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 12 June 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
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 2
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 409 367 409
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.86% 18.41% 14.68%
As % of the Vendors category 29.99% 35.87% 37.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 243 215
10th Percentile £172 £205 £200
25th Percentile £325 £350 £319
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £425 £453
Median % change year-on-year +5.18% -6.08% -4.74%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £600
90th Percentile £615 £575 £670
England median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 35 104
10th Percentile £17.73 £12.82 £10.95
25th Percentile - £13.00 £11.05
Median hourly rate £25.38 £27.13 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% +87.07% -40.24%
75th Percentile £74.26 £31.41 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 £61.76 £26.50
England median hourly rate £21.35 £18.87 £15.00
% change year-on-year +13.14% +25.80% -31.82%

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 1,364 1,023 1,084
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 39.54% 51.30% 38.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 809 668 629
10th Percentile £275 £297 £270
25th Percentile £399 £385 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% +4.38%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £662 £646
England median daily rate £505 £515 £515
% change year-on-year -1.94% -0.04% -2.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 61 152
10th Percentile £19.63 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £24.19 £19.00 £12.00
Median hourly rate £30.25 £37.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -18.26% +130.39% -45.19%
75th Percentile £61.69 £63.00 £26.54
90th Percentile £85.90 £85.25 £46.18
England median hourly rate £33.99 £27.17 £23.80
% change year-on-year +25.11% +14.15% -37.37%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -8 193 £449 +5.53% 221
Cheshire -4 91 £467 +12.75% 60
Merseyside 0 64 £140 -65.00% 37
Cumbria -3 35 £458 -1.51% 22
Lancashire -18 19 £366 -30.24% 87
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 41 (10.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (9.78%) SharePoint
3 15 (3.67%) Confluence
4 12 (2.93%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.98%) CMS
6 3 (0.73%) IIS
7 2 (0.49%) Apache
7 2 (0.49%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.24%) CICS
8 1 (0.24%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.24%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
Applications
1 53 (12.96%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (6.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (2.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.96%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.71%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.98%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.24%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.24%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 15 (3.67%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (1.71%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.73%) Elite 3E
3 3 (0.73%) Oracle Payables
3 3 (0.73%) Primavera
3 3 (0.73%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.49%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.24%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.24%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.24%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 152 (37.16%) Azure
2 132 (32.27%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (12.96%) Power Platform
4 50 (12.22%) Entra ID
5 35 (8.56%) Dynamics 365
6 34 (8.31%) Microsoft Copilot
7 31 (7.58%) AWS
8 25 (6.11%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (5.13%) Power Automate
10 20 (4.89%) PowerApps
11 14 (3.42%) Microsoft Purview
11 14 (3.42%) OneDrive
12 12 (2.93%) GCP
12 12 (2.93%) Serverless
13 10 (2.44%) Azure AKS
14 9 (2.20%) GitHub
14 9 (2.20%) SaaS
15 7 (1.71%) Azure Logic Apps
15 7 (1.71%) GitHub Actions
16 5 (1.22%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 19 (4.65%) DNS
1 19 (4.65%) Skype
2 18 (4.40%) Firewall
2 18 (4.40%) VPN
3 16 (3.91%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (2.69%) LAN
4 11 (2.69%) Network Security
4 11 (2.69%) WAN
5 9 (2.20%) DHCP
5 9 (2.20%) VLAN
6 4 (0.98%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.73%) WebEx
8 2 (0.49%) Internet
8 2 (0.49%) Kerberos
8 2 (0.49%) SSH
8 2 (0.49%) VSAN
9 1 (0.24%) Cisco ASA
9 1 (0.24%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (0.24%) PABX
9 1 (0.24%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (7.33%) Power BI
2 20 (4.89%) SQL Server
3 9 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (1.71%) Relational Database
5 6 (1.47%) Power Query
6 5 (1.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (0.98%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.98%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 3 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.73%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.73%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.73%) Metadata
8 3 (0.73%) MongoDB
8 3 (0.73%) MySQL
8 3 (0.73%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.73%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.73%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.24%) Data Vault
9 1 (0.24%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 21 (5.13%) JIRA
2 11 (2.69%) Git
3 3 (0.73%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.73%) MSI
4 2 (0.49%) GitLab
5 1 (0.24%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.24%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.24%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.24%) Postman
5 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 119 (29.10%) Social Skills
2 90 (22.00%) Finance
3 52 (12.71%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (12.47%) Public Sector
5 48 (11.74%) Banking
6 41 (10.02%) Legal
7 16 (3.91%) Organisational Skills
8 13 (3.18%) Local Government
9 12 (2.93%) Manufacturing
10 11 (2.69%) Retail
11 9 (2.20%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.47%) Investment Banking
13 5 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.22%) Military
13 5 (1.22%) Retail Banking
14 4 (0.98%) Billing
14 4 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.73%) Law
15 3 (0.73%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 60 (14.67%) Analyst
2 35 (8.56%) Architect
2 35 (8.56%) IT Support
3 32 (7.82%) Developer
4 27 (6.60%) 1st Line Support
5 23 (5.62%) Support Analyst
6 22 (5.38%) IT Analyst
7 19 (4.65%) IT Support Analyst
8 18 (4.40%) Lead
8 18 (4.40%) Security Engineer
9 17 (4.16%) Support Engineer
10 16 (3.91%) Administrator
10 16 (3.91%) Wintel Engineer
11 14 (3.42%) IT Engineer
11 14 (3.42%) IT Support Engineer
12 13 (3.18%) Project Manager
13 12 (2.93%) Business Analyst
13 12 (2.93%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 12 (2.93%) Microsoft Engineer
13 12 (2.93%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.44%) Spring
1 10 (2.44%) Spring Boot
2 9 (2.20%) .NET
2 9 (2.20%) REST
3 6 (1.47%) Software Packaging
3 6 (1.47%) XML
4 5 (1.22%) OAuth
5 4 (0.98%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.98%) JSON
5 4 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (0.98%) Node.js
5 4 (0.98%) SAML
6 3 (0.73%) HTML
6 3 (0.73%) HTML5 Canvas
6 3 (0.73%) Kafka
6 3 (0.73%) LDAP
6 3 (0.73%) OpenID
6 3 (0.73%) React
6 3 (0.73%) XMPP
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 28 (6.85%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.89%) Clustering
2 20 (4.89%) Replication
3 17 (4.16%) Cloud Native
4 13 (3.18%) Product Ownership
5 12 (2.93%) Management Information System
6 8 (1.96%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.47%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (0.98%) AI Agents
8 4 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (0.98%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (0.98%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (0.98%) Operational Technology
9 3 (0.73%) Driving Licence
9 3 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.73%) Housing Association
9 3 (0.73%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 127 (31.05%) Windows
2 63 (15.40%) Windows 10
3 24 (5.87%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.65%) Linux
5 13 (3.18%) Windows 7
6 7 (1.71%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.71%) Unix
7 6 (1.47%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.98%) AIX
8 4 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.73%) Solaris
9 3 (0.73%) VMS
10 2 (0.49%) HPUX
10 2 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.49%) SUSE
10 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.24%) Android
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (13.94%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (13.45%) Agile
3 54 (13.20%) DevOps
4 50 (12.22%) Customer Service
5 47 (11.49%) ITIL
6 43 (10.51%) CI/CD
7 41 (10.02%) Migration
8 39 (9.54%) ITSM
9 36 (8.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 34 (8.31%) Service Management
11 32 (7.82%) Stakeholder Management
12 31 (7.58%) AI
12 31 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
12 31 (7.58%) Project Delivery
13 30 (7.33%) Change Management
14 28 (6.85%) Roadmaps
15 26 (6.36%) Analytics
15 26 (6.36%) Continuous Improvement
16 24 (5.87%) Capacity Planning
16 24 (5.87%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 71 (17.36%) PowerShell
2 45 (11.00%) SQL
3 32 (7.82%) Python
4 16 (3.91%) Java
5 13 (3.18%) VBScript
6 11 (2.69%) VB
7 9 (2.20%) C#
8 8 (1.96%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.96%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.71%) Bicep
9 7 (1.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 6 (1.47%) Bash
11 4 (0.98%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.73%) VBA
13 2 (0.49%) C++
14 1 (0.24%) COBOL
14 1 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 66 (16.14%) Security Cleared
2 59 (14.43%) SC Cleared
3 57 (13.94%) Degree
4 41 (10.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (4.16%) MCSA
5 17 (4.16%) MCSE
6 16 (3.91%) VCAP
6 16 (3.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 13 (3.18%) Azure Certification
8 12 (2.93%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.69%) A+ Certification
9 11 (2.69%) CISSP
10 9 (2.20%) AWS Certification
10 9 (2.20%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (1.71%) DBS Check
12 6 (1.47%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (1.22%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.73%) PMP
14 3 (0.73%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.91%) GDPR
2 9 (2.20%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.96%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.96%) NIST
3 8 (1.96%) PMO
3 8 (1.96%) SLA
4 7 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.71%) WCAG
5 4 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.73%) NCSC
6 3 (0.73%) QA
7 2 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.49%) GRC
7 2 (0.49%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.24%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 95 (23.23%) Active Directory
2 22 (5.38%) Virtual Machines
3 20 (4.89%) Docker
3 20 (4.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (4.65%) VMware ESXi
5 18 (4.40%) vSphere
6 12 (2.93%) BitLocker
7 4 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.73%) NFS
9 2 (0.49%) GPFS
9 2 (0.49%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.24%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 22 (5.38%) Kubernetes
2 21 (5.13%) SCCM
3 20 (4.89%) Ansible
4 19 (4.65%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (4.40%) vCenter Server
6 17 (4.16%) Terraform
7 8 (1.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (0.98%) Grafana
8 4 (0.98%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.73%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.49%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.49%) Argo
10 2 (0.49%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.49%) CASB
10 2 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.49%) Istio
10 2 (0.49%) linkerd
10 2 (0.49%) vRealize
10 2 (0.49%) VxRail
Vendors
1 52 (12.71%) ServiceNow
2 36 (8.80%) Cisco
3 22 (5.38%) VMware
4 18 (4.40%) Remedy
5 14 (3.42%) Bomgar
5 14 (3.42%) iManage
5 14 (3.42%) Oracle
5 14 (3.42%) SAP
6 11 (2.69%) Splunk
7 10 (2.44%) Citrix
8 9 (2.20%) Red Hat
9 8 (1.96%) BeyondTrust
10 7 (1.71%) Google
11 6 (1.47%) CrowdStrike
12 5 (1.22%) Databricks
12 5 (1.22%) IBM
13 4 (0.98%) HP
13 4 (0.98%) Salesforce
14 3 (0.73%) CyberArk
14 3 (0.73%) Infoblox