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 11 December 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
11 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 4
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 440 303 399
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 17.94% 13.48% 14.84%
As % of the Vendors category 34.48% 29.28% 31.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 180 256
10th Percentile £163 £200 £200
25th Percentile £311 £326 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £418 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year -7.22% +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £488 £538 £535
90th Percentile £601 £658 £619
England median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 26 52
10th Percentile £15.56 £17.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.22
Median hourly rate £22.32 £31.75 £26.25
Median % change year-on-year -29.72% +20.95% +50.00%
75th Percentile £31.69 £33.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.01 £46.18 £54.12
England median hourly rate £20.79 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -7.60% -2.17% +15.00%

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 1,276 1,035 1,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 52.04% 46.06% 47.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 856 559 826
10th Percentile £250 £309 £235
25th Percentile £363 £406 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £576 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 54 90
10th Percentile £16.50 £16.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.60 £24.05 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.63% -4.41% +70.00%
75th Percentile £55.85 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £79.66 £55.09
England median hourly rate £23.83 £31.63 £44.50
% change year-on-year -24.68% -28.92% +71.15%

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 11 December 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 11 December 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 11 December 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 -1 189 £425 -5.56% 303
Cheshire +1 139 £433 -11.01% 133
Merseyside +1 52 £165 -34.00% 84
Lancashire +4 40 £449 +1.13% 184
Cumbria +12 13 £492 +3.58% 12
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 57 (12.95%) SharePoint
2 41 (9.32%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.41%) Apache
4 14 (3.18%) JBoss
5 13 (2.95%) Confluence
5 13 (2.95%) IIS
6 12 (2.73%) Skype for Business
7 11 (2.50%) WebSphere
8 10 (2.27%) iPlanet
8 10 (2.27%) WebSphere Application Server
9 8 (1.82%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (1.59%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (1.14%) CMS
11 5 (1.14%) Exchange Server 2010
12 2 (0.45%) NetWeaver
12 2 (0.45%) SAS
13 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
13 1 (0.23%) CICS
13 1 (0.23%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 84 (19.09%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (12.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (4.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (3.41%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.91%) Trello
7 3 (0.68%) Siemens NX
7 3 (0.68%) Sketch
8 2 (0.45%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.23%) Simulink
9 1 (0.23%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.59%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.68%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.45%) Maximo
4 2 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.23%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.23%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.23%) Primavera
5 1 (0.23%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 116 (26.36%) Microsoft 365
2 110 (25.00%) Azure
3 55 (12.50%) Power Platform
4 47 (10.68%) AWS
5 31 (7.05%) Entra ID
6 19 (4.32%) OneDrive
7 18 (4.09%) Power Automate
7 18 (4.09%) PowerApps
8 16 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
8 16 (3.64%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (3.64%) GCP
9 15 (3.41%) SaaS
10 14 (3.18%) OpenShift
11 10 (2.27%) GitHub
12 9 (2.05%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (2.05%) Google Tag Manager
12 9 (2.05%) Microsoft Purview
13 8 (1.82%) Google Analytics
14 7 (1.59%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (1.36%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 21 (4.77%) Firewall
2 18 (4.09%) DNS
3 16 (3.64%) VPN
4 15 (3.41%) LAN
4 15 (3.41%) Skype
5 13 (2.95%) WAN
5 13 (2.95%) Wi-Fi
6 12 (2.73%) Network Security
7 10 (2.27%) Kerberos
8 9 (2.05%) Unified Communications
9 8 (1.82%) VLAN
9 8 (1.82%) WebEx
10 7 (1.59%) DHCP
10 7 (1.59%) Internet
11 5 (1.14%) SSL
12 3 (0.68%) SSH
12 3 (0.68%) TCP/IP
13 2 (0.45%) ATM
13 2 (0.45%) Cisco ASA
13 2 (0.45%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (7.50%) Power BI
2 21 (4.77%) SQL Server
3 17 (3.86%) Relational Database
4 11 (2.50%) MySQL
4 11 (2.50%) Oracle Database
5 9 (2.05%) DB2
6 7 (1.59%) BigQuery
6 7 (1.59%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (1.59%) Looker
6 7 (1.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 6 (1.36%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (0.91%) MS Access
10 3 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.68%) Metadata
10 3 (0.68%) Power Query
10 3 (0.68%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.68%) Tableau
11 2 (0.45%) Big Data
11 2 (0.45%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 29 (6.59%) JIRA
2 22 (5.00%) Git
3 19 (4.32%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.50%) Bitbucket Server
4 11 (2.50%) CA Release Automation
5 10 (2.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (2.05%) GitLab
7 3 (0.68%) Gradle
7 3 (0.68%) JUnit
7 3 (0.68%) Selenium
7 3 (0.68%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.45%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.45%) MSI
8 2 (0.45%) Storybook
8 2 (0.45%) Xcode
9 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.23%) Hudson
9 1 (0.23%) MLflow
9 1 (0.23%) Snyk
General
1 178 (40.45%) Social Skills
2 118 (26.82%) Finance
3 76 (17.27%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (10.23%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.27%) Banking
6 22 (5.00%) Legal
7 19 (4.32%) Documentation Skills
7 19 (4.32%) Organisational Skills
8 15 (3.41%) Manufacturing
9 10 (2.27%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.36%) Local Government
12 5 (1.14%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.14%) Military
12 5 (1.14%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.91%) Retail
14 3 (0.68%) Japanese Language
14 3 (0.68%) Marketing
14 3 (0.68%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 76 (17.27%) Analyst
2 39 (8.86%) Administrator
2 39 (8.86%) Developer
3 38 (8.64%) IT Support
4 24 (5.45%) Senior
5 23 (5.23%) Support Engineer
6 22 (5.00%) Architect
6 22 (5.00%) IT Engineer
6 22 (5.00%) Support Analyst
7 20 (4.55%) Lead
8 18 (4.09%) IT Support Engineer
9 16 (3.64%) Support Technician
10 15 (3.41%) 2nd Line Support
10 15 (3.41%) Consultant
10 15 (3.41%) SAP Administrator
10 15 (3.41%) SAP Support
11 14 (3.18%) Business Analyst
12 12 (2.73%) DevOps Engineer
12 12 (2.73%) IT Technician
13 11 (2.50%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.09%) OAuth
2 14 (3.18%) .NET
3 12 (2.73%) HTML
3 12 (2.73%) JSON
3 12 (2.73%) LDAP
3 12 (2.73%) REST
3 12 (2.73%) SAML
4 11 (2.50%) OpenID
5 9 (2.05%) Kafka
6 8 (1.82%) Web Services
6 8 (1.82%) XMPP
7 6 (1.36%) HTML5 Canvas
7 6 (1.36%) React
7 6 (1.36%) SOAP
7 6 (1.36%) XML
8 5 (1.14%) CSS
8 5 (1.14%) RESTful
8 5 (1.14%) SailPoint
8 5 (1.14%) Spring Boot
9 4 (0.91%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 31 (7.05%) Onboarding
2 23 (5.23%) Product Ownership
3 13 (2.95%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (2.73%) Driving Licence
5 10 (2.27%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.27%) Low-Code
6 8 (1.82%) Management Information System
7 7 (1.59%) Virtual Team
8 6 (1.36%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.36%) Mobile App
8 6 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.36%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (1.14%) Clustering
9 5 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.14%) PKI
10 4 (0.91%) CMDB
10 4 (0.91%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.68%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (0.68%) Fat Client
Operating Systems
1 131 (29.77%) Windows
2 46 (10.45%) Windows 10
3 33 (7.50%) Linux
4 28 (6.36%) Windows Server
5 22 (5.00%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.77%) Android
7 16 (3.64%) Unix
8 7 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (1.36%) Windows 7
10 5 (1.14%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.23%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.23%) Solaris
11 1 (0.23%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.23%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (21.82%) Problem-Solving
2 56 (12.73%) Agile
3 55 (12.50%) Customer Service
4 53 (12.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 51 (11.59%) Migration
6 48 (10.91%) Change Management
6 48 (10.91%) DevOps
7 45 (10.23%) ITIL
8 41 (9.32%) Business Intelligence
9 40 (9.09%) Cybersecurity
10 38 (8.64%) ITSM
10 38 (8.64%) Project Management
11 37 (8.41%) Analytics
11 37 (8.41%) Service Management
12 35 (7.95%) CI/CD
13 31 (7.05%) Validation
14 30 (6.82%) User Experience
15 29 (6.59%) Continuous Improvement
16 26 (5.91%) Service Delivery
17 25 (5.68%) AI
Programming Languages
1 46 (10.45%) SQL
2 38 (8.64%) PowerShell
3 33 (7.50%) Python
4 14 (3.18%) Java
5 13 (2.95%) JavaScript
6 10 (2.27%) Groovy
7 9 (2.05%) Bash
7 9 (2.05%) C#
7 9 (2.05%) Perl
7 9 (2.05%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.82%) Kusto Query Language
9 5 (1.14%) VB
9 5 (1.14%) VBScript
10 4 (0.91%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.68%) PHP
11 3 (0.68%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.45%) JCL
12 2 (0.45%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.45%) REXX
12 2 (0.45%) VBA
Qualifications
1 76 (17.27%) Security Cleared
2 61 (13.86%) Degree
3 58 (13.18%) SC Cleared
4 25 (5.68%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (4.77%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.50%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.05%) Azure Certification
8 8 (1.82%) CISSP
8 8 (1.82%) DV Cleared
9 6 (1.36%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.36%) CCNP
9 6 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (1.36%) CISM
10 5 (1.14%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (1.14%) PMI Certification
11 4 (0.91%) A+ Certification
11 4 (0.91%) CCDP
11 4 (0.91%) CCNA
11 4 (0.91%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (5.23%) QA
2 21 (4.77%) Accessibility
3 16 (3.64%) Data Quality
4 14 (3.18%) GDPR
5 12 (2.73%) NIST
6 8 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.36%) PCI DSS
8 4 (0.91%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.91%) PMO
8 4 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.45%) ISO 8583
10 1 (0.23%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.23%) GRC
10 1 (0.23%) ISO 20022
10 1 (0.23%) P3O
10 1 (0.23%) PMBOK
10 1 (0.23%) PSD2
10 1 (0.23%) SEPA
System Software
1 93 (21.14%) Active Directory
2 18 (4.09%) Docker
3 8 (1.82%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (1.14%) BitLocker
5 4 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.45%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.23%) ACF2
8 1 (0.23%) RACF
8 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (9.55%) SCCM
2 37 (8.41%) Microsoft Intune
3 13 (2.95%) Kubernetes
4 11 (2.50%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.27%) CA Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.27%) CA Wily
5 10 (2.27%) Progress Chef
6 9 (2.05%) Tivoli
7 8 (1.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (1.36%) QRadar
9 5 (1.14%) Ansible
9 5 (1.14%) Norton AntiVirus
10 3 (0.68%) Grafana
10 3 (0.68%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.68%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.68%) Terraform
11 2 (0.45%) CA Endevor
11 2 (0.45%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.45%) Nessus
Vendors
1 43 (9.77%) ServiceNow
2 27 (6.14%) Oracle
3 25 (5.68%) SAP
4 20 (4.55%) Splunk
5 19 (4.32%) IBM
6 16 (3.64%) Citrix
7 15 (3.41%) Cisco
8 13 (2.95%) Google
9 12 (2.73%) AppDynamics
10 10 (2.27%) Broadcom
11 9 (2.05%) Apple
12 8 (1.82%) VMware
13 7 (1.59%) Advent
13 7 (1.59%) Red Hat
14 6 (1.36%) McAfee
14 6 (1.36%) Remedy
15 5 (1.14%) Symantec
16 4 (0.91%) ArcSight
16 4 (0.91%) Axway
16 4 (0.91%) Salesforce