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 22 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
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 5 8
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 556 390 296
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 14.19% 17.58% 12.14%
As % of the Vendors category 33.02% 35.14% 31.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 365 255 166
10th Percentile £185 £207 £213
25th Percentile £313 £350 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.74% -7.79% +5.56%
75th Percentile £532 £505 £610
90th Percentile £600 £608 £652
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 52 54
10th Percentile £16.50 £12.84 -
25th Percentile £21.73 £17.44 £10.95
Median hourly rate £25.38 £22.32 £16.03
Median % change year-on-year +13.74% +39.21% -28.85%
75th Percentile £45.79 £31.40 £18.92
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £35.70
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.50 £16.23
% change year-on-year -6.67% +38.63% -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 1,684 1,110 951
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 42.97% 50.05% 38.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,009 717 541
10th Percentile £263 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £384 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% +2.30%
75th Percentile £588 £576 £600
90th Percentile £663 £675 £675
England median daily rate £513 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +2.30% -4.57% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 77 85
10th Percentile £16.99 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £22.68 £18.87 £11.00
Median hourly rate £29.48 £25.15 £16.81
Median % change year-on-year +17.24% +49.63% -51.99%
75th Percentile £60.75 £50.00 £40.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.35 £55.79
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £28.25
% change year-on-year +29.22% -10.97% -29.38%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -5 254 £450 - 343
Cheshire +3 144 £466 +8.31% 91
Merseyside +1 71 £200 -50.00% 68
Cumbria 0 42 £478 +12.47% 22
Lancashire -4 38 £366 -18.61% 127
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 78 (14.03%) SharePoint
2 58 (10.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (2.88%) Skype for Business
4 12 (2.16%) Confluence
5 8 (1.44%) 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%) CICS
8 1 (0.18%) Mendix
8 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 70 (12.59%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (7.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (2.16%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (1.98%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.72%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.72%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.54%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.54%) ProjectWise
7 3 (0.54%) Revit
8 1 (0.18%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (2.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.80%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (1.26%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.72%) Primavera
4 4 (0.72%) SAP MM
4 4 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.54%) Elite 3E
5 3 (0.54%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 2 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.18%) Cloudability
7 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
7 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 206 (37.05%) Azure
2 194 (34.89%) Microsoft 365
3 93 (16.73%) Power Platform
4 83 (14.93%) Entra ID
5 56 (10.07%) AWS
6 48 (8.63%) Microsoft Copilot
7 34 (6.12%) Dynamics 365
8 32 (5.76%) Azure DevOps
9 30 (5.40%) OneDrive
10 27 (4.86%) Power Automate
11 25 (4.50%) PowerApps
12 23 (4.14%) GCP
13 13 (2.34%) Azure Monitor
14 12 (2.16%) Azure AI
14 12 (2.16%) Azure Sentinel
14 12 (2.16%) GitHub
14 12 (2.16%) SaaS
14 12 (2.16%) Serverless
15 10 (1.80%) Microsoft Purview
16 9 (1.62%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 33 (5.94%) DNS
2 28 (5.04%) VPN
3 25 (4.50%) Firewall
4 20 (3.60%) Skype
5 19 (3.42%) DHCP
6 18 (3.24%) Network Security
7 16 (2.88%) LAN
8 15 (2.70%) WAN
9 13 (2.34%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (2.16%) VLAN
11 11 (1.98%) TCP/IP
12 8 (1.44%) SAN
13 7 (1.26%) SSL
14 4 (0.72%) NAS
15 3 (0.54%) NetScaler
15 3 (0.54%) PABX
15 3 (0.54%) SSH
15 3 (0.54%) VoIP
16 2 (0.36%) SD-WAN
16 2 (0.36%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (11.15%) Power BI
2 43 (7.73%) SQL Server
3 18 (3.24%) MySQL
4 17 (3.06%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (2.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 8 (1.44%) Power Query
6 8 (1.44%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.26%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.08%) Metadata
9 5 (0.90%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.90%) 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
11 3 (0.54%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.54%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.36%) EDMS
12 2 (0.36%) EDRMS
12 2 (0.36%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 20 (3.60%) JIRA
2 12 (2.16%) Git
3 11 (1.98%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.62%) GitLab
5 5 (0.90%) 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
1 175 (31.47%) Social Skills
2 111 (19.96%) Finance
3 72 (12.95%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (8.09%) Banking
5 41 (7.37%) Public Sector
6 27 (4.86%) Legal
7 23 (4.14%) Manufacturing
8 20 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
9 18 (3.24%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (2.70%) Local Government
11 9 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
12 8 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.44%) Retail
13 7 (1.26%) Investment Banking
13 7 (1.26%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.08%) Marketing
14 6 (1.08%) Military
15 5 (0.90%) Games
16 4 (0.72%) Advertising
16 4 (0.72%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 55 (9.89%) IT Support
2 54 (9.71%) Analyst
3 52 (9.35%) Support Engineer
4 43 (7.73%) Architect
5 39 (7.01%) IT Engineer
5 39 (7.01%) IT Support Engineer
6 31 (5.58%) Lead
7 30 (5.40%) DBA
8 25 (4.50%) Developer
9 24 (4.32%) Administrator
10 20 (3.60%) Consultant
10 20 (3.60%) Security Engineer
10 20 (3.60%) Service Analyst
11 18 (3.24%) Senior
11 18 (3.24%) SQL DBA
12 17 (3.06%) Cloud Engineer
13 15 (2.70%) Desktop Engineer
13 15 (2.70%) Service Desk Analyst
14 14 (2.52%) IT Analyst
14 14 (2.52%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.58%) Terraform
2 12 (2.16%) SAML
3 11 (1.98%) Microsoft Graph
4 7 (1.26%) JSON
4 7 (1.26%) Software Packaging
5 6 (1.08%) ARM Templates
5 6 (1.08%) REST
6 5 (0.90%) Kafka
6 5 (0.90%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.90%) Spring
6 5 (0.90%) Spring Boot
6 5 (0.90%) XML
7 4 (0.72%) .NET
7 4 (0.72%) Azure Blueprints
7 4 (0.72%) Node.js
7 4 (0.72%) OAuth
8 3 (0.54%) PySpark
8 3 (0.54%) React
9 2 (0.36%) HTML5 Canvas
9 2 (0.36%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 37 (6.65%) Onboarding
2 27 (4.86%) Management Information System
3 25 (4.50%) Cloud Native
4 21 (3.78%) Replication
5 20 (3.60%) Clustering
6 13 (2.34%) Data Centre
7 11 (1.98%) CMDB
8 9 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (1.62%) Driving Licence
8 9 (1.62%) PKI
8 9 (1.62%) Product Ownership
9 8 (1.44%) AI Agents
9 8 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (1.44%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.26%) Enterprise Cloud
10 7 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (0.90%) Animation
11 5 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
11 5 (0.90%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 179 (32.19%) Windows
2 75 (13.49%) Windows 10
3 45 (8.09%) Windows Server
4 30 (5.40%) Linux
5 17 (3.06%) Windows 7
6 13 (2.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (1.80%) Apple iOS
7 10 (1.80%) Solaris
7 10 (1.80%) Unix
8 8 (1.44%) Android
8 8 (1.44%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.90%) AIX
9 5 (0.90%) VMS
9 5 (0.90%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.54%) HPUX
10 3 (0.54%) Oracle Linux
10 3 (0.54%) SUSE
10 3 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (18.17%) ITIL
2 90 (16.19%) Problem-Solving
3 74 (13.31%) Customer Service
4 68 (12.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 59 (10.61%) Service Management
6 58 (10.43%) DevOps
7 57 (10.25%) Agile
8 56 (10.07%) Business Intelligence
9 54 (9.71%) Migration
10 53 (9.53%) Analytics
11 52 (9.35%) Continuous Improvement
11 52 (9.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 48 (8.63%) CI/CD
12 48 (8.63%) ITSM
13 45 (8.09%) AI
14 41 (7.37%) Change Management
15 39 (7.01%) Infrastructure as Code
16 36 (6.47%) Disaster Recovery
17 35 (6.29%) Project Delivery
18 34 (6.12%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 101 (18.17%) PowerShell
2 72 (12.95%) SQL
3 51 (9.17%) Python
4 19 (3.42%) Bicep
4 19 (3.42%) VBScript
5 18 (3.24%) T-SQL
6 15 (2.70%) VB
7 14 (2.52%) Bash
7 14 (2.52%) Java
8 9 (1.62%) C#
9 8 (1.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 6 (1.08%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.90%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
12 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.18%) COBOL
13 1 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 116 (20.86%) Security Cleared
2 93 (16.73%) SC Cleared
3 69 (12.41%) Degree
4 49 (8.81%) Microsoft Certification
5 42 (7.55%) BPSS Clearance
6 23 (4.14%) Azure Certification
7 19 (3.42%) CISSP
8 14 (2.52%) AWS Certification
9 12 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
10 11 (1.98%) DBS Check
11 10 (1.80%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 9 (1.62%) A+ Certification
12 9 (1.62%) MCSE
13 8 (1.44%) MCSA
13 8 (1.44%) VCAP
13 8 (1.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 7 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
14 7 (1.26%) Network+ Certification
15 6 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
16 5 (0.90%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (3.96%) SLA
2 20 (3.60%) Data Quality
2 20 (3.60%) GDPR
3 12 (2.16%) NIST
3 12 (2.16%) PMO
4 9 (1.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 8 (1.44%) GRC
6 7 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.08%) PCI DSS
7 6 (1.08%) QA
8 5 (0.90%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.90%) WCAG
9 4 (0.72%) NCSC
10 3 (0.54%) ISO 19650
11 2 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.36%) P3O
12 1 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 149 (26.80%) Active Directory
2 28 (5.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (3.96%) Docker
4 21 (3.78%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (3.06%) BitLocker
6 14 (2.52%) Hyper-V
7 12 (2.16%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (1.98%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (1.98%) 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 46 (8.27%) Microsoft Intune
2 42 (7.55%) SCCM
3 26 (4.68%) Kubernetes
4 21 (3.78%) Ansible
5 13 (2.34%) Progress Chef
6 11 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (1.80%) vCenter Server
8 7 (1.26%) SCOM
9 6 (1.08%) CASB
9 6 (1.08%) Grafana
10 4 (0.72%) Data Guard
10 4 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.54%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.54%) SysTrack
11 3 (0.54%) WSUS
12 2 (0.36%) Argo
12 2 (0.36%) Istio
12 2 (0.36%) VxRail
Vendors
1 102 (18.35%) ServiceNow
2 35 (6.29%) VMware
3 28 (5.04%) Splunk
4 27 (4.86%) Cisco
5 26 (4.68%) Oracle
6 24 (4.32%) BeyondTrust
7 20 (3.60%) Google
7 20 (3.60%) iManage
7 20 (3.60%) SAP
8 15 (2.70%) Red Hat
9 14 (2.52%) Remedy
10 11 (1.98%) CyberArk
11 10 (1.80%) Bomgar
11 10 (1.80%) Databricks
12 7 (1.26%) Citrix
12 7 (1.26%) Ribbon
13 6 (1.08%) CrowdStrike
14 5 (0.90%) HP
14 5 (0.90%) Sophos
14 5 (0.90%) UiPath