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 28 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
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 552 388 290
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 14.03% 17.58% 11.90%
As % of the Vendors category 33.07% 35.27% 30.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 355 254 167
10th Percentile £185 £207 £213
25th Percentile £313 £350 £373
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £437 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.97% -8.00% +5.56%
75th Percentile £525 £500 £610
90th Percentile £600 £600 £657
England median daily rate £488 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.63% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 53 44
10th Percentile £16.09 £12.86 -
25th Percentile £19.41 £17.44 £10.95
Median hourly rate £25.38 £22.32 £11.10
Median % change year-on-year +13.74% +101.08% -50.74%
75th Percentile £30.00 £31.40 £26.16
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £43.13
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -7.20% +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 1,669 1,100 939
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 42.41% 49.84% 38.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 987 711 534
10th Percentile £255 £304 £300
25th Percentile £400 £381 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £663 £675 £675
England median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 79 74
10th Percentile £16.80 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £22.63 £18.87 £10.95
Median hourly rate £29.00 £25.15 £18.65
Median % change year-on-year +15.33% +34.86% -46.73%
75th Percentile £60.75 £51.25 £43.10
90th Percentile £85.00 £67.80 £55.79
England median hourly rate £32.23 £25.15 £29.00
% change year-on-year +28.13% -13.28% -30.12%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -5 247 £450 - 384
Cheshire +4 148 £450 +5.88% 111
Merseyside +2 71 £200 -50.00% 81
Cumbria -2 42 £478 +12.47% 15
Lancashire -7 37 £400 -11.11% 140
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 81 (14.67%) SharePoint
2 55 (9.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (2.90%) Skype for Business
4 10 (1.81%) Confluence
5 8 (1.45%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.54%) CMS
6 3 (0.54%) IIS
7 2 (0.36%) Apache
7 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.18%) Mendix
8 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 69 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (7.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (3.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (2.36%) Microsoft Project
4 13 (2.36%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.91%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.72%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.72%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.72%) ProjectWise
6 4 (0.72%) Revit
7 1 (0.18%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (2.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.81%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (1.27%) Oracle Payables
4 5 (0.91%) Primavera
4 5 (0.91%) SAP MM
5 4 (0.72%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 4 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
6 3 (0.54%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
8 1 (0.18%) Cloudability
8 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
8 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 205 (37.14%) Azure
2 194 (35.14%) Microsoft 365
3 96 (17.39%) Power Platform
4 85 (15.40%) Entra ID
5 53 (9.60%) AWS
6 45 (8.15%) Microsoft Copilot
7 36 (6.52%) Dynamics 365
8 32 (5.80%) Azure DevOps
9 28 (5.07%) OneDrive
10 27 (4.89%) Power Automate
11 25 (4.53%) PowerApps
12 21 (3.80%) GCP
13 14 (2.54%) Azure AI
14 13 (2.36%) Azure Monitor
15 12 (2.17%) Azure Sentinel
16 11 (1.99%) SaaS
17 10 (1.81%) GitHub
17 10 (1.81%) Serverless
18 9 (1.63%) Microsoft Purview
19 8 (1.45%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.80%) DNS
2 28 (5.07%) VPN
3 23 (4.17%) Firewall
4 20 (3.62%) DHCP
4 20 (3.62%) Skype
5 19 (3.44%) Network Security
6 16 (2.90%) LAN
7 15 (2.72%) WAN
8 13 (2.36%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (2.17%) TCP/IP
9 12 (2.17%) VLAN
10 8 (1.45%) SAN
11 7 (1.27%) SSL
12 4 (0.72%) NAS
13 3 (0.54%) NetScaler
13 3 (0.54%) PABX
13 3 (0.54%) SSH
13 3 (0.54%) VoIP
14 2 (0.36%) Remote Desktop
14 2 (0.36%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (11.59%) Power BI
2 43 (7.79%) SQL Server
3 18 (3.26%) MySQL
4 16 (2.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 14 (2.54%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.63%) Power Query
7 7 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.09%) Metadata
9 5 (0.91%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.91%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.72%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.72%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 3 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.36%) EDMS
12 2 (0.36%) EDRMS
12 2 (0.36%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.36%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.36%) Oracle Database 12c
12 2 (0.36%) Star Schema
13 1 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 18 (3.26%) JIRA
2 12 (2.17%) Git
3 9 (1.63%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.27%) GitLab
5 5 (0.91%) MSI
6 2 (0.36%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.36%) Toad
7 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 180 (32.61%) Social Skills
2 107 (19.38%) Finance
3 72 (13.04%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (7.79%) Banking
5 39 (7.07%) Public Sector
6 25 (4.53%) Manufacturing
7 21 (3.80%) Legal
8 20 (3.62%) Organisational Skills
9 19 (3.44%) Documentation Skills
10 15 (2.72%) Local Government
11 10 (1.81%) Retail
12 7 (1.27%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.27%) Telecoms
13 6 (1.09%) Marketing
13 6 (1.09%) Military
13 6 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.91%) Games
14 5 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.72%) Advertising
15 4 (0.72%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 59 (10.69%) IT Support
2 56 (10.14%) Support Engineer
3 54 (9.78%) Analyst
4 46 (8.33%) Architect
5 42 (7.61%) IT Engineer
5 42 (7.61%) IT Support Engineer
6 32 (5.80%) Lead
7 27 (4.89%) DBA
8 26 (4.71%) Developer
9 23 (4.17%) Administrator
10 22 (3.99%) Consultant
11 21 (3.80%) Service Analyst
12 18 (3.26%) Security Engineer
12 18 (3.26%) SQL DBA
13 17 (3.08%) Cloud Engineer
14 16 (2.90%) Desktop Engineer
14 16 (2.90%) Senior
14 16 (2.90%) Service Desk Analyst
15 14 (2.54%) IT Analyst
15 14 (2.54%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (5.25%) Terraform
2 12 (2.17%) SAML
3 11 (1.99%) Microsoft Graph
4 8 (1.45%) Software Packaging
5 6 (1.09%) ARM Templates
5 6 (1.09%) REST
5 6 (1.09%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.91%) Spring
6 5 (0.91%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.72%) .NET
7 4 (0.72%) Azure Blueprints
7 4 (0.72%) JSON
7 4 (0.72%) Node.js
7 4 (0.72%) OAuth
8 3 (0.54%) A2A Protocol
8 3 (0.54%) HTML5 Canvas
8 3 (0.54%) Model Context Protocol
8 3 (0.54%) PySpark
8 3 (0.54%) React
9 2 (0.36%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.25%) Onboarding
2 28 (5.07%) Management Information System
3 24 (4.35%) Cloud Native
4 21 (3.80%) Replication
5 20 (3.62%) Clustering
6 12 (2.17%) CMDB
6 12 (2.17%) Data Centre
7 10 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
7 10 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (1.63%) AI Agents
8 9 (1.63%) Driving Licence
8 9 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (1.63%) PKI
9 7 (1.27%) Enterprise Cloud
9 7 (1.27%) Product Ownership
10 5 (0.91%) Animation
10 5 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (0.91%) Handset
10 5 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (0.91%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 180 (32.61%) Windows
2 73 (13.22%) Windows 10
3 45 (8.15%) Windows Server
4 27 (4.89%) Linux
5 17 (3.08%) Windows 7
6 12 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.99%) Apple iOS
8 9 (1.63%) Android
8 9 (1.63%) Mac OS
8 9 (1.63%) Solaris
8 9 (1.63%) Unix
9 5 (0.91%) VMS
9 5 (0.91%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.72%) AIX
11 3 (0.54%) HPUX
11 3 (0.54%) Oracle Linux
11 3 (0.54%) SUSE
11 3 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (18.66%) ITIL
2 94 (17.03%) Problem-Solving
3 76 (13.77%) Customer Service
4 72 (13.04%) Stakeholder Management
5 59 (10.69%) Service Management
6 58 (10.51%) Business Intelligence
7 54 (9.78%) Migration
8 53 (9.60%) Analytics
8 53 (9.60%) Continuous Improvement
8 53 (9.60%) DevOps
9 51 (9.24%) Agile
10 49 (8.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 47 (8.51%) AI
11 47 (8.51%) ITSM
12 45 (8.15%) CI/CD
13 38 (6.88%) Change Management
13 38 (6.88%) Infrastructure as Code
14 36 (6.52%) User Experience
15 33 (5.98%) Disaster Recovery
16 31 (5.62%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 99 (17.93%) PowerShell
2 72 (13.04%) SQL
3 48 (8.70%) Python
4 19 (3.44%) VBScript
5 18 (3.26%) T-SQL
6 17 (3.08%) Bicep
7 15 (2.72%) VB
8 13 (2.36%) Java
9 12 (2.17%) Bash
10 9 (1.63%) C#
11 8 (1.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 7 (1.27%) JavaScript
13 5 (0.91%) Kusto Query Language
13 5 (0.91%) Search Processing Language
14 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
15 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 116 (21.01%) Security Cleared
2 93 (16.85%) SC Cleared
3 68 (12.32%) Degree
4 47 (8.51%) Microsoft Certification
5 42 (7.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 20 (3.62%) Azure Certification
6 20 (3.62%) CISSP
7 13 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
8 12 (2.17%) AWS Certification
9 10 (1.81%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.81%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 9 (1.63%) A+ Certification
10 9 (1.63%) MCSE
11 8 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (1.45%) MCSA
11 8 (1.45%) VCAP
11 8 (1.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.27%) Network+ Certification
13 5 (0.91%) GCFA
13 5 (0.91%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.53%) SLA
2 22 (3.99%) Data Quality
3 19 (3.44%) GDPR
4 11 (1.99%) NIST
4 11 (1.99%) PMO
5 9 (1.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (1.45%) GRC
7 6 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.09%) QA
8 5 (0.91%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.91%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.91%) WCAG
9 4 (0.72%) ISO 19650
9 4 (0.72%) NCSC
10 2 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.36%) P3O
11 1 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 147 (26.63%) Active Directory
2 29 (5.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (3.80%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (3.44%) Docker
5 17 (3.08%) BitLocker
6 14 (2.54%) Hyper-V
7 13 (2.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (1.99%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (1.99%) vSphere
9 4 (0.72%) Microsoft App-V
9 4 (0.72%) Oracle RAC
10 3 (0.54%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 3 (0.54%) NFS
11 2 (0.36%) GPFS
11 2 (0.36%) XenApp
11 2 (0.36%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.18%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 1 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 49 (8.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (8.15%) SCCM
3 23 (4.17%) Kubernetes
4 22 (3.99%) Ansible
5 13 (2.36%) Progress Chef
5 13 (2.36%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (1.81%) vCenter Server
7 7 (1.27%) SCOM
8 5 (0.91%) CASB
9 4 (0.72%) Data Guard
9 4 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
9 4 (0.72%) Grafana
10 3 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.54%) SysTrack
10 3 (0.54%) WSUS
11 2 (0.36%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.36%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 2 (0.36%) vRealize
11 2 (0.36%) VxRail
Vendors
1 100 (18.12%) ServiceNow
2 35 (6.34%) VMware
3 27 (4.89%) Cisco
4 26 (4.71%) Splunk
5 25 (4.53%) BeyondTrust
6 23 (4.17%) Oracle
7 21 (3.80%) SAP
8 20 (3.62%) Google
9 18 (3.26%) iManage
10 14 (2.54%) Red Hat
10 14 (2.54%) Remedy
11 12 (2.17%) CyberArk
12 10 (1.81%) Databricks
13 8 (1.45%) Bomgar
14 7 (1.27%) Ribbon
15 6 (1.09%) Citrix
15 6 (1.09%) CrowdStrike
16 5 (0.91%) HP
16 5 (0.91%) Salesforce
16 5 (0.91%) Sophos