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 19 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
19 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 4
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 449 305 413
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.40% 13.15% 15.13%
As % of the Vendors category 36.18% 29.84% 31.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 177 269
10th Percentile £190 £212 £200
25th Percentile £325 £356 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year -4.44% +12.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £492 £550 £538
90th Percentile £604 £675 £619
England median daily rate £475 £482 £500
% change year-on-year -1.45% -3.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 25 53
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.20 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.46
Median hourly rate £22.63 £31.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.00% +3.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile £31.50 £35.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £46.18 £53.57
England median hourly rate £22.32 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -0.82% -2.17% +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 1,241 1,022 1,293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 50.86% 44.07% 47.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 837 537 853
10th Percentile £268 £323 £229
25th Percentile £368 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £600 £585 £588
90th Percentile £690 £675 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 54 91
10th Percentile £15.77 £16.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £26.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.29% - +79.49%
75th Percentile £52.50 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £64.46 £55.00
England median hourly rate £25.08 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.36% -22.22% +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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +1 199 £435 -3.33% 285
Cheshire +1 142 £428 -11.31% 84
Lancashire +2 43 £450 +14.29% 191
Merseyside 0 43 £225 -10.00% 69
Cumbria +19 16 £492 +3.58% 6
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 53 (11.80%) SharePoint
2 38 (8.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (3.79%) Apache
4 16 (3.56%) Confluence
4 16 (3.56%) JBoss
5 14 (3.12%) IIS
6 12 (2.67%) Skype for Business
6 12 (2.67%) WebSphere
7 10 (2.23%) iPlanet
7 10 (2.23%) WebSphere Application Server
8 8 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (1.56%) Exchange Server 2013
10 5 (1.11%) CMS
10 5 (1.11%) Exchange Server 2010
11 4 (0.89%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.45%) NetWeaver
12 2 (0.45%) SAS
13 1 (0.22%) CICS
13 1 (0.22%) nginx
13 1 (0.22%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 77 (17.15%) Microsoft Office
2 59 (13.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (4.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (3.79%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.11%) 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 (2.45%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.56%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (0.67%) Maximo
3 3 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.45%) assyst
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
1 112 (24.94%) Microsoft 365
2 105 (23.39%) Azure
3 58 (12.92%) Power Platform
4 48 (10.69%) AWS
5 29 (6.46%) Entra ID
6 20 (4.45%) Power Automate
7 19 (4.23%) PowerApps
8 18 (4.01%) OneDrive
9 17 (3.79%) SaaS
10 16 (3.56%) OpenShift
11 15 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
11 15 (3.34%) Dynamics 365
12 12 (2.67%) GCP
13 11 (2.45%) GitHub
14 10 (2.23%) Microsoft Purview
15 9 (2.00%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (1.56%) Azure Logic Apps
17 6 (1.34%) Figma
17 6 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
18 5 (1.11%) Google Tag Manager
Communications & Networking
1 21 (4.68%) Firewall
2 18 (4.01%) DNS
3 14 (3.12%) LAN
4 12 (2.67%) Network Security
4 12 (2.67%) Skype
4 12 (2.67%) WAN
4 12 (2.67%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (2.45%) VPN
6 10 (2.23%) Kerberos
7 9 (2.00%) Unified Communications
8 8 (1.78%) VLAN
8 8 (1.78%) WebEx
9 7 (1.56%) DHCP
10 6 (1.34%) Internet
11 5 (1.11%) SSL
12 3 (0.67%) SSH
12 3 (0.67%) TCP/IP
13 2 (0.45%) ATM
13 2 (0.45%) VoIP
13 2 (0.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (7.80%) Power BI
2 26 (5.79%) SQL Server
3 18 (4.01%) Relational Database
4 13 (2.90%) MySQL
5 12 (2.67%) Oracle Database
6 10 (2.23%) DB2
7 9 (2.00%) Data Warehouse
8 8 (1.78%) Data Lake
8 8 (1.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 5 (1.11%) BigQuery
9 5 (1.11%) Looker
10 4 (0.89%) MS Access
10 4 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.67%) Metadata
11 3 (0.67%) Power Query
11 3 (0.67%) Star Schema
11 3 (0.67%) Tableau
12 2 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.45%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 33 (7.35%) JIRA
2 25 (5.57%) Git
3 22 (4.90%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.67%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (2.45%) Bitbucket Server
5 11 (2.45%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (2.00%) GitLab
7 5 (1.11%) Gradle
7 5 (1.11%) 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%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.22%) MLflow
10 1 (0.22%) MSI
10 1 (0.22%) Subversion
10 1 (0.22%) TeamCity
General
1 180 (40.09%) Social Skills
2 127 (28.29%) Finance
3 87 (19.38%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 28 (6.24%) Banking
6 22 (4.90%) Legal
7 19 (4.23%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (4.01%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (3.34%) Manufacturing
10 12 (2.67%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (1.56%) Retail
13 6 (1.34%) Aerospace
13 6 (1.34%) Local Government
14 5 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (1.11%) Military
14 5 (1.11%) Publishing
14 5 (1.11%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.67%) Aviation
15 3 (0.67%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 82 (18.26%) Analyst
2 45 (10.02%) Developer
3 36 (8.02%) Administrator
3 36 (8.02%) IT Support
4 26 (5.79%) Support Analyst
5 24 (5.35%) Architect
6 23 (5.12%) Senior
7 22 (4.90%) Lead
8 20 (4.45%) Support Engineer
9 19 (4.23%) IT Engineer
10 16 (3.56%) Business Analyst
10 16 (3.56%) Support Technician
11 15 (3.34%) Consultant
11 15 (3.34%) IT Support Engineer
11 15 (3.34%) SAP Administrator
11 15 (3.34%) SAP Support
12 13 (2.90%) Security Engineer
13 12 (2.67%) 2nd Line Support
13 12 (2.67%) DevOps Engineer
13 12 (2.67%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.01%) OAuth
2 16 (3.56%) REST
3 14 (3.12%) .NET
4 12 (2.67%) HTML
4 12 (2.67%) LDAP
4 12 (2.67%) SAML
5 11 (2.45%) JSON
5 11 (2.45%) OpenID
5 11 (2.45%) SOAP
6 9 (2.00%) Web Services
7 8 (1.78%) XMPP
8 7 (1.56%) Kafka
8 7 (1.56%) React
8 7 (1.56%) Spring Boot
9 6 (1.34%) CSS
9 6 (1.34%) HTML5 Canvas
9 6 (1.34%) RESTful
9 6 (1.34%) Spring
10 5 (1.11%) SailPoint
10 5 (1.11%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (6.46%) Onboarding
2 22 (4.90%) Product Ownership
3 14 (3.12%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (2.67%) Low-Code
5 11 (2.45%) Management Information System
6 9 (2.00%) Data Centre
6 9 (2.00%) Driving Licence
7 7 (1.56%) Mobile App
7 7 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.56%) Virtual Team
8 6 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.34%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.34%) CMDB
8 6 (1.34%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.11%) Clustering
9 5 (1.11%) PKI
10 4 (0.89%) Data Structures
10 4 (0.89%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (0.67%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 118 (26.28%) Windows
2 39 (8.69%) Windows 10
3 37 (8.24%) Linux
4 27 (6.01%) Windows Server
5 20 (4.45%) Unix
6 18 (4.01%) Apple iOS
7 17 (3.79%) Android
8 7 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (1.34%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.89%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.22%) Solaris
11 1 (0.22%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.22%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (22.49%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (13.59%) Agile
3 59 (13.14%) Stakeholder Management
4 52 (11.58%) DevOps
4 52 (11.58%) ITIL
5 51 (11.36%) Customer Service
6 50 (11.14%) Change Management
6 50 (11.14%) Migration
6 50 (11.14%) Service Management
7 47 (10.47%) ITSM
8 43 (9.58%) Business Intelligence
9 42 (9.35%) Cybersecurity
10 41 (9.13%) Project Management
11 36 (8.02%) Analytics
11 36 (8.02%) CI/CD
12 29 (6.46%) Continuous Improvement
13 27 (6.01%) User Experience
13 27 (6.01%) Validation
14 26 (5.79%) Service Delivery
15 23 (5.12%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 49 (10.91%) SQL
2 36 (8.02%) PowerShell
3 32 (7.13%) Python
4 15 (3.34%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.90%) Java
6 11 (2.45%) Shell Script
7 10 (2.23%) Groovy
8 9 (2.00%) Bash
8 9 (2.00%) Perl
9 8 (1.78%) Kusto Query Language
10 7 (1.56%) C#
11 5 (1.11%) VB
11 5 (1.11%) VBScript
12 4 (0.89%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.67%) PHP
13 3 (0.67%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.67%) VBA
14 2 (0.45%) JCL
14 2 (0.45%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.45%) REXX
Qualifications
1 86 (19.15%) Security Cleared
2 65 (14.48%) SC Cleared
3 61 (13.59%) Degree
4 29 (6.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (4.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (2.23%) Azure Certification
8 9 (2.00%) DV Cleared
9 8 (1.78%) CISSP
10 7 (1.56%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (1.34%) AWS Certification
11 6 (1.34%) CCNP
11 6 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.34%) CISM
12 5 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 5 (1.11%) PMI Certification
13 4 (0.89%) A+ Certification
13 4 (0.89%) CCDP
13 4 (0.89%) CCNA
13 4 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (4.45%) Accessibility
1 20 (4.45%) QA
2 14 (3.12%) GDPR
3 13 (2.90%) Data Quality
4 12 (2.67%) NIST
5 8 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (1.34%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.89%) HIPAA
7 4 (0.89%) PMO
7 4 (0.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.45%) Basel III
8 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.45%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.45%) MiFID
8 2 (0.45%) SLA
9 1 (0.22%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.22%) NCSC
9 1 (0.22%) P3O
9 1 (0.22%) PMBOK
9 1 (0.22%) SEPA
System Software
1 86 (19.15%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.79%) Docker
3 8 (1.78%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (1.11%) BitLocker
5 3 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.45%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.22%) ACF2
7 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.22%) RACF
7 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.22%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (9.35%) SCCM
2 36 (8.02%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (2.45%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.45%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.23%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.23%) CA Wily
4 10 (2.23%) Progress Chef
5 9 (2.00%) Tivoli
6 8 (1.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 6 (1.34%) QRadar
8 5 (1.11%) Ansible
8 5 (1.11%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.67%) Grafana
9 3 (0.67%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.67%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.67%) Terraform
10 2 (0.45%) CA Endevor
10 2 (0.45%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
10 2 (0.45%) Nessus
Vendors
1 43 (9.58%) ServiceNow
2 29 (6.46%) Oracle
3 26 (5.79%) SAP
4 20 (4.45%) IBM
5 19 (4.23%) Splunk
6 13 (2.90%) Citrix
7 12 (2.67%) AppDynamics
7 12 (2.67%) Google
8 11 (2.45%) Cisco
9 10 (2.23%) Broadcom
10 9 (2.00%) VMware
11 8 (1.78%) Apple
12 7 (1.56%) Advent
12 7 (1.56%) Red Hat
13 6 (1.34%) McAfee
13 6 (1.34%) Zscaler
14 5 (1.11%) Symantec
15 4 (0.89%) ArcSight
15 4 (0.89%) Axway
15 4 (0.89%) Salesforce