84%) VB
7 12 (2.27%) Bash
8 11 (2.08%) Java
9 9 (1.70%) C#
10 8 (1.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (1.32%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.76%) Search Processing Language
13 2 (0.38%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.19%) COBOL
14 1 (0.19%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 105 (19.85%) Security Cleared
2 86 (16.26%) SC Cleared
3 67 (12.67%) Degree
4 48 (9.07%) Microsoft Certification
5 39 (7.37%) BPSS Clearance
6 23 (4.35%) Azure Certification
7 15 (2.84%) CISSP
8 12 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.08%) AWS Certification
10 10 (1.89%) DBS Check
10 10 (1.89%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.70%) A+ Certification
11 9 (1.70%) MCSE
12 8 (1.51%) MCSA
12 8 (1.51%) VCAP
12 8 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (1.32%) ITIL Certification
13 7 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
14 4 (0.76%) Cisco Certification
14 4 (0.76%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.78%) GDPR
2 18 (3.40%) Data Quality
2 18 (3.40%) SLA
3 12 (2.27%) PMO
4 10 (1.89%) NIST
5 8 (1.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (1.32%) GRC
7 5 (0.95%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.95%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.95%) QA
7 5 (0.95%) WCAG
8 4 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.76%) NCSC
9 3 (0.57%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.38%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.38%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.38%) P3O
11 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 135 (25.52%) Active Directory
2 24 (4.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (4.35%) Docker
4 21 (3.97%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (3.21%) BitLocker
6 11 (2.08%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (2.08%) vSphere
7 9 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (1.51%) Hyper-V
9 4 (0.76%) Oracle RAC
10 3 (0.57%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.57%) NFS
11 2 (0.38%) GPFS
12 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.19%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.19%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 41 (7.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (6.99%) SCCM
3 32 (6.05%) Terraform
4 27 (5.10%) Kubernetes
5 19 (3.59%) Ansible
6 11 (2.08%) Progress Chef
7 10 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (1.89%) vCenter Server
8 7 (1.32%) SCOM
9 6 (1.13%) Grafana
10 5 (0.95%) CASB
11 4 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.76%) Data Guard
12 3 (0.57%) Failover Clustering
12 3 (0.57%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.57%) WSUS
13 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 2 (0.38%) linkerd
13 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.38%) vRealize
Vendors
1 99 (18.71%) ServiceNow
2 30 (5.67%) VMware
3 26 (4.91%) Oracle
4 25 (4.73%) Cisco
5 23 (4.35%) Splunk
6 21 (3.97%) BeyondTrust
7 20 (3.78%) SAP
8 19 (3.59%) Google
9 18 (3.40%) iManage
10 16 (3.02%) Remedy
11 14 (2.65%) Red Hat
12 11 (2.08%) Databricks
13 10 (1.89%) Bomgar
13 10 (1.89%) CyberArk
14 6 (1.13%) CrowdStrike
14 6 (1.13%) IBM
14 6 (1.13%) Okta
14 6 (1.13%) Ribbon
15 5 (0.95%) Citrix
15 5 (0.95%) HP