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 20 September 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
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 9
Rank change year-on-year -1 +5 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 569 392 265
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 14.59% 18.05% 11.01%
As % of the Vendors category 34.53% 35.28% 27.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 371 260 151
10th Percentile £185 £205 £213
25th Percentile £316 £350 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £438 £450
Median % change year-on-year +6.29% -2.78% +5.88%
75th Percentile £531 £500 £576
90th Percentile £600 £604 £653
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 58 18
10th Percentile £13.48 £12.95 £17.48
25th Percentile £15.14 £17.39 £21.33
Median hourly rate £25.38 £22.32 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.74% -26.84% +35.38%
75th Percentile £30.00 £31.40 £46.18
90th Percentile £178.75 £63.40 £46.95
England median hourly rate £19.33 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -14.58% +39.43% -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 1,648 1,111 957
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 42.26% 51.15% 39.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 970 726 518
10th Percentile £248 £307 £291
25th Percentile £400 £391 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £654 £700 £675
England median daily rate £514 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.68% -3.81% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 82 45
10th Percentile £14.68 £13.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £20.04 £17.44 £22.00
Median hourly rate £29.96 £22.63 £35.36
Median % change year-on-year +32.39% -36.00% +1.03%
75th Percentile £60.75 £47.12 £46.18
90th Percentile £86.60 £67.25 £55.79
England median hourly rate £29.07 £25.15 £33.00
% change year-on-year +15.59% -23.79% -24.79%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 -6 248 £479 +6.39% 470
Cheshire +2 152 £452 +7.88% 117
Merseyside +1 64 £206 -51.47% 91
Cumbria +5 52 £485 +17.58% 21
Lancashire -7 46 £400 -13.51% 123
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 90 (15.82%) SharePoint
2 58 (10.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (2.81%) Skype for Business
4 15 (2.64%) SharePoint Server
5 8 (1.41%) Confluence
6 2 (0.35%) CMS
6 2 (0.35%) IIS
7 1 (0.18%) Mendix
7 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.18%) WebSphere
Applications
1 76 (13.36%) Microsoft Office
2 47 (8.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (3.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (2.81%) MS Visio
5 12 (2.11%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.88%) AutoCAD
7 4 (0.70%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.70%) ProjectWise
7 4 (0.70%) Revit
8 2 (0.35%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.18%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (2.11%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.76%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (1.23%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.70%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 4 (0.70%) Primavera
4 4 (0.70%) SAP MM
4 4 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.35%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.35%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.18%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
6 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 207 (36.38%) Azure
2 196 (34.45%) Microsoft 365
3 111 (19.51%) Power Platform
4 90 (15.82%) Entra ID
5 48 (8.44%) AWS
6 46 (8.08%) Microsoft Copilot
7 33 (5.80%) Power Automate
8 32 (5.62%) PowerApps
9 31 (5.45%) Azure DevOps
10 30 (5.27%) Dynamics 365
10 30 (5.27%) OneDrive
11 21 (3.69%) GCP
12 20 (3.51%) Azure AI
13 16 (2.81%) Azure Monitor
14 13 (2.28%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (1.93%) SaaS
16 9 (1.58%) Serverless
17 8 (1.41%) Microsoft Purview
18 7 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
18 7 (1.23%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.62%) DNS
2 30 (5.27%) VPN
3 23 (4.04%) Firewall
4 22 (3.87%) Skype
5 20 (3.51%) DHCP
5 20 (3.51%) Network Security
6 13 (2.28%) LAN
7 12 (2.11%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.11%) VLAN
8 11 (1.93%) SSL
8 11 (1.93%) WAN
9 9 (1.58%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (1.41%) SAN
11 4 (0.70%) NAS
11 4 (0.70%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.53%) PABX
12 3 (0.53%) SSH
12 3 (0.53%) VoIP
13 2 (0.35%) Internet
13 2 (0.35%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (12.13%) Power BI
2 48 (8.44%) SQL Server
3 29 (5.10%) MySQL
4 19 (3.34%) PostgreSQL
5 18 (3.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 9 (1.58%) Power Query
7 6 (1.05%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.05%) Metadata
8 5 (0.88%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.70%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.70%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.70%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 3 (0.53%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.53%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.35%) EDMS
11 2 (0.35%) EDRMS
11 2 (0.35%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
12 1 (0.18%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 18 (3.16%) JIRA
2 9 (1.58%) Git
3 8 (1.41%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.23%) GitLab
4 7 (1.23%) MSI
5 2 (0.35%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (0.35%) Toad
6 1 (0.18%) MSTest
6 1 (0.18%) NUnit
6 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 187 (32.86%) Social Skills
2 96 (16.87%) Finance
3 73 (12.83%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (5.80%) Banking
5 32 (5.62%) Public Sector
6 29 (5.10%) Manufacturing
7 24 (4.22%) Organisational Skills
8 18 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
9 17 (2.99%) Legal
10 11 (1.93%) Retail
11 9 (1.58%) Local Government
12 8 (1.41%) Military
13 7 (1.23%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.05%) Investment Banking
14 6 (1.05%) Marketing
14 6 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.88%) Games
15 5 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
16 3 (0.53%) Advertising
16 3 (0.53%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 59 (10.37%) IT Support
2 56 (9.84%) Support Engineer
3 52 (9.14%) Analyst
4 42 (7.38%) Architect
5 41 (7.21%) IT Engineer
5 41 (7.21%) IT Support Engineer
6 38 (6.68%) DBA
7 36 (6.33%) Developer
8 33 (5.80%) Administrator
9 31 (5.45%) Lead
10 26 (4.57%) SQL DBA
11 24 (4.22%) Security Engineer
12 23 (4.04%) Consultant
13 22 (3.87%) Service Analyst
14 21 (3.69%) Cloud Engineer
15 20 (3.51%) Senior
16 19 (3.34%) Desktop Engineer
17 17 (2.99%) Service Desk Analyst
18 14 (2.46%) IT Analyst
19 13 (2.28%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (5.27%) Terraform
2 11 (1.93%) SAML
3 10 (1.76%) Microsoft Graph
4 8 (1.41%) Software Packaging
5 7 (1.23%) ARM Templates
5 7 (1.23%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.88%) .NET
6 5 (0.88%) Azure Blueprints
6 5 (0.88%) REST
7 4 (0.70%) JSON
8 3 (0.53%) A2A Protocol
8 3 (0.53%) HTML5 Canvas
8 3 (0.53%) Kafka
8 3 (0.53%) Model Context Protocol
8 3 (0.53%) OAuth
8 3 (0.53%) PySpark
8 3 (0.53%) React
9 2 (0.35%) LangChain
9 2 (0.35%) Next.js
9 2 (0.35%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.56%) Onboarding
2 33 (5.80%) Management Information System
3 25 (4.39%) Replication
4 24 (4.22%) Clustering
5 20 (3.51%) Cloud Native
6 13 (2.28%) CMDB
7 12 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
7 12 (2.11%) Security Posture
8 10 (1.76%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (1.58%) Driving Licence
9 9 (1.58%) PKI
10 8 (1.41%) AI Agents
10 8 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (1.41%) Product Ownership
11 7 (1.23%) Enterprise Cloud
11 7 (1.23%) Handset
12 6 (1.05%) Blackberry
13 5 (0.88%) Animation
13 5 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 190 (33.39%) Windows
2 71 (12.48%) Windows 10
3 51 (8.96%) Windows Server
4 28 (4.92%) Linux
5 18 (3.16%) Windows 7
6 17 (2.99%) Solaris
7 14 (2.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 13 (2.28%) Android
8 13 (2.28%) Apple iOS
8 13 (2.28%) Unix
9 10 (1.76%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.70%) AIX
10 4 (0.70%) VMS
10 4 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.53%) HPUX
11 3 (0.53%) Oracle Linux
11 3 (0.53%) SUSE
11 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (19.86%) ITIL
2 103 (18.10%) Problem-Solving
3 79 (13.88%) Customer Service
3 79 (13.88%) Stakeholder Management
4 65 (11.42%) Service Management
5 64 (11.25%) Continuous Improvement
6 63 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
7 52 (9.14%) Analytics
8 51 (8.96%) DevOps
9 50 (8.79%) Migration
10 47 (8.26%) Agile
10 47 (8.26%) ITSM
11 45 (7.91%) AI
11 45 (7.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 39 (6.85%) Infrastructure as Code
12 39 (6.85%) User Experience
13 38 (6.68%) CI/CD
14 37 (6.50%) Change Management
14 37 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
15 33 (5.80%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 113 (19.86%) PowerShell
2 78 (13.71%) SQL
3 52 (9.14%) Python
4 22 (3.87%) T-SQL
5 19 (3.34%) VBScript
6 15 (2.64%) Bicep
6 15 (2.64%) VB
7 14 (2.46%) Bash
8 11 (1.93%) C#
9 10 (1.76%) Java
10 9 (1.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (1.23%) JavaScript
12 5 (0.88%) Kusto Query Language
12 5 (0.88%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.18%) Go
13 1 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 131 (23.02%) Security Cleared
2 105 (18.45%) SC Cleared
3 77 (13.53%) Degree
4 60 (10.54%) Microsoft Certification
5 53 (9.31%) BPSS Clearance
6 25 (4.39%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.51%) CISSP
8 14 (2.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 13 (2.28%) AWS Certification
9 13 (2.28%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.58%) A+ Certification
10 9 (1.58%) MCSE
11 8 (1.41%) DBS Check
11 8 (1.41%) MCSA
11 8 (1.41%) VCAP
11 8 (1.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
13 5 (0.88%) GCFA
13 5 (0.88%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.57%) SLA
2 21 (3.69%) Data Quality
3 14 (2.46%) GDPR
4 11 (1.93%) PMO
5 9 (1.58%) NIST
6 8 (1.41%) GRC
6 8 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.05%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.88%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.88%) QA
8 5 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.88%) WCAG
9 4 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (0.70%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.35%) NCSC
10 2 (0.35%) P3O
11 1 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.18%) ITGC
System Software
1 149 (26.19%) Active Directory
2 30 (5.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (4.04%) Virtual Machines
4 17 (2.99%) BitLocker
5 14 (2.46%) Hyper-V
6 13 (2.28%) Docker
7 12 (2.11%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (1.93%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (1.93%) vSphere
9 6 (1.05%) Microsoft App-V
10 4 (0.70%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 4 (0.70%) Oracle RAC
11 3 (0.53%) NFS
12 2 (0.35%) GPFS
12 2 (0.35%) XenApp
12 2 (0.35%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.18%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (9.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 54 (9.49%) SCCM
3 25 (4.39%) Ansible
4 18 (3.16%) Kubernetes
5 16 (2.81%) Progress Chef
6 14 (2.46%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.93%) SCOM
8 10 (1.76%) vCenter Server
9 5 (0.88%) CASB
10 4 (0.70%) Data Guard
10 4 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
10 4 (0.70%) SysTrack
11 3 (0.53%) Grafana
11 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.53%) WSUS
12 2 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.35%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.35%) Nagios
12 2 (0.35%) vRealize
12 2 (0.35%) VxRail
Vendors
1 102 (17.93%) ServiceNow
2 36 (6.33%) VMware
3 29 (5.10%) Oracle
4 28 (4.92%) BeyondTrust
5 27 (4.75%) Cisco
6 26 (4.57%) Splunk
7 21 (3.69%) Google
8 17 (2.99%) iManage
8 17 (2.99%) SAP
9 15 (2.64%) Red Hat
10 14 (2.46%) Remedy
11 13 (2.28%) CyberArk
12 10 (1.76%) Databricks
13 9 (1.58%) Citrix
14 7 (1.23%) Ribbon
15 6 (1.05%) Bomgar
15 6 (1.05%) CrowdStrike
16 5 (0.88%) Okta
16 5 (0.88%) Salesforce
16 5 (0.88%) UiPath