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 15 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
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 4
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 446 310 419
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.34% 13.07% 15.15%
As % of the Vendors category 36.20% 29.75% 32.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 310 181 273
10th Percentile £190 £213 £200
25th Percentile £325 £363 £248
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £450 £413
Median % change year-on-year -4.33% +9.09% -5.71%
75th Percentile £493 £550 £538
90th Percentile £604 £675 £619
England median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 25 55
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.20 £15.95
25th Percentile £18.92 £24.18 £17.36
Median hourly rate £22.63 £31.00 £22.53
Median % change year-on-year -27.00% +37.59% +28.74%
75th Percentile £32.06 £35.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.21 £46.18 £52.13
England median hourly rate £22.00 £22.30 £23.00
% change year-on-year -1.32% -3.07% +17.95%

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 1,232 1,042 1,307
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 50.66% 43.93% 47.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 827 548 862
10th Percentile £268 £325 £225
25th Percentile £375 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £675
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 55 93
10th Percentile £15.52 £16.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £27.38 £35.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.79% +6.06% +67.09%
75th Percentile £55.49 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £63.22 £53.80
England median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.57% -21.35% +73.08%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +1 198 £435 -3.33% 298
Cheshire +2 140 £435 -9.80% 86
Lancashire +2 44 £450 +1.41% 194
Merseyside -1 42 £225 -10.00% 67
Cumbria +18 16 £492 +3.58% 8
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 (12.11%) SharePoint
2 39 (8.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (3.81%) Apache
4 16 (3.59%) Confluence
4 16 (3.59%) JBoss
5 15 (3.36%) Skype for Business
6 14 (3.14%) IIS
7 12 (2.69%) WebSphere
8 10 (2.24%) iPlanet
8 10 (2.24%) WebSphere Application Server
9 8 (1.79%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (1.57%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (1.12%) CMS
11 5 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2010
12 4 (0.90%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.45%) Mattermost
13 2 (0.45%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.45%) SAS
14 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
14 1 (0.22%) CICS
Applications
1 76 (17.04%) Microsoft Office
2 60 (13.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (4.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (3.81%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.12%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.67%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.67%) Siemens NX
6 3 (0.67%) Sketch
6 3 (0.67%) Trello
7 2 (0.45%) Simulink
8 1 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.22%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.57%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (0.67%) assyst
3 3 (0.67%) Maximo
3 3 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.45%) Kondor
4 2 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.22%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.22%) Primavera
5 1 (0.22%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 111 (24.89%) Microsoft 365
2 103 (23.09%) Azure
3 55 (12.33%) Power Platform
4 47 (10.54%) AWS
5 29 (6.50%) Entra ID
6 20 (4.48%) Power Automate
7 19 (4.26%) OneDrive
7 19 (4.26%) PowerApps
8 17 (3.81%) SaaS
9 16 (3.59%) OpenShift
10 15 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
10 15 (3.36%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (2.47%) GCP
11 11 (2.47%) GitHub
12 9 (2.02%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (2.02%) Microsoft Purview
13 7 (1.57%) Azure Logic Apps
14 6 (1.35%) Figma
14 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
15 5 (1.12%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.48%) Firewall
2 18 (4.04%) DNS
3 15 (3.36%) Skype
4 13 (2.91%) LAN
5 12 (2.69%) Wi-Fi
6 11 (2.47%) Network Security
6 11 (2.47%) Unified Communications
6 11 (2.47%) WAN
6 11 (2.47%) WebEx
7 10 (2.24%) Kerberos
7 10 (2.24%) VPN
8 8 (1.79%) VLAN
9 7 (1.57%) DHCP
10 5 (1.12%) Internet
11 4 (0.90%) SSL
12 3 (0.67%) SSH
12 3 (0.67%) TCP/IP
13 2 (0.45%) ATM
13 2 (0.45%) Software-Defined Networking
13 2 (0.45%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (7.17%) Power BI
2 25 (5.61%) SQL Server
3 17 (3.81%) Relational Database
4 13 (2.91%) MySQL
5 12 (2.69%) Oracle Database
6 10 (2.24%) DB2
7 8 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (1.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 7 (1.57%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.90%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.90%) Looker
9 4 (0.90%) MS Access
9 4 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.67%) Tableau
11 2 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.45%) Big Data
11 2 (0.45%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.45%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (7.40%) JIRA
2 25 (5.61%) Git
3 22 (4.93%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.69%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (2.47%) Bitbucket Server
5 11 (2.47%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (2.02%) GitLab
7 5 (1.12%) Gradle
7 5 (1.12%) JUnit
8 3 (0.67%) Maven
8 3 (0.67%) Selenium
8 3 (0.67%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.45%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.45%) Storybook
9 2 (0.45%) Xcode
10 1 (0.22%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (0.22%) Gerrit
10 1 (0.22%) Hudson
10 1 (0.22%) MLflow
10 1 (0.22%) Snyk
General
1 178 (39.91%) Social Skills
2 125 (28.03%) Finance
3 87 (19.51%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (9.64%) Public Sector
5 28 (6.28%) Banking
6 21 (4.71%) Legal
7 18 (4.04%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (3.59%) Organisational Skills
9 14 (3.14%) Manufacturing
10 12 (2.69%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (2.47%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (1.57%) Retail
13 6 (1.35%) Aerospace
13 6 (1.35%) Local Government
14 5 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (1.12%) Military
14 5 (1.12%) Publishing
14 5 (1.12%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.67%) Aviation
15 3 (0.67%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 84 (18.83%) Analyst
2 44 (9.87%) Developer
3 36 (8.07%) Administrator
3 36 (8.07%) IT Support
4 30 (6.73%) Support Analyst
5 23 (5.16%) Architect
6 22 (4.93%) Support Engineer
7 21 (4.71%) Lead
7 21 (4.71%) Senior
8 18 (4.04%) IT Engineer
9 16 (3.59%) Support Technician
10 15 (3.36%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.36%) Consultant
10 15 (3.36%) SAP Administrator
10 15 (3.36%) SAP Support
11 14 (3.14%) Desktop Support
11 14 (3.14%) IT Support Engineer
12 13 (2.91%) Security Engineer
13 12 (2.69%) DevOps Engineer
13 12 (2.69%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.81%) OAuth
2 15 (3.36%) REST
3 14 (3.14%) .NET
4 12 (2.69%) HTML
4 12 (2.69%) LDAP
4 12 (2.69%) SAML
5 11 (2.47%) OpenID
6 10 (2.24%) JSON
6 10 (2.24%) SOAP
6 10 (2.24%) XMPP
7 9 (2.02%) Web Services
8 7 (1.57%) Kafka
8 7 (1.57%) React
8 7 (1.57%) Spring Boot
9 6 (1.35%) CSS
9 6 (1.35%) HTML5 Canvas
9 6 (1.35%) RESTful
9 6 (1.35%) Spring
10 5 (1.12%) SailPoint
11 4 (0.90%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 29 (6.50%) Onboarding
2 22 (4.93%) Product Ownership
3 14 (3.14%) Enterprise Software
4 13 (2.91%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.69%) Low-Code
6 9 (2.02%) Data Centre
6 9 (2.02%) Driving Licence
7 7 (1.57%) Mobile App
7 7 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.57%) Virtual Team
8 6 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.35%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.35%) CMDB
8 6 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.12%) Clustering
10 4 (0.90%) PKI
10 4 (0.90%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.67%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (0.67%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 116 (26.01%) Windows
2 38 (8.52%) Linux
2 38 (8.52%) Windows 10
3 25 (5.61%) Windows Server
4 20 (4.48%) Unix
5 18 (4.04%) Apple iOS
6 17 (3.81%) Android
7 6 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.35%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.90%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.22%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (22.87%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (13.23%) Agile
3 57 (12.78%) ITIL
3 57 (12.78%) Stakeholder Management
4 55 (12.33%) Customer Service
5 53 (11.88%) Service Management
6 51 (11.43%) DevOps
7 50 (11.21%) ITSM
8 49 (10.99%) Change Management
9 48 (10.76%) Migration
10 42 (9.42%) Cybersecurity
11 41 (9.19%) Project Management
12 40 (8.97%) Business Intelligence
13 35 (7.85%) Analytics
13 35 (7.85%) CI/CD
14 29 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
15 26 (5.83%) User Experience
16 25 (5.61%) Service Delivery
16 25 (5.61%) Validation
17 23 (5.16%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 48 (10.76%) SQL
2 37 (8.30%) PowerShell
3 32 (7.17%) Python
4 15 (3.36%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.91%) Java
6 11 (2.47%) Shell Script
7 10 (2.24%) Groovy
8 8 (1.79%) Bash
8 8 (1.79%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (1.79%) Perl
9 7 (1.57%) C#
10 5 (1.12%) VB
10 5 (1.12%) VBScript
11 4 (0.90%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.67%) PHP
12 3 (0.67%) VBA
13 2 (0.45%) JCL
13 2 (0.45%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.45%) REXX
13 2 (0.45%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 87 (19.51%) Security Cleared
2 65 (14.57%) SC Cleared
3 59 (13.23%) Degree
4 29 (6.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (4.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.24%) Azure Certification
6 10 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.02%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.02%) ITIL Certification
8 8 (1.79%) CISSP
9 6 (1.35%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.35%) CISM
10 5 (1.12%) CCNP
10 5 (1.12%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (1.12%) PMI Certification
11 4 (0.90%) A+ Certification
11 4 (0.90%) CCDP
11 4 (0.90%) CCNA
11 4 (0.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (4.26%) Accessibility
2 18 (4.04%) QA
3 13 (2.91%) GDPR
4 12 (2.69%) NIST
5 11 (2.47%) Data Quality
6 8 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.35%) PCI DSS
8 4 (0.90%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.90%) PMO
8 4 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.67%) SLA
10 2 (0.45%) Basel III
10 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.45%) ISO 8583
10 2 (0.45%) MiFID
11 1 (0.22%) ISO 20022
11 1 (0.22%) P3O
11 1 (0.22%) PMBOK
11 1 (0.22%) PSD2
11 1 (0.22%) SEPA
System Software
1 88 (19.73%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.81%) Docker
3 8 (1.79%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (1.12%) BitLocker
5 3 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.45%) Time Sharing Option
6 2 (0.45%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.22%) ACF2
7 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.22%) RACF
7 1 (0.22%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (9.19%) SCCM
2 36 (8.07%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (2.47%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.24%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.24%) CA Wily
4 10 (2.24%) Progress Chef
5 9 (2.02%) Tivoli
6 8 (1.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 6 (1.35%) QRadar
8 5 (1.12%) Norton AntiVirus
9 4 (0.90%) Ansible
9 4 (0.90%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.67%) Grafana
10 3 (0.67%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.67%) Terraform
11 2 (0.45%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.45%) Nessus
11 2 (0.45%) SCOM
Vendors
1 45 (10.09%) ServiceNow
2 29 (6.50%) Oracle
3 25 (5.61%) SAP
4 21 (4.71%) Splunk
5 20 (4.48%) IBM
6 13 (2.91%) Citrix
7 12 (2.69%) AppDynamics
7 12 (2.69%) Cisco
8 11 (2.47%) Google
9 10 (2.24%) Broadcom
10 8 (1.79%) Apple
10 8 (1.79%) Red Hat
10 8 (1.79%) VMware
11 7 (1.57%) Advent
12 6 (1.35%) Zscaler
13 5 (1.12%) McAfee
13 5 (1.12%) Symantec
14 4 (0.90%) ArcSight
14 4 (0.90%) Axway
14 4 (0.90%) Salesforce