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 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
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 395 343 391
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 12.05% 17.50% 14.65%
As % of the Vendors category 29.50% 33.43% 37.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 220 203
10th Percentile £151 £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 £527 £525 £588
90th Percentile £612 £575 £653
England median daily rate £500 £476 £488
% change year-on-year +5.15% -2.46% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 32 107
10th Percentile £17.73 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile - £16.33 £11.07
Median hourly rate £25.38 £27.13 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% +87.07% -44.23%
75th Percentile £74.26 £33.75 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 £57.71 £26.50
England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.76 £15.00
% change year-on-year +7.10% +25.05% -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 1,339 1,026 1,040
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 40.85% 52.35% 38.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 810 655 611
10th Percentile £273 £250 £268
25th Percentile £377 £388 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £497 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.43% -0.60% +3.09%
75th Percentile £586 £575 £594
90th Percentile £675 £655 £675
England median daily rate £501 £525 £518
% change year-on-year -4.67% +1.35% -3.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 56 149
10th Percentile £19.46 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £23.00 £18.61 £12.00
Median hourly rate £32.23 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -0.85% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £61.57 £63.10 £26.39
90th Percentile £86.00 £86.00 £46.18
England median hourly rate £32.11 £26.34 £22.50
% change year-on-year +21.94% +17.04% -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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -8 183 £436 +2.47% 195
Cheshire -6 80 £467 +9.76% 61
Merseyside +3 73 £140 -41.05% 37
Cumbria -1 31 £458 -1.51% 20
Lancashire -16 20 £375 -26.83% 94
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 (10.63%) SharePoint
2 41 (10.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (3.29%) Confluence
4 10 (2.53%) Skype for Business
5 5 (1.27%) CMS
6 3 (0.76%) IIS
7 2 (0.51%) Apache
7 2 (0.51%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.25%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 62 (15.70%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (2.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (2.03%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.77%) MS Visio
6 4 (1.01%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.25%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.25%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (4.56%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.76%) Primavera
3 3 (0.76%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.51%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.51%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.51%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.51%) 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
1 146 (36.96%) Azure
2 132 (33.42%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (12.91%) Entra ID
4 46 (11.65%) Power Platform
5 37 (9.37%) Dynamics 365
6 33 (8.35%) AWS
7 24 (6.08%) Azure DevOps
7 24 (6.08%) Microsoft Copilot
8 16 (4.05%) GCP
8 16 (4.05%) Power Automate
8 16 (4.05%) PowerApps
9 15 (3.80%) OneDrive
10 13 (3.29%) Microsoft Purview
11 11 (2.78%) Serverless
12 9 (2.28%) Azure AKS
13 8 (2.03%) GitHub
14 7 (1.77%) Azure Logic Apps
14 7 (1.77%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.77%) SaaS
15 6 (1.52%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 21 (5.32%) VPN
2 20 (5.06%) Skype
3 19 (4.81%) Firewall
4 18 (4.56%) DNS
5 17 (4.30%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (3.29%) WAN
7 12 (3.04%) LAN
8 10 (2.53%) DHCP
8 10 (2.53%) Network Security
8 10 (2.53%) VLAN
9 4 (1.01%) TCP/IP
9 4 (1.01%) WebEx
10 2 (0.51%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (0.51%) Internet
10 2 (0.51%) Kerberos
10 2 (0.51%) SD-WAN
10 2 (0.51%) VSAN
11 1 (0.25%) Cisco Nexus
11 1 (0.25%) Intrusion Detection
11 1 (0.25%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (6.08%) Power BI
2 14 (3.54%) SQL Server
3 9 (2.28%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.52%) Relational Database
5 5 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (1.01%) Looker
6 4 (1.01%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.01%) NoSQL
6 4 (1.01%) RDBMS
7 3 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.76%) BigQuery
7 3 (0.76%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.76%) Metadata
7 3 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.51%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.51%) MySQL
8 2 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.25%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 17 (4.30%) JIRA
2 9 (2.28%) Git
3 4 (1.01%) MSI
4 3 (0.76%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.51%) 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
1 124 (31.39%) Social Skills
2 89 (22.53%) Finance
3 52 (13.16%) Banking
4 51 (12.91%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (12.91%) Public Sector
5 43 (10.89%) Legal
6 19 (4.81%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.78%) Local Government
8 9 (2.28%) Retail
8 9 (2.28%) Telecoms
9 6 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.01%) Billing
11 4 (1.01%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.01%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.01%) Military
12 3 (0.76%) Law
12 3 (0.76%) Marketing
12 3 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.76%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 62 (15.70%) Analyst
2 39 (9.87%) IT Support
3 35 (8.86%) Architect
4 33 (8.35%) 1st Line Support
5 25 (6.33%) Developer
6 24 (6.08%) IT Analyst
6 24 (6.08%) Support Analyst
7 20 (5.06%) IT Support Analyst
8 17 (4.30%) Lead
9 16 (4.05%) Security Engineer
9 16 (4.05%) Support Engineer
10 15 (3.80%) Administrator
10 15 (3.80%) Wintel Engineer
11 14 (3.54%) Senior
12 13 (3.29%) IT Engineer
12 13 (3.29%) IT Support Engineer
12 13 (3.29%) Project Manager
13 12 (3.04%) Business Analyst
13 12 (3.04%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 12 (3.04%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.28%) .NET
1 9 (2.28%) Spring
1 9 (2.28%) Spring Boot
2 8 (2.03%) REST
2 8 (2.03%) XML
3 6 (1.52%) Software Packaging
4 5 (1.27%) JSON
4 5 (1.27%) Kafka
4 5 (1.27%) OAuth
5 4 (1.01%) HTML
5 4 (1.01%) SAML
6 3 (0.76%) ARM Templates
6 3 (0.76%) HTML5 Canvas
6 3 (0.76%) LDAP
6 3 (0.76%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (0.76%) OpenID
6 3 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
6 3 (0.76%) PySpark
6 3 (0.76%) XMPP
7 2 (0.51%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 26 (6.58%) Onboarding
2 19 (4.81%) Replication
3 17 (4.30%) Clustering
4 15 (3.80%) Cloud Native
5 13 (3.29%) Product Ownership
6 11 (2.78%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.03%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.77%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.52%) Driving Licence
10 4 (1.01%) Cloud Security Posture
10 4 (1.01%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.01%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (1.01%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.76%) AI Agents
11 3 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.76%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.76%) Housing Association
11 3 (0.76%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 139 (35.19%) Windows
2 73 (18.48%) Windows 10
3 26 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.56%) Linux
5 11 (2.78%) Mac OS
5 11 (2.78%) Windows 7
6 10 (2.53%) Apple iOS
7 6 (1.52%) Unix
8 5 (1.27%) Android
8 5 (1.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.76%) AIX
10 3 (0.76%) Solaris
11 2 (0.51%) HPUX
11 2 (0.51%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.51%) SUSE
11 2 (0.51%) VMS
11 2 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (14.68%) Problem-Solving
2 56 (14.18%) Customer Service
3 54 (13.67%) Agile
4 47 (11.90%) ITIL
5 46 (11.65%) DevOps
6 39 (9.87%) Migration
7 37 (9.37%) ITSM
8 34 (8.61%) CI/CD
9 32 (8.10%) Stakeholder Management
10 29 (7.34%) Analytics
10 29 (7.34%) Change Management
10 29 (7.34%) Service Management
11 28 (7.09%) Project Delivery
11 28 (7.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 27 (6.84%) AI
12 27 (6.84%) Roadmaps
13 26 (6.58%) Identity Access Management
14 25 (6.33%) Business Intelligence
15 23 (5.82%) Continuous Improvement
15 23 (5.82%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 70 (17.72%) PowerShell
2 36 (9.11%) SQL
3 29 (7.34%) Python
4 18 (4.56%) Java
5 10 (2.53%) VBScript
6 9 (2.28%) C#
6 9 (2.28%) VB
7 8 (2.03%) Bash
7 8 (2.03%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.52%) Bicep
9 5 (1.27%) T-SQL
10 4 (1.01%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.76%) C++
11 3 (0.76%) VBA
12 1 (0.25%) COBOL
12 1 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 61 (15.44%) Security Cleared
2 53 (13.42%) Degree
2 53 (13.42%) SC Cleared
3 40 (10.13%) Microsoft Certification
4 17 (4.30%) MCSA
4 17 (4.30%) MCSE
5 15 (3.80%) VCAP
5 15 (3.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 13 (3.29%) Azure Certification
7 11 (2.78%) A+ Certification
7 11 (2.78%) CISSP
8 10 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (2.28%) AWS Certification
9 9 (2.28%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (2.28%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (1.52%) DBS Check
11 5 (1.27%) PMI Certification
12 4 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.76%) PMP
13 3 (0.76%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.05%) GDPR
2 10 (2.53%) Data Quality
2 10 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (2.03%) NIST
3 8 (2.03%) QA
4 7 (1.77%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.77%) SLA
5 6 (1.52%) PMO
6 4 (1.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.51%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.51%) GRC
8 2 (0.51%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.51%) NCSC
8 2 (0.51%) WCAG
9 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 103 (26.08%) Active Directory
2 22 (5.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (5.32%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (4.81%) Docker
5 18 (4.56%) VMware ESXi
6 17 (4.30%) vSphere
7 10 (2.53%) BitLocker
8 5 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.51%) GPFS
9 2 (0.51%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.51%) NFS
Systems Management
1 24 (6.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (5.82%) SCCM
3 19 (4.81%) Kubernetes
4 18 (4.56%) Ansible
5 17 (4.30%) vCenter Server
6 13 (3.29%) Terraform
7 8 (2.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.76%) Grafana
9 3 (0.76%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.76%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.51%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.51%) Argo
10 2 (0.51%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.51%) CASB
10 2 (0.51%) Istio
10 2 (0.51%) linkerd
10 2 (0.51%) vRealize
10 2 (0.51%) VxRail
11 1 (0.25%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 45 (11.39%) ServiceNow
2 39 (9.87%) Cisco
3 24 (6.08%) VMware
4 20 (5.06%) Remedy
5 17 (4.30%) Bomgar
5 17 (4.30%) iManage
6 16 (4.05%) Citrix
7 14 (3.54%) Oracle
8 11 (2.78%) Google
9 10 (2.53%) SAP
9 10 (2.53%) Splunk
10 8 (2.03%) BeyondTrust
11 7 (1.77%) Red Hat
12 6 (1.52%) CrowdStrike
13 4 (1.01%) HP
13 4 (1.01%) IBM
14 3 (0.76%) CyberArk
14 3 (0.76%) Infoblox
14 3 (0.76%) Salesforce
15 2 (0.51%) Varonis