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 16 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
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 2
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 412 368 415
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.85% 18.43% 14.74%
As % of the Vendors category 30.01% 35.76% 37.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 244 219
10th Percentile £172 £205 £200
25th Percentile £325 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £425 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.71% -10.53% +2.70%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £594
90th Percentile £615 £593 £665
England median daily rate £495 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +4.21% -4.52% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 35 104
10th Percentile £18.11 £12.82 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £13.00 £11.05
Median hourly rate £29.00 £27.13 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.91% +87.07% -40.24%
75th Percentile £69.01 £31.41 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 £61.76 £26.50
England median hourly rate £22.41 £19.00 £15.58
% change year-on-year +17.95% +21.99% -30.78%

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 1,373 1,029 1,094
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 39.50% 51.53% 38.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 812 672 634
10th Percentile £275 £300 £270
25th Percentile £400 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £571 £588
90th Percentile £675 £665 £649
England median daily rate £505 £513 £517
% change year-on-year -1.46% -0.87% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 61 154
10th Percentile £20.30 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £24.39 £19.00 £12.00
Median hourly rate £31.36 £37.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -15.25% +130.39% -45.19%
75th Percentile £63.31 £63.00 £26.66
90th Percentile £85.50 £85.25 £46.18
England median hourly rate £33.99 £27.00 £24.00
% change year-on-year +25.89% +12.50% -39.32%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -7 197 £445 +4.65% 229
Cheshire -4 90 £467 +11.74% 72
Merseyside +1 64 £140 -65.00% 39
Cumbria -3 35 £458 -1.51% 22
Lancashire -17 19 £366 -30.24% 82
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 (9.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (9.47%) SharePoint
3 15 (3.64%) Confluence
4 12 (2.91%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.97%) CMS
6 3 (0.73%) IIS
7 2 (0.49%) Apache
7 2 (0.49%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.24%) CICS
8 1 (0.24%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.24%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
Applications
1 54 (13.11%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (7.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (2.43%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (2.18%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.97%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.24%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.24%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 14 (3.40%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (1.94%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.21%) Primavera
3 5 (1.21%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.73%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.73%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.49%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.24%) Infor M3
6 1 (0.24%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.24%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.24%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 154 (37.38%) Azure
2 133 (32.28%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (13.59%) Power Platform
4 50 (12.14%) Entra ID
5 36 (8.74%) Dynamics 365
5 36 (8.74%) Microsoft Copilot
6 32 (7.77%) AWS
7 25 (6.07%) Azure DevOps
8 22 (5.34%) Power Automate
9 21 (5.10%) PowerApps
10 14 (3.40%) Microsoft Purview
10 14 (3.40%) OneDrive
11 13 (3.16%) Serverless
12 12 (2.91%) GCP
13 10 (2.43%) Azure AKS
14 9 (2.18%) GitHub
14 9 (2.18%) SaaS
15 8 (1.94%) Azure Logic Apps
16 7 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
17 6 (1.46%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 19 (4.61%) DNS
2 18 (4.37%) Firewall
2 18 (4.37%) Skype
3 17 (4.13%) VPN
4 16 (3.88%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (2.67%) LAN
5 11 (2.67%) Network Security
5 11 (2.67%) WAN
6 9 (2.18%) DHCP
6 9 (2.18%) VLAN
7 4 (0.97%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.73%) WebEx
9 2 (0.49%) Internet
9 2 (0.49%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.49%) SSH
9 2 (0.49%) VSAN
10 1 (0.24%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (0.24%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (0.24%) PABX
10 1 (0.24%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (7.77%) Power BI
2 20 (4.85%) SQL Server
3 9 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (1.70%) Power Query
4 7 (1.70%) Relational Database
5 5 (1.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (0.97%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.97%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 3 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.73%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.73%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.73%) Metadata
7 3 (0.73%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.73%) MySQL
7 3 (0.73%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.73%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.73%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.24%) Data Vault
8 1 (0.24%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 21 (5.10%) JIRA
2 11 (2.67%) Git
3 3 (0.73%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.73%) MSI
4 2 (0.49%) GitLab
5 1 (0.24%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.24%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.24%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.24%) Postman
5 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 117 (28.40%) Social Skills
2 88 (21.36%) Finance
3 54 (13.11%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (12.62%) Public Sector
5 47 (11.41%) Banking
6 41 (9.95%) Legal
7 15 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (3.40%) Manufacturing
9 13 (3.16%) Local Government
10 11 (2.67%) Retail
11 9 (2.18%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.46%) Investment Banking
13 5 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.21%) Military
13 5 (1.21%) Retail Banking
14 4 (0.97%) Billing
14 4 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.73%) Law
15 3 (0.73%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 59 (14.32%) Analyst
2 36 (8.74%) Architect
3 34 (8.25%) IT Support
4 32 (7.77%) Developer
5 26 (6.31%) 1st Line Support
6 22 (5.34%) Support Analyst
7 21 (5.10%) IT Analyst
8 18 (4.37%) IT Support Analyst
8 18 (4.37%) Lead
8 18 (4.37%) Security Engineer
9 17 (4.13%) Support Engineer
10 16 (3.88%) Administrator
10 16 (3.88%) Wintel Engineer
11 14 (3.40%) IT Engineer
11 14 (3.40%) IT Support Engineer
12 13 (3.16%) Designer
12 13 (3.16%) Project Manager
13 12 (2.91%) Business Analyst
13 12 (2.91%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 12 (2.91%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.43%) Spring
1 10 (2.43%) Spring Boot
2 9 (2.18%) .NET
2 9 (2.18%) REST
3 6 (1.46%) Software Packaging
3 6 (1.46%) XML
4 5 (1.21%) OAuth
5 4 (0.97%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.97%) HTML5 Canvas
5 4 (0.97%) JSON
5 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (0.97%) Node.js
5 4 (0.97%) SAML
6 3 (0.73%) HTML
6 3 (0.73%) Kafka
6 3 (0.73%) LDAP
6 3 (0.73%) OpenID
6 3 (0.73%) React
6 3 (0.73%) XMPP
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 28 (6.80%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.85%) Clustering
2 20 (4.85%) Replication
3 18 (4.37%) Cloud Native
4 14 (3.40%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.91%) Product Ownership
6 8 (1.94%) Security Posture
7 7 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.46%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (0.97%) AI Agents
9 4 (0.97%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (0.97%) Cloud Security Posture
9 4 (0.97%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
9 4 (0.97%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.73%) Driving Licence
10 3 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.73%) Housing Association
10 3 (0.73%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 125 (30.34%) Windows
2 62 (15.05%) Windows 10
3 24 (5.83%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.61%) Linux
5 13 (3.16%) Windows 7
6 7 (1.70%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.70%) Unix
7 6 (1.46%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.97%) AIX
8 4 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.73%) Solaris
9 3 (0.73%) VMS
10 2 (0.49%) HPUX
10 2 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.49%) SUSE
10 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.24%) Android
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (14.08%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (13.35%) Agile
2 55 (13.35%) DevOps
3 49 (11.89%) Customer Service
4 47 (11.41%) ITIL
5 44 (10.68%) CI/CD
6 41 (9.95%) Migration
7 39 (9.47%) ITSM
8 36 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 34 (8.25%) Service Management
10 33 (8.01%) Business Intelligence
11 31 (7.52%) Project Delivery
11 31 (7.52%) Stakeholder Management
12 30 (7.28%) AI
12 30 (7.28%) Change Management
13 27 (6.55%) Roadmaps
14 26 (6.31%) Analytics
14 26 (6.31%) Continuous Improvement
15 24 (5.83%) Capacity Planning
15 24 (5.83%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 72 (17.48%) PowerShell
2 46 (11.17%) SQL
3 33 (8.01%) Python
4 16 (3.88%) Java
5 13 (3.16%) VBScript
6 11 (2.67%) VB
7 10 (2.43%) C#
8 9 (2.18%) JavaScript
9 8 (1.94%) T-SQL
10 7 (1.70%) Bicep
10 7 (1.70%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 6 (1.46%) Bash
12 4 (0.97%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.73%) VBA
14 2 (0.49%) C++
15 1 (0.24%) COBOL
15 1 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 69 (16.75%) Security Cleared
2 62 (15.05%) SC Cleared
3 59 (14.32%) Degree
4 43 (10.44%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (4.13%) MCSA
5 17 (4.13%) MCSE
6 16 (3.88%) VCAP
6 16 (3.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 13 (3.16%) Azure Certification
7 13 (3.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.67%) A+ Certification
9 11 (2.67%) CISSP
10 9 (2.18%) AWS Certification
10 9 (2.18%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (1.70%) DBS Check
12 6 (1.46%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (1.21%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.73%) PMP
14 3 (0.73%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.88%) GDPR
2 9 (2.18%) Accessibility
2 9 (2.18%) Data Quality
2 9 (2.18%) PMO
3 8 (1.94%) NIST
3 8 (1.94%) SLA
4 7 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.70%) WCAG
5 4 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.73%) NCSC
6 3 (0.73%) QA
7 2 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.49%) GRC
7 2 (0.49%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.24%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 95 (23.06%) Active Directory
2 22 (5.34%) Virtual Machines
3 21 (5.10%) Docker
4 20 (4.85%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (4.61%) VMware ESXi
6 18 (4.37%) vSphere
7 12 (2.91%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.97%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.73%) NFS
10 2 (0.49%) GPFS
10 2 (0.49%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.24%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 23 (5.58%) Kubernetes
2 21 (5.10%) SCCM
3 20 (4.85%) Ansible
4 19 (4.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (4.37%) Terraform
5 18 (4.37%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (1.21%) Grafana
8 4 (0.97%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.73%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.49%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.49%) Argo
10 2 (0.49%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.49%) CASB
10 2 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.49%) Istio
10 2 (0.49%) linkerd
10 2 (0.49%) vRealize
10 2 (0.49%) VxRail
Vendors
1 52 (12.62%) ServiceNow
2 35 (8.50%) Cisco
3 22 (5.34%) VMware
4 17 (4.13%) Remedy
5 16 (3.88%) SAP
6 14 (3.40%) Bomgar
6 14 (3.40%) iManage
6 14 (3.40%) Oracle
7 12 (2.91%) Splunk
8 9 (2.18%) Citrix
8 9 (2.18%) Red Hat
9 8 (1.94%) BeyondTrust
10 7 (1.70%) Google
11 6 (1.46%) CrowdStrike
12 5 (1.21%) Databricks
12 5 (1.21%) IBM
13 4 (0.97%) HP
13 4 (0.97%) Salesforce
14 3 (0.73%) CyberArk
14 3 (0.73%) Infoblox