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 18 May 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
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 401 343 391
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 12.26% 17.45% 14.62%
As % of the Vendors category 29.86% 33.37% 37.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 221 203
10th Percentile £152 £200 £180
25th Percentile £307 £313 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year - -5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £525 £525 £588
90th Percentile £611 £575 £653
England median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 31 107
10th Percentile £17.73 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile - £15.22 £11.07
Median hourly rate £25.38 £27.13 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% +87.07% -44.76%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.19 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 £43.39 £26.50
England median hourly rate £20.35 £18.75 £15.00
% change year-on-year +8.53% +25.00% -28.59%

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 1,343 1,028 1,046
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 41.06% 52.29% 39.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 816 658 611
10th Percentile £253 £244 £268
25th Percentile £375 £388 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £497 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.41% -0.69% +3.09%
75th Percentile £586 £575 £594
90th Percentile £675 £657 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £518
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.35% -3.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 55 149
10th Percentile £19.44 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £22.92 £18.22 £12.00
Median hourly rate £32.23 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -0.85% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £61.68 £61.50 £26.39
90th Percentile £86.15 £86.00 £46.18
England median hourly rate £32.50 £26.39 £22.50
% change year-on-year +23.14% +17.30% -40.00%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -7 185 £434 +2.12% 203
Cheshire -5 84 £449 +5.53% 52
Merseyside +3 73 £140 -41.05% 38
Cumbria -3 31 £458 -1.51% 17
Lancashire -14 20 £375 -26.83% 95
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 42 (10.47%) SharePoint
2 41 (10.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (3.24%) Confluence
4 10 (2.49%) Skype for Business
5 5 (1.25%) CMS
6 3 (0.75%) IIS
7 2 (0.50%) Apache
7 2 (0.50%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.25%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 63 (15.71%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (5.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (2.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.75%) MS Visio
6 4 (1.00%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.25%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.25%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (4.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.75%) Primavera
3 3 (0.75%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.50%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.50%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.25%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 147 (36.66%) Azure
2 133 (33.17%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (12.72%) Entra ID
4 48 (11.97%) Power Platform
5 37 (9.23%) Dynamics 365
6 34 (8.48%) AWS
7 24 (5.99%) Azure DevOps
7 24 (5.99%) Microsoft Copilot
8 17 (4.24%) GCP
9 16 (3.99%) Power Automate
9 16 (3.99%) PowerApps
10 15 (3.74%) OneDrive
11 13 (3.24%) Microsoft Purview
12 11 (2.74%) Serverless
13 9 (2.24%) Azure AKS
14 8 (2.00%) GitHub
15 7 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
15 7 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (1.75%) SaaS
16 6 (1.50%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 21 (5.24%) VPN
2 20 (4.99%) Skype
3 19 (4.74%) Firewall
4 18 (4.49%) DNS
5 17 (4.24%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (3.24%) WAN
7 12 (2.99%) LAN
8 10 (2.49%) DHCP
8 10 (2.49%) Network Security
8 10 (2.49%) VLAN
9 4 (1.00%) TCP/IP
9 4 (1.00%) WebEx
10 3 (0.75%) VSAN
11 2 (0.50%) Cisco ASA
11 2 (0.50%) Internet
11 2 (0.50%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.50%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.50%) SSL
12 1 (0.25%) SAN
12 1 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (6.48%) Power BI
2 15 (3.74%) SQL Server
3 9 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (1.75%) Relational Database
5 5 (1.25%) Looker
5 5 (1.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (1.00%) BigQuery
6 4 (1.00%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.00%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.00%) NoSQL
6 4 (1.00%) RDBMS
7 3 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.75%) Metadata
7 3 (0.75%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.50%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.50%) Power Query
8 2 (0.50%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 2 (0.50%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 17 (4.24%) JIRA
2 9 (2.24%) Git
3 4 (1.00%) MSI
4 3 (0.75%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.50%) GitLab
6 1 (0.25%) Axure RP
6 1 (0.25%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.25%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.25%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
6 1 (0.25%) Postman
6 1 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 129 (32.17%) Social Skills
2 91 (22.69%) Finance
3 53 (13.22%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (12.97%) Banking
4 52 (12.97%) Public Sector
5 44 (10.97%) Legal
6 20 (4.99%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.74%) Local Government
8 9 (2.24%) Retail
8 9 (2.24%) Telecoms
9 6 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.25%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.00%) Billing
11 4 (1.00%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.00%) Military
12 3 (0.75%) Law
12 3 (0.75%) Marketing
12 3 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.75%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 64 (15.96%) Analyst
2 40 (9.98%) IT Support
3 35 (8.73%) Architect
4 33 (8.23%) 1st Line Support
5 26 (6.48%) Developer
6 24 (5.99%) IT Analyst
6 24 (5.99%) Support Analyst
7 20 (4.99%) IT Support Analyst
8 18 (4.49%) Lead
9 16 (3.99%) Security Engineer
9 16 (3.99%) Support Engineer
10 15 (3.74%) Administrator
10 15 (3.74%) Senior
10 15 (3.74%) Wintel Engineer
11 13 (3.24%) Business Analyst
11 13 (3.24%) IT Engineer
11 13 (3.24%) IT Support Engineer
11 13 (3.24%) Project Manager
12 12 (2.99%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
12 12 (2.99%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.24%) .NET
1 9 (2.24%) REST
1 9 (2.24%) Spring
1 9 (2.24%) Spring Boot
1 9 (2.24%) XML
2 6 (1.50%) JSON
2 6 (1.50%) OAuth
2 6 (1.50%) Software Packaging
3 5 (1.25%) Kafka
4 4 (1.00%) HTML
4 4 (1.00%) SAML
5 3 (0.75%) ARM Templates
5 3 (0.75%) HTML5 Canvas
5 3 (0.75%) LDAP
5 3 (0.75%) Microsoft Graph
5 3 (0.75%) OpenID
5 3 (0.75%) Oracle Fusion
5 3 (0.75%) PySpark
5 3 (0.75%) XMPP
6 2 (0.50%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 26 (6.48%) Onboarding
2 19 (4.74%) Replication
3 17 (4.24%) Clustering
4 15 (3.74%) Cloud Native
5 13 (3.24%) Product Ownership
6 11 (2.74%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.00%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.75%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.50%) Driving Licence
10 4 (1.00%) Cloud Security Posture
10 4 (1.00%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.00%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (1.00%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.75%) AI Agents
11 3 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.75%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.75%) Housing Association
Operating Systems
1 141 (35.16%) Windows
2 73 (18.20%) Windows 10
3 28 (6.98%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.74%) Linux
5 11 (2.74%) Mac OS
5 11 (2.74%) Windows 7
6 10 (2.49%) Apple iOS
7 6 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.50%) Unix
8 5 (1.25%) Android
9 4 (1.00%) Solaris
9 4 (1.00%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.75%) AIX
11 2 (0.50%) HPUX
11 2 (0.50%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.50%) SUSE
11 2 (0.50%) VMS
11 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
2 56 (13.97%) Agile
2 56 (13.97%) Customer Service
3 48 (11.97%) ITIL
4 47 (11.72%) DevOps
5 39 (9.73%) Migration
6 37 (9.23%) ITSM
7 35 (8.73%) CI/CD
8 34 (8.48%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (7.48%) Analytics
10 29 (7.23%) Change Management
10 29 (7.23%) Project Delivery
10 29 (7.23%) Service Management
11 28 (6.98%) AI
11 28 (6.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 27 (6.73%) Business Intelligence
12 27 (6.73%) Roadmaps
13 26 (6.48%) Identity Access Management
14 23 (5.74%) Continuous Improvement
14 23 (5.74%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 71 (17.71%) PowerShell
2 38 (9.48%) SQL
3 29 (7.23%) Python
4 18 (4.49%) Java
5 10 (2.49%) VBScript
6 9 (2.24%) Bash
6 9 (2.24%) C#
6 9 (2.24%) VB
7 8 (2.00%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.50%) Bicep
8 6 (1.50%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.00%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.75%) C++
10 3 (0.75%) VBA
11 1 (0.25%) COBOL
11 1 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.25%) Perl
Qualifications
1 61 (15.21%) Security Cleared
2 55 (13.72%) Degree
3 53 (13.22%) SC Cleared
4 40 (9.98%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (4.24%) MCSA
5 17 (4.24%) MCSE
6 15 (3.74%) VCAP
6 15 (3.74%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 13 (3.24%) Azure Certification
8 11 (2.74%) A+ Certification
8 11 (2.74%) CISSP
9 10 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (2.24%) AWS Certification
10 9 (2.24%) Network+ Certification
11 6 (1.50%) DBS Check
12 5 (1.25%) PMI Certification
13 4 (1.00%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.75%) PMP
14 3 (0.75%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.24%) GDPR
2 11 (2.74%) Data Quality
3 10 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (2.49%) QA
4 8 (2.00%) Accessibility
4 8 (2.00%) NIST
5 7 (1.75%) SLA
6 6 (1.50%) PMO
7 4 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.50%) GRC
9 2 (0.50%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.50%) NCSC
9 2 (0.50%) WCAG
10 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 103 (25.69%) Active Directory
2 23 (5.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (5.24%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (4.74%) Docker
4 19 (4.74%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (4.24%) vSphere
6 10 (2.49%) BitLocker
7 5 (1.25%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.50%) GPFS
8 2 (0.50%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.50%) NFS
Systems Management
1 24 (5.99%) Microsoft Intune
1 24 (5.99%) SCCM
2 19 (4.74%) Ansible
2 19 (4.74%) Kubernetes
3 18 (4.49%) vCenter Server
4 13 (3.24%) Terraform
5 8 (2.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.75%) Grafana
7 3 (0.75%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.75%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.50%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.50%) Argo
8 2 (0.50%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.50%) CASB
8 2 (0.50%) Istio
8 2 (0.50%) linkerd
8 2 (0.50%) vRealize
8 2 (0.50%) VxRail
9 1 (0.25%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 45 (11.22%) ServiceNow
2 39 (9.73%) Cisco
3 25 (6.23%) VMware
4 20 (4.99%) Remedy
5 17 (4.24%) Bomgar
5 17 (4.24%) iManage
6 16 (3.99%) Citrix
7 14 (3.49%) Oracle
8 12 (2.99%) Google
9 11 (2.74%) SAP
10 10 (2.49%) Splunk
11 8 (2.00%) BeyondTrust
11 8 (2.00%) Red Hat
12 6 (1.50%) CrowdStrike
13 4 (1.00%) HP
13 4 (1.00%) IBM
14 3 (0.75%) CyberArk
14 3 (0.75%) Infoblox
14 3 (0.75%) Salesforce
15 2 (0.50%) Varonis